How do you have a wedding without debt?

Of course I'm not asking that question. I know better.

This is actually the title of a Dave Ramsey post from the Dave Ramsey app (yes, I am THAT cool).

A woman calls in and asks him this very question and he tells her she sounds like a princess. I don't think she does; I think she was looking for an honest answer and she may have been clueless. However, it does beg the question: where does saving for a wedding fit in with a debt-reduction plan?

I think it boils down to priorities, here. At the beginning of this wedding planning process, I told Adam that I still DO want to be paying down my car loan as quickly as possible. I very much wanted this to be completely paid off by December 2012.

However, I don't see that happening. And this is okay. Instead of throwing all of my leftover money at the end of the month at my car payment, I am saving every last penny for our wedding.

In the long run, am I going to regret spending a little extra money on the most beautiful wedding gown I have ever laid eyes on? Or am I going to regret spending an extra couple months on paying off my car? 

We are incredibly fortunate in that our families have been very generous with wedding funds, so we don't have to save for EVERY bit of it. And I am SO looking forward to being married in October and becoming DINKs (then we can pay off TWO cars!).

So while I'm not stockpiling my earnings to pay off debt now (nor am I accumulating more debt), I am saving enough to have a memorable wedding with the expectation of coming into Holy Matrimony and finding the promised land of debt freedom!

Have dog, will fly

Having a mom who works overseas has its advantages. Mostly, those advantages involve countless frequent flyer miles at her disposal. Mom is very generous with those free miles and she has flown my sisters, me, and Adam to Europe for free on several different occassions.

For Christmas this year, my mom happened to be in the US, so we all went to Houston for the week. Having co-dependency issues with Bentley, I wanted him to be able to come with us for Christmas. Who knows how well he would have been treated over Christmas at a kennel?!

So with my mom's frequenty flyer miles, Adam and my plane tickets to Houston were free. However, Continental charges a pretty penny to fly pups.

25,000 pretty pennies to be exact.

It was worth it, though! We had such a good time with him there. It's difficult leaving him at home, but I love to travel.

 That is one tired pup.

I'm not sure he feels the same way about travel. He did exceptionally on the flight and I'm fairly confident most people didn't even realize he was there as he is so quiet by nature. However, I know he was nervous, and in the end, I just want what's best for him, so I'm on the fence about flying with him in the future.

Though Bentley's ticket was a little pricey, having the advantage of a generous mother and completely free plane tickets for the humans in our party made the decision to fly him just a little easier.

How do you handle travel with pets? Have you ever flown with one?