Bad Economy Impacts Weddings -- Average Cost Now "Only" $20,400

Here's an interesting piece on weddings from Smart Money. It starts with the following facts on wedding costs:

This year couples are expected to spend an average of $20,400 on their weddings, down 6.5% from 2008, and a 29% drop from 2007's average of $28,700, according to The Wedding Report, a market research firm.

Wow. I guess the poor economy is hitting people a lot harder than I thought. How can a couple possibly have a decent wedding for only $20k? ;-)

The piece is actually about how people can save a ton of money by buying items like invitations, flowers, a wedding cake, wedding rings, and favors at stores like Costco, Walmart, and Sam's Club. In other words, instead of buying your invitations at Mark's House of Invitations where they charge an arm and a leg for pricey printing, why not get the same exact thing at Walmart for 85% less? Sounds like a good idea to me.

Here's the summary from my POV: just like shopping at warehouse clubs and other discounters can save you money on "regular" purchases like groceries, they can also save you money on "special" purchase (like a wedding or a funeral.) Pretty simple.

For some more tips for saving on weddings, check out these posts:

• Saving on Wedding Tips from a Wedding Consultant, Part 1

• Saving on Wedding Tips from a Wedding Consultant, Part 2

• Saving Money by Having a Last Minute Wedding

• True-Life Stories of Saving on a Wedding

• More Ideas for Saving on a Wedding

Comments

[Health Insurance Guru]

Weddings might be one of the biggest rackets out there - especially considering how may ultimately fail. I mean, would you invest 20k into something that had a 50% chance of total loss? Perhaps a jaded way to look at it, but marriage is also a financial agreement between two parties.

[Jim]

Keep in mind that this is the average price and that a few very expensive weddings will skew that high. The median price is much more realistic measure of a typical wedding and median costs are closer to $10-15k range.

[Strick]

HIG - only $40 of the $20,000 is an investment in the marriage (I think thats about what a license cost). The other $19,960 is the cost (not investment) of pretty and fun stuff.

[Anna]

My wedding cost 2.5k, including everything - food, flowers, DJ, my dress and DH's tux. It was a beautiful ceremony at a lake. I honestly don't know HOW to spend 20k, or even just 10k if I had that kind of money! And I thought we spent more money than we should have, ha!

in Canada, the average wedding cost 50K

[JimL]

If I had to do it again, I would seriously consider a Vegas wedding. The wedding chapels at the hotels are really kind of nice. Airfare and hotel are resonalbe as well.

[Jill]

We had Costco flowers for our wedding -- my bridesmaids and I arranged them the morning of the big day. It was nice to have something to do other than stress over little things! Not to mention we had a ton of flowers for not a lot of money!