NJBride2014

gum

shout wipes

wet naps

aloe vera

These are some things I put in my hangover kits. 

Oh my gosh you are so organized!! I love your planning thread and your story of how you met and your engagement is just great! I adore the photo of your ring with the doggie paw!  Too cute!!!

 

I'm really anxious to see photos of your wedding!! You have to make sure you post when you get back!!!!

@acw271011 Thanks!! I'm definitely going to share photos after the wedding! Only 36 more days until we are off to Cancun and still some DIY projects to finish.  

Haha I love the stripper pics!!

 

You are sooo organized, and your wedding is going to be gorgeous. You have an amazing brother in law! So talented. How did he make the "shake for a kiss" tags? Is it cricut? Would love to do something like that

Also, did you upgrade your menu or does Le Blanc allow plated meals as well? Palace just has buffets included, and it's like $55 or something to upgrade to a plated meal

@tygrrlily Haha I know the stripper was a surprise and all the ladies loved him.  I just couldn't stop laughing, I mean my mom and grandma were there.  It was funny.    lol

We tried making it on the circuit but they weren't coming out right so he made a design of it and then we bought a tag punch cut out at Michaels and just used that to make the tags.  I have the pdf of the template if you want it I can email it to you.  Are you doing maracas for a favor?

We didn't have to upgrade to a plated menu that was actually a choice either plated or buffet.  I really like having a plated dinner for the reception.  We are having our reception on the Terrace so there is no upgrade charge for the plated dinner.  There is a charge if we were to have it on the beach though.  For our rehearsal dinner we are doing the buffet a little less formal.

Wedding Day Robe

I loved this robe from Love Ophelia and took advantage of a sale and ordered one with my new last name.  I can use it for wedding pictures and even after the wedding. 

Pre Travel Mailers/Luggage Tags

I designed my brochures on Vistaprint and used a coupon code to purchase them.

The luggage tags my brother in law designed for me and the plastic holder and loops I bought off of Amazon.

I'm going to mail out the brochure with all the wedding events/timeline, resort information, TA/transfer confirmations and excursion/spa list to all of my guests. This way they have all information in advance and will be prepared to take full advantage of all the resort has to offer. 

@@nadiakat17 yeah I found it to be very simple and much cheaper than getting it custom made. Just remember when yoi print your design that you flip the design so you iron it on to the bag correctly.

I wanted to do custom matchbooks too but when I called United Airlines to see if we could put them in our checked baggage I was told it was not allowed.  Kind of a bummer because we are having a cigar station and will have sparklers.  

I did this and it came out great.  I bought my totes on bagiva.com really cheap and then bought iron transfer paper at Michaels with coupons.  My brother in law did the design and I printed it out on my home inkjet printer.  One or two bags did get a little messed up because I didn't apply enough heat so make sure that you buy a little extra of both bag and iron paper.  Here is what my bag looks like. Oh and I saved a lot of money for 40 bags came out to like $90 for everything. 

Man I wish I could do it.....I just know with my family it would be me explaining it to everyone and then them complaining about having to find white outfits. lol Just more work than I want to deal with now.  I was planning on adding it to our pre travel packets as well but oh well.  I finally get my brochure's in tomorrow from vistaprint and then I can mail out everyone their pre travel documents, brochure and luggage tags and cross one more thing off my to do list.  

I posted them in a thread a while ago!   Let me find the link for you

 

http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/topic/77375-where-to-take-engagement-pics-in-cancunrm/page-2

 

Yes, this summer has been completely disappointing with the cold weather and all of the rain - This whole year has been a pretty bad one for weather actually. Definitely makes me look forward to Mexico even more!  Your driving/flooding story sounds awful! We were actually glad we ended up just staying in town this weekend because of the whole Burlington bridge fiasco/detour. And it was kind of a nice peaceful long weekend. Definitely hope the labour day weekend is nicer - esp. because I think you go in for your surgery right after that?

