heather007

I explode out of my suitcase. Literally. I always cram everything into my suitcase, then instead of "neatly" looking for things, I go at it like a madwomen and clothes pile out of my suitcase and all around it. I attempt to keep clean and dirty seperate, by putting dirty in a pile beside it, but then the clean clothes creep onto them. By the time that I get around to attempt to sort things out, things are so wrinkly, it's a mess. Haha, good thing for laundry service at while on trips. ~~

Well, our wedding trip to Barceló was amazing. Through the whole trip there were a lot of ups and downs, a bit of drama, a heck of a lot of drinking and a ton of tears. There was a lot of laughter, sunburns, almost drowning(s), people throwing up over sides of boat, others passing out from too much tequila in the afternoon [me], an accident resulting in surgeries in Cancun, losing wedding bands and sunglasses in the ocean, breaking cameras and being attacked by bats; basically needing a holiday from the holiday. Overall though, I could not ask for a better wedding/honeymoon/trip. Well, sort of. We are going to be taking another honeymoon by ourselves for reasons that I will get to later on. Barcelo Colonial- I would totally recommend getting married at this resort. We got the Ocean Scents package and we are so happy that we got the more expensive package. The meal was absolutely amazing and the location was stunning. Unfortunately, it rained during set-up so we had to have it in Captain Morgan's Grill, but even so, it was better than a second option, it was great. We weren't disappointed. The Photographer- Nathalie [once I get her consent to talk about her I will post her information]. She went above and beyond what any photographer would do. Not only does she take amazing photos, but she is an amazing person, a great personality, and a wonderful friend. I could not imagine anyone else sharing our special moments with us other than Nathalie. She was there for me when I needed her and she even did my hair for me when my curls fell out after the rain!!!! The events Firstly, I ran out of time before leaving Regina because of a series of unfortunate incidents in the beauty department. My hair stylist and I had a miscommunication moment resulting in my hair becoming purple and a loss of half an eyebrow two days before we left. I ended up having to spend an additional half a day in the salon getting my hair re-dyed to the colour that I wanted and an eyebrow pencil to fix the problem. Needless to say, I lost a lot of time for the “last minute†things, resulting that I did not sleep at all the night before we left. When we arrived at Barceló Colonial, we were greeted by amazing welcome cocktails and a fabulous lobby. The Colonial is an absolutely stunning resort, far greater than any of the other Barcelós. By far, the Colonial exceeded all of my expectations for appearances. The first week was very busy, we spent a lot of it getting ready for the wedding and socializing with our guests. It seemed like we were never alone during the first week, which was fine, but it was very busy. Welcome Cocktail We had our Welcome Cocktail in the Puebla Bar, the bar that is located in the Colonial lobby; on the Monday [Francis and I arrived on the Sunday]. This was one of the best things that we could have planned. Most of our guests arrived at different times and from different departure places, so it only made since considering that no one knew where anyone was. I ended up sending down the welcome bags, contents, decorations, etc. with family so on the Sunday after arriving, I had to attempt to gather everything up from everyone. We needed to meet with our WC at 11:00 a.m. on Monday; our cocktail was for 3:00 p.m. My two sister-in-laws, my Mother-in-law, and my eldest sister came to the rescue and put together our welcome bags, which was amazing. However, I had like 20 minutes to unpack everything, show them what goes in which bags, and to gather the things I needed to meet the WC. Talk about multi-tasking. After meeting the WC, Claudia, we knew that we were in great, experienced hands. Claudia asked a ton of questions, allowed us to ask questions, and knew what I was talking about in my ramblings when even I started to confuse myself. We got back to the room and phoned for a bellboy to take down our bags to the bar because we had over 25 bags and each bag was about 7 pounds, depending on what was in it. Well, the bellboy