Wedding Fun Facts

I wanted to include a list of wedding fun facts!

Weddings by the Numbers
• Weddings are a $25.3 billion industry.
• For the past 20 years, 2.25 million to 2.40 million weddings take place each year in the United States, a third of them remarriages.
• Most brides (30 percent) plan their weddings for 7 to 12 months.
• An average of 189 guests attends a wedding.
• 48 percent of Hallmark wedding cards are sold during summer months (May through August).

The Most…
• Most (85 percent) weddings are held in a church or synagogue.
• More than half of all weddings take place in the afternoon.
• Hawaii is the favorite honeymoon destination.
• Most wedding cards are from friends. (Brides 18 to 39 receive 85 percent of all wedding cards.)
• About two-thirds of wedding cards are hand delivered.
• Most (about 75 percent) first-time brides will receive a diamond engagement ring (67 percent of repeat brides).
• A third of men's wedding rings have diamonds.

Today's Bride Is Older and Wiser
• The average engagement is 16 months (up from 11 months in 1990) and the average ring costs $2,000.
• The average first-time bride was 22 in 1980, 25 in 1990, and 25.1 today.
• The average age of remarrying brides was 32 in 1980, 35 in 1990, and 34 in 2000.
• The average age of the first-time groom is 26.8 and 37+ for the remarrying groom.
• Four out of five brides are employed.

Today's Bride Worries About...
• Exceeding budget – 66 percent (most willing to go over budget on photography)
• Forgetting a crucial detail – 50 percent
• Party not being fun – 40 percent (most expensive element of the wedding)
• Guests not showing up – 25 percent

Wedding Traditions Evolving
• Among all categories, interest is growing in reconnecting to family and seeing occasions such as weddings as an opportunity to bring generations together.
• Increasingly, bride, groom and parents share in wedding expenses.
• With brides and grooms emerging from blended and stepfamilies, the wedding can become a tradition and communication challenge. (For example, who walks the bride down the aisle? Where do step-parents and former in-laws sit?)
• About 15 percent of weddings include ethnic customs.
• Destination weddings (family and friends travel to exotic locations) tripled between 1997 and 1999 – from 3 to 11 percent.

Wedding Trends
• Wedding ceremonies in unusual venues – museums, zoos, gardens, etc.
• Black-and-white photojournalism-style pictures.
• Wedding consultants to direct the event.
• More platinum rings.
• Couples showers.
• Professionally-produced videos to be played at receptions.
• Focus on guests having fun: novel floral arrangements; more elegant foods, wines, cakes; focus on detail – parking, favors, maps, etc.
• Honeymoon registry.
• Longer, more elaborate, exotic honeymoons.