The YouGov Big Survey on Weddings

The journey that begins with "will you marry me" and ends with "I do" transforms a couple's lives in multiple ways, but it also involves a huge number of decisions, as planning a wedding is no mean feat.

Every guest will have an opinion on what a wedding should be like: from what's classy and tacky, to which traditions should be followed and which can be discarded. To help prospective couples get a grip on what these potential guests hope to see in a wedding, YouGov's new Big Survey on Weddings examines all these key debates about what should and shouldn't feature on the big day, including looking at the decisions that brides and grooms would make themselves.

The study is part a Big Surveys project: a series of in-depth surveys on British society. It was conducted between 7-9 August 2026, with a sample of 1,784 adults in the UK aged 18 and above.


Key Key findings:

• The median Briton feels that couples should spend no more than £6,000 on their wedding
• A country house is the top choice of wedding venue for younger Britons, while churches and registry offices are more attractive to the older generations
• Britons are three times as likely to want a small wedding, with only the couple's closest friends and family as guests, than a big wedding with lots of guests Britons mostly feel it's up to couples who they invite to their wedding, with just 51% seeing even close family members as people who must be invited
• Wedding musts for the large majority include jointly cutting the cake with your new spouse, having the first dancing with your new spouse alone, and hiring a photographer
• Younger couples are more likely to say they would write their own vows, hold stag or hen dos, have the ceremony filmed or hire a wedding planner
• Britons are split 42% to 44% on whether prospective grooms should ask their partner's father's permission to get married, with it only a similar 41% who feel it's worth preserving the tradition of the bride taking the groom's surname
• £76-100 is the right amount to spend on a wedding gift for a couple you're close to, according to the median Briton, while £26-50 is the right spend for couples you're less close to
• Most Britons think it's acceptable for couples to ask for cash instead of gifts, to have a church wedding if they do not regularly attend church and to ban young children at the wedding, but tend to dislike wedding events being held over multiple days and thinking it's unacceptable to not allow plus-ones for single guests
• Speeches from the best man, the groom and the father of the bride are expected by most Britons, but should be kept to less than five minutes each
• Although 59% of Britons enjoy attending weddings as guests, 34% would rather give them the swerve
• The median Briton says they have attended just one wedding in the last five years