'Competitive Wedding Syndrome' pushes up cost of average bash to £60 per minute

In a new trend dubbed Competitive Wedding Syndrome, brides-to-be are more anxious about impressing their guests than anything else, according to a new survey.

And as this year's wedding season begins in earnest the competition is hotting up.

Celebrity weddings continually raise the bar of expectation forcing young couples to spend more and more as they battle to outdo their peers.

Posh and Becks, Jordan and Peter and England football ace Ashley Cole and pop babe Cheryl Tweedy have all wowed hundreds of guests with extreme levels of glamour.

According to the new survey 59 per cent wanted guests to think their wedding was the best they had ever gone to.

This compared to a romantic minority of just 26 per cent, or just one in four, who wanted people to see how in love they were.

The quest for the biggest and most glamorous wedding has prompted the cost of the average wedding to rocket to just under £20,000, doubling in the last 10 years.

Some couples are even taking on second jobs to help pay for their big day - which is quickly transforming into a massive payday.

Over half the couples canvassed in the poll admitted they were happy to sacrifice and overspend in a bid to pull off the perfect look.

Stunning statistics reveal the average British wedding is now running at a whopping £60 per minute.

The latest survey, carried out by wedding planners TK Weddings, questioned 1,000 brides-to-be.

Managing Director, Tamryn Kirby, said: "It's easy to get carried away when organising a wedding.

"Competitive Wedding Syndrome can lead to stress, arguments and massive overspending.

"So many couples think that the only way to get a dream wedding is to buy it and that's not the case.

"A wedding where the couple have put thought, rather than cash, into everything is so much more impressive to guests.

"All brides want is something different for their big day but what everyone seems to have forgotten is that the best way to achieve that is to use their personalities, rather than their purse.

"They should be thinking about their hobbies and their likes and dislikes, not where they can buy the most expensive thing.

"Hopefully couples will have written a budget early on in the planning and will have stuck to it.

"But as the day gets closer and panic sets in, it's easy to start haemorrhaging money."