<prompt> Human: Hey everyone, Im 34 and recently engaged. I proposed to my now fiance Christmas night- oh yeah, and she said yes! Weve been together for 3 years and she is one of the least materialistic down to Earth gals I have ever known in my life... Except for when it came to an engagement ring... Shes never cared for extravagant things so when I discovered she wanted a larger ring then I would have guessed I didnt hesitate to spring for what she wanted. I spent a total of almost 13k on the ring. I had 3k to put towards it this month, and then had budgeted making a 1k payment on it a month and have it paid off late next year.Last week when talking about the wedding she expressed wanting to get married this year, October 2017. I hadnt thought about getting married so soon- not because I dont want to, I just didnt consider it first time being married. When she suggested it, I loved the idea and as of now we have a venue and caterer already booked.Small speed bump in our venuecaterer they are connected is that they only except check as payment. Im pretty bummed by this as I use an Air Miles card as I live in CA but my family is all in ME. Im a teacher so I travel home for Christmas and during the summer, and the air miles are amazing to rack up.Anyways, and my apologies this is maybe for info than what you need... When the wedding expenses are all said done we are anticipating about a 16-17k bill. This wouldnt be so bad except the fact that I am also no sitting on a 13k bill for the ring as well. I have a couple questions...1. Im considering taking out a large personal loan to combine the ringwedding expenses into one place. The loan will be for about 30k I am assuming. I dont have a lot of experience with loans- How should I shop around? Should I shop around for a personal loan? Do banks tend to be better, credit unions, or what about consolidation companies like Lending Tree I know nothing about them. I have good credit between 700-720.2. I hate the idea that I am going to be losing out on 17k worth of air miles. I know you can withdraw cash from your credit card- This would allot me the miles. If I did this due to the withdrawal interest rate being so high I would also still be looking to then take out a personal loan to pay back my credit card company and also consolidate the ring into it as well. I have never withdrawn cash using a credit card... is this a really bad idea?I know that a lot of these things I could research, and trust me I plan to, its just been a whirlwind of a week- getting the wedding items planned, getting back from ME, starting school up again, my kiddos have finals next week, and I am also the assistant commissioner for our sports conference- so Ive just been pretty tied up and already this week burning some heavy midnight oil.If anyone could even just nudge me in the right direction or offer some advice I would be so amazingly appreciative of it.Cheers  <response>: Step back a minute. Forget if you can what society says is normal. You are making the decision to begin your matrimony in debt, for a day-long party and a ring that likely decreased in value the minute it left the jeweler.Prior to the 1930s, diamonds were not commonly associated with engagements. Due to some brilliant marketing from De Beers, the diamond supplier, the rock became the must-have item to display ones marital status. De Beers, and other diamond suppliers, make sure to keep the supply of diamonds low, to inflate their prices. They arent exceptionally rare, as were led to believe. If you were not to spend 17,000 on the wedding, and instead used the money as an asset at the beginning of your marriage, think of what that money could do for both of you. The start of a down payment. A very nice deposit into a 529 plan for a future child. An emergency fund. You could max out two IRAs, and open a brokerage account. You could almost max out one 403b.Its personal finance because its personal. Just make sure youre doing it for yourself, and not because it is what society expects. Friends and family may say, You deserve a big wedding, and This is what everyone does, but they dont pay your credit card bill. 