Catalyst

Nightelf druid and Human priest. I played online games long before I met my FI we actually met in one way back ages ago when we were both still in highschool :-)

I think it largely depends on which airport you are flying out of rather than the airline's rules. I can't speak about wedding dresses in specific but I do know that from past experience at Gatwick that they will only allow you one peice of hand luggage and it does have to comply with the specified rules and restrictions for size and weight. That being said they didn't seem to care when I spoke with one of the security agents about whether it was actually put into that size a case etc provided it could fit in that size a case and weighed about the right amount. That was as of the last time I travelled last October. From what I understand Heathrow is a little bit more relaxed about that kind of thing. For instance my parents had to check their hand luggage when they were at gatwick but did not when they flew from heathrow. *Shrugs* It might also come down to how nice the check in agent is as well. I would check with the airport itself and thomson. I've always had trouble getting clear answers from either though and have just kinda had to tough it out on the day of travel. I've been moving between north america and the UK a few times over the last year due to work and family obligations so I've had to look into these things a few times unfortunately.

heyas, from what I gather if you want a 'private' rehearsal dinner you will have to rent the restaurant which would involve a fee as they would be closing it down to other guests. However if you are happy to share the restaurant with other groups you or one of your party can just make a reservation down at the guest services desk. This is what we plan to do as it doesn't really matter to us if we share or not as we aren't a huge group and are happy spending time together reguardless of circumstance. As for the dinner and dancing in one place... I think it would depend on the size of your group really. As we're small we're just planning on going to the disco later in the evening. If I had a larger group I would probably consider hiring the DJ option. From what I have heard it can be alot of fun. :-) I'm currently looking for a photographer as well so I'm absolutely no help there. :-P sorry.

hmmm not sure about that particular resort. However I do know that arrangements can be made at other resorts for a private dinner, which you would have to pay for. My FI and I aren't too fussy about it being private but for a rehearsal / get together dinner we are just planning on booking space in one of the restaurant for all of our guests. Our resort allows for private rentals for about 500 - 700 $ if I remember correctly your safest bet would be to bug your wedding co-ordinator about it and hopefully you'll get a timely response. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Congrats! :-) I personally have gone with Iberostar rose hall even though it is a little more expensive than some of the other resorts simply because of the reviews and pictures I saw fit very closely with what I wanted. Can't really comment on any of your other choices however I did find tripadvisor to be a great resource when making my decision, simply because buried in the reviews there are always a few weddings being done / pictures available. Whichever way you go I hope it works out!

Congrats? :-D Have fun! :-D

Grats Donutdjn! The Hilton looks lovely, My FI and I were looking at doing ours there ... especially since the aquaduct setting is soooo cool! ( I'm a sucker for ruins of any sort ) However decided to go with the iberostar Rose hall just because it afforded a wider range of options for our guests. Hope everything goes to plan for you!

Good Luck and happy planning

I've had a similar issue with my FI's family in the last few days. His Father is swearing blind that we didn't inform him that we were having a destination wedding and that going to Jamaica would be way too expensive for him to afford especially with FI's brother getting married a few months before us. The fact that we told him more than 2 years ago we were planning this aside. We've given everyone over a year's notice that we were planning this event so that if they would like to go they could. He continues to maintain that we purposefully kept him out of the loop and that we ought to be holding the wedding in canada. To be fair he is located in Hong kong so it IS alot more of an investment to come so we didn't really expect him to attend but would love and appreciate his prescence if he should choose to. In the end we're just letting it be and will celebrate FI's brother's wedding with them even though they won't be attending ours. To be honest we wouldn't be able to afford a regular wedding in the UK at the minute which is our main argument FOR a destination wedding. I don't think it's selfish as long as you make it clear that you would love to have everyone there but it's not necessarily practical. We are inviting extended family and if they can come ... GREAT, but in general we're pretty sure that's not going to happen.

