FLICKR/JESSICA BRANSTETTER
That's according to a new study from HotPads, which surveyed wedding costs and rent costs in the twenty largest metro areas in the country, and then did some basic math to see where the biggest spenders lie. With rent here averaging $1,190/month, the study suggests St. Louis couples are basically flushing away a year and a half of housing on one big party.
And crazy as it may sound to anyone sensible enough to resist chucking away their earnings on rubber chicken and a pile of white tulle, we're right in the middle of the pack. Those crazy kids in Pittsburgh spend an average of two years' rent on their weddings, which average out to $26,000 each. Couples in Hartford, Connecticut, and Detroit are right behind, with an average of 21 months' rent going to the big day.
Now, it's worth noting one weird quirk of this study: Sometimes, the places that spend more on weddings end up devoting comparatively less rent simply because those places have such high housing costs. In New York City, the average wedding costs $45,000. That's still only twenty months' rent since, yeah, you're paying through the nose for your apartment there.
In fact, San Francisco had the comparatively lowest expenditures of all the cities surveyed. Its residents spent just eleven months rent getting hitched — but hey, when rent averages $3,410/month, you can claim you're frugal even when you're spending $36,000 on a day 50 percent of you will later deeply, deeply regret.
Hasn't anyone ever contemplated getting married at City Hall?
