Jessalyn

aww...there's that thread with my invites...thanks Christa.

You'll be so happy if you can get them done early. I bought square boxes....7 3/8" x 7 3/8". My invites were 6 inch square and were a trifold with pockets on each side. My starfish was attached to the outside of the trifold with raffia. You can do it. I actually modified the invites I liked so that they would work with the boxes I found, etc. I worked with what was available to produce the invite. You'll have a great sense of accomplishment and pride in your invites. It's a good feeling to look at the product and know that you made it.

Those are gorgeous invites. I think you may have gotten them from the same site that I saw. I did similar invitations and mailed them in boxes. The ones I wanted to buy were about $12 each. I made them for about $6 each including postage. I shipped mine in different boxes. I used these Literature Mailers - White - Uline and lined the boxes with fabric/batting to protect the starfish during shipment. About the stink, I left my starfish outside spread out in the sun for a few days. The smell went away for the most part. If you put it directly to your nose you could still smell it, but it didn't reek anymore. None of my invitees complained about or mentioned the smell. They just loved the invites. You can definitely make those yourself for a lot less $$, but it is a LOT of work.

Jackie, that helps soooooooooooo much! Thank you!!

yes, that is the Chris I'm speaking of.....he is so wonderful! Thanks Tammy for suggesting his company to all of us DIY brides.

I'm sorry if this question has already been posed before, but I need to provide my WC with a timeline of the big day. I can fill the blanks of things like hair and make-up and pictures, but what about details like cake cutting, and first dances? Anyone have any suggestions on the order of these types of things or when you usually do them? If you have a timeline, can you post it or email it to me? Thanks for your help.

Courtney ~ I'll definitely post some pics of the book for you. And, it was so nice to know that Chris was watching my back. I will say it is a little embarrassing to know that he is looking at my book, but at least I'll never meet him. lol.

I wanted to share my fantastic experience with Shared Ink. As most of you know, Leigh did my BD photos for me. I received the electronic pictures from her on Saturday night, and I worked diligently into the early morning hours of Sunday and then worked even more on designing the pages of my book most of Sunday. By Sunday night, I was ready to upload the pages to shared ink. I sent an email to Chris (the President) at Sharedink to let him know that I was ready to order my book....he had to convert the book to full bleeds (so I wouldn't have a white border around the pages) before I could submit my order. He sent me an email back and pointed out that my cover picture wasn't formatted in a way that I would be happy with (he didn't exactly say it like that) and further explained the result I would receive if I didn't change it. He also told me how to change it if I chose to do so. Given this information, I modified the cover picture last night and sent him a new email at 8:45pm. He responded to my email just over an hour later to tell me that the book had been converted to full bleeds and was ready for me to order. My point of this long post is that from my experience Sharedink has fantastic customer service, and I would highly recommend them if you plan to make your own book. I ordered my book expedited processing and 2nd day delivery, so I should have it on the 13th. I'm not even worried about the quality, as I know Sarah's and Tammy's turned out fantastic. ...granted my designing qualities aren't quite up to snuff with Sarah's, but I'm happy with the way it turned out. I'll let you know once i receive the final product.

Wow! It looks great Amy (and like a lot of work too). Great job!

Leigh and Jonathan....you two are so helpful.....that's one of the things I love about this board....that we can all help each other out. Jen~ Be sure to post the website of the person you use. We all like to look at beautiful photos. And of course, we want to see your wedding pictures too.

yeah Courtney, I didn't want my guests to have fold up the response card to get it in the envelope. BTW, my envelopes were 5 1/8" x 3 5/8" and the response card was 4 5/8" x 3 1/8"

Yay Tammy!!! I want to see pics of your cakes....i think you decided to stick with individual cakes. I know your day will be perfect....can't wait to hear all about it and see all your pics... My location twin!!

what i did was figure out the size of the envelope that I wanted them returned first and then made them about a quarter of an inch smaller. Here is a site that lists envelope sizes. Envelope Styles and Sizes

Thanks Courtney...I'll help you as much as I can. PM whenever you have questions....as you see sometimes I miss the posts in the thread.

I think you can do it either way. From what I've read on here, most people get married with the Mexican judge either a day or two before their "wedding" or even the morning of, and then do their "religious" ceremony (which isn't a legal marriage) separately without the judge. I've also heard of them doing both ceremonies at the same time, but you'd have to make sure the judge is available to come to your wedding, if you do it this way. Also, a lot of people do a legal ceremony in the states before going to Mexico for their wedding. They usually don't tell anyone and just do it as a private thing between the couple only. We got legally married in Maui last month and didn't tell anyone (okay, so I told my parents...shh). does that help at all....sorry if I'm confusing things even more for you.

Laura ~ only 8 more posts to become a "Senior"! It looks like Elite is 3000 or something. Christa isn't elite and she's @ 2200+ i think.

that sucks....and they ran off with your $$.

From what I understand, the legal ceremony is done in Spanish by a judge usually before your "religious" ceremony....this is the one that is translated for you. The "religious" ceremony is performed by a minister and can just be in English.

Great bags Angela and a great price! Love them!

I negotiated a lower deposit on room block then what the resort originally wanted. So, you might want to consider that. Also, I don't know if it is an AI or not, but my resort is trying to increase the food prices on me by over 8%, so you might want to consider seeing if they will include a guaranteed (sp?) food price/set-up fee for you. ....just something I learned after the fact. hope it helps!

Congratulations! Sounds like everything went off without a hitch....except it sounds like you should have chained the cameras to the tables...LOL. Glad everything went wonderfully for you. Can't wait to see the pictures!!

What a fun reunion!! You 3 are so beautiful!!

I did a paper airplane and on one side (wing) we printed "Please save the date! Tony and Jessalyn are getting married June 23, 2007". On the other wing we printed, "Book your flight! Passport required...Destination ~ Cabo San Lucas, Mexico". When the airplane was unfolded we had printed inside all of the details regarding the room reservations and our website. I know they're not a Mexican theme....they're more along the line of the boarding pass theme....thought I'd share anyway. Our guests thought they were really cute. Oh, and I made them in photoshop. Good luck. Hope you find just what you're looking for!

They turned out very nice. Great job!

Ha! I love his reaction! That is great!