Search the Community

Well I finally couldn’t wait any longer to start my planning thread even though I’m still 9 months out from our wedding J I’ve seen so many great ideas on this forum and everyone is so helpful giving ideas. How we met: My FI and I met at university. In our degree of New Media there aren’t exactly a lot of… “normal” guys. It’s mostly the type that live in their mothers basements playing video games and are too scared to talk to girls haha. (No offence if that’s your type… I just prefer a guy who…isn’t that). Well anyways Kyle and one of his best friends lived together and were in every single class together which also happened to be almost all the same classes as me. We talked a bit but I wouldn’t even go as far as saying we were friends after first year of University. Once we got to second year we met properly at a Halloween party where well.. Kyle thought it would be fun to dress up as an office ninja and attack me (batgirl). Its amazing I’m marrying this guy haha. We became really good friends that year and once third year hit and we were back at classes in the fall we decided to make it official and start dating J The Proposal: The proposal all fell into my FI’s lap as I basically did all the hard work for him without even know it it I should start with the fact that I was on pinterest and noticed a couple rings I liked and thought I’d test the waters and show Kyle. He said “cool, send me a picture of them”. I was flabbergasted as marriage had been a taboo topic with him up until that point. Needless to say I took full advantage of the situation and sent him about 10 different rings I liked. I think I overwhelmed him and he said, tell you what, you have one day at the mall and one day only to show me as many rings as you like, and after that you aren’t allowed to even mention rings to me. I accepted the challenge and showed him lots of rings. Amazingly he was more of a ring shopper than I was. He made me go to all the stores a second time when I thought I was done haha. Ansyways, both Kyle and I are outdoorsy/ active people. We normally book a snowshoeing weekend in the mountains in the winter and go hiking lots in the summer. Last summer we didn’t seem to have as much time to go hiking so we decided one night over dinner that we would book a weekend getaway to the mountains to go hiking. (Apparently this worked out perfectly to his plans). I found a great deal for a suite in Canmore, Alberta and I booked it. Our friends had recently been on a hike and told us about it and so we knew where we were going to go hiking. (this was probably all about a month before we were actually going). So then, my parents live in Europe and told me that they were going to come visit at the end of September (unexpectedly). Again, this worked out perfectly for Kyle. He said he was going to send my dad a video asking for my hand in marriage and now he was going to be able to do this in person! Perfect…except I almost cancelled our trip knowing my parents would be visiting and I’d want to spend time with them. Luckily they convinced me to go anyways haha. So our October hiking trip arrived and I packed us hot soup (since it was the fall) for our lunch at the top of the mountains, really only packed hiking clothes and one cute top for dinner that night. Off we went. We hiked up to the top, taking pictures along the way and just having a great hike. We were eating our soup and then I must have put my water bottle lid on so tight I was really struggling to open it when kyle said need help? And I was stubborn and said no way I can do it, and looked up and he was down on one knee with a ring in hand. I was absolutely shocked and I have no idea how I didn’t see it coming. Me being so nervous and excited in the moment I said “thank you” to him when he said “will you marry me”. (Being that I grew up in Europe, Kyle always jokes that there are translation issues between us and he thinks I didn’t understand haha but I did!) He had champagne ready on the mountain for us and then told me that once we got down the mountain back to the hotel we were going for a couples massage and then to Banff for dinner J It was so amazing (except I didn’t really have clothes for the occasion haha). We