 

Haha there's nothing really to it other than a party where everyone wears white .  I love the way it looks though, and I think it's fun to have a themed party.  We're having our welcome white party on the beach - and we're going to get a cigar roller. I love this image:

 

Your welcome party sounds like its going to be so much fun!! We wanted to do cigar rollers for the reception but opted to just buy cigars and have a lounge section with cigars set up for the guys and do a photo booth instead. 

@@NJBride2014 - Haha my FI keeps asking me why we didn't just elope whenever I start asking him for his opinion

 

I understand about how you feel about wanting to make sure everyone has a great time.  I'm a big planner this way too, and I find myself really stressing about it.  But as you said, things will happen.  Also remember that everyone going is going because ultimately they love you and your FI .  And you'll all be in Mexico!  It will be amazing - I can't wait to see how your wedding turns out!

 

@@acw271011 - An ulcer!! That's extreme but I can completely understand! When we were narrowing down our resort I was SO stressed I couldn't sleep and all I could do was read review after review.  Haha I've given up even telling/asking my FI things unless it directly pertains to him.  I made him turn off the TV so I could get his opinion on bow ties and it was like pulling teeth.  We bought our groomsmen pants and his white pants for our white party this past weekend and it was a huge ordeal haha, so I think he's off the hook for a while now!

 

And rain - ahh.  I've refused to even consider rain

 

Love the extra thoughts!

My fiance sounds a lot like your fiance.  He's so over me asking him what to do about this that and the other, that he is just letting me handle everything from here on out. lol  I tell him when he gets to the resort and sees how much work actually went into it he'll know exactly just how much I really did.  He just thinks its an email here and there, no its a lot emails to several vendors and then research, contracts, payments etc.  My living room also looks like a wedding factory and it keeps multiplying the closer we get to the wedding.  As for the groomsmen outfits we also bought them their pants and that was not fun trying to buy pants that will look good on 5 guys who are built completely different.  Now we have to make sure they all fit but that's another headache and my fiance should be handling this but again its like pulling teeth to get all the guys over to try them on.  Last night I made my fiance try on his suit with new shoes and tie and he whined the whole time lol I was like don't you want to make sure everything looks right and fits good before we are in Cancun.  I don't get guys sometimes.  I'm usually not this demanding and crazy I'm actually really chill and go with the flow but this last month is really making me stressed.      We were also thinking of doing a white party for our rehearsal dinner but scrapped that idea that would be another headache trying to explain to all our guests to wear white.  

I have wedding related nightmares sometimes if I'm doing any wedding planning/research before bed.  I wake up and tell my fiance about it and he looks at me like i'm crazy. I'm definitely not going to miss wedding brain after the wedding is over.  Only 37 more days of planning and then finally I get to enjoy all the hard work that's been put into it all....in the end it will all be worth it is what I keep telling myself.  Eloping sounds like the way to go now....lol j/k   

What if my guests hate the wedding and are mad that they paid all this money to come all this way?

Will I mess up my vows?

Will it rain on my wedding day?

Will everything go smoothly at my resort? 

A Lot of these things I can't control but I still want everyone to have a great time and I'm such a planner and organized person that I can't help but try my best to make it as close to perfect as possible.  I just need to learn to let things happen and I can't control everything. 

Yeah I would wait to speak to your onsite planner about getting a room for a night that's what I did and she said one night would be fine (printing out the email just in case). I actually found the rooms online way cheaper than my TA and the hotels site so paying for their rooms wasn't too bad, way cheaper than an $800 vendor fee for each vendor....ouch!  Plus since I'm getting them rooms my DJ and Videographer all agreed to give me a little bit of a discount and the DJ comes with a lot more than either JSAV or PSAV for the price and DJ Disco Movil's communication is so much better.

@@tygrrlily who are you using for decor?

Yeah, we're doing the same. I was really unimpressed with the Palace vendors for the prices.  We're going to pay the vendor fee for our photographer/videographer, but we're telling BP that theyre under one company and hoping to pay it just once.  We hired the same DJ as you but I'm not sure if we're just going to just pay his vendor fee, or try to book him a room.  Our WC said we'd need 3 nights which is more expensive, so I might wait until we get switched to our onsite and deal with it then. Even if we do have to pay the vendor fee, he was still cheaper and included more in his package than the resort djs.

