jandl2013

Awesome breakdown...I have a few of these items already in my cart ready to purchase.  Thanks so much for creating this very helpful thread Shay!  Much appreciated, and I know it has saved me as well as most of us a lot of time!

I thought I was making things easier, but lesson learned.  Next time I do any kind of event similar to this, I will take all stress off myself and tell everyone to book on their own and move on with life.  Way too stressful when you're dealing with a lot of people. 

But I definitely have the same attitude as you, you're invited so the rest is up to you cause we'll be walking down that aisle PERIOD!  Even if it's just us and our parents!  lol

This is so true!  I wasn't going to register, but we kept getting asked over and over so we just caved in and did a traditional registry at Macy's for a few things we like, and we did a non-traditional registry for honeymoon/house down payment with Honeyfund.com.  We just wanted to avoid getting a bunch of things we truly don't need at all since we combined 2 houses. We did state on our website and save the date insert that gifts were not necessary and their presence was more than a gift.  So we covered all the bases so we could stop all of the questions.

I believe the price is between $800 to $850 so I think you have it right.  I thought that's the price I was told when I had my site visit back in September.

It is really crazy to read this whole thread and realize that so many people can be so inconsiderate, and so many of us are having this negative experience while trying to plan a special event?  I just don't get it.  We are getting married 5/23/14.  I sent out the save the dates magnets with our website in late September and the invitations were sent out in late October which also included our website again.  I asked people to RSVP their intent by December 1, hoping that the stragglers would at least get moving by this month and pay their deposits.  Out of the 110 invitations that we sent out, I have received 14 yes RSVPs, and about 8 no RSVPs.  Based on the count, we have about 88 invites we have not yet received any response for at all or they informed me that they are waiting to book for various reasons.  I excuse the people that I've spoken to about their situation, so that leaves about 80 responses with no answer.  What is with people??  We put down an initial deposit of $1500 on 15 rooms, and had to lower it a few weeks ago to 10 rooms because we feel very uncomfortable with the idea that we will be stuck with that penalty if no one books.  Right now we only have 5 rooms booked.  My fiancé has family that is avoiding talking to him because they don't want to tell him they are unable to come, and this is after some of them raised hell due to the location not being in New York (where we don't live) or in the states.  I have LOADS more family than he does so it would have been a logistical and financial nightmare for us so that's why we decided to make our lives easier and have a DW.  At the end of the day, I figure who really wanted to be there has had over a year and a half to save considering that we told everyone long before we sent out the save the dates what we were doing.  We actually planned to get married in September 2013 in St. Lucia and actually changed our plans after a house renovation went crazy AND we determined that it might be easier on our guests if we pick a less expensive destination with better air routes.  For those reasons we changed the date to May and the location to Punta Cana, but yet here we are!  We can't even get a phone call much less the stamped reply card to let us know what they are planning on doing...

I get that a lot of people might not be able to make it, but at the very lease they should just say they aren't going to make it.  How hard is that to do? Unreal...

Go figure!!

Beautifully and well done!  The wedding is gorgeous and everything is so on point with the theme.  Great advice too.  Thanks so much, and congratulations to you both!

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmingalone 
 

AR- You will be happy to know that Mayte has adopted your "Wedding Details"  form and is using it! She sent it to me last week as a way to cpature and track my details. Great job! It is a wonderful tool for her.

 I also wanted to share my invitations!

Very nice!

Very true Deep!! People claim they are coming but as soon as it's time to pay...they complain about the cost in our case.

We just brought a new HP 8600 all in one printer because i'm tired of paying money to print my documents, etc.  I used to print a lot of stuff at work, but since that's not an option anymore, I've been printing at Staples, Office Depot, Vista Print, and FedEx.  I'm tired of paying those fees so i'm hoping that this printer can do it all.  Once I get a small DIY completed, I'll update on it's performance.

This is great as a guideline!  Now I have a base to start with.

Quote:

Originally Posted by babystace1985 
 

Thanks for sharing @jandl2013 ! My TA used allurements by rebecca and had great things to say as well

You're welcome babystace1985!  Yes, the invitations were great, and i'm starting to receive replies by guests that love them also.  That's always a wonderful thing too.

I saw that article earlier...it's a great article!

Quote:

Originally Posted by AR-DreamWedding 
 

Hey All,

 

I wanted to let you all know that since Mayte's return she has been leaving the weddings a little earlier in order to maintain her health and stay rested. She generally leaves after your reception is well under way and I can guarantee that she will never leave you hanging or wanting for anything before she leaves. With that said it occurred to me that most of you will want to give her some sort of gratuity that is just for her however, that will not happen if you do not give it to her directly because others will pocket the money. So for those of you who do want to give her a little something for the zillion hours that she has put into all of our special days, I strongly recommend that you give it to her at your pre-meeting in a sealed envelope addressed to her.

