Miami among top cities for wedding – NBC 6 South Florida
With Valentine’s Day inching closer, couples might be thinking about possibly tying the knot, while other newly engaged partners might be considering where to actually get hitched.
However, there are many factors to considering when planning a wedding, including finance — with the average couple spending around $30,000 dollars for their big day, according to data from The Knot Real Weddings.
A new WalletHub study collected a list of the best places to get married, considering 26 key indicators of wedding-friendliness — ranging from average wedding cost to venues and event spaces per capita to hotel availability.
Several Florida cities ranked considerably high, but Miami ranked third overall out of 180 of the biggest U.S. cities.
Miami is especially perfect for beach weddings and if you want an abundance of choices for wedding vendors — ranking high for things like the number of venues, photo booth rentals, limousine services, cake shops and restaurants per capita, WalletHub researchers explained.
According to the study, Miami specifically ranked #1 in categories of venues and event spaces per capita, musicians and DJs per capita as well as bridal shops per capita. It also ranked fourth in flower and gift shops per capita.
In terms of costs, Miami ranked lower at 83. Fort Lauderdale ranked as the 75th in terms of cost — but 11th overall.
Fort Lauderdale also proved to be one of the best cities specifically for facilities and services — coming in at #7.
And securing the very top spot overall — is Orlando. Tampa also made it quite high at #6.
See below, WalletHub’s top 15 cities to get married in 2024:
| Overall Rank | City | Total Score | Costs Rank | Facilities & Services Rank | Activities & Attractions Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orlando, FL | 75.88 | 47 | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | Las Vegas, NV | 75.35 | 60 | 4 | 2 |
| 3 | Miami, FL | 70.65 | 83 | 1 | 9 |
| 4 | Tulsa, OK | 67.44 | 2 | 93 | 41 |
| 5 | Atlanta, GA | 67.24 | 89 | 3 | 12 |
| 6 | Tampa, FL | 67.01 | 54 | 9 | 11 |
| 7 | New Orleans, LA | 65.94 | 45 | 31 | 10 |
| 8 | Knoxville, TN | 65.08 | 9 | 63 | 61 |
| 9 | Chicago, IL | 65.08 | 77 | 23 | 7 |
| 10 | El Paso, TX | 63.41 | 11 | 105 | 45 |
| 11 | Fort Lauderdale, FL | 62.77 | 74 | 7 | 25 |
| 12 | Cincinnati, OH | 62.30 | 48 | 27 | 34 |
| 13 | St. Louis, MO | 62.28 | 58 | 19 | 28 |
| 14 | Shreveport, LA | 61.94 | 1 | 122 | 146 |
| 15 | Charlotte, NC | 61.43 | 46 | 34 | 4 |
