tonigh tonight on "nightline," here comes the cash. even in tough times, couples are saying i do to big weddings. the party, the dress, the bling. how walking down the aisle has fueled a big bucks industry that appears to be recession-proof. bi biting back. an invasion is under way across america. millions of insects that feed on human blood. and they are really hard to kill. we join the battle against the bed bug.

and, extreme weather. historic flooding. devastating thunderstorms. and a record heat wave. mother nature's future is on full display. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," august 13th, 2010. >> thanks for joining us, everyone. well, it seemed like a throwback to the roaring '90s when the clintons spent more money on their daughter's wedding than most people do on their first house. but it turns out their impulse to blow out the budget on the big day is not the exception, it is the american rule. the numbers show that even as families forego cars, appliances and vacations, they continue to spend billions a year on big, fat beautiful weddings. and tonight, andrea canning takes us inside the "i do" industrial complex. the emotion. >> promise to always love you. >> reporter: the party. the dress. >> the train is what makes you a bride. the train and the veil. otherwise, you're just a girl in

a white pretty dress. >> how do you like this one? >> love it. >> reporter: and even in tough financial times, the big wedding hasn't gone away. >> had this whole vision of my wedding day in my head since i was a little girl, so -- >> just needed to fill in the blank next to you. >> yes, yes. and here's the blank. >> i'm the blink. >> reporter: kristen and alex gave themselves a budget. they're cutting themselves off at $75,000. >> i work at the gym part time as a fitness instructor, so my little gym checks that i get, we would put those in an envelope. >> reporter: it took them two years to save. all to make kristen's fairy tale come true. >> i kind of grew up during the princess diana era, where we saw her wedding on tv and the elaborateness of her wedding and elaborateness of her wedding and the dress. we're doing it once and we're doing it right and -- >> yeah, exactly the way we wanted it. >> reporter: they're not alone. when you add up those wedding essentials, catering and cakes,

flowers and photographers, americans spent $74 billion, just to say "i do" in the last year. >> do you like that? >> yes. >> reporter: from the moment they got engaged, kristen and alex realized their $75,000 would have to be stretched. first, kristen needed the princess diana dress. >> i've always dreamt of a huge dress. and a huge train. the bigger the better. >> reporter: but nothing, of course, compared to the cost of the florist. >> this price point if we add in a little bit of the green, it's going to be 150 and then without the green, it will be, like, 125. >> reporter: in tend, the flowers cost $4,500, all cash up front. in fact, in the course of just one day, they ran up quite the bill. from the photographer -- >> so, what are you looking for in terms of photographer? >> reporter: to the d.j. >> very quiet. >> to the nail is a loan. >> french tips and pet cures for

the bride, her mom and sister were relatively speaking, a steal. >> gorgeous. >> reporter: that day alone accounted for over $9,000 in expenses. >> it really has been like a third job. just -- i'm not getting paid for it. i'm paying for it. >> reporter: that's on top of $20,000 in jewelry. $1,100 for stationary. $1,500 for the videographer and don't forget the buoudoir photography. >> we really see that some couples are willing to cut it down to very few people. but they're not willing to kind of give up the event in its entirety. people don't just have lunch with their family for their wedding. they want to have an event. >> reporter: carly is the editor in chief of theknot.com. how are people paying for these

weddings with this bad economy 1234. >> they're staying engaged for longer, so, they have more time to save up the money they want to throw the party. they also are asking for them to pitch in, so the bride's parents and the groom's parents and the couple are all pitching in together. couple are all pitching in >> reporter: what they are not going back to is the days of the simple wedding. weddings now fuel entire industries, including tv shows like "bridezillas." >> figure it out yourself. >> reporter: wedding fashion. >> weddings are a huge business. it's largely unseen. $36 billion of that is spent on the wedding day itself, but there are all these surrounding industries. there's $7 billion in honeymoon travel. there's $12 billion in jewelry purchases. there's $12 billion in gifts. so it really drives a lot of the american company. >> reporter: with all kinds of retailers getting in on the act, like target ann taylor and j. crew. even wedding websites and

magazines are enormous business these days. >> my feeling is is that that is going to be great for the brides. right? more choice, more talent out there. you know, kind of competing with one another to provide an incredible service at, you know, at a reasonable price. >> reporter: and so the competition to win couples like kristen and alex, who were shelling out tens of thousands of dollars, is intense. >> it used to be that when you walked into, careful you don't say wedding when you walk into a flower shop. brides don't want to feel like they're the victim. they want to feel like they're in control, and they feel like they're spending important money that they have earned, they care about these days, they want to be taken very seriously about it. be taken very seriously about >> reporter: all to celebrate one big moment. >> kristen and alex, i now pronounce you. pronounce you. >> reporter: of course, the ceremony itself is the cheap part. after that three-hour photo

session, the train was still on -- >> getting lighter and lighter with every drink. >> reporter: and it was time to party. the hall. the open bar. dinner for 125. and, the cake. grand total? $20,000. >> she likes to go big. big or stay home. as she always said. >> reporter: who knew with so much bad news on the economy these days, from foreclosures to 401(k)s, it turns out one of the few things that remains recession proof is romance. >> it's how it will be until we're 127 sitting in the nursing home, feeding each other jell-o. it will be the best jell-o. >> it will be big jell-o. >> reporter: i'm andrea canning for "nightline" in new york. >> so glad we got her the "nightline" jell-o molds. all our best to the bride and groom and thanks to andrea canning. when we come back, we go inside the nationwide battle when we come back, we go inside the nationwide battle against bed bugs.

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[ whimper ] [ male announcer ] honey nut cheerios tastes great and its whole grain oats can help lower cholesterol. bee happy. bee healthy. sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite. that old fashioned wish is now more relevant than ever because decades after being exterminated to near extinction, bed bugs are back. and they're everywhere. and we're not talking about a couple moving dots on the linen, but entire buildings infested. couple moving dots on the linen, but entire buildings infested. so, why the sudden resurgence and what can you do? here's jeremy hubbard. >> reporter: smaller than than apple seed. resill yenlt as a cockroach. blood thirsty as a vampire. bed bugs are back. nationwide, with a vengeance. they're in ft. worth, texas, where in april, 200 people were permanently forced from this apartment building after a year-long bed bug battle. >> they itch and they get under your skin. >> the city housing authority spent a half million dollars to rid the building of the pests. it didn't work. >> reporter: they're in seattle, where bed bug calls are up some 70% to exterminators in the last two years. >> they want your blood and that's just that. >> reporter: and they're in new york city, where there were more than 31,000 bed bug complaints during the last year alone, including infestations at retailout lets, holdister and victoria's secret. stores that have since fixed the problem. >> about ten years ago, we would get one call, maybe, a year. now we get an average of about ten calls a day. >> reporter: the problem is so bad in new york city that on wednesday, the city council committed $500,000 for a staff dedicated to helping residents and business owners get rid of the pests. >> put it on your skin. >> reporter: it's here in new york city that the blood suckers are making a buffet of my forearm. >> you can see the blood coming into it. >> reporter: we're doing this on purpose. jeremy ecker will use these bugs as bait for the latest weapon in the war on the insects. meet cruiser. highly trained pugle, and his cohort, a beagle named freedom. they're working dogs trained to pick up a scent from bed bugs like the ones we just fed with my blood. find a bug, get a treat. >> the dogs only eat when they find bugs. >> good boy. >> reporter: ecker is part of a growing number of bed bug sniffing dog owners. he gets $350 a pop for every apartment and house his canines check for infestations. and they are very good at finding bugs. researchers say a well-trained dog is more than 95% accurate at discovers even one small bed bug in a home. cruiser came to this apartment in nearby yonkers, new york, and sure enough -- >> good boy. >> so, he alerts. you can let the dog sniff around. they are pace back and forth until they pick up on the scent. >> i couldn't believe that a little dog like that knew exactly where they were. okay. >> reporter: it's nina's bedroom that's infested. >> see, the arms, to down here. >> reporter: she showed us the tiny red bite marks covering her body. >> they hit anywhere. they don't have a preference. >> reporter: for nina and the millions of other bed bug victims nationwide, the question is, why now? the insects were all but eradicated a half century ago with the help of ddt, but ddt has since been banned in the u.s. over health, environmental and other fears. >> well, actually never were completely gone. they were probably in low populations in various cities. >> reporter: louis sorkin knows all about the insects. >> the populations were able to increase invisibly. >> reporter: new york's authority on the creatures keeps 3,000 of them jarred up in his office for research. >> full, full, full. actually getting more full. and here's one that hasn't fed yet. >> reporter: some can live a year without feasting on blood. and while they're not believed to transmit on disease, they do carry a stigma. >> that's one of the problems, possibly, contributing to why it came back. people were afraid to talk about it or didn't want to admit it. >> that theory of being dirty and stuff doesn't hold water anymore. >> reporter: that's not the case. >> it is not. >> reporter: at nina's -- >> we know that the dog is smelling bed bugs along the left side of the bed. >> okay, great. >> reporter: jeremy hands things over to ken and his extermination team. >> they're hitchhikers. anybody can get them. >> reporter: they're using an alternative to chemical treatments, or freezing the creatures. >> we're going to max this thing out. >> reporter: going to cook them? >> oh, yeah. they're going to cook. >> reporter: these guys are essentially turning nina's house into a dry sauna. >> reporte >> this is one of the toughest pests that we've seen. >> reporter: first, plastics and anything else that can melt are removed. then, heaters and blowers are brought in, and turned on, the windows covered in foil. the temperature, cranked up. >> these are probes. going to probe things throughout the apartment. just to make sure that we're getting temperatures everywhere throughout. >> reporter: over the next few hours, heat monitors and thermal imaging cameras gauge the heat. >> so, we're about 84 degrees, 83 degrees in there. got a long way to go. >> oh, yeah. >> reporter: as her place turns into an oven. >> 122 right over there. >> reporter: takes your breath away. >> it is hot. >> reporter: once it reaches around 120 degrees throughout and stays there for nearly two hours, all of the bed bugs should roast to death. you can see what happens in this time lapse. the heat stirs up the bugs, makes them hop around, and eventually dries out their bodies. bakes them, before they stop scurrying for good. they dry up. >> yes, exactly it. >> reporter: how hot is it in here? >> 134.1, 134.2. we really want to make sure that we exceed the temperatures to a point where we know, we've killed everything in the room. >> reporter: for nina, it is some relief. no more of this, huh? >> yeah. no more of these guys. >> reporter: but for cruiser and freedom, the work isn't finished. they're off to sniff out the enemy in the ongoing battle

