The average price tag on weddings in the US is around $30,000 — yikes! Because the cost of living varies greatly from place to place, the cost of the average wedding in San Francisco varies from the average cost of a wedding in Charlotte, and everywhere in between. The one thing you can count on is that most venues and vendors make sticking to a budget very difficult — wedding bells are followed by dollar signs, but if you know what to expect it can make setting up a budget less of a frustrating process. If you won't be eloping to Vegas then you need to be able to grasp all of the price information that's thrown at you, so you don't end up choosing the most expensive everything out of a lack of patience and preparation. Find out how much the average couple in your city spends on one of the most important days of their lives when you read more
- Enter the zip code of the city where you plan on getting married in the widget below, and it generates an average cost based on a laundry list of expenses and breaks down the overall cost into smaller categories. It lets you see the average price paid for photographer, honeymoon, decorations, rehearsal dinner, etc. The site makes a great point: "Understanding average wedding costs now can help you with your wedding budget later."
- If all of the zeros behind the average cost are making you nervous, stay tuned for some tips on how to budget for your big day!
To see all of our wedding coverage, check out IDoSugar.com.
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Yikes? I'd be privileged to spend that amount,(especially if I've fallen for the broke guy. LOL). I'm usually one of those women to wish(hope) they could somewhat around hundreds of thousands of dollars, for that perfect day!
1CRAZY!
2I would much rather save the stress of plannign and spending and go awau somewhere!!!
$40k is a disgusting amount to spend on one day. I do not need to spend a college education to tell my soul mate that I love them.
3I would rather have that money for a down payment and prepare for the marriage and our life rather than a day.
4You can make a wedding beautiful on any budget. I put in my zip code and it said the average for my area is 36K. I didn't even come close to that with my wedding and am still receiving compliments on the reception nearly a year later. There are great ways to save money but putting what is important to you first, and cutting costs on things that you think aren't necessary, and holding your ground with vendors. Plus, a lot of DIY stuff cuts cost. I did all my flowers and centerpieces myself and saved so much money. I used an online flower wholesale place, and went to a craft store during a huge sale. Putting the flowers together with my bridesmaids was so much fun. We also cut costs also on the cake, programs, and wedding bands. Finding deals is half the fun. With the money we saved, we had our down payment!
5a wedding is a day-long affair. a marriage is a life-long affair.
6Wow, the average price for where I got married was $44,640! Now I'm extra proud for managing to do it for ~$14,000. I look forward to seeing the tips, and commenting with my own experiences too. Really, a beautiful wedding on a budget is achievable, you just have to educate yourself and be honest about what makes the most sense for you.
7Geez my area average cost of a wedding is $49,000! That's ridiculous. I agree w/ all of you ladies. A Wedding is just one day and to spend that much money is insane to me.
817K is our average. I think I am going to be able to get mine for under 10K
9Next month my fiance and I are getting married at the local courthouse with our immediate family present. Then we're going to take a long weekend to NYC to relax and visit friends. With all my school loans and all the other stress in our life, we just couldn't fathom even planning a large wedding. I'm excited for my low key day!
10I'm definitely not going to spend the average for my area. I just don't have that kind of money! It's very important for me to have a beautiful wedding that my friends and family enjoy, but I am going to cut costs everywhere that I can.
11$63,070... holy poo
12$55k! that's depressing. i think we're going to end up budgeting $10-$15k, and that's still a strain. if anyone has tips on how to make a teensy budget work for a large-ish wedding (i've got a big family) in a big city (nyc), please let me know... i could use the help.
13my area is about $26k.....right now, we're working on a $20k budget. but we've only been engaged about 2 weeks, so it's kind of a ballpark figure at the moment...we've still gotta have the talk with my parents about how much they want to contribute.
14Dad's or Mom's(23803,23841, VA): 19,780 or 29,950
School(24060,VA): 21,890
Boyfriend's Home(08857,NJ): 37,440
I wouldn't want to spend that much on a wedding. My boyfriend tells me of crazy massive weddings people in his family have had. I figure it would be much better to get pots and pans and dishes and obviously a house down payment so I have somewhere to keep it, than to invite 200 people that I don't even like 190 of, and go into marriage more in debt past student loans.
