$21,814

That is the average cost of a wedding in 2008! It has gone down from around $28,000, which means brides are being more budget conscious.

Find out more about the average cost of weddings in your area by checking out Cost of Wedding. For example, in Arlington where I live this is what came up:

"On average, couples that live in Arlington, VA spend between $38,246 and $63,744 for their wedding. This does not include cost for a honeymoon or engagement ring.

Wedding cost or average spent based on spending of other brides and grooms not wedding vendor prices. Spending and prices can vary widely. You should investigate all options and choose products and services that best meet your needs."

They have a neat breakdown based on the different services one needs or wants like a wedding coordinator, photographer, and DJ.

I wanted a really unique and fantastic venue. All the ones in the DC area that I wanted were way over my budget. Mr. Charleston grew up in WV so we started looking there for more cost effective venues so that we could have the size wedding we wanted for 1/2 the cost. Here is what the website quoted:

"On average, couples that live in Charleston, WV spend between $15,451 and $25,752 for their wedding. This does not include cost for a honeymoon or engagement ring."

Now, I know people have to travel to get there, but even if we had the wedding in the DC area, we had friends and family coming from the Philippines, England, Seattle, California, Las Vegas and all over the East Coast. Only about 1/4 of our guests are coming from the Dc area. In the end this worked out for our budget and for the size and type of wedding we're having. After the cost of the honeymoon, rings, and the entire wedding including the price of all the vendors, supplies, and miscellaneous items we have managed to stay under budget!

This obviously doesn't mean that every bride in the great DC metro area should start running for the hills to get away from high prices. We sacrificed the convenience of getting married in DC in exchange for a bigger wedding with a lot of the small details that we really wanted. Some of my dearest friends got married in DC and sacrificed the size of the wedding in order to have it in a popular venue in the area.

In the end, its about having a fun celebration with your new hubby and your best friends and family. We found a venue and have been able to plan a wedding for half the cost and we are able to have even more friends and family there. To us, having the most important people in our lives at our wedding is worth the drive:-)

Have you had to make compromises in terms of where you had your wedding and what you had at your wedding? How strict was your budget?