Curious to know how many couples get loans ++

LizzeyBenett

How many couples get loans to pay for their wedding ? How did you afford yours or how much did you spend ?

Outkast_IRE

LizzeyBenett wrote: »

How many couples get loans to pay for their wedding ? How did you afford yours or how much did you spend ?

I think alot get loans for their weddings , we had only got a house 18 months before so we were trying to do improvements on that aswell.

We cleared all other car loans etc. before going for wedding loan.

shane b

We had savings that we used. We were renting at the time so house to pay for. We spent about 28k to include everyting wedding related covering stag/hen night, to hotel to honeymoon and spending money. Honeymoon and spending money was almost 8k on its own. We made about 10k back on cash gifts from people we invited.

SusanC10

We used a combination of Savings plus both sets of Parents paid for certain things. We had bought our house 5 months previously.

rosmoke

Wedding abroad:

Around 6k for 50 people, we spent it on: rings, suit and dress, 4 courses menu with cake and deserts from best bakery in town and open bar, fireworks, guitarist, dj, hotel, car rental, plane tickets and a few small details.
I imagined we're gonna spend around 10k, was quite surprised when we crossed the line.
We're also gonna get the money back, guests normally leave a cash gift, generally covering wedding expenses + a bit extra.

amcalester

Aiming to do it without a loan but like others we just bought a house so may end up borrowing a small amount.

Should be some interest free credit card offers that can be used.

eviltwin

I would have felt very uncomfortable getting a loan to pay for a wedding. We used savings but as it was a small wedding it only cost about a grand.

amcalester

eviltwin wrote: »

I would have felt very uncomfortable getting a loan to pay for a wedding. We used savings but as it was a small wedding it only cost about a grand.

I would have agreed before the costs started mounting up, we were a little naive in how much it will all cost and booked a date based on when we (thought we) could afford it but now our savings plan might fall short.

I’m hoping my annual bonus will make up the shortfall, either that or a small loan which can be paid back over 6 months.

I know people who took out 5 figure loans to pay for their wedding and many have said they regretted it so trying to avoid that.

listermint

I'd be very very uncomfortable taking a loan out for a party . Let's face it. That's what it is

We used savings

Loans..... Nope nope nope.

If you are getting to that point then you've run away with yourself.

Outkast_IRE

It all comes down to individual circumstances. We only got some minor assistance from one parent as that was all they could afford and we appreciated it. We kept our wedding comparitvely small in numbers less than 100, but the venue we liked after viewing many was going to come in around €90 a head including wine, reception food etc.



We have a modest mortgage, had no other loans and will have it cleared within approx 1 year of wedding. It financially puts us under no pressure really. We could of covered it ourselves if we put back the wedding a year but we are both mid 30s in decent jobs so had no issue taking a short term loan.


In our particular circumstances it was a reasonable cost , within our means so we could have the day both my wife and I wanted, with our families and some close friends.



I would feel completely different about it if my wife had wanted a 200+ wedding full of people you rarely see and we were taking on a debt beyond our means to fund it.

Loveinapril

We had a very short engagement and got a €4,000 loan that allowed us to get married on the date we wanted, with the photographer and musicians we wanted. We had a relatively small wedding and kept our budget to match. We didn't use any of our gift money to pay the loan off as we used that to pay for our honeymoon, but had the loan paid off in a year.

pwurple

God no.

We used savings.

Toots

I didn't take a loan out myself, but used to work in lending and had a fair few couples in looking at wedding loans.

Ideally, I'd recommend doing it without borrowing, but the reality is for some people it would take a long time to build up savings.

The one piece of advice I would give is don't factor in gifts when you're working out the affordability of the loan. Plan it as though you won't get any cash and you'll have to pay off the loan over 'x' years, and make sure you can afford the monthly repayments. I did have the odd few couples who would come in after the wedding and they'd have borrowed say €20k, but planned to pay it all back with cash gifts, but they ended up getting say €12k in cash gifts, so they wanted to restructure the loan because the 20k loan would have had high monthly payments, which they hadn't expected to have to pay.

lazygal

Would never take out a loan to pay for a party. It's about 250 quid to get married, don't spend money you don't have on a wedding.

