kelly1214

What about volunteer firefighters? In PA, volunteer firefighers aren't given IAFF IDs.

It is windy. I didn't use a veil but have short curly hair. My curls were everywhere! There are very few pictures from the ceremony that my hair looks 'normal'. A veil would've been a huge distraction to the ceremony. I agree though- Tropical Imaging does amazing stuff with veils. Who's saying you can't get one for the pictures with them?!?! It's your day. Do what you want.

Thank you Misti! Married life going very well- a big adjustment which I'm sure any of the new wives on here can admit to but it's wonderful! Best wishes with your planning... don't forget not to stress so much. It's really not worth all the worry. Everything is so laid back when you get down there. I feel stupid for stressing about everything so much!

Hi AnnMarie, My family "bar hopped" after the dinner. We did a 30 minute reception and then had dinner at Barefoot by the Sea. They didn't kick us out after our 30 minute reception was up. The waiters left but we had everything we needed. I'm assuming it will be the same way for you if you choose to do a formal dinner. So I'm assuming you can stay at the dinner site if you want. After we ate and changed cloths (around 9 pm by that time), we met our families for a quick drink. We started at the patio by the Irish pub (sorry- i forget the name). My husband and I left then. I think the rest of the bunch went to the Turtle bar, that was their favorite place all week. I've also seen pictures of them doing karaoke at the night club and it looks like they were having way too much fun. So you should be find after the wedding finding plenty of stuff to do or not too- you can just grab a couple drinks and relax by the pool or on the beach too. PM me if you have any other questions. Good luck! Kelly

I got married at the Beaches Resort in Turks and Caicos in May. Part of the ceremony, involves you signing the wedding documents. The pastor notarized a copy for us to take home. The DMV, SS office, and my banks/credit card companies all accepted that so I could get my name changed immediately. The official license took about 10 weeks for us but I think they say it takes up to 14 weeks.

My husband's father paid for us to have a candlelight dinner on the beach our last night. It was nice. I don't know if I would've spend $170 on it but we had a private waiter that arrived at our room and escorted us to the beach. You pick the meal you want before hand and they bring everything out to you. There were about 8 or 9 tables set up on the beach about 50 yards apart so it was kind of cool looking down the beach at the other couples having dinner becaue all you could see was the torches flickering in the dark. The website says a "Honeymoon dinner for bride and groom" is included in the BB package. http://www.beaches.com/weddingmoons/weddings/ Lauren- I know you're getting married at 11am. You could do lunch with your family and the "honeymood dinner for bride and groom" at night. I'm not really sure how that works. We just did dinner with our families after our 4 pm wedding.

The weather was good. The rain in Turks and Caicos only last a couple minutes. They said they rarely ever have a full day of rain. It was a little humid but we're from central PA so it was normal for us. The ceremony and dinner were very private. We picked the 4 pm wedding time so the beach was pretty bare. I think that had a little bit to do with the rain that day. The hostess at Barefoot by the Sea put us off to the side and it was wonderful. I had one little girl come up and wish us a happy life together which I thought was super sweet. Other than that, we were left alone. As far as a private reception goes, I would say it depends on your budget and how much you value your privacy. If you are willing to pay, they will make it very private for you.

I got married in May and they wouldn't let us pick parts of the MS packages. It was the whole package or nothing. We wanted an arch for the ceremony but were told we'd have to go with the package that included that. So unless it changed, you can't purchase the bouquets from the Martha Stewart stuff. When we originally booked, you could purchase additions like a bouquet seperately. This was before Martha Stewart had a contact with Beaches. They never got back to me about seperate bouquets after the MS collections took over. You aren't allowed to use outside vendors for the ceremony though. As far as I know, you can't have flowers sent to you at the resort and make your own bouquet that morning. But... what they don't know won't hurt them? I went with clay flowers and brought them along with me on my carry on. They held up really well.

The 14 year old might be able to get his/her own. But they didn't give my nieces (6 and 3 years old) one. If they did- their parent's didn't let them use them.

Hi Kimberly- just sent you a PM...

Ours stayed. We melted a candle on top of the sand after the ceremony to seal the top. We kept it in our carry on and it got back just fine. They questioned it a little when it went thru the x-ray machine but once i told them what it was, they were okay with it.

The only restaurant at Beaches Turks and Caicos you can make reservations for is the Japanese restaurant. I can't remember the name of it right now... but everything else is first come first serve. Don't worry though- you'll never wait more than 10 minutes to be seated. We went when they were 95% booked and there was never a long wait for a table. I think we figured out Beaches can hold 1500 guests. There are 16 resturants. The larger restaurants can hold 150+ guests. So even if everyone went at exactly the same time to eat, there would still be enough room at one of the resturants for you... Â We had 17 people with us and did the wedding dinner at Barefoot by the Sea. As the 30 minute reception was wrapping up, my mom and dad went over to Barefoot and let them know a party of 17 would be coming soon. They took about 5 minutes to move some tables around and we were good to go. My mom and dad were seated and had drinks by the time everyone else arrived. It was really nice, they put us off to the side a little bit so we had some privacy too. Â We also ate at Schooners the night everyone arrived. They accomodated us pretty quickly too. We had to wait maybe 10 minutes for them to get tables together. Â Based on what I experienced, I would say anything smaller than 20 people shouldn't be too hard to get seated at a resturant together. You might have to wait a couple minutes but if you're looking to save a couple hundred bucks and think that paying for a dinner at an all inclusive resort is dumb... go with a dinner at one of the restaurants instead of the private dinner.

