Wedding Planner to the Uber Rich (w/ Stef Cove)

"Some evil thing happened here, I mean, happened here." Three people die in a quiet suburb in Mississauga, Canada. It's not a coincidence. One after the other, in the same house. Is this bad luck or something more sinister? The worst investigative mess I've ever encountered. Long simmering, what took you so fucking long to get here. From Sony Music Entertainment, this is what happened to the Harrison's. I'm Amy Dempsey-Raven. What happened to the Harrison's is available now on the binge. Search for it wherever you get your podcasts to start listening today. Subscribers to the binge can listen to all episodes, all at once, add free. Hello, it's Elizabeth Day from How To Fail Here. My next guest is the pioneering British fashion designer, renowned for his signature classic with a twist aesthetic. Sir Paul Smith. They say, "Oh, Paul's job, yes. Head of happiness." That's my job. I do close as well. Listen to How To Fail, wherever you get your podcasts. But if you are going to bring in Elton John, I'm not going to take a commission on him, but I am going to take a commission on that little piano getting in. Because that's a lot of time and effort, and it's not easy. This is Financial Tea. What's up, Sippers? Welcome back to Financial Tea, the podcast where I teach you how to build wealth by the side of a market drama, money scandals, and of course, financial pop culture. Today, you are in for a treat. I have staff cove here. She is an elite wedding planner to the Uber Rich. She's a dear friend of mine. And we are so lucky to have her on the Financial Tea podcast right as we are starting wedding season to give us the tea on wedding finances of the super rich and also just of normal people. So, staff, welcome to the Financial Tea. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. We're going to have the best time. But first, let's get into the MDJ market report. Okay, what's up, Sippers? Welcome back to the MDJ market report. This is a Taylor Swift wedding themed edition. I've got three spicy hot stories just for you. The first is about prediction markets, because $2 million has been wegered so far just on Taylor Swift's wedding on Kalshi. People are putting so much money trying to predict what is going to happen this weekend. My prediction is that they are going to do a smaller ceremony, like a really intimate ceremony, maybe the night before. And then they're going to have a huge party with so many people, and that's going to be like a full concert and crazy. There's also all these predictions about like who's going to be her bridesmaids. There's like 92% on the red head named Abigail being her bridesmaid, which is like duh, that's the easiest wager I've ever made. And then there's all these bets about if Blake Lively will be there. Like 75% of people think that she won't be there. I think she definitely will be there. Because I don't think that Taylor would have written a song like with the lyrics being like good things I like. My friends canceled if she was very serious about actually never being friendsably lively again. But as you can see from like me just having fun talking about this, like it is really fun to predict things. And now that we have these prediction markets, you can actually put money behind the bets, which is very dangerous. And obviously not something as a financial expert that I condone, like do not use prediction markets. But I will say like I understand why the Taylor Swift wedding prediction market is popping off so much though, because she has basically trained us to be predictors as Swifties for her whole career. Like her whole career is based off of Easter eggs and what color is her nail polish? And did she change that lyric on purpose? And she's had us read into her career moves and her life this entire time. And so it's just crazy now that you can like actually put money behind it. But also you guys are too smart for that. And I will just say like all of the data shows that you will lose money if you do the prediction apps. They're definitely evil and not something that you want to be using. But also it is fun to make predictions about the wedding. And I hope the mind come true. Okay, our next story is about Taylor Swift's pre-nap, which is obviously ironclad. From what I've read, nothing official has been released. Her dad orchestrated the whole thing. And the terms and conditions are basically like she keeps everything. Everything is really separate. All of the assets are separate. Her name, her business, everything she's built. What I like the most about this is that it sounds like Travis just signed it without really like no questions asked. And I just love the idea that like a pre-nap is normalized. And also that we have so many women getting married right now who are richer than the man. We've got Taylor Swift walking down the aisle. We've got Do Lipa. Like these are rich self-made women. And I love that they are in these amazing relationships. But also are smart enough financially to know that you have to protect yourself. And you have to protect what you built. And that goes for even people who don't