How the spending on our wedding paid us back with credit card hacking

Over the 1 year planning period for our wedding we spent almost double what we normally would during that period. Our savings took a big hit. Ouch.

We had money saved to pay for the wedding but we still put everything we could on a credit card in order to get our points. If we're going to spend a ton we might as well get some points from it that we could use for a honeymoon or gift cards or something. This would be level 1 - just making sure to use your normal cards.

We went a step further and chased sign up bonuses to maximize our value and in doing so gave ourselves about a $4,000 wedding gift!

Let me add, I do not recommend going into debt to pay for a wedding. Have the wedding you can afford - this strategy is intended only to maximize the rewards from what you would spend anyway.

We were originally planning to use the points from the wedding spending to pay for our honeymoon to Thailand but unfortunately some personal events have forced us to delay taking that long of a trip at this time. I've made a few notes below about which points we got and if there are benefits in using them for travel specifically as we had originally planned on using them for travel.

We had two big phases of spending - deposits and final bills. However, we were spending an extra 300-400 extra every month at least and since the spending windows for a new credit card sign up is generally 3 months, we usually were working at least one active card. When we were working a card, everything went on that card (including non-wedding spending) until the minimum spending was met, then we moved on to the next one.

I think it bears repeating, we did not go into debt to pay for our wedding. The cards were paid in full at the end of every month from our wedding savings.

To start, in our deposit phase of spending, approximately 1 year before our wedding, I applied for the American Express Premier Rewards Gold and we both applied for the American Express Delta Gold cards.

Amex Gold Rewards had sent me a targeted offer in the mail for 50,000 bonus points after signing up and spending at least $2,000. You might not be able to get this one, but definitely watch your mail to see what targeted offers you are sent. These points are worth at least 500 in value and there are other card perks you can get from this one, like $100 in reimbursement of incidental fees from your preferred airline (ie bag fees, food/drinks on a flight). The best thing I got with these points, however, was Groupon bucks because I used 1,000 points to book a cleaning service for our house the week before our wedding. All I had to do was tip the cleaning ladies when they came. It was glorious and helped to reduce the pre-wedding stress a lot.

I have to cancel this card before the annual fee kicks in, so I need to get and then use the points all within one year. I suggest putting on your calendar a reminder about a month prior to when you need to cancel so you don't forget and get charged the fee.

For the Delta cards, we each got 50,000 miles to use on future Delta flight after putting $3,000 on the card. Total, that would be about one round-trip flight to Europe for a honeymoon (~100,000 points). We haven't redeemed this yet because they won't expire from our Delta accounts. We also each got a $50 delta gift card.

Next, I did Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Chase was offering 50,000 bonus points after a 4,000 spend in 3 months which was a high spend but the points were worth $625 if you redeemed them for travel via the chase portal, at this time we were planning to go to Thailand so we needed it.

Then, I sent my FH a referral for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, for referring him, I would get a 10,000 point bonus ($125 toward our flights booked via chase!) and he would be able to get the same 50,000 point bonus - this would take us up to a combined 120,000 points + 4,000 extra for the spending needed to hit the bonus threshold. That was $1550 total toward travel booked in the chase portal and enough for 1 free flight to Thailand.

This was sort of between when we paid most of our deposits and final bill time so for this card, I planned on buying our wedding rings, so that helped us meet the required spend. If I knew a big expense was coming up, I made sure to have card ready to maximize the benefits.

I always keep close tabs on how close we are to meeting the spending goal and if we're not going to make it, I'll "manufacture" a little spending and buy either a gift card for Amazon or our local grocery store to push us over because we'll definitely use those. Serious credit card hackers will get intense about manufacturing spending but we try to avoid it (because it gets too complicated) and just buy what we would normally buy. One gift card for Amazon or our grocery store isn't too bad though, so if I need something to push me over the edge, that's what I get because I know we'll use it.

We chilled on card hacking for probably 3-4 months at this point because during that period we didn't have so many expenses. So after finishing up the needed spend for his Chase Preferred we had a break. When we looked at the estimated total bill from our venue 2 months before our wedding, it was 7-8,000. That was enough to do two more cards, combined with our regular spending it would be a breeze to hit 2 more minimums so we setup for round 2 by applying for cards 6-8 weeks before our wedding.

I applied for the Chase Ink Business Preferred card. It was offering 80,000 bonus points after a 5,000 minimum spend in the first three months. This is a really high spend, normally I avoid cards with this high of a required spend because I know we don’t normally spend this much money in 3 months but this bonus was also really high and I knew with the final venue balance we'd do it. The offer was 80,000 points would cover an additional $1,000 of our flights when we booked via Chase. The card also had a $95 annual fee, which was NOT waived in the first year, so really we’d only net $905. 

At this point, though, I knew we were not going to Thailand. Chase points are still redeemable for gift cards and lots of other things, you just don't get the extra 25% bonus, so we'd net $705 in value. Still, nothing to sneeze at! Especially for money we were gonna spend anyway. 

And lastly, my FH also did the American Express Premier Rewards Gold which was offering 50,000 points again for a $2,000 spend. I love those Amex points! This was a publicly available offer so he was able to take advantage without receiving a targeted offer.

To summarize, just for paying for our wedding which would have done anyway in a strategic manner (combined with our normal spending), we got at least:

• 100,000 Amex points (~1,000 value)
• 100,000 Delta miles for future travel (~1 round trip flight to Europe, unfortunately split between two accounts)
• 190,000 Chase rewards points ($1900 or $2,375 in travel booked via chase)
• $100 delta gift cards

And really probably more, it's hard to keep track of all the smaller benefits. Granted, we spent way more on the wedding but this is a pretty nice wedding gift that we have given to ourselves just by planning ahead and we were going spend the money either way.

The good news is, you can do it too. You just need to plan and look for which cards are offering the best deal when you know you have a spending wave approaching. You might not want to use the exact same cards we used, you'll need to think about how much you'll be spending and look at who is offering the best deals at that time. For example, you might consider American Airlines miles cards instead of Delta, we weren't eligible for these because we'd both taken advantage of AA point offers the year before.

Happy wedding planning!