How We Turned Our Wedding Expenses Into Over $4,000 in Credit Card Points

I wish I had a more romantic story of how my wife and I met. But we’re millennials, and we used the power of the internet to meet through Tinder. About three years later, we decided it was time to be tied together in times of sickness and health — and in times of flying first class and basic economy. It was time to get married.

By using credit cards strategically to pay for our wedding, we were able to not only earn valuable points and miles for a honeymoon or other travel, but also start having financial conversations and building our credit history as a new couple. We found this financial planning to be enjoyable, exciting, and a great project to work on together. And yes, this was very much worth it in the end.

uIn this article, I’ll talk about the costs of our wedding, plus how we were able to turn our wedding day into a large amount of points and start our lives together on a great note.

How I paid for my entire wedding on credit cards

With my looming student debt, going into further debt for a wedding was absolutely not an option for us. Even putting the student loans aside, we couldn’t justify making such a financial splurge on a single day.

My father-in-law was gracious enough to give us a $25,000 check. Whatever we didn’t spend was ours to keep. He even told us we could elope and keep the money. We thought pretty hard for a while about that tempting option, but we ultimately decided to have a wedding.

Of course, we were incredibly grateful for his financial assistance, but come to find out, that amount of money doesn’t go very far when it comes to a wedding. Our families are both from Los Angeles, so getting married there made sense. But this, unfortunately, added an even higher price tag. So we had to get really creative — but creativity is what made our day so special.

As venues are the most expensive part of a wedding, we did our fair share of investigating. Not surprisingly, nothing was even remotely justifiable. After much thinking, we decided to ask my father-in-law if we could have a backyard wedding at his home to save money. He agreed, and a large weight was lifted off our shoulders. After this, we began strategizing our plans by looking for the best rewards credit cards to get the most bang for our buck.

We planned our wedding budget and stuck to it

We also made the decision to not drain the entire $25,000 check; we put $7,000 away in savings. Since we didn’t have to pay for a venue, we decided to spend a bit more on other things. Knowing we were going to incur roughly $18,000 in overall costs, we started to strategize for the cards we wanted to earn points on. Since our wedding expenses were in all sorts of different categories, we mainly focused on completing a number of welcome bonuses rather than spending heavily on one card.

We also mapped out a timeline of when each expense would be incurred. That allowed us to plan for not only which cards we wanted to use, but when we would apply for them. We didn’t apply for all of our new cards at once but did so one by one as the wedding day got closer.

Additionally, since we knew we had $18,000 from my father-in-law in the bank to pay off our credit card debt, we had the luxury of not having to worry about interest charges. If you are planning a wedding and want to earn points and miles, I highly recommend still saving up for your wedding first. The reason being, if you aren’t able to pay off your credit card balances immediately, the interest you’ll accrue will negate much of the value of the points and miles you earn.

The credit cards we used to pay for our wedding

Over the course of nine months leading up to the wedding day, we applied for the following credit cards. We were playing in “two-player mode,” so my wife and I each separately applied for these cards and were approved. Here are the current welcome bonuses and rewards rates on these card. They differed somewhat when we applied for them in preparation for our wedding.

While this strategy seems very simple, we specifically wanted to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards. This is because they can be transferred to a big list of airline or hotels, and putting ourselves in a pigeonhole of one rewards program wasn’t ideal for us.

The Platinum Card^® from American Express — a luxury travel rewards card — was our No. 1 choice because of its long list of perks. As my wife and I are now traveling full time, we use these benefits regularly. It has a $695 annual fee, but the benefits can easily offset this. 

Benefits include a large welcome offer, up to $200 in Uber Cash each year (terms apply), a fee credit of up to $100 every four years for Global Entry or up to $85 every four and a half years for TSA PreCheck, access to the Amex Global Lounge Collection, complimentary status in the Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy rewards programs, car rental coverage, and more. This card is arguably one of the best travel rewards cards because of its robust features. Do note that select benefits require enrollment.

After spending $10,000 between two American Express Platinum Cards, we were able to earn about 130,000 American Express Membership Rewards. These rewards are generally valued at two cents per piece, giving us $2,600 in points value.

