destination

dollar stores always have picture frames, if you're looking to go that cheap. ust don't plan on them lasting long after the event!

thanks for the advice ladies. I know I can always count on my BDW girls to get me through these things!!

gorgeous pics... and love the colors. I chose the same. i love the flowers arrangements, would you mind telling me how much they cost? If you feel that is too intrusive I totally understand and apologize. I just think something similar would be great for our wedding in June. Can we see more please?

I just decided today that we are going to have our photographer/friend take pics of us in Mexico holding up numbers and being silly for each table that we'll put on the tables instead of plain numbers. FI's dad wanted to pics of us when we were little, but I was an ugly child and am not having it!

Quote: Originally Posted by cilly_girl Okay, so not to be judgemental of other peoples choices but My fiance and I decided that we were going to do our at home reception 6 days after we get back from mexico, the reasoning is that in my mind I dont want people to feel like its a money/gift grabber. : gee, tell us how you really feel.

we're just doing our original wedding date; people at the reception know that is not our actual wedding.

looks great for TTD IMO. We want to see pics when it happens

Quote: Originally Posted by islandbride317 Hi, everybody! I need your expert opinions, please! My drama with my Mama about doing a TTD in my actual wedding dress has come to an end as of this morning! HOORAY FOR eBAY, I SAY! I feel like I searched the far reaches of the planet (well, of the internet anyway) to find a dress for less than $100 that wasn't completely hideous, and I had a little luck! Taking the advice of some of you who highly recommended looking on eBay for a cheaper dress for the TTD worked out beautifully. I ended up being the only bidder on this dress, which just so happens to be in my size, for only...drumroll, please --$75! The seller is even covering shipping costs! But, I wanted to post it on here and see what everyone thinks before I get too excited, you know? BE BRUTALLY HONEST, BDW Ladies! Here are the pics the seller took of herself in the dress: Detail on bodice: Shot of the side: And here's the back! Whatta ya think? I hear ya on the mama drama: every time I mentioned wanting a TTD shoot, she looked like she was going to cry because she wants me to wear it for AHR Quote: Originally Posted by niujess what a great idea. I always wondered about that.. I'm like ok i'd like a fun water shot but do i have to walk around in a soaking see through dress the rest of the night hmmm. I'm doing my TTD the following day, and now in a different dress Quote: Originally Posted by islandbride317 UGGGHH! SO sorry I haven't posted pics of myself in the dress yet!!! It came in, and fits me beautifully, but I got into issues with my mother on the day that I went and showed it to her, thinking she would be taking the pics I would post -- family drama!!! REMINDER to ALL: You can pick and choose your friends, but you can't pick your FAMILY! Sorry, you're dealing with this I am still interested in seeing the dress on you. I ended up buying a $150 dress at David's Bridal to trash. My mom doesn't know yet, but she better be happy cuz she got her way although it cost me an extra $150!

hands down number one. No contest IMHO. Good luck deciding.

Kat: Thanks for this guy's info. I also ordered koozies and love them although I ran into a couple bumps in the road. Mainly, his communication sucks. My FI sent the money and a week later, I got an email from someone else asking if we had approved a proof. We had and had emailed Barry about the colors we wanted. He agreed to do the colors we requested. After the email from this other person and my reply of "yes we approved"...we heard nothing. So I emailed twice and eventually got a response. The next day I got an email saying he would be sending them the next day and would email me a tracking number. He didn't and they came a couple days later in the wrong color: the color of the proof! I emailed three days in a row and called and left a message once. Eventually, he emailed back and apologized saying he thought he had responded. The koozies came that day in the right color. Bottom line: communication sucks, execution and product make up for it! Not to mention, now we have 50 extra koozies, albeit in a color that we didnt request, but I am sure they will not go to waste. In fact, I am bringing them to my bridal sower tomorrow to get rid of some! Quote: Originally Posted by PhillyBride09 Did anyone have a not so good experience with him? I'm not sure if I should be nervous or not. I put my order in on 4/27/09 and I e-mailed him my artwork that I made and wanted on there. After that I haven't heard a peep from him. I e-mailed him to see if he got my artwork and if it was ok to use...Nothing, then I e-mailed him today and asked if he can please just acknowledge that he is getting my e-mails and if he has a ship date for my Koozies and nothing!!! I don't want to overreact because I know that alot of you have ordered from him, but my stuff has been paid for over two weeks now. I think I at least deserve a response, right? So did anyone else have this issue? Or am I just a stressed bride whose date is getting closer and I'm feeling overwhelmed

Just curious what people are getting their parents. Is it required to get them a gift? I can't think of anything to get my mom. I am going to get albums done for the parents after we have pics, but do I need to get something for them the day of? Thanks for any ideas/advice you can offer!

