With the arrival of May, wedding season is around the corner. Generally speaking, this time of year is pretty expensive for attendees if you have a stacked wedding schedule. Well, apparently it’s about to get more expensive for guests with average spending for weekend weddings going up. Usually when you think of wedding expenses, you tend to think of the bride and groom, the parents or even the bridal party who see the biggest hit to their bank accounts. However, they aren’t the only ones who are footing an expensive bill post wedding.
An interesting report by American Express released Monday shows that on average, wedding guests are spending a whopping $673 USD per wedding this year. That’s up 21% from 2013. Holy moly is right! And that’s not even including the money spent on showers, engagement parties and bachelor(ette) parties where guests spend an additional $250 on average, according to Forbes.
You’d assume that people are going over board on wedding gifts but that’s not the case at all. In fact, the amount spent on gifts has actually gone down compared to last year. Instead, guests are splurging on themselves! Costs for new outfits, hair and make up, hotel rooms, eating out and airfare (which is up 125%!! compared to 2014) are what is driving up the average expense.
Surprisingly though, despite costs for weekend weddings inching up closer to the $1000 mark, wedding guests are still opposed to destination weddings with 72% of those surveyed believing that overseas weddings are too costly.
Also, with all the expenses added up, the total average cost for guests is only $28 less than what a member of a bridal party spends. Crazy right?
How do you approach expenses as a wedding guest? Do you go all out? Set a budget and stick to it? Let us know in the comment section. We’d love to hear from you!
Have a good weekend!