How do people afford to get married these days?

Question

How do people afford to get married these days?

Answer 1

rack up the credit cards or make the parents pay for it.  I kept it small and only had what I could pay cash for and had budgeted for.  nothing big and fancy.  its overrated.  My hubbys best friend got married a few months later and his brides family paid for it all...including thousands in alcohol...and sadly no one remembers it b/c they were all drunk...so in the end the money you pay for in the small details doesn't matter.

Answer 2

How? Get themselves, or their parents, drown in debt.

That is unless your one of the wealthy family around us that can easily financed their big weddings.

Answer 3

Rich families?

Or they save up for it.  

Answer 4

Credit

Not my choice however.  I'm all about small, easy, and inexpensive

Answer 5

It doesn't actually cost much.  Keep the guest list to 20 people, have the reception at your house, and you're set.

People go so over the top making it a huge production with 100's of people in attendance and huge cakes and lots of flowers and it's just ridiculous.

Four generations ago, people just married in their "sunday best" and didn't even have wedding gowns.  Are marriages better today because people spend $50K on theatrics?  It's pretty doubtful.

I was married in a tiny church with closest friends, my wife had a cute gown, and the reception was at my parents house.  Total cost probably $3000 and there wasn't a dry eye in the place.

Answer 6

Getting married is not expensive, and being married can certainly save you some money. A marriage license and a JOP ceremony shouldn't cost more than a couple of hundred bucks.

Answer 7

family members can be a great help in planning a wedding. make a list  of people you know will help and decide whats going to be on your food menu. ask each family member, aunts. grandmothers, sisters, etc. two make you a pan of this or that and how many. put someone on decorations. ask each person in the wedding party to pay for their dresses and suits. ask a church member to decorate the church or dollar stores are always a good idea. you and the groom pay for  the hall again dollar stores for your decorations. there's your wedding

Answer 8

Parents !    Plus it's a waste of money since most people gte divorced.

Answer 9

Marriage doesn't *have* to be expensive. One can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, or $35 bucks and have a JOP. And then there are millions of options in between...

We got married outdoors (free), the notary was about $50, printed our own invitations, rented a hall and had the thing catered, for 250 guests.. In the end, it cost us about $3 grand, and we more than got that back in wedding gifts.  

Answer 10

How can they afford NOT to get married? All that dating around has got to be expensive. You have to buy them dinner, drinks, flowers, etc, etc.......After you get married, you don't have to worry about that stuff anymore.....  

Answer 11

Or simplify the wedding ceremony...

Answer 12

I can't speak for others but for myself... we just got married at the courthouse.  I know, lacking the romance or whatever... but in the end, it doesn't really matter, I have the same piece of paper everyone else has that's united me with my husband and it was much cheaper than a wedding!!  We chose to spend our money on starting our life together rather than a wedding-it gave us a better start financially!

Answer 13

Gotta keep a tight budget!! My Fiancee and I are having our ceremony in a park, I have a friend marrying us. (she is a minister) and we our just having a Big BarbQ/celebration after words. It makes no sense to spend all that money on one day when you have a entire life ahead of you to think about. That money can be a house or just a nest egg.

Answer 14

Easily.  You pay 50 bucks for a civil ceremony at the court house. If you're in it for the white dress, flowers and big reception, you're in it for the wrong reasons.  I got married in Vegas and used the money that some would be stupid enough to blow on a ceremony & reception to put as a down payment on a house.

Answer 15

How do people not? With the cost of everything, I don't know how anybody can make it on their own.  

Answer 16

I just had a cheap wedding, it wasnt small, but we didnt want to waste money on someplace fancy.  Hired a buddy to D.J. free.  Had family cook.  you can do it real cheap if you want.  

Do you want to have that fairytail wedding and pay 50 thousand dollars or is a simple wedding good enough?

Answer 17

We had a really simple wedding (mainly because I had watched someone at work have a virtual nervous breakdown over hers)! We just asked the vicar to do it as part of the normal church service, had a buffet in the church hall and made enough food so that some homeless feeding centres in the area could also benefit from our wedding. It was meaningful,  brilliant fun and stress-free. It was also really inexpensive. We know what we did is not for everyone  but it was absolutely fantastic!!!!!

Answer 18

Elope to Vegas.

Answer 19

We were married in our church office. I would love to have the big wedding one day. But for right now I'm fine!!

Answer 20

Keep it simple.  Put more money into your honeymoon.  Better yet, invest in pre-marital counseling before you go to the altar, and that'll go a long way to ensuring that you will have a marriage that will at least last until all your wedding bills are paid off.  Hallelujah!

Answer 21

well these days they plan years ahead