meghan1177

We had a party this weekend and played them. Every once in a while you'd see someone do a double take when they realized they recognized the song. It was great.

Very unique -- and they look great. It's always nice when you can find some aspect of the wedding planning that FI is *really* excited about!

Thanks, Memi -- just cream and a paint brush. As an FYI though -- I got the reusable stencil. You are meant to be able to pull it off and use it again on multiple projects. To a degree it works, but you have to be really, really careful to make sure it is fully stuck to the next project. Some of my starfish are ending up with really fat legs where the stencil didn't completely stick!

Here's the photo from the baker -- only ours will be round. The best part -- the cake is absolutely delicious. We went down for a cake tasting last fall and loved every bite of the small cake she gave us as a sample. Yum....

Lots of great ideas on this thread! I have had mixed experiences with Vista Print. I ordered postcards back last fall and they were perfect (well, except for my spelling error, but that's clearly not VistaPrint's fault!!). Then we tried to order magnets to include with our STD -- and they looked completely washed out. No where close to the colors that they were meant to be -- really, really faded. I called and had the order refunded with little hassle. A couple of weeks ago I ordered two sets of postcards (one to make up for the one with the spelling error and a new set). One set came out fine. The second looked like it was ripped apart rather than cut. The edges are jagged. Again, I called and got an immediate refund of the price. So, while the quality hasn't always been good -- they are happy to refund your money if you have an issue with anything. They will offer a store credit or to redo the project --but if you say that you'd rather have them refund your order they will.

BudgetBride and JNL -- I really can't stress how SIMPLE it is. Honestly, I figured I was going to need to try a couple different times to get it just right -- and while there are a couple of things I'll tweak, I wouldn't be sad if I had to use my first attempt either. Good luck! KatyKo -- that was very sweet of your FI. I imagine that the dremmel is a little bit harder on the glass than the etching cream, but you can never be too careful. Thanks for the tip!

I'm sorry I missed those -- and I had done a search before I started because I was hoping to get some tips. Your flutes are amazing. (and I love your guest book pages).

I spent hours the other night looking for instrumental versions of popular songs that we could play at the cocktail hour before the reception. Since we couldn't afford to actually hire a quartet, we decided we'd just have instrumental music played during that hour. I eventually stumbled across Vitamin String Quartet and must have listened to each and every one of their 30 second samples on iTunes. They are brilliant and have a lot of the popular "wedding" type songs I've seen discussed on these forums. We've picked out about thirty on iTunes that we're going to make into a cd to give to the DJ -- and I'm listening to them now. They sound amazing, so I thought I would share! They even have a wedding collection cd at Vitamin Records Enjoy!

I etched starfish on to a glass container this morning and wanted to share because it was SIMPLE. I purchased sheets of blank stencils and used an exacto to make my starfish design. Then you tape the stencil to the glass with masking tape and apply the etching cream. After five mintues, you rinse the etching cream completely off and let dry. This was a test -- but I'm planning to etch these on to the glass vases we are going to buy for the sand cermony - which will be MUCH cheaper than getting them engraved by someone else. Cost: Stencil: $7 at Michael's Etching cream: $11 at Michael's (These are regular price -- so with your 40% coupon, it will a lot less). The stencil is reusable and there is enough cream in the small jar to do dozens (if not more) of these. Getting started. Final Product: Edit: I should have noted that I bought this particular glass to test -- it was a dollar at Michael's.

We bought FI's ring on Amazon. It was a 6mm white gold for just over $200. We priced it in stores (and had him try them on to get the right size) and found the saved a lot by going to Amazon. It arrived quickly and we're really happy with it. We also bought my engagement ring and wedding band online. We found them in a store and searched up and down for the best price. We decided to get them from Diamond Brokers of Florida. Their website looks completely shady -- but they were professional, fast and wonderful to deal with -- and they saved us a bundle. We got both the engagement ring and the band for less than what the engagement ring cost in the local shop. We had the engagement ring appraised to make sure we didn't get ripped off and it came in higher than even the shop price. I can't recommend them enough.

we're using the same song (and here we thought we were being unique...oh well!). we haven't quite figured out how to dance to it yet, but we saw some folks doing the cha-cha and that looked like it would work. Good luck.

