I’ve never been engaged, but I’ve watched enough wedding television shows, had enough friends plan a wedding, and witnessed my own little sister start to plan hers to know that weddings are insanely expensive. When you take into consideration the dress, tuxedo rentals, flowers, transportation, music, food, location, wedding invitations, wedding party gifts (sheesh, the list never ends!) you suddenly realize you’re talking thousands and not hundreds. Thousands. I don’t know about you, but when I hear “thousands” I think of money for a car – whether it’s for a down payment or full cost is irrelevant. Thousands of dollars is car and college territory, not wedding territory! Unfortunately, it is wedding territory.
Back in April, when the Royal Wedding was the only thing people could talk about, Divine Caroline did some research and discovered that the average cost of an American wedding (excluding the honeymoon) was $26,984, one in five people spent $30,000+ and one in eight people spent $40,000+! Can you believe those numbers? Before I go on, let’s just look at what else could be purchased for $25,000, $30,000 and $40,000, shall we?
For $25,000 You Could Get:
Kim Kardashian’s wedding dress (only used once!)
A season ski pass in Aspen
A 2012 Ford Mustang
For $30,000 You Could Get:
A freaking’ boat
A purse
Land. Lots of land
For $40,000 You Could Get:
To travel the world, probably over the span of 2 weeks
Remodel your kitchen or bathroom or build an addition
A really fancy Cartier watch
Not that you’d actually want to purchase any of the above mentioned items. They were listed simply to put the amount people spend on weddings into perspective. However, it’s nothing compared to the $48 million that was spent on the Royal Wedding! Our excesses seem a little ridiculous in comparison!
2 Comments
Mens Luxury Timepieces
February 4, 2012 at 10:59 pmYou are correct, a small fortune is often spent on weddings however with careful planning this doesn’t have to be this way and you can save heaps of money. We carefully planned our daughters wedding and the money we saved brought them a car.
Pete
Wedding Etiquette
February 14, 2012 at 10:50 pmInteresting how all of the really expensive places are on the coasts. seems like if you want to avoid a high cost wedding, you can move it to middle America. There is some really gorgeous places that would make a terrific backdrop for wedding photos all across the US. Maybe consider a “destination wedding” in the midwest!