The average U.S. wedding will set a couple back $31,213

Bride and groom.
(Image credit: iStock)

If you're planning a wedding in the United States, you'd better start saving: The average ceremony and reception will set you back $31,213, a five-year high.

XO Group Inc., owners of the popular wedding website TheKnot.com, surveyed 16,000 brides and found that spending was up on almost everything except for favors and invitations, Bloomberg reports. The report found that the biggest expense was the reception venue, eating up about 45 percent of the average wedding budget, and spending on each guest is at its highest level since XO Group started to survey brides in 2007.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.