never showed up. We called 4 times, and they just kept telling us someone was going to come. We were already 10 minutes late by this point, so we carried them down ourselves, all at once. I got about halfway, my arms were about to fall off, so Fran went ahead and brought back some cousins to carry them the rest of the way. Once we got there, we all sat in a big circle and we had everyone introduce themselves: who they are, where they are from, what they do, and how they know us. It was a lot, but it worked very well and there was a lot of humour in it. We also told them were to go for the ceremony and reception and about our online photo sharing site. The Accident Within 24 hours of being at the Barceló, one of our guests slipped on a wet spot outside of an elevator. She ended up fracturing her wrist and shattering her hip, needed two surgeries. However, after arriving in Cancun, the hospital wouldn’t operate on her because they did not have her blood type, O negative. In fact, for some reason, Cancun couldn’t get any of that blood and Canada would not fly any down. Our guest spent 5 days without her surgeries and could not travel back to Canada because they thought that she had a blood clot. Finally, we were granted permission to put up signs at the Transat desk asking for O negative blood from other guests. We managed to find someone who went to Cancun to give her a transfusion. She arrived back in Canada the following Tuesday and is doing great. Our Planned Group Excursion The majority of us are avid fishermen, so it was a given that the planned excursion would be deep-sea fishing. We planned it for the Wednesday, the day before our wedding. Things started out great; everyone was having fun, except for Fran’s two cousins who were suffering from the tail-end of food poisoning. We were about 45 minutes into it when three people: my Dad, Francis, and the photographer, Nathalie, started to not feel very good. All of a sudden, my Dad started dry heaving and bolted for the side of the boat, feeding the fishes. I have absolutely no stomach for puke, so I turned green and tried to keep down my own cookies. Then, Francis looked at me, sweat pouring out of him, and said that he was going to be sick too. Nathalie and I looked at each other and decided that we needed to turn the boat around and let off the sick people, including me. So, the captain, full speed, drove back to dock and we got off, while the rest went on to fish. Needless to say, we won’t be doing that again. The Wedding Day Francis and I plus his Mom and two sisters spent the night before getting our Pashminas ready, gluing starfish to fans, and [cough cough] writing our vows to each other. I had dropped off my wedding dress, undergarments, and hair piece at my parents room and my Mom told me that she would met up with me at my hair appointment, and we would go back together to her room to get ready and to get photos done. That morning, after a restless sleep, we went to get our massages done. They were okay, but I was too stressed to really enjoy it. I know Francis really liked it. Once we were done, it was 12:00 p.m. and Francis got his first manicure done. My hair appointment was at 1:00 p.m. so I went back to the hotel room to shower and shave before my hair appointment. Little did I know that my Mom forgot my hair flower in her room so I had to go back to get. Not a big deal since their room was down the hall from us, but she didn’t have a key, my Dad had it. My Dad, however, was no where to be found. He was supposed to be outside the spa, but he wasn’t. I was running out of time so I went back to my room to shower and hoped that he would be back in his room when I was done. Well, he wasn’t. It was already 1:15 p.m. and I didn’t have my hair flower, which I needed for my hair appointment. Luckily, the maid was cleaning their room and I managed to tell her that I was the bride and I needed in there to get my stuff. I don’t think she understood but she let me in anyway. I got back to the spa and realized that I was all alone. My mom, sisters, everyone was not there. They had all gone for lunch, something that I hadn’t done and I was absolutely starved. The only person there was Nathalie, to take photos. I broke down crying, because I was so mad, and the day was not turning out to be the way how I envisioned it. Plus, I was so upset about not having my stuff and the stress about having to literally break into my parents room to get it, just