An Ultra Luxury Wedding has a budget of $500,000 or more, not including the rings or honeymoon.

HOW THE 6 WEDDING BUDGET CATEGORIES WERE NAMED

In 2009, Splendid Insights defined six wedding budget categories:

1. Ultra-Luxury: $500,000 or more

2. Luxury: $96,000-$500.000

3. Premium: $31,000-$95.000

4. Standard: $11,000-$30,000

5. Economical: $1,100-$10,000

6. Intimate: $1,000 or less

*Not including rings or honeymoon

Before Splendid Insights was founded, all weddings were lumped into just two categories: average and luxury ($60,000+).

We decided to split wedding budgets into six categories to better analyze how couples plan their weddings.

The category names were based on where spending averages fell in relation to household income (HHI) and net worth.

Liene Stevens, the founder of Splendid Insights, coined the term “ultra luxury wedding” in 2009 to align with the financial term “ultra high net worth individual” (UHNWI).

In naming the wedding budget ranges, we were guided by our core value that every wedding is worthy of respect, no matter how much a couple spends or chooses to celebrate. We intentionally selected wording that is not condescending nor judgmental of anyone’s financial priorities.

Today, these wedding budget definitions from Splendid Insights are considered the industry standard, are taught in universities worldwide, and have been adopted by other industries with wedding consumer verticals, including hospitality, tourism, beauty, fashion, and retail.

2026 Global Wedding Market Report survey participants includes people living in:

Africa
Asia
Australasia
Central America
Europe
Middle East
North America
South America
South Asia
Southeast Asia

We surveyed 54,326 people over 10 months in 10 languages.

The sample size for the 2026 Global Wedding Market Report was comprised of 54,326 male, female, and non-binary individuals age 16 or older who legally married in 2025.

Eligibility was extended regardless of nationality, race, religion, sexual orientation, or income level.

The data in this report are from completed submissions of a continuous digital survey conducted by Splendid Insights from January 2 - October 31, 2025.

The survey was administered in ten languages: Arabic, English, French, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish, and Urdu.

Survey participants were reached via the extensive international network Splendid Insights has developed, both within and outside the global wedding industry.

Four generational cohorts are represented in this report: Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z.

For this report, marriage relationship types were defined as heterosexual, same-sex, or “other” (in which at least one partner identifies as non-binary).

Currency in the 2026 Wedding Market Reports is denoted in USD after being adjusted for purchasing power parity using the respective GDP deflators.

Each participant in this real weddings study received their original survey in one of ten languages with custom currency options. Results were then PPP-adjusted to USD by our research team.

The margin of error for the Global Wedding Market Report is +/- 1.1% with a 96% confidence level. The margin of error is larger for results based on segmentations of the Global Wedding Market Report, but never exceeds +/- 4.03% with a 91% confidence level.