 

And haha I love your last line - I call it MY wedding all the time haha, then remember I should say we .  My FI has no opinion about these things so is just leaving it all to me haha

Yeah the vendor fees are a killer, I'm paying for day passes for my photographers, and a night at the hotel for both my DJ and videographer and having the flowers dropped off all to avoid vendor fees. lol It's like a game trying to see how to pay the cheapest fee to get the vendors you actually want.  I would have gone with the resort vendors but honestly they were very expensive, communication wasn't the best and the quality just didn't match to what I could find outside of the hotel. So even if i end up paying what I would have paid for their vendors at least I know I got the best and it was the vendor I wanted and didn't settle for theirs just because that was the only option.  It is my wedding after all so I didn't want to settle.  haha I mean our wedding....my fiance is just as picky as me and didn't like any of the hotel vendors.  

These are gorgeous!! We're looking at something very similar, but with some darker pinks and corals as well. I love the touch of orchids in there

 

I'm going to really mull over the low vs. high centerpieces now. We were originally thinking to use the high ones to decorate the aisle of our ceremony as well which is why I was able to justify the price. Hrm... I would have to come up with something else. I really hate these vendor fees argh

I say if someone wants to throw you one and is really into it just go with it.  I didn't want one either but my sisters insisted on it and they threw me a bridal shower and this past weekend a bachelorette party and it was so much fun and I got to celebrate with a lot of people who aren't coming to the wedding in Cancun.  Its ok to celebrate and let people make a fuss over you this one time in your life. lol

@@tygrrlily Yeah I know what you mean I always envisioned high ones too and really fell in love with the pics he sent me but ultimately its just flowers and I settled with the low ones just to make it easy I'll still get the same flowers I wanted but smaller.  I will also save money with the smaller centerpieces and guests can take them back to their room if they want.  I'm doing 5 round tables and a sweetheart table.   These are our centerpieces but with more coral and white flowers   I really wanted something with orchids so this was great not too many orchids just a couple too keep the price down. These were the ones I loved. .

@@shellsal yeah it sucks with all the extra costs....tip to future DW brides expect extra people coming last minute and budget for it and buy extras of everything.  UH I'll have to suck it up to and just pay but I just don't get people they should know its a wedding and we do have to pay for all extras such as private events, at least be considerate and respond by the deadline.  People think oh its an AI resort and that we are getting a free wedding definitely not the case......ok end rant! lol  

@@tygrrlily I'm using Maya Floral for all of my flowers.  The quotes I was getting back from the resort were just way too much for the flowers I wanted.  I was going to compromise and pick less expensive flowers to avoid going with an outside vendor but with Maya I get the flowers I want and it was much cheaper.  Are you looking to do high centerpieces or low centerpieces?  I originally wanted high and low but that would mean they would need to come in and set up and then come back to take the flowers down.  Maya suggested to do low centerpieces and then I'll just send the groomsmen to the lobby to pick them up and they will put them on the tables.  This way we avoid them having to come in at all and having to pay any sort of outside fee.  The tall centerpieces although nice are also not so practical for the money since after the wedding no one can really take them home with them and enjoy them. I haven't even told my wedding planner about any of my outside vendors I'll handle that when I get to the resort and talk to my onsite planner.  Another florist that was reasonably prices was Flores Riviera Maya I ultimately chose Maya because of his fast response and flower choices I just felt like i was getting my money's worth.  He's providing flowers for rehearsal dinner, bouquets, bouts, corsages, centerpieces and petals for about the same price I was quoted for just bridal party flowers from the resort. 

@@shellsal wow that's crazy I agree with @@shan0487 if these extra uninvited guests are going to cost you extra for having them at all your events then I would make sure they know they are not invited.  If it doesn't cost you anything I would just avoid the awkward conversation and just let it go.  How did they know what TA to contact are they coming with other invited guests?

