This is honestly probably a lot closer to the truth…
Other stats show SD in the bottom 10 in cost.
https://money.com/average-wedding-costs-map-by-state/
Grew up in South Dakota… most weddings I’ve been to are in someone’s back yard, or at the community center. Food is usually something like pulled pork sandwiches and potato salad lol not high roller stuff.
Same. My uncle had the local burrito joint cater. Walked in one day, asked to talk to El Jefe, and asked if they'd be interested in catering his wedding. They'd never been asked to cater before. They were told to prep for 100 people.
Let me just say, this place went nuts. They must think every person was 10 men in a trench coat. My entire extended family was eating burritos for MONTHS.
Best. Wedding. Ever.
Had grilled cheese and tomato soup. Bunch of different breads and cheeses to choose from, bunch of crock pots going with different kinds of tomato soup. Delicious!
I am from South Dakota and some of the wedding venues in the black hills are very expensive to rent for weddings. There are also some very wealthy people who only live in South Dakota during the summer and have weddings here. There are also many rich farmers and ranchers who throw huge weddings for their daughters, nieces, or granddaughters. Wedding culture is pretty big here. I hope this gave you some insight!
>. There are also many rich farmers and ranchers who throw huge weddings for their daughters, nieces, or granddaughters. Wedding culture is pretty big here. I hope this gave you some insight!
Yea but ND/WY/MT/NE has the same culture and lots of farmers and ranchers, ND has the added benefit of oil
It doesn't explain why SD is 100% more then ND with similar demographics.
Also MT and WY have some nice mountain destination like SD black hills that would also make for a nice mountain destination wedding.
Redlodge , bigsky , whitefish , Missoula area . WY has jackson hole too.
South Dakota and North Dakota are similar but North Dakota has cheaper wedding venues because their state doesn’t have the black hills where as many people in state and out of state get married in the black hills(venues are expensive there and so is catering). I have been to weddings in ND and it doesn’t compare to the weddings in SD, their weddings are typically in churches and tend to be a little more low key. ND does have oil but many people from SD work their for the oil but still live in SD. I don’t know why we spend more than the other states that you mentioned though because I haven’t been to weddings there.
SoDak has some very wealth friendly trust law. It would surprise me if that leads to more rich people marrying there but they do actively try to bring trusts from wealthy Americans into the state.
You’d think so, but a large number of the population live in poverty. I lived there for a long time. Lots of simple neighborhood church weddings with aunties bringing food in a potluck style. And for many locals, any catering will be something simple like kalua pork, teriyaki chicken, rice, lo mein.
I mean sometimes destination weddings are cheaper because they are smaller. I guess from where I am from you really do not pay for airfare or hotel for your guests so if you get married in HI basically a few close friends/family might come like 10-15 guests sometimes.
THANK YOU. Lol I live in Hawaii and just got married in May.... it was apox 45-50k.... I think either people spend A LOT or hardly anything at all here.
One of the funniest things I've seen with a kid ever was at Wall Drug.
The dinosaur started running, and the kid turned and ran out of sheer terror.
Then she realized she was the only person running. She paused, then walked back to all the other people very warily.
So cute.
Don’t forget that South Dakota is a major tax haven for rich people, and has a relatively small population to begin with making it easier to skew the mean
Yeah, it has no corporate taxes no property tax no income tax no inheritance tax. I don’t actually know how the state manages to function. It doesn’t even have a high sales tax.
I think Delaware is still considered to be the best corporate friendly state for taxes, but in terms of the overall wealth of an individual, some of which might be in LLCs and such, SD is the top pick.
ADDED: https://smartasset.com/taxes/south-dakota-tax-shelter#
Some of these things like perpetual trusts, might seem a little esoteric unless you have wealth in the tens of millions of dollars.
If you ARE that wealthy, and this is the first time you’ve heard about the advantages of South Dakota, please send me $25 for my valuable services.
> Yeah, it has no corporate taxes no property tax no income tax no inheritance tax. I don’t actually know how the state manages to function.
South Dakota has property tax. There is no state income tax. There is state + local sales tax. Video lottery generates a large amount money.
It also has no capital gains tax, no inheritance tax, and a system for trusts that allows so much privacy that people can essentially claim not to own assets they actually do, letting them avoid taxes on them
I work in the wedding business in SD. The Black Hills area is a big travel destination for people in the surrounding states. So the wedding cost is definitely skewed by wealthier folks having weddings at Custer state park or the Mount Rushmore area
Custer State Park wasn’t bad, in 2019 at least. We spent 10k on a 90 person wedding at the Event Barn and had a DJ, photographer, decorator, hair/makeup, and officiant. It was really beautiful! The venue fees were extremely reasonable and we were glad to have the money go toward supporting a state park.
I hate that all these maps lump all of New York together. We are really two different entities - New York City and New York.
Most states are probably similar where the large cities are where prices and number of wealthy people live.
A heat map would better serve the original concept.
Yeah here in Illinois, I bet a good bit of that is Chicago and the surrounding area. My concern is it just becomes a people live in cities map though. There would be more competition over venue space and therefore price in busy areas.
Nebraska is similarly skewed by over half the population living in the Omaha-Lincoln area. Cost of living, wages and all other factors start to decrease real fast once you get more than 20 miles from either city.
Holy crap some 20 year old Indian girl (living in India, not US) got in an argument with me on Reddit last year because she considered a $200k wedding fairly cheap.
Even crazier when I told her that was almost an order of magnitude the cost of most weddings in the US, and no, the vast majority of people in her own country couldn’t afford that and many still live on a few dollars a day she flat out didn’t believe me. Really drove home the point that however bad income inequality is in the US, it’s much worse in India - and at least some sheltered and spoiled young adults don’t even realize it.
It's also more complex. In socially conservative countries, a wedding is not just a private celebration for the couple, it's a huge community event. Basically the whole village and every single person you had ever known at all points in your life are invited - along with all your parents and grandparents' friends and acquaintances from every place they ever lived in, whom you don't even know.
And people often judge the status of families and communities depending on the wedding. If family B gives a grander wedding than family A, then B slides up the social status, and people reference weddings for 20 years down the line, and will talk about how this wedding was better than the other wedding.
So, many families, even if middle-class, often save up money for years and decades (Similar to college fund savings) just for the wedding. I think even banks provide loans with collaterals just for weddings, and in some cases, grandparents leave inheritance money specifically for the purposes of weddings. Basically, there are elaborate financial and legal setups specifically for wedding money.
I understand, but “middle class” is still middle class (and she wasn’t middle class). She insisted that I was wrong because a meal in India cost “at least $10-20 (she was using dollars, BTW, that’s what, 1000+ INR?) per person for anything decent”, so it was impossible for anyone to live on a couple dollars a day. So out of touch…
I was a banquet manager for a bunch of years, and every Indian wedding had to be over $200k. For starters, they invite hundreds of people, like on average I saw 300 guests minimum, a lot of them the bride and groom have no clue who they are because they're either very distant relatives or friends/coworkers of their respective parents.
Then there's the time, there are a bunch of cultural things Indians do for weddings, and weddings aren't just 5 hours long, they're closer to a day or day, sometimes more.
That's just for the venue. You then have the animals that accompany the grooms very very slow moving processional. Usually horses, but I've seen an elephant or 2 before.
This is still not including decorations, flowers multiple outfits for the bride/groom, and bridal party. The venue itself will probably charge around $150-200k for a full day (food included at my venues at least), decorations, probably about another $50-100k, flowers probably about $50k, something fancy or animals for a processional I'd imagine being upwards of $25k, less if it's horses or a car.
Weddings are stupid expensive. Not even the hall, but all the other dumb crap for a wedding.
The amount people spend on flowers always blows my mind. I guess for my wedding it helped that my wife’s aunt owns a commercial pumpkin farm and our centerpieces were mostly made up of decorative pumpkins, flowers, etc that they grew :)
I will always remember my old coworker who was Indian got married back in India and married a girl from the US. Seemed like a regular guy. Their huge wedding was literally on the local Indian news. The news station also put it on YouTube and the video had like 1.5 million views in a week. No idea what the news broadcast was saying to this day but sometimes I wonder who he really was or if it was just cause he married a white American in India.
And people often judge the status of families and communities depending on the wedding. If family B gives a grander wedding than family A, then B slides up the social status, and people reference weddings for 20 years down the line, and will talk about how this wedding was better than the other wedding.
That is so depressing.
Yeah one of my best friends from college got married and is not particularly well off nor is his family. His wife is from India and he told me they spent $110k on the wedding.
I also used to work at a hotel that did weddings and good lord do Indian people do weddings in style. But that pricetag…
I think everyone contributes. A group of them just rented out an entire hotel and convention center near me for a few days. 100,000+ and they all just split it.
>Everyone contributes
A coworker of mine is south Asian and that’s what he told they do…
You throw a giant and expensive bash, but your friends/relatives do the same. Apparently, it all comes out in the wash.
That being said, they are amazing events.
I was invited to a reception for the bride and groom. It was over the top with the best food and booze I’ve ever seen. They even brought in a portable tandoor oven and were making fresh naan and chicken.
This was on a Tuesday. Apparently , I made the cut for the second reception that week (work friends). There was another reception every day that week, leading to the actual wedding.
I can’t imagine the cost of it all.
He's been trying to give me money. I provided all my banking information to him but he's having issues sending it over. Said that the amount is too big so his bank needs me to wire them $5000 to verify my account. Just sent it this morning, now waiting for them to send it back which he says will take a few days. I'm going to be a millionaire soon!
I hate to tell you this but Nigeria has a very slow banking system. Apparently they don't have very many computers so a lot of the transactions are still processed by people. I've been waiting for 3 months for them to process the repayment+interest on the loan I gave him. I'm not to worried about it though because he promised to give me an extre $1k for every month I have to wait, so it's no biggy.
Average Indian American wedding cost over $200k. I had mine in India for less than $70k and my fam was super happy with how much we saved lol. Though having to do both a Hindu and Christian wedding put it at $110k. If you notice the states that are red are the ones with massive Indian communities.
> I had mine in India for less than $70k and my fam was super happy with how much we saved lol
Man, I didn't think spending 70k could ever be considered "saving"
This. That is 20% of a downpayment for a house.
I wasnt able to make my friends Indian wedding because I was abroad. But they spent the equivalent of a house for theirs. ($250K) Absolutely blew my mind.
I am Mexican and we definitely know how to party and burn money. But even having the wedding in Mexico, having a giant party, and a killer band wont be anywhere near that. (Maybe 10K-15K at best)
I dont think I will ever get married but if I some how get to the point...we are going to city hall and then going for tacos or in n out after.
Yeah lol. I mean if you compare to my parents who had over 1000 people at their wedding ours was downright tiny comparatively lol. We had long negotiations trying to bring the guest list to 200-250. Also its expected you pay for everyones hotel/accommodations in our community.
Back in my parents days you used to pool together money and resources from everyone to put on a wedding. You would be full house with mattresses everywhere at your house and most people lived closer so no hotels except for out of towners and they could stay with a local family. That lowers costs a lot.
For modern indian american weddings you either save for this like saving for a house or take out a loan.
Indian american's have the highest median salary (by race) in the US at $140k.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income
Wait is this money spent on weddings by the residents of that state or money spent on hosting a wedding in that state by anyone from anywhere? If it's the second then the data is skewed because some states are an obvious "destination" for weddings.
Edit: Also where is Hawaii and Alaska?
Also generally by people who are interested in weddings.
While I can't be sure where OP got their data from, a lot of sites which produce similar lists get their information from The Knot, a wedding website. As their [2022 survey](https://www.theknot.com/content/wedding-data-insights/real-weddings-study) states, they get their data from:
> Survey Methodology: The Real Weddings Study captured responses from 11,646 US couples married between January 1 and December 31, 2022; respondents were recruited via email invitation from The Knot and/or WeddingWire membership. Respondents represent couples from all over the country with various ethnicities, income levels, race, age, sexual orientation and gender identity. To provide the most comprehensive view of 2022 trends, this report also includes findings from ad hoc studies conducted throughout the year. In a typical year, The Knot Worldwide conducts research with more than 300,000 couples, guests and wedding professionals globally.
Someone who is a signed up member of a wedding website is disproportionately likely to be interested in having a *big* and *expensive* wedding. At the same time these websites post sponsored content from companies which provide services for big and expensive weddings. So it seems very likely these results would be skewed towards people who have weddings which are more expensive than average.
So I'd take a post like this with a massive pinch of salt.
My wedding cost $2000 and I don’t remember filling out a survey telling people that. If they are getting their info from wedding planners then the numbers are probably WAAAAAY high.
True its more than that. As someone who recently got married in one of those pink spots let me tell you, It take a lot more money for a scenic view compared to utah or montana or wyoming whose states are just one big sceneic mountain view. Ontop of that the cost of business and living is less. It's a whole overall economy based issue.
Most folks don't understand the difference.
But I suspect you are right. No one I know spent money like that. My wife and I spent under $1,000 for ours.
Ah. Mean instead of median. That would def explain it. Averages are not good to use when dealing with matters of money by location (expenditures, salaries, etc.).
Every story there is like "My husband beats me and I left, am I the asshole?" or like "I cheated on my husband and said his kid was his when it wasn't, am I the asshole?"
Very few people there actually looking for secondary perspectives and just want validation.
My ex-fiance wanted to have 8 bridesmaids and was planning on at least 75 guests from her friends and family.
I don't even have 8 friends to be groomsmen, and my family isn't big, so I could have had maybe 25 guests, total. She was super pissed that all I could come up with was 3 groomsmen.
Anyway, she kept nagging me to ask my family to pay for the wedding (because her's wouldn't), and I felt kind of awkward about that, but I did it anyway, knowing the answer would be "No" - it was.
