As bridal wars are fought on social media over the number of likes and shares on wedding pictures, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get a clear idea of how much the average couple is spending on their special day.
To make matters worse, even surveys which claim to know the average spend, differ significantly.
For instance, there’s a $30,000 difference in the data collected by two popular surveys on what the average wedding costs in Australia.
This makes it hard for couples, who might be watching all the razzle dazzle of wedding hype on facebook, to know what’s actually normal and it could even be putting some couples off tying the knot altogether.
Bride to Be magazine’s Cost of Love survey which sampled 860 brides found the average wedding was about $65,500 in 2015.
But Easy Weddings annual wedding survey, which sample over 2200 each year, said the average spend was about $36,000 last year.
This figure is about the same as that quoted by IBISWorld, which is cited by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission on its Money Smart website.
“You have to think why a survey is being put out,” said Samantha Amjadali content manager for Easy Weddings. “For us, it is about providing advice that might be helpful to brides, such as colour themes and for wedding vendors.
“You also need to look at surveys and understand that not everyone who has answered has the same budget and desire as you.
“They are not going to have the exact same wedding. At the end of the day you may need to stick to a budget, or you may want to go over it, but only you and your partner should decide how much your wedding should cost.”
Basirah Aria of Avari Couture Collections, whose designs have attracted the attention of Khloe Kardashian, believes weddings today are about $5,000 to $10,000 more expensive today because of social media and as people getting married later in life.
She thinks it’s entirely possible that weddings today can cost up to $70,000 once everything from the rings, to the dress, venue, food and honeymoon has all been taken into account.
