3 Financial Mistakes I Made While Preparing for My Wedding

I spent six figures on one day. Here's what I'd do differently.

The venue was perfect. The food was excellent. The photos came out beautifully. And three months later, my wife and I looked at our bank account and realized we had celebrated one day at the expense of the next three hundred.

I'm not here to tell you weddings are a waste. They're not. But I am here to tell you three mistakes I made — so you don't have to learn them the hard way.

Mistake #1: We didn't discuss finances before the wedding.

We talked about the color scheme for three weeks. We never talked about how much debt we were comfortable carrying. We never talked about whether we wanted to buy property within two years. We never talked about what "financial security" actually meant to each of us.

The wedding industry makes it easy to focus on centerpieces and hard to focus on conversations that matter. Don't fall for it. Have the money talk before the flower arrangements.

Mistake #2: I assumed savings were enough.

I had a savings account. A decent one. I thought that meant I was financially responsible. What I didn't understand was that savings sitting in a bank account earning 0.25% interest is actually losing money every year when you account for inflation.

“Why having savings alone isn't enough — because inflation eats your money while you sleep.”

The money I had in savings three years ago would buy me a lot in Cebu then. Today, that same amount gets me half the square meters. Savings preserved my money. Land would have grown it.

Mistake #3: I waited until I could "afford" a house.

This is the one that stings the most. I spent years waiting for the perfect financial moment — enough savings, stable income, the right timing. Meanwhile, land prices in areas I was watching doubled.

The investors who bought those lots weren't richer than me. They just understood something I didn't: you don't wait until you can afford the house. You buy the land first, and you let the land help you afford the house later.

The biggest lesson.

Celebrate your wedding. Make it beautiful. But on your honeymoon, talk about the land. Talk about the condo. Talk about what you want to own together five years from now. Because the best gift you can give your marriage isn't a perfect wedding — it's a future you built together, one square meter at a time.