Loan for a wedding?

[NYC23]

Just wanted opinions really...

Is it an awful idea to take out a £5000 loan for a wedding? I haven't got any experience with loans at all...
How much approx would we end up paying back??

I did that as we went abroad to get married so killed 2 birds with one stone. What you pay back depends on your interest rate.

Yes it is an awful idea!

Getting married is the important thing, not the wedding day.

And marriage is hard work.

Worries about debt is massively stressful and puts lots of marriages under pressure.

Why don't you get married at a registry office and then save up for a big celebration when you can afford it?

Yes, it's a bad idea - if you think about it, the old advice not to pay fit something for longer than you use it makes a lot of sense. Mortgage - fair enough. Wedding - it's one day, but you'd be paying for it long after it's over. Do you really want to see money going out of your account, possibly for years afterwards, when it's done and dusted?

I think loans are for what you want them to be for. It is not going to ruin your marriage before it starts.

Can you afford a loan? Thats the question. Check out banks for rates of interest to see what you will pay back. They have calculators.

It might be wiser to take the amount you will be paying bavk on the loan and putting that in a savings account each month. E.g if you repayment is 200£ Per month for 2 years then just stash that away. Will be cheaper in long run and you can take 2 years to plan 👍

Bad idea. Money stress could ruin your marriage.

well it didn't cause stress in our marriage and I don't regret taking out the loan. The loan is long paid off now.

I don't think £5k is unreasonable tbh, if you were talking about £20k I'd say it's a stupid idea! Can you afford the repayments? How long will they be for? Will you be putting any savings in as well? (If so, could you do the wedding just with savings, no loan?)

I always use the rule that a loan should be to improve a situation you cant do in another way. (So like a mortgage because we cant all win the lottery, or car loan because you need to get to work) that rules out a wedding because its doesnt improve your life, its just a big party on one day. Marriage can be done very cheaply. The rest is 'extras' that are a choice and for fun. for one day. A debt will not improve your life.

Loan sounds a bad start to me - go for something a bit low key and be free of debt.

I worked two jobs and by booked wedding 3 years in advance and paid every month. Glad I started married life not worrying about paying the wedding off.

We got married abroad so our loan paid for the honeymoon as well as the wedding. It was probably around £ 4/5K at the time (16 years ago!)

Depends if you can afford to repay it. If you can why not? It's no better or worse than any other reason to take out a loan

Practical answer ...... A quick google of "£5000 loan repayment" will take you to a number of comparison websites. One of the first shows interest rates around the 4.2 - 4.7% range. Meaning monthly repayments over 3 years of £150 - £190 per month. Total repayment between £5300 - £5900.

So, there's some basic figures.
(And obviously that's just a basic Google search, so the actual figures for you will different).

Either you're happy with the idea of debt, or your not.
Either you can (easily) afford repayments of c. £170 per month for the next three years.

Assuming your wedding isn't tomorrow, then if you can afford a loan repayment, then could you save a slightly greater amount each month and in a year / two, you've got a few thousand saved.