I'm pretty easy going for the most part and am happy to work with the WC with whatever works. We're planning on going with the hotel package ( iberostar rose hall suites ) and adding some flowers etc. I am planning to do a small OOT bag ( out of town bag ) with a few gifts and information for our guests mostly because it's an easy way to communicate our itinerary and plans to everyone while we're there along with a thank you for coming. We'll also be bringing a few extra things to decorate the tables at the reception as I've found out that the table settings will be pretty basic so I'll be bringing table runners and a few items to jazz up the centers. Otherwise I'm happy to go with the flow. We may decide to add in a DJ or music later but not really bothered about it at the moment. I've been looking at a sand ceremony as I've seen it mentioned a few times on these forums but after talking about it with my FI I don't think it would be that meaningful for either of us so we're going to skip it and have our guests do chinese flying lanterns after dark instead. :-) Good luck with the planning Cheers, Kay

I like it ... very cute! Inspired me to maybe think about making my own before our wedding!

I think I like the aurora one out of the ones you've been looking at. Beautiful Plus Size Clothing, Dresses, and Sexy Formal Gowns by IGIGI has a few nice wedding dresses that would fit you. A number of designers and manufacturers sell their dresses in in a wide range of sizes so it's more about knowing what will suit your body shape. Empire lines and a-lines tend to be very flattering. :-)

Sounds like a good plan to me. Tipping is such a grey area because you never know what or how much is appropriate, or at least I don't! My personal rule is in instances where gratuity is already included I tend to give tips on top of the already charged gratuity only if the person performing the service exceeds my expectations. Otherwise I tend to go with 15% as a standard and go up or down based on level of service. I would include a little extra in your budget for further tips and then award them - or not- as you feel is warrented. I think I saw a really good idea in another thread where a bride made up cards with the extra tips in them and handed them out - or not- as needed. hope that helps! -Kay

Thanks for all of the advice guys! Very very much appreciated. I sent off another e-mail last night requesting the same details as before and recieved a response this morning! I'm over the moon to actually be getting this sorted as we spent ages deciding on which resort to go to and I was dreading having to find another. However alls well that ends well... now just to get all the forms filled out and sent off. Perhaps my last e-mails just got lost in the shuffle. Whatever happened I'm glad it's resolved. I realize I'm relatively new to these forums but if it hadn't been for reading through all of the threads I've read here I doubt I would have presisted as long so Cheers!

Thanks Jenn! Good to know that I'm not alone in this really. I did e-mail the [email protected] Just managed to screw up the e-mail addy in my last post as I was rather tired which unfortunately affects everythings everything else. I'll give it another go maybe and be more concise I suppose. I just didn't want to add to the already huge amount of e-mail clutter that they already have. *sigh* I've heard so many positive things about the resort and the co-ordinator's which was part of the reason I wanted to go there! It's just getting it sorted so I can send out the invites! I am trying to book the Beach hotel just because there's a good chance we will have children attending but I'm pretty sure we'll be staying at the suites when we go. :-) Anyways thanks again advice is always welcome!

Anyone else have trouble booking their wedding here? I've sent queries off for the last 3 weeks or so through both to the hotel and the wedding planners specifically and have yet to recieve one reply. Don't get me wrong after having read all the info I can on the resorts I realize they're extremely busy but 3 weeks seems a little bit excessive when waiting for a reply of any kind. I would love to book here but because I can't seem to get a response at all I may start looking elsewhere *sigh* I will admit that the contact the wedding planner form on the iberostar website does not appear to be working for myself or my fiancee. So I sent an e-mail direct to [email protected] and e-mailed the hotel directly to inquire about booking a wedding date. A little bit frustrated but willing to exercise patience at the throught of a light at the end of the tunnel.

I'd Say Iberostar except that I've been trying to contact them for the last three weeks to book a date with no sucess, but maybe you'll have better luck! The Grand Palladium was one of the other ones I looked at and seemed nice.

Thanks for the info! I'm pretty much looking at getting most of the stuff for the wedding in Jamaica. However as we've got a year or so to go I may well change my mind. If I come across anything that might be of use I'll post it for you. Cheers.