>> reporter: and they're in new

stores that have since fixed the

>> they hit anywhere.

victims nationwide, the question u.s. over health, environmental

>> reporter: that's not the >> reporte

against these blood suckers. i'm jeremy hubbard for "nightline" in yaonkers, new york. >> and our thanks to jeremy york. >> and our thanks to jeremy hubbard for giving blood on that report there. and when we come back, this one's for the girls, and martina mcbride in tonight's "play list."

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with bill weir. >> even the slowest pickup truck in sharon, kansas, can drive through that town in about 30 seconds. but it was big enough to hold a shop that sold records and a young resident named martina mcbride. and that combination puts country music very much in debt to sharon, kansas. before she grew up to sell 16 million albums of her own, she spent a lot of time singing along to records from that shop. spent a lot of time singing along to records from that shop. just one of the inspirations revealed by martina mcbride in tonight's "play list." ♪ let freedom ring ♪ let the white dove sing >> i guess my career song would be "independence day." i wanted to record songs that meant something and that was a real specific goal for me. i just remember not wanting to record novelty songs or, what i call fluffy girl songs. to have a long career like this has been a blessing, and then to have a song that you still love to sing and that people love to hear. it was just huge for my career. ♪ crazy ♪ for thinking that my love >> i think every girl loves to sing "crazy." that was one that i always, you know, looked forward to singing. my dad is a farmer, and had a country band as a hobby. rehearsing in the living room with his band and teaching me songs, and we would sing in church and at different events. he would play guitar and i would sing. it was just always something that we did together. my little brother played guitar. my mom ran the soundboard. i'm really grateful that he included me. it could have been his thing that he went out and did by himself but by including the kids in it, it gave me a great start and a great outlook to perform. ♪ because it's a mad mad love >> i started listening to linda ronstadt. i was really excited when "mad love" came out. i came from a very small town in kansas, didn't really have a vocal teacher, nianything like that. we had a store that sold album. i got all of her albums. i would just sing with those records fred beginning to end, trying to memorize every new wanls and every note and, so, that was really my vocal lessons. ♪ all i'm asking ♪ is for a little respect when you come home ♪ >> aretha franklin is a huge -- i love her. when i was singing in a band after i moved to wichita when i was probably 19 or 20 years old i started sunging "respect." it was a local band. we played in a club five nights a week. lots of people would hear us and they would request that. there's just something about r her. she's just an open channel for music, and i love so much soul and passion when she sings. ♪ i got friends in low places ♪ where the whiskey drowns ♪ and the beer chases >> my husband and i moved to nashville in 1990. he got a job as garth's production manager and so a job opened up selling t-shirts and i took that job and did that for about eight months. when my record deal came through, garth offered me the opening spot on his tour the next year so i opened 77 shows for him. watching garth perform was, i mean, he's just such an amazing for forem performer. he is born to be on stage. and be with his audience. just from the time he hit the stage until he left the stage, he just gave it all he had and that made a big impression on me. ♪ somewhere over the rainbow >> eva cassidy's version of "over the rainbow" is just so beautiful. there's something about her voice, and the way she sings it that -- i just never get tired of it. since i can remember, i always sang and wanted to sing and loved to sing. there really never was a conscious choice to sing. it's just been -- it's just part of who i am. ♪ this one's for the girls ♪ who've ever had a broken heart ♪ ♪ who've wished upon a shooting star ♪ ♪ you're beautiful the way you are ♪ ♪ this one's for the girl

meant something and that was a rehearsing in the living room it was just always something

it could have been his thing start and a great outlook to

she's just an open channel for for forem performer.

there's something about her >> jimmy: tonight, our guests are melissa rycroft, we have music from saving abel, and ice

cube, the man, not the frozen block of water. "jimmy kimmel live" is next.