The Essentials

Destination Wedding Costs for Guests

It’s the season for destination weddings, and the cost for the bride and the groom has increased dramatically.

 

What has also gone up? The cost to attend the wedding has gone up. Fasten your seat belt. If you’ve been invited to a destination wedding, you can expect to spend more than $1,300 just to attend the ceremony.

 

And of course that doesn’t count the cost of the wedding gift itself.

 

And since you’re probably not going solo, it’s more like $2,600 to be there for the nuptials. And according to the most recent research, the average wedding guest this year will be invited to five weddings and will be attending four.

 

Whether you’re driving or flying to the ceremony, food costs are up 14%, hotel costs are up 11%, car rentals are up 70%, and domestic flight costs are up 27%.

 

You might want to combine attending a destination wedding with extending your trip to be able to budget your own vacation. One additional warning is that the cost of the bouquet is also up. So budget accordingly.