Advice on CH7 Sunrise: Put your Wedding on your Credit Card!

[Nards]

Sorry haven't read all the replies but...

Am I the only person who thinks it was a great tip? what's the problem if you have the money to pay for the wedding but you use the credit card instead, pay off the card straight away and use the FF for the honeymoon? it makes great sense to me. Not only that, it's easier to budget and account for all the costs in one statement.

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The problem with this tip is that most young people getting married are not like you, me and the rest of the people on this forum... They would go and rack up a 10K+ debt on their CC, then not be able to pay it off straight away, and therefore pay exorbitant interest, and potentially get themselves into a financial ditch before they even say "I do".

For the record, we did exactly that - paid for the expenses on the CC, and paid it off every month -and that is what we have done every day since then as well - but we pay the CC every month without fail and never spend more than we can afford to pay back. In fact we are leaving on a CC funded FF holiday tonight!

But it is irresponsible to make a blanket statement to the young masses to rack up debt like that, especially towards emotionally driven purchases like a wedding. This country has enough people with massive CC debt already.

Cheers,
Nadia

 

[wylie]

I suppose lots of people would be out of a job, but apart from that I cannot see a downside really.

I reckon if the wedding industry was not such a juggernaut, there could well be weddings that just don't happen. My theory is that a lot of girls/women get so caught up in "the big day" that they really don't stop to think if this is really the man who they want to spend their lives with. I think some get carried away with the romance of the dress, flowers etc and forget that the next morning, they are going to wake up with a normal man, and not the primped prince charming they married last night.

I had a friend who did this, and she admitted years later that it was really her mother wanting her to marry this man because he worked for an exclusive jeweller and she just got carried away with the romance of it all, the flowers every second day, the expensive engagement ring, yada, yada, yada. Sad really.

 

[BoatBoy]

A friend's wedding was $50,000 but "daddy" paid.

My DIL got married a few years ago. Luckily it was split 3 ways her mum and hubby, her dad and me, and the inlaws.......
........Now my other DIL is getting serious too. 2010 might be an expensive year.

I think they sound like DIL's as well

Dave

 

[BoatBoy]

Am I the only person who thinks it was a great tip?

But I think $55k is extreme.

but $54k is OK

Dave

 

[sue78]

Don't you think it is curious that you are happy to spend up so big on everything else but think spending on a dress for one day (just like everything else at a wedding ) is silly?

The big thing is the food, drinks and photography mainly and those things are quite important. Especially for asian weddings, it's the food that ppl talk about in years to come. We made our own invites, place cards, favors, menus etc For car, you can borrow a nice one from a rich friend lol...We hired a 53 Bentley in cream colour....looked wonderful in the photos, but at one point I was worried it would break down. It's a once in a life time. The bridal party tagged behind in a hired statesman $50 a day.

But I would prefer to hire a dress if they had that option here (and not A1 formal hire with limited selection!). You still get to wear your dream dress but at a fraction of the cost. Hubby and the bestmans hired the tuxes.

There's actually something called 'post wedding blues/depression'!! lol It was great but one day is enough! I actually think it's much better to be a guest, you can enjoy yourself, no stress, drink, chat, eat etc It's amazing how many couples we know that don't even get a chance to eat the food at their own wedding..too busy mingling.

 

[GoAnna!]

Why is it that if you book a hire car to take you to the airport, it costs two tenths of bugger all.
Book the same hire car for a wedding and use it for the same amount of time and it costs zillions.
Book a function room for a work dinner it costs a reasonable amount.
Tell them it's for a wedding, then a different and WAY more expensive price list comes out.
A nice dress for a Christmas dinner - quite a reasonable price. Same dress for wedding or school formal and the price triples.
There has to be a better, smarter and more cost effective way of doing a nice wedding without it biting into your portfolio LVR.

We found it a lot cheaper if we forgot to tell the suppliers that it was a wedding

 

[RumpledElf]

Given that we've been living in sin for rather a few years now and have a cute little illegitimate child as well as a joint mortgage, the family has probably given up on us getting married. And I'm over 30 now so its harder to brush it off as a passing phase ...

Meanwhile there's couples from both sides of our families getting hitched this year. One, a young (ie, older than I am) spoilt thing who has finally met a nice chap and is getting married in style. The other, a 50ish divorcee marrying the woman he's been living with for the last umpteen years. Given that my family tends to get married on the cheap or not at all and the other half's family tend to err on the side of pomp and circumstance I don't need to go to either wedding to know what's going to happen ...

