InspiredBride

I just ordered the same bags, along with some matching coin purses for people to use as roomcard/key holders. Thanks for posting your review!

Those look awesome! I was thinking of doing the slippers for my bridesmaids (aka my "Wedding Crew"), but it looks like you can't order them to the U.S. and even if you could, there's a minimum order of 45. Does anyone know of any other companies that have a similar product?

I am terrible at makeup so I don't have much advice, but BachataBride's suggestions sound good. I agree that you have a very naturally pretty look and probably don't need much.

Also, I did the same thing a while ago but got it done at MAC and felt like a total clownish prostitute! I'm going to try a few other counters and hope I find one that doesn't make me look like so horrible. Then maybe taking a picture and having my best friend (who is good with those things) do my actual make up the day of.

Congratulations! I'm pretty new on here too. This forum is great so I'm sure you'll find all the help you need to plan a fabulous wedding!

I woke up needing to confess! I am seriously annoyed with my FI. We are renting a house with his 25 year old brother who JUST moved out of his mom's house for the first time when he moved in with us last March. So our lease is up, and last night I told FI I wanted to discuss our living situation. He says we should give his brother at least another year of living with us, because asking him to move out sooner would cause him too much stress. I told him I would really like it if we could start our married life out WITHOUT his brother, since I'm honestly tired of cleaning up after him (among other things). I said maybe we could comprimise and just ask for a 9 month lease so we could at least have our own place for our first holidays together.

So FI says "I'm going to have to ask my mom what she thinks!"

What!? Seriously?! You have to ask your mom what she thinks about where I should live? He said this is because maybe she'll have an idea about where his brother can live. HE'S 25 YEARS OLD!!!

Okay, so I know I'm probably over reacting and we'll figure something out. But for now I'm just so annoyed!

Oh I am so glad I found this thread! Hi everyone.

I also confess that I am pretending to work right now (and am so glad to read that I'm not the only one!). And I also confess that I stayed home from work yesterday "sick" (actually working on wedding brochure, reading this forum, and doing other completely non-urgent planning activities).

Kelly, I am really glad you're putting your foot down. I hope the conversation goes well!

I looked at your website and I definitely don't think it sounds rude at all. I'm glad things are starting to get a bit less stressful and that your guests are being understanding!

I was either going to give them out at dinner on the first night or see if Guest Relations could get them put into the rooms for me.

Is a rum runner just a flask? Or something different?

I just tried your website link (from post above) and it didn't work...

Okay thanks ladies. So now the question is how to word it so that it's clear they can't attend the ceremony without sounding rude. I ordered some vistaprint postcards and was thinking of writing individual notes on each one (so it doesn't seem like a formal invite). What do you guys think of that idea, with the example below...

Dear Cathy,

You may have heard that we're having a non-traditional/small wedding ceremony on a cruise ship on 10/1/09. While we can't invite everyone to the ceremony, we are hoping that all of our friends and family who are able will join us on our post-wedding cruise to Cozumel (immediately following). Check out our website or call me for more info. Either way, please know we will be thinking of you and that if you can't make it, we'll just have to plan another way to celebrate together in the future.

Much Love,Kimber and Justin

That's a great idea...

This might be a dumb question, but with the walkie-talkies, can you have a bunch of them that communicate with eachother, or can you only communicate with one other walkie talkie? I ask because most of the time I've only seen them come in pairs...

Does that make sense?

I know there's a site called Zazzle that will do it, but it seems kind of expensive to me (I think it was like $8 a page).

Thanks Megan,

I'm thinking the same thing about giving the random vistaprint gifts to bridal party. As for the personalized water bottles, I think that is definitely a good idea for a cruise. I can't recall if Carnival does this, but I know on Royal Caribbean they had water bottles in our room but for sale at a ridiculous price. So I think giving guests some water to keep in their room is a good idea. Also, some of my guests are going to be bringing their own alcohol and just getting the soda card. So I think if anyone is doing that then a travel mug could be a good idea. Otherwise I don't know how practical it would be.

I'm thinking of just getting personalized travel cups for the bridal party from discountmugs.com..

I like your idea of the lanyards. I may look at that too...

...sorry. the end of the last post got cut short...

I just feel like no matter what I do there will be hurt feelings. I know I can't please everyone, but I guess I'd like to get through this with the least amount of hurt feelings as possible.