Next, the Chase Sapphire Reserve^® was selected specifically because of our catering costs. Catering for weddings can also become incredibly expensive, and that was not going to work with our budget. Also, I’ve heard from people that wedding food typically isn’t that great.

With the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you earn 5X points on flights and 10X points on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase Travel℠ immediately after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually; 3X points on other travel and dining & 1X points per dollar on all other purchases. So we decided to do what every Californian dreams about — get an In-N-Out Burger truck at our wedding! The cost of the In-N-Out truck ended up at roughly $1,600. With just about 150 people eating, that averaged out to about $10 a person, and everyone loved it.

In the end, we were able to earn about 111,200 Chase Ultimate Rewards points on our Chase Sapphire Reserve cards. What’s even better is that these points are worth 50% more when redeemed for travel through the Chase travel portal, which gives them a value of $1,668. After paying the annual fees for our cards, we were still ahead by $768.

And the perks of the Chase Sapphire Reserve are great for all travelers. These include a $300 travel credit; a great welcome offer; valuable spending categories; travel insurance, such as trip cancellation and interruption insurance; no foreign transaction fees; a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck fee credit; Priority Pass Select access; and more.

How I strategized using these cards to get the most rewards

*Note: The total includes points from any welcome bonus as well as our spending.

Unfortunately, nearly all of our wedding costs were outside of any lucrative points-earning categories other than dining. Paying for the wedding dress, flowers, decorations, and all the other small costs was all “general spending” that earned the minimum rewards rate. We were happy to score the extra dining bonus points on the Chase Sapphire Reserve, but all other expenses were simply put on whichever card needed spending to hit the welcome bonus.

The earnings from using our credit card strategy for our wedding were about 130,000 American Express Membership Rewards and 111,200 Chase Ultimate Rewards points — for a grand total of 241,200 points. If you go by the generally accepted value of American Express Membership Rewards at two cents per piece and Chase Ultimate Rewards points at 1.5 cents per piece, that comes out to $4,268 in value earned.

That doesn’t take into account the annual fees we paid. But even then, we were able to earn a great chunk of our wedding expenses back in valuable travel rewards.

The bottom line on using credit cards to pay for your wedding

Just because we used these two particular cards doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the two best credit cards for wedding spending. Since everyone will plan a different wedding and have various priorities, it’s best if you sit down and analyze your spending ahead of time and pick the credit cards that will get you the most return. For us, we wanted to earn points to travel for our honeymoon, and then travel even more afterward. And we were able to accomplish that!

If you’re planning your wedding day, I suggest you start by opening a wedding-specific savings account and also implementing a credit card strategy. A wedding is meant to be a day of joy and celebration. However, this can quickly be eaten up by stress and anxiety if you end up spending your special day wondering how you’re going to pay off your wedding loan.

Take the time to strategize, and you and your partner could be starting out your married life with a ton of points and miles to travel with from your wedding costs. And that way, you can eat all of the food at your wedding, have that extra glass of champagne, dance on a table, and enjoy your wedding day to its fullest!

Luxury Travel Benefits

The Platinum Card^® from American Express

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The Platinum Card^® from American Express

Learn How to Apply

See rates and fees | Terms Apply

Current Offer

Earn 80,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $8,000 on purchases on your new card in the first 6 months

Annual Fee

$695

Rewards Rate

5X points per dollar spent on eligible airfare (on up to $500,000 per calendar year, after that 1X) and eligible hotel purchases, and 1X points per dollar on all other eligible purchases

Benefits and Drawbacks

Benefits

• Earn 80,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $8,000 on purchases on your new card in the first 6 months
• Select your metal card design: classic Platinum Card, Platinum x Kehinde Wiley, or Platinum x Julie Mehretu
• 5X points on flights booked directly with airlines or on Amextravel.com (on up to $500,000 per calendar year, after that 1X) and prepaid hotels booked on Amextravel.com
• Access to Centurion and Priority Pass airport lounges
• Select benefits require enrollment.

Drawbacks

• High annual fee

Card Details

• Earn 80,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $8,000 on purchases on your new card in the first 6 months
• 5X points per dollar spent on eligible airfare (on up to $500,000 per calendar year, after that 1X) and eligible hotel purchases, and 1X points per dollar on all other eligible purchases
• Terms apply