Limited income, BIG goals....

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Limited income, BIG goals....
14
Tue, 09-28-2004 - 2:47pm
I seem to have reached a turning point in my life - at least, what I feel SHOULD be a turning point, anyway. Thirty is looming, most of my friends are married, and some have started serious careers.

Right now I have three goals:

1. Pay off debt.

2. Buy a house.

3. Get married.

*not necessarily in that order, of course.

How on earth do you pay debt, AND save for two different goals? I have ideas in my mind for a wedding that could quite conceivably cost less than $5000 - keeping the guest list small, I have a photographer friend, I could make my own cake, I could make my own bouquets/centerpieces using silk flowers, and I am even willing to resell the dress. But that's still $5000 that COULD go to the downpayment on a house, OR paying a significant chunk of debt. *sigh*... How do you do it all?

Thanks for listening - just needed to vent.



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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-01-2004
Fri, 10-01-2004 - 1:22pm
In order to save money for my wedding, I used the same flower arrangements at the chapel and the reception. Just have the bridemaids bring them to the reception with them. Also for decorations in the church, I put small flower arrangements on every other pew and used streamers on every pew. I also asked the church for a referral to a florist and the florist gave my a 10% discount because I was referred to them. Also with flowers, buy flowers in season and try to avoid roses they are sooooooooooooo expensive. I used Lily of the Valley in my bouquet and they were beautiful. At the reception I had a buffet style dinner because it was a lot cheaper and limit the alchol to beer and champagne. Actually my guests could buy any drink they wanted but the beer and Champagne were paid for. None of my guests minded. Oh and I also paid for soft drinks I think most people drank those. I decorated the reception hall also with streamers and balloons. Try to make your own gift bags for the guests too. You can fill pretty bags with candy or bubbles are fun. Also, My dh friend was a photographer so he took our wedding and reception pictures as his wedding gift to us. Wow this got long,lol.

good Luck, Leanne

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Fri, 10-01-2004 - 1:48pm
How on earth did you do 250 people on $5000??? Spill your secrets, please!!!

I really would like to have a cake - if the restaurant would let me bring one in, I'd probably just make one myself. I can do very simple decorations - like a basket-weave, or even just cover it in shaved white chocolate. I could then decorate it with artificial flowers. I'd just have to appoint a friend to take it there and set it up for me!



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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-07-2003
Fri, 10-01-2004 - 6:42pm

I'm sitting here trying to add up everything, & my numbers are coming out under $3000, but I think that $4000 is probably more accurate since my memory is shady.


A lot of the things I did can't be duplicated.

Pumpkin

&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Fri, 10-01-2004 - 9:08pm
Thanks for that response! Sounds like you got really lucky... but wow, all that food for 250 people must have been quite the job!

I've considered making my own food, but I would have to either do it here in my tiny little apartment and transport it all to another location, or take over a friend's house for a couple of days and maybe even do a backyard reception at the same place. But... I certainly don't want to be that imposing! If I had my own house, I would do the ceremony at the little chapel, then just have a reception in my home - self-catered!

Nope - I've got it all figured out I think. SO and I aren't even formally engaged yet (just talking about it), so I've got plenty of time. Say this wedding happened in the spring of 2006, we could have almost $2000 saved by then by putting away only $100 a month.

But I'll get off my soapbox and stop dreaming now. :) Tahnks for all your help and advice!



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