When I'm not hosting this podcast, I am writing books. But it is really hard for me to write when I'm at home. So I like to find remote cabins in the middle of nowhere to just hang out and write. But I hate the idea of my house just sitting empty, doing nothing but collecting dust and definitely not collecting checks. And that's why I'm an Airbnb host. It's one of my all time favorite side hustles. Other popular side hustles are awesome, too, don't get me wrong, but they often involve big startup costs. By hosting your space, you're monetizing what you already have access to. It doesn't get easier than that. And if you're new to the side hustle game and you're anxious about getting started, don't worry, because you're not in this alone. Airbnb makes it super easy to host. I mean, if I could do it, you could do it. And your home might be worth a lot more than you think. Find out how much@airbnb.com. Host hey, guys. Are you ready for some money rehab?

Wall street has been completely upended by an unlikely player, GameStop. And should I have a 401k? No, I never. Girl, you think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn't charge for wasting our time. I will take a check with a old school truck.

You recognize her from anchoring on CNN, CNBC, and Bloomberg. The only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. Nicole Lapin, it's time to talk about the day. No, not tax day. This time we're talking about your wedding day. For some of you, it might be the day you've always dreamed about for your entire life. And why shouldn't you? It's a huge celebration. I mean, the fact that you have all your loved ones in one room together is enough to get your serotonin pumping. Plus, you know, all that love and all that jazz. Add in some cake and some champagne. Some more champagne. I mean, it all sounds like a dream, but dreams have price tags. And in the case of weddings, it's a pretty big price tag. This week, we got a question from Megan.

Hey, Nicole.

I listened to one of your listener intervention episodes, the one with Morgan and the wedding, and it felt very familiar. I'm engaged. But we haven't started seriously thinking about our wedding yet. I mean, I have been thinking about it. I've been dreaming about my wedding forever, and I just have this picture it in my head with all of my family and friends and cousins and, you know, I get to wear the white dress and I, you know, there's a gigantic cake and a band and I don't want to lose that. But I'm also in some debt and I'm just starting to get anxious about it. So how do I get my dream wedding but on a budget?

Thank you. And if you missed it, here is the episode Meghan was referring to. Okay, so let me get this right. So you have $16,000 in credit card debt. You have $17,000 in student loans. You have a $20,000 wedding coming up. Yes. You have. How much in savings? I think it's about 3000. And how much do you owe on the wedding? I believe twelve more. Trust me. I never in my life thought I would tell anyone to cancel their wedding. I am a romantic. I told you. I was initially a poetry major. I love love. I'm a Pisces. The man is a cancer. We live by the beach. We just live in our feelings all the time. There is no part of me that wants to rain on anyone's wedding parade. But I will play bad cop if that means protecting your future self from a boatload of debt that will make you sink. The wedding industry is a multibillion dollar industry, and the wedding stories we grow up with arent stories of people buying used wedding dresses or making the wedding cake themselves. No, no. We see weddings like Meghan Markle and Prince Harrys in a freaking castle like church situation and movies like the father of the bride where the tulle and the swans are everywhere.

Not to mention extravagant tv shows like say yes to the dress or for weddings. Kanye west and Kim Kardashian reportedly spent $2.8 million on their wedding, and Kim's custom Givenchy gown cost an estimated $500,000. Obviously, the amount of money you spend on a fairytale wedding doesn't guarantee the health of the actual marriage because the Kardashian Wests are no longer living happily ever after. I thought that Kim Ye's wedding had to be the record breaker, but no. George Clooney and Amal Amundine's wedding was around $4.6 million, with a cool 3 million ish going to hotels for guests and Amal's Oscar de la Renta dress clocking in at around 400 grand. Okay, so obviously we're living on a different planet from the Clooneys and the Kardashians. But even for us, wedding costs are high. Let's focus only on the reception. I'm going to reference the costs of weddings in 2019 because the cost of weddings in 2020 dropped. I know, what a plot twist, right? A year where people had less disposable income and couldn't gather in large numbers led to lower costs of weddings. Shocking. And just a side note here, the wedding industry is definitely stuck in the past.

Most of the information you'll see online assumes that at your wedding there is a bride in a white dress who is marrying a guy in suit. We all know that that is not the case. For every wedding, there could be two brides, there could be two grooms. Maybe there are two wedding dresses, maybe there are zero. I decided to use the information from experts in the wedding space exactly as they frame it. And they do frame it in a very heteronormative way. And I'm using that not because I agree with it, but for readability, just like I do in my books or listen ability in this show. But I will note that sometimes these experts do make assumptions about who is tying the knot. Make no mistake, the only time I will object to anything in your wedding is when your budget is more than you can afford in every other aspect. I support you 1000%. Whatever your relationship looks like, whatever your wedding looks like. Not that you need it, but you have my blessing. Love is love, and that is priceless. Anyway, experts project that 2021 wedding costs will rebound to what they were in 2019, if not higher.

So lets take a look at the 2019 numbers. According to Weddingwire, the average cost of a wedding reception per couple was around $28,000, although I'd venture to say it was probably a little higher because according to the knot, here are the average costs involved with a wedding reception. Buckle up because it's a long 110 thousand. $500 for a reception venue, $2,400 for a photographer, $1,800 for a videographer, $2,000 for a florist, $1600 for a wedding dress, $3,700 for a wedding band, $1,200 for a reception dj, $70 per person for catering and the average wedding in 2019 had 131 guests. I guess it's an odd number because of all the singles who want to go home or at least go to bed with a new plus one. And that brings the total cost of food to $9,170. The rehearsal dinner costs on average, $1,900 $590 for the invitations, $110 for the hairstylist, $100 for the makeup artist, $400 for the party favors and last but certainly not least, $500 for the cake. That is a total of $35,970 to put that into perspective, that's a lot more than the down payment on a $175,000 house or tuition for a year and a half at Florida State University.

It's a huge chunk of change. And again, I would still argue that those estimates are probably low. I mean, shout out to the bride who's spending $110 on a hairstylist, but if you're living in LA, you're probably spending five times that amount. Which brings me to an important point. Of course, these averages vary widely depending on factors like location, what time of year, and even what day of the week it is. You're tying the knot. So let's take a look at these factors and rehash this budget. Starting with the cost of a venue, you can save big on looking at a date that's always the bridesmaid, never the bride, so to speak. You know when you get to the age where all your friends are getting married and all of a sudden you don't have a Saturday free in the summer? Yeah, everyone's trying to get married on a weekend in the summer. Think about a fall wedding or even a weekday wedding. Say it isn't so, but it's cheaper. If you give your friends and family enough lead time, they could probably make a Thursday evening work. They may even be able to take a Friday off if they want to plan for that inevitable hangover.

Now I know you might be envisioning getting married in a rustic barn or an igloo. Or maybe you're the larger than life type and want to get married in the crown of the Statue of Liberty. But going with an asylum established, actual wedding venue will likely save you big. A traditional venue will spare you the cost and headache of covering the essentials like tables, linens, champagne flutes, salad forks, you name it. Plus, I dont know about you, but if youve never planned a wedding before, nonetheless had a wedding yourself, its pretty comforting to lean on a venue who already has some receptions under its belt. You dont want to be waking up at 02:00 a.m. The night before your wedding and thinking, fuck, I forgot to order chairs. Hold onto your wallets boys and girls. Money. Rehab will be right back. Now for some more money rehab. Next, the dress. You know the old wedding tradition that you need something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. Well, id recommend making your wedding dress blue. Just kidding. I would recommend making your wedding dress something old or something borrowed. The boys are renting their wedding best, so ladies, you can too.

I know it's different with a wedding dress. And I know you want to keep it forever and always, but honestly, isn't that what the photos are for? Like what? Are you ever going to wear it again? And if you want to keep your dress forever and ever, or if you even just don't trust yourself to go barefoot on the dress floor and be able to return your dress in the pearly white condition, think about buying your dress used. Also a note to bridesmaids let me debunk a lie you have been told. Oh, you can just cut the bottom off and wear it again. Trust me, you can't and you won't. So say yes to renting the dress. Next. You don't need a wedding band and you certainly don't need a dj. Full stop. I'm sorry, I'm not gonna let you shell out a couple grand to someone who just put together a Spotify playlist and will probably add some songs that no one wants to hear for the 6th hundredth time and might not even honor your strong recommendation to play Whitney Houston five times. Um, no thank you. Do it yourself. Call me dj money rehab another thing you don't need invitations.

