my tips to prepare for marriage 💍

Good morning!
If you saw my last post, you know my wedding was between 10-15k and we hosted around 130 people. Some may think that’s a lot; but if you’ve been through the wedding process recently; that’s FRUGAL. Of course, our original budget was 10k, but you know…we made some decisions that brought us over our initial budget.

Here are some things we did to prepare; and things we wish we did as we planned our wedding and marriage that followed:

PRACTICAL ADVICE
How to Prepare Financially for Your Marriage

Tip 1-3 found here in the caption.

Tip 4: Take a personal finance class with your spouse once you get married. Or better yet, take one BEFORE you get married. Money fights are #2 on the list of reasons for divorce following infidelity). Tell your spouse that you want to make sure you’re both on the same page with finances, and that you want to learn with him/her about how you can be financially responsible. Don’t be a jerk and say “hey you need this class.” Instead, be a partner that says “I want us to have the best marriage possible, and I think learning about personal finances together would help us have a great start. What do you think about taking a class together?” Check out Financial Peace University for a personal finance class. They host them in-person at local churches, and online.

Tip 5: Decide what you’re willing to splurge more money on vs cut costs on. For my wife and I, we knew we wanted the best pictures possible, and we were willing to bust out some cash for it. So that was literally the first aspect of our wedding that we booked, the photographer. All the top photographers in Central Florida cost around $4,000+. So instead, we reached out to a photographer in Utah (Fyi, there’s a ton of competition for wedding photographers in Utah, so their prices are a lot lower AND they have some amazing quality pictures). Turns out it was half the cost of a Florida photographer to just fly out a Utah photographer. And she did amazing! (Message me if you want her contact)

Tip 6: Watch your language! You’re getting married, so get used to saying “OUR money.” When you say “my money” or “your money” and “I paid for that.” You are drawing a line between your companionship. You are now one; and it doesn’t matter who makes more, everything you earn is pooled together for your new family unit. It might be a hot take, but my wife and I fully trust each other and we still merged our bank accounts fully. I literally feel no need to have my own money anymore. It’s all for us. And if we want to spend on ourselves, we make that change in our budget. No one gives each other permission to spend, we just keep each other on the same page.

OUR COMMUNITY
What are your questions? Or share a win!

• Reply to this email with any personal finance question you have, or share with me any wins in your life! (I’ll respond to your questions anonymously in future emails)