mandijacole

What an awesome idea for thank yous!!!!  I am definitely stealing this idea

Originally Posted by simba1234 

A long time ago I started a thread asking for opinions on a crazy idea I had for thank you cards (I get these crazy ideas in my head all the time:)  At the time I wanted to create a mini magazine. Here's my original thread: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/60575/is-this-a-crazy-idea-pls-give-your-honest-opinion

 

Well, I wanted to give you guys an update because the idea evolved into something different but really awesome and unique.  I realized that doing a magazine would be more work, more expensive and not very durable.  So instead I decided to do a mini photo book.  The front cover had one of our Trash the dress pictures and it simply said "Thank You...."

 

On the inside I told a story through pictures of the whole wedding week.  I started with pics of the welcome cocktails, then moved on to the rehearsal dinner, next I had pics of the ceremony, then the reception and finally ended with a few pics of our trash the dress. 

 

On each page, I had really short one liners thanking guests for different things.  So for example, Page 1 said "Thanks for traveling the distance...", page 2 "thanks for the great memories", page 3 "thanks for the laughter"... Page 4 "thanks for being there in our most special moment" etc... Basically almost every page thanked them for something.  

 

The front inside cover was a blank page so I wrote a personalized hand written thank you to each guest on that page. 

 

I sent them out already and EVERYONE was absolutely amazed by them.  Every single guest called me and the first word out of their mouths was "WOW".  Then every single one of them went on to Thank me for the thank you cards  lol...when was the last time you saw that happen? It was really funny to hear people saying that. 

 

It's been about 7 months since I sent them and everytime I visit someone I see the booklets sitting right there on their coffee table or somewhere else you can see right away.  Everyone showed it off to their friends and co-workers. 

 

Below are some pics of the book. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did these through Mypublisher.com which is super, super easy to use!   All you do is drag and drop your pictures where you want them.  The print quality was absolutely AMAZING and stunning!  The colors were vibrant, the pages were premium and high quality.  It looked really professional.  A lot of people thought I got these as part of my photographer package.  I LOVE mypublisher.com (you would think I'm a spokesperson for them  

 

Each book is small - the size is 5.75 x 7.75 (if you want a visual, just take a piece of paper and fold it in half - it's about that size).

 

The cost for a booklet with 20 pages is $9.99 BUT they have these great promotions all the time so you can get a really good discount.  In my case, I took advantage of a buy one, get one free promotion so each book came out to less than $5.  I sent one to each couple. 

 

If you think that's too much money, they have a new even smaller booklet now which is only $2.49. 

This is something you can only pull off with a DW because it's less people so you can include pictures of everyone in the book AND you won't break the bank sending one to everyone. 

 

Hope this inspires someone to do something different.  I wanted to really find a way to thank my guests in a unique way because not only did they take their personal time and money to travel far, they also gave us the best gift of all by giving us a week that we will never forget for the rest of our lives.  It was worth the $100 bucks or so I spent on them. 

 

So cute!  This is such a great idea and I love the wording!

Yes, I also think that you could put items in the mugs.  If that doesn't work maybe you could just have the bags set up in their rooms with the mugs and water set up nicely beside the bag?

How cute!  I love these

@ JMikla...That dress is gorgeous!!!

Like a few others mentioned, I am planning on getting my girls a gift certificate to the spa as one of their gifts and possibly a classic piece of jewelry that they could wear it again after the wedding.  I liked the idea of the coach wristlets

This just happened to me too!  I tried to start a thread and post my DIY save the dates and invitation pictures to share with other brides and I was told it was under moderation.  Today when I checked the post was not there and the pictures were just in my photo album.  Maybe it's because I put the website where I had my invitations made...they may have thought I was spamming.  Are we not allowed to post information from where we got our items or who made them??  Just trying to figure this all out..

We are having our ceremony at 4:00, that's what our wedding coordinator told us would be the best time to get in pictures before and during the sunset.  Our ceremony is on November 1
 

Originally Posted by clgriffi7 

Question:  what time is your ceremony?

 

I want to have a sunset ceremony for 2 reasons

1)  I think it is romantic and the pictures will be gorgeous

2)  it will be closer to dinner time, so the wedding can flow from ceremony through to the reception without a break (we will take our bride & groom pictures before the ceremony, including a staged "first look")

 

Looking online, on my wedding date in Cancun, sunset is supposed to be 5:10pm.  Currently my ceremony in set for 5:00pm.  Do you think there will be good lighting for pictures throughout the ceremony?  Or do I need to move the ceremony up to say 4:45pm?

 

Thanks for your advice

Courtney

Hi Everyone!  I glad to see that there are many of us getting married this November.  I agree angi11111...it is now starting to getting a little stressful.  I felt ahead of the game for awhile because I had all the big things settled, but last night I made a list of ALL the little DIY projects etc. and it seems a lot longer than I had thought haha.  It's great that we can all support each other as we are appoaching the 3 month mark

I can't wait until I can upon templates, etc.  This was helpful because I had no idea how many posts I needed to get

Awesome idea!  I am going to plan a DIY brunch myself.  Thanks for sharing the idea!

