The 2024 Couples Finance and Budget Report from The Knot

One thing is true in any economy—money makes the world go ‘round. Because we all need to make money to spend money to keep the world’s businesses going strong. When it comes to the world’s wedding businesses, it’s no different. Well, maybe it is a little different because of the intensely personal nature of our industry. #IYKYK

The thing is, money and all things related to it can be a bit complicated. In a space like the wedding industry, little complications can feel like big ones. When we come together and spend time thinking about these impacts on the couples (not just the effects on our own businesses!) we can work together to create positive, lasting changes.

Now, let’s untangle this money mess as it relates to you running a profitable wedding business and couples trying to set (and spend) their wedding budgets. 

We talked to over 700 couples in The Knot’s 2024 Couples Finance and Budgeting Study and heard from more than 1,000 wedding vendors in WeddingPro’s 2024 Annual Vendor Study to inform this guide. From the impacts of inflation and what we see as the big budget discrepancy to how we can all work to close the gap that causes it, this report is filled with consumer insights and actionable tips to help you better understand the wedding market right now—and how couples are trying to navigate it

There are weddings for every couple, every pro and every price point.

Want to learn more about who “tomorrow’s” couples are (aka Gen Z)? Download our Marketing to Gen Z Report.

Wedding costs in your area—because we know you’re curious

Two POVs, one common complication: Inflation

We can’t talk about pricing and wedding budgets in 2024 without talking about the elephant in the room. After a period of pretty intense inflation, the impact is absolutely still being felt here in the wedding industry.

On the vendor side:

The rising cost of, well, everything!

No one has to tell you it’s gotten more expensive to run a wedding business. From the cost of materials and wages going up, to things like health insurance and marketing budgets, it’s just more expensive to run a business in 2024.

So what do you do?
You can consider raising your prices (and you wouldn’t be alone in doing so!) In a recent study, one-third of pros told us they’re planning to increase their prices in 2024.

How do you feel?
78% of pros have stated they feel like couples don’t understand the value they provide or the reason for increased costs. You may also feel like couples are only inquiring about price.

35M Couples love us!

35M Couples love us!

On the couple side:

The rising cost of, well, everything too!

If you take your wedding pro hat off for a moment, we don’t have to tell you that just about everything you pay for in life has gotten more expensive. From rent to grocery bills, and everything in between, it’s just more expensive to be a human right now. 

Let’s look at how that’s translating into weddings:

• Weddings are more expensive than previous years: the average spend per guest increased 18% from 2022 to 2023 and the cost of ceremony/reception rose 16% from 2022 to 2023.
  
• Couples aren’t just paying for a wedding—they’re also juggling multiple financial goals/obligations, such as saving for their honeymoon (75%), saving for a house (62%), saving for retirement (62%) and paying off student loans (51%).

In general, couples find the hardest part of creating/managing their budget to be: balancing wedding needs while still saving for future goals and knowing what a fair price is for each vendor based on their expectations.

“With the way times are right now and inflation, it’s just kind of a lot. And I wish that we had maybe a bigger budget or things were not costing so much. Just savings in general sometimes can be hard when you have to spend money on everyday things or just things that come up.”

–The Knot couple

So what do they do?
They focus on everything they’re paying for in life UNTIL they get engaged—and then they start thinking about wedding costs (only 13% of couples are going into wedding planning with savings for their wedding).

How do they feel?
Since 91% of couples are getting married for the first time, they’ve never set a wedding budget before, and since so few are saving specifically for the wedding, many are budget conscious. This can make them sensitive to vendor costs and many couples need more education to understand why prices are what they are.

The end result?
Couples are not prepared for real wedding costs and this is frustrating for you as the pro. In fact, 90% of couples report setting a wedding budget BEFORE researching any vendors and 53% of vendors have told us budget mismatch is a big reason for viewing a lead as low quality. 

How are couples setting a wedding budget?

It’s worth repeating that 90% of couples set a budget before they research or reach out to vendors, which leads to many increasing their budget later on. In fact, nearly 2 out of 3 couples say their wedding budget increased after setting it—with the majority admitting their initial wedding budget was set lower than reality (69%). #hindsightistwentytwenty since they’re also making budgets before talking to vendors, many are relying on word of mouth and Google to estimate pricing. 

“For setting a budget I used recommendations from friends and family and good old Googling.”

When it comes to actually paying for the wedding… 

This can also lead couples to have unrealistic expectations on wedding costs. Since 91% of planning is done online, if couples can’t find your pricing easily, it pushes them to estimate costs based on what they can find or were told by friends who may have gotten married years ago, in a different market, etc.

Couples aren’t doing it alone. In fact, 76% of couples are getting financial help to pay for their weddings—typically receiving a set dollar amount regardless of the total cost of their wedding.

And while 83% of couples told us they are thankful for their parent’s financial support, it also brings up some other feelings for couples:

• 1 in 3 feel an obligation to listen to their parent’s input about the wedding.
  
• Nearly 1 in 5 told us they felt stressed having others help pay for the wedding.

In addition to getting help from parents, couples are using existing credit cards to pay for wedding expenses more than before—going from 30% in 2021 to 39% in 2024. In addition, opening a new credit card account rose from 6% in 2021 to 15% in 2024.

So, as we start digging into some pricing nitty gritties, it helps to remember who exactly is paying for the wedding and some of the emotions that come with it, because; 1) you need to think about WHO you’re marketing to—it’s not always the couple and 2) the heightened emotional state couples are in when it comes to paying for their wedding.

“The thing that really makes it difficult is just knowing that eventually things are going to be set in stone and that can be a little nerve wracking.”

First comes love

Then comes what it’s actually going to cost

Since the majority of couples have a wedding budget set before they start reaching out to pros, their research is focused on maintaining that budget and therefore, price is their primary question when looking at and inquiring with pros. In fact, pricing is the number one most important factor for couples when researching and reaching out to vendors!

70%

of couples say that vendor pricing transparency is very influential when it comes to ultimately booking a vendor

1 in 2

couples have contacted more vendors than anticipated to work within their budget

50%

of couples have stopped communicating with vendors when they find out that the price is out of their budget

“There are so many businesses that are not transparent about their costs. You have to inquire and set up a date and all of that. That was frustrating and hard.”

But we get it

There are reasons you’re hesitant to put your pricing out there

Each of them is personal. Each of them is valid. Around 60% of vendors show pricing today and of those who don’t, the majority (67%) tell us it’s because they would rather talk directly to couples to explain their pricing (this jumps to 80% among planners).

Despite hesitations, there’s a hard truth here for many pros. Upfront pricing transparency is becoming essential to get couples to inquire about your services. And we both know that education is also necessary to get couples to understand that those prices are worth the value you’re going to provide.

So how do we connect the dots and change the narrative?

In an effort to get wedding budgets closer to actual costs

The way we do it is a mix of education and transparency—we’ve got to give couples a little of what they want in order to get what we want! So as you think about the ways you can help the industry as a whole, here are our suggestions and action items.

You’re not alone in this

At WeddingPro we care about your business and take pride in helping bridge the gap between the couple and vendor experience. To better shape the narrative around wedding costs, we’re also working to:

(P.S. Register for our webinar “The Art of Pricing: How to Craft and Communicate Your Pricing Strategy” here.)

Photos: Kir Tuben Photography; Renee Hollingshead Photography; Nikki Daskalakis Photography