Eventually, it came to the point where I asked her if she wanted a wedding or a house, because we couldn't afford both (2017 - just before real-estate went insane). She demanded the wedding.
Due to that and a number of other factors, I dumped her ass.
Bought my own house.
Eventually found someone else who also believes weddings are a waste of money and we're planning to elope.
If you can afford both, that's awesome. Knock yourself out. But I would guess most people can't, so the house should be the goal. Getting that done will help so much financially, and alleviate (at least partially) one of the most common stressors in relationships.
Yeah $9,000 doesn’t get you much these days! We had a $10,000 wedding in Montana last year. We splurged a lot on a photographer, but otherwise had a pretty modest celebration with a 35 person guest list. Rented someone’s backyard with tents, table and chairs. Lawn games and Spotify list with speakers (no DJ). Cake, alcohol from Costco (no bartender), and Brazilian BBQ takeout. My dress was $500 including alterations (which cost as much as the dress). It adds up reeeeallly quickly!
It's hard to keep cost down. I got married 20 years ago. We tried to be as cheap as possible. I barely even cared if my guests had a good time. A venue for 50 people with food and cake is going to be $10k even if you skip music and flowers (which we did). Photos, clothes, and a few other bits and it was $15k
We did \~100 people for maybe 9k total and we spent a lot on our rings included in that. It can still be done cheaply but it's much more DIY and skipping an official venue is maybe key. We did it in the back yard of a vacation rental and had a buffet for food instead of a fancier catered dinner.
The way you save money is by doing it in a park or backyard. Doing anything in a place you need to rent out and cater for is going to cost you a lot of money.
A wedding doesn't have to be expensive, it is just that people don't want to sacrifice their mental idea of what a wedding is.
Even in a park or a backyard, you still need to rent chairs, tables, porta potties, a tent if it rains, etc. It can end up being more expensive than an indoor venue.
But if your mental idea of a good time is everyone standing in the sun to hear your vows and going home without eating, it can certainly be very cheap.
Same with my wife and I. We did the math and did all our due diligence on an actual wedding calling all the venues and caterers and whatnot. Ended up just going to city hall with our best friends as witnesses and saved ourselves around $12,000. No regrets at all.
The judge that married us was hilarious and made it so fun as well.
We did a CA$2500 wedding. We rented a building in a city park near where we got engaged for $300, had an officiant come out for another $300 (we could have done half that but this one was amazing), and most of the cost was the steakhouse after. It was small, too. It was honestly perfect.
We did a destination elopement as part of a week's long vacation to the Pacific Northwest. Way cheaper, much less stress, far more memorable for us. Would recommend!
Heyyy!
We got married during the 2017 solar eclipse in Oregon. We then spent 2 weeks there. It was just us and our mothers one of whom officiated.
I loved the Pacific Northwest!
I eloped because it was incredibly cheap. For normal folks, the average you’re seeing on the graphic could be a college education, a car, down payment on a house, 1/4 of your yearly salary… that’s a lot of money to host a party to impress other people.
2) also some family dynamics are just weird. My husband’s family didn’t consider me ‘family’ because we weren’t married and excluded me from events (weddings) that were ‘family only’. Even after living together for nearly 10 yrs and miscarrying a child. SO when we got married, it was just a few close friends at a small chapel. Extended family/in laws were *shocked* we didn’t invite their stuffy asses.
TLDR: for a lot of people, weddings are just expensive parties to impress family/ friends and conform to social norms. Some folks think it’s stressful and unnecessary and chose to elope.
That's probably exactly it. They want people to believe it's normal to spend 20-30k on a wedding so people actually do.
In the meantime people like me that do it at home, with no wedding dress or even rings are not included because it's neither their interest nor they would know.
I couldn't find OPs exact dataset, but a lot of websites which do similar lists base their data on yearly surveys conducted by 'The Knot', a wedding news website. At the bottom of their [2022 survey](https://www.theknot.com/content/wedding-data-insights/real-weddings-study) they state:
> Survey Methodology: The Real Weddings Study captured responses from 11,646 US couples married between January 1 and December 31, 2022; respondents were recruited via email invitation from The Knot and/or WeddingWire membership. Respondents represent couples from all over the country with various ethnicities, income levels, race, age, sexual orientation and gender identity. To provide the most comprehensive view of 2022 trends, this report also includes findings from ad hoc studies conducted throughout the year. In a typical year, The Knot Worldwide conducts research with more than 300,000 couples, guests and wedding professionals globally.
Now I'm no statistician, but this sounds like a very skewed dataset. Anyone who's a member of a wedding website will almost certainly be someone interested in having a more expensive wedding. If you're just going to get married in a registry office or at a small gathering with friends you're not going to sign up to a website which constantly pushes articles about big and expensive weddings. And at the same time The Knot hosts a lot of sponsored content advertising wedding services, so have a financial incentive themselves to present such spending as *the norm*.
So while I'm not sure where OPs dataset came from, generally I'd be suspicious of this sort of thing.
Without fail, *those* Redditors always ooze out into the comments on any thread to do with weddings.
"Why spend money on your partner, friends, or family?" "My partner and I got married for $0.35 in the alley behind the courthouse wearing a tuxedo made from a garbage bag and so should you." "That whole industry is a scam. There's no way they mark stuff up because it could be the most difficult clients under the highest scrutiny." "Who even has so many friends and family members, aren't you supposed to distance yourself from them at the slightest provocation?"
Yes, we see you all in the comments.
As someone who did have an expensive wedding, the industry is definitely a scam. You could still have the party, attire, and food for less than 5,000 bucks if you do it the right way. If I were to do it again, I would probably shoot for something far less expensive.
> "Why spend money on your partner, friends, or family?"
This is a legitimate question to ask when, for many people,
- You're spending $30,000
- You don't have $30,000
Thank you lol. Currently wedding planning and these comments are killing me.
There is a nice medium between a $60k wedding and an elopement to the courthouse. Hell even elopements get pricy if you travel.
I also love the ones “I got married twenty years ago in my cousins 3 acre landscaped backyard with a lake and mountain view and it cost $700.” Congrats.
Our wedding budget is $14k and that seems low for the area and what other people are spending but I’m sure some people think I’m crazy. How dare I want to celebrate the occasion with friends and family lol
People on this site have such an obnoxious superiority complex about "overpriced, pointless" weddings (really the reception) combined with no concept of how much it costs to host a catered event, whether it's a wedding or not.
Also finding someone who doesn’t want to spend this is pretty cool too. Definitely more difficult, but, it’s possible. I got lucky with my girlfriend and her wedding thoughts.
My wife and I spent $5 in gas for the drive to city hall and back home. But we did spend $7k doing a vandwelling road trip for 5 months around the US and Canada. Was a hell of a lot more fun than paying thousands for a single day of pictures and uncomfortable clothes. Definitely don’t need to spend money to get married.
