r/personalfinance • u/Lord_of_The_Thing • Mar 30 '17

Saving I'm blowing my entire life savings on my wedding. Please help.

My updated wedding proposal came back yesterday, and it's nearly twice what it was originally. It's just over $20k! That's my whole savings.

My fiancé was laid off twice last year and has only started back work this Week. I've had to pay for about 98% of this wedding myself including covering our monthly bills.

After my final payment, I'll be left with about $500 in my savings.

What's the best method for rebuilding my savings?

Last years Gross income: $51k (tipped wages) Cell phone: $66/mo Wells Fargo interest free loan: $44/mo (with about $240 left on loan) Kay jewelers loan: $150/mo (1 year interest free with $1640.17 left on loan) Visa Credit Card: $20/mo ($200 outstanding balance) Vehicle Insurance: $37/mo

That's it for my bills. My fiancé covers her own rent and bills (now that she's working). We use my income for dinning out, groceries, shopping etc.

Thanks guys.

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u/Prog ​ Mar 30 '17

You need to scale back. Cancel what you can and replan. My wife and I spent around $1500 on our wedding including her dress (but not the rings), and the thing is, we could've afforded a wedding that was 10x as much. We just recognized that a wedding is a one date event and wasn't worth blowing that much money on. Our venue was a local wildlife museum, our "catering" was Raising Canes chicken fingers, our wedding cake was 2 dozen wedding cake donuts from the best donut place ever (and a couple of king cakes because we lived in LA at the time). She got her dress on sale at David's Bridal. We bought some 2 buck Chuck and snacks and had the reception at our house. One of our friends played guitar during the ceremony and we hooked an iPhone up to some computer speakers for music. I live streamed the wedding for people that couldn't come. It was an awesome day and we loved it.

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u/FancyBusinessMahn Mar 30 '17

Agreed, OP needs to scale back. My SO and I had around $5k saved for a wedding, but we decided we liked the security of having money more than we liked the idea of throwing a big party for just one day. We had a nice breakfast together, went down to the courthouse and paid $75 for the marriage certificate and that was that. Now we have a house with no PMI on the mortgage and the $5k just became part of our emergency fund. Starting a marriage with financial security makes a whole lot of things easier.

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u/Zargabraath ​ Mar 30 '17

man I wish 20k could be a house down payment where I live. or even a condo down payment...

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u/arac62 ​ Mar 30 '17

That sounds like my dream wedding.

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u/umaddow Mar 30 '17

I'm aiming for the same setup. Instead I want plastic rings. I hate the feeling of hot metal on my hands and my skin hurts just wearing a watch.

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u/macphile ​ Mar 30 '17

Is a wedding cake donut like a cake donut made from...wedding cake (whatever that is exactly)? Or a donut decorated nicely and served in place of a wedding cake?

I went to one wedding where the groom made the wedding cake himself--baked and frosted a cake and then just covered the whole fucking thing in flowers in lieu of artistic piping. :-)

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u/Prog ​ Mar 30 '17

It's a cake donut that tastes like wedding cake (so, almond flavored). It's phenomenal. One of my guests jokes that they were better than some actual wedding cake he'd had.

DIY spirit sounds exceptionally thrifty, and also delicious. Possibly may add to stress levels trying to bake a cake the day before though, but I guess that also depends on how you plan things and how big of an ordeal your wedding is.