When he got married, he thought he was giving his wife the wedding she deserved.
The floral decorations were extravagant, the dowry trays were beautifully arranged, and the ballroom at a 5-star Orchard hotel looked like something straight out of a royal fairy tale. Photos flooded Instagram and TikTok, making it look like the ultimate dream wedding.
Behind the smiles, however, was a financial reality no one knew about.
It Cost Them More Than They Could Afford
To make their dream wedding happen, the newlyweds took out a S$40,000 personal loan. Not for an HDB BTO flat downpayment. Not for emergency savings. Just for a single 4-hour banquet they believed had to meet everyone else’s expectations.
Two months after the banquet, reality set in. Instead of enjoying life as newlyweds or saving up for their upcoming BTO key collection, the couple found themselves sitting at their HDB kitchen table eating instant noodles.
“It wasn’t because we couldn’t cook. It was because almost every dollar we earned went straight towards repaying the bank loan and credit card bills.”
One evening, his wife quietly looked at him and said something that stayed with him forever:
“If I knew it would be like this, I’d rather we just did a simple ROM at Fort Canning and used the money to travel or renovate our flat instead.”
Guests Moved On; The Debt Remained
He couldn’t argue with her. The grand floral arches were gone. The guests had moved on with their lives. Even the wedding photos had disappeared beneath newer posts on everyone’s social feeds. But the monthly loan installments remained.
Looking back, he realised they had spent tens of thousands trying to impress distant relatives and acquaintances who barely remembered the menu, while sacrificing the early years of their marriage.
“The wedding lasts one night. The debt lasts for years. Is it really worth sacrificing your future for a single day that everyone else has already forgotten?” he questioned in a viral post on Threads.
What Do You Think?
Is a lavish wedding worth taking up years of debt, or would you stick to a simple solemnisation? Let us know in the comments.