Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…to go deeply into debt.
The wedding season is officially upon us and the average couple will spend £30,111 getting hitched, according to Brides magazine. The same magazine put the typical cost at £24,000 last year, meaning people are apparently splashing out 25 per cent more on nuptials in 2016.
Compare either figure to the actual cost of getting married – about £120 in a Registry Office – and it’s clear couples are getting a little bit carried away.
But forget the bride and groom, they chose to spend more than the average annual salary or house deposit on a one-day party. Pity the guests instead.
According to American Express, the average guest will spend £479 attending a wedding, splashing their cash on outfits (never to be worn again), transport (to an exclusive venue in the middle of nowhere), and gifts (don’t get me started).
Bridesmaids stump up more than twice this amount, spending more than £1,267 per wedding, and ushers £1,127. American Express suggests wedding guests put these costs on an Amex credit card to earn rewards and cashback. Of course it does.
And these are just the costs of attending the big day. Ocean Finance reckons the average cost of attending a stag or hen do comes in just shy of £200. It found that while the majority of attendees capped their spending at £200, more than 200,000 people apparently spent in excess of £1,000 at their most recent pre-marriage bash. Ocean Finance can offer you a loan for this, naturally.
Stag and hen costs are getting so prohibitively high that the survey found 18 per cent of invitees had turned down an invitation due to the cost. Of those forced to decline taking part in the shenanigans due to affordability, more than two fifths said they felt awkward, one fifth felt guilty, and one in six were left feeling embarrassed.
Insurance firm Policy Expert puts the total cost of attending a wedding, including the stag or hen night and the big day, at a total of £644. Flying in the face of stereotypes, it says Scottish guests are the most generous, while those in the South East spend the least. Policy Expert is quick to remind everyone to check their wedding gifts are covered by their home insurance.
Meanwhile, wedding gift etiquette hit the headlines last week when a Mumsnet thread revealed how one guest was emailed by Bridezilla (a mere ex-colleague) to say her £100 wedding gift was ‘insufficient’ and demand an ‘adjustment’.
Cue lots of articles and TV slots about the correct amount to spend on a wedding gift. ITV’s This Morning ran a feature where brides called in to complain about their ‘wedding present horrors’ while ‘etiquette expert’ William Hanson told everyone what they should be doing.
Being unmarried, I’ve yet to experience the absolute horror of receiving a wedding gift that wasn’t quite right. However, I’ve done enough time on the random singles table to think I might just be happy I’ve snared a nice bloke.
Personally, I have never understood the need for wedding gifts. With most couples living together before getting hitched, they tend to have enough household gear. Who needs another toaster?
New homeowners, that’s who. A much more appropriate time to give your friends household gifts would be just after they half-bankrupted themselves getting on the property ladder.
A gift list for people recently shackled to a mortgage, rather than to a significant other, now there’s an idea…
Emma Lunn is a freelance personal finance journalist
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