Married couples spent the largest amount of money on home appliances. (Image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — Married couples last year were found to have spent less on wedding gifts and ceremony, and paid more attention to buying home appliances instead.
According to a survey of 400 men and women in their 20s and 30s who got married last year by LOTTE Members, the operator of membership reward service L.POINT, their total wedding cost decreased by about 3.3 million won (US$2,734) to 39.2 million won, down from an average of 42.5 million won in 2018.
By item, they spent the largest amount of money on home appliances. The average cost of purchasing home appliances was 8.8 million won, up 700,000 won from the previous year.
On the other hand, newlyweds cut spending on wedding halls, gifts, services, furniture, bedding and interior decorating.
They spent an average of 5 million won on furniture and bedding, down 340,000 won, and spent 3.8 million won on interior design, down 1.2 million won.
LOTTE Members suggested that the increasing proportion of home appliance purchases in the wedding budget is due to the continued release of new products with improved performance.
According to the analysis of last year’s L.POINT transaction data, there was a high rate of increase in purchases of robot vacuum cleaners (219 percent), dishwashers (213 percent), and dryers (157 percent).
With the once-popular “small wedding” trend waning, 76.5 percent chose wedding halls for their ceremony, up 12.2 percentage points from the previous year.
In fact, 81.3 percent of the respondents said they chose to have a cost-effective wedding.
D. M. Park (dmpark@koreabizwire.com)