What a great idea!  I think I'm going to make some for my bridesmiads!

What an awesome idea!  I have never thought of this!   Thanks for trying it out for us all
 

Originally Posted by JoanneIreland 

 

Cold Patch Test

Ok ladies so I decided to test out the suggestion to wear cold patches under your wedding gown!

I am working from home today, it's a hot muggy day, so I thought it was a good chance to test!

I got the patches from Walgreens as suggested on here -> http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/walgreens-disney-instant-cold-patches-large-3-pack/ID=prod6067944-product

There a 3 patches which I cut in half, and applied three to each thigh.

I had no bad reactions, after a little while i forgot they were there, and i could definitely feel the coolness, although not cold and uncomfortable.

I don't think they will bring HUGE relief but anything that will help will be worth it considering there weren't uncomforable and are cheap.

Also they don't last super long. The box said up to 4 hours, but by 3 hours the effect was completely gone.

I plan to put them on right before I leave the hotel room so they will last through the ceremony and cocktail and into some of our photo session. Then when it comes close to reception time I will take them off, in perfect time before the garter has to come off!

These look great and are a lot more affordable than I realized.

Thanks so much for posting your schedule.  I have been trying to figure out how I was going to get all of those last minute things done.  You made me feel more relaxed about this and I am also trying to get as much done before I leave for the resort that way I will be able to share fun times with friends and famiy. 

I LOVE this idea!  I am going to steal it and use it   I have been trying to think of a good way to honor our mothers.

I may ask her out to lunch and as you're talking about the wedding, bring up the fact that because you are having a destination wedding and have to keep things small, you will also be having a small bridal party.  You could tell her that you just wanted to clarify that you are not able to have her as a bridesmaid and that you wanted to tell her in person because you were afraid that she may be upset.  You could tell your" friend" that if you were having a large wedding you would have loved to include her (that doesn't neccessarily have to be true hehe) but that you and your fiance have decided you must keep the party small.  Let her know that you would love to have her share in some fun wedding events (if you wouldn't mind) to allow her to feel included.  If you really don't care to do this then don't offer that last part.  I think you will feel a breath of relief as soon as you do this.  I did this same thing and felt so much better after getting it off my chest   Good luck

I had this happen to me too!  Although she didn't directly ask me, she was talking about being a bridesmaid with other friends.  I didn't want to hurt her feelings, so I took her out to dinner one night and shared a lot of the details of the wedding.  I brought up the wedding party and explained that since it was a DW we had to keep the bridal party very small.  I told her who was going to be in the wedding party and that if we were having a regular sized wedding and were having more attendants I would have loved for her to be included.  I think being honest and addressing it right away helped relieve the awkwardness and everything has been great since. I also chose a few fun things for her to share with me during the wedding planning, such as a dress fitting and shopping for specific DIY items.  This helped her to feel included.

I've heard of allowing only children that are family or only the children in the wedding (I've been to a few like this).  This may help cut down the number of children.  Also, you could invite only couples that are married (or engaged) (Again, I've been to a few like this).  If you do this though you need to be consistent with no exceptions outside of the rules or else people may be offended.  We ended up choosing an adult-only resort so that we didn't have to make the decision regarding children, but we didn't want to have any children there lol. Good luck!

I think it's really cute!

I just sent out my Invitations for my wedding!  We are celebrating in Mexico during the Mexican holiday "Dia de los Muertos."  I just wanted to share them with everyone.  Thanks.

The Save the Dates:  We made individual boxes filled with a bottle of tequila and a shot glass and the STD card which reads "Take a shot on us...and prepare to celebrate in Mexico"

Our passport invitations were made by Diane at Custompassports.com.  She was wonderful to work with and was able to capture the exact idea I had in my mind.

I am also using mywedding.com and am very happy with the site!  I like that you can track RSVPs and traffic to the site, and the best part is it's free!

Clairbear

We will overlap for a few days  I arrive on October 29 and our wedding is on November 1 and we're staying until November 5.  I am under the impression that the ceremony can be in English or Spanish.  We are still trying to figure out what we're going to do for the ceremony.  I think we're going to write our own ceremony because I'm not sure what the standard ceremony consists of.  Nayeli said that if we want to add anything to the ceremony we can send it to her and she will give it to the officiant.  I have seen a lot of people doing the sand ceremony, which I think is a Mexican tradition.  What are you guys going to do?  We are going to have the ceremony on the beach and the reception in the outside square area. Where are you having yours? We are also booking DJ Mannia.  Right now we have 20 people booked but are thinking we'll have a total of around 30 people.  How about you?  

Thanks for the warning!

Jass,

I'm also waiting to hear back about this.  We are considering bringing a photographer as our guest as well.  I don't think they'd have any grounds to say no if the person is a guest and paying to stay there.  At least that's our hope!  Let me know if you hear anything.

Amanda