Caring Connections - The Best States to Say "I Do"

  

• Ahead of National Proposal Day on March 20, new research by BetCarolina.com reveals the best states to say “I do” based on various factors such as wedding costs, service availability, and marriage/divorce rates. 

• Scoring an impressive 66 out of 100, Utah is the best state for exchanging vows. 

• Other states worth considering for a wedding include Texas, Colorado, Florida, and Michigan. 

 

With National Proposal Day approaching on March 20, it's the perfect time for couples to start planning their dream wedding, and choosing the right location is a crucial decision. If you're aiming for a summer wedding, considering where to have the ceremony becomes even more important.

To see which states are most wedding-worthy, the team at BetCarolina.com have created an index ranking each state based on various factors such as the average cost of a wedding, marriage/divorce rates, service availability, and weather. 

 

Below is a table highlighting the top ten states to get married in: 

Ranking	State	“I do” Score out of 100
1	Utah	66.0
2	Texas	63.9
3	Colorado	60.3
4	Florida	59.6
5	North Carolina	59.1
6	Michigan	58.0
7	Kansas	57.8
8	Ohio	57.5
9	Georgia	57.1
10	Hawaii	56.6

 

Of all the US states, Utah topped our index at 66 out of 100. This is likely down to appearing in the top five overall US states for various service availabilities such as event planners, jewelers, photographers and florists. Combining that with having the lowest divorce rates overall at just 6.8%, it’s no surprise they made their way into the top spot.  

 

Just missing out is Texas at 63.9 with the fifth highest average hours of sunshine per year (5,137) pretty much ensuring that you’ll be able to enjoy a rain-free wedding day! Having been the location of over 185,000 weddings in 2022, the second most popular in the entire index, it’s clearly a leading state for anyone walking down the aisle. 

 

In third is Colorado with an index score of 60.3 where you’ll be able to easily find someone to help with wedding planning since it boasts the most event planners out of all the states. 

  

Following closely behind is Florida (59.6) in fourth which held the third most weddings in 2022 at 172,903, and has the cheapest average wedding cost of all the top five at $23,167. Meanwhile, rounding out the top five is North Carolina (59.1) which is another state where you won’t have to splash out too much cash on the festivities with the average wedding totalling $23,280.  

 

To find out more about the research, please visit: https://www.betcarolina.com/
 

Methodology: 

To discover which are the best states to say, “I do”, we acquired data on several key factors: Wedding Costs, Location Popularity, Weather, Service Availability and Marriage/Divorce Rates. 

 

These factors consisted of 12 individually weighted metrics, which added to the value of 100.  

 

• Wedding Costs = 25 

• Average Cost of a Wedding (25) 

• The average cost of a wedding from the Wedding Report taking into account multiple factors such as: Event Location and Venues, Entertainment, Attire & Accessories, Beauty Services, Ceremony Officiators, Event Catering & Bar Service, Event Rentals, Flowers & Decorations, Photography & Video, Planner/Coordinator, Transportation and more. 

 

• Location Popularity = 25 

• Google Searches for X Weddings in the US (20) 

• The total number of yearly searches for over 300 keywords related to weddings in the state, per Keywordtool.io. 

• Number of Wedding in 2022 (5) 

• The number of weddings which took place in that state during 2022, according to Wedding Report. 

 

• Weather = 20 

• Average Rainfall in Inches (10)  

• The average rainfall in inches per year, according to Google 

• Average Hours of Sunshine (10) 

• Annual average sunlight exposure, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

 

• Service Availability = 15 

• Using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics “location quotient” (a measure used to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole), the services were scored accordingly:  

• Event Planners (3) 

• Jewellers (3) 

• Florists (3) 

• Photographers (3) 

• Bakers (3) 

 

• Marriage and Divorce Rates = 15 

• Divorce Rates (7.5) 

• Divorce rates by state, according to Wisevoter. 

• Marriage Rates (7.5)  

• Marriage rates by state, according to Census data. 

 

They combined the weighted scores of each factor, for each state, to provide a final index score out of 100. The higher the score, the better the state to tie the knot.