boscobel

Sounds like you want a nice and simple wedding.  Sounds divine to me!  Drinks on the beach are one of my all time favorite things.

Hmmm, I hadn't thought of that.  Good question!  One of the mods works for an airline, so I'll make sure she sees this thread.

But it's only an issue if you are only having carry on luggage.  If you pack it in your checked luggage, you will be fine.

Did you try trip advisor for reviews as well?

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g652398-d534892-Reviews-Coconut_Bay_Resort_Spa-Vieux_Fort_St_Lucia.html

For me personally, that would be too much.  I wouldn't want to take on planning another function!  By the time we got back from our wedding and still had things to do for the AHR, I was so fried and just over wedding stuff.  So I wouldn't want to fry myself out before my wedding.

And as a guest, I might also think it's too much b/c it's a lot of time to spend for one function.  But with my husbands schedule and the amount of family functions that we always have, our calendars are pretty full, so again that's a personal preference since it would be hard to fit all of that in.

I'm a big believe of, you do what you want.  If you want to plan a going away party as well as an AHR, then you should plan it and people can choose to come or not to come.  This is your wedding and it should make you happy and if having your family and friends see you prior to your wedding to give you well wishes, then plan it up!

I did my luggage tags through vista print.  I designed and printed them on (free) business cards and then bought the hard plastic cases to hang from the luggage.  I don't remember the seller and it's too long ago to still be in my history, but I purchased them from a seller on ebay.

I don't think that any wedding is too plain if it's what you want.  We got married on the beach, with nothing there except our wedding party and the water as a background.  We had chairs set up for guests and the "aisle" was lined with petals, but I went very simplistic and loved it.  So it's all about what you want.  We didn't even have a gazebo.

How many guests are you having?  I had about 25 and we didn't do seating cards (for the reception either).  I just didn't think it was necessary for such a small group.  If you are having more people, it might be beneficial to do seating arrangements, but I wouldn't do that for the ceremony at all.  Might mark off the first two rows for the family or something, just like a regular church wedding.

I love the idea of your "Facebook"!  

Wow that looks like a pretty extensive list of things offered on that site!  Thanks for sharing.

Oh I LOVE Annalise!!  It's definitely not common, but it's familiar sounding.  Meaning people won't cringe when they hear it.

And I hear you about the common names.  There are so many girls names that I love but could never use b/c of how common they are - Sofia, Olivia, Isabel, etc.

What about Olive?  I think that's such a cute alternative to Olivia.  

Try the name site www.nymbler.com.  You put in a few names that you like and it will give you alternative names.  Also, a blog that I like to follow is www.swistle.com.  It's a blog where the readers send in their baby naming issues and they reply with their thoughts and opinions.  I generally think her responses are great, but I sent in my issue and wasn't impressed with the reply at all.  But I still read it b/c I love name talk.

Oh and thanks for the Xaxi love!  Of course we think he's prefect, but it's pleasing to hear that others think so too.

Hey thanks for checking in!  I should've come here to announce, but it's been a pretty crazy week!

Xavier Ryan was born on 04/09.  The labor was smooth, no complications.  I ended up choosing to get an epidural after 8 hours of contractions with no dilation, but I'm not disappointed in my decision.  (Not sure if I talked about it here, but my intentions were to go natural.)  I did the best I could and decided I was DONE with the pain!  Unfortunately the epidural didn't really take and was spotty, but I'm guessing it was better then nothing at all.  So I labored from 12:30am to about 4pm when I began pushing and he was born at 4:57pm.  So just under an hour of pushing which I was told is fairly quick for a first time mom.  So far the recovery has been pretty easy too.  I was sore for a few days but I feel almost as good as normal now.

Xavier is awesome is so sweet and hilarious.  He's a pretty chill baby, so far, quite and observant kinda like me.  

As you can probably guess from all the back and forth in this thread, choosing his name was still reallllly hard.  We were checking out of the hospital at about noon on Wednesday and we only decided on his name at about 10am that morning.  It drove everyone in our lives crazy that he was nameless for a few days, but we really still couldn't decide between Xavier and Matteo.  Obviously I'm really happy we chose Xavier, but I'm thinking that Matteo might be on our name list next time around.

So cool that the hubs can feel the baby!!  It took a really long time for Matt to be able to feel Xavier and even then, I swear he would stop moving whenever I told someone to touch my stomach.  You guys don't have ANY girls names?  What kind of style do you both like?  Can you give some examples of each of your lists?

I'll share a pic or two, but it's really hard to choose!

This is his sad/mad/old man face that is too cute NOT to share.

