missjade

So amazing

Thank you

your hangers look amazing - this was a great read thanks!!!

Thanks jayejayelynn! :)

You did an awesome job, what great ideas!

Thanks Tesa

can you please email me the attachments? this site will not allow me to download anything. please PRIVATE MESSAGE ME

Hmm, that's strange.. I wonder why you can't see the pics directly from the site without having to download..

Unforunately, there are too many pics for me to email... is there some specific you would want to see?

Thank you for such a great post. Gives great ideas, what venues at the resort did you use for the big day?

Thank you!

We went with a Sand Extravaganza package that was offered by the resort and held our wedding on the beach. Our package included a centrepiece and bridal bouquet (which we did not need, and they added flowers to our cake) but on the day of, we were pleasantly surprise with draping and flowers on our gazebo (probably from a prior wedding) and pretty isle runner. Reception was held at La Brasa terrace. We rented the sound system and projector and brought our own media.

Our photographer was Caribbean Emotions and they did a wonderful job.

Wow. .everything looks amazing. Could I ask where you got your dress? Thanks

 

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

I bought it at a boutique called "Bridal Suite" in Toronto. It's Mori Lee Style 4971

Awesome OOT bags

Thank you!

Wow great job I'll have to google how to do my own hangers I was gonna order from etsy but they're pretty pricy

Thanks!

I found the tutorial that I had used.

http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/topic/68275-diy-wedding-dress-hanger-tutorial/

Good luck!!

Hello Brides To Be!!

Even though my wedding has since come and gone (I know it’s been over 6 months!!!), I still wanted to share my planning and DIY projects with future brides looking for ideas and inspiration.  This site was super helpful to me during my planning days and had inspired me to do things on my own rather than spending a ton of $$ on things. In the end, I wouldn’t have changed a thing!!

Here we go…. Hope you find this helpful

Engagement

My then Fiancé and I were celebrating our 5 year anniversary in Puerto Plata, DR. During dinner, we exchanged cards as we do every year.  The card he gave me was for a 25th wedding anniversary, where he wrote from the future looking back at all the years we’ve been married and together. Funny enough, the idea of an upcoming proposal didn’t even cross my mind. He suggested that after dinner, we could take a walk on the beach while listening to music on his iPod (the songs he wanted to listen to were ones we used to listen to while we were first dating). At first I was like “Meh… that’s ok” But he pushed for it and I reluctantly obliged. LOL. So we’re on the beach, the music is playing… he skips a couple songs and I’m like “I thought you wanted to hear these songs..?” Next thing I know he skips the last song and I hear a recording with his voice! He was professing his love to me! My eyes instantly filled with tears as we listened to his recorded speech. Once that finished, our song came on next and I watched as my Fiancé reached into his pocket for the ring, get down on one knee and extended the open box towards me. There it was - The Proposal. I was literally speechless and bawling my eyes out. I never thought I’d be so emotional (although I’m not surprised, as I’m such a sap). I must’ve kept him waiting in suspense for what he felt was a lifetime but was probably a good long minute.. before I said “YES!”.

The Rings

My husband knows me so well – he chose the perfect engagement ring for me: Simple, yet beautiful! It’s so me!

For our wedding bands, he wanted a plain white gold band and I again wanted something simple that would fit perfectly with my engagement ring… et voila:

Ocean Blue & Sand Resort (Punta Cana, DR)

We thought a beach wedding was the best way to get hitched, as we both LOVE the beach and the heat! Not to mention, we knew that an all inclusive destination wedding would be financially more feasible for the both of us. Since our very first trip away together was Punta Cana, we decided that would be the perfect destination to tie the knot. J

After doing research on a bunch of different resorts on our own and with our Destination Wedding specialist (Karen from MyWeddingAway.com), we stumbled upon Ocean Blue & Sand. This resort looked beautiful and offered amazing wedding packages! After reading people’s reviews and having received great feedback from friends who’ve been, we decided that OB&S was THE resort for us.

THE Dress

I looked at several different dresses before I found THE one. I knew I wanted one that beautiful and simple, would be easy to move around in, not too heavy, and still look like a traditional wedding dress instead of one typical for a beach wedding.

His Suit

He wore a white dress shirt under a khaki coloured 3 piece suit custom tailored from Empire Customs. Accented with blue tie.

