Your wedding may cost more than Kimye's did. Here's why.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West may have spent anywhere between $7.5 million to $30 million on their wedding. You may only spend a fraction of that amount on your wedding, but here's why it'll take a harder hit on your budget.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West arrive at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala Benefit in Upper Manhattan, New York, May 5, 2014. Most Americans won't spend as nearly as much as Kardashian and West did on their wedding, but wedding costs will take a harder hit on the average person's finances.
Luca Jackson/Reuters/Staff
As you may have heard, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West had a little wedding last weekend in Italy.
Kardashian—excuse me, Kardashian West, as she formalized it on Twitter—is hoping to be third time lucky with her wedding to the rap megastar. Estimates abound about the cost of the nuptials, with its pre-wedding parties in Paris followed by a star-studded ceremony in a 16th century Florence fort. Suffice it to say, it was a bundle—estimates range from $7.5 million to an almost certainly apocryphal $30 million.
Some of the estimated costs include:
Venue: Forte di Belvedere in Florence: $410,000
Dress: haute couture Givenchy gown, plus one for daughter North and a tux for West: $500,000
Flowers: $136,000
Hair and stylists: $65,000
Catering for 200 guests: $110,000
Cake: $5,500
Performance by Andrea Bocelli: between $136,000 and $1.36 million
Rehearsal dinner in Paris: $681,600
Rehearsal dinner fireworks: $204,210
Security: $3 million
Accommodations: $500,000
Transportation (Private jets and shuttles from Paris to Florence): $218,000
Bachelorette party: $4,100
Bachelorette party dress: $16,000
Now, you may be thinking, I’ll never spend anything close to that! This article is ridiculous! But as a percentage of income, it is indeed likely your wedding will cost more.
According to the Wedding Report, a research firm, the average American wedding in 2013 cost $25,200. That’s about half of the median income of the average household and more than a third of the median household’s net worth. A survey of 13,000 people married in 2013 by The Knot found the average cost slightly higher, at $29,858. Manhattan weddings averaged the most expensive at $86,916, whereas Idaho weddings averaged the lowest at $16,159.
Kimye’s combined net worth, meanwhile, is estimated to be $155 million, largely built from West’s income from record sales, tours, shoe deals and his production company. Even if the estimate of $30 million for their wedding is correct, that would be less than 20% of their net worth. And there’s speculation the E! Network will be footing some or all of the costs for exclusive filming rights, as it did for Kardashian’s last wedding.
So, as a percentage of net worth, the Kimye extravaganza may prove to be a relative bargain compared to the marriages of mere mortals.