SunBride

The reason the resorts charge for the wedding meal is because it is a challenge for them to coordinate a meal for such a large group. So in that sense it's a service charge. Think of it this way : normally the guests come into the restaurants in groups of 2 or 4 or so and get seated and served. Now you are showing up like 30 people or more all at once, you want to be seated together, and it's your wedding so you want fabulous service. Obviously they have to chage for this as it is extra work for them. It may also in part be a charge to upgrade for fancier food than the regular menu. Finally, sometimes there is an extra charge to close down the entire restaurant to have a private event. Again this seems to make sense to me, as your "all inclusive" package doesn't allow you close down a restaurant whenever you want and have it all to yourselves. Doing this is an inconvenience to the resort as they will piss off their other guests who are disappointed to not be able to eat there that night. At first I agreed with you guys about not having to pay for a wedding dinner, but after thinking all this through I think it makes total sense. In my case, I was allowed to have my wedding dinner free as we were only 10 people and we ate off the regular restaurant menu (they still seated us all together at a special long table, and we had a waiter all to ourselves). At my resort it's free for 10 or less but as soon as you have more than 10 it's considered a group and you have to pay a fee (either 20$ per person just for the service charge, and you eat off the regular menu, or 55$/65$ for a special silver or gold menu). This policy applies to all groups, not just weddings. So even if a big group of friends or family goes on vacation together and expects to show up to a restaurant and be seated all together, they would have to pay the 20$ per person service fee. The only way around it is to split the group up. Usually, resorts offer group / weddings dinners for free if you do it at the buffet, seeing as this does not create as much extra work for the resort as doing it at an a-la-carte restaurant

some girls have gotten their make-up done at the spa and been happy. Check out the info on page 1 (I actually only recently added hair and make-up there like a couple weeks ago).

I used this site to compare them: Compare Dyson Vacuum Cleaners I decided not to go for the 24 based on the fact that the suction is way less. There is also more usefull information on another part of that same website: Dyson Buying Guide and in particular the following paragraphs which cleared up for me about the animal: For example the DC14 All Floors and the DC14 Animal are identical vacuums except for their color. The DC14 Animal model is more expensive because it includes three additional accessories. All Dyson's come with three standard accessories. The stair tool, large brush and the crevice tool. In the DC18 series the large brush and crevice tool are combined into a combo tool. The Animal models are typically the most popular if offered within a series and all animal models include three additional accessories. The mini turbine tool, a floor tool and a carpet cleaning kit. If purchased seperately these three accessories would cost $170. Typically with the animal model you are looking at around a $100 difference between it and the All Floors model. If you like the accessories offered with a particular model there is usually a significant price savings compared to buying the accessories separately. If I have a pet do I need to buy an "Animal" Model? No. When Dyson first started selling in the US they only had two models. The DC07 All Floors and the DC07 Animal. The only way back than to get the popular Mini Turbine tool, which is great at removing pet hair from furniture, was to purchase the Animal model. Now you can purchase the Mini Turbine tool separately for any Dyson upright. So here I was thinking that the animal was totally different, but it's not, it just has different attachments. After all this research I've concluded I think I want the DC18 (aka slim) because the suction power is only a little less but it's smaller & lighter. It doesn't have the ball but they still say it's easy maneuvrable (probably because it's smaller)

Just keep in mind most resorts WILL CHARGE YOU for having a large group at a restaurant, even if it's all inclusive, because it takes special service to feed such a large group. Often the only way to do this for free is to go to the buffet restaurant. Check with your resort.

Quote: Originally Posted by Turtlebaybride And I have no idea what you're talking about complaining about ads, I haven't complained about any ad yet. Unless you weren't speaking directly to me..... I'm sure it wasn't directed at you, there was another thread started about the ads. It was started because somebody purchased the "remove advertisements" feature with their points and was wondering why it wasn't working (the feature is not available for this forum, although still for sale so a few people have used their points to buy it even though it doesn't work). That started a much larger discussion about the advertisements. You can see that thread here http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t27640 Not trying to draw more attention to the thread or get more people complaining about the ads (although I think most people stated that they understood the ads were important) but just wanted to clarify for you (and others reading) why Tammy brought that up.

