February 2012 Brides!!!!!!

[torilynnsmith]

So I haven't seen a thread like this and know some other destination brides have gotten HUGE help from other brides in their month so I thought I would start one for all the February 2012 brides out there!  

 

We are getting married February 4th 2012 at the Majestic Colonial in Punta Cana and are VERY excited! After nearly a year long engagement with 3 moves and no wedding planning insight we seemed to FINALLY decide and send invites out in a very short period of time.  It is so exciting to finally be booked and I thank BDW and the facebook group, Majestic Colonial Brides for all the help so far and I am sure more to come!

 

My first DIY was our boarding pass invites but now that they are done and mailed I don't know what to do next!!!

 

Hopefully all the February 2012 brides can get together on here and help each other with planning and staying on track!

 

Only 8 months away!!!

 

 

[RobsnRory2012]

Yay! Thanks Tori for starting this thread.

 

As you know from the Majestic Colonial Brides fb group (which is an amazing resource fyi) I am also planning my wedding at the Majestic for February 22, 2012. 8 months and counting. Woohoo! I am both underwhelmed and overwhelmed by the whole DW planning process. I feel like I should be doing more to plan for the big day...and don't really know what to do when.

 

Good job sending your invites out already! I ordered mine online and they should be here any day...pending a potential postal strike

 

Have you decided what you are going to do for favors...are you going to do OOT Bags? Has anyone come across any economical options?

 

I know from the fb page that you were planning on bringing some of your own decorations down? Do you know what your are going to bring?

[torilynnsmith]

yay!!! so glad to see you on here Robyn!! Sometimes I feel like I am hijacking the facebook page so I figured at least this is "allowed" lol

 

We skipped STDs and just went with invites.  I mocked them up and then once we confirmed our rates and booked we sent them out.  I only sent them out the beginning of this week so I REALLY hope the postal strike doesn't effect them!!!  We contemplated just doing an Evite and then sending invites only to those who booked (not really invites more like YAY we're escaping the snow in february!) but both our parents insisted we needed to do invites with real RSVPs.  It worked out ok, I did them DIY and it was fun (but a lot of work!!!)

 

We are definitely doing OOT bags! I am obsessed with them.  I think I will definitely go over board but am trying hard to keep myself in check and on budget.  There is just so many things I want to put in them.  I don't think we will do "favours" aside from out OOTs just because we want to include so much in them, and also then our guests don't have to worry about carrying our favours from the reception (I know they always get left behind!).  Dollartree in the states had AMAZING jumbo beach totes.  My parents were there during May 24 weekend and picked me up a sample to make sure quality was good.  Well they are sooo great BUT when I went to order them OUT OF STOCK! I nearly cried! They are only a dollar a piece and I was so pumped up because we were expecting $5 a bag so this opened up $$ for OOT stuff!!  I am now on the hunt for something else! I am thinking we may go to Buffalo, NY this weekend or next to search the Dollartrees there and see if I can pull some together (its only 1.5 hour drive).  They also have great mini meds and travel size additions.  I also found a coupon for the johnson and johnson travel first aid kits making them only like $0.22 a piece so I am hoping to pick those up too! I know its early to start doing OOT but I figure with a Feb wedding any summer stuff we want we need to do during summer!!  Some girls have mentioned Dollarama for some cute bags so I may start checking them out since they are closer to home!!

 

We are going to bring our vases for our centrepieces and used our bouquets (BM and myself) as the arrangements.  I figure once the wedding part is over we arent going to need them so may as well have them do double duty! I cant decide on real touch or real flowers....  Aside from that I can't decide if I want chair sashes or anything so other decor will be just minor I think.  I do LOVE those large vases marking the aisle but do not want to spend that kind of money on decor!

 

I totally know what you mean about over/underwhelmed.  Now that invites are done I don't know what to do!!! I haven't booked a photog yet have you?!  I would love to hear what you have done and what you are thinking so far!!!

 

Sorry this post is so long, its just so nice to talk to someone in the same position that knows the resort!!!!

 

[RobsnRory2012]

Haha I know exactly what you mean. I honestly get so excited talking with other brides. It kind of makes me feel like I'm doing more to plan by monitoring the fb page and BDW day and night for updates....I think I need a life lol.

 

I am also skipping STDs I just don't see the point in sending them out since we hope to send our invites asap. We also thought about Evites but I wanted something more tangible and a little more formal. You did the boarding pass style invitations right? That is such a great idea...if I was at all crafty I definitely would have gone for something like that but I am honestly not much of a DIY person. We are going to have everyone rsvp through our wedding website which is going to be really helpful in getting all of the trip info to our guests.

 

I really want to do OOT bags too! If I can manage it for $10 a person I think I am going to go for it. Those totes sound like an awesome deal!! Too bad they were sold out. I did find a good site for bags: <http://www.discountmugs.com/> I guess it depends on the look you are going for. But you can get bags personalized for just over $2 a piece. I also stumbled across <http://www.minimus.biz/> which has tons of miniature everything.

 

I am hoping to make flower balls to hang along the aisle for the ceremony and then reuse them somehow for the reception. I love real flowers so I was really hoping to do floral centerpieces...we'll see how I'm doing in terms of budget when the time comes though. I lucked out and found another bride on kijiji who was selling chair sashes and table runners in the color I wanted...ironically enough she also got married at the Majestic!

 

We decided to book Phil Steingard as our photographer. He just seems so knowledgable both as a photographer and about the resort and destination weddings. He actually offered to go over our wedding itinerary and help us plan everything to run smoothly!

 

I'm still debating on booking DJ Mannia...I could save a lot by just using an ipod or laptop for music but I just think it would be better if we had a professional. Are you booking a dj? Are you going to do a welcome dinner or a rehearsal dinner? Speaking of rehearsal...I've heard there isn't really any opportunity to do a run through of the ceremony with your bridal party before the wedding day...do you know anything about this?

[krsmith]

YAY!!

 

We are getting married Feb 14th, 2012 at Moon Palace in Cancun! We are excited, but I also feel very underwhelmed/overwhelmed! I feel kind of stuck and not sure what to even start working on. I guess invites should be next, but I still haven't decided on what to do for them. When do you guys plan on sending yours and asking for the final RSVP? 

 

I really want to start working on OOT bags, but I still don't know how many people will be coming. There are certain things that I want to have a more exact count for, like the acrylic tumblers I want to personalize and order... not something I want to have to order again or have too many of. I'm dying to get started though! 

 

I feel like I should start doing DIY projects, but I don't know what I even want to do yet or if I could even do it and make it look good! So many things to do!!

 

 

[torilynnsmith]

Robyn - $10 a person is our budget pretty much but we are going to do them per couple so I consider that $20 a bag! For single we will obviously do singles but hopefully we can stay on point!! Thanks for the sites I had looked at both but just found minimus tonight so will need to look into it further! Have you done anything on Vistaprint? Everyone seems to rave about it, well they have free personalized totes right now (again depending on what you are looking for) and all you pay is shipping.  One of the girls mentioned she did orders of pens, sticky notes, business cards (used for tags, name cards etc), bags and shirts for something like $8 an order for shipping ALL for FREE!!! She placed the order over and over and it all ended up coming together but for all that personalized stuff FREE (basically) it seems like a GREAT option! I might do a "test run" on vistaprint to see how it all comes out and then may opt to do some stuff on there!

 

I love that you are doing flower balls!! I am in LOVE with pomanders and did a DIY a few weeks back of tissue paper pomanders.  I will post a pic for you to check them out.  They turned out really well.  originally I was going to do real (too pricey for our budget) then I was going to do faux flower ones, and then a friend suggested these.  I did them for under $1 a ball!  My only concern is the type of chairs for the ceremony and how I am going to attach them... maybe using chair sashes?  What are you thinking of doing?  Danielle from FB group has been awesome and she suggested a company for chair sashes and they were only $0.59 a piece or something so if I do go for them I will likely order from there!  I totally know what you mean about it taking over your life.  FI is out away a lot lately and so it take up my WHOLE life I feel!

 

DJ mania is our big decision too!! I just am having trouble justifying $450+ an hour because our reception is only 2-2.5 hours long! I think it will make for a much better "party" but I just don't know.  Do you know if there are any other DJ options? What about the resort DJ?

 

We will probably do a welcome dinner but that's it.  I too have heard there's no real rehearsal opportunity but I think maybe we will just do dinner with our families and bridal parties as a "rehearsal dinner" the night before and just go over how we see it going.  We have booked pastor york for our ceremony also so I am looking forward to that!

 

krsmith- I know what you mean about OOT bags, it is my next thing to do but not because I should be because I want to!!! WE have no idea how many people we will have yet so it really makes no sense at all but they just are so much fun!!   We sent out invites the beginning of this week, to book our group rate guests must book by august 26th but we asked for a november 4th final RSVP (ie. if they book through another person/company or later date).  I am really afraid this is going to cause some confusion for people but we didn't want people to think that if they didn't use our TA they couldn't come!

 

One thing I really want to do is the door hangers that say "Please do not disturb we have been partying with the ________ newlyweds" don't know if you have seen them but think they are a really cute idea!! That may be something I start DIYing soon because I don't need a confirmed number I can just do the design.

 

Any other DIY or planning suggestions I can get going on?!  I am soo excited that we will all have each other to talk to over the next 8 months... ahhh it's going to be here before we know it!

[moonbride2012]

My fiance and I are getting married at Moon Palace as well, but on Feb 16th!!!!

Looks like we will be able to enjoy some celebrations : -)

[jenner29]

My fiance and I are also getting married on February 22, 2012, but at the Gran Bahia Principe in Jamaica!!  So excited!

[torilynnsmith]

Yay!!!! More Feb 2012 brides!!! What have you guys done so far?  How many guests are you expecting?!

[krsmith]

Sounds like we will be there around the same time!! DRINKS!!
 

Originally Posted by moonbride2012 

My fiance and I are getting married at Moon Palace as well, but on Feb 16th!!!!

Looks like we will be able to enjoy some celebrations : -)