You sound very smart, Kathie!! I've posted pictures over on the "blog" portion of the site. AT: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...g-project.html

Please forgive me for the little rant to follow -- I just needed to get it out of my head! I think I can honestly say that we've been working on our STDs for several months now -- they've some how managed to be quite unlucky! We decided that we wanted to do boarding passes with a twist. We wanted the part that you'd traditionally tear off on a real boarding pass to be a magnet. I made mock ups using labels to cover magnets we had, and it looked cool. So, I ordered the magnets from Vista Print in August -- and man was I disappointed. They were cut crooked and the color on all the magnets looked sun-faded. They were tacky and gross. We decided we would cover all the magnets with printed labels so the colors would be bright again. This first involved covering each magnet with a blank label so the original color wouldn't show through. Dear FI "labelled" about 100 magnets before I realized that the magnets were so cheap that with the weight of the label they couldn't actually hold up the boarding pass (which was the point -- so they could just throw it up on the fridge). Scratch that idea. During all of this, I went to Papersource to pick up the paper-- I had only purchased enough sheets previously to do a test or two and see what we liked. I get to Papersource, and wouldn't you know -- they've discontinued carrying the paper. Ugh! Many phonecalls later (and a brief look into becoming a small business to be able to order the paper in bulk -- I kid you not), we finally were told that there was a limited supply in the stock warehouse and we could order it online. Double ugh! While waiting for the paper to arrive -- I decided that since I wasn't doing the magnet anymore, we should find some other "bling" to make ours unique (the need to be unique is a curse, I tell you!). We decided on starfish charms -- tying a ribbon around the boarding pass envelope and tying the charm on there). My FMIL had sent some to us over the summer so that's where we got the idea. Simple enough -- except no one was selling starfish charms in October. I eventually find them online -- spend far more than I'd like on them and patiently wait for them to ship. For some unknown reason, they are delayed by 2 weeks and after several phone calls, I eventually get my shipping charges refunded and the charms arrive. So that brings up to last week -- add in your typical frustrations with printing envelopes and everything else, and we are finally at a stage where we have all the "ingredients" to make our save the dates. But man, the process -- it takes forever to assemble one of these things. We've been working on it for more than a week and only have about 45 done and dusted. We've another 75 to make! Oh my. Between the folding, cutting and gluing of the envelope sleeve, and the cutting of the boarding pass, and then the tying of the ribbon and stringing on the starfish -- it's all just exhausting. I am incredibly lucky that FI is helping -- but still, I'm ready for it to be over! But by the time I'm done, it will probably be necessary to start the invitations if they are ever to arrive before the wedding! Why, oh why, do I think that DIY is such a good idea?!? (PS. I do have pictures on my camera that I will upload soon, promise!)