Seriously, I know you want something that people will put on their fridge, but that's all for show. The only save the date that matters is the one that people are putting into their calendars on their phones. So just send them an evite or a calendar invitation for a wedding photographer. Reach out to the photography club at a nearby college or even high school. If you tell a 17 year old aspiring photographer that youll pay them $300 and a piece of cake for their work, theyll flip next the flowers. Of course, they do make the wedding look picture perfect, but when you really think about it, youre spending thousands of dollars on something thats going to die tomorrow. Sorry tippy. Debbie Downer can you imagine investing a couple grand in a company that you know is going to go bust tomorrow? I dont think so. There are a few companies that make really beautiful alternatives to live flowers that are a fraction of the cost. Like painted wood flowers from a brand sola that are stunning and you can keep them forever. You can even give them to guests as party favors. Two birds, 1 st happy budget here's another hot tip.

Wedding planner Onikay Hartman recommends asking your wedding venue if there's a wedding booked the day before or after yours. If so, you may be able to split the cost of flowers with the couple your venue twinning with the biggest cost. As you noticed in the breakdown, is the food the answer? Solution? Here, go for a buffet. I read that depending on a caterer, you could save anywhere from $1500 to $3,000 per 100 guests. And you often get more food for the amount you pay compared to a plated dinner. But the fastest way to save on food? Invite less people to feed. Narrow your guest list to 70 people and only offer plus ones where it really makes sense. That friend who is perpetually in love with a new person every three months? Nope, they dont get a plus one. Its your freaking wedding. You decide. Sorry, not sorry to show my bad wedding cop again, but you don't have to pay for her chicken if you're going to be cropping her out of all the photos in the next six months. NerdWallet has a great recommendation that I love. Simplify your drink options. Offer beer and wine instead of an open bar, and if you want to throw in some hard liquor, set up a signature cocktail for the hour before the dinner starts.

Last suggestion, you should probably hire a wedding planner I know youre surprised that im asking you to add an expense, but wedding planners will probably have an easier time sticking to your budget than you will, simply because its hard to see your wedding budget objectively. You might think, why spare any expense when youre talking about love for the rest of our lives, but youre also talking about debt for the rest of your lives. A wedding planner has insights and connections and industry discounts that you probably don't have. So let's phone a friend here. So here's the wedding money rehabbed. We're adding $1,800, which is the average cost of a wedding planner. Again, we're adding this expense because we really need an accountability buddy to help us stick to this rehabbed budget. Because we're looking at a less trafficked wedding date. The cost of the reception will probably go down from the initial budget, but because we're looking for a venue that's also going to be a one stop shop for supplies. Remember those chairs? We're probably not going to save a whole lot. However, because you're a badass money rehabber these days, you're going to negotiate, right?

So let's say we're talking $9,500 for a reception venue for our up and coming wedding photographer. Let's budget in $800 and a slice of cake. We're going to scrap the videographer because everyone's taking videos on their phones anyway and the are probably gonna be the ones you post anyway. Let's be conservative and assume we're cutting our $2,000 flower budget in half by sharing flowers with other newlyweds. Although you'd save more by going the wooden flower route. We're shooting for an dollar 800 pre loved wedding dress. You're inviting 100 folks max. And by going the buffet route, you're saving a couple G's. So let's check in. Before we went to money rehab, our wedding budget was looking like $35,970. Where are we now? Post rehab? $21,510. That's 14 grand that you can take on your honeymoon. You can invest. You can get that debt monkey off your back. You're welcome. Here's a tip you can take straight to the bank. Use your registry wisely. If there are any purchases you've been planning for in your essentials, like new plates, a new blender, whatever, put them in your registry. You can even make a registry that's just a link to donate money that you can use toward any project.

Like getting a new roof. That sounds like happily ever after to me. You spend the money money money rehab is a production of iHeartmedia. I'm your host, Nicole Lapin. Our producers are Morgan Lavoie and Catherine Law. Money Rehab is is edited and engineered by Brandon Dickert with help from Josh Fisher. Executive producers are Mangash Hatikadur and Will Pearson. Huge thanks to the OG Money rehab supervising producer Michelle Lambs for her pre production and development work. And as always, thanks to you for finally investing in yourself so that you can get it together and get it all.

Spend my money money spend my money money.