Miami Ranked Eigth Best City to Get Married In, After Orlando and Tampa

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

We all know what a great wedding destination Miami is. With amazing engagement photo ops, tropical weather for the perfect honeymoon, and our very own historic street dedicated to bridal shopping– it's no wonder thousands of bride- and groom-to-be candidates flock to sunny South Florida every year to tie the knot. But are we the best city to wed in?

The team over at Wallet Hub surveyed the 150 biggest cities in the country to see which of these is the most wedding-friendly. They considered three key dimensions when conducting the study: wedding cost; wedding facilities and services (event venues, photographers, makeup artists, etc.); and activities and attractions (weather, food, travel popularity, etc).

Miami came in at eighth place on the long list of 150, beating out other major contenders like New York, LA, San Francisco, and Chicago. Fort Lauderdale followed in at 17th, Hialeah at 108th, and Pembroke Pines at 117th. None of this sounds too bad, until you consider that Orlando trumped us in first place and Tampa landed in fourth. We understand Orlando's win (Disney weddings, duh), but Tampa? Seriously?

We did, however, prove to be the best city in the country in terms of flower shopping and booking events. According to the study, Miami ranks first in amount of flower shops and party venues per capita, and fourth in number of wedding dress stores per capita.

Here are a few fun facts to bring up with your fellow bride-to-be babes over brunch this weekend.

• The average cost of a wedding in Miami is $29,527
• There are 12 bridal shops per every 100,000 residents
• For every 100,000 residents, there are 17.32 event planners
• Miami has 40.58 event venues per every 100,000 residents
• The average price of a three-star hotel is $79
• There are 62 hotels per every 100,000 residents
• THERE ARE 99.9 FLOWER SHOPS FOR EVERY 100,000 RESIDENTS.

Poor Hialeah and Pembroke Pines, though. Both were both ranked the two absolute worst cities to find wedding chapels and churches. In addition, Hialeah, which ranked 108th overall, earned a low-scoring spot when it came to number of attractions. Pines, which ranked 117th overall, was named one of the worst places to find a wedding dress.

Overall, we didn't do too poorly, but we're still scratching our heads over Tampa's win.