Santa Monica has been ranked the sixth most expensive place to hold a wedding, according to the website Thumbtack.
Thumbtack analyzed data from almost 100,000 price quotes in California for the most popular wedding services to find out what couples typically pay. To get a sense at the full cost of the price of a wedding, they looked at costs in nine wedding-related categories:
Thumbtack then calculated the average cost by city for each of these categories and generated an overall average wedding cost for each city by summing these up.
With these results, they found that seven of the 10 most expensive cities to get married were in Southern California in very wealthy enclaves like Camarillo, Beverly Hills, Malibu and Rancho Palos Verde. The exceptions were three cities in Northern California: Napa and Santa Rosa (wine country) and Pleasanton, an area just outside of San Francisco that is ranked one of the wealthiest mid-sized cities for many years by the U.S. Census Bureau.
San Francisco and San Jose ranked 12th and 14th most expensive, while Los Angeles came in at number 21 overall.
Overall, the most expensive part of a wedding in California, regardless of location (and not including the cost of the venue), is feeding your guests. The average cost to cater a wedding in the Golden State is $1,607.95. Other pricey items were wedding florist (average cost of $1,339), videographer ($1,215), photographer ($1,037), wedding planner ($1069), and the DJ ($668). One of the least expensive parts of a wedding in California is ironically the one to seal the deal: Wedding officiants charge an average of just $227 in California per ceremony.
For more information, visit thumbtack.com/blog/caweddings.
