Jessica

wow. what a great location!! are you or fi from there? how did you decide to get married there?

just reading "almond sugar cookies" made my mouth water. i really wanted to do cookies, but i wasn't sure how well they would travel. i'm shipping the favors to my wedding coordinator a few weeks before we arrive. i wouldn't want them to crumble to pieces in the mail. cookies are such a good and tempting idea though. plus make great hotel snacks!

I need inspiration. I was going to do heart wine stoppers, but now I don't know. I'd especially love to see DIY wedding favors. Cool, fun and unique favors. Share!! Pictures a plus but not neccessary.

i would say send your invites out asap. especially if you are invluding rsvp's to be mailed back. i sent mine out in jan (sent early jus to remind those who had put off making reservations to get a move on it) with an rsvp deadling set in march. i just turned in my headcount to my WC. Some people don't get the concept of returning rsvp's, so sending thme out early will allow you to track down anyone who didn't send theirs and confirm if they are or aren't attending and get your headcount in on time.

I think that would be cute. I'm not doing the exact same thing, but what I did was order copies of travel guides from the tourism board (they were free and had local area guides, maps and info about taxi services, resturants, activities, etc). The separetly I printed up a contact info list which I cut and laminated for oot bags. I made them about business card size, printed front and back so people could put them in their wallets. I'm just going to make a simple timeline on my home computer and print it up on cardstock. I can give you a sample template of that if you want.

I don't think they should be a problem. I know of a bride who got married in Mexico and also had advil packets and stuff for oot bags and she went through customs fine.

What?!? That is insane. My dress didn't need alterations, but that seems super expensive. I wouldn't have thought it would be that expensive. My friend brought a wedding dress from a bridal store and alterations were free. Did you not buy your dress from a store? I guess someone else would know better than me about the cost, but really, that seems a bit high!

You look amazing and your photos are incredible! Congrats.

Do you only have 5 people total? If so, It'll be a little easier to get everything together. I would focus on the dress and invites. I would say, it might be better to DIY invites at this point just so you can get them out asap. as for dresses, you should stat looking NOW because I know if takes a couple of months + to get dresses in at most shops. Maybe sooner with a rush order. ebay is also another option to gt a wedding dress quickly. places like jcrew and nordstroms also have simple, but pretty beachy wedding dresses.

Aww. Yeah, I love my photog. She's sweet. I invited her and a guest to the reception, but I'm not sure if she's going to come. She'll be seated with guests if she does though. MY WC is being seated with the guests. I couldn't imagine sending vendors to another room... even if I was having a local wedding, I think I'd seat them with guests!

ok guys, thanks! that helps. i figured she'd be moving around a lot, but didn't want to seem rude if it's the norm to have a chair! JPMO - our photographer is not coming to the reception (as far as I know, she is invited though!). but this is in reference to the ceremony only. i'm renting chairs for the beach wedding. actually the only vendor that is at the reception will be the WC!

Silly question, but I have to email my WC my head count. When I'm giving her the number for chairs at the ceremony, should I also add a chair for our photographer? I'm so clueless when it comes to this stuff!

We just paid for the ceremony, and transportation. I wish we could have paid for hotel and airfare for at least some of our guests beause I know a lot of our friends and family are low on cash, but with me in school we're broke as well!

my fi is insisting on wearing a suit even though i'm afraid he's going to be a sweaty mess!

I was also going to suggest a "who knows the couple best" type of game. Or, will there be many couples there? Maybe a Newlywed type game if you can get someone to be the host. Like you are the engaged couple, then a married couple, the either a dating couple or another married couple. Rent a little karaoke machine? Since you are in a private villa, how about just a pool type party? Umm... I don't know what else!

hi sue! welcome.

i was also going to suggest a dinner cruise.

Hi Sarita!! It's JessicaO from the DW board too.

my very non-traditional dress although i recently found a gown on ebay that i loved and bought it! so now i'm a two dress bride. when it arrives, I'll have to try it on, and if it looks decent, then i'll wear the second one to my wedding (it's more of a bridal dress with a train) and the one above for the reception since it will be easier for me to move around in.

Oh wow. Those are very, very cool. It's such a wonderful idea. Yes, how many are you making? I think the only drawback is that this can be pricey if making a lot. Where are the luggage tags from?

I thikn your wedding should really reflect who you are. My FI and I are into punk, rock and metal type music ,and although our ceremony will have a steel drum and (and our reception as well), our wedding picture slide show is gonna be a cool punk rock style love song! I think, your song selection sounds cute!

Wow! Fancy! That is one of the coolest ideas I've heard of! I think that will be super cute. I'd love to see pictures!!! Excuse all the exclamations!!!

I sent out my std's 10 months in advance just because my friends and family don't generally have a lot of money and wanted to give those who would want to come lots of time to save up. I wanted to actually send std's out a year in advance, but stuff got crazy. That said, as far as planning goes, I'm sure you coud get it together. As far as guestst, I would say, expect a lot of them to not be able to make it just because of issues like money or vacation time, but I'm sure you'll still get a great turnout. I think the fact that there's a payment plan definitely helps! Just let people know ASAP, because remember those that have to get passports need to start making arrangements, Things are a bit slowr a the passport office now! I applied for mine 2 months ago... it's still being processed.

Thanks again for the welcome everyone! Nini - Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm glad to hear what you saw of the island was impressive! We are not doing the resort thing just because that route was a bit pricey for us. We are renting a private vila for us (we are staying there for our honeymoon as well - and island hopping to St. John and possible one of the British VI's). The villa is like a studio apt with it's own pool and deck. I think it'll be great! We can also do some grocery shopping for those times we don't feel like eating out. Our guests are staying at smaller hotels on the island and villas. The Wyndham looks amazing though!

Thanks!! May I ask where in St. Thomas you visited last year? Where did you stay, how was it, etc. I've actually never been. I'm relying on my wedding coordinator, pictures and reviews!