Gatica

We were renting at the time. We saved for 1 year and 9 months of our engagement, the wedding costs kept adding on and we ended up spending another 50% probably on top of the original budget on the wedding and another 50% on the honeymoon, i.e. it doubled (didn't budget much for the honeymoon for some reason though it was about a 1/4 of whole wedding cost).

It was probably on the more expensive side of weddings. We never factored in gifts, though thanks to the generosity of friends of family I think we got 1/4 of wedding cost back in cash. We got loan pre-approval in the final couple of months before the wedding, but we didn't end up needing it thankfully. We lived like hermits before the wedding and paid off credit cards in the couple of months after the wedding.

I think it really depends on personal circumstances and what you want from the wedding. Generally if you struggle to replay loans or if it would mean a long-term loan, then it may not be a good idea. However, for some people it's just a way to tie them over for a couple of months.

SozBbz

I'm one of these people who only really believes borrowing to fund capital expenditure (house purchase, home improvement etc). I cannot fathom borrowing for items which I view as current expenditure, and weddings would fall into that category. Similarly I've never borrowed for a car or a holiday.

We are keeping our wedding small as we're in the process of buying a house and when comparing putting money into that versus spending it on a day out, theres really no comparison.

We've more than we need deposit wise, but I'd still rather put the money into the house and borrow less for the mortgage.

Sounds quite boring when I write it all down, but I genuinely don't put that much value into a single day. When I think of the house we might potentially buy, the years of enjoyment and making it our own, that gives me all the warm and fuzzies. Thinking about a big wedding gives me heart palpitations! I'm not making any firm plans until we buy a house but I'm leaning towards registry office + dinner party, zero bridal party and minimal fuss!

Neyite

We are planning on using savings, I don't think I would be comfortable getting a loan. But we are planning a small event so even if we were to add on a top-up loan it would only be a small credit union one of a couple of thousand at the most I would say.

Loveinapril

Neyite wrote: »

But we are planning a small event so even if we were to add on a top-up loan it would only be a small credit union one of a couple of thousand at the most I would say.

That's what we did. Had €2,500 in shares, got a €4,000 loan and cleared it within the year. It just allowed us to have a few extras without worry and still managed to add to the shares.

baby and crumble

We got a credit union loan, but bundled a bunch of other expenses (including academic fees and some small home improvement stuff) into one loan with very manageable payments. The way I looked at it was we were paying the same into the loan repayments as we would have been saving every month in order to pay for the wedding, but we were able to plan and pay for things straight away. We were able to pay a chunk off it straight after the wedding as we got some very generous cash gifts but we didn't budget for any of them. So all in all we paid a few hundred euro to essentially 'rent' the money for a while whilst planning the wedding we wanted. It was worth it to us to pay for that convenience.

LirW

We did the kind of elopement/honeymoon thing in one and went to America for 2 weeks instead of doing a party. We ended up with like a grand on the credit card for some nonsense that we decided to splash out on, we got married this March and afaik it's about to be cleared.
But we got a credit card that has 0 interest for 6 months.

That said, I'd never be comfortable with more than that, we were already hesitant doing this (even though it was more than worth it!). Didn't want a burden around our neck when we start married life together.

Hooked

We had a big-ish (for us) wedding booked. 140 people, 80 quid a head... bit of travel involved. August Bank Holiday. 2000 band. 400 quid cake. Blah blah... Then we decided... nah, this isn't for us. We're going a bit mad. Looking at 20K ish, all in. For one day! Nah!!!

In the end we had a Humanist Ceremony *(HIGHLY recommended BTW) in a local restaurant. 70 people, 50 quid a head. Included band, pre-dinner reception, etc... My cousin gifted my wife the dress (she was winding up her Bridal boutique). Her sister made us the most amazing cake! My ring cost a fiver, my suit was 150 quid. Made use of a 5 star hotel grounds for photos. My brother did the photos and we had an absolute belter of a day! Proper close family & friends wedding.

