You grow up, get married, buy a house and have 2.4 children. At least that's how things used to work. These days an increasing number of young (and indeed not so young) couples are having to make a choice between their dream wedding day and their dream of owning their own home.
In the US, the average wedding (excluding the honeymoon) cost $31,213 in 2014 according to the Real Wedding Survey. In Ireland, couples now shell out €19,635 on their big day (Mrs2Be), while in the UK, You and Your Wedding has found that the bill now totals £20,983.
Of course, £20,000 won't buy you a house in the UK, but it could make all the difference in obtaining a mortgage when used as a deposit. This is the take of the ING International Survey, published in June 2015, which examined whether couples were sacrificing their 'big day' in favour of home ownership.
The results speak for themselves: 60% of people across Europe were found to opt for spending on a house rather than on their wedding day. With home ownership becoming an increasingly unattainable goal and the cost of living rising faster than wages, betrothed couples seem to have a pragmatic mind-set when it comes to matters of the heart.
Ray Withers, Chief Executive of specialist property investment company Property Frontiers, comments: "The UK has a real problem in terms of lack of housing supply and that is one of the factors that has driven prices up in recent years. It's meant a fantastic boom for the buy-to-let sector, as young professionals opt to rent in city locations during the early stages of their careers, but the age of first time buyers has gradually been pushed up and up as a side effect.
