We read recently that there’s been over £1bn worth of wedding loans issued this year according to information from Sainsburys financial department. Is that a good thing ?

It’s pretty much the worst two words you could put together isn’t it. “Wedding” suggests happiness, fun & celebration, “Loan” suggests misery, debt and hard times. So why have couples decided to borrow a billion to pay for just one day ?

Of course, your wedding day is meant to be the most special and memorable day in your entire life, but it is just one day, and the idea of marriage is for eternity.

Spending a fortune on a wedding isn’t like an investment, you won’t get your money back with interest. Spend a lot of money on a car and you may get some cash back one day when you sell it on. Buy a house and potentially you stand to gain money in years ahead. What you spend on your wedding has gone the next day, and although you have fantastic memories, do you really need to borrow cash and spend a lot to buy these memories ?

Today’s post isn’t saying “don’t spend money on your wedding day” - far from it, after all - we’re in the wedding business ourselves. What we’re advising is that you cannot enjoy your wedding if you’ve run up a great deal of debt trying to achieve a wedding that you feel others may expect. If you’ve got the money, and planning a big wedding makes you happy, then enjoy every moment of it.

When you get married, you’ll want to start on the right foot and create a solid foundation to build the rest of your life together, but if your wedding starts your married life in serious debt then you have to ask if it was all worth it ?

Statistically speaking, financial issues are second in the list of reasons that married couples break up, only behind infidelity. Therefore getting a “wedding loan” may not be the best start to your wedded life together.

So when would it be right to get a wedding loan ?

As we’ve mentioned in previous posts on this blog, the single most important part of any successful wedding planning starts with the wedding budget.  If borrowing is controlled alongside the wedding budget then it may not be such a bad thing. Not all couples are fortunate enough to have parents who offer to pay for weddings, that tradition is becoming more and more old fashioned.

Our suggestion is that should you find the desire to borrow money for a wedding, then do it as part of your budget, try to make the all the payments between the time of becoming engaged and the actual wedding day itself. That way, by the time your wedding day arrives, you can enjoy it fully knowing that everything is bought and paid for. Consider a credit card that offers an interest free period and switch your loan onto the card. This way you can pay back what you’ve borrowed without interest charges, but look closely at the small print, these cards may offer interest free, but most now come with a % fee payable when you switch the debt to them. If you can’t pay it off before the wedding, then we don’t recommend taking a loan.

Talking about the financial side of a wedding isn’t fun, but it’s necessary if you’re planning to start your married life happily together.