Kendall

@Brandy - Thanks Brandy. I appreciate that. It was a blast! It was an amazing time -- everyone agreed. @Michelle-2 - Thank you! This will be perfect for you guys. It will be simple, elegant and just as you want it to be. We worked with StacyAnn at the resort and she was sooooo sweet and put us all at rest about any concerns we had. At the resort, they all definitely have a Caribbean attitude of "it's all good" -- and you will find you feel the same way. We had rain during our cocktail hour so moved it inside for the 3 hour private receptions and you know what? I wasn't even stressed about it. I was just like "Okay, then everyone will be cool and stay dry." No biggie. I still feel like everything was PERFECT! @Lauren - I agree - your pictures are BEAUTIFUL, Lauren. You looked amazing! I was kinda of keeping my eye open for you at the resort, but didn't see you (I don't think). We were over in the Carribean Village most of the time and on the beach though. Looks like everything went well for you too. Congratulations!!!

Here is a sample of the photographs taken by the Beaches photographer...

Hi everyone! Just getting home and settled after our wedding at Beaches on May 21st. AMAZING! Let me tell you... when everyone says not to worry just to go and enjoy yourself because everything is going to be amazing -- they are right! The resort is beautiful!!! I hope to get my act together soon and post some pics and a review. I can tell you right now, though.... you will not be disappointed no matter what choices you make. We did the 3pm wedding, 1 hour cocktail hour and then 3 hours private reception -- the food was amazing (most amazing beef tenderloin I've ever had). We had 25 guests with us. They haven't stopped raving about what a fabulous time they all had, in fact, they have suggested in a year or two, we do a reunion trip to the same place. We had people as young as 1 year old and as old as 73 with us - everyone had a blast. The kids enjoyed time with the Sesame Street guys and the adults enjoyed every inch of the resort. We booked a private scuba excursion that was incredible. It was well worth the extra $$. Our guests enjoyed it as well. I was nervous about everyone enjoying the time there, their rooms, pretty much anything I could worry about and it was all for no reason. Some of our guests chose to stay in the Italian Village, some stayed in the French Village and we stayed in the Caribbean Village along with others in our party. Everyone loved their rooms (ranged from basic rooms to suites). The people at the resort were sooooooo nice. Stacy Ann (our Wedding Consultant) was incredible and made us feel like we were in good hands. The Beaches photos wer okay... the captured the moment just fine. We are still waiting for our photos from Ileana at Tropical Imaging, but she was awesome to work with. We enjoyed spending the afternoon with her. If you have questions, let me know. I will try to get a few pictures uploaded before too long. I'm still playing catch-up at work and home. The whole experience was awesome and I highly recommend it to any of you thinking about it. This was both my husband's second wedding so we didn't want a lot of pomp and circumstances -- this was perfect. It was elegant, beautiful and classy. Our guests haven't stopped gushing about it. Kendall

Lauren, Juanita & Molly - Our big day is coming quickly! Are you ladies ready to go? When are you leaving? We leave next Tuesday (5/17). I think I have everything together. You? Soooooo excited! Kendall

Just something to consider.... we are doing the sit-down 3 hour reception. Instead of doing the "Welcome Dinner" the night before the wedding, we asked Monica if we could make it earlier in the week (we are getting married on Saturday) -- so we scheduled our welcome dinner the day after our guests arrive so everyone can get to meet each other early in the week. Since there isn't really much of a rehearsal, we opted to just change our rehearsal dinner to a welcome dinner. After the rehearsal (which will only include a few of our guests) we will all go eat at a restaurant together. Just an idea. Seemed to be one that appealed to us.

I am taking an extra suitcase JUST for my oot bag stuff and rafia fans. I haven't heard of anyone else having problems with customs, so I'm hoping to have the same luck.

