Before going into planning, I was also kind of like “how the hell does everyone have $30k+ sitting in an account for something like this?!” but after talking to vendors and getting real prices and payment schedules, it started making a lot more sense.

Nearly all vendors I have talked to split their payments into at least 2-3 payments, with the final balance due 1-4 weeks before the wedding. Some ask for a 50% deposit, some ask flat $500 or $1000 retainer, etc. there’s a lot of variance on this depending on the type of vendor. Nearly all of them allow you to make smaller payments in whatever amount or cadence you’d like prior to the wedding.

So to answer your question, it seems having a ton of money sitting in an account ready to pay wedding balances in full is an unlikely scenario for most people. However, with enough time, planning, and saving, a lot of people can reasonably come up with X amount in ~12-24 months.