lovepea

We're having a destination cruise wedding because the location was convenient. My family and fiance's family live opposite sides of the country. His immediate family was already planning to go on the cruise, which leaves from the same area of Florida that my family lives in. This way, no one has to pay for extra travel, that they weren't already planning on. They just have to give up 1 day out of their 14-day cruise for our wedding Also, I really really wanted a small intimate wedding, non-traditional, non-churchy. We are having only the family and friends with us that we wanted to have, for a total of 28 people. It's easier to have a tropical, casual style wedding when you are doing it somewhere warm on the ocean!

I like the idea of having to invite people to be able to add pictures.

If you invite someone to a dinner, for a date, a wedding, etc... you are offering them that dinner. It may not be a problem to your fiance's family, but it's rude to ask someone to pay for a meal you've invited them to. If it is such a deal-breaker to you, consider having an earlier or later reception time so maybe you don't have a meal, but hors d'ouvres or something like that.

At first I thought adding in one of these "extra" ceremonies was a little cheesy, but the more I think of it, the hand ceremony is simple, yet very moving. I am still trying to think of a way to involve all the family that will be there, about 25 people, but I don't think the stone ceremony is for me.

I would lean towards November. We are getting married December 3 and chose to have our at home party earlier just to take advantage of better weather, to avoid the holiday craziness. As a plus side, it has worked out so well, because now we don't have any of those activities to worry about or plan.

I think the idea of the whole week to include all those you love and cherish would be a great gift for your parents. It would be a memory of the whole experience, not just the one day.

Thanks for sharing the list!

The Paradise is a pretty nice ship. It is older, but it has a lot of pretty areas on it. I think the most ugly part is actually the passenger cabins! Right now, it's doing cruises out of California, that's where I've been on it and loved it.

I think I would take things slowly with her. Give her a little time to let it sink in what happened. Then maybe even write a letter, telling her how you feel. Like you told us, you love her, but it just wasn't working out for her to be your MOH. Maybe even explain that you want to make it so that you both can enjoy the wedding, and you know she couldn't as your MOH and that you didn't want to make her suffer.

There is a posibility that the ship could miss either of these ports due to weather. Especially true of Grand Cayman, because you have to use tender boats to go ashore, the cruise ship doesn't actually dock there. If the seas are rough, they may not be able to safely get people ashore, so you miss out on that stop. I am not familiar with Key West, so I can't fully answer you about that one.

Here is what I have come up with so far. These are my actual flowers, but I cut out the background from the picture and used MSpaint to play with ribbon colors. I think I will be changing the ribbon color to an aqua, something like I drew here.

I love the blue ones! I have been looking for something in that color myself

Here's my dress!! Excuse the crazy hair going on, we were trying to see what it would look like being pulled up.

i so know what you mean about losing motivation, I kind of ran out of steam myself. But I know we can do this! You come kick my ass into gear and I will return the favor. LOL

You ARE doing good! 25 pounds is a lot!!

Oh ya, I can definitely see how a 2 year old on a cruise would not let you totally enjoy the experience the same way! We had actually had the cruise paid for before we even thought about getting engaged. It was one of those things that just sort of makes life convenient for us. We live in California near his family and my family lives in Florida, so this was a great way to get the most out of our travel dollars, since his family was already flying there for the cruise. We just added our wedding as an extra to their vacation. Kind of unromantic, but it works for us! If I can figure out how to get this picture on my post, I will show you the dress I got. It's an a-line dress with a lot of "ruching" (think that's how it's spelled). It's a sweetheart neckline, but has a lace halter on top of that. It is completely not what I expected to like, I thought something much simpler would be better, but simpler was not flattering.

Well, I decided to go ahead and start looking at dresses. I found one that I love and bought it. It fit perfectly, as is. I do still plan to keep trying to lose weight, but I actually didn't feel fat in this dress, which was my biggest fear with the dresses. MichCraw, 45 pounds is great! I am still around 35 pounds down. My losses have really slowed down, but so has my working out. It just seems that the summer time is sooooo busy. I never have much time, which is a sorry excuse, but you know how it goes... Where are you getting married at? Ours will be on a cruise that is leaving from Tampa Florida.

I've switched to every other day with the video. Feel like a cop-out a little, but it was getting too repetitive every day! Are any of you girls still doing this?

Okay ladies, got one Jillian workout last night and one this morning. The back to back isn't so great though. I feel like I need to mix it up or something from day to day. Maybe tomorrow I try workout 2 for some variety.

Oh I am so with you sister! FI's mom says "we have to have a party here". I agree that we can do one at her house, just keep it really casual, have a friend DJ, FI will brew the beer for it, we can cook the food. Just a party. Now, she keeps adding things to it. "I think we need to have a dance floor if we are having a DJ". ok... "I want to have it catered"... so it's not the same story as yours, it's so odd how it goes out of control, even though this is what we were trying to avoid by having a wedding away from home.

OKay... so I failed last night. I got home from work at 8:30pm. It was just too late But I did get it done this morning though! The push ups are killer for me. I even do the "modified" on my knees push ups.

Subbi, hope you join in our challenge too! One month, how exciting! I was proud of myself for getting through 3 days without stopping on level 1. I can't imagine weighted jumping jacks!!! Way to go shan! I could not get myself up early enough this morning to get in my 30 minutes with Jillian. I HAVE to do it this evening when I get home.

Latinive, how exciting moving into a new house!! Can't wait for you to join us in the SHRED! How's everyone else doing on this lovely Fourth of July? I just finished day 3. (yesterday was my rest day this week, since I was not home at all) It is amazing that in 3 workouts, I can already sense a difference in my abilities. I took starting measurements, so I hope that I do see a nice difference in those too Hey Coco, how's it coming along? Enjoy the holiday ladies!

Woohoo... day 2 done. Day 2 was way easier than day 1. I made it through everything Let the butt kicking begin!!

okay day 1 done. Hope I can make it up the stairs at work today lol! Coconoir- way to go for getting through without stopping. I admit I did end up skipping a couple jumping jacks here or there.