British couples willing to pay an average £18,490 to get married

As new survey report by wedding insurers Weddingplan shows the average cost of a couple getting married in the UK are now risen to £18,490. The most expensive individual items on the wedding day expense list are the honeymoon, which will run the average Brit to slightly under £5,750, and the wedding reception, which costs the average couple in the UK approximately £5,500.

Eager to get married, unlikely historically when parents of the bride and groom helped the couple out with the cost of the wedding day, most couples in the UK now arrange to take out a personal loan to cover the cost of their big day.

Commenting on the cost of the average wedding in the UK, Weddingplan's Mark Randerson said, "A wedding is one of the biggest financial outlays a couple will ever make."

Unfortunately for many couples in the UK, with the repayment period for the personal loan for the wedding expenses being in the region of between three and five years, it is now the case that the average time to repay the personal loan taken out to cover the cost of the big day is now longer than the average marriage itself!

It is, therefore, very important that couples think carefully about how they are going to find the cost of their wedding and honeymoon, and if they decide that they want to go through the expense of a personal loan, rather than waiting and saving up the money themselves, they should make sure that their finances are adjusted to take into account who will be responsible for paying what latter on. For example, with the wedding reception and honeymoon costs being almost the same, couples may want to think about taking out two separate personal loans, one for the cost of the wedding itself and another for the cost of the honeymoon.

Indeed, given that many couples now have a number of individual financial obligations before they get married, such as possibly having their own home each, discussing their individual and joint financial issues with a financial adviser is advisable.

Richard Smith
09.02.07