Saving for your wedding

Hi we saved some money first so that we knew we had the money to pay deposits. We have then continued to save and use the money in the wedding account to pay for anything wedding related. We wanted to make sure we had the money to pay deposits before we booked anything.

We worked out how much we could afford to put aside each month as a minimum and calculated the total amount across the months left. We calculated up to 2 months before the wedding because at that stage we'll have to be paying final amounts.

Where we can we are saving extra which just aleviates the pressure but we're also saving money against our budget too.

Our parents helped us with the initial deposits for booking the venue so we could get the date secured.

Also, and it's not for everyone but I'm good with money so it works for me. I have a couple of 0% credit cards which I have used for big purchases, that way I can still continue to earn the interest money on the savings. I'll pay off the cards before the 0% ends therefore this won't cost me anything.

We done both, had some money and saved as we went along. We now have all the money for the big items sat in the bank to pay everyone, just the bits we need we buy as we go along now.

We were given a chunk of cash to pay for deposits etc. Think we've probably paid about £2,500.00 in various deposits and my parents paid £600.00 deposit on my dress. Once you have quotes/deposits put it all in a spreadsheets so you can see what you have left to pay. Then divide that by paydays!

We found ourselves with some extra cash and decided to put down deposits on the venue and have some saved for when we decide where to have the reception. Then I set up a savings account and a direct debit so a minimum amount definitely gets paid into the wedding savings every month. If we have a bit extra after the bills etc on payday and cant see anything we need to immediately buy we put more into the savings account.

There's 2 years until our day, so It gives us plenty of time to save.

We got engaged and decided we wanted a summer 2012 wedding. After looking at some prices we worked out how much we could afford to save in those months and what hotel packages we could realistically afford. Then we ignored all our budgeting and went for a bespoke venue that was mega expensive and much more than we had budgeted for but we loved it too much! After that we were lucky enough to be able to up the amount each month we said we would save.

We got engaged, picked a date. Then decided how much we could save per month, and decided to spend half that on a wedding just in case any problems happened along the way.

Seems to have worked perfectly as we have been able to enjoy ourselves and still go on nice holidays during the planning.

I think we would have gone crazy if we were stuck in for a year whilst every penny went on a wedding.

We researched how much everything costs and set a date based on the venue we wanted and how much it would take us to save for it.

We're a combination of OH being an accountant and very money-conscious his whole life, us already owning our flat, and our luck with his new job.

We're still going to try to follow a stricter budget until the wedding, but it's nice not to have to worry constantly about where the money will come from.

We picked our date firstly and then set a realistic budget for the wedding based on what we could afford to save every month. I also couldn't bear the thought of spending more than 10k on a wedding so we have been working towards that. We were fortunate to have some money to pay initial deposits. I can't wait to have all the spare cash after July!!

Me neither!

We didn't have a penny saved. We went to look at a venue decided we were going to have it and then saved the deposit. Thats how our wedding will be paid for, find things saving the deposits and then paying the rest off. IF we had tried to save first we would never have booked anything as theres always things to be paid for.

We got engaged, waited a couple of weeks, then I got twitchy and wanted to get going on it all. Our wedding has been driven by the school holidays to an extent (my sister is a teacher). Since, we've tried to put a budget together in terms of how much we can save a month (putting an equal amount into our joint account). Then I have put a budget together, which is dead on the amount we can save, but I am pleased to report I have started coming in under budget already on some things.

One thing I didn't actually think about when we were planning the budget was that the big things want deposits - and we don't have the money for that at the moment, so will have to hold on the booking on some stuff. That said, I have a good 0% credit card that I could use, which will help spread the cost (and won't get in debt for, more importantly).

We started off with about half of our budget already sat in our account which covered some of the initial early on large deposits.

The rest we are saving as we go. It gave us a year then to save the other half.

We got engaged last August then talked about what kind of wedding we wanted and how long we thought it would take for us to save for it! We've been saving since then for the bigger deposits (venue, catering and photography) which have now all been paid. But then comes the other stuff (groan!). It's a lot but it's not too much of a surprise if you have worked out your budget and costs.

x

Hello! New to Hitched!

We got engaged last January and we've been saving it all ourselves....

We opened a couple of ISA's as they're tax free and then used a regular savings account for anything over our allowances....

We're getting married in August this year and we've managed to save around £15,000 all in!!

xx

Paid it out of savings and our current accounts. Where we made credit card purchases for safety reasons we paid the credit card off immediately but had the benefit of payment protection.