have $2 billion. You should also get a pre-nap. And the reason that I say this is yes, you want to protect your 401k and anything that you're going in with. But also because it is a moment for you to be super transparent about your finances before you walk down the aisle. Which you guys would be shocked at how few people do. So yeah, I just think with pre-naps it's like what you built is worth protecting at every level. Which brings me to my third and most important story today. And it has a little bit of advice for Taylor, but also for you. And for me, which is do not change your last name if you get married. And this really applies like every woman listening to this podcast right now. This is very serious. There is this bill in Washington right now called the Save Act. And on paper, it sounds really simple like it just requires proof of citizenship to register to vote. But the fine print around it is a bureaucratic nightmare that is basically designed to squeeze women. Because under this act, a standard driver's license or real ID will not cut it in most states if you want to vote. You would have to prove your citizenship in person using a passport or a birth certificate. An estimated 69 million American women have a birth certificate that doesn't match their current legal name because they took their husband's name. So like if your birth certificate says one name and your ID says another, a driver's license isn't going to cut it. You're going to have to track down your marriage licenses. You're going to have to pay legal fees. You're going to have to jump through all of these bureaucratic hoops just to keep your ability to vote. Which is so scary. So this is a huge tax on getting married. And it is being paid almost entirely by women. And it is a really good reason to not change your last name. I feel like I'm in hand meets tell us I talk about this, but I just want you to know because it's scary. What's also crazy is that Trump just canceled assigning ceremony for this bipartisan housing affordability act. Which like would have been amazing because obviously as Jen's even millennials, we can't afford houses. This would have helped with that. But he's holding that bill hostage until Senate passes the Save Act. We're basically getting hit twice. Like this housing bill that would have made it way cheaper for us to own single family homes is staying blocked until the voter bill passes to unlock it. So our rights have never felt more perilous and I know that having money will fix this like very broken political system. But I will say that financial power does give you autonomy when the rules try to squeeze you out. So please protect your name, protect your assets. These are your ultimate leverage. Don't ever give them up. Love is amazing. It's so great to make a family with someone and build a life. But we also have to be smart about that and protect ourselves. Let's get into our amazing conversation with Steph Cove, the richest wedding planner of all time. Like this woman really is operating on another planet. She is so talented. She does the most incredible weddings and she gave us a lot of tea on the industry and how to just rocket this wedding season. So let's jump in. I like to always start the show with some rapid fire question. So first of all, what gives you the financial? And these can be wedding flavored. So what gives you the wedding financial? When I walk into a wedding that just looks like overspent money. I saw one yesterday. An Instagram. Well, my parents were at it. And it was like there was no taste, but there was so much money. Just stuff everywhere. Yeah, like so many flowers. Like the limit does exist. That gives me the. What do you think are the best and worst purchase that people can make on a wedding? I think entertainment is one of the best. Oh, really? Like a great band. Yes. I think music is so important to a wedding. And I think you know, overdoing it with like the activity is so much like cheesy custom stuff. Yeah. Is the worst. When I was going to about mitzvahs, there were so many activities. station or hats, you know, being embroidered. - We don't need hats being embroidered. - No, we're adults. - Yes. - So just to orient our listeners, can you tell us a little bit about your business, the kind of weddings that you do, like what's the range of budget for the kind of weddings that you plan? - So we do high-end, full planning, full design, full production. So we literally do every little thing that our clients need. In regards to range, you know, it really depends what they're wanting to do. I haven't seen a wedding under a million dollars in a long while, but we're also doing a lot of buildouts and making tents in the middle of fields and flooring in, you know, next to the ocean and things like that. So we're not just talking ballrooms. - What's the most that anyone's ever spent on a wedding with you? I'm not going to answer that, but I will say 10 plus. How did you allocate that budget? - You know, it's less about it feeling over the top and when, you know, we do those kind of weddings, it's not that anyone would even notice that. It's more about the experience and making sure there's what those guests need. If you're not in a structure, you need bathrooms, you need flooring, you need power, you need, you know, restrooms everywhere. So weddings can add up in different ways, I think, you know, what matters to me is less how much money they're spending, but more that what we're spending is on things like the experience and like making it tasteful and understated and not feeling like a production, even though obviously to do these things, it is a production. - I've seen you on action, like you have a little headset, like you've got like boots on the ground, like you know what's happening, but it's like you make it feel very effortless. - Which is exactly what I want. - Yeah, so your whole thing is like tasteful elegant. So you're planning all these weddings, they're a big budget. How much of that budget do you profit? - So we charge a fee. - It's 20% of the overall budget, which is pretty standard. I think these days at this level and like is it increasing every year? - It is not increasing every year because we only take on so much. How many weddings do you do per year? - It depends on where they are because each wedding comes with about three trips to wherever we're going. - Wow. - You get to put them on your credit card, so you get the points. - We do, you know, it depends on the clients. Sometimes they have a credit card for us, a lot of times we do it. It's just not as messy for them and saves them time. - Do you get to fly first class? - You know, in my contract, I do, but that's it currently. - So what are like the most popular destinations to get married? - I always think Italy is popular. France is popular. We sometimes have a lot of Caribbean. - Ooh, I love the Caribbean. - Yeah, like Bahamas and Mexico. We've done a lot in. You know, hopefully we'll expand to some other countries, but we do work in Europe quite a bit. - I love that. And so why don't you have a budget, like, you know, $2 million, what's the breakdown? Like what are the different costs we're looking at? You're talking about all these buildouts and things. So like, can you break down the pie? Like, what are the biggest costs? - So let's say you're having a 200 person wedding. Is that normal? - Yeah, I mean, our sweet spot, and like, I love when we get to do like a 50 person wedding, but most of the time we're doing like 200 to 350. So let's say we have a 200 person wedding, five star hotel. You're gonna spend at least 200K on food and beverage, site rental fees, okay? That's before doing anything. - Yeah. - Then, you know, you're probably gonna spend about 100K on florals if you're gonna do like the ceremony, the cocktails, the dinner for 200 people, and all the other miscellaneous things. And flowers are expensive right now. And they have been since COVID. Then you're gonna spend at least 50,000 unlighting power generators, even if you're out of venue, you sometimes have to add power. You're gonna spend probably at least 40K on sound, at least 50K on your dinner van. 10K on, you know, strings and cocktail music. - Strings, that'll get you. - That'll show up the teleplayers. Mark, I was wrong there. - Paper items, this sounds crazy, but let's say you do save the dates, invitations, the day of paper, like the welcome notes, the map, the escorco, you know, printed for all the people you're inviting, which is more than 200K. I mean, that might be $50,000. - Yeah. - Then you have photo, which great photographers can be anywhere between 35,000 and 100,000. - Well. - Video. And no one ever watches their wedding video by the way. - Yeah, probably like themselves, maybe once, every few years. And there's some really great videos out there with like real film and stuff, but it's expensive. So I'd say anywhere from 25 to 50,000, let's say, to be reasonable. Then you have rentals because nobody wants the hotel plates, classware, flatware, et cetera. So let's just say $75,000 for rentals. Then let's say welcome gifts. 'Cause everyone wants to give welcome gifts, even if you don't go crazy and you do something super simple, it's still $10,000. Then you have fabrication. So you don't have to have crazy fabrication if you're doing it in a venue, but I'm pretty sure you're gonna want like, you know, a stage facade, some bars that are kind of special. So let's say 60,000 there. And then you're gonna have a dance floor. Oh, 6,000, 109,000, depending. That's a good deal. I know. That's a good deal. That's a good deal. And then add all that up. You're probably close to a million dollars. Then you have your planner. That's you. Then you have labor, which for this, you know, if this was a local wedding out of venue, maybe 40,000, but some of these destinations are way more, but that makes the whole difference. And then you have to have some money aside for gratuities. Yeah, how much are you supposed to tip? I usually do it based on the wedding. And like what, you know, the client's most comfortable with, but let's say on this $1 million wedding, it's somewhere between 10 and 20 that you give out to people that really deserve it. Do you help your clients with the tips? Yeah. 'Cause that's a lot of effort like on the wedding. But sure, yeah. I mean, our clients shouldn't have to do anything, but worry about getting dressed and like family stuff that I can't fix. Which I'm having with the whole thing. You're right. I think you did try to fix it. Sometimes don't, you know, sometimes it's fixable. But yeah, that, it goes so fast. And like that's without even thinking about, okay, we need to put a floor and an uneven ground in a field, a tent. Then we need to make the tent look nice and like it's not a tent because that's what most people ask for. And then all the things that go into that, you have to build a stage, you have to build bars, et cetera. So you can see why these weddings can become super pricey. I mean, oh, I forgot to even put shuttles. Let's say one night of shuttles, $20,000. You know, if you have to get them to the venue. So it all adds up. And you are dealing with really rich people and they're taking their gas to destinations. Do you think that they should pay for the rooms? No. I think that everybody has a budget, no matter who they are. I think it's very generous on those occasions when they do that. What percent of people do you think do that? That's always a thing where people are like, if I'm going to the destination wedding, do I have to get them a gift and like it's crazy that they're not paying for the rooms? I think it's okay that you're paying for the room. I do too. I think that, you know, people put so much cost into these few days and give you a great experience and no one's really paying for anything that getting there and paying for the rooms is okay. Yeah. If the rooms were $10,000 a night-- Have you seen that? No, but I don't-- What's like the most expensive hotel you've done? Well, I see a lot of hotel rooms in general. I mean, it's crazy, right? Like in Europe, the nice hotels, they're all 3,000 plus a night. Everything's so expensive, even in California. But I think there's a certain point that you really have to think about your guests and like, is this okay to ask or not? What are like the most common financial questions that you got because there's a whole decorum to throwing a party, throwing a wedding where you want to come up as generous. But it's all-- you're also trying to figure out where the line is. Yeah, and we talk about this stuff a lot. I'm really big on talking about it in the beginning, which some people don't like because it's an uncomfortable conversation. But one, you know, I'm definitely a woman of her word. And I don't want to go into something without giving you an idea of what it's going to cost because then you're going to get a big bill later. And then we're not going to like each other. And I'm not down with that. Yeah. Some evil thing happened here. Three people die in a quiet suburb in Mississauga, Canada. One after the other in the same house. A long simmering, what took you so fucking long to get here. From Sony Music Entertainment, this is "What Happened to the Harrison's?" I'm Amy Dempsey-Raven. "What Happened to the Harrison's is available now on The Binge." Search for it wherever you get your podcasts to start listening today. When you put your body in the hands of a surgeon, you assume your doctor will do you no harm. I'm looking at the surgery board for tomorrow. These people are fucking crooked doctors have launched their most ambitious fraud yet worth over one billion dollars. One doctor says my kickback was 25,000 and the other doctors go and why only got 12,000. From Sony Music Entertainment and Western Sound, this is Dr. Billions. Coming October 1st to The Binge, listen wherever you get your podcasts. It's also crazy that the bride's budget for closing is not included in this because it's definitely always at least a million dollars. It's crazy. I mean, I didn't have it in my budget because. It's so much. The bridal stylist and the hair and makeup, that I feel doubles it to begin with because every dress, everything that you get for a wedding is three ex-surprise. You're going to buy a flower at the store. Maybe the same flower. They're going to sell you for a wedding for like so much more and even hair and makeup. It's the same hair and makeup because they're doing it on your wedding day, they're going to make it. They're going to mark it up. What is that about? The wedding industry is so crazy. It is really crazy. Yeah. That amount of clothing and purses and shoes and it's all one time use, which kills me too, where it's like you are buying and people are so obsessed with like, I got to keep the dress for like my daughter, and I'm like, is your daughter really, your daughter is going to want her own dress? What's the most expensive wedding dress that you've ever like had a bride wear? Well, when you get into like custom couture, it's in the hundreds of thousands. What? Yeah. Hundreds of thousands? Yeah. That's. Do you really look that much better? I think it depends how much fashion means to you, you know? Yes. And like, you have to fly over to Paris a few times. It's not easy. Nothing good is. Yeah. It's true. But yeah, the biggest thing with weddings is priorities. You have to get