Thanks!!!

I could really use some feedback about this...

I posted a few days ago about some drama going on with family members being upset they weren't invited (after my mom sent out a mass email about our wedding plans). I am still feeling a bit bad that some people can't be invited and have had a few ideas about how to handle it.

Keep in mind that the only reason we aren't inviting everyone is due to financial constraints. There are actually a lot of family members who I would love to see come, but it just doesn't seem right to invite some without inviting all, so we just decided not to invite any (they're all out of state). Also, my mother (who is paying for the wedding), specifically stated that she does not want to pay for the whole family to come.

So here are my current options...

1) Send out post-card announcments/invitations that invite people along on the cruise immediately following the ceremony. This way, people can come on the cruise to celebrate with us, but not to the ceremony.

2) Send post cards/announcements from our cruise to those who weren't invited just to let them know we're thinking of them.

3) Send out announcments before the wedding letting people know why we are keeping the wedding small, and that it isn't because we don't love them. We can say something like "we hope we can get together to celebrate with you in person sometime in the near future"

4) Do nothing.

Can you guys tell me which of these ideas, if any, you would personally be offended by? I just feel like

I just signed on to ask a similar question...I'm guessing not a lot of people have a good answer for this one!

It seems like the issue of announcements for guests who aren't attending is a sticky one, and I've been hearing mixed thoughts about what to do.

Initially I wasn't going to do announcements, but then I got a complaint that there was no formal announcement.

Now I'm reconsidering. I hope you figured something out!

Thanks Megan!

I've been using vistaprint for other free things but the free postcards haven't been showing. I guess you have to go to the vistaprint.com/save in order to see them. I just ordered 100 and paid around $10 (for shipping, and an extra fee for adding my own image). Still way cheaper than doing it the other way for sure!

Great tip!

Hi cruise brides!

This is a multi-part question...

1) Are any other cruise brides doing OOT bags? If so, what are you putting in them?

2) Also, are any of you doing doorhangers (so everyone knows which rooms are which)?

3) I am trying to figure out the best way for guests to communicate while on the ship. I think I'll do post-it notes in their OOT bags so they can stick notes on doors. But I'd also like to do some sort of a "central message board" where people can post notes about what they're doing etc.. Has anyone had any ideas about doing something like this, and if so, how would you do it?

I was trying to keep my costs at $10 per bag (including the bag), but there are just so many good ideas out there! We're cruising, so I'm doing one bag per cabin (and putting doubles of some items), except for in the cabins with singles (they each get their own bag).

So far I've only purchased...

Spanish Phrases for Dummies ($1 at Target)

Scented Hand Sanitizer ($1 from Bed Bath and Beyond)

I just made some custom postcards to put in the bags (from Zazzle.com), with a picture of Cozumel and text that says "Justin and Kimber's Wedding Cruise to Cozumel, October 1, 2009". I haven't decided yet if I should order them but they're about 80 cents each which seems like a good deal.

Right now I think I'm also adding...

First Aid Kits ($1 from Dollar Store)

Maps of Cozumel (still looking)

Playing Cards ($8 for 12 at Oriental Trading Company)

Personalized travel mug or cup (I might just make my own due to cost)

gum

post-it notes

tissues

Personalized bottles of water (still figuring out the best way to do this)

Suduko/word puzzles

pen

Possilbe Items...

"Wedding Party" Coozies ($8 per dozen on OTC)

Chapstick

Coin purse/Room Key holder (from OTC)

Okay, so I guess I have some serious cutting down to do if I'm going to stick within my budget!

Thanks!!! I am so excited about these! I can't wait to see how they turn out!

Thanks for the info about the bags. I was actually just trying to figure that out. Oriental Trading has some personalized paper gift bags so I'm wondering if that might be a better idea that my original plan of the canvas tote bags...

Great ideas! I'm jumping on the hibiscus coin purse wagon. Does anyone know if OTC is pretty good at taking things back? I've never ordered from them before and I'm nervous about buying so much stuff online since I don't actually know exactly what the quality will be etc..

I had the exact same feeling in the beginning about too many choices. Once I decided things felt a lot less stressful. We decided on a cruise wedding to Cozumel, which seems like the perfect choice for us, since the wedding will be in port (Tampa) and even non-sailing guests can attend. Then we'll have a four day extended wedding celebration!

Congratulations and welcome!