I have some guests who are booking even after our booking date has passed which is getting a little annoying because now it's throwing off my seating arrangements, welcome bags, favors etc.  Also since they are not booking through our TA I will need to pay for every event they come to.  With 37 days left until I leave for Cancun I really don't' feel like adding more stress on top of everything else. Its nice that people want to come but so last minute is not cool. I think people think that a DW just happens and the resort takes care of everything they don't' understand all the little details that goes into planning the wedding weekend. 

Wedding Decor and Signs

The frames I bought at Walmart and Home goods and just sprayed painted them gold.  The signs my graphic artist brother in law helped me with some and the some I did by downloading fonts on Dafont.com. The runner I bought on etsy they are very cute and add a little something to the table and very reasonably priced.  This is the seller https://www.etsy.com/shop/VowWowDecor?ref=l2-shopheader-name.  The coral napkins and gold rings I actually bought from a BDW bride and they also add a pop of color that I was looking for.  A lot of my candle holders and items came from Michaels with coupons and I just spray painted them gold to match my color scheme.

Wedding Favors DIY

I ordered my wedding favor maracas off of amols.com for a really great price and then just customized it myself with the help of my brother in law again.  He's so freaking talented lol I need to get him a nice thank you gift after the wedding. 

He also made these cute tags to go with the maracas.

Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Festivities!!

When I first decided on the DW I told my bridal party/sisters I didn't want any pre wedding celebrations because didn't want them spending money and for any guests to feel obligated to also give gifts etc.  My sister/maid of honor told me to stop talking crazy and that I should do all the same stuff that any other bride would do at home.  My maid of honor/sister and other sisters planned the best parties they did an awesome job at both my bridal shower and bachelorette party.  I'm so grateful for them and happy they didn't listen to me. lol  Here are some pics.

Bridal Shower

My sisters are little crazy and surprised me with some "entertainment" but it was all in good fun and all the ladies had a great time at the bachelorette party.  

Wedding Day Gifts for the Parents

We bought the mothers and my grandparents embroidered hankies and they came out great.  I used this seller on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/shop/PromiseForever?ref=l2-shopheader-name.

Church Ceremony Rosary/Lasso 

Since we are getting married at our church before cancun we wanted to incorporate the lasso/rosary ceremony and this is the rosary we bought.  Its beautiful and is something nice we can pass down to our future kids and will always be blessed and stay in our family.

Shoes for Both Wedding Dresses

Shoes to go with the at home church wedding dress.  Found them at Lord and Taylor and with a coupon they came out to $40.00.

Shoes for Cancun Wedding dress.  Found these on Ruelala.com on sale for $89.99 and I loved the beading it goes great with my belt's beading.  

Wedding Accessories

Wedding dress belt

Earrings

My fiance actually bought these earring for me as my "wedding gift" he designed them with the jeweler who also made my engagement ring and wedding band.  I love it and can't wait to wear them.  

Bracelet

Wedding Band

I went with an eternity wedding band it fit just right with my engagement ring and can be worn alone if i choose not to wear my engagement ring. 

 I don't have a picture of my fiance's ring but its very similiar to this ring the middle part is more of hammered look he didn't want anything too shiny since he works at a Jail as a probation officer and that would probably scratch a lot.  The brushed/hammered look is less fancy and more practical for him.  We bought our rings last year when the price was low and we we got great deals on both rings. The jeweler also gave us a little discount since my fiance bought my engagement ring through them. 

My groom is wearing a full suit with tie and the groomsmen are wearing the same colored pants with white button down shirts no tie.  This is the look we are going for not super fancy and formal but also not beachy and casual.  We are also not getting married on the beach/sand we are getting married on a gazebo facing the ocean so I thought we could dress up a little.   

I invited 100 people and I will have 40 coming to the wedding almost half.  I'm happy with the amount of people.  

I love dafont used it to make a lot of my signs for the wedding.

