Photos Galore!!!

I know its a little late but I am thinking of getting my parents and my mother in law photo books for a late christmas gift as well as the video and video highlights of our wedding. A couple of weeks ago we received a dvd with 599 of our wedding pictures on it, last week we received our wedding video, and we also have a cd with our engagement pictures on it. We must put them to use!!! So I'm thinking of using shutterfly to create photo books for them. Has anyone ever used Shutterfly to create a photo book? Are there any other sites that you can recommend? I am more concerned about quality and design more than price, it is a gift for the parents after all!

My Bridal Shower did one thing

I had so much fun!!! My sister in law and cousin in law through it for me and I was so surprised. The day started off great. My cousin in law and I went to the Spa and had facials and then looked for some more stuff for the wedding the I got home, opened the front door and heard surprise and saw all these people in my house.. It was all my in laws, and there were a lot of them. Everything was decorated so beautifully and there was a pole in the middle of my living room.

One of my cousins in law is a certified stripper/pole dance instructor and taught us all some moves. After a couple drinks the usually shy bride to be was even on the pole. I got so many gifts, and we played so many games and just had an all around good time. I really feel like it was the best evening of my life. My sister in law even designed a little slideshow of me and Boobee and the bridal party.

When I woke up on Sunday I had a major hangover. I think it was my first hangover ever and it did not feel good at all. Even though my stomach felt like it felt horrible there was a smile on my face that came from such an amazing outpouring of love.

I am so blessed

until next time, think prosperous thoughts

YBP

Good things come to those

who wait.

... and that was what I did as I was trying to figure out what DJ I should book for the wedding.

My first choice was a DJ that was recommended by the resort that cost over $1000 which did not include playing songs for the ceremony or mics for the officiant and singer.

Luckily, I peruse this forum for other brides who are having destination weddings and one of the women said she was using a certain DJ and that he gave her a really good rate. Last weekend was her wedding and she posted a review that said she loved him and he was so accommodating, and stayed way longer than they paid for, etc.

When she first recommended him I had to emailed him to ask him for a quote, but when he sent it I never looked at it ( too busy doing other things)

Don't you know he quoted $450 for 5 hours which includes mics and other things for ceremony. He had also emailed me the contract and requested a $100.00 deposit.

Don't you know I filled out that contract and sent him the deposit in a heartbeat.

until next time, think prosperous thoughts

YBP

Investing in myself

I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks because of have been spending some time getting my thoughts together and investing in myself, plus I am finishing up my grad degree and have mucho work to do.

So here is a recap of what's been going on in my world!!

Since Boobee and I agreed that saving $20000 in an Emergency Fund before we start any other financial goals I have been feeling more secure about life in general. $20,000 is about an eight month emergency fund for us and that will be met before the end of the year.

I am slowly getting back on the debt snowball bandwagon. I have begun making payments to my $4700 loan with the hopes of having it out of my life by September.

I'm contributing to my 403B again. Why?? Every little bit helps. Since my progress is slow with my debt snowball I figured the least I could do was continue beefing up my retirement accounts.

I guess I work better when I am focused on one goal at a time, and right now with the wedding taking up a lot of my expenses I am putting my Roth IRA contributions on hold until August. Then its just $1000 a month until December ( goal # 3 will be complete)!

I have a job interview on Monday!!! It's for a part time position in the district that I work in. I had a phone interview this past tuesday and they want me to come in for a face to face interview. It pays more money than my other part time job and its 3 days after school from 2-6 and one saturday a month. My school day gets over at 2:30 but when I told my principal that I was going to be interviewed he said that he would work something out with me if I get the job. Now I just hope they will allow me to start August 2 which is when I am done with school and back from NYC.

I am praying that I will not have overnight work in my near future.

I have been on the Atkins diet for 30 days now and am feeling great. I am not going to weigh myself this week because Aunt Flo is on, but next week its on.

I got new glasses, found out I have to get braces again, and am going to see world renowned dermatologist Susan Taylor this week.

Now I just need to get my wardrobe together!

Until next time, think prosperous thoughts

YBP

Wedding Cost Blues

Yes, I've got them and it all has to do with the photographer. Now that I am thinking about it do I really need to spend $5500 on the photographer? That is really half my wedding budget.

