~*petals*~

Quote: Originally Posted by yamille Petals your pics are so awesome!! You looked seriously amazing. I agree that it's hard getting back in the swing of things here on my end. *fyi Casey is in Italy on her honeymoon. Thought I would update the May ladies since she started this thread back in the day. high five may brides! Thanks! You looked so tan and pretty and relaxed in your pics! And boy, this week back at work has been tough... not to mention it's been chilly in Chicago. Makes me want to be back in Jamaica like NOW! lol Quote: Originally Posted by mummergirl wow petals! gorgeous ... i LOVE your birdcage veil! you are so lucky to have had SUCH beautiful surroundings for your wedding even in the event of rain--your resort is gorgeous ... i was worried about mine because dreams cancun isn't that pretty indoors, but we got lucky with good weather. i watched other brides get rained out early in the week. congrats!!!!!!! Thanks!! The veil was DIY (with help from a friend) so I am very proud of it. lol And you were so lucky to have such a gorgeous sunny day!

My DH is not what I'd consider a generally *romantic* or lovey-dovey type guy but he has his moments.... :-) I'm at work right now and looking at a post-it note that I saved from him. One morning he had a meeting in a building not too far from my job and decided to bring me some breakfast and leave it at my desk with the little post-it note that says "A little something to start your day. Love, DH" Everybody who was at work before me saw him bring it in and couldn't stop talking about it. lol He knows that I'm a total morning procrastinator and I rarely have time to eat breakfast so it was a special treat.... it was just so cute that he was thinking of me!

Quote: Originally Posted by inunez hmmmm....Petals, did you bring the sand ceremony set back with you? if you did, did you have a lid for the vase where you poured both sand colors? Yeah, I just used a jar like this: Bought on sale at Michael's for about $4. (It's not that one exactly, but something similar, with an airtight cover) Everything made it home perfectly.

