With Valentine's Day around the corner, aka one of the Most Popular Days of the Year to Get Engaged, a lot of people are on the hunt for a beautiful engagement ring to propose with. And while some may be firm believers in the three-months-worth-of-salary rule, for those of you who like to know what the rest of the world is spending on a sparkler, we have the number.
According to The Knot 's newly released 2016 Real Weddings Study , people spent on average $6,163 on an engagement ring, which is almost $300 more than they did in 2015. This number is actually not at all surprising given the fact that couples in general have increased significantly their wedding budgets.
The report states that the average wedding cost for 2016 was $35,329 (excluding the honeymoon), which marks an increase of a little less than $3,000 compared to the previous year. The most expensive place to get hitched was Manhattan where couples shed on average $78,464, and the most affordablejArkansas ($19,522). As you may have guessed a huge chunk of these amounts goes to book a reception venue. In keeping with tradition, the bride's parents still foot most of the billj44 percent compared to only 13 percent for the groom's parents.
For all of you single people reading this, there is some very good news coming out of the report. Apparently, almost a fifth of all surveyed couples said, "some of their guests hooked up during or after their wedding, with four percent reporting that guests who met at their wedding are now in a committed relationship."
So better get excited about your college roommate's wedding this summer. Who knows, maybe you'll meet the love of your life there.
