New Wedding Budget Survey – What Brides are Really Spending

I’m always intrigued by the stats that come out each year from surveys on the average wedding cost. I feel like many of those surveys only give a fraction of the important information needed to really evaluate things, so I always thought it would be cool to do a survey asking some of the heavy-hitting questions.

So, I was super excited to team up with the folks from Toluna QuickSurveys to put together a special wedding survey. We asked questions that were interesting to us, like how the couples saved money, things they cut out, who paid the tab, and more. Then QuickSuveys polled a group of 1000 Americans who’ve planned weddings to get the dirt on how they spent their wedding budget. The results are super interesting, and some are a bit surprising! Check out the results from the Wedding Budget Survey in this fab infographic below!

Wedding Budget Survey Results

Pretty swanky, right? I’m a sucker for a good infographic.

Some of the most interesting bits of the survey:

To Pay or Not to Pay?

• 56% of respondents have planned their own wedding.
• 40% say they paid for 100% of their wedding.
• 23% say both of their parents contributed and both the bride and groom.
• Only 14% had their parents pay for 100% of the wedding.

More People (i.e., Money), More Problems!

• 25% invited 100-199 guests attend their wedding.
• While only 18% invited 50 – 99 guests attend their wedding.

What I thought I’d Spend VS. What I did Spend

Ceremony

• 31% who thought there were going to spend between $200-299 on the ceremony actually spend more than they anticipated.
• 66% who thought there were going to spend between $400- $499 on the ceremony actually spend more than they anticipated.

Venue

• 46% who thought they would spend between $3,001 – $5,000 on the venue actually spent more than they anticipated they would.

Flowers

• 48% who thought they would spend between $3,001 – $5,000 on flowers actually spent more than they anticipated they would.

Dress

• 18% who thought they would spend less than $1,000 on a dress actually spent more than they anticipated they would.

Let’s save money!

• 35% say to cut costs they opted to D-I-Y some things!
• 21% say to cut costs they didn’t serve alcohol.
• 24% say to cut costs they had the ceremony and reception at the same place.
• 22% say to cut costs they cut back on decorations.

Oh and there’s that little thing called Stress

25% said they stressed about trying to make both families happy with their wedding plans.

What do you think of the results of this wedding budget survey?

Anything you found surprising in the results?

Many thanks to Toluna QuickSurveys for putting together this survey for us!

xoxo