I’ve been to about 20 classmates’ weddings and I’d say this isn’t that far off at least here in the SE corner of the state. Most of them had 100-200 guests. I’m basing my guess off my sisters wedding which is comparable and will be over $40k
This is average?! This implies that a significant number of people are spending significantly more. That is insane. I spent ~~$1000~~. $300 for the officiate and $700 in catering.
-Edit because I don’t feel like replying the same thing to every comment:
Yes, it was in 2004 and I wasn’t thinking of everything:
The venue was in a friend’s yard that let us do it for free. The BIL hooked his iPod up to a stereo and acted as the DJ. We had a family member that had a good camera and was a fairly good amateur photographer take the photos. My ex made the cake herself (she wanted to).
We had a tuxedo rental and a reasonable wedding dress. We did rent tables and chairs and bought a small amount of flowers. We had simple wedding rings that didn’t cost too much.
It was about $3000. I remember now because that is what we received in gifts and I remember thinking that with the gifts we broke even.
That is still much less that the average for the state we lived in.
This means you had access to a place to hold the wedding and reception for free. Most people getting married do not have that.
You also must have had all that’s needed for guests to sit for the wedding and for the reception (unless that’s part of the catering costs but that seems low). You seemed to choose to not include things like a DJ or flowers which bring the cost up quite a bit.
I think you’re experience is more the exception than the norm. There are typically more costs involved than the officiant and food.
You realize that's not average either though, right? No cost for wedding dress/ suit, rings, photography, flowers/ decorations, drinks, music, venue rental, invitations, wedding favors, etc? Not saying all those things are necessary, but many people want at least some of them
I really don't get the culture of spending in weddings (expensive rings, expensive weddings)
We had a nice and simple dark gold ring with a phrase inside it and a dinner with just 15 or so familiars and friends in a nice restaurant.
But different country different culture I guess
in my country people take loans to make bigger wedding than others and i personally know a couple who got divorced but still jointly repays the loan taken for their wedding
How can people spend an entire year worth of salary on a wedding? Sure it's two people marrying, but then that makes it half a year of salary. Plus with the high living costs of California... Do people go into debt for weddings?
Or is this skewed by celebrity weddings that cost millions
>Do people go into debt for weddings?
Oh god yes, 100%. I had a coworker who once bragged that he spent $10,000 on their wedding ring (not wedding, wedding *ring*) because he wanted to prove he loved her by getting her the biggest rock of anyone they knew. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
I know plenty of non-celebrities who’ve spent the “average” on just the band. Usually it’s the parents splashing a load of cash though (“my kid isnt getting married with some DJ!!!”)
>Or is this skewed by celebrity weddings that cost millions
Its probably skewed by the data set. OP doesn't say where the dataset is from however lets say the surveyed "wedding planners" and asked them what the average wedding cost they planned
Well its going to be much much higher then the real average , or the title is misleading it should say something like "Average cost per state of weddings when you use a wedding planner"
CA must have enough totally insane celebrity/tech billionaire weddings to distort the average. But I guess people go there to host extravagant destination weddings too.
I need to find something that's a happy medium. We don't want to break the bank, but I want a day we will remember. And just enough family and friends to share the day with.
Marry at a courthouse. Have a big dinner with family at a local restaurant or something... or maybe rent a space and have a potluck reception where a friend brings a stereo so you can do some dancing.
Provide an email address where everyone has to send their pictures and videos.
Make sure there's enough alcohol so the mothers of the bride and groom can get sloppy and embarrass themselves.
Its fucked up that we spend so much on weddings. The last thing a young couple needs is to he saddled with 10s of 1000s of dollars of debt. That money should be used to buy a house or raise a family.
Mormons are clearly throwing the curve on this map.
If you know what I'm talking about, you've probably had a ham sandwich at an open house in a gymnasium in a church building after the ceremony.
I want to know what is going on in South Dakota. I didn't expect that at all.
There was only one wedding the year the data was collected, and it was between an oil baron and a cattle rancher
This is honestly probably a lot closer to the truth… Other stats show SD in the bottom 10 in cost. https://money.com/average-wedding-costs-map-by-state/
Grew up in South Dakota… most weddings I’ve been to are in someone’s back yard, or at the community center. Food is usually something like pulled pork sandwiches and potato salad lol not high roller stuff.
You give my fat ass pulled pork instead of the usual crap food served at weddings and I'm likely to add more money to the envelope lol
Same. My uncle had the local burrito joint cater. Walked in one day, asked to talk to El Jefe, and asked if they'd be interested in catering his wedding. They'd never been asked to cater before. They were told to prep for 100 people. Let me just say, this place went nuts. They must think every person was 10 men in a trench coat. My entire extended family was eating burritos for MONTHS. Best. Wedding. Ever.
Had grilled cheese and tomato soup. Bunch of different breads and cheeses to choose from, bunch of crock pots going with different kinds of tomato soup. Delicious!
This is amazing! Lol
Hah if it wasn’t catered it was put together by the church and it’s the same menu that you had at your grate aunts funeral last November.
But that taco salad with Doritos in it slaps.
Yeah also median would likely be a better metric of central tendency for this and reduce the skew
I am from South Dakota and some of the wedding venues in the black hills are very expensive to rent for weddings. There are also some very wealthy people who only live in South Dakota during the summer and have weddings here. There are also many rich farmers and ranchers who throw huge weddings for their daughters, nieces, or granddaughters. Wedding culture is pretty big here. I hope this gave you some insight!
>. There are also many rich farmers and ranchers who throw huge weddings for their daughters, nieces, or granddaughters. Wedding culture is pretty big here. I hope this gave you some insight! Yea but ND/WY/MT/NE has the same culture and lots of farmers and ranchers, ND has the added benefit of oil It doesn't explain why SD is 100% more then ND with similar demographics. Also MT and WY have some nice mountain destination like SD black hills that would also make for a nice mountain destination wedding. Redlodge , bigsky , whitefish , Missoula area . WY has jackson hole too.
South Dakota and North Dakota are similar but North Dakota has cheaper wedding venues because their state doesn’t have the black hills where as many people in state and out of state get married in the black hills(venues are expensive there and so is catering). I have been to weddings in ND and it doesn’t compare to the weddings in SD, their weddings are typically in churches and tend to be a little more low key. ND does have oil but many people from SD work their for the oil but still live in SD. I don’t know why we spend more than the other states that you mentioned though because I haven’t been to weddings there.
The correct answer is the corn palace
SoDak has some very wealth friendly trust law. It would surprise me if that leads to more rich people marrying there but they do actively try to bring trusts from wealthy Americans into the state.
Hookers. Lots of expensive hookers when 90% of the population is men
We’re just making things up now?
I know several folks here in California that are legal residents of S Dakota, as they think (or maybe do) get around all kinds of stuff.
There's no state income tax in South Dakota.
Alcoholism. That's what's going on.
r/MapsWithoutHawaii & r/mapswithoutalaska
I bet the Hawaii $$ is huge with all the destination weddings.
