Planning a wedding can be complicated. With so many logistics to work out and a budget to follow, some couples find it difficult to meet all the goals they set for their big day.
And among the bigger decisions is where to even get married.
With a destination being so important to the planning process, choosing a location for your wedding can often be a daunting first step.
WalletHub, a personal finance company with numerous reports on American consumption and behavior, conducted a study on the best places to get married in 2023.
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More than 180 U.S. cities were examined across 26 key indicators from average wedding cost, to venues and event spaces per capita, to hotel availability.
Each category was given a score and the average of all the categories determined the overall rank of the city.
Three Florida cities ranked among the top 10.
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Orlando topped the national list as the best city to get married, Tampa came in fourth place and Miami ranked sixth.
According to the publication, an average couple spends around $28,000 on their wedding, but cost was not the main factor taken into account in the ranking.
The two main categories were facilities and services, and attractions and activities.
Orlando, for example, ranks 56th in cost, but is 2nd in services and facilities category and 6th in attractions and activities available. The average among all categories gave Orlando the highest score of 72.84 and therefore determined it was the best destination to get married.
Tampa came in fourth with a total score of 66.57. The city ranked 39th in cost, it is 12th in facilities and services and it ranked 11th in attractions and activities available.
Miami, however, was slightly above average when it came to cost, ranking 93rd out of the 180 cities tested, but it is first in terms of activities and services available.
In this category, the study showed Miami as the city with the most wedding stores per capita, the most venues and spaces for events per person, and the fourth with the most musicians and DJs per capita.
As the study shows, there are many factors at play when deciding where to get married.
The destination of a wedding can be influenced by many factors.
It could be the place where the bride and groom grew up or where they have family, the area where they currently live or perhaps it could be a vacation destination where the couple would like to celebrate their union.
“Focusing on the destination of the wedding may well be the first big decision the soon-to-be-married couple makes, but like the upcoming marriage, determining the destination should be a joint effort, while keeping each other in mind. It takes into account the wishes of each person,” says Madhavi Menon, Ph.D., Professor at Nova University.
According to the study, the ranking of the 10 best cities to get married was as follows:
| Overall Rank | City | Total Score | Costs | Facilities & Services | Activities & Attractions |
| 1 | Orlando, FL | 72.84 | 56 | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | Las Vegas, NV | 68.08 | 106 | 4 | 1 |
| 3 | Tulsa, OK | 66.58 | 1 | 85 | 43 |
| 4 | Tampa, FL | 66.57 | 39 | 12 | 11 |
| 5 | Atlanta, GA | 65.61 | 86 | 3 | 13 |
| 6 | Miami, FL | 65.31 | 111 | 1 | 9 |
| 7 | Knoxville, TN | 63.07 | 15 | 56 | 62 |
| 8 | El Paso, TX | 62.48 | 11 | 107 | 46 |
| 9 | New Orleans, LA | 61.62 | 67 | 32 | 10 |
| 10 | Boise, ID | 61.35 | 12 | 86 | 61 |
Note: With the exception of “Total Score,” all of the columns in the table above depict the relative rank of that city, where a rank of 1 represents the best conditions for that metric category.
The data used to create this ranking was collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Wedding Report, Kayak.com, Numbeo, TripAdvisor, Travbuddy.com, Yelp, and WalletHub.
