More Bad News for Brides-to-Be
Posted on May 20, 2005 6 Comments
According to CNN, the total national cost for weddings now tops $125 billion – more than the total GDP of Ireland. (http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/20/pf/weddings/index.htm)
The average national cost now hovers somewhere around $26,000 – a 73 percent increase during the past 15 years, according the study. In Chicago, the $30,000 price tag is nothing new – we’ve been past it for a few years now.
The Budgeting Babe can’t decide whether the outlandish cost or the sheer scariness of wedding planning makes her want to hyperventilate.
Category: Old Posts
Comments
6 Responses to “More Bad News for Brides-to-Be”
Leave a Reply
May 22nd, 2005 @ 7:26 pm
$26,000 average per wedding is extremely expensive when you consider the fact that 50% of the marriages end in divorce. Misplaced priorities if you ask me.
JLP
AllThingsFinancial
May 23rd, 2005 @ 3:45 am
You said it, JLP! I have a theory that lots of young women are more focused on “having a wedding” than on “being married.” The two numbers you listed above both speak to this.
May 23rd, 2005 @ 12:59 pm
I saw this article too and as a result I’ll be posting on “saving on a wedding” in the next week or so. There’s no reason to spend anywhere near this amount. Even if you had the money available, the couple would be MUCH better off to have a very small wedding and pocket the difference (maybe for a new home downpayment?).
May 23rd, 2005 @ 2:02 pm
I completely agree with JLP…I’d much rather have a nice down payment on a house and/or student loans paid off than a $26,000 wedding (not that I’m getting married anytime in the near future, but still). I personally don’t know of anyone who’s spent more than $5000 for their wedding and honeymoon, and that’s high for what they got and where they went (no sit down reception afterwards, cheap honeymoon within the state for a weekend…they splurged on the dress and photos).
-Christina @loft-y cents
http://www.clutteredloft.com/cents
May 24th, 2005 @ 8:31 pm
I have been married for about 13 years and, if I had to do it over again, I would do a small family function after either a civil service or a destination wedding. We were very frugal and spent about $13000 CDN and had 130 guests. I got swept up into the whole “gotta do this” stuff. We had a great wedding and have a great marriage, but I don’t even see 90% of the people that were our guests. Interests change and we moved a few times. The wedding pictures never get looked at save for a couple that are displayed. And the wedding gifts are no longer used or are long gone in garage sales. My recommendation is that the wedding should be treated like any other party and the service itself should just be small and intimate.
May 26th, 2005 @ 6:25 pm
My wedding costed about $5500 including honeymoon. (2% of family income). Had about 26 guests. We purposedly made it be as nice as possible, but as intimate as possible, without causing a big dent in our retirement plan.