WEDDINGS cost £9,500 less the second time around but couples still need to find £4,500 to get remarried, according to a survey by pensions company Prudential.

First weddings cost £14,000, says the survey.

Couples spend £1,800 per person on their first honeymoon, but only £1,500 per person second time around.

Nearly three-quarters of second weddings are paid for by the couple, with parents making a contribution to 68 per cent of first weddings. Prudential surveyed people who had remarried and found they spent an average of £4,500 for their second big day.

According to the Pru, only 12 per cent of first weddings are entirely funded by the couple, with 68 per cent contributed to by parents.

But when it comes to second weddings, only two per cent of parents are willing to pick up the tab and 11 per cent are willing to make a contribution, leaving 87 per cent of couples to foot the bill themselves.

Honeymoon locations are no less exotic, with most second timers choosing the Maldives, the Caribbean or California.

Roger Ramsden, director of marketing, Prudential UK, said: "Second weddings are no longer unusual and tend to happen later in life, when in theory people have more spare cash at their disposal. But even though the cost of a second-time-around wedding is two-thirds lower than the first, we're still talking about £4,500 that has to be found."