Guess what your wedding is *supposed* to cost?

Posted by Khris in Budget Talk

Fab member, Ella, sent me this great link to a site where you enter your zip code and it’ll spit back what the “average” wedding cost in your area is. It even gives a breakdown of those costs.
I’m just a tad skeptical about how accurate/realistic/valid this service is. Why?

“On average, couples will spend $87,682.14 for their wedding in {my town}. This does not include cost for a honeymoon, engagement ring, bridal consultant or wedding planner. Add that in and cost could reach $116,258.00. ”

Riiiiight.

Now, granted, my town is one of the more spendy in the area. But over $100,000 for a wedding? I seriously doubt that’s even close to the average.

I plugged in the neighbouring town’s zip code and got a dramatically different result:

“On average, couples will spend $45,495.45 for their wedding in {neighbouring town}. This does not include cost for a honeymoon, engagement ring, bridal consultant or wedding planner. Add that in and cost could reach $60,322.00.” So, if I schlepp the less-than-10 miles to the next town, I can slash my wedding costs in half!

From my experience with working with local brides, I know that the average is closer to the $30,000 (or less) mark. And that’s here, in the Silicon Valley, where the cost of living is quite high.
Unfortunately, the wedding cost website doesn’t disclose its methodology. I’m very curious how they determine what the average is in each area. I suspect they’re using a percentage of the median household incomes and are not basing their results on what couples are actually spending on wedding items.

So, the cost website is fun to play around with but, as far as reliable information about local costs goes, I wouldn’t take it too seriously.

How does the site’s results compare with actual wedding costs in your area?