Mandy

http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t22106 Here's the link for Mom's photos of the welcome books and downloads for the templates.

Quote: Originally Posted by MoWife Just wanted to say reading through this thread made be laugh. Good luck with your drunk shopping in Mexico! I find it extremely hard to believe that one of Morgan's topics made someone laugh. She's our most serious member!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Morgan We are flying US air & bought our tickets before the 1 bag thing. it's not retroactive with them so we get 2 bags each. Well, I get 3 mike gets 1. There will be an empty bag after we give out our OOT bags & palm fans. I can fill it with glasses & necklaces. You might think about buying some tacky t-shirts to wrap everything in so they don't break. Better safe than sorry!

Or you could buy plastic. They don't usually put lead in plastic. Oooh, or you could borrow some from the resort. Those should be safe.

Quote: Originally Posted by Morgan how would you find out? I also want to get a big, tacky turquiose necklace. Woo Hoo drunk mexico shopping. Last time I was in cancun there was a mall across from our hotel. I'd walk over there occasionally with a full beer & buy junk. Well, you could use them every time you want to drink something for about a year, then go have your lead levels tested. That should work. Make sure you bring an extra suitcase with you and enough money to cover the 2nd checked bag surcharges.

Quote: Originally Posted by Morgan ha ha! i was drunk when i bought these if we buy them from a street vendor will we know they are safe? lead free, etc? If you buy the from a street vendor for 20 pesos apiece, and later you find out that they're not, no biggie. Another silly honeymoon purchase!

I vote for going shopping in Mexico while you're there, too. Go wild! Get tacky! You can always use the excuse that you bought them on your honeymoon!

You also might consider adding a poll to it where we all pick Cocotal or Fuentes as our "free" reception site.

Quote: Originally Posted by mellowdrama Wow - that's incredibly helpful! Good to know - I wasn't too crazy about the dinner options, and that's why we went with the breakfast idea. We'll review the dinner options again, and re-think the decision about using the free meal for breakfast. I've got plenty of time to decide, since the wedding isn't until December. Thanks for the advice! If you haven't already, take the time to read through this thread: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t7513 I know my mom posted the dinner menu for Fuentes in the last few days, and some other girls have made recommendations on what was good. You also might think about starting a thread in the Riviera Maya forum on "EDR Reception dinner options: Cocotal vs. Fuentes, BDW tested and approved" or something like that and ask members to post what they did or didn't like at each place.

Quote: Originally Posted by PenMarie Don't get me wrong, Erin -- I've "heard" of some living to 10, but they're very very few and far between. I know a lot of ferret people and we all have had a LOT of ferrets (most ferret people I know have in the double digits and more), and I've known none that have lived to 10 yet....6 to 8 years old is definitely the average. I'm freaking 'cause I have six 6-year olds this year and six 5-year olds...and 3 youngsters (2 to 3 years old, respectively) -- and, yet, here my 3 year old is diagnosed with lymphoma, and I'm devasted all over again -- all my ferret friends say these little guys just live to break our hearts. A cute ferret saying, "a dog will steal your heart...a ferret steals your soul" (and your keys...your socks, etc., etc...hehe) -- but, stealing the soul part is soooo true..they're just like little people. I always say I have 15 two year old children running around my house on a daily basis. Yeah...unfortunately, the internet has a lot of incorrect information (and misconceptions) about these little guys, just like other subjects, as I'm sure we've all found out. Thanks for listening.. You absolutely need a BDW Club Ferret avatar in your siggy.

Quote: Originally Posted by shannon Mandy -your bags were great!! I remember seeing those around the resort!!!! My parents and 2 other guests stayed in building 30 and hung out a lot on the beach near Faisanes. By the way, my mom keeps going on about how beautiful you were at your wedding!! And Isaac almost went over and talked to your husband as "fellow forum husbands" so they could sympathize with each other. Needless to say, he sat quietly and watched!

Let's try to avoid a duplicate of last year:

Everyone is invited to celebrate in our new headquarters for Nibblet's birthday.

Quote: Originally Posted by Rhonda Hi, I just booked my wedding at EDR for May 2, 2009. I'm SO happy that decision has been made, but, now I need to make a lot more decisions! I am wondering...For any past or future EDR brides, how soon did you choose the locations for the wedding events (ceremony, cocktail, reception)? I was told by my WC that you can't book locations until at least 6 months before... What has been your experience? Thanks for your help! I highly recommend Gazebo 55. It had a beautiful extended view of the ocean and was relatively private. We actually changed our dessert reception location after we got there, and there were 3 other weddings that day.

Quote: Originally Posted by mellowdrama Great idea for this thread! * In lieu of using the 'free group dinner reservation' in our free wedding package, we will be using this meal for a group breakfast, the day of the wedding at El Cocotal. Amy, anytime we had breakfast at El Cocotal, there was always a ton of room and we had no problem sitting with everyone if we wanted to. I would recommend you use this for a dinner at Las Fuentes or El Cocotal. We preferred Fuentes. Maybe a welcome dinner or good bye dinner. Just my two cents.

I almost forgot: we also had to purchase the clips on the change purses separately (from OTC). The weren't expensive, but they don't come together. They helped keep the change purses in place in the bags.

