beachbride08

You have really had some back luck with your orders, I just read the post about the flowers. I have two extra white seashells if you want them. I bought a package of four and only need two. I am just gluing ribbon to them and tying fake rings to them for our two ring bearers. Here is a picture of the shells in the package.

I can only imagine what brides who are just starting to plan are going through. We would have done a destination wedding regardless because it was the cheaper way to go, but I would imagine if I were planning now we would probably have less guests coming and I probably wouldn't have invited as many people to begin with. We were being nice by extending the invitation even though we knew extended family and not all of our friends could come. We would've saved ourselves money on STDs, invitations, and postage by limiting our guest list from the beginning. My uncle was laid off from his job over the summer, but he and my aunt hadn't booked yet. He ended up getting a new job so they were able to book in September. One of my co-workers was just laid off a week ago, but she is still coming to the wedding since her and her husband had already paid for their trips.

I received the email. We already had our shower, and had received a couple duplicates that we went and exchanged for some other items off our registry and used our gift cards right away. We had to go to another store since the one closest to us had already been selling stuff at a discount to get rid of items before the store closed. We wanted to close out our registry when we went to return the shower gifts, but they said we had to wait until after our wedding date to receive the 20% discount. I am so mad now because we don't get to use it. The store by us that was closing only offered a 10% discount, but not sure if they are going to increase the discount due to all the stores closing now. I wanted to get over there to get the rest of my towels and my kitchenaid attachments before they are all gone!

They turned out great. I love the outfit, and your eye makeup. Very pretty!

Tara you got some good songs on your playlist.

 

Celina we need to see some pics of your dress lady!

I love the "just married" in the sand! It looks so cute! Lynn is working on mine now so I hope to have it done soon.

I would say jr. bridesmaid, or just ask her what she would want to be called. She might appreciate being able to choose her very important title!

Your dress is beautiful and it looks great on you!

You're welcome! I was the first Iberostar bride on BDW so I'm glad I can be help to you all now. I was so lost when I started, and it makes such a difference when you can see pictures and ask questions.

For the kids coming to our wedding age range 3-6 they are paying $6-800, but the price varied depending on when they booked. We have 2 kids under 2 that are coming and they are free. However, the parents did purchase seats for both of them on the flight rather than having them sit on their laps.

The Tucan and Quetal (sp?) are in a different complex than the rest of the hotels. That resort is closer to Playa del Carmen, but I don't where they rank in terms of price. I thought there was someone on this thread getting married at the Tucan that might be able to give you some info.

I assume the $3-5K does not include the cost of their trip? That is cheap!!

Our original budget was $8-10K, but we ended up hiring an outside photographer. Including our trip (for just under 2 weeks), wedding package, photographer for wedding day and TTD, OOT bags and fillers, my dress, FI's suit, BM gifts and dresses, invitations, STDs, centerpieces, and all the wedding extras. We should come in around $13K total. Our trip alone was around $5K for the both of us, and our photography will be around $3K so that was the bulk of our budget. I was able to do a lot of DIY projects and found good deals on the extras to help alleviate some of the cost. We hoped to stay under $12K, but that didn't work out so well. I definitely think we could have gone a cheaper route, but I am happy with what we bought and all the details so I'm OK with going over budget. I also hope to sell some of my items afterwards to recoup some of the money.

When I read this I was wondering why you were celebrating Thanksgiving so early, but then I remembered your in Canada! I'm a little slow! You are a brave girl to be going paintballing.

I'm so glad you are getting your money! Hopefully everything works out with the MOH and bach party. Don't smack her yet, maybe she'll come through. If not, smack away! Ha ha!

I went through 3 pairs of earrings myself before I finally made a decision. I;m sure whatever you choose will be beautiful!

So I got an email back about my cake topper. Apparently, when I went to pay the deposit someone else must have picked the same deposit thing and their payment went through before mine so my payment got kicked out because that ticket item expired. The lady said she still had time to make it and could get it to me in plenty of time so I submitted a new deposit and got confirmation yesterday from both paypal and Etsy that it went through, and sent her all the info she needed to make the topper. I'm back to having a cake topper! Ha ha!

I also talked to my TA today and our documents will be sent out in the next 10 days. She also sent me a slideshow from a wedding she arranged at my resort in August, and low and behold that bride was able to rent pink chair bows down there. I was told I would have to bring them with if I wanted a color to her than white, the WC never told me I could rent them. I don't know how much they cost, but in her pics it looks so nice with the pink bows on the white chairs. I probably would've been just as happy with the white ones, but I do like the pink better.

I just read this on yahoo as well. I had a feeling it was going to happen, but I was hoping they would work it out. I liked them together.