I'm actually having a church/legal ceremony a week before we go to Cancun.  I wanted to just go to city hall and have something simple but my fiance really wanted the whole church ceremony.  I gave in and now its like planning another mini wedding.  We've met with our priest like 5 times lol and had to take pre cana classes.  At first I wasn't really into the idea but now that its a month away and  a lot family and some friends who are not joining us in Mexico are coming to the church i'm actually glad he talked me into it.  Its also nice to do it at our local church so we can always share that with our future kids.  Definately is stressful though planning two ceremonies.  

@@nicofio22 I love Tradesy.com and recommend it to anyone trying to sell some stuff that is still in good shape but you no longer use.  It's very simple to set up and I get the money right away in my paypal account.  For surveys I've been doing them on off for years on line to make some extra cash on the side, I save my gift cards to buy things off of Amazon.  Here is a website that has all the survey site that are available and what they are about. http://www.surveypolice.com/

I'm a member of harrispoll, myview, mysurvey and I thnk one other one.  I get surveys emailed to me everyday and if I have time I'll sit down and answer some questions and get points then when you reach a certain number of points you can trade them in for gift cards etc. 

Engagement Photos 

When we went to on our site visit back in Oct. 2013 we decided we would also have an engagement session with the photographers we hired for our wedding.  Del Sol Photography was one of the vendors we fell in love with from the beginning and we knew we had to book them for our wedding.  It was great to do the engagement pictures and get comfortable together in front of the camera.  I'm super happy with how the photos came out and can't wait for them to do my wedding. 

Wedding Dress and Accessories

I have 3 dresses, yes 3 dresses but let me first say that I'm have two ceremonies.  I'm getting married at home first in the church my fiance and I both grew up in.  I didn't want to use the same dress that I'm using in Cancun so I bought a dress for the church ceremony.  I also have a 2nd dress for my Cancun wedding for the after party which is more of a fun short dress. 

The dress for the church ceremony was a good deal and perfect for what I wanted.  A nice simple dress that was still bridal.  It's an Adriana Papell dress that I found at Macy's randomly and it just happened to be my size.  With a coupon it came out to $140.00.

My Wedding Dress I bought at my local bridal shop and fell in love with it when I tried it on.  I just knew it was the one.  I got lucky I only went to one store and only tried on 4 dresses.  It was meant to be.  I bought the dress at a trunk show so I did get a little bit of a discount.  My dress is a Pronovias 2014 Land and was about $1,500.00, my budget was under $2,000.00 so I was glad I stayed under. I also bought a belt that reminded me of seashells and the beach. My veil and headpiece also came from the same bridal shop. 

The party dress I bought at a grab the gown event at Loheman's and it was actually the first dress I bought.  It was on sale for $200.00 and I'll probably sell it afterwards.  It was fun and flirty and cute and just reminded me of Mexico.  My fiance has no idea I bought it. 

These are pics after we got engaged and went home.  My grandpa serenaded my fiance and I with a nice spanish song.  He will also be playing us a song in Mexico.  I can't wait for him to perform and have it all on film.

Booking My Resort and Group Rates/Block

Picking the resort was easy since we always had LeBlanc in mind for our wedding but trying to get infomriton about how to go about booking and getting prices did take some work. I first contacted the resort in May of 2013 and inquired about their prices and wedding packages and that's when we decided we would like to visit the resort to meet with our planner and see things in person again.  We booked our site visit for Oct. 2013 and the we got a reduced price for our stay and the money we spent for the 3 day weekend will be credited back to our wedding fund.  I was happy I did my site visit as I got to meet my onsite wedding planner and really got to make some decisions about locations and decor.  We also got to do a food and cake tasting which was great for picking our dinner menu for our reception.  I didn't end up getting a room block through the resort as they were a little higher than I wanted my guests to spend.  At the same time I was becoming familiar with BDW and found they had travel agents that came highly recommended and reached out to Wendy Hicks from The Wright Tavel Agency.  She got me much better quotes than booking directly through the resort and with her my guests could pay over a year in payments.  She has been great to work with and definitely made the booking process for me and all my guests super easy.  I recommend booking through a travel agent you don't want to have to deal with booking all of your guests directly through the resort.  I still get all of my free events and perks even though I went through a travel agent.  My booking deadline has passed now and we have 40 confirmed guests which is the perfect number for me.

