Houston weddings have gotten more expensive
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After a pandemic-induced backup and pent-up demand, wedding season in Houston is roaring back with bigger budgets, longer guest lists and grander ideas.
State of play: Nearly every aspect of planning, hosting and attending weddings is getting pricier thanks to inflation and high demand, Axios’ Erica Pandey and Carly Mallenbaum write.
- Even guests are going into debt.
By the numbers: The average cost of a wedding in the Houston area went up 5.7% between 2019 and 2022 — just below the national average of 7.1%, according to data from The Knot.
- In 2023, weddings in Houston average $27,792, according to wedding planning website Zola, ranking ninth on the list of metros for most expensive weddings — and first for Texas metros.
Zoom out: Many large cities see far higher average costs, like New York City ($43,536), San Francisco ($37,284), Boston ($35,902) and Miami ($33,622).
What's happening: Inflation and high demand are driving up the price of weddings, as everything from music to flowers to makeup gets more expensive.
- Social media's influence also has more and more couples feeling pressure to spend big and make events pop.
- Some 63% of couples said that personalization was the most important element of planning, per data from The Knot.
Of note: Pricey weddings aren't just burdening couples.
- 40% of people who've gone to weddings in the past five years have gone into debt to be there, per a recent LendingTree survey.
What's next: The U.S. wedding services business is booming as a result of the rush — growing 10% in 2022 to a $71 billion industry, according to market research firm IBISWorld, and it's likely to keep growing. In a recent survey, 77% of wedding vendors said they'll be raising their rates, CNBC reports.