echo2_62

Michele!! I'm glad to hear that you're okay and I *totally* know what you mean about not wanting to be in the same car again. Last year I got t-boned (wrote off my car) and I wanted to get another honda because I really loved them but when I was going for test drives, I was getting creeped out by how similar it felt to my old car and I kept thinking I was going to be hit again!! So I ended up with a mazda instead and now a year later I want something different. This car just isn't sticking. On another note, I really like the intense colours of your postcards!! Do you think you'll have anything on the back of them? I have to admit that you're all far more detailed about your timing than I am. So far I have: Ceremony - 3pm, toast to follow, pictures to follow, reception around 6pm. LOL yep, that's it! Whatever else happens is good by me

We also did not use a travel agent and it seems to have worked out fine for the most part. I guess it all depends if you luck out with someone who is willing to work for you. As for the tungsten bands, we ordered Fi's fromTungsten World and absolutely love it! They were really good to work with and their rates were quite good. AND - no issues with paying customs or duty taxes like other orders from the US. There is a thread here that you can read other reviews on as well at: BDW tungsten wedding bands. Let me know if you need more info about them!

Last time I went to Mexico i was unfortunate enough to get travelers diarrhea - El Diablo to us - about halfway through (sorry to tell ya!) and when I got home to go into my family doctor, I was told that because I have an existing stomach condition that I was definitely more susceptible and it would've been highly unlikely that I *didn't* get sick. That being said, I was told to take Dukerol (which isn't actually a vaccine I don't think, but a drink that you've got to take a couple times before leaving) and the then Cipro which is a pill form that you have to get prescribed at the clinic. So needless to say, I will be dosing up on both of those this time around because I definitely do NOT want to go through that again! We've also suggested it to some family members who have other health problems as a consideration for their own comfort, but we have plenty of friends who won't be taking anything. I've also had the twinrix vaccinations but it was in part due to other travel, not just to the Caribbean. And another food to avoid is dairy that doesn't come in a sealed container. So a yogurt in a sealed cup is okay, but out in an unmarked big bowl maybe not so okay. Their rules for pasteurizing are different than ours so it can cause our bodies problems. One site you can use to find out more specifics for your area is: Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which was recommended by the doctor at my travel clinic.

I hear you about the lack of c-train options! We're smack in the centre of the north end so no luck there. Rumour has it though that the city is supposed to be putting in some sort of rail that comes from downtown and I think pops up north of the centre street impass (one of those car trap things) where they've got the road divided all the way up through Harvest Hills and then through past Coventry. I'm not sure how it would work with the intersection for the ring road the way it is now, but that's supposed to change as well so who knows!! It would be freaking FANTASTIC if they had something other than the buses up our way!!

I hear you about the lack of c-train options! We're smack in the centre of the north end so no luck there. Rumour has it though that the city is supposed to be putting in some sort of rail that comes from downtown and I think pops up north of the centre street impass (one of those car trap things) where they've got the road divided all the way up through Harvest Hills and then through past Coventry. I'm not sure how it would work with the intersection for the ring road the way it is now, but that's supposed to change as well so who knows!! It would be freaking FANTASTIC if they had something other than the buses up our way!!

I think that Trip Advisor is valuable to get an overall idea of what people did or didn't like about any resort, but the one feature that I used a lot to help my decisions was the percentages of people who voted the location as 'Excellent, Very Good, Average, Poor or Terrible'. There are always going to be good and bad reviews but if the overall consensus is a high recommendation rating then it's still a great choice! A lot of it does come down to personal preferences but I wouldn't worry at all that you've made the wrong decision. Like the rest of us you probably went through a huge process of narrowing down all your choices so your resort must have won for a reason in the first place and that's what matters!!

Yikes! $1000/night extra IS a lot!! We've got a gardenview room booked and were probably planning to just switch him or myself to a friends room for the night instead of getting a while other room, so the upgrade to the marina view won't be a huge change I don't think. All I want is somewhere that is quiet and won't have a lot of people passing by all the time.

I used to live off 3rd ave between 37 & 36th street. It was such a nice area and I LOVED having the hill right there to take my dog for walks down to edworthy. A little scary sometimes too though because we'd get coyotes on our street early in the morning when I was walking her!!

I love having a corner lot!! Honestly I've almost always lived in one, since I was about nine years old! Okay there was the odd year in the middle there during school or when I was living on my own that I had an apartment or something but aside from that, always been on the end. Our backyard is SO much bigger than our neighbors too which I love

Is it a Cardel home by any chance? A brand new build? I just ask because my girlfriend works for Cardel and I know that she's been busy with homes down there for a while That'll be awesome having a direct bus from your area too, especially one that has seats! That's a rare occasion for my ride home.

hehe I was too busy admiring your pictures to remember that I was supposed to be checking out FI's suit!! LOL! I'll have to go back to them again but you both looked wonderful so it must have fit him well

Wow you have such amazing pictures and are SO beautiful!! Thank you for sharing your pictures with us! I'll admit I had to save a few in my list of 'must-have's' for when we get our photos done. Congrats!!!

See, now that's the reason I want to do mine... yours sound so complete Erin! And I'd started off thinking we'd give out our OOT bags ahead of time, then changed my mind and decided to take them to the resort with us and now I'm back to doing them just beforehand. Out of Calgary, we've got a group of people leaving Sunday then the rest Monday... and since I'm literally around the corner from the airport I could just meet the sunday group as they're all arriving and let them take their own OOT bags down in their own luggage, and give out everyone else's on monday when we're leaving. The only people who wouldn't get their bags right away are coming from other provinces so they'll just have to wait. It would cut down on the stuff I need to bring by a fair bit!!

I haven't decided on whether we'll do wedding brochures or not. I like the idea of them but we haven't really planned anything for during the week officially (we can't decide on any activities!) and don't have the wedding day planned out yet either. Plus most of our guests have traveled to Mexico before so they all know the usual routines. I was sneaky though and a while back I had postcards made up saying "Coming Soon!! Geoff and Meghans' Wedding" with our resort name and date on there which I used a few of to send people to remind them of our RSVP deadline but which I'm using for the rest of our guests about a month ahead to remind them to check our website for last minute details and stuff. No one that received a postcard the first time ended up booking so I can get away with using them again for everyone else!!! Which is awesome because I really like them Almost every time I talk to my friends here though, they keep asking why we didn't have the wedding sooner than April because they're all ready to go now, just like me!

well I guess I could see the logic that if this photog. girl is a part of your ARH then it would be okay for her to come to your bach.... I still think you should have been asked BEFORE the invitation was extended, but you're right that at least it's not some complete and random stranger! I sent my invite list off to the girls last week and had nearly 30 people on there which I thought was pretty good I had a few girls from work that said they'd really like to come even though they weren't invited to the wedding at all and I was happy to oblige that request!! On another note, we're just in the last day or two before our RSVP deadline and even though we're still waiting on a few people, I've mostly just assumed they aren't coming. It's official that other than my parents, none of my old friends from the hometown are coming at all which sucks a little bit. I understand that they're a few provinces away and some have very legitimate reasons for not being able to go but others just didn't seem to have ANY reason or even show any regret that they can't go. But OH WELL FOR THEM! They're going to miss out on a super fun time and I'm not going to send them ANY pictures SO THERE! HA! Yep, that's me being spiteful. On the other hand, we had a few more of FI's friends from his hometown book so that does make me happy since he considers half of our friends here to be "my" friends. And of all strange things, we've ended up with almost exactly the number of people coming with us as we originally wanted!! We'd said 30-40 would be ideal and got nervous inviting about 60 people even! But, who'd have thought it would work out so perfectly

LOL, you totally pass by my street every day then I'm sure! Do you drive downtown for work or take the bus?? We've used the 116 express sometimes but I hate that it doesn't travel in the opposite direction (clockwise) through our community! Otherwise we take the 301 which is about 25 min in the morning so not too bad. the evenings are still long though I hear you about the faster commute from the SW though. I used to live just up Bow Trail by Walmart and it was SO fast!! I miss living in that area and we may look back there when we're ready to move again in a year or two. If you're ever driving around there and see a brindle boxer with a coat and dog booties on then stop and say hi because that's me!!!

We booked ourselves for a 10-day trip for just those same reasons. We've got about the same timeline as you for when we arrive vs. the actual date of the wedding but I don't think we'll be too busy with wedding stuff beforehand and should be able to do the excursions we are planning on. I've heard from other brides that they chatted with their WC for a couple of hours total between arrival and wedding date and that was all they needed, so hopefully it would be the same for you!! We wanted to give our guests some flexibility with booking (half are leaving on a sunday, half the next day on monday with us) but we politely asked them not to book beyond the one week date so that we could have a few days alone. If you're going through a travel agent, you could definitely ask to look into extending your trip to ten days, but I'm not sure how that works once you've already booked.

Krama - where in Coventry are you? That's where I live too!! LOL! We're just a couple blocks in behind the Future Shop off Coventry Hills way.

Yay Cara that's awesome!!! Where did you guys buy? What kind of house? Give us some details!!

Alright so my first comment is this - I realize that in comparison to how long some of you have waited for the wedding to finally come, the last couple months don't seem like any time at all but seriously, this feels like the biggest game of "Hurry up and WAIT" that I have ever played and I DON'T LIKE IT! LOL! I know that I leave in about 10 weeks and that I've got a few big things to do in that time but it just seems to be dragging out! Kimmy - good to know that your suit didn't take too long to get. We'll be ordering ours in the next week or so and I was worried that might be leaving it a little late. Tracy - I have two of my closest gf's getting married this summer (so I'll definitely be involved with everything for their weddings!) plus another gf from work and they're all within a couple weeks of each other! And that's not even much compared to one gf (included above) who has I think seven or eight weddings other than her own and mine this year. It was seriously like popcorn around here this past fall and winter with the number of people I heard getting engaged. And it's funny that none of us wanted to wait until later in the year, or even into 2011 so that's why we're all packed in. And what's the moral of the story?? I am SO glad that I picked our wedding date for early in the year!!!!!!! The first thing I told Geoff was that I wanted it well before the summer started so that we didn't get lumped in to all the other weddings - and man i'm sure glad that's the route we went!!

Hi Courtney!! Welcome to the site, you'll be SO thankful you found it. I'm getting married at the Dreams Puerto Aventuras just a week or so before you... come join our April 2010 thread if you need help from other brides who are on the same schedule that you will be for planning!! April 2010 Brides

I'm guessing that your items are all small enough that they will fit in to everyone's carry-on luggage so that no one will be over their allowance, but what I would do is call ahead to the airline and explain what you'd like to do and see what they say about it. The only reason I can see them putting up a fuss is if they view the bag holding your items as an extra piece of carry-on (which I realize it isn't but they might say so). Also, having names of some guests that are booked on your flight with you might help so they know you aren't just trying to pull something behind their backs.

Awww sorry about the shipping, I wasn't sure. I will check my laptop at home this evening and see if I have the other link saved there but I'm not sure since I cleaned out both of my favourites tabs I'm a bit hooped as well because I can't find the seller for the carabiners that I wanted anymore. They were on ebay for a long time so I didn't think there was really a big rush to get them right away. Turns out I was wrong so it might be off to the dollar store for me too.

Hey no problem!! I seem to be great at coming up with ideas for anyone but myself so ask away!!

Wow what a great idea!!