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2010 real wedding survey - wdyt?
I got the results of this wedding survey from Theknot.com and WeddingChannel.com today. Some of it surprised me. Average cost, especially and the average age. What do you think?
- Topline Statistics:
o Detailed wedding budget breakdown: $26,984 for overall wedding
o Top 20 Most Expensive Wedding Areas: NYC brides have the highest wedding budget ($70,730) and Utah brides have the lowest ($13,214).
o Bride?s Age: 29; Groom?s Age: 31
o Percentage of Destination Weddings: 24% (20% increase since 2008)
- Interesting Regional Differences:
o Economy?s Effect: Brides in New Mexico, and California and Nevada (Sacramento, Tahoe and Reno) were the most affected by the economy, while brides in Alaska and Nebraska were the least affected.
o Age: New York City (Manhattan and Outer Boroughs) has the oldest brides (32 years), whereas West Texas has the youngest brides (24 years), on average.
o Wedding Style: Hawaii has the most casual weddings, while Northern/Central New Jersey has the most formal (black-tie) weddings.
- National Trends:
o Nationwide, 12% of brides spend more than $40,000 on their wedding event, and approximately 1 in 5 brides spend more than $30,000 on their wedding event, not including the engagement ring or honeymoon.
o Less than a third (31%) of brides said the economy affected their wedding budget ? a decrease from 34% in 2009. However, one successful cost-cutting tactic used by brides? Trimming the number of wedding guests ? 141 in 2010, compared with 149 in 2009. Despite the decrease in wedding guests, wedding standards weren?t affected, as the average wedding spend per guest remained the same as it was in 2009 ? $194.
Re: 2010 real wedding survey - wdyt?
I wonder if a decrease by 8 guests is statistically significant...I actually wonder how many of the changes are statistically significant.
I'm sort of surprised that the average cost and age are as high as they are. I wonder who they surveyed. I wonder if it was people who were on the knot already because it would seem those with computers and internet access would be older and more financially free.
Interesting.
I would think that the weddingchannel.com and theknot.com don't attract as many low budget brides as they do bigger budget which could explain the average price being so high (or at least it's high to me!) Very few of the brides I know have used either site, and most of them were on a small budget.
Should have read your response before I posted mine! We were thinking the same!
See, I would have thought the opposite. I would have thought brides with big-budget weddings would have went straight to wedding planners and not bothered with sites like TheKnot. We could both be right, though.
Same here.
Me three.
When I was on TK, I was overwhelmed I HAD to have what they advertised and showed based on their wedding timeline. Come to find out, half of that stuff was not necessary. No wonder the average wedding is that much!
As for the age, I am actually surprised as I thought it would be lower considering the wide range of ages of brides who get married. For example on our anniversary board, the youngest who got married was 19 (in 2008) and the oldest was me (32). Mostly everyone else was in their mid-20's (24, 25, 26).
The only stats that slightly surprised me were:
1) The bride's average age (almost all of the brides I know/knew in the last couple of years were younger than 29).
2) The most formal weddings being in New Jersey (I kind of expected that in a state like Connecticut or in Washington DC, less so in New Jersey.)
And 3) that only 31% said the economy affected their wedding budget (I expected that to be much much more, since that is all I heard, and experienced, when I was planning my wedding, and I didn't get married that long ago. I didn't think 2010 was that much better than 2010 economy wise but maybe I'm wrong!)
Other than that, everything was about what I expected.
I agree with Passanie. I mostly came to the Knot because I was A) Clueless about weddings and needed advice, and
Wanted to find some tips/advice on reducing cost and getting the best deals.
Other friends I have who had bigger wedding budgets than mine didn't bother with these sites... They had wedding planners, as passanie pointed out.
I also wonder if the amount of guests was how many showed up or how many were invited. I would think it's possible the economy could have caused less invited guests to attend weddings. Maybe they were out of town guests that didn't have the funds to travel.
I do agree the average age seems a little older than I expected. I would have thought 26 or 27.
Ha, DH and I are pretty much perfectly average then on the metrics of cost, age, and even number of guests! Crazy.
Like others, I'm also a bit surprised at the average age and agree with those who expected it to be lower (mid-ish 20s).
I also kept mine under 15k and still managed to have the wedding of my dreams. It did help that I DIY'd just about everything I could, but that was more of a control thing than budget.
I spent about half that on my wedding, including thing rings, the honey moon was a gift from the In Laws. But it was still gorgeous and I have a great marriage which is more important then a fancy expensive wedding.
I'd like to see more of the regional break down of these numbers. I actually thought the age was spot on for Northern CA and I thought the spend was low. I think that brides of all means head to the knot, but I think they are all brides who are hands-on in their planning process. I've seen weddings with big budgets and little budgets where the bride either hired planners or handed the planning over to a family member (say Mom).
I agree with this - especially the bolded part.
Our wedding was pretty inexpensive. I think we came in around $14K or so but my parents paid for it. Even though my mom and dad were fitting the bill I was still very cost conscious. My dress was a discontinued sample so I got a good price, I got my veil and comb on ebay for around $40 each (my bridal salon wants $200 for beads and tulle!), and my photographer was wonderful and he didn't charge a fortune. Our caterer had delicious food and she wasn't outrageously priced either. About $25 a person if you include the appetizers. The cake was a little pricey but it was delicious.
As for age, H and I were pretty young. We were both 22 (I was almost 23) and just out of college when we got married. I come from a line of young marrieds. My mom and dad were 17 and 20 (and they're still married 40 years later=) ) and my mom wasn't even out of high school yet (she finished on time). My mom's parents were 19 and 20 and my dad's parents were 17 and 19.
Our wedding size was about average. We had about 144 guests. I could have easily had over 300 if I had invited more extended family and people from church. The honeymoon we paid for ourselves. We went to Monterey for the weekend.
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