For those of you saying you want to support the forum, probably the best thing you can do is reffer Tammy's services as a travel agent. This forum helps bring business to her, and we can all help her out on that front by recommending her to the new people on here who may not realize that she's the one supporting this forum.

Quote: Originally Posted by Theresa08 In regards to the photographer, he took great pictures, he just wasn't around long enough. Be specific about what you want and make sure he takes them all. The wedding packages do not mention how long the photogrpahers will be around for so maybe ask Landy as well. Also, not sure what we were thinking, but we didn't tip him up front. We did everyone else, but completely forgot about the photographer. So if you throw some money at him that may help as well. yeah, since you've been gone we have had clarification that the photographers services are for 2 hours. As posted here http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...-30#post510062 I got in touch with them to ask the cost of more hours, and was told that for 6 hours it would be 980$, including 80 photos and no CD and they just further clarified this morning that that price is for somebody using the free wedding package (no photography). Somebody using the ultimate package they would deduct the value of what is already included, which they say is 450$ so it would cost you 430$ for the additional 4 hours of coverage (6 hours instead of 2) and the additional 30 photos (80 instead of 50). They will charge an additional 350$ for the CD. (I think, will update this tonight when I can reread that email, but it was definitely between 350-450$)

the provonias is more flattering it terms of showing off your body. Also I am just not crazy about the look of the first because it looks like a seperate top and bottom, i.e. more like really nice top with really nice skirt. While I like both individual pieces (and love teh top!) it just looks less wedding dress to me since it's not all one style/material/pattern.

Quote: Originally Posted by jarauz Love the table number candles? How did you get them personlized Just printed what I wanted on vellum paper, then cut it to the size of the vases and glued it on. I did a few samples on plain white paper first to get all the writing where I wanted.

Quote: Originally Posted by DanielleNDerek I have to say that is the cleanest/nicest garage I've ever seen. My dad didn't drive a car into it before the party! This is actually a funny story. The DAY I told my dad we were engaged, and thinking about a DW with receptions back home, at the local golf course, dad gets really excited and says "OR..... we could have it in the new triple car garage at the lake! Now wait...I know what you're thinking... you don't want your wedding reception in the garage BUT it will be nicest and cleanest garage ever - brand new, painted all white, and I won't drive a car into it before the party". How could I say no to that? In his speech my dad said "first thing tomorrow all this frilly little tulle is getting pulled down and I'm turning this place into a man's dream garage". Sure enough, he didn't waste any time. He was so excited to set it all up once the party was done!

Quote: Originally Posted by Virg Brings a BIG SMILE to my face to read that you married a down home BATHURST boy! I went to BHS myself for a year, but them we moved to Campbellton - the name should sound familiar, as you would have through it, but it was only 1 exit on the highway 11). My husband actually lived (and his family still lives) in Dunlop, just outside Bathurst. But he went to École Secondaire Nipisguit. I know the area pretty well as I've been there to visit 3-4 times a year for the past 5 years. Quote: Originally Posted by soontobeamrs Oh, the other thing I thought was neat is that your AHR decorations matched your wedding decor! That way it was an extension of your wedding... and people can feel like they're a part of it! Will you post pics of you and your hubby? Did you have your honorary bridesmaids wear something special or how did you honor them? I am trying to figure that out. Did you make your slideshow/video yourself? Yes they all wore matching dresses. Just something they found for 35$ at the mall. I didn't post pictures because, I don't know, thought it would be weird if somebody they know sees the pictures or something! I know I posted pictures from the wedding but that was the wedding, much more important pictures! These are not professional pictures or anything. I only have one picture of me and my husband, with our dog! We didn't bother taking any others as we are wearing our wedding clothes and have a zillion wedding pictures so no point. I will add the pic of our dog to the first page though right now, along with a couple other photos of some of the details. The video is the one in my signature, done by playaweddings.com. The slideshows I did them myself with windows movie maker. Nothing fancy, just very basic. The hard part was choosing only like 100 wedding photos to put in the wedding slideshow! And yes, the decorations were mostly the same, didn't want to spend a lot of money so I reused the same stuff as much as possible. The centerpieces were new, and I had ordered way more tulle specifically for the AHR.

