PaulaV

Here are the welcome booklets I made for our wedding. They went in the OOT bags. The Cancun information was mostly from cancuninfo.com. The content for the English-Spanish translations I used from a post from here and I added a little. I designed our logo. I will have to look at home to see where I got the map. I have many of you to thank for bits and pieces of content, but I apologize if I don't thank you personally... I started it a long time ago and cannot remember where I got everything. They were small booklets (8.5 X 11 divided by 4) spiral bound with clear covers and a thicker black paper backing. I printed all the inside at home, collated them and took them to both Kinko's and OfficeMax for a quote. We also signed our names at the bottom of each of the Bienvenidos/Thank-you-for-coming-to-Mexico pages. OfficeMax was the better deal and could also bind them while I waited. The charges were for 2 cuts (since there were 4 per page), plastic front and booklet backing, then two spirals per 8.5 x 11, since they would be cut in half. Kinko's was going to charge for 4 spirals 8.5 X 11 set instead of 2. Hope that makes sense. I am attaching it in pdf format to retain the fonts I used, since they are not standard fonts. If you would like to use my original, please send me a PM with your email address. Hope this helps someone out there! Paula PV welcome booklet.pdf

We had 6 BMs and 3 GMs, flowergirl and ring bearer. Each GM walked down two BMs. All my BMs were important to me, so I would not even think of cutting any of them out. I think it worked out fine.

Wow the year has flown by! Hope you have some wonderful plans for your anniversary Christa!

What a great start to the week, celebrating your birthday! Congratulations Julie!

I am sure you will find something beautiful! Have fun Erica!

