Hitched.co.uk Breaks Down the £10 Billion Wedding Industry in 2011, Revealing Surprising Results

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Hitched.co.uk

29 Feb, 2012, 12:39 GMT

LONDON, February 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

- With Photo

Despite the stresses and financial strains that the current economic climate has brought us in recent years, there is one major and life changing event where people are still happy to spend money - a wedding. This morning the Office for National Statistics revealed that 277,736 weddings took place during 2010. The UK's most popular wedding website hitched.co.uk, surveyed thousands of newlywed couples last year to reveal an industry worth a whopping £10 billion.  Planning an engagement through to the honeymoon, a wedding celebration here in the UK collectively costs a little over £36,000, with over half of the bill falling towards the wedding guests.

From the wedding venue to the registrar fees, looking good, a photographer, cutting the cake and everything else related to this once in a lifetime occasion, the average couple spent a total of £12,059 on the big day, plus a further £2,761 on a honeymoon.

However, it's actually the wedding guests who collectively foot the biggest bill on the wedding day.  It's not just a gift that guests need to think about when they rip open a wedding invitation - its the £21,307 worth of clothing, stag/hen parties, hotel accommodation, drinks, and travel expenses that an average of 96 guests per wedding are happy to fork out for a friends big day.  

With everything taken in to consideration, saying 'I Do' in the UK averaged a total cost of £36,127 per wedding during 2011.  A lot of money to spend on a single day, but totally worth the lifetime of memories received from it.

Notes to Editors

  • Images available at http://www.hitched-wife.org/wedding-facts-economics/summary-stats/each-year-uk-weddings-are-worth-10-billion-pounds/
  • Research based on a survey of 2011 newlywed brides and grooms in the UK.  
  • The forecast for weddings in the UK during 2011 is approximately 277,736.  
  • hitched.co.uk has been named the #1 website in the Lifestyle - Weddings industry for 2010 in the latest Experian Hitwise UK Top 10 Awards programme.  
  • hitched.co.uk features 26,000 images, lists 3,000 venues, has over 40 other wedding supplier categories and 50,000 registered users.  
  • hitched.co.uk receives on average 5.1 million page impression per month and is visited by average of 467,000 unique users per month.  

A picture accompanying this release is available through the PA Photowire. It can be downloaded from http://www.pa-mediapoint.press.net or viewed at http://www.mediapoint.press.net or http://www.prnewswire.co.uk.