wow, beautiful dress. So perfect for a DW (although I understand your wanting to go with something more traditional since it's your only chance). The mini train is just perfect for a DW too. This dress makes me want to get married again

My dress was in perfect condition after TTD, did not even bother dry cleaning it. After AHR one it has teh smallest mark on it but I wet it and wiped it off. After the 2nd AHR the bottom was quite dirty from the gravel in the driveway (we wantd to have cocktails in the front yard facing the lake, but due to a short burst of rain in the afternoon we had decided to set up the chairs in the back near the garage) but with lots of scrubbing of the hem and some shout and spray and wash stick I managed to get the dress totally cleaned (by hand, no dry cleaning!). Then I sold it to somebody near toronto and CANADA POST LOST IT! (I started another thread about this). Oh well, I had it insured.

Guestbook & gift table Dessert table (My grandma made a cake that looked like a barbie doll! I used to play barbies (yes like 17 years ago!) and my grandpa and her had made me a barbie house, so it was very appropriate. It was so cute because she did the barbie's hair to look like mine, right down to the pink flower in the hair!) All the BBQ and 2 outdoor fridges (3 BBQs and 1 outdoor fridge borrowed. Never would have thought of the fridges but they were crucial and minimized trips inside the house too) My husband and I and our dog! The only wedding picture with our baby Favors (seashell chocolates) invitations The english ones (for AHR 2, the one in the photo is for AHR1) read: X and X are please to invite you to celebrate the wedding of Stephanie and Jean-Yves (details) Table numbers Looked so awesome lit up with tealights. And the vases only cost 1$ at dollarama so overall very cheap Seating plan (with a bit of tulle blowing in the way) My parents put up a bunch of Christmas lights outside, looked awesome (crappy pic! And this was only half the trees) Luckily they did this a few weeks in advance, we never would have had time otherwise.

