With wedding season underway, couples can get overwhelmed with finances and planning. Guests also feel stressed, especially when being invited to several weddings. Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst with Bankrate.com, joined Cheddar News to discuss setting up a budget if attending multiple ceremonies.

<div class="block">With wedding season underway, couples can get overwhelmed with finances and planning. Guests also feel stressed, especially when being invited to several weddings. Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst with Bankrate.com, joined Cheddar News to discuss setting up a budget if attending multiple ceremonies.</div>

Closing Bell

Stretching Your Dollar: Budget-Friendly Ideas for Wedding Guests

Time. Now for stretching your dollar where we give you tangible tips to help you make the most of your money. Today, we're discussing our favorite time of the year. That's wedding season. Of course, it's an exciting time for those involved, but it does come with a lot of costs, especially amid this inflationary environment. Most couples spend every second planning, stressing about finances, worrying about the guest list and the whole experience really can just be overwhelming. Well, for guests, it's not as stressful, but they do have to make their own plans and it does come with, with expenses too like travel outfits, things of that nature. So joining me now is Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at bank great dot com. Ted I'm happy that you're joining me to talk wedding season and you always have the experts on how to save money. What is the best way to approach this? First of all, I think it's really important to set a budget. A lot of people, especially if you're in your twenties or thirties, you may be attending multiple weddings this year. I talked to somebody recently who's attending eight weddings. Now that's a fun problem to have, but a big time commitment and a big cost too. So start out by sketching that budget. What can you afford? Remember that there could be a lot of extra cost too. It's not just the gift you might be asked to travel for the wedding. Maybe there's also a destination bachelor, bachelorette party or maybe there's a bridal shower. I mean, these things can kind of snowball. So it's important to think about what you might be spending this year. So I see a recent poll says 62% of wedding guests, right. We're focusing on the guests today have financial concerns. 62%. Does that number surprise you? I think it makes sense if anything, I would think it could be even higher just because inflation is squeezing everybody. We're facing higher costs in our day to day lives. But also when it pertains to attending a wedding, you know, especially if you're traveling. Airline costs are up 30% over the past couple of years. Hotel costs are about 25% higher than they were two years ago. It's those destination weddings in particular that have gotten really pricey, I would say. And a lot of times too, like I said, there may be a destination Bachelor or Bachelorette party on top of it. Of course, you know, breaking the news to a newlywed couple is hard if you can't actually financially make it work. But of course, I think that you would say it's the right thing to do, right? You don't want to rack up a bunch of debt rather probably best, just to be honest with that couple that's inviting you. Is that the case? Yeah, I think sometimes it does make sense to decline now. Certainly you don't want to hurt the relationship. So you probably need to weigh how to break the news or how close you are to that person. I would also say that maybe there are some ways to save money and still attend. Like could you cash in some credit card points or airline miles and get some free travel or maybe use the sharing economy to your advantage? Like could you and some friends split an airbnb as opposed to all getting individual hotel rooms that might be cheaper. Could you rent your retire instead of buying something brand new? There are some ways to save but yeah, sometimes it just doesn't fit in the budget or you can't get the time off. Hopefully you can gracefully bow out without hurting the relationship if you need to do so. Yeah, and I see here that travel and accommodations for a wedding guest on average $287. That is pretty pricey. If that is what you're paying, maybe you're paying more or less any sort of guidelines ted on what you should be spending on a gift for the newlyweds. I think a lot of this is highly variable. We found that the average wedding gift costs about 100 and $80. Um But that said, you know, your budget may be different, your relationship with the couple. We are hearing more about no gift weddings, which I think is an interesting trend that feels especially common among destination weddings because there's this knowledge that you've paid to travel to be there. Also, as people get married later, maybe they're more established and they don't need all the traditional kitchen. Do dads that people put on their registries. So that's a trend we're seeing. But generally speaking, the average is about 200 bucks for a gift. Wow, that is that, I'm surprised it's that high too. But I know you said it can be variable with a lot of factors at play. Ok? Anything that you should not be spending money on ted things that people should avoid wedding guests in the, I would try to avoid credit card debt if at all possible. I know it may be easier said than done, but the average credit card charges about 20.4%. That's an all time record. So I definitely worry about financing this on a credit card. I think it's a much better choice to budget ahead of time. Maybe have money set aside from every paycheck that goes into a wedding fund. Maybe also use those rewards points and miles um unused gift cards. That's another possible source of found money. Our research shows that half of Americans have unused gift cards. The average value is 100 and 75 bucks. So that could actually be your gift right there. Ok. What about giving cash ted as a present? If something on the registry is out of your price range, maybe it's $200 or even more or you waited too long to actually purchase a cheaper item on that registry. What about giving cash? Do you think that that is something you would advise? I feel like that is on the rise. You know, some of it may be generational. Uh I think some of that is because people are getting married later and they maybe don't need as many physical items because they're already running a household. But, you know, they love some money to put towards the cost of the wedding itself or travel experiences, the honeymoon. I mean, a lot of young adults love experiences. So I actually think that's a really nice wedding gift. Sometimes there are services that you can even earmark certain activities like, you know, you find a dinner out on the honeymoon or some kind of excursion like, you know, if they're going to Costa Rica, maybe you can pay for a afternoon of zip lining or, or something like that. Um Experiences are big among young adults. All right, Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at bankrate dot com. Always giving us the tips on how to save money. Uh Ted Thank you.