Weddingbee Blog

Mrs. Bee here.

Money is a tough subject to talk about. But it’s one of the most common causes of fights between married couples, so it’s something you should always communicate openly about with your significant other. Important discussions to have include your current financial situations, spending/saving habits, joint/separate accounts, individual responsibilities, and short/long term goals.

Mr. Bee and I talked about these things before getting married. I remember when we were first dating and I told him how much debt I had. Luckily he didn’t want to run away. I have to admit that I’m bad with money. I’m horrible at saving and budgeting. (Although I am excellent at spaving. Spending + Saving = Spaving; like buying something on sale. ;))

They say that financial opposites attract. In our case I’m the spender, and Mr. Bee is not so much a saver as he is a nonspender. I guess if we were both spenders, we might be in a lot of trouble. Now I have to do a better job of following his nonspending example.

Are you and your significant other financially compatible?

Let’s get serious now, we need to be a responsible couple.

My fiance and I opened up our very first joint account a couple of months ago just so we would get an early jump on all of our financial responsibilies as a “married couple.” We opened our joint account before we got hitched for several reasons.

1) We currently have credit card bills that need to be paid. For now, we’ve designated this joint account to be used only for our second deposit for our reception hall - our most expensive wedding expense.
2) My fiance’s parents have gifted him some money to help ease our wedding debt that we’ve accumulated within the past 6 months.
3) This gives us great insight into learning how to budget as a responsible couple.

Since Mr Apple has a dual degree (Masters in Business & Juris Doctorate) he’s accumulated quite a bit of debt, so he says it wouldn’t be fair for me to have to pay for any of his loans. So, we’ve also agreed that we will keep separate personal checking accounts.

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Mrs. Bee here.

For some reason, I’ve always found it difficult to be financially dependent on Mr. Bee even though we’re married. While I was working on launching weddingbee, I wasn’t making any money and was completely financially dependent on him. After some time, it actually made me quite depressed because I felt like I wasn’t contributing enough to the household.

Growing up I held these antiquated notions that the man should be the main breadwinner. But now my attitude has completely changed - I definitely wouldn’t mind making a lot more than Mr. Bee… I don’t think he would mind either.

Does it matter to you or your SO whether or not one makes more than the other?

There are wedding bees, honey bees, how about money bees?

Figuring this out is on my to-do list, and while I’m sure a big talk about it with the fiance is the starting point, I thought you’d all have some good suggestions.

Allison

How did you pay for your wedding?

So far, my Fiance and I have been paying straight cash for everything or charging it (for protection purposes) and then immediately paying it off. We are planning and paying for not one, but two weddings with two different sets of vendors. However, it’s been a bit frustrating for me because I am not used to living check to check.

All of my vendors have approximately the same payment schedule so every couple of weeks, the next installment of several hundreds to thousands of dollars is due - an extreme source of stress. In December/January, my venue’s second payment, my final gown payment (when the dress comes in), and my photographer’s second installments are all due - this comes to around $8k in payments at once. Wouldn’t that freak you out as well?

I’m one of those people who feels uncomfortable leaving a revolving balance on my credit card month to month. My Fiance tells me I’m weird. However, most of my stress has come from the inability to make a decision on the vendors that are left. No doubt - booking the reception/ceremony venue was the most stressful/difficult part of the entire process. Thank goodness that part is over!

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As much as I try to pay off my credit card debt in full each month, sometimes it’s hard to do so, especially when it comes to my wedding. You see, I love reward points. It’s like free money to me, since the more points I get, the more cash I get back, which I use to pay down the debt.

Unfortunately, as of late, since I have been on a shopping frenzy, the debt has been piling on faster than I can pay it down. Plus, the money that my parents are giving me for the wedding hasn’t come in yet. Also, almost everything I’ve bought (favors, invitations, accessories, etc) were purchased online, meaning they only take credit cards.

So I decided to call my credit card companies to get them to lower my interest rates.

I tell all of my friends this: Call your credit card companies once a year to discuss your interest rates. I try to never pay above 10%. How do I do this? It’s easy.

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