The Tender Trap: Why Financing A Wedding and Honeymoon Via Visa is The Worst Idea Ever

On the most important day of your life and the sweet, delightful honeymoon to follow, chances are, you deserve the best. But can you afford the best? Just because you deserve it doesn’t mean you have earned it, and that sounds pretty sharp-tongued. But do some math, and take into consideration that financial strain is one of the top two reasons for divorce (the other is choices in childrearing). What difference does it make how beautiful your wedding is if you wind up separating three years later because of arguments over outrageous credit card debt?

To have a big, lavish, expensive wedding is nearly every little girl’s dream. From the multiple-thousand-dollar Alexander McQueen dress to the $200 per plate meals and top drawer open bar at the reception, the expense of a wedding can often cause fainting spells, especially among the parents of the bride, who customarily foot the bill in the American culture. With same-sex weddings also on the rise, gay and lesbian couples are in many instances outspending their heterosexual couple counterparts. But no matter whom, and no matter where, every effort should be made to pay for a wedding outright.

It doesn’t seem fair that a loving couple who is ready to jump the broom should have to wait just because of cash flow, but racing to the alter will often mean that many couples or their parents will be forced to charge it. A $25,000 wedding, after interest, and after taking months or years to pay down on the Visa or Mastercard instead becomes a $50,000 wedding. When we consider things on a smaller scale it looks like this: in the long term, the bride’s bouquet will cost around $500 when you’re making your monthly minimum payments, and this is assuming you’re not using the card for anything else after the wedding. To most people, that sounds a little absurd. If you’re the kind of couple who choses a $500 bouquet for the bride from the get-go and pay cash for it, that’s a personal choice, and with a budget that can withstand purchases like that, you’re probably not using your credit cards for any portion of the wedding. This means either you saved for your wedding day, or you’re wealthy. If you don’t fall into the wealthy group, it’s smarter to fall into the “saving up” group rather than the alternative and financially painful group that charges the big day.

The same glum truth applies to the honeymoon—with one caveat. If by charging your honeymoon vacation (of a reasonable price—we’re not talking three weeks at a five star resort in Bali) you gain miles, cash back, discounts on travel, or lower rates at specific hotels, it might not be all bad to put that five-day stay in Maui on the credit card. But an even smarter choice would be to use miles or “points” you’ve earned on your credit cards already to help finance the honeymoon, while leaving the credit card alone. The other option would be to use the miles and points you can, pay the difference outright, and use the credit card on your honeymoon only for small, specific things, like a few special dinners, buying souvenirs for loved ones back home, or ordering room service the morning after the wedding when a punishing hangover keeps you off the beach, out of the sun, and snuggling under the covers (all of which you have, of course, already paid for, not financed.)

Enjoy the big day. It’s a lot easier to walk down that aisle or stand at that alter knowing your financial future won’t be in tatters by the time you get home from your Carnival cruise (not your credit-financed grandiose jaunt to the south of France!) The sound of wedding bells is much sweeter when the bank account is in the black.