Starting Score: FAKO EQ 497 EX 516 TU 517 (4.28.12)
drkaje wrote:
Posting from my iPhone so please excuse any typos or brevity but..... Taking on $10K+ more debt for a wedding, with a 591 score, and expecting erring gifts to offset eloverspending would be foolish. If that's her idea of handling finances you two should really have a long talk right now. After a wedding people start talking about houses. Do what you can afford and avoid starting out a new marriage with excess debt.
We aren't getting married any time soon.. we were just talking about it and how much expenses would come up too...I wouldn't get into a marriage knowing my credit isn't good, this is one of the MANY reasons why I am working on fixing it..I just honestly feel like $10k for a wedding is a waste.
drkaje wrote:
"Jake" is short for Jacoby. I tried very hard to use a proper name, professionally, but gave up.
Ho is the fiancée with financial management in othe areas?
fiancee ? naw..I don't plan on popping the question until we're close to graduation lol ..and she says she has no lines of credit..she has a part time job on campus though.
DH and I just got married at the preacher's house. We dressed nicely, had the ceremony, just us. I think he took the certificate into another room for his wife and friend to sign as witnesses. We thanked him, left, and went to our favorite restaurant for lunch.
No friends or family. No gifts. No honeymoon.
It's not anyone elses job to get us started in married life - it's ours. And if we can't afford to do things together, like start a life without going into debt or depending on others to pay for a start, we won't do so well starting. We might improve later on, but then again, maybe not.
So we choose to do the path of self pay.
As for the honeymoon, we thought the purpose was to get our jiggy on. Well, sheez, we can do that at home. 
Why spend hundreds or thousands to pay for a different place to do that??
Just our story...
My wife and I both agreed before and after the wedding we would have preferred to elope. However, the wedding is really more for friends and family than the bride and groom. Ask most folks who have been married - the ceremony and reception go by really fast, and then you wake up thinking, "That would have been a nice down payment on a house!"
I'm also old-fashioned - father of the bride should pay for most (if not all) of the wedding, unless there are circumstances preventing that. The budget in that case is between bride and father, and the groom basically says, "Whatever you want dear," and makes it happen.
Regardless, you can do a great ceremony and reception for cheap, and it will arguably be just as much fun. Stock up on disposable cameras and cheap wine and champagne, for an open bar. This ~$500 expense guarantees all of your guests will be happy with whatever else there is 
$0.02
