Couples Spend £6.9K On Perfect Proposals

May 27, 2025United Kingdom

  • Loved-up Brits spend more on staging a marriage proposal than the engagement ring itself (£2,269 vs £1,588)¹

  • Nearly two in five (38%) opt for lab-grown diamonds, with Clearpay reporting a 167% increase in sales²

  • Nearly half (49%) are influenced by social media to create the perfect proposal, and 36% feel pressured to spend more due to trends 

DISTRIBUTED-WORK-MODEL/LONDON, May 27th, 2025 – Getting engaged is no longer just about the ring, as couples spend up to £6,933³ on creating a perfect social-media moment. 

New research from Clearpay¹, a leader in Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), reveals that typical engagement costs now include professional photographers (£698), content creators (£584), and props (£988), equating to more than what’s being spent on the ring itself (£1,588). More than a fifth of those planning a proposal (22%) hire professional proposal planners or coordinators.

 Social media is a driving force behind these elaborate engagements, with almost half (49%) of couples revealing it influenced aspects of their proposals, and more than a third (36%) felt the pressure to spend more on their engagements due to social media trends.

When it comes to choosing engagement rings, couples are increasingly selecting lab-grown diamonds. Clearpay’s data, comparing 2023 and 2024 sales, indicates this trend has risen by 167%.² Popular styles include asymmetric diamond rings (+164%), pear-cut diamond rings (+102%), princess-cut diamond rings (+52%), and three-stone engagement rings (+30%).

Engagement gifts are becoming increasingly common, with three in five (62%) couples choosing to exchange extra presents. The most popular choices include watches (+43%), flowers (+37%), jewellery (+37%), cufflinks (+19%) and aftershave (+14%).

 More than a third (36%) of UK couples will be using a credit card to fund their engagement gift purchases despite half of UK adults incurring interest on their credit card balances.⁴ By comparison, globally 98% of BNPL purchases incur no late fees on purchases.⁵

Rich Bayer, UK Country Manager at Clearpay, commented: “Getting engaged is a deeply personal lifestyle milestone. For some, it’s an opportunity to go all out, while others prefer to go low-key. When thinking about how to finance the celebrations during this special time, it’s important not to be swayed by others’ opinions. Spend what you know you can afford, and if you use BNPL to pay for purchases, use the text and email reminders to ensure you have money in your account when payments are due, and reschedule payments if needed.”   

ENDS

  1. Clearpay commissioned Censuswide to conduct a survey amongst 2,004 UK adults aged 18+ who have been engaged in the past 5 years. The research was carried out between 17 April 2025 – 22 April 2025.
  2. Based on Clearpay sales data comparing sales from January – December in 2023 and 2024.
  3. The sum of the average costs of engagement-related items or experiences are engagement ring (£1588.88), engagement party (£1347.59), engagement photoshoot (£697.96) and content creator for engagement celebrations. (£583.52), outfits for engagement celebrations (£914.22), engagement gift for partner (£814) and staging the proposal (£987.64) = £6933.81.
  4. 50% of outstanding credit card balances incur interest according to UK Finance [November 2023].
  5. Based on 2024 internal data. 

About Clearpay (Afterpay Limited)
Afterpay, known as Clearpay in the UK, is transforming the way we pay by allowing anyone to buy products immediately and pay over time – enabling simple, transparent, and responsible spending. We are on a mission to power an economy in which everyone wins.

Afterpay is offered by thousands of the world’s favourite retailers and used by millions of active global customers. Afterpay is currently available in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom, where it is known as Clearpay. Afterpay is a wholly owned subsidiary of Block, Inc. (NYSE: SQ).

Five facts about Clearpay:

  •  The service is completely free for customers who pay on time
  •  If a customer misses a payment, their account is paused so that they cannot accrue more debt or fall into revolving debt
  •  Capped late fees apply for late payment instalments (£24 or 25% of the transaction fee – whichever is lower)
  •  Globally, 90% of Clearpay transactions are made with a debit card
  •  Globally, in 2024 96% of instalments were paid on time and 98% of purchases incurred no late fees

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