Melfaybik: I wrote: I take you to carry my room key. For buffet or beach, for soused for souber, in heat and humidity, until I depart. The cards or just business cards I ordered through Vistaprint. The cases I got from amazon.com I think (I ordered 2 kinds and didn't like the one kind I got). Then I got the spiral keyrings from ebay.com. Schica927: I figured the rooms should be fairly cooled with the air conditioning -- so hopefully the Hershey's Kisses won't melt. Or, like someone mentioned, each room has a small fridge so they can pop them in there. We are also making white chocolate sand dollars before we leave so hopefully they will make the trip. We are having Beaches Resort deliver 1the bags to our guests in each of their rooms. I hope that doesn't become a problem. They will deliver them for $3 each. Our guests are all arriving at different times, so it seems easier than us spending so much time going from room to room. I haven't heard of anyone on the thread mention things missing from their bags or anything like that, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything arrives safely!

Me too, LaurenMarie & TheHogans!! Can you believe how fast this is coming? I remember when I had a year! I think I have most everything, Lauren - I am sending out "pre-travel" brochures this week (hopefully) and then I have paint brushes to "brush the beach from your feet" - I'm hoping to do them as well for my oot bags... but if I don't get to them, I'm not going to worry about it. Other than that, I think I'm good to go! With all this ugly weather, I'm looking forward to getting to the tropics! I just hope the weather is BEAUTIFUL in Turks!

We are having them delivered to our guests rooms upon their arrival.

MissLinz: I got the tote bags at Vistaprint.com - I added the sunshine and then had "Turks & Caicos" printed on them. I figured not all my guests will want to carry stuff around forever with our wedding date and names on them - so I did some things with just "Turks & Caicos" on it.

Jszy: I found the under water cameras at www.ecamerafilms.com

Schica: I used Glad bags (I used the glad brand because they didn't have the brand written on them in white) - sandwich size. On the computer I created a text box 4" high and I forget how wide... like 7" I think - then I put the clipart and wordart in. I could fit 3 on a page. I printed it on my little Deskjet printer and cut each one out, folded it in half and used double-sided tape to hold it to the baggies.

PrincssScorpion - I bought small white candy size bags. Folded them down twice and then used a hole puncher to put two holes in the bag then I pulled ribbon through the holes and tied them into a bow.

KJ - Yes, that was the correct ribbon - 4A. It's a bit expensive, but I couldn't find any anywhere that I liked as well, so I just bit the bullet and bought it.

Brandy, was the resort full when you were there? If yes, did it seem crowded? We're being told the resort is sold out so I had some concerns about that. Did you do any of the "extras" around the resort - like was there para-sailing, etc.?

Oh, I see - he looks very snazzy. Hmm... my fiancee is really hoping not to wear a jacket for fear he'll be so hot.

Awww Brandy - looks amazing! You look BEAUTIFUL! I'm happy to see your hubby isn't wearing a suit - my fiancee' doesn't want to either and I have seen so many pictures of the guys with suits - and he looks great too! I'm looking forward to your review! I just hung up with Monica (my wedding isn't until May 21st). Now seeing your pictures I'm even more excited! Was it really, really hot? What location did you choose for the wedding?

Ursula - Got my palm tree bottle openers on ebay. I saw them on here and googled them - found them on ebay.

Oh wow! They are very cute TigerLily! Wish I had seen them before I got all my other keychains!

Welcome back, Brandy! How did everything go? Was it perfect? I'm sure it was. Are you going to fill us all in of all the details? I'm looking forward to pictuers too!

MissLinz - I got the bags at: http://myweddingreceptionideas.com/frosted_gift_bags.asp I then purchased the colored tissue paper (which I need to practice putting in the bags so it looks a bit neater) at www.dickblick.com (art supply store). Lastly, I fell in love with this ribbon (which is what made me decide on the tissue paper colors) and found it at http://www.favorsyoukeep.com/ribbon.html -- they also have gift bags, but I had already gotten mine by the time I found this site.

Aaronlori - I got the clear badge holder on Amazon.com and then the spiral wristlets, I got on ebay.

Tiffanya - I got the sunscreens on ebay - I searched on "lot sunscreen" and found 10 of them for like $4 or so.

Thanks everyone! I'm relieved they're done. Jamieirene: I got the first aid kits on ebay, but I have seen them at Target in the travel size section as well. The underwater cameras I found at www.ecamerafilms.com We have 2 young children traveling with us and I got them Sponge Bob Underwater cameras from the same place.