How Many Bridesmaids Should You Have?

There’s a lot to think about when planning a wedding: Who should you get to officiate? How many bridesmaids is average? Should you invite those crazy relatives from your mom’s side of the family who you only talk to once every three years? New surprising wedding statistics recently released by online event marketplace EVENTup help to shed some interesting light on how the average wedding goes down in America, and I think you'll be entertained by the findings.

One thing's for sure: brides-to-be still think they're prepping for a Beyonce-esque performance. Diva-like is still in, and constant social media updates are on, including everything from bridal breakdowns and impromptu bridesmaid #tbt messages. (Along with: "X more days until I marry my best friend!")

One of the more surprising findings is that today's brides have an average of 4.5 bridesmaids, and only 38 percent still require their bridesmaids to wear the same color and style of dress. Could it be that Bridezilla is finally cooling her scaly jets? Good news so far...

Another interesting note is that 59 percent of brides-to-be post a picture of their engagement ring to social media (that's not the surprising part). However, the study found that 11 percent of brides ask guests not to post photos of their wedding to social media. Apparently, Bridezilla hasn't loosened her grip on Instagram. All right, fair enough. I'll respect it.

Furthermore, EVENTup noticed that the average marrying age has changed too. Today's brides are on average 29 years old, and the average engagement length is 14 months. (I think this is just because it takes a year in advance to book anything. That's not science, I'm just telling you what my own thinking cap is telling me.)

You'll also see that in 2014, the average cost of a wedding in the U.S. was $31,213 — which may seem like a lot, until you compare it to the average cost of a wedding for couples tying the knot in Manhattan — the Big Apple sets newlyweds back $76,328. Is that why so many people are single in NYC? Or, maybe that's why I'll be single in NYC for a while until I can hit the jackpot: a lottery ticket or a spouse who invented the lottery. You know, whichever happens first.

Check out the full infographic below.

Images: Genessa Panainte/Unsplash; EVENTup