Is it worth getting into debt to have a lavish wedding?
Wedding photos from 2012 weddings in the UK and abroad by wedding photographer Elaine of Reel Life Photos
I love weddings – all weddings – just for the sheer emotion and happiness on the day, but behind all this beauty and sense of occasion could be years of planning and frantic activity. Yesterday’s news of a bride who had funded her wedding by systematically stealing money from her employers shows to what lengths and desperation to fulfil the dream, a bride (nearly always the bride) will go. She ended up in jail and missed out on her honeymoon in Mexico after her dream wedding to which she even invited her boss! She had a harpist, two bands, a saxophonist, face painting entertainers, a magician, magnificent fireworks display – even a free bar! – all funded by money that wasn’t hers.
Now obviously not everyone goes to those extraordinary – and underhand – lengths to get the perfect wedding they dream of, but we all know how easily it is to overspend like mad once we are on a roll. Take Christmas, for example. The January sales succeed to entice us even further, when our barriers to caution have already been breached, so borrowing – or in this lady’s case, stealing – money to have a grand wedding, is such a huge temptation.
If parents want to contribute, that’s fine. Families sticking together are wonderful, but don’t expect it as a right! As a wedding photographer, I have often been left without payment, or made to wait years and years, when couples have relied on their parents to fund elements of the wedding, then suddenly needed to pay for something else – emergency car purchase, lost job, new baby etc – with the money originally intended fund their wedding photography. I don’t mind showing compassion and understanding, to work out a simple monthly payment plan for them, but getting into debt often leaves them with a nasty taste in their mouth, and though the pleasure of a wedding day will remain as one of the greatest highlights of their lives, it is a real shame they have to go through this pain barrier to achieve their Big Day.
I have photographed weddings all over the world, up and down the UK, seen many glamorous and visually exciting wedding venues, absolutely love my job, but don’t want to see anyone get into a huge mess , all for their dream wedding! Talk to me if you need any help in finding a suitable place in which to get married, as over a 12 year career, and many hundreds of weddings, from a Bedouin tent in Jordan, a luxurious cruise ship round Sydney harbour, castles and wonderful country houses all over the UK and Southern Ireland to a simple marquee in France or on a farm, my mind is full with these wonderful days out – in all weathers and lighting conditions – am sure I could help you have a fantastic day too, which you will be able to revisit, time and time again, through the memories unlocked by my photographs!
xx Elaine
For more info on wedding photography and loads of pictures see www.LeedsWeddingPhotographers.com