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- [00:00]
IBM Representative
So there's a lot of noise about AI, but time's too tight for more promises. So let's talk about results. At IBM, we work with our employees to integrate technology right into the systems they need. Now a global workforce of 300,000 can use AI to fill their HR questions, resolving 94% of common questions, not noise Proof of how we can help companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off, deep in the work that moves the business. Let's create smarter business IBM Dog Grooming
- [00:32]
Genius Dog Grooming Owner
Geniuses Here most people see a busy dog salon, but I see operational excellence thanks to Genius. From global payments scheduling, personalized checkouts, instant Absolutely genius. From game day crowds to every groomer in this shop, Genius keeps everything flowing seamlessly. Schnauzer is styled flawless execution, big league reliability for any business, that's genius.
- [01:01]
Venture Global Representative
At Venture Global, we think about what can be done, not what's usually done through innovation. Venture Global is not only building some of the largest energy facilities in the world right here in the United States, but delivering American energy at a fraction of the cost in a fraction of the time. So while others are busy talking, we're busy building. That's Venture Global. That's unstoppable energy.
- [01:33]
Genius Dog Grooming Owner
Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio news In
- [01:39]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
May, US inflation accelerated at its fastest pace in more than three years, and the consumer price index climbed 4.2% from a year earlier. Things are getting more expensive, including having a wedding. The wedding planning website the Knot reported that the average cost of a wedding is now over $34,000. Newlyweds are spending nearly $300 per guest. And Bloomberg's Dina Catgara says in this economy, some couples are willing to pay a little extra for anything that can make them feel more in control on this big, expensive day.
- [02:20]
Josianna Joshua (Personal Finance Reporter)
There's also just generally a lot of uncertainty in people's lives with the rising cost of goods and with housing costs going up, there's a lot in their heads. That's a big question mark. So if they can lean on anything that can provide them some kind of stability, people will do that.
- [02:40]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
For some, stability is coming in the form of a spirit bell.
- [02:45]
Sarah Schenken (Bride)
I don't truly know what powers lie within the Etsy witch community. I certainly don't want to dismiss that it is possible for them to dramatically change the day.
- [02:59]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
It might sound a little woo woo, but wedding spellcasting is actually a growing industry. On the online marketplace, Etsy witches are selling their services to spouses to be promising to ward off bad weather at the wedding, or at least manifest good vibes.
- [03:17]
Sarah Schenken (Bride)
It is a little bit of peace of mind. You're not paying that much. This makes you feel like you maybe have done everything you can to ensure the outcome you want.
- [03:29]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
As Sarah Schenken and her fiance planned their outdoor wedding in Brooklyn this spring, rain was in the forecast. So her friend ordered them a spell off the Internet for $7.49. And would you have bought it for yourself if it wasn't a gift?
- [03:44]
Sarah Schenken (Bride)
I think we were at that point where, yes, we would have. And we actually had more than one friend buy it for us from different people. So it was, you know, everybody was
- [03:51]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
thinking, multiple witches on your side. Yeah. I'm Sarah Holder and this is the big take from Bloomberg News today on the show. Planning a wedding in a time of economic uncertainty. How newlyweds approach spending on their big day amid rising costs, and why some are turning to magic. Josianna Joshua covers personal finance for Bloomberg. She spends a lot of time thinking about what people spend their money on and why. That's how she found out about the Etsy witches.
- [04:33]
Josiana Joshua (Bloomberg Reporter)
So it actually kind of started because one of our coworkers was getting married and we were on a call and I was like, oh, weather doesn't look great. Like, I'll buy an Etsy witch for you. And then everybody on the call was like, what are you talking about? So I think that's kind of how it got started.
- [04:50]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
Josiana had been seeing newly married social media influencers giving testimonials for the spellcasting services on Tik Tok.
- [04:58]
Josiana Joshua (Bloomberg Reporter)
Welcome to my wedding. My Etsy witch works.
