On average, US couples spend $19,581 for their wedding

[The Straight Story]

On average, US couples spend $19,581 for their wedding. However, the majority of couples spend between $14,686 and $24,476. This does not include cost for a honeymoon or engagement ring. Understanding wedding cost now can help you with your wedding budget later.

http://www.costofwedding.com/

Saw a blurb in business week that the cost has risen to 23k (could not find it on their website though).

[Codeine]

1. That is certifiably fucking insane. nt

[hobbit709]

2. $50 for the JP, $500 for the reception is what we spent.

[NNN0LHI]

20. $15 for the JP and another 6 or 7 bucks for us and our witnesses to dine out at Micky D's

[hobbit709]

26. We had a few more people.

[HopeHoops]

3. That's fucking nuts. I assume that includes the top 2% and their weddings.

[snooper2]

14. Yep, it's all bullshit...

nt

[cali]

44. no, it's not. people go crazy into debt for these blowout weddings

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Rational Wedding

My friend simply had the ceremony and invited everyone back to his house for a backyard grill of hamburgers, hotdogs, etc.

Nobody said they had a bad time.

[marmar]

5. All that money for something that lasts a few hours......

..... and might all come to an abrupt end a few years later.


Yes, I'm single and a cynic when it comes to marriage.

[WiffenPoof]

6. I Got Married...

...at the courthouse. At the time....$20.00

-PLA

[FedUpWithIt All]

7. We quietly married last month for around $500

We were surrounded by family, in nature. The minister, who we met that morning, choked up during the service. It was completely lovely.

The $500 includes the dinner, at a small restaurant we really like, after

:)

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

8. We spent more than that...

Well... she spent it, I suppose.
I just paid for the honeymoon flights, a tux rental, & showed up on-time.

[DavidDvorkin]

9. It would be interesting to know the median, as well.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. I can't remember what the wedding license cost 29 years ago, but that was it.

The minister at the hospital my wife worked at did the deed gratis.

[The2ndWheel]

11. Shouldn't they maybe even spend more?

Stimulate the economy. Circulate the money. We've seen what happens when that stops.

[cherish44]

12. that's cheap compared to what the divorce costs

Yeah I'm a cynic..been there, got the t shirt

[The Straight Story]

18. If you ever want to get married look me up, I am cheap - bring a bottle and license

and my ceremony is paid for :)

[HuckleB]

13. I can only hope that most of the costs went to good booze and great food.

:evilgrin:

[The Straight Story]

16. If that is the case for most weddings I need to be crashing them :) (nt)

[HuckleB]

23. There is a reason I made sure to remain friends with anyone who grew up Catholic.

:evilgrin:

[Barack_America]

19. That was the case at ours.

Well over half of what was spent went to food and drink. We didn't spend anywhere near $20K, but we did spoil our guests and managed to do so by inviting less of them.

[hughee99]

15. That was right around where mine was.

Nothing quite starts out a marriage like incurring a massive debt for stuff you don't even notice (centerpieces, flowers, I didn't even know we hired a violinist until I talked to him at the reception).

And the only think my guests seemed to notice was the open bar. I told my wife afterwords, if we had just done the open bar, it would have been enough. No one would have cared about the flowers and other shit.

[supernova]

17. Insane

I'm looking at ours for next year and I think we will get in and out for around 10-15% of that, including hall rental and honeymoon.

God, you could put a downpayment on a house for that amount of money.

[guitar man]

21. $35 at the courthouse

1991, Creek County OK. Courthouse, a couple of county Deputies for witnesses. I had a gig that night so we invited all our friends and had a bash at the club I was playing. IIRC I got paid $100 for the gig so I came out $65 ahead on the day. :D

We just had our 19th anniversary on December 20, been together a little over 20 years ;)

[Barack_America]

22. And the saddest thing is it goes by so fast you barely remember any of it.

I can't imagine spending the down-payment of a home on a day I can barely remember.

[jtown1123]

27. How could I forget the best day of my life? Don't regret a single penny I spent.

[Barack_America]

32. Your memory is better than mine.

For me it was such a blur of emotion that I can barely remember many of the details.

[cbdo2007]

24. Yep, ours was right about there. Nothing insane about it...

best day of our lives up until that point, family that we hadn't seen in years flew in from across the country, ate a bunch of food and drink, had an incredible photographer. I would gladly spend that much again.

We're still paying off our honeymoon to Italy on our credit cards and I'd do that again too. Wouldn't change a thing.

[FamousBlueRaincoat]

25. that's crazy

our wedding cost less than 1500 total dollars, including engagement and wedding rings, wedding dress, suit, reception hall, dinner, open bar, and anything else we did for it. we gave in on a couple of things because the parents wanted it...so it could have been cheaper.

bottom line is that it was a really nice, really traditional wedding service. I would have been fine with a 50 dollar courthouse thing, myself. But, it was really nice. I can't imagine how another 20,000 dollars could have made it any better.

[The Straight Story]

28. Where'd you shop for it all at, the dollar store?

:rofl:

[FamousBlueRaincoat]

31. nah, we're just not very impressive people

The engagement ring was about 100 dollars...it's not a diamond, it's whatever my wife said was her favorite gem. It's blue...if that helps. I have no idea what it was. Wedding rings were 300 all together...could have saved money on that.

