Maura

i'm getting married just the day after you, but in cabo

trisha that dress is gorgeous on you! and you look amazingly skinny! what is your secret? haha the back of the dress is fantastic and will make for some awesome photos!

michelle, my trainer told me to not weigh myself except for once every other week. he said any time i get the urge, pull out a measuring tape (a fabric one, not the stiff ones) and measure around my thigh, hips, waist, biceps and shoulders --- this will more accurately show your progress. because when you start working out in addition to eating right, you will first gain a little muscle, so the scale wont be an accurate indicator. whats important is that you gain muscle mass to replace the fat mass. let me see if i can find my progress chart and i'll scan it so you can see the proper places to measure. i promise you will not feel as bad about yourself as when you step on the scale. the scale is in out bathroom but i hid it behind the toilet so i cannot get to it as easily haha

I am SO happy! Thank you to the BDW ladies who helped me figure out this was a DaVinci dress - I seriously spent about 6 weeks trying to figure it out on my own with no luck before it occurred to me to ask on here. duh. see here for the full story http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t14133 I had to go find it somewhere else to try on because the place I ended up buying it from recently sold their sample, so she said just go try it on somewhere else and then come in and she would match a low price i found. Here are some photos of me in the dress, this one I tried on was way too big (I wear a street size 8, and this dress was a bridal size 14! holy cow what is with bridal sizes trying to make us feel fatter...) so in the photos it just looks like im fat toward the top, because the top fabric is slightly stiff where the lace is. I ordered it one full size down (in ivory, which is the color I tried on, with an ivory sash since it comes with a sash no matter what) based on the measurements Elizabeth took before I ordered it this afternoon. So based on that size I ordered I will need it taken in a bit at the top of the halter in the back, right by my underarms, just slightly in the waist and length just a little in the front. In the photos, the bust is not quite fitted right, it will sit slightly lower on me so I show just a little bit of cleav (I am getting married in a church, cant have too much haha) She had me try on another DaVinci gown in the size I was ordering just to tell for fit and it fit perfectly. I cannot believe she matched the price I found online... the final price I ended up paying was $458.37 WITH TAX on a dress that everyone else is listing for $800 right now because it's a Fall 2007 gown. When it originally came out she said the list price was $1200, so I got an AMAZING deal!! Wooooooo! And she quoted me $87 for the alterations listed above, which is nothing. I'm thinking about having her slightly V-cut the back where it zips, and add a couple more pickups toward the bottom of the skirt, because she had me try on another DaVinci gown for sizing that had them all the way down, and that looked great too. this dress needs a french under bustle, so my seamstress will do that for me to create some kind of strong loop or snap or button or something like that. she said she would show me some options. oh and i am swapping out the sash it comes with -- my best friend is giving me her champagne colored sash from her monique llhuillier wedding gown that she wore in 2006-- it will be my something old. I could not be happier to have come across this tiny dress shop. The owner is so amazing and she is personally doing all my alterations, she is so sweet and I will definitely pass along anyone I know in Chicago looking for a dress. The shop is a hole in the wall place in Pilsen that I never even knew existed, but damn am I glad I found it. so without further ado..... i give you my first photos of me in my dress!!! i didnt have the crinoline underneath arranged properly so it looks flat from the side here, but it will be a bit fuller when i do it right. we were in a hurry to get pics because they didnt allow pics where i tried it on, so my cousins shut the door and one stood against it while the other took the photos haha

yaaaay tami congrats working out with a trainer gives me much more motivation too. its pricey but worth it -- my gym membership expired in december, so i convinced my trainer to come do my sessions at the gym in my condo building -- for $20 less per session than i was paying at the gym! he comes once a week and theres such a huge difference between when i work out with him and when i do it alone. he's coming at 3 today, and i always dread it a little because i know im going to work out real hard, but i feel great afterwards! keep it going!

haha and i JUST saw morgans post about where she gets her codes from... sweet im bookmarking those!

Quote: Originally Posted by DougsGirl http://community.shutterfly.com/gall...M2Lhu1Zg_b6kCE A book I made that should be in my mail this week.... We are gonna put it on the table where we'll have our blank mat (guestbook) for the frame for the engagement photo, along with a photo collage poster. So easy and fun to make! Totally inspired by Morgan, altho not as creative! abbie i didnt even read all the other comments but i just finished looking at your book and its amazing!!!! you guys are so cute i *especially* loved page 14-15 with the sequence of events leading up to the engagement. those pics are priceless! i got so excited for you just looking at them! job well done - now cough up where you found the coupon code haha

holy cow, i have got to check this book out. i just read the summary on amazon and i may drive to borders today to pick it up because i am so bad about making food choices outside of the house. if i dont bring my lunch to work, i will eat whatever is closest which is so bad.

