Cost of being a wedding guest

When you receive a wedding invite, your first reaction is hopefully delight, but you might also start to calculate the costs involved in attending. The average adult American attends two weddings per year – with some years much more -- and celebrating someone's big day often comes with big costs.

Considering everything from attire, travel, gifts to bachelor/ette getaways, we have calculated how much an American should budget per wedding – whether you are just a guest, or part of the bridal or groom party. By estimating the average cost for a wedding, we also compare this to the average price per head being spent on you.

Key Findings

• The average single wedding guest spends $461 per wedding, and $273 per wedding when attending with a partner

• A single male guest will spend $442 per wedding, and a man in a couple will spend $254

• A single female guest will spend $480 attending a wedding, and a woman in a couple will spend $292

• A single member of the bridal or groom party can expect to pay $2,137 to attend both the wedding and bachelor/ette party

• The average women will re-wear the same wedding outfit three times, and a man five times

• The average cost of hosting a wedding is $26,665, or $232 per head – $229 less than a single person spends to attend.

The average person spends $461 attending a wedding

When you're splitting gifts, travel and accommodation costs between a couple, one wedding can cost a typical man $254, and a typical woman $292. But if you're traveling solo, then you can add $188 to your total for fuel, overnight stay and gift - making the per person average $461, or $442 for a man and $480 for a woman.

Wedding travel and accommodation fees cost $225

Whether the couple are getting hitched in the town chapel or on a beach in the Bahamas is going to make a huge difference to travel costs.

Guests traveling out of town to a wedding should on average budget $130 for transport, and in-town guests should budget $30 for transport. Taking average of these, this will cost $80 dollars in total or $40 split between an attending couple.

As you may be dancing until the early hours – or have had a few glasses of wine – booking overnight accommodation nearby is advised. Eight in ten (84%) of respondents to our survey said they typically stay overnight at weddings they attend.

According to a 2024 survey, just over half of wedding guests who stayed overnight typically stayed in a hotel, while 16% booked a vacation rental and 8% chose to stay in a traditional bed-and-breakfast or inn.

When considering the average $145 daily rate for hotel rooms (the most common option), the overall travel and accommodation cost comes to $225 for a couple or $113 per person.

The average spend on wedding attire

Typically, a wedding is a rare occasion in the calendar to get dressed up. There are all sorts of dos and don'ts when buying wedding attire (don't wear a white dress, being an obvious one).

But are people buying a totally new outfit for each wedding? According to our survey, women are most likely to wear the same dress and heels to three weddings, and men are most likely to wear the same shirt, dress pants and dress shoes to five different weddings.

To get an average quote for a dress, suit and smart footwear we consulted three apparel sites: Walmart, TJ Maxx and Nordstrom, to cover a budget, mid-range, and luxury choice. We then divided the average cost per item by the number of weddings they are typically worn for, to achieve a cost per wear.

A woman spends around $314 on a wedding guest outfit

According to our survey, a woman is most likely to buy a new wedding outfit every year (45%), with four in ten buying for each wedding (40%) and 15% not buying outfits for especially weddings at all.

The average price for a formal dress across the sites was $131 – ranging between $22 at Walmart, $156 at TJ Maxx and $212 at Nordstrom.

Heels were $52 more expensive than dresses, with the average cost coming to $183. There was an even greater range this time, from $25 at Walmart, TJ Maxx at $202 and $345 at Nordstrom.

When asked how many weddings someone would re-wear the same outfit and shoes at, the most common answer for women was three times for both (21% and 23%). Considering this, the cost per wear for a dress comes to $44 and the cost per wear for heels comes to $61.

A man spends around $333 on a wedding guest outfit

Men re-wear the same wedding attire more times than women, with the most common answer being five wears for shirt, dress pants and shoes. This means that the cost per wear for mens' wedding clothing (shirt and dress pants) comes to $18 and dress shoes come to $49, or $67 per wedding in total.

How much does each item cost outright? A shirt and pants combo will cost $18 at Walmart, $30 at TJ Maxx and $180 at Nordstrom and $89 on average – a $42 dollar difference to the woman's dress.

But men's dress shoes were 1.7 times more expensive than men's attire at $244 and ranged between $46 at Walmart and $429 at Nordstrom.

The average wedding gift is $150

Different cultures have different takes on gift-giving. In cultures all around the world, guests pin money to the bride's dress (and in the Philippines to the groom's outfit too). In Tibet guests give white scarves and in Germany, the groom's friends 'kidnap' the Bride and give her to the groom! But in America, gift-giving is often less ritualistic. Whether or you're donating to a cash registry, or choosing a gift, the typical spend is $150.

The average cost of a bachelor or bachelorette party is $1,676

According to a study in 2019 by WeddingWire, weekend-long bachelor or bachelorette parties are becoming the norm, and have become a good excuse to get everyone together for an eventful getaway. To budget for this type of weekend, you want to consider the airfare, hotel prices, food, beverages and entertainment costs.

A 2022 study by Savings.com found that the average bachelor/bachelorette party comes to $1,500. Adjusting for inflation, the 2024 cost comes to $1,676. This means that a single member of the bridal or groom party can expect to pay in total $2,137 and someone attending the wedding in a couple can expect to pay a total of $1,949.

The average cost per head for a U.S. wedding is $232

Of course, attending a wedding is nothing compared to the cost of throwing one. To compare the cost of attending a wedding, to the cost per head of a guest, we calculated the average cost of a wedding in 2024, which comes to $26,665.

The average American wedding has 115 guests, which comes to $232 per head. This means that the average cost to attend a wedding is just less than double the cost of your seat there ($445 compared to $232).

Methodology

To find the most common wedding attendee behaviors, a survey was conducted of 1,152 U.S. adults in June 2024. This was also supplemented by 2024 research by TheKnot.

To calculate the cost to attend a wedding we considered the following factors:

Accommodation

The majority (84%) of respondents to the survey stay overnight. According to TheKnot, which found that 63% of respondents who paid for accommodations, just over half stayed in a hotel, while 16% booked a vacation rental (like Airbnb or VRBO) and 8% chose to stay in a traditional bed-and-breakfast or inn. We then worked out the average cost of a double room using this Statistica study. This cost was split for those in a couple.

Gifts

According to the 2024 study by TheKnot, the average wedding gift is $150. This was split for those attending in a couple.

Attire

To calculate the cost of the attire we used a discount, mid-range and high-range retailer: Walmart, TJ Maxx and Nordstrom, respectively. We took the prices of 100 items per retailer to find the average price overall for a woman's dress, heels, a mens shirt and mens dress pants. TJ Maxx did not provide data for mens dress shoes, so the average was taken from Nordstrom and Walmart.

We then surveyed respondents on the average number of times they wear the same apparel item to a wedding to find the cost per wear.

Travel

According to a study in 2024 by The Knot, guests traveling out of town to a wedding should budget $130, and in-town guests should budget $30 for travel. Taking average of these, this will cost $80 dollars in total or $40 split between an attending couple.

Cost for a bachelor or bachelorette party

To work out the 2024 cost of the average bachelor or bachelorette party, we consulted a 2022 study by Savings.com, and adjusted for inflation using the CPI inflation calculator.

Cost of wedding

To calculate the cost of a wedding we took the average wedding costs for venue, catering, photography, entertainment, flowers, wedding attire, wedding planner, invitations and cake from a 2023 study by Fidelity.com and adjusted for inflation. The average number of attendees (115) was sourced from TheKnot.com.

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