Wedding Loans??

You know, in the past I've mentioned my salary to highlight my wedding cost to total income ratio and the sacrifices that even someone at my salary level must make to have a wedding and STILL realize their long term goals (in my case no vera wang, no Saturday night ect...)...certainly NOT to rub it in to anyone. I don't apologize for making what I make, we all make career choices.

Anywho...here's what thestreet.com has to say:

'While getting a wedding loan may seem like a good way to bridge any shortfall a couple has, it's one of the biggest financial mistakes they can make. There is nothing worse than starting off married life tens of thousands of dollars in debt, especially if student loans and other debt is also being brought into the marriage.

The entire amount paid for the wedding will disappear in a day, and if the wedding is paid for with a loan, the couple could be paying for that day years down the road. Any couple that has to get a loan to pay for a wedding is setting itself up for money troubles in the future. Avoiding the wedding loan will force a couple to deal with financial issues before marriage, which can go a long way to eliminating money as a major marital problem.' The article goes on to list the alternatives: Elope, Delay or BUDGET!

---

Posted by MrsCastanedain09

You know, in the past I've mentioned my salary to highlight my wedding cost to total income ratio and the sacrifices that even someone at my salary level must make to have a wedding and STILL realize their long term goals (in my case no vera wang, no Saturday night ect...)...certainly NOT to rub it in to anyone. I don't apologize for making what I make, we all make career choices.

Anywho...here's what thestreet.com has to say:

'While getting a wedding loan may seem like a good way to bridge any shortfall a couple has, it's one of the biggest financial mistakes they can make. There is nothing worse than starting off married life tens of thousands of dollars in debt, especially if student loans and other debt is also being brought into the marriage.

The entire amount paid for the wedding will disappear in a day, and if the wedding is paid for with a loan, the couple could be paying for that day years down the road. Any couple that has to get a loan to pay for a wedding is setting itself up for money troubles in the future. Avoiding the wedding loan will force a couple to deal with financial issues before marriage, which can go a long way to eliminating money as a major marital problem.' The article goes on to list the alternatives: Elope, Delay or BUDGET!

---

i dont think you have to apologize, you always do give advice to save money and its not worth it in some situations so dont think you ever threw it in anybodies face.

My post was to say that hey i dont make $100k but by really saving, sacrificing, i was able to do what i wanted. I sacrificed by not really shopping for the 2 years i was engaged only if it was really necessary and even then I rarely did that. I didnt indulge in things for myself, and kept things to the bare minimum and no matter what i put aside what i had to each month. Sometimes it was hard but it was a sacrifice i choose for myself. Whether you make $100k, 200k, 50k, 30k, you can do what you want. For some i do realize it is hard bc they have more expenses than some others, but no matter the budget you can have a beautiful wedding.

and the article is right. Hey once the wedding is over the last thing you want is to not move on with your marriage and still be stuck with wedding debt or any debt and having to sacrifice doing that. And the last thing you want to do with your wedding money is give it all away and not be able to use it on something you really need. YOu realize right after that the wedding is JUST one day and it comes and goes, it was the best day of my life don't get me wrong. But right after reality hits, and you want to go into a marriage without the stress of debt, trust me. We had other debt to take care of and took its toll.

---

Posted by Espo22

---

Posted by MrsCastanedain09

You know, in the past I've mentioned my salary to highlight my wedding cost to total income ratio and the sacrifices that even someone at my salary level must make to have a wedding and STILL realize their long term goals (in my case no vera wang, no Saturday night ect...)...certainly NOT to rub it in to anyone. I don't apologize for making what I make, we all make career choices.

Anywho...here's what thestreet.com has to say:

'While getting a wedding loan may seem like a good way to bridge any shortfall a couple has, it's one of the biggest financial mistakes they can make. There is nothing worse than starting off married life tens of thousands of dollars in debt, especially if student loans and other debt is also being brought into the marriage.

The entire amount paid for the wedding will disappear in a day, and if the wedding is paid for with a loan, the couple could be paying for that day years down the road. Any couple that has to get a loan to pay for a wedding is setting itself up for money troubles in the future. Avoiding the wedding loan will force a couple to deal with financial issues before marriage, which can go a long way to eliminating money as a major marital problem.' The article goes on to list the alternatives: Elope, Delay or BUDGET!

---

i dont think you have to apologize, you always do give advice to save money and its not worth it in some situations so dont think you ever threw it in anybodies face.

