A wedding is a big milestone — not just for those embarking on the journey toward wedded bliss, but also for family and friends joining in on the celebration. With wedding season ramping up, the MoneyBetter team wanted to explore the financial aspects of wedding planning, especially when it comes to money and emotions. Our host Caitlin Moore chats with two of our own UBT employees about their wedding planning: Bailee Wellman, a newlywed who got married in June 2021, and Lindsey Deprez, whose wedding is planned for June 2022. We also talk about how wedding planning prepares you for marriage and how to have conversations with others involved about money and expectations.

Shownotes

Our quick tips:

• A longer engagement means more paychecks.
• Buy suits instead of renting tuxes when they are close to the same price.
• Send a survey out to your wedding party to see what they are comfortable with when it comes to spending expectations — and then go with the answer.
• If you’re jumping on the destination bachelor/bachelorette party trend, watch expenses and communicate openly with your wedding party on what they are comfortable spending.

Check out the ultimate wedding planning checklist and budgeting guide.

Bailee’s favorite vendors:

• Blush Bridal Boutique, wedding dress vendor: They were amazing to work with and just super encouraging and sweet.
• Ricky's Catering, caterer out of Hanover, Kansas: They made the process so incredibly easy, and they're also super affordable!
• HyVee, flowers and cake vendor: We worked with the one at 40th and Old Cheney, and Pam, the floral manager, took my ideas and ran with them and they were so incredibly beautiful. She did the flowers for the bridal party and several arrangements for the reception tables. The bakery did our cakes on a two-week notice after our previous plan fell through and delivered them to the venue. It required little work from us!

MoneyBetter Episode Highlights

3:23 | Bailee

“We worked from a spreadsheet… where we compared what we thought we might spend with each vendor and refer back to it… here’s how much we spent, what we still have to look at. We had a number that we said, we’re going to stay under this.”

7:38 | Lindsey

“I made an initial budget, thought we were doing great, and I was quickly reminded that things cost more than I think they do.”

9:07 | Lindsey

“There were some family members who put value on things that I didn’t necessarily put value on.”

13:45 | Bailee

“We did not want to inconvenience our wedding party at all with how much they were spending.”

18:04 | Lindsey

It’s so important to consider your wedding party’s expenses for being a part of your big day. Many of them aren’t local, and will have expenses for flights, hotel, possibly renting a car.

“We wanted to consider how this was going to impact them. We don’t want them to spend thousands of dollars for a weekend at our wedding.”

29:50 | Lindsey

The two sides of the coin:

“I went over budget on the dress, which is one thing I go back and forth with. Some days, I’m like, ‘We’re only getting married once.’ And then other days, I’m like, ‘You’re only going to wear the dress once.’”

38:30 | Lindsey

How much do certain things really matter?

"The guests aren’t going to remember if something was wrong or not done a certain way."