Agape Gems

Quote: Originally Posted by NYJen I'm with Rachel, I'm now obsessing over my pics. I constantly look at my non-professional pictures and my 7 teasers from Juan Carlos. I'm not only obsessed with looking at them, but I am also obsessed with people's reactions and feedback. I need a new hobby. I 2nd that! I've even resorted to rearranging the photos in my shutterfly account into albums according to which part of the wedding day they are- before the wedding, the wedding, and after the wedding. I told my DH I did it so that when i get ready to make the photobooks it will be easy to sort thru the photos but it was really just an excuse to go thru all 500+ pics that my guests uploaded. We already bought a house and we don't plan to have kids so I'm totally bored. My only saving grace is that I'm designing some bridal/BM jewelry for some of the girls on here.

Quote: Originally Posted by DanielleNDerek does it look stupid or cheap to pay for half of their dress? Absolutely not! I think they will appreciate anything! I'm a BM in a DW this fall in Belize and the bride bought our dresses which has helped me out. Even though the dress was only $110, that's now money I can use towards her shower, bachlorette, gift, ..... or whatever.

WOW! I want an excuse to have Sarah make me something! Your guests are going to be blown away!

I gave my girls swimsuit cover-ups with their names embroidered and I made barefoot sandals and earrings to match their dresses. Do a search for Bridesmaid gifts or BM gifts and you will find tons of ideas.

I think 1 and 2 are the most flattering, and I think the detail on #1 is amazing so I vote for #1. I wouldn't worry about the TTD. I used my real dress and it was fine afterwards. I just soaked it in the bathtub overnight to let all the sand fall off, then I hung it to dry in the closet and when i got home a week later i took it to the dry cleaners. The lace and beading look like new! Just don't jump in the pool if your dress is not white (chlorine!!).

congrats! Have a wonderful time!! It goes by so fast so try to soak up every moment!! Tell Jason (young bartender) at the Lobby bar that TK and Courtney say Hi!

Quote: Originally Posted by msasfraz thanks ladies... i was kinda worried about the verbiage...ill remember to put the kiss in... twelvepiece do you happen to still have the template for your post card... i think i will do something like that rather than a brochure b/c my guests will only have one Free day to do as they please...... Which postcard are you referring to? I had one that was the welcome letter on one side and then a timeline on the back and then I had a postcard that was a photo share card. You can see pics of both in my planning pic thread (link is under my siggy) and I did them both at Vista Print.

Can you bump this post on the 15th (Pay day) I would love to help you out but I'm broke until the 15th.

Quote: Originally Posted by MoWife I confess that I kind of got fired today. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, one of my students was totally out of control and I had to chase him around the school building. It was one of many incidents with him including him attacking me and other students. He needs psychological help and more than we can give him at school. I had finally had it on Thursday and I told the principal and child study team that if they didn't send him to the crisis unit that I would call the cops and press charges for assaut and the cops would take him to crisis. Well, they didn't send him to crisis but they sent him home and suspended him for two days. I got called into the principal's office at the end of the day today and got told that my contract for next school year is not renewed and that the superintendent said since I feel so unsafe I should not come back to work to finish out this year either. However, they are paying me for the rest of the year. I can't believe they would rather let me go then send a kid who obviously needs it to go get help. They paid $10,000 in tuition for me to go to grad school this year so they must have saw something in me and thought I was worth the investment since only 4 people in the district were selected to go to this program and have the district pay for it. Mo, this sounds like a blessing to me! You don't need or deserve to work in that type of setting without having the support of the administration. Keep your head up and take this opportunity to find something that you can truly enjoy.

Happy Planning!!

Dress #1!!! It is so beautiful on you and the fact that you don't need alterations is a double bonus! And even though they are in the same price range, I think the 1st one looks much more expensive than the 2nd one.

Ours also had a king bed and small sitting area with love seat. Here is a pic:

Love Love Love the gazebo pic! Congratulations, you were a beautiful bride!

I was paranoid about that too so I used a parasol to block my face until right before I walked down the aisle, but later FI said the palm trees were blocking his view anyway.