your priorities straight and if your priority is fashion, like, put your money there. So something I think about a lot. I add someone right into my dear sugar mom, which is my, like, advice column. And it was a girl who was marrying into a wealthy family and the mother of the groom was paying for everything and was using money to control the wedding and like control the venue, control the choices, whatever. And she felt really stuck. And so I'm wondering, have you ever had a family try to use money to control the wedding? That must happen a lot. I'm paying for this. I can decide. Yeah. I've definitely seen that in my career and, you know, luckily now being a little older, like, I feel like that's something that I would step in on. Oh, I love that and help with. And I luckily, you know, my clients are great and I don't see that very much, but I have. Give us some examples. You know, I think that it's hard for someone who's marrying into a family and they're paying for everything to demand things. It's a really hard place to be in. I think what's really nice is if you're able to get everyone to agree to let the couple be kind of like the people talking to me. And then when there's like decisions and we really love this, we really love that, then they can go to the committee to get their answers. But it's all, you know, it represents them, not somebody else. And I feel like that's a really great way that I've worked with couples and their families to represent them. So you have to do like a lot of financial counseling. Yeah. I would call it probably therapy. Yeah. It sounds like it. Like you're in a really complicated place. Yeah. It is an interesting place because you're constantly kind of trying to keep everyone really happy. This is supposed to be really fun and not stressful. And I really don't believe in stressful wedding planning. So I think just having a relationship with all parties and like getting everyone excited about the same things really helps. So give us a little bit about your background, like how did you build this business and like, how did you build up to this high clientele? Because it makes a lot of sense for you from as a business perspective to just do more expensive weddings because you're getting a piece of something that's a bigger pie. But I started in, I grew up in Palm Beach, Florida and I worked with breakers, Fabulous in high school. I then went to hospitality school, but I minored in psychology, which was probably the most useful in what I do. And then, you know, after college, I went into restaurants. I did catering, I did events. I actually helped manage a restaurant at 23 because just had to happen. And I worked my butt off, but I also learned like a lot about respect from everyone was older than me. And then from there, I decided I wanted to go back towards events and I worked at the little Nell and Aspen, did a lot of events. I eventually moved to LA. I worked with another event planner for about eight years. We did a lot of celebrity and bigger weddings and then eventually I went out on my own. And I just sort of developed my own group of clients, many of which, you know, were on the East Coast for whatever reason. And from there, it's just, you know, kind of everyone knows each other. And it's just been great because I feel like all of our clients know each other, they can get references on us from each other, we've met at weddings. We obviously still have clients in LA and then we have miscellaneous clients that call from all over the world. Who do you think are the hardest clients though, like self-made people, old money, people, celebrities, athletes, influencers? I'll have to say, I mean, I feel like you'll find this interesting when I, you know, started my own business and a lot of the people calling me were Wall Street finance. And imagine having to explain to dads, there's a lot of Wall Street fathers in your world. Why me charging 20% was fair and why it just didn't mean I would pick everything most expensive so I would make more amount. Oh, yeah, how do you respond to that? I used to be so nervous, but the truth is it's not about like, that's why we have a budget we're working from because I'm not going to want to go over it. I want to like maintain the budget. It's for the amount of time and hours we put into this, which if you divided, would be nothing, you know, with the amount of hours. And like, that's what I would have to tell them over and over again, because I'm not going to pick the more expensive floors because that I'm probably not going to make the budget that I'm trying to keep you on. But if you are going to bring in Elton John, I'm not going to, you know, take a commission on him, but I am going to take a commission on that little piano getting in because that's a lot of time and effort and, you know, not easy. So that was a really difficult part, just of building this career is I had to explain that over and over to people who were not down with the fee structure. And now I feel really proud that I can explain it without being nervous, but also I think it is fair. I think it is the most transparent. And you know, I also don't want to feel bad about the amount of work we're putting in. I want everyone to feel good. And I will say that to people now when they question the percentage, do you say no to a lot of people? Because I know when it's the wrong client for me, and I will say that, what makes someone the wrong client? Well, kind of like we talked about in the beginning, like if you want to have all that to forge ripping or dealing, like you spent a lot of money, there are wedding planners for that. Yeah. That's just a different vibe. And that's just not interesting to me to create. Like I want it to be something they're super proud of and people are like, wow, this is just beautiful. You're talking a lot about how involved that you get in people's like personal and familial lives doing this work. So how much of this job is being a therapist and like what are some of the common issues that you really see coming up? I would say 70% is. Wow. And I don't even know that it's just about problems. I mean, you're so close for a year or more sometimes with someone who you're really trusting a lot with. So you, you know, you, I'm never going to talk about people's finances. I'm not going to talk about the personal issues, you know, they feel comfortable. You know, I've been asked, I've been asked to help with a prenup. I've been asked to, after a wedding helped me. with a surrogate, obviously I'm not qualified for that. - That you knew how to get one? - Yeah, yeah. - But I think it's because of you as like a life-concierge, they're like, what can't, she play on the wedding, let's like, did she do the prenops? She'll do the surrogate. - It's really got them into preschool? - It's really funny. And once I had a client say-- - That's how you expand the business. - Right, I know. - Once I had a client say your job is very interesting. It's like you have to know everything. And every answer to every question about things that I don't even have to do with your, like with a wedding. And I'm like, I know, because people text and be like, where is the best place in Milan to have dinner tonight? You know? So it's an interesting thing 'cause for a year, you really can, you're the go-to. - Yeah. (bell dings) - Hello, it's Elizabeth Day from How To Fail Here. My next guest is the pioneering British fashion designer, renowned for his signature classic with a twist aesthetic, Sir Paul Smith. - They say, oh, Paul's job, yes, head of happiness. That's my job. - What a great job. - I do close as well. (laughs) - Listen to How To Fail, whatever you get your podcasts. - Hello, I'm Simon Mayo, and I'm Mark Kermod. What a great episode we have for you lined up, Mark. What are you doing on the latest take? It's a packed show. We have reviews of Heart of the Beast, Brad Pitt, and a dog, her private hell, the new film from Nick Winding Reffen, a ballman in the devil, a documentary about the worst film ever made, and sense and sensibility with our super special guest, gorgeous George McKay. Don't miss a single second of the latest take. - You're talking a lot about how close you are with these clients, and I told a few of your clients that you were coming here today, and it was just a resounding, oh my God, I love stuff. I can't believe you have to sit down there. They're so excited, but it is hard, 'cause you are so close to the couple, and then it's done, the wedding's over. So how do you cut off for less-in-contact post-wedding? I feel like that must be a pretty intense cliff for some people. Have you had to set boundaries? - I know that's the hardest part, is it's overall of a sudden, and I still have to talk to him about photos, video, some leftover things, but you go from speaking all the time to once every couple of weeks on text, and for a long time, I tried really hard. Every time I went to New York, I had to see every client. Drinks with so-and-so, breakfast with so-and-so, coffee, and it's exhausting, so I'm not as good at it anymore, and obviously there's been more clients, but I still try really hard to see people when I go back. I've never had to make boundaries with a client, but many of them have said I should start a business about post-wedding depression with your planner. - Okay, so now let's talk about the wedding industry, because it is worth $1.3 trillion. It has obviously blown up, and I think social media has a lot to do with that. And so, how do you think expectations have changed when people are seeing these multimillion-dollar weddings sort of normalized on mine? Like honestly, the ones that you plan, staff, you are part of the problem. So you're setting the bar high for the rest of us, 'cause we're seeing your gorgeous moments, and obviously you're not doing it for social media, but it's like, it is crazy. People are going to debt for weddings, they're going to debt for bachelor's, it's like all that's keeping up with the Jones's bullshit. - Yeah, I often wonder how people are going on on these bachelor's trips, destination weddings, gifts. It's a lot for young people in their two-gen events, and I do think it's great when people think about it, or try to combine weekends like a shower and a bad shirt. I