The first of a couple Valentine’s Day posts. A fellow photographer posted this on his blog that I thought you brides-to-be might find interesting…

Here are some interesting wedding statistics according to a recent article published on CNNMoney.com:

• weddings cost an average of $27,852
• the average age for a bride is 27, for a groom it’s 29
• average household income for a bride and groom is $74,000
• engagement period average is 14 months
• 2.3 million Americans will get married this year
• each weekend will see 44,230 weddings (that’s a lot of photographers! )
• there will be 380 million wedding guests
• 16 % of all couples are choosing a destination wedding — a 400% increase in the last 10 years!
• the average cost of a destination wedding is $25,806 with an average of 63 guests
• 15% of all proposals happen in the month of December
• this year only 30% of all weddings will be paid for entirely by the parents of the bride while 32% of brides and grooms pick up the tab themselves
• 99% of the brides were proposed to (does this mean 1% of the grooms were proposed to????)
• 81% of brides will take their husband’s last name

Ben