SunBride

Good luck to all upcoming brides, there are several active members leaving soon! Wishing you a wonderful wedding and great vacation. Make sure to post your pictures and reviews when you get back!

I think they look absolutly BEAUTIFUL! Great job. If I had to make a suggestion, I would probably say that they are a little on the large side. I would suggest taking out the burgandy stuff at the top and just keep the little bit of burgandy on the side. That will also give a little more attention to the lily and the orange at the bottom which I think is just beautiful. But that's just a suggestion, I think it looks amazing just as it is!

There are two welcome letter templates posted on page 1 under the member contributions section. You have to go download them from the link provided as they were too big to attach to this thread.

Just wanted to post this for any Ottawa ladies thinking about boudoir photos. I had my boudoir session yesterday with Bella Stella Ottawa Wedding and Boudoir Photographer - Bella Stella Photography and it went super well! Julie is so great to work with, she is very friendly and easy-going but also she is extremely professional and will be as discreet as you want her to be. She also knows her stuff very well, she was very particular about lighting and had a bunch of equipment with her to make sure the lighting was right, and she has tons of ideas for poses. Overall, she definitely surpassed my expectations. Based on my experience so far I would highly recommend her to everyone. The best part is her prices are FABULOUS! I did a marathon session and it was 100$ for a 1 hour session in a nice hotel suite, 4x6 copy of all the best images, private website to view your images, and a CD of web resolution (approx 4x6) of all images and a 25$ print credit. A photobook was an extra 150$ (125$ using print credit). If you do a regular (non-marathon) session in her home it's 150$, but you get 2 hours so more photos and the extra time will allow for more outfits. Also the print credit is 50$ instead of 25$. She's gotten very busy lately as a result of being mentioned on the cdn forum Weddingbells, so if you are interested you should book her soon. ************** Oh yeah, and she does Destination Weddings too, I saw on her site she charge 750$ cdn plus travel costs and that includes an engagement shoot and TTD!

I love your hair. It's how I wanted mine done, although my stylist didn't quite get the curls right, mine were more tight, not as loopy as I wanted.

Thanks for all the compliments ladies! I am happy to hear it has been helpful. I must admit I feel somewhat like a looser with no life doing a planning thread now, when in fact the truth is I was procratinating on all the important stuff I should have been doing yesterday Quote: Originally Posted by Soon To Be Mrs. Gomez Thanks for sharing. It's okay if it's late. It has given me ideas. I love the cup idea. Was it good for cold and hot beverages? Yes the mugs can be used for hot or cold but they just won't keep the temperature as long as a better qualit mug. Quote: Originally Posted by ~*petals*~ Great planning thread!! Can you share the template for the mugs? I found those same mugs at our local Dollar store but had not yet started the trial-and-error of fitting the template. I don't have a template, like I said I just went trial and error. But I can see what I have tonight and post if it's worth sharing. If you have the insert that came with your mug the trial and error process is really not that bad (especially if you don't mind if some of the image you are using gets cut off, which was the case for the image I used) Quote: Originally Posted by mummergirl i can't believe you did that much wonderful stuff with only 4 months to plan your whole wedding! inspiring! and as a fellow procrastinator, i will do my best to take your advice and try not to leave things for the last minute ... i would hate to be running on empty already when i arrive in mexico! Yes we were only engaged 4 months, I spent the first month and a half choosing a resort and looking for inspiration online, then I shifted into DIY mode for the remaining 2.5 months. I spent so much time shopping as I am a very thrifty person and didn't want to spend a ton. But at least with only 10 guests it made it a bit easier for the DIY stuff. My plan was to have NOTHING left to do one week before departure. I had a timeline set out with deadlines for all the different projects. But a few things fell behind. I had told myself whatever wasn't done a week before wasn't getting done at all. I really wish I had stuck to that. Quote: Originally Posted by misskaytee awesome thread- I would LOVE to know how you made your invitation (or was it STD?) with the vellom overlay- i loved that! They were so easy. I just printed the background picture on cardstock (had it printed at Staples as I didn't want to use the work printer more than necessary). I was able to fit 2 per page. Then I printed my info on vellum overlays (again 2 per page, side by side). I had to use a lazer jet printer for this because with my ink jet it would smudge, so I did it at work. Then I just punched 2 holes in the top and tied a ribbon! I also used a piece of vellum tape at the top to keep the layers from shifting apart. This was not necessary but I already owned the vellum tape from scrapbooking projects. Do not use regular 2 sided tape because you can see it through the vellum.

