Personal loans · Weddings
Wedding loans, without the wishful thinking.
The average Australian wedding now runs to about $38,000, and most couples finish 23% over the budget they set. Borrowing can be a perfectly sensible way to bridge that. It can also be a decision people regret for five years. We'll help you work out which one this is before you sign anything.
Start here
There is no such thing as a "wedding loan".
Not as a distinct product, anyway. What you're actually applying for is an unsecured personal loan, and the lender largely doesn't care whether you spend it on a reception, a kitchen or a trip. Naming it a wedding loan is marketing.
That matters for a practical reason: it means you should be comparing it against every other unsecured personal loan on the market, not against some special wedding category with its own rules. It also means the ordinary personal loan mechanics apply.
- Unsecured, so no asset is at risk. Nobody repossesses the marquee. The trade-off is that unsecured pricing is higher than secured lending, because the lender has nothing to fall back on.
- Fixed term, fixed repayment. Typically one to seven years. The repayment doesn't move, which makes it easier to plan around than a credit card.
- Rates vary enormously. Unsecured personal loan pricing spans a very wide band depending on your credit profile. A strong file and a thin file are not offered remotely similar deals.
- Fees are part of the cost. Establishment fees and monthly account fees can add meaningfully to what a headline rate suggests. Always look at the comparison rate, not the advertised rate.
If you're planning to buy a home in the next couple of years, a personal loan reduces your borrowing capacity — often by considerably more than the loan itself. Lenders assess the repayment against your income for as long as the loan runs. Telling us your plans upfront lets us model both, rather than solving one problem and creating a bigger one.
The numbers
What an Australian wedding actually costs.
Easy Weddings surveys thousands of Australian couples each year. Their 2026 figures put the national average at $38,252 against an average starting budget of $29,471 — so the typical couple lands about 23% over what they planned. Roughly 69% receive some financial help from family.
Knowing where the money goes is the fastest way to work out how much you actually need to borrow, if any.
| Line item | Average | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Venue | $17,518 | Far and away the biggest single cost, and the one with the most negotiating room — a Friday or off-season date moves this number more than anything else on this list. |
| Engagement ring | $6,842 | Usually already spent by the time anyone thinks about a loan. |
| Catering | $6,177 | Often bundled into the venue. Check which, so you don't budget it twice. |
| Photography | $3,567 | The one couples most consistently say they'd spend more on, not less. |
| Videography | $3,125 | The one most often cut first. |
| Decorations | $2,849 | Highly elastic. Scales down without anyone noticing. |
| Flowers | $2,639 | Seasonal choices cut this substantially. |
| Wedding dress | $2,591 | Excludes alterations, which are rarely budgeted for. |
| Hire and formal wear | $4,305 | Combined; furniture, styling and suits. |
| Music | $2,142 | Band versus DJ is usually a $1,500 decision. |
| Cars | $1,223 | |
| Celebrant | $1,031 | |
| Invitations | $1,001 | |
| Hair and makeup | $992 | Per person, trials included, adds up across a bridal party. |
The single most useful thing in that survey isn't the average — it's the gap between what couples budgeted and what they spent. If you're borrowing, borrowing to your real number rather than your optimistic one avoids the worst outcome: a personal loan, then a credit card on top of it at a much worse rate three weeks before the day.
The honest bit
Should you borrow for a wedding at all?
We're a brokerage. We'd be doing you a disservice if the answer were always yes. In our experience it comes down to which of these two situations you're actually in.
Usually a reasonable call
- You have the money, just not yet. A bonus, a maturing term deposit, a family contribution arriving after the date. Borrowing bridges timing, not affordability.
- The gap is modest and the term is short. Ten thousand over two years against a stable income is a very different proposition to forty thousand over seven.
- It replaces something worse. Consolidating what would otherwise sit on a credit card at a much higher rate is often a straightforwardly better outcome.
Worth pausing on
- You're borrowing the majority of the total. If the loan is funding most of the wedding rather than topping it up, the wedding is probably larger than the budget supports.
- A home deposit is the next goal. The repayment will eat into borrowing capacity for the whole term. This is the trade-off people most often don't see coming.
- The repayment only works on the best case. If it needs both incomes at current levels with no room for a quiet quarter, it's too tight.
None of that is a lecture — it's the conversation we'd have with you on the phone anyway, and it's cheaper to have it now.
Compare
A personal loan is one of four options.