- [05:00]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
No rain. It's been raining all day. Look at the weather right now. Table salt. She put in her spell. It worked. We love you, Etsy witch. And on Etsy, the online marketplace for small businesses, there were pages and pages of listings advertising things like a powerful good weather ritual and clear sky spells.
- [05:22]
Josianna Joshua (Personal Finance Reporter)
You can just go to Etsy.com, type in weather witches and you'll see a whole bunch of different little thumbnails for different Etsy witches come up.
- [05:32]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
That's Dina Catgara who reported the story with Josianna.
- [05:36]
Josianna Joshua (Personal Finance Reporter)
And a lot of times they cost anywhere from like a dollar to $25. So it's relatively cheap cost here.
- [05:43]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
Etsy's house rules actually forbid metaphysical services like spells and rituals. So when you buy a good weather spell, the actual product you're getting is essentially a PDF.
- [05:55]
Josianna Joshua (Personal Finance Reporter)
A lot of times it says different things like, here's the best way to manifest the good weather for your wedding day. Here's what happens if it does rain. A lot of it is, I think, talking and positive manifestation so that you feel less anxiety about the big day.
- [06:11]
Josiana Joshua (Bloomberg Reporter)
Yeah. The other thing for the PDFs is a lot of them will actually tell you, like what they did to do the spell. So it'll be like, oh, I lit a candle and I said, let's have Catherine's wedding be 60 degrees and sunny. Like, they'll put that in there too. So people like will not be worried that it's like a full scam.
- [06:30]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
Dina and Josiana spoke to several recent brides who'd hired these weather witches. Not all of them believed in magic per se, but they'd all invested a lot in their weddings and they looked at the spell as a spiritual insurance policy. Welcome back to Vlog3 of Me, chronicling the weather changes leading up to my Febr 14th wedding in Chicago. We are a wedding week.
- [06:55]
Josianna Joshua (Personal Finance Reporter)
We are Cami Danaher posted a TikTok video in February, she was getting married in Chicago, and Chicago in the wintertime obviously isn't the best weather, but she wanted to do the wedding on her seventh anniversary with her wife. So she wanted to do it on Valentine's Day. She of course, was expecting it to be cold, but she was hoping maybe if she could hire an Etsy witch, it could be good weather.
- [07:19]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
How much was she willing to pay?
- [07:21]
Josiana Joshua (Bloomberg Reporter)
I think she was honestly at this point kind of willing to pay whatever. But it only ended up costing her $14, which in comparison to her $100,000 wedding, I feel like is minuscule at that point.
- [07:34]
Genius Dog Grooming Owner
It is going to be 49 degrees
- [07:37]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
on Valentine's Day in Chicago.
- [07:39]
Genius Dog Grooming Owner
Real feel high 55 and sunny higher.
- [07:44]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
The Etsy witch Cammie's $100,000 wedding is on the high end of wedding spending. According to data published this year by the Knot, the average wedding in the US costs over $34,000. That varies a lot by region. In Manhattan, a typical wedding costs $88,000. In the Midwest, it costs closer to $30,000. Getting married in Alaska or Idaho can cost less than $20,000. Any way you slice it, it's a lot of money to spend on one day or one weekend.
- [08:19]
Sam Borgi (Financial Analyst)
The cost of venues, the cost of food, catering, the cost per plate. If you want to get a band, if you want to get a musician, these costs add up very, very quickly.
- [08:30]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
That's Sam Borgi, a senior financial analyst with Investors observer, and he says across the board these costs have been climbing.
- [08:39]
Sam Borgi (Financial Analyst)
What we're seeing is that overall the rate of inflation is reflected in weddings. I mean, you take a look at food costs, for example. A lot of these prices per plate have gone up significantly because of the cost of food. You take a look at the cost of steak, the cost of all these different meal items have gone significantly higher over the past five or six years. You're starting to see it on the service side. Any kind of service inflation has kind of gone significantly higher. People charging a lot more.
- [09:05]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
Josiana says there are other factors that have pushed wedding related expenses up recently, like high gas prices and tariffs on things like food and flowers.
