To take out a loan or not take out a loan that is the Question?

Are you referring to a loan for your wedding?

I would highly discourage anybody to go into debt for a wedding

I agree with PP. It's not worth going into debt for a party. Cut your guest list and do a cake and punch reception (at a non-meal time) if money is tight. That's what I'm doing

The majority are going to tell you not to do this, have the wedding you can afford, ect.

I took out a loan for my wedding.

t’s a small wedding that I didn’t have time to save a year for due to special circumstances. I will say if you choose to do this, only loan what you can comfortably afford to pay back.
What if you lose your job? Have a medical emergency? Damage your house or car? You need to think about what you can reasonably afford even in a worse case scenario. You will tank your credit if you rack up debt you can no longer afford to pay. Be careful.

View Quoted Comment Yes like a personal loan

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much for the advice.

Plan the wedding that you can afford

Never ever ever. Hard enough to get married with debt you’re both probably bringing to the table. Don’t ads more. If you can’t cash flow it you can’t afford it is my motto. My fiancé and I are also on a debt free journey so it’s obvioualy a hard no for us

I would advise against this, but if you do go this route, only take out what you can afford. More ideal to use your current cash flow/savings to pay the majority of the wedding costs, and a small loan to cover the rest (if needed). However, that doesn’t mean spend $2000 on the wedding and finance $30000 (just throwing examples). Make a budget, see what you can afford, and go from there.

Obviously it’s better to not take a loan, but if you must, be smart about it. Look into your current expenses, and see how a new loan payment would fit. There are plenty of tools online that you can play with to get a baseline idea of what your monthly payments would be if you take x amount of dollars. Also, adjust the interest rates when you use them. Yeah, the lowest interest rate may be advertised at “as low as 3%,” but that doesn’t mean you’ll get that 3%. Your interest rate (which affects your monthly payment) will be determined mostly from your credit report (not just your credit score), which includes your debt to income (huge factor for lenders), credit utilization, derogatory information, etc.

If you can afford the payments, okay. If the loan payments will strain your budget or bankrupt you if something catastrophic happens, absolutely not.

I would recommend that you don’t take out a loan. Plan something that you can afford. Have a smaller wedding, do more DIY, elope and have a small backyard party, etc.

I'm not going to lie I got a second credit card am that is what I am using for a lot of our wedding expenses, but in my case my main things such as venue, dress, photographer, catering, and DJ are already paid for so the credit card is just for the small things but each check I also take out what I put on the card so when the statement comes I already have the money to pay it off. It is building my credit as well as giving me a small window to get the things I need for the wedding. The decision is totally you and your FS decision to make but like PP only take out what you can pay back

Not. Definitely not. Please do yourself this one huge favor. Having the wedding you can afford will feel more authentic and years from now as you look back on it, there will be a certain charm in that.

It’s bad enough to make payments on a tangible asset like a car or a house, but when you’re making payments on a party that’s long since passed, in order to feed people, many of whom you haven’t seen since, you’ll wish you had that money back. Strive to be debt free as early as you possibly can in life....that starts by not spending money you don’t have on things you don’t need.

View Quoted Comment Thank you for advice

NOOOOOOOO don't do this. Postpone your date until you can save the $$ for the wedding you want, or scale down your plans to get married sooner if you'd like. I would never, ever, ever go into debt for a wedding.

I wouldn't suggest starti g the marriage out in debt, it's just added stress

Thank you so much for everyone advice!!

I took out a loan for our wedding. And it was the best decision we made. Not a crazy tremendous amount but it was enough to finish off our payment for the venue, chair rentals and alcohol. The rest we’re buying as we get paid.
My monthly payment towards the loan is a very reasonable price and it’s also helping our credit as we go. It’s a win-win situation.
So to me, personally, it’s a good idea.

I wouldn't. What is your budget for your wedding without taking on debt?

View Quoted Comment 10,000 or less

View Quoted Comment

That's a great budget. I'd stick with that, no added debt.