True story, this startup wants to pay for your wedding — with a catch

Millennials are waiting longer than ever to get married — not necessarily because we don’t value commitment, but because weddings cost buckets and buckets of money that we don’t have (or want) to spend at this age. To many young couples, it seems illogical to start a new life with someone going into debt for one day’s worth of memories, no matter how lovely the pictures or how delicious the wedding cake.

That’s where Swan Luv comes in. Their mission is to help couples who are truly meant to be (you know, like swans, who apparently mate for life) have their dream wedding by handing over piles of cold hard cash. The site, launching appropriately on Valentine’s Day, will give up to $10,000 to couples who apply and plan to marry within 2 years — with one simple caveat.  The catch to this arrangement is that if you and your babe ever get divorced, you have to pay back every cent of it, with interest. I know, it seemed way too good to be true.

However, the founders of Swan Luv aren’t cynics — they aren’t playing games with our hearts just to make a quick buck. They don’t actually make money from any of the divorces, that’s where the money comes from to support weddings for new couples (they make all their money from advertising partnerships, if you must know). They also help the couples they choose stay together by offering free marriage counseling, which is a pretty awesome service, if you ask me.

And while we often hear that the divorce rate is at 50%, that’s actually no longer true — divorce rates are declining steadily, and even those who do get divorced in the end are staying together longer. This is partially because people are waiting longer to get married, thus resulting in more mature decisions regarding marriage. This makes me optimistic, and when I brought up Swan Luv to my boyfriend, he was optimistic, too. We’ve known since pretty early on that we want to be together forever (like the swans, or whatever) so we felt pretty safe putting in an application. We’ll see if we hear back from them, though I’m sure they’re slammed with requests right now from hopeful (and broke) couples. Cross your fingers for us.