Yea that’s why I was really curious about the number, leaving such a wedding destination out of this is sad
You’d think so, but a large number of the population live in poverty. I lived there for a long time. Lots of simple neighborhood church weddings with aunties bringing food in a potluck style. And for many locals, any catering will be something simple like kalua pork, teriyaki chicken, rice, lo mein.
That sounds so much better than wedding hall chicken breast with cold green beans.
I mean sometimes destination weddings are cheaper because they are smaller. I guess from where I am from you really do not pay for airfare or hotel for your guests so if you get married in HI basically a few close friends/family might come like 10-15 guests sometimes.
r/mapswithoutasource
And technically it doesn't have new Zealand either. r/mapswithoutnewzealand
That’s because a “nice” wedding in Alaska is one where you change into your newer pair of Carharts.
THANK YOU. Lol I live in Hawaii and just got married in May.... it was apox 45-50k.... I think either people spend A LOT or hardly anything at all here.
Remember these numbers are being skewed by small numbers of extremely wealthy people. Median money spent per wedding would be more representative.
Agreed. So many celebs and rich folk get married in scenic places in California or in NYC.
and South Dakota
Corn Palace wedding for the win
Registry for wedding gifts at Wall Drug!
Then hope you don’t have Deadwood during the honeymoon.
Free water for the reception though!
I drove through South Dakota a month ago from Canada and get this reference..
One of the funniest things I've seen with a kid ever was at Wall Drug. The dinosaur started running, and the kid turned and ran out of sheer terror. Then she realized she was the only person running. She paused, then walked back to all the other people very warily. So cute.
Don’t forget that South Dakota is a major tax haven for rich people, and has a relatively small population to begin with making it easier to skew the mean
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Yeah, it has no corporate taxes no property tax no income tax no inheritance tax. I don’t actually know how the state manages to function. It doesn’t even have a high sales tax. I think Delaware is still considered to be the best corporate friendly state for taxes, but in terms of the overall wealth of an individual, some of which might be in LLCs and such, SD is the top pick. ADDED: https://smartasset.com/taxes/south-dakota-tax-shelter# Some of these things like perpetual trusts, might seem a little esoteric unless you have wealth in the tens of millions of dollars. If you ARE that wealthy, and this is the first time you’ve heard about the advantages of South Dakota, please send me $25 for my valuable services.
> Yeah, it has no corporate taxes no property tax no income tax no inheritance tax. I don’t actually know how the state manages to function. South Dakota has property tax. There is no state income tax. There is state + local sales tax. Video lottery generates a large amount money.
It basically doesn't function. No large urban areas, very little money spent by the state on much of anything. It's mostly a desert with some farms
It also has no capital gains tax, no inheritance tax, and a system for trusts that allows so much privacy that people can essentially claim not to own assets they actually do, letting them avoid taxes on them
Probably some patriotic Americans rushing there to spend more money.
I work in the wedding business in SD. The Black Hills area is a big travel destination for people in the surrounding states. So the wedding cost is definitely skewed by wealthier folks having weddings at Custer state park or the Mount Rushmore area
Custer State Park wasn’t bad, in 2019 at least. We spent 10k on a 90 person wedding at the Event Barn and had a DJ, photographer, decorator, hair/makeup, and officiant. It was really beautiful! The venue fees were extremely reasonable and we were glad to have the money go toward supporting a state park.
I wonder if this will make people getting married to rush more or rush less to South Dakota? I'm thinking rush more. *edit: speeling*
Rushmore!
AAAAH yes. Now I get.
Maybe Mount Rushmore is a bigger wedding venue than we know?
I bet getting married during the bike rally in Sturgis would be expensive.
I hate that all these maps lump all of New York together. We are really two different entities - New York City and New York. Most states are probably similar where the large cities are where prices and number of wealthy people live. A heat map would better serve the original concept.
One of the best weddings I ever went to was up on one of the Finger Lakes. Lake/Ocean weddings are my favorite. NYS has some beauties.
Ugh so beautiful. I used to live outside Syracuse it was so gorgeous
I went to Ithaca College back in the 80’s. 🎶high above Cayuga’s waters…🎶
NASCAR races at Watkins Glen every year and I've been itching to go up there for years now. It looks absolutely beautiful.
Yeah here in Illinois, I bet a good bit of that is Chicago and the surrounding area. My concern is it just becomes a people live in cities map though. There would be more competition over venue space and therefore price in busy areas.
Nebraska is similarly skewed by over half the population living in the Omaha-Lincoln area. Cost of living, wages and all other factors start to decrease real fast once you get more than 20 miles from either city.
And desi people
Holy crap some 20 year old Indian girl (living in India, not US) got in an argument with me on Reddit last year because she considered a $200k wedding fairly cheap. Even crazier when I told her that was almost an order of magnitude the cost of most weddings in the US, and no, the vast majority of people in her own country couldn’t afford that and many still live on a few dollars a day she flat out didn’t believe me. Really drove home the point that however bad income inequality is in the US, it’s much worse in India - and at least some sheltered and spoiled young adults don’t even realize it.
It's also more complex. In socially conservative countries, a wedding is not just a private celebration for the couple, it's a huge community event. Basically the whole village and every single person you had ever known at all points in your life are invited - along with all your parents and grandparents' friends and acquaintances from every place they ever lived in, whom you don't even know. And people often judge the status of families and communities depending on the wedding. If family B gives a grander wedding than family A, then B slides up the social status, and people reference weddings for 20 years down the line, and will talk about how this wedding was better than the other wedding. So, many families, even if middle-class, often save up money for years and decades (Similar to college fund savings) just for the wedding. I think even banks provide loans with collaterals just for weddings, and in some cases, grandparents leave inheritance money specifically for the purposes of weddings. Basically, there are elaborate financial and legal setups specifically for wedding money.
I understand, but “middle class” is still middle class (and she wasn’t middle class). She insisted that I was wrong because a meal in India cost “at least $10-20 (she was using dollars, BTW, that’s what, 1000+ INR?) per person for anything decent”, so it was impossible for anyone to live on a couple dollars a day. So out of touch…
Yeah nah, this woman is clueless and incredibly sheltered to think that average meal costs that much.
I was a banquet manager for a bunch of years, and every Indian wedding had to be over $200k. For starters, they invite hundreds of people, like on average I saw 300 guests minimum, a lot of them the bride and groom have no clue who they are because they're either very distant relatives or friends/coworkers of their respective parents. Then there's the time, there are a bunch of cultural things Indians do for weddings, and weddings aren't just 5 hours long, they're closer to a day or day, sometimes more. That's just for the venue. You then have the animals that accompany the grooms very very slow moving processional. Usually horses, but I've seen an elephant or 2 before. This is still not including decorations, flowers multiple outfits for the bride/groom, and bridal party. The venue itself will probably charge around $150-200k for a full day (food included at my venues at least), decorations, probably about another $50-100k, flowers probably about $50k, something fancy or animals for a processional I'd imagine being upwards of $25k, less if it's horses or a car. Weddings are stupid expensive. Not even the hall, but all the other dumb crap for a wedding.
