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- By: PETE CRAWFORD
- 3360
Are you about to tie the knot and want your bride-to-be to have an unforgettable dream wedding, with a horse-drawn carriage and a star photographer, a reception for two hundred guests at a stately home and an extended honeymoon on top of that?Times used to be much kinder to the groom. Long gone are the good old days when the bride's family paid for the bulk of their daughter's 'big day', including the entire cost of the ceremony and reception, flowers, wedding dress and bridesmaids' outfits.
If your fiancée's family is wealthy, you might be lucky and they won't even wince when having to splash out for a day they have been anticipating since their baby daughter was born – but, quite frankly, the reality is often quite different.
Today, each family's financial circumstances dictate who will contribute how much to the wedding or the couple might have saved up for their special day in advance.
Still, with the average cost of a wedding in the UK rising to more than £15,000, you would have to deprive yourself of a lot for a long, long time to hit that target. Could you muster that kind of self-discipline? Tough, isn't it?
But don't worry if you're not one of these exemplary savers – you are not alone. Plenty of couples either rely on their families or take out a loan to finance the best day of their lives.
And why not? Ideally your wedding will be a once-in-a-lifetime event you will remember forever. That's what the wedding loan companies will tell you – a loan is great because you will be able to have exactly the wedding you want, but will be able to spread cost over time.
But beware – once the word 'wedding' has passed your lips when talking to a provider the price tag might change, or in this case the interest tag.
Like the suppliers of most wedding-related items, loan companies will jump at the chance and label their products 'wedding loans' to attract couples who are looking to fund this particular event.
Surely, you will do your maths anyway when preparing for your 'big day'. So if you need to take out a loan, remember it is the interest rate that counts, and not the name of the product.
Does it truly matter whether your loan pays for a home improvement, a big purchase or your dream wedding? No. It is of absolutely no importance if you apply for a 'wedding loan', a 'personal loan' or what ever the product might be called. The interest rate depends on your particular circumstances and on the loan term.
Think about how much you can afford to borrow and how long repayments will take. The last thing you want to do is spend the rest of your married life paying off your wedding loan. You two are in love and will have a fantastic day anyway – no need to overspend!