How Much For A 21st Century Wedding? You'll Be Stunned By The Amount Couples Are Spending
The cost of a wedding for a 21st century bride has soared to more than £25,000 – the highest it’s ever been, new research shows.
That’s an increase of more than a fifth over two years as couples look to make it a day to remember for all concerned.
And they are more social media aware than ever, with almost two-thirds changing their Facebook status to “married” within 24 hours.
Just 2% of couples ban the use of social media on their wedding day while one in five set up their own hashtag for guests to use.
With reports that marriage appears to be a dying institution, the latest in-depth study from online wedding planner hitched.co.uk shows it is still a major milestone for many people.
However, the average age of the bride is now 33 and the groom 34 – in the 1970s, a bride was likely to be in her early-20s, while her groom was in his late 20s.
The hitched.co.uk survey of more than 3,000 brides showed the single biggest wedding expenditure is venue hire, costing an average of £3,738 (14.8% of the total cost) and finding a venue was ranked as the top priority by brides when planning their wedding, above setting the budget and deciding the guest list.
Average wedding spend
2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012/13 | 2014/15 | 2016 |
£ 20,020 | £ 19,569 | £ 22,550 | £ 21,939 | £ 20,799 | £ 25,090 |
The honeymoon is the second biggest outlay for the wedding, an average of £3,366 (13.4% of the total budget), followed by food at £3,072 (12.2%).
Parents still play a big part in financing the big day with 48% of couples get financial assistance from mum and dad. Some 36% fund it themselves and 6% still opt for the traditional way of letting the bride’s parents pay for it all.
Interestingly, gone are the days of getting toasters or a new dinner service: eight out of ten couples now ask their guests to contribute money toward a honeymoon. The rise of the mini-moon continues, with a third of couples now taking a short break following the ceremony before a mega-trip at a later date.
Ranked wedding spend by couple – total
2016 2014/15 |
“It’s no surprise to see that couples are putting the venue as their top priority – even ahead of setting a budget,” said Caroline Bradley, editor at hitched.
“We also see that couples are opting for guests to help fund towards the honeymoon – which may be a contributing factor to the average wedding spend being at its highest in seven years.
“With guests footing the bulk of the honeymoon bill, couples are free to spend the majority of the budget on the big day itself,” she added.
Anniversaries and Christmas remain the most popular days for popping the question and it takes couples, on average, 12 months to organise their day, three months less than in 2014.
The average cost of an engagement ring is now £1,742, total spend on clothes is £2,400, including £1,055 for the all-important wedding dress, compared to £293 for the groom’s outfit. A third of grooms opt to hire their suit rather than buying it.