[jIM_Ohio]

General questions get general answers. Specific questions get specific answers.

The issue is you are looking for a specific answer with general information. You don't know salary in 2 years, yet are trying to decide how much house you can afford. There are many macroeconomic issues you have no control over which will change the decision:

1) interest rates
2) housing markets
3) employment of spouse 1
4) employment of spouse 2
5) debt ratios
6) budget

You are trying to decide what mortgage payment you can afford now, when my advice would be to save-save-save now. Or at least pay down the debt now. Deal with the now. Your plan has too many variables you have no control over to try and create a short term plan for a very specific problem, even though the knowns are very general at this point.

For example retirement savings is a general problem-general solution type thing-

save 10% or 15% or 20% of income. Trying to plan now how much I need in 15-20-25 years is not a good idea- my spending habits over that same 15-20-25 years is not known, my health is not known, and my rates of return are not known. So trying to even pick the year or amount to retire with is wasted effort. Save now, solve that problem now.

Another example is budgeting. A very specific solution to a very specific problem. This plan gives me a spending amount which needs to be tracked each year. The budget will give me a specific outline for how I should spend my money (and how I do spend my money). This specific outline, measured year over year, will be able to help make a retirement plan more specific (because more data is needed for a specific financial plan to solve the problem).

In your case I would look to make a specific budget, and possibly make another specific plan to pay down the debt, and make another specific plan to pay for the wedding. Solve the specific problems and see what the solutions are. This will tell you your spending levels and that would influence the decision as to the type of house to purchase.