Beat those Wedding
Budget Blues
By Diana Estigarribia
Cascading
white roses, fairy-tale princess gown, romantic
honeymoon... For too many couples, this story
ends with saying "I do" to debt.
Every couple
wants a beautiful wedding, and it is easy to
go overboard and fall into debt. But that is
the wrong approach to marriage. "Soon-to-be
newlyweds are so focused on the wedding and
not focused on reality after the wedding,"
said Tyler Kelley, a residential mortgage banker
with Gorman & Gorman. "Couples really
do need to be realistic about the money aspect
of marriage."
That's almost
never the case. According to a national survey
by Bride's Magazine, couples spend $42.4 billion
on weddings, plus another $8 billion on the
honeymoon, every year. If you are among the
2.4 million couples getting married this year,
brace yourself for a bill that averages $19,000.
Beat
the Budget Blues
You can turn wedding planning
into a positive. If you and your future spouse
are paying for part or all of the wedding, use
it as a learning experience. "Budgeting
for a wedding is a good thing you can carry
forward into life," Kelley said. "It's
a good exercise, and usually couples are doing
this together, so that helps."
Don't start
planning your wedding without setting priorities
and a budget. (If you really hate that word,
use the term "spending plan" instead.)
Your budget or plan is not what you'd like to
spend but what you are actually capable of spending
with real money - and that means no credit cards
or poaching your retirement savings to pay for
the nuptials.
If you finance
your wedding through credit cards, you'll be
paying for that chicken cordon bleu until your
silver anniversary. Kelley says his most ironclad
wedding planning rule is that before you buy,
make sure you can pay off all the current charges,
all the interest and some of the past debt.
Real
Money
The key to paying for a wedding
is using real dollars rather than borrowing.
You can consider saving for some or all of the
wedding costs, although Kelley cautions couples
to steer clear of CDs because they tie up your
money. Instead, put your money in liquid investments
such as savings and money market accounts.
Even with
a savings plan for the wedding, you must not
forget your later goals. "You can have
that extra-special cake or a $5,000 wedding
dress, but you're making the choice that it
is more important to you than a house later
on, and I really don't think that's true,"
Kelley said.
In the end,
it's all about beginnings. Your wedding symbolizes
your future together. "I encourage couples
to put it all in perspective, over their whole
marriage or whole life," Kelley said. "Think
about where you'll be in 5 or 10 years. If you
imagine you'll have a house and kids, those
are all high-ticket items. You have to plan
for that."
Use
a wedding planning
checklist to prioritize
your spending:
