This year was a soul-crushing hellscape of a dumpster fire. For sanity’s sake, large chunks of it should be repressed as soon as possible.
The rolling crises did, however, have a clarifying effect on the political scene. Some players rose to meet the moment. Others sank, and there was no bottom. This sorting should be remembered, especially as many of these public eminences begin scurrying to rehabilitate their brands. Their 2020 achievements, such as they were, should be memorialized with superlatives that capture who they revealed themselves to be. Think high school yearbook distinctions, only with real-world implications.
Don’t look for President Trump on this list. In a class by himself, he was deemed ineligible for consideration. The competition would have been grossly unfair with such a dominant force. As for the rest of the swamp …
Most Committed Bootlicker Senator Lindsey Graham This was a hotly contested category, but at the end of the day, no one could outdo the South Carolina Republican.
Most Inauthentic Senator Kelly Loeffler Talk about a total makeover: The Georgia Republican, appointed to her seat last December, morphed from posh, moderate, mainstream suburban-mom bait to bomb-throwing, ball-cap-wearing, right-wing culture warrior faster than you can say “political opportunism.”
Class Clown Rudy Giuliani The early Trump years had already shifted Rudy’s identity from America’s Mayor to the president’s unhinged apparatchik. But 2020 was when he totally lost the thread, devolving into numerous cautionary tales and internet memes. There was his runny hair dye. (Or was it mascara?) The time he “tucked in his shirt” for Borat’s daughter. The Four Seasons Total Landscaping news conference held near a porn shop and a crematory. The fart. (Go on. Google it.) 2021 can’t come soon enough.
Dreamiest Dr. Anthony Fauci Back in January, who could have predicted that one of the year’s biggest heartthrobs would be an 80-year-old government immunologist?
Angstiest Senator Susan Collins Whatever the occasion, the Maine Republican can be counted on to express her deep yet meaningless concern.
Cutest Couple Nancy Pelosi and Steven Mnuchin The House speaker and the Treasury secretary spent so much time and energy hammering out Covid relief deals. Most marriages don’t require that much work.
Most Disappointing Representative Elise Stefanik Since her 2014 election, the New York Republican had pitched herself as the sane, moderate future of her party, with a special focus on improving its reputation with women. So it’s been particularly galling to watch her carry water for the most antidemocratic, misogynistic president in memory.
Most Disappointed Senator Elizabeth Warren After so much promise and so many plans, the Massachusetts Democrat didn’t win even the progressive wing of her party, which went for Uncle Bernie.
Largest Invertebrate Basically the entire Senate Republican conference
Most Likely to Sell His Soul for More Power Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell Kidding, of course. He made that transaction ages ago.
Biggest Tease John Bolton, former national security adviser All that bragging about insider secrets just to hawk a book. He should have testified in the House’s impeachment inquiry.
Most Likely to Succeed Pete Buttigieg If anyone can make Infrastructure Week really happen, it will be President-elect Joe Biden’s overachieving, wonk-chic pick to head the Transportation Department.
Most Likely to Stage a Failed Coup Attempt Representative Louie Gohmert Suing Vice President Mike Pence in a convoluted, last-ditch effort to overturn the election results and keep Mr. Trump in office? That’s some next-level sycophancy.
Most Clutch Player Representative Jim Clyburn It is barely an exaggeration to say that Mr. Biden owes his presidency to the well-timed endorsement from the dean of South Carolina Democratic politics.
Most Likely to Be the Next ‘Tiger King’ Representative Matt Gaetz With or without his gas mask, the Trump wannabe is the ultimate Florida Man.
Most Persistent Joe Biden It took a once-in-a-century pandemic and the most appalling incumbent in history, but he finally won the office he’d been eyeing for more than three decades.
Most Obviously Auditioning to Be a Fox News Host A tossup. Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, has the edge when it comes to execution, but Jenna Ellis, one of the president’s lawyers, gets points for trying so hard.
Most Likely to Be a Character on ‘Succession’ Steven Mnuchin This hopefully will not conflict with his true calling as the next Bond villain.
Most Corrupt A 20-to-30-way tie With this administration, the category was impossible to whittle down.
Best Team Player Senator Bernie Sanders The Vermont lefty may be shouty and crabby, but he recognized that unifying Democratic voters swiftly and with minimal squabbling was key to saving the nation from a second Trump term.
Most Degraded Mike Pence It was bad enough when he was on track to be remembered for his dead-on imitation of flypaper. But now, after four years of thankless obsequiousness, he’s being dragged into Trumpworld’s crackpot crusade to overturn the election results. The Constitution tasks the vice president with presiding over Congress’s counting of the Electoral College votes. MAGA types are pressuring him to hand Mr. Trump the win. The V.P. is looking at a rough January.
Biggest Threat to American Democracy Attorney General Bill Barr This is what happens when the nation’s top law enforcement official puts his boss’s individual interests above the rule of law.
In for the Rudest Awakening Javanka Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have had loads of fun playing at government and diplomacy while shielded from any real accountability. Post-presidency, their lives will likely get more complicated — socially, politically and perhaps even legally.
