Did You Know?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 2 million couples get married across the United States each year. Counting honeymoon and other wedding-related expenses, the wedding industry grosses more than $1 billion annually. If 2 million weddings per year seems like a high number, consider the statistics in China, where the China News Agency reported more than 9 million weddings in 2006 alone. And though Americans, particularly those who have already walked down the aisle, are often quick to bemoan the high cost of weddings, those costs are not exclusive to the Western hemisphere. In Japan, for instance, the Census of Japan 2005 reported that Japanese brides spent an average of $70,000 per wedding. With such high costs, it's no wonder a 2008 article in the Pacific Daily News claimed that 25 percent of all Japanese brides marry in Guam, where they can expect to save up to 60 percent of the costs associated with being married in Japan. Of course, for those looking for an especially affordable and quick wedding, Las Vegas still reigns supreme, playing host to more than 100,000 weddings per year.