We get so many wedding reviews posted on this forum but rarely to we hear about how the AHRs go so I thought I would post a “review†of mine in an effort to provide some ideas, inspiration and advice to others! Sorry it’s insanely long (I put littel summary sections for those who just want to read a little bit). I just wanted to give an overview, but as I was writing it I got a bit carried away I guess! I have had full intentions of writing this for a while now (my 2nd AHR was almost 2 months ago) but have been so busy with summer stuff and clearing out all the wedding stuff. As a reminder, we only had our parents and sisters at our wedding. We had invited our closests friends (Best Man and Maid of Honour/bridesmaids) but when they couldn’t come we stopped there and didn’t invite anyone else. So the AHRs were important as an occasion to celebrate with everyone. First of all, yes, you read the title correctly, I had TWO AHRs. We both come from out of town and our hometowns are halfway across the country (Manitoba and New Brunswick). We never would have asked our relatives to come to Ottawa for an event that was not our actual wedding, so there was really no choice but to have two AHRs (or none). We got engaged at the end of November, booked our trips in early January and as soon as that was done I jumped into planning for the AHRs. I took care of the immediately important stuff (i.e. deciding on locations, table and chair rentals), which took a couple weeks, and then moved back to wedding planning for Feb & March. We were married April 1st and when we came back we had 6 weeks before our first AHR and then another 6 weeks before the 2nd. The timing overall was tight, 3 events to plan in 7 months! But at least things were spread out and actually the timing and planning overall worked well. I want to note that during all the lead up to the wedding I was so so happy we were doing an AHR because I felt like it gave me the chance to do all the wedding stuff that we would be otherwise missing out on with a destination wedding, which is in part because we had a really small destination wedding with only immediate family. I really enjoyed dong a ton of DIY projects and planning all the decorating. I want to become a wedding coordinator! If we hadn’t done the AHR I think I would really feel like I missed out on something with just the DW (but this may not be the case for everyone, especially if you spend tons of time planning your DW and have lots of guests). Also I was heart broken about my best friend not coming to our wedding, but the fact that her and my other close girlfriends were going to be honorary bridesmaids for the AHR made me feel so much better about it. It wasn’t the same as coming to the wedding, but at least it was something, and they were totally looking forward to wearing matching dresses and we planned to all get our hair done at the salon and everything for the AHR. 1st AHR It was held at the Gowan Brae Golf Course in Bathurst, NB. I originally wanted to hold it outside in my in-laws huge yard but the only person renting party tents in the area only had a huge tent available (his smaller one was broken) and it was going to cost 1200$ just for the huge tent. So I decided to spend that money on food rather than simply a roof over our head. The cost of a reception at this place was extremely reasonable – dinners were 15-20$ pp and 400$ to rent the room and you have to spend 1700$ minimum between the room cost, dinner, wine and bar. We only had 50 guests so we were able to keep the cost to the minimum (and they are light drinkers). There wasn’t that much planning involved for this one. Once the hall was booked we just had to choose our meal / wine. Other than that there was the decorating of course. You can see that in the pics. Many of the items I used for the wedding and both AHRs, some were bought specifically for the AHRs. I made my own table runners like 2 days before the AHR and I think they were well worth staying up until 1:30am to make! On the day of the AHR me and my SIL spent a few hours decorating the hall and went to get our hair done at a local salon. One of my regrets was that we didn’t have as much time as planned to decorate (got a late start to the day). I really wanted to do the ceiling with tulle and lights but we ran out of time. By the end of the afternoon we were running around like mad women (going back to the hall quickly after our hair, when we were suppose to be going home to get ready) and so I was obviously not at all relaxed when the reception started. But overall the event was very little work except for the few hours of decorating, which would have been fine if I hadn’t slept in! We had a cocktail hour for an hour and a half which was a nice duration because it gave us the time to actually chat a bit with everyone. If you have a large reception even allow 2 hours. You won’t chat much with people during and after dinner so cocktail hour is the right time to do this. We didn’t have an MC for the dinner, it was much more low key than that. A few different people went to the mike at different moments (i.e. welcome words, toast, announcing first dance). The in-laws didn’t want to do speeches (I don’t think it’s something they are used to with their family weddings) and my husband hates public speaking so I was the only one to do a speech which thanked his parents and sister for being so wonderful and supportive during all the planning (they really were, we had no problems like the nightmares I hear from other brides on here!) After my speech we did a wedding presentation, first it was our wedding highlights video, then a slideshow of pictures of us (both growing up and throughout our relationship), then wedding photos, and then pictures from the wedding trip. Each of the three slideshows was to a different song (plus the highlights video to a song) so it was about 15 minutes long. My husband was worried that it was too long but I think it was okay seeing as it wasn’t all