How One-Third of Millennials Pay for Their Weddings (Yikes)

Cash, check or plastic? One-third of young couples are choosing the latter to pay for a portion of their wedding.

It’s an alarming trend revealed in a recent wedding finance survey conducted by wedding website The Knot and digital payment service PayPal.

Though starting out married life mired in wedding debt is hardly ideal, financing wedding costs is slightly more understandable when you consider the hefty price of a wedding these days.

According to The Knot, the average cost of a wedding in the United States now tops $31,000 – a shocking figure when you consider the average U.S. household income is just less than $52,000. (And then there’s the cost of the honeymoon: The survey showed that 65 percent of couples do not factor in the honeymoon when determining the wedding budget.)

Financing a wedding on a credit card is not a smart financial move. Chances are it’s a move many young couples will regret, especially once they find out how much money they could have today if they had eloped and invested their wedding money in the stock market instead.

MarketWatch recommends that engaged couples consider this before taking on debt to say “I do”:

First, the cost of getting married happens to be just shy of a 15 percent down payment ($34,305) on what a median-priced home cost in August — $228,700, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. And, as unpalatable as this may seem to first-timers, nearly one-fifth (17 percent) of couples who get married will marry again (and likely end up paying for a second wedding), according to the U.S. Census.

The important thing for young couples to remember is that you don’t have to take on debt to get married. Check out “15 Ways to Save Big on Your Dream Wedding.”

Check out “What Your Ring and the Cost of Your Wedding May Say About Your Marriage.”

How did you pay for your wedding? How much money did you spend? Share your comments below or on our Facebook page.