Got married two years ago, this is how I was able to pay for 70% of the wedding by myself as a 20-something intern without going into debt

I don&#39;t typically share personal stories about my life but I wanted to share this story.<br><br>I got married in late 2022. We had a pretty normal wedding with 100 guests and it cost $31,000. We had a venue, caterer, cake, wedding planner, band, etc. The only thing we decided to DIY was the flowers, and we ended up hiring a pro to do it.<br><br>I didn&#39;t have any family help. In fact, I had to pay for my parents to fly in and stay at a hotel. I also covered my fiancée’s parents. My fiancée is also an intern and had next to nothing in savings. She did contribute about $10k in student loans and money from her parents. <br><br>I was a intern for a year and was able to save $22,000. I had $15k in savings from high school and college so that added to around $35k. I did have some help from my fiancée so I didn’t have to pay 100% OOP. So $22,000 is what I paid for the wedding myself. I also had around $10k in reimbursements so technically I paid $12k myself. That being said, this was largely paid by me and I’m proud of it.<br><br>Here is how I did it:<br><br>I worked 54 hours a week for 52 weeks. I had a 40 hour/week internship paying $25/hour and I worked 14 hours/week of overtime. I worked through most of June to mid August on an internship project. I took 10 days off from mid August to the first week of September for the wedding and honeymoon.<br><br>I also did side hustles. I made an additional $6,000 working side gigs on nights and weekends. I made this amount working around 10 hours a week. This includes paragraphs 2-5.<br><br>- Dog Walking - I made $2,800 walking dogs. I walked dogs 3 days a week for 50 minutes a day. I would walk 5 dogs at once. It paid $100/week.<br><br>- Tutoring - I tutored a high school student in a STEM subject. I tutored twice a week for an hour for $75/hour. I made $7,500 tutoring over the course of 8 months (it was a minimum hour commitment).<br><br>- House Sitting - I house sat for a rich neighbor of mine. He has a multi million dollar house and has been to space. He also owns a mansion on an island overseas. He has an hour and a half drive to work everyday so it was hard for him to find a house sitter. I would check his house everyday when he was away on vacation and I would also mow his lawn. He paid me $500/week to do this. I did this for a few months and made $6k.<br><br>- Delivering Food - I delivered food on weekends and made around $200/week. Not much but anything helps, especially when you have a wedding to pay for. I only did this for a month or two but also did it in college so I was comfortable with it.<br><br>- Freelance Work - I did freelance work in a similar STEM subject. I made $2,000 freelancing over the course of 8 months. I did this on nights and weekends.<br><br>- Stock Market - I made $2,000 trading this past year.<br><br>I was able to make additional money from my internship and side hustles, partly because of the hours I was willing to work, and partly because of where I live. I live in a VERY wealthy area. There is a billionaire living on the street next to me, and another billionaire that owns a bunch of houses on the island where I live. There are not many people willing and able to house sit in a house like that, so I was able to capitalize on it. I also was fortunate enough to be relatively close to this house because while it is an hour and a half drive to work, it was only a 30 minute drive for me.<br><br>I also was fortunate in that I could walk 5 dogs at once. It was hard work but paid well. 5 dogs for 50 minutes was a lot. It also meant I spent most of my free time doing that. I live in an area that is super walkable and people felt comfortable walking 5 dogs without being supervised at a time. They also trusted them to not run off and were well trained. I did the same thing in high school and college and made money walking dogs.<br><br>While all of these things worked out well, I did miss out on a lot. I was so busy with work and side hustles I didn’t have time for a social life. I essentially worked all of my waking hours, and didn’t have time for dating. It also meant I didn’t have time to do anything fun. I was so caught up in work and side hustles that I did things like skip lunch at work to work more. It was a huge sacrifice but I got through it.<br><br>I know this is not for everyone and I’m not very religious but I often say a prayer like “God I know I’m not a good person but please just get me through this and I won’t complain about anything for a year after the wedding”. It sounds weird but it got me through the tough times.<br><br>Overall, I had a nice wedding and didn’t go into debt. I was able to cover most of the costs by myself with hard work and a lot of side hustles. It was a huge sacrifice but I’m glad I did it.