uhura526

We have a total of 28 people including myself and FI and we have hired a DJ. We love to dance and also big into music. I do not want to have to worry about coordinating music and making announcements, etc and the DJ is who is in charge of the flow of the wedding reception. So we have one from dinner onward for 3 hours total. Alternately, for our ceremony and cocktail hour, we have a steel drum player.

oh wow! That's rough. Well, fingers crossed that when it arrives, it's what you envisioned. Otherwise, don't they have a satisfaction guaranteed clause or something on DHGate? I think you'll be fine though.

I had quite a few of my guests return the pre-stamped RSVP cards via snail mail and most of those were" no" , but I would say at least 50% did it that way. The rest did it via our website RSVP and only a few did neither for which I had to email them to find out. I would offer the option to RSVP both ways again. It seemed for the most part, it was split and people really do respond well to having something tangible like an RSVP card. At least my guests did.

If you are having fresh flowers, what are you guys doing with your bouquets after? Are you doing a bouquet toss and if so are you using your actual bouquet? Does anyone know if you can fly with fresh flowers through customs?

That's good that you based your budget on the bigger number so at least you know it won't be more than that. I take the same stance regarding vendors with poor response time. I do not have time for that. I know all about "Island Time" my family is West Indian, but business is business and I respond much better to vendors who are on top of their game and want my business. You snooze, you lose. Simple as that. Just because it's a small island, the options aren't as plentiful as some of these big destination wedding spots like Jamaica and Mexico and they know it. Not as much competition and they can charge a lot more for average work. I will post pro photos when I get them. Hope I do not have to wait too long for those.

When is your RSVP deadline? I would say you may have to chase a few people by the time you get to the week your RSVPs are due, but it won't be a daunting number. I have sympathy for you though because you're in that stressful point of not really knowing what your number of guests will be and your budget is totally contingent on this. You want to be able to get solid numbers and you really can't until you hear from everyone. It's frustrating, but hang in there. It will be over soon! Yeah, I'm using Stephanie for make up and she's aware I only want two people's hair done because she's also doing their make up. She didn't offer that service to us, but it might be that she's not well-versed in doing special occasion styles for Black hair. It does involve a different more complicated process, so she referred me to people who are supposed to be pretty experienced and good at that. I just haven't gotten good communication via email with them so I'd rather just go through a salon. The price is the same and I actually have something to go on (ie. pictures!)

Hey. Well, there was a few weeks of RSVP hell but I am happy to say we survived it and we've got our final guest list total of 26 people booked. We'll have 28 total including me and my FI which perfectly fit into our estimate so I'm very happy with that. It seems most of the RSVPs came in the last week of the deadline and I did have to chase a few people who just told me via email or texting. It worked out in the end just strange that the folks I swore would be there aren't coming and the ones I didn't think would come are booked and ready to go. Surprised it's mostly our friends coming and very little family. For hair I am actually doing my own hair for the wedding. I'm pretty skilled with doing my own extensions for years now and that's my plan for myself. I do however, need to hire someone to do my mom and MOH's hair. I was trying to book with my make up artist's recommended hair guy but he's not being so responsive. I got a price of $75 each for them but no details and worst of all, no pictures. I asked him if he had a portfolio or something so I could see his work about a week ago and I haven't gotten a response. I may just make it easy on everyone and just book my mom and MOH at Rock Gorgeous Hair. (I believe someone in this thread went there) Focus Salon is also supposed to do nice work. Both have websites and Facebook pages. How is your RSVP going?

Now you guys have me reconsidering our seating arrangement. We were considering doing one long table as well, but we want people to be able to chit chat with each other and thought it would be easier to do in round tables. We were just doing a sweetheart table for me and FI and then having our BM/MOH who are married and the extent of our wedding party, join the table with our friends. Each table has 8 seats. So we'd have 3 tables plus the sweetheart table. But I also like the layout of the long table too. Hmmm what made you guys decide to do the seating this way?