These are the images to accompany the rant I posted on the forums about making STD. I've pasted it below as well! The quality is iffy because they are from my cell phone, but they give a basic idea of how they turned out. http://i324.photobucket.com/albums/k...swedding/2.jpg http://i324.photobucket.com/albums/k...swedding/6.jpg http://i324.photobucket.com/albums/k...swedding/4.jpg http://i324.photobucket.com/albums/k...swedding/5.jpg Please forgive me for the little rant to follow -- I just needed to get it out of my head! I think I can honestly say that we've been working on our STDs for several months now -- they've some how managed to be quite unlucky! We decided that we wanted to do boarding passes with a twist. We wanted the part that you'd traditionally tear off on a real boarding pass to be a magnet. I made mock ups using labels to cover magnets we had, and it looked cool. So, I ordered the magnets from Vista Print in August -- and man was I disappointed. They were cut crooked and the color on all the magnets looked sun-faded. They were tacky and gross. We decided we would cover all the magnets with printed labels so the colors would be bright again. This first involved covering each magnet with a blank label so the original color wouldn't show through. Dear FI "labelled" about 100 magnets before I realized that the magnets were so cheap that with the weight of the label they couldn't actually hold up the boarding pass (which was the point -- so they could just throw it up on the fridge). Scratch that idea. During all of this, I went to Papersource to pick up the paper-- I had only purchased enough sheets previously to do a test or two and see what we liked. I get to Papersource, and wouldn't you know -- they've discontinued carrying the paper. Ugh! Many phonecalls later (and a brief look into becoming a small business to be able to order the paper in bulk -- I kid you not), we finally were told that there was a limited supply in the stock warehouse and we could order it online. Double ugh! While waiting for the paper to arrive -- I decided that since I wasn't doing the magnet anymore, we should find some other "bling" to make ours unique (the need to be unique is a curse, I tell you!). We decided on starfish charms -- tying a ribbon around the boarding pass envelope and tying the charm on there). My FMIL had sent some to us over the summer so that's where we got the idea. Simple enough -- except no one was selling starfish charms in October. I eventually find them online -- spend far more than I'd like on them and patiently wait for them to ship. For some unknown reason, they are delayed by 2 weeks and after several phone calls, I eventually get my shipping charges refunded and the charms arrive. So that brings up to last week -- add in your typical frustrations with printing envelopes and everything else, and we are finally at a stage where we have all the "ingredients" to make our save the dates. But man, the process -- it takes forever to assemble one of these things. We've been working on it for more than a week and only have about 45 done and dusted. We've another 75 to make! Oh my. Between the folding, cutting and gluing of the envelope sleeve, and the cutting of the boarding pass, and then the tying of the ribbon and stringing on the starfish -- it's all just exhausting. I am incredibly lucky that FI is helping -- but still, I'm ready for it to be over! But by the time I'm done, it will probably be necessary to start the invitations if they are ever to arrive before the wedding! Why, oh why, do I think that DIY is such a good idea?!?

Okay, now that I know what a brad is -- I feel silly. Sorry!

Forgive my ignorance -- but are brads the same things as charms? If so, I might be able to help. I just went through the same search for my save the date and settled on these: Create for Less They are a little pricer -- but they also look like they cost that little bit more. During my search, I also ran across a lot of options on ebay and there are also some on the Oriental Trading Company. I waited until the last minute so didn't have time to try it out and see if they looked okay. Good luck!

You and I must have the same computer screens, because I think the two blue colors look way off and completely understand why you are upset. That said, the towels do look great in your bag, and your guests aren't going to know what the advertised color was -- so try not to let it stress you out too much. Hopefully the vendor will do something to "make it right" and make you happy -- the comments by the sales rep were completely out of line.

Calia -- I"m so sorry to hear what happened. In March we lost our kitten, Latte, to FIP, so I understand, at least a little, where you are coming from. I could be mistaken, but our vet told us that is nearly impossible to test in advance for FIP -- as nearly all cats have the corona virus and it only "goes bad" in some of them. She also said that without a host the disease dies in 6 weeks (meaning if you don't use your litterbox or other kitty items for 6 weeks the diesel will die off). Latte grew sick gradually and we spent a lot of time at the vets office trying to find out what was wrong -- we even went to a kitty neurologist. It was no comfort to me, so I don't expect it will be to you, but there is nothing that can be done to cure FIP if that is what the kitty has -- so there was nothing you could do. It didn't make me feel any better at the time -- but knowing now that I did the best I could is sort of comforting. Your kitty was lucky to have you hold him and comfort him at the end. I'm so sorry for what you are going through.

I wasn't sure if you wanted to buy or make the cards. I made mine -- because I had bought earrings for the BMs to wear the day of that I wanted to incorporate into the ask. Here are some pictures: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...nor-cards.html (the center of the big flowers are pearl earrings). They were fairly inexpensive to make -- from memory: pack of 10 cards -- $5 silver paint pen -- $2 Freshwater Pearl Earrings -- $5/pair * 7 = $35 fake flowers $5 for the bundle black center dots $3 glue $3 Silver ribbon -- $1 Total: $57 or about $8/card. I also had tons of fake flowers left over so I put them in the beachbucket that I used to ask my flowergirl. Hope that helps!

Eek, sorry I haven't responded to anyone, I forgot about this post. Heather -- the buttons are made out of marizipan (sp?). It's like playdoh and you can roll it out to create anything you want. It comes white and you use food coloring to create the colors you want. It took ages!! Thanks petal and Josh -- about half way through I wish I had been so much less creative and just gone to the store for a cake! Sometimes my imagination outweighs my actual skill!

