--- title: This Is How Much an Average Wedding Costs in America description: The price of weddings has jumped to a new all-time high, reaching $31,213 in 2014, a new survey says. canonical: https://time.com/3743699/average-wedding-cost-america-marriage/ author: Sabrina Toppa article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-13T07:28:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:42:38.481Z og:title: This Is How Much An Average Wedding Costs in America og:description: A survey of 16,000 couples finds they're spending more than ever og:url: https://time.com/3743699/average-wedding-cost-america-marriage/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a62b433e527f475/6987837ce20a87593fa858e0/sb10068521a-006.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4992 og:image:height: 2808 og:image:alt: sb10068521a-006 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is How Much An Average Wedding Costs in America twitter:description: A survey of 16,000 couples finds they're spending more than ever twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a62b433e527f475/6987837ce20a87593fa858e0/sb10068521a-006.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is How Much an Average Wedding Now Costs in America > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Sabrina Toppa](https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Mar 13, 2015 7:28 AM UTC  by [Sabrina Toppa](https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Mar 13, 2015 7:28 AM UTC The price of weddings has jumped to a new all-time high, reaching an average $31,213 in 2014, new research [says](http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-knot-the-1-wedding-site-releases-2014-real-weddings-study-statistics-300049675.html). Surveying around 16,000 American couples, the Knot [2014 Real Weddings Study](http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-knot-the-1-wedding-site-releases-2014-real-weddings-study-statistics-300049675.html) also found that 45% of weddings exceed a couple’s budgets and, more worryingly, 23% lack a budget altogether. Most brides spent an average of $1,357 alone on their wedding dress. At the same time, guest lists are shrinking even as costs rise. “The average wedding now has 136 guests, down from 149 in 2009,” says the Knot’s Rebecca Dolgin. The cheapest place to tie the knot was Utah, where couples spent only $15,000 on the big day in 2014\. The most expensive place for nuptials was Manhattan at $76,328. _Read next:_ [_Watch This Guy Propose to His Girlfriend 365 Times Without Her Knowing_](http://time.com/3736803/man-proposes-to-girlfriend-365-times/?iid=time%5Freadnext) ### Photographing a Kiss: Long Time Love Affairs  Joseph and Dorothy Bolotin Sharon, Pennsylvania Married on June 16, 1938\. Dorothy, "I never think of it in terms of years. I think of it in terms of good years. In love, hot romance doesn’t last forever. So I would say that yes, I think love changes. I would say we’re still in love. It’s focusing, doing little things. He’s an amazing man." Lauren Fleishman  John and Sherma Campbell Star Valley, Wyoming Married on May 13, 1955\. Sherma, "When you start out, you think you love each other as much as you possibly can,but love grows—just like your inner self grows as time goes by and you have experiences.And now at this stage of the game, I love him even more. I can’t even imagine life without him." Lauren Fleishman  Jin Lin and Lai Mei Chen Brooklyn, New York Married on February 4, 1961\. Jin Lin, "We had so many things in common it was like our hearts were the same." Lauren Fleishman  de'Spagnolis Aldo de’Spagnolis and Maria Filiozzi Itri, Italy Married on October 23, 1949\. Aldo, "When I first saw her, she was 14 and I was 22.Was there a concern that she was too young for me? No! Even now I look like a young child! Yes, even now I’m still young." Lauren Fleishman  Jake and Mary Jacobs Solihull, England Married on April 27, 1948\. Mary,"Jake said to me,'Would it ever be possible for me to marry you?' And I said,'Possible but not probable!' And that’s how it was. It wasn’t likely that I would ever marry him, and he knew that. So when he went home to Trinidad, my mother and father breathed a sigh of relief. But he used to write, and he said, 'I’m thinking I might come back to England.'" Lauren Fleishman  Kissin Yevgeniy and Lyubov Kissin Brooklyn, New York Married on June 29, 1941\. Yevgeniy, "We met at a dancing party. It was in January 1938\. My friend invited me to the party, he said there would be a lot of beautiful young girls. Another cadet with high boots had approached her, but she didn’t like high boots and so she said no to him. I was the second one to approach her. I had a different uniform, but I’m still not sure if it was my uniform or my face that attracted her to me." Lauren Fleishman  Itig and Golda Pollac Brooklyn, New York Married on August 13, 1946\. Golda, "I would say love came little by little. Not right away.We were young.And he was older, but I liked him. He spoke to me in a very nice way." Lauren Fleishman  Yaakov and Mariya Shapirshetyn Brooklyn, New York Married on July 6, 1949\. Yaakov, "What is the secret to love? A secret is a secret, and I don’t reveal my secrets." Lauren Fleishman  Gino and Angie Terranova Staten Island. New York Married on September 27, 1947\. Angie, "You really don’t think about getting older. First of all, you’re aging together, and when you see a person constantly,you don’t notice big changes. Like you don’t notice, oh you’re getting a little wrinkle here and tomorrow you say it’s a little deeper. No, those are things that just happen." Lauren Fleishman [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3743699/average-wedding-cost-america-marriage/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3743699/average-wedding-cost-america-marriage/"},"headline":"This Is How Much an Average Wedding Now Costs in America","datePublished":"2015-03-13T07:28:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:42:38.481Z","description":"It's higher than ever before","url":"https://time.com/3743699/average-wedding-cost-america-marriage/","keywords":["Living","survey","Marriage","Utah","study","manhattan","wedding","price"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a62b433e527f475/6987837ce20a87593fa858e0/sb10068521a-006.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sabrina Toppa","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a62b433e527f475/6987837ce20a87593fa858e0/sb10068521a-006.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"sb10068521a-006","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3743699/average-wedding-cost-america-marriage/","name":"This Is How Much an Average Wedding Now Costs in America"}}]}] ```