No Wedding Debts or Regrets
Picture this: the love of your life has asked you to marry him. Both of you are eager to start planning the perfect wedding—your dream wedding. It should be one of the happiest times of your life and one of the most exciting times of your life—filled with love, happiness, friends, and family. Nothing will go wrong. Right? Ideally, yes. Yet “ideally” often gets waylaid. Let’s explore how to have No Wedding Debts or Regrets.
Imagine planning the BIG wedding of your dreams only to find that your big day has crippled you financially. Imagine going bankrupt, losing your home, and even ending up heartbroken and divorced, all because you are sucked into the commercial monster that is the BIG wedding Industry!
It might sound outlandish, but it is an all too common scenario. This is exactly the experience that Jane recounts. She shared her story several years after she had the wedding of her dreams.
How Her Dream BIG Wedding Became a Nightmare
Newly engaged, Jane was excited to plan the perfect celebration. She thought nothing of taking out a $33,000 personal loan to have her dream wedding, a luxury honeymoon and start building a home with her husband. Just four years after her wedding, Jane found herself divorced, penniless, and homeless as she struggled to clear her huge wedding debts that had compounded after that perfect day.
Looking back, Jane confesses that she experienced what she calls bridal blindness. Having a lavish wedding became the most important goal. Any thoughts to the repayments and added interest fees never entered her or her husband-to-be’s mind. Both express surprise at just how quickly the bills mount up. The venue alone cost almost $4,000 and hiring a professional photographer to document their big day cost over $2,500 (although they originally thought it would be half the amount). That’s before even thinking about the $3,700 for wedding attire, décor, officiant fees PLUS the $5,900 for catering and all of the other costs associated with BIG weddings. In total, Jane spent $23,132 on her wedding.
Her BIG Wedding Costs Led to Bankruptcy and Divorce
In the beginning, Jane and her new husband were able to meet their repayments. Within six months, their fresh new credit cards were at the limit just to make ends meet. Before their first anniversary, their debts totaled over $43,000. How could their perfect day have turned into such a perfect nightmare?
Any relationship counselor will reveal that money issues are one of the top three reasons at the core of broken marriages. Jane’s marriage was set to become another statistic. Divorce proceedings began. Perhaps the financial struggles were not the only reason for the breakup, but it certainly put a huge strain on their marriage.
After filing for bankruptcy and moving back in with her parents, she managed to pay off her share of the crippling debt and is now getting her life back on track. Jane had a constant reminder that she allowed her judgment to be clouded by the unrealistic perceptions of the perfect BIG wedding. Somewhere along the way she (and he) forgot that weddings should be a celebration of love … not a demonstration of how much cash can be thrown around to impress other people.
Jane can’t help but wonder if things might have turned out differently had they opted for a smaller, more affordable wedding.
Don’t Be Left with Wedding Debts and Regrets
Hello Brides-To-Be … let’s talk about that big white fantasy wedding that you’ve been dreaming about. Well, I have bad news for you, BIG WEDDINGS SUCK! Oh, yes, they do. Why? Because of their cost, energy, stress, and time. Plus I’ve discovered that the more you spend the higher your risk of divorce!
That’s why today, according to MarketWatch almost one-third of couples go into debt for their wedding day and 50% of all weddings are not the old traditional BIG white church wedding. That Olson study I referred to earlier reveals that BIG, expensive weddings result in shorter marriages! When the “BIG show” is over, all you may have left are the wedding debts and regrets!
The reality is that Jane has plenty of company with her bridal blindness … it’s not a good thing. That study shows that couples who spend $20,000 and up on their wedding are 46% more likely to get divorced; that risk declines to 29% higher risk of divorce than average for those who spend $10,000 to $20,000. Better yet, think about … and plan on … going cheap. Couples who “Elope” and spent under $1,000 on their wedding were 52% less likely than average to divorce. Your marriage will thank you.
If you don’t want this to happen to you, then please read my new book, and as a bonus you may end up saving your marriage!
Please let us know how you have or are planning No Wedding Debts and Regrets?