I.f you want to scream on your television then, boys, do i have the same for you. It ‘s a new reality show called Marriage or Mortgages where young couples in Nashville, Tennessee, have to choose between – you guessed it – marriage or a mortgage. Spoiler warning: Most choose to spend their life savings on a wedding instead of paying down. “We thought about it carefully,” they all explain, “and realized we were blowing thousands of dollars on a donut wall. [the latest wedding trend, apparently] important to us. A ceiling above our heads can wait, but we can’t show our love through Instagram sweets. “Sadly, many of these couples are having to reduce their big day because of the pandemic. At the same time, house prices are rocketing the U.S., making home ownership even more difficult for young people.
If you have enough money to pay down it is not clear that you have to choose between marriage and a mortgage. News News: you can have both! Thanks to the Wedding Industrial Complex, however, many people seem to think they need to spend a fortune on their nuptials. The average cost of a wedding is now around $ 33,900 in the US and £ 30,000 in the UK. If you can afford that, great. The problem is that not many people can, but have a flashy wedding anyway. A recent study found that 28% of US couples and 30% of UK couples are in debt to pay for their wedding.
I never wanted a big wedding. However, I am delighted that the pandemic has given me the perfect excuse to choose to do too much about “I will”. I’m getting married to Zoom soon, and I can’t wait. I literally can’t wait because my partner is eight months pregnant, and we have to get married before the baby is born for legal reasons. Marriage license: $ 35. Tux for the dog: $ 25. Marrying the perfect woman without spending your life savings on a donut wall: no price.
• Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist