Mishi

Welcome to the forum and congrats! First thing you need to decide is what you will be covering for your guests. This can take up hardly any or most of your budget. Are you going to pay for their rooms, all inclusive fees, airfare or anything at all. Some of us pay for all of the guests (and keep it small) for everything but airfare and some don't pay for anything except the wedding day festivities... while other pay for their wedding parties bill and leave the rest of their guests on their own. The less you pay for the more open you are with your guest list. If it is low cost per person than the more the merrier. If you are covering expenses for guests you need to decide your budget, per person cost and then you can send your STD's. If you are thinking you can keep it small like 15, there are a ton of beautiful villas and villa resorts (multiple villas on one property) that have all inclusive options that you can stay in as well, for a more intimate feeling. And as I am sure you have seen there are a ton of incredible all inclusive resorts that give your guests a little more freedom. I would decide what you are going to cover and what that part of the budget is and go from there. Some resorts/villas only charge 500 for your ceremony and since the food is included the dinner doesn't cost anything extra and then of course like you saw at 10,000 it can get up there. In any case, congrats and we are sooo excited to be here every step of the way.

I worked in jewelry for a few years and let me tell you there is a huge difference between lab created and genuine...with one exception... moissanite. This started getting big about ten years ago because people were getting scammed by having the diamonds swapped for moissanite. You can't tell the difference... even a jeweler has a hard time. It is as hard as a diamond, will scratch glass like a diamond, and to the naked eye, touch and stand of time you will never know the difference. It is not as inexpensive as a lab created but it is way cheaper than genuine diamond. They have them in pink, yellow, blue, you name it. If this is something you are wanting to keep forever, I would either go with genuine or moissanite. There is a reason the labs are cheaper and you get what you pay for. They won't last forever and many will even scratch on the surface over time and will definitely fade. Good luck and we want pics when you finally do get it!!!!

I think it depends on how you want to set the tone... if you go with formal you can expect people to expect a formal setting. We set up our backyard with tables and tons of lanterns/candles/luminaries and made it feel like we were at the beach and decorated all the tables with sand and starfish etc. To set the tone for this we did themed passport invites for everyone. They loved it and it helps them to understand what the dress code, expectations are going to be. You can do anything and it will be great but just remember that the guests have no idea what to expect except whats in that little invite.

I did the same thing, I paid for everything for the guests except their airfare. I did OOT bags in their villas and this was my gift to them.

mare : care

wedding:magical!

Love them! If these are this good... can't wait to see your TDT!

Everything looked so beautiful! Love the red dress! Great pics, thanks for sharing and Congrats!!!

Hi Erin, I did mine the inexpensive way... I bought navy blue card stock, used a scrabooking corner punch to round the edges, used gold ink and stamps to decorate them with our names, etc. and then laminated them. Then I bought light blue, watermarked paper, but you can get any kind and cut them the same size as the covers and corner punched them as well. I pre-printed what I wanted on the paper and just layed them all together, folded to make a seam in the center and then stapled them in the crease. It turned out soooo cute. I used my passport as a template and even drew the square grids on the pages and put the different stuff inside. There was a template on here at one point for a passport but I think it was a little fancier than mine. People still talk about those passports today, lol.

I think I posted this a long time ago, but it merits a repeat, lol, IMO... but our first dance was What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life by Barbara Streisand. It is soooo beautiful and is perfect for a wedding... and most importantly its slow so for all of those two left feet grooms it won't trip them up. YouTube - Barbra Streisand - What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?

Ok... please tell me you paid attention, lol. I see they are curling your hair with a flat iron and I know you can do that by grabbing at the top and turning over and pulling down but I have never seen such perfect curls done this way. Do you remmy how they did it?

Thanks girlies! Foxy I saw your wedding pics and they are beautiful! And oh my gosh Sarah, six days til the baby... you have been busy since I have been gone ;0}

I did a Passport. You can make it have as many pages as you want... mine had 6 pages, so 14 front and back including the covers. They are small, mail nicely, very impressive when done and I love that they go with the theme and won't take up a lot of room for the guests when traveling. If you want details on how to do it, just let me know. They can be a little time consuming, but soooo worth it.

No Casey, I think there is something wrong, it won't let me open it either and I want to see, lol.