fried my nerves to the point of tears. Nathalie calmed me down with alcohol. I sent Nathalie over to get pictures of Francis opening up his gift from me, which was a sliver chain. By this time, my sisters had shown up, but no Mom or Dad, so I had no access to the room where my wedding dress was. However, I proceeded to get more upset when the time started to tick by very quickly. The time was 2:30 p.m. and I was still sitting at the spa, attempting to get my hair done. The lady couldn’t understand what I wanted, even though I had a picture there from her book. I have a lot of hair, and it’s very heavy, so it kept falling out and it wasn’t anywhere close to what the picture looked like. My Mom finally showed up, and I sent her next door to get my bouquet. My Dad came too, and I asked him to get me a drink and a bun. I hadn’t had anything to eat all day except for a very small breakfast and I was so hungry. Well, I never saw my Dad again after that. It was 3:00 p.m., my wedding started at 3:15 p.m. and I didn’t have my make-up done, access to my dress, and I still had to walk to my parents’ room, plus, no key card. We made it to the room and pleaded with a maid to let us into the room. This time, they wouldn’t. Finally, the maid slowly made it over to the door and radioed down to someone to tell them what was going on. Then, the door to the room opened and my Dad was standing in there, asking us what was going on. I asked him where he went and he said that he misunderstood me and thought that I wanted him to come back to the room with my bun. Ugh!!!! It was 3:15 p.m. Wedding time. I was putting on my make-up in the room. It literally took me 5 minutes, I was so fast!!!! I gave my parents their gift, vice versa. Victoria, another WC came to the room to take me away, because we were late, then, my bobby pins, almost all at once, popped out of my hair and the my style fell out. Victoria, Nathalie and me started pulling bobby pins out of everywhere, pinning my hair back, and hair spraying everything in place. Then, my Mom came at me with a veil, which was quickly pushed away because I didn’t want to wear it in the first place. So, now it’s about 3:30 p.m. and I’m late for my own wedding. Finally, we arrive, I see my groom standing there and it’s heaven. The best moment of my life. After the ceremony, it started to rain so we had to move the ceremony in Captain Morgan’s Grill. We ran over time, so we ended up having to pay for an additional hour, but it was well worth it. The Reasoning for Another Honeymoon Francis and I decided to go for two weeks, primarily because we wanted the second week to be just us, with a few excursions and suppers with the remaining family members and friends that were there for the second week. Well, I left the bookings for the excursions and suppers with him, while I went and took 10 minutes to myself. It was Sunday. Well, he booked us from Monday to Friday for excursions and supper every night but Saturday with them. I was very upset. I assumed from that [even though we had discussed for a year the purpose of the second week] as a personal attack to us and that he didn’t want to have “romantic alone time†with me. Plus, he left me absolutely no time to do homework, which has placed a major strain on me for stress. I was very hurt by this, and felt like he didn’t really care. When we did have an hour to by ourselves, we ended up bickering and me bawling. In addition to having no alone time, we never did anything around the resort, I only spent probably four hours total on the beach, the only time that I sat at the swim up bar was to get someone else a drink when I was practicing snorkelling, and I was only in the pool twice, once for the trash the dress, the other time was when we were snorkelling [which I did get to swim around for a bit after snorkelling]. We only took one evening stroll on the beach alone. We even had a bottle of champagne in our room that never got drank. I was very upset by this, and I still am, but I’m attempting to not let it get to me anymore. We managed to switch two meals to be by ourselves, so that was a plus. We have decided that we are going to go somewhere else for a honeymoon, but the topic is too fresh and we are just going to wait a little bit before fully deciding where to go and when. Even with that though, I had an excellent time and am so happy right now. Well, except for the snow and the cold and the homework and the cold and the snow. ~~

