Two out of three of our children are presently married. We paid for three weddings. Yes, we have one divorce. I think the next wedding, if there is one, is on the divorcee. This Grandma is done paying for weddings and glad. I do have some long (we never say old) friends who each have two unmarried children. Boy, are they in for a surprise as to costs today!
The Knot, a wedding website, does an annual survey of about 20,000 brides who have gotten married in the last year to find out their wedding budget. In the 2013 survey results recently published, 13,000 responses later, the national average cost of a wedding is $28, 427, not including the honeymoon. That is the AVERAGE. In Manhattan, the average cost was $86, 916. Now that is NOT a place for a destination wedding. Southern Florida, our local area, was still above average, at $37, 210, surely a better destination wedding choice. Idaho, the lowest at $16, 159, as a destination might be great, but would surely result in smaller wedding gifts considering the guests’ flight costs.
Of all the statistics, the one that caught my attention the most was average number of wedding guests. Those of us grandmas who have paid for weddings know how to multiply dollars with those numbers. In Southern Florida, the average number of guests was 102, with the next highest in Florida Northern Florida at 108. More cousins?
The largest weddings were in the Midwest, Nebraska with 222 and Iowa with 195. I guess there is not much else to do and relatives many too? The smallest ones were in Nevada with 63 and Hawaii with 81. And Manhattan, as the most expensive place? In size of wedding, Manhattan hits the national average –138.
We know that the average age for brides to marry today is 27 and the average age for grooms to marry is 29. We know that there was only one age group last year in which marriages increased and that was ages 35-39. Those people are working age! What question was not asked or not reported was how many of the couples are paying for their own weddings. That statistic, this Grandma would be very interested in.
This Grandma is done paying for weddings. Wait a minute. Grandchildren. This Grandma would love to live long enough to attend grandchildren’s weddings. If they asked then, this Grandma might just. . . .you never know.
Joy,
Mema
Comments