Quote: Originally Posted by marip123 We asked about a mariachi band and they quoted us 1200.00 plus 10%. That was crazy. ok, contact mariachi internacional los cabos on your own -- they recently just quoted angela $150/hour!!! here is their contact info: Mariachi Internacional de Los Cabos [email protected] Here is their phone information: Phone: (624) 173-3587 Fax: 173-3587 Cell: (624) 151-5529 also, check out angela's post about them, which also links to a review i found from an older westin bride who i contacted when i first joined here! http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t14296 Quote: Originally Posted by marip123 I asked about what the corking fee is, and it was pretty outrageous, but it seems possible I can have my father (Spanish speaker) call down and negoitiate. If that doesn't work, we'll just have an open bar with no wine at the tables. you should DEFINITELY have your dad call and negotiate the corking fee. tell him to be firm.

Quote: Originally Posted by marip123 Hi there, I do have pictures to share, but I'm not sure how I post them? Steph, I will post selected photos from the album you sent me --don't worry none of you, just the ones of the Westin grounds Quote: Originally Posted by marip123 I asked about ordering bulk flowers, and we were quoted $6.00/per daisy. I thought that was kind of crazy. I was thinking about contacting the flower market or flower cart? omg. $6 A DAISY? hell no. my FMIL has contacts in Mexico City that she's looking into to get our flowers cheaply in Cabo, as soon as I hear from her, I will let you know what she comes up with and I will pass along the info! Quote: Originally Posted by marip123 We decided not do go with the block because the timeshares were so much more affordable and they come with a kitchen, so we're paying the extra fees at the Westin and staying at the Club Regina. we are only doing the room block because so many of our guests can't come for more than 3-4 days. we do have a number of guests who will stay a week, but not a TON. so it was worth it for us because we know that we will more than fill the minimum room block requirements. we do have some guests asking about timeshares, mostly our families -- can you pass along any info about how best to do those?

im not positive if you can add your own domain name to some of the other ones, but im guessing you can. all you have to do is change the A record of the domain name to point to your site at wherever its hosted. it was really easy to do, and a godaddy person walked me through it over the phone.

im not entirely sure that's correct. my FMIL in mexico city told us it was legally 3 full days prior to the wedding day (so if wedding is sat, you should arrive tues) when we were debating whether or not to get a legal ceremony in mex... perhaps this is a rule just with dreams with the added extra day? definitely shoot your WC an email about that...

yes i vote for the postcard! its only 26 cents to mail haha and people will think its unique

do you have a photobucket account? theyre easy to sign up and free. upload your photo to there and then copy the IMG code into the body of your post. if you want to PM me with your email address, you can send me the photo and i will do it for you if you cant figure it out!

we're getting married in early aug at 6 pm, but in a church with no AC and our reception is outdoors on the pool deck -- my FI is planning on wearing a khaki suit because we too still want a formal feel to our wedding. we arent having any groomsmen though. in mexico, formal beach weddings often have guayabera written on the invitation --you might want to look into those. they're very nice and traditional. my FI hates them though, so he refuses to wear one! when we first started planning, a friend of his suggested we request all the men wear guayaberas, and my FI said he would ban anyone who showed up in one then later on he changed his mind to say that he wouldnt ban anyone but he personally would not wear one.

have you chosen a location yet?

i posted somewhere else on the forum earlier today about how we LOVE our wedding window site. we get so many compliments and people are always telling us theyre so impressed with how beautiful it is. and it was SO easy to set up, and we even did our own domain name through godaddy instead of through wedding window. it was super easy and a little more cost effective IMHO.

we paid $79 for our wedding window site for one year, and then another $9.99 for our domain name through go daddy it was totally worth it. we love having our own domain name and people are always commenting on how fancy it is and that we must be great with that junk - little do they know it was so easy and it took hardly any work!

Quote: Originally Posted by vinxy With wine it doesn't make much difference. Because with wine you are only getting about 6 glasses to a bottle or you can buy a bottle for $30 or so. So you could pay by the glass or bottle and it will be about the same. The big difference is with liquor. One bottle makes 20-30 drinks. These are drinks that probably cost over $10 each after tax and service charge. So you can pay almost $300 for individual drinks or a $25 corkage fee. Because the corkage fee is the same for wine and liquor, liquor becomes much cheaper to drink. Hopefully our guest will prefer high end hard liquor. That is a REALLY good point. We have yet to haggle over the menu and liquor, but I will definitely keep this in mind when it comes time -- maybe if we only offer a few choices of hard liquor, we can keep the alcohol price down.

great choice, if i were getting married in that area, that wouldve been one of my top choices! congrats, i bet it feels like a big weight off!

This may not affect you personally, but for future people searching who come across this thread, let me say if you are both US citizens, it's fine to do it either way. But if one person is a US citizen and the other is not, you should legally marry in the US first.

you came to the right place, everyone here is very helpful!

Perfect--- Feb 23 then at BIN36. I'll bump this every so often so if anyone else wants to join in, they can. And I'll get a final headcount the Monday of. Cant wait!

Quote: Originally Posted by BRIDEZILLA Believe it or not, JCP.com (Jc Penny's) they were $25! you have GOT to be kidding me! how fantastic! here i was thinking wow those look great, but i bet they were super expensive... what a great find!

amber, great photos. where are your BM dresses from? they were stunning! and i loved the blue & yellow combo!