1 down 7 to go!

After writing the blog entry about the cost of the wedding and honeymoon in Hawaii, the next hurdle was how to pay for it and how to plan it out. After speaking with our travel agent (Doneson Crown Travel), we are able to put a deposit down and pay the trip down however we like until June 21st, 2010. For the deposit, I put enough down so I could break the rest of the travel expenses up into 8 easy payments of about $250 ($248.38 to be exact). This past pay day, I put down my first payment. With the holidays coming up and some major upgrades going on at work, I will be working a lot of overtime over the next four months. I figure I can save an additional $1400 apart from my normal saving. I figure by the time Valentine's Day comes around, the travel should be all paid up.

Once we get the trip paid, we have to put our focus on getting the rings, booking the beach ceremony (My Hawaii Wedding), wedding dress, bridal accessories (shoes, jewelry and head wear) and my suit/tux. Since we know the price of the wedding ceremony is about $1000, with the money I normal save up each check, I can take care of that by the end of May or possibly before depending on if I get some additional OT before then. The final two months before we leave I should be able to save some money for spending and pay for my suit/tux.

Gail has committed to working massive amounts of overtime during the holiday period as well as anytime it becomes available. So I think we should be able to handle our wedding and honeymoon expenses without too much of a worry. We have placed the thought of what we want to do for the send off and reception/gathering after we get back to the back burner because I think we currently have bigger fish to fry. We are however, gathering information, so that we can send formal invitations to all who would like to send us off and celebrate our wedding after we return. To make sure you are invited, please email your information for willyoumarrysyd@gmail.com.

Thanks again,
Syd

Hawaii Cost a bunch, but Damn it, We are giving it a go

So I emailed our travel agent (http://www.travelleaders.com/southfieldmi/index.htm) and asked about the cost of traveling to Waikiki for our wedding and honeymoon and packages that we could take around the time of our wedding. He found a package at hotel we liked (Waikiki Beach Resort & Spa/Marriott) With flight, hotel stay and tax included the package would be $2980. Now the agent also gave me an option for a cruise through Norwegian Cruise Line that would last 7 days porting in all major Hawaiian ports and can include the wedding. The cruise itself would cost $2400 for the inside cabin, $2816 for an ocean view cabin, $1800 for the airfare, $2150(plus 5% sales tax) for a port wedding in Maui and $2650(plus 5% sales tax) for a beach wedding in Maui. At minimum the cruise option would be $6456 including the wedding and $4200 without the wedding. Now I did look at beach weddings through the hotel and the off that option through a private company (My Hawaii Wedding) and we are looking at a package that would cost $485 for a simple elegant wedding including a photographer, photo cd with a minimum of 50 shots and framed wedding certificate. We would add the DVD video (assuming that is not just a video of the pictures with music in the background) for $445 bring the total cost of the hotel, airfare and beach wedding option to $3910

With all that said, it I think we can do the trip if we choose the flight and hotel stay without too much trouble, it's all the little things we may want to add that may make this tough to do.

Anyone have any thoughts?