JBean's Planning Journal - PIC HEAVY - Lots of DIY

Planning journal

Thank you SO much to this forum and all the amazing women that work so hard to make it such an wonderful resource. My wedding truly would NOT have been so spectacular without all the incredible ideas I got from here!! Thank you!! 

Meeting & engagement

Hubby and I met online - I was new to the city but getting tired of the online thing and was going to delete my profile. His message was the last I returned before I deleted my profile and I decided my date with him would be my last. I wasn’t totally smitten with him (at all) on our first date (drinks on a patio), but he asked if he could take me for a nice dinner the next week, and I decided to give him a chance. That second date was the best date of my life, and we have been pretty much inseparable ever since! We got engaged the opening night of the Vancouver olympics (my home town) and celebrated with pizza and champagne. It’s been over 2 1/2 years and I couldn’t be happier.

The resort

We knew we wanted to get married in the Mayan Riviera because we’d heard it was beautiful and it was a good distance away for our families to travel, but not too far. Fi always makes fun of me for making spreadsheets for everything, and I had one to help me choose a resort. I narrowed it down to a few, and ended up going with the Valentin Imperial Maya partly because of the beautiful gazebo they had to use for the ceremony and all the excellent reviews on Trip Advisor. It was the perfect choice and we LOVED it!

The rings

Fi’s ring was his great great grandfather’s, and even has his wedding date (July 7^th, 1909) engraved inside.

Will you be my bridesmaid cards (just a flat card, and I wrote a note to each girl on the back and sent with the save the date). Printed from the WeddingChick.com

Save the date:

We sent out STD cards a year in advance. I made little tags. Nothing fancy, but they were cute. My DIY skills were much improved by the end of the wedding planning! 

Colours: It took me a while to decide on colours... but I went with tropical colours orange and fuscia, with cobalt/sapphire blue and a touch of neutral. 

Invitations - were all DIY as well. I got most of the paper supplies from cardsandpaper.com. They were a lot of work but I was really happy with how they turned out!

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OOT bags. I bought blue totes made from recycled material from Oriental Trading, and pink beach bags for the bridesmaids and moms. We also set up a snapfish.com account for people to share pics and included cards with that information. Most people didn't use it though.

Monogram - DIY, done on my MAC. I have ZERO design skills, but after a few hours of playing around, I was pretty happy with the turn out.

Dress - After 2 days of dress shopping, I was OVER IT! We found this dress on the first day, and went back and ordered it the second or third day. I had the dress for a year and a half before the wedding, so I had a bit of dress envy sometimes (there are so many beautiful dresses - I wish I could wear them all!), but in the end it was perfect. The dress: Ella Bridals. It came with straps (not shown) and I chose to go with straps.

Garter - Etsy

Shoes - Le Chateau. I also got some pretty orange flip flops for dancing, but they turned out to be more uncomfortable than my heels.

Hanger - Etsy

Bracelet - Etsy

Earrings & Hair flower - Etsy

BM dresses - From Tristan and America. When I picked this blue, it wasn’t so popular and it was IMPOSSIBLE to find dresses. We looked for ever for these dresses but we were really happy with them. I even bought one for myself!  Guys looks - Cobalt ties to match the girls. Hubby wore orange.

Ceremony location - a beautiful gazebo

Pink and orange hand fans on the chairs at the ceremony

Parasols for our moms from Paper Lantern. The ceremony ended up being shaded, so we didn’t need these, but still a nice touch I think.

Chair signs - DIY. I made them for Mother of the Bride, Father of the Bride and Mother of the Groom (Fi’s dad has passed away).

Programs - DIY

Mom gifts (Etsy) & cards (DIY)

Thank you cards for the BMs - DIY

BM gift - I bought these necklaces from Etsy and all the girls loved them. I also took them on a horseback riding excursion once we were down there.

Centrepieces/bouquets - We used the BM and my bouquets for the centrepieces. You can kind of see below. I wasn’t 100% thrilled with my bouquet, I wanted softer pink and orange flower, but everything was running behind that day so I had no time to make changes.

Reception venue: Private mexican terrace

What I wanted the table set up to look like... Table runners (DIY) - burlap, and I added a sparkly damask trim to the edges.

The result: (centrepiece wasn't there yet)

Favours - maracas, from Amols.com, which continued to be a hit well into the night

Menus - DIY

Table numbers - DIY

Cake

The cake was simple, which is all we wanted.

Extras

Just married sign - DIY with vintage lace

Guest book - mixbook.com, with Groupon, only $15!!

Bride and groom signs - DIY

Card box - DIY

Mustaches - DIY. At the last minute, I didn’t end up bringing them, but I will use them at the AHR.

Signage - DIY

Heart-shaped sheet music confetti on the tables - DIY

At the end of the reception we let Sky Lanterns (100% metal-free) go - it was a HUGE hit.

B wore this the day after the wedding - everyone got a kick out of it.

Photographer - Juan Navarro - I’ll be posting a review soon, but I would definitely recommend him! We were running short on time for pictures and the sun was setting, but it made for some amazing photos - the clouds and ocean were incredible!! This is not photoshopped!

Fewf! That took a while! Hope you enjoyed. I can't say enough how planning journals helped me!! All the best!

Love it all! Looks like you had a dream come true wedding, congrats! Sent from my iPhone 4 using Tapatalk

Absolutely Gorgeous!!! You did a FAB job with all the DIY... thanks for sharing! Congrats on being a beautiful MRS

Congrats on becoming a Mrs.! Everything looked beautiful! Your DIY projects came out great!!

Congrats!  Great job with the planning!

Everything is ssooooo beautiful! Congrats, you looked absolutely gorgeous.