Gifts, loans, and student debt: the importance of being clear about money #Budgeting Advice#In the news#budgeting April 7 2017 | Catherine Clark bijouxandbits Went Broke for My Degree T-Shirt by Rogue Attire Ariel was recently quoted in an "Ask Brianna" on Atlanta's radio station 95.5 article over here. The issue was how can someone pay for a wedding while they're really trying to pay down their student loans at the same time. It's a sticky issue with the hugely rising costs of college AND weddings. We've featured example budgets from $0 to $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, and beyond. Some of these were self-funded and some were a collaborative budget. Here's what Ariel had to say about communication regarding financing with your family. And keep scrolling for lots more wedding budget advice, if you're in the market for some help… TALK TO YOUR FOLKS Not everyone will be able to, or want to, receive financial help from parents. But include your families in the budget conversation early. You'll get a sense of what, if anything, they want to contribute and how much involvement they want in the planning process. "It's especially important, if getting money from family, to be clear about whether contributions are gifts or loans, and whether there are expectations associated with the money," says Ariel Meadow Stallings, author of "Offbeat Bride: Creative Alternatives For Independent Brides" and publisher of offbeatbride.com. For instance, if your parents help pay, they may want to invite their work colleagues. Make sure you're OK with that, or come to an agreement on the number of people they invite. Read the whole article here. More wedding budget advice: Self-funded wedding budget: one couple's lessons learned We got married October 2016, and we paid for 90% of the wedding. We have a few self-funded wedding budget tips and examples for making it work when you're on… Read More Planning tools 101: wedding budget calculator We launched a comprehensive and totally customizable document of wedding planning spreadsheets in Google Drive if you're the type to get down with spreadsheets like I am. First we featured… Read More 10 realistic wedding budget tips to stop budget ballooning You've probably realized it already: weddings are expensive. No matter what your budget is, chances are it's slowly creeped upwards from your original estimate -- maybe by a lot. As… Read More No Daddy Warbucks, no problem: How to pay for a wedding yourself without going into debt We are long past the times of the brides' parents paying for the wedding, especially if you are both coming from middle-class families as most of us are. If you… Read More Reporter Name * Reporter Email * Original text Enter the original text here. Edited text* Enter your suggested copyedit here. Notes You can add a note for the editor here. * Required information. Fix Typo Catherine Clark Catherine Clark is Offbeat Bride's Senior Editor. In her spare time she loiters at her local library, makes art, watches movies en masse, plays video and tabletop games, poorly cooks healthy things, cuddles with her feline fur baby, and blogs at BijouxandBits.com. @enidjcoleslaw @bijouxandbits @bijouxandbits PREVIOUS 18 nostalgic wedding lawn games for your outdoor reception fête NEXT When the bride has a Stegosaurus hairstyle, you know it's an awesome dinosaur wedding Show/Hide comments [ 0 ] Join the conversation Cancel Reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Sign me up for your offbeat awesomeness newsletter! No-drama comment policy Part of what makes the Offbeat Empire different is our commitment to civil, constructive commenting. Make sure you're familiar with our no-drama comment policy. Biz owners & wedding bloggers Please just use your real name in your comment, not your business name or blog title. Our comments are not the place to pimp your website. If you want to promote your stuff on Offbeat Bride, join us as an advertiser instead.