Same-sex marriage prompted $813million wedding spend in the US this summer

Since the US Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage at the end of June, paving the way for marriage ceremonies to take place across the US, some 96,000 couples have taken advantage of the legislation to tie the knot in the first four months.
They and they’re guests (i.e. out-of-state visitors booking hotels, etc) have spent approximately $813million (€764million) on their associated wedding costs, according to a report issued Thursday by the Williams Institute, the think tank at UCLA School of Law that carries out statistical research of LGBT rights and the cost of discrimination.
Between beginning of July and end of October 2015, those marriages have also generated $52million (€49millions) in state and local sales tax revenue, which could support an estimated 9,700 jobs for one full year.
The study, Estimating the Economic Impact of Marriage for Same-sex Couples after Obergefell, was co-authored by Christy Mallory, Senior Counsel and Anna M. Curren, Fellow, who say that the study demonstrates how businesses and government have benefited economically from the legislation of marriage.
The 96,000 couples who married constitute an estimated 11% of all marriages to take place in the US in that four-month period, and 20% of all currently married same-sex couples.
If anything, the authors say that their report may be conservative in its estimates.
They note that average wedding spend in the US is $26,444 (€24,852), but that, ‘Same-sex couples may receive less financial support from their parents and other family members to cover wedding costs due to persistent stigma, resulting in less spending than their heterosexual counterparts.
‘Taking these factors into account … we estimate that same-sex couples spend one-quarter of the amount that different-sex couples spend on wedding arrangements.’

An earlier report by the Williams Institute estimated that the legalization of same-sex marriage across the US could lead to a spending boom of $2.6billion (€2.4billion) in the first three years following such a ruling.