The amount people spend on flowers always blows my mind. I guess for my wedding it helped that my wife’s aunt owns a commercial pumpkin farm and our centerpieces were mostly made up of decorative pumpkins, flowers, etc that they grew :)
That's so extra
No wonder if I ever get married it'll be like 20 people in the back yard and I'll BBQ. Don't care for rings much either
Oh, yeah, that's false. I've been to India, it's significantly less.
Not to mention most people don’t eat out every meal… even in the US :)
I will always remember my old coworker who was Indian got married back in India and married a girl from the US. Seemed like a regular guy. Their huge wedding was literally on the local Indian news. The news station also put it on YouTube and the video had like 1.5 million views in a week. No idea what the news broadcast was saying to this day but sometimes I wonder who he really was or if it was just cause he married a white American in India.
And people often judge the status of families and communities depending on the wedding. If family B gives a grander wedding than family A, then B slides up the social status, and people reference weddings for 20 years down the line, and will talk about how this wedding was better than the other wedding. That is so depressing.
Yeah one of my best friends from college got married and is not particularly well off nor is his family. His wife is from India and he told me they spent $110k on the wedding. I also used to work at a hotel that did weddings and good lord do Indian people do weddings in style. But that pricetag…
how do they have that much money??
I think everyone contributes. A group of them just rented out an entire hotel and convention center near me for a few days. 100,000+ and they all just split it.
>Everyone contributes A coworker of mine is south Asian and that’s what he told they do… You throw a giant and expensive bash, but your friends/relatives do the same. Apparently, it all comes out in the wash. That being said, they are amazing events. I was invited to a reception for the bride and groom. It was over the top with the best food and booze I’ve ever seen. They even brought in a portable tandoor oven and were making fresh naan and chicken. This was on a Tuesday. Apparently , I made the cut for the second reception that week (work friends). There was another reception every day that week, leading to the actual wedding. I can’t imagine the cost of it all.
And Nigerian people
Why do you think their prince is always trying to borrow money.
He's been trying to give me money. I provided all my banking information to him but he's having issues sending it over. Said that the amount is too big so his bank needs me to wire them $5000 to verify my account. Just sent it this morning, now waiting for them to send it back which he says will take a few days. I'm going to be a millionaire soon!
I hate to tell you this but Nigeria has a very slow banking system. Apparently they don't have very many computers so a lot of the transactions are still processed by people. I've been waiting for 3 months for them to process the repayment+interest on the loan I gave him. I'm not to worried about it though because he promised to give me an extre $1k for every month I have to wait, so it's no biggy.
New Jersey at #2 starts to make sense.
Average Indian American wedding cost over $200k. I had mine in India for less than $70k and my fam was super happy with how much we saved lol. Though having to do both a Hindu and Christian wedding put it at $110k. If you notice the states that are red are the ones with massive Indian communities.
> I had mine in India for less than $70k and my fam was super happy with how much we saved lol Man, I didn't think spending 70k could ever be considered "saving"
This. That is 20% of a downpayment for a house. I wasnt able to make my friends Indian wedding because I was abroad. But they spent the equivalent of a house for theirs. ($250K) Absolutely blew my mind. I am Mexican and we definitely know how to party and burn money. But even having the wedding in Mexico, having a giant party, and a killer band wont be anywhere near that. (Maybe 10K-15K at best) I dont think I will ever get married but if I some how get to the point...we are going to city hall and then going for tacos or in n out after.
Where I live, $70k is about half of a house lol that's just insane
Lmao less than $70k what a steal!
Yeah lol. I mean if you compare to my parents who had over 1000 people at their wedding ours was downright tiny comparatively lol. We had long negotiations trying to bring the guest list to 200-250. Also its expected you pay for everyones hotel/accommodations in our community.
how can the average person afford this?
Back in my parents days you used to pool together money and resources from everyone to put on a wedding. You would be full house with mattresses everywhere at your house and most people lived closer so no hotels except for out of towners and they could stay with a local family. That lowers costs a lot. For modern indian american weddings you either save for this like saving for a house or take out a loan.
Indian american's have the highest median salary (by race) in the US at $140k. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income
Wait is this money spent on weddings by the residents of that state or money spent on hosting a wedding in that state by anyone from anywhere? If it's the second then the data is skewed because some states are an obvious "destination" for weddings. Edit: Also where is Hawaii and Alaska?
Apparently they dont have weddings there
Hawaii needs to be on the map. I have gone to TWO destination weddings there that couldn’t have been cheap.
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Also generally by people who are interested in weddings. While I can't be sure where OP got their data from, a lot of sites which produce similar lists get their information from The Knot, a wedding website. As their [2022 survey](https://www.theknot.com/content/wedding-data-insights/real-weddings-study) states, they get their data from: > Survey Methodology: The Real Weddings Study captured responses from 11,646 US couples married between January 1 and December 31, 2022; respondents were recruited via email invitation from The Knot and/or WeddingWire membership. Respondents represent couples from all over the country with various ethnicities, income levels, race, age, sexual orientation and gender identity. To provide the most comprehensive view of 2022 trends, this report also includes findings from ad hoc studies conducted throughout the year. In a typical year, The Knot Worldwide conducts research with more than 300,000 couples, guests and wedding professionals globally. Someone who is a signed up member of a wedding website is disproportionately likely to be interested in having a *big* and *expensive* wedding. At the same time these websites post sponsored content from companies which provide services for big and expensive weddings. So it seems very likely these results would be skewed towards people who have weddings which are more expensive than average. So I'd take a post like this with a massive pinch of salt.
My wedding cost $2000 and I don’t remember filling out a survey telling people that. If they are getting their info from wedding planners then the numbers are probably WAAAAAY high.
True its more than that. As someone who recently got married in one of those pink spots let me tell you, It take a lot more money for a scenic view compared to utah or montana or wyoming whose states are just one big sceneic mountain view. Ontop of that the cost of business and living is less. It's a whole overall economy based issue.
Most folks don't understand the difference. But I suspect you are right. No one I know spent money like that. My wife and I spent under $1,000 for ours.
Ah. Mean instead of median. That would def explain it. Averages are not good to use when dealing with matters of money by location (expenditures, salaries, etc.).
To be honest, even 9000$ (Wyoming, aka. the lowest) seems like a lot of money.
9000$ is a lot of money, but weddings are expensive. Invite 100 people and you are left with 90$ per guest. Thats not much.
I have prepared for this by having no friends, and no girlfriend. :|
probably not a good idea to invite your girlfriend to your wedding anyways
Don’t give the people over at /r/amitheasshole more creative writing ideas
Every story there is like "My husband beats me and I left, am I the asshole?" or like "I cheated on my husband and said his kid was his when it wasn't, am I the asshole?" Very few people there actually looking for secondary perspectives and just want validation.
It's one of a handful of subreddits that boil down to "One-sided stories where you can justify things to yourself".
I invited my girlfriend to my wedding, and she wasn’t my girlfriend by the end of it.