Well, our wedding trip to Barceló was amazing. Through the whole trip there were a lot of ups and downs, a bit of drama, a heck of a lot of drinking and a ton of tears. There was a lot of laughter, sunburns, almost drowning(s), people throwing up over sides of boat, others passing out from too much tequila in the afternoon [me], an accident resulting in surgeries in Cancun, losing wedding bands and sunglasses in the ocean, breaking cameras and being attacked by bats; basically needing a holiday from the holiday. Overall though, I could not ask for a better wedding/honeymoon/trip. Well, sort of. We are going to be taking another honeymoon by ourselves for reasons that I will get to later on. Barcelo Colonial- I would totally recommend getting married at this resort. We got the Ocean Scents package and we are so happy that we got the more expensive package. The meal was absolutely amazing and the location was stunning. Unfortunately, it rained during set-up so we had to have it in Captain Morgan's Grill, but even so, it was better than a second option, it was great. We weren't disappointed. The Photographer- Nathalie [once I get her consent to talk about her I will post her information]. She went above and beyond what any photographer would do. Not only does she take amazing photos, but she is an amazing person, a great personality, and a wonderful friend. I could not imagine anyone else sharing our special moments with us other than Nathalie. She was there for me when I needed her and she even did my hair for me when my curls fell out after the rain!!!! The events Firstly, I ran out of time before leaving Regina because of a series of unfortunate incidents in the beauty department. My hair stylist and I had a miscommunication moment resulting in my hair becoming purple and a loss of half an eyebrow two days before we left. I ended up having to spend an additional half a day in the salon getting my hair re-dyed to the colour that I wanted and an eyebrow pencil to fix the problem. Needless to say, I lost a lot of time for the “last minute” things, resulting that I did not sleep at all the night before we left. When we arrived at Barceló Colonial, we were greeted by amazing welcome cocktails and a fabulous lobby. The Colonial is an absolutely stunning resort, far greater than any of the other Barcelós. By far, the Colonial exceeded all of my expectations for appearances. The first week was very busy, we spent a lot of it getting ready for the wedding and socializing with our guests. It seemed like we were never alone during the first week, which was fine, but it was very busy. Welcome Cocktail We had our Welcome Cocktail in the Puebla Bar, the bar that is located in the Colonial lobby; on the Monday [Francis and I arrived on the Sunday]. This was one of the best things that we could have planned. Most of our guests arrived at different times and from different departure places, so it only made since considering that no one knew where anyone was. I ended up sending down the welcome bags, contents, decorations, etc. with family so on the Sunday after arriving, I had to attempt to gather everything up from everyone. We needed to meet with our WC at 11:00 a.m. on Monday; our cocktail was for 3:00 p.m. My two sister-in-laws, my Mother-in-law, and my eldest sister came to the rescue and put together our welcome bags, which was amazing. However, I had like 20 minutes to unpack everything, show them what goes in which bags, and to gather the things I needed to meet the WC. Talk about multi-tasking. After meeting the WC, Claudia, we knew that we were in great, experienced hands. Claudia asked a ton of questions, allowed us to ask questions, and knew what I was talking about in my ramblings when even I started to confuse myself. We got back to the room and phoned for a bellboy to take down our bags to the bar because we had over 25 bags and each bag was about 7 pounds, depending on what was in it. Well, the bellboy never showed up. We called 4 times, and they just kept telling us someone was going to come. We were already 10 minutes late by this point, so we carried them down ourselves, all at once. I got about halfway, my arms were about to fall off, so Fran went ahead and brought back some cousins to carry them the rest of the way. Once we got there, we all sat in a big circle and we had everyone introduce themselves: who they are, where they are from, what they do, and how they know us. It was a lot, but it worked very well and there was a lot of humour in it. We also told them were to go for the ceremony and reception and about our online photo sharing site. The Accident Within 24 hours of being at the Barceló, one of our guests slipped on a wet spot outside of an elevator. She ended up fracturing her wrist and shattering her hip, needed two surgeries. However, after arriving in Cancun, the hospital wouldn’t operate on her because they did not have her blood type, O negative. In fact, for some reason, Cancun couldn’t get any of that blood and Canada would not fly any down. Our guest spent 5 days without her surgeries and could not travel back to Canada because they thought that she had a blood clot. Finally, we were granted permission to put up signs at the Transat desk asking for O negative blood from other guests. We managed to find someone who went to Cancun to give her a transfusion. She arrived back in Canada the following Tuesday and is doing great. Our Planned Group Excursion The majority of us are avid fishermen, so it was a given that the planned excursion would be deep-sea fishing. We planned it for the Wednesday, the day before our wedding. Things started out great; everyone was having fun, except for Fran’s two cousins who were suffering from the tail-end of food poisoning. We were about 45 minutes into it when three people: my Dad, Francis, and the photographer, Nathalie, started to not feel very good. All of a sudden, my Dad started dry heaving and bolted for the side of the boat, feeding the fishes. I have absolutely no stomach for puke, so I turned green and tried to keep down my own cookies. Then, Francis looked at me, sweat pouring out of him, and said that he was going to be sick too. Nathalie and I looked at each other and decided that we needed to turn the boat around and let off the sick people, including me. So, the captain, full speed, drove back to dock and we got off, while the rest went on to fish. Needless to say, we won’t be doing