How To Say “I Do” Without The Financial Turmoil
A MEETING OF THE MARITAL MINDS
How To Say “I Do” Without The Financial Turmoil
66% of women dream of a perfect wedding, and when that opportunity comes, both they and their grooms pool all their resources together to make the event as memorable as possible. Lost in the hoopla of this celebration, however, is the fact that a marriage is as much a financial transaction as a solemn union. I improperly handled, marriage can quickly transform into a financial nightmare.
If you are planning your wedding day, you should take some time out and think about the possible financial ramifications that you could suffer if you don’t plan well. Here are some tips for ensuring that your wedding day is indeed perfect—financially and all.
Communication
Communication is not only an integral component of a good marriage, it is also an important part of pre-wedding financial agreements. Usually, this will include the bride and groom, as well as any parents who will be contributing finances to the event. You should set a firm figure in mind, as this will be the basis for all of the other decisions that you make.
In addition, you should think about one thing carefully: if your parents are contributing a great deal of money for the ceremony, are you sure that you wouldn’t rather use it for someone thing else? People have been known to spend $10-15,000 on a single wedding. If they’d thought it through, they might have made the decision to have a small wedding and use the contributed cash as a down payment on a new home instead!
Plans
Once a budget is set, a list should be prepared that shall consist of all the projected needs for the ceremony. This list should include things like the wedding chapel, reception hall, dress, catering, flowers, photographer, and more. You will need to assign a portion of your overall budget to each of the categories. You may need to do some price comparisons before completing this step so you’ll have an idea of what each item should cost. It will help to assign a value to each item. For example, what’s more important to you; your wedding flowers or the gifts for the bridal party? Now that you understand how much you’ll have to spend on each thing, it should make the next step easier.
Comparisons
Most definitely, the budget will include amounts that have been exaggerated or understated. Some adjustments should be made. For example, if you’ve planned $500 for flowers, and find that it’s simply not enough to get what you wanted, you will have a few choices. You could select something else that isn’t as expensive, you could reduce another category’s budget and put it toward the flower budget, or you could get creative and decide to grow your own flowers for the ceremony. The point is to stick to your overall budget.
Marital Bliss
The wedding ceremony, of course, is just the start of your financial planning together. Once that is over and done with, you should move on to the more essential aspects of marital finances, using the same model we’ve discussed above. This would assure a healthy union and a long period of marital bliss, as money will never be an issue between the two of you.
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