Maura

barefootbride - if you give me info about her facebook account, i will personally contact facebook today on behalf of the forum to see to it that she can't advertise there anymore if she already does.

FBI Portland Division - Contact Us this is the contact info for the portland FBI office

ok i know youre in japan - but you can still contact the BBB in oregon via email to get them to investigate. make sure you keep every single email both that they sent to you and that you sent to them to prove your correspondence, even the things you sent that they havent answered. if you make phone calls, get copies of your phone records to prove you called them. i'm pretty sure that stealing $10K has got to be felony larceny or something like that. i honestly think you should contact oregon law enforcement officials (and i dont mean local law enforcement, i mean federal)

ugh, i am so so so sorry this happened to you! i hope you are planning on filing a lawsuit of some kind against the TA for ruining things. i can't offer you a whole lot of advice, but where is your TA located? i'd be happy to make a forum PSA so that everyone here already and future brides wont use them.

tara, i typically eat lowfat vanilla yogurt with fresh berries and bear naked granola - it ends up being about 10 grams of fat. also, i like to eat either the sara lee lowfat egg mcmuffins you make in the microwave (6 grams of fat each, so sometimes ill eat 2) and drink OJ with it. or you can have 1 egg mc muffin from mcdonalds - that's 12 grams of fat for one. if you have a little chocolate milk with it too, thats 15 grams of fat even for the meal. the reason why the mcdonalds one has more fat is because the egg still has the yolk in it - the sara lee one is only egg white. otherwise, if i dont eat one of those two things, i'll have 16 oz of lowfat milk mixed with a scoop of isopure low carb chocolate protein powder. but then i usually dont take a pill when i drink that for breakfast because the 16 oz of milk is only like 4 grams of fat.

ok i finished one page of my welcome booklet and thought i would share! i am doing a section on dining and drinking at the westin so everybody knows what is what and how much it costs. so this is the page for that. i am using a mac program called pages to make my booklet. i am also adding a section about venturing into downtown san jose del cabo and day trips to to cabo san lucas, todos santos and la paz. and of course a page or two on activities like kayaking, fishing, ATVs, snorkeling etc etc but i am getting ahead of myself here haha...ive only finished these two pages so far. i am working on the daytrips pages next! hope to finish those tomorrow night and i will post when i'm done so you can see

Quote: Originally Posted by andrea&chuck Thanks everyone, Maura you are getting very close...we look forward to hearing all of your great successes! yep - we sure are getting close! we leave chicago on august 6th (only 17 days away!) if you & andrea have any questions about anything wedding related in chicago or cabo, please dont hesitate to send me a private message! we'll be having a get-together for all chicago people from the forum sometime in september, so keep an eye out for a thread about that when i return from cabo (hey, i need to plan SOMETHING after the wedding )

i think it would still count if you had it sewed into the hem of the bottom of your dress, someone suggested that to me in case the flip flop tape doesnt work

i have gotten great at figuring out ways to eat seemingly sinful things - like a baked potato with sour cream, chives and butter - by instead substituting i cant believe its not butter spray (no fat), nonfat sour cream, and obviously chives are not a fat contributor. there are always ways around eating your fave things in a different way so they fit with your diet

im wearing flip flops and plan to tape mine to the sole of my shoe

This was certainly a labor of love.... after going through many different designs, we finally decided to got with a 1 sheet (2 sided) deckle edge card that matches our White Aisle invitations. The cards are made by Fabriano Medioevalis, and I purchased them from the Dick Blick Art Store. It comes 100 to a box, and I paid $16.99 for them. They measure 4-1/2" × 6-3/4". The code on the box is MEDIOEVALIS 206 S 04200206. I will take a photo of the finished printed programs when we finally finish that, but for now here is an image of what both sides will look like. http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/h...ontandback.png

Hey gals, I've had several close friends get engaged in the last few weeks, and for my shower in June, my aunt gave me this really cool gift for my wedding day. It's a sixpence to wear inside your shoe on your wedding day for good luck, and is a traditional part of the "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" fame. the sixpence coin is a lesser known part of the tradition. The sixpence is tucked into a beatiful ivory card, that has scalloped light blue edges and is letterpressed with blue print. The card says: Something old, (an item from a happily married woman to bring future bliss) something new, (the bride's wedding attire) something borrowed, (an object of gold to promise good fortune) something blue, (symbolic of true love) and a sixpence in your shoe. (worn inside the bride's shoe to ensure prosperity. I think this is such a great sentimental gift and I plan to buy one for each of my recently engaged girlfriends. I will also take mine to Cabo to be photographed as one of my "details" shots. Here's a photo of it (sorry it's kinda hard to read): Here's where she purchased it from (they are $15 each): Sixpence Wedding Gift for the Bride they also come with a slip of paper that explains the history of the tradition. the sixpence is also a genuine minted coin from the UK! (btw, sixpence have not been minted in the UK since 1970!)

welcome to the forum chuck! (from your fellow chicagoan and a cabo bride) we love to have grooms around here, and you should get andrea to join too, i'm sure she will love it here!

omg yayyyyyyyyy!!!! how exciting!!!!! so i assume youre paying for her hotel stay too then? how long is she staying for?

