Month: June 2011

the wedding budget

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calculating kids

bryan got a great deal on my engagement ring. he ordered it the day after valentine’s day so it was on sale. it’s beautiful. a simple white gold band with a round cut diamond in a six-prong setting. the diamond is color e, and you can’t see any imperfection with the naked eye, which they tell me is a good thing.

i loved the ring, i loved him and loved that he got a great deal on it. that’s my kind-of man. : )

that’s how our financial journey as an engaged couple started.

with the excitement of starting a new life with bryan and being the nerdy financially-minded person i was, my mind began to reel with budgets, paying off debt, and planning for the future. for some reason, the fact that i was going to be married made it much more important. but we had a different budget to be worried about: the wedding budget.

and so begins the story of one of the greatest acts of generosity we’ve ever received.

first of all, my dad was so generous and gave me a figure to work with. we were engaged for 13 months so he gave me the money in small increments as he could. i booked the cheapest, biggest reception hall i could find, booked the church, bought the dress and found cheap photography. i spent very little money on the save-the-dates, invitations, and other things like programs and decorations. we borrowed a lot of things from friends.

i didn’t really budget as much as i purchased everything cheaply. our wedding was near and i had spent about half of the original figure. that was pretty good considering all we had left to pay for was food for everyone!

we had already found a great and incredibly cheap caterer and had booked her for the day. she ran a very small catering company so she didn’t even require a deposit! which was good news when we found out the bad news:

my dad was layed-off from his job. 

just like many other dads and workers, he was one of those affected by the economy slump a couple years ago. that was it. there was no more wedding money to be had. 

at first i was angry. then i was sad. then i resolved to make it work. i told my parents that we would just do cake. our guests would understand. the invitations had been sent, so should we send postcards so they know there won’t be a meal? how do you politely say: sorry, you won’t be getting a free meal, even though you were expecting to?

and then.

my mom called me and said, “someone just called me and asked if they could pay for all of the catering.” yes. you read that right. someone wanted to pay for about 1/2 of my wedding. who the heck loves me that much?

i was immediately in tears. so was my mom. we were so happy, but so confused. should we accept such a huge gift? i wasn’t so sure. but the giver insisted and my mom accepted on both of our behalves. they wanted to be kept anonymous and my mom has kept a huge secret from me and everyone else ever since. and she’s not good at keeping secrets. so that’s a big deal too.

it’s still crazy to me. i mean, it’s just a wedding. it’s just food for our guests. but it was important to me that our guests felt loved by us in that way. a simple meal can say a lot. and whoever gave us all that money knew how important it was to me.

that act of generosity has shaped bryan and i so much and will continue to inspire us to give of our money freely. when we are asked to give, i think of all i have been given. and the ways that God has blessed us through anonymous givers or our parents or friends. i [literally] can’t thank the giver enough. it wasn’t just money or food. it was love, it was God’s work, and it will affect our lives for a long time.

click here to start at the beginning of this series!

‘member that time?

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‘member that time i went to a movie?

‘member how after the movie i went to my car and realized i locked my keys inside? ‘member how i called bryan to bring me my spare key and while i was waiting i noticed that the car next to mine was running? ‘member how after i looked around for the owner and thought of ways i could let the owner of the car know i realized it was my car that was running? and that not only had i locked my keys in the car, but that i had left my car running during the entire movie.

good thing it wasn’t lotr or something.

[it’s ‘member that time monday at the van voorst‘s blog!]

old picture, good friend

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world, meet leah. she’s amazing. she’s an awesome wife, mom, friend, singer, worshiper, servant, designer, and sister in Christ.

i stumbled upon this picture from way back in 2008-leah, this really made me miss you!

falling apart, it’s a good thing

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i really love my husband. he’s the best.

he’s spending his last of three days in des moines recording an album right now, which means i get to see him tonight. yay!

my mom came over to my apartment sometime last year, looked around, looked at me and said: “you really do just fall apart when bryan’s gone, don’t you?”

i sheepishly replied, “i guess so.”

i haven’t changed after another year of marriage.

bryan was gone for just a couple days then, and it’s only been since tuesday morning he’s been gone this time, but i can’t seem to be responsible for much when he’s not here.

i don’t sleep in our bed when he’s gone. i feel sad when he’s not there to snuggle me to sleep. i have trouble remembering to eat too. it’s an accomplishment if i shower.

i should clean and do productive things while i have some time to myself, but i don’t.

i usually just watch chick flicks and buy myself some chocolate and fall asleep on the couch, tired and hungry and missing the love of my life.

i don’t why i felt you should know how much i fall apart when my best friend is gone, but now you know i’m human. : ) nothing to worry about either, it’s not as though i completely neglect the things i must accomplish. it’s just that, i really love living life with this man and it’s hard to have fun without him.

