Juggling Act

Sometimes talking about financial obligations and ensuing responsibilities takes the wind out of my wedding planning wings. Being the "dreamer" in the relationship I'm always thinking of bigger and better, although when it comes down to it, bigger is not always better. It's just a mind set I have to slap myself out of every once in a while. Or I can always rely on my little sis to also give me a slap from time to time:) Jack has been very understanding and grounding; he doesn't agree with the wedding industry complex that ravages my poor brain but he understands.

Unfortunately, I would sometimes apply the "bigger and better" to other areas in my life outside of wedding planning. So in order to finance all of my (I mean "our") schemes, it was time for a little heart to heart. All of our obligations; school, wedding, student loans and saving to buy a house ect where screaming for our attention and we had to ask ourselves, "What is most important to us and how do we prioritize?". I remember Jack and I sitting down one day and outlining all of our financial goals together. And most importantly truly listening to each other. For us it was important to be consistent with our payments and our savings goals to insure a financial peace of mind we always wanted but never had. Slowly but surely we started to accomplish our goals; one credit card led to the rest, we had a sizeable but livable bi-weekly withdrawal from our checking to our savings account and we finally paid off one of our student loans. It was a juggling act to cut back on our day to day expenses but still maintain a comfortable standard of living. Out were the daily lattes from Starbucks, trips were curtailed and we made eating Sushi a treat instead of an entitlement (that was rough). It was amazing how much we saved from cutting out the "little things". Turns out they weren't so little after all.

Paying off our sizeable debt in turn helped us save for the wedding. Our wedding fund truly is more than enough for two people to get married. But after all that's been said and done the temptation to get into wedding debt and/or "borrow" from our house fund rears its ugly head. Especially when I read the most current Martha Stewart's Weddings magazine for example. I would look at our wedding priority list and ache to re-arrange it and increase our budget. Yes, I want that award winning cinematographer. Yes, I want that show stopping cake. I want, I want, I want. It's that one special day, everything has to be the best. But I should know better; I can't tell you the thousands... yes thousands we paid in credit card interest over the years. So I snap out of it after replaying our credit card trauma in my head and realizing how nice it would be to fly back from our honeymoon to a home we actually own. Or be able to afford to continue on with school. Not only that but I have to re-assure myself that the details will be great regardless because the best part of my day will be saying our vows. That's the best part and everything else is lagniappe.

So in order for us to pay for the wedding and not get into any wedding debt, its imperative that we stick to our budget. Any suggestions on how to avoid temptation? How and what did you prioritize? {Image Source}