Breaking Even Communications
Breaking Even Communications (BEC) is an internet marketing and website content creation company location in Bar Harbor, Maine. The Breaking Even Blog is a blog about marketing and Maine.
A few weeks ago, I had a friend visiting for the week. The last day of his visit, Phil told me he had a surprise for me. “Don’t make any plans for 3 o’clock today.” he said cryptically. Needless to say, I was pretty curious.
When we pulled up to the Bar Harbor Spa, I got excited. Clearly I was in for a treat, and something I would never buy myself in a million years.
“We’re getting manicures.” he said. Fun!
What I didn’t expect was for people to actually notice it, and treat me differently.
They say you don’t know what you have until it’s gone, and boy, is that true. Especially when it comes to cute and functional footwear.
At the end of the sailing expedition this past weekend, I was walking down the ladder to get onto the dingy when my flip flop flopped off into Somes Sound. My friend motored over to rescue it but ran it over in the process. It disappeared into the dark waters. I hobbled onshore with my one shoe.
“I hope they weren’t expensive.” he said.
Now as a personal finance blogger and otherwise practical person, I don’t have $100 flip flops. Maybe if I lived somewhere where it didn’t snow nine months of the year, I’d invest, but otherwise, I like my summer shoes like I like my entertainment: cheap and fun.
I’ve always wanted to do a series about inexpensive but great weddings and since it’s a busy end of the week, I thought you’d appreciate getting to know a few more cool people. The following three days will feature three couples and how they had the day of their dreams without sticker shock.
The Happy Couple: Sean and Stacy
Location of Wedding: Popham Beach (Phippsburg, ME)
Date: October 11, 2003
Total Cost of Wedding: $9000 (eek!)
$150 ceremony
$2000 Maine Maritime Museum (reception)
$2000 plated meal
$1000 open bar
$500 band
$200 flowers
$75 car
$3000 honeymoon
Tell us about your wedding day. (How many people were there, what was the ceremony like, overall impressions, etc.)
The ceremony was at Popham Beach on a beautiful, unusually warm fall day in the late afternoon. It was a pretty informal setting – our friend officiating, the ceremony area was delineated from the rest of the beach with stones and seaweed, and we had to shout our vows to be heard over the ocean.
The ceremony itself was non-demonational and we drew from Native American readings and wedding blessings. Within minutes of the ceremony being over, a huge fog bank swept over the beach! So we have some pictures pre-fog and some in the fog.
I’ve always wanted to do a series about inexpensive but great weddings and since it’s a busy end of the week, I thought you’d appreciate getting to know a few more cool people. The following three days will feature three couples and how they had the day of their dreams without sticker shock.
A special thank you to my friend Ally for putting me in touch with this couple. They seem like fantastic people who know how to throw a wedding!
Name of Happy Couple: Paul and Tobyn
Location of Wedding: Ceremony-Old, out of use UU church in Westbrook Maine, Reception-The backyard of our apartment in Westbrook Maine
Date: July 9th, 2009
Total Cost of Wedding: Including rings our total cost was around $5,000, without the rings it was around $3,300
What are some of the ways you saved money?
We saved money in almost every thing we did just by planning the type of wedding that we did. With this said, I have gone through our wedding step by step below. I have found the easiest way to portray what we did is by breaking it up into its various components to give a small taste of what the wedding itself was like as well as the planning.
I’ve been saying goodbye this week to one of my friends who is moving to Saint Louis for graduate school.
Sarah is my friend from North Carolina who for the last nine months has lived down the street from me. She has taught me a lot about being a southern girl and the other day at Bar Island, I learned about a great tip from her Aunt Georgia.
Aunt Georgia is an aunt who understands. (Mine happened to be named Aunt Peg.) Think of Aunt Georgia as the one who makes you coke floats and lets you stay up past your bedtime watching some inappropriate movie when you stay at her house.
Aunt Georgia understands, which is why she is also the aunt who will take you for a bra fitting at a nice department store.
Writing about underwear on the blog, yes, I can’t believe I’m doing it. But think of undergarments as architecture. If the foundation of a building is not good, how does that bode for the building?
Here’s a few compelling reasons why it’s worth getting your butt to a department or lingerie store for a proper fit:
My aunt has been the keeper of a lot of my grandmother’s and great grandmother’s jewelry.
My great grandmother liked the flashy costume stuff, my grandmother prefered the earthy or antique-y things as a general rule. Some pieces are easy to attibute to one woman or the other but others are a little more difficult.
Recently, my aunt cleaned out her collection and via my mother passed on some things to me.
It was perfect timing, since I have been feeling the urge to buy new clothes but having neither the money to buy them or place to put them.
We’re also on ….