(Pictures from Goodwill's Wedding Dress Sale, where I didn't buy anything but had a great time with Jessica, Melissa and Andrea last weekend)If I had my way, we'd get married this summer. Why should it take a year to plan a party? Buy a dress and order some food, done. But, we don't really have enough money to have a $7,000 wedding in August. So, to avoid credit card debt, we must save money to pay for it.
The state budget deficit will likely not be fixed by the end of this legislative session (May 18, 2009). Thus, we will need special sessions which will probably last into the Summer. So, work would probably prevent me from a Summer wedding anyway. On to the Fall.
My brother, who got engaged almost a year ago, and got pregnant around Christmas, has now planned to get married in October (on the same day as Julie G.:( so, the Fall is out. That's when I hope we'll be able to buy a house.
Then, we're into Winter. Avoiding holidays, our birthdays, and deer hunting season we're into January 2010. But, we wanted to give people some time to recover from holiday spending.
So, then we have tentatively picked January 23, 2010 (a million years away!) and it turns out that the minister has planned a ski vacation. Gah! I'm a bit picky about church services and he makes church feel real and not phony.
So, maybe January 16th or 30th? After that, the legislative session starts again, when I'm not allowed to take time off. Assuming that session would start in (a bonding year) February or March and end on time in May, we could postpone it until then. But, my boss is also running for Minnesota Governor and the State DFL endorsing convention is always the first weekend in June. I'm planning to be a big part of that, which would seriously hinder my ability to plan a DIY wedding. And I always said I wouldn't get married in an election year!Also, we're looking to buy a house before December 1, 2009, so we can utilize the $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers.
Then, the question arises - save money to pay for the wedding or save that money to add to the down payment or pay off credit cards to make your credit look better to possible home mortgage lenders?
Since, we have to buy a house to get the credit seems like we should save money to put towards a down payment and use the tax credit to pay for the wedding (I figured it out, we should get a $8,000 check, however not sure how the interactions will go since we filed separately in 2008 and are buying a home together. Do we split the credit?). Is it solved? Maybe. That's assuming we get our checks in a timely manner. Or is this a recipe for financial disaster?
