DH and I did charge about half of our wedding, paid cash for the other half. I don't see a problem with SOME debt from a wedding, but not $40,000 worth (in my opinion, anyway).
DH and I will have it paid off in about 18 months (maybe less, depending on how much OT he gets and how often my 8 year old car needs repairs!), so it's not too bad. But we also have emergency savings and equity in the house we could tap if some disaster happened (and it would have to be a total disaster before we'd use either to pay off credit cards). We have it budgeted that we pay off the debt even if DH didn't get any overtime at all (which cosidering DH's employer offten requires him to work 7 days a week would never actually happen), although it would take longer, of course. In short, the world would have to end before we'd default or even be late on any off our bills.
However, the debt does limmit what we can do for the next year to 18 months, too. I can't replace my aging car (well, we could but it would mean even more debt, which we don't want), and we dont' want to try having a child until the debt is cleared up, either. Both things we're willing to live with, but some people might have a problem with that.
Take a hard look at your total finances and long term plans. If the payments on the CC's would totally tax you and you'd have to eat frank 'n' beans every night for a year to get it paid back, it's not worth it. If it will delay needed purchases or having kids for an extended amount of time when you'd rather get started right away, it's not worth it.
Would DH and I do it again? Most likely. But the next 18 months is going to be tighter , moneywise, than what we're used to, and it's not much fun! I think it will be worth it in the long run, but not everyone would feel that way.
