Budgetizing

Now that we’re engaged, Brad and I have decided to have the wedding at the beginning of summer. This coming summer. Like 5 months from now. It seemed like such a great idea; short engagement, pretty June wedding, the rest of the summer to relax and spend the weekends on the motorcycle and on camping trips. Pretty amazing, right?

Then I looked up a copy of the miles-long Wedding Planning to-do list; the one that no one tells you about until after you get engaged…yeah.

Panic.

At the beginning of this week, I talked to my parents about a potential budget. Their response: “Oh, we don’t have any money right now, but we will. Brad said you guys were planning to keep it small, and pay for it yourselves. We do want to contribute, though.” You will…like…tomorrow? ‘cause that’d be good. And he said WHAT!?

More panic.

Surprisingly, inside of all the panic and anxiety, and OMG THERE’S A 3-PAGE LIST OF THINGS I WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE DONE 4 MONTHS AGO!!, the little gerbil powered cogs in my brain got to turning.

I Googled stuff. I found lots of advice on inexpensive wedding ideas. And my soon-to-be sister-in-law graciously saved all of her wedding planning materials for me (she married Brad’s brother last summer). Including a DIY Wedding Planning book.
One of the pieces of advice I found (the one that really stuck out), was this: “DO NOT GO INTO DEBT. Save. Save. Save.” It also mentioned that if you really cut back on expenses, you’ll be surprised out how much money you can save from now until the wedding day. I’ve been thinking about that ever since.

This morning, I opened up my budget (the one I keep on my work computer, to play with when I don’t have anything else to do, and helps me look like a good busy little worker bee) and did some rearranging. If I scrimp and stop going out for coffee and lunch and buying food that just goes to waste. I can save upwards of a few hundred dollars a month…according to my excel sheet. And when I bought my house, Brad offered to contribute some money each month to go toward mortgage (since we’ve always known it would be his house too someday). So that money will also go toward our wedding saving fund. In the short time between now and our goal wedding date, if my calculations are correct, we can save a couple thousand to go towards honeymoon and last minute expenses.

We decided that this weekend, we will go to the bank and open a joint savings account (our first account in both of our names!). That way we can each contribute to the account each month without one person being in charge of it all. We like to share.

Other things on the agenda for this weekend:
-Check out my parents’ backyard to see how if it’d make a good ceremony/reception site.
-Find swatches of the exact color scheme I’m thinking of.
-Check out the church as a backup ceremony/reception site
-dress research (mine and bridesmaids)
-Talk to remaining potential bridesmaids and ask if they actually want to be one
-Go through all of the magazines Becky (future sis-in-law) and cut out/save the bits I like
-Research
-Research
-Research
-Find time for house cleaning and laundry
-Organize
-Pull out all of my hair.