Here is what the $5500 includes:

• up to 8 hours of shooting on your wedding day
• 2 photographers
• online hosting of images for easier ordering ( up to 90 days)
• complimentary 2 hour photoshoot the day before or day after the wedding ( Trash The Dress)
• copyright free CD/DVD of all edited usable photos
• 2 DVD slideshows show the events of the wedding day ( approximately 100 images)
• 250 print credit
• 1 16x20 Gallery Wrap Canvas Print
• 2 5x5 parent albums (20 sides) 50 images
• 1 10x10 flush mount album 80-90 images

The next package is $3500 and this is what it includes

Up to 8 hours shooting on your wedding day

2 Photographers

On -line hosting of images for easy ordering (up to 90 days)

1 10 x 10 Flush Mount Album (20 sides) approximately 50 Images

Copyright free CD/DVD containing high-resolution files fully edited of all usable images

100.00 Print Credit

1 DVD photo shows, approximately 100 selected images that tell a story of the days events

These photographers are some of the best in Jamaica. I'm just very frugal and this is a lot of money to spend on pictures!!!

My dear readers.... what do you think?


until next time think prosperous thoughts

YBP

The costs associated with a Destination Wedding

Wedding Planning is in full effect. We only have six months (as of yesterday) until the big day. From June until the beginning of August I will be in finishing up a graduate degree in NYC so not much planning will be going on. It was important for me to front load so things so that when crunch came I wouldn't feel the stress.

We budgeted $12000 for our wedding and from the looks of it the wedding expenses will be a little under $1100o. We also have to pay for our stays at the resort, airfare and the honeymoon and that is not included in the wedding budget.

We also think we are going to have to pay for some family members so that might bring us way over budget. But so far so good. As I am looking over the spreadsheet that has all our costs on it, the most expensive thing we are paying for is our photography.

Are you ready???

A whopping $5500 is the cost for our photography. However, they are the best on the island of Jamaica and all we will have after the ceremony is over is pics... right!!! That is the way we are justifying spending this insane amount of money.

The next biggest expense is our stays and airfare. Airfare to Jamaica is about 379.00 per person round trip and for one person to stay 5 days 4 nights all inclusive the cost is $1244.00. Thus the total cost per person to attend our wedding for guests and ourselves is $1623.00.

Is that expensive???

Well, we are not staying at a traditional resort. We rented out 6 villas on the beach in Negril and every villa includes its own chef, bartender, and housekeeper/bartender. The total max amount of people at the resort is 40 and 38 guests plus my fiance and I =40.

Next time I will go into more detail about the other costs.

think prosperous thoughts

YBP

Operation Car Loan Payoff is in Full Effect

So.. I put my netflix account on hold, put all my credit cards back in the freezer, and set up automatic payments of $750.00 every two weeks to Capital One. My car will be paid off by the end of November.

Wedding planning is coming along quite well too. Booked the photographer, booked the resort, paid for the save the dates, and had our engagement pictures taken. I am glad I started planning a year + before my wedding.

The end of the year will be here before you know it. What are you doing to make sure you meet your 2009 goals?

until next time, think prosperous thoughts

YBP

I'm Back from School and ready to blog again!!!

Yes I am truly back! It feels good to blog again. I have so much to tell you about. Let me just start by saying NYC was so expensive.... but oh so much fun. I loved living in the city for the time I lived there and will be going back in Feb and again next summer. But boy did it put a hurting on my pocket.

I didn't budget or set any goals while I was out there, just focused on school and that in itself was so intense. I will have August goals up this week. I have been focused so much on school that I really am failing at my yearly goals.

Also me and my love decided that we are going to get married next year. We are doing a destination wedding in August of 2010 in Negril Jamaica. I am so excited. It is looking like we will have roughly 50-60 people there celebrating with us for 5 days, and then going to another resort for our honeymoon. We have already put the deposit down on the resort, I bought my two dresses ( one for the ceremony and one for the reception and Trash the dress (TTD). I am having my boarding pass Save the Dates being made by an amazing designer, and I am just plan excited.

More updates soon.. I am just happy to be back!

until next time, think prosperous thoughts

YBP

All is good on the financial front!!!!

I have been away for a few days but I am back now and in full effect. I have been putting out a lot of money during this home buying process. I received an email from my real estate agent and the settlement date for the house is July 31. The only other thing I have to pay before settlement is a year of homeowners insurance, my broker got me a great quote for around $650.00. I am going to move my car insurance to this same carrier, and I pray for a discount on my coverage.

