Advice needed - house vs wedding

nementai

We're doing both this year.
I'm going to need some serious hairdressing magic to replace all the hair I've ripped out in stress!
But, we've managed to spend only £5k on the wedding, cancelled the honeymoon and put the rest of all the money we have into the house.
Strangely though, the house buying has taken the pressure off the wedding all together.
It's obviously a more binding and weighty contract to be entering into, and I feel now as thought eh wedding will just be a fun formality in cementing our relationship. It's actually a big relief to have the pressure off the big day!
Re the legalities of ownership etc, if you're joint tenants, marriage shouldn't make a difference, but do both make wills. If the unthinkable happens, it speeds the process up a lot from what I've heard.

wannabe_sybil

In my experience, the more expensive the wedding, the quicker the divorce - and often the most acrimonious!

Also look over on the Special Occasions board. There is a large quantity of advice there about inexpensive weddings.

Also, can the concerns about 'what if' and buying a house before marriage be addressed by appropriate wills and agreements?

Congratulations on the engagement, I hope you will be very happy.

JayZed

We spent under £2,000 on our wedding, at which we had 50+ guests. That included venue hire (nice room in the town hall), food (catered by the local Lebanese restaurant, yum), drink (on a drink-or-return basis from Oddbins) and paying two town hall staff to man the bar for the afternoon.

We didn't bother with an overpriced wedding cake; one of the guests did the music; and we didn't hire a photographer but we did get a bunch of disposable kodak cameras for the guests.

Nine years later, many of our friends still say it was one of the best and most enjoyable weddings they've been to. We certainly had a great day.

Richard_Webster

We spent under £2,000 on our wedding, at which we had 50+ guests. That included venue hire (nice room in the town hall), food (catered by the local Lebanese restaurant, yum), drink (on a drink-or-return basis from Oddbins) and paying two town hall staff to man the bar for the afternoon.

We didn't bother with an overpriced wedding cake; one of the guests did the music; and we didn't hire a photographer but we did get a bunch of disposable kodak cameras for the guests.

Nine years later, many of our friends still say it was one of the best and most enjoyable weddings they've been to. We certainly had a great day.

This just reinforces what I said above. Are weddings about show or are they about commitment?

Squish_21

I say either cheap wedding or house first.

QTPie

gazfocus wrote: »

Anyway, strangely enough, I've been going through a similar decision process but with renting a house instead of buying. My fiance wants to get married next summer but also wants us to live together beforehand. At the moment I am living rent free in a single room at a friends flat and can continue doing so for as long as I need, but with my fiance wanting me to get a flat, I made her make the decision between paying £7000 rent in 12 months plus bills, etc or save that £7000 towards the wedding....her choice was the flat....strange girl lol.

Clever girl... am a big fan of "living together" before marriage - you get to REALLY know the person that you are hoping to spend the rest of your life with. Learn all of their bad habits and learn how to (or if you want to!) compromise:rotfl:

We lived together (in a flat, by ourselves) for a couple of years before getting married (having been together for 4 years altogether). This August will be our 12th wedding anniversary - so not doing too badly

(we didn't but our first house until a year after we got married, though.... but I agree with others - don't start a marriage off in debt.... money stresses wont help it)

QT