Info on the T-shirts Making these shirts was hell, due to the fact that I used dark shirts. I really didn’t want white shirts. Based on my experience, I would highly recommend using white shirts (or at least pastel colors). Read below for more info. Also I spent so much friggin time shopping for nice but cheap golf shirts, as well as tank tops that had thick straps (as my MIL and probably SIL would not have been comfortable in spaghetti straps) but were not ribbed (you can’t use a ribbed material with iron-on transfers). Also I spent lots of money on the transfers because the first round I made, the logos were too small, the 2nd round, I forgot to flip my image (you have to make it backwards so that it’s the right way after being ironed on) so I ended up having to print them all 3 times! Also, you need to use an ink jet printer (otherwise the ink doesn’t stick to the transfers), we only have a lazer printer at home so I had to do all this at work with people watching! (note: staples will not print onto iron-on transfers) I bought Avery brand iron-on sheets from wal-mart. They also sell them at staples. The final problem I had was that the back of the iron-on sheets would remain white-ish colored when ironed on the shirt, so it looked crappy. If my image had been less detailed, I could have cut around the edges of the image and all would have been fine. But I couldn’t do that around my small text and the palm tree. Here is what I mean about the background being whitish (I found it looked like a piece of packing tape!) So what I did to make it look better is I put the iron directly on the logo (without the paper that you are suppose to iron on top) and it melted it and make it more transparent, but it also smeared the logo and got the black ink all over the iron. The logo was not only smeared, but also turned grey rather than black since the iron picked up the ink. It made it hard to read the writting. Overall, it wasn’t really worth putting the logo. Would have been better with white shirts. Here is how it looked after I melted it by putting the iron right on the logo (note that this is the nicest ones, some of the others were much more blurred. I would not recommend doing this) I also wrote everyone’s titles on the back. I also did this by printing the words on the sheets and then cutting them out. But once again it looked crappy because of the whitish background. So I ended up buying letters at dollarama. It was so much simpler this way, but the downside is that I didn’t like the font, I thought it was ugly. By using the sheets and printing my own words I could use any font and any size I liked. Again, if I had used white shirts it would have been better as I could have printed my own words and ironed them all and it would have looked great. Dollarama letters Titles with dollarama letters For myself and the bridesmaids, I also put the titles with rhinestones on the front After all this work, I must say it was pretty cool for everyone to wear their shirts on the departure day. I gave them to my husband’s family when we met up with them in Toronto and they changed in the washroom. Overall though it wasn’t really worth the hassle and the cost. Although the colored shirts were nicer than white would have been, using white shirts would have made my life so much simpler, and really, it wasn’t that important seeing as people only wore them for half a day, and then never wore them again (okay, not completely true because the women wore them again for ours “girls night” i.e. sorta bachelorette party at the resort) Conclusion / Recommendation: If you use colored shirts, buy premade letters / designs, do not make your own using the iron-on sheets because the background will be whitish (unless your logo is simple enough that you can cut perfectly around it) OR Use white shirts, and then you design whatever you want and use the iron-on sheets you can purchase at wal-mart or staples.

Info on the mugs I made: I decided to make my own because ordering them from Discount Mugs was too expensive for my small order (10 only). I searched a lot for places that sold mugs with insert, at the time Oriental Trading Company was the cheapest for me, but recently other brides have found them at Dollar Tree (U.S.) and I’ve seen them at Dollarama (Canada) so they would be much cheaper to make. Note that the mugs from Oriental Trading Company are not actually insulated mugs (I don’t think the dollar stores ones are either), they look like the insulated ones but really they are more like a plastic cup with a lid. So they won’t keep your drinks as cold as a good quality insulated mug. Also the OTC mugs, the drinking hole at the top is not covered (see below). I decided to laminate the inserts because I was worried that the mugs would leak and the inserts would get ruined. So the mugs cost me 2$ each + taxes & shipping (so more like 3,50$ each, but would be a bit less if you have a bigger order since the shipping costs don't increase quickly) Printing the inserts at Staples was 50cents each and then laminating them at staples was 1,50$ each(had to go home and cut them first, so that the seal from the lamination would be around the edge). So total cost about 5$ each which was half the price of discount mugs for me (because I was only ordering 10, it was going to be about 10-12$ each). Also you could make them for cheaper if you buy your mugs at dollar store (or have a larger order from OTC to cut down on shipping costs) and if can print at home and laminate them at home or work. ***The clipart image I used for the mugs (and others too) can be downloaded here*** http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t22111 OTC mugs: To make the inserts, I just made an image in photoshot on a regular 8.5x11 sheet, then I would print it and place the white OTC insert on top and trace. If anything important from the image was cut off, I would adjust the image and reprint. I probably had to do this a few times before everything fit nicely. Once I had a template that worked I just had to change the text. I traced the inserts using the white OTC insert and cut out my inserts. Once again, the final mugs:  