the same thing. People loved the video the most. Afterwards we had a dance, no DJ, we just played music from my laptop through a sound system borrowed from a family member. I didn’t think it was worth getting a DJ because I knew with this crowd it would be an early night. We started off the dance by doing a first dance – we had taken lessons and had a dance choreographed. People thought it was great. Many people left after that and so there was only about a dozen people dancing from 9:30pm – 11pm and then it was all over! I knew it was going to end early but it ended even earlier than I thought. Summary first AHR : Anyways, my overall feelings about the reception were that everything went as planned, no problems at all, but yet I didn’t feel like it was that great. I think this is partly because it started on a bad note with us being so pressed for time so I was a bit stressed and partly because it just wasn’t a big party crowd. Probably mostly it was just that my expectations were too high (thinking it would be almost as fun as if it was my real wedding reception) and it was difficult to get back in the wedding mood so it all felt a little anti-climatic. So it was a fun night, but was it worth the 2000-2500$ it cost? Not really. Lucky for us my in-laws paid as their wedding gift to us (only told us a couple weeks before that they were paying) so I am happy we did it. If they hadn’t paid I would regret spending our own hard earned money and wished we had just done some really casual backyard family gathering for like 200$!!! 2nd AHR The second AHR was very different than the first because it was held in my parents backyard and we served the meals ourselves, no caterers, for 70 people. It was way more work, both for the months beforehand as well as immediately before and during the event. This was not just a casual backyard party: we rented actual dishes & cutlery, covered the tables in real tablecloths and served a delicious steak dinner. My parents built a triple car garage just in time for the event (they were going to build it anyways, but now they had to work extremely hard to have it done in the spring instead of taking the whole spring and summer to do it). Luckily my parents did a lot of the work, I only arrived from Ottawa 4 days before the event. I brought all the decorations and stuff like that, but my mom bought all the food and took care of borrowing stuff from the neighbours (BBQs, serving platters, peoples’ garage fridges to hold the food, etc) The party took place 3 months after the wedding, which overall was too long. But the timing worked well for the event because I needed to space out the first AHR and the second one sufficiently. Also we had TONS of out of town relatives for this one (not just within the province but halfway across the country) and it was better to ask them to come during summer holidays. So in retrospect I would not change the timing, it really couldn’t be helped for those 2 reasons, but I would not recommend to others to wait this long. The timing of the first AHR was better (6 weeks after). It cost us 600$ to rent tables, chairs, tablecloths and dishes from Party Stuff / U RENT IT in Winnipeg. Most of the cost was related to the dishes – it seems cheap (i.e. 3$ for a dozen forks) but add up the cutlery (6 dozen of each), wine glasses, water goblets, coffee cups and saucers and dinner plates and it got expensive! We didn’t get caterers because there was none out where we were, so we would have had to get some from the city which I assume would have included some travel related costs. Also we thought it was totally possible to do it ourselves and still have a nice meal, as long as we choose the menu carefully to keep things fairly easy. For the meal we served steak, baked potatoes, carrots, garlic bread and ceasar salad. We tried to choose meal items that could be prepared in advance or outside on the BBQ – I didn’t want a group of women stuck in the kitchen preparing food during the cocktail hour. The steak was obviously the more challenging part (we had 4 BBQs, some making rare, medium, and well done). Chicken would have been so much simpler. But the rest of the menu wasn’t bad (pototes cleaned and wrapped in foil the night before, ceasar salad prepped the night before than just toss with dressing right before the party, etc). For dessert we bought a whole bunch of cheesecakes, mousse cakes and a carrot cake from Costco and Superstore. I am a dessert lover so I wanted a huge selection – it was something I wanted to splurge on. I really wanted a real wedding cake but didn’t want to pay the high cost so we didn’t bother. We saved a lot on alcohol too obviously versus if we had done an open bar at a reception hall (my side of the family are big drinkers compared to my husband’s family!!!) Plus we saved even more because my parents go to the U.S. all the time and buy up to the duty free limit so they had a big supply of booze stocked up from trips in the past 6 months. Also my dad makes his own wine, so we saved a lot of money there too as they are big wine drinkers. We rented sound equipment from a place in the city (Long and McQuaid) for less than 100$ which includes two huge speakers on stands, a control console and a microphone. We also got 2 port-a-poties for 150$. I didn't want to but my parents were worried 2 indoor washrooms wouldn't be enough for 70 people. There was also the issue of mosquitos going into the house every time somebody opened the door to use the washroom (at night when it was dark). Mosquitos are really bad in MB, especially cottage country. My dad set up a sink with running water next to the outhouses, and mom put some soap from Bath and Body works which I thought was hilarious (port-a-potty with bath and body works soap!) So the total cost for the party was about 600$ for the rentals, 700$ for the dinner (500$ of that is the steak!) 