Some 61 million Americans will attend at least one wedding this year, with the average person spending $339 to attend, which includes travel and accommodations, gifts, and attire, according to American Express. While 53% of engaged couples prefer gifts consisting of cash over items from their registry, 34% of guests prefer to purchase registry items. Guests expect to spend an average of $166 per wedding gift when attending the weddings of family members, down from $196 in 2011. They’ll spend an average of $105 per gift for weddings of close friends and $56 for gifts at weddings of coworkers in 2012.
Guests have particular expectations about wedding receptions, and feel the venue (52%), entertainment (52%), and wedding cake (50%) should receive most of the wedding budget (multiple responses allowed). They consider save-the-date cards (33%), transportation for the wedding party (31%) and guests (22%), and guest favors (28%) to be lower-priority items in the budget.
Women are more likely than men to feel engaged couples should spend a significant portion of their wedding budget on the wedding dress (53% vs. 44%), flowers (49% vs. 41%), and the bar (41% vs. 35%).
Source: American Express Spending &?Saving Tracker, Melanie Backs, 200 Vesey St., New York, NY 10285; 212-640-2164; melanie.l.backs@aexp.com; www.americanexpress.com.
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