of the Motley Fool:
In my years as a financial advisor, I counseled many young couples regarding their financial matters. In that time, I never heard a newlywed couple say they wish they’d spent more money on their wedding. In fact, a year or two after the wedding day euphoria dissipates and couples start thinking about the rest of their lives together, most couples wished they’d spent far less cash on their big day. Let’s face it: A wedding day is just one in the long calendar of our lives.
A survey of 18,000 U.S. brides married last year found that their average wedding cost $27,000. And according to Carley Roney, co-founder of The Knot, “In 2011, 20% of U.S. couples spent more than $30,000, and 11% spent more than $40,000 on their weddings.” And that isn’t even including the honeymoon that, according to Bankrate.com, costs roughly $5,000 on average.
With financial problems cited as one of the biggest causes of divorce, draining our piggybanks on our wedding day holds massive potential for starting marriage on the wrong foot. Instead of plunking down a whopping $32,000 on average (wedding plus honeymoon), let’s see what financial options we open up by spending far less.
Let’s assume you and your spouse-to-be spend half the average amount on your big day and save the other half. Regardless of your financial goals, $16,000 is a great head start. Consider how this hypothetical savings can make an enormous dent in the six most common financial goals I heard from young couples.
September 14th, 2012 | 4:12 pm
These kinds of articles always have me scratching my head. Monsignor Pope over on the Archdiocese of Washington’s website had a similar blog entry about wedding expenses several weeks ago.
These articles always assume that the young couple is the one that pays for the wedding, and that they have complete control over the wedding. In my experience, the exact opposite is true. For my wedding (and for most of the weddings of people I know), the parents of the bride paid. And they controlled all the costs (not the honeymoon, of course). We really had very little say in how much money they spent on the wedding.
The articles always assume the young couple is the problem, that they are the ones spending/wasting money, that they are being unreasonable. But how often do they even pay or really control the wedding planning?
Shouldn’t the advice articles be directed at parents? My wife and I would have preferred a smaller wedding, frankly, and so would most people I know. All you need is the couple, a church, a priest, and some witnesses. But good luck getting pround parents to understand that.
September 17th, 2012 | 5:37 pm
I agree both with Matthew’s experiences being the norm for religious couples, and with what that means about who needs to hear these rants. (I think non-religious couples are more likely to pay for their own weddings.)
What is especially hard for outside observers to understand is that the couple may be making the choices, but the parents have set the budget. That is, the couple chooses a caterer, for example, but at a price determined by the parents.
When religious people decry wedding spending, they often complain that the donation to the church is not proportionate, not understanding that it is not the couple (whom the minister is necessarily planning with) who have determined the amount of the donation, but the parents who just show up that day.
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