ErinB

I love the one playing by himself with the ball. He's pouncing and dancing around. I just want to pick one up and squeeze it!

OMG! They are puppy wrestling! I could watch this all day!

It looks like an awesome shower! Don't you feel the love? LOL That cake was amazing! WIll your real cake look similar?

One more reason to love Sarah! They look great!

I gained 50+ pounds in the time that my husband and I have been together, 6 years. Not fun. I still have the jeans I wore on our first date. They were KIDS SIZE!!!!! I will get back into them one day! LOL Easy fixes are to cut out excess carbs and sugar. Quit drinking sodas and juice and try to just drink water. Watch how much salt and alcohol you take in because it makes you bloated. I use Free Diet Plans at SparkPeople a FREE online weight loss site. It has amazing food calculators, fitness trackers, articles, meal plans/grocery lists etc. I've lost 6 pounds in 2 weeks just by keeping track of my foods. If I know I have to write it down, I'm less likely to eat the 400 calorie slice of chocolate cake. Try to sneak in exercise any way you can. Park farther away from your building, take the stairs, suck your stomach in, and be more active on the weekends. I know it's hard, but you can do it! Good luck!

I don't really think you need to explain why you are sending them an invite. You can always word your invites as more of an announcement: "Hanna and Josh will be joined in marriage..." instead of "The honor of your presence is requested..." Then, you can choose to include an RSVP card or not.

I love having all of the guests in the same color. I know Alyssa asked everyone to wear white/neutrals and it looked great. I asked my guests to wear "Ocean Colors". The ones who followed directions looked great! I think there were only 2 or 3 that didn't. These people were guests of those that I invited, so I think if you make your wishes clear early on it shouldn't be a problem. Because it was a beach wedding, I'm pretty sure everyone asked me what they should wear.

Quote: Originally Posted by Anna83 1. Do I need to provide my own vows? We're having the Civil Ceremony, but I've seen other girls say they've provided their own vows. Should I be working on some vows? Do they play a "Wedding song" of your choice in the middle of the ceremony like a traditional wedding? Most resorts have basic vows that your WC can send you. Jamaica is a Christian country and our sample vows were pretty religious. If you do not want a religious ceremony, you might want to look for something more in line with your particular beliefs. You might just want something more personal. There are lots of resources online. You can also search the forum. As long as your ceremony is fairly brief, you can do whatever you want with it. However, if you want a particular song played, you probably need to bring it on CD with you or be sure the musicians you hire can play it. The resort should have its own sound system. 2. Can I have the "sand cermony" at the Riu? If so, do I need to write something for that? The sand ceremony kind of takes the place of the unity candle. More brides are doing this, so you should check with your WC to see if they have a standard set up. Again, you can write or "borrow" some words to say at this time, or simply play a song. 3. Cocktail Hour.....why would you have to pay extra per person if this is an all-inclusive resort and all of my guests are staying here? Often, you only have to pay if you have more than X number of guests, usually 10. This is because your reception/cocktail hour etc. requires extra set up and staffing that is outside of the normal operation of the resort. They have to set up tables, cook specific foods, have servers, etc. just for you. 4. Reception......Do I need to reserve my restaurant w/ the WC now, or can we do that once we arrive at the hotel? Arrange this ASAP! Many resorts have multiple weddings in a day so by waiting, you could end up with no choices. 5. We're not having any attendants.....I've been the MOH in a few weddings, plus my FI's sister is a very good friend, I'd never be able to pick an MOH without hurt feelings.....So who are my 4 witnesses? Can it just be our parents? Do they just sign some papers? Your witnesses just sign your marriage certificate. We only had 2. Check with your WC because I heard somewhere that your witnesses couldn't have the same last name. I don't know if this is true because it wasn't an issue for us. Your wedding can be as simple or extravagant as you want it to be. You wouldn't have to plan anything ahead if you don't want, as long as your an easy going bride! The resort is fully prepared to take care of your wedding without you doing everything yourself. Good luck planning! Well said! The important thing is that you enjoy your day. I did very few things for my wedding. We went with the basic free package on everything. It was also easy for me to do extras because we only had 30 guests. If we had even 50, my budget would have not allowed for all that I did. The only reason to bring stuff down with you is if you want something personalized or very specific. I know it seems overwhelming, but just take a deep breath and relax. I had some frenzied moments during planning, but my wedding day was clam and relaxed. There were a few minor details that were overlooked, but my guests had no clue. The main thing is to enjoy yourself!

Oh wow! Your wedding was gorgeous! You were a beautiful bride! I can't wait to see your pro pics!

Another thing to consider is that you cannot bring your bouquet back across the US border. Most bridal bouquets here and abroad are $100+ depending on the flowers that you want. I didn't see the point in spending hundreds of dollars on flowers that we had to throw out. Now I have my bouquet and a BM bouquet as a keepsake. Also, if you want specific flowers, like calla lilies, they can be really expensive. Sometimes it is cheaper to DIY or have them done in a high quality silk

Yea Amanda! I can't wait to hear all about it and to hear what happened at CSA! At least it was a trip you will never forget!

