Dream Wedding
One in five single women already saving for their dream wedding before they have eben found Mr Right according to a new survey.
Big budget celeb weddings have sparked a new saving trend amongst single women - an incredible one in five ‘Wedding Stashers’ are already saving for their dream day, despite having no ring on their fingers.
Ahead of the Rooneys’ three-day, £5 million extravaganza, singletons in Birmingham and Leeds top a UK league table of women who are stashing their cash so they too can have a day fit for the pages of a magazine.
A designer dress (46%), long-haul honeymoon (43%) and expert wedding planner (27%) are now Big Day ‘must-haves’- in fact, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’s Italian castle wedding is the celebrity bash most single women aspire to.
More than four in five (85%) women told Norwich Union researchers that extravagant celebrity nuptials set the bar to spend big on a wedding, but nine in ten (93%) claim the old tradition of the bride’s parents footing the bill is dead.
No surprise then that, even with their secret wedding stashes, girls expect to rack up on average, an additional £9,523 in wedding debt. Some are even prepared to re-mortgage their homes (26%) or sell family heirlooms (17%) for their dream day.
Expert wedding planner Zoe Lingard, said: “Girls today know exactly what they want, down to the last detail, and have usually pored over magazine spreads - of the WAGs weddings in particular - so I’m not surprised that saving starts early.
“Most brides though don’t have a footballer’s or Hollywood budget so, even with their stashes, many will start married life with great memories of their wedding – and the debt to show for it.â€
In fact, a quarter (24%) of women said they’d get a second job just to get their dream day, whilst 45% will happily borrow from friends and family to make the sums add up.
Almost half (41%) plan to blow their life savings on getting hitched, while 14% will turn to credit cards and one in three (34%) will take out a loan.
Carole Jones of Norwich Union, said: “When it comes to covering the cost of saying “I do†it seems most brides-to-be are prepared to beg, borrow and even re-mortgage their home to get the wedding of their dreams.
“A wedding might be the most important day of a girl’s life but it is just one day – single women should also be thinking ahead to how they plan to fund their retirement years and consider putting some of their secret stashes in a pension instead.