NEWSLETTER (see all below) GAZEBO SET-UP INSPIRATION (Side note, most of you have seen this in my review by now, it looked fabulous, in fact, so much that since my wedding almost all the brides have been asking for the similar set-up at Dreams Tulum!) I wasn’t a fan of the regular gazebo set-up at Dreams Tulum so I bought a bolt of turquoise tulle (5”x40 yards) from idearibbon .com and brought it down there and showed them these inspiration pictures on how to decorate the gazebo. I also asked for something like this along the sides of the aisle (this is what a friend of mine had done for her DW) I also bought a roll of small tulle (6”x 25 yards) also from idearibbon to do chair bows (the resort has bows available but I wasn’t sure if they would have the right color so for the price it was better to bring this and be sure) I also attached flat pins to the backs of starfish and brought them down to put on the chairs with chair bows. I used the same pins as above for the starfish bouts (but bigger ones). Some of the starfish were very concave in the middle and the pin wasn’t touching enough so I glued a piece of felt onto the starfish and then glued the starfish onto the felt.  

INVITATIONS DIY AHR INVITATIONS DIY OOT BAGS The siblings got the turquoise bags and the moms the brown/yellow ones. LUGGAGE TAGS DIY: Made with kits from dollarama (5 tags for 1$). MUGS DIY *See detailed info below

CAKE TOPPER DIY: Real Touch flower with charms from walmart BUBBLES Bought the bottles at Dollarama, cut the ugly dove off the top and decorated with ribbon and starfish gems (also bought at OTC) FANS Bought them from Oriental Trading Company and decorated with ribbon and starfish gems (also bought at OTC) CENTERPIECES RING DISH (This is actually a souvenir my friend gave me several years ago from her trip to Cabo!) JUST MARRIED BIKINI Made it myself using iron on letters from Walmart JUST MARRIED CARDIGAN Made it myself using iron on letters from Walmart

MY FLOWERS Real touch flower stems assembled by my aunt who is a florist mine bridesmaids Groom’s Bout: Moms’ Corsages: Hair Flower: DAD STARFISH BOUTS DIY:: Spray painted some sugar starfish white and glued some ribbons and a flat pin on the back!

MY VEIL Bought off Ebay for 75$ (I was so happy because in stores, all the Swarovski crystal edged veils were like 200$, and I couldn’t find a used one like this, and it took me forever to find one on ebay that was just what I wanted) MY SHOES The Shoe Company wore them until I reached the “aisle” and then slipped them off to walk down the aisle barefoot. Put them back on for pictures around the resort and for dinner MY DANCING SHOES I had a lot of trouble finding some that my feet would be well strapped in, because we had a choreographed first dance (In the end we didn’t even end up doing the dance till the AHR) JUST MARRIED FLIP FLOPS They didn’t work in the sand at Dreams Tulum BRIDESMAID SHOES MY NECKLACE Made by a friend BRIDESMAID NECKLACES Bought them at Xcetera for 10$ (they are obviously not real silver but I didn’t care, they were just to wear that day) MY PURSES I found the second one after the wedding and liked it way better than the first so I bought it for my AHRs

Okay so I didn’t do a planning thread before the wedding. At the time I wasn’t on the forum nearly as much as I have been in the past year, in part because, well I planned the whole wedding in just 4 months. Also I was a little pressed for time (as most brides are!) and only finished packing 2.5 hours before leaving for the airport (so yes, only an 2.5 hours of sleep! In fact I had only slept 1.5 hours the night before that, and a total of 12 hours in the 4 days before leaving! Learn from my mistake and don’t leave stuff till the last minute!). By the time I returned I guess I was just too focused on my photos to think about doing a planning thread. Since then I’ve really regretted not doing one. I see other people’s threads and I really wish I had as it can be so helpful for future brides. So I figured, what better time (well, other than before or right after the wedding of course) than on my one year anniversary. It’s been a nice trip down memory lane I wish I could go back in time and do it all over again. At this point you have all seen all my stuff in my photos but who cares. Plus I have included some info as to how I made some of the DIY projects so at the very least that will be helpful. Of course you can see how it all turned out in my siggy link. MY DRESS Mori Lee 2820 I didn’t want to have the long train on the beach so I had it cut off, and all the extra material was used to make a short detachable train (it attached under the top 2 chiffon layers, at the butt and hips). MY BRIDESMAID DRESSES Sears Catalogue 80$ (My SIL found the dress and I was really hesistant about ordering it because it looked like wrinkled cotton in the picture, I didn’t think it was formal enough, but it was much nicer in person and a beautiful chiffon material) MY MOM’S DRESS Bella Formals Bridesmaid dress # 943605 I picked it out for her and I LOVED it. TRASHING DRESS Bought at Fairweather (Didn’t even end up wearing it because on my wedding day the bottom of my dress got a bit wet and was totally fine so I decided to due TTD with my real dress) MY ENGAGEMENT RING OUR WEDDING BANDS my wedding band FH’s (on my hand!)