It's easy to say because we aren't there now but it will be fine in the end. We only invited 18 people because we paid for everything except their airplane tickets, which were between 400-600. His whole side of the family (who all have money) came no problem. My Mom, Brother, Aunt, 2 Uncles, Two Cousins (one 15 who was my maid of honor, like my sister) and 2 best friends were invited. With one month to go... none of them had gotten passports or airline tickets. I ended up paying for one of my Uncles who reimbursed me, paid for my Brothers (who was 21) since he was giving me away, paid for my cousins/MOH since she was 15 and my MOH and paid for one of my best friends since she already had her passport. That was all I had at my wedding. They had 2 years to save 400 dollars and didn't do it. When I tell you I was stressed... I am not a drinker and I literally spent three nights a week drinking myself into oblivion because I was so stressed. And my then FI and I were arguing because I wanted to break down and pay for everyone and he didn't. Don't let them stress you out. In the end it was their loss and honestly it ended up being great because with a small group of only 12 we had a blast! I wish they had been there and even feel bad when those of us that were there talk about the stories but as long as you and your soon to be hubbies are there, that's all that matters!

I agree... the best thing about your wedding is that it is "your day" and you should feel beautiful! When you walk out and your soon to be husband sees you, you want to feel like he thinks you are the most beautiful person in the world and all his. If you are self conscious and don't feel beautiful, it won't be the same. I am sure you Mom wants nothing but for you to be happy.

October's in the house! JANUARY FEBRUARY February 22 - Ana (Ana) MARCH March 4-Cachet (cdc0427) APRIL April 25 - Melissa (SgtPepperette) MAY JUNE June 5 - Jessica (Jess) June 28 - Heather (*Heather*) JULY AUGUST August 18 - Kathy (Cattie) August 25 - Jenn (JenniferLynn) SEPTEMBER September 15 - ErinB September 16 - Samie (lil_miss_frogg) OCTOBER October 29- Mishi NOVEMBER DECEMBER December 8 - Casey (*Casey*)

It is your day and the last thing you want to do is stress... I would just make it clear that these are you plans and if they venture off on their own (flight, other hotel, etc) that they are responsible for their own costs (transfers, etc) and if they invite anyone else then all of their expenses are at their own costs and that they may not be able to attend because of limitations. Just remember it is your day and the last thing you want is to let others issues become yours. It will all work out beautifully and you won't care who is where when it comes time to say "I Do", as long as you and your husband are in each others arms.

Cindy M, your's sounds completely different... she needs a "come to Jesus talk", lol. It is one thing if guests are paying for everything on their own but if you have an intimate villa with ten guests... you don't want some strange person there while you are in your panties getting ready. You need to just tell her you don't mind if the person comes but she will have to have her own accommodations... what can she say to that. She is just young and doesn't understand.

I love this idea... but it is expensive and depending on where your wedding is it may be hard to get. I couldn't do this so what I did was take card stock and pre-made little cards that were big enough to hold a polaroid. On the outside I printed a picture of us and our names/wedding date/location (whatever you want) and on the inside left it had a little lovey saying and on the right I pre-cut slits for the picture to fit in. Then we had polaroid cameras there for everyone to get a picture with us and then put it in the card for them to take home. It was nice because it gave them a nice pic with us and most people get dressed up for a wedding and it captured them as well. If you have anything special at the wedding, like a horse and carriage or something you can have the picture taken of them in it. You can also get picture frames that will fit the pics and do that as their momento. They have the little cameras now that take pics that look like photobooth pics and print out immediately like a polaroid. Anyway, just some ideas. People love pics!

I love stuff like this and that's such a cute idea... here's something I came up with... This October, with our special guests, we will tie the Knot This time of year the weather will be great and not so hot Because you're dear to us, we would love for you to go But understand if other plans simply cause a no We are sure to have a blast, down in the Florida sun We hope you'll share our special day and join in the fun Just let us know, if you think, that you will make it there These memories are sure to be exciting ones to share For those of you that can't attend, after Michigan temperature rises There will be a party back home and everyone's invited!

Congrats! Now you know we wanna see pictures ;0}

LOL, I wish I had known about this. I have PCOS, which has a symptom of pretty much no periods. So between the time I was 16 and 29 (the age I was when I got married) I had had a total of about 5 periods. It had been a two year gap since I had had my last one... and what happens the day I arrived in the Dominican to get married... here she comes! I was so pissed! And do you know it lasted the whole time I was gone (four weeks) and stopped two days after I got back. When we went for our one year anniversary this past April... same thing. Something about going overseas. I am so going to try that this year for our trip. Thanks for sharing ;0}

Congrats! I also got married and honeymooned in two different parts of the DR and loved it! Let us know if you have any questions ;0}

I second Paradisus Palma Real... it was amazing. I honeymooned there as well and I have been to a lot of AI's and none of them hold a candle to this place. I saw two weddings while we were there and they were beautiful! They pay so much attention to detail that you can't be there and not feel totally magical. Let us know if you have specific questions, good luck!