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i can’t wait for the rest of our lives!

the single budget

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calculating kids

hopefully it’s obvious that this is just one of many stories about our financial journey as husband and wife. but if i had to just write one post, neigh, one sentence about our journey it would be this:

God has done a great work in us, blessed us much and always provided. 

hopefully that sets the tone i’m going for. i take no credit for the way that God created bryan and i, nor the protection, wisdom, and blessing He’s given us to make wise financial decisions throughout our lives. while we’ve worked hard and learned a lot and have had great luck in our financial decisions, God has been in charge and leading the way.

so i’ll try to start in the beginning. ish.

i married an amazing man. he is the hardest worker i know. he’s always been like that too. he always had a job in high school, he paid for a lot of his own possessions. he got good grades too! he’s amazing. i remember him working 60+ hours a week the summer after we graduated high school. he worked hard and he was never tight on cash, because he never let himself spend too much of that money. he planned on going to iowa state in the fall. i was so impressed by that 18-year-old.

meanwhile, i got a great job right after i graduated high school. i loved it so much that i decided to skip the typical college route. i didn’t have a car at the time, but had a steady and decently paying job, so i bought a brand new car and took out my first loan. a friend helped me get a pretty good rate, and i didn’t mind a car payment. i didn’t know how else i was going to get around.

i also applied for the first credit card offer i got in the mail. i thought it might come in handy and i could get a cool picture on it. yep, that’s how a 17-year-old thinks.

by God’s grace, i knew that i shouldn’t carry a balance on my credit card, so while i forgot to pay it off on time once or twice, i never got charged any interest or had outstanding credit card debt. i’m so thankful for that!

bryan went to iowa state for a couple weeks. after learning he didn’t have as much savings as he thought, he dropped out. he decided he didn’t want to rely on his parents money or student loans to get through school at that point, so he just worked and applied to go to dmacc, our local community college.

bryan worked around 30-40 hours per week and took 2 or 3 classes at dmacc each semester. he always paid with cash. i continued to work, got a few raises and lived stress free. both bryan and i pretty much lived paycheck to paycheck as we navigated the adult world. but we never bounced checks or went into consumer debt.

and that gives you a picture what we were like in our single years. then we got engaged.

more next week!

an interesting take on college these days

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College

read the full article here.

let me start out by saying that i didn’t go to college. therefore, in a lot of ways, i agree with mr. stephens. and in my series about our financial journey, i’ll be writing about how much of a blessing it had been to us [not just financially] that i never went to college.

here are a few of my thoughts on the article:

first of all, not everyone can start their own business, or website or invention, etc. and that’s pretty much all he offers for options if you don’t go to college. on the other hand, i can honestly say that i have become a pretty great administrative assistant with no formal training. so i can see what he means by “other options.”

second of all, i would definitely drop out of college at 19 if i received $100,000.00 for the next two years. i’m sure receiving that fellowship took a lot of work and involves a lot of continual work, but really, why would any 19-year-old consider college over that?

third of all, i believe there are a lot of great reasons to get a college education and that it’s possible to do so without debt. we’re living proof. and i would highly recommend striving to pay cash for college, it makes your education that much more worth it.

what do you think?

‘member that time?

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‘member that time when i tripped up the stairs at my church, fell flat on my face, rolled over into an folded, upright table, knocked it over and was crushed, face-first, underneath of it?

‘member how my forehead just kind-of popped open and was gushing blood everywhere and i had to get 17 stitches on my face?

good thing i have bangs.

[it’s ‘member that time monday at the van voorst‘s blog!]

aaaaaand we have a graphic

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calculating kids

i mentioned in an earlier post that i’m going to be documenting our financial journey of 3+ years on the ol’ blog this summer. i’m always trying to move toward the title of ‘legit blogger’ and i was bound to start having graphics one of these days.

so, there you have it, folks. a graphic for my next blog series! i designed it myself, with the help of the most state-of-the-art technology of course: ms paint. beautiful stuff.

look forward to next wednesday for the introduction to the series. i’m actually really excited to write about all of this. we’ve had a lot of fun, learned a lot of good lessons and most importantly, God has proved Himself an amazing provider over and over again. all of these make for super fun stories for me to tell!