200$ for the dessert (10 cakes at only like 15-20$ each!!!), 500$ for alcohol (saved so much because of the homemade wine and the hard liquor and beer all purchased in the US for duty free) and another 300-500$ on random other stuff. So the total cost was somewhere between 2300-2500$. We did a lot more decorating for this AHR than the first, because we had a bit more time, and more help. We did all the decorating the day before. We wanted to have nothing left to do the day off (yeah right, see below!) so that we wouldn’t be stressed. I had a few girlfriends helping me, plus my mom’s friend (my unofficial “day of coordinatorâ€! And later my sister too. But it was crazy lots of work. It was too much to do all in one day, by the end of the day we were exhausted. I had wanted to spend quality time with my girlfriends (these are old super close friends from back home who I only see twice a year) in the evening having fun, playing games, pouring over my wedding photos (which they hadn’t seen yet, I had saved them specifically so we could look at them together) etc but we had no time for any of that L So again, I wish I had allowed more time for these preparations. I thought one day was plenty seeing as we had so many people helping (like 6 woman and 2 men doing the more manly tasks), but considering it was not only decorating, but also table/chairs/dishes set-up, a bit of food preparation (potoatoes & salad), a few other last minute projects I couldn’t bring on the plane (card box, seating plan, wrapping favors) we should have allowed 2 days. We could have split it to do some stuff two days before (i.e. tulle on the ceiling and the railing) and save some of the stuff for the day before (like setting up the rentals which could only be picked up one day before). The decorating looked awesome if I do say so myself (after all it was a garage!) The only thing I wish we had done better was the tulle on the railing and ceiling. For the ceiling, we should have spread out the tulle so that it looked wider rather than all hanging together (i.e. it has a “ribbon†look). We kept trying to pouf it up but it wasn’t working so we gave up. It was 5’ wide but just fell all together and looked so narrow. We should have taken each edge of the end and tied it wide apart to help it look more spread out. Whatever, no big deal. And for the railing we should have swagged it (like the head table) rather than again having the kinda “ribbon†look but whatever. The day of was supposed to be relaxing, not much to do besides our hair appointments and making ourselves beautiful! There ended up being a lot of last minute running around though. I can’t even remember what it all was. I know that some of it is stuff that should have been done the day before but ran out of time (ironing husband’s shirt, writing up label “flags†for all the different desserts, putting the favors on the table). Other stuff was things that had to wait until the day of so there wasn’t much choice (we didn’t think there would be much to do but lots of stuff popped up at the last minute). So the day was crazy. We were so rushed in taking pics with my girlfriends, but luckily the result was great (we were efficient and took several pics in like 15 minutes as the cocktail hour was starting) but still not as enjoyable as it would have been if we had been less rushed. The men started BBQing halfway through the cocktail hour. My dad asked several of his friends to help him out. They did a wonderful job. After dinner and dessert we did speeches by my parents and my honorary bridesmaids. Then we did our slideshow presentation (the same one as the first AHR). My bridesmaids went around (and I think a couple of my teenage cousins) and cleared everyone's plates - we didn't want the guests doing that themselves (luckily we were able to return the rented dishes dirty). Then we ushered everyone outside for about 10 minute as we cleared the middle tables out of the way to create a dance floor. There was a crowd of maybe 10-20 people who danced for a few hours and had a wonderful time. Most other people hung out just outside of the garage chatting and drinking. Most people stayed till around 1am. Everyone thought it was an awesome party, I think it probably really exceedd their expectations. There was so much clean up to do the next day, luckily we had guests stay overnight (at our place and nearby hotel) who helped a lot! But compared to the first AHR where it took us like half an hour to tear it all down and pack it up it was crazy lots of work. I honestly had no energy to deal with it, luckily others helped out and I hardly did any. Another thing that would have made it less work was just going with paper plates and plastic cutlery. Would have saved us from setting up the tables (although they looked beautiful!) clearing plates after dinner (as everyone could have just thrown it all out!) and packing up all the dishes in boxes the next day. At least we got to return them to the rental place dirty though! Really, renting the dishes was not that much work, but it's yet another thing that added a couple hours work before and a couple hours work afterwards. Put all these "couple hour" tasks together and you have a party that was a whole lot of work! Sumarry AHR two : Similar to AHR one, although the party went really smoothly and I it was a great party (definitely a better party than the first since people were dancing, drinking lots and stayed late) I still felt it was a bit anti-climatic. Once again maybe my expectations were too high and it was hard to get into the wedding mood. Mostly I think it’s just not the same when it’s an AHR as your real wedding day. Sure you are less stressed by separating the ceremony and the reception rather than having it all in one big super busy crazy day, but you are also breaking the mood and excitement. I didn’t expect it to be the same as a wedding, but I guess I expected it to be kinda the same and it really wasn’t. Hard to explain! But at least all the guests had an awesome time, they said so over and over again. The other thing is it was just way too