How do you pay for it all?

I have the same emotions I wish I can splurge but we have to work within our budget- if we want food and shelter after the wedding- I am taking the things that are most important and putting deposits on them and we will go from month to month- I have seen people get married with very little and with help from friends and family they managed to pull it off and have a beautiful wedding- Im picking up little things as I go along and the wedding websites are the best resources you can get alot of ideas- I think that if you are flexible you can have a wedding on any budget-

Well, it's tough. I'll give you our story. FH and I moved into a cheaper place so that we can pay for it. We also have just cut our spending some-no more lunches out and we don't go out as much. We live in the city, and we're the only ones out of our friends that have cars, so we'll prob. get rid of it after the wedding (we need it now for vendor visits), and that'll save a ton in insurance.

We're hoping that gifts will account for some of it, maybe a third (I know a lot of girls on here complain about people wondering what to expect in gifts-but I assume most of them aren't paying for it themselves or that they are not on a tight budget).

There are a lot of little expenses we didn't anticipate: long-distance calls, menus, travelling out to LI all the time, extra hair cuts, my need to get a massage once in a while:)

We took out a small loan,and we put some stuff on the credit card then did a balance transfer so that we're paying 0% interest until next year. We were lucky to get about 1/5 of the cost from FH's parents, and FH gets a bonus every year that we used too, plus tax refunds.

It's hard, but we planned it in 7 months (didn't save in advance) but should have it paid off by this time next year. I'm not working now, I'm in school, so hopefully I will find something part-time after the honeymoon, that would mean we'd pay it off faster.

I can't complain, we're getting married where we wanted to and taking a 3 week honeymoon-we could have skimped a little I think.

I know how you feel. I am basically paying for this whole thing myself. FH is in debt, and I want him to clear it before he starts helping. Neither family has offered to help, besides mine is not in any position to. It's really hard, and I only work barely full-time, and going to school. Now I'll have more time to work, which means more money, but sometimes I still worry about getting so far and then crashing. But I think everyone goes through that, and it usually works out in the end.

Until then, you just have to cut back on spending, and BUDGET, BUDGET, BUDGET!!