 

I gave her something extra at the end of our wedding in a sealed envelope addressed to her but now that I know she is trying so hard to stay healthy and cannot work the 18 hour days she used to, I thought it very important to make sure I share this info with you so that she can be appreciated the way she deserves to be.

 

Warmest wishes to all of you!

 

AR-DreamWedding

Great information!  Thanks so much for letting us know.

Quote:

Originally Posted by photoisforever 
 

great info jandl2013! and your stamps look great thx for sharing .......it's sure to help your fellow planners here

 

 

 

Photography Is Forever Studios  

Quote:

Originally Posted by krisdaversa 
 

I love the stamps! I was going to make some but Canada post has some Superman ones out right now that I loveso I went with those  and saved some money as I am sure my guest wouldn't even really look at them for more then a few seconds

Thanks Photography!  That's why we are all here...to provide help and support for each other and learn all we can!

Thanks krisdaversa!  Saving money where you can is always a great thing.  I have some guests that have noticed the stamps and some that have not.

Postage is one thing i didn't properly factor into my plans!

You're welcome. Yea, between having a huge family where so many are not necessarily computer literate or savvy and with them also being located everywhere between Canada, the US, England, and Jamaica...these save the dates and invites have actually been a difficult task that turned out to be a bit pricey!

Exactly...and if you try to please everyone, you and the groom will be the unhappy ones on your day.

Oh forsure! Its soo funny because I have been lucky and haven't had any flack from any of the guests invited- or no one has said anything about it- but its people who we are just acquaintances who have not been invited to the wedding who had said like "isn't is selfish to get married down south"? or Oh I've heard they're fun and easy for the bride and groom but its not as great for the guest... Um thanks... if you aren't even invited why would you care or say something like that. Anyhow I didn't let it bother me cause everyone who is coming is super excited and those are the people I want there anyway! But you know whether you have a destination wedding or a local one there are always going to be negative people! I can't believe how many people think their opinions matter in someone elses wedding! Its just crazy!

I feel so blessed that his family and mine were both on board with the destination wedding because I know I would be really upset if they didn't want to attend. Luckily my FI told his mom within the first few weeks of us dating that if we ever got married it would be down south, so they already knew thats what we would be doing when it came down to it. When we got engaged and told them there was no surprise and they were on board. Luckily both of our parents travel quite a bit and aren't opposed to it. BUt I am sure your FI parents will love it once they are there... I know so many people who are like oh AI that wouldn't be fun but once they have been thought it was the best thing in the world. Many people are just uncomfortable with new things and especially where its such a new thing for such an important life event I can see their hesitation, BUT at the end of the day its your day and you guys have be the happiest because no one else is going to remember your day as much as you will or care as much about what happened that day then you! I really think you need to stick to your guys plans and as long as your FI supports the decision as well then thats all the matters!

There is a base rate depending on the stamp that you choose that usually equates to base rate per sheet.  Then you figure in which postage you need ($.46, $.66, etc.) then choose which size stamp (small, medium, or large).  I also used retailmenot.com to look-up discounts so I was able to find a 20% code.  In all honesty, this postage business was more expensive that I had realized.  I didn't give postage much thought, and I assumed that the post office had better options for stamps.  The only stamp that I purchased from the US Postal service was for my reply card envelopes.  The magnet save the date also included a paper insert letter and legal size envelope so that affected my cost too.

The save the date red and purple stamp was $27.15 for each sheet of 20 $.66 stamps.

The invitation red orchid stamp was $33.15 for each sheet of 20 $.86 stamps.  For the int'l stamps, it was $48.35 per sheet of 20 $1.32 stamps. My invitation stamp would have been $.66, but the ribbon caused the envelope to bulge so the post office made me go up in the type of stamp that I needed.

All in all, I love my save the dates and invites, but I wasn't expecting it to cost as much as it did once I figured in the postage.  Plan a head in regards to postage and that will save you a bit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by blueskadoobob 
 

AR-Dreamwedding,

 

Your invites sounds SOO cool! I'm sure they got everyone geared up and excited to go. I espescially love the RSVP card! Awesome!

 

We decided to go digital with the invites so we did a Save the Date video and are going to send e-vites with our website. It's saving some money, but much more time consuming than I thought.

You are so lucky to have been able to go digital.  I have so many older family members that are not online so I had to do regular invites.  I would have loved to do a video and e-vites.  I did email the website to my younger family members but since I have so much family, it still cost quite a bit to do magnet save the dates and traditional invites...especially once I take the postage in consideration.  The postage killed me...lol 

He is retiring? Wow, I didn't hear anything about him retiring. He is supposed to be doing our ceremony in May 2014. I'm going to have to check back with him to be certain everything is still on schedule.

Cost wise...my stamps weren't the cheapest due to the postage amount i needed. My save the dates were $.66 and my invites were $.86. I didn't pick the most expensive options. When i get home ill post my costs.

Here is the stamp that I ordered from Zazzle.com for my invitations.  I think they cute and go with my purple and red theme. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by sharmer 
 

pretty!! thanks for sharing

Thanks sharmer!!