Quote: Originally Posted by msasfraz question for twelvepiece.... i saw on another thread where you prepared and provided your ceremony verbiage for the minister.... how did this go over? did he follow what you provided or was their a deviation to what you provided to him? just concerned on how much input i would have to get the idea of what we want said.... He read everything word for word. The only thing he added was the stuff at the beginning about if anyones knows any reason these 2 cannot be legally wed, speak now or forever hold your peace... and then you may kiss the bride (don't know how i left that out!!) I also didn't put anything in there about Who gives this bride away so he didn't ask that and I felt kinda bad cuz that was my dad's only role in the wedding but I guess the minister thought I might have left that out on purpose. Overall it went fine. I also put our names in bold face everytime they appeared to make sure he called us by the correct names. You won't get to speak to him ahead of time, so just be sure that everything is written out exactly as you want it said. And the minister gets there like 5 minutes before the start of the ceremony so there isn't really a lot of time for the groom to brief him either.

We only had one child in our group- 18 months- and she was too young for the kids club/daycare service they offer. I never saw that many kids at the daycare place, but my room was on the other side of the resort. Its right inbetween the plantation restaurant and the Spa. There is a playground that is fenced in and some picnic tables that are under a cover for shade. I know that's not much help, sorry!

Quote: Originally Posted by Ellipse22 I emailed as well and got the same response as you did from Valeria. I have a few questions about flowers & cakes and didn't want to wait until 2 months prior to the wedding to make certain decisions. I did find some pics here of flowers but nothing on the cakes. Hang in there! This was my free cake. I brought the flowers from home (silk) and asked Chandlyn to have them placed on the cake. I had a choice of white or chocolate cake, i chose white cake and it had a strawberry and cream filling. My cake was 3 layers but some girls have had 2 layers. I don't know what the deciding factor is- maybe your guest count... I had 25 and it was enough for everyone. As for flowers, Tai Flora does all the flowers and they are VERY slow to respond and the prices are quite high- IMHO. The flowers in my siggy are bouquets that I asked them for price quotes on and they were all between $100-$300.

I think it's good to give people something tangible to remember to "save the date". I always post them on my refrigerator so that I think about it on a regular basis. Plus, I think for DWs, the STD is more like the official invitation b/c people need to start making plans far in advance to attend. It's not like they just need to block out a saturday. And there are tons of ideas on here for creative and inexpensive STDs. Just MHO though.

Hey you arrived the day I left. Everything looks beautiful and ya'll look so happy together! Congrats

Your TTD dress is so pretty in the back! I like that the front is simple and then the back is like WOW!

Locals there told us that the crime has gone way down over the past few years b/c the gov't has changed and also the increased tourism has provided jobs to those who otherwise would have resulted to criminal activity. We didn't have any problems off the resort.

I'm sure it's b/c she is overwhelmed, especially with it being high wedding season at the moment and she doesn't have any help. I don't know when she has time to respond to emails at all! When i was there I saw her leave every night at 11pm or later and then she was back the next morning at 9am. It could also be that your wedding is a year away and policies, etc may change by next April so maybe she is reluctant to confirm details this far in advance If you already know where you want your reception and its somewhere other than Mammee Bay (which is where all wedding receptions are automatically booked for) you might just email them back and make that specific request.

That really sucks... I'm sure the images are burned into his brain though!!! I hope you can get a replacement, i'll keep my fingers crossed for ya.

Quote: Originally Posted by Rainfall thanks for all your comments. I didn't even think about what day we were flying in. I would ideally want to arrive a couple days before the wedding and have time to set up and what not and have my quest fly in the day of or day before. But they all want to fly in together. I really would want it on a mon-thur but Jan 22 is my fiance birthday and he really wanted it on that day.. well see what happens Thanks again! I would be really nervous about guests flying in the day of, flights get delayed and canceled and the ride from the airport is unpredictable, not to mention that a day of travel is quite tiring. Just mho

Have a fabulous time Lizz! Enjoy every moment, every ocean breeze, and every pina coloda