Wedding Trends and Financing - Essay Example

Investigative Overview: Wedding Trends and Financing This essay will examine some current wedding trends. Particular emphasis will be on wedding planning and the associated costs. The financing of weddings can have significant consequences. To be sure, these consequences may very well persuade many couples that, despite traditions and family expectations, formal weddings cause too many problems. In sum, for many young people today, formal weddings are ill-advised from a financial point of view. 1.1 Wedding Planning and Finances: Trends Weddings have not changed that much in recent times. Young couples still buy rings, arrange formal receptions, and arrange for bridal clothing and accessories. There are cakes and food to prepare. What has changed, however, is the cost associated with formal weddings. Indeed, there are a number of worrisome trends associated with wedding planning and finances. As an initial matter, weddings are becoming more cost-prohibitive for young couples with modest incomes. A recent Conde Naste study demonstrates that more couples in this demographic group are choosing, both out of pride and out of necessity, to finance their weddings without direct assistance from parents (Hefty Price: 13). For young couples with modest savings, this has resulted in an additional trend. Many modern weddings are being financed on credit; that is, couples are using their credit cards and their personal credit lines to finance an event which is very brief and which has no return on investment. As stated in a recent investigative study, "Consolidated Credit, one of the country's five largest accredited agencies, reports that so far this year 5.2 percent of its 6,000 new customers have cited wedding debt as a reason for seeking credit counseling, double the rate of wedding-related cases the company took on in 2000, just before the last recession began" (Bayot: 1.1). It can be seen, therefore, that an additional trend is for wedding financing to cause young couples to turn to credit counselors and other external advisors. Significantly, there is no corresponding trend to seek professional financial advice earlier in the wedding planning process; instead, the trend is for the couples to recognize after-the-fact that they may have overextended themselves financially. Even when couples recognize beforehand the importance of creating a reasonable budget, there are other pressures which encourage extravagant spending. Some people have justified excessive spending as a matter of pride or as a matter of tradition. This gives rise to another trend, which is the desire of young couples to have a formal wedding in order to please older family members and friends. In sum, it can be seen that these trends, increasing costs and risky financing methods, can have several negative impacts. How the marriage handles these pressures and burdens is increasingly relevant. 1.2 Impact on Subsequent Marriage One study has stated that, "There has been no data collected on whether wedding debt is a factor in the increase in personal bankruptcies. But in some cases, such counseling is a step on the road toward bankruptcy" (Bayot: 1.1). Clearly, however, the new marriage is burdened with higher levels of debt. This makes the couple more vulnerable to downturns in the economy, more vulnerable to minor changes in interest rates, and less able to begin investing in productive assets. These debts may take from between five and ten years to pay off in their entirety. In the meantime, the subsequent marriage is characterized by sacrifice rather than growth. Disposable income is allocated to credit card interest and principal. It may become more difficult to have a child in the short-run. It may be impossible to purchase a house or to attain additional credit on favorable terms. In addition to these financial consequences, there may also be significant impacts on the emotional health of the spouses and the durability of the marriage itself. The financial strains may result in feelings of insecurity, fighting about how to get the couple's finances back into order, and accusations that the wedding was a foolish or a bad idea. The president of a leading credit counseling company noted, quite seriously, that ''Paying off these weddings is going to take a heck of a lot longer than the few hours the party lasted, maybe longer than the marriage lasts'' (Bayot: 1.1). The potential negative impacts, in short, are varied and real. 1.3 No Need for a Formal Wedding How do these trends and potential impacts affect me on a personal level. First, not being married, I feel lucky to know about these potential problems beforehand. Marriage, in my view, is a long-term investment. It is an investment in another person, in a family, and in the financial security of the family unit. Although I would like to have a formal wedding, I would also like to have a wedding which is cost-effective and reasonable in light of my particular financial constraints. Second, I do believe that weddings are a valuable tradition. It is a time for families to get together and to offer good wishes and thanks. It is a time for family networks to expand and to become more inclusive. For these basic reasons, I would like to have a small formal wedding; nonetheless, a formal wedding will not make issues of cost and financing irrelevant. Quite the contrary, I would forgo a formal wedding if the costs were too high, or if I was unable to pay for the wedding in a reasonable and financially responsible way. 1.4 How to Finance Costs The potential costs, quite frankly, are staggering. Financing is a broad concept, and I would use this breadth to my advantage. First, because I view weddings as a family event, I would plan a wedding budget which emphasizes the aspects of weddings which are appealing and exclude those aspects which are peripheral or, as noted before, matters of pride. I would invite a small number of important people, have the reception at a family member's house, and set maximum figure to be expended. With these guidelines, I would then make more specific choices about how to pay for the wedding. First, credit cards are expensive. Putting diamond rings and bridal gowns on a credit card is asking for trouble. The interest rates are high, and delays in repayment can risk default and poor credit ratings. Thus, my financing methods would be comprised of three main parts. First, I would use a portion of my personal savings. This is interest-free and I can build up my savings again without expensive credit card debt. Second, if I need to borrow, I will borrow from my parents. This money will be interest-free and there are no risks as with credit cards. Finally, I might use credit if there is a particularly pressing expense. I would limit this to an unforeseen and emergency expense. Works Cited Bayot, J. New York Times.(Late Edition (East Coast)).New York, N.Y.:July 13, 2003pg.1.1. Accessed 24 September 2006. http://library.cardean.edu/pqdwebdid=357864791&sid=3&Fmt=3&clientId=46656&RQT=309&VName=PQD. ''Hefty Price For 'I Do's' ''. Consolidated Credit Counseling Services; Conde Nast Bridal Group; Census Bureau; Wards AutoInfoBank; the College Board; United States Department of Agriculture)(pg. 13) Read More