Get Duje's Family to the Wedding
Donation protected
Dear Family and Friends,
As you probably know by now, Duje and I are getting married on August 29, 2015. We are overjoyed with what the future holds for us, as we make this big step together. We feel like the luckiest people in the world to have found love like this. Duje’s immense love for his family was one of the defining reasons I decided he was a man worth spending the rest of my life with. His family means more to him than anything in the world and every decision he makes is for the benefit of either his current family or his future family.
Duje and I have a love that surpasses differences of country and culture. I was raised in Lake Arrowhead, California. Duje came to America on a water polo scholarship when he was 20 from Split, Croatia. The reason Duje left Croatia was because he felt his future would be stunted if he stayed in Croatia. He was turned off by bad policies and a struggling economy. In the city of Split, there is a 40% unemployment rate. To put that into perspective, we had a 35% unemployment rate during the Great Depression. Duje has the promise of a brighter future in America, however, relocating has proven to be a challenge.
Immigrants in America have many hoops to jump through. This is especially true when they do it the legal way like Duje has. It takes much more time, money and effort to work, play, live, and love for an immigrant. Everyone knows getting married is expensive. The wedding itself is actually the smallest of our costs because we come from two different countries. There are many additional costs of marriage for an immigrant. Our government has made it so that it is difficult to get a green card. This is a good thing but also frustrating when you’re marrying someone for love, not a green card.
We have explored every possible option regarding how to get married the cheapest way. We have thought about having a ceremony here and a reception in Croatia or vice versa. However, there are legal barriers to leaving the country for a while after we get married. Not to mention, there are cultural factors that need to be respected in the process. For example, it wouldn’t be right in Croatian culture to have a ceremony and not have a 3 day party to follow (they go hard). It is also part of the culture to invite everyone you’ve ever known to your Croatian wedding. In the end, it would be more expensive and confusing to go that route. We have decided the best and cheapest option is to bring Duje’s closest family members to America for our wedding.
We need to raise money for airfare that will be donated to Duje’s parents, two sisters, sister’s boyfriend, and grandma. Six tickets at $1,500 each (tickets are expensive from Croatia) comes to $9,000. One U.S. dollar is equal to 6.29 Croatian kunas. That means for every $1 we spend, Croatians spend over $6. If Duje’s family paid for the tickets themselves, it wouldn’t be like paying $9,000 for them. His family would end up having to pay the equivalent of $56,610 just for airfare alone. That figure doesn’t include the money it will cost for them to eat and maybe get out every once in a while during their stay in America. From a country where work is much harder to come by than here, that is far too much to ask of Duje’s family.
And so we turn to you, our closest friends and family, to help us. Marriage is sacred to us, not just on a legal level, but a religious level. It only happens once in a lifetime and the day is for sharing with the people we love (which means you too!). People are far more important to us than things, which is why we are not making a registry. This would be the most amazing wedding gift you could ever possibly give us. Instead of bringing us a gift on our wedding day, we ask that you please donate whatever you would spend on a gift and help bring Duje’s family to our wedding.
We are hoping to make it to $9,000 by March 15th so we can buy the tickets while they are still cheap. The longer we wait, the more the price goes up. If you do decide to donate, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts and hope God blesses you like he has blessed us.
All of Our Love,
Duje and Carrie
As you probably know by now, Duje and I are getting married on August 29, 2015. We are overjoyed with what the future holds for us, as we make this big step together. We feel like the luckiest people in the world to have found love like this. Duje’s immense love for his family was one of the defining reasons I decided he was a man worth spending the rest of my life with. His family means more to him than anything in the world and every decision he makes is for the benefit of either his current family or his future family.
Duje and I have a love that surpasses differences of country and culture. I was raised in Lake Arrowhead, California. Duje came to America on a water polo scholarship when he was 20 from Split, Croatia. The reason Duje left Croatia was because he felt his future would be stunted if he stayed in Croatia. He was turned off by bad policies and a struggling economy. In the city of Split, there is a 40% unemployment rate. To put that into perspective, we had a 35% unemployment rate during the Great Depression. Duje has the promise of a brighter future in America, however, relocating has proven to be a challenge.
Immigrants in America have many hoops to jump through. This is especially true when they do it the legal way like Duje has. It takes much more time, money and effort to work, play, live, and love for an immigrant. Everyone knows getting married is expensive. The wedding itself is actually the smallest of our costs because we come from two different countries. There are many additional costs of marriage for an immigrant. Our government has made it so that it is difficult to get a green card. This is a good thing but also frustrating when you’re marrying someone for love, not a green card.
We have explored every possible option regarding how to get married the cheapest way. We have thought about having a ceremony here and a reception in Croatia or vice versa. However, there are legal barriers to leaving the country for a while after we get married. Not to mention, there are cultural factors that need to be respected in the process. For example, it wouldn’t be right in Croatian culture to have a ceremony and not have a 3 day party to follow (they go hard). It is also part of the culture to invite everyone you’ve ever known to your Croatian wedding. In the end, it would be more expensive and confusing to go that route. We have decided the best and cheapest option is to bring Duje’s closest family members to America for our wedding.
We need to raise money for airfare that will be donated to Duje’s parents, two sisters, sister’s boyfriend, and grandma. Six tickets at $1,500 each (tickets are expensive from Croatia) comes to $9,000. One U.S. dollar is equal to 6.29 Croatian kunas. That means for every $1 we spend, Croatians spend over $6. If Duje’s family paid for the tickets themselves, it wouldn’t be like paying $9,000 for them. His family would end up having to pay the equivalent of $56,610 just for airfare alone. That figure doesn’t include the money it will cost for them to eat and maybe get out every once in a while during their stay in America. From a country where work is much harder to come by than here, that is far too much to ask of Duje’s family.
And so we turn to you, our closest friends and family, to help us. Marriage is sacred to us, not just on a legal level, but a religious level. It only happens once in a lifetime and the day is for sharing with the people we love (which means you too!). People are far more important to us than things, which is why we are not making a registry. This would be the most amazing wedding gift you could ever possibly give us. Instead of bringing us a gift on our wedding day, we ask that you please donate whatever you would spend on a gift and help bring Duje’s family to our wedding.
We are hoping to make it to $9,000 by March 15th so we can buy the tickets while they are still cheap. The longer we wait, the more the price goes up. If you do decide to donate, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts and hope God blesses you like he has blessed us.
All of Our Love,
Duje and Carrie
Organizer
Carrie Ware
Organizer
La Verne, CA