Why Do Weddings Have To Cost So Much?

Posted on July 1st, 2009 in General by Jeff Sargent

I just came from my friend Gary Simpson’s blog and he had pictures of his daughter’s wedding on it and it got me to thinking about my wedding long ago and how times have sure changed. This started out as a comment on his blog but the more I typed I said I should post this on my blog. So here we are.

Weddings are out of control these days. I don’t know how people can afford it.

You want to hear one of those “when I was a kid” stories. NO! Too Bad, I’m going to tell you anyway.

My wedding cost $50. Yep, that’s not a misprint. We had our dream wedding all planned way before we got married. We lived together for three and a half years before we got married so we had plenty of time to think about what we wanted our wedding to be like.

We said we wanted to buy a house first and get married in it right in front of the fireplace. Well, that’s exactly what we did 31 years ago. I asked the Minister from my church to come to my house and marry us and that’s where the $50 bucks went, to pay the Minister.

We just had family and a few close friends over then they all took us out to a local restaurant. That’s it.

Our honeymoon was a laugher.

We went about 70 miles to the ocean for two days and the one night we spent there we slept in the back of my pickup truck. At least I had a cap on the truck bed so we were protected from the elements. We didn’t mind because at the time we were avid campers as we both love the outdoors. I did have a mattress in the back of the truck and that’s what we used to sleep on when we went camping. It was quite comfy as a matter of fact. It was better than sleeping on the cold damp ground in sleeping bags.

I know, it sounds like one of Jeff Foxworthy’s redneck jokes. But I couldn’t get any time off from work(not even to get married)so we did this on the weekend.

That’s it. That was the extent of our wedding. Nothing fancy or expensive. Just lots of Love. That’s all we needed. Both my wife and I were raised to appreciate the little things in life and that you didn’t have to spend a ton of money to enjoy yourself.

That’s where things have changed in this world. Now a days these young kids seem to think their parents have thousands of dollars to spend on their weddings. I just pulled these numbers off the Internet so it’s not like I’m making this up. The average wedding in 2007 cost $27,490. In 2008 the price plummeted to $21,814 and it’s anticipated it will drop another 10 percent in 2009 during these tough economic times. Still, $21,814 for a wedding. Are you kidding me.

I think this is ludicrous. This doesn’t even include the cost for the honeymoon or engagement ring. I didn’t check on the cost of these two items but I’m guessing it’s between eight and ten thousand dollars. Add this to the wedding costs and you have a whopping $30,000.

That’s more than I paid for my first house. And that brings me to the point I’m trying to make. Especially with today’s economy don’t you think the brides could be less selfish and give up a few things to bring the cost down a little. Yes I said the brides, because let’s be honest here. Guys really don’t care. They just want to get married and really don’t care where.

If you want my opinion, and I don’t care if you do because I’m going to give it to you anyway, young couples could have a nice little back yard wedding or something similar for $5,000. That leaves $25,000 that could be used as a down payment on a new house. This is something that could last them the rest of their lives instead of having nothing to show for it accept an album full of wedding pictures.

I know so many people that have their kids live with them because they can’t even afford an apartment. I think that’s terrible. Where are our kids priorities and why should the parents be stuck paying the bill. There are more grandparents raising there grandchildren and they all say they love it and maybe they do but I still don’t agree with it.

Parents should be bringing up there own kids and not dumping them off on the grandparents. I don’t have any grandchildren but if I did I would love to have them visit but at least I could send them home when I wanted. I already raised a son and I don’t want to raise anymore.

I think I got off my point somewhere along the line here. As you can see this is a touchy subject for me.

Times have changed and people better start waking up. Parents can’t afford to pay for college AND a huge wedding for their kids. I know we all want the best for our kids but if you don’t have the money to afford these extravagant weddings then the kids need to show some restraint and scale down a little.

No, a lot.

OK, I’m done venting. I need to stop now as I could go one forever on this topic.

