As happens every bank holiday, the roads were chock-a-block this weekend with people on the move – many of them heading off to weddings at opposite ends of the country. It can sometimes feel as though weddings cost a fortune; and that’s just going to them, not even having one of your own.
Perhaps the reason it feels like they cost an awful lot, though, is because they do tend to be quite expensive for wedding guests. Of course, it’s lovely to be invited to a wedding, and perhaps even the engagements drinks and hen or stag do as well. But the price does tend to hit your wallet quite hard. Recent research shows that in total, Brits spend more than £87 million a year attending weddings. Forty seven per cent of us attend at least two weddings per year – but of course that does go through phases. There will be certain years when you have one almost every weekend throughout the summer; other years when you only attend one or two.
Figures released by insurance company Policy Expert, show that on average people spend £350 on each wedding they attend (that includes gifts, food and drinks, accommodation and perhaps a new outfit), with 11% saying that they spend over £500 per wedding. Of course, if you go to the hen or stag do, that adds to the cost. Most of those questioned said that an average price for a hen do was around £200, with only 5% of pre-wedding 'dos costing under £50. There isn’t really a solution to the problem, though, unless you refuse to go to a friend’s wedding (which isn’t really the done thing). The only answer, really, is for brides and grooms to be to think about how much more it might cost their guests if they choose to get married far from home, say, rather than in the local church.