If you don't mind me asking

cheshe Posted: Jul 30, 2003 12:56 PM

If you don't mind me asking

Are any of you partial paying for the wedding with credit cards or taking out a loan. I am contemplating on doing this because everything is so much money. The honeymoon is going to cost $2500 more than I estimated. I don't know what else to do.

nrvbrd Posted: Jul 30, 2003 12:58 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

No.

I was tempted to, but decided I did not want to go in debt over the wedding.

Latina511 Posted: Jul 30, 2003 12:59 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

I had gotten a credit card with 0% interest and that is how we were able to go on a honeymoon.

Sassyz75 Posted: Jul 30, 2003 01:01 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

You wedding is a year from now- is there no way for you to save the extra $ by then?

emacsgirl Posted: Jul 30, 2003 01:02 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

I did end up getting a new credit card for the wedding ... FH and I are splitting the cost of the wedding with my family and his family, so I figured I would get a new credit card with no interest so I could spread out the cost over 12 months.

So far it has sort of worked, Chase had a platinum visa with 0% for 12 months, which I got just a few weeks after I applied, it also had 0% on balance transfers.

The down side is, most places don't take visa - I got my dress, invites, favors & photographer on visa - everyone else wants cash. We'll probably do the honeymoon on visa too.

I figure as long as you plan on paying it off within the year, it's cheaper than a loan!

ddunne23 Posted: Jul 30, 2003 01:34 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

My advice would be not to do that. There are creative ways to make your wedding beautiful and special without going into debt. Unless you are sure that you can pay it off soon after the wedding, I think you are setting yourself up for years of debt. I would rather have a scaled down wedding and start off debt free and then plan for an extravagent trip on a special anniversary to 'make-up' for what we could not afford at the time of the wedding, then go into debt in order to get the upgraded cake, hall, etc. But that's just me. Obviously, not knowing your financial situation, also remember that once you get married you may want to start looking for a house if you already don't own one and the $$ you will be paying off for the wedding could go to your future home downpayment. So seriously think about your goals over the next couple of years before you jump into a loan to pay for the wedding. JMO.

goldilocks Posted: Jul 30, 2003 01:35 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

For the most part, your cash payments aren't due until the week of your wedding. That helps to avoid carrying a balance for a year! Hopefully you'll be able to pay it off before you acrue any interest with whatever $ you get as gifts.
I've been putting off booking our honeymoon for that reason. The less interest i have to pay, the better, but we will most likely have to charge some stuff, or get cash advances for whatever isn't covered at the end.

kelly6273 Posted: Jul 30, 2003 01:35 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

We did not have to do this. However, borrowing for your wedding is more common than you may think.

palebride Posted: Jul 30, 2003 01:44 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

Be careful of going too far into debt for the wedding! There are going to be a lot of expenses taht you won't even think of after the wedding - and you don't want to start out with all of that stress on you!
I'd suggest using the 0% credit card, or saving saving saving from now until then!
good luck!

sn00k4 Posted: Jul 30, 2003 01:50 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

We were forced to do this, since my father decided 2 months before the wedding that he wasn't going to help us out. Otherwise, we would have been fine.

Sometimes you just gotta do what ya gotta do...

Jordan Posted: Jul 30, 2003 03:03 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

We have been saving for our 9/04 wedding since about April...putting away anywhere from $500-1000 a week (since we are paying for 95% of it ourselves). It's tough but we didn't want to take out a loan or run credit card debt into our marriage. We are paying for everything with a credit card (for insurance purposes) now and paying the c/card bill with the money saved...then when we have to pay cash, we'll pay for it with cash. As for the honeymoon...we figure the money from the wedding will pay for that and anything else left over from either our savings or the wedding, will be 'bonus' and then the 'wedding fund' becomes the 'house fund'.

It hasn't always been easy - so far - but we both felt it was the best way to go (for us) since we didn't want any debt when we were starting the next chapter in our life together...

Best of luck to you!!

cheshe Posted: Jul 30, 2003 03:03 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

If we do use credit cards, we are only going to but a small amount on them for items such as bridal gifts, rehearsal dinner, and maybe part of the honeymoon. We should be able to pay for majority of the wedding cash. But things just keep coming up in life and either we have to take money out of the wedding fund or we aren't able to put money some weeks. I just know that I don't want to be in debt up to my eyeballs after the wedding. I figured the max amount we may need to put on credit cards is $3 or 4K, which we should be able to pay after the wedding. Thanks for your input girls.

Jordan Posted: Jul 30, 2003 03:07 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

One thing that is making it easier - for me at least - is to have money directly deposited into our joint acct each week - it's taken automatically from my paycheck, so I don't even notice. Maybe you could try that - like I said, it's a little tough at first, but you could start off small, get used to it and then increase the deposit over time. Just a thought...

aliciahelene Posted: Jul 30, 2003 03:08 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

We are hoping to not use credit cards at all..we have 5 months left..so far so good. But we were engaged almost a year before we even found the perfect place for us to ge married.so we were saving all of that time. So we cut back on vacations..we usually take alot of them..now nothing..its quite depressing..but we are paying everything off. Its a good feeling. My fiance is working a million hours..and I am working . If we go into debt I want it to be for a house!! It also helps that my FMIL is paying for our honeymoon.

KarenK122 Posted: Jul 30, 2003 03:35 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

We paid for our honeymoon with a credit card...everything else was paid in cash. We paid off the credit card with the wedding gift money right away because we didn't want to start our lives together in debt : ).

August2003 Posted: Jul 30, 2003 06:30 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

We have had to charge some so we got a card that gives us miles that way we will get something back. It has a low max. so we must pay it off to charge more. We have been doing this for 16 months. We are now less than two weeks away and don't owe very much, but have 14, 000 miles!! At least we will eventually get some airline tickets. I am so grateful to have had the time to do it.
We are also going to pay off the 2 thous that we owe right away with money that we get as gifts.
Good luck!!

maysie18 Posted: Jul 30, 2003 07:24 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

We're paying some stuff on credit cards, but most has been paid off along the way. We've been planning/paying for over a year so that helped. We refused to take out loans cuz didn't want/need to be paying for the wedding years after its over. Only things left to pay after the wedding will be final video/photographer payments.

wenndypoo Posted: Jul 30, 2003 07:32 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

We're doing our best to pay for everything with cash. There's still the possibility that we may have to put something on a CC, but that's okay, As long as its not the whole thing!!
I think alot of people (more than may want to admit) charge and take out loans for their wedding. Only you two can decide if that is right for you. Some are more comfortable carrying a large debt load than others. Many people think they can pay off some stuff with $$ they get as gifts.
I think there are alot of good tips here.
Good luck with your planning!

jennbaby Posted: Jul 30, 2003 07:45 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

We paid for our wedding on our own, no help from anyone, and all CASH.

gailb Posted: Jul 30, 2003 11:15 PM

Re: If you don't mind me asking

Unfortunately we will have to take out a loan. We are paying for our wedding ourselves, and currenty live together. Unfortunately with the wedding I want, and the means we have, the only way we can do it is loans.