Let me know what your thoughts are on this subject.


til next time…

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“Newbies Nightmare” by Internet Marketing Coach Alex Jeffreys

Posted on June 20th, 2009 in Alex Jeffreys Students, Internet Marketing by Jeff Sargent

I was up late last night when the highly anticipated release of Alex Jeffreys latest ebook named Newbies Nightmare occurred. Believe me, all I wanted to do was to go to bed as I was so stinking tired.

But I knew this ebook was coming out and I wanted to read it as soon as I could. The Newbies Nightmare is a short 45 page ebook so I started reading it even though I could barely stay awake. I basically read the whole ebook with one eye closed but I couldn’t stop reading it until I finished. Yes it’s that good.

“The Newbies Nightmare - Advanced Strategies They Don’t Want You To Know”


Newbies Nightmare

Now you may be asking yourself, how did I know about the Newbies Nightmare before its release. Well let me tell you. I was one of those 99% of people trying to make money online that was failing miserably. I was in the same old rut that a lot of you may be in and that’s buying every new product that came out trying to find the one that was right for me.

That’s when I ran into my mentor who is the one and only Alex Jeffreys. I don’t remember how I heard about him, it was probably some email I got or something, but it doesn’t matter because shortly after I joined his first coaching program and that’s when everything started to change for me.

First and foremost, I stopped buying stuff because that’s what Alex told me to do. Just by doing that I felt as though I was making money because I wasn’t spending it anymore. More money in my pocket. Then I just sat back like a sponge and absorbed everything Alex said. Alex had a different way about him than most coaches (he doesn’t like to be called a guru). He’s genuine and I felt he spoke from the heart.

This is how he gained my trust and as you will see, trust is one of the most important things you need in this business to be successful.

The next thing I did was to actually start implementing the things that he was teaching us. It still amazes me today how many people buy stuff and just don’t do anything with it(used to be me). It’s kind of hard to make money online if you don’t get off your butt and do anything about it.

Well this was the turning point for me. Not only was I not spending money online anymore but I actually started to make money. It was almost like having two incomes.

My point is that everyone needs a mentor that has a proven track record and once you find that person you need to listen to what it is they have to say and DO SOMETHING about it. If you don’t have a mentor yet I highly recommend Alex Jeffreys.

Now as a student of his first coaching program I can tell you it was a fantastic journey and knowing Alex the way I do I can assure you that his second coaching program will be even better.

Well I’ve driveled long enough and I still haven’t told you how I knew about the Newbies Nightmare before its release. It’s simple, Alex told me. He told all his coaching students first. That’s one of the bennies you get for being one of his students.

So, if you want to read Alex’ new ebook the Newbies Nightmare (and I highly recommend you do), I suggest you go pick up a copy here ==> Newbies Nightmare

til next time…

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I’m Doing A Major Overhaul Of My Blog

Posted on June 19th, 2009 in General, Internet Marketing by Jeff Sargent

Hopefully this will be my last post using this theme. Not that I don’t like this theme it’s just that I’ve grown tired of it and I think it’s time for a change. This theme was actually a little hard to maintain. Some things just didn’t work right and I had to do too much coding to correct them. Hopefully I can spend less time coding and more time posting as this new theme is much easier to maintain. I’ve been pondering changing it for some time now but there just never seems to be enough time in the day.

I have been working on this new theme on my test blog and I really like it. I do all my testing there before I roll out anything new to make sure it works OK. I can thank my good friend Garry Parkes for turning me on to this theme. Although he didn’t exactly tell me about it I did read the link in the footer of his blog telling me who designed it. So I paid the site a visit and really liked what I saw. Sorry Garry, I’m not stealing from you and I will try not to make it look too much like yours.

I hope to have it changed around in the next couple days but it will still be a work in progress so if something doesn’t work right or doesn’t look right just give it a few days and come back and visit and hopefully I’ve fixed it.

So please feel free to leave comments on what you think of my new blog.

til next time…

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