that again. The Wedding Day Francis and I plus his Mom and two sisters spent the night before getting our Pashminas ready, gluing starfish to fans, and [cough cough] writing our vows to each other. I had dropped off my wedding dress, undergarments, and hair piece at my parents room and my Mom told me that she would met up with me at my hair appointment, and we would go back together to her room to get ready and to get photos done. That morning, after a restless sleep, we went to get our massages done. They were okay, but I was too stressed to really enjoy it. I know Francis really liked it. Once we were done, it was 12:00 p.m. and Francis got his first manicure done. My hair appointment was at 1:00 p.m. so I went back to the hotel room to shower and shave before my hair appointment. Little did I know that my Mom forgot my hair flower in her room so I had to go back to get. Not a big deal since their room was down the hall from us, but she didn’t have a key, my Dad had it. My Dad, however, was no where to be found. He was supposed to be outside the spa, but he wasn’t. I was running out of time so I went back to my room to shower and hoped that he would be back in his room when I was done. Well, he wasn’t. It was already 1:15 p.m. and I didn’t have my hair flower, which I needed for my hair appointment. Luckily, the maid was cleaning their room and I managed to tell her that I was the bride and I needed in there to get my stuff. I don’t think she understood but she let me in anyway. I got back to the spa and realized that I was all alone. My mom, sisters, everyone was not there. They had all gone for lunch, something that I hadn’t done and I was absolutely starved. The only person there was Nathalie, to take photos. I broke down crying, because I was so mad, and the day was not turning out to be the way how I envisioned it. Plus, I was so upset about not having my stuff and the stress about having to literally break into my parents room to get it, just fried my nerves to the point of tears. Nathalie calmed me down with alcohol. I sent Nathalie over to get pictures of Francis opening up his gift from me, which was a sliver chain. By this time, my sisters had shown up, but no Mom or Dad, so I had no access to the room where my wedding dress was. However, I proceeded to get more upset when the time started to tick by very quickly. The time was 2:30 p.m. and I was still sitting at the spa, attempting to get my hair done. The lady couldn’t understand what I wanted, even though I had a picture there from her book. I have a lot of hair, and it’s very heavy, so it kept falling out and it wasn’t anywhere close to what the picture looked like. My Mom finally showed up, and I sent her next door to get my bouquet. My Dad came too, and I asked him to get me a drink and a bun. I hadn’t had anything to eat all day except for a very small breakfast and I was so hungry. Well, I never saw my Dad again after that. It was 3:00 p.m., my wedding started at 3:15 p.m. and I didn’t have my make-up done, access to my dress, and I still had to walk to my parents’ room, plus, no key card. We made it to the room and pleaded with a maid to let us into the room. This time, they wouldn’t. Finally, the maid slowly made it over to the door and radioed down to someone to tell them what was going on. Then, the door to the room opened and my Dad was standing in there, asking us what was going on. I asked him where he went and he said that he misunderstood me and thought that I wanted him to come back to the room with my bun. Ugh!!!! It was 3:15 p.m. Wedding time. I was putting on my make-up in the room. It literally took me 5 minutes, I was so fast!!!! I gave my parents their gift, vice versa. Victoria, another WC came to the room to take me away, because we were late, then, my bobby pins, almost all at once, popped out of my hair and the my style fell out. Victoria, Nathalie and me started pulling bobby pins out of everywhere, pinning my hair back, and hair spraying everything in place. Then, my Mom came at me with a veil, which was quickly pushed away because I didn’t want to wear it in the first place. So, now it’s about 3:30 p.m. and I’m late for my own wedding. Finally, we arrive, I see my groom standing there and it’s heaven. The best moment of my life. After the ceremony, it started to rain so we had to move the ceremony in Captain Morgan’s Grill. We ran over time, so we ended up having to pay for an additional hour, but it was well worth it. The Reasoning for Another Honeymoon Francis and I decided to go for two weeks, primarily because we wanted the second week to be just us, with a few excursions and suppers with the remaining family members and friends that were there for the second week. Well, I left the bookings for the excursions and suppers with him, while I went and took 10 minutes to myself. It was Sunday. Well, he booked us from Monday to Friday for excursions and supper every night but Saturday with them. I was very upset. I assumed from that [even though we had discussed for a year the purpose of the second week] as a personal attack to us and that he didn’t want to have “romantic alone time” with me. Plus, he left me absolutely no time to do homework, which has placed a major strain on me for stress. I was very hurt by this, and felt like he didn’t really care. When we did have an hour to by ourselves, we ended up bickering and me bawling. In addition to having no alone time, we never did anything around the resort, I only spent probably four hours total on the beach, the only time that I sat at the swim up bar was to get someone else a drink when I was practicing snorkelling, and I was only in the pool twice, once for the trash the dress, the other time was when we were snorkelling [which I did get to swim around for a bit after snorkelling]. We only took one evening stroll on the beach alone. We even had a bottle of champagne in our room that never got drank. I was very upset by this, and I still am, but I’m attempting to not let it get to me anymore. We managed to switch two meals to be by ourselves, so that was a plus. We have decided that we are going to go somewhere else for a honeymoon, but the topic is too fresh and we are just going to wait a little bit before fully deciding where to go and when. Even with that though, I had an excellent time and am so happy right now. Well, except for the snow and the cold and the homework and the cold and the snow. ~~

