We are getting married in just over two months and worked out we were going to be £4000 short to get everything we needed for the wedding and ensure we had a great honeymoon. Had a quick look online to see where had the lowest rate etc.

Loan is going to be over 18months but still wanted to get a low rate. Made one enquiry online (Beat that Quote) and have since been contacted by what I can only describe as crooks. We have a good credit rate and never really had any problem with month by companies started calling me offering me loans with APR of 80%+!

Have since gone with the best product I could find and made a successful application but am still getting calls from dodgy loan brokers. Scares me to think some people might actually take out one of their loans if they think that's all the can get

sod it pal, do your guests really need white roses on the tables and all that bling. Just spend what you have, and if you must borrow money can you not speak to family and close friends. Hope your wedding goes well

You dont NEED £4000 worth of extra stuff beyond what you can afford for your wedding you WANT it. I would also consider whether that want is more than your want to start married life debt free.

£4,000 short??? How much are you spending in total?

£4,000 short??? How much are you spending in total?

My thoughts exactly 😯

£4,000 short??? How much are you spending in total?

£4000?

agree with obiT

before we got married we wanted
honeymoon in japan
weddng with all the stuff
buy a new flat

in the end we ditched the honeymoon and got friends to chip in on the wedding-friend who likes photography to do the photos, had the wedding in a casa rural instead of a posh hotel etc. the guests make a good wedding not all that stuff. good job because if we had splashed out on wedding + h'moon blah blah we'd never have been able to get the flat we ended up with as a result.

0% Credit cards?

…but as others have said. If you are having to resort to legalised loan sharks then maybe scale things back a bit?

couldn't agree more with the others,

if you need to borrow the money then you can't afford it, its simlpe,

going into married life stacked up with debt is not exactually a good idea
and when vat etc is just about to go up to 20%!, warning signs of tougher times ahead maybe?

we spent 4K total on our wedding, we had about 35 guests, it was in a nice hotel, the actual service was in our local church, we spent 1K on our honeymoon and went to Bali and flores for 3 weeks and backpacked budjet style,

six yrs on we are debt free, own our own large house, have no mortage ,2 cars on the drive, 8K of mountian bikes in the shed, have 2 beautiful little girls and my wife doesn't have to work,

not luck, just well thought out but most importantly did it for ourselves and not so people thought we were better off,
you should try never arguing about money, its the bestway to live in a marrage

i'll lend you 4k @ 7.5% apr 😉

Not a great way to start married life in debt. Weddings seem to have got of hand these days, crazy money for one day.

you should try never arguing about money, its the bestway to live in a marrage

That sounds rubbish…..the best part of arguing is the making up after, nowt beats angry sex.

I'd take a look at your figures again and see if you can reduce the shortfall 1st. if you must have that £4k then go to your bank, they must have reasonable deals.

Getting into debt to pay for the wedding, madness, a divorce will surely follow.

Question, who is the wedding for? The price is a consequence of your dream- all the ideas that you want. Or is the price calculated for things you need for the wedding to look 'right' for others.

six yrs on we are debt free, own our own large house, have no mortage ,2 cars on the drive, 8K of mountian bikes in the shed, have 2 beautiful little girls and my wife doesn't have to work

Oh yes and that is directly because you "only" spent 4k on your wedding 😀

I agree with the sentiment of suggesting not starting out married life in debt but no need to trot out what a perfect life you have as proof! Material things are not everything. 🙂

I was thinking that too maxray! Me thinks a windfall or a very significant income has more to do with that story than not having white roses on the tables 😆 You don't "magic up" £200K+ (buy a mortgage free house, 2 cars £8K of toys) in 6 years on one income by not taking out a £4K loan!

Again, I do agree with the sentiment. Weddings do not need to cost a fortune to be fun and meaningful. But as the op has not indicated the total spent it is a little difficult to pass judgement. I agree though, there are some nasty bastards out there ready to financially rape anyone desperate enough to fall for their charms.

an old mate of mine had a similar lifestyle, big house with no mortgage, cars etc etc

Not so good when he got caught though and now doing 14 years for armed robbery (obviously not saying the poster above got his wealth from anything illegal)

Money and stuff ain't everything, peace of mind and happiness take some beating

six yrs on we are debt free, own our own large house, have no mortage ,2 cars on the drive, 8K of mountian bikes in the shed, have 2 beautiful little girls and my wife doesn't have to work,

Sounds like you could have spent £4k on canapés and still been ok.

What was the point of providing that info though?

What was the point of providing that info though?

I think everyone is quietly forming their opinions of ski after that little post!

Is the OP my cousin? She insists on getting married in Harrogate and expects everyone else to shell out for a min of £70 for a PRemier Inn (Hotal is £120 ea per night). How she can afford it when she's finishing some sort of degree and her other halfs already in debt, i dont know. Plus why the hell should we have to pay out so much just to go to her poxy wedding? Its 50/50 whether we'll actually bother tbh.
Apparently she's going to buy a house next year. Yeah right!