Last March, Camille realizes a dream, she buys a puppy breed, a “French bulldog”. She spotted him on a farm, which seems to him well in every respect, located in the north of France. The budget is large: 1,800 euros.
The puppy is named Winston and, at first, it seems to fit perfectly into its new environment. But after a few days, he starts to present digestive problems, vomiting, and a loss of appetite… Camille then takes Winston to the vet who after an initial examination makes a rather reassuring diagnosis: good general condition, no fever, no apathy so apparently nothing alarming. The veterinarian prescribes symptomatic treatment for these digestive disorders. But a few days later, Camille finds that Winston’s health suddenly deteriorates: “He was unrecognizable, completely apathetic, very skinny …” She then rushes back to her vet who hospitalizes the puppy for further examination: “Unfortunately he stayed at her house for about ten hours and the next morning she told me that he was dead.”
As soon as her puppy dies, Camille contacts the farm where she bought it: “At first I am serene because I really trusted the breeding (…) but after the first report of my veterinarian who explains that the puppy was carrying a lot of parasites, coronavirus, that he had very low immunity, the breeder directly questions her responsibility, she says that for her when she sold it to me he had an impeccable health certificate “. The transaction was done according to the rules of the art, Camille is in possession of all the documents: sales contract, veterinary check, pedigree, European passport, etc.
Autopsy results
Finally, after an autopsy carried out at the University of Liège, the verdict falls: Winston’s death was due to parvovirus, a fatal disease to young puppies. And the autopsy results indicate that the strain detected is a field strain and not a vaccine strain.
However, the vaccine against parvovirus had been administered to Winston, but as the breeder who sold the puppy explains, this vaccination of the puppies is carried out in two stages: “we vaccinate first at seven to eight weeks of age but the puppy is not 100% immune until after the second vaccination which takes place at three months”. However, after vaccination, it is strongly advised to keep the puppy in its original environment for several days to protect its immune system. In this case, Camille received Winston the day after her vaccination. The breeder explains: “According to the law, puppies can leave at eight weeks of breeding, I’ve been raising for eight years, all the other puppies have left between eight and nine weeks, there have never been any problems, never had a puppy died of parvovirus or anything” …
At first, the breeder had offered to repay half as compensation, Camille refused on the grounds that she was entitled to a full refund. As the breeder feels that she has nothing to complain about, each is on their side and the situation is currently at a standstill regarding possible compensation.
The advancement in network marketing systems has also opened up doors when it comes to the use of network marketing software. Indeed, it has made the lives of internet marketers more convenient such that you can generate results in your marketing efforts in a timely manner.
The idea of automating your efforts with the use of the software is no longer new in today’s online industry. But for newbies, you need proper guidance when choosing the best software around.
Benefits of Using Network Marketing Software
There are many reasons why you would want to consider using network marketing software. Here are some of the promising benefits that await you:
– It is crucial to your business’ success as you can deliver more consistent marketing efforts to produce real results.
– It enables you to speed up the process of how you do things in your marketing organization so you can determine whether the system works or not.
– You can do the work of several people at once and therefore enable you to make better use of your time.
As much as there are numerous benefits to using network marketing software, much of that depends on your choice of software to use. You must therefore continue reading below to find out how you can identify the best software to use in the market.
Factors to Consider
There are literally hundreds of software available in the market that promise to help you out in your network marketing efforts. Some might be more affordable than the others, while there are also those that come with a wider range of features.
The key thing to remember here is this: what exactly do you need for your network marketing campaign? That way, you no longer have to pay for features that you won’t be able to use nor will you be tricked into a cheaper but ineffective software.
Compensation Plan
One of the most basic factors to consider when choosing a network marketing software is whether it supports your company’s compensation plan. This is a very important factor to consider such that you are free to go for a unilevel, forced matrix, or binary software, provided that it suits your company’s compensation system.
History and Reputation
Another practical consideration when buying software is its reputation. Specifically, you’d want to buy software from a company that built up a good reputation in the industry. It is therefore advisable for you to conduct thorough research and comparison for all the software providers in the industry. Since you are looking at it as a form of investment, you need to be wise when it comes to spending your money.
Speed of Software
Finally, the software must perform at a reliable speed. One of the main purposes of using network marketing software is to speed up the process within your company. So, how can you achieve that goal if your software cannot deliver up to the speed and rate at which you expect them to? A slow system can be bad for your business and could pull down your productivity rate.
Daegan Smith is an expert online marketer, trainer, and teacher.
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“Does marriage counseling work? My wife and I have tried seeing a marriage counselor for the past few weeks, but it doesn’t seem like it’s doing anything… What am I doing wrong?”
If you’re like many of the lost and confused husbands in the 21st century, then you have already tried the most commonly prescribed solution to any marriage problem, i.e. marriage counseling.
I don’t know when it became such common practice, but somehow the go-to solution for any and all problems that could plague a marriage (separation, loss of passion, divorce, infidelity, lack of communication, etc.), the most prominent and widely advice that you’re going to get is “have you tried marriage counseling?”
You would think that such a booming and reputable industry would be so highly recommended because of its high success rate, right? In other words, marriage counseling is so popular because it has a history of legitimately fixing the marriage problems that plague so many relationships these days, right?