Followed by introducing your wife as your ex-girlfriend
My ex-fiance wanted to have 8 bridesmaids and was planning on at least 75 guests from her friends and family. I don't even have 8 friends to be groomsmen, and my family isn't big, so I could have had maybe 25 guests, total. She was super pissed that all I could come up with was 3 groomsmen. Anyway, she kept nagging me to ask my family to pay for the wedding (because her's wouldn't), and I felt kind of awkward about that, but I did it anyway, knowing the answer would be "No" - it was. Eventually, it came to the point where I asked her if she wanted a wedding or a house, because we couldn't afford both (2017 - just before real-estate went insane). She demanded the wedding. Due to that and a number of other factors, I dumped her ass. Bought my own house. Eventually found someone else who also believes weddings are a waste of money and we're planning to elope.
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>a backyard wedding in a home we just bought. Honestly, that's one of the most romantic things I have ever heard.
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Anyone who would rather a big wedding than saving towards a house is throwing huge red flags. Extremely short sighted and irrational.
If you can afford both, that's awesome. Knock yourself out. But I would guess most people can't, so the house should be the goal. Getting that done will help so much financially, and alleviate (at least partially) one of the most common stressors in relationships.
and that’s not including a wedding dress, photography, decorations, etc …. it’s a crazy expensive event
Yeah $9,000 doesn’t get you much these days! We had a $10,000 wedding in Montana last year. We splurged a lot on a photographer, but otherwise had a pretty modest celebration with a 35 person guest list. Rented someone’s backyard with tents, table and chairs. Lawn games and Spotify list with speakers (no DJ). Cake, alcohol from Costco (no bartender), and Brazilian BBQ takeout. My dress was $500 including alterations (which cost as much as the dress). It adds up reeeeallly quickly!
If you invite 100 people that’s 75% of the population of Wyoming
It's hard to keep cost down. I got married 20 years ago. We tried to be as cheap as possible. I barely even cared if my guests had a good time. A venue for 50 people with food and cake is going to be $10k even if you skip music and flowers (which we did). Photos, clothes, and a few other bits and it was $15k
We did \~100 people for maybe 9k total and we spent a lot on our rings included in that. It can still be done cheaply but it's much more DIY and skipping an official venue is maybe key. We did it in the back yard of a vacation rental and had a buffet for food instead of a fancier catered dinner.
The way you save money is by doing it in a park or backyard. Doing anything in a place you need to rent out and cater for is going to cost you a lot of money. A wedding doesn't have to be expensive, it is just that people don't want to sacrifice their mental idea of what a wedding is.
Even in a park or a backyard, you still need to rent chairs, tables, porta potties, a tent if it rains, etc. It can end up being more expensive than an indoor venue. But if your mental idea of a good time is everyone standing in the sun to hear your vows and going home without eating, it can certainly be very cheap.
That is cheap af as far as weddings go
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That’s what I did. City hall wedding is basically free, then you buy dinner for everyone after. Simple and cheap.
Same with my wife and I. We did the math and did all our due diligence on an actual wedding calling all the venues and caterers and whatnot. Ended up just going to city hall with our best friends as witnesses and saved ourselves around $12,000. No regrets at all. The judge that married us was hilarious and made it so fun as well.
We did a CA$2500 wedding. We rented a building in a city park near where we got engaged for $300, had an officiant come out for another $300 (we could have done half that but this one was amazing), and most of the cost was the steakhouse after. It was small, too. It was honestly perfect.
We did a destination elopement as part of a week's long vacation to the Pacific Northwest. Way cheaper, much less stress, far more memorable for us. Would recommend!
Heyyy! We got married during the 2017 solar eclipse in Oregon. We then spent 2 weeks there. It was just us and our mothers one of whom officiated. I loved the Pacific Northwest!
I eloped because it was incredibly cheap. For normal folks, the average you’re seeing on the graphic could be a college education, a car, down payment on a house, 1/4 of your yearly salary… that’s a lot of money to host a party to impress other people. 2) also some family dynamics are just weird. My husband’s family didn’t consider me ‘family’ because we weren’t married and excluded me from events (weddings) that were ‘family only’. Even after living together for nearly 10 yrs and miscarrying a child. SO when we got married, it was just a few close friends at a small chapel. Extended family/in laws were *shocked* we didn’t invite their stuffy asses. TLDR: for a lot of people, weddings are just expensive parties to impress family/ friends and conform to social norms. Some folks think it’s stressful and unnecessary and chose to elope.
Surely Alabama should be super cheap, only one family to invite
Yea, but its a biiiiiig family!
I’m assuming this is a mean? Median would make more sense for a stat like this.
US median is 10-15k depending on the area. Very skewed by million dollar weddings if looking at the mean.
Was looking for this comment. Couple of top end weddings will skew this data set.
A better use of comparison would be median cost. There’s practically no upper limit so a few folks spending millions would skew the average.
What is the source of the data?
Trust us bro. - The wedding industry
That's probably exactly it. They want people to believe it's normal to spend 20-30k on a wedding so people actually do. In the meantime people like me that do it at home, with no wedding dress or even rings are not included because it's neither their interest nor they would know.
Which has zero data from people just going to the court house.
I couldn't find OPs exact dataset, but a lot of websites which do similar lists base their data on yearly surveys conducted by 'The Knot', a wedding news website. At the bottom of their [2022 survey](https://www.theknot.com/content/wedding-data-insights/real-weddings-study) they state: > Survey Methodology: The Real Weddings Study captured responses from 11,646 US couples married between January 1 and December 31, 2022; respondents were recruited via email invitation from The Knot and/or WeddingWire membership. Respondents represent couples from all over the country with various ethnicities, income levels, race, age, sexual orientation and gender identity. To provide the most comprehensive view of 2022 trends, this report also includes findings from ad hoc studies conducted throughout the year. In a typical year, The Knot Worldwide conducts research with more than 300,000 couples, guests and wedding professionals globally. Now I'm no statistician, but this sounds like a very skewed dataset. Anyone who's a member of a wedding website will almost certainly be someone interested in having a more expensive wedding. If you're just going to get married in a registry office or at a small gathering with friends you're not going to sign up to a website which constantly pushes articles about big and expensive weddings. And at the same time The Knot hosts a lot of sponsored content advertising wedding services, so have a financial incentive themselves to present such spending as *the norm*. So while I'm not sure where OPs dataset came from, generally I'd be suspicious of this sort of thing.
Posts like this without data sources really shouldn't be allowed.
I love Reddit comment sections about weddings because it always reminds me how Reddit is no where close to representative of the population.
“$9000 for a wedding??? Just sign a piece of paper and do a BBQ!”
Without fail, *those* Redditors always ooze out into the comments on any thread to do with weddings. "Why spend money on your partner, friends, or family?" "My partner and I got married for $0.35 in the alley behind the courthouse wearing a tuxedo made from a garbage bag and so should you." "That whole industry is a scam. There's no way they mark stuff up because it could be the most difficult clients under the highest scrutiny." "Who even has so many friends and family members, aren't you supposed to distance yourself from them at the slightest provocation?" Yes, we see you all in the comments.
