Wedding Archives - Making Sense Of Cents

Are Wedding Loans A Crazy Idea? 10 Things To Think About For Your Big Day

Last Updated: November 8, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 13 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of talk about wedding loans. And as a personal finance blogger, this worries me a bit.

Getting married is very exciting, and in the beginning, you’re probably thinking about what your wedding will be like. All of your favorite family and friends, good food, dancing, and whatever else your heart desires.

But then, reality hits – how will you pay for it all?

Shockingly, many couples take out wedding loans to finance their big day.

It seems like more and more people around me are getting wedding loans in order to afford their wedding, and there’s a big industry growing that is trying to normalize marriage loans as well. I’ve even seen advertisements for wedding loans for bad credit!

I’ve also noticed more people putting their weddings on credit cards, which is very dangerous when you consider that the average credit card interest rate is now over 21%. [Read more…]

Use Blue Nile To Get The Best Jewelry At The Best Price

Last Updated: September 2, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - Leave a Comment

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

This Blue Nile reviews post is sponsored by Blue Nile. While this was a sponsored opportunity from Blue Nile, all content and opinions expressed here are my own.

Purchasing jewelry can be a hard thing to do. There are so many buying “rules” out there, there are many options, and more.

However, Blue Nile makes it super easy, you can design and purchase jewelry all from the comfort of your home!

Blue Nile is also very affordable. [Read more…]

How To Save Thousands On An Engagement Ring

Last Updated: February 7, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 74 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Determining how much to spend on an engagement ring can be a hard thing. This is especially true due to there being many different engagement ring buying rules out there.

The most known engagement ring budget rule is probably the three month rule. This is where the engagement ring buyer determines how much to spend on an engagement ring based on what they make over a three month period.

So, if a person makes around $3,000 a month, that would mean that the engagement ring “should” cost around $9,000 according to the three month ring buying rule.

That is a ton of money for someone to spend on an engagement ring, especially when that’s just a total income of around $36,000 a year!

I am going to say OUT with this old ring buying rule.

Spending 25% of your annual income on an engagement ring just seems crazy.

Insane even.

I know I’ll probably get some flack for saying that, but I think busting your budget for an engagement ring is usually not a good idea…

Here are my tips to help you determine how much to spend on an engagement ring: [Read more…]

Bad Money Mistakes Couples Should Avoid – They May Be Making You Poor and Stressed Out

Last Updated: January 15, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 77 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

One thing I’ve always been happy with is how me and Wes have always been very open about money.

No, we haven’t always done things the “normal way” (we combined finances YEARS ago and often receive flack for that), but in the end things worked out well for us. I think that’s because we make sure to be open about money.

I have witnessed many people around me make several money mistakes. I know people who have never once discussed a budget (even budgets that suck!) with their significant other, even though they are married. I also know others who have broken marriages/relationships because of secret debt, financial infidelity, and more.

No, life isn’t all about money, but money does play a big factor in a relationship.

I’m all for people doing their own thing in life, but, in general, the money behaviors below can lead to big mistakes when in a relationship. Money mistakes can lead to debt, delayed retirement, stress, heartache, and more.

Who wants all of that? Not me! [Read more…]

Our Wedding Dessert and Candy Buffet

Last Updated: May 1, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 8 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

For our wedding, we knew we wanted to have a wedding dessert table and a wedding candy buffet. Yes, we wanted TWO candy/dessert tables at our wedding, and we actually did it. Each table was six feet long, so you can only imagine the amount of sweets we had at our wedding.

We got our wedding candy buffet jars from Save On Crafts. This website was pretty much my go-to wedding website when I was looking for decorations for our wedding. [Read more…]

DIY Wedding Ideas – Worth It Or A Waste Of Money?

Last Updated: December 28, 2014 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 111 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

More and more couples seem to be going the DIY wedding route when it comes to their special day.

Some want to save a little money, some want to be more involved in their wedding, or some have a certain plan they want to follow and DIY is the only way for them to do that.

There are many things you might want to think about before you decide to go the DIY route for your wedding.

You will want to think about why you want to DIY the project, how much money it will save or cost you, how much time it will take, whether you actually have the time to complete the project, and if you are even creative enough to do it.

The last part is what stopped me from DIYing too much for my wedding because I know I’m not creative enough.

[Read more…]

Wedding Pictures

Last Updated: December 16, 2014 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 87 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

It’s finally here. I received my wedding photos the other day and I’m excited to finally share some of them with you. I won’t be sharing all of them because there are over 1,000 pictures!

I also included little reviews and links (this is not a sponsored post) for some of the items I bought for our wedding. I know some of you were interested in the vendors we used, so I thought I would make it easier that way. This is probably my last wedding-related post for awhile, so enjoy!

Also, please scroll down to the end to help me out by voting for me 🙂

[Read more…]

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