On Tuesday my boo and I went to see the site were we are going to have the wedding in a couple years. The place was absolutely beautiful and we decided that this place is definitely going to be the place were we are going to have the wedding. The catering coordinator was extremely nice and very helpful gave us quotes for 4 different days and times. The wedding and reception with all food, drinks, gratuities, and sales tax will cost us between $13000-15000. That gives us about $5000 to spend on other things. We have to put down a $2000.00 deposit within the next 45 days, so we will have to budget for that. We have our guest list (100 people) are ready and I will be using the knot.com to help me with budgeting and planning. I know some pay say its too soon to really start planning but hey C'est moi vie!!! (Its my life)

In other news:

In September I will be starting my debt snowball!!! I can't wait! I have been hearing a lot of negative things about what the economy is going to do and I am doing whatever I need to do to get out of debt asap!!

until next time, think prosperous thoughts!!!

YBP

Why are you waiting so long to get married???

Today DH and I had to run a few errands and we ran into some of his old friends. He proceeded to tell them we were getting married and when they asked when he told them the date which is August of 2010. What happened next is something I've grown accustomed to when I tell people I'm engaged. First its a look of extreme shock and then they ask the infamous question. "Why are you waiting 2 years?" and "That's a long engagement" I didn't answer the question but let DH answer it ( he is a lot more diplomatic in certain situations), but my dear friends in blogworld I will tell you why we are waiting so long to get married.

WEDDINGS COST MONEY!!!!

I don't come from a wealthy family and neither does DH. We have to work for everything we get. I worked my way through college, Rutgers University in hte house!!! In fact I worked full time overnight and went to school during the day. We are paying the down payment for the house by ourselves, although we are getting closing cost assistance from the seller.

1. Our wedding will be paid for by us. We have budgeted roughly $20000 for a wedding outside on the banks of a river in Philadelphia. The wedding and reception will be held at a historical mansion. We plan on paying for the wedding in cash split equally between us. That means we both have to save $10000. To make it easier on us we will be saving 5000 a year. That is will not be too hard for us at all. If worse comes to worse DH can always take some money from his 09 and 10 tax return and he will have his half and I can always get mine together during the summer when I teach summer school along with saving a little more during the year.

2. We refuse to start our marriage in debt so will be paying off all our consumer debt( student loans, car loans, personal loans) before we get married. The Bible says the borrower is slave to the lender, and we refuse to be shackled to any company or owe anyone money. It is going to take a little less than 2 years to pay off both of our debts (we are doing this separately and have committed to taking a portion of each of our take home pay to pay off our respective debts). I can only imagine how good it will feel to start our married life together with our only debt being our mortgage.

So people can keep on looking at us like we are crazy when we tell them our wedding is in 2 years, but we look at it like we are setting up a strong foundation for our lives, and we are changing our family trees. Dave Ramsey says live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else. That's what our plan is. If in many years we have a daughter who decides to get married it won't be no thing but a chicken wing, and we can bless her by having the cash saved up, and she can get married whenever she likes, because her parents sacrificed and planned for her.

Walking in prosperity is not just about it you. Life is not just about you. The choices that we make today will affect our children and our grandchildren, and generations down the line. My boo and I have made the decision to radically change our lives not for us but for them.

...long answer i know, but that is the very honest answer about why we are waiting two years to get married.

until next time, think prosperous thoughts!!!

YBP

Mortgage Commitment Letter

My loan processor just emailed my mortgage commitment letter. It looks like DH and I are actually going to be homeowners. Our interest rate is 6.125, which is pretty good. I am so excited. There are still a couple more things that need to be done before closing (which is scheduled for July 31), and I have been working like crazy to make sure there is money for us to decorate and buy furniture without putting things on credit cards. DH has started reading The Total Money Makeover and is really starting to understand why I want us to be debt free.

On a personal note DH isn't really my DH, he is my boyfriend/fiance. We actually live together(shacking up as my parents would say). Were getting married in August of 2010, and by that time we will both be debt free and will be able to pay cash for our summer wedding at the Glen Foerd Mansion.

I will try to post my tentative august budget by the end of the weekend ( I am a planner so i need to get things done early.

until next time, think prosperous thoughts

YBP