Mandy1021

I haven't been able to find any real touch Hibiscus in Yellow anywhere! A lot of the vendors I've talked to say they don't exist, but I've found some of my other flowers after vendors have told me I won't be able to find them, so I'm refusing to give up just yet . Does anyone know where I could find yellow hibiscus in real touch, or maybe even white hibiscus that I could tint yellow?

Thank-you so much!

June 9th, 2012! Not a destination wedding, but still a beach wedding! We have our: Ceremony booked, Reception site booked, Rentals booked, Officiant booked and paid for, DJ booked and paid for, Photographer booked Bridesmaids & Flower Girls dresses picked out Videographer booked Musicians about to be booked Transportation to be booked soon In the process of getting flowers (Very picky about my colours so it's taking a while ) Have someone I'm going to get back in contact with for invitations, but I think it's too soon for that yet . Have the stuff to do our wedding favours, and have started collecting stuff to do our own thank you cards . I have a dress in mind but am going to go dress shopping once more before I decide for sure. I LOVE that we had over a year to plan it! It has given me a lot of time to bargain shop, and take my time to find vendors, etc. I think the only 'main thing' we haven't figured out yet, is who is going to do our cake .

Oh wow is that ever a great idea, I've never heard of that before. Talk about meaningful! Skp1, I love that idea too! .

I love this idea! Definately going to mention it to the Fiance .

Our budget is $12,000. My Fiance didn't realize how expensive weddings are; he somehow got in his head our budget was $7,000 (We, or at least I had suggested $10,000 in the beginning until I saw the price of photographers and realized we couldn't get a great photographer within our budget. Still have no idea where he got $7,000 from though), and I'm like 'Um no baby that would get us a photographer, and some transportation LoL." He freaked when I said $12,000 as we are also paying for it all ourselves, but I think he's come to terms with it now . I feel like while it is A LOT of money you are only generally married once, and I want to do it right. I don't want to look back and be like 'Man, why did we cheap out on that? Why does that look so crappy? We should have paid the $<xx> more to upgrade it!' I feel $12,000 is very do-able for a nice wedding depending on what it is you want and where it is you're getting married, .

I heard a lot of people these days are having the men already at the front before the wedding starts and then each girl walks down by themselves, followed by the ring bearer and flower girl (together or separate). If you want your Maid of Honour there till the end I would say do it in order of most important to walk down last to, not as important (I know that sounds bad, because they're all important, but I don't know how else to word it) So do your two bridesmaids, Ring Bearer & Flower Girl, then your Maid of Honour. Or switch your Maid of Honour and the kids around. I just know you said you wanted her there till the end. Did your WC make any suggestions for you?

I really have no idea what to get the girls in our wedding party for a gift. I've seen some of you girls on here getting things like nice bracelets from tiffany's and while I've never been in a tiffany's myself I know that they are quite expensive and it definately isn't in our budget. I have four bridesmaids, a junior bridesmaid, and a flower girl, so we're looking at around the $50 mark. I'd love to get the little girls (who are sisters, and will be almost 8 and 10 when we get married) something similar to a pandora bracelet, that have a bead or charm in our wedding colour (Pool Blue/Aqua) or a little seashell charm, and then something more personalized for each of them, like an initial or their birthstone colour, and then another bead for their favourite sport/activity (that way they're the same so they can't argue, but they're made special for them at the same time), but the chains for pandora bracelets start at around $35 and beads start at around $20. Anyone know of something a little more kid friendly that has the same sort of idea as a pandora bracelet? What are you getting your wedding party, and how much are you spending?

Just thought it'd be fun to see everyone's answers . We're getting married on June 9th, 2012. After we got engaged we knew we wanted our wedding to be on a 9th of a month. We started dating on the 9th of February, and when my Fiance bought my engagement ring in August it was after the 9th of August so he forced himself to wait until the next 9th of a month which turned out to be September 9th, . We really wanted to keep the date we got engaged and the day we got married the same, but September 9th, 2012 fell on a Sunday and with most of our family being from out of town (Some of mine being 4-6 hours away) we didn't know if our families could, or would make the trip down here when most people have school, work etc on Monday. I also reeeeally wanted a wedding on the beach (We're not doing a destination wedding, but we are getting married on the beach! ) and September can be really iffy with weather (Although, I think any month in Ontario can be iffy, we've had snow in April for goodness sake! LoL) so we went with June . It also is an easy date to remember, 06.09.12 Any reason why you picked the date you did, or was it one of those "Well it's not hurricane season during this month, so let's go then." .