definitely think social media has changed everything in the wedding business, whether that's for the better or worse. - 'Cause you started sort of before social media. It's like, what are some of the differences that you can speak to now? - Well, do you think the brides want more outfits? - Yeah, for sure. - Yeah. - The brides want more outfits. Just in the beginning of social media, I just remember we were so appalled because all these tables that were being shown, everything was fake, you know? People were setting up things to look like a wedding, but it was really just a table, and the things they were doing weren't possible in reality. But I do, I think it shows people all these things, and then they want to have that many dress changes, and they want to have, I just remember that wedding in Paris, that over-the-top camera was like all over the place, 'cause they had like a social media person. - Oh, the girl from Texas, who was like, it was a $59 million Paris wedding, and then the groom got a life in jail, because he assaulted police officers. That is so crazy. He was given probation, of course, but I mean, at $59 million, I don't know what they spent on. - Yeah, I never know what to think when people say that there was a $59 million wedding, or so and so got married, and it was $30 million. I mean, that's a lot of money to spend. It's like, what on? And so I think-- - Well, they must have paid for all the rooms, maybe all the flights, maybe even private planes. - They would definitely have to be private planes. - You're obviously, it's hard to get on your roster. You need a lot of money to get in. It's exclusive, you don't take everyone, and I'm sure I have a lot of people listening who are getting married, though, and wanna have a special wedding with, you know, self-cove-like touches. So, is there any silver bullet advice that you could give to our brides and grooms who might be getting married? Like, best practices day of, how to, are there any good budget hacks that you have for weddings? - Use your miles, you know? Use it for site visits, for flights, use it for hotels. Like, do that as much as you can. I would, I get so many calls where they're like, I wanna be outside, I want to have a tent. That is gonna cost you a lot more money. Look at other venues. - You're gonna have more of what you want if you look at the other venues, 'cause then you can do some of the other touches. - Oh, cool, so yeah, like tent is always expensive, so like, take a loss somewhere so that you can win other places. - Yes, yeah. - You can have everything but you can have some things. - Yes, exactly. Same thing is like, you know, a band is really great, but if you're not a huge band, person hire a really great DJ and use that money somewhere else. If you are a huge entertainment person, hire a really great band. - It don't skip a band, there's nothing else. - Don't skip. You know, I think again, sit down with your fiance and do priorities, what matters to you? Like, to me, it's entertainment, guest experience, and flow for my own wedding. And to someone else, it might be what everything looks like and also food and beverage was one of mine. And food and beverage you don't care about or paper items you don't care about. If you don't care about paper items, you know, do electronics save the date and invitation and spend more on what you do care about? - I don't understand the paper items. Like, I got a wedding invite and immediately in the trash. Yeah, I'm enjoying it for one second, but I'm like, you're saying people are spending 50 grand on these invitations. Like, send me a party full. Like, it'll go right in my eye cow. I'll know I'm going, you can have a cute website, but it's like, to me, that should be the first to go. - Yeah, and a lot of people choose that. - I mean, to me, it's being old school. I love the paper, the texture, the props. - Of course it's a thing, but I'm like the actual, I don't, I'm just gonna save every invite. - No, you can't. What are other budget hacks? - Other budget hacks. - Can we rent our outfits? - Yes. - Okay, rent outfits is a huge one. Rent your outfits, you know. Get things at like old vintage stores. People spend so much money on clothes. - It's so stupid. - It's just so much. And then, you know, do something with it afterwards. You probably aren't gonna wear it again. - Yeah. - Diet and wear it to something else, or like sell it or rent it or donate it. - Yeah, donate it to someone that really needs it. - Yeah, that's cool. I love that. - Me too. - What about with like hair and makeup and all that, 'cause it gets so expensive? - It does get expensive. I think, you know, I have gone to clients that have gotten less expensive hair and makeup stylist. And I've noticed they really do care about how they're gonna look that day. And I've said, I really think this is somewhere you should invest. Whereas there's other people that don't care or super like laid back. And that's where I feel like they should save there. I think it depends on the person. Because that is meltdown territory. - Yeah, I would meltdown. - Yeah. - If you don't look how you wanna look on your