As a growing number of Gen Z and millennial couples in India are choosing to pay the wedding bill themselves, moving away from the historical support their parents have traditionally provided, this trend may see marriage-minded young Indians cutting financial security and safety to become social media stars. This, however, brings with it a lot of financial burden, even as the dream chases on attaining financial freedom and personalistic motivation. From IndiaLends Wedding Spends Report 2.0, 26 per cent of the self-funding couples find personal loans to be one of the possibilities via which wedding expenses can be funded; among those 68 per cent seek loans between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, indicating the trend is upward while securing loans, especially that for the wedding season is on the rise.
Thus, social media is also on the radar for this trend, where the photo opportunities of 'Instagrammable' moments and personally, uniquely curated weddings take preference over everything. Destination marriages, themed weddings, and lavish motifs have found their way into acceptability if they garner some 'likes' on Facebook/Instagram and attain 'validation' online. However, advisors caution that such choices may come at an unbelievable financial cost that would impact financial stability. The interest rates of personal loans, including wedding loans have just spiked to all-time highs of between 10 per cent and 24 per cent.
Furthermore, there are the late fines and credit score hits that come with such repayment, possibly cumulative with long-term effects on future borrowing capability.
The notion of self-funding your own wedding is really thoughtful since this would relieve parents from the burden. However, this is best applied to those who have been saving up for their wedding. For those without savings, however, taking out a loan actually does all the unnecessary work for them, especially as newlyweds go about their lives together. The financial advisory is actually suggesting that young couples are often thinking about their budget and the repercussions of wedding loans on their goals in the future.
Weddings are memorable and mostly happen only once, but the debt will haunt a lifetime and may harass life's milestones, such as buying a house or having children. Couples might also consider less costly yet significant celebration ideas where shared values can take precedence over social media extravagance.
