Infographic: The True Cost of a Wedding Knot

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!