Wrong!
Did you know that… Marriage Counseling has the Highest Failure Rate of Any Therapy
Yup, marriage counseling and marriage counselors have the lowest success rate of any other counseling or therapy related field.
So, does marriage counseling work? I would say ‘not even close’.
* Drug addicts in rehab have a higher success rate than marriage counselors
* Alcoholics in AA have a higher success rate than marriage counselors
* Anger management therapy has a higher success rate than marriage counselors
* Even the prison counseling programs for murderers, rapists and other criminals have a higher success rate than marriage counseling
You would think that for up to $200 per hour there’d be some sort of guarantee that you’d see results in your marriage, but this is absolutely not the case. Marriage counseling DOES NOT WORK for most couples, and marriage counseling success rates are surprisingly low (less than 25%).
There is a type of couple that can benefit from marriage and family counseling, but it is the exception, not the rule. Most marriage counselors don’t effectively address the true issues that are leaving you and your wife ‘unfulfilled in our marriage’.
Does Marriage Counseling Work? Do We Have the Highest Divorce Rates, Ever?
Admittedly, according to recent statistics, the divorce rate in America has finally come to somewhat of a plateau in the past couple years because less people are getting married, so there are less couples to divorce.
But still, in the past 10 – 25 years divorce rates have sky rocketed, and I want you to really think about this for a minute… Doesn’t it seem strange that the rise in divorce rates correlates almost directly with the thriving marriage counseling industry? Some might argue that this makes sense because more divorces need more marriage counseling, but what if the true source of the problem wasn’t actually divorce, but the total ineffectiveness, even counter-productivity, of marriage counseling?
I’ll tell you an example of this – My own parents are divorced. They were married for over 20 years, and they tried everything in the book to save their marriage. They tried not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE different marriage counselors over the course of 10 YEARS, and not a single one of them did anything to save their marriage.
In fact, the marriage only ever got worse because my parents became frustrated with their lack of progress, and that frustration led to even more problems in the marriage.
In other words, marriage counseling added fuel to the fire, and it poisoned my parents’ marriage.
Now, I’m not saying that all marriage counselors are complete quacks, but a surprising amount of them are. Their marriage counseling methods and techniques are based on theory, conjecture and textbooks, not actual romantic or human experience or even on successful marriages.
Many Marriage Therapists Lack Proven or Relevant Experience
This could probably be said about many therapy related fields, but I feel that it is especially true in marriage counseling. I know of multiple marriage counselors who have actually gone through a divorce, but continue to teach others how to fix their marriage. Clearly these people have no idea what actually works if they can’t even save their own marriage, so why would you trust them to save yours?
Again, I don’t want to make any overly broad generalizations here, but I do feel like the marriage counseling field has become equivalent with divorce attorneys… It’s just one more cog in the machine leading to the simultaneous degradation and capitalization of marriage in America. I mean, from a price standpoint they’re both expensive… It will run you about $400 for an hour to talk on the phone with a divorce attorney, and a single marriage counseling session will usually cost you at least $100, and more for a ‘good’ one.
These are people that know you’re desperate and are willing to take advantage of that are their own gain.
Think about it, if you were truly passionate about helping people and saving marriages, would you demand $300 per session for something that you haven’t even seen consistently yield results? I’m not saying it’s morally wrong to charge a lot of money for your services, but when there’s so much money involved it’s only natural to question true motives, especially without results to justify a high price.
Think about it, most marriage counselors recommend at least 10 sessions to see results in your marriage, which means you’re dropping $1,000 to $2,000 on totally unproven techniques and strategies.
Which brings me to the implied second part of our original question… Does marriage counseling work, and why or why not?
And to me, this is what seems to be the reason most marriage counselors fail:
Most Marriage Counselors Have Been Trained To Analyze Problems, Not Create Solutions
This is what I really think it comes down to… Everything that your average marriage counselor has learned, and in turn everything they teach you, was very likely written by a psychologist.
All those things that your marriage counselor tells you…
* “Just keep working at it”…
* “Communication is the key”…
* “Be more open with each other”…
* “Start having intimacy time”…
* “Date nights are the answer”…
* “Make her feel loved”…
All of those things are written in some text book somewhere and that textbook was written by a psychologist. These are things that women think they want, and they do when everything is already perfect, but they will NOT save your marriage.
These are all things you should be doing when your marriage is thriving, more like characteristics of a successful marriage than actual techniques to fix a broken one.
But You Can Clearly See Their Train of Thought…
A good marriage has open communication, right? So it ‘makes sense’ that to fix a broken marriage you should develop open communication, right?
A good marriage has spouses who enjoy intimacy time with each other, right? So, it ‘makes sense’ to say that if you force intimacy time you’ll fix your marriage, right?
But marriage isn’t backwards compatible like that… It doesn’t work because these logical solutions are NOT going to work when there is no feelings of attraction or emotional fondness behind them. So even if you’re going through the motions correctly, there is no guarantee that you will actually fix your marriage.
In fact, if anything you’re almost guaranteed to make it worse, because you’ll remind your wife how bad things have to be that she can’t feel ANYTHING even when you’re apparently trying so hard.