I love them, great find!!!! ~~

Hello everyone again!!!! Francis and I have come back from our very busy/crazy/fun/exciting/odd wedding/honeymoon/holiday at the Barcelo Colonial!!!! I never got around to making a list our my stuff, so I'll be doing that later today once I organize my pictures. Then, I will write a very long/detailed review of our wedding and our trip. Just wanted to drop a note to say hi and that it sucks coming back to the snow!!!! ~~

When we sent our our invitations, we included a note about our welcome cocktail. When we hand out our OOT bags, there will be an itinerary in there with all of information. ~~

Awesome find. If it wasn't so late, I would totally be all over this offer. ~~

very nice and a great price. ~~

Oh my, I totally forgot about the fans again!!!! I have to go and count and see how many I have managed to find. I'll let you know tomorrow afternoon. Thanks!!!! ~~

Courtney is so nice!!!! Plus, there are sellers on Ebay and Etsy, but I find that Etsy is somewhat expensive. These are so simple to make though. Here's a hint though: don't use fishing line. LoL. I used it for my first couple of trails and found that it didn't stretch or it was too loose. ~~

Thanks everyone so much for all your great responses. I am distancing myself from her, I have put up with her drama for so long now. To add fuel to the fire, she wrote poop about me on her Facebook page!!!! She knows that I never ever go on Facebook, I'm the anti-Facebook, but my sister kept nagging my to change my profile picture [so I changed it to my cat, LoL]. Anyway, I noticed that she was writing stuff on her "wall" about me and the drama that I'm causing. WTF!!!! I got pissed there because there are mutual people we know- good thing they all know what type of person she is. I didn't confront her about that, I'm not going to go to her level. I'm just going to leave it alone. Looks like she is about to lose another friend, unfortunately. ~~

I just bought the white flowers from Michaels and Walmart. For the ostrich feathers I buy them from Quebec off of Ebay. I've added a few pictures of it in my hair. Mind my appearance; it's early, I stayed up way too late last night, I'm still in my pj's, and I haven't brushed my hair yet. LoL. I'm probably going to have my hair half up. Do you think it's too big? I'm sitting on the fence with it. :S ~~

