Cents and Sensibility is a new series about marriage and money—where matters of the heart meet the bottom line. From rings to prenups, we uncover how much it costs to commit.
I didn’t view my City Hall wedding as an elopement so much as a precursor to a wedding. I wanted desperately to give my European husband security after he’d experienced years of visa drama, so a few months after we got engaged, we secured our union swiftly at Manhattan’s City Hall. But this is not a story of my City Hall wedding—how, even in the midst of DMV-style take-a-number bureaucracy, I experienced utter poetry. This is a recap of how much money I spent on my City Hall wedding.
Today, the newly engaged find themselves in a time when weddings have never been more public. From the ring-revealing “We’re engaged!” post on Instagram to the continued popularity of sites (like our very own) that cover every aspect of a bride and groom’s journey. There is plenty of content to consume, and yet, we remain unsated. It’s romantic, actually; everybody loves love!
But despite the growing publicization of weddings, we remain in the dark about what they actually cost. Even the fully “unveiled” bride posting her arm workout directly before walking down the aisle in her strapless dress isn’t sharing line items from her budget. For guests, onlookers, and even the couples and families hosting the weddings, the actual cost of the big day is anything but straightforward, given the many elements, moving parts, rain contingencies, and tips required. It leaves those planning a wedding mired in its perplexity and ambiguity—and, at worst, feeling bamboozled.
Such was the case back in 1991 when Steve Martin’s Father of the Bride felt pushed to the brink by yet another instance of price trickery when buying hotdog buns. But that was then, and this is now, and the cost of weddings has soared even further. Consider the fact that wedding registry site Zola has tracked a whopping 13.79% increase from 2023’s $29,000 to 2024’s $33,000. On top of it all is what’s been coined as the wedding tax—the upcharge for matrimonial goods and services.
It’s not only just that weddings have gotten more expensive. It’s that we don’t know how much they should cost—most couples haven’t planned a wedding before and have no frame of reference. With that in mind, here’s one bride’s budget for a City Hall wedding.
The Format
Right out of the gate: I spent an approximate total of $19,075 on my City Hall wedding. I’ll admit my husband and I didn’t even have a budget in mind, given it was a very straightforward event without the usual wedding expenses like a venue, decor, invitations, a band, etc.