Wedding Challenge

In your 20s and 30s, weddings seem to pop-up on a non-stop pace. Your friends from high school & college, your cousins and co-works are all starting to walk down the aisle for the first or second time.

Photo Credit: http://www.onscreenweddings.com

Attending weddings is not cheap; especially, if you have to travel to the wedding. The costs of attending a wedding away from your where you live add up: airfare, hotel, rental car, food, booze, gifts etc. The cost only increases if you are a member of the wedding party. Last year, I wrote about Christopher Sledzik, "who racked up $10,000 in debt by attending 12 different weddings and being of 3 different wedding parties over an 18 month period."

10,000 Gs of debt from weddings. That's ridiculous. However, I can see how you can rack up debt by attending weddings. Its difficult to say no to a friend's wedding invitations. Your friends are getting married, your other friends will be there, and it you know its going to be an awesome time.  But I wonder is there a better way to reduce travel costs to weddings?

For this reason, I am coming up with The Wedding Challenge.

The goal of the challenge is to earn enough miles/points to pay for the airfare, hotel nights and a $100 gift for an upcoming wedding. Let's assume the following things:

• Wedding is located on the West Coast i.e. requires air travel

• 3 hotel nights 

• $100 gift - which I feel like is average wedding gift

Like all of my challenges, there are rules:

• No new credit cards ie no points earned from new credit cards can be used

• Can't buy points

• Have to earn the points by end of 2014

• Can use Swagbucks and MyPoints

• Can't just transfer miles from Ultimate Rewards; have to earn them from today on to transfer

Success on this challenge will be achieve by hitting the following milestones:

      1)  25,000 United MileagePlus 

      2)  45,000 Hyatt (Gold Points) - 15,000 a night or $200 worth of Hyatt GCs

      3)  Enough points (most likely from Swagbucks or MyPoints) for a $100 gift card to 

           some department store

My goal of this challenge is to show people that attending a wedding for cheap is possible not that I am cheap. For my friends and family, I would travel the world to celebrate their nuptials. However, the cost of attending weddings is one of the main reasons why people can't attend. 

Do you have a wedding you need to travel to in 2015? Join my Wedding Challeneg to see if you can reduce the cost of attending by earning miles & points.

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After the Wedding Comes The Honeymoon

Summer is the height of wedding season. Luckily for me, I have no weddings this year. However, next year is a different story.

Photo Credit: http://www.onscreenweddings.com

As a traveler, I am excited about where the couple is headed for their honeymoon more than the wedding. For many couples, their honeymoon is the first time they travel outside the United States. Its an exciting time for the new couple. Add in a foreign location and the experiences to be had a numerous.

A survey by Hipmunk and Yahoo, revels that Fiji, Italy, Hawaii, New Zealand and Greece are the top Honeymoon Destinations. No real surprises there.

(Graphic: Jinah Kim)

What I like about the survey is that Disneyland, Mexico and California are the "least ideal honeymoon destinations." I had a college friend have here honeymoon at Disneyland, but the couple were major "Disney geeks." There description of themselves, not mine.

The survey reveled that 70% of men were more excited about the honeymoon than the actual wedding compared to 36% of women.

(Graphic: Jinah Kim)

Almost all couples would spend less on the wedding for a fancier honeymoon.

(Graphic: Jinah Kim)

This is where points and miles can help. Typically, weddings/honeymoons are planned a year or more in advance. A few strategic credit card applications by your fiance and you, can result in a significant portion of your honeymoon being paid for.

For instance, the Hyatt credit card offers 2 free nights worldwide. If both your fiance and you apply for the Hyatt credit cards separately, you can earn 4 free nights. For many couples, 4 nights is almost the entire honeymoon. Add in an airline credit card or 2, you could help reduce or eliminate the cost of the airfare to the honeymoon destination.

How will you hit the minimum spend on the credit card to earn the bonus miles?

Don't you have expenses for the wedding. Probably lots of expenses!

Parents paying for the wedding?

Ask them to allow you to put the charges on your credit card and give you a check. If you tell them its to help pay for the honeymoon, they might be more willing to help out twice!

A small amount of planning can result in significant savings on your honeymoon.

If you are married, do you wish you could have taken a fancier honeymoon?

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Weddings: Just Say No

The Spring time bring warmer weather, but also, the start of the wedding season. In our twenties, weddings seem to happen nonstop. Your close family members, childhood and college friends, and co-workers all seem to be tying the knot. Of course, its never just one a year. They always seem to occur in groups.

Invitations to weddings = money out of your pocket. At the vary least, there is the obligatory gift. However, if you decided to go to the wedding there is the added cost of something to wear, drinks, and gas and that's if you are local. If the wedding is not near where you live, add in the cost of airfare, hotels and meals. The costs start to add up.

American Express conducted a survey of 1,500 adults which determined that the expected cost to attend a wedding in 2013 at $539 after adding in travel, attire and gifts. That's up more than 50% of last year's expected expense of $339. The increase in the amount of spending could be attributed to the approving economy and people's wiliness to spend more to attend a wedding. However, $500 per wedding can add up. 

Melanie Hicken, on CNN Money, wrote an article this week entitled, "My Friend's Weddings Are Putting Me Deep in Debt." The article details, PR Account Executive, Christopher Sledzik, who has racked up $10,000 in debt by attending 12 different weddings and being apart of 3 different wedding parities over an 18 month period. 

"For me, vacation time has been devoted to (weddings) for the past couple of years," said the 27-year-old public relations account executive. "I'm at that age where everybody's getting married, or at least it seems that way."

$10,000 in debt caused by attending weddings. Thats a little ridiculous. He goes on to say that the bill "is now accumulating $130 in interest each month." Assuming he makes the minimum payments, it will take 12+ years to pay off this debit. 12 years of his life chained to debt from attending other people's weddings.

Christopher needs to learn the phrase, "I'm sorry I can't attend." He is $10,000 in debt and what did he get? A few laughs, a rubber chicken dinner and some free booze. If you can't afford to pay to attend a wedding without credit than you probably shouldn't go. The bride and groom won't be upset, because its one less person/couple they have to pay for. No wedding is worth chaining yourself to debt for years to come. 

Here are some simple tips to reduce the costs associated with attending weddings:

1) Obviously, use points and miles to pay for airplane tickets or hotels.

2) Check to see if the "group" hotel is actually the lowest available rate at the hotel, sometimes its not.

3) Find other single people or couples to share hotel rooms or rental cars.

4) Buy gifts online and have them shipped to the Bride or Groom, saving you money on baggage fees.

5) Buy a Tuxedo. Spending $300 or $400 upfront will save you from renting multiple tuxedos later. One
     can always rent vest, cummerbund, or bow ties to match the wedding party, if necessary   

6) Extend the trip by a day or two and make it a vacation

Do you have any tips to save money while traveling to weddings?

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Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com