That's a very reasonable price. Our guests from Saskatchewan are paying around $1900. It's cheaper at other departure areas though. For us, we are paying over $3000 each because we are going for two weeks. Personally, I wouldn't hire an outside WC. My BM WC is Claudia and she replies back within days and is very good with her answers. I have talked to a lot of brides who have gotten married at the BM and they found that it only took about 20 minutes, once down there, to determine all the smaller things. With the DJ question, I too have heard that their DJ's aren't the greatest. What we are going to do is hook up a Ipod or CD with some Diana Krall, jazzy type dinner music. Then we have speeches. After the cutting of the cake, we are going to have our first dance, party it up at the Disco. We decided to get the Mariachi Band as well to play when we are first waiting for our meal. ~~

Haha, I realized afterwards that the flower looks way bigger than my head. I'm going to attempt to get some more shots of it. I don't have the back attached yet, so I'm having to hold it up. I did have an Ebay an Etsy shop up before, but it was too busy that I couldn't do it plus my own wedding and with school. After this semester is done [like this summer] I'm going to totally sit down and focus on my hair flowers, invites, and other wedding accessories. I absolutely love it. ~~

I finally got around to making my hair flower. I am so happy with the results. I made it all out of feathers, using green ostrich feathers to look like leaves. It took me about 5 hours to make. Sorry about the quality of the picture, it's 1:30a.m. and I am too lazy to go upstairs to find my camera, so I'm using my webcam. It's bigger than what I wanted, but I figure because I have a lot of hair, it will look fine. ~~

Carie- I'm so close to being done everything. All I need to do is print out my programs, welcome letters, and a few other things. Plus, I still need to buy some shorts, but Sears has some nice ones. My travel mugs have arrived, I'm just waiting for UPS to show up today to drop them off. I still need to tan a bit more. What else? I think all I need to do is just go through everything and make certain that we have enough for our OOT bags. Unfortunately, we never got our welcome books made, mainly because I didn't think that it was worth it in the end. They would be very heavy. So, I might make something else here in the next couple of weeks. How are you doing? We seriously need to hook up for a drink at the Barcelo!!!! ~~

I just got veto'd as a bridesmaid, I'm so flipping mad!!!! The story: A girl who I'm friends with asked me like two years ago to be one of her bridesmaids for her upcoming 2010 wedding. I said yes, ofcourse. As time progressed, I went from bridesmaid to maid of honour, to not being in the wedding party, to bridesmaid again. The reasoning for this? She has a habit of changing friends very quickly. Let's just say, I have known her for three years and I am one of her "longest" friends. I only talk to her/see her about once a month because we aren't that close. So, when she "re-asked" me, I said yes, but I would be very busy up until my own wedding [2.5 weeks away]. Plus, I told her I'm very busy with school- during the summer, I took full time classes plus worked full time, last semester I took three classes plus a full time practicum along with me being a teacher's assistant for two university classes, equaling over 120 students. This semester I'm taking 4 classes and I'm now a research assistant [i'm helping to write a textbook for the university. Go me!!!! Plus, not to mention my own wedding planning. She was aware of this and said that it would be fine. She also told me that her wedding isn't until 2010, so not a big deal. Well, she moved up her wedding to 2009 sometime [she hasn't actually told me when because it kepts changing months] but she went ahead and did all of her favours without me. She said that she called, but I never got the message on my house phone or my cell phone. Her favours are soap that are wrapped in facecloths. Then she proceeded to tell me that I missed the dress fittings, once again, no phonecall. The dresses are orange pants with yellow tops. LoL. So, these were all done months ago and we had talked about it, I told her to email me if she gets my message machine and call more than once. She then pulls the card, "well I facebooked you" which I don't use facebook because it crashes my Vista. Anyway, she called last week to tell me that I had to come to the bridalshow with her [yesterday] because all of her bridesmaids will be there and I should be to. I didn't really want to go, because I have been battling food poisoning since Thursday and I can't keep anything down. But, to be a trooper, I said that I would. I phoned her Friday night to ask her what time and to tell her that I get in for free to, considering that I'm a bride, and she was like, "oh yeah, I forgot that you are." Then she wouldn't say anything. I asked her what was wrong and she said that it seems like I don't have enough time for her and that I'm ignoring her. I repeated once again how busy I am, plus with me own wedding, etc., all of what's written above. She then said, "well, it's not like I don't want you to be my bridesmaid, but I think that you are too busy and I'm the type of bride that needs my bridesmaids for everything." I was like, holy bridezilla. To make a long story short, I told her that we had discussed all of this when she first asked me, she was fine with me being busy, and she knew that once my own wedding was done, then I would be there for hers. She said she remembers but I should make time for her anyway. She then proceeded to tell me that I'm too involved with university and that when she went [she went for two semesters and failed out] she still had time for friends. So, she said that she thinks it's best that I don't be her bridesmaid because she didn't want to hate me by the time her wedding came around. I'm like, what? She agreed to me being busy: my own wedding, school, work? She also knows that my wedding is like in February and that once I got back then I would be able to do stuff for hers: like take dance lessons. She then said that it seems like all I care about is my own wedding and not hers. What? It made me so mad. So, I let her go, told her that she hurt me and that she can find someone else to stand up for her. She then called me back like 5 minutes later and told me that she was just stressing out and that she wants me to be a bridemaid. I proceeded to tell her that if she is this stressed out months before her wedding, then I don't want to see her 2.5 weeks before her wedding. I then said that no, I won't be her bridesmaid because she has hurt me too much with this drama and she can find someone else. She then said that she did have someone else lined up, totally ignoring the fact that I told her she hurt me. Ugh, that's my story. I'm just so sick and tired of self-absorbed people who don't understand that the world doesn't revolve around them. Does this whole thing make me a bitch? ~~

