Leslie's Planning Thread 12-4-09!! *LONG & PIC HEAVY*

I can’t believe it’s my turn to do a planning thread! I want to thank all of you girls for sharing your ideas and Tammy for creating this website. My wedding would not have been the same had I not found this site. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Wedding Website: Jay and Leslie's Wedding

We got engaged in Jamaica at the Grand Palladium resort. He proposed on the balcony by offering me my favorite candy, Icebreakers Sours, and when he opened the candy…there was a HUGE (2+carat) ring inside!! Here are both of our rings, taken while on the honeymoon:

Save the Date thread: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...e-dates-34926/ We had to switch resorts from Moon Dance Cliffs to Iberostar Grand Rose Hall due to the fact that we had too many guests for the original resort. We still did the TTD shoot at the Cliffs.

I asked all of my bridesmaids by giving them cookies in my wedding colors. The dresses each say, “Will you be my bridesmaid?” they are from Weddingish.com. The girls LOVED them!

Passport Invites by Prim and Pixie. They were great to work with, very professional and SUPER FAST!!! The guests could not stop raving about them…they were 6 pages, here are the 1st two. It was totally worth the $5 per invite to not have to spend all of that time making them DIY!

Here is a shot from my Bach Party!! They did such a great job of planning, we went to a club with stripper poles so it was a fun way to spend my last single night!!

MOH and I in the airport in the shirts I made for us:

$13 Hoodie from Forever 21 that I had embroidered at a cart in the mall for $30:

Hubby and I on the plane waiting for takeoff. MOH made me wear the tiara!!!

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I know everyone’s favorite part is the OOT bags (or at least mine was). Here is the bag with all of the contents:

SPF Chapstick $1 from 5 Below

Shell Reed Diffusers $5 from Yankee Candle (on sale from $12)

Icebreakers Sours $1.50, ring tied on was from Oriental Trading was $6 for all of them!

Postcards from Vista Print FREE, tied with raffia $3 for the whole bag at Michaels

Pens with our monograms from Vista Print $1.50

Mugs from 4imprint.com monogram on front and “to have and to hold, to keep your drink cold†on the back $2.00 each

Coconut hand sanitizer gel and wipes from Bath and Body Works $1.50

The bags were from Oriental Trading and came out to about .70 cents each, we glued on the monogrammed postcards, which we got for free from Vista Print. The tissue paper was $1 per 8 sheets so we spent about $10 on tissue paper. So total per bag came to about $16 each. We also included all of the information anyone could ever need to know for the whole wedding weekend. MORE…

This made things run very smoothly:

MOH and I stuffing the bags the night before everyone got there!

On our way to greet each of our guest and give them a bag…they really enjoyed us greeting them in the lobby and also hugging them each goodbye as they got on the bus to leave at the end!

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Relaxed Wedding Rehearsal with Bridesmaids in shirts I made for them:

Bridal Bikini my MOH got me! I pinned on the veil from VS bride undies (the veil snapped off)

Bridal Party at the Rehearsal:

We had dinner at the Japanese restaurant (SO GOOD) and then a bonfire and reggae band—Positive Vibrations, I HIGHLY recommend them, with a private bar on the beach. The WCs went over and above to make this very special. They had cocktail tables and chairs in a lit up dance floor with a stage for the band. It was everything I thought it would be and more…to the point where I wondered if the wedding would top it (which it did!).

My best friends at the Japanese Rehearsal Dinner and bonfire…they gave us the whole restaurant to ourselves (55 people) from 6pm-8:30pm! We had chicken, lobster, and steak!!

Hubby and I with Kymoya and Angellie aka the BEST WCs EVER! They were always at each of the events making sure everything ran smoothly.

We had the most romantic first dance EVER. This singer was amazing and covered a bunch of songs I had on my wedding playlist (the WC gave it to her without me even knowing or asking!!! So cool!!) She called out me and hubby to dance to her singing Heaven by DJ Sammy. It was the best moment of my life, yes, even more special than the wedding!

Group shot at the Bonfire..Def worth the $$$$!!!!!

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Wedding Details!!!

This was my hair trial. She did a great job…I think it looks better than the Carrie Underwood pic I brought to her (you can see the Carrie photo on my lap)

Place Cards. I got the huge packs of umbrellas from Jo Ann Fabric and just took out the orange and pink and printed off everybody’s info and hot glued it to the stick! We filled the box with sand on the morning of the wedding.

These Table Numbers were posted on a link from a photog on here (Gosh, I wish I could give credit because this helped so much!!!)

I got this shirt made off of esty.com for Jay to wear on the wedding day before the wedding. We love Mario Kart and it’s perfect b/c I am always princess.

Wedding Favors (I forgot to give out on the wedding night) so I gave them out the next day. I am addicted to scratch offs, so I got Christmas themed scratch offs for everyone. I go the envelopes from Oriental Trading and printed our monogram off on a free Vista Print business card. I even stuck a penny in each one, for easy playing!

Guests scratching. The biggest winner was $6!! HA!

Up Close of Programs, which hubby made for me!!:

My friend Min with her program, the guests loved them and everybody took them with them. My parents friends even met up with us while on our honeymoon and had their fans with them since it was so hot!!

My Garter! Jay and I met at Hooters, I was his waitress!! HA!

My Shoes. I got these from Zappos.com, great site where you get free shipping and free shipping on returns as well. They had great customer service. My photog got pics of them where I added “ I DO†on the bottoms in blue sparkle stickers, I don’t have those pics yet.

My beautiful bouquet and bridesmaids bouquets from Flower Studio in MoBay. I wanted all orchids (and even paid extra for that) but there were still roses in them…not a big deal b/c they turned out SO beautiful, even more beach appropriate than what I had in mind! I loved them! I had a large white crystal starfish in mine and my MOH had a smaller one in hers.

Groomsmen/Groom Attire. Groom wore a suit from the Banana Republic Outlet, White shirt and hot pink tie from Express Men, and shoes from Steve Madden. The Groomsmen wore shirt and pants from Express Men, and shoes from Payless (we got them buy one get one ½ off at an end of season sale) So they were $6 and $3! I made the Starfish boutonnieres DIY and we got them the orange ties at a ghetto tie store for $6 each!

Bridesmaid Dresses were from Davids Bridal in Tangerine. I made them each their hair flowers DIY and had them wear them on the right ear so they would show at the ceremony. I got them each a starfish necklace and made them starfish earrings! I got the sandals for $25 each a Macy’s.(sorry they are all crying here haha)

Wedding Set Up!! They added the rose petals right before I walked down the isle, since the wind was blowing and we did not want them to blow away.

Arch up close:

The steel drum band played Christmas music while everyone waited. I was 45mins late (hair issues) but the band kept the guests entertained!!! They also played Here Comes the Bride and were awesome and played extra long for free since I was so late and the ceremony ran long! I will get their info if anyone is interested.

My dad NEVER wears a suit or tie so this was a huge deal. He was throwing a fit about wearing it, but after it was over and he saw the pictures, he agreed it was the right thing to do!!

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My Dad walking me down!!! The guests threw handfuls of rose petals as we walked by!

In Prayer:

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Saying our Vows…instead of “I Do†he said “Yeh Mon!†it got a good laugh, but I told him don’t you dare say that again! Haha

Kiss the Bride!

Signing License:

Sand Ceremony:

During the pouring of the sand, Jay’s sister, Kris, did a reading of a poem called “Beach Chairs†by Joyce Ebrecht. It was perfect for a beach wedding.

Butterfly Release!!! This was a surprise to our guests! The WCs were not sure if they could get them, but they came through!!! It made my day!

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Wedding Reception:

Cake with the DIY “I DO†I painted orange and put pink rhinestones on. I also brought my own ribbon for him to use so it would match. This cake was done at the Iberostar using fondant over strawberry cheesecake for the 1st two layers and then fondant over vanilla with vanilla icing for the top 2. Notice my engraved starfish serving set on each side of the cake. I wanted the cake to have a stand so they wrapped one with my linen to make it look the way I wanted.

My conch shell flower arrangements turned out so beautiful. I got this idea from the Knot and this one looked so much better than the inspiration pic I gave her.

Here are the menus and napkins in a pocket fold with starfish name tags that were on each place setting.

Food—guests are still raving! Mozz Salad

Surf and Turf!

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Head Table

First Dance- Steve Holy “Good Morning Beautifulâ€

Then they all joined (note the pink and orange lanterns..got them from paperlantern.com)…

Our friend Ben always dresses up like Michael Jackson and does the Billie Jean dance at all of the weddings!

Surprise Fire Dancer/Fire Eater…none of the guests had a clue we had gotten her!! She was amazing, her info is Pauline Brady [email protected] we paid $190 for 20 minutes. Totally worth it! She was blowing fire through Jay’s legs!!

Bouquet Toss! “All the single Ladiesâ€

Garter removal…I changed into a short dress after the cake cutting! “I Wanna Sex You Upâ€

.I really wanted pics of me and my BMs with the parasols after the ceremony but the sun was setting and things were so rushed, I forgot! The WCs set them up all around the edges of the dance floor so later at night everyone was spinning them around and dancing with them!

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Cupid Shuffle!! A must have!

We left under a sparkler canopy. These are not allowed on the plane even in checked luggage. We totally forgot to take them out before checking them and when I read a sign that said $250 fine, I freaked. They never checked that luggage and we made it fine free with the sparklers!

Bath waiting in our room when we got back…at 5am! We went to the club until 3am then to the after party in my BILs room! We did use it though!

TTD at Moon Dance Cliffs in Negril. We did this shoot the Wednesday after our wedding with Paula and Damien of Sungold…who are the best photogs ever! It was so fun hanging out with them and having them at our wedding. My left eardrum is still busted out from the jump :/ Hopefully the pics will be worth it.

THE END! I will post the templates...

Wow, great planning thread!!! Thank you for sharing. Congratulations to you both!