Stuff is expensive in T&C in general because everything has to be shipped in. My husband and I went to Grace Bay which is their main shopping area. There are a couple gift shops in Grace Bay but prices aren't any cheaper than the resorts and you can get the same kinds of things. Buy your OOT stuff in the states if you want to save a couple bucks.

You might want some cash. They have a small market of local venders outside the resort (open every day except sundays I think). Wednesdays they have local venders come on resort so you can see/buy local crafts too. We bought a cool little painting and a necklace. You can bargain with the venders on prices. Â We also took a taxi to the 'main shopping area'- Ports of Call in Grace Bay. Taxi was $10. There are a couple gift shops and places to eat. It's definitely not what I thought it would be. There aren't very many shops and not very many people around. We were the only ones in the stores some of the time. But some of the stuff they have is really cool. We got conch shells that had been cut in half so you could see how they look on the inside.

look into taking flowers with you. I did clay flowers for my bouquet. Here's some example. http://www.etsy.com/shop_sold.php?user_id=6825656 Â This vender is back up until September but you might be able to find another one on Etsy or searching the web. I've heard of other brides doing real touch flowers too. Â They look so real- I had someone try to smell mine. And they are a fraction of the cost. Mine was only $150 I think... or $165. I bought it a couple months ago and all the prices run together after a while. But I really like that you can keep them forever then. Mine is the center piece on our dining room table. Â Good luck!

We did their Island Escape package for $1650. We booked it about 8 months ago so I don't know if their prices went up since then but trust me... they were worth every single penny. http://www.brilliant.tc/family-portraits/packages/ Â They added this page since we were there: http://www.brilliant.tc/2010/02/perfect-upgrade-beaches-bride/ It looks like they have a new package for Beaches Brides.

both of our tables had the center pieces on them. There wasn't a head table with us because we had a small group. 17 people total so we just had two tables, both exactly the same. I saw larger weddings (70 people +) and I'm pretty sure the guest tables all had vase centerpieces. They were all really nicely decorated.

Why break the trend- Turks and Caicos!!! I got married there in May at the Beaches resort. It was wonderful. The sand, the water... the best setting to get married hands down. Talk to the people from Brilliant by Tropical Imaging. They do amazing photography (use them!!!) and know a lot of the different venues.

I got married using the BB package in May and we had floral center peices in the glass vases that came with the package. I think they were orchids. PM me your email address and I'll send you a pic of our 30 minute reception. I don't know if you can do upgrades though. We couldn't. My husband and I wanted to have an arch during are ceremony and the WC said we'd have to upgrade to one of the MS packages for that.

Each guests gets a keycard for the room door and any additional purchases (gift shop stuff- shouldn't be any charge for food, maybe if you want bottles of wine (glasses of wine are free, bottles aren't)). They gave my husband and I three cards at first, then we locked ourselves out the one day and they gave us two more. You can ask for more if you need them. Just a thought though- the cards don't say which guest purchased what. Just what was charged to the room so your guests will have to seperate the bill at the end of the trip.

I agree with starchild. You should just be happy your father can come. Do you know how many brides don't have fathers that are around anymore? Maybe your father doesn't want to travel with everyone. Travelling in large groups suck. It is his vacation too- if he wants to get there a night early, it's his choice. Just be happy that he will meet you down there.

If you get Patricia as your wedding coordinator when you're in Turks and Caicos, she'll do some additional things for free that they would normally charge you for. Monica (WC in Miami) told us to bring our music on an IPod or CD. We don't have an IPod so we burned the songs on a CD. Well, you can't rent a CD player when you're down there. They bank on everyone bringing an IPod then needing to rent the IPod speakers. Patricia let us borrow her CD player for the wedding free of charge. She also put out our favors for our guests free of charge. It was just small candy jars that we filled with sand. Just be super nice and non-bridezilla like and insist that she drinks the champange with you when she offers it.

Yep, Sterling and I flew out of Newark. I think our tickets were $407 each round trip. We paid $150 for a hotel room the night before our flight and they kept our car in a locked lot for us while we were gone.

I had cups in my top and wore lacey blue underwear-- you need something blue!

Totally agree... big fulffy dress, shorty flowy dress... who care? It's your day! My dress was satin covered in a layer of lace. It had beading all over it- not what you would consider "beachy" but I loved it and that's all that mattered. Thanks to the Red Cross | Brilliant by Tropical Imaging Good luck!!