- [09:16]
Josiana Joshua (Bloomberg Reporter)
People are passing down vendors, should I say, are passing down those costs.
- [09:20]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
Then there's the constant pressure to keep up with the Joneses. On social media, you see other people
- [09:27]
Josiana Joshua (Bloomberg Reporter)
being able to post, like having a live painter or like having, you know, a DJ with a saxophone or having a live band. And you're like, I want to be able to do that same thing. So you're getting introduced to a lot of new things, but then when you get to actually paying for those things, you're like, okay, that's actually a lot of money. But you've had it in your head for so long that you're just like, okay, I want it for my day. I'm going to pay for it.
- [09:48]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
The wedding industry is incredibly resilient right now. That's Esther Lee, the Knott's editorial director. It's actually $100 billion, with 2 million couples getting married last year alone. Couples spend an average of $292 per guest, which is actually up $8 from 2024. And that doesn't seem like a lot, but per guest, like it adds up Together after the break, we unpack why weddings are such an enduring expense and how the US economy's K shape is showing up in the wedding industry.
- [10:29]
IBM Representative
So there's a lot of noise about AI, but time's too tight for more promises. So let's talk about results. At IBM, we work with our employees to integrate technology right into the systems they need. Now a global workforce of 300,000 can use AI to fill their HR questions, resolving 94% of common questions, not noise. Proof of how we can help companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off, deep in the work that moves the business. Let's create smarter business.
- [10:58]
Public Investing Representative
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- [11:58]
Genius Dog Grooming Owner
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- [13:02]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
As inflation pushes up the cost of essentials like housing and food and gas and US Consumer sentiment declines, you might assume people would think twice about spending so much on a party. Financial analyst Sam Borgi says that's not exactly what's been happening.
- [13:20]
Sam Borgi (Financial Analyst)
What we've been seeing is that, you know, a lot of discretionary spending has kind of gone down over the years because of inflation. But weddings are an odd category because they're not as impacted by a decline in discretionary spending. Because it's a highly emotional decision. It's a major milestone. So people are still willing to spend.
- [13:38]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
But like the rest of the US Economy, Sam says, wedding spending is K shaped.
- [13:44]
Sam Borgi (Financial Analyst)
It's an economy of haves versus have nots. The middle class is increasingly being hollowed out, and we see that across various different verticals and obviously wedding planning is one of them. So on the high End of the K, you still see larger guest lists, you still see more opulent food choices. You see much larger venues, much more prestigious venues, maybe even still destination weddings.
- [14:08]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
Those are the couples spending over $41,000 according to the Knot. They're inviting an average of 141 guests and they're typically getting help from their families to cover more than half of the bill.
- [14:19]
Sam Borgi (Financial Analyst)
On the other side of the K, you see people having much smaller venues, much smaller wedding celebrations, especially on the number of guests. You'll start to see savings on the actual venue itself and also on the decor.
- [14:33]
Josianna Joshua (Personal Finance Reporter)
People at the top can just throw money at customization, and people at the bottom of the quay can, you know, work on DIY bouquets, write things for their guests, things like that.
- [14:43]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
Bloomberg's Dina Catgara again.
- [14:45]
Josianna Joshua (Personal Finance Reporter)
So they can still make their day as special as they want it to be. But people are finding different avenues to get there.
- [14:53]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
Sarah Schenken, the woman who got married in Brooklyn this year, said she and her partner were pretty budget conscious throughout the wedding planning process. Making spreadsheets, making compromises. But there were some costs they didn't prepare for.
- [15:07]
Sarah Schenken (Bride)
We were joking. Like in the last two weeks before the wedding, money just sort of becomes a concept and not a reality. You're so close to the finish line, you're really stressed. You're trying to coordinate lots of logistics at the same time. And sometimes you end up just being like, will that make my life easier in this moment or will that make that problem go away?
- [15:28]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
Ubers, extra beer, and of course, Etsy witches.