Save the Date

I designed our save the date magnets on Vistaprint.ca using a picture I had taken from our first trip to Punta Cana as the background and just added text.

DIY Passport Invitations & Boarding Pass RSVP

The first of many DIY projects…

I loved the idea of using Passports and Boarding passes as invitations. I personalized all of these for our guests (Husband’s amazing idea )

The passport pages were designed on Microsoft Word and printed onto white cardstock purchased from Michael’s.

I hand stamped a palm tree using a gold stamping ink and printed out the text in black and went over it with gold marker

I perforated each boarding pass using my paper cutter… tedious but did the trick! LOL

I found pictures of the resort and used them for the front of the luggage tag.. on the back I made the template for people’s address

Pocket folds to hold the Passport, Boarding Pass, Luggage tags, & RSVP envelope

Made these ribbons with our monogram to bundle our invitations

Final products

DIY Bouquets & Boutonnières

I ordered artificial flowers from eBay and efavormart.com and spent approximately $145 to make 6 bouquets and 7 boutonnières. Best part of this is that I can keep my bouquet forever!

Here is my bouquet

Bouquets for the girls

Boutonnières for the boys

DIY Dress Hangers

I found an awesome tutorial online so thought I’d give it a shot on my own. They turned out pretty good for a first timer. I made one of myself, and each of the girls in the party. Hot glued a flower head on top to finish them off.

DIY Centerpieces

Artificial rose petals and diamond table confetti were from eBay, flowers and floating candles were from Michaels, vase and mirror plates were from Dollartree.

DIY Table Numbers

We decided to use Chinese words appropriate for a wedding as our table numbers and quotes that I found that related to each. We also add our own personal thank you message.

DIY Menus and Programs Fans

Both designed with Microsoft Word and printed on white cardstock from Michael’s

OOT Bags

We purchased plain white paper bags to put all of the goodies in for our guests.

List of things we put in: Welcome letter, Wedding Day Schedule, Empty sand bottle, Personalized tumbler, Pashmina & purse holders (for the ladies), Cigar & condoms (for the gents), Chapstick, Immodium, Tylenol, Moist wipes, Glasses wipes, Bandaids, Candy and Gum.

Well, that about sums up everything for my planning thread. I hope you all enjoyed the pics and details and that they are helpful in your planning.

Jade

I think it's your wedding, and you can absolutely have it anyway you choose to have it.

We have 8 people in our wedding party. FI has 2 best men and 2 grooms men..I have 1 "honour attendant" who is my Brother, 1 MOH and 2 Bridesmaids.

I have 3 brothers, 0 sisters.. I am super close with my 2nd brother; he is one of my best friends and i am honoured to have him on my side.

Jade

Awesome!

When are traveling?

And if u don't mind me asking, what rate did you get? I found it to be pretty expensive.. hopefully it'll go down.

Originally Posted by Alicia2013 

hey missjade,
Sorry it took me forever to respond! I just got the contracts settled.  We are travelling with Transat but we went through Thomas Cook!
 

Ouch, sorry to hear TraceyJo ..

I was originally quoted with Transat for Saturday to Saturday trip for my wedding but then when the contract was finally drawn up last week, it was changed to Sunday to Sunday. Not as drastic as your sudden change, but it just sucks that even though you're putting down a deposit to secure a specific trip period, it's not set in stone and anything can happen.

I hope everything works out for you.

Jade

Originally Posted by TraceyJo 

Well I got some really bad news today from my TA. The flight schedule has changed and now the flight is arriving in Punta Cana two days earlier. Which means I know have to try and secure a different wedding date, notify the photographer and all my guests. I am a little stressed out because the week is now from a Wednesday to wednesday instead of Friday-friday. Has anyone else experienced this?? I am so worried that the flight could change again closer to the date. I am booked through Transat and was told that they have changed their departure days for 2013. Anyway, I haven't heard back from the wedding coordinator yet so not sure if they will have another date available and if not, I guess I might have to look at another resort. Let me know if anyone else has run into this problem and if its as big of a deal as it feels right now. Thanks

PM'd you as well!!

What an awesome idea!

Just out of curiosity, what size crystals did you use??

Originally Posted by Island Princess 

Hey Girls,
This is what I did today on a very lazy Sunday afternoon.
I purchased a hotfix crystal applicator off ebay and also some crystal clear hotfix crystals!
It was very fiddly task but in the end, very happy with the result.
I think I will even make some for my bridesmaids!

