$11,500
That's how much my wedding is going to cost me.
It's ridiculous. I know. I have tried and tried to keep the cost to the minimum but it still will easily exceed $10,000. I picked a small town because prices are cheaper there. I am not doing any extra stuff nor have I planned anything elaborate. I have only the basics. And as I write this, I just realized that I did not include flowers in this price which could easily cost me another $500.
That chunk of money is money that could be going toward a downpayment on a house. That is money that could be put toward our retirement. That is money that could be saved for our children's college fund. That is money that could be used for a lot of things that we don't currently have. After all, we are 23-year-olds starting our lives with a negative net worth (thanks to student loans).
The average cost of weddings today is over $20,000 so my wedding is even cheap in comparison but I still think $11,000 is way too much money to be spending on ONE day of our life. It makes me sick to think of all the wonderful ways I could spend that money if it wasn't going toward my wedding. To be fair, I am not paying for my wedding in entirety. Both my parents and my fiance's parents are chipping to take some of the burden off of us. However, my fiance figured up last night how much money the wedding would cost us and it came to over $5,000. Of course a large chunk of this money includes the honeymoon and our wedding bands but still this is too much money!
I would like to just forego the whole thing and put that money in a Roth IRA or my 401K or a CD or just put it towards a downpayment on a house. But instead it's going toward one day - granted it is supposed to be the most important day of my life and I am very excited about it - but still it's one day. And I certainly don't make that kind of money in one day! I've finally resolved to forget about what it's costing me and all the stress of it all and just enjoy it because I certainly hope this is the only wedding I'm ever going to have and I want it to be unforgettable. So now I'm looking forward to the wedding but not nearly as much as I'm looking forward to the honeymoon!! Woohoo.
3 comments:
Wow you guys are paying for your wedding yourself? That's awesome and scary at the same time. Utah weddings on the average are ALOT less expensive then most. Most are held at a local church gym, minimul decorations and family makes all the food themselves. Mine was a less traditional "Utah" wedding and I'm sure I was up in the $5,000 but still a whole lot less then what your having to pay.
No we're getting help from the family but our cost alone is still over $5,000 - of course that's including the honeymoon and our wedding bands. I'm not even planning anything fancy!!
Makes me want to pull my hair out...
I know exactly what you're going through! I just got married in October and I couldn't believe what we ended up spending, even after trying to keep costs to a minimum. Of course, it was a bit more difficult to do that, since we were doing everything as local/organic/rented as possible. I think we ended up right around where you are, and the bulk of that was catering and rentals (site rentals and the renting of tables, chairs, etc.).
And, we paid for it all. Yes, I wish we could have put that money towards something else, like a house or debt, especially since it was all our money. But, my consolation is this: it is a special day, it only happens once, our choices were well thought out, and we tried to keep it sustainable and ethical. In fact, I'm in the middle of blogging about our "green" wedding. Check it out!
Best of luck and happiness to you and yours!
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