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Banking and Finance  » How To Marry Without Financial Turmoil

How To Marry Without Financial Turmoil

A wedding day is supposed to be perfect.  In fact, most people

start dreaming about and planning their wedding day long before

they even meet their spouse!  But what many people forget is

that a wedding is in reality a financial transformation, and if

it's not handled properly, that dream day could quickly turn

into a foundation for debt.

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. 

Talk

The first thing you should do when thinking about your wedding

is to sit down and talk to everyone involved.  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 something

else?  People of ordinary means 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!

Plan

Now that you have a budget in mind, you should make a list of

absolutely everything that you'll need for your 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.

Compare

Now it's time to do some comparison shopping and

re-adjusting. For example, if you've planned $500 for flowers,

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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.

Move On

Once you've planned your entire wedding within your budget, you

should be able to sit back and enjoy the occasion knowing that

you have chosen to start your lives together responsibly. Now,

continue to budget and plan in the other financial areas of your

live and watch your finances grow!  

About the author:

Mike Cotter has been a professional lender for over 30 years. He

began his career in the commercial banking industry in 1972 and

steadily progressed to become Vice President of Retail Banking

with a major Denver bank. In 1982 he opened his own commercial

bank and served as President and CEO for 10 years. In 1992 he

left commercial banking for the mortgage banking field. Rocky Mountain

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