Congrats Alicia!

I'm happy there is another now July bride at OB

Have you booked your travel yet?

Originally Posted by Alicia2013 

Hello Everyone! I have just confirmed my date with the Ocean blue and can finally say I am officially going to be an Ocean Blue bride on July 12, 2013! I love reading this forum, everyone is so helpful! I can't wait to start planning all the little details!!

Ladies,

I asked my TA if she had heard anything about renovations at Ocean Blue. She got in touch with the Transat group coordinator who let her know that they have not be notified of any future renovations. Here is what else she wrote:

The hotel does have to disclose any major work that would affect guests. There is always work going on at hotels to some degree but if its big like the pools or public areas then do have to disclose this information to you if it affects your travel dates as per TICO regulations. http://www.tico.ca/industry-info/disclosure-invoicing-requirements.html

Let's hope things don't change and negatively affect any of our future weddings.

Jade

Thank you jlb392!

My rates are super high... $1620 total per person... hoping enough people book to help reduce the rates in the end.

Originally Posted by jlb392 

Good luck!  What kind of rate did you get, if you don't mind my asking?

 

 

 

Just opened the door to my guests to pre-RSVP with my group booking! Prices are so high, but wish me luck ladies!!

Ohh! never head "beach formal" before but it sounds way better than "beach chic" ... i think i'll use that! thanks Oct 2012 Bride!
 

Originally Posted by Dominican Ally 

I think I like "Beach formal" as well

 

 

I've heard the phrase "beach chic" that seems to fit and am using it on my invitations..
 

Originally Posted by ntlsnow 

I was thinking this too. I want sundresses, line pants, etc too..Beach business??? LOL I am kidding, Ill keep thinking about it.
 

 

I'm locking in my quote at $1620 from Toronto for July 2013. It's still really high, but after receiving several quotes and having them come back higher, I didn't want to take any more chances.

Now I am hoping to take advantage of the one time price adjustment...

Originally Posted by Shelley123 

Hey ladies, I am getting married jan 2013 and coming from Toronto, Ontario . The price I got quoted for a 7 day all-inclusive is $1884. This is very, very high (especially since I've been here in jan for under $1000). Has anyone one else got really high prices or better?

So I finally got confirmation back from my TA who sent the original request out to Yinette, and she re-confimed that it's $70. *Phew*

I'm relieved now, just hope there's no problems the day of! lol

Yeah I have found them to be really cheap. I ordered my STD magnets through Vistaprint.. just curious to see whether i can do some other things for cheaper and save on having to pay shipping fees. LOL I am BEYOND cheap!
 

Originally Posted by Dominican Ally 

Vistaprint is SUPER cheap, and sometimes FREE

If you sign up for an account with them, just play around on the site and save things to your portfolio or cart without ordering - they start sending you amazing promo offers. I have gotten some amazing deals on Vistaprint orders - many of them just paying shipping.

 

 

 

LOVE your inserts Alicia! 

I'm almost done designing my Passport Invites.. after that I'll move on to the RSVP boarding pass, luggage tag and key card inserts.  Debating on whether or not to use Vistaprint for those though - it may be cheaper for me to do them myself.
 

Originally Posted by Dominican Ally 

That was a fantastic deal! I can't wait to see how many people we're going to be having (thinking between 35-50) so that I can start on this OOT bag stuff I already ordered my key card inserts (ordered 250 business cards from Vistaprint! - wayyy too many but I'll just put two in each - back to back so you see the words on both side, and I'll have 150 left over....oh well)

 I'll order lanyards and holders once I have numbers

 

Here are my key card inserts...

 

 

So glad you were able to take advantage.

Even if you don't use them all, you probably still spent less than what most people end up spending on these items.
 

Originally Posted by jlb392 

thanks for the info!  I went ahead and purchased the key holders.....awesome deal! I don't think we're going to have 100 people, but I'm thinking I'll just sell the remainders on here for a few cents apiece.  
 

 

Yea $70 was what I was originally quoted as well.. waiting on re-confirmation.
 

Originally Posted by Dominican Ally 

Yeah I confirmed with Ada after reading this, and she repeated to me that my outside photographer (Caribbean Emotions) is ok, and it was the outside vendor fee of $70. Is that what you were told too Jade?