much work. Having 2 days to prepare would have made a huge difference. I thought we had allowed plenty of time and had planned for plenty of people to help but it was still too much work and not enough time! Having more people help probably wouldn’t have made a difference. A lot of the stuff has to be done by the people who planned it (in this case me for decorations and set-up, my mom for the food) because sometimes it takes so long to explain to others what to do! So we would have needed more time rather than more help. Also it was not fun to have to deal with the clean-up after. In terms of cost, again if we had paid ourselves I might have felt like it was a lot of money for an event that was not our wedding, but likely a lot less so than for the first AHR as all the guests were very generous with cash gifts. My parents were concerned about an AHR looking like a money grab and one way to avoid this was by putting on a nice party, serving a nice meal, etc. Finally my parents loved hosting the AHR. They agree it was a lot of work but they really enjoyed it and I think it was great for them too to not feel like they “missed out†because their first daughter’s wedding was an AHR. OVERALL CONCLUSION AND ADVICE So the overall conclusion is that I really enjoyed all the planning for the AHRs and before the wedding the AHRs made me feel like I wasn’t missing out on anything by having a small destination wedding. But in the end, the actual events were not as amazing as I was expecting (expectations too high?), we didn’t allow enough time to do the preparations, and lastly, considering the amount that we enjoyed the events, I don’t really think it was worth the costs (approx 5000$ for the two of them, I know not much compared to other people or at home weddings, but still a lot of money – I would have enjoyed myself a lot more using that money for a really fabulous vacation instead!). Just also want to reiterate that everything did go really smoothly and perfectly (besides being stressed with the last minute stuff). If it sounds like I’m being overly negative it’s just because I am focusing on the negatives to try to help others learn from my experience. A few pieces of advice to other DW brides contemplating an AHR: 1) Make an exaggerated estimate of the amount of time decorating and other prep will take, THEN DOUBLE IT. Things I thought would only take half an hour and so I estimated 1 hour thinking it was generous and it totally wasn’t enough. It’s amazing how much time all the little details take, from setting up Christmas lights, hanging tulle, tying chairs bows, etc. So allow yourself 2-3x the amount of time you think you need so that you can finish everything on time and be relaxed. Don’t make the mistake I did (twice!!!) and be stressed when your reception starts. 2) Just do a really casual backyard party (i.e. hamburgers/hot dogs/ chicken, paper plates & plastic cutlery) for very little cost. Obviously other peoples’ opinions may vary on this one, but this is my suggestion based on my experience. If you are somebody who enjoys the decorating and DIY projects like I do you can still do all those for a low-cost party, you don’t have to do a formal or semi-formal event to be able to have fun with planning. I personally would have had just as much fun with two casual backyard partys as I did with our two semi-formal events and for a lot less money (probably like 1000$ for both!). The only problem here is having the event look like a “gift grabâ€. If you know people are going to give gifts, and if you do a really cheap and casual party, then it seems a bit unfair that people would be just as generous as they would on your real wedding, but that they aren’t getting the nice meal and alcohol they would get for a real wedding reception. This was a big concern for my parents. I guess the best compromise would be if you are not spending a lot of money on a nice AHR for your guests, than put “your presence is your gift†on the invitation, so that nobody can feel like it was a “gift grabâ€. 3) Give yourself enough time after the wedding to prepare for your AHR, but not too much time. I think about a month or a month and a half is ideal. Some ladies on here had theirs like 2-3 weeks later and said it was a nightmare, way too soon, too much stress. I had one 6 weeks later (good amount of time) and one 6 weeks after that (12 weeks after the wedding) and for the 2nd one it was too long, I totally was not in the wedding mood anymore (even though I was looking forward to the party. It felt like a party in my honor, but just not a wedding event). UPDATED: WEDDING DANCE!!! ***watch to the end because that's where it gets fun! After the waltz we do a chacha!*** We took private lessons (10 one hour sessions, 500$) to put this dance together. We did it at the first AHR but not the second because my husband sprained his ankle very badly. I was devastated we couldn't do it again. My parents never got to see it, and all my relatives would have gotten a huge kick out of it (more so than my husband's did, although they enjoyed it too). It had always been a dream of mine to "put on a show" for our wedding dance. And I took dance lessons for 12 years as a kid for fun (nothing serious, tap and jazz). So I was really sad. But luckily my SIL caught it on video at the first AHR, although the quality is crappy and we don't have one photo of it! I had to change dresses as the instructors said I absolutely could not waltz in a wedding dress. YouTube - S&JY's wedding dance AHR 1 (Gowan Brae Golf Course) The room Head table One of the tables (Okay, I have to say I love what I did for the table numbers. I got this idea from somewhere on this forum. It’s a little vase wrapped in vellum with our information printed on it. Inside them I had tealights. They looked awesome when light up!) Guesbook table AHR 2 (My parents place, namely in the garage!) Tulle and lanterns around the cottage The garage Head table Close-up of the guest table set-up

