THE NATIONAL WEDDING SURVEY ON AVERAGE UK WEDDING COSTS by hitched.co.uk

So Hitched starts with "It’s encouraging to see that even though the cost of living crisis dominated headlines, 70% of couples didn’t feel impacted by the economy whilst planning and instead sought to hire more vendors and invite more guests than in 2021, when pandemic restrictions were still in effect for part of the year"

But what about the Survey?

Hitched National Wedding Survey reached out to over 2,400 couples who got married in 2022 with questions all about their wedding - from when they got engaged right through to how much they spent and how many vendors they hired.

Is says by only surveying couples who actually married in 2022, they can build an accurate picture of the average UK wedding, but can they?

So let's get down to cost so you are fully prepared.

They say the average wedding cost in 2022 was £18,400 (without jewellery and honeymoon). Now I always find this a hard one to understand as I would want to know was this based on couples having the same headcount, or the same areas of the country, because some places are just way less than others. My weddings are predominately London or home counties, none of which are cheap areas. I would imagine you would have to add another 12k on that for a party of 70 plus.

It went on to say

• 47% of couples went over budget. I'm not hugely surprised

• 70% of couples said that their budget wasn't impacted by the economy (maybe they saved up first)

• 17% of those were impacted by the economy increased their budget at least once (so basically they fell part of the 47% that went over budget)

• 10% of couples impacted by the economy cut their guests list to save costs (Not always a possibility, but useful if you can)

What I do agree with is that in 2022 it was the year of the wedding boom where couples were free to expand their guest lists and invest in all the special details that make a wedding. I totally agree with that. With over 30 weddings, it was a year like never before, it was both exciting and exhausting in equal measures.

Wedding spends, guest list and the number of suppliers booked have all increased and even though the cost-of-living crisis dominated headlines, 70% of couples didn’t feel impacted by the economy whilst planning and instead sought to hire more suppliers and invite more guests than in 2021, when pandemic restrictions were still in effect for part of the year.

So there we have it people. The Hitched.co.uk synopsis of 2022. in Essence couples paid more (likely because during lockdown they had time to save more money because their wedding plans had been delayed and they were not going out), and couples expanded their guest list (again likely because after covid, everyone felt that life was too short) and this is potentially why so many of them went over budget

There is usually a reason for a trend a reason for an increase in budget and next year the average will likely shoot up a lot as venues and suppliers are charging much more due to the cost of living, which impacts on every wedding cost. It's a pretty simple explanation why weddings go up usually! It's driven by what is going on around us.