Hey Maria! I owe you an email... it was getting long We built the house we are in now, see my comments below: Quote: Originally Posted by MikkiStreak Frank and I are starting to research home building in anticipation of actually beginning the process later fall/winter. Even tho I've been a homeowner before, I've never built, and I'd like to "smarten up" about this and see what this has been like for other people. 1) Whom did you choose for your home builder and why? There were only two builders in the subdivision where we wanted to build. The one we chose allowed for more customizations. I believe we had an 8% discount when we signed as well. We had friends that built with them that had positive experiences (but didn't get the discount), so we went with them. 2) Did you finance using your home builders mortgage company? Any pros/cons to using theirs instead of your own? We did not use theirs since their rate was a lot higher than the company we finally used. 3) What do you know now (that the building is finished), that you wished you knew then (before starting the building process)? That their sound-proofing (extra insulation between the floors) doesn't really work. Especially with DH's new sub-woofer! It will never be ready when they say it will be. I cannot think of much more right this second. I can say we are pretty pleased. 4) What didn't you expect in the process? (or, what "surprises" did you have in the process- both good and/or bad) We paid a bit out of pocket, so take that into account. For example, the builder had us go to the lighting store they deal with to pick out our standard lighting. We ended up paying more since we didn't like some of the standard fixtures and just knew we wouldn't change them ourselves. Same with the electric we spent about $1500 extra. We added a fan outlet in our bedroom, overhead lights in the spare rooms, outlets in the kitchen cabinet banks, some spotlights in areas that didn't have it, also other cabling around the house. I am sure there was more there I cannot remember. Our bedroom was supposed to have a slanted ceiling with a shelf, but once they built it, it was different, one of the small changes in that model we didn't pay attention to well enough. A plus was the 13 block basement which was standard with their newer builds. I don't think you have basements in TX though do you? We were in phase 2 of the development. The window configuration in our great room was only on one other house and they were in phase one, no where near us. The builders make sure not to allow the same house next door to where you build, so they alternate the builder. However, when they started building the house directly behind us... they have the same configuration! We were hoping they didn't choose same stucco we had, luckily the chose siding but it's just about the same colour. So out of 3 phases, I think we are still the only 3 houses with those windows in the back. I was also mad that we moved in before them and they got sod before we did... apparently it was a mistake and it had to be ripped out later since they were not graded before laying it down. We are friends with them and can laugh about it now, but didn't know what the builders were up to. We didn't have sod for almost 6 months after moving in and have a rather large dog that had to do his business out there. That was the most frustrating thing to deal with. Think snow and mud. Yuck. They even knew the sod was one of the most important things to us. They had all of those good months to put it in... the only reason they have told us why we didn't get it was, 'There was a sod shortage'. So that money remained in escrow for 6 months. It was hard to get a hold of the building supervisor, you had to leave messages at the model office to have things fixed or changed, but once we did reach him, things were addressed very quickly. 5) What advice would you give to someone starting the process? Negotiate with them as much as possible. We asked them to remove one thing (if they could), but give us something somewhere else instead of a money credit. We had a couple of doors added, a wide frame were room opening was wide open, changed a bathroom entrance, had a tile pathway added where there would have been carpet, had half walls added where there would have been wrought iron spindles and a banister (Yikes! Looking down 2.5 stories... I prefer the wall). If you have an idea, ask them if they can do it... The kitchen bar was straight in their floor plans, but we thought it would be nicer if it curved around. They actually could do that at no charge, just wasn't in their floor options. Keep in mind if you plan to resale eventually how some of the changes/upgrades will affect the value. Ex: We didn't care for the jacuzzi tub, but we got it for resale. If you can, stop by often to see the progress and make sure you take pictures so you can refer to them later on. We have used them several times to see where joists are in the walls. The blinds would have been a seperate item as well. They sent us to the design center to pick out the carpeting, the tile, paint, front door, granite, etc. The blinds there were decently priced, but we found a store that had a a sale in March, we put down a deposit with them and they installed all our blinds in Decemeber for $59 a window any size. That was a deal! 6) What would you have done differently if you did it all over again? Our floor plan is a five-level split. Love it, but if someone is up in the house you can hear them as all the rooms kind of come out to the great room. It is only the two of us and a dog, but when you have visitors, you cannot be too loud in the great room. We didn't need an extra standard door on the garage. We have yet to use it. Hmmm... we love our house! We have fun neighbours too! 7) What did your builder consider "standard" options? And what did you choose for "upgrades"? We actually had quite a few standards in this type of house which would have been upgrades, but I cannot remember. We did upgrade the carpeting throughout the house except for the spare bedrooms. Upgraded the padding throughout. Oh we upgraded the appliances to stainless steel which we really like. We looked at Sears, Lowe's, etc. to see if we would just purchase them and have them installed, but it would have left us with little cash to work with once we moved in. We upgraded the kitchen counters to granite, it love them. We upgraded to the jack-and-jill bathroom between the third and fourth bedrooms which cost almost as much as the granite kitchen counters, ha! What percentage of your final price was due to upgrades? (example: if the home was $200,000 and you spent $25K on upgrades...) Cannot remember, I tried my best to forget Seriously I don't think it was a whole lot since this level home already had upgraded items standard. 9) What kind of timeframe did you have for this---- from starting to research, making a decision, then actually building and finally moving in? We signed the contract on Jan 31st. They broke ground sometime in April. They were supposed to have it ready in November, even tried to have the walk-through the last day of Nov, to be able to say it was ready... it still had a few things left to be completed. So we told them once they were done completely, we would set up the appt. We did so the following week, moved in Dec 6th. 10) What was the easiest decisions you had to make? What were the hardest things to decide on? We visted the design center to see all the options before we even signed the contract to make sure we liked what they had to offer. We actually went two times before actually picking out our options. They only gave us two weeks to make those decisions and it was during the times we worked. The hardest part for me was picking these items. The house colour, the granite since they only give you a little block to look at unless you choose what is in their kitchens already, which we didn't like. I think the easiest thing for us was choosing the location of the house, the way it sat on the lot and the model. We already lived in the area and had looked at several models before getting serious about it. Once we decided we should go ahead and build instead of waiting a year, we knew what we wanted. Any input you feel like sharing is definitely appreciated!!! This is new, exciting, but also where I have a huge learning curve to address and your input will definitely help us! It can be frustrating at times, but well worth it in the end. Let me know if you have any other questions, I can try to answer. Good luck Maria and Frank!

We used white ecoffetti as well.

Congratulations Carolena! Yes, the place is perfect! I can't wait to see your pictures!

Have an excellent birthday Jessica!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They are fantastic Galit!!!