I just got off the phone with my TA, and she gave me some feedback from a wedding she arranged at the Lindo for another bride in August. She also forwarded me a link to her wedding pictures. If anyone is interested I would be happy to forward the email. PM me your email address and I can send along. I don't want to post the link on here since I don't know this couple personally.

 

The pictures that she sent were taken by the resort photographer. She said she paid $600 for the photog and pictures. My TA said that she brought in the book of photos she got from the photshop and she said the picture quality was great. She got a book of all 8x10 pictures, and she said those looked much better than the slideshow.

 

The bride told my TA there were a couple minor issues. The first being that they didn't receive their welcome basket with the wine and fruit or whatever comes in it when they arrived. The WC told them she requested it to be delivered, and they kept telling her it was not received. They ended up getting the basket, but it was a bit of a hassle as she felt like the WC thought they were just trying to get another basket. The other issue was they had requested a vegetarian meal for one of their guests ahead of time, but they didn't receive it. They complained and told them they were supposed to have the vegetarian meal. They did get the meal, but everyone else was about done with their dinner when it came.

 

The good things were they said the minister was fantastic. They met with them ahead of time to get details about the couple and the family. The bride said the ceremony was so beautiful and the minister talked like he had known the family for years. They were really happy about that.

 

They also raved about the resort, and how much the guests enjoyed themselves which is always good to hear. They were also able to allow her uncle to play a song during the wedding. She said they were very good about putting things together last minute. They planned this wedding on very short notice.

 

She also rented pink chair bows! My TA said she did pay an extra fee, but she did not bring those with her. I was kind of irritated by that since I had asked the WC myself for pink chairs bows, and she said they only had white. If I wanted pink chair bows or any other linens I had to bring them with me. I'm happy to know I can pay extra to have them, but that would have been nice to know from the beginning. I didn't specify that I would be willing to pay for them, but she didn't suggest as an option either.

Wow! The wedding set up was beautiful. What a great background for your pictures. You were a lovely bride as well. Congratulations!

We chose the Iberostar Lindo after my TA suggested Riviera Maya. We looked into other locations, but that seemed to be the best option. We chose the Lindo over the Del Mar because we have kids coming and there were more pool options at the Lindo. Here is the order of price for the hotels from cheapest to most expensive:

Beach
Del Mar
Lindo
Maya
Grand (This is adults-only, but anyone staying at the Grand has access to the facilities and restaurants of all the Iberostar hotels)

The Beach/Del Mar share restaurants and pools and have a separate WC than Lindo/Maya. I believe the wedding packages are also a bit cheaper, and if you wanted a completely private dinner/reception you can rent out the Tropical Restaurant for a fee (I think around $800). You do not have an option for a private dinner/reception at the Lindo/Maya.

The one thing to note is if you book your wedding at the Lindo/Maya and some of your guests would prefer to stay at the Beach/Del Mar because it is cheaper they will have to pay a guest pass fee to come to the wedding. It would be your decision if you want to cover that fee, or if you want the guests to pay. We told our guests up front that the fees would be their responsibility and everyone is staying at the Lindo, except for one couple that is staying at the Grand. Those that stay at the Grand do not need to pay a guest pass fee to go to any of the other hotel's properties. The rule is you can go down to a lower grade hotel w/o a pass, but you can't go up. If guests stay at the Beach/Del Mar they do not have access to the wave pool or lazy river unless they pay a guest pass fee to go on the Lindo/Maya property.

We are having our wedding at the Lindo and honeymoon at the Grand. I hope this info helps, but if you have any questions please let me know.

Like Danielle said, try taking it to geek squad. That really sucks! We had a pc with all our photos and documents on there that crashed and that is when we switched to mac. I had always used macs in college and loved them and haven't had any issues with it. Luckily, I had backed up the music I downloaded from itunes on CDs, but Mike didn't. They were able to give him some of his songs back, but not all of them. We were also able to get some of our pictures back, but we lost a lot. That was the worst, and having to redownload songs on our ipods from CDs. That took forever!

I thought you were wearing the pearls?

Is there a payroll manager that you could speak with to make sure they get your OT paid out. That seems a bit ridiculous that it has taken this long.

I have a clear starfish I would be willing to share after my November 7th wedding.

That is awesome! Now I know who to call if Mike can't come with me to a wedding. Ha ha!!!

The pics and photobook came out great! I love the pics on the stairs, and that pink sweater is too cute!

Cute stories so far!!