That is just way too cute. Luckily though, they were caught by the police. I love how they were disappointed so the police gave them a tour of the jail house, that is just adorable. ~~

Great- thanks ladies. We weren't planning on having anything formal like speeches, but, once again, family and friends started asking about speeches and which ones they are suppose to give. ~~

What an awesome idea by giving travel bags in your OOT bags. You must have gotten a great deal on them. Hope everything sells. ~~

I discussed this idea over with Francis and my parents and they all think that it is a great idea. However, now that I just had his Dad come solo for a visit [he kept expressing his feelings still for the Mom] I'm thinking that maybe they will now want to sit beside each other instead of across from one another. I'm so confused. Haha. ~~

This is what we kind of have planned for the wedding reception speeches. What do you think? 1.Grace before dinner Dinner. 2.Francis’ parents toasting the uniting of the two families 3.Heather’s parents toasting us as a couple 4.Francis' sisters toasting Heather to in a welcome to the family 5.Heather's sisters welcoming Francis to the family 6.Francis toasting Heather 7.Heather toasting Francis 8.Francis and Heather toasting both sides of the family 9.Anyone else welcome to toast Francis and Heather Is this alright? We don't have bridesmaid or groomsmen. We don't plan on having a MC, instead, we will have the programs sitting underneath the menues at each place setting. ~~

Oh, thank you so much!!!! ~~

I printed all mine out on cardstock and folded the first one yesterday. The look awesome. Thank you once again!!!! ~~

Handfasting is basically where you bind yourselves together with a cord, ribbon, etc., and then exchange your vows. It's followed by Celtic beliefs/ religions and some Christian groups have incorporated it as well. It's basically bonding yourselves to each other for ever. I don't know a whole heck of a lot about it, but I think that it would be extermely meaningful to Francis if I brought it into the ceremony. I have my cross to put into my bouquet, so I think it's only fair to have his beliefs acknowledged as well. Before we got engaged, he said that he wanted to be handfasted, but afterwards we never really talked about it. I just don't know how to actually do it, so I'm hoping someone on this board has done it before to give me some guidence on it. His sister is very knowledgable in it, but she is in Australia at the moment and is so hard to get ahold of. Plus, I don't know of a shoppe here in town that I could go into asking about. ~~