What I would do again: Marry DH: it was the most beautiful ceremony & so emotional! (They made him keep his back turned until I got all the way down the aisle so he didn't see me for the first time until I was right next to him, and he got all choked up, to the point of tears) Have a DW: this made everything so special, and the guest list and price were so much more manageable than if we would have had the wedding here. Stay at an all-inclusive: we originally planned to have the wedding on the cliffs in Negril, and have the guests stay wherever they chose. Switching to an AI was one of the best decisions we made Bring my own flowers: I brought down my bouquet, one for the MOH, corsages for the mothers and boutinniers for the fathers. It was no-hassle and everything fit in one (very light) bag. DIY birdcage veil: I was very intimidated by this project at first but LOVE the way it turned out. I had some help from my mom's friend in putting it together but I'm glad I made it instead of spending the extra money to buy one. Sand Ceremony: I was on the fence about doing this but I'm so glad we did! It added a special touch to our ceremony. I DIY'ed this too, with vases from Dollar Tree, a sealable jar and colored sand from Michael's. Steel Drum Band: A few days before the wedding, we decided to switch from having the resort's standard ceremony music on CD in favor of hiring the steel drum band to play for 1 hour. BEST DECISION! We loved having live music at our ceremony. It gave everything a real tropical feel and set the tone exactly how we wanted it. Our family is a mix of American and Caribbean and folks really enjoyed it. They played at all the right points and after the ceremony, they played while everybody got their champagne and mingled... we even did our "first dance" to them as well. Makeup: I had a friend do my makeup for me instead of hiring a makeup artist and she was wonderful. (Her name is Erica Cox & I can put you in touch if you're looking!) She used to work at a makeup counter and did a fabulous job on my makeup. Hair: I'm glad I went to the spa for my updo. They did it exactly how I wanted. Well worth the money. Dress: I'm SOO happy I became a 2-dress bride and didn't wear my 1st choice. The second dress was PERFECT for me. DIY projects: I'm very happy with how they turned out & felt proud that I did them! Photography: Monica Z was AMAZING! The pictures look like they're from a magazine, and I can't wait to show the slideshow at our AHR in July. Once we move, I'm getting a huge print for our house too. The photos are better than I would've imagined! (I wish we would've remembered to get a shot of the entire group of guests together though, but things got a little crazy and I forgot.) Guest list: I really didn't want a big wedding, so I'm happy we kept the guest list down. We budgeted for 80 people and prayed that we wouldn't go over that. We ended up with about 60 people which was perfect! What I would do differently: OOT bags: These were a great idea but we needed a better mechanism for distributing them. We planned to meet everybody at the theatre the night before the wedding but it was too big and too dark to find everybody, so the bags went out piecemeal throughout the weekend. A few people still never received them (these are the bags I gave to DH to distribute to his friends... lol). My friends loved theirs though, and carried them everywhere! Rehearsal dinner: I'd either make everybody RSVP who wanted to come, or limit it to the bridal party only. I reserved a table for 20 for the bridal party and immediate family, but about 32 people showed up. They were seated at all of the surrounding tables, but a few sour grapes were complaining that we weren't given a bigger table that could fit EVERYBODY. Reception: We forgot our placecards at home, right on the kitchen counter! So at the last minute we were scrambling to print out our seating chart and gave it to the ushers so they could put everybody where they were supposed to go. It was a challenge because we did a U-shaped setup, not individual tables. Some people got seated in the wrong place, and a few people were upset that they weren't with their group. But WHATEVER... That was something I would've done differently if I could. Reception entertainment: A few days before we got to the resort, we "listened in" on another wedding reception taking place at the same location. And the DJ was mediocre, but what I really noticed is that they didn't have time to do any dancing because the food service took way too long. So we decided to cancel the DJ ($900) and I set up a 3-hour reggae playlist on my iPod to play during dinner, and we rented the microphone and speaker setup instead. Same thing happened to us: dinner was super-slow so we had great music playing throughout and really just had time for toasts and cake-cutting. If I had to do it over again, I might have structured it a little bit better- a few people were asking me why we didn't have a "first dance" or speeches by the parents, etc. I didn't want to do a bouquet toss or garter toss so I'm glad I got rid of these, but I may have tried to spend a little more time planning out the reception. What I wouldn't do again: Have DH's drunk friend as an usher: He was a frickin mess. He served as an usher with one of my friends, who did everything that the joker didn't do. He hit on her and even fell asleep at our reception. I wanted to strangle him. And to think, DH considered asking him to be our MC! Nuh uh Listen to the complainers: Someone was telling me about the reception seating drama and I started crying. It was just too much at the time. I didn't need to hear about the complainers then (or even now for that matter). We had a beautiful wedding and vacation and I choose to focus on that! Worry about the wedding coordinator: I got really wound up in trying to get answers from her before we got there, and in reality, NOTHING was set in stone until we met her face-to-face the day before the wedding and she wrote everything down on that little sheet of paper.

Congrats to all the May brides! Our wedding turned out great... We got rained out of our original location but loved the rain location just as much. Got some teaser pics from my photographer and LOVE LOVE LOVE them!

Nice, Kathy! You look so happy!!

We had a steel drum band for our ceremony. They played a mix of reggae music and non-reggae as the crowd mingled and got seated. And they played "Here Comes the Bride" when I came down the aisle. After the ceremony they played a nice mix again. It was beautiful and made our wedding really special and unique- our guests (a mix of Americans and Jamaican-Americans) absolutely loved it!

I finally have some nice ring pictures!

The Pez topper is cute! Here's my cake topper. Got it at Michael's the day before we left for the wedding- happy impulse buy!

LOVE LOVE LOVE Dollar Tree! Used them for my centerpieces (square vases, pebbles and shells) ceremony bubbles (including the monogram stickers) and sand ceremony pouring vases!

Girl, you look fabulous!!! You're gonna be stunning for your wedding day!

Cute idea!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Heather0623 Petals: Thank you for all that information, it was very helpful! What did the resort charge you for the speakers and stuff? Do they have an IPOD hookup yet? How was the food? I think we are going to order from the pastafarian. I think it was somewhere around $200 for them to set up the speakers and wireless microphone setup with iPod hookup. I made a nice long iPod playlist of reggae music to play throughout the dinner and it was just fine. My cousin told me he didn't even realize that it was an iPod and not somebