nylalany

Oh - if someone does end up buying their own champagne or California sparkling wine in PDC, can you let me know how much $ a reasonable bottle is (reasonable = a nice $20-$25 bottle here), as maybe I'll bring my own too.

My reception is elsewhere but they quoted me $90 per bottle of champagne, $45 for Cava (Spanish sparkling), $35 for Prosseco (Italian sparkling). 5 glasses per bottle / 100 guests - well you can see why we might toast with the included white wine...

and this is in addition to bridal party gifts later, right?

ooh the hats are a good idea too! anyone have any great shops for either of these?

I have 4 bridesmaids, 1 MOH, and 2 ushers. MOH is my sister, and she is throwing me a bridal shower in NY (where I grew up) w/my mom's help. The 3 local bridesmaids and 2 ushers (also local and very close to me) are all throwing a bridal shower in Los Angeles for me (where I've lived past 10 years). They are having it at one of the bridesmaid's place. Do I get 5 separate hostess gifts for my 3 bridesmaids and 2 ushers to give them after the shower? And this is addition to their bridesmaid and usher gifts later? (obviously the same would go for my sis). What did you guys do? Maybe I should get them sarongs - pareos as hostess gifts?

Barefoot Bride - Can I come to your wedding? A coworker of mine honeymooned at Qamea and said it was AMAZING. I'm looking for a honeymoon spot (in Fiji maybe), but we wanted somewhere with surfing...

Their ceremony and reception are at the Divi Aruba Phoenix it seems. The welcome dinner is at Tango Restaurant. My family is renting a house somewhere on the beach which I"m excited about. I'll share any details I can think of when I get back, or if anyone is getting married at Divi, lmk. I'm pretty sure they hired an outside caterer b/c the mother of the bride is a foodie and wasn't happy with the caterer there (they have a timeshare in Aruba so lots of opportunity to plan things out). This worked since they agreed to pay site fees and for the bar. And they hired a great band supposedly since both the bride and groom went to grad school for music and are thus are harsh critics.

I'm going to a destination wedding in Aruba next week (flying out this Thursday - can't wait!), so I can let you know details when I get back if you'd like. I love the Caribbean and which I could get married on one of the islands - but too far for my LA friends & family .

now I don't know if I want natural/natural, natural/red, all red! so many options!

thanks lyrebard - I won't actually know how many people are coming until a month or two either, I'm just trying to prepare myself too - and maybe avoid more important things, like registering for gifts, finding bridesmaid dresses (at this point, normal dresses at department stores), etc., and distracting myself while I wait for my WC to send me samples of music from bands now that she finally found some bands, and to let me know if my flowers are possible. I turned out to be such a freaking bridey bride!

LALA, Maybe I should put my WC in contact with your WC? Or do you have a contact for your WC? Do you have a photo of your vases? I'm guessing I'm going to want 8 or 9" tall by 3-4" diameter.

I'm trying to find the vases or something like it for this centerpiece, in case my WC can't find anything in Riviera Maya area: If anyone has any ideas of where to find them for relatively inexpensive prices, lmk, thanks!

How long did it take you per invitation out of curiosity? I ended up just going for getting them done professionally, but I'm wondering for any other projects I have, how long it'll take per piece, since I have so many freaking guests...

lyrebard - we're not putting our names on them either. I was going to do our footprints in sand (which we have on our website), but I wasn't sure if it was going to come out ok, and it was pricey, so now I'm thinking of the palm tree that some girls got from creative montage (it is kind of vintagey looking) in either brown, red, or aqua, and perhaps "Riviera Maya, Mexico May 4, 2008" so that it'll be a memory of their trip and maybe the wedding date, but it won't shout me me me too much. I might do a silly shot glass (my mom is not so happy about that) with the same logo but with our names, since those are supposed to be crazy like that. Regardless, I assume people wil use the bags for groceries, or the gym, or maybe the beach again, so I'm not too worried.

Although I've never been to a wedding with a garter toss before, so I don't think it is as standard as OOT bags. The totes that some of the girls are doing on this site for destination weddings are super nice compared with the usual OOT bags that you get in the States, which are usually paper and contain food items, water, and a welcome letter.

ncainey - wow thanks for the tip! I'm going to drag my FI there on Saturday b/c they actually have extra-tall sizes! Where are you getting the guayaberas from if you go that route. I may want to do that regardless for the groomsmen, just for a different look. amyh - I look fwd to seeing your photos!

cheese_diva - wow, you picked Aruba - that explains things! It is much more of a blue than the Caspian/Belize! Maybe I should go back to the store again to check it out. Thanks for everyone's help!

monicabrandon2008 - thanks - I thought I might go for something sturdier with contrast and all that, but maybe I'll end up with something from here to save $$ since I have a zillion people coming...

cheese_diva - I stole the invite idea from you b/c I loved yours from your photos . Were yours greener blue in real life than in the photos? So Brittany already sent me what she calls "Tiffany Blue", but what I really think is "Caspian Blue", since Tiffany Blue doesn't actually exist. She did send off white vs. white samples for the actual printed layer and for the labels so I could try to decide on that. Were yours something different? I want my rsvps back by end of February, so I don't think I have much time to ask for more samples.

jean-marcus - the problem is actually that I didn't envision anything before my wedding, so I'm rushing to figure out what I like, and I'm pretty picky and usually can't rush on these things. But my home is all blues and reds and dark browns, so I figured I'd stick with that. JANET1111 - Funny how your invitations AND your BM dresses ended up looking red. I LOVE the reds of the dresses, as I've mentoined before, even if they are only red in photos, ha. Oh well!

amyh - what was the material of the suits from downtown LA - King Formal Wear? Did they have linen suits? Or do they make suits to order?

lyrebard - those are polyester - is there an advantage or disadvantage to that? I was also hoping for natural vs. white for the main color . But those seem like a great deal if that is what you're going for! What are you putting on them (if you are putting anything on them)?

MelissaH - yeah I'm assuming noone but me really cares - except for my designy friends who might wonder why I picked that color. I just think having the invitation in a box will be fun b/c when I look back, the invitations I remember most are those that were different - a scroll invite for an Indian wedding, an elaborate accordion style invitation that my designer friend made for his own wedding, etc.

JamaicaBride062108 - I'm very confused. I went into a store that carries Envelopments and looked at their samples, and the one that was labeled Caspian looked like my invitation, and Caspian(metallic) was = to Belize, but when I just went on the Envelopments website, the Chrysophase looks closer to my color, and I don't remember even seeing that in the store's literature. The Aruba (matte) is a bit more blue and maybe more what I was expecting, but now that I've seen the metallic with my invite, I think metallic might give it some zest, and Aruba might be not so exciting. Aruba is aqua I think? As for Turquoise, personally, I think of the Tartan (matte) as turquoise, and of all the blues, that is really my personal favorite, but I fear it might overwhelm the rest of the invitation...

I got a sample of my invitations today, which she called "Tiffany Blue", but in the envelopments line, I believe it is actually "Caspian Blue". Online, on my invitation designer's site, on the Envelopements site, and even when I take a photo, the invitation looks blue. In real life, it looks blueish green (or maybe greenish blue, but my FI thought they were green). My "colors" are supposed to be red and aqua/turquoise(both?) and dark brown. The blue can maybe pass as aqua, but it isn't the blue I want to have in the rest of my wedding I don't think. The invites look pretty though and I'm in a rush. Should I just say whatever and go for it - invites don't have to match exactly with everything else - you can have different shades of blue throughout the process (especially when my main color was SUPPOSED to be red ha), and nobody will care and I'm just becoming bridezillaish, right?