The country is still recovering from the mega-celebration which was Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding on the 19th May, a spectacle which thrilled and delighted many of us. Who could fail to be touched by the sheer romance of the day, with its fantastic guest list, fabulous fashion and look of love on the newlywed Duke and Duchess of Sussex's faces? Not forgetting their incredible kiss under the floral arch on the steps of St George's Chapel.
Are you planning a wedding?
With so much to arrange, it's no wonder the royal couple engaged the services of a wedding planner (and possibly more than one!). While this is a valuable service – sourcing flowers, organising the venue, decorating tables etc - it also, of course, comes at a cost, and many brides (and grooms) prefer to do their own wedding planning so they can spend their money they've saved elsewhere – perhaps on the honeymoon. Bloom Magic, the popular online flower delivery service, decided to run a national survey and calculate just how much time brides spend planning their wedding, and how much would they have earned if they'd been paid a fee for all the hard work they'd done – and the results are interesting!
Based on an average 34.6 days work by a bride-to-be, they could have earned themselves a whopping £10,375!* (Cue lots of newlywed women changing careers, perhaps...!). And even grooms-to-be made a few bob – with an average 30.2 days work, the average groom could have earned £9,057!
Broken down across the UK, the women who spend the most time planning their weddings, 42.2 days to be exact, and would have earned the most are the brides from Northern Ireland, who would have made themselves £12,650 for all their hard work! And it would be money well earned, by the sounds of it; the survey found that 54% of brides say that planning a wedding is more stressful than your full time job, while 11% of them took time off work to do so!
Just behind the Northern Irish were the brides in Wales who spend the second most amount of time planning their big day (42 days), which would have earned them a substantial £12,600 - not bad eh!
It is the West Midland brides who spend the least amount of time planning their weddings, taking just 29 days on average. Whilst this is clearly the sign of an organised bride, they would have earned significantly less than other regions, at just £8,715 for all of their hard work.
Time spent by brides planning their own weddings across England and the UK:
- West Midlands: 29 days
- Yorkshire and the Humber: 29.3 days
- North West: 29.7 days
- South East: 30.1 days
- South West: 31.1 days
- North East: 31.3 days
- East Midlands: 35.1 days
- East of England: 36.6 days
- Greater London: 38.3 days
- England: 32.5 days
- Scotland: 40.3 days
- Wales: 42 days
- Northern Ireland: 42.2 days
And it appears that grooms in Wales put the most time and effort into planning their weddings – Welsh married men say they generated £10,983 in wedding planning fees!
Bloom Magic have created an interactive map to show how much brides and grooms would have been remunerated on a regional level:
https://www.bloommagicflowers.co.uk/public/infographics/this-infographic/
Tagged in Weddings