Weddings are expensive

File this under “Stuff We Already Knew,” but its still shocking to see just how much we end up spending on weddings and all the other wedding-related stuff. I’ve run into several really great graphics illustrating exactly why the average cost of a wedding is inching toward $30,000. I hope its known that $30,000 would be a pretty great down payment on a house in most of the U.S. right about now.

TheKnot.com has been busy posting graphics money and weddings. First off, let’s look at the top 25 most expensive places to get married.

Graphic by TheKnot.com

Graphic by TheKnot.com

I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that it is so incredibly expensive to get married in Manhattan at $76,687 (!), but I was surprised to see Chicago so high up, above Long Island ($49,002), North/Central New Jersey ($48,496) and Rhode Island ($47,399) — it costs a whopping $49,810 to get married in Chicago. Seriously, I would have expected Los Angeles ($35,308) or San Francisco ($35,344) to be higher up, but compared to the East Coast, getting married in California seems like a deal. Plus our weather is better.

Just the week before, TheKnot.com put out a graphic showing us the average cost of a wedding in 2012. It’s not pretty, my friends.

Graphic by TheKnot.com

Graphic by TheKnot.com

Very honestly, its shocking to me that so much is spent on invitations ($344), favors ($221) and the wedding planner ($1,847). Man, I am in the wrong business. A lot of these costs can be mitigated by booking your wedding and reception at the same, all-inclusive venue, as I’ve previously suggested. If you need more ideas on how to save money on your wedding, you can also browse the Budget Wedding section here.

Now, I found this graphic from eBay on Pinterest. It’s about a year old, but it still has valid information and some good information.

Weddings Are Freakin

 
I don’t know about anyone else, but it’s interesting to me to see all the statistics about who is getting married, who is paying for it, the type of wedding they’re planning (unique, traditional, casual, or extravagant) and so much more. Now, some of the suggestions for how to save money aren’t necessarily ones I would make, but they do get you thinking about how you can save on your big day that would leave you in debt for the rest of your days.

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