Remember, attraction is the ONLY thing that will save your marriage. Without attraction there is no emotional incentive driving your wife to come back to you… Logic, reason, counseling, courses, books, rational techniques and perseverance will not save your marriage. Feelings, emotion and passion will.
So, does couples counseling work? Does marriage counseling work? I suppose I should let your own experiences give you the definitive answer, but from all of my own experience I would say that you’re better off trying to fix things on your own than with a counselor.
WordPress is the most popular blogging software in use on the web. It is in fact, one of the most used Content Management System (CMS) online.
It’s very easy to set up – it can be installed with Fantastico by one-click in a few seconds. Due to its popularity, there is ample help online when you need it.
WordPress is written in a programming language called PHP which accesses the content from a MySQL database. As it is continually extracting packets of information from the server and elsewhere, WordPress can need more memory than a straightforward static HTML site.
WordPress and Hosting
To set up a WordPress site you need two things: a domain name and a web host.
Google rates speed very highly these days in its ranking algorithm, so it’s essential you pick a good host to make the most from your WordPress site.
You can find that certain plugins won’t work due to memory issues, servers can fail due to the host’s incompetence often causing a loss in Google rankings and sometimes WordPress’s features won’t work due to a poor host setup – so choosing a host not something to be hurried!
Most website owners when they start out will opt for a shared hosting package. This is the cheapest hosting option where your website will be sharing a server with hundreds or, sometimes, thousands of other sites.
Whereas a dedicated hosting service is one where you lease an entire server that isn’t shared with anyone.
What is VPS?
A virtual private server provides the features of a dedicated server on a machine that is shared by other customers. This is done by partitioning a physical computer into multiple servers such each with capabilities of running its own fully-fledged operating system, and each can be independently rebooted.
Customers, therefore, get hosting services that are similar to that of dedicated Web hosting without sacrificing performance and for a much-reduced price.
Another benefit of VPS servers is scalability. Extra resources (RAM, other configurations) can be added at later dates as the website grows.
Which type of VPS host to use for WordPress?
The first thing to advise is to go for a Linux host over Windows as Linux takes much fewer resources and WordPress just runs better on it.
Managed VPS or Unmanaged VPS hosting?
You need to decide between purchasing a managed VPS or an unmanaged VPS hosting account.
With an unmanaged VPS site, you are on your own. You control it. You install and run whatever software you want to run on it.
If you aren’t comfortable doing this then unmanaged hosting is obviously not for you. However, it does have the benefit of being slightly cheaper as hosts do not have to spend so much on support. You may have to pay extra for cPanel licenses, etc.
Managed VPS services include maintenance, monitoring, and repairs at a fixed cost – they also provide varying amounts of support.
Standard VPS hosting or VPS hosting in the cloud?
Cloud computing is generally run on a cluster of servers whereas standard VPS hosting will put your site on only one computer with backups.
With VPS cloud hosting your site will come back online immediately if any hardware fails.
Standard VPS can only offer a certain amount of RAM and CPU at any one time so you can still suffer from outages if your site becomes extremely busy. However, Cloud VPS can dynamically assign resources as your server needs them.
How to choose a new VPS host
This depends on the amount of traffic and the needs you have. You need to compare the hosts by price and the following criteria:
RAM: VPS servers are advertised with RAM values just like computers are in a computer store. Host is rather unforthcoming when you ask them how much RAM you need but I would say 500MB RAM would be satisfactory for a WordPress site that doesn’t get much more than 500 visitors a day.
CPU: The CPU (central processing unit) of the host is exactly the same as the CPU of your desktop or laptop computer. It is the central unit in a computer containing logic circuitry to perform instructions from the applications. If you wish it may be possible to buy a plan with more than one 1GB CPU for extra speed.
Band Width and Disc Space: VPS packages are sometimes sold with a finite bandwidth and disc space. Calculate the bandwidth your site will need by calculating Average Page Views x Average Page Size x Average Daily Visitors. If you are just starting out it won’t be necessary to do this. Disc Space is the number of Gigabytes of information you are allowed to put on the server. Ordinary websites don’t add up to much space but if you are using the server for file storage you need to take this into account.
Server Software: you may be used to certain server software, such as cPanel and Plesk in order to maintain your site. Some hosts use their own software which may be difficult to learn.
Quality of Support: Some companies have 24/7 support. It may be important to be able to get an answer quickly if your VPS server stops working. Company Reputation: Google the company you want to use and see what people are saying about them. WordPress recommends a few hosts. Also, have a look and see if hosts have a good and functioning forum, this can be extra useful.
Can you make a living planning weddings? Yes. As a self-employed professional, you can either charge a set fee for the wedding or a percentage of the total cost. Your income can be uncertain when you first start planning these extravaganzas, but as your reputation spreads and you gain more experience, your income can increase dramatically.
Of course, you will make more income on an elaborate, huge wedding, but several smaller and simple weddings will be less stressful when you are starting out and, when the separate income is added together, you will probably make the same amount of money.
As with any self-employment, your success depends entirely on your creativity, reliability and marketing skills. There are online courses you can take to teach you the skills you need to plan the perfect wedding for your clients. Some of those courses will lead to certification as a Wedding Planner, which will give you more credibility with your clients and improve your professional standing with your colleagues.