My post was to say that hey i dont make $100k but by really saving, sacrificing, i was able to do what i wanted. I sacrificed by not really shopping for the 2 years i was engaged only if it was really necessary and even then I rarely did that. I didnt indulge in things for myself, and kept things to the bare minimum and no matter what i put aside what i had to each month. Sometimes it was hard but it was a sacrifice i choose for myself. Whether you make $100k, 200k, 50k, 30k, you can do what you want. For some i do realize it is hard bc they have more expenses than some others, but no matter the budget you can have a beautiful wedding.

and the article is right. Hey once the wedding is over the last thing you want is to not move on with your marriage and still be stuck with wedding debt or any debt and having to sacrifice doing that. And the last thing you want to do with your wedding money is give it all away and not be able to use it on something you really need. YOu realize right after that the wedding is JUST one day and it comes and goes, it was the best day of my life don't get me wrong. But right after reality hits, and you want to go into a marriage without the stress of debt, trust me. We had other debt to take care of and took its toll.

---

Thanks, Denise. I was worried that I might have boasted at some point since it was pointed to.

Your insights are always SO helpful. It really helped me to hear you say this: 'YOu realize right after that the wedding is JUST one day and it comes and goes, it was the best day of my life don't get me wrong. But right after reality hits...' because I know that lots of us look to your wedding as the 'gold standard', it's good to hear your take on the next day.

That being said, you had an amazing wedding- TRULY. After I saw your pictures at St. Francis I thought about moving my ceremony there....but I realized that Immac has been my childhood church and that makes it special to me.

I think that when we look at so many pictures of each other's weddings, we want what others have and that's when weddings lose their unique elements that TRULY make them special.

I'm rambling...just wanted to say thank you.

---

Posted by MrsCastanedain09

---

Posted by Espo22

---

Posted by MrsCastanedain09

You know, in the past I've mentioned my salary to highlight my wedding cost to total income ratio and the sacrifices that even someone at my salary level must make to have a wedding and STILL realize their long term goals (in my case no vera wang, no Saturday night ect...)...certainly NOT to rub it in to anyone. I don't apologize for making what I make, we all make career choices.

Anywho...here's what thestreet.com has to say:

'While getting a wedding loan may seem like a good way to bridge any shortfall a couple has, it's one of the biggest financial mistakes they can make. There is nothing worse than starting off married life tens of thousands of dollars in debt, especially if student loans and other debt is also being brought into the marriage.

The entire amount paid for the wedding will disappear in a day, and if the wedding is paid for with a loan, the couple could be paying for that day years down the road. Any couple that has to get a loan to pay for a wedding is setting itself up for money troubles in the future. Avoiding the wedding loan will force a couple to deal with financial issues before marriage, which can go a long way to eliminating money as a major marital problem.' The article goes on to list the alternatives: Elope, Delay or BUDGET!

---

i dont think you have to apologize, you always do give advice to save money and its not worth it in some situations so dont think you ever threw it in anybodies face.

My post was to say that hey i dont make $100k but by really saving, sacrificing, i was able to do what i wanted. I sacrificed by not really shopping for the 2 years i was engaged only if it was really necessary and even then I rarely did that. I didnt indulge in things for myself, and kept things to the bare minimum and no matter what i put aside what i had to each month. Sometimes it was hard but it was a sacrifice i choose for myself. Whether you make $100k, 200k, 50k, 30k, you can do what you want. For some i do realize it is hard bc they have more expenses than some others, but no matter the budget you can have a beautiful wedding.

and the article is right. Hey once the wedding is over the last thing you want is to not move on with your marriage and still be stuck with wedding debt or any debt and having to sacrifice doing that. And the last thing you want to do with your wedding money is give it all away and not be able to use it on something you really need. YOu realize right after that the wedding is JUST one day and it comes and goes, it was the best day of my life don't get me wrong. But right after reality hits, and you want to go into a marriage without the stress of debt, trust me. We had other debt to take care of and took its toll.

---

Thanks, Denise. I was worried that I might have boasted at some point since it was pointed to.

Your insights are always SO helpful. It really helped me to hear you say this: 'YOu realize right after that the wedding is JUST one day and it comes and goes, it was the best day of my life don't get me wrong. But right after reality hits...' because I know that lots of us look to your wedding as the 'gold standard', it's good to hear your take on the next day.

That being said, you had an amazing wedding- TRULY. After I saw your pictures at St. Francis I thought about moving my ceremony there....but I realized that Immac has been my childhood church and that makes it special to me.

I think that when we look at so many pictures of each other's weddings, we want what others have and that's when weddings lose their unique elements that TRULY make them special.