Oops actually this is the updated schedule: 4.30PM Pre shots 5PM Ceremony 5.30pm Pictures 6.30pm Invite people upstairs 6.45pm Bride and Groom Enter 6.50pm First dance other dances 6.56pm Cake Cutting 7.00Pm Dinner shots 7.30PM Photographer leaves

Yes, we are doing our first dance and the cake cutting to be done before dinner. Here's the schedule my coordinator did. 5PM Ceremony 5.30pm Pictures 6.30pm Invite people upstairs 6.45pm Bride and Groom Enter 6.50pm First dance 6.56pm Cake Cutting 7.00Pm Dinner

I didn't even think of that but our coordinator is an employee of the hotel and our photographer is leaving before dinner. Only person I guess we'd worry about is the DJ but he's only going to be working our wedding for 3 hours. I don't think we're obligated to do a vendor dinner in our case.

Excellent tips, Alexis! You have motivated me to give the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred a try. I am a bit fed up of the gym and want to try something different to possibly drop another 10lbs before my wedding in April so why not?

I did that too! The quality is really nice and it was a nice way to get our engagement photos into a book form too.

I still have people who have yet to book hotel and flight who have RSVP'd "yes" and my wedding is also less than 3 months away. It is true, they wait until the last minute but what can you do about that? Just hope for the best and you may have to just contact them when it gets closer to your wedding. Not sure what your RSVP date is, but I wouldn't really bug people until that deadline gets really close or has passed. I do like that email newsletter idea but quite a few of my guests (like mom and dad's friends) don't do the internet so I may have to create a little something on Vistaprint with details about my welcome party and a rough wedding weekend itinerary and send that snail mail.

Try Joy at http://www.cayman-island-weddings.com/ I probably should have went with her actually lol But, I am not having a cruise wedding and will be staying on the island and I am having my wedding at Grand Cayman Beach Suites and it is not cheap.

I'm also doing escort cards, but only assigning tables not seats. We are just doing table numbers but they will match the cards. I found a seller on Etsy that I like her stuff. They have a lot of great ideas on there with a beach theme.

So you aren't doing escort cards? Also, how will you display this list?

I did see that. I'm not doing that at my wedding, but I'm sure other brides might also be interested though!

Ladies, here's the latest Groupon for Vistaprint in case you need it. $12 for $48 worth of stuff http://www.groupon.com/deals/vista-print-39?p=11&utm_source=channel_occasions_VD1-deals&utm_medium=email&sid=f8fbaca9-f5e0-45ba-8607-445437ad5f8d&division=washington-dc&user=05d2b86e956e769b05a05ee1f3568cc7f61604a23b973e530cc7b907d9d88817&date=20130124&s=body&c=button&d=groupon_occasions_deal

Quote:Originally Posted by elissae Isn't it so fun!?! I created the 8 x 1 photo book. I realized this morning in the shower that I did not put Playa del Carmen anywhere on the book/cover or the resort name, but oh well! No biggie...we will all know where we are/were. As far as geting people to sign it, I may spread the word to the guests a few days prior to the wedding...just letting them know about the guest book and how there's fun things in there. The majority of our guests are arriving Saturday and our wedding is Tuesday so I should be able to "spread the word." I may also make an announcement at the reception as well and perhaps have some key friends even pass it around to sign. That sounds like a great idea! I think I will do the same and "spread the word" as well.

Oh and another thing I am grappled with about this guest book (I used the same design as you did) is how to get people to sign it. Some of the pages have more detailed things to fill in and if the book is say in the front somewhere and is to be signed as people enter the reception, won't there be a long queue? Do you plan to pass it around?

Love your guest book Elissa! I also did mine on Shutterfly but I took advantage of the free 8 X 8 photobook coupon I found and used our engagement photos. It came out so lovely! What size is your book? I am thinking I might want a bigger one.

That's cute! BTW, what is a "health bar"? Is that not dinner?

I pretty much have closed my guestl ist at this point. We've heard back from just about everyone now and those we have not, I am confident will not be attending. Our RSVP due date was today anyway and we actually have just the right amount of folks attending. I Don't get me wrong, I had to chase quite a few people down for some type of an answer (this was done via texts, email and FB private messaging) but out of the people I had to chase down, only one of them was a yes and she was on board from the beginning, she didn't RSVP yet. Hang in there ladies, the end is almost near and try not to stress too much. I have found this whole process sort of sucks, people do not respond to things like this if they don't plan to go.

Go with Jasmine's Bridal Shop