Getting Started
What a professional Wedding Planner actually does is take on the details and responsibility of the event, relieving the bride and groom and their families, from the stresses involved. In turn, this allows them to enjoy the preliminary wedding events, like bridal showers and picking a honeymoon location.
There are lots of details you, as a Wedding Planner, need to know to keep things running smoothly and within the budget available. You will have to have a set of resources you can tap into to get the best service at the best prices, like reserving the church or chapel, catering the reception, ordering flowers, getting the wedding dress designed and ordered, selecting invitations and announcements, booking the music and hiring a professional photographer, among many other tasks.
It would probably be very good advice to start your career on small and somewhat inexpensive weddings. Giant extravaganzas can be very complex and time consuming to the most experienced Wedding Planner and you would be well-advised to start smaller and work up.
Some of the following tips should help you get started on planning a smaller wedding that will save money on several of the more expensive features of normal weddings. The bride’s father will love you for it.
The Wedding Gown
* The wedding gown can be expensive enough to break any budget. You can offer your client several options that are affordable and will still make the bride look like an angel as she floats down the aisle.
Renting a gown is becoming more popular every day. Think about it. The bride is going to wear it once and it was probably worn once before she rented it. It also avoids the storage problem for 20 years if the bride will not be saving it for her firstborn child to wear at her own wedding.
* If a member of the bride’s family is a good seamstress, suggest that she ask the family member to make the dress. Providing all the material and even paying the family member for the service will more than likely be less expensive than buying one from a bridal store.
* Another way would be for the bride to wear her mother’s wedding gown, if she saved it. You might want to check it carefully for any deterioration before the bride commits to wearing it. The mother is probably from a generation that thought saving her wedding gown was an obligation of the marriage and believed for several decades that her daughter would wear it at her own wedding.
The Reception
Another budget-buster is the reception, but some planning with a true reality check can reduce your client’s expenditures here.
* Think smaller. Talk to your clients about how they can downsize the guest list. When the excitement of the coming event takes over, your clients and their parents will many times have a very long list of people to invite to the wedding and the reception after.
Many of the parents’ visions of the reception can resemble an extravaganza with hundreds of guests, munching caviar and drinking champagne all night long in a huge ballroom. If their budget will not cover the considerable expenses involved in their dream reception, your skills as the Wedding Planner will be well served here.
To start with, keeping the guest list small and only inviting close family and friends will save money and still provide the dream celebration your clients want. If your client hasn’t had a close relationship with college friends or neighbors from four moves back, don’t put them on the list.
Instead of renting the largest hall or club banquet room in your town for the reception, you have a couple of inexpensive options that might appeal to your clients:
* Check out restaurants in the area. Some have banquet rooms that they will either rent out or provide free if you use their services for the sit-down meal or the buffet.
* Consider suggesting that your clients hold the reception at their home. The party does not have to include a full meal. Catered hors d’oeuvres and a champagne fountain will set the festive mood your clients want.
* Weddings held in gardens or other natural settings are very popular and beautiful. There’s minimal decoration needed and the only expense might be for the minister, rabbi or Justice of the Peace.
* Not having a full bar will save a lot of money, regardless of where the reception is held. The champagne fountain mentioned above can also be combined with beer or wine if the clients want to provide additional libations for their guests.
The Photography
The formal wedding service requires a professional photographer who will create a beautiful album to record the special day and preserve the memories to relive as they wish. If you create a relationship with several photographers as you build your career, you will know which one to hire for your client’s purposes.
The rest of the celebration can be recorded by all their friends and relatives with a digital camera in their pockets. Some clients put disposable cameras on tables for anyone to use. Have a decorated basket nearby and visible to give your guests a place to leave the cameras when they go home.
The Wedding Invitations
Newly engaged couples can go way overboard on their wedding invitations and your task, as their Wedding Planner, is to suggest ways for them to save money on this expensive item.
Those engraved invitations with the ribbon attached or the edges cut into curvy designs are expensive. The same effect can be achieved with a good card stock and one of those edge cutters used for scrapbooking. The necessary items can be found in any good craft store and some stationary stores. They come with matching envelopes, too. The actual text can easily be printed with a good inkjet or laser printer.
One way to make homemade invitations special and very personal is to order stamps from the US Post Office with the couple’s engagement picture on them.
Consider suggesting that your client include making her own thank you notes and, even the place cards, if you are including a sit-down reception for their wedding. Once again, a good laser or inkjet printer can do the fancy fonts and include a picture of the couple to make them personal. The thank you notes would stand out if they were sent with a wedding picture on the stamps.
The Flowers
It is not necessary to buy fancy floral arrangements and pay for the floral designer’s time and expertise. Simple flowers arranged beautifully in clusters or cascades can be created by either the bride’s family or a crafty friend. They can be delivered to the church by you or by friends.
If you are building your business, create some relationships with flower vendors and provide that service to your clients. They will be delighted at the savings and the vendors will love you for the business.
