Wedding guests' burnout summer
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
The price of celebrating someone else's love is climbing to stratospheric heights — especially as the COVID wedding backlog clears out.
By the numbers: The average 2022 wedding guest is attending 4 weddings in 3 different cities — and spending hundreds of dollars on each, according to a survey conducted by the wedding website Zola.
- 63% say they're mostly attending weddings within driving distance, which are costing them an average of $600 each.
- But destination weddings have made a comeback. 37% are flying to celebrate and spending an average of $1300 per wedding, as airline prices keep climbing.
Costs pile up even higher for those in the wedding parties.
- There are outfits, bachelor and bachelorette trips, showers, matching pajama sets and more, costing an average of $825 per wedding, per a LendingTree survey.
- Wedding after wedding is also sapping guests' energy, the Wall Street Journal reports. Many say they barely have time to unpack between one celebration and the next.
Case in point: Axios Local editor Everett Cook tells me he was invited to 14 weddings this year, including bachelor parties. He's only going to 10.
- "I’m 30, so COVID hit right when all the weddings were picking up," he says. "I would've liked to go to all of them, but literally couldn't afford it. Not taking a single vacation this year outside of wedding trips."
Despite the costs, 2022 guests are still eager to celebrate. 77% told Zola they're feeling excited.
The bottom line: If you're planning a wedding, go easy on your guests if they politely decline your invitation and forgive your friends if they have to skip the bachelor trip. The price of celebrating love is climbing higher and higher.
