Wedding loan : Dilemma

enthusiasticsaver

I would not choose to take out a loan for a wedding. Read on this forum how many people have gone into debt for this and then ended up with problems.

Either cut costs by the amount you will be short or increase savings. If money is so tight you cannot do this then you are spending more than you can afford. At a last resort a 0% credit card could bridge the gap for the £2k but borrowing £5k is madness simply so you don't have to save so hard.

£15000 is a considerable amount of money to spend on a wedding. Yes some may spend more (and regretted it) but many have been done on a lot less. You can either cut out extras like videographers, cut down on flowers, cars, dress or number of guests. Start off married life living within your means.

PeacefulWaters

Don't worry. The divorce will cost a lot more!

GarthThomas

parking_question_chap wrote: »

OP, how much do you both earn and what are your other outgoings?

Not sure why everybody is so keen to tell you not to get a loan without this information.

You might regret taking a loan for a year or so whilst you pay it off. But you might regret just doing a registry office for the rest of your life.

If you can easily afford to pay it off, go for it.

If they could easily afford a loan then they wouldn't need one. It's one thing to need a loan for a car if you start a job that needs one, it's another thing to know that you'll need to take one out in a year. That's prima facie evidence that it's not a good idea, which is why there is near unanimity of opinion.

parking_question_chap

GarthThomas wrote: »

If they could easily afford a loan then they wouldn't need one. It's one thing to need a loan for a car if you start a job that needs one, it's another thing to know that you'll need to take one out in a year. That's prima facie evidence that it's not a good idea, which is why there is near unanimity of opinion.

I can easily afford my mortgage. Still need one though.

GarthThomas

parking_question_chap wrote: »

I can easily afford my mortgage. Still need one though.

Yes, but that's for a need, not a want, and is an alternative to the only other sensible choice, which is renting.

Borrowing for a wedding is as an alternative to spending less, and in my opinion, it's a terrible alternative.

I think the key point here is that it sounds like there has been years to save up for this, and they haven't managed it yet. They've another year of saving hard, and then still need to borrow more, followed by more years of going without, to pay it back.

Any problem in the following years, and they could well be in trouble. Boiler goes, car engine goes pop, they are out of work for a couple of months, anything can knock you over the edge when you are so close to,it.

MEM62

Find ways to reduce the cost of your wedding so that it is affordable. You will regret getting into debt to mark one day in your life.

A wedding is absolutely something that you should not get into debt for.

borkid

MEM62 wrote: »

Find ways to reduce the cost of your wedding so that it is affordable. You will regret getting into debt to mark one day in your life.

A wedding is absolutely something that you should not get into debt for.

My son's wedding cost about £2000( back in mid 2000s) He had a small registry do and meal afterwards. Then they came to our house( other side of the country) and had all of their friends. As it was late summer it was marquees in the garden ( brorrowed) and neighbours helping with flowers ( from their garden) and decorating the chairs. The cake was made by a semi professional and looked excellent and all colours matched to table setting and each teir was a different flavour, we only paid for the ingredients as in exchange for her work I made her lounge curtains, she didn't like sewing. My daughter took all the photographs and when showing them to friends they thought they were professionally done. I think the local landlord provided the beer at cost as well as we used to run quizzes for them.

The whole event lasted 2 days, their friends stayed over and any we couldn't fix up with beds in neighbours houses slept on the floor.

Where possible cut down on costs, we were lucky and had a large garden but you should be able to make some savings.

And remember the marriage is more important then the wedding.

AndyBSG

As others have said on here, if you get in debt over a wedding you'll regret it.

I got married almost 4 years ago and although I didn't get in debt, I did use up a ridiculous chunk of savings with it costing just shy of 20K.

We had a wonderful day but now 4 years on the memories are pretty much faded and I jut think what we could have done if we had spent half that and had 10K in the bank now.