Depending on the time of the year, the flowers can be picked from the bride’s own backyard or from a friend’s yard. A few inexpensive vases, some ribbon and both the wedding and the reception will be beautifully decorated while not breaking the family’s budget.
A few flower arrangements can attractively set off a buffet table or on the tables at a sit-down dinner. Think about several weddings you have attended as a guest. How many flower arrangements do you really remember? During the entire wedding ritual, most of the guests were focused on the bride and groom; weren’t they?
A simple floral bouquet can be easily arranged from flowers out of a garden with the stems wrapped in a ribbon that complements or matches the bride’s gown. When you toss the bridal bouquet before you leave the reception, you will be tossing out a truly personal memento of your wedding and not one that was exorbitantly priced.
Any flowers left over can be scattered in the bride’s hair to make her even more beautiful as she walks down the aisle.
The Wedding Cake
There’s lots of tradition around the wedding cake, including saving a piece to be eaten on the first anniversary of the wedding. The top layer of the cake is normally put aside before the cake is cut and frozen to preserve it. Some bakers have been making a top layer that is a light fruitcake. It freezes well and thaws better a year later.
Wedding cake history can be traced as far back at the Roman Empire and the traditions have gone through so many changes between now and then that there is no comparison.
Today’s “traditional” wedding cake practices can be anything the couple wants them to be. Some have abandoned the white wedding cake and substituted frosting colors and decorations that reflect the bride’s choice of décor or the color of the bridesmaid dresses.
The multi-tiered cake is not an obligation and can be a heavy drain on a limited budget. Friends can make the cake for the reception or something else can replace the cake entirely, like a wedding cake made of frosted cupcakes stacked in layers. The cupcake wedding cake is becoming very popular, not only for economy, but for it’s novelty and the range of cupcake flavors that can be offered.
As the Wedding Planner, you will need to have a list of different and affordable wedding cakes to give the couple choices. If no one in the family or set of friends can make the wedding cake, you will also need a list of economical bakeries.
Lists – How To Plan A Small Wedding
When you first begin to work as a Wedding Planner, you will be buried in details that can only be managed if you know how to make ordered lists. Over time, you will probably create your own templates on your computer and be able to print out a complete set of templates whenever you book a new wedding.
Your templates will be your “spare brain” and will keep you informed of what needs to be done and when, along with favored vendors, the services they provide and what their fees are.
Your templates should include the following information:
* A reasonable timeline for all activities concerning the wedding from start to finish. That should include preliminary details, like scheduling the bride’s appointments for fittings, reserving the banquet room or restaurant for the reception, booking the chapel and anything else that needs advance scheduling.
Waiting too long may require rescheduling that might interfere with the travel arrangements made by the out-of-town guests or make finding a caterer difficult, to name only a couple of serious possible problems.
* After your templates are printed and initially filled out, you need to make a preliminary wedding budget and include the fees for your services. As the director of this event, you will be spending the money and have a responsibility to provide records when requested.
* The actual wedding ceremony should be painstakingly detailed to ensure that all aspects are taken care of in advance. Leave nothing to the last minute.
o Have the bride and groom choose their wedding date as soon as possible. Everything needed to be in place for that date has to be scheduled and confirmed before any other plan can be completed.
o Decide upon the wedding site, church, chapel, garden, park, etc. Make that decision specific. Get the details of the church or chapel, the address of the garden and the phone number of the relative or friend who owns it or permission of the agency controlling the park.
o Book and confirm the minister, rabbi or Justice of the Peace who will be performing the wedding ceremony.
o Start selecting the music with the couple for the actual ceremony. Include the music for the reception and book who will be providing it…disk jockey, small band, etc.
o Send the couple to get the marriage license. For their book of memories, see if a friend or family member will take a few photos of this necessity.
One thing you might consider is using your own digital camera and recording most of the less dramatic events of preparing for the wedding, like getting the marriage certificate, making or addressing the invitations, trying on wedding dresses.
A CD or DVD given to the couple after they return from their honeymoon will serve two important purposes.
1. They will have something to remember all that went into the ceremony that will not be included in the normal wedding album.
2. When they share the CD or DVD with their friends, some of whom might be contemplating their own wedding, your name and contact details will be prominent.
Referrals are what will build your business. Subliminal ads, like on the CD or DVD label and at the beginning and end of the photos might bring you some business. At the very least, your unexpected gift after the excitement that goes with any wedding, will be remembered by the bride and groom.
The wedding ceremony rehearsal needs to be scheduled as soon as possible. It normally takes place a night or two before the actual ceremony (after work) and can be easily forgotten in the rush of last minute details. Additionally, the church or chapel might be previously booked by another wedding party.
Some have a small dinner party in a restaurant after the rehearsal. If your couple is planning one with their bridesmaids and groomsmen, make the reservations as soon as possible and confirm a few days before the rehearsal.
Make sure that everyone knows who will be in the wedding processional and the recessional and what to do. Practice it with the actual music, if possible, so it looks graceful during the actual event. Never forget that you are creating life-long memories for the couple.
The wedding reception has its own set of details to schedule and set in motion.
1. You need to determine the time of day for the reception. Be sure to allow enough time for the photographer to take the album photos after the ceremony and for the newly married couple to travel from the church to the reception.
