Here Comes The Bride, Here Come The Guests & Here Comes The Bill
NJ Wedding Survey Finds Surprising Factors Influence Who Signs the Check

Who pays for a wedding? The greater the wedding costs, the more likely it is that the bride's parents will, even when the couples' household income exceeds $120,000, according to an opinion poll of 300 randomly selected New Jersey married adults, commissioned by The Crystal Plaza in Livingston.

The poll revealed that strangely enough, the smaller a couple's combined income, the more likely it is that they will foot the wedding bill themselves. In fact, in cases where the couple's income was less than $80,000, almost half paid the entire bill themselves.

The survey also found "he says, she says" playing a role. One in two women declared that their parents paid while a third said that the couple paid. (The remaining 17 percent could not remember.) Men recall a much different scenario -- with the majority reporting the couple paid and only one third recollecting it was the bride's parents.

Twenty years ago, fewer parents signed the expense checks, the NJ Wedding Poll found. Today, however, among 18 to 34 year old couples, the parents are more likely to pay for weddings. Only one third of these young marrieds report paying themselves.

The survey also found that parents generally spend more on weddings than the couples would have if left to their own devices. Apparently, the fact that parents love their children and will always try to give them the best of everything is something that will never change. While the average cost of a wedding nationwide is just under $19,000, in the Northeast that number is considerably higher (almost $30,000). This covers everything from invitations to the honeymoon.

Cost, however, depends on many factors such as the degree of formality, number of attendees, and day of the week. Most full-service facilities in New Jersey will ascertain exactly what the couple wants and then plan a dream wedding to meet their taste and budget.

The poll reported that age played an important role in determining the size of guest lists. The survey indicates that the younger the couple, the larger the guest list. Almost 40 percent of the 18 to 34 year olds invited more than 200 guests to their wedding. Going back a few years, only one in four couples married over twenty years ago had more than 100 guests at the wedding.

The Crystal Plaza Wedding Poll of 300 married New Jersey residents (age 18 and over) was conducted using a random digit dial (RDD) method of telephone number selection. The margin of error for the study is plus or minus 5.66 percent at the 95 percent confidence interval. The survey was stratified by county based on census and projected census information, as well as by additional demographic data.