Regardless of who is going to be paying for your wedding, or contributing to it, you and your spouse to be are going to need to sit down and determine what you really can afford.
The best time to do this is as soon after the engagement as possible so that there is no confusion or hurt feelings down the road.
Discuss things like how you will split the costs of your wedding if you aren't going to be combining funds prior to getting married.
Will it be a 50-50 split? Or will you handle certain expenses with your spouse to be handling the other expenses? But even more important than this is that you both need to understand where these funds are coming from.
Are you both going to be dipping into savings? If neither of you have enough funds in your savings accounts, or you won't be using those funds, how are you going to be paying for this affair? The first thing you are going to have to do is to set up a savings and spending plan.
Depending on the length of time between the start of your planning and your wedding, you may want to set up a monthly savings plan.
Both you and your spouse to be need to discuss your finances together and discuss the places where you can cut back for the time being in order to meet the wedding budget goals.
Things you may agree to limit may be your cable service, daily stops every morning for coffee, using prepackaged luncheon meats instead of the deli counter products, or even cutting back on your clothing expenses.
It may not be a bad idea to open a joint checking or savings account specifically for wedding related expenses.
This way, you'll be able to track exactly what your expenses have been and how much you've spent at any given time.
Even if both of you or one of you have enough funds in your savings account to cover the big day, you should both discuss how much of it you want to devote to the wedding.
Again, this is one day - you've got the rest of your lives to think about as well.
Spending more than 10-20% of your combined incomes could be a big mistake.
Sure, the day would be a wonderful time and one that you'd likely remember the rest of your lives.
But you may very well be paying for it the rest of your lives as well if you aren't careful.
The best time to do this is as soon after the engagement as possible so that there is no confusion or hurt feelings down the road.
Discuss things like how you will split the costs of your wedding if you aren't going to be combining funds prior to getting married.
Will it be a 50-50 split? Or will you handle certain expenses with your spouse to be handling the other expenses? But even more important than this is that you both need to understand where these funds are coming from.
Are you both going to be dipping into savings? If neither of you have enough funds in your savings accounts, or you won't be using those funds, how are you going to be paying for this affair? The first thing you are going to have to do is to set up a savings and spending plan.
Depending on the length of time between the start of your planning and your wedding, you may want to set up a monthly savings plan.
Both you and your spouse to be need to discuss your finances together and discuss the places where you can cut back for the time being in order to meet the wedding budget goals.
Things you may agree to limit may be your cable service, daily stops every morning for coffee, using prepackaged luncheon meats instead of the deli counter products, or even cutting back on your clothing expenses.
It may not be a bad idea to open a joint checking or savings account specifically for wedding related expenses.
This way, you'll be able to track exactly what your expenses have been and how much you've spent at any given time.
Even if both of you or one of you have enough funds in your savings account to cover the big day, you should both discuss how much of it you want to devote to the wedding.
Again, this is one day - you've got the rest of your lives to think about as well.
Spending more than 10-20% of your combined incomes could be a big mistake.
Sure, the day would be a wonderful time and one that you'd likely remember the rest of your lives.
But you may very well be paying for it the rest of your lives as well if you aren't careful.