 

Mine is a little long (like any post I end up typing on here!). Mike and I met while working at a hospital and were friends first. I had a rule that I wouldn't date anyone I worked with (this was something I came up with after I dated someone I worked with and it didn't work out and was really awkward afterwards) and I was also in my last year of school and didn't have a lot of time to worry about a relationship. Anyway, over a year after we met I ended up getting laid off, but luckily there was an opening at one of the other hospitals so I transferred until I could find a new full-time job. On my last day he asked me out on a date since we no longer worked together. Things started to move pretty quickly after that as we both were head over heels for each other and were together pretty much every day. I had never fallen for a guy so fast. About a month after we started dating, I ended up in the hospital that we worked at as a patient. I was diagnosed with a kidney disease as a kid, and had been in and out of the hospital since I was a kid. I hadn't had any problems for a couple years, but I was in pretty bad shape. Mike was with me day in and day out. I ended up having to get my left kidney removed, and he stayed on the phone with me pretty much all night the night before my surgery because I couldn't sleep. He was there first thing in the morning before I went in, and stayed in the waiting room until I was done. He was the first person I saw when I came out of the anesthesia. Since I had worked in that hospital for a quite a few years and knew everyone they pretty much let me walk around wherever I wanted. Once I was able to walk around I went down to Mike's department and left him a note in his desk and signed it with I Heart U. He brought the note to my room that night after he got off his shift, and said so does this mean you love me? I said yeah, and he said well you beat me to it because I love you too. He said he had felt that way for awhile, but since we had only been together for a short time he didn't want to say it too soon and scare me away. It was so sweet!

I saved some of my receipts from the OOT bag stuff, but I don't have receipts for everything. I hope I don't have any problems with customs.

 

We are bringing both our ipods with the playlists created, and CDs. We only have the DJ for the reception part, and from the reviews I have read from other Iberostar brides the DJ also works at the resort disco and doesn't have the most updated music selection. We have a few uncommon songs so I wanted to make sure we were able to hear what we wanted. The other brides all brought ipods and CDs since some of them had issues with their ipods and the equipment so they had to use CDs. One of the girls used an ipod for the ceremony music and that worked fine, but I figured we'd make back up CDs for that too just in case.

Congratulations! I'm sure your wedding will be fabulous!

Erica, I'm sorry for your loss, but that is good that you and your family were able to see her and say your good-byes. I hope your nanny gets better soon. You have really had a tough couple weeks!

 

Danielle, your party looked like so much fun! I am now craving some Melting Pot. I love that place!!!

 

Celina, snow?? OMG, it was 80 degrees in Chicago yesterday and is supposed to be 81 today! Normally I love hot weather, but I just packed all my summery stuff for the trip because I didn't think I was going to need it! Luckily, I still had a couple skirts and stuff that I didn't pack that I was able to wear over the weekend and today.

 

I had my dress fitting on Saturday and everything fit great. She just has to take a little bit more off the bottom. Standing it looked fine, but when I walked around a bit I was kind of stepping on it. I'm naturally clumsy so I had her take it up a bit more so I wouldn't be tripping down the aisle! Ha ha! She also pulled up the train to do the bustle, and I'm not crazy about it. (I didn't get pics this time) When I tried the dress on at the bridal shop the lady there showed me it would be brought up to where this diamond of beading in the back is, and the beading on the train would flow down from that point. However, when my alterations lady pulled it up the train is too long to have it pulled up only to that point and a lot would still be dragging. In order to have it there she would have to cut off a big part of the train and all the beading. It will be up to my hip area. I guess I will have to see how it looks when she is done working on it, but I'm not too excited about it.

 

I was cutting the rest of the program pages yesterday, and was almost done when I noticed I spelled my brother's name wrong. Instead of Hunter, I have Huntr! I was so mad because it took me forever to cut those damn things. I had to edit that page to put two columns of names for the bridal party because have one made the page too long to fit in the program. Instead of copying and pasting the names I retyped them so I know that is when I must have done it because it was spelled right on the sample one. Now I have to reprint and cut all those pages. I'm am so ready to throw the programs out the window!

 

Mike burned all the CDs with the pre-ceremony, ceremony, and cocktail hour music and we'll also have the songs on our ipods. The CDs can be a back up in case we have any ipod issues. The DJ is working on our reception mix so that should hopefully be done soon. I still need to do our welcome letters and all that. I did make the name tags for the OOT bags and tied those on with raffia ribbon. I also stuffed all the bags with all the non-liquid items we have, and packed those. Luckily we were able to fit all, but the 3 family bags in there (those are more full since I got the kids sand toys, beach balls, etc that wook up more room). I think Mike's parents should have an empty suitcase that we can pack those in. We have one large suitcase filled mostly with OOT bags, and a few other items, and a medium sized suitcase with most of the remaining wedding stuff: fans, blume boxes, guestbook, etc. If we can fit the rest of our clothes and shoes in a medium sized suitcase we might move the wedding stuff into the other large suitcase we have so hopefully we can fit the rest. I highly recommend test packing to those that haven't done it yet.

Danielle, it looks like your party was so much fun! I love the Melting Pot!