rodent

Quote: Originally Posted by MEYER2BE Wow!! Looks like she really enjoys her job! That's good to see! Your dress is just beautiful! I'm looking for something similiar! I live in China so luckily I can have my "Dream Dress" made here very cheap!!! Did you have a flowergirl or ring bearer? I wondered how they worked the rose petals... I'm guessing that is an extra cost. Also, what time was your wedding at? Thanks for posting the pic! ~ Erica Yeah, she is so friendly. The entire staff was wonderful. the roses were no extra cost. I was really confused by the petal toss. I thought my guests would throw them so I bought a bunch of organza bags. Then the petals never got delivered to my room so I decided not to worry about it. It was a shock when I came down the aisle & cora & another girl were throwing petals at me. It did work out better that they threw them, not guests, because the guests are under that tent. We didn't have a flower girl or ring bearer. We just carried up each other's rings. The ceremony was at 4 in June. It was really hot, but the ceremony was short. The ideal time is probably 2 hours before sunset. Actually I'm not sure. I would think wedding photographers would be the best to answer that. I'll ask some people and get back to you. I didn't want to wait until late, because I didn't want to be cooped up in the room all day. I also get hungry early & get the shakes so I wanted to have dinner by 6:30 with plenty of time for pictures after the ceremony. 4 was nice, because the creperie (ice cream shop at the hotel) opened at 5. Our guests grabbed ice cream while we took our pictures. we also had ice cream after taking pictures. it is seriously so hot. thanks for the compliment on my dress. It was only $200 at macys. it was an evening gown, not a wedding dress so it was so cheap. Another girl found one like it for $50.

That's Cora

Quote: Originally Posted by MEYER2BE Are you in touch with Cora the WP? I have her email address if you need it. I've been bouncing ideas back and forth with her. It does take her a while to respond but I figured they are more laid back down there which is good and bad at the same time. Especially if you are trying to plan a wedding! cora is so nice. she is so overworked so it might take a while to hear back. when i was planning my wedding, it was elena I emailed, but I met with cora once we got there. is cora doing emails now? be sure to tip these women. They bust their butts & make so little for their jobs. I planned on giving elena $50, but I didn't realize we'd also be working with cora. So we gave them each $30. I wish we had more cash with us, but we were having a cash shortage after some ATM issues (my bank, not the hotel ATM). I really wish we brought more cash for tipping. I just didn't know how many people would be involved in our day. Everyone was wonderful. I still can't get over how many people worked to make our wedding great and it only cost us $340 for the symbolic ceremony. Someone had to set up the tent, put out the chairs, serve champagne...they brought in flowers, a cake...seriously it's such an amazing value. But, a big part of what makes it so incredibly cheap is that the staff at these hotels make about $7 a day. You don't ahve to tip at the restaurants, but we did. it felt so good. In the US, you are expected to leave about 15%, but you don't get a warm & fuzzy feeling when you do it. In mexico it felt great to leave $1 on the table or give someone $10. Sorry, i'm going on & on. Just seeing Cora's name reminded me how much I liked her and how I wished I had more cash with me to tip her more.

the nubra is different than the chicken cutlets. the cutlets are padding for a bra. well some of the nubras are padded, but the regular one gives a lot of umph on its own. i bought the knock off shantini lite at walmart for $16. its awesome. i didnt end up wearing it in mexico though. it gave me more push up than i wanted if i didnt put twistie ties between the cups. on my wedding day i just didnt feel like messing with it. there are nubra threads around. the general concensus is they work great for C cups or smaller & they pull them together but dont lift a lot.

I was happy most of our guests only stayed 3 nights. 2 couples stayed 4 nights, so it was perfect to have a small group on one day & then be by ourselves.

Quote: Originally Posted by MEYER2BE What was the price difference between the P.C.O.B and the Lookea Bar? We're still trying to decide on what music we want. Is there anyway to hook up an IPOD to the DJ Equipment? Any thoughts you can send my way would be GREAT! Thanks! I think the pure chill out bar is the lookea bar. It sounds like they changed the name.

plus you'd need to get a good editing program & learn how to use it. DIY photography would be a ton of work I completely understand how he is feeling. I know I was shocked at the cost of photography. But, once I learned how much work it is to shoot a wedding & process all the images I get it now. I started off with a tiny photography budget. The more time I spent on BDW seeing all the amazing pictures & then seeing people dissapointed by bad pictures, the more I started to increase my budget. It was a good thing my wedding was in 08, because i'm sure my photography budget would be out of control by now. I have had so much happiness from my wedding pics. I love them so much I want to take anniversary pics every year. But, then I love photography. I suggest doing some research and figure out what works for you. Read the "what I wish I would have done thread" and see some places to cut back on the budget that don't really matter.

Quote: Originally Posted by NaM He could spend the money on a nice camera and "stick a person behind it." no camera is nice enough to make a great picture without the person behind it knowing what to do. The more i learned about photography, the more i increased my budget. I have never seen someone happy with their pictures if they went with an inexperienced photographer or tried to depend on family to get plenty of shots.

Quote: Originally Posted by CatBride09 To boil water :-) My friends needs to boil water to heat the milk for her baby oh, the most likely thing to have in the hotel would be a coffee pot. I don't remember if our room had one. I don't drink coffee so I wouldn't have paid attention. The rooms do have tubs. The suites just have them on the patio. its not completely private.

Quote: Originally Posted by CatBride09 Thanks Morgan I just have one more question about the rooms... do the standard rooms have a kettle and a bath tub? Two of my guests are bringing babies and need these facilitlies. Thanks Sally What's a kettle? A tea pot?

Quote: Originally Posted by CatBride09 Hi Everyone I have booked all my guests into standard rooms however most of them have said they would like to updgrade before we go rather than do it when we arrive. Does anyone know the specific differences between the standard and luxury rooms? Thanks Sally they are very different. I had a standard room (you can see pics in this thread) but mine was larger than most standards. I think they gave us a nicer one. The luxury rooms have a stand up shower inside & the tub on the patio. I didn't want my tub outside so we did not want to upgrade. The suites are completely different. it's not just a few upgrades. its an entirely different design. our guests really liked them, but I prefered our room. They have a mini fridge, also. That is why my mom upgraded.

Quote: Originally Posted by hulaqt My wedding date is fast approaching ... July 9! I'm planning on having the ceremony on beach - can anyone tell me if they wore shoes or not during the ceremony? Kind of a silly question - but I must plan accordingly TIA i wore sandals covered in sea shells. i got them at kohls. the officiant (elena the WC) did not wear shoes. my mom wore wedges walking me down the aisle & she didn't have any problems.

Quote: Originally Posted by LC_Rachel Thankfully no Morgan. But then again, I'm not exactly close with a ton of girls so I don't think I will have to be in any more weddings, except for my sisters. Honestly, I think I'm just jaded by the whole wedding thing because I have a huge family and every single one I have been to they expect me to work. I have only been to a few weddings were I could just be a guest and not do a damn thing. It's an entirely different experience to say the least. I get what you are saying though Savannah. I just think sometimes bridal parties get to bare more work than they should because of "traditional" thoughts of what's expected. I guess I really meant to say that if you want to help out with someone's wedding and put a lot of time and money into it because you WANT to then by all means do. I just don't think it should be expected- even if you are bridal party. Not everyone has a lot of time and a lot of money to contribute. So if you are in the latter, you get stuck in a hard place. Do you decline or do you look like the BM that all the girls on the forum complain about KWIM? I agree. I'm jaded by the whole wedding thing, too. I learned pretty early to say no to things that I didn't want to do as a BM. Parties in vegas, excess travel, matching shoes, overpriced dresses... Before i'd say no, I'd just start to resent my friend. Often the other girls didn't want to do it either, but didn't want to be the bad guy. Still, I do a certain amount of just sucking it up & being a good bridesmaid. I am very supportive of my friends. I just don't like feeling used or mistreated so I don't just do anything I'm told. brides are often not bridezillas, they just have no clue sometimes. i think they get excited and start coming up with ideas before facing the reality of things. and then money starts to run out & they get stressed and put some burden on their bridesmaids. On the list of things on the vent, probably just the lack of thank you cards & madatory clean up duty would have pissed me off. I've been on clean up duty before. While wearing my BM dress. And the groomsmen just watched. An man even handed us trash to throw away. We were all furious, but I know my friend never intended for things to be like that. She asked a couple of people to clean up, not realizing it was a bigger job than just those few people could do. Quote: Originally Posted by BillysBride LOL..I DEFINITELY feel you on that. You don't want to be known as the difficult or selfish one by comparison. I've never had the problem of the financial expectations beyond paying for my dress, so in all honesty, I can't comment on that. Bridal showers I've been involved in, we all chipped in with supplies/food/venue and they were very simple, but nice, affairs. It's called "wedding party" for a reason; even as MOH, I think it's encumbant upon me to ASK for help instead of taking it all on myself. Whomever chooses not to, oh well-at least I asked. MOH to me is just the organizer, not the bank. To be honest, I think if one of my friends told me some crap about wanting a weekend in Vegas, the first thing out of my mouth would be "Great-so when does everyone need to have their money in?" lol You gotta draw a line where you are comfortable and no one should expect you to go beyond that as long as you make your position clear from the gate. you are so wise

Oops I didn't actually read the article. I read soemthing yesterday talking about kendras wedding like it already happened. But there were not pictures. Maybe they were just saying, "kendra's wedding this month" and I read it like it happened. it's probably best that she can't drink. She'd probably get sloppy. maybe flash someone. Is her show already on? I'd like to watch the wedding episode. Does hef have a 3rd girlfriend now? I saw another blond besides the twins with him. I'm a little out of the loop on celebrity gossip.

Quote: Originally Posted by LC_Rachel As bridal party, sometimes you just suck it up and do it because it's your friend. Of course, you also have an alternative to not accept a bridal party position if you feel it's too much money or too time consuming. have you had to say no yet? it's close to impossible. start declaring it now before your friends are engaged.

oh maybe not yet but this month. wasn't it going to be a june 09 wedding?

i thought they were already married. are they not?

Quote: Originally Posted by mummergirl i know you said the company you ordered from only sells to photographers, but will you tell which company you used anyway? collages.net. I only went with them because i had a great discount for joining a photography forum. I was also looking for a nice photo cover option. I prefer to not have leather. I had not read much about books from collages so I was a little worried, but it is perfect.

Someone mentioned hair and makeup. For some girls, that makes the shoot. For others, it makes them not like their pictures as much. I think it really varies by the girl & you might know which type you'd be. I personally did not want my hair & makeup fancy. I'm so natural and i don't like seeing myself with a lot of makeup. My friend had hers done when we did our shoots together. She doesn't love her pics like I do & a lot has to do with being uncomfortable with seeing herself with all that makeup. If you are going for a fantasy look, hair and makeup are an important part. if you want to look very casual, then you might prefer to DIY. Or if you want your makeup done & cant afford it, you might want to visit a mac counter or a similar place the day of your shoot.

I was at a retreat in north myrtle last month. We had all of our meals catered and it was great. You might want to consider the option of having caterers come to the house. It was really nice to just relax on the patio with dinner & a drink. in the past we would go to a restaurant for the dinner, but everyone enjoyed the in house catering so much more. our retreat is put together with a small budget, so it couldn't have been that expensive. But, if you want to find a restaurant with a private room, i'm sure you will. Myrtle is full of restaurants. I think it's really great that you are being so accomidating to your family. you could always honeymoon in mexico, pack your dress & trash it while you are there.

target has very cute stuff. I also got a lot of my outfits at JC Penney. Check Kohls too. my favorite BD outfit was a white sheet.

Quote: Originally Posted by Alexis I just had my wedding at the Riviermaya Catalonia Hotel on May 23, 2009. We had 96 guests. I flew in my photographers from San Antonio and have many pictures posted to facebook. If someone can tell me how to post pictures, I'll be more than happy to. I worked with the staff for over a year, so I can answer plenty of questions. upload your pictures to photobucket & then insert the IMG code

you can set a video to private on youtube. you can probably do it on vimeo too, i just haven't tried.

Some photographers have a registry on their site. Do you have someone in mind? maybe you can check with them about putting an option for gift cards on their site.

scrap it!!! I felt all that same pressure to have an AHR, like we owed it to people for having a DW. It made me sick everytime I started to plan the thing. I finally had the wonderful joy of canceling it when my brother started planning his wedding right after mine. We decided there wasn't time for all the events. It was like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. We ended up having a little AHR, but just because my MIL wanted to throw it. It was the day after my brother's wedding. Still, I don't think anyone would have cared if we did that. You don't owe people a dinner & drinks just to get married. I don't know when it turned in to this. I wish I didn't waste time worrying about others expectations & just enjoyed planning my wedding. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't even call it a post wedding thing, but just a going away party. I wonder how many people on here actually enjoyed there AHR. Sounds like so many of us dreaded having it.