Great job on the vases, I really like the middle one with the built in funnel, but would worry about it spilling on the way home Quote: Originally Posted by BlissfulMsMiranda I don't know why I can't edit the first post ... but here are the pics! So, I don't have a glue gun (yet) so I just taped the ribbons on to show you girls what I want to do ... and the middle one, I'm a bit unsure of how to combine the two colored ribbons ... any suggestions would be welcomed!! You girls are DIY queens so I trust your suggestions!! Oh and sorry about the quality of the images ... I can never make my camera work at night ... One of my cats who HAS to stick her nose in EVERYTHING: And here's my question for you girls. Should I DIY our initials (just first names) on our respective sand vases with these diamond sticky thingies?? about the bling: I vote no, only because I always think about how to clean things (I know this is wierd) and I think the bling would capture dust around the sticky edges eventually and not be so pretty. I agree etching would be very cool though (if you are more artsy than me and can figure it out that is!). Good Luck

Okay these are probably two dumb questions, but I must ask: 1. do the sand ceremony kits come with a cork or something to close the top? I have looked at a few and none say that they include this. Where did some of you get yours? 2. how do you transport it home without all the sand mixing together? Or is that the idea? I like the layered sand look, but not so sure ti will look good after transport. Ok so that was 4 questions, but i've been wondering for some time now. These are the deciding factor for me, although I had kind of let the idea die til I found this thread.

Ok so this makes me a little paranoid... I'll have to go search for receipts now! Hopefully I can find most of them. I have about 20 disposable cameras as well as a few bouquets/bouts. Could the cameras still be a problem if I find the receipt? Maybe I'll just make everyone carry their own flowers through! Still worried about all the other stuff tho

Our wedding is late and I don't have a timeline. Guess I'll just wing it or fiure it out there. I know we want pics before the ceremony so we can get them while its light out

No veil from me. I know some brides in the past were super-annoyed with them at Dreams, others loved the way they looked in pics. I would def be the one to be annoyed with it, so i've decided against it

The song from juno is called All I want is you

LOVE this thread!!! Keep it coming girls. My FI really wants to include loving in my baby's eyes by taj mahal. also this is so nerdy, but I love the Juno soundtrack. Its so fun and cute, kinda goofy like us Quote: Originally Posted by starchild Love Ribbon in the Sky! A friend used all Stevie songs at her wedding a few years back, it was nice. I added a few more songs to the list above. I'm curious what song Tara picked, maybe she'll see this and let us know! I am Stevie obsessed. This is such a great idea, if only I could sneak it past FI aka musical knowitall. LOL. I guess I did put him in charge, so no Stevie Wonder musicfest Quote: Originally Posted by ~Andrea~ We are using all songs by The Beatles. I'm walking down the aisle to "Do You Want to Know a Secret". I love the Stevie Wonder idea too! We both love the beatles, and the choices are almost as endless as stevie wonder! Quote: Originally Posted by Mel&B Since there are so many Jason Mraz fans out there, also try listening to Tristan Prettyman. I like to call her the "female Jack Johnson." She's a surfer girl from San Diego and her music rocks! I love it! I like her style. Any songs in particular you recommend? Quote: Originally Posted by Erika J I KNOW!! Citizen Cope is the best. He mix of rock, blues and reggae feels totally beachy. I have only seem him in concert 1 time ( this summer) but I was an outdoor show and I was super far away, I am totally jealous that you got to see him so close. Kat- Someone in my office used the Charlie Brown song as a processional and it took people a few seconds to recognize it but then when they did it was all smiles and laughing and people talked about it the whole night. How cute for my last day as a Brown. How about Mrs. Brown youve got a lovely daughter one last time while I'm still a brown? LOL way cheesy I know Ok, done hijacking sorry ladies!

wow, I wish I was that creative

Thanks for the review! Sorry about the DJ thing, that kinda makes me feel a little better about doing the ipod instead (although I'm not sure how smooth that will be either). Can't wait for more pics, the ones you posted are awesome!! Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs.

Quote: Originally Posted by Cassondra2009 Are any of you having a planned welcome/rehearsal dinner? I know some brides just show up with their guests to a restaurant and ask to accomodate everyone, but we have 45 people so I'm thinking that we wouldnt all fit. We're having people coming from all over the US on different days and times so this really isn't an option for us. It would be nice to introduce everyone at some sort of organized meeting tho. We'll have to figure something out Quote: Originally Posted by mummergirl i just found out that some of our last-minute bookers were given $300 resort credits! wtf? so i don't get *anything* for booking (and paying!) in advance, bringing all this business to their resort, and not to mention, not cancelling on their flu-ridden mexican asses?!?!?! but lazy, procrastinating, last-minute losers get $300? (not to mention MUCH cheaper flights than i got!) ok, so really i'm happy for whomever got the credit, but it hardly seems fair. it's not like they just booked AFTER the swine flu story broke. they booked in april. and our TA told them not to tell us!!! isn't *that* shady as hell?! Some friends of my FI got this, and asked him about it. He asked me and I had no clue what it was about and I guess I really didn't think much of it. But you're right, that's kinda crappy that we don't get something for bringing them all the business that we do!

Quote: Originally Posted by lgarner83 When we were deciding, we went to a TA at Sears travel (and a few other places but she always had the best deals) and we had her scout out some nice places that weren't going to be too too much $$$. We were flexible on location and she managed to get us the Riu Santa Fe in Cabo San Lucas for 7 nights for $1400 pp taxes in and including flight. It is in Sept which his considered the rainy season but we also reseasrched that and decided to take our chances since Cabo showers are apparantly brief and refreshing. If you are concerned about how much your guests would need to pay (like we were) then give your travel agent a price maximum and let her research some locations for you. Then you can have your pick! Good luck! If you're looking to keep cost down I would def recommend some Mexican resorts over most other similar places. My TA was great and put together some stuff from other places, Hawaii, and a few caribbean islands. Hawaii is by far the most expensive for everything; however you can spend a lot no mater where you decide to go. I second the idea of giving TA a max price and let him/her see what they can do with it. Quote: Originally Posted by Malisa I also had a hard time with justifying the expense. However, I found that by looking at alternatives to resorts such as private villas and boutique hotels I was able to cut costs down to $150/room/night. With airline tickets at $350/person that totaled about $725/person plus food/beverage/ground transportation/events which usually tacked on an extra $300/person for a 5 night stay. The expense still narrowed the guest list down to about 20 people but I felt good about giving my guests a high value experience. They also enjoyed the non-resort vacation because most of them are experienced travelers and really wanted to experience our destination rather than an expensive hotel. But you do have to consider without the AI perks people may end up spending more and not going AI also creates more work for you for finding entertainment, travel, meals, etc. Quote: Originally Posted by BillysBride My best advice to you is simple; keep looking. There are LOTS of places that offer a beautiful setting, but are mid-range price. Depending upon what your "must haves" are, you can definitely find somewhere that will be more economical for your guests and likely meet your criteria. There's "cheap", which you want to avoid, obviously, but then theres always places that are more affordable. Just don't assume you have to go for the 5 stars, or even 4's. Especially when it comes to more family friendly resorts, the prices tend to stay lower. Just keep looking. Get a list going and save it..write notes about each places pro's and con's and start a file on your pc with photos of each so you can go back and compare as you find them. And lastly, GET A TA!! They are great when they know the region better than you and you can give them your criteria. That knocks YOUR work in half having someone else on the case! Good luck! I'm getting married at a fam friendly resort which I love! My TA has been there many times and loves the WC there. The property is gorgeous and we are getting married in a big white gazebo that is so pretty. It is not a really expensive resort, but gets great reviews (often beter than the expensive ones) GOOD LUCK choosing!

beautiful bag, but do you really want to be responsible for it on your wedding day? I figure since our resort is all-inclusive I wont' need to worry about losing my money, id, etc. and FI can put the room key in his pocket. Gosh, I sound irresponsible! However, I think the purse is pretty

I was totally against the registry on the basis that etiquette says if they don't go to the wedding they don't bring a gift, so I viewed a registry as presumptuous... Then TONS of people started convincing us to do one, so we did. Apparently even if you are having a DW, people want to get gifts for the reception (not to mention I think his aunt who is hosting my shower put some of the family up to working on this!) SO, now we have a registry, but I agree w/ the above: Do not put it on the invite.