You can borrow money to throw a party.
Banks looked at the average American's decision-making process and thought, "Let's give these people 20% APR on centerpieces." The financial services industry spent decades developing risk models and credit scoring systems so they could confidently lend you $30,000 to pay for chicken or fish.
The article offers guidelines. Step one: consider whether financing a single day with a five-year repayment plan makes sense. Step two: there is no step two because you already f*cked up at step one.
Personal loans for weddings carry the same terms as personal loans for emergencies. Your transmission dies, you borrow $5,000. Your cousin needs her mason jars filled with wildflowers, you borrow $5,000. The bank doesn't distinguish between these scenarios. They charge you the same interest rate for both catastrophes.
The alternatives section is where it gets fun. Save money first. Postpone the wedding. Have a smaller wedding. Marry someone less expensive. All of these require impulse control, which is why they're listed as alternatives instead of the first and only option.
Some couple right now is sitting at a kitchen table with a loan calculator open, trying to figure out if they can afford to pay $680 a month for the next four years so their wedding has a photo booth. They're entering numbers. Adjusting the term length. Seeing if 60 months looks better than 48. They're running scenarios like it's a business investment instead of admitting they want to throw a party they can't afford.
The bride's father used to pay for weddings. Then equality happened and now you can pay 22% interest instead.
Photo by Jeppe Mønster on Unsplash
Leave a Comment