CoCo's 'Honeymoon Fund'
Donation protected
We’re finally swallowing our pride, publicly acknowledging that events outside our control threaten to force us into fiscal trouble following our much-anticipated May 26th Joining and hoping our community will rally in support of our 'Honeymoon' contingency fund to help carry us through York’s University’s ongoing (10 weeks so far) strike!
Ever since we decided to spend our lives together, we’ve been making our beautiful dreams real together – establishing Cora’s full-time counselling practice, pursuing Cody’s PhD, building our tiny home on wheels, growing into our community and planning the commitment ceremony that we so dearly desire. All this rewarding work has been derailed by the loss of more than $6500 in expected income right before we’re about to walk down the aisle.
You know how it is with weddings: many of the costs are sunk well in advance of the big day. Even though the whole shindig is definitely going to cost less than Cody’s lost income(!), we’re in a position where postponing won’t even save us enough money to keep ourselves afloat until the strike ends (whenever that’ll be) — what with lost deposits/non-refundable purchases — and there’s no predicting the outcome; no guarantee York won’t cancel the semester in its effort to break the union and with it, Cody’s teaching assistant contract.
We didn’t anticipate that York would waste months of negotiating time, refuse to bargain during the strike and play so cavalierly with its students’ and employees’ future aspirations. Though the government has appointed a fact-finding industrial inquiry commission, it seems unlikely we’ll be legislated back to work in the middle of Ontario’s election, when a vulnerable government is afraid of alienating all the voters who care about fairness to workers and are anxious that universities are being turned into degree mills. So, we worked and then reworked our budget, we worked hard and then harder and we’d have pulled everything off in the absence of this unprecedented situation.
If you visited our wedding website (joincoco.com) and looked at the ‘Registry’ page, you’ll have seen that we’ve been clear that we expect nothing and only desire the gift of your presence on this most auspicious of days. Besides, many of you have offered the gift of your assistance in helping us pull off the event itself. For those who truly want to gift by other means, however, we suggested that we would gratefully accept donations to our honeymoon fund so that we could perhaps go to Burning Man or Morocco on an adventure. The honeymoon fund is now going to be the vehicle for saving the wedding itself. If somehow the strike ends with full payment of Cody’s earned income, we might yet get to have a honeymoon, even if it’s just to Vancouver Island’s regional Burn, Otherworld. Failing that, those who are in a position to contribute something in advance of our ceremony will have the satisfaction of knowing they made sure we could survive after following through on publicly committing our eternal love and commitment to each other.
So, we’ve set up this GoFundMe campaign with a goal of recuperating a portion of what’s been denied to us, so that we can follow through on our budgeted wedding costs and living expenses. We want to simultaneously encourage everyone to give as much as they comfortably can and keep it anonymous so that no one feels compelled to give anything if they’re in no position to do so. We’re immensely appreciative of you for reading this far and even considering this call for support, regardless of whether you can help or not. On the day of, we will joyfully celebrate anyone who makes no secret of their contribution alongside everyone who wishes to keep their offering private.
No matter what happens, we love you all and thank you for your friendship and care, which has helped us become who we are and gotten us to where we are today.
XoXo – CoCo
p.s. Stay tuned for updates regarding how this is all playing out. We’ll keep you posted with pertinent information as we get it. We’re also happy to answer any questions or speak to any concerns you might have.
Ever since we decided to spend our lives together, we’ve been making our beautiful dreams real together – establishing Cora’s full-time counselling practice, pursuing Cody’s PhD, building our tiny home on wheels, growing into our community and planning the commitment ceremony that we so dearly desire. All this rewarding work has been derailed by the loss of more than $6500 in expected income right before we’re about to walk down the aisle.
You know how it is with weddings: many of the costs are sunk well in advance of the big day. Even though the whole shindig is definitely going to cost less than Cody’s lost income(!), we’re in a position where postponing won’t even save us enough money to keep ourselves afloat until the strike ends (whenever that’ll be) — what with lost deposits/non-refundable purchases — and there’s no predicting the outcome; no guarantee York won’t cancel the semester in its effort to break the union and with it, Cody’s teaching assistant contract.
We didn’t anticipate that York would waste months of negotiating time, refuse to bargain during the strike and play so cavalierly with its students’ and employees’ future aspirations. Though the government has appointed a fact-finding industrial inquiry commission, it seems unlikely we’ll be legislated back to work in the middle of Ontario’s election, when a vulnerable government is afraid of alienating all the voters who care about fairness to workers and are anxious that universities are being turned into degree mills. So, we worked and then reworked our budget, we worked hard and then harder and we’d have pulled everything off in the absence of this unprecedented situation.
If you visited our wedding website (joincoco.com) and looked at the ‘Registry’ page, you’ll have seen that we’ve been clear that we expect nothing and only desire the gift of your presence on this most auspicious of days. Besides, many of you have offered the gift of your assistance in helping us pull off the event itself. For those who truly want to gift by other means, however, we suggested that we would gratefully accept donations to our honeymoon fund so that we could perhaps go to Burning Man or Morocco on an adventure. The honeymoon fund is now going to be the vehicle for saving the wedding itself. If somehow the strike ends with full payment of Cody’s earned income, we might yet get to have a honeymoon, even if it’s just to Vancouver Island’s regional Burn, Otherworld. Failing that, those who are in a position to contribute something in advance of our ceremony will have the satisfaction of knowing they made sure we could survive after following through on publicly committing our eternal love and commitment to each other.
So, we’ve set up this GoFundMe campaign with a goal of recuperating a portion of what’s been denied to us, so that we can follow through on our budgeted wedding costs and living expenses. We want to simultaneously encourage everyone to give as much as they comfortably can and keep it anonymous so that no one feels compelled to give anything if they’re in no position to do so. We’re immensely appreciative of you for reading this far and even considering this call for support, regardless of whether you can help or not. On the day of, we will joyfully celebrate anyone who makes no secret of their contribution alongside everyone who wishes to keep their offering private.
No matter what happens, we love you all and thank you for your friendship and care, which has helped us become who we are and gotten us to where we are today.
XoXo – CoCo
p.s. Stay tuned for updates regarding how this is all playing out. We’ll keep you posted with pertinent information as we get it. We’re also happy to answer any questions or speak to any concerns you might have.
Give $100 to help get this fundraiser to its goal
Fundraising team: TeamCoCo (2)
Cody Willett
Organizer
Victoria, BC
Cora Bilsker
Team member
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