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I love cushion cut. That's what I was shopping for, but found a setting I really liked that was only for a round stone. Congrats again & enjoy your official planning.

I'm planning on just having whatever the resort does standard. I've talked to some people who were married there & used the standard package. They said it was beautiful. But, my expectations are not high. I think it depends on your preferences. If you have high standards & want to make sure your wedding is just how you want it, don't expect a destination wedding to easier than planning an at home wedding. I think we have all found the hotel WCs are slow to reply to emails. I wanted to get my date scheduled right away, so I called the hotel. Buy a calling card that is good for calling mexico. If you just use your cell phone, it will be expensive. I used yahoo messenger voice, but I had to prepay $10. I think it was 6 cents per minute, but I have a remaining balance I don't really need now.

Congrats! I couldn't fall back asleep this morning so I logged on. I guess I knew there was excitement on the forum. I love your ring. Is it a cushion cut?

The dress didn't come from a salon. Its very casual. I found it at a department store. I'll pick up a tighter slip this weekend & stop by a tailor to check prices.

How much do you think a tailor would charger to line a dress? My dress is too sheer. I'd worry you could see through it in the sun. I bought a slip that I planned on cutting to fit the dress, but it's too bumpy under the dress. I could always get a more fitted slip, but I wonder if I should just pay someone to make the lining.

my favorite BM gift (& I've gotten a lot of them) was a little leather photo album. It had pictures of me & the bride being silly together with funny sayings on the page next to the picture. Each BM got a different one. I started working on making these for my future BMs right after that wedding. I scanned a bunch of picutres & had 100 prints made. I'm not going to have BMs now, but I'll still make the albums. I've done the hard part already, might as well finish it.

I don't always send a gift & I don't want everyone to send me gifts. We get several invites a month to weddings, kid's birthdays, showers, etc. They are all out of state for us, so we are not attending most of them. Some come from people who we haven't talked to in years & don't think we'll ever hear from again. I'm not going to blow my savings to send a gift to everyone.

I was in a wedding at a garden with a harpest. It was very pretty & the big gold harp looked great in the pictures.

I like to put sugar free hershey's syrup (15cal) on a banana. Gives me my chocolate fix. It's messy though, so I eat it over the sink.

Its in the Misc. options. Make sure its the bypass search flood control. I messed up & bought the bypass post flood control. They were each 6,000 points. So I'm just about broke now. There I go, winning the lottery, buying a bunch of stuff & end up broke by the end of the day.

Yes, I won on my first ticket. Crazy! I already went on a shopping spree. I bought the ability to not wait 30 seconds between searches. I am so excited that was an option.

Thanks! I didn't know what the lottery was until I saw the post about it being rigged. I bought 1 ticket to see what it was all about & I won!!! Stocks dropped a bunch today, but atleast I have a bunch of BDW points!!!

I've heard Bed Bath & Beyond is great. They will give you cash back on returns with no receipt needed. I'm thinking of doing BB&B and Target. If BB&B doesn't have the plates I want, I'll also set one up with Dillard's online. When I am buying for someone, I always go to target.

Canadian couple murdered in Mexico The murder suspects are candian women.

We are staying in the same place for 3-4 days after the wedding. Some guests might stay that long, but I don't think it's a problem. I think they will understand we'll want time alone. But we aren't against hanging out with them some after the wedding too. If people are only staying 3 days, we are encouraging them to stay before the wedding because that's when we are planning all the group stuff. Im excited to save the money by combining the wedding & honeymoon. We can save the money for a great anniversary trip I'm thinking Costa Rica or Alaska.

We can make a few lists. 1. things to do right away 2. things to do eventually 3. tips on staying sane I'm going to search through the forum & add links to the useful posts about each topic. Sort of a onestop shop for getting started. Just trying to help with that anxiety when you first get going.

I thought it would be great to start a list of things for people who are just getting started to do. We can all give suggestions & then compile a master list. Here is what I have thought of 1. Pick a location & hotel. Use websites like funjet.com and applevacations.com as a tool to estimate prices. Search the forum for reviews & information about hotels you are interested in. If there is no information about your hotel, try tripadvisor.com. Search for the hotel & “wedding†to find reviews about weddings there. 2. Find a travel agent. Decide if you want to do a room block or have guests book their rooms through your TA. 3. Look into the laws for making your wedding legal. 4. Make a website to announce all your travel plans. There are many posts about making a website in this forum.

My first post on this forum was very similar to yours. I was considering DW.com, but unsure if I should do it. Everyone said no. They said they don't do anymore for you than a regular TA can do. They just send you stuff you can easily get yourself. I found this forum had most of the info I needed. No one on the forum had been to my hotel, so I went onto trip advisor & searched "wedding" and my hotel name. I found a lot of people happy to send me information. A WC is not necessary. You can do it all yourself. Don't worry. I felt so overwhelmed at first. After only 1 month of planning & using this great forum, I feel like it's almost all planned & it has been fun & easy. The only thing that stressed me out was getting my date reserved. In my opinion, these are the main things to take care of. 1. Start with checking reviews on the hotel, especially from past brides if you can find some. If they say good things about the WC at the hotel, you don't have to worry about it. Just get your date reserved & they will take care of everything else. Unless you want to be more involved in the planning. Many of us find the hotel WC does not respond quickly to emails. I figure they are really busy with wedding happening now. From what I hear, they take care of you when the day comes, but may not be as responsive in advance. 2. Decide if you want to do a room block or not. Find a travel agent. 3. Look into the laws for making your wedding legal. You can always decide to get married legally in the states & have a symbolic ceremony there. 4. Make a website to announce all your travel plans. I loved using weddingannouncer.com & it's free! Weddingwindow.com is also a great one, but it will cost about $75. It has a better RSVP feature, but if you just have 10 guests you don't have to worry. 5. Keep using this forum. It's great & makes planning fun & easy.

Quote: Originally Posted by LALA The best way is to lose bf is to do long amount of cardio (no less than 45 min) at around 70% of your max heart rate ( which is slow) 4-6 times a week. Kate, I wanted to comment on this, because it's been something I've been trying to understand for years. This summer, after being a teacher's assistant in a biochemistry class, I finally get it. They call 70% of your max heart rate the fat burning zone, because your body is burning mostly fat for energy. When you increase your activity & therefor heart rate, your body starts to burn mostly glucose for fuel. But, you can still be burning just as much fat as before. The percentage is now lower because you are also burning glucose. So you can actually burn just as much fat, plus you are overall burning more calories working out more intense. Also, when you work out intense, you continue to burn more calories after you stop working out. Working out slow around 70% of your max heart rate can be great though because you can keep it up longer. There is probably less sress on your joints and you can make it more social. I like to go for longs walks with friends instead of talking on the phone. It's fun & cardio at the same time. But, if someone really likes intense workouts, they can stick to that & still burn fat. I think it's all about preference & finding a good balance. I personally love weight lifting, but I know a lot of people think it's boring. Try getting a workout partner. I find workouts go by a lot faster if you have someone to talk to. I also have a set of 5, 8 & 15lb weights to use at home while I watch TV. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn during the day. Try a bunch of stuff & see what you enjoy. That's what you are more likely to stick with.

Great thread. I've been looking into this too. I never get it, but I'm looking into it for this trip. Don't most credit cards give you some insurance? I feel like I've seen something about free flight insurance on my credit card statement. I would think it's more important if it's peak hurricane season. I'm interested to hear people's opinion. I'll post again after I do more research.

weddarita?

I agree, they don't need to match.

I would suggest searching for someone who did the standard package there & see if they were happy with it. If you get enough good reviews, you can feel comfortable trusting they will do a good job. I went to trip advisor & searched for my hotel name and "wedding". Then I sent each person who got married there a message. People were very friendly to tell me all about how their wedding turned out & send pictures. Everyone who did the standard package was really happy with it. I think it depends on how much control you want. Some people have all these ideas of how they want their tables to look at the reception, the types of flowers they want, etc. I'm excited to show up, have a meeting & pick stuff out then. I like that I can use the time I'm saving by not planning that stuff, to research all the activities in the area. That I want to have planned out perfectly.

Did you also mean upgrade the room? We plan on upgrading to a suite, but it's not a honeymoon suite. It isn't much more expensive and has a couch & a minifridge. I'd also like to try to get a good view. Again, on a budget, I don't want to pay for the honeymoon suite. We don't need a really fancy room. We are still used to traveling cheap. We shared a bed smaller than a twin in Paris. Our last vacation we slept on the world's worst futon.

I am not upgrading. I was thinking the same thing- that everyone upgrades. I think it's because people who are active in a forum planning their wedding are more likely to want to upgrade & plan things themself. I got a little worried I needed to plan more than I was. A big reason I wanted a Mexico wedding was so I could let the hotel do all the decorating & I wouldn't have to think about stuff like that. I started contacting brides on tripadvisor & many of them did not upgrade & said it was great. So, I felt more comfortable that I could just show up, let the WC at the hotel do everything & just get married. I'm really excited about planning the adventures & OOT bags, but I've never been interested in picking out decorations & flowers. I also have read enough reviews to trust that what they do standard will be beautiful. I'm also trying to keep it as inexpensive as possible. I think some people upgrade because they really enjoy being involved in planning those parts of the wedding. So I think it's more of a personal choice.