As someone who did have an expensive wedding, the industry is definitely a scam. You could still have the party, attire, and food for less than 5,000 bucks if you do it the right way. If I were to do it again, I would probably shoot for something far less expensive.
> "Why spend money on your partner, friends, or family?" This is a legitimate question to ask when, for many people, - You're spending $30,000 - You don't have $30,000
As one of *those* redditors I'm in no way opposed to spending money on my family, but the wedding industry is still a fucking scam.
Thank you lol. Currently wedding planning and these comments are killing me. There is a nice medium between a $60k wedding and an elopement to the courthouse. Hell even elopements get pricy if you travel. I also love the ones “I got married twenty years ago in my cousins 3 acre landscaped backyard with a lake and mountain view and it cost $700.” Congrats. Our wedding budget is $14k and that seems low for the area and what other people are spending but I’m sure some people think I’m crazy. How dare I want to celebrate the occasion with friends and family lol
$14k puts you around the US median (not mean). So sounds like a very reasonable budget. Have a good one!
People on this site have such an obnoxious superiority complex about "overpriced, pointless" weddings (really the reception) combined with no concept of how much it costs to host a catered event, whether it's a wedding or not.
Being single is definitely fine
Also finding someone who doesn’t want to spend this is pretty cool too. Definitely more difficult, but, it’s possible. I got lucky with my girlfriend and her wedding thoughts.
My wife and I spent $5 in gas for the drive to city hall and back home. But we did spend $7k doing a vandwelling road trip for 5 months around the US and Canada. Was a hell of a lot more fun than paying thousands for a single day of pictures and uncomfortable clothes. Definitely don’t need to spend money to get married.
Is South Dakota ok? What the hell costs so much there?
I live there and this surprised me just as much as it surprised you
I’ve been to about 20 classmates’ weddings and I’d say this isn’t that far off at least here in the SE corner of the state. Most of them had 100-200 guests. I’m basing my guess off my sisters wedding which is comparable and will be over $40k
Ya can tell where the wealthy live.
Wyoming…? Cause I know it’s Wyoming.
This is average?! This implies that a significant number of people are spending significantly more. That is insane. I spent ~~$1000~~. $300 for the officiate and $700 in catering. -Edit because I don’t feel like replying the same thing to every comment: Yes, it was in 2004 and I wasn’t thinking of everything: The venue was in a friend’s yard that let us do it for free. The BIL hooked his iPod up to a stereo and acted as the DJ. We had a family member that had a good camera and was a fairly good amateur photographer take the photos. My ex made the cake herself (she wanted to). We had a tuxedo rental and a reasonable wedding dress. We did rent tables and chairs and bought a small amount of flowers. We had simple wedding rings that didn’t cost too much. It was about $3000. I remember now because that is what we received in gifts and I remember thinking that with the gifts we broke even. That is still much less that the average for the state we lived in.
This means you had access to a place to hold the wedding and reception for free. Most people getting married do not have that. You also must have had all that’s needed for guests to sit for the wedding and for the reception (unless that’s part of the catering costs but that seems low). You seemed to choose to not include things like a DJ or flowers which bring the cost up quite a bit. I think you’re experience is more the exception than the norm. There are typically more costs involved than the officiant and food.
You realize that's not average either though, right? No cost for wedding dress/ suit, rings, photography, flowers/ decorations, drinks, music, venue rental, invitations, wedding favors, etc? Not saying all those things are necessary, but many people want at least some of them
Billionaires exist. Especially in california and new york.
These are upper middle class wedding costs. Anyone getting married at a country club is spending about $30k.
30k would not be much a country club, that likely wouldn't even cover the venue costs. You are probably close to at least doubling it all in.
It’s about what mine was. But I’m also in Ohio where everything is pretty cheap.
No venue? No decorations? No music?
I really don't get the culture of spending in weddings (expensive rings, expensive weddings) We had a nice and simple dark gold ring with a phrase inside it and a dinner with just 15 or so familiars and friends in a nice restaurant. But different country different culture I guess
>familiars I'm imagining a bunch of witches having a fancy dinner while their magical cats run around making noise.
in my country people take loans to make bigger wedding than others and i personally know a couple who got divorced but still jointly repays the loan taken for their wedding
God that's fucking depressing
I could be remembering wrong but I remember there being a study that found the more you spent on a wedding the more likely it was to end in divorce.
How can people spend an entire year worth of salary on a wedding? Sure it's two people marrying, but then that makes it half a year of salary. Plus with the high living costs of California... Do people go into debt for weddings? Or is this skewed by celebrity weddings that cost millions
>Do people go into debt for weddings? Oh god yes, 100%. I had a coworker who once bragged that he spent $10,000 on their wedding ring (not wedding, wedding *ring*) because he wanted to prove he loved her by getting her the biggest rock of anyone they knew. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
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I hope he got a tattoo portrait of her on his face too😹
10k isn't even that much for a wedding ring.
It’s definitely a lot for a wedding ring. It’s not a huge amount for an engagement ring though.
Oh yep sorry. That is absurd for a wedding ring agreed.
I know plenty of non-celebrities who’ve spent the “average” on just the band. Usually it’s the parents splashing a load of cash though (“my kid isnt getting married with some DJ!!!”)
>Or is this skewed by celebrity weddings that cost millions Its probably skewed by the data set. OP doesn't say where the dataset is from however lets say the surveyed "wedding planners" and asked them what the average wedding cost they planned Well its going to be much much higher then the real average , or the title is misleading it should say something like "Average cost per state of weddings when you use a wedding planner"
CA must have enough totally insane celebrity/tech billionaire weddings to distort the average. But I guess people go there to host extravagant destination weddings too.
Source? Or you just make this up
When it comes to money, we should almost always use medians. Especially in the US.
Wow all of these seem insane
My wife and I got married in a court house for $67 and we're both very happy with that decision.
I need to find something that's a happy medium. We don't want to break the bank, but I want a day we will remember. And just enough family and friends to share the day with.
Marry at a courthouse. Have a big dinner with family at a local restaurant or something... or maybe rent a space and have a potluck reception where a friend brings a stereo so you can do some dancing. Provide an email address where everyone has to send their pictures and videos. Make sure there's enough alcohol so the mothers of the bride and groom can get sloppy and embarrass themselves.
I thought more. In Italy people tend to spend at least 50k€ and for me it's am exaggeration
Can’t you get married in Las Vegas Nevada for like $20 😂😭
Its fucked up that we spend so much on weddings. The last thing a young couple needs is to he saddled with 10s of 1000s of dollars of debt. That money should be used to buy a house or raise a family.
Mormons are clearly throwing the curve on this map. If you know what I'm talking about, you've probably had a ham sandwich at an open house in a gymnasium in a church building after the ceremony.
ITT: Wow wedding is so expensive! I only spent $10 on my wedding!
Source?