I think if you *think* you feel it, you're feeling it.  I felt movement pretty early and was really unsure, but it was like nothing I had ever experienced before.  Then when I KNEW that I was feeling him, I realized that what I thought was baby moving earlier was definitely baby moving.  If that makes sense, so I'd say that YES you are feeling her move!!!  YAY!

I'm not a fan of Margaret myself (even though it was my Nana's name), but there are a ton of nicknames, way more then Mags/Maggie/Marge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_(name)

It has a large number of diminutive forms in many different languages, including Maggie, Madge, Marge, Meg, Megan, Mog, Moggie, Rita, Daisy, Greta, Gretel, Gretchen, Magee, Marg, Margot, May, Molly, Margo Sanna, Margi Meggie, Peggy and Peg.

Molly is my fave, but I know a Margo and I think that's pretty adorable too.  Just throwing that out there.  I actually kinda like Rita too, which I wouldn't have thought...

And I hear you about WW3 for boys names!  We've not been fighting the last few discussions, but we certainly are having trouble agreeing.  Oh and you asked earlier about calling Xavier, X.  That def wouldn't be ok with me and I'd be correcting that early.  If he chose to go by that later, that's one thing, but as a baby/child, that's not going to fly.  The nickname that we would use are Xav or Xavi, pronounced Zav or Zavi.

Yay for a baby girl!!!  Please talk baby names here, I LOVE talking names and girl names are so much more fun to discuss (for me anyway).  And wow, 20 weeks already?  That crept up on me!

What's the hubbie link to Margaret, is it a family name or does he love a nickname for it, or does he just like the name?  Just wondering.  And what are you top picks?

Ann - I'm with you.  The entire journey has been YEARS, but the pregnancy seems to be going fast.  Well, it did until the last few weeks when I decided that I am DONE.  12 days!

Less then 2 weeks until EDD and we STILL don't have a name!  A few weeks ago, I thought we were set on Xavier b/c Matt sent me a text saying he thought that was it and I had been loving it for awhile.  So I kinda stopped thinking about it and was counting on being done and our son's name being Xavier Ryan.  Then Matt came home with a suggestion of "Marshall" the other day and I knew we weren't on the same page. While Marshall might be a great name for someone else, it is def nowhere near a name for my child.

So yesterday we actually had a good conversation about it.  I asked how he felt about Xavier and he said he liked it but wasn't loving it anymore.  He's still pushing for Dominic.  I tried to explain my feelings about Dominic, but it's weird.  I really like the name, like if we were pregnant with #2 and it was a boy, I'd still want Dominic on the list.  But I just don't feel like it's THIS baby's name.  Maybe I'm afraid to pick such a tame name and be stuck?  Maybe I feel like I need a more different/unique name for baby #1?  I really don't know b/c I do like Dominic, but I don't want to use it right now.

Then he mentions Matthew again and I said what I've said all along, I would do Mateo but not Matthew.  I don't really care for naming children after people (contradiction being that we are using my brothers name as baby's middle name) especially after their fathers.  But I like Mateo as a name and I LOVE Teo as the nickname.  I don't want two Matt's in my house.  He has always pressed that we would name him Matthew and just call him Mateo to call him Teo and I think that's silly and I'm just not willing to budge there.  Finally yesterday he says it's a consideration, he would do Mateo.

So his favorite is Dominic, my favorite is Xavier, but we both agree on Mateo.  I still really really realllllllllly want this baby to be Xavier but realize that a compromise might be necessary, so now I have to consider that Mateo is his name.

NAMING BABIES IS HARD!!!!

YAY!  So baby boy is finally cooperating and is in position today, so no worries of an ECV for me for now.  They did warn me that he can move back but for now, we're all set.

That's kind of how I envision it too.  PAINFUL.  Plus the pain that I'm already having near my belly button, makes me really not want to do this.  But I watched some you tubes today and it didn't look so bad, in fact one that I watched the woman was smiling the whole time.  I was doing some reading on forums too and some people said that they get an epidural before.  That seems extreme to me though, like I don't want to do something that needs an epi!

Tomorrow is the first day of my 38th week and baby boy is still transverse breech.  He flips around a lot, but only from side to side, he's never been head down.  I've tried various things, sitting in certain positions, yoga poses, etc, and he still isn't in position.

Tomorrow is my monthly ultrasound and if he is still breech, they want to schedule an ECV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_cephalic_version) for Wednesday.  For some reason, the thought of this scares the shit out of me.  It just seems unnatural and painful to me and I'm really unsure whether I want to try it or not.

I told my midwife of my concerns (unsuccessful, painful, and baby moves back) and she confirmed that these are all kind of true.  She said that her experience is about 40% success rate, and it's more of a discomfort then pain, and that the baby only tends to move back if it's not a first born child.