Quote: Originally Posted by LOTTALUV92 My big day is almost here and everyone is so excited and ready to go... im still making my souveniers 12 more to do. and the time is ticking. i mailed off my documents to jamaica last week. I just had my dress altered due to my 12lb weight loss. It looks great im happy. Everyone have there passports and a few have to pay balances on there trip. I also wrote out my travel list of things to pack i like to be prepared.. Oh and. lastly i have to do a quick itinery. I guess once i arrive in jamaica i will meet with the coordinator for decorations, which im going to pack my fabric just incase they dont have my colors. (sorry i forgot your name ) but congratulations on losing 12 pounds and getting your dress altered smaller! that is great! i am waiting for my mini organza bags to arrive from oriental trading co so i can start assembling the TY tags on them, and we will fill them with candies (see my blog for photos of the organza bags and candies) when we get to mexico. i've started writing out a list of all the things i need to remember to pack so that i dont forget anything. oh! and i think ive decided what to do about my welcome booklets.... i think i'm going to still design them as 8.5x11 but as landscape and then fold them into books and staple down the middle. i will use the color laser printer at my office and we have a cool industrial size stapler so that should take care of that. now i just have to finish putting the content into the booklets LOL. i am going to try to get that finished by the end of this coming week and print them either friday or next monday. but thank you to everyone who offered to help or ship me supplies, i appreciate it! i have finished my ceremony programs, but still have to get them printed, which i'll do at my dad's next weekend. i will try to print out a sample one tonight and get a pic. my own printer was acting crazy and kept messing it up, so i dunno if ill be able to get it to work. but cross your fingers for me! i can't believe my big DW is in 20 days! (we leave in 17 days though!) ahhh!!!

Karen, I'm so glad all your prayers have been answered - believe me, there was no shortage of prayers coming your way from all your friends here! We're so happy to hear that Jay is doing well and finally at home. Hugs to you guys!

Quote: Originally Posted by TA Jill Maura that is fantastic!! Congratulations, you must be so proud of yourself! Do you mind if I ask how much you lost all together and how long it took you? --- I also drank some beers later on. But the point of my story is NO OILY PROBLEMS!! I was scared! That's one thing I really like about alli is that I'm constantly scared of what I put in my mouth! The whole time I was at the party all I could think about was you girls and how I might have a really bad story for you today, I'm so glad I didn't! Jill, I lost a total of 8 pounds so far in about 4 weeks. I am hoping to lose a couple more pounds before we leave in 2.5 weeks. Glad you had no problems with everything you ate - I know personally for me, I definitely would've gotten TE's from all that, but that's because I am pretty sensitive to the fat gram amount. I agree with you, I like that alli makes me think twice about what I'm putting in my mouth. Quote: Originally Posted by Erica053009 I thought about using it too but I hear when you have to go you have to go that second or wear a dipper and the thought of having to leave meetings and using my work bathroom grossed me out...let me know if your experience is different because I am going to need to do something soon about my weight um...no... go back and read this thread from the beginning and read the experiences from everyone who has actually TRIED alli... i dont think a single one of us has had any kind of problem with "having to go that second" or wearing a diaper. you dont poop your pants either. no one here has experienced that - the only thing any of us have experienced is the oil droplets.

Not sure I ever posted these photos anywhere. I got these pics from another Westin bride (LaKesha - username Doc2B&LosCabosBride2B - she is no longer very active on the forum) and these were her centerpieces for her welcome dinner at the Westin back in April 08. We wanted something extremely simple and elegant, and nothing with flowers because we didn't want to spend $$$$ on something people don't really notice all that much. LaKesha sent me a link to her photos, and we loved these centerpieces. The Westn is charging us $30/table for them (kinda pricey, but way cheaper than everything else we liked!) http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/h...terpiece_1.jpg http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/h...terpiece_2.jpg http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/h...terpiece_3.png http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/h...terpiece_5.jpg

Here's my wedding dress label, made by a family friend. The fabric is a scrap from her wedding dress from 1972. My seamstress will sew this label into my dress next week. http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/h...l/CIMG1059.jpg Here's the website where I got the idea: http://mondedesign.com/

ok, awesome review and of the pics ive seen so far, those are fantastic. i cant wait to see your color photos!!!

im getting married in cabo in 3 weeks and hired bradley fraser as my photographer. he has been wonderful to work with thus far, and obviously i will review his services when i return from my honeymoon august 17th, but for me i think we got a great deal. we hired bradley at the rate of $350/hour which includes all of our images on CD at no extra cost. i love bradley's work, he is very true to the photojournalism style which is what i wanted. we are paying just under $2000 to have him for 5 hours, which in my opinion is plenty because it will cover getting ready pics, pre ceremony family pics, ceremony, post ceremony bride & groom pics alone & some with family, and then our cocktail and part of the reception before people start getting trashed. i think bradley is more than reasonably priced. now if you want to fly a photog in so you can get unlimited coverage of your entire wedding day and probably a TTD out of it too, i would say flying in a photog is not a bad idea. BUT... with the cost of airline tickets right now and then having to pay for their hotel room on top of that... the price can easily add up to what you would pay a local photographer.

OMG i LOVE it! i am sending a big hug through the computer to chris!!!!! he rocks!!!

i wore assets under a casual dress from 9 am until 8 pm today and was totally fine and FYI, yes both assets and spanx were designed by sarah blakely. she was a sorority sister of mine (but she was at a different chapter than me) which is why i know so much about her - our alumni newletter has featured her several times

Please use the search function before posting threads that may likely exist elsewhere on the forum already. Sorry i closed this thread earlier - I didn't notice that the thread was posted in the PV forum - there are two Casa Magna Marriotts (thanks jaime) but jaime did start a thread on this already, so please feel free to post your questions there on that thread. here is the link: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t22364

welcome amanda! we love helpful sisters around here haha (especially since that's a foreign concept to many of us!) hope you find what you're looking for here, feel free to ask questions. there is a whole thread dedicated to gran bahia principe brides, so perhaps you can get your sister to join the forum as well