schmizer

Corporate Training Director for a fine dining restaurant group...

OMG! Such beautiful photos!

Cute story:)

Here is my E-ring. Pic was from the jeweler before FI picked it up. It is circa 1921 and "Edwardian" in style. FI picked it out on his own and it is everything I ever wanted!

And you absolutely can ask for a pre-rsvp for booking purposes when sending the STD's. There are some great threads on here for wording of such.

It can be really overwhelming at the beginning! I felt the same way:) There are lots of great brides here that offer great advice. Don't be afraid to ask questions! We are getting married April 21, 2012 at the Royal Lahaina Resort in Kaanapali, Maui. It looks like we will have 20-35 people. Before we made the decision to have a destination wedding, we asked the people that REALLY mattered how feasible it was for them to attend. We explained why we were having a destination wedding and spoke about what the tentative cost would be for our guests. The response from those conversations was the number I based our budget counts on. I expect after it is all said and done that we will have 30 people. I have been surprised actually at how many people were all in right from the start.

We are 2012! April 21st in Maui! Glad to see that there are others that are in the same boat as us! We would have liked to have a shorter engagement but wanted to give our guests and ourselves adequate time to save to come to the wedding. We refuse to be in debt after our wedding! Originally, we were looking at January, but April is less crowded and less expensive, so we have settled and booked our date!

The first thing we did was establish a budget for everything. I did a ton of research (alot on here!) as to what the possible expenses would be. I then had alot of LONG conversations about my FI and we put together a list each of what our priorities were and where we wanted to cut costs vs. where we were willing to be more spendy. We also put together a tentative guest list to figure out approximate costs associated with that. When you book anything, one of the first things they want to know is how many people are involved. I then did research on locations for our ceremony and reception to find the right fits. We also got to interview the coordinator and I got to lay out my expectations. We have booked the resort and are putting down the deposit for the ceremony and reception this week. After all that information was accumulated in a spreadsheet, I started researching how everyone was going to book the trip. We are not going to use a TA. I have figured out from researching and speaking to a couple of TA's that it will be cheaper for our guests to book the resort directly with the room block. I am also looking into airline discounts for our guests who use the same airline. Those would be the first few things I would tackle. Next would be contacting vendors, wedding website and save the dates and the thing I am really looking forward to---dress shopping! Hope this helps!

Great thread! I took tons of notes!

I love your invites. I would also be interested to know the appoximate cost of these!

I love the idea of giving each guy a dry pak wallet. I am totally going to steal this idea!

I am wearing ballet slippers as a tribute to my mom who is a professionally training ballerina. Dance was such a big part of my upbringing that I couldn't see not wearing the slippers on my wedding day. I am not sure if I am going to embellish them yet. Daisymable: No question is stupid. You are totally right, if you went from a flat to a 4 inch heel, you would have to alter your dress somewhere in between.

These are beautiful!

My fiance's dad passed away when he was 10 and I know that not having his dad there is going to be hard for him. I am going to be wearing a small jeweled charm on my bouquet with my grandparents wedding picture as a remembrance since they were a huge part of my upbringing. Any idea where and how I could incorporate a picture of my FI's dad for HIM to wear? I would like to surprise him as part of his wedding gift with something. What have all of you done for remembrances in your ceremonies?

I love the design and personalization of this!

Very fun idea! I love how personal you made them!

I just ordered a canvas one to check out the quality. I'll let you know when it gets here.

We are going to register at one or two accessible places because of requests from our guests. We have clearly stated to our guests that their presence was the greatest gift that we could have and they have given us a hard time about it, saying that if we don't register, then we will have to deal with getting things that we don't want. We are not posting where we are registered, just verbally telling people if they insist.

My fiance's family is really into natural medicine (popular in Chinese culture). I got the flu when she came to visit us from Taiwan and she steeped fresh ginger in water to make a tea and made me drink it. It immediately made me feel better! I now do it whenever I don't feel well. I think this is an awesome idea!

Thanks for the feedback. I love the idea of being able to bring my bouquet back home as a keepsake. My mom still has her bouquet from her wedding (dried), but over the years it has started to fall apart. It would be really cool to be able to keep a bouquet in pristine condition for years to come! I wish I was crafty enough to put together my own bouquet! Please post pics when you get it finished!

I saw a cute boarding pass STD somewhere that had a magnet attached to the inside of the last page. It was really cute! I looked for it but couldn't find it!

We already have our's picked out and will be purchasing soon, since mine is being custom made. We have the money right now and want to get things checked off the list!

I am doing one per couple, with an extra bag for each single guest. We are spending about $30 per bag.

Beautiful!

I also like the "top 10" idea or fun facts about San Diego.