Two honest answers, because both are true. The average is pulled up by a minority of very large weddings. The median is what the middle couple actually spends. Here is the full picture, including the costs both numbers leave out.
New Hampshire is destination wedding country alongside thousands of modest hometown ones. Couples come up from Boston and beyond for White Mountain resorts, lake houses on Winnipesaukee and tented estates, and those weddings run large: planner benchmarks price a 100-guest New Hampshire luxury or tented wedding at about $100,000, rising to about $150,000 at 200 guests. Nationally, a domestic destination wedding averages $41,700 against $32,600 for a hometown wedding. Those weddings are real, and they drag the average far above what a typical New Hampshire couple spends.
The two studies also disagree about New Hampshire, and in the opposite direction from most states. The Knot puts the average at $37,000; The Wedding Report, which counts more DIY and family-helped weddings, puts it much higher, at $45,729. They survey different couples, so treat the pair as a range with honest disagreement built in, not a single settled number. Either way, both averages sit far above the middle. The median is the better planning anchor for most couples: half of New Hampshire weddings cost less than $20,122, and a complete smaller wedding in the $15,000 to $25,000 range is well documented. Neither figure is the answer for your wedding, though. Yours depends on guest count, region, and the cost lines in the next section, which the headline numbers do not show.
Study totals cover the ceremony and reception categories couples report. What they do not show, and what couples consistently forget to budget, are the lines below. On a typical wedding they add up to roughly $3,000 to $6,500 that never appears in the average.
| Commonly missed line | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Catering service charge (a fee, not a tip) | 18–26% of catering |
| Tips across the vendor team | $500–$2,000 |
| Dress alterations | $300–$800 |
| Hair and makeup trials | $75–$200 |
| Postage (about 100 invitation suites) | $150–$300 |
| Vendor meals | Per person, varies |
| Marriage license | $20–$115 |
| Event liability insurance | about $200 |
| Cake-cutting and corkage fees, where charged | $1–$5 a slice · $15–$25 a bottle |
Ranges from the Mazie Says category audit of the last five years of wedding spending research. A contingency of 5 to 15 percent on top is standard advice; 10 percent is the common recommendation.
National averages among couples who hired each vendor (The Knot, 2025 weddings). Treat them as a starting grid, not a quote: New Hampshire venues average $14,650, above the national figure, and New Hampshire runs on barns, inns, lake houses and mountain venues rather than ballrooms, so every category swings widely by region and guest count.
| Category | Average |
|---|---|
| Venue | $12,900 |
| Venue, New Hampshire average | $14,650 |
| Catering | $80 per person |
| Alcohol and bar service | $2,800 |
| Photographer | $3,000 |
| Videographer | $2,300 |
| Flowers | $2,800 |
| Lighting and decor | $1,900 |
| Band | $4,500 |
| DJ | $1,800 |
| Rentals | $2,000 |
| Planner (any type) | $2,100 |
| Wedding dress | $2,100 |
| Wedding rings | $3,000 |
| Transportation | $1,100 |
| Cake | $540 |
| Stationery | $510 |
| Favors | $480 |
| Groom's attire | $330 |
| Officiant | $260 |
| Hair | $150 |
| Makeup | $150 |
The engagement ring (national average $4,600), rehearsal dinner ($2,800) and honeymoon ($5,500) are counted separately by The Knot and are not inside the $37,000 state average.
Planner benchmarks for New Hampshire's luxury venues and tented or private-home weddings, in season, run about $100,000 for 100 guests, $120,000 for 150 and $150,000 for 200, the same band the planner reports for Connecticut, Maine and Vermont. No New Hampshire city or town has a published average of its own: the studies print state figures only, so below that luxury band the state median of $20,122 is the honest anchor everywhere from the Seacoast to the North Country.
Nationally, the all-in cost works out to about $292 per guest, and catering alone averages $80 per person before the service charge. Cutting 25 guests is usually the single largest saving available, which is why our checker moves guest count first when a plan is over budget.
An all-inclusive inn or resort bundles catering, rentals and staffing into one figure; a barn, lake house or raw space looks cheaper and then rebuilds those costs line by line. A tented wedding rebuilds the most: nationally, rentals alone for a 100-guest tented setup run $5,000 to $8,000 or more, before catering. The complete list of what each style requires is on the needs list.
Most cost guides stop at Portsmouth and the Seacoast. Most New Hampshire couples do not get married there. The studies publish state figures only, with no city or town figures for New Hampshire at all, so for the regions below we use the state median of $20,122 as the honest planning anchor, plus the real local couples' breakdowns we verify one by one. Where we do not have a verified local number yet, we say so rather than inventing one.
Historic Portsmouth, grand hotels and beach towns along the state's short coastline, with the easiest coastal guest logistics in New Hampshire. Verified local couple breakdowns are being collected for this region.
Lake Winnipesaukee and the lakes around it: lakefront estates, inns and resorts in Meredith and Wolfeboro, where many weddings are summer weekends on the water. Verified local couple breakdowns are being collected for this region.
North Conway, Jackson and Bretton Woods: grand hotels, mountain resorts, barns and inns under the Presidential Range, and one of the state's strongest destination draws, in foliage season above all. Verified local couple breakdowns are being collected for this region.
A college town on the Connecticut River: inns, farms and river valley venues along the river, close to the Vermont line. Verified local couple breakdowns are being collected for this region.
Peterborough, Keene and the small towns around Mount Monadnock in the southwest: barns, inns and village greens. Verified local couple breakdowns are being collected for this region.
The state's population center: hotels, restored mill buildings and full-service venues along the Merrimack River, with the easiest guest logistics in New Hampshire. Verified local couple breakdowns are being collected for this region.
A New Hampshire wedding does not have to cost five figures. The research behind this page found no documented New Hampshire elopement or micro-wedding package price, and we would rather say that plainly than invent one. What is documented: half of all couples in the state spend under the $20,122 median, micro-weddings of up to 50 guests average about $17,100 nationally, and a complete smaller wedding in the $15,000 to $25,000 range is well documented. The honest question is never "can it be done for less." It is "what does the wedding you actually want cost." That is what the checker answers.
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Figures on this page come from The Knot's 2026 Real Weddings Study (10,474 couples married in 2025; state and vendor averages, vendor averages among couples who hired each vendor; ceremony and reception only, engagement ring excluded, rehearsal dinner and honeymoon counted separately) and The Wedding Report's 2025 New Hampshire market statistics (average $45,729, median $20,122). The two studies survey different couples, and for New Hampshire they disagree in the unusual direction, with The Wedding Report's average well above The Knot's; we report both and never blend them. New Hampshire planner benchmarks are cited from the Mazie Says research audit of wedding spending from the last five years, checked November 2026. Vendor-name and couple-level data are never published without consent; contributed quotes are anonymized before use. This page is refreshed when the studies republish.
Mazie Says is a planning tool, not a vendor. No vendor pays for placement here, ever.