- [15:34]
Sarah Schenken (Bride)
The witch part of it, you know, that was not a budget item that would have even, really, even made the spreadsheet because it was so small. It would have been a tiny, tiny,
- [15:44]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
tiny fraction in the grand scheme of wedding spending. Good weather spell casting witches can seem like a steal. Here's Bloomberg's Josiana Joshua again.
- [15:54]
Josiana Joshua (Bloomberg Reporter)
When we talk to some of the witches, like, they've kind of tried to keep costs low because I think that's part of the way they attract folks is like if you're people who want something cheaper, if you have a super expensive spell, but there's someone else on Etsy offering a five dollar spell. Like, I don't know if that's gonna be great competition for you.
- [16:15]
Josianna Joshua (Personal Finance Reporter)
Yeah. And a lot of it is you learn about these witches through word of mouth. Like, we spoke to one witch in Florida. His name is Hank.
- [16:24]
Josiana Joshua (Bloomberg Reporter)
We love Hank.
- [16:25]
Josianna Joshua (Personal Finance Reporter)
We love Hank. And we asked him, would you raise your prices because you're seeing this Influx of demand. And he said no. So he seems to be dedicated to his craft and wanting to make sure that people can purchase his services no matter where they are.
- [16:41]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
On that K. Not everyone in the industry is so committed to accessibility.
- [16:46]
Josianna Joshua (Personal Finance Reporter)
There was this one guy that's starting this company to like, rival the Etsy Witches, and he has a new company that's supposed to, like, be an upscale version of these Etsy Witches selling these boxes for like 222 doll.
- [17:00]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
For Sarah, despite her friends magic wedding gifts, nature ran its course.
- [17:06]
Sarah Schenken (Bride)
I mean, I don't want to blow up the spot here, but like, it rained our whole wedding weekend. So it's a funny thing. I think we did kind of hope even up until the last day, like, maybe it'll turn.
- [17:19]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
No such luck. They had to move the whole ceremony inside. But Sarah says the wedding was still beautiful.
- [17:28]
Sarah Schenken (Bride)
It was a really special, special weekend.
- [17:32]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
When I was back in the studio with Josianna and Dina, I had to admit something. These conversations were making me kind of anxious. It's so funny. I came into this conversation like, oh, no. Like, we're going to be talking about rain on the wedding day. Like, we're jinxing it. I'm getting married in 10 days and now I'm kind of feeling like a deep sense of calm that whatever happens is going to happen.
- [17:55]
Josiana Joshua (Bloomberg Reporter)
But given that I can recommend you some.
- [17:59]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
Do you think I should hire an Etsy Witch for next week?
- [18:02]
Josiana Joshua (Bloomberg Reporter)
Yeah, why not? Yeah. I mean, I think if you believe in it and you're willing to shell $15, then why not?
- [18:15]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
This is the big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. To get more from the Big take and unlimited access to all of the bloomberg.com, subscribe today@bloomberg.com podcastoffer if you like this episode, make sure to subscribe and review the Big Take. Wherever you listen to podcasts, it helps people find the show. Thanks for listening. We'll be back tomorrow.
- [18:46]
Harley Davidson Narrator
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- [19:15]
Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with
- [19:17]
Venture Global Representative
a message for everyone paying Big Wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good
- [19:22]
IBM Representative
in this world, stop with Mint.
- [19:24]
Josiana Joshua (Bloomberg Reporter)
You can get premium wireless for just 15amonth.
- [19:27]
IBM Representative
Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments.
- [19:29]
Josiana Joshua (Bloomberg Reporter)
But that's weird.
- [19:30]
IBM Representative
Okay, one judgment anyway.
- [19:34]
Venture Global Representative
Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment
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Sarah Holder (Bloomberg Host/Reporter)
of 45 for 3 month plan equivalent to 15 per month required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full terms@mint mobile.com hey, it's Ryan
- [19:46]
Ryan Seacrest (Albertsons and Safeway Ad)
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