Average Wedding Cost - $28,400??? SAY WHAT????

Just like it isn't nice to judge a bride for having a smaller budget, I don't think it's very nice to be so judgmental of those with bigger budgets. Like a few have already said, as long as it's within your means, who is anyone to say what's right or wrong? I'm sure all our weddings will be beautiful and special whether we're spending $5,000 or $50,000.

Central New Jersey ($48,496)

Hello Central NJ! hahaha

Northern Jersey! Not saying how much but it's higher than the post's stated average.

And I second MrsO. I think it's crazy to purposely go into debt for a wedding and just *hope* you'll get it back in gifts. Your wedding will be beautiful no matter what budget!

That doesn't shock me. My wedding is ultimately costing more than I originally wanted, but there were things that we weren't willing to give up - getting married in the city (Toronto), open bar etc.

The cost of living here is super high too!

Does anybody really count the e-ring as part of the wedding budget? If that's the case, I'm pretty close to this total.

That's over double to my budget.

JMedd, we actually considered our rings and honeymoon separate than our total wedding budget. I don't think most people include their engagement ring.

That average is my wedding budget, and FH's parents are happily paying because they want to. A lot of our costs will be catering, and we don't have a choice of caterer with our venue.

That's what I thought! My budgeting template had the e-ring listed, but I took it out because the total cost kept freaking me out.

What was said a few times here before - as long as it is within a couple's means, why not?

Kinda have to agree with anonymous here. Judging in either direction isn't good. Not the brides on a budget, but also not the ones that can and will spend more.

What was said a few times here before - as long as it is within a couple's means, why not?

Kinda have to agree with anonymous here. Judging in either direction isn't good. Not the brides on a budget, but also not the ones that can and will spend more.

If "anonymous" considered my post to be judgmental - I apologize - and it wasn't meant to be taken that way.

Average can have two meanings. 1 meaning the middle class usual (average joe) 2 every wedding added up divided by number of weddings so if there's a bunch of multimillion dollar weddings thrown in there the average goes up. It doesn't matter what the average is always just plan for what you can afford. Too much of the wedding industry tries to convince brides they need to keep up with the Jones' but you don't.

Ha! Good point on the average. Average is really number and skewed by numbers very low and very high. We should find the "mean" cost and "mode" cost of a wedding. Statistics anybody?

In my area (NJ/outside of NYC), that's low. (But I don't get why the catering is listed separately....) Most venue here are between 75-150. per person for the reception alone.

That being said, any attempt to standardize wedding budgets is pretty fruitless. Not everyone has a video person or a planner. Maybe you want a kick ass band and a consignment dress to offset that. It's all in your priorities.

Your budget is YOUR budget, to spend as you see fit. All ya really need is a couple of witnesses and an officiant; everything beyond that is icing on the wedding cake.

You're not wrong in your opinions Melissa K. It is a little crazy. A friend of mine put it to me this way,

"Think of it as throwing a party with a cash limit of $10,000. Do you know how awesome that party will be? Now throw a white dress in, and there - it turned into a wedding. Bam!"

Seriously - just because the word wedding is involved, vendors just jack up the price.

It sounds insane to me, but my budget is less than 1/4 of that lol. I don't know that if I had more available that I'd spend it though because we really didn't lose anything that we really wanted to have, but I could definitely understand how it adds up so quickly

It definitely does depend on where you live.

My reception hall was $4,500 which includes the food and the space rental and table and chairs

our DJ for 7 hours is $300.

Tuxes were $175

etc

But limos in our area are $999

My cake is almost $600

Our budget was about$10,000 FH and I are paying it for our selfs and we already known a home but it may end up around $12,000

Where I live in rural Florida the cost of weddings is way lower than that average. However if you go to Tampa, Orlando, or Miami I would assume the cost would go up.

I think what I was trying to get at was more of what Pan S. said - The wedding industry trying to get brides to keep up with the Jones's.

If you can afford to spend it - go forth and be prosperous. But if you can't that average number may be a bit daunting.

That's all I was trying to say - and if anyone took offense my apologies to you.

If I spent that much on my weddings, my dad would flip and I would lose my Kia Rio that he bought me for graduation back in high school...sadly my budget is only 4000 American dollars