Short answer: The Destination Wedding Cost Index is our annual, anonymised benchmark of what a wedding actually costs per guest — broken down by region, venue type and guest-count band, and published each January. The first edition — a pilot note with the method and collection status, no figures yet — was published in September 2026 and carries a permanent DOI. This page explains what the standard is and how the figures are made. We never publish a number before it rests on real, consented weddings.
What the Destination Wedding Cost Index is
The Destination Wedding Cost Index is an annual, anonymised benchmark of the real cost per guest of the weddings Pink Palms produces, broken down by region, venue type and guest-count band, published each January and archived edition by edition.
It is not a price list and not a promise of what your wedding will cost. It is a reference: an honest, dated picture of what weddings in our markets have actually cost, that couples, companies, venues, suppliers and writers can lean on. The Swedish label Destinationsbröllopets kostnadsindex sits beside the name; the standard is the same in either language.
Why we publish it
Nobody in our markets — the Costa del Sol / Marbella, Mallorca, Gothenburg / Sweden, or the wider European destination circuit — publishes real wedding costs openly. Every January the question "what does a wedding here cost" is answered with guesses, with figures from other regions, or with nothing at all.
We hold what it takes to answer honestly: real budgets from real weddings, already in our spreadsheets. The Index is built to compare region against region — and we work in more than one, across Europe — something a single-market local planner cannot assemble. We also have the incentive to do it properly: our entire asset here is credibility, and the day we flatter the numbers, the reference is worthless. That a small firm's own, dated, repeated data is enough is already shown — The Wedding Report, a small US firm, is cited by major outlets such as Axios for exactly this.
A shared, dated reference serves everyone: couples can sanity-check a budget against reality, companies and venues gain a common baseline, and suppliers who contribute are credited for making the picture true.
How it works
What it measures. For every wedding we record six things from our own records, without inventing anything: the total budget split into categories (venue & hire · catering & drinks · styling & florals · photography & film · entertainment & music · planning & coordination · other), the final guest count, the event month, the venue type, the region, and the currency. Two figures are then computed from these — cost per guest (budget divided by guest count) and each category's share of the budget. Couple and guest travel and accommodation are not in the headline figure, otherwise the numbers would not be comparable.
The unit and the aggregation, in two sentences. For every consented wedding we divide the total budget by the guest count to get a cost per guest; for each region and guest-count band we publish the median of those figures and the range the middle half fall in (the 25th–75th percentile). Where fewer than five weddings sit in a cell, we publish "not enough data" instead of a number.
Minimum per published cell — at least five weddings. A cell (say, region by guest-count band) is published only where it holds at least five consented weddings. Five is the floor for two reasons: a median of five cannot be reverse-engineered back to one couple, and it stops a single wedding from defining a benchmark. The consequence, which we accept, is that early editions publish few cells. That is the honest cost of the rule.
Anonymisation and consent, in plain language. Here is what it looks like for a couple or a guest:
- What we collect: the anonymised total and category budget of your wedding, its guest count, month, region and venue type.
- Why: to publish an honest regional benchmark of what a wedding costs, so couples and writers stop guessing.
- What we never publish: your name, your guests' names, your exact date, or your venue's name (unless the venue itself agrees). Your figures only ever appear combined with at least four other weddings.
- How long: the raw figures are held securely by Pink Palms; only the combined aggregates are published, and those stay online permanently.
- How to withdraw: email us and your wedding is removed from all future editions. Past editions are fixed aggregates that already cannot identify you, so they stand.
Only consented, anonymised weddings enter the aggregate. The Index collects no guest survey and no reviews — it measures cost, nothing else.
What each edition shows — and when the first one lands
Each edition shows, for every region and guest-count band that reaches at least five weddings: the number of consented weddings behind the figure, the median cost per guest (in euros, with Swedish kronor alongside for Swedish weddings), the middle-half range, and the typical split between categories. Beside it sits a short plain-language commentary on what the figures say and what is not yet covered, and one simple chart in which every bar is labelled with the number of weddings behind it. Cells below five weddings read "not enough data".
**The first edition — The Destination Wedding Cost Index 2027 — was published on 5 September 2026 as a clearly labelled pilot note:** the definition, the method and the collection status, without figures, because no cell yet reaches five consented weddings. We promise a cadence, not a result: the next edition lands in January 2028 and carries the first figures for every cell that reaches five weddings by then. No number is padded, estimated or built from fewer than five weddings. After that, an edition publishes every January.
Our integrity commitments
Credibility is the whole point, so the rules are written down and travel with every number:
- Methodology published beside every edition — this charter's rules travel with each number.
- Our own weddings are scored by the same rules as anyone's — no special cases.
- Nothing is adjusted to flatter us. No rounding toward nicer numbers, no dropping of inconvenient weddings.
- Missing data is shown as missing — cells below the minimum say "not enough data"; a figure is never estimated, interpolated or silently filled.
- Median and range, never a mean that one wedding can bend.
- Currency conversions are dated and disclosed; native figures shown alongside.
- The Index never claims outcomes. It reports what weddings cost; it never promises what a couple's wedding will cost or that spending a certain amount guarantees anything.
- Only consented, anonymised data is ever aggregated or published.
Latest edition
Edition 1 — The Destination Wedding Cost Index 2027 — is a pilot note: the method in five lines, the collection status and how to contribute. It is deposited on Zenodo under a CC BY 4.0 licence and is cited like this:
Pink Palms (Tim Jonasson, Jay Pettersson), 2027. The Destination Wedding Cost Index 2027. Pink Palms Performance S.L. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22338881
How to take part
Couples and clients. If you have married with us, or are doing so now, we ask once for permission to include your wedding's anonymised budget in the aggregate. You fill in — or we confirm with you — a simple cost sheet: total budget by category, guest count, month, region and venue type. Nothing that identifies you is ever published, and you can withdraw your consent for future editions at any time. If you would like to take part, tell your contact at Pink Palms.
Venues and suppliers. If you contribute anonymised cost data from weddings you have worked on, the picture becomes truer and more complete — and you are credited for it, with your permission. A venue is named only if it agrees to be; otherwise it counts under its type. If you would like to contribute, or to be listed among those who make the Index possible, get in touch and we will tell you exactly what we ask for and how your credit reads.
If you would like to see how we work in the meantime, it is gathered below.