2. Make sure the place for the reception is set up, decorated and stocked. It would be a wise decision to check with the restaurant or hall about a week before the wedding to check details and to discuss any changes in the menu or times with the manager. A phone call the day before the event wouldn’t be a bad idea.
3. Normal wedding reception activities need to be scheduled and coordinated so they feel like a natural progression before the couple leaves the reception.
Those activities can include the receiving line, the first dance, cake cutting, tossing the bouquet, speeches and toasting from the best man, parents or friends.
How To Find A Job In The Wedding Industry
There’s over a dozen different industries that might be interested in hiring Wedding Planners or consultants, if you were interested in working with companies.
Resorts in popular vacation spots are becoming sites for destination weddings and would have the need for a Wedding Planner. This would be a way to work and enjoy all the amenities available in some of the world’s most beautiful spots.
Hotels almost anywhere, even in your current location, are always sites for weddings or receptions in their banquet rooms and many might need a Wedding Planner or Event Coordinator to keep their wedding parties from becoming a disaster.
Churches and synagogues might be on the lookout for someone to handle the weddings being scheduled at their churches and temples. Distributing a well-designed flyer at each facility might get you referrals, if not an actual job. Make sure to include some business cards with the flyers.
Finally, do not forget to leave your business cards with local bridal shops, caterers and florists. These businesses handle some aspect of the wedding preparations every day. They would be good reciprocal referrals for your services. If you, in return, used their services in the wedding planning, it would be a Win-Win situation for all involved.
You should have enough information to decide if being a Wedding Planner is the career for you. You can find eCourses to take online and several step-by-step eBooks or manuals that explain everything you need to know and even provide templates to help you organize the details.
President Trump doubled down on his demand Friday for increased coronavirus-related stimulus checks to working-class Americans.
Trump again tweeted his demand for $2,000 checks rather than the $600 proposed in the mammoth spending bill approved by Congress earlier this week.
“Made many calls and had meetings at Trump International in Palm Beach, Florida. Why would politicians not want to give people $2000, rather than only $600? It wasn’t their fault, it was China,” the president wrote on Twitter. “Give our people the money!”
Trump and other critics of the bill have deemed the bill 5,500 pages of pork-barrel spending rather than an earnest attempt to help struggling Americans beset by gubernatorial economic lockdowns and the overall drop in commerce ushered in by the pandemic.
“It’s called the Covid relief bill but it has almost nothing to do with Covid,” the president said Thursday, going on to point to a provision in the bill that would triple the $600 check for family members of illegal aliens — to $1,800: “This is far more than the Americans are given,” he said.
Libertarians and progressives have also found unusual common ground in their opposition to the legislation. The progressive “Squad” of progressive representatives called for an amendment that provides the $2,000 payments.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., a member of “The Squad” from Boston, expressed such sentiment in a tweet appearing to praise Trump for taking a “hard line in support of what Progressives have been fighting for.” But she called the president the “Occupant of the White House” and accused him of trying to “spite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Trump has been upset with McConnell because of the Kentuckian’s reticence to support challenges to the 2020 election tallies.
“Honestly, whatever gets my constituents survival checks,” Pressley remarked.
On the other side of the aisle, one of the president’s frequent defenders, retiring GOP Rep. Peter King of New York wrote a lengthy Facebook post explaining that the line items in the bill objected to by the president were “specifically requested by the Trump administration.”
“You got that — every item,” King wrote. “That includes aid to Egypt, Pakistan, Burma, Sudan and Central America, and funding for the Smithsonian.”
“Additionally it was totally deceptive for the president to say that Congress failed to provide assistance to restaurants. The truth is that [Queens Democratic] Congresswoman Grace Meng and I co-sponsored legislation to give direct grants to restaurants but the Trump Administration adamantly refused to assist restaurants.”
King and Meng’s state of New York, along with Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Jersey, and California among others. has been hit hard by economic “shutdowns” imposed by the state governments, which have in turn crippled the restaurant and entertainment industries.
In his post, King made it clear that he was not intentionally critiquing Trump with his remarks, applauding his fellow New Yorker’s record, especially on law and order.
“Believe me I don’t take any satisfaction in pointing out how wrong the President is. I have strongly supported the President and worked hard for his re-election,” he said. “I am particularly indebted to him for his outstanding leadership in stopping MS-13’s killing rampage on Long Island, crushing the ISIS caliphate in the Middle East and standing with the police.”
King said he felt the need to “set the record straight” after watching Republicans who supported the bill getting attacked by “rabid, uninformed comments.”
On Wednesday, Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., urged Trump to go ahead and sign the $908 billion relief package, echoing King’s sentiment that the administration was indeed closely involved in negotiations with Congress.
“We negotiated the bill, and the president’s people were intimately involved every step of the way,” the Allentown, Pa., lawmaker told Fox News’ “The Daily Briefing.” Treasury “Secretary Steve Mnuchin was arguably one of the most involved people in this whole negotiation.”
Toomey, a noted fiscal hawk, added that he too has many issues with some of the bill’s expenditures.