Although we haven't really talked about it, I think we both know that we are going to pick Remember When by Alan Jackson . It was the first song we ever danced to, and I just love it. The lyrics are so fitting to life .

My Fiance loves golf (And hockey, if someone has a good idea for that) and wants to incorporate that into a kissing game somehow . We found a little mini putt thing you can order. We were thinking if they got the ball in in say two tries or less we would kiss (Or a hole in one if the putting green is really easy). Not really sure how we would know when someone has gotten the ball in in the right amount of shots though because we can't really stand there and watch while every person goes up there. Any ideas?

I was having the same problem, then after a stupid argument with one of my friends (The one who I was leaning more to be my Maid of Honour,and I didn't even know why we were arguing, hence the stupid comment) I decided after that that I would have NO Maid of Honour! I haven't really told any of the girls yet, as far as the four girls know they're all my Bridesmaids, only two of them are probably thinking they will be my Maid of Honour, I guess I should mention it to them, although I don't think they will be too upset. I think there would be more hurt feelings if I picked one friend over the other. I'm just going to have my Mom sign the papers for me I think. I have always wanted my Mom to be a part of my wedding. I never thought it was fair that your Dad gets to give you away and your Mom gets to do nothing; I want them both to walk me down the aisle .

Love the tips! Too bad we can't put a sticky up of all the helpful sites everyone has posted so we have one place to go and look for everything . Something I have noticed from going to bridal shows, bigger bridal shows=bigger companies=more expensive (Very Obvious in hindsight. New companies can't afford the price for a booth at a big bridal show). I went to a small bridal show in my city, and had way more vendors I have used/considered using because their prices are much more reasonable. A lot of the vendors at the smaller bridal show are just starting out in business, plus a lot of brides don't think to go to the smaller bridal shows because the 'best' vendors, the most popular ones, are at the big name bridal shows. The small bridal show I went to I actually one a couple prizes. Less brides=better chance of winning a draw . Do a google search for 'budget template' I found a great one that you open in excel and it has all the approximate percentages of how much you should spend on each category (Flowers, Reception, Transportation, etc). You type in your budget at the top and the formula's are written in the spreadsheet so it does the work for you . I found it really handy when I was trying to cut costs in certain areas so I could up our price for a photographer, I didn't have to keep on pulling out the calculator and doing the work, the spreadsheet did it for me . Love the dollar store! Have found nearly all my beachy/centrepiece things there. Vistaprint is also great! Was wary at first because the price was so great so we ordered the return labels when they had a deal advertising they were free. We got them in a tuquoise colour with a cute beach background, and they are VERY CUTE and very nice! Paid under $5 for 140 I think it was. Something else I have started doing. Ask your vendors if they offer discounts if you pay in full. Most will say no, but it doesn't hurt to ask does it? We saved $50 on our dj because we paid in full. $50 doesn't seem like a lot, but that's $50 that can go to something else . Whenever something is under $500 we try to pay in full, so we don't have to worry about paying them later. I can't stand the idea of having a big bill hanging over our head on our wedding day. Our goal is to have everyone paid for by January, so we have six months to just relax and work on finishing touches before our wedding . Love this forum!!!

Thank you everyone!!! I love having somewhere to find all things beachy and people to come to who are going through or have been through the same things . @Celticgirl: I've found a couple vendors, just waiting back to hear on prices and things . I'm going to have to order from at least two though because I haven't found anyone who carries all the flowers I'm looking for.

I literally just said "This is AWESOME" outloud to myself, hahaha. Really though, it IS awesome! I'm doing a google search right now! $149 is nothing considering how much everything else costs in a wedding and you actually get to KEEP this .