The Cost Of Attending Weddings Is Going Up So I’m Going To Need A Slice Of The Best Cake Ever

(.sanden.)

Listen, I don’t need a news alert to tell me that the cost of attending weddings these days is pretty freaking high, but it’s good to know that I haven’t just been hallucinating the money dribbling out of my wallet. A new report says the cost of just going to a wedding — along with various and sundry related activities — is up 10% in the last year and 75% in the last two. I can feel the money slipping away, I tell you.

This year wedding guests will spend about $592 on average on each wedding, which again is a huge jump from just two years ago, according to a new American Express survey of 1,500 Americans, reports MarketWatch.

Of course, if you can cut corners between any pre-wedding parties, transportation, hotels or personal grooming, you’ll save a bunch. But that cost per wedding doesn’t even factor in the price of the gift, so there’s that.

“Americans are getting more comfortable with having an expensive wedding, which does put the onus on guests to spend more too,” says David Rabkin, senior vice president of consumer lending at American Express.

Because this story is clearly all about me and how I deal with the fact that everyone I know plans awesome weddings and invites me to them, instead of the anecdotal evidence given by my fellow weddinger cited by MarketWatch, I will just say I’ve got invitations to nuptials in New York, New Jersey, Montana, Ohio, Napa Valley and Austin this year alone.

There comes a time when you’ve just got to say no, but if you do check “yes” and start shaking that piggy bank, know that couples spent $220 per guest on food and entertainment last year, an 8% increase forom the $204 they spent in 2012, according to TheKnot.com’s national survey of 13,000 brides.

Because goodness knows if I’ve spent money on a dress, a bachelorette party, a bridal shower, a gift, a flight and a hotel room, well, I’m going to want a nice cut of steak, the best piece of cake money can buy and an open bar with very generous hours. I haven’t been disappointed yet.

Cost of attending weddings soars 75% [MarketWatch]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist