Your wedding day will be one of the most important days in your life, and for sure, you will want to make it memorable, that’s why you will  be more than willing to spend unbelievable amounts of money on it.

A recent research by Infotrack, commissioned by Samantha Bridal revealed that today’s average wedding costs about KES 800,000.

On average this will be an estimated budget for today’s wedding:

• Food and catering: KES 250,000
• Décor and tents: KES 200,000
• Evening Party: KES 50,000
• Church: KES 20,000
• Cake and champagne: KES 30,000
• Card and program: KES 25,000
• Transport: KES 20,000
• Photo Session: KES 20,000
• Rings: KES 22,000
• Photos and video: KES 25,000
• Entertainment: KES 40,000
• Honeymoon (Local): KES 80,000

With the above high costs, couples have found themselves going for loans to specifically finance their weddings.

A wedding loan is essentially a personal loan which one would take out with either a bank or borrow from a chama. Such loans have helped many Kenyans their dream weddings,  but one question arises, is it ideal to take out a wedding loan?

I stumbled on the following pros and cons on creditkarma in regard to taking out a wedding loan. I figured it would be ideal to share them with you before you decide to  fund your wedding by taking a loan.

Pros:

For starters a wedding loan will help you throw a memorable wedding of your dreams without draining your savings. It wouldn’t be wise to spend all of your savings on a wedding, keep it for emergencies.

Wedding committees can be at times very disappointing. At most times members of the wedding committee might make financial pledges which in turn are taken into consideration while formulating the wedding budget. At the end, some members fail to honor their pledges and this can negatively affect the wedding plan, so wedding loans come in handy during such situations.

A wedding isn’t complete without a honeymoon, so wedding loans can help finance a relaxing honeymoon in a destination of your choice.

Cons:

Taking a wedding loan means you will be entering your new marriage with debt. Sad to say, but this can contribute to a weak foundation in your marriage.

If the current bank interest rates are to go by, you will find yourself saddled with high loan interest rates at the beginning of your marriage life, this isn’t good either.

Lastly, it isn’t quite practical taking out a loan to finance a four hour event. Such money could be put into an investment that will safeguard your financial future. A wedding loan will spiff up your wedding day memories, but in the end you’ll be saddled with debt just for throwing a big party.

Like the creditkarma guys put it, although a wedding loan could give you the wedding of your dreams, it could also land you in nightmarish debt. Wedding loans fall under the category of bad debts, its wise to avoid unnecessary debt.

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