Congratulations Stephanie! Wake up and post some pictures! LOL

Congrats! Have an amazing trip!

Congrats! Having your own house feels fantastic. My dining room is still filled with boxes. I have sorting piles of stuff everywhere in the rooms we don't use. THe best advice is to take it one room at a time. It's really hard to do that, but if you don't, you'll drive yourself crazy!

Those are good tips. You can also eat a dill pickle. They have lots of sodium, but you burn more calories chewing and digesting than are actually in the pickle. I've heard it is because the sweet and sour taste centers on your tongue are right next to each other. My grandma's doctor told her that when she was diagnosed with diabetes.

I know it's crazy! I kept going through them thinking there had to be at least one... I have one more person to try to get pictures from. Maybe we can do anniversary pictures or new family pictures when we get teh puppy.

That too bad Kelly! It just means that house isn't for you. Now you get to be nosy and find a better one!

Thanks girls. I think I'll probably just stick with what I've got. I don't really have any to post that aren't already here *see link in my siggy As I said, I do like our photos and some are really good, it's just the ones that are missing. We seriously have no photos together that don't have someone else in them and none that are full length. We're toasting or eating or caking or something! I think we only have 2 of the entire bridal party. We did get some good pictures through out the week and about 4 on the beach one night when we attempted the TTD, but nothing from our wedding day in our wedding clothes. We had to stop because it was dark and my foot felt like it would fall off. At our AHR, she didn't get a picture of our first dance! I've e-mailed her and asked her for all of the remaining photos, un-touched, even if they are bad, just so I can see them and maybe do something.

CSA was completely booked the day of our wedding. I think there were 8? I never saw any other brides! It's really not an issue. We had plenty of time, even starting 15+ minutes late because of rain. We got the time slot we wanted and had the garden available for a private cocktail reception. If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me.

I love this show! I'm excited for the new season, even though I haven't watched yet. I missed last season and it got to the point where it would be too hard to catch up without a marathon.

I didn't perforate. We didn't do an RSVP so I didn't see the need to do the extra work. Most people that I know just stuck them on the fridge as a whole. I did have some trouble with the barcode but don't remember how I fixed it. It might have something to do with the font if you aren't using one that is standard on your computer.

I've got a big problem with my pictures. The ones that I have are really good, it's the ones that are missing that I am having a HUGE problem with. The back story: I have a close friend who is a professional photographer. Some of her work is absolutely amazing! She had never done a DW before, so we made an agreement with a signed contract, that she would shoot my E-pics, DW, and AHR all for only the cost of travel. (approx $2000) It also really helped that she was able to room with my mom so neither one had to pay for a single room ($3775 per room). Most of my pictures I really like. However, in the midst of all the wedding day hustle, we have ZERO, NON, NADA posed pictures of the BRIDE and GROOM! There are some candid shots of the two of us and things like the toast and cutting the cake, but that's it. We were going to do some TTD pics the next day together, but I sliced my foot open that morning and I couldn't walk in the sand or go in the water. (I did a TTD alone prior to the wedding in my TTD dress) It makes me so sad when I see other people's fantastic photos of the B&G together. I know that we will never have the opportunity to take those photos again. I really wanted something to pass along to our children. She was delayed in getting to the AHR, so we didn't have the opportunity to take pictures together there either. I think it threw her off her game, because my AHR pictures are less than the best, part of the reason why I haven't posted them. I get teary just thinking about the fact that these moments are gone and I certainly can't afford to re-create them! I haven't even sent out Thank-Yous yet, because I had planned to do photocards and now I have nothing to work with. *I'm going to get plain ones this weekend and just deal. I know they need to go out! I haven't started on our photobooks, because I'm so upset. I've asked all of the family to please send me all of their pictures, so hopefully I can piece something together. So, what do I do? Accept and move on? Hire another photo and get all dressed up and take photos somewhere else locally? DH hates having his picture taken, so I don't know that he will go for this. And, it's not the beach setting so the pictures won't really go with everything else we have. I'm confused and pouty. Part of me is really angry that I didn't go ahead and write out a specific photo list, but we discussed photos that I wanted before and I feel that being a professional photographer who has done many, many weddings, she should know to get pics of B&G together!

OMG! Alyssa I love them! I just cried through half the sideshow! You both look radiantly happy. All of your hard work really shows in the details.

I had lots of Blue! Starfish, undies, matching cocktail rings with BMs, and initals on my shoes.

I'd go with a Garden Verandah or Beachfront Verandah. The rooms are all basically the same layout and have the same amenities, so you really can't go wrong. We were in a GV suite and I preferred it to the beachfront. We could still see the ocean from our patio, as well as one of the ponds on property. My dad stayed on a BFV and it was on a corner, so people had to walk past their room. It wasn't very private IMO. TA Jennifer did a fantastic site review in the Couples thread that includes pictures. Be sure to check it out. If you have any other CSA questions, feel free to ask!