"Our wedding cost $20,000. Its the biggest moment in many young girls lives. I was happy to spend that on my wife.Im all for saving for your future but fair go. If you be too much of a cheap bastard you will be sitting in you mansion rich and ALONE becouse no one wants to live with a tight arse. Just my thoughts."
Ha, ha. That was a funny comment.
I am going to give you another perspective on this issue.
My husband and I got married 1.5 years ago. We spent $100,000 on the wedding of our dreams, including the honeymoon. $10,000 contribution from the parents (we are now 35 years old).
Amount owing on the wedding today? Nothing.
Amount owing on our credit cards? Zilch.
Amount owing on my student loans after completing two masters and two undergraduate degrees? Nada.
We have two investment properties, total price paid $690,000, by 30 June we will have a minimum equity of $411,000 (not including increase in capital value over the last few years), i.e. a LVR of minimum 59.5%. In a couple of years time after that we will buy another house putting down a 20% deposit.
Yes, it was a lot of money and we could have bought more properties or contributed to paying off the debt. But as was mentioned before many women dream of having such a day and I have no regrets that we spent that money. It was the happiest day of my life and worth every penny. But I do agree that you can have just as wonderful a day having spent a lot less. We had the money for it and it was what we chose to do. I think what Steve says is important, "spend less than you earn", which is certainly what we did.
Leilah
Leilah, I also agree with Steve 'spend less than you earn', obviously you could afford $100,000 on your wedding and manage your finances well. My point in the first post was for those spending more than they earn, using credit to pay for their wedding, car and mortgage resulting in the couples both having to work. One of the brides of the 3 weddings I attended is also pregnant and can only stay at home for a short period of time after the baby is born because they can't afford to pay their debts with one income.
The 3 weddings I attended are relations and I'm concerned they will have to struggle due to having too much debt and what if one of them gets ill. I'm all for spending money on what you want but only if it is affordable, why have financial stress if it can be avoided.
Well said Leilah. We got married a few months ago and while we spent a little more than appears necessary from most of the above posts, we wanted all of our extended family sharing in our day so we had a large wedding and had a lovely ceremony and reception which was exactly what we wanted.
We spent what we could afford and at the time of the honeymoon we owed nothing toward the wedding or the honeymoon. Sure, our wedding costs could have been otherwise used for 3-4 deposits for IPs but we wouldn't have had it any other way. Investing is a long-term goal and to sacrifice a few things for your one big day just so you can buy a property 1-2 years earlier would not have been worth it to us. We now have wonderful photos and memories of our day and are back in the throes of property investing.
Anny
I do agree with your concerns with relatives who spend money on their wedding day which they don't have. It is not worth it, if it means starting off married life with bad debt.
cheers
Leilah
Leilah, I know you say you had the money to pay for the wedding you had, and that’s great and all, but when I look at your equity position what you are saying is that you spent 25% of your net worth on that one day. That to me seems excessive and short-sighted. Especially when you say that “I do agree that you can have just as wonderful a day having spent a lot less”. If the day could be as wonderful, then why not spend a lesser chunk of your net assets?
If we look at it in more simple circumstances if you had a net equity position of $1m, would $250k be acceptable for a wedding or a car or some other non-investment purpose?
I was very lucky in that both of our parents put up money for our wedding and we walked away having not paid for anything plus over $20k in our pockets. yes it was a great start to get and I know that not many people get that opportunity.
My wedding cost in the vicinity of $30k and was not being extravagent because we had over 200 people at the wedding. but taking a step forward a few years it was now an enjoyable day of memories and something that would be the same in my mind had we spent $10k or $100k. a wedding day is what you make of it, as is every day of your life and your marriage.
Anny, I totally agree with you that considering the circumstances of the people you have desribed none of them should have been having weddings of that extent. I would suspect it has something to do with outdoing others in most cases based on girls that I know who are in very similar circumstances to what you mention finance wise and taking out debt to achieve this wonderful day.
and lets face facts, one in 3 of them is going to head to the divorce courts in the end as well.
diclem, there were around 200 people at the baptism.it was hell choosing a gift knowing what the parents were paying!
We also had a big expensive wedding. People are more important to us than money and we didn't want to offend anyone by leaving them out. We had around 500 guests including their kids.
I find it absolutley offensive when people invite families and state "no children" on the invitation just to save money! Children are people and part of a family. Inviting some members of the family and not others for the sake of money is just insulting let alone cheap!
I agrre – but I made sure that Uncle Gary wasnt on any invitation at our do! – what a scoundrel and philanthripest!
We had a no children policy at our wedding. It had nothing to do with money though, kids 5 and under would have been free. We just didn't want 25 children under 5 at our wedding!
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. If you don't have an account, you can register here.
