More than 74 percent of couples go into debt to pay for their wedding day.
Megan Markle and Prince Harry’s royal wedding in May, followed by Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank’s royal wedding earlier this month, highlight the $45.8 and $3.5 million extravagance many couples feel they need to live up to. These illustrious and expensive royal weddings offer couples an unrealistic view of what a wedding “must” entail.
On average, Americans spend $33,391 on their wedding. According to CNBC, 16 percent of couples go $10,000 to $20,000 into debt, while 11 percent expect to borrow more than $50,000. Couples underestimate how much they will spend on their wedding by roughly 40 percent. On average, couples budget nearly $16,000 for their wedding but end up spending closer to $27,000. About 84 percent of couples spend more than they originally budgeted for.
Millennial couples—approximately 80 percent of those engaged today—pay for only 40 percent of their wedding, leaving parents and other family members to provide the remaining 60 percent. Twenty percent of millennial couples get their wedding fully paid for, with more than half of millennial’s parents pulling money out of their savings account to help pay for their child’s wedding–nearly 1 in 10 will dip into their retirement.
Growing up with princess movies and fairytale stories convinces girls their wedding will make them feel like royalty. By the time a man proposes, a girl often already has a lifelong vision of how her wedding will look. Influenced by chick-flicks, magazines and televised royal weddings, couples set out to plan “the best day of their lives.”
The continual glorification of royal weddings leaves girls starry-eyed at the perfection of the event. Girls with a ring on their finger dream about how to make their own day just as special. The truth is, the wedding they dream of is unrealistic and financially impossible. When faced with high price tags, couples ignore reality and choose to borrow money instead.
According to Byron Ellis, certified financial planner with United Capital Financial Advisers, going into debt for a wedding is financial suicide. Especially for couples who have recently graduated, adding wedding debt to student loans will require more than 10 years to pay off the wedding. Including interest rates, newlyweds end up paying almost double their wedding cost at $44,066 for a $25,000 wedding.
Because a wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime event, many couples believe it is worth going into debt for their dream wedding day. If they value their relationship, they believe they should be willing to pull out all the stops. Furthermore, they have a misplaced belief which tells them the better the wedding is, the better their marriage will be. Unrealistic goals as well as the social pressure of a wedding is often what fuels wedding debt.
It is important for couples to be realistic about their wedding and not get too caught up in a fairytale dream. Making purchases based on expectations or traditions should not be a main priority for a wedding. Financial energy should go toward elements of the wedding the couple really cares about, and a couple should not spend more than they have.
Going into debt over one day sets a couple up for financial stress in the early years of their marriage. According to CNBC, fights over money are the number one reason a marriage ends in divorce.
A wedding is an important and special day, but the truth is, it is just one day. A couple will have the rest of their lives to love and create their dreams, without the burden of wedding debt weighing down their marriage.
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