Attention shoppers, please bring your final purchases up to checkout, ‘cause this store is about to close forever. On behalf of everyone here at Cloud 9, I’d just like to say, BUH-BYE! Sorry, that shouldn’t be the last thing I say. Twenty years of announcements. I mean, I’m not a sentimental guy; that’s not my thing. But it did just occur to me that this is… this is the end. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s a job. I mean, if jobs were fun, they wouldn’t pay us to do it, but occasionally there were moments that weren’t so bad. Memories are the only things I can remember right now. You know, most jobs suck ninety-nine percent of the time, so you really… you really gotta enjoy those moments that don’t. Those bits of fun you have during downtime. Or an interesting conversation with a co-worker. Or something happens that you can laugh about later. Or you do something that you’re actually proud of. If you’re lucky, maybe you even get to be friends with a co-worker or two along the way. Not sure what else you could want at a job. At any rate, thank you for shopping with us. Cloud 9 is now closed.
Naya Rivera was a mom, a sister, a daughter. She was an actress, a singer, a writer, a model. She was a latina woman who went through a lot in this life. She was always vocal and open about important issues such as homophobia, racism, toxic relationships, sexism, motherhood, abortion. Her character in Glee was probably one of the most influential and important representations for the LGBTQ+ community and she always talked about how Santana was important for young LGBT people and how proud she was for being able to represent something good. If Santana ever helped you, Naya was so proud of that and of you. She changed lives.
Marriage is good and weddings are great but I hate modern wedding culture. You don’t need to bankrupt yourself to have a nice wedding. Stop supporting the wedding industry, stop buying outrageously priced engagement rings, stop spending 10k on a dress you’ll only ever wear once.
Coming from a professional event planner - weddings are egregiously expensive because companies openly raise prices at the word “wedding.”
Pro Tip - Never drop the word wedding while planning if you don’t need to. Most things can be for “an event you’re planning.” This obviously doesn’t include things like the venue, DJ (who needs specific wedding songs), and the wedding dress company if you’re going that route versus just buying a dress.
For my wedding I got “discounted” cupcakes, flowers, decor, bridesmaids dresses, groomsman attire, and invitations. I did this by either searching for things that aren’t marketed for weddings or not telling the companies I was working with it was for a wedding. Because honestly, most of the time they don’t need to know why you’re ordering.
These companies target people planning their weddings and markup everything the second “wedding” is said. And it’s said often because people assume the services change exponentially for weddings. They absolutely do not.
The best example are the cupcakes I had for my wedding. I used a designer cupcake store in town instead of spending $1000 on a wedding cake. If you place a large order of cupcakes with a cake tree for display - it costs about $150 for 100 (which is what I did). When you order their “wedding” package - the price raised to a $700 base for 100 cupcakes. The only other perk includes a “tasting.” Forget that. Our tasting was buying a few cupcakes in flavors we thought we’d like and picked three. It cost maybe $20.
What these companies do is scummy and targets people who don’t have information about the event industry.
I will yell it from the rooftops until people realize there’s a better way.
You absolutely don’t need to tell the reception venue when booking it that it’s a wedding. I’ve heard people get away with calling it a large family reunion, which, to be fair, is also what a wedding is.
