This website will pay for your wedding. But there’s just one catch.
Weddings are expensive. Like really, really expensive. The average wedding costs around $30,000, according to The Knot. And that doesn’t even include a honeymoon! The wedding industry jacks up prices for all things wedding-related because, well. . . they can. Couples getting married need wedding things, and aside from DIY-ing the entire wedding themselves, there’s really no way around it.
Until now. Enter Swanluv, a startup company that will give you and your fiancé up to $10,000 to put towards your wedding for free. But with any for-profit company offering money, there’s a catch. Because there’s always a catch.
If you get divorced — whether it happens in six months are 50 years — you’ll owe them the money back. . . plus interest. Sure, some of your wedding will have been paid for, but by the time the divorce happens, that money will be so long gone it won’t even be a thought in your mind. Even though most couples don’t go into marriage thinking they’ll get divorced, it still happens. And who wants to have to deal with the financial instability of divorce, and then on top of that have to pay a company interest?
Apparently, some people. Or at least that’s what Swanluv’s founders are banking on. The divorce rate has been declining in recent years, according to the New York Times, but co-founder Scott Avy believes the company will be profitable. Avy says, “It comes back to statistics. We’ll have the right odds so we’ll be OK. But they won’t be so crazy that no one wants to do it.”
According to Swanluv’s website the company won’t directly profit from a divorce. One hundred percent of the money made from the divorces will cover someone else’s nuptials (they plan to bring in revenue from advertisers). So they’re turning something negative into something positive. Sort of.
To sign up, all you have to do is head over to the website to apply online. Once accepted, you’ll e-sign your wedding fund agreement and then receive your funds. They choose who they accept into the program based on “online data and algorithm software technology” that “quickly assess applicant risk to determine funding offers,” according to the website. (We didn’t realize algorithms could guess who stays married and who gets divorced, but OK.)
Avy explained the meaning behind the name Swanluv and the purpose of his company. “Swans, they mate for life,” he told The Washington Post. “That’s what we’re trying to get behind, everlasting marriage.” They even offer “free couple’s counseling.”
Promoting everlasting marriage is great, but it seems a liiiiiittle counter-intuitive for a company that makes its money off of divorces. But hey, it might be worth the risk if you’re sure you’ll stay married. But that’s everyone, right?
(Featured image via Shutterstock)