This is one of the many wedding loan promotions I see in Lebanon – I scratched the bank’s name because the post is directed to couples rather than criticizing banks that are simply doing what’s good for them

As soon as I set a date for my wedding 3 years ago, I sat down with my wife and wrote down the estimated costs of a big wedding in a budget planner. Even though I am not a fan of big traditional Lebanese weddings, I had no choice but to settle for one in order to please everyone around me. To be honest, I didn’t think it was worth getting into a fight with both families just for one day and I was fine with the big wedding as long a we didn’t exceed the set budget (and did few things my way). It was out of the question for me to pay for things I could not afford or even worse take a wedding loan! For me, a wedding loan is the worst possible idea any couple could apply for and I wish banks would stop giving young couples this option in Lebanon.

I can understand people applying for personal/car loans or getting credit cards, or borrowing money from their parents and I’ve done all of them and still have credit cards that I use in emergencies or when I run out of money, but I would never consider a wedding loan because it’s a terrible investment at the worst possible time.

Just to explain how bad wedding loans are for newly wedded couples earning average incomes and why they shouldn’t go for one (assuming that the average cost of a relatively big wedding in Lebanon is around 25-30k for 250 people):
1- You are taking 20K and 40K loans at very high interest rates (up to 50% of the original loan sometimes) to invite 300 people to eat and drink and look fancy and you are barely getting 50% of what you spent back in the wedding account.
2- You are starting your marital life with a heavy and unnecessary loan and the expenses will keep on piling up once you move to your new place. No wedding couple wants to start a marriage with staggering debt.
3- Speaking of expenses, and trust me on that one, they will double and triple once you are living on your own, so having an extra loan payment every month is a bad idea, specially if you are taking a house loan as well.
4- Even if you’ve been dreaming all your life of a big wedding, you won’t be able to please everyone no matter how much you pay, so pay as much as you can to make the best out of it. I’ve done a big wedding with a very reasonable amount by looking after every single detail and trying to get the best offers and I still regret some of the costs I had to endure.
5- Your family and friends will be happy for you no matter what you do with your wedding and even if you don’t invite them. They will drink and sing and cheer for you even if the venue is your own backyard, and that’s what matters the most.

Some may argue that a couple may need to take a loan in order not to delay the wedding, but that’s not a valid excuse as they can plan a small wedding or maybe organize a wedding abroad and invite their direct families only. Again I’m not trying to judge anyone here and it’s a personal decision after all, but a couple being behind before even kicking off their new life together will affect every decision they make together and could prove detrimental to their relationship. All in all, if your parents insist on having a big wedding, ask them to help out with the wedding expenses like I did and if they can’t, I advise you to prepare a wedding with whatever money you have and make sure to take into consideration your honeymoon expenses because that’s the best part of a wedding (at least for me).