I'm rambling...just wanted to say thank you.

---

yeah nothing can compare to your wedding day but you dont want to start your NW life with debt, with headaches, with stress. Bc along with wedding plans, we all have marriage plans and really puts a damper on things when you have to hold back. They say the first year of marriage is the hardest, and yes it is, so having to struggle just makes it that much harder. You dont want to go from this big high on cloud 9 to feeling low.

awww thank you so much. Yeah we did st. francis bc it was dh's parish so special bc of that. The same way your church will be special for the same reason and will be beautiful

we paid for our wedding in cash - it wasn't easy and we did sacrifice a lot for the year and a half that we saved but i think it was the best way to do things....

i really LOVED our wedding - and i would do it again in a heartbeat but with that said i don't think i would have been any less happy if things were different (meaning we spent less and had less), DH and I are the type of people who can have fun anywhere as long as we are together and i think that shows.....i think our wedding was good because DH and I enjoyed ourselves and it showed - we were ourselves and we had a blast - our ceremony was so emotional and people really saw the love that we have for eachother and afterwards our reception was a blast - we had fun and our guests had fun.....when i saw the first sneak peek of our pro pics on AG's blog one of the first things i thought was wow, she really captured us being us - having fun and it shows - and i KNOW that would have been the case whether we had even more things at our wedding or less at our wedding.....either way i think our feelings for eachother that day would have been the same, you are on such a high, and its amazing....

so keep that in mind - b/c whether its when you are reciting your vows or dancing your butt off at the reception you aren't going to be thinking about the seafood you did or didn't get, or how much you spent on the flowers or on your dress - honestly if you are thinking about those things during your wedding then i think you are trying way to hard to impress people and that means you forgot about why you are there in the first place.....that is how you know that no matter what we had we would have enjoyed it - because we were enjoying eachother so much that day that nothing else mattered.....but of course that is hindsight - and during the planning there were certain things i wanted or had to have because that is how i imagined it - and i'd be lying if i didn't say it was my dream wedding BUT it would have been my dream wedding no matter what - even if i wore rags and there wasn't a string trio, and there wasn't seafood, and there wasn't a VH, and there wasn't 4 TVs and lighting, b/c the things like that don't matter - and that is something you don't feel or realize until that day.....

i would recommend that everyone no matter what their budget loves their officiant/priest/rabbi etc., and loves their photo and video - your ceremony is the biggest part of the day so you will want it to be perfect and memorable - and of course the photo and video last forever.....to me, after it was all over - the other stuff is ehhhh - you don't need anything really - just your FH, family and friends....if you are truly in love and want to be husband and wife the high you get from being married that day will be enough and seriously nothing else will matter.....i think we could have spent a lot less and done without a lot of things and my feelings about how happy i was on my wedding day would be the same.....and i dont think its possible for me to be any more happy that day even if we had a wedding like you see on platinum weddings or one of those shows KWIM? what i am trying to say is the wedding cost doesn't equate with your happiness that day.....so don't go into debt for it....

I agree with what a lot of people have said on here.. I agree with peole from Both sides actually.

BTW they are still doing personal loans... I just taught a class on it yesterday to my students. I teach for a bank. Just be careful with how much you take out and the interest rate. It's not worth it in the long run if you are paying back double what you spent.

Also, just as an added security option... I am planning on applying for a Line of Credit with my bank. It can be linked to my checking account as overdraft... but also you get a check book with it so you can use the funds if you need to and if you don't use anything then there is not charge. I'm not getting this LOC to pay for the wedding... but as a JUST INCASE we are a tiny bit short here or there type of fallback option. So that if in the end something comes up that we forgot about or just an unforeseen bill or whatever we have a quick way to come up with it. I certianly do not intend to use anything over $1000 from it... but just to have it there as a safety net. Also because most of our savings is tied up with an online bank, we don't have quick access to it (it takes a certain number of business days to transfer the funds) - so the LOC will help if we need money immediately and can't wait for the online transfer to come through.

We are saving money ourselves for the wedding. FH works 2 full time jobs and I work full time as well. FH really is working hard though. He has a grueling schedule and sometimes ends up working 24 hours straight! It's not just for the wedding.. he is in the mist of transferring jobs and the job that's excellent for the future... doen't pay much to start off with... so the first 5 years are going to be rough... especially the first 2. The salary at the job is not livable right now so he has to have the 2 jobs regardless of a wedding or not. However we can just save the one paycheck (the lower one that we can't live off of) for the wedding.