http://www.emyouthemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/PakmodeWebLogo.pngBy Jessica Brent
jessica.brent@emyouthemagazine.com
As the great musical philosopher Jennifer Lopez once sang, “My love don’t cost a thing.”
Unfortunately, college does; and the debt acquired over the course of the path to educational enlightenment is then inherited by the significant other you eventually plan to wed. For some, this debt is nothing but a blip on the radar of what the future together holds as a couple. For the rest, insurmountable debt plus the current bleak-looking job market may be what eventually drives some to break up and even divorce.
Extreme cutbacks are not necessarily the answer to wedding-planning woes and the life a happy couple may have every expectation in living together. The issue is practicality in spending as a combined unit, as opposed to separately as the individuals students are used to being throughout their academic careers. Somewhat rational decision-making can be hard when you are used to answering only to yourself when your monthly credit card statement is discovered hidden under your couch and three weeks past due. The transition to budgeting for two, as opposed to one, often still on a single real salary, is a difficult one to make for most. And that’s even before the first student-loan payment is written out and sealed in an envelope.
But back to this word: practicality. Does it even have a place in considering the person you will marry and the wedding and world you are about to plan with one another? Even the president and first lady had college debt they were paying off after more than 15 years of marriage and two very successful careers. It was one of the identifiable traits the First Couple shared with many of President Barack Obama’s supporters. But the first couple has talked openly and often about their ups and downs together post-wedding and post-graduation, and they appear to be happily married and raising two beautiful daughters together. If they can do it, why can’t everybody?
Although most are certainly not all set out to change the face and policies of government, everybody is quite capable of making the right choices for themselves and whomever they hope to share the rest of their lives with. This is probably easier said than done. Hopefully, however, you have already begun the selfless road that marriage seems to require. Whatever the cost of the steps to building your life to be the one you always imagined for yourself, most can agree that a life full of love and companionship is, undeniably, priceless.
Average cost of a wedding in the U.S.: $20,398
Estimated cost of 4 year undergraduate program at EMU (before books and additional living expenses): $30,360
Average wedding dress, accessories, and groom’s tuxedo cost: $2,608
Residence hall room and board cost (one year at EMU): $7,590
(Wedding statistics taken from www.bridalassociationofamerica.com/Wedding_Statistics/)http://www.emyouthemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/PakmodeWebLogo.png