Quote: Originally Posted by Dez921714 Like everyone else, I love the books! I was thinking of getting the beach proof containers for our guests, but they are round and the room keys won't fit in them...where'd you get the change purses from? Oriental Trading Company. Check out the Coupon Codes thread for discount codes for things like free shipping. We also got the playing cards, mini dominoes, and beach balls there. A note on the welcome books: they came from Hobby Lobby in the scrapbook section. Mom printed off everything that went in the books and then glued them directly on the pages. Isn't she great?

Carly, do you happen to know the name of the font you used?

I had the day off so I went and changed my name!!!

Abbie, those are amazing! I love them!

Would do again: -Spend the morning of the wedding with my husband. It was a very special time for us and we wanted to spend as much as possible of our honeymoon together. -Have the hand ceremony read. It was perfect and made the day our own. My grandpa read it and was so honored to be a part of the ceremony. Also, we got some amazing pictures from this. -Bring our own IPod and speakers. We almost enjoyed them more in our suite than we did at the dance, and the sound was amazing. We invested in the Bose portable sound system right before we left ($399) rather than spending $250 to rent the hotel’s speakers. -Photographer Vanessa Vargas. Amazing. I highly recommend her. -My bouquet. It wasn’t at all what it looked like on the website, but I just wanted tropical flowers and that’s what I got. We also loved the hanging flower arrangements on the gazebo. They took them to the dinner and then to the reception so we had decorations at all 3 places. We took them to our rooms that night (and gave some to both of our parents) and enjoyed them the rest of the week. -Get legally married before we left for Mexico. -OOT bags. We would have adjusted a few things, but overall they were a hit. -Direct flight to Cancun. -Not have attendants. No one felt slighted this way and everyone was able to relax and watch the wedding (and wear what they wanted). -Not have a wedding cake. We had a dessert reception and ended up picking something to feed each other once we were there for the pictures. You couldn’t tell the difference and the fruit tart was easier to pick up. -Photoshare website. The pics uploaded so far are amazing and the prints are only 9 cents each (Digital Photo Printing, Free Online Photo Albums & Digital Photo Sharing - Snapfish:). Wouldn’t do again: -Fans for the ceremony. It was waaaay too windy to have something else to hold on to. They looked pretty, but they were one of the more expensive things we made and no one used them. My mom ended up with 4 of the fans in her bag by the end of the night. -If I had it to do over, I probably wouldn’t have gone to EDR, but it worked the best for the guests, so it all worked out. Also, we didn’t have the photographer issues we thought we would have. -Worry about my shoes. The ones I had ended up working out perfectly. You couldn’t really see them under my dress and when I did show them off, everyone loved them. -Overschedule my week. About the 2nd or 3rd day, we decided we had entirely too much planned and not enough time alone, so we ended up canceling our “rehearsal†dinner and the brunch the day of the wedding. -Gone home the same day as our guests. I don’t know that we would have wanted to stay longer at the same resort, but I wish we had a few days somewhere just the two of us before we came home.

Quote: Originally Posted by ErinB Those are really pretty Mandy! Doesn't Sarah do an amazing job!?! I couldn't have made these without her! It's hard to see, but it's a bird of paradise in the background. Here's the logo that inspired these:

We made 9 bags, but the one for my MIL and SIL had an extra bag and chapstick, etc. I'm hoping that my mom might post some more details (or templates) of what went into the welcome books later (hint hint!). Thanks, Mom!

Now that I've sent all my invites out (over 225 and counting!), I now have time to post our invites. We had a friend design them using a logo that Sarah created for us. We bought the paper at Hobby Lobby and glued the two sheets together. We did have a run-in with the post-office because the envelopes were 1/8 inch to big, so the postage ended up being 82 cents apiece (!) but we're over that now. The total cost for everything (including postage) was approx $300.

Since I'm now married, I thought it might be time to post my OOT bags. Everyone used the bags on the beach, brought them to lunch, to the wedding, etc. They're from WalMart and cost $7.83. Most of the Imodium was used. Everyone got one full dose, so those who didn't need it passed it to those who did. The clever packaging came from Morgan. Her templates are posted under her planning blog. I'm not sure if anyone ate the snacks while there, but I think several were glad to have them for the plane ride home. I think everyone had forgotten chapstick (with SPF), so they were glad to have some in their bag. The band-aids were a big hit. Almost everyone used at least one for blisters. One girl used 3 boxes! The coin purses were used quite a bit, as we had key cards for our rooms and no one had pockets in their swimsuits. Also great for money and credit cards. I didn't see anyone play with the cards, dominoes, or beach balls. The motrin was used. I personally used the Shout wipes and hand sanitizer. I don't know about everyone else, but I would do it again just so I would have it! The resort had paper and pens in the rooms, so I doubt anyone used the post-its. I did use a few sheets to write reminders to DH to take my ring with him to his dad's room for the ceremony. My wonderful mother made these welcome books. I don't know that everyone used them, but the ones who did actually knew the info everyone wanted to know. I referred to them all the time. They included our logo: Also included a welcome letter and map of the resort: Mom also included a list of all the guests with how we knew them (e.g. Mandy's grandparents) and a blank to fill in their room numbers (by far my favorite and most used page!). We also had a schedule of events we had planned (then changed most of it once we got there!), puzzles, list of restaurants and times they were open, and the info for our photoshare website (Digital Photo Printing, Free Online Photo Albums & Digital Photo Sharing - Snapfish:).