081114OVCUBA

@@kmk2016 That is a great idea! How neat to be able to include everyone, very cleaver! We are not having any MOH/BMs or BM/GMs and this might have made our decision easier since we didn't want to show any favoritism or leave anyone with hard feelings. Unfortunately since we are getting married in Cuba, the witnesses cannot be blood relatives (majority of our guests) and their documents need to be submitted a month in advance of the ceremony date. It would probably work for other DW countires or non DW settings too and I think it is a wonderful idea! Everyone would remember it for being special and unique too!

Adorable!

Thanks @@Lilian84, Totally get where you are coming from. It is a beautiful tradition, there is a very special bond between father and daughter! I'm sure your Daddy will be grateful for the opportunity and it will be beautiful. My first thought was to each have our respective parents walk down the aisle with us but FI kiboshed this pretty quickly. My parents didn't want to both walk me down the aisle, but would, without FI's parents walking him. We wanted to symbolize/portray that we were giving ourselves to each other more than a traditional 'giving away' does. This was something personal for us, a new age stance against tradition if you will. We totally know we are a minority on this decision and that is isn't the 'right' choice for everyone. Our decision will probably not be a popular one with our extended families; but, it is what WE want and after all is it OUR day right?

Hi LisaAnthonyPoppy, Sounds like you are doing a lot of the leg work and planning the details on your own! Do you have a WC with the resort that can help you with this? I'm getting married in Cuba and honestly, most of the items you mentioned including the Officiant are things I have not even had to consider. Our wedding is in 9 days and our WC has taken care of everything. Our WC has arranged for a local Notary Public to officiate for us, we chose a legal non religious ceremony option. Not sure if this makes a difference on how easy/difficult it is to find an officiant for or how much leg work the WC will do for you? I'd connect with the resort and ask them about it, it might be something they can help with and take some stress off of your plate.

@@VegasBride121314 True dilemma for sure, depends entirely on you guys and what you want for the day. What ever you decide don't let anyone tell you off for not doing it 'right', sometimes the most well-intentioned comments can be down right rude and quite upsetting. Just be sure on your decision and remember you don't have to justify it to anyone! We won't be doing pictures before but we are doing things a bit different than traditionally expected. Sort of like beckys98, we are walking together down the aisle. We still wanted to have the magical moment of seeing each other for the first time that day all dressed up and about to be married AND wanted to share it with our family and guests so we came up with a plan! We will be walking in separately, on opposite sides of the guests seating area, meet up in front of everyone, hold hands and walk the last few steps together to the front where the Notary Public will be.

@@Stanicka Our WC has been taking care of everything for us, it has been so easy. All we had to do was fill out a questionnaire (one each for myself, FI, and each witness) and send copies of all of our passports. On top of that we had to send a copy of our birth certificates and if applicable would have had to send documentation of previous divorce or death certificates etc. Our WC takes these and gets them translated etc. before we get there and then all they have to do if verify our actual documents when we arrive. As soon as you have picked your location and held your marriage date, the WC should be able to walk you though the rest. Don't worry, they do this full time all the time - they are experts! Our WC has taken all of our worries away for these kinds of things. Cheers!

@@LauraM We didn't do custom postage for the wedding invites since we ran out of time but we have ordered them in the past for Christmas Cards. They were a huge hit, especially for the stamp collectors and of course the kids. The only way to do this in Canada is with Canada Post, here is the link: http://picturepostage.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/en/cpc-cpc/stamps For stamps in the US, try here: http://photo.stamps.com/Store/?source=si10985886 It was not that expensive when we did it and I think it would be well worth the extra flare if you wanted to jazz up your invites. It also really depends on what kinds of other postage stamps are available for purchase when you are ready to purchase them... If you can get nice floral ones or other theme appropriate then it might not make as much of an impact as if all that were to be available were wildlife ones. (or heaven forbid the new haunted series lol) When I went to get postage for my invites the ones they tried to sell me had beavers on them, BEAVERS! It was that or left over Christmas stamps. There was no way I was going to put either of those on my invites! I was able to go to a different post office and they had some really nice rolls of lilly stamps that were great, I don't know if they were last year's stock or bran new stock but nowhere else had them. I was thanking my lucky stars! I would have waited the extra time for custom ones to come in had I not found those or something similar. I hope this helps

Completely agree with the replies above, fresh/real flowers will most likely be confiscated at the border. (That would be a terrible start to any wedding get-a-way ) If they are silk there should be no issues, with customs, carry on or checked. If taking as carry on I'd try finding a plastic container/tote with a sealing lid (like a Tupperware etc) that would fit the bouquet, with just a tad extra room, and use white tissue paper as cushioning around it. This should prevent it from being crushed and would prevent it from any accidental spills throughout the airport or if stored under the seat in front of you in the airplane (I've seen people and airline staff accidently spill beverages onboard many times before).

@@calgarybride2015 I’m really banking on the wonderful humidity to un-do any wrinkling, especially with my luck, I’m sure it’s going to happen! I’m more worried about it getting crushed (the formed bodice) or otherwise damaged (torn, something spilt onto it, etc.). I bought a really great garment bag from eBay which I think will help (like this one http://www.weddingdressbee.net/red-thicken-foldable-with-handle-easy-carried-measured-150-58-8-cm-bridal-gown-bridesmaids-dress-garment-bags.html ). In addition to the bag I’m pre-wrapping my dress in a white sheet to further protect it and soften the folds. Based on our seat assignments I’m pretty sure we didn’t get an upgrade to 1st class, though that would be awesome if it did happen! We were told if the hotel has space available we would be upgraded to the ‘privilege’ section of the resort (daily a la carte breakfast, preferential a la carte reservations, butler services, etc). Since we are going during the off season I think it should be fairly plausible. I’m up in Grande Prairie; only flights out of here are to Edmonton and Calgary! Since it is the off season there were no direct flights from either location to Cuba (with ACV anyway) so everyone has to transfer to Toronto. Downside of off season I suppose; but, there are lots of perks!  Getting soo excited!