 

[our obsession]

Rumpled Elf:

Given that we've been living in sin for rather a few years now and have a cute little illegitimate child as well as a joint mortgage, the family has probably given up on us getting married. And I'm over 30 now so its harder to brush it off as a passing phase ...

Same here Elf, I have never been one to do anything or something "just because others do/expect".

I think Mr OO may have even asked me to marry him once, he says he wont bother again. He is ...has, a more traditional kind of personality, perhaps he thought it was the "right thing" to ask. He says he is quite happy with our living in sin, there is nothing to fix or alter about it.

I never did get weddings, engagements and all that? I am happy for those that enjoy that sort of thing, and what they do with their own funds/resources is none of my business. The individuals within the "show" (if they are not in agreeance), might be advised to hone negotiaton and communication/assertive skills, we are all in charge of our own lives and decisions.

I love being in a relationship, but I certainly have no need or desire to have a wedding or celebrate my relationship in any way, (apart from with Mr OO), that is just me.

Relationships themselves take quite a bit of work, on the self and in negotiations with the other partner...my thoughts are, "the work" needs to be well on the table long before wedding planning and any of the hoo hah.

The most valuable work, important stuff, many of us may not have had much in the way of role models, being young, immature in way of knowledge, relationships, self esteem, how we perceive stuff, dreams that we have...relationships take committment and work, not wedding plans and money.

Just my thoughts.

 

[fmx_rider]

I read about $55,000 being the 'average' for a wedding also. I find this amazing. I don't know too many of the weddings I've been to lately that would be near that, and don't know many of my friends who would pay that much. I would like to see their data set (if they have one!).
I suspect that some very high end weddings skew the data (eg. Jamie Packer's 2007 $6M wedding)...they should really discount some high end outliers to give a more realistic 'average' number. Might find that 60% of weddings are between $10-20k, 30% of weddings 20-50k and 9.5% of weddings >$50k, 0.5% >$1M. Just my thoughts.

Ours cost $24k total for 100 guests 2 years ago, split 1/3 us, my parents, in-laws. Honeymoon cost about $25k.
We had no debt from all that (saved the money first) and also had bought our PPOR 1.5 years before, so I think we were fairly responsible.

BTW we also pay all bills direct to CC, to get FF, but clear it each month.

 

[exstatic]

I am too getting married later this year, original budget was $10k, but after doing some research and looking around its almost impossible to have a reasonably nice wedding for under 10k with 80 guests.

Reception @ $90 a head on a Friday $7200
Photographer - $2k
Dress - $1.5k
Bridesmaids Dresses 3 x $125
Cake & Flowers - $500

Already at $11.5k, and still got lots to go, and I have been trying to get things at average or below average costs while trying to keep good quality!

We have chosen to pay for our wedding ourselves, however the bride to be is an only daughter so we are in constantly having things purchased for us or mystery deposits in the bank account - So we are just pretending that they aren't happening and intend to pay back the parents some how!

 

[Mooze]

Wonder how much of the 55k is actually honeymoon though? Lot of couples I know waited for the honeymoon to do the big europe trip or similar.

Our wedding was around 10k - 3 days of activities, gorgeous photos, the expensive dress (2k) etc. Got silk/latex flowers - good enough that one of my bridesmaids asked to borrow them for hers. 70 guests who came from around the world and had a blast with things like climbing mt warning, lawn bowls at Nimbin, and hanging out at Byron bay. Put the whole thing on CC (paid off monthly) - used the points to hire minibus to get everyone around as well as get a few other things.

Still haven't been on the honeymoon though.

 

[sue78]

Good point Mooze, if you inc honeymoon then it can easily be $55k. FMXRider's wedding comes close at $50k.

Brendan - $90 reception is quite expensive..are u getting the beverage package with that?

When I think back, I tried to save loads of money but it still came to about $22k. My dress was only $900 and my fashion designer sil made stunning bridesmaid and flowergirl dresses for me. Material was less than $100. I even had it on a Sunday and got all the decorations thrown in plus free string quartet.

Maybe consider sundays for a wedding. start at 5 instead and finish at 10. ppl don't drink as much since they have to work next day and u get a good discount.