“There are a lot of provisions I don’t like,” Toomey said. “There are provisions that the Democrats don’t like. This is what we were able to get to, and my suggestion would be let’s pass this and get this signed, let’s get this into law, and we can have an ongoing discussion about whether there should be additional direct payments or not.”
In addition, conservative Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., succinctly summed up what he saw as the overarching issue with the legislation causing the sudden political turmoil:
“I didn’t vote for the bill but I respect the people who did vote for it,” he tweeted. “We were given two bad choices. (1) Fund everything or (2) Fund nothing. I hope my colleagues will be forthright and admit that this is legislative malpractice. One bill should cover one topic, not 1,000.”
Fox News’ Joshua Nelson and Dom Calicchio contributed to this report.
A clean house is an ideal place to live in. A clean home looks attractive, as it does not have clutter or nasty odor. In addition, people stay healthy and comfortable in a neat and clean house. Carpets are one of those items in a house that need frequent cleaning. Many people buy carpets to cover their floors as they can be installed easily.
When carpets get dirty, you need to clean them in order to maintain their attractiveness and health. Nowadays, the market is teeming with different types of carpets. Different types of carpets are suitable for different types of homes and offices. Based on the condition of the carpet, you can clean it on your own or get it cleaned by a professional cleaner.
You should not consider carpet cleaning a daunting task. You can simply hire a professional to handle the cleaning task. This will make it easier for you to carry out the cleansing task. Given below are some key reasons why you should get help from a professional cleaner to clean your home carpets.
Services offered
The main benefit of hiring a professional cleaner is that they will assure you to have a perfectly clean carpet within a few hours. It is the responsibility of a professional cleaner to assure their clients that the carpets will be cleaned and maintained well. You may not know how to cleanse your carpets. As a result, you may end up ruining your carpets because of using the wrong solutions or too much force. On the other hand, a cleaning company has trained professionals who possess the knowledge as well as experience to clean different types of carpets. So, they will clean carpets using the right techniques and solutions which will maintain the durability of your carpets.
Some time ago I read the book The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. It is a 12-month guide to finding satisfaction and happiness in life. Well, after I finished it, I did not feel happy but just flat out angry. The only take-away I really grasped was basically if I can complete a task in less than a minute, get up and do it now. This strategy really works in several ways including that I do not forget the task as I have jumped and completed it and I do feel happy. I can strike that job off my “To Do” list.
The remainder of the book focused (in my mind) on cleaning: closets, shelves, storage rooms, and, in fact, the entire house. And, of course, cleaning house spills over into cleaning up the office or classroom or company vehicle or maybe even setting things straight in a public area. Cleaning, it seems, is contagious and catches the cleaner on fire to do more and more and more. The only remedy is more cleaning. Cleaning, also, is supposed to make me happy. Bah! was my initial reaction to such nonsense. If the happiest I can ever become is cleaning, well, happiness is pretty over-rated.
Deciding to give this project a second chance, today I tested this happiness theory. With my husband off on a trip, I had the time, energy, and determination to delve into a much-needed housecleaning. I started before the sun popped up and I even skipped reading the morning paper. With coffee in hand, I began the happiness cleaning. I chose the guestroom as it would be the easiest and the fastest. With garbage bags, mops, dusters, and cleaning fluids, I launched myself into a flurry of activity. I moved furniture, dusted, tossed, rearranged shelves, and, by golly, I felt better.
I moved to my son’s room, following the same routine other than the tossing part. After all his junk is his junk. I just needed to feel good, not destroy his serenity. Primarily his room is full of dog hair from a short-haired dog who sheds year-round in heaps and gobs. This hairy mess is disgusting and a bit overwhelming unless you have a strong stomach and fierce resolve. From there I moved from the office to the storage room, to bedrooms, and then the living room. The kitchen received meticulous scrubbing as did the bathrooms. Windows came next and I washed them inside and out with thoroughness and delight. Hard to believe that this cleaning gig was bringing me such joy.
It is a common practice for every one of us that after getting tired from the hectic daily routine of the office, we usually like to take some rest and involve in social activities. Though there is a to-do list for their rest of the day after and topping this list is cleaning of their house. It is something that most of us do not like to do for we are tired of this daily working routine. Well in such cases, the best possible solution to get your home and office cleaned is to hire some professional cleaning services who can deal with the cleaning of your place easily and give you comfort from this necessary task in to-do list after your working hours.
Home and office cleaning services provide you a way to get your home and office cleaned in a way that you would do if you had cleaned it. In this way, you can just sit back and rest for you know that you don’t have to worry about the possible cleaning of your house which would not have to happen if you had left it on you to do it. There is a going trend for the hiring of such services and several professionals have stepped forward in the market to provide home and office cleaning service for very cheap rates so that you don’t have to worry about the charges associated with such utility of your life.
With cleaning services, all of us have made it possible to be busy, take a rest, and get the home and office cleaned at the same time. The only thing that is left between you and cleaning of your office and home is the search for the right and best quality provider of Cleaning Services and once you find them, your life becomes trouble less. Some professional services offer weekly, bi-weekly, and fortnightly plan for the cleaning at your home and office. These packages are very beneficial for those people who work day and night and cannot find a way to clean their homes and offices.
