jajajaja

That dress in no way resembles a wedding dress so you are good. Looks like a perfect summer dress to me. And it's really cute!

Quote: Originally Posted by hockeymom97 I literally just spent about an hour reading thru this thead and checking out all the awesome etsy finds!! Somehow I had never heard of etsy until I found this forum! Thanks for sharing everyone I haven't bought anything just yet, but have saved a ton of stuff to my favorites so I can come back later on. I'm trying to decide on a dish for our rings and am debating between these two....except I would have fuchsia/orange ribbon since those are our wedding colors. I really like this one- mainly for re-usability. I don't know if everyone else sleeps with their rings on, but I don't. I have a little tray I keep them in and had I been smarter I would have loved to recycle something like this from the wedding. Just my vote. Both are cute! Quote: Originally Posted by KarenM Also got this headband to wear in the wedding View Headbands by Luciabella1 on Etsy Love the headband and I think it would be super cute as a belt on a dress. Granted the ribbon would need to be bigger, at least for me- ha! but I love the versatility of how it can be worn. Plus it's beautiful. Good find!

First, you look beautiful in your avatar so thankfully I doubt you need much help. I think you could do a couple of things- look up some inspiration pictures and go to MAC. Get them to do your makeup. They will give you directions on paper- like they have face print outs that they use make up to apply so you can visually see what they did. You can then purchase that makeup if you like it and take pictures. If you feel uncomfortable applying it yourself, take your directions and new makeup to the person at your resort. They should be able to replicate if they have skills. Or practice, practice, practice from now until then so you can get it right and don't have to hire anyone. I wouldn't do a ton of makeup if you don't wear it normally. You want to look like you... and if you aren't a totally glamour girl, then it might be startling to you. As for hair, bring lots of inspiration pics. If you don't like it, have them tweak what you don't like. Just give yourself plenty of time to get ready.

I can see how a happy medium would be hard to find. I mean what's the middle of "go play basketball with boys after ceremony" and "have traditional reception?" Maybe you could have a game of horse during reception instead of dancing? lol Personally, I would have a big discussion of what you both are willing to give up to make the other happy. I just don't get the reasoning of having a destination wedding if you don't really want to welll.... have a wedding? But I do agree that the thread title and some of the other statements is a little harsh, but I'm assuming your just feisty about your man being difficult. When you guys have a talk be sure to use "we" language etc. If you come out with the "my wedding" stuff, etc you might not have as of a cooperating FI to talk with, KWIM?

This is awful and it makes me sick to think about how terrible receiving a phone call like that would be. I hope your family can find peace and closure.

Jess- Mia probably had flashbacks to the shit she used to say to Brandon and then blamed it on him being so talented that she felt she had to ride his ass. Whatever. You can tell that Adecheke (his name is fun to say, but not spell) was hurt by her comments. He looked like he was tearing up at her apology. Poor Alex though. He's got a bright future. I hope he can fully recovery because I've heard those are nasty injuries.

So based on your location I would think weddings are really expensive there. Maybe show him what a home town wedding would cost-- just look up venues and show him the price just to rent it. I bet he would change his tune. When we were wedding planning, my husband had the whole "I thought we were doing this to save money" complaint too. I used a recent friend's wedding that spent $10k and said- "see what they got? Barely crap. See what we can do in MX with that money?" He finally got it and was much more supportive. You just have to remember that wedding talk isn't part of a normal guy's existence. They don't get how expensive photography, catering, wedding venue, attire, etc is. Especially anything "wedding" related. We get it, but most of them don't. Just show him what you know...

What the heck? I'm really surprised that more than one of you are having this dilemna. So ask the men this- are they just desiring a group vacation or something? If so, this is a helluva expensive way to go about it! I guess I just don't get what they think a point of the wedding is.... just a 10-15 min ceremony? Might as well go to Justice of Peace! And sorry Mrs. Williams- his cousin's wedding gets a big thumbs down. Bride and groom go separate ways after ceremony?? So freaking bizarre that I can't even wrap my mind around it. If the dudes wanna play bball- do it BEFORE the wedding while the ladies are getting ready for 3 hours! Geesh.

I'm confused.... why would all those people want to fly down for a wedding that isn't really a "wedding?" Sorry, but the ceremony is the worst part of it for me. LOL Receptions are where it's at- food, drinks, dancing, partying, having a good time. Maybe you guys have been to too many boring weddings so his idea of what a reception looks like is clouded.

My advice- if you want to wear your hair down, also have a back up "up do" just in case. I planned on wearing my hair down, but the humidity played horrible tricks on my hair leading up to the wedding day, so I decided to wear it up after all but didn't have any pics on hand to show what I wanted! Totally late- Stephy D- I haven't seen a veil and flower combo that hasn't worked yet! I bet it will be beautiful together!

I kinda skimmed responses so sorry if it's redundant, but I think your guests will more than likely whittle down the list for you. I would just invite close family and friends (the people you intend on inviting) and if it comes up with anyone else, you can either cave and invite them just to be nice or express your thoughts about having a small wedding for financial reasons. We just told everyone "it's just a small, intimate wedding for family" if it was friends and for distant relatives, we just said "immediate family to keep it small and affordable." We did say we would have a AHR to lesson the blow and intended to do so, but by the time we got home I was over wedding stuff and planning so we didn't. LOL Good luck! Oh and we did cave when a distant friend confronted us about not being invited... we were like "Oops... we didn't think you were interested, but you can come if you want." She did and she was a party pooper! Don't CAVE! LOL

We stayed at Barcelo de la Joya Mismaloya (a freaking mouthful.) Pretty sure I did a review on here for it. We wanted to stay at Dreams but it was more expensive than most our guests could afford. It's more south than Dreams but it a beautiful location. We took cabs and mostly the bus into town and it wasn't bad. What I really liked about it was that it's a smaller resort so we were able to see a lot of our guests the whole time. We pretty much hung as a group and did everything together and we loved that. Edit: Ok I didn't write a review- I swore I did. Anyways, I did find a mini review I gave another member: We stayed at Barcelo La Jolla De Mismaloya which is south of Dreams. I'm not sure if you are looking for a wedding to take place on the beach. If so, this is probably not a good resort for that. We were married at Las Caletas so we didn't get married at the resort. If you plan on having a wedding off resort grounds, this would be a good hotel. It is far from PV, but it is easy enough to ride the public bus into town for 6 pesos (roughly, 60 cents.) We did this for two weeks and it was easy and convenient (the pick up is across the street from the resort.) I liked how far we were from PV too since it seemed to keep the group together more. We did many group trips into town and we all enjoyed each others company. The grounds at the hotel are AMAZING! It was so beautiful. The recently remodeled every room in the resort and they were fabulous. One of my guests received a room that was not quite up to par though (their door was cracked and wires hanging from the wall) and the front desk promptly relocated them to a beautiful room. All 22 guests stayed at the resort and all loved it. The food is good, but it does get monotonous after awhile. We did dinner a few nights in town during our two week stay. I plan on doing a full review of the resort and include some pictures soon. I'm still trying to catch up my laundry. If you have questions about the resort, just let me know. ** same goes for you- let me know if you have any questions. I'm not doing my laundry though. I also did a review on a dune buggy excursion in PV. Hmm... let me try to dig up some of those threads. http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...cursion-19593/

I don't think Adecheke is the best dancer, but I think he finally got some swagger- or he's faking his confidence better. I noticed him last week and again this week he looked like he at least had fun with bollywood. I agree- it did seem heavily African influenced, but whatev- I still enjoyed it. My biggest criticism this year is the judges. I was glad to see Mary gone because I was tired of ffwing her or muting. I always love Adam, but I think Mia and Nigel brought him down to their nitpicky, bitch standards. Mia is a good choreographer, but as a judge, not so much. She totally doesn't believe in constructive criticism. Just criticism. I was pissed at her last year being a hag and she's back again. She's beyond inappropriate with her comments like "we made a mistake keeping you." Nigel seems to do the same thing. BLAH. Ok- rant over. I can't comment too much because we missed half the show last night- damn DVR malfunction. However, I thought most of the performances I did catch were boring- like the ken&barbie dance. Slow, weird movements. Loved the prom though! And apparently they felt the heat too!

Quote: Originally Posted by akua420 I think its a cute idea, and I'm against spending $2400 for a photographer for an hour too, its only goign to be me, my FI and our parents. So whats the point? To clarify- I spent much less than that and had a photog for like 6 hours. Fortunatley, my photog had just moved to MX and was starting her wedding side of business so I was able to get a steal, but you don't have to spend that much to get at least decent pictures. Picture quality from an amateur photographer using a standard camera is not even comparable to that of a pro with some $$$ lenses and cameras. I can see that from pictures I have from the pro vs pictures family and friends gave me! Plus pros jump around like ninjas during the ceremony and they get those close up emotional shots during the ceremony that no guest would be able to do from their seat, especially lacking the high powered lenses. However, to each their own. I would just caution to really think it through because it's not something you really want to regret later KWIM? It's not like it's just a family BBQ that reoccurs every other year. If I were you girls, I'd study a bunch of wedding photos on here on the forum and find a few photos that represent what you want/envision from yours. Now think- do I think a guest can reasonably do that? If so, then go with that. If not, then really consider a different option.

I LOVE IT! I'm jealous! It looks like they have fine-tuned some of the details and the results are gorgeous! I love your bouquet! And your cake is beyond gorgeous! Thank goodness it tasted good too.

Hahah- good point Kimberly! You want your guests to have such a good time they forget about the cameras! Also, I didn't higher a videographer for my wedding. I TOTALLY regret it. My mom tried to nickle and dime me out of every decision and she convinced me that it was wasted money. I wish I didn't listen to her. A family friend volunteered to tape it for us (I'm thinking my mom called him!) and we decided to forego the cost and go with free. I really didn't want him to do it because I was very against having my guests "working" during the wedding, but he insisted and said he would tape it even if we hired a pro for his own copy. Anyways, I happened to notice him during the wedding sitting REALLY far away and I thought- oh shit. This isn't good. Sure enough- the video sucks and is like 10 mins long. Most of the video is from other parts of the vacation. So just be cautious!

LOL- the wedding you are having is nearly the EXACT same wedding as mine. Under 20 people and BIL and SIL didn't make it either. I'm glad you are more excited now because trust me, all this won't matter. When I look back and think about our wedding, the first thing I focus on is standing at the alter and the love I saw in my man's eyes. I bet 20years from now, I might not even remember exactly who was there, but I won't ever forget those eyes. As everyone said- it's not about the who, the what, the where- it's about your love and creating a life together that day forward. Oh and forget about your "legal" wedding- that was just paperwork. Everyone does it! I can't even tell you what day we signed our documents.

That's what I was going to say Autumn. Changing the way you eat IS a lifestyle change and a very important one. Even if you exercised for hours but ate more than you were able to burn off, you won't lose weight! It's about burning more than you consume. Exercise just allows you to have more flexibility with your "diet". WW is a great support system too and allows you to have those small achievable goals- with your ultimate goal still in sight. However, if you don't want to pay for that, you can get the free apps/websites and they will track just as well.

Oh- and most of your guests will have digital cameras and give you the pics for free anyways. We ended up with a lot of candid shots from our guests. A drawing for a camera is a nice bonus though, but just wanted to point out that you will probably get lots of pics either way!

I would be cautious too because of what Cindy said. My friend had a bunch of cameras at her wedding and the same thing happened. Some people just aren't huge picture takers too and others go crazy. For example, I just went on a weeklong vacation with our friends. I came home with 144 pictures- they took 900+. I forgot my camera half the time. I haven't printed up one wedding picture either; however, I don't regret spending money on a pro to capture those moments. Everyone's priorities are different though. I'd just hate for you to regret it cause it's not something you can easily re-do.

Do you have an iphone or a BB? Some of the calorie counting websites have apps you can download on your phone and it's easy to stay on top of what you are eating. I used fatsecret.com and have the app that goes with it. I loved that I could record what I ate and then tracked any exercise and it would show how many calories +/- I consumed over what I burnt off. I liked seeing the minus numbers. It was pretty accurate because 3500 calories= 1 pound of fat right? If I lost 5 lbs, I would count up my negatives and it was pretty close to 17,500. That kept me motivated!

Nyna looks a lot like my dress- which was a Maggie too. Except mine was strapless, but the lace detail is nearly spot on! I loved my dress!

Nessa- most of the LC weddings have been on days other than Sunday. A few years ago, LC used to charge DOUBLE the cost for a Sunday wedding so many didn't go that route! My wedding was on a Thursday. Also, I highly suggest going over early! It gives you time to get ready and just relax. I'm not sure if we have had a bride not go over early, but hopefully they can chime in on what kind of timeframe you are looking at. I know on my wedding the boat ran late with all the guests so when they arrived we started the ceremony ASAP. There would have been NO time for me to get ready had I not come over early.

Wow! You did a ton! Great reviews. I should probably write a review on an excursion I did last month during my trip. We did Xel-ha too. It's soooo beautiful! However, I thought the lazy river should be renamed. It's more like "paddle river". There was no lazy floating for me. I worked my butt off. LOL

Cute Amy. We had our legal at Little White Chapel drive thru (I think that's what it's called) but yours was by far a bigger party. Looks like you had a great time and I love the theme and pics!