wedding day, that is like a very hard thing to make right at that moment before you walk down the aisle. And the last thing you want is someone crying because they feel like they're not looking how they want to on their wedding. - Oh, that would be shitty. - So I think it's good to invest there. - Okay, any other tips? Let's see what else. - Like what areas do you think it's fine for budger couples to cut back on? - I mean, I definitely think there's some great photographers out there that are not in the crazy range. And I think sometimes people get stuck on like, I have to have this or that. Like check out some young people in this business and like look for talent. That's something I always do across the board is look for young new people because it keeps it fresh and like it exists. - And can you share the craziest story you've had Planning a wedding? Does one come to mind? - We joke about this. because I have to like, literally go into my brain and pull it out because we must like, - You covered up. - Store things. - First of all, like at Max and Collins, the night for art, like the lighting guys like fucked up and I was like screaming at them at like two in the morning over at the villa and like in like a huge fight with like 12 French men and then like one of their girlfriends gone involved and I'm like, don't you get involved. It was crazy, but that's like normal. I've been told to fix the fucking lightning. That was in my younger years, I cried. I've covered a mountain with hay because the dirt wasn't the right color. - Is it doing it? - Neely has spent her evening under a wedding dress because it was so big. It had to be carried the whole time so she like lived under it. - How short is she? - I'm not short, it was big dress. - That's so invasive. - I mean, what if she farted? It would be like hotboxed in. - I mean, I probably don't. - I don't fart, I fart so far. - Can you talk to us about Taylor and Travis? Like what would you do if you were planning their wedding? Where do you think they're getting married? You are, you're at the ground in the wedding industry. Have you heard whispers? Like what's going on? - I think that they're probably getting married soon. They're getting married July 4th. - Yeah, that's what I've heard. - Do you think it's at the mat? That's what I heard. - I don't know. - I think they probably are working with someone that they really know well and trust. - Do they get to a wedding planner or like someone that works for them? - I think it could be a mix of both is what I think. And I hope one of my favorite things working with when I did more celebrity weddings is I wanted to be in the FBI originally. And I got to use some of that when we were keeping them on the DL. And I hope that whoever it is is able to, you know, to pull it off and that afterwards it can all come out and vogue or whatever so that they all get their moment of privacy. How would you go about planning that wedding? I would not tell anyone. Like I wouldn't even tell like most of my team. And for similar ones in the past, that's how I did it. And you just like do you tell your partner? - Probably, yes, that's probably the only person. But like you don't tell your friends, you don't tell your parents for the rest of the team, you would just say we're planning this a list wedding. - I'd kind of use different names and different details and not make a big deal out of it. - Yeah, you can't be like we're planning this wedding. - Treat it as much as like any other wedding until you have to get into like all the security parts and-- - Is that really what makes it different? - Yeah, I mean, I think this one, there's just been such a ruckus about it. Like I just, I worry it's gonna be just such a mess, a mess. Just like people are waiting like on July 4th, you know? - I don't know how it could not be. - Yeah, and I-- - But they also need a huge venue that is closed so it makes sense that it would be the matter something. But just weird to me that they would do it in New York. I feel like it's maybe they're like, trying to tell, make us think that they're doing it in New York, but really they're gonna do it. If I were them, I would do it on an island. Like I would do it somewhere where I fly everyone in and then it's like completely closed off in security and I control everything. - I have a feeling there's a lot of really brilliant people behind it and it will probably shock us all. And hopefully we'll just miss it until the next day and then everyone will know. - Okay, stepcove, thank you for being here. Queen of the wedding industry, giving us the best heat. Thank you for everything. - No, I love you. - I love you. - Can't wait 'til you have a wedding today. - I know, it's gonna be scary. - Back with your fam. - Oh my God, you had to do a lot of therapy for us. - I will say one thing about weddings is they sometimes do bring out different parts of people. Soon as the wedding's over, they come back. - Okay, good. - You are dealing with a monster, you're getting married, just know your person's gonna be back soon. - Yeah, it's still a lot of emotions. - It is, it is. Okay, we'll stay rich, Queen.