Help with wedding finances

richiemills2002

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help us out please?

My fianc!e and I and are getting married in July.

I had been offered by a usually reliable friend that, rather than taking out a loan, pay off what we can as we went along, then when we reached the point where we needed more money than we had time to earn it he would loan us what we needed.

You can probably guess how this story pans out... needless to say we've now committed a fair sum of money to the wedding and our friend has found himself unable to help...

I work full-time, live in rented accomodation, and have a bad credit score (630). Have been to my bank today (Barclays) but the application was refused. The reason seemingly being the bad score as nothing else negative came back.

My fiancee works through an agency, so is even less likely to be offered finance.

Neither of our family's are in a position to be able to help us to the level we need (£5-6k).

I've gone through the steps to try and repair my credit score but obviously these take time, which is another resource that we don't have much of...

Can anyone suggest any options or point us in the right direction?

Any help most gratefully received!

bengalknights

Unfortunatly the only thing you can possibly do now is look towards cost savings as the avenues of credit would be exhausted

stephane_2

It's not because Barclays said no that everyone else will....your score means absolutely nothing, each potential lenders will have their own criteria. You could try the Nationwide loan quotation, it will let you know if you're likely to be accepted by just doing a soft search, which will not be seen by other lenders.....you could also consider a credit card like MBNA which will have 20 months at 0% on money transfer....otherwise the other option it to review the cost of your wedding drastically....

Better_Off_1983

Why start a marriage in debt to your eyeballs?

pjread

Short answer, spend less on the wedding

richiemills2002

Better_Off_1983 wrote: »

Why start a marriage in debt to your eyeballs?

Not ideal I agree, but then neither is losing the money we've already paid out.

Lesser of two evils...

richiemills2002

pjread wrote: »

Short answer, spend less on the wedding

We're trying, have already scaled back drastically.

eBay is becoming my best friend

Main problem is that the biggest expense outstanding is the venue which is the one thing we cant scale back on, and due to the deposit already paid out I'm loathed to pull the plug..

Ilona

Can you speak to the venue owners and ask if you can rebook it for a later date, without losing the whole amount you have paid. July 2014 would be a good time, give you chance to save up for the rest of it.
Ilona

Beckyy

Ask to move the things you've booked to a later date and save like crazy. Don't borrow more money, debt is no way to start married life.

Apples2

Maybe your usually reliable friend posted on here for our advice.

You really need to think carefully, you cannot unspend money. Sometimes pulling the plug is the most effective way to save, not throwing more at it.

Fredwina

Hi there, I have a very similar thread on this same forum, and it's given me a lot to think about. It's quite unrealistic that either of us will be in a good position in time for the wedding (mines the 27th July) to start applying for a loan with a decent interest rate and as other posters have said you don't really want to be paying off one day for the rest of your life. Especially when you consider that most of the balances will need to be settled one month before the date of your wedding giving you even less time to get things settled.

To start with look at the things you haven't got a fixed price for yet, things like outfits, flowers etc and cut back where possible. We've cut back on the floral arrangements, changed the bridesmaids dresses and talked our band into DJing the reception for free and that's just in the space of 24 hours near enough!

Go through your supplier contracts, especially with your venue, our venue stipulates as we are getting married on a Saturday during "wedding season" we have to have a minimum number of guests (50 for the day and 80 for the evening), however it does say we can vary the guest numbers up to 10% as long as we can confirm it 28 days in advance, having five less people coming for the whole day will save us £450 from the catering bill and still abides by the rules of the contract.

There are lots of ways you can cut back without making the day any less special. I could go on but I don't want to be a waffling bridezilla any more than I already have been