Financial Stability and Money Making Decisions Before the Wedding
My husband and I have been married for almost six years. In that time we have had two children, purchased a home, dealt with my school loans, battled layoffs and a few job changes. There are a lot of changes to deal with in a marriage and with each one it seems that financial stability is always at the top of our minds.
Going into the marriage, we wanted to start off on a good foot. A new baby was on the way, I didn’t have health insurance at the time, and the cost of a wedding was very gut wrenching to think about.
Recently I read an article about cutting your wedding costs in half and it took me back to the time of our marriage. The article mentioned that in 2011, 20% of U.S. couples spent more than $30,000 on their wedding, and 11% spent more than $40,000!
The biggest cause of divorce is due to financial problems. My husband and I didn’t want our wedding to be a contributor to that so we decided to get married at the courthouse. While this wasn’t my wedding that was dreamed about as a child, it made sense to us.
Because we decided to have a court house wedding, our debt was paid down massively, we were able to spend a little more on our honeymoon, we had enough money to prepare for our unborn child, and with the proper budgeting resources- such as the ones available from Genworth Financial- we put a down payment on our first home.
What do you think about the average spending of $30,000 on a wedding?
*Disclosure – This post was inspired by Genworth Financial
Money is better spent on saving for a house or traveling.
I think $30,000 for a wedding is crazy. You could use that money to put toward a home. My fiance and I will be getting married at the courthouse. We hope to be able to use the money we save on a wedding for a nice little honeymoon and to put towards a house. Thank you for the great post!
Outrageous! My wife an I rolled our wedding and honeymoon into one by getting married in Key West while on a cruise. We had about 15 friends and family with us, it was a great time and a heck of alot less than 30 G’s!
I think spending that much on a wedding is ridiculous! Now a days, I think people focus too much on impressing others and not logically thinking about their own future.