What's the true cost of weddings?

MoneySuperMarket, the UK's leading price comparison site, reveals the cities with the highest wedding costs...

MoneySuperMarket, the UK's leading price comparison site, today reveals the cities with the highest wedding costs – with over a quarter (26%) of people living in the capital spending over £20,000 on their big day.

Cambridge is close behind, with 18% of adults polled crossing the £20,000 mark to celebrate their nuptials, compared to the UK average of 12%. Chelmsford in Essex comes in third at 16%.

Although it may be billed as the best day of your life, over a tenth (14%) of Brits admit that wedding finances are their biggest worry when it comes to tying the knot – beating 'embarrassing family members' (12%), 'marrying the right person' (7%) and 'being jilted at the altar' (4%).

The new research also shows that tradition lives on, with over half of brides polled saying their dad helped with the cost of their wedding, compared to a third of grooms' dads (36%).
This is just as well, as over a third (34%) of married or previously married couples said they had 'no idea' how they would pay for their wedding when they got engaged. Although a fifth of Brits were able to fund a significant amount of their nuptials through their monthly salaries, 44% paid for half, or less, of their own weddings. With the average cost of a wedding set to be over £30,000[ii], the research found that a fifth (21%) of couples borrowed money to help pay for their wedding, with credit cards (11%) and wedding or personal loans (7%) the most popular forms of credit.
Those from Belfast are most likely to take out a loan specifically for the big day (7%), closely followed by Londoners (6%). Londoners are also most likely to use an existing credit card to fund their weddings (19%), followed by those in Newcastle where 16% of married couples use this form of payment, compared to the national average of 11%.

The top 10 cities where couples spend over £20,000 on a wedding:
1). London 25.94%
2). Cambridge 17.64%
3). Chelmsford 15.69%
4). Glasgow 12.81%
5). Leicester 11.96%
6). Leeds 11.40%
7). Manchester 11.23%
8). Newcastle 10.80%
9). Southampton 10.15%
10). Sheffield