We did the europe trip and asia trip but you can do it for much cheaper than $25k. Hubby's British yet hasn't done europe so we did a contiki which was $3.5k each inc airfares and tour.

 

[peastman]

My daughters getting married saturday week.
She seems to want to spend far more than I think she should. I am in the industry and run The Wedding Directory for Melbourne Outer East as well as owning a Photography business. But most suggestions I made to her to use my contacts for mates rates where met with "but it's my wedding. I want things my way". So I just bite my tongue now. We are paying for most of the reception costs, but her and her fiance are paying the rest. I am not sure if his parents are contributing.
It will be a wonderful day I am sure, but more expensive than it needs to be.

The reason for price difference when you mention "wedding" is because most people who book a wedding want wedding service which is totally different to other functions. If you dont tell them its a wedding the the venue wont be setup for a wedding. No seat covers, bridal table, non co-ordinated colours with bridal party, different menu. No facility for wedding cake storage or presentation etc. The hire car wont be prepared with the ribbon. And besides all that, Brides and their mothers are very time consuming and difficult to deal with, so drama means extra charges.

 

[pennyk]

well, its been 15 years since I got married, and it was a big white flashy wedding (120 people or so... my mum kept inviting extras).
But we managed to keep the costs down quite well.
we had a lunchtime wedding, in winter, which was much less expensive than other times/ times of year. (at a proper function centre, which was beautiful)
I got my dress and rings on sale. My mum made cake, but we got it iced professionally. Our friends did video and photos (3 albums without a dud photo in them, they were amazing!). We hired white cars from Avis and organised our own drivers.
The one item which would have been the single most expensive thing, apart from the reception itself, was the flowers. I think I spent over $500 on the flowers, which was more than my engagement ring or wedding ring, probably more than my dress as well. I love big bouquets and wanted to have something really special. So, I splurged on that one area.
I think there are plenty of ways to keep costs down if you want to, while still having the big flashy white wedding!
Pen

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

We got married for about $8k in 2000 and I don't think we really missed anything. We didn't cut corners but were creative in the implemenation.

The reception was at the residential college where I lived as a student. They were delighted to have us for the wedding and some of the kitchen staff who I'd known for years worked for nothing. The cost per head was $25 for two courses.

Desert was the wedding cake. The chef got two chocolate cakes (1 large 1 small) and made a two tier cake out of it. A few shards of chocolate in the top and a ribbon finished it. It was served with ice cream (my favorite). We also got a huge tray of the same cake and ended up giving 200 students a piece of 'wedding cake' the next day.

Two of my uncles had the same model car (one white one grey). They were happy to help.

We did mange to spend $20k on the honeymoon - 5 weeks in Europe. That was money well spent.

We also managed to purchase our first IP 6 months later.

 

[josko]

Were they gob smacked because of the $55k or the CC tip?

We use and continue to use a CC to pay for all (and any) expenses that we can to accumulate FF points. The last European trip we did, the whole trip business class was paid for with FF points.

The bills we had to pay cost the same whether we had paid by cheque or using CC.

Cheers

The CC tip. I think my jaw dropped too!

Regards JO

 

[super_sam]

Thats still $200+ each and at home

The reception costs were approx $1000 for food and waiters, and around $900 for drinks and glass hire. $38 per head

 

[evand]

That was my thought as well. If they had the cash they'd be better off putting it on their cards and paying the card out at the end of the month.

Still, $50k is pretty OTT for people on around average wages.

I married in Assisi in Italy in 1999, spent a month after the wedding travelling Italy then 2 weeks in Ko Samui Thailand on the way home. Awesome! Cost about $15k i think.

 

[exstatic]

Brendan - $90 reception is quite expensive..are u getting the beverage package with that?

Yep it includes drinks! Pre-dinner with spirits, and just beer/wine for the dinner.

 

[The Y-man]

Didn't pay for the cars at our wedding - we just put tapes on my own and my friends' cars

Mind you, we ended up with a line of quite loud, eye-catching cars.... Celica GT4 done in Castrol/TRD colors, Galant VR4, Impressa WRX, Calibra, and my BMW 323i (the GT4, VR4 and BMW were all set up for track work - bit of a pain getting in and out of a racing seat in a sut tho....).

The wedding cake was a wedding gift form one of my friends (now that's the sort of wedding gift that's handy!)

Made our own invites.

Ceremony at a park (few dollars to the council).

Cheers,

The Y-man