Opening a joint bank account to save for my wedding was emotionally daunting — but the actual process was easy

The offers and details on this page may have updated or changed since the time of publication. See our article on Business Insider for current information.

Affiliate links for the products on this page are from partners that compensate us and terms apply to offers listed (see our advertiser disclosure with our list of partners for more details). However, our opinions are our own. See how we rate products and services to help you make smart decisions with your money.

• My fiancé and I are splitting the cost of our wedding, so we decided to open a joint bank account.
• We researched several options and settled on SoFi, where he already had his primary account.
• We have automatic transfers each month so that we don't even have to do anything to save the money.

When my fiancé and I got engaged, we'd been together on and off for seven years. Even after all that time, our wedding became our first shared expense. We were planning to move into our first official apartment together at the same time as planning our wedding, but we decided to put off the move to save up for our wedding. It's an expense we're shouldering on our own, together.

Opening a joint bank account became an exciting step in our relationship. It was also nerve-wracking! Sharing finances is a trust exercise, and it's a step forward in intimacy. You have access to a lot more information about the other person and their spending habits.

APY rates change all the time, so it's important to do your research and make sure you're investing with a reputable, FDIC-insured financial institution that will keep your money safe, especially when you're sharing money with a partner.

How we chose our high-yield savings account

We did the research on which high-yield savings account had the best interest rate. We researched American Express, SoFi, and CIT Bank. We also considered the Apple Savings Account but didn't want to open another credit card account.

Initially, we tried going through CIT Bank but found its process too difficult when it came to connecting it to an external bank account for our initial transfer. So, we planned to stick with my partner's SoFi account.

SoFi is a relatively new bank and its selection of banking products was smaller, but we liked its reputation. SoFi requires either a checking account with direct deposit or a $5,000 balance to receive its highest APY.

Setting up a joint account was straightforward

On his SoFi app, my fiancé found the joint account option and invited me as his partner/spouse to be on the account.

If I were already a SoFi customer, he wouldn't have been able to add me to his account. We both would have had to open a new account elsewhere, or one of us would have had to close our individual SoFi account so that one of us could convert to a joint account.

When he invited me, I received a cute email with the subject line, "It's not a regular joint account. It's a cool joint account."

I was so distracted by this subject line that it took me a full twenty minutes to accept the invitation.

Finally, I clicked through and was on my way. I added my name, contact, and taxpayer information and confirmed I wasn't subject to IRS backup withholding. The last step was receiving approval from my partner, the account holder.

Then I was in. I was impressed with SoFi's dashboard interface, which includes a list of possible uses for the account. I had immediate access to my fiancé's funds (talk about trust!), and I could also create an all-in-one financial hub where I could see all my accounts and my net worth.

We setup automatic transfers to our wedding fund

Next, we created a wedding "vault," which is a sub-savings account for a certain savings goal.

My next step was to create an automatic monthly transfer to the savings account. I needed to link my personal bank account, which was easy to do.

However, I couldn't transfer my funds from my external bank directly into the vault, so for now, they would go into the regular savings pile. This was an unexpected inconvenience, but not a dealbreaker for us.

Overall, opening a joint savings account was an emotionally daunting experience, but very easy to do in practice.