Wedding dress was cheap because it had a "tiny red dot" on it, ala seinfeld. I'm thinking 100 dollars. The men just wore black jackets and ties, no fancy suits. I just bought a couple of ties for everyone, so we'd match, I think it was like 20 dollars for 4 ties.

Reception hall and dinner and open bar (cheap beer, cheap wine) was about 600 dollars...I think about 15 family members and friends were there. We both have small social groups. It was just at a family restaurant in rural PA that happened to have an event hall.

My dad did the wedding service, he's a part-time pastor at the church I grew up in. So the pastor, church, so all of that stuff was free.

There were some other random expenses of course.

Yeah. And we didn't go on a honeymoon, since I was unemployed at the time and just recently out of college, and she was still in college and working part-time. Somebody paid for a night for us at a local fancy hotel as a wedding present, so it was sort of a honeymoon. It was rural SE PA, so even the really fancy hotel was like 120 dollars for the night.

[senseandsensibility]

49. Impressive is in the eye of the beholder

I am impressed by you and your partner's choices.:-)

[NeedleCast]

29. My sister's wedding cost about 50K.

Which means my dad spent about 49.5K on it. I remind him of this whenever talk of his will comes up. >=)

[BlueIris]

30. Disgusting!

And crazy. What's our divorce rate again? What a waste.

[jtown1123]

38. I don't think it's fair to say someone's choices are disgusting.

Some people have huge families and want to invite everyone and serve some good food and drink. It gets expensive. If you can swing it, who cares? Weddings come in all shapes and sizes and prices ranges. Just because someone spends less or more doesn't make it bad.

[BlueIris]

41. You don't have to think my opinion is "fair."

It's my opinion, just like you have your opinion. I think it's disgusting and wasteful to spend so much money on an arrangement that has a 50% chance (or less) of lasting beyond two years.

[Papagoose]

33. I remember hoping I had enough money to pay the $300 bill at the restaurant after my wedding

If I hadn't gotten $100 from my boss, I would have been washing dishes that night.

[DainBramaged]

34. When my ex and I got married in '89. WE paid about $4500 total

and got about $3000 back in wedding presents.


That kind of money is insane. Give it to the kids to get started.

[TheKentuckian]

35. Fucking nuts. I don't begin to get it.

[trackfan]

36. Ours was about $70, if I recall correctly. n/t

[Broken_Hero]

37. Damn,

my marriage only cost about...400 bucks give or take 50.

[Vickers]

39. Ours was around $8,000, but that includes 6 transatlantic flights. n/t

[Holly_Hobby]

40. We actually made a profit when we got married

$27.50 for license, $20.00 for minister at the courthouse, $200.00 income tax savings that year. We eloped. No wedding or reception. I don't regret it, never wanted to be Queen for A Day. 25 years ago New Year's Eve.

[delightfulstar]

42. Not me...

My husband and I hardly spent anything, because we had a civil ceremony. $1300 for nice rings, $250 for my dress and shoes, $30 for my flowers, zero for his suit (he had a nice one already), and whatever the license cost. I'd highly recommend it to those Bridezillas. We had money to put down on a house, which was a hell of a lot nicer than getting wasted in front of 200 of your nearest and dearest!

[Raine]

43. TLC has a sometimes show called Four Weddings

many of those people spend $70-80 THOUSAND and they are just ordinary people not super rich! :wow: That doesn't even include the Honeymoon, that's why they're on the show so they can try and get their Honeymoon paid for. IMO spending that much is just RIDICULOUS! x(

[flvegan]

45. Not if they're GLBT couples they don't.

If I have to explain my point here, it stops being worth it.

[cali]

47. I just went to a great GLBT wedding.

The couple own a restaurant; one of them is the chef and the last thing he felt like doing was cooking, so although the wedding was held at the restaurant, it was pot luck. They did have an open bar though. I had my first maple manhattan.

[flvegan]

50. Cool.

I was supposed to go to one a couple years ago, but couldn't make it.

[lumberjack_jeff]

51. Last one I went to was GLBT. Best ever.

I went to the reception, actually. They got married in Hawaii and had the reception when they got home.

I'm sure it was comparable to the average in the article.

[cali]

46. My first wedding was small- about 40 people

It was conducted by this guy:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0145319/

(before he was a minister in Harlem, he was a minister in the Northeast Kingdom)

It was in a sweet old church in Derby Line, and then we all went across the street to my friend's amazing restaurant and ate ourselves silly.

My second wedding was just family- at my MiL's house and then we went to another nice restaurant and drank a lot of champagne.

[Ron Green]

48. I wish they'd spend a tenth as much for the band as they give the caterer.

Many people expect live music to be free, ya know?

[derby378]

52. Two words: Las Vegas

ChickMagic and I both got what we wanted - I wanted a "church" wedding, and she wanted a small, festive wedding. Little Chapel of the Flowers, we thank you. And I guarantee it didn't cost anywhere near $1,000, let alone ten grand.

[lumberjack_jeff]

53. $250 here. What with 28 years of inflation, that's like $500 now. n/t