Weddings are a big deal in Utah. There were over 40,000 of them in 2025 — contributing more than $1.5 billion to the state’s economy.
According to data from the Wedding Report, an independent research company for the wedding industry, the cost of the average nuptials is up by almost 30% from a decade ago, to the tune of a little more than $37,000.
Wedding Report CEO Shane McMurray said every aspect of a wedding is going to cost even more this year, and some couples will have to make tough decisions on what to include and what to exclude.
Bride-to-be Devon Cole and her fiancé know that well. They are getting married in July at Red Butte Garden in the foothills overlooking Salt Lake City. It’s a beautiful outdoor venue where guests sit outside with the smell of roses and a nearby gushing waterfall. Cole loves it, but as beautiful as it may be, it wasn’t the couple's first choice.
Cole said the rising cost of weddings meant altering their plans. Other outdoor venues they looked at, including one in Logan where the couple met, were simply too costly. So, they compromised.
“Red Butte was a lot more affordable,” Cole said. “It is unfortunately only for four hours, which is a little bit of a downside for us. We’re just going to have a really short ceremony.”
Despite saving on the venue and keeping the number of guests to 80, they’ll still blow past their budget by about $10,000.
“I somehow thought we might be able to have some sort of really informal event, for $5,000, which was completely incorrect. I’m sure we’ll be spending around $15,000 now,” she explained.
Still, that’s less than half the average cost of a Utah wedding in 2025, and Cole has found many ways to make that happen. The couple will do their own flowers, plucked from their garden. They’re also enlisting family to help out, and spending no more than $500 on her dress.
“My uncle’s in charge of baking the cake, and my wedding dress will probably be something simple — probably from a maker on Etsy or vintage,” she said.
The couple also saved money on her engagement ring, sourced from a small vendor in Montana who has his own sapphire claim.
“Gold is really expensive right now, so that also adds to the cost,” Cole said. “We're kind of trying to decide what to do about wedding bands. If there might be family jewelry that could be repurposed.”
Her artful frugality also includes having the Logan-based band Entwood play at her wedding. Cole’s husband-to-be is friends with one of the band members.
“They're going to be playing some live music for us, I think the trade off after they're done playing, we're probably just going to have a friend operate a Spotify playlist for some dancing later at night.”
Maren Dawson is the lead wedding planner and designer at her company, Miramour in Bountiful. She said that despite the rising cost of weddings, expectations haven’t changed, and that’s where reality eventually has to set in.
“The costs of the materials that florists, DJ’s and photographers use are all rising, and a lot of those costs are passed on to our clients. So, we need to see how we can cut costs in other ways,” Dawson explained.
For her own wedding in 2024, Dawson had to make some tough choices.
“Stationery was really important, but I didn't want to spend thousands of dollars on invites. So I used free templates to create a custom design. I usually recommend Walmart to my clients. They sell their five-by-seven cards for about $1 a piece. Another hidden cost people don't think about is how much stamps are and how much invites cost,” she advised.
Sending out fewer invites will save money, and that means culling the crowd. Dawson said it’s the easiest way to make your money go farther.
“Definitely prioritize your guest count and make sure the people you're inviting are people that you want. Your mom's coworkers’ best friend's neighbor probably doesn't need to be there,“ she quipped.
Dawson said with the price tag for weddings soaring, she thinks back to when her Grandma got married 75 years ago, and of how simple and inexpensive it was.
“At her wedding, she didn't have a wedding dress, she didn't have a photographer. They got married, they ate cake and they went home. And so, from a cultural shift, people now want a whole experience. So to do that, inherently, there are going to be extra costs.”
