We travelled to Bristol the day before, taking our time, stopping for lunch and generally feeling pleased with ourselves for having the good sense to enjoy a relaxing journey, excluding, of course, the fun time everyone has at the M6 / M5 intersection.
My wife and I lived in Bristol for more than 15 years and had a number of friends to visit during our relatively brief stay; the only problem we encountered when arriving in the city was an unexpected glut of new road layouts; traffic squeezed from two lanes into one; a forest of ‘one-way’ signs and extended bus lanes. I used to know this city like the back of my hand, but it’s changed markedly over the past decade. Nevertheless, we managed a whistle-stop tour of some friends’ homes and savoured dinner with four others at the city centre hotel where we were staying.
Eventually, a long day fashioned a good night’s sleep. Actually, it was rather too good because we overslept, an unwelcome start to the ‘Big Day’ we had been invited to celebrate. We were in town for the wedding of a very good friend’s daughter and now found ourselves against the clock, a self-inflicted, if minor, setback perhaps, although one that can rapidly flare into words or accusations along the lines of “Have you moved my shoes?” or “Didn’t you pack my blue-and-yellow tie?”
Neither question elicited a response from the other half because rather too abruptly, it was 11.30am and the realisation hit us that we had to be at the church no later than 12.45pm for a service schedule to beginning at 1pm. Suddenly, the petty wrangling evaporated and we were both back in supportive mode. Of course, our taxi was a few minutes late, though it felt like half an hour, and while we remained up against the clock, we arrived at the church with more than five minutes to spare. Even the sun made a belated appearance.
spare. Even the sun made a belated appearance. Marriage continues to enjoy a surge in popularity. The latest UK figures, for 2022, (statistics for 2023 will be published in November 2025) show that there were more than 246,000 weddings, an increase of 12.3% on 2019. Looking around the congregation, the vast majority of whom were, understandably, of similar age to the bride and groom, it was evident that a number of couples dressed in their wedding day finery, were looking forward to inviting guests to their own big day in the not-too-distant future.
Getting married is an expensive business and wedding-related costs have risen in unison with everything else over the past few years. In addition to expenses related directly to the wedding, we must add the cost of hotels, cars, entertainment, catering and, increasingly, a wedding planner, among other things. According to the website Bridebook, the average cost of a wedding today is £20,822; add the ring and honeymoon and that figure rises to £26,583. If you want to get married in London, you will, on average, end up stumping up £36,778.
Later on in the day in Bristol, the marriage ceremony successfully completed, the speeches delivered with aplomb, a large, tiered cake cut, a perfect first dance concluded, top buttons loosened slightly and carnation-clad jackets hanging on the back of chairs, I finally caught up with the bride’s father, a guy I’ve known for 41 years. “You’ve already been through this,” he said by way of introduction (my daughter got married five years’ ago), so you know how eye-watering the cost of this is. His daughter and son-in-law made what he called ‘decent contributions’ towards the day’s expenses, but, he said, “it’s my only daughter, so we dug deep to ensure she enjoyed a very special moment in her life.”
That’s an endearing phrase: nowadays, a wedding is more than just a one-off ceremony and very few couples in their twenties and thirties can afford to spend best part of £30,000, especially if they’re thinking of buying their own home.
Often, this is where Mum and Dad come riding to the rescue, financially-speaking, when a young couple announce their intention to wed. Yet while they may have declared everlasting love for each other, very few younger couples have twenty five thousand or more handy with which they can plan and host their dream wedding.
Traditionally, the bride’s parents are responsible for picking up the wedding tab and while these costs are increasingly shared in part, it remains the case that the bride’s family can expect to pay the bulk of the wedding’s expenses.
There are several funding options. Three of the most popular are: borrowing money from the bank; dipping into cash savings, or releasing equity from the home.
If neither of the first two alternatives appear attractive (bank loans must be repaid and depleting cash savings holds limited appeal), then it’s worth considering the role your property wealth might play when arranging to fund your offspring’s nuptials.
For instance, the most popular equity release product is a ‘lifetime mortgage’, a loan secured against your home, which enables homeowners to convert a proportion of their property wealth into tax-free cash. Lifetime mortgages are arranged only for those aged 55 and above, with the mortgage plus any accrued interest repaid following the sale of the property when the last homeowner dies or enters longer-term residential care.
Mark Gregory, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Equity Release Supermarket, highlights other benefits associated with equity release.
“We are members of the Equity Release Council,” says Mr Gregory, “which means that each of the products we advise upon offer clients the benefits of different forms of security. For instance, clients are provided with a fixed-for-life interest rate aswell as the option to make up to 10% voluntary payments every year without penalty to help maintain the future balance.
“The right to remain in your home for life, or until you must move into longer-term care, has significant appeal for clients, as does the ‘no negative equity’ guarantee, a feature which ensures that homeowners will never owe more than the property’s market value.
Most older homeowners understand how expensive weddings can be and appreciate that very few people are capable of dipping into a bottomless pool of tax-free cash when their offspring announces they’re in love and intend marrying. Fortunately, equity release provides millions of folks aged 55 and above with an increasingly attractive option to funding young love.
