Wedding costs
What a wedding actually costs, by city and guest count
The average US wedding costs $34,200 at 117 guests. That number is almost useless on its own — it is not your city, and it is not your guest list. These pages take it apart and rebuild it for both, one category at a time.
Why most of these pages are wrong
The usual approach takes a national average and multiplies it by one number per city. That makes an officiant in Manhattan cost 60% more than an officiant in Orlando, moving in perfect lockstep with ballroom rental. Those are unrelated markets. A wedding dress is a national retail good; a venue is local real estate.
The same shortcut gets applied to guest count, and there it is expensive. Scale catering sub-linearly and a 150-guest wedding quietly gets a 40% per-plate discount that no caterer offers. Catering is the largest line in most budgets, so the error lands hardest on the couples with the most to lose.
We give every category its own headcount elasticity and its own local price sensitivity, and we publish both. Read the methodology — including where we think it is weakest.
150 guests, across 24 markets
Midpoint estimate for a 150-guest wedding, most to least expensive. Pick a city for the full breakdown and other guest counts.
| Market | Typical range | Per guest |
|---|---|---|
| New York, NY | $42,150–$77,750 | $372 |
| San Francisco, CA | $40,350–$74,700 | $357 |
| Napa Valley, CAreal vendor data | $40,000–$73,900 | $353 |
| Sonoma, CAreal vendor data | $38,400–$70,750 | $338 |
| Los Angeles, CA | $37,150–$68,500 | $328 |
| Boston, MA | $36,300–$66,950 | $320 |
| Washington, DC | $35,050–$64,600 | $309 |
| Seattle, WA | $34,600–$63,850 | $306 |
| San Diego, CA | $34,200–$63,150 | $301 |
| Chicago, IL | $33,850–$62,250 | $297 |
| Miami, FL | $33,350–$61,500 | $294 |
| Charleston, SC | $32,900–$60,750 | $290 |
| Portland, OR | $31,950–$59,250 | $283 |
| Denver, CO | $31,650–$58,400 | $280 |
| Philadelphia, PA | $31,200–$57,600 | $276 |
| Austin, TX | $30,700–$56,950 | $272 |
| Nashville, TN | $30,400–$56,150 | $268 |
| Dallas, TX | $29,950–$55,350 | $265 |
| Las Vegas, NV | $29,950–$55,350 | $265 |
| Atlanta, GA | $29,500–$54,550 | $260 |
| Minneapolis, MN | $29,500–$54,550 | $260 |
| Houston, TX | $29,200–$53,750 | $257 |
| Phoenix, AZ | $29,200–$53,750 | $257 |
| Orlando, FL | $28,300–$52,250 | $250 |
Every city and guest count
Common questions about wedding costs
How much does the average wedding cost?
The average US wedding costs $34,200 at 117 guests, according to The Knot's 2026 Real Weddings Study of 10,474 couples married in 2025 — about $292 per guest. That national figure is a poor guide to your own budget, because it averages across markets that differ by more than 60% and guest counts that differ by a factor of five.
Why do wedding cost estimates vary so much between websites?
Mostly because of what each one includes and how it scales. Some totals count the engagement ring, the honeymoon and the rehearsal dinner; others count only the wedding day. Some apply a single city multiplier to every line item, which makes an officiant track ballroom rental between markets. And many scale catering sub-linearly with guest count, which quietly hands large weddings a per-plate discount no caterer offers.
Does a bigger wedding cost more per guest?
No — it costs more in total but less per head. Photography, music, attire and the officiant cost the same whether 50 people attend or 250, so those fixed costs spread further as the list grows. Catering, cake and favors are close to purely per-head. The useful number is the marginal cost of one more guest, which each city page publishes for that market.
How do you calculate these estimates?
Every category is anchored to The Knot's published national average, then adjusted by two independent coefficients: how much that category tracks guest count, and how much it tracks the local market. A venue is fully local and only partly headcount-driven; a wedding dress is a national retail good that does not move with either. All coefficients, sources and known weaknesses are published on the methodology page.
Are these numbers quotes?
No. They are modelled estimates meant to tell you whether a quote you have received is in a sane range, and to help you build a budget before you start calling vendors. Season, day of week, and your specific venue will all move real quotes substantially.
Then comes the hard part
Knowing the number is the easy half. Ammore finds the vendors who serve your date and budget, writes and sends the enquiries, reads the quotes that come back, and tells you which one is out of line — the work a coordinator does, for a fraction of what one costs.