My thoughts are that women have been giving birth to babies for millions of years and the baby knows what he's supposed to do.  If he's not turning maybe there is a reason.  Maybe he isn't meant to be birthed vaginally.  Maybe he doesn't fit that way in my pelvis.  Maybe, maybe, maybe, I know.

Probably my biggest fear is that he would turn and then we would go through an attempt at a vaginal birth only to have him NOT fit through my pelvic canal and end up having a c-section.  I really don't want to double tax my body by going through basically both types of birth when my body was telling me all along that he wouldn't be birthed vaginally.

Then I think, do I sound like a crazy person?  WTF am I supposed to do?  I'm so confused!  Thoughts?

Very cool, Tammy!

Wahoo, congrats, Morgan!  Perfect timing to do a vow renewal, how exciting!

I struggle with 2 and 3 myself, but I think I can help with 1!  I recently found two treatments on pinterest that I've used faithfully for months and love the results.

Here is the pin:  http://pinterest.com/pin/237987161528347222/

Here is the website:  http://simplemom.net/oil-cleansing-method/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+simplemom+%28Simple+Mom%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

And here is a quick summary:

 

How to Get Started

1. Make your cleaner

Simply mix the oils together in a small bottle, give it a little shake, and you’ve got yourself a homemade, frugal facial cleanser. The most popular blend of oils for this cleansing method is castor oil and extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO). The castor oil draws out dirt and other gunk from your pores. The EVOO is a brilliant moisturizer, helping heal and nourish the skin.

• For those with normal skin, you could start off with a one-to-one ratio of castor oil and EVOO.

• For those with acne-prone or oily skin, reduce the proportion of EVOO, and try three parts castor oil to one part EVOO.

• For those with drier skin, start off with one part castor oil to three parts EVOO. This is what I use.

Experiment, and find what ratio works for you. Just start off with a little bit, and then try it for a few days. I began with one teaspoon of castor oil and three teaspoons of EVOO in a little squeeze bottle.

2. Gently rub it in

Pour a quarter-sized amount into your palm, rub your hands together, and slowly massage your skin with your fingertips. Don’t splash your face with water first — apply it dry. Work the oil into your skin for about a minute, and enjoy the peaceful massage at work. Don’t scrub — just rub.

3. Steam your face

Next, wet a washcloth with hot water (but not scalding!), and put it over your face until it’s about room temperature. This is steaming out your pores, removing the impurities and the dead skin cells. It’ll take about a minute — enjoy the nearly-free facial.

4. Wipe off the oil

Take the washcloth, rinse and wring it, then gently wipe off the oil. Your skin will probably feel softer immediately.

Then if you do have a breakout, this works wonders!

Pin - http://pinterest.com/pin/237987161528368955/

Website - http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/best_pimple_killer_ever

In a tiny bowl, add your tablespoon of sea salt. I reccommend using sea salt or any other kind of natural salt- table salt is not reccommended. Add literally a couple droplets of water and mix until it becomes a paste. The sea salt should not dissolve completely. If it does, add more salt- until there is a paste-like consistency going on.

 

Apply the paste to all zits on your face. I leave it on anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours- until the salt has dried is best. Then simply and GENTLY "dust" the salt off your skin. You should notice that most redness has vanished and the zit itself is looking much better. Repeat this on a daily basis until those pesky pimples dissappear.

 

Just wanted to note that this is great as a face mask as well, and that when you are rinsing it off your face it is wise to make use of the granules for exfoliation.  Also, I have used (instead of water) the juice of a cucumber and the juice of a tomato. I have even added a dab of honey to the mix when using it as a spot treatment. Try experimenting- however, the simple water and salt mixture is extremely effective.

I would check with your specific airline b/c sometimes the rules vary.

Beautiful pics.  Man, makes me want to go to the beach!

Wow, you've put a ton of thought into this!  Personally, I'm with you in loving breakfast food, so I think a nice brunch is a great idea.  For the attire, I would decide how you and your hub want to dress first and then find wording that will fit.  I would think that "Sunday best" or "Cocktail attire" would be good descriptions if you are going a less formal route.

Congrats and welcome!  A TA would be my first response too, they will be able to help you narrow down your list to a resort that meets your specific needs and wants.

Congrats and welcome.  I love DIY stuff and brooch bouquets can be so lovely, so I say if you are up for it, then do it!

Welcome to the forum, Kristee!

I agree 100% with Ann.  Picking the resort was the hardest choice for me, especially b/c my husband said that everywhere was fine with him!  A TA will definitely be able to guide you to a resort that fits your needs.  Good luck!