Booking Flights

I booked my flights about 10 months in advance and we are flying first class we got really great prices on our flight it came out to $700 each person.  We also get 2 check in bags each at 70 pounds which will come in handy for all our decor. We got a really good price since we booked it so far in advanced.  I highly recommend booking as early as possible to get the best price.  Also sign up for Kayak alerts to keep your guests in the know when prices drop, I would get alerts every morning and would tell my guests when the price went down and then they would buy their flights.  They really appreciated me letting them know.  

Money saving tips  

Ways I've been saving money here and there has been to 1. do a lot of DIY 2.  Long engagement to pay things throughout the year 3. Use a coupon whenever possible  4.  Open up an airline credit card, we have been using our United card for everything wedding related and have racked up so many points that we have enough for our honeymoon flight and hotel. 5.  I also do some surveys online and get amazon gift cards and get paid through pay pal (nice way to make extra cash for wedding)  6.  I also cleaned out my closet by selling clothes on Tradesy.com I've made over $1,000.00 in less than 8 months just selling clothes that have been sitting in my closet not being worn plus I get rid of clutter.  7.  Working a lot of overtime.  All these have helped me save for our wedding and helped us get everything we want and dreamed of without going into debt.  Its tough paying for a wedding with no help but you can make it happen just have to be smart.

Save the Dates

After securing the wedding date and room rates we sent out our save the dates in July of 2013.  I bought our STD on Magnetstreet.com and they came out really cute.  They were magnet save the dates and we sent them out about 14 months before the wedding.  They were about $110 with a coupon for 75 STD.

Our invitations were also from magnetstreet.com and they were free we actually won a contest for free invitations and we saved about $400 on 75 invitations.  We don't really have a theme of the wedding but I really like the classic mexican tile look so that's what we went with and our wedding colors of turquoise, coral and champagne with touches of gold. The wedding invites were sent out in Feb. of 2014, 7 months before the wedding and right around tax time which helped a lot with people booking. lol 

DIY Welcome Bags

For my welcome bags I wanted something that was nice and useful but not too expensive.  I was going to buy them on Etsy at first but knew I could get the same kind of bag I was looking at for much cheaper.  I ended up buying canvas bags from bagiva.com I bought 40 bags for $50 and my graphic artist brother in law made a design for me.  I bought iron on paper from Michaels with coupons for $30 and ironed on the design to the canvas bags.  The bags cost me $80 for 40 and now all my guests get a bag. 

For the hangover kits I bought most of my stuff from Sally's beauty supply in their travel section and used coupons for everything, they take bed bath and beyond coupons.  I also bought stuff at the dollar store and at target.

In the hangover kits I included gum, sunblock, aloe vera, shout wipes, band aids, tissues, moist napkins and advil.  I bought clear bags from the dollar store and used card stock to make the hangover tags and got the template from BDW and tweaked it a bit. Total for all the hangover kits it came out to $100 for all 40 kits. 

Gifts for Bridal Party

For my bridesmaids I wanted to do the cool hangers with each person name on it but it was more than I wanted to spend for a hanger that was only going to be used for my wedding.  So I bought wood hangers from walmart for about $10 and then bought stickers for names and my wedding date from Etsy for about $30.  

 

I also bought my girls flip flops, emergency kits, etched shot glasses and jewelry boxes with their initials. The flip flops I bought on Amazon with my amazon gift card that I got from my surveys, emergency kits I bought over the blackfriday weekend with a coupon and the jewelry boxes I bought on sale from pottery barn and I used a gift card I also earned from my surveys.  All the gifts for the bridal party will be put in the welcome bags.  

 

 

For the guys my fiance got them leather catchalls with their initials also from pottery barn and on sale and we used a gift card I earned through my surveys.  In the catchalls we are putting shot glasses that I etched, nice razors and monogrammed cigar holders.  We are also putting flip flops in their welcome bags.