Shhhh... I may read it as well... Thanks for sahring Jamy

Te quedaron super! Very nice Maura! I love the fonts you used!

Day was not fun, but right now... A boody Caesar and discovering Kroger-brand spicy little pickles that rock!

Yaaaaaaaaaaay! Sounds like you had a well deserved get-away. That last pic is a good action shot of Amos in the water.

I did this. I bought the shell at Hobby Lobby for about $2 and about 6-7" long.

It's pretty much a work in progress until you meet with them once you arrive at the resort. I had all the big things figured out, Ultimate package price locked in at 2007 pricing (for Feb 200. I made minor adjustments and added some bouquets and flower centerpieces once we met. Once you meet, you review every line item and sign individual invoices for each piece as that is how their billing needs it turned in.

Quote: Originally Posted by cancunbride2be Any of you other recent brides out there DYING to get back to Mexico?? Its only been a month since I've been back from the honeymoon and I am already itching to get back. I'm soo spoiled!! Absolutely! We had an excellent time! I just made my screensaver a bunch of our wedding & Dreams pictures so I can see see the nice sunny pictures while it's icky here. I will never get used to the cold weather

Awww Glenda... I love stuff like this... So which scent was the bath oil you tried? They ALL sound good to me! Love musk, patchouli, vanilla, lavendar too... I really like their packaging as well. Thanks for posting this.

Shake it Heidi!!!! I think you look beauti-ous with straight hair!

Oh wow! Your anniversary will be here soon! You need a countdown ticker Sounds like a great place to vacation. Wonder what surprises Jason will have planned for you this time

Quote: Originally Posted by lucy106 Does anyone know how many songs are needed for the ceremony? I figure one for entrance and one for exit but is any music needed for in the middle of the ceremony? This of course does not include the pre-ceremony music while guests wait. We had about 15 minutes of music while the guests arrived by the gazebo. I added a littl more in case we started late, which we did, so I added some of the first songs over again... Then a song for the BM & GMs. Numbered the song so the sound guy knew where to queue it up. The song I walked down to next. No music during ceremony for us. The next song was to walk back down the aisle. Added one more kind of long one since we would still be in the area with all the congratulations we would have with everyone.

I had the same issue with my dress. It was one layer and you could see any underwear line under it. I bought Spanx 'Higher Power' and they did NOT work well, for me. They are supposed to come up under the bustline and down the thighs. I don't know about other Spanx, but what's up with the seams down the middle of the back and front?! The seams are thicker than you would have in pantyhose and squiggly! (And what's up with the opening down there? Do they really think I can aim? Just kidding). Anyway, I could not wear them under my dress. I just checked the tags of the underwear I actually used and there is no brand on them... grrr... they were perfect. The style, etc. is stamped inside them, no brand. Similar to 'Commandos' but much less $$. I bought them at Filene's Basement, but I think TJMaxx, Marshall's, or Macy's might have them. They are nude in colour, but they have a raw edge. No finishing which was the key, no edge needed with that material. Both the regular style and the thong have a 'V" front, so it helps with no roll. I apologize I cannot be more specific, but I didn't keep the tag. I must say shopping for underwear was harder (and less fun) than buying my wedding dress

I agree, iTunes. I also used a lot of my own CDs for music in Spanish and 80s music. Can you ask some friends to look through their CD collections?

That is so exciting! Have an excellent time Mandy! My dad lives there

Quote: Originally Posted by babycow OMG Paula It's getting serious! -Level 3 in DE county huh? I don't even want to think about having to shovel our way out tomorrow! I still have so much to catch up on before my new appointment this Thursday. My super organized FMIL called me this past thurs and suggested I secure another date before the weather got bad and everyone that had to cancel today, rescheduled. So glad she is on top of this, she is awesome! Hehe, 3.5 miles to be exact I took a nap and I think the snow *finally* stopped! It sounds like some of the Canadian ladies have been out shoveling every few hours. They got so much more than we did. Ugh! We will just wait until tomorrow. That is great your FMIL is on top of things. You have so many other things on your mind I am sure. 70 days to go!!! Let me know if I can help you with anything.