Maura

d'oh! how did i misspell accommodations? i am a professional editor... thanks all for that catch! this is what happens when you spend too much time looking at your invitations! keep the advice coming

IMHO, i think its kinda tacky to put registry stuff on invitations... people always find out by word of mouth. if they want to know where you're registered, they'll call the shower host or BMs or your mom/FMIL. so make sure they all know where you're registered. **clarification-- i think its ok to put enclosures with the shower invite. or if you arent involved in sending out the invites for your shower in any way, then its ok to put it on the actual invite. you could also have them put on the shower invite the link to your wedding website so people will find the registry on their own. that way it doesnt look like you're soliciting gifts. we got invited to a wedding in mexico for some random friend of FI's that we arent close with, and the couple included a small enclosure about gift registry and it actually had their freakin bank account numbers because they wanted cash gifts. we didnt go to the wedding and needless to say we also didnt send a gift because the bank account #s was such a turnoff.

Quote: Originally Posted by Lizz I think you should either ask her to be a BM (not as a back-up) or not ask her at all. There is nothing wrong with having uneven # of BM and GM, so you shouldn't worry about that. couldnt have said this better myself. dont ask her to be a backup. i have a situation where i'm trying to stick to a traditional mex. catholic wedding, which means no GM. and the # of BMs can vary depending on how many gifts you have (arras, lasso, ramo, anillos, etc). the people who do the readings need to be catholic. one of my closest gfs from college is catholic, and i didnt ask her to be a BM right away like i did with my sister and my FI's sister because i was trying to decide whether it would be better to have her as one of the BMs carrying the gifts or if she should do a reading because FI has a limited number of catholic friends and we arent sure they will be able to attend. i finally decided i shouldnt wait to ask her anymore and i explained that i need her involved in my day because shes important to me. and because shes catholic, i was debating over how to utilize her best during the ceremony in case FI's friends back out of the reading, we'd need her. she was so honored she didnt care that i waited a little while to ask because of how i was trying to decide what to do. ultimately, she was just happy that i consider her one of my "must have" friends on my wedding day -- but this was different because shes not a backup.

OK, as many of you know my FI and I have spent WEEKS having mini-fights about colors for invitations/bridesmaid dresses. We finally chose our invitations from mygatsby.com because we loved the sample we ordered and the prices are decent. We are also going to make matching STDs which I haven't tackled yet. **As an aside, I called MyGatsby yesterday because our sample hadn't arrived yet, and they stuck another one in the mail. When I got home, there was my sample in my mailbox. D'oh. So now I'm going to have two samples which includes the actual invitation and enclosures and a large number of paper color swatches. If anyone is interested, PM me and I will send you my extra when it arrives if you are thinking about doing invites from MyGatsby.** Here is the invitation style we chose: We have finally agreed on a shade of navy blue to go with our otherwise sand themed invites. The below photos are what we have finally chosen, and we are really pleased with how they look. However, I do feel I need some constructive criticism about the wording for the RSVP card, reception card and accomodations card. Here are some color swatches of what we picked: the navy color (actually called marine) is nicely textured which you can kind of tell from the first photo. The middle one, cappuccino, is a metallic light brown. The text will go on the classic ecru in navy thermographed ink. and here is how they will look matted together: **First question** We like the belly band with the monogram type square on the outside, or actually just perhaps use the square as a closure for the gatefold. I CANNOT for my life figure out how I can get those on mygatsby because it doesn't show as an option when we did the customized thing. I spent awhile last night clicking around the website but couldnt find anything. Does anybody know how to do that? And how do you attach the square to close them? Ok, here is the part I need some help with wording. We are pretty set with the wording on the actual invite. Only thing that will change is we are hoping to put a proper address for the church, something about the fact that transportation will be provided from the Westin to the church and back, and because we are bringing our priest, possibly adding Fr. Jack’s name to the invite. In the lefthand pocket, the tallest enclosure is the accomodations card. This feels kinda blah to me, but I can’t think of any wording to make it better. Middle enclosure is the RSVP directions – I would like to add a “we have __ seats reserved for you†somewhere so we have no surprise guests… my FI is eco-conscious and wants to do our RSVPs online to save paper (but I like his idea because it saves $ on ordering self addressed envelopes for the reply card and postage) what would you suggest to make this better? FYI, my FI is totally against cutesy stuff like “must wave your invitation†– he likes traditional stuff. Last enclosure is the reception card (ignore the fact that the proof came out in the wrong color) Again, do I put something on there about the fact that we are providing roundtrip transportation between the resort and the church? How do I word that? We also will be having a cocktail hour before the dinner because we want our photographer to take photos of just the two of us and with the wedding party on the beach at sunset. Need wording help/options with that!: I’m at the point where I’ve looked at these so much, that I just can’t look at them clearly anymore and need some fresh eyes. Thanks ladies!

Quote: Originally Posted by majnooni We're using WeddingWindow.com. It's nice since you can have unlimited photos and pages. But, the interface is a bit clunky to use and can be confusing. We've been very happy with what we have been able to put together. Wedding Website - Cheryl & Will I disagree -- I don't think wedding window interface is clunky AT ALL. The page management system is very simple and easy to navigate. Perhaps I am more advanced with using computers, but I still think it's easy to use. It took us about a half hour to initially look at all the options and different kinds of pages, and it was quite easy. You have tons of options, and yes, you can pick lots of different beachy themes too. One of the reasons we chose it also was for the privacy it affords -- you can customize it so you can identify all your visitors, you can password protect, you can make it so your page doesnt come up in a google search...

Paging Paula!!!!!!! Paula and Jeremy leave tomorrow, 1/30, for their wedding in Cancun! Sending lots of warm wishes for an amazing time, safe travels and many beautiful memories! Can't wait to hear all about it when you return and to see all your beautiful pics! No te olvides sacar diez mil fotos de todo! Un fuerte abrazo para ustedes!

i can 100% tell you july is NOT hurricane season. hurricane season does not begin in cabo until mid to late august. tell your guest to do their internet research better before they decide to be a pain in your ass again!

we plan on about 100 people so on our STDs, we are asking guests to please go to our website and do a preliminary RSVP so we can get an idea of how many people will be joining us -- we are going to do some kind of small paper insert with the std saying it will help with all kinds of stuff (get a head count to book our reception location at the resort, know whether or not we should add rooms to our block etc), not to mention save the cost of 75 more envelopes and just over $30 in postage. we are also doing our main RSVP on our website so that people can make their meal selection easily and so we can save close to $150 in rsvp card/envelope/stamp costs. my FI is really into being environmentally conscious about paper/recycling, so it was his idea, which i am totally cool with since it saves us money too. we are sending out 100 invitations in the US (but only 75 STDs because some of the invitations are courtesy invites we know wont come) and another 100 in mexico and a couple to spain and london. thank god my FMIL is taking care of all the foreign invitations for me (the cost and sending of -- we picked them out over christmas). the nice thing though is that with our contract for our room block, we have to guarantee a minimum of 15 rooms/3 nights and 10 rooms/2 nights, but anyone who calls between now and the day our room block is released will still get our group room rate, and we dont have to pay anything extra if we use more rooms than we blocked.

I have heard so many good things about people loving their rings from Blue Nile so I decided to research wedding bands a little bit yesterday during my lunch. And it turns out that I found identical rings that we had in mind! And for less $$ than the jeweler who made my e-ring wanted to charge. So glad to cross this off my list of things to do! For mine: Blue Nile women's pave set diamond ring, 18k white gold, 2 mm band $600 (this is $200 less than the jeweler who made my e-ring quoted us for making the *identical* wedding band custom made) this matches my engagement ring, which looks like this: For his: Blue Nile comfort-fit men's wedding ring in 18k white gold, 4 mm band, $300 (about $100 less than the jeweler quoted us) They have FREE FedEx 2Day shipping. For an extra $5.50, you can get it via FexEx overnight if you're really jonesing to have them immediately. You really cant beat that, I think. The total cost for our wedding rings would be $800. How is it that I'm finding good wedding deals left and right lately? FI was so proud -- and he loves these, so he wrote on our wedding calendar the time frame when we should order them haha.

the face shes making is because she hasnt eaten anything in 3 months in order to fit into that skinny little dress hahaha

abbie dont sweat it, i bet he will forget about it in a few days/weeks/months time... men always do haha. if it makes you feel any better, my FI accidentally saw photos of me IN my dress from this weekend's purchase. he was being nosy last night and wanted to look at the options i had chosen for BM dresses, and i was cooking dinner, so i told him to log into my picasa account. there was a sep. album for the dress photos, but i forgot to set it to "no cover" --- well all of a sudden im facing the stove and he starts screaming.... he was like YOU TRICKED ME, I JUST ACCIDENTALLY SAW YOUR DRESS DUMMY!!!! My hands were dirty with raw chicken germs, so I literally lifted my leg a la karate kid, and slammed my laptop shut! hahaha. but i know my FI, and i know he will forget about it in a few days.

ok, since your wedding is so close, my advice is 1) to not tell your BIL (at least not yet) -- you want to avoid bringing any drama down to mexico for your wedding. If you tell in advance, or you tell down there, then your day is going to become about BIL's cheating whore of a GF. if she kisses random guys in bars, and has the balls to do it in front of you, let's consider what she would do behind his back when you arent there to observe. you dont want people talking about that at your wedding. or worse, you dont want the revelation to happen at your wedding either, causing them to fight and BIL to be very unhappy at your wedding and ruin your family photos. 2) if your FI does not want you to tell his brother, dont. you have to respect that. case closed. however, if you feel morally obligated, which i wouldnt blame you - i would too, i would also avoid having your sister or whoever slip and say something at your wedding. that is going to create a whole lotta drama you dont need on your day. my suggestion is that after the wedding, you personally take it up with the girl and tell her it really upset you, and that if she doesnt tell her BF then you will. give her some kind of time frame, and you can also tell her your FI knows about it and is prepared to tell his brother (she doesnt have to know the whole truth). she will be so scared that hopefully she will confess on her own. if she doesn't, well then you have to decide what is best for you and your FI to do in telling your BIL. good luck, its a sticky situation for sure. let us know what you decide!

Quote: Originally Posted by schelleq this may be a really silly question, but if my fiancé and i did the legal ceremony here, then we won't have to arrive 4 days prior to the wedding in mexico to have it count, right? i just want to make sure i am reading this correctly--this will help us out huge!! thanks that's correct, unless for some reason your resort requires you to be there a certain number of days in advance in order to meet with you beforehand for planning purposes, to go over final details etc etc.

abbie those are sweet! we are totally doing those too, but we are having people upload to our free google picasa account so they can download the high res files and other personal jpg files, then choose which photo service to print from.

hey if you use windows, you can also use the contact sheet option when printing!

i'm a cabo bride, but tulum is beautiful too. whatever you choose will be great! just FYI, the villas in cabo are pretty pricey. how many guests will you have?

tami i know it is so hard to stay on the machine for an hour. here is my secret: i download one hour television shows onto my ipod and make myself stay on for the whole show! it also helps if you have little tvs attached to the machines like at my gym at home.

corey, i havent used either of those but i thought i would give you one more to consider... Flowergirls Thumbnails a friend of mine got her BM and FG dresses from here and was very happy with them. i am considering ordering my FG dress from them because they have a showroom in LA where my 5 yr old cousin can go try it on. they have an awesome "try on" policy in case you dont live anywhere near a showroom - they will send you a dress in a color/size and you can try it and then send it back within something like 3-5 days. they will also send you up to 7 swatch colors at no charge!

Quote: Originally Posted by marip123 We have finally figured out our centerpieces. They so cute. We're both excited! As soon as I can find a our program to resize, I'll post them. I think I"ve figured that out. try Resize Images online, that's what i always use! and then upload the smaller photo to photobucket and paste the img code into the body of your post. so easy i promise! i cant wait to see photos of your centerpieces!

rebecca, i love the second one so much more. the reason being that it much more fits the ambiance you and chris wanted to create for your wedding -- kinda casual, but still a wedding. and the tea length dress keeps it laid back. i think it would be hard to really make a long dress look good at tea length when altered because it isnt intended to be altered to tea length. plus i think youd be able to pull off the strapless - you have a great figure and i think the fitted-ness (yes, i know im making up that word) of the alfred angelo dress will look great on you. the first one kind of makes you look like you dont have a shape, and you definitely are a skinny minnie in person, so you want a dress that will show that off just my two cents

here are photos from some receptions in restaurante la playa i think this is similar to what we're going to go with -- all white linens and colored callas as the floral centerpieces. but we will use short mini callas so they arent so tall Enjoy!

oh steph, i know. i have westin and wedding on the brain 24/7 lately. here's a few photos of some more setups on the pool deck that karina sent me. i will follow these with another post with photos from restaurante la playa. we are going to end up on the pool deck because i think we have too many guests for the restaurant this one was a buffet-style reception dinner

Quote: Originally Posted by CourtneyV Oooh, I really love it!!! I can't believe you got it at such an amazing deal, I'm seriously jealous. It sounds like you went to the right bridal salo; they'll take good care of you. One thing I was wondering about, was the pickups. You mentioned that you wanted her to add more towards the bottom, but will there be enough material to do that?? Haha, I did the same thing with my mom for pictures. I told the lady that my mom was going to help me with the dress, she'd come in and snap a few pictures... and because we're paranoid freaks, we'd talk the whole time. My mom would say something like, "oh this is a tight knot!". lol. Thanks!! Go figure the dress shop is in the Mexican neighborhood! She's used to dealing with Mexican-American women who don't speak a ton of English and I dont know about in other cities, but the upscale bridal shops in Chicago tend to be pretty racist. I'm not Mexican, but my FI is, and even sometimes I get racially profiled because we're together and because I have dark hair, so people sometimes just assume I'm Mexican too. The shop owner was telling me about how so many brides she has tell her about being discriminated against just because they're Mexican. Hello, but just because people are Mexican doesn't mean they're poor. There's no reason to discriminate in a bridal shop -- they should be begging for our business, not being rude to people and insinuating they go elsewhere. For crying out loud look at my FI's family. So because the shop owner sees so many people get taken advantage of, she's really nice and accomodating and doesn't try to pressure people or rip them off. She knows that when you do that, you just push the person away from buying your dress there. She was telling me also that she does a lot of bridal shows in Wisconsin because there's a big growing Mexican population there, but hardly any vendors who speak Spanish. About adding the pickups, there will be plenty of material left to do it if I don't have her shorten the length in the front. In the photos, I'm standing on a 1.5 ft tall step -- I am only 5'1"!! haha. And I was also wearing 3" heels, which I don't plan on wearing on the wedding day. Plus she showed me the under part of the skirt and really you dont need lots of extra material to make the pickups, they're pretty small. She said it was really easy to do so I trust her.

Alyssa (Mrs.B2008 ) was so kind to have shared these tips with me about the Westin, so I thought I would post them here for you girls too. Some small tips…. * The food is really good but pretty expensive, especially the ‘theme’ dinners and buffet breakfast. * The spa is very nice and great for facial and massage but not for hair and nails – pretty disappointing. * There are a couple of pools and there is a REALLY nice infinity pool over by timeshares, really pretty and not as crowded as the huge pool with the bar. * The surf is pretty much super dangerous at the Westin – they have black flags up most days, they will tell you different but from everyone we spoke with you can not really swim in the water there – there are SO many rocks and the riptide is bad. * The westin is much closer to san jose del cabo than cabo san lucas * There is a big convenience store near san jose del cabo that you can buy all kinds of supplies and stuff! * The big glass circle restaurant is awesome and has a great indoor / outdoor sitting area / bar – that is one of my FAVORITE spots there! There is also a sushi bar in that restaurant in the front, The sushi is ok at best and pretty $$$$$$. As for the rooms, try to get as many rooms as possible in the center of the towers, the views are incredible, where the side rooms only have a partial view at best. Also – for nails – make sure to leave A LOT of drying time – the heat is so intense – my nails took like 1 1⁄2 hours to dry – do it EARLY AM!

Ok gals, I have amassed a lot of Westin photos from a number of girls and I have begun uploading them (mostly ones that didn't have people in them) to my Picasa account to make an all-Westin album to share with everyone. Here is a link, so far there are about 100 photos in there! Feel free to ask me any questions if you can't identify where something is.: Picasa Web Albums - Maura - Westin Los Ca...