The price of celebrating someone else’s love is soaring to stratospheric heights — especially as the COVID marriage backlog winds down.

By the numbers: The average wedding guest in 2022 attends 4 weddings in 3 different cities – and spends hundreds of dollars on each, according to a survey by wedding website Zola.

• 63% say they mostly attend weddings within driving distance, which cost them an average of $600 each.
• But destination weddings have made a comeback. 37% fly to celebrate and spend an average of $1,300 per wedding as airline prices keep rising.

Fees are piling up even higher for those attending the wedding.

• There are matching outfits, bachelor and bachelorette trips, showers, pajama sets and more, costing an average of $825 per wedding, according to a LendingTree survey.
• Wedding after wedding also saps guests’ energy, reports the Wall Street Journal. Many say they barely have time to unpack between one celebration and the next.

Example : Axios Local editor Everett Cook tells me he’s been invited to 14 weddings this year, including bachelor parties. It only goes to 10.

• “I’m 30, so COVID hit just when all the marriages were picking up,” he says. “I would have liked to go to all of them, but I literally couldn’t afford it. Not taking a single vacation this year outside of the wedding trips.”

Despite the costs, 2022 guests are always eager to celebrate. 77% told Zola they felt excited.

The bottom line: If you’re planning a wedding, be lenient with your guests if they politely decline your invitation, and forgive your friends if they have to skip the bachelorette party. The price of celebrating love is climbing higher and higher.