People have different approaches and perception to debt. Mine is abject fear of owing someone money whereas other people will happily put their weekly food shopping on the credit card and soundly sleep at night.

whereas other people will happily put their weekly food shopping on the credit card and soundly sleep at night.

To be fair, that can be a sensible more if your finances are planned correctly. For example, we have a flexible mortgage so we can overpay and subsequently take money back out as often as we want without penalty. We overpay by £500 a month at the beginning of the month, pay for all our food shopping on our 1% cash-back credit card then take out what we need from the mortgage account at the end of the month. That way we chip away a bit at the mortgage whilst the overpayment is in the account (plus any left over if we spend less than £500) and also get a cash rebate each year. The credit card is always paid off in full each month.

But you do have to be organised to do that I admit.

My bestmate used to have the 'unorganised' approach!

Thanks for that bit of willy waving Skiboy 👿

My bestmate used to have the 'unorganised' approach!

And too easy to let it happen to you. I have all sorts of reminders set up in my Outlook calendar so I can't forget and I still find it a pain every month.

nickegg. So what? I own an M3, Mondeo and a Lotus Elise. Its the internet- we can pretend what we 'own' 😉

Skiboy earlier:

Sure is a strange thing to "need" a big loan for.
Skip the wedding part and just have a honeymoon.

I'd echo the sentiments of all the other wise fellows on here. I would seriously re-evaluate what that 4 grand is for. Think of 4 grand being at least 10plus once you've paid off a loan over a long period. Is it seriously that worth it ? Assuming you want a honeymoon house etc then I would be looking at the long term rather than roping myself. And skiboy – that's nice well done, probably not that helpful to the op.

Bear in mind that its "your" day so its how you should want it to be, now how you think others will want it to be!
I'd love to have a big wedding, but tbh, i'd enjoy a smaller more intimate wedding with people who i actually want to be there, rather than doing the right thing for the sake of family harmony!

whatever, it was 530am ffs 😉 the point was why spend more than you can afford, i could go out at lunch today and get a huge loan and buy a massive pe-us car etc but i would much rather drive around in my landy or golf both 10yrs old and paid for, imo theres too much keeping up with the joneses in this country, must have cant wait and all that, we have all had our brains programmed, down the road from me most homes have 3-4 cars on the driveway all just a few years old most of them sh1t cheap models(but must buy new to give the perception of wealth), they are all living in little ex-council houses in front of argos plasma tv's strapped to the pins with debt for what ?,

it's the celeb culture, i blame it on the football..and the foxes.

whatever, it was 530am ffs

Counting your mountains of money?

Skiboy at 5:30am:

😉

I got married a few years ago. Started married life debt free.

Borrowed £5 to buy a wheelbarrow to start my own gardening business and do you know what I'm worth now?

**** all, and I still own £5 for the wheelbarrow.

Good luck with your wedding don’t listen to these lot £4k is not a lot of money, not ideal to get yourself in debt. Then again most of us have mortgages (debt) etc. so just another bill. Do what you think is right again £4k is not a lot of money.

My whole wedding cost less than £3k. The secret was to only give MrsSP 4 weeks notice, that way nobody had enough time to interfere.

Can I willy wave too? I could pretty much make the same list as Skiboy apart from that I don't earn enough that mrs-aracer dosen't have to work (though we do only do 7.5 days a week between us). Yes I had a nice little inheritance which meant we had less mortgage to start with – and also the luck to buy at the right time. It also took a bit more than 6 years to pay off.

The thing is, there was a point to his post. Just like him our cars are old, and we're also pretty prudent with money. Have never had a loan apart from to buy a house. As I mention, it's not like we earn a lot. It's just that as he says, people do waste a lot of money on stuff – money they don't actually have but have to borrow. I appreciate we have it fairly easy and a lot of people struggle a lot more without being wasteful, but then some people struggle because they're wasteful despite earning a lot more than us.

Oh, and I wouldn't dream of taking out a loan to pay for a wedding – have a wedding you can afford. If you need to meet other people's expectations get them to chip in!

Then again most of us have mortgages (debt) etc. so just another bill.

So put it on the mortgage and pay off your wedding over 25 years? 🙄

I can;t do being in debt, annoys me. I coudl willy wave but i never do so i won;t start now. I would cut back on the trimmings and enjoy the day. Our wedding was cheap even though we could have had themost lavish affair without batting an eyelid – but thats not us. Irrespective of the cost we had a great day and if your wife to be really really wants it all and can't compromise then you have to ask yourself "WTF and WhyTF am I doing this". Harsh but true.

Can I willy wave too? I could pretty much make the same list as Skiboy apart from that I don't earn enough that mrs-aracer dosen't have to work

Did your financial clout allow you to buy 2 beautiful little girls aswell? 😀