Getting married is a pricey affair – especially if you live in London or Northern Ireland. The average cost of a UK wedding is now £31,974, according to a new survey, up a whopping 54% from £20,799 in 2014.
London tops the list as the most expensive place to tie the knot, where weddings cost an average of £39,763. This is followed by Northern Ireland (£33,162) and South East England (£33,116).
At the other end of the scale, South West England is the cheapest place to get married, but weddings still come with a fairly hefty price tag of £27,958.
The stats, which include the cost of a honeymoon and an engagement ring, were collected by wedding website Hitched, which surveyed more than 2,800 couples about their 2019 weddings.
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Four in 10 couples surveyed they felt under pressure to have a Pinterest- or Instagram-worthy wedding and almost one in three spent more than their budget to make it happen.
Just over a quarter worried about the impact of Brexit on their wedding costs and 31% thought Brexit had made their wedding more expensive.
The most expensive places to get married, according to the data:
London - £39,763
Northern Ireland - £33,162
South East - £33,116
Scotland - £33,466
North East - £31,217
West Midlands - £30,029.
The least expensive places to get married, according to the data:
Yorkshire and Humberside - £29,784
East Midlands - £29,242
Wales - £29,097
East of England - £28,814
North West - £28,166
South West – £27,958.
The most expensive element of a wedding was found to be venue hire, with an average UK cost of £5,406. This was followed by the honeymoon (£4,645), food (£3,887), engagement ring (£2,419) and drinks (£1,587).
The survey also shed light on the traditions couples are still embracing on their big day – and the ones they are choosing to ignore.
It remains fairly uncommon for grooms to take the bride’s surname after the wedding, with just 5% of men doing so and 8% of men saying they would change their name to match their partner’s (such as a blended surname). In contrast, 75% of women said they had or planned to change their last name to match their partner’s. Just 7% said they are not going to change their name, while 8% are opting for hyphenated or blended surnames.
Couples still opt for “luxury” honeymoons, with the Maldives being the most popular destination. But 29% of couples now also have a mini-moon in the UK while they’re saving up for the big trip abroad.
Wedding gifting continues to change, with cash and honeymoon vouchers becoming the most requested types of gift. Only 19% had a traditional ‘gift list’. Around three in five (62%) couples opted not to have pageboys and just over half opted not to have flower girls at their wedding.