Planning for Your Wedding

Are you trying to save for a wedding and not sure how much to budget?  Do you need advice on financial issues that may arise once you are married?  There are many things that need to be considered once you have said yes to the dress!

It is important to agree on a budget for the wedding.  In Chicago, for example, the website The Knot published the price of an average wedding at just over $60,000 in 2016.  It is much more expensive to have your wedding in the city versus the suburbs, but there are some additions that you may care about, but that are not that important to the guests. For example, you may want to splurge on a beautiful three tiered cake, or elaborate centerpieces or flowers for the wedding, but most guests  consider the food, the bar, the music and the venue to be the most important components of a wonderful wedding celebration.  If you are looking to trim your wedding budget, you can go with less expensive flowers, a smaller wedding cake with sheet cakes for serving the guests, less expensive invitations and a lower priced wedding gown.  

Once you are married, it is important to have a discussion about your financial goals.  Do you want to buy a house, start a family, or have immediate debts that need to be paid off?  Also, do you want to maintain separate checking accounts and use a joint account to pay certain expenses, or will you be combining your finances? A financial planner can help you to prioritize these goals and to set up a plan to make sure you can achieve them.  Also, you should look at health insurance that is offered for each of you through your employer.  In many cases, one of the employers may have a much cheaper plan than the other, and it does not make sense to pay for insurance with each spouse's plan separately.  It is critical that all of your life insurance and employer retirement plans have the appropriate beneficiaries.  These can be titled so that they would pass directly to your spouse, thus avoiding probate if one of you pass away unexpectedly. You should also consider your disability insurance needs so that you have enough income to pay a new mortgage if one of you becomes disabled. It is also worth contacting your auto insurance company to see if you can obtain cheaper coverage now that you are married and insuring multiple vehicles.

I am currently in the midst of planning for my daughter's wedding, and having so much fun.  Enjoy this special time in your life as you are starting your new life together!  If you would like financial advice to help you plan for your goals together, I would love to help you out!