Prob cost a little over 4 grand - so we paid up front.

No regrets!

.......

I would have waited to get married rather than borrow for it, or would have scaled it right back.

We saved for 2 years.

elle.en

We are doing about half from savings, half from a loan. As someone else said, it’s all about personal circumstances. We have our house with a quite small mortgage, we have decent income and the loan will not put us under financial pressure. The loan allows us to do it when we want and the way we want, rather than waiting. It’s something we both agreed on too so it was the best decision for both of us.

We’re not relying on gifts to pay it back either, we made sure the monthly repayments are more than manageable. In our case, I was quite happy to get a loan for our wedding. It’s all down to circumstances and if it will put you under pressure.

Scarinae

We’ve managed to budget for ours without taking out a loan thankfully, but we also have the benefit of nearly two years from when we started planning it to the day itself. Himself did up a very complicated spreadsheet with estimated costs for everything and a bit of buffer in case we go over, including what savings we have so far and a portion of each of our salaries each month to go towards it. We are getting some contributions from our families – for example, my parents have offered to pay for my dress – but we will be paying for most of it ourselves.

Addle

National Banks advertise loans specifically for weddings so there is obviously a market for it and fair enough.

It annoyed me because we tried to get an exemption over 3.5 income limit for mortgage, and we couldn’t.
However we could have got a (higher interest) car loan or wedding loan on top of our mortgage!

Nikki Sixx

rosmoke wrote: »

Wedding abroad:

Around 6k for 50 people, we spent it on: rings, suit and dress, 4 courses menu with cake and deserts from best bakery in town and open bar, fireworks, guitarist, dj, hotel, car rental, plane tickets and a few small details.
I imagined we're gonna spend around 10k, was quite surprised when we crossed the line.
We're also gonna get the money back, guests normally leave a cash gift, generally covering wedding expenses + a bit extra.

What country and what part?

rosmoke

rosmoke wrote: »

Wedding abroad:

Around 6k for 50 people, we spent it on: rings, suit and dress, 4 courses menu with cake and deserts from best bakery in town and open bar, fireworks, guitarist, dj, hotel, car rental, plane tickets and a few small details.
I imagined we're gonna spend around 10k, was quite surprised when we crossed the line.
We're also gonna get the money back, guests normally leave a cash gift, generally covering wedding expenses + a bit extra.

I've been to 2 overseas weddings, no-one I spoke with gave a cash present.
Of course the bride & groom didn't want any, as it was enough expense for their guests already

iamwhoiam

rosmoke wrote: »

Wedding abroad:

Around 6k for 50 people, we spent it on: rings, suit and dress, 4 courses menu with cake and deserts from best bakery in town and open bar, fireworks, guitarist, dj, hotel, car rental, plane tickets and a few small details.
I imagined we're gonna spend around 10k, was quite surprised when we crossed the line.
We're also gonna get the money back, guests normally leave a cash gift, generally covering wedding expenses + a bit extra.

But it costs the guests to get there and its not cheap . If I was attending a wedding abroad and spending quite a bit to get there I would not be giving cash too

Call me Al

rosmoke wrote: »

Wedding abroad:

Around 6k for 50 people, we spent it on: rings, suit and dress, 4 courses menu with cake and deserts from best bakery in town and open bar, fireworks, guitarist, dj, hotel, car rental, plane tickets and a few small details.
I imagined we're gonna spend around 10k, was quite surprised when we crossed the line.
We're also gonna get the money back, guests normally leave a cash gift, generally covering wedding expenses + a bit extra.

I wouldn't take it as a given that your guests will cover the expenses. You're already asking them to spend extra travelling abroad on top of hotels etc. so there may not be anything left in the kitty.

topmanamillion

If people are truly honest with themselves the reason they're spending upwards of €20K on a party is an excercise in keeping up with the Jones'.

eviltwin

Don't start married life in debt. There is life after a wedding and you don't want to come home to the realisation you've got a massive loan to repay.