decided to not go hiking the next day so that we could get back to the city early to tell our families and friends the amazing news! Everyone seemed to expect it except for me. I wasn’t expecting it till the winter when we would go on our snowshoeing trip haha. It was an amazing weekend to say the least. The Travel Agent: Now for the tricky planning…. We knew instantly that we wanted to do a destination wedding since my sister had done that 3 years prior and it was amazing! I also didn’t want to worry about any family drama or worry about feeding 100 people. So we contacted a couple travel agents and started getting some quotes. Everything was coming back way too much money unfortunately. We decided to work with one specific travel agent who at the time seemed on the ball and knew what she was doing. We finally agreed upon a resort in Los Cabos, Mexico. The resort was called Peublo Bonito Pacifica. Things started to get crazy and the resort wouldn’t answer my emails or book our wedding and when they did every little tiny thing was a big extra cost. I had asked my travel agent if booking the flights before confirming a date with the hotel was risky and she said no that’s fine and booked us. Needless to say the travel agent was wrong and became very useless very fast. She would have “family emergencies” every time I needed to get ahold of her or say she was going to call me back and never call me back. She was very rude to me and I was so upset as all this meant we had lost $400! I said enough is enough I’m looking elsewhere and I’m done with you. (FYI do not work with Expedia Cruise Ship Centers – they are so rude and unprofessional, even her manager was incredibly rude to me). So I had gone to the bridal expos/fairs in Calgary and met a few destination wedding travel agents during my whole fiasco and so I decided to call them all and see what their processes were and get more quotes again (this was probably our 4th or 5th round of quotes). I found one travel agent who answered all my questions so fast and got me quotes even faster! She was great! I decided to book with her and put my mind at rest! She is with Tier One Travel and I’d recommend her to any Calgary brides. The resort: We decided to go with the Grand Sirenis Mayan Beach in the Mayan Riviera, Mexico! The resort looks amazing and fun with so much to do and see. Not going to lie, we only got a quote for this resort because my Fiancé found @@calgarybride2015 's review and we were sold! I think my favorite part is that we can book a private location for the wedding and the reception. My sister’s wedding was on the beach and she had a fat man in speedo’s watching her wedding and getting in the photos. I was not keen on having this. We are going to do the free wedding (at this point I just need one more double room booked for 7 days and we will get this package). We are going to upgrade to the private beach and palapa and then pick and choose all of our extras (flowers, ribbons, music, food, etc.). This option seemed like the best bang for our buck! Save the date: I’m a graphic designer and a few years ago I used to make wedding invitations for a living. This was probably the part of our wedding I’ve been most excited for! My favorite color is a teal color (teal, turquoise, aqua), so I knew what my color scheme would be (since my FI hated the idea of pink). I loved the idea of going with a beach theme since it will be on the beach after all. I ended up mainly going with a starfish theme! Super cute! My original idea for the save the dates was literally to put the date down and the resort name. But my TA informed me I only had 3 months to get as many guests as I could signed up for our group rate. Plan: changed. I decided to turn my 1 luggage tag save the dates into 2 luggage tags. I designed them up. Printed them off at staples (and they also did a decent job cutting them). Tied them with ribbon, addressed all our envelopes and sent them off. Oh! Almost forgot, I also made cute little starfish return address labels. I think that’s it for today. Apparently this planning thread business takes a lot of work haha. I will update soon on engagement photos, bridesmaids dresses, booking process, wedding invitations, wedding website, etc.

