How Expensive Have Weddings Become?

Getting married has never been free, but the modern American wedding has become a serious financial event.

According to The Knot’s 2026 Real Weddings Study, which surveyed 10,474 U.S. couples who married in 2025, the average American wedding now costs $34,200 for the ceremony and reception alone. The median was lower, at about $24,000, an important distinction because a smaller number of very expensive weddings can pull the national average upward.

That means the typical wedding is no longer simply a ceremony followed by dinner with family and friends. For many couples, it has become one of the largest discretionary purchases they will make in their lives.

And in places such as Florida and Miami, the numbers can become particularly complicated.

Wedding Costs Have Climbed Significantly

Before the pandemic, the average U.S. wedding cost about $28,000 in 2019. The average fell dramatically during 2020 as guest lists collapsed and weddings were postponed or downsized, but costs quickly recovered. The Knot reports averages of $28,000 in 2021, $30,000 in 2022, $35,000 in 2023, $33,000 in 2024 and roughly $34,000 to $34,200 for couples married in 2025.

Compared with 2019, today’s average is approximately 22% higher.

But the increase becomes even more noticeable when you look at what couples are paying per guest.

In 2019, The Knot reported an average cost of approximately $214 per guest. By 2025, that figure had climbed to $292 per guest, an increase of roughly 36%.

So even when couples reduce their guest lists, they may discover that the savings are not as dramatic as expected.

Where Does All That Money Go?

A traditional wedding is not one purchase. It is dozens of individual purchases bundled into a single event.

The Knot’s latest national vendor data shows just how quickly those expenses can accumulate.

Those numbers do not include every possible expense. Couples may also pay for videography, alcohol, transportation, invitations, décor, lighting, planners, rehearsal dinners, favors, entertainment, additional clothing, accommodations and other wedding-weekend events.

Even alcohol alone averaged about $2,800 in The Knot’s recent data.

It becomes easy to understand how a seemingly manageable wedding can turn into a $30,000, $40,000 or $50,000 event.

The Venue Has Become One of the Biggest Expenses

One category illustrates the change particularly well.

According to The Knot, the average wedding venue cost was approximately $9,000 in 2016. By 2025, it had reached about $12,900. That is an increase of more than 40%.

And the venue frequently affects several other expenses.

A larger venue often means a larger guest capacity. More guests mean more meals, drinks, tables, chairs, centerpieces, invitations, favors and staffing.

The decision to invite another 25 people therefore does not simply mean adding 25 chairs.

At an average catering cost of approximately $80 per guest, another 25 guests could add roughly $2,000 in food costs alone before accounting for alcohol, rentals, service charges, gratuities and other expenses.

What About Florida?

Florida is not dramatically cheaper than the country as a whole.

The Knot’s latest state-level figures put the average Florida wedding at approximately $33,000, just below the national average.

Another wedding-industry dataset, The Wedding Report, estimated that Florida hosted approximately 158,764 weddings in 2025, generating roughly $4.91 billion in wedding spending.

Its methodology produced an average Florida wedding cost of $30,951, but a substantially lower median of $17,556.

That difference between the average and median is important.

An average can be pushed upward by luxury weddings costing $75,000, $100,000 or considerably more. A median tells us that half of weddings fall below that number and half above it.

In other words, the $30,000-plus wedding is real, but it is not the only way Americans are getting married.

And Then There Is Miami

Miami occupies an unusual place in the wedding market.

It is simultaneously a major metropolitan area, an international destination, a luxury hospitality market and one of the country’s most recognizable wedding destinations.

Zola estimates that a 100-guest Miami wedding can require an overall budget of approximately $27,400 to $41,000. Its Miami estimates place venues around $4,300 to $6,500, catering around $4,300, florals around $4,300, bar service around $3,500 and photography around $2,800.

The Wedding Report provides another useful perspective. It estimates that Miami-Dade hosted 21,424 weddings in 2025, representing approximately $599 million in total wedding spending.

Its calculated average Miami-Dade wedding cost was $27,966, while the median was only $16,349.

Once again, that gap tells an important story.

Miami absolutely has a high-end wedding market, but plenty of Miami couples are spending nowhere near the luxury numbers frequently seen on social media.

Why Have Weddings Become So Expensive?

There is no single culprit.

Inflation has increased the cost of food, flowers, transportation, rentals, labor and other goods required to produce an event. Wedding professionals have also faced higher labor costs, insurance, rents, equipment expenses and other operating costs.

The Knot found that 63% of couples married in 2024 said the economy affected their wedding planning, with many responding by increasing their budget, eliminating upgrades or reducing their guest list.

But inflation is only part of the story.

The modern wedding has also expanded.

A traditional ceremony and reception can now include an engagement party, bridal shower, bachelor or bachelorette trip, rehearsal dinner, welcome party, ceremony, reception, after-party, post-wedding brunch, professional photography, videography, custom décor, elaborate floral installations, entertainment and highly personalized guest experiences.

Social media has also created unprecedented exposure to luxury weddings.

Couples scrolling through Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok may repeatedly see celebrations produced with budgets far above what the average household could reasonably afford. Those weddings can gradually redefine what people believe a wedding is “supposed” to look like.

The $34,000 Average Does Not Tell the Whole Story

Perhaps the most useful statistic is not the average at all.

The Knot’s 2025 spending distribution found that 25% of couples spent approximately $12,000 or less, while half spent somewhere between roughly $12,000 and $41,000. At the opposite end of the market, about 13% of weddings cost $60,000 or more.

That is an enormous range.

A $7,000 wedding and a $70,000 wedding are both weddings.

What couples are really purchasing is not marriage itself. They are purchasing the scale and production surrounding the ceremony.

And those are very different things.

Couples Are Beginning to Question the Traditional Model

The rising price of weddings helps explain the increasing appeal of micro weddings, intimate ceremonies, elopements, courthouse weddings and alternative wedding experiences.

For some couples, the question is no longer:

“How do we afford the wedding we are supposed to have?”

It is:

“What kind of wedding actually makes sense for us?”

A couple may decide that spending $30,000 or $50,000 on one day is exactly what they want.

Another couple may prefer to spend a fraction of that amount and use the difference toward a home, honeymoon, investments, debt reduction, starting a family or simply beginning married life with more financial flexibility.

Neither decision makes the marriage more or less meaningful.

A Smaller Wedding Can Still Feel Like a Real Wedding

One misconception is that reducing the size or complexity of a wedding means reducing its significance.

It does not.

A meaningful ceremony still has the couple.

It still has vows.

It still has photographs.

It can still include family and friends.

It can still include flowers, music, beautiful attire and the moment two people hear themselves pronounced married.

What changes is the amount of infrastructure surrounding that moment.

That distinction is part of the thinking behind Married in Miami.

Not every couple wants a courthouse ceremony. But not every couple wants to spend tens of thousands of dollars, manage 100-plus guests and spend a year coordinating dozens of vendors either.

There is a substantial space between those two extremes.

So, How Expensive Have Weddings Become?

Very.

The latest national research places the average U.S. wedding at approximately $34,200, Florida around $33,000, and a traditional 100-person Miami wedding potentially somewhere around $27,000 to $41,000, depending on the venue, vendors and experience selected.

But those figures should be treated as benchmarks, not requirements.

The most revealing numbers may be the medians and spending ranges showing that millions of couples are already choosing weddings costing substantially less.

Marriage requires commitment.

A $34,000 celebration is optional.

And as wedding prices continue to climb, more couples may decide that the most modern wedding decision they can make is simply choosing the experience they actually want rather than paying for the one tradition tells them they are supposed to have.