Casual Weddings Trending Up

US Wedding Money Trends

Getting married in the United States, most couples are in their early 30’s.  With an average engagement ring costing $6,000 and the length of engagement lasting 14 months most engagement happen in December.  They will declare their love today with an average wedding costing $29,858 with the most popular months being June & September. Followed by the average honeymoon of $4,000.

Coast to Coast – The average cost of a wedding in New York City (Manhattan) is $86,916 while San Francisco is less than half the cost at $33,836.  The top wedding city in the world is Istanbul, Turkey with 166,000 yearly weddings followed by Las Vegas, Nevada with 114,000 weddings annually. 2.3 million couples wed every year in the US. That breaks down to nearly 6,200 weddings a day.

Stateside destination weddings, with friends and family are planned as three-day weekend events and are a new trend in weddings.  Destination Weddings now account for 24% of all weddings.

Casual weddings are also on the rise, with 17% of brides classifying their weddings as casual in 2013.

Institutional weddings drop, couples aren’t marrying in religious institutions as much as they used to; just 33% chose to do so in 2013, down from 41% in 2009. 57% of couples hired a professional ceremony officiant.

Seasonal shifts, the trend toward beautiful summer weddings is shifting. In 2013, 35% of couples opted for sunshine-filled nuptials, down from 2009 when 41%. With fall coming in as a close second at 32%. Spring is gaining traction at 26%. 7% choose a winter wedding in 2013. June is the most popular month for weddings, then August, followed by September and October.

Monthly Breakdown

January 4.7%
February 7.0%
March 6.1%
April 7.4%
May 9.8%
June 10.8%
July 9.7%
August 10.2%
September 9.6%
October 9.4%
November 7.4%
December 7.8%

Sources for statistics: US Census Bureau http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2003/cb03ff02.html -The Knot http://www.theknot.com/au_industrystats.shtml