Welcome to my planning thread! My fiance and I are getting married on Sunday, June 28, 2015 at Beach Palace Resort in Cancun, Mexico. I love reading everyone else's ideas, so thought I'd post my own in case anyone was interested! Our Engagement My fiance and I got engaged on a beautiful day in September 2014 at our favorite spot in our home city! Choosing the Wedding Location We decided it would be extremely expensive for my fiance and I to have a wedding in our home city. We attended a friend's Cancun destination wedding in June 2014, and fell in love with the idea of a destination wedding! There was a lot of debate as far as wedding location. Original location ideas included Costa Rica (nixed because of lack of direct flights), Jamaica (nixed because not as many direct flight options), and Cancun. Cancun ended up winning because: 1. There are PLENTY of direct flight options! and 2. There are SO many hotels you're able to choose from, and 3. Because of the plentiful number of hotels, prices tended to be cheaper. Choosing the Hotel This one was surprisingly easy for us. My friend that got married in June 2014 had her wedding at Azul Fives in Riviera Maya. Her e-ring ended up being stolen while she was down there, and she had other issues that contributed to her "not wanting to ever stay at an Azul/Karisma hotel ever again". Plus, we didn't want to do the same exact wedding as her! The other options we were looking into One thing we KNEW we wanted was to get married on a rooftop (THE VIEWS!!) versus a beach. While at aforementioned friend's wedding last summer, we saw how crazy the beach can get, and knew we wanted something more private. This led us to looking at hotels with rooftop terraces - and our initial choice was Sandos Cancun. However, we started talking to my friend about her wedding, and she recommended either Moon Palace or Beach Palace - saying those were her backup options after Azul. Once we looked at Beach Palace's reviews and pictures on TripAdvisor, we were hooked! Moon Palace was second place, but Beach Palace seemed nicer. We immediately contacted the Beach Palace Wedding representatives from the website, and were assigned a wedding coordinator who helped us reserve a date and the locations for our ceremony and reception. We also worked with our coordinator to set up a Group Room block, so that we could get standard room rates and certain group benefits. Save the Dates Once we coordinated the Group Room block, we worked on our save-the-dates at the end of December 2014. We ended up doing our save-the-dates using one of the Walgreens cardstock templates online in order to save some cash! Along with the save-the-dates, we also sent all of our guests an email with additional details regarding location, booking, etc. The email contained both a link to our group room block, and also a link to our theknot.com wedding website. Invitations Invitations are the WORST. Don't get me wrong, they're VERY cute. But they're also extremely expensive and time-consuming. We ended up inviting about 75 couples (150 people), and the invitations we ordered off Etsy were freaking ADORABLE, but almost $1,000! That's not even including the postage stamps you need in order to mail them! These were mailed at the end of February 2015 if my memory serves me right. RSVP's As our RSVP's came in, we started to get a pretty good idea of who was coming and who wasn't. We asked that our guests RSVP by April 1st (as our room block needed to be closed by April 28th in order to avoid penalties). We wanted to leave a buffer of a few weeks since generally some people are late with RSVP's - and boy are we glad we did! We had to follow up with a few people closer to the deadline in order to make sure they booked through our block by the deadline. Some people booked outside of our block, which cost us dearly in missing out on certain benefits - but overall I'm more happy that they're able to come! The Dress and the Suit! I ordered my wedding dress in mid-November 2014. I believe it came in from the manufacturer sometime in March. I had my first fitting April 28, 2015 to try it on in my size for the first time and see what needed to be done as far as taking it in and hemming. Second fitting was on May 17th, and at this fitting the dress had been taken in and hemmed. During this second fitting we discussed taking it in more and how I wanted a 3 point bustle. The third fitting was May 26th. At this fitting we discussed taking it in even more, and how a 5 point bustle is more appropriate. More to come on the dress - I just suggest getting it earlier rather than later in the process! I also bought veil weights from Etsy since I'm worried about the wind blowing my veil too much in all the pictures! Accessories are TOM's ivory lace wedges, Marlosha (Etsy) pink and gold teardrop earrings, and a Nadri gold and silver teardrop bracelet. My fiance is wearing a light brown linen suit he purchased at Suit Up! (just kidding, it's