An Average Wedding Cost $28,400 In 2012

Brides-to-be might want to whip out their calculators; Wedding publication The Knot has released a survey of average wedding costs, and the numbers are pretty staggering. On the bright side, none of these are in the millions range.

According to their survey of 17,500 couples, TheKnot.com has found that in 2012, the average wedding cost $28,427, not including the honeymoon.

Of course, the highest amount spend in a year wasn't even in 2012; it was back in 2008, where couples spent $29,334 on their wedding and related events.

Naturally, the most expensive city to host a wedding in 2012 was New York City, with the average cost being $76,687, more than $40,000 higher than the national average. Alaska had the lowest average wedding budget ($15,504); it's such a shame that it isn't a standard destination wedding spot.

In terms of specifics, The Knot has yet to release their full survey, but last year's survey found that an average wedding cake was $540, rehearsal dinners cost $1,127, and catering per head was $61. Considering that the average number of guests at a wedding was 141, that means an average wedding spent more than $8,600 on food. Couples collectively spent more across the board in 2012, so we imagine plenty of the increase can be attributed to extra shrimp cocktails.