The Prusers dance at their New Jersey wedding, May 5, 2012. Photo: Courtesy of Michael Pruser For the first time since the recession took hold in 2008, wedding budgets have surged.

Couples spend an average of $27,000 to tie the knot, with one in five dropping more than $30,000, according to a report by TheKnot.com. That's not even including the honeymoon.

Manhattan is by far the priciest city for newlyweds, where they spend more than $65,000 on nuptials. That's about four times as much as couples in West Virginia, where weddings average $14,000.

PTMoney personal finance blogger Michael Pruser knew he and his fianceé would be shelling out big money to fund their "destination" wedding in New Jersey. The couple live in Miami, but wanted to move the event closer to their extended families in New England.

Pruser was kind enough to share his budget with us. At $25,207.90, they came in right under the national average and far below the typical $38,000 to $46,600 people usually pay to get married in New Jersey.

True, some of the expenditures were a bit extraordinary—$1,250 for table centerpieces and a Nerf gun for the ring bearer?—but Pruser said he and his wife had saved for years to do their day justice.

"Even though I would say this event was 100 percent anti-frugal, we had an absolute blast," he said. "Yes, saving money is important, however, I would argue that the biggest priority when it comes to your wedding is having a good time because if you’re lucky, you’ll only get to do it once."

While the average guest list is 141 people, Pruser and his wife served about half as many (75). Even so, they spent about ten times the average price on their venue, which set them back a whopping $9,745 and included an open bar.

Here's what the Pruser's modern day wedding budget looked like:

Click to enlarge. PT Money





Vs. The nation's average budget: