beachbride08

Quote: Originally Posted by SoontobeMrsE Good Morning Brides to Be! Hope all is well with you! I went last night and took my dress. She is taking in 1 inch on each side of the bodice of the dress and is cutting off one line of the scalloped lace on each side as well. I had the dress on and she pinned it up pretty good and when I left it looked a lot like the original dress. We discussed a halter neck, but she would have to reconfigure the entire back of the dress and the zipper, so I decided against it. I finally got my rhinestone E's in so I can finish my blumeboxes. I can't wait to show you guys! We have to post our planning threads next week! I have my makeup trial Saturday afternoon. I am excited for that! I am also going to finally get my hair cut tonight! I am finishing up all my loose ends here at work. I work 4 days next week and will be on vacation till November 18th! We also have our legal day next Friday. Me and my BM's are going to go out for brunch next Sunday and I am giving them their "Swag Bags". I also picked them up some passport covers so I'll toss those in as well. The guys at work are teasing me. They are too cute. They are calling me a "Short-Timer" and asking if I had cold feet. I'm so glad things worked out with the dress! I can't wait to see the blumeboxes. What did you get your BMs?

Yari, you so beautiful! It looks like all your guests had a great time. Your bouquet and centerpieces were awesome! I love the cake topper. Congrats!

Quote: Originally Posted by LindoBride2009 I didn't realize that the Lindo had a gazebo. It'll be interesting to find out what it's like. Any idea on how many guests you can have if you have it in the gazebo? You're getting so close Michelle!! I believe the gazebo is actually the pyramid on top of the wave pool at the Lindo. The Del Mar has an actual gazebo in the garden, which is the picture that I saw and thought we were getting until I later found out that it was not. I have not seen how the pyramid is set up for the wedding, and my main concern is if they allow people in the wave pool during the ceremony. We will check it out and confirm when we get down there, but if we hate it we will probably have the ceremony on the beach. We leave in 1.5 weeks! I can't believe how fast the time goes. I am starting to go into freak out mode because we were trying to pack some more stuff tonight and I think we are going to need to pay for a 5th check bag, or we are going to need to give a suitcase to Mike's parents. Our wedding stuff alone is taking up 3 checked suitcases, and we still have carryon items. I wish we could just ship stuff down to Mexico, it would be so much easier!

Carly, the cut looks so cute! Great job on the dress as well!

Quote: Originally Posted by shelly ok thats good to know to always put sunscreen on it..... where do you get Mederma?? I got it at Walgreen's, but most drug stores should have it. There is also a generic one that is cheaper than Mederma. I didn't find out about that until after I got the Mederma, but I don't know the name of it. You can just ask the pharmacist if they carry it, but you don't need a prescription.

Quote: Originally Posted by shelly hey girls...ok so i want the scar from my surgery to heal well and its doing pretty good so far but i want to know if there are any tricks or tips that you have on how to make it less noticeable as it heals its on my tummy so i dont want it to be really visible forever...i have no idea where to begin though...give me your ideas please I used Mederma for a surgery scar on my abdomen and for a scratch on my face. I didn't start using it until about 2-3 weeks after the stiches/staples were removed, but then used it daily for a few weeks. Also, don't go tanning or out in the sun without sunscreen on. Tanning will darken the scar.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jacqueline omg all i have to say is i watched the strangers last night and WTF! i was seriously on my toes the entire time. i said "omg wtf, wtf, omg" during the whole movie. Mike and I just watched The Strangers last night too. It scared the crap out of me. It was supposedly based on a true story, but Mike tried googling murder and the date it supposedly happened and nothing came up.

Thanks for sharing this. I'm going to check out the site now. Maybe I can get my company involved in doing something.

Quote: Originally Posted by samanthag My bestest friend lives downtown Chicago. He called me the other day & said that he was invited by a friend to the Oprah show and Beyonce is the guest! What about your friend in San Antonio!?!?!? I told him I was happy for him but also jealous because I'm beginning to feel like Gabrielle on Desperate Housewives minus the two kids. With all of the wedding expenses I've cut down on hair & nail appointments, no massages,no shopping,etc.. Of course I am exaggerating, but I kinda feel like Gabrielle! Anyhoo, he just called me today and asked me what I was doing November 12 (or did he say 11th?) before I could asnswer he said, "biatch you are going with me to the Oprah show!" WOOOHOOOO! I knew there was a reason I picked him to be my Man Of Honor! I'm soooooo excited, I wanted to share it with you girls! Now what the hell am I gonna wear? I need to make my hair appointment?! This is going to be a great girl event! I love him!!!!!! That is so awesome! You definitely need to go get your hair done. The guests always look so put together when they go see Oprah! What a great friend. I'll be in Mexico otherwise I would say we should have a Chicago get together while you are here. Quote: Originally Posted by Maura how fun samantha! i have lived in chicago most of my life and have never been to the oprah show. the two times friends offered me tickets, i couldnt go! what a bummer. i always have fantasized about getting tickets to the christmas "oprah's favorites" shows haha I've lived here my whole life too, and there are so many Chicago related things I haven't done. Going to see the Oprah show is a big one. I always wished I could get on the giveaway shows.

I was hoping to do picture cards this year with our wedding photos. We are supposed to get our pics from the photographer about 4 weeks after the wedding so it might be cutting it close. Howeve, I have a lot of picture whores in my family that I am sure will be snapping away so we should have some pics to use if we don't get our pro pics in time. I wanted to do those accordion style cards so we can use a couple different pictures and personalize them for my side and Mike's side. I looked at the Kodak ones, but I know they were a little pricey. I will have to check out MPIX as that is a good price.

I think if the seamstress can take away some of the fabric to show more of the lace ede so you can see through the dress a bit more around your chest that would be more of what you are looking for, and she could probably take in the side of the straps that don't have the scalloped edge. I wonder if changing to a halter would make the lace edge lay funny, unless she cut off some at the top where the straps would tie around your neck? I am no seamstress, but seeing what my alterations lady has done with my dress and making my sister's flower girl dress I would think the changes on your dress should be pretty easy. It looks like a very pretty dress though!

How cool is that?

Quote: Originally Posted by aimeeyonke hey ladies. i've been keeping up with this thread pretty regularly, but if this question has already been answered you can yell at me. i got some documents from the WC at the tucan, and was starting to decide on private events, and if i wanted a private cocktail hour, to rent out the restaurant, and/or the disco. the prices seemed reasonable: $7/person for a cocktail hour, $350 to rent a restaurant for 2 hours, and $350 to rent a nightclub for 2 hours. (assuming 50 guests). so my question is this. the religious (non-legal) ceremony is $1800 PLUS $20/person ( for each extra person after 8 ) that comes to $840 for 50 guests (before the cost of the private events) !! What on Earth does that go toward? i can't imagine cake, champagne, and chair covers costing $840! i guess my initial thought was the extra $20/person just went toward the extra effort for the wedding dinner and bartender... but that would have to be paid even if there were no private events planned. any thoughts? thanks! The pp fees really made no sense to me, and they still don't. I think the reasoning is to pay the staff for your event for set up and service, etc., and I assume they factor the WC fee into that as well. I don't know why they don't just charge a service fee rather than the pp. Either way, we are still spending a lot less money than if we had a wedding here even if we kept our guest list to a minimum. Even then, there are some places here that require you to have a minimum guest list of 150 people to even book a place and if they don't show up you still have to pay for that amount. For places that we would have wanted to have the wedding it would have been $80-100 plate for dinner, not including drinks or any extras and the rental fee. Plus, the cost of flowers, DJ, wedding cake, the list goes on. With a DW you are getting a fabulous wedding location at a cheaper rate, and you get one-on-one time with your guests that you definitely would not have in wedding here. Overall, we are spending about $13K for our DW and that includes our trip. The trip itself cost around $5K, but we will be in Mexico for almost 2 weeks and staying at the Grand for part of the trip. We would have easily spent closr to $30K for a wedding here, and in my opinion that would have been a total waste. Not to mention that we wouldn't be getting married until 2015 to save up enough money to pay that, or be in serious debt! Ha ha! I definitely think you can have a DW for cheaper than that if you choose a different resort or location, and were not worried about all the little details. The photographer was a big thing for me, but I saved a lot of money doing DIY projects for our STDs and invitations. I think they turned out just as nice if not better than something I would have paid a lot more money for.

Quote: Originally Posted by chika Lucy: your stagette looks like it was sooo much fun!! i laughed out loud when I saw you shooting the bj from between the guys knees!! and I'm at work!!! Celina: i bet it is not as bad as you think. deep breaths... i wish we could all be there for your support too. are you able to go back to the seamstress at all? Maybe its as simple as letting out some stitches and a small alteration? And you are too cute with the care package you sent to Tara!! I've almost got all my luggage tags done, so I will post a pic as soon as they are. so many of our guests have moved in the last year, I've been tracking down their current addresses. I've almost done my newsletter too, which I'll send out this week to everyone so they can check any last minute stuff they'll need. I'm putting a packing list, some background info on Dominican Republic and a rough schedule for the week (rehearsal dinner, meet n greet brunch, wedding day!, flight times). I hope they like it! I'll post pics of it too. I think I have most of the stuff for my welcome bags too, but I keep forgetting to pick up some Shout Wipes when I am out. Maybe I'll actually make a list. Anyone know where I can find the mosquito repellent wipes in Canada? Should i try Canadian Tire or Wal-Mart? I bought the OFF wipes at Target on clearance. I'm sure Wal-Mart would have them. Check the travel section or clearance racks. They had all the bug reppellent stuff in the seasonal section at Target when they were full price. I only bought two boxes, but if I had extras I would send some to you.

Lisa - your bach party pics were hilarious! Who drew all those weiners? The pantyhose in the bottle thing was too funny, I have never seen that before. I loved the hula outfit! Celina-That was such a nice gift you sent Tara. I'm so sorry you don't like your dress. Maybe you can take it back to the alterations person and have them do something different with the neckline. Maybe they can do a sweetheart neckline or something to give you some of your cleavage back. Will David's bridal let you buy one of the dresses off the rack or will they have to order it? Steph-It looks like a fun time at your bach party and shower! My girls finally let me know what is going on for my bach party this Saturday. I really didn't want a party, but they still wanted to do something. They wouldn't tell me anything, but they finally let me know that we are doing dinner at Maggiano's and then we will probably go out for drinks. It is just going to be the 3 of us, and I am completely OK with that! They are my two best friends (I have know my MOH since 1st grade!) and we all live far apart so I rarely get to see them. Plus, my MOH is a nurse and works weekends when I'm off so that makes it even more difficult. It will be nice to spend the evening with them. I have my hair appointment in the morning for cut, color and trial updo. I just saw an updo picture on Carrie Underwood, and I think that is the hair style I am leaning towards, but I will see what my hair stylist recommends for my hair. She knows what style will work best. I think I might go for a manicure/pedicure Friday while Mike is out at his bachelor party. The funny thing is his brother planned for them to go to Maggiano's for dinner on Friday so it's good that we won't be there at the same time. We finally got the groomsman gift too. Mike only has his brother standing up as his best man, and he has everything. He also doesn't swim so a lot of the excursions in Mexico wouldn't have worked out. So we got him a BBQ set with his initials on it, and we ordered him a gift package from Omaha steaks. I hope he likes it!

Everything turned out great. That necklace is beautiful!

All your stuff looks great. Your table numbers are so cute, well really it is the dog that is cute! I love your dress too, I don't remember seeing it before. I'm totally stealing your guestbook frame idea. I hadn't thought about what to put on the table with our guestbook, but I liked that poem. Have a fabulous wedding and trip!

Quote: Originally Posted by briscoecrown Hello Shana Sorry to hear about your experience. Are you & your daughter considering changing just the wedding location at the Lindo or the hotel itself? Did you have an opportunity to look at the gazebo site? We reserved the gazebo for our wedding, but I haven't seen any pictures of any wedding in the gazebo at the Lindo, only the Del Mar. We initially wanted to have our wedding on the beach, but I wasn't into other people watching. I know other brides have said you don't notice, but I just wasn't comfortable with that. However, if we completely hate the gazebo when we see it in person we will probably have the wedding on the beach as our backup. I will be sure to post pictures and a review either way.

Tara-I know nothing about anti-anxiety mesa so I am of no help to you. Celina-I have had weird reactions to waxing too. There is a cream by sally Hansen that comes in their at home waxing kits, and I swear that is the only thing that helps the redness and bumps go down for me. I have never found it sold separately, but if you put it on at night you should be all good by morning or within a day at the most. Steph and Chiquita (sorry I keep forgetting what your real name is!) - Glad your bach parties went well. Can't wait to see pics! I got out of going to the wedding on Saturday so that was good. I ended up going to Kohl's and found 2 new pairs of shoes and an outfit for our trip. We did OK at the garage sale this weekend. It was pretty slow today, but we sold a bunch of clothes today and some little things. Yesterday was a lot busier. I swear the stuff I thought would go right away didn't sell, and the stuff I probably would have thrown in the garbage is what people were buying. We made about $1,000 between the two garage sales we had so we are using that for our excursions in Mexico. We dropped off all the stuff we didn't sell at Goodwill on the way home so hopefully we'll get some $ back on our taxes. Speaking of taxes, will any/all of you be filing jointly next year? We have legally been married since July so that is about half the year of '08. I assume we'll get more back as married than if we file separately, but I don't know anything about taxes. I always pay someone to do them for me. I can barely balance my checkbook!

Welcome back and congratulations! You were a beautiful bride, and how cute that your twin walked you down the aisle.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jenn3878 Wow she does great work! What are they made of? Some kind of clay I think.

I love how it turned out, and she got it done so quickly!

Steph-have fun at Bahama Breeze. I love their drinks! I somehow got talked into going to a wedding tomorrow. My cousin can't go because her daughter is sick so she asked if I would go in her place with my aunt. It is my aunt's neighbor's daughter so I do know the family, but not that well. I'm totally going to be a wedding crasher. I'm trying to get out of it if I can because I really don't want to go! We are having another garage sale this weekend at my grandpa's house. I hope we can get rid of the stuff that didn't sell at the sale we had at my aunt's a few weeks ago, but we will donate whatever doesn't go this weekend. I am working on our phot list for the photographer. I have bookmarked some poses of other people's wedding pictures that I liked and then I just started making a list of the family shots that we want. Have any of you done a list yet? I also got my proof photos of our cake topper. I'm so happy with how it turned out.

Sign: Sagittarius (November 21-December 21) Personality traits: Adventurous, easygoing and straightforward. Bridal pro: Your willingness to try new things is a great strength. You’ll find wedding planning stress-free since you’re the type to go with the flow and see the optimism in everything. Bridal con: Although you have a laid-back attitude, your thrill for adventure and spontaneity may cause you to skip some of your wedding responsibilities. Keep a checklist handy to ensure that everything that needs to be done is finished before you move onto something new. Now I know why I keep doing everything EXCEPT finishing my wedding programs!

Quote: Originally Posted by SoontobeMrsE THIS BRIDE-ON-BRIDE PRESSURE HAS TO STOP!! Quote: Originally Posted by SoontobeMrsE Anyhoooo Tara, your play list is great! You have a good variety of music! Danielle - YAY on getting those bags done! Thank goodness you don't have to lug that stuff down. Lisa- have a BLAST at your party! Have some drinks for your November girls! Now I have a serious question about the play list. Tara has Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Somewhere Over The Rainbow as her processonal song. I LOVE-LOVE this song. When I first heard it on ER - I bawled because it is so beautiful. I have always wanted to play it but have kind of held back. The thing is........ The song holds a lot of meaning in my side of the family. It was first played at my step-brothers baby boy's funeral. He was a twin premie that passed away because he never recieved a liver transplant. He passed at almost 2 years old. It was played at my step-mom's mother's funeral when we released doves at her graveside. It was played at my dad's brothers funeral during a slideshow display. SO - if I played it I don't want it to feel morbid. I want to play it because it's beautiful, and because it means a lot to me to remember those who passed and to remember the beautiful occasion of our wedding day. Should I play the song? I am thinking of playing it for the bridal party and then switch to a spanish guitar song when I walk down the aisle. What do you guys think?? I say play the song. It is a beautiful song, and what a great way to remember those that can't be with you at the wedding.