CreditExpert – the credit monitoring and identity fraud protection service from Experian – found that 1.6 million people have gone into debt in order to attend a wedding.

Attending weddings can be a costly business: typically £386 per guest. This is largely due to stag and hen parties, which at an average cost of £130, are becoming increasingly elaborate and often include travel abroad. Next is the wedding gift (£70), a new outfit (£64), travel costs (£49), accommodation (£48) and drinks (£26).

The average cost has also been bumped up by the increasing popularity of overseas weddings. Almost half of the guests of foreign weddings surveyed by CreditExpert admitted to being filled with resentment because they felt obligated to go.

The research showed that 16% resent the cost of attending a wedding and a further one in seven people refuse to go altogether because they are too expensive. Others said they felt they were under pressure to attend by family members and to go to the weddings of people they don’t know.

Jim Hodgkins, Managing Director of CreditExpert says: “It’s clear that people are increasing their financial stress and spending money they don’t have in order to be there,”

He also warns of the potentially damaging effect that excessive spending on several weddings in a short space of time could have on your credit rating and urges people to keep track of their expenditures.

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