called Suit Supply). Brown shoes, a brown belt, and a white shirt will accompany. Bridesmaids are wearing a Laundry Hibiscus (i.e. pink/purple) tulip maxi dress, with either white or nude shoes. I bought them Kate Spade multi-colored cluster earrings in pink/purple. Gold chain bracelets with amethyst will accompany. Groomsmen are wearing Brooks Brothers white linen short-sleeved dress shirts (un-tucked), and stone colored pants. Brown belt and shoes will accompany. Planning the Wedding As the wedding planning is still in process, I will just share my vision for the event and things I've purchased/organized along the way! Welcome to Beach Palace My lovely mother is going to organize welcome bags for each room. The welcome bags will include sunscreen, ibuprofen, a flip flop bottle opener, a "Get to Know the Guests" sheet, and an itinerary of the wedding events. I'm still toying with the idea of purchasing waterproof key card/ID holders. I think they'd be nice for people to not have to worry about getting their tip money wet at the pool bar! I've heard the Beach Palace wedding coordinator ("WC") will deliver the bags to each guest room for $3/bag. Not sure if we will do this, or just try to catch up with our guests each day they arrive. Night Out We would LOVE to do a night out on the town of Cancun with our guests on Friday, June 26th - two nights before the wedding! Rehearsal Dinner We will have 34 adults and 2 kids, and have booked the rehearsal dinner for 6 to 8pm on Saturday, June 27th - the night before the wedding. This will be on the Infinity Terrace and we will be having the Italian Buffet dinner option. The buffet is $55/person since we didn't have any resort promotion for the dinner. We are not using any sound system or additional lighting for this event. Morning of the Wedding My mother and I are getting our hair (only) done at the Beach Palace Salon at 10:30am. I've heard bridal hair takes almost 3 hours at the BP salon, so I wanted to get mine done early! I don't really wear makeup so I'm doing my own. Afterwards, my girl friends are going to do their own hair and makeup in my room while drinking mimosas (yum). Photographer We're using Dream Arts photography - the Beach Palace recommended vendor. We are doing 3 hours from 4 to 7pm, with a 15 minute mini-movie. We're doing our own "getting ready" and reception dancing photos. Ceremony The ceremony will be on the Sky Terrace at 4pm. Purchased the Metallic Sands ceremony package for decorations! Hoping to have regular chairs rather then the "pods". We are doing ring exchange and vow exchange in a symbolic ceremony. We are getting legally married upon our return back to the U.S. We are putting our ceremony programs in a basket (maybe from Crate & Barrel?) on a table as you walk in, and gluing the programs to a stick to turn them into fans since it will be quite warm out! After much debate on whether we use the BP officiant, or one of our guests, we decided on the BP officiant after hearing good things. One thing we want to make sure to do is have someone take a group picture of us and all our guests near the altar on the Sky Terrace! Cocktail Hour The cocktail hour is on the Sky Bar South from 5pm to 6pm. During this time, the wedding party will be doing photos on both the Sky Terrace and also at the beach. We ordered the Mexican appetizers for the rest of the guests enjoying the cocktail hour. Reception Ufffffff...so much info to list here! To start off, it's on the Palenque Terrace starting at 6pm! Entrance - we will have a basket of flip flops on a table for guests to take as dancing shoes. I ordered Navy Blue assorted size flip flops for the men and Lavender assorted size flip flops for the women from Dollar Tree. The basket will be the $29 fold-able bamboo basket from Crate & Barrel for luggage packing ease. On the table, there will also be everyone's table number assignments. We purchased Wilton ivory fold-able place cards. My fiance is going to tape washer to the inside of the cards to weight them down and combat the wind. Tables - 6 tables, with 6 people each. Using the Metallic Sands decoration package so we don't have to worry about much! We're printing the table numbers ourselves, and ordered some natural sea-shell table card holders from Etsy to display. Favors - At each table setting, there will be Mexican loteria matchboxes that we ordered on Etsy. Our favors also kind of include the flip flops and the glow sticks mentioned below. Lighting - We ordered necklace glow sticks from Amazon. The best man will be handing these out to guests as it gets dark. We also ordered Zuniga 4 column lighting with 2 string lights (via Beach Palace). Music - We ordered 2 speakers from JSAV (the Basic Package) and will be playing our iPod during the reception. Food/Drinks - Went with the BBQ buffet as it seems to be something that would appeal to everyone. We ordered a chocolate chantilly frosted cake. Possibly ordering additional champagne.