Luckily, I don't have to worry about such things my boyfriend hasn't talked about marriage/engagement. Just living together and working at the same place and carpooling and eating lunch together... >.<</p> 15
It gave me $80,000+ for my area... that's metro-NYC for you.
16On average, couples that live in zip code 07078 (Short Hills, NJ) spend $137,950 for their wedding.
17Our wedding cost just under $5,000 but our divorce cost us nearly $40,000 combined.
Perhaps if we had thought about "investing" more in our wedding, we would've been forced to think twice about the value of marriage to be sure it was worth the cost.
It seems as though those who want to save money on their wedding are in agreement with their partners that they'd rather invest that money on other things, but I would encourage each and every bride-to-be to think about where marriage ranks on their list of priorities compared with what else they're investing in...
18^ that is unfathomable, tidalwave.
19$37,150! That is crazy! I don't know exactly how much we spent but it was only a few thousand dollars and we had a beautiful garden wedding. I would never spend that much money for a wedding. It is just one day and that could be a down payment on a house.
20ikimashokie... if you're thinking about settling at all around that area, you really should save as much as possible for a downpayment on a house because the housing prices for central new jersey are nuts!
21I don't know about that calculator. It said that the average cost of a wedding in Chicago & DC (the 2 cities where we might get married) is $23K, but then I wanted to see how crazy cheap it would be where my parents live in suburban Birmingham, AL and it said $34K!! There is NO WAY it costs more to have a wedding in podunk Alabama than the 3rd largest city in the US. My co-worker also told me that DC weddings average $50K now.
22Holy.Crap. There is NO way in hell I'd spend 26K on a freaking wedding! I think it'll be a miracle if we spend more than $500
23I don't understand why anyone would spend so much on a wedding! I'd much rather have a house than a party for a few hours. I never even thought about a wedding until I got engaged so I never had those fairy tale wedding fantasies to begin with, but I just don't get how people can even afford to do that. No wonder this entire country is in debt!
24javs, this goes by zipcode. Instead of looking at the downtown chicago zipcode, look at some of the other city neighborhoods or suburbs. There is more of a mix of classes in a downtown area, where the mean cost of a wedding might be less than you would assume. However, in more of an upperclass area, the mean will be higher. I.E. Why the average wedding cost is more in Short Hills, NJ than in Metro NYC.
25javs, I just did the zipcode for Lincoln Park in Chicago and got this:
On average, couples that live in zip code 60614 (Chicago, IL) spend $57,890 for their wedding.
26javs, I just did the zipcode for Lincoln Park in Chicago and got this:
On average, couples that live in zip code 60614 (Chicago, IL) spend $57,890 for their wedding.
27javs:
On average, couples that live in zip code 35201 (Birmingham, AL) spend $21,600 for their wedding.
On average, couples that live in zip code 35205 (Birmingham, AL) spend $17,280 for their wedding.
SO: it's zipcode based, not city based. I would figure that the average for a suburban area is going to be higher.
28my $6k wedding is starting to look like an even better deal!!!!!!
29My mother always said divorces are far more expensive than the wedding.
30When my friend got married she decided to have a "review wedding details party" with the bridesmaids and close friends. We made all the favors, bouquets and flower decorations which she bought at a discount. Her wedding dress as well as the bridesmaids dresses were bought on clearance and the reception hall she booked gave her a super discount since she was using their car service and caterers. If I'm not mistaken her wedding was under $10K.
$74,880
31i'm SO not surprised about the short hills figure- however i am surprised that my town in jersey is 62,780- i mean yea i know its a yuppie area lol but still! i'm no where near getting married and i'm not sure prices at all really- and i have expensive tastes and a alarge fam- but i didn't plan on it being near 62k! that is absurd
32$12,000 - hooray?
33We are planning to get married in Vegas, but with lots of family from all over the country (his) and world (mine), and sans Elvis impersonators. A couple of different factors make it more affordable for us there, as far as we can tell.
Well, there might be one or two Elvis impersonators. You never know.
34Don't knock spending that much money with comments like "$40K is a disgusting amount to spend" until you're actually going through the process of getting married.
