Four weddings and a financial funeral

With the summer wedding season upon us, Hotels.com has found that each of us now spend £1,700 a year each attending our friends’ and relations’ weddings. Hotels.com found that on average, we attend over 2 weddings every year each – and that we spend £693 every time we witness our friends and family members say “I do”. Totalled up, that means that we spend £1,719 every year celebrating others’ unions.

The research looked at wedding expenditures that included stag and hen parties, wedding gifts, outfits, travel, accommodation and drinks on the big day.

With more people than ever now going abroad for hen and stag weekends, they have become the biggest cost to the friends and family of the happy couple, Hotels.com found.

The Hotels.com research found that two-fifths (43%) of us have travelled abroad for hen or stag weekends – many to cities in Eastern Europe such as Tallin and Riga, although Dublin, Amsterdam and Barcelona remain popular destinations. Wedding guests now spend £170 each time they help their friends celebrate their final days of freedom.

The cost of attending on the big day itself adds up to another £522 for each event (including outfits, gifts, travel, accommodation and drinks). Accommodation accounted for the biggest spend when going to others’ weddings – we part with £123 a time on a bed for the night on average.

Alison Couper, communications director for Hotels.com comments: “Most of us worry about saving up for our own wedding day, and don’t really consider the amounts that we spend on other peoples’ big days. However – particularly with the cost of stag and hen do’s and the need to find a bed for the night at the wedding itself – these costs can soon add up.”

For further information visit Hotels.co.uk.