Thanks, Yari. Your pictures from your legal day are fabulous! Congrats!

Hey everyone -- thanks for the comments -- they were very helpful. Just a couple of clarifications -- our wedding is in the US -- in Georgia. So it is a destination for all our family and friends (and us) but still very much a traditional wedding in all the other senses. As for the contract and the price -- I do have the price, and what it supposedly entails in writing in the form of an email -- which isn't a contract per se, but I'm quite certain would be strong enough to hold up in court if it ever came to that (but it never will because she only has $100 from us and it's not worth all that). All that said, I do have very good news. After talking to the officiant yesterday, I was totally bummed and annoyed, but I remembered that my mom's friend how lives on the island that we are getting married on had recommended a Reverend to us months ago. I hadn't really checked him out because he was affiliated with a church and we wanted a more non-denominational wedding. Anyway, long story short, I called him yesterday and talked to him a bit. He's absolutely delightful and I really enjoyed the call. So, I think we are changing officiants --and I couldn't be happier. At the end of yesterdays call, the first officiant had told me she would send a break down of the costs in about an hour -- we finally received them this morning and it was absolutely clear that she didn't spend a whole lot of time actually listening to anything I said, or anything that FI and I had said when we met with her last weekend. Ugh. Honestly, I really couldn't be happier about our decision -- now we just have to get on the phone with her on Monday and tell her and ask for our deposit back. Wish me luck!

Maybe I'm over-reacting (a good possibillity), but I'm extremely annoyed. I just got off the phone with our wedding officiant and I'm not sure what to do. Background: Back in May I emailed her on the recommendation of the ceremony location. She seemed nice, if a bit scattered. She told me then that it would cost $225 for the rehearsal and the ceremony. In July/August my finance and I have a call with her. We didn't have the best impression, but we didn't have a lot of choices and she seemed nice enough. She tried to push other services on us and we followed up declining them. My notes from the call say $225 for the rehearsal and the ceremony. We then send her the $100 deposit. Last weekend we went down to the location to meet vendors and establish what we were going to be doing. We met her a location of her choosing on Sunday morning for about an hour and a half. I had written up exactly what I wanted for the ceremony including a sand ceremony and a stone blessing. We get a much better impression of her at this meeting and we are very happy with our choice. We at one point mention that we had been interested in having live muscians at the cocktail hour but that we hadn't been happy with the ones that fit into our budget so we were scratching it. She offered to talk to her friends for us. Then... She calls me Monday saying shes talked to her friends and they are available. I discuss the cost with FI and we decide we still aren't intersted (we wanted certain instruments and these weren't it). FI calls her and follows up with an email expressing our regret and asking her to confirm that the $225 is the right price. She sends us an email saying that it is $600 and it includes a specific service (hotel room turndown) that we've repeatedly asked her not to include. I email her and tell her we dont' want that service. She says take $125 off. So now we are at $475, not $225. I send her an email saying I was confused and could she explain the prices. She doesn't reply so I call her. She tells me that the sand ceremony and stone blessing are $50 each (okay, but shouldnt' you have mentioned that when we talked) and that her basic fee is $275 not $225 (okay, but I have an email from you saying otherwise). Well, that still leaves $100 not accounted for. She tells me it is the charge for meeting with us on Sunday. Huh? The $225 was meant to include "Consultation and Wedding Ceremony Planning" so why am I being charged $100 extra for that? She just kept telling me about all the time she's spent. She told me that she researched rehearsal dinner options for us (something we asked her not to do when she suggested). I explained that we had told her not to do that, but even if she had, we hadn't seen anything from it. She claimed it was emailed. I'm just torn. THere aren't a lot of options for officiants where we are getting married and she really seemed to get where we wanted to go with the ceremony. -- but I am really not a big fan of all these financial surprises. Am I being crazy, or is she out of line?

Sorry Foxybride, I don't know.

AC Moore is having a sale on Messenger bags and Backpacks -- they are 2 for $5. They will work as a great alternative for guys (I think I'm going to use them for our groomsmen) -- but you could also use them as OOT bags for single guys. The messenger bags were black and the backpacks were green and black. If we end up getting them, I'll definitely post some photos.