JanetandDan2014

Love this thread! I was so lost about what to do with music! Thanks to all who contributed. When I figure out my list I will post it

@@UMassRN007 Can you tell me where you purchased your starfish cookie favors? I am still on a search for a favor for our starfish theme wedding!

Great suggestions everyone! I am just starting to think about all of this. Agh so many options!

April 24, 2014 bride here. Iberostar Tucan & Quetzal in Playacar, Mexico! Getting soooo excited!

These are so cute!

Oh my. I need 140 more posts. I have a while. Can someone please email me the keyholder template? janetanddan2014@@gmail.com I would really appreciate it. Meanwhile, I'll keep posting!

Is this 150 post thing new?

Our wedding is on a Thursday and our whole group isn't leaving until Sunday so there will be no alone time. We also are traveling with my fiance's 9 year old daughter. We are ok with this and excited to have a 3 day celebration with our guests after the wedding. We are planning to try to take another trip 6 to 9 months after our wedding which will be our official honeymoon.

Hi Jenny, Thank you so much for getting back to me. It sounds like you are doing things exactly like I am. I also am not having a reception at the DW. 1. It was way to expensive to do both 2. it just felt right to do it with everyone. Speeches, 1st dance all of it. Your message made me feel a lot better. I was starting to think i was one of the only ones not inviting everyone. I need to start to get more of the "i can't control or care about what other people think" mentality. I am having a difficult time with that one. While I do LOVE how we are doing things, it is in my nature to put others feelings before my own. I need to get over that really quick through this process. Now are you sending a Save the Date for your AHR and just saying that you will be getting married in a private ceremony and then sending an invite for the AHR? That is what I was planning to do. Then just do DW invitations by word of mouth only. So far this is my plan and its working. We will see how things go. Congrats to you! I hope your planning is going well. I hope to be in touch more with you over the next year.

Edit below in Red I have a bit of a unique situation and I am wondering if anyone else has this going on. We both have large families and multiple groups of friends. We are having the DW (4/24/14) and a semi formal AHR (6/14/14) to include (225-240 people). We are not planning to do formal invitiations for the DW. We are planning to just do a Save the Date and Formal Invitation for the AHR. We have the unique situation where we have several groups that we prefer DO NOT attend the DW (cousins, friends that drink a lot, annoying relatives, etc.). We know that the very immediate family of parents, siblings and spouses, neices and nephews will be attending as well as a few of ours and our parents very "best friends". These people we are in regular contact with and have just been telling them the information as we receive it from the travel agent, etc. I expect with this immediate group that we will have approximately 30-50 people at the DW. My concern is what to do with the AHR. I have heard many people saying that they showed their wedding video, had a slideshow of photos, etc for the guests that could not attend. i feel like I can't do that because the guests that didn't attend, (while they may not have anyway), they may not have because they were not technically invited. Does anyone else have something similar to this? I have gone back and forth and also considered inviting all 250 guests to the destination wedding, but really can't take the chance that it could grow to be 150 people traveling to Mexico with me. I feel like the immediate family, very close friend option is a better choice but I don't know how to handle that with the formal AHR. Help!

I have a bit of a unique situation and I am wondering if anyone else has this going on. We both have large families and multiple groups of friends. We are having the DW (4/24/14) and a semi formal AHR (6/14/14) to include (225-240 people). We are not planning to do formal invitiations for the DW. We are planning to just do a Save the Date for the AHR. We have the unique situation where we have several groups that we prefer DO NOT attend the DW (cousins, friends that drink a lot, annoying relatives, etc.). We know that the very immediate family of parents, siblings and spouses, neices and nephews will be attending as well as a few of ours and our parents very "best friends". These people we are in regular contact with and have just been telling them the information as we receive it from the travel agent, etc. I expect with this immediate group that we will have approximately 30-50 people at the DW. My concern is what to do with the AHR. I have heard many people saying that they showed their wedding video, had a slideshow of photos, etc for the guests that could not attend. i feel like I can't do that because the guests that didn't attend, (while they may not have anyway), they may not have because they were not technically invited. Does anyone else have something similar to this? I have gone back and forth and also considered inviting all 250 guests to the destination wedding, but really can't take the chance that it could grow to be 150 people traveling to Mexico with me. I feel like the immediate family, very close friend option is a better choice but I don't know how to handle that with the formal AHR. Help!

Thanks so much Jessica, Sandy and Trace for the info I have gotten from this thread. I know a couple of you have privately e-mailed with me as well and you have been so helpful!

Hi Deanne, Thanks for your message. Great question about the ceremony language. That is something I didn't even think to ask! I would also like to know the answer to that one. We are doing the legal ceremony as well. We couldn't decide between the Gold package and the Dreams package. We also wanted to see how many guests we would have before we committed to one. I asked Connie about this and she e-mailed me back saying that we could secure our date with the $250 deposit under the Gold Ceremony and could later switch to the Dreams if we wanted to. I'm assuming that they are ok with letting you go up in price. So, this is what we are going. According to the prices that Connie sent me the legal ceremony is also included in the Gold, Silver and Basic packages. I didn't look as far as you did for resorts. I was sort of set on the area and went from there. I really think that Iberostar is a great choice. I'm sure we can let each other know of any bumps that may hit us along the way.

I am pretty much a newbie. I've been sorta stalking the site for months to get ideas when I tried to choose a resort. I have just put the deposit down today for Iberostar Tucan & Quetzal for the Gold Star package. Wedding date is 4/24/14. Wow it was exhausting and nerve wrecking trying to choose a resort. I still feel a little sick and nervous. Hope this goes away. I had originally chosen Iberostar Tucan & Quetzal because I like the idea of 1 wedding per day, I love the Playacar area and proximity to Playa Del Carmen, and the packages seemed reasonable. My travel agent had suggested Moon Palace because of several of the additions of ammenities with group packages, but my gut told me to stick with Iberostar Tucan & Quetzal. Hoping to connect with people and get as much info as I can in the next 12 months. Is there anyone else out there for 2014 who just booked? If so I look forward to talking with you. I have emailed with a few brides from the forum who had their weddings earlier this year and they have been very helpful.

Hi everyone, My fiance and I are newbies and just skimming the site... I'm Janet and my fiance is Dan and he has an 8 year old daughter. We were engaged Christmas 2012 and are planning a beach wedding for April or May 2014. I am in the early stages here and have no idea where to begin on planning, picking a resort, etc. We both have very large extended families and will be having a local reception at home (St. Louis, MO) in June 2014 for 225 people. However, we anticipate 30-40 people to actually travel to Mexico for our wedding so we need to do a little more than just a quick free ceremony on the beach. I don't understand how I can pick a package to share with guests when I don't really even know how many would attend. Has anyone else had this problem? I am interested in hearing from couples who had approximately 20-40 people (a few kids as well) on a minimal budget. What did you spend? What worked? What didn't work? Where did you go? Any info you can give me for a beginner will be helpful. THANKS SO MUCH!