Wazzup?
If y’all want to meet my crew, now you can. These are the guys who have made the show what it is (except for the directors and editors who play a huge roll but aren’t here. I’ll add stuff about directors and editors another time.) These guys work together like a finely oiled machine AND they make me laugh a lot. I love to laugh, and they are great at keeping the energy high on set. If anybody tries to steal them from me, you’ll know the Wrath of Gail! The other thing I’m working on for the site is a piece for people planning to marry. This came out of a question I received from a mom who wanted to buy a consultation with her soon-to-be-married daughter. Sorry, I can’t swing that, but I hope what I’m creating really helps. Would y’all like me to include a piece on budgeting for the wedding itself?
December 19th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Yes. I have a 20 year old with a serious relationship. My 23 year old is married. The wedding, and it’s costs, was a major struggle for everyone involved.
December 28th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Jean, I can empathize with your stress. My fiancee and I were about to fall into the wedding trap…paying tens of thousands of dollars for a one day ceremony and reception. Our conservative estimates were to have been $22000! We shook our heads and got real. Why are we spending this amount of money to celebrate our love for each other? The answer was simple…to satisfy others expectations. This was the turn around for us.
With our current debtload, we couldn’t afford it. We have decided to get married down in the Carribean for a fraction of the cost. Sure our respective families cannot make it, but our parents and siblings can! If your 20 yr old is considering tying the knot, suggest to him/her that by getting married in “off season” you can save thousands and have your wedding one day and your honeymoon the next with little to no people on the beaches or at the amenities you want to enjoy!
Sure, most people will say “What’s the point of travelling down South” when it’s nice in Canada, but I say its the only way to save yourself from a lifetime of debt repayments!
Another piece of advice for all you newly engaged Gail-ites is to consult neighbourhood seamstresses, tailors or wedding gown makers. A Justina Caffrey dress can cost thousands of dollars so it can sit in a closet and be obsolete in a year. Get one made and fitted for $500 or even less and you can take that additional dough and put it towards a downpayment on a home or invest it in a one year CIC for your kids as a nest egg for the future.
In our case, my parents are graciously donating $5000 towards the cost of our wedding. My fiancée’s dress is about $114 taxes included. It’s a “destination dress” which is made of lightweight and simple cloth so that it won’t get dirtied on the sand. The cost of our vacation package down to the Mayan Riviera is $1300/person + $1000 for the wedding package (honeymoon suite, ceremony, minister, meal for family). Our rings are $800 taxes inc. So for approximately $5000 taxes inc. all is taken care of! The money we would have spent on a ceremony in Canada would have been $22000 + $2600 for the honeymoon. That’s a difference of approximately $20000!
One last nugget of advice: Ask your child…are you having this ceremony to celebrate the love you two share OR are you fulfilling a fantasy? If they say “I always dreamed of…”, then its a fantasy and those are the most dangerous of all dreams…because they can never be truly realized!