Getting engaged has always carried emotional weight. In 2025, it carries a significant financial one too. A new study from Mark Broumand examining engagement spending across the United States has found that the average American engagement now costs approximately $9,150, a figure that reflects not only the enduring centrality of the engagement ring but also a growing constellation of proposal-related expenses driven largely by viral culture and social media expectations.
The findings arrive in a year when more than 2 million weddings took place across the United States at an average cost of $33,000 each, meaning the financial pressure of marriage now begins long before the wedding day itself. For millions of couples, the engagement has become a financial milestone in its own right, and for those living in lower-income states, it can represent a staggering proportion of their annual earnings.
The single largest engagement expense remains the ring. The average engagement ring in the United States now costs approximately $5,200, accounting for more than half of the total average engagement spend. But the ring is no longer the only significant cost couples face. Curated proposal experiences, which can include special venues, travel, bespoke decor, professional planning, and destination settings, now routinely cost $2,500 or more. Professional photography or videography, another increasingly standard feature of modern engagements, typically adds between $950 and $1,500 to the total. Sales tax, ring insurance, resizing, and post-proposal celebrations push the final figure higher still.
The study identifies viral culture and social media as the primary engines behind this cost escalation. Where engagements were once private, intimate moments, they have increasingly become carefully choreographed, shareable events optimized for maximum online impact. The pressure to produce a proposal worthy of widespread social media attention has transformed what was once a simple occasion into something closer to a produced experience, complete with professional documentation and a curated audience. Of the $9,150 average total engagement cost, nearly $4,000 represents add-on expenses tied almost entirely to presentational and experiential elements, rather than the ring itself.
The financial burden of these rising costs is not distributed evenly across the country. In the ten states with the lowest median nonfamily household incomes, the average engagement cost represents between 20% and 27% of a couple’s annual earnings. Mississippi couples face the heaviest proportional burden, with engagement costs consuming more than a quarter of their combined yearly income. Couples in Arkansas and West Virginia spend approximately a quarter of their annual income on engagement expenses, a share that rivals major financial commitments such as rent and student loan payments. Even in comparatively higher-income states within the bottom ten, such as Tennessee and South Carolina, engagement costs still account for roughly a fifth of annual household income.
For context, the highest median incomes in the country are concentrated in the Northeast and West Coast. Washington D.C. ranks highest with a median nonfamily household income of $71,246, followed by Massachusetts at $67,739, New Jersey at $63,729, Maryland at $63,322, and California at $63,280. At the other end of the spectrum, Mississippi ranks lowest at $34,056, followed by Arkansas at $36,074 and West Virginia at $36,546.
These disparities produce dramatically different engagement experiences across state lines. The average engagement ring spend in Massachusetts frequently exceeds $10,800, while in West Virginia the average drops to under $650, a gap that reflects not only income differences but also deeply rooted regional customs and cultural attitudes toward marriage spending.
The study also finds that engagement rings rarely function as financial investments. Resale data confirms that rings typically return only 30% to 60% of their original retail value when listed on secondary marketplaces, meaning a significant portion of engagement spending is financially unrecoverable. The gap between retail price and resale value reflects the premium attached to design, brand, and craftsmanship that does not translate to market value in the secondary ring economy.
Faced with these financial realities, couples are adapting. 70% of women now say they are willing to contribute to engagement ring costs, and more than half of modern couples now choose engagement rings together rather than relying on a surprise purchase. Nearly 48% of couples report struggling to bridge the gap between social-media-inspired expectations and their actual financial capabilities. Searches for elopement average 110,000 per month, with periodic spikes to 135,000, confirming that lower-cost alternatives to traditional engagements and weddings have moved firmly into the mainstream.