Member- kittylove13
- 9 years ago
- Wedding: October 2013
I know this is generally a taboo topic here, the whole ‘never enter a marriage in debt’ thing, but I feel these days that is completely irrelevant, and debt is simply a part of life we all have to deal with. We both have debt (not substantial, just car loans/credit cards) and we’re okay with that. But this morning my fiance mentioned he thinks we should take out a loan for the wedding. I think this would be pretty hard for us (I’m self employed so no paystubs etc to prove income, getting a car was a nightmare!) plus I just don’t know if it’s a good idea. I know we can afford the payments, but I’m not sure if it’s worth the interest. A little more about the financial situation around the wedding:
We were engaged in Dec 2011 and settled on a date March 2012 (the wedding is October this year). We started saving immediately but not as muchas we do now as our original budget was $8000, plus $5000 for the honeymoon. However the venues and services and everything we would have to settle on for an $8,000 wedding was reallllly discouraging. I wouldn’t consider us quality snobs or anything, and we are only having 50 guests, but everything in this area is just sooo expensive. So then I ran across another venue in May last year and we went to look at it and we fell in love. We can get married outdoors and have the reception in the banquet hall. We are getting married on a Sunday morning to cut costs. But still, our budget is now at $14,000 for the wedding, so almost 19K with the honeymoon included :O
Currently we have paid for $5500 of the total wedding/honeymoon expenses. We have about $1500 in our wedding account. We both save $500 per month towards the wedding, and I usually save a couple hundred more if I have a good month. But $500 a month is rough for him on his fixed income and it’s stressing him out. He makes around 2200/month, and my income ranges from 2500-4000 monthly. Cost of living here is super high though, so basically all of our dispensible income has gone to the wedding, and we still have $13,500 left to pay.
His parents likely will help a little bit, say probably around $1000 (they wont commit to a number yet). We are going to visit my dad next month, who has yet to meet him even though we’ve been together over 5 years (my dad lives on the other side of the country and will have to travel for the wedding, as well as my maid of honor). My dad has asked me for my budget and I have shared it with him but he want to talk about it in person after he meets him. I do believe he will pitch money but I’m clueless as to what he is willing to do and what he can afford. It could be $1000, could be $5000 I really have no idea. Of course we wouldn’t take out a loan until everyone commits to what they will pitch. I’d be happy with anything because at first it seemed we were going to have to pay for the whole thing ourselves.
So even if we get $2000 from our families as a minimum, and what we have in savings already, that leaves us with $10k still to come up with. I do believe we could save it up in time or I wouldn’t have commited to it, but the last thing I wan’t is for him to get so stressed that he starts viewing the wedding in a negative light.
Sorry for the long post, I don’t really know what I’m trying to ask, I guess I’m just looking for advice and if anyone has gone the loan route. Would it be better to just keep saving and hope it all comes together? Also, cutting costs is not an option at this point, we’ve narrowed everything down and cut corners as much as were willing to.
Thanks bees!
