While it's possible that Kim Kardashian's 17 Million dollar wedding might be skewing the average, that figure doesn't seem outrageous to me.

Just hiring a wedding photographer can average between 5 and 10 grand (and that's not to hire Annie Leibowitz).

I charge on the low end of that average and I'm "cheap".

Some people are suggesting this number is too high. If anything, it seems low to me - at least based on my personal experience. Imagine throwing a big, elaborate party. How much would that cost you? Maybe $3k, including renting a space, maybe a DJ, a bartender, etc? Everything for a wedding is 10x what it should be. So if a reasonable price is $3k, you're paying $30k.

This is without the price of the ring and honeymoon.

My source is personal experience, and that of my friends, but also see: http://www.costofwedding.com/

Sounds right to me from both me and my friends and we're just barely middle class joes. The UK average is noted to be around £16k (about $25k): http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/jun/18/planningyourwedd... .. Admittedly, most of ours involved taking our extended families to the US for a cheapo Vegas wedding rather than the wedding itself ;-)

My own wedding? Justice of the peace and dinner, less than $1k. The last three weddings I've been to have easily topped the $28k average. One was way over the top, the other two were "average" for the Bay Area. It depends on where you are, number of people, etc. The two aspects of wedding planning I was happy to avoid -- the overall cost and the bickering that comes up in the process.

Where did we use the extra $$? Property.

It seems from their pitch that they're including the entire cost of the wedding party. So even if the couple isn't paying for the expenses of the wedding party, perhaps that figure adds them in. From personal experience, any kind of normal venue used to hosting weddings that would fit 100+ people in NYC is in the ~$10k range alone before you add anything else in.

I think there is a long tail of small weddings.

My wife and I did catered turkey dinner at a church hall for 130 people. DJ was a guy who owed me a favor. Total cost was about $11k.

If you rent a more expensive place and do a barebones dinner, you're looking at $45/head + a couple grand for the hall, plus dress, band/dj, etc. It adds up!

Could be skewing: a small group of couples may spend much more.