Northernflashers better late than never planning thread.

So here it is, totally an afterthought as I didnt have time to sleep or eat in the run up to the wedding, I was still putting finishing touches to favours the day before the wedding sitting on my balcony at the resort!

Firstly Thank You all so much for your invaluable advice, inspiration and support. This would all have been so much harder without this forum and without all of you.

I apologise and give you my upmost thanks if you recognise your templates here without a credit. I've deleted all the originals so I dont know who to thank! Please speak up if you recognise anything so I can add a credit which can help other brides in the future.

Here goes....

Engagement: 2nd March 2008.

We met in March 2000 whilst working as cruise-ship photographers for Royal Caribbean.

David took me away on a Caribbean cruise to celebrate my 30th birthday and went down on bended knee on a secluded rock cove in St Kitts on my 30th Birthday. He had planned the whole thing for months and chose the ring himself which is perfect.

Our Cove.....

She said yes!!!!.....

We decided that seeing as we spent so much time together in Mexico during those first few months of our relationship that it would be the perfect place to get married, plus neither of us are very traditional and working as wedding photographers here in the UK we wanted something totally different for our wedding.

We picked the 26th March 2010 as its exactly 10 years to the day that we first met.

Wedding Rings:

My engagement ring was picked by David and is exactly what I would have chosen for myself, what can I say, the boy knows me...

My wedding ring is actually a half eternity ring that I totally fell in love with right after our engagement and just had to have.

His is a gorgeous titanium and sterling silver inlaid band.

Grooms suit and Best man outfit, Grooms 11 year old son. We couldnt find matching shirts for the two of them anywhere so we ended up getting white and dyeing them and the handkerchiefs with dylon china blue dye:

More coming, please be patient..........

Wedding Dress:

This was really hard, I knew I was never going to pay high street prices but I wanted to at least try on dresses to get an idea of what I wanted. I tried on nearly 60 dresses and didnt love any of them!

My original plan was to get a knock off dress from china but because I didnt have one dress that really stood out for me I thought it would be too stressful trying to explain what I wanted to someone on the other side of the world.

Luckily Davids stepmum has a seamstress friend who was happy to work with me and create what I wanted for a fraction of the original price.

Not quite as cheap as a knock off from China but I realise that being the control freak that I am it worked out perfectly for me being able to be so hands on throughout the whole process.

I did find it all very stressful and it really went down to the last minute to get it finished.

My dress is loosely based on this original but i'm wearing the corsage and pleated train at the back. Mine also has a cowl neckline and ruching on the bodice.

The original £1,500

Mine. £400

My shoes:

I dont do heels but I really wanted some girly peep-toes and Im thrilled with these flat pumps from New Look for £22.

We only had a very small wedding with 13 guests, most of which are immediate family so we asked all the men to wear khaki pants and white shirts and all the women to wear colours of the ocean so we would all complement each other in the photos.

More to come....................

Bmaids dress:

Ordered on a whim from online retailer e-dressit.com. Excellent quality, delivered within a fortnight, fully lined, gorgeous silk crepe chiffon, made to measure and fits perfectly approx £120. Highly recommend.

DIY Boarding Card Invites:

I really dont remember who I got this template from but thank you so much and if you do recognise it speak up!!!

Attachment 32

Attachment 33

Attachment 34

More coming......

I included luggage tags for the immediate family which had already commited to booking.

Attachment 35

Attachment 36

Bridal entrance song for ceremony is to be sung and played accoustically by Davids brother and is inspired by trace bundy's version of guns n roses " sweet child o mine"

Trace Bundy

Sand Ceremony set:

I have a photoshop template of the diy funnel we used but I dont know how to reduce the file size enough to be able to attatch it here. If anyone knows how or would like me to email them the template PM me.

Wedding Coins set:

Bought from gold Charms, gold Pendants, 14K Gold Jewelry, gold Chains, gold Bracelets, gold Earrings, Jewelry, Sterling Silver, Groomsmans gifts, Groomsmens gifts, Groomsman's gifts, Groomsmen's gifts, Gifts, Leather Bags, Handbags, Wedding accessories, wedding

We used them in the ceremony and it added a nice Mexican touch. $34 plus postage.

Still coming.......

Approved legal Ceremony

I have attatched this below because when I was planning our wedding I came across conflicts as to whether or not I could personalise a legal ceremony. This ceremony was approved and performed by an English speaking judge, although my WC made a point of telling me "I was very Lucky" to have it accepted I just wanted to let you all know what can be accepted. I basically wrote in the entire legal ceremony as a basis and then added in our personal sections so the judge didnt have to try to figure out where to put the "required" wording. I think this is one of the main reasons it was accepted. The Legal Mexican ceremony is highlighted in red but minus the reading from Ocampo's letter which we did not agree with and did not want as part of our ceremony. A thousand thank you's to the member who's ceremony I borrowed from, im sorry to not have acknowledged you here but if you recognise it please let me know.

Attachment 27

DIY Fans:

These were a real bargain. Purchased from ebay

seller jimbobsjoblots price £1.35 plus postage for 8 fans. After reading lots of reviews which commented on huge variations in size of some of the raffia fans I must say these are all virtually identical in size and quality and Im really pleased with them. Highly recommend.

I attatched white floral/diamante corsages for the ladies fans and green/blue corsages for the fans to be used as part of the decoration.

DIY Maracas: I placed one at each seat in the chapel to serve as a place marker and to shake at the kiss and one at each place setting for the reception to make a pair per guest. Knowing what I do now I would definateley say DO NOT waste the stress, time and effort making these yourself. My guests loved them but when we went on a shopping trip to Playa del Carmen you can get beautiful handpainted ones for $1-$2 each. My guests would have been just as happy with these with a handmade name tag attatched and I would have saved myself weeks of stress!!!

I also printed each person an individual menu which proved invaluable when the seating arrangements were messed up!

Also shown in this photo are my wine glass luminaries which I diy one per person for each place setting.

DIY Ceremony Programs:

These took forever to create but everyone loved them and could follow the ceremony despite the poor English of the judge!

Each page represented an element and featured a part of the ceremony eg fire for the memorial candles, air for the vows, earth for the sand ceremony etc...

I wrapped each one with a personalised silk handkerchief which I DIY with stick on diamantes.

Ceremony program front cover overlay

If you would like the templates for Any of these please pm me as I dont know how to reduce the file sizes to be able to attatch them here.

More coming.....

Memorial Candles for ceremony table:

Memorial candles for guest:

Cocktail hour photobooth accessories:

We plan on setting up our camera on a tripod on self timer setting and letting our guests do their thing whilst we have our professional photos taken.

Also we set up a Recipe card for our welcome drink and I found these cute shell napkins on offer which we used at the cocktail hour.

Our Luminaries:

These were in a circle on the sand to mark out the dancing area. In all honesty the ones the hotel provide are a little larger and held up much better than mine. If you are going to take your own I would recommend getting paper ones, mine were like a shiny gold coated paper which cos of its texture and weight didn't fold over at the top like the hotel ones so they all blew in on the candle and burned the bags or put the candles out.

Hotels luminaries:

So I think thats everything.

Feel free to ask questions about my set up or the hotel in general and I'll try to help in any way I can.

Happy Planning.

The End.

Everything looks amazing! The dresses look so dreamy and gorgeous, and the Trace Bundy song was lovely. I am thinking of doing a funny photobooth table too but it's a lot to carry and polaroids are hard to find. Makes for such funny photos tho

you did a really good job!

It all looks fantastic, congrats!!!

Everything looks amazing! Great Job Michelle! I am very very interested in the legal ceremony wording - the link to that attachment seems to not work. The other attachments worked fine. I really want to change the wording a little also. Any help would be much appreciated.