doblauvelt

Wow! 3 new April brides, welcome to the thread! Quote: Originally Posted by dewiggy Hi All April Brides: I am also one and have just found this thread. I have been on the Bahia Principe Bride Thread. I am still having trouble getting around on BDW. We have 31 people booked for our wedding and that is just family and a few friends. We could possibly have more as I am sending my invitations out within the next 2 weeks. The last few pages you have been talking about song lists. Does anyone have some song suggestions for the wedding when the flower girls, bridesmaids are walking? We have decided on our first dance song it is: Someone Like You by Van Morrison Dawn Dawn, I haven't gotten as far as who's walking down to what except for me haha. Congrats on having so many booked already, I'm jealous! Quote: Originally Posted by mich&adam Hi April Brides! Just checking in...how exciting, our tickers our getting down to the 5 month mark, YAY. I actually feel like i'm in pretty good shape and don't plan on doing any more "planning" until the beginning of the year, Jan. Sent my invitations out early (September) with a January rsvp date, just so i can start planning the OOT bags, already have my dress, first fitting is January 10. Have 2 veils, 2 pair of shoes, need to determine my hairstyle, bought our rings, booked photographer & DJ...am i missing anything girls for now anyway? How about makeup? I have one of my bridesmaids helping me with that one. Another thing I've started to battle with is preparing a list for which documents I need for my civil ceremony... anyone have insight or a list? Quote: Originally Posted by latoya1908 Hello April 2010 brides! I'm an April 24, 2010 bride at Sandals Grande Ocho Rios (I've seen this referred to as Riu and ROR also but I'm not sure what that means). I am getting SO EXCITED! I'm glad someone tipped me off to the importance of dress shopping early. I purchased mine just in time and I have my first fitting in early February. I haven't even started thinking about music yet. I know I want to walk down the aisle to Love Is You by Chrisette Michelle but that's it. We're having an AHR so I hadn't planned to really do anything big in Jamaica. Just in case though, I should probably download a playlist. I understand it's cheaper to do it this way instead of paying for a DJ. Are you ladies downloading party music or lounge music? I'm downloading party music, my friends and I love to dance. Maybe toward the end I'll have some lounge music as people will become tired.

I'm with everyone on the ipod playlist. I've compiled a lot of songs but haven't organized them. I've also been flipping through radio stations for music and use shazam on my phone to jot down the artist and songs titles lol. Is anyone using an "untraditional" first dance song? I remember Swing Life Away was mentioned (Erin, was that you?) and I thought it would be a good first dance song...however, how do you dance to it? Just sway back and forth? So my NYC shoot didn't happen as planned over the weekend. My dad came up and help FI and I tile our bathroom, which we've been renovating for FOREVER. I'm happy that room is finally coming together though. As for the engagement shoots, it looks like those "pre-engagements" are it, lol.. I'm not complaining though. Yay for Michele and Erin. It must feel good to have people booked and to have a videographer! In the last week FI's parents booked, I still need to get mine to book ugh. Oh, my cousin who's in nursing school texted me lastnight said she was able to keep her room reservation... I guess she worked out her finals with her professor, now she doesnt have to cancel! As for the videographer, I will also be having one! I just hope it won't come out cheesy lol.

Your invites look great, good job!!

Our wedding will be in mid April in Mexico. We chose that bc 1) April has the lowest precipitation compared to the rest of the months 2) by mid April "spring breakers" should be gone from Cancun 3) It's a good time to travel compared to May and into the summer months.. that's when the prices start going up. Our wedding is on a Friday, FI and I will be there on Tuesday, guests will start arriving on Wed and Thurs. The reason we dont have it on a Sat. is 1) our time slot was chosen, so we bumped our wedding day 1 day before 2) now our guests wont have to go home with hangovers

Quote: Originally Posted by Jodimichelle How do I add a link?! Click on "go advance" at the bottom of the message box. You'll see a globe with a link icon in the toolbar. Click on that and put your link into there.

Quote: Originally Posted by mrseddy I know I haven't been on here that much lately but it's been super busy getting final details ready plus work was also busy. BUT, the day has finally arrived. We leave tomorrow morning to the MP for our wedding on the 27th. i am SOOOOOOO excited!! I've reread reviews from past brides and I cannot wait. We're having our local ceremony today because we are doing the Symbolic one there. I checked the weather and it says there's a chance of rain for most of the latter half of the week but I'm thinking Cancun weather is more tropical where storms pass versus the Midwest where when it says rain, you're not seeing any sun that day. I will be sure to post a review when I get back because I know how important those were when I was planning. This forum has been a lifesaver. I don't think I would've gone through with a destination wedding site-unseen without it. Wish us luck!!! Happy Thanksgiving! Congrats! I wish you lots of happiness, let us know how everything went when you return!!