why not try the ones on this board? There is a banner at the top advertising their services. Tammy Host generously hosts this forum for us so I figure why not give back to her! (wish I had!)

Quote: Originally Posted by chandrathebride Theresa welcome back, CONGRATULATIONS, and thanks for the information. My understanding was that you had to have 50+ people to have a buffet option...did you pay extra since you had under 50? And can I ask how much you paid per head for the buffet? The price for the buffet is always the same as the price for served meal (20$ for the regular menu, 55$ silver, 65$ gold). Quote: Originally Posted by Theresa08 Since I booked in March, the honored the old wedding guide. It stated ****Buffet style is allowed for groups up to 50 people . **** Landy told us that wording meant over 50 people, but we said that in USA it meant 50 people or less. She called someone while we were there and they said we could do it without paying for the diff of 7 people. Haha, that's funny you called them on that. The wording is definitely not right. I had pointed it out in the info on page 1 as I had heard from others that it is actually 50 people minimum and not "up to 50".

totally sexy! You want to try to tell me that a photo like 54 is not sexy

Thanks for your review Teresa! I will PM you with instructions for posting photos so that you don't have to go look for the other thread (want to make it as easy as possible for you so that we get to see them asap, )

tough question. I didn't really have a reception, and I had about 6 hours of photo coverage (that includes a lot of getting ready time, like an hour at the hairstylist, etc) I received approx2000 photos, but my photographer gave us pretty much every photo she took (deleted a few with blinking). Out of the over 2000 photos, I was able to narrow it down to 700 that I really liked (the rest were mostly duplicates of the exact same or similar photo, as well as maybe 100 photos that I disliked and didn't want to share). Some photographers will do that for you and provide a much smaller amount (having eliminated all the exact and near duplicates). Although initially I was really happy to get them all to choose the best ones myself, it was a crazy lot of work. In terms of what would be an ideal number, I think 500 awesome photos (if there is little duplication) would plenty.

Most of the photographers I researched do give you the high resolution files (aka digital negatives). If they don't, ask them how much they will charge extra, even if it's 500$ - 1000$ it may be worth it depending on what their prices are for prints and how much you expect to do with your photos. I'd also be clear (i.e. threatning! haha) with the photographer that if they don't offer this option, you will go elsewhere as you insist on having the files/negatives.

wow, awesome price! Great find

So you are thinking of flying him from Los Cabos to Tulum? Wow, that will be expensive, as I assume that will add about 1000$ or so on his already high price. But, from what I've seen from the los cabos brides, he seems to be an amazing photographer.

I think the problem with a peony is that it's not only wide (i.e. across or circumference) but also that it's pouffy. So I think those two things together make it too big. I think it's okay to go large if it's flat (like a lily or something similar, i.e. amaryllis like mine, hybiscus, etc) or it's okay to go pouffier if it's smaller, but you don't want to go large and pouffy.

First, it depends what they mean by "low resolution" files. It could be that they are so low that they are only appropriate for viewing on your computer (to choose which ones to order) or it could be that they are good enough for printing 4x6s but not good enough for printing enlargements for framing. Usually the reason the photographer doesn't include the high resolution files is because they want you to order your prints through them because they charge a high price for prints (like 20$ - 100$ for an enlargement. You could get the same thing from a local store for 1-3$, although the quality of the professional ones is better, but for me personally not worth the extremely high price). It's also possible they don't include the high resolution files because then they have to edit all the files, rather than just editing the ones you order from them. but I really think it's more about forcing you to buy prints from them. More and more photographers are starting to give the high resolution files, because they know that's what most clients want. In terms of CD versus DVD, the only noticeable difference is that a DVD can fit a lot more pictures (like 5 times a much, because CD is 700MB and DVD 4.7GB)