Bridal columnist Carina Monteith uncovers the real costs of an Irish wedding - and they might surprise you!

Image via thegreeneyedgirl.co.uk

It’s very easy to get swept away with the wedding plans once you are engaged and you excitedly make a long list of all the things you want for your big day. Once you start putting some numbers beside the items on that list it’s enough to send you spiralling into a wedding panic!

The best advice I can offer anyone starting out planning their dream day is to set a budget you can afford and then list the ‘Must Haves’ and the ‘Nice to Haves’. Not very exciting and romantic but it may save you the budget stress or starting married life in debt.

The average cost of a wedding in Ireland today is approx. €25000! This is up 8% on last year. We may be at the end of a recession but the wedding industry is booming with more and more couples choosing to tie the knot.

Image via ourweddingideas.com

Weddingsonline.ie carried out a fab survey to give us all the stats on our modern day Irish weddings. Here’s a few that I thought you’d be interested in –

  • Friday & Saturday Weddings are equally popular but Friday weddings are on the rise
  • July and August are the most popular months to get married with a quarter of weddings taking place over the 2 months
  • 24% of engagements take place in December
  • The average wedding planning journey is 19 months with long engagements being most popular (that’ll be because it’s so expensive!)
  • Religious ceremonies still top the poll but are falling in popularity and we are seeing a rise in Humanist and civil ceremonies 
  • The average number of guests invited is 159 (eh hello?! Im assuming Donegal stats are much higher!)
  • The average cost of the meal per guest is up a whopping 7.5% and is now €66 with 25% of couples paying MORE than this per head (Pizza anyone??)
  • Half of couples will go over budget ………Ooops

    Image via Pinterest

  • Music seems to be a top priority with many couples and the average spend on a band is up 26%!
  • The trend to have speeches before the meal remains popular with 40% of couples opting for this
  • Social Media is growing in popularity with couples planning their wedding with Pinterest coming out on top closely followed by Facebook and Instagram

Check out the full survey results and the average spend on each category here

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If you have any wedding related questions or would like me to cover a certain topic then send me an email to hello@teambride.ie

All the Wedding Best Carina x