My wedding is in April: 12 Months before- Tried on dresses and ordered "the one" 9 Months before- Sent out STD 7 Months before- Got my dress 6 Months before- Worked on formal invites 4 Months before- Send out formal invites, get FI and groomsmen attire 3 Months before- Get OOT bags and legal documents together 1 Month before- Have hair and makeup trial (mom and BM doing these for me) I'm probably missing a lot in between, but this is all I can think of for now.

Quote: Originally Posted by ebredhawk i still giggle every time i type STD. mature huh? LMAO, I still laugh too! Quote: Originally Posted by OceanWonderland Hi ladies! Looks like I might soon be joining the April 2010 upcoming brides group We will potentially put our deposit down tomorrow to reserve our date! I know it's short notice for a lot of my family but it sounds like a lot of guests don't book their reservations until around this timeframe anyways, so I think it should work out. We are very excited and can't wait to get married! It all depends on whether my dress will be here in time, I find out today when it's supposed to get here. Can't wait to find out. Do you think I should sent out a real save the date and then invitation since I'm having it so soon? Or do you think an 'email' save the date/details to book trip, and then real invitations in January would be sufficient? Hope you're all having a wonderful day! Leslie Leslie, I think an email STD is the way to go in such short notice. There's no need to waste money or time on having STDs printed and sent out via regular mail.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jodimichelle Finally some honeymoon answers!! I was thinking about staying at Excellence Playa or Maroma beach or Secrets Maroma. We are also planning on staying at the other resort for 5 days as well. Aventura Spa was gorgeous, but it had no beach. I am not sure if someone had said they were staying there, but I wanted to let them know. That was me, thanks for the warning

Mine reads, "Together with their parents, XXX & XXX invite you to share with them the sun, the sand, and the sea as they become husband and wife on so and so date" and I think it's perfect. It's not "informal" it's just different. Being that we're destination wedding brides, anything is possible.

Meghan- We're on the same boat then lol. That's good that at least you know they'll be there in the end. Could you hold a room for them anyway, there should be a date when you can cancel a room right? Try that. Another thing I forgot to mention (bc you brought up your sister being MOH) is my MOH and one of my BM booked their rooms but still aren't sure they'll make it out in time for the wedding. They're both nursing majors and apparently the schedules are strict and they have to have permission to skip clinicals, something like that. At least my MOH brought it up to her professors and my cousin, who's one of my BM just found out her finals are the same week as my wedding week! Grr. But seriously, you would think that of all people attending, the bridal party would have the courtesy to take care of their ends. Erin- Thanks and no, we didn't end up going to NYC. We just went to a local park. The pictures came out the same as the last lol, with the scenery and all. I believe on Saturday we will definitely go. I still can't wait for this shoot! I'll post them as soon as I get them done.

These are all so beautiful. I've already begun copying and pasting, thanks so much ladies! One question though, I've noticed that no one's had a reading in between... I want my brother and FSIL to be our readers, has anyone else thought of doing this?

Quote: Originally Posted by jo&delo2010 I wonder when you get there if they will have special deals....like cruise ships...lol I just finished massage school and Im waiting to take my state board I love massages 2! That's what I was thinking too! I went on a cruise in August and their discount was, if you book early in the morning before 9am you can save an extra 15%...something like that.. now I'm hoping they have something like that too lol

EEk, some of those couples massages are pricey! FI and I love massages but not that much lol... we'll have to look more into that.

That is a great way to start your day, I'm happy for you! I am going through the same situation. We have 6 on each side of our bridal party, all 6 are his close friends. All but 2 have booked their rooms, one being his bestfriend and his bestman. They've known each other since grade school! But I know both have intentions of booking, but when?! In any case, a lot of FI's friends also haven't booked nor have we heard from them. That doesn't bother me as much as his family not coming at all. Only his parents, two sisters, and a cousin are coming. It's funny because his uncle was the one who mentioned a destination wedding to begin with... and now he's telling us 1) he hates mexico and 2) he can't afford it.. it's so frustrating. At least my family (aunts, uncles, and cousins) are looking into booking their rooms. Sometimes I wish I had eloped lol! It would've been so much easier!! But congrats on the new booking

very nice, great choice!

