"I think this is a lies, damn lies and statistics thing. If Michael Jordan and 37 other couples get married, the average cost of their weddings is going to be around $27k no matter what everyone who's not Michael Jordan spent. Meaning that the average cost is being dragged up by the top 1% using ever more extravagant weddings as a show of their wealth. But I'd wager that the median cost of a wedding comes in a fair bit lower than $27k. (I recently priced out a very nice traditional wedding at roughly $10k. My guess is that's probably more in line with what people are typically spending. Still ridiculously expensive for my tastes though, which is why we went a decidedly non-traditional route)." - Eric P