Quote: Originally Posted by tylersgirl I found these: Office Depot Brand Clear Laminating Pouches Luggage Tag With Loop 5 Mil 2 1 2 x 4 1 4 Pack Of 25 by Office Depot The price is for a pack of 25 I was just at Winners next to the st-Laurent one an hour ago and I stopped in to see if they had any, sure enough they are sold out. If you live around that area, there is also a dollarama at Elmvale (walkley and heron). I think I have one leftover pack (i.e. 5 tags) but that probably doesn't help you much. I will keep on the lookout for you if I go to any other dollaramas in the city. Luckily you still have several weeks.

Have you checked all the dollaramas around? I know sometimes they are hard to find in the stores as they put them in weird places. I can check out the dollaramas that I usually go to in the next couple weeks if you want.

Quote: Originally Posted by Lindz RoryS- Where are these updated pictures? I tried to go and look at them and couldn't find them. Do you know where they are? Thanks!!! She is a member of the Dreams Forum (on the Dreams website) she posted the photos there, I just went to find the link to the album for you guys, here you go: bb and Leopardo Dreams Tulum LIVE pictures, photos, and videos, from vacations on webshots

Reading your initial post I totally agreed with you it was unfair for your parents to tell you this was a gift to you. But at the same time, I think I would be greatful that they paid for your sisters, because at least it ensured that they were there. Plus they paid for you too, so yeah, although that means all 3 of you are on an equal footing (you all got a free trip) and on the one hand you didn't really get anything special (i.e. different from your sisters) as a wedding gift, on the other hand it was helpful to you that they paid for you and your sisters so it could definitely count as a gift (but they should not rub in your face that they paid for your sisters!) But then after reading about how rich they are, well, if I was in your shoes I would definitely be POd about not getting a seperate gift. I don't want to be greedy, but like you said, basically they paid for a trip for all 3 kids, and for your sisters it's just a freebie but for you it's suppose to count as a wedding gift? Doesn't seem very fair if they can more than afford to get you something else.

If you don't want to pay for the open bar, your guests can probalby just walk to any of the resort's regular bar and bring their own drinks back. However, like the other ladies said, if you want to have a special service offered (i.e a bar set-up just for your group) then it does kinda make sense they will charge you extra for that service. If you want to have a cocktail hour after your ceremony, why not just tell all of your guests to meet up at one of the resort's bars for drinks, rather than paying extra for a cocktail hour. Of course that means that other resorts guests would be aloud to join in too...

Quote: Originally Posted by MajikDreams I find it useful, Sunbride - I was curious to see who else is getting married at the same time I was =) Thank you! Yes I will definitely keep the list of the dates, I just wonder now that there are so many brides is it still usefull to have all the other details posted like ceremony/reception location, times, photographer, etc. Do people take time to look at the list regularly to see what the other future brides are doing.

Just wanted to let everyone know that the bride lists got updated on Sunday, so everyone's info should be up to date except wisconsinbride. I'm just curious, do you guys find it usefull to have the detailed bride list with all the future brides info? In the past month alone we had like 20 new brides so it takes a bit of time to do the updates. I was just wondering if people actually look at that to see what the other future brides are doing. I will for sure keep updating it for the past brides as I think it's helpful to know what info you can find in the reviews, but I'm just unsure as to whether people actually look at the info for the future brides.

wow, I'm sure lots of ladies will appreciate this! I know several of the Dreams Tulum ladies have used him recently and the reviews are always very positive.

Quote: Originally Posted by Seahagamy Happy Anniversary Sunbride....can you believe it's been a year already! Hope you 2 have a great day together. No I cannot believe it! Well it some ways I can and in some ways I can't. I want to go back in time and be in DIY project mode again! It was so much fun. I also want to go on another big family vacation, no luck convincing the others yet, but hopefully eventually we do it again. Thanks for the wishes!

I don't think it's a problem if they aren't going on her website. Also, you said they won't show anything a bathing suit wouldn't show. So I don't think it's a problem at all.

Quote: Originally Posted by Denise L A couple of last minute questions: 1. are the wedding coordinators in charge of playing the music for my BM's and myself as we walk down the aisle? I don't want to have one of my guests do it. 2. There is no charge for a rehearsal correct? 3. I have read the order of ceremony on page one, my FI and I have written our own vows but, will they still use something standard for us when we exchange the rings? 1) The resort provides somebody to play the music 2) don't think so but maybe somebody else can confirm 3) you should specify to them how you want to fit in your vows/ring. In my case, we said the "i do" parts of the civil ceremony, and then we said our own vows while exchanging our rings.