For many, the traditional days of having your parents foot the bill for your wedding are over.

Executive director of Consolidated Credit Counseling Services of Canada, Inc., Jeff Schwartz, says more and more newly weds are in debt because of the high and sometimes unexpected costs of weddings.

"Couples are paying for more of the wedding than they did in the past, and they've usually saved in and around up to 60 per cent for that wedding, but then there's the other 40 per cent where they have to figure out how they're going to pay for," he says. "Sometimes it might end up on credit cards and sometimes it ends up as additional debt."

In order to get out of debt and start your marriage off on the right foot, Schwartz recommends taking the following steps:

Survey the damage:

"Tally up what you owe, and you want to take your credit card statements, take your bank statements, lay them out and figure out how you're going to pay it off."

Use cash gifts to pay off debt:

"It's not a real 'sexy' way to pay off a wedding or to use that money, but often it's the best way instead of carrying that debt."

Build a budget together:

"Build a budget as a family unit and from there you're going to be able to see how much you have coming in and how much money you have going out and look for opportunities to save more at the end of the month so you can pay off the debt quicker."

Take a rest from all the celebrating:

"Hopefully with that rest will come a rest for your pocketbook as well."

Accelerate your payments:

"Any payments you put additionally towards paying down those credit-card bills are going to be a benefit and it's going to cut down the amount of time you're in debt and the amount of interest you're going to have."