I have a list of things I want in the OOT bags, it's just a matter of shopping around for prices. I've just been really busy with bringing my invitation ideas onto paper..it's changed dramatically since I've last posted about them lol. FI is like, "just hurry up and choose one!" As for my AHR, I'm just going to assume 100 people for now. A LOT of FI's family is not coming with us to Mexico and they're making up about 50 people already...combined with coworkers, extended family and friends not invited to the ceremony should be around 100. Thanks for all the tips, I'll keep them in mind!

Quote: Originally Posted by TonyandTricia Thanks for the sand ceremony info!! I love the idea of using the sand from the beach as a base. It sounds like maybe I need to look into the legality of that or how well it is enforced. I think we will definitely do one! Our Honeymoon will be at Excellence Playa Mujeres for 5 days after we leave Moon Palace. I'm really excited, but don't know too much about Excellence. If any of you have stayed there I'd love to hear what you think (unless it's really bad...we've already booked it so there's no going back!) Also...So, are there certain excursions that are included at Moon Palace or are all of them extra? I assumed they were extra, but your posts kind of suggested otherwise. There are a lot of excursions included with your stay at MP, check out this link Cancun Tours There are a couple you need to pay for ie swimming with dolphins, but i'm not trying to do anything like that lol. I just want to do a group snorkel thing but they all leave early in the morning and I can't decide which morning to choose. If I do the activity on a Wed or Thurs morning, it might just be FI and I as most of our guests will be arriving on those two days (and we'll miss greeting them with their OOTs). If we do it a day after the wedding on Sat then a lot of guests may already be leaving or too hungover lol...

Quote: Originally Posted by Jodimichelle Sorry for so many posts! TO ALL: WHERE ARE YOU GOING FOR YOUR HONEYMOON Our honeymoon will be at the Aventura Spa for 5 days Let me know how your group activity goes too! Quote: Originally Posted by vgirl17 If we do the sand ceremony we were going to use the sand from the beach in Cancun as the "base" and maybe buy the other two different ones. Another bride on here used shells to pour sand in a vase. It was a really cute idea. We're going to stay at the Sun Palace for an extra five days after our wedding week at the Moon Palace My mom is flying home with our kids so we can be alone! Be careful when taking the sand from the beach back home. You're not supposed to take soil from another country into the US or another country for that matter. If anything, buy a bag of sand that's sandy color (or a color that matches the sand at MP) and play it off as purchased sand rather than Mexican beach sand... you might have to show proof of purchase, like a receipt to customs. Trust me, I wanted to do this too but I'll just settle for color sand.

Is anyone setting up a group activity, like snorkeling for example? If you are, then when will you have it (1 day before, 1 day after ceremony, etc) and how are you going about setting it up (with Miami WC)? I'm curious.

Quote: Originally Posted by echo2_62 Tonya - did you send out STD's originally? I was just thinking that if you did then giving your guests one month to RSVP isn't asking a lot at all because everyone will already have had time to think about it. We didn't do STD's at all, just sent out the invitations REALLY early (think September early!!) but a bunch of our friends are somewhat spontaneous so they were booking right away as is. We'd requested an RSVP date for Jan.31 and I'm going to send out some reminders probably right at the end of the holidays for those guests who we haven't heard from yet. Afterall, it's not like we're asking them to book on the spot (in case they're waiting for last-minute sales). Yeah we sent STD sometime June/July so everyone knows about it and has had a lot of time to think about whether or not if they're coming. I'm giving a one month rsvp date so that I can finalize the OOT bags and AHR stuff. I want everything out of the way at least a month before the wedding, I hope I'm not pushing it for myself

Ahh, just saw my ticker... 5 months to go!!

Quote: Originally Posted by angie8119 oh ladies i am only on page 20 of the forum...is January too late for my invites to be mailed? STD's were out in August and we have a website to keep them updated. I'm mailing my invites early Jan. too. I'm giving my guests a one month RSVP date, is that too harsh? Tracy- I saw your website and it looks great!

That is a gorgeous dress!!

I don't want to register either but I have been asked a number of times already. I might just register at bed bath and beyond. They have a lot of home necessities as FI and I just moved in to our house officially 2 months ago. We moved from a condo to a single family home, so we have lots of space to fill in lol. I will def. register for bed linens, cookware, table cloths, and etc. I'm not really expecting anything to be honest bc I'd rather people not spend their money if they're going to spend a couple hundred to see me get married... I've already started to spread the word about that.