Picture It (in my Sophia from Golden Girls voice): It's January of 1999, I am at BBQs with a bunch of my friends. In high school I usually hung with about 7 or 8 girls; however, this particular evening there were other girls from our high school that came along to celebrate a birthday. To make a long story short, we had a great stress-free time ordering our food, great conversation and a room full of laughs then the bomb drops. The check comes to the table and people start putting down $20 for their dinner (for 2 people), others start breaking out calculators to add up their bills (including me because I will not pay for others) and a bunch of head rolling occurs because others are trying to skip out on their bill. I can say that this day goes on the list of days that I wanted to crawl under the table and just die. The lesson learned from this experience always know whose paying and how the bill will get paid.
This rule can be translated to your wedding as well. Before you and your fiance decide to put down a penny of money have a serious conversation about who is actually footing the bill for the wedding. As a wedding planner, it is so embrassing to see newly married couples opening up their wedding day cards in order to pay vendors. Know who is paying, how they are paying and when they are paying. This will help you to 1) create & maintain your budget, 2)acknowledge what checklist items can be crossed off your lists of to-dos, 3)give you a point person to follow up with and 4) Give you a peace of mind on your wedding day knowing that all bills have been settled in full.
If there are a variety of people paying for the wedding, for example, your parents, his parents or others make sure you confirm with them about their finacial participation in your special day. Also be honest and up front with them about your expectations for your wedding day. Have a conversation with them about how you would like items paid for. For example, you would like to have the final payment in an envelope the morning of the wedding so that you can hand it off to your wedding planner/coordinator. If your contributors that not adhere to your reasonable rules then you may have to give them a GIRL BYE and move on without their finances.
So Budget Brides, How did you determine who was going to pay for what expenses for your wedding? Did you have any incidents that day of your wedding when it came to paying vendors?
1 comment:
This is such valuable advice, and I agree that every couple should follow it closely. We were very careful with our budget, and made sure all of our required payments were made well in advance of the wedding. At the rehearsal, we simply gave our coordinator several envelopes with tips. The wedding day is no time to stress over payments!
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