It isn't automatically the right one. Here's how the realistic choices stack up.
| Option | Cost | Where it works | Where it bites |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unsecured personal loan | Moderate | Fixed repayment, fixed end date, and it's actually paid off. Best where you need a defined amount and want the discipline of a term. | Reduces home loan borrowing capacity for the full term. Fees can be significant. |
| Credit card | High | Small gaps, deposits, and anything you can genuinely clear inside an interest-free window. | Minimum repayments are structured so the balance barely moves. The most common way a manageable gap becomes a lasting one. |
| Redraw or equity | Lowest rate | If you already own property, this is usually far cheaper than anything unsecured. | Stretching a wedding across 25 remaining years of a mortgage costs more in total than a five-year personal loan, unless you deliberately pay it down faster. |
| Family contribution | Usually nil | About 69% of Australian couples receive some help. It remains the cheapest capital available. | Worth being explicit about whether it's a gift or a loan. Assumptions here cause real friction later. |
Buy-now-pay-later is deliberately absent. Splitting a $9,000 catering invoice across several BNPL accounts shows up on a credit assessment and is read poorly by most lenders, particularly if you're heading toward a mortgage.
The assessment
What a lender assesses.
Unsecured lending has no asset behind it, so the whole decision rests on you. In practice that means five things:
- Income and how stable it is. Permanent employment is read most favourably; casual, contract and self-employed income can absolutely work, but the evidence required is different.
- Your credit file. Both the score and the conduct behind it. A run of recent applications is itself a negative, which is why we check policy before lodging rather than after.
- Existing commitments. Rent, other loans, dependants, and credit card limits — the limit counts against you whether or not you use it. Closing an unused card before applying is often the single highest-leverage thing you can do.
- Living expenses. Assessed against your actual statements, not a declared figure. Three months of clean, legible banking helps more than people expect.
- Whether you're applying alone or jointly. A joint application brings both incomes and both credit files. That cuts both ways.
How it works
Three steps.
Tell us the real number
What the wedding costs, what you've saved, what's coming from family, and what else you're planning in the next two years. Two minutes online or a phone call.
We check policy before lodging
We match you to lenders whose criteria you actually meet, so your credit file isn't used as the testing ground. If borrowing isn't the right answer, we'll say so.
Approval, then settlement
Most unsecured personal loans move quickly — often a decision within a business day or two once documents are in. Funds land in your account.
Common questions
Wedding finance, answered.
How much can I borrow for a wedding?
Unsecured personal loans generally run from around $2,000 up to about $75,000, though what you can borrow is set by your income and existing commitments rather than the product ceiling. Most wedding borrowing we see sits between $10,000 and $30,000, because it's topping up savings rather than funding the whole day. The estimator above will show you what a given amount costs monthly; a broker can tell you what you'd actually qualify for.
What interest rate will I get?
Unsecured personal loan rates cover a very wide band, and where you fall in it depends on your credit profile, income stability and the lender. We won't quote you a number before we've looked at your situation, because it would be a guess. The 12% default in the estimator is a deliberately conservative illustration, not an offer — some borrowers do considerably better, and some don't qualify at that level at all.
Does applying hurt my credit score?
Talking to us doesn't. We assess your position against lender policy before anything is formally lodged, so no enquiry is recorded while we work out where you fit. Applying directly to several lenders and being declined each time leaves a trail of enquiries that makes the next application harder — which is the main practical reason to go through a broker for unsecured lending.
Will a wedding loan affect getting a mortgage later?
Yes, and usually by more than people expect. Lenders assess your personal loan repayment against your income for the full remaining term, and that directly reduces how much you can borrow for a home. If a purchase is on the horizon, tell us at the start — we can model both together and sometimes find a structure that protects your capacity. Solving the wedding and quietly wrecking the mortgage is not a good outcome.
Can we apply jointly as a couple?
Usually yes, and it often helps — two incomes generally support a larger loan. It does mean both credit files are assessed, so if one of you has a difficult history it can work against the application. Both parties are also fully liable for the whole debt, not half each. Where one applicant is clearly stronger, a single application sometimes produces a better result, and that's something we'd look at with you.
How quickly can we get the money?
Unsecured personal loans are among the faster products to settle. With documents ready, a decision often comes within a business day or two, and funds typically follow shortly after. Delays almost always come from missing paperwork rather than the lender, so having payslips, bank statements and ID together at the start makes the biggest difference.
Can I pay it off early?
Usually, but check before you commit. Variable-rate personal loans generally allow extra repayments and early payout without penalty. Fixed-rate loans may charge an early termination fee. If you expect a lump sum — a gift after the wedding, a bonus, a tax return — flag it early, because it changes which product suits you.
Can we borrow for the honeymoon too?
You can, and it's the same product either way. Whether you should is a separate question worth answering deliberately rather than by default, since the honeymoon is usually the most postponable part of the whole exercise. If you do want to include it, build it into one application rather than adding a second loan later — one application is cheaper and reads better on your credit file.
Let's talk
Tell us the number. We'll tell you what it really costs.
No cost, no obligation, and no credit enquiry while we work it out. If a personal loan is the right tool, we'll find you the sharpest one on our panel. If it isn't, we'll tell you that instead.
Request a call back
Takes about 40 seconds. Ready to go? Start a full application instead.
No cost, no obligation, and an enquiry doesn't affect your credit score.