35I never would have fathomed spending as much as we are, but it is absolutely worth it to get all my friends and family in one place. Call me greedy but I'd rather shell out $5K to pay for hotel rooms for our guests so they can come without worrying about concerns. Our honeymoon alone is another $10K to the cost, but that's absolutely worth it in my opinion, because we're going to be living apart for 3 years after marriage while I finish my Ph.D.
Yes, it's a lot of money, but we're not going into debt over it, and frankly, I just plain WANT to have an amazing day and fabulous pictures to think back and smile on when we're going months in between seeing each other after we're married.
Hmm, well I did use my boyfriend's zip code for Chicago & he doesn't live in the best area of town, so that makes sense. But it's still giving my $23K for downtown DC and the only people living downtown are living in $500K+ condos. Even a ritzy Georgetown zip code came up as $32K. And my parents don't live in a rich suburb. Houses cost $100K in their neighborhood. Are people really spending a third of what their house costs on a wedding? What could you possibly spend that money on--everything is so much cheaper down there?!
36javsmav, are you having your wedding downtown Chicago or in one of the burbs?
37Downtown. I am a city girl all the way--I will not have a suburban wedding. It will probably be in DC instead of Chicago b/c more of our friends live in DC and his family is in the suburbs.
38Javsmav, I really wanted to get married in DC, but the prices were out of control! I think it's because we're getting married on a holiday weekend though, and rates skyrocket because so many people come to DC that weekend. So, we're getting married in his hometown (Philly) instead for half-a-fortune instead.
39I'm surprised to see that you used a Georgetown zip and got $32K. My Georgetown zipcode yielded $61,920!
40His parents live outside Philly, so that would be an option for us as well. I'm actually fine with anywhere as long as it's not Alabama. I just want a fun party.
41Hmm, I would believe $62K for Georgetown. I used 20057 that I found by googling Georgetown zip codes. I'm not sure where it is.
42Well said, Julieulie. We absolutely shelled out in order to help our friends and family better enjoy the day. We paid for shuttles so they didn't have to drink and drive, I paid for all the hair and make-up for my bridesmaids, we had an open bar, we had tons of amenities in order to help our guests be a part of our day. It is unfortunate when people are judged based on how much they spend on their weddings. The assumption that they are just spending money lavishly on themselves is very often inaccurate.
43I live in Lincoln Park. My best friends are getting married there this weekend. Their wedding is around $85K. I find it kind of annoying that people would judge how others choose to celebrate their big day. Some people are lucky enough (or have worked and saved their butts off) to be able to afford a big expensive wedding. Not everyone is going into debt or forgoing down payments in order to have expensive weddings. Some people have very well paying jobs that allow them to do both. Some people have very generous families. Some people do pick a wedding over a morgage. Isn't all of this their choice though?
44Oh, even if I spent that much on my wedding I would still call it disgusting!
Anyway, if someone wants to see me get married so badly, then they can pay for their own hotel room. Open bar? Maybe for an hour or two but not really that necessary.
Sure, I haven't planned a wedding. But I always thought that it was your day. Not your family's...
45Wow $84,000 is the average.
I agree jkat. I think people should spend whatever makes them happy. Those who choose to spend a lot or a little shouldn't be judged for it.
My only suggestion would be to refrain from going into a huge amount of debt, only to have to pay that off for years to come.
46Maybe to some people extending their generosity to their friends and family to ensure they are having a fun, stress-free time part of what makes their day special.
47It's $29,950 in my area of San Diego. Which is apparently not bad, considering some of the numbers you guys came up with for your areas, but still...I only wish I could part with so much.
I don't think there's anything wrong with spending a lot of money on your wedding if you can afford it--it's supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime event, so if you can, make the most out of it!
48Hahahaha, TidalWave.
49You will learn if you get married -- it is not at ALL your day. I was stupid in thinking this wedding had anything to do with me -- it is all about our parents. We don't even know half the people invited to our wedding, but our parents HAD to have them there.
I think I could just NOT show up to my own wedding, and nobody would even notice my absence.
Anyway you spin it, it sounds like a lot of money!
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