A few months ago, I just had my beautiful dream wedding.
An evening garden wedding, fairy tale-like décor, stunning flower arrangements, while ending with an indoor dinner — everything was exactly how I imagined.
I had so much fun celebrating my nuptials with my friends and family, but what I didn’t expect was that the bliss only lasted for one night.
Paying for my dream wedding was a nightmare, because no matter how much my husband and I saved in the days and weeks after the wedding, it just wasn't enough.
Diamond rings, costly pre-wedding photoshoot, and instalment plan dinner banquet
The wedding bands and pre-wedding photoshoot already took up half of our budget, and we did not want to burden our parents by borrowing money from them. So, we had no choice but to turn to other financing options.
While researching, we came across a nice hotel that offered payment plans for both the wedding ceremony and banquet dinner. Although the price was steeper than other options, its 0% interest rate caught our attention. The smaller, bite-sized payments also made it seem more affordable and attractive to us.
So, we decided to go with the ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ plan. However, the pricing gave us a false sense of affordability, making us believe we could make the wedding as luxurious as possible since the payments could wait. In the end, we ended up spending far more than we had budgeted.
Honeymoon, then a mountain of wedding debt
We planned the honeymoon to Seoul beforehand, so we couldn’t delay it for the sake of savings. Due to wedding expenses being higher than expected, I suggested to my husband that we try to save as much as possible on this trip. So, we focused on sightseeing and steered clear of shopping sprees.
But after the honeymoon, I realised that our situation was worse than I thought, and things went downhill as we had to set aside most of our salaries for the payments.
My husband and I had to cut down on groceries and entertainment just to keep up with the wedding costs. There were even nights when we survived on nothing but biscuits and tea to save money.
On top of that, we also had house and car loans that placed even more strain on our monthly budget. All of these sufferings, just for one night of celebration.
I finally realised why more couples are now opting for smaller weddings. If I had known that my dream wedding would cost this much hardship, I would have chosen the same path too.
This article is part of TSS Confessions, a weekly column where we delve into personal finance topics that are unscripted and genuine real accounts from people.