Thanks kmk2016, I thought that too! My TA tried to make this change with Air Canada Vacations (ACV) as soon as they did this but they came back with some sort of lame reasoning that they like to keep a variety of options open for other guests checking in online or something? I'm pretty sure if other guests knew what was already beside those seats (us crazies) they wouldn't want those seats lol (we're not that bad, honest, just REALLY excited to get together). They, ACV, were very reluctant to even change the seats they gave me and the FI... They gave us the bulkhead rows - the seats WITHOUT under seat storage in front - the seats right behind 1st class, behind the 'Wall'... Out of all of the people in the group, they really should have thought about this and not given us the seats with the least amount of baggage space! It's taking us 3 flights each way to get there, all 3 legs they gave us the bulkhead row initially - thankfully out TA 'reasoned' with them until they moved us. ACV was even so kind as to give this note about wedding dresses (gave me such confidence and appreciation, not): You can store your wedding dress in the overhead bin provided it is within out carry-on baggage size restriction (9inx15.5inx21.5in). The dress should be stores in a garment bag and should be folded in half to reduce wrinkling. Please note that carry-on items can shift during flight, possibly causing delicate items to be wrinkled, crushed or torn, and that items placed in overhead bins may have other items placed on top of them by other passengers. (I think I'm going to print a note saying 'Wedding dress - please do not put anything on top')

Thanks @Mention, I don't want anything too time consuming, but something fun that will be engaging and not feel like an obligation, as you put it. I have prizes already but still not sure of the activities. I'm hoping for something, somewhat personal, like a personalized madlib (ty) about us and our families. Thinking maybe a word search with hidden message and/or a cross word? Our group for the most part is young, energetic, and very outgoing. I understand what you are saying about the wanting to just relax when traveling but I think something planned would go over very well with our specific group. This get together is also a family reunion at the same time, some of us have not seen each other since we were little. I'm sure there will be a few (if not most) of us that will bounce around all over the plane wanting to visit with everyone, not being able to sit still or wait until we get to the destination. Side note - I do feel bad for other travellers in between us and want to pick something relatively 'quiet' and can be done in everyone's respective seats... Air Canada pre-booked all of our seats but spread us out all over the airplane.. Not sure why! Hopefully we can re-group when we do the 24hour check in. Any other ideas? Thanks again

Hey Everyone, We are leaving in a week in a half for our wedding get away in Cuba! Getting so excited; but, now its crunch time to get those last few things taken care of! Most of our wedding guests will be on the same international flights together (22/28), we have about 3.5 hours of flight time and I would like to have some optional games/challenges to engage everyone and have some fun together. I'd like to make the trip as enjoyable as possible, including the time we are pretty well suck in one spot with not much to do! The return trip will be at night so not as worried about then, but for sure want to do something for the trip there. Has anyone done anything like this before? Suggestions on what kinds of activities we can do? Samples of your games? etc? Anything you could share would be amazing! Thanks so much, Amanda

Hi there, I know EXACTLY how you feel, It took me a while to finally decide on a resort too! I looked into all of the resorts in Varadero that my Travel agent`s company worked with, and went from there. We had a specific date in mind and that was going to trump almost anything else. From there I went in Tripadvisor.com to check out recent reviews of the resorts and check out visitor`s pictures (the stock pictures in the catalogues and on the resort websites are usually old and not accurate of the actual day-to-day look of the resort. Then I went on google maps and got a look at the resort layout (how big the resort was, layout, how far the beach was, etc) I narrowed my choice down to 3, based on all of my research, Paradisus, Iberostar, and Ocean Varadero. I took these three options back to my travel agent and got price quotes for each. I must have expensive tastes because I think I picked the most expensive ones there were. We decided on Ocean Varadero based on the price, it was a couple hundred less per person than the other two. My travel agent said that because this place is still new they are offering lower prices to try and get people to chose them to develop a bit of brand recognition and that the resort was as good as the other two from everything she has heard. We paid a deposit as soon as the hotel confirmed they had out date available. Our onsite wedding coordinator has been amazing and has made everything since choosing the resort an absolute breeze! Leaving in a week and a half and I don't think I could be any calmer or more collected than I am, I`m just so happy everything seems to be coming together so perfectly! I hope this helps, Cheers & Congratz!

Hey Samantha! Have you picked your wedding resort yet? I'm getting married in a week and a half at the Ocean Varadero! They have a fantastic on-site wedding planner who has been amazing with getting back to me with all sorts of information (I'm sure I've e-mailed her at least 50+ times now). She is so patient and helpful - I'm really looking forward to meeting her! She has made me so at ease through the whole planning process so far. They have a few different wedding packages to choose from - I'll attach the price sheet that was sent to me. I hope to write a detailed review on here afterwards since there are none yet for this resort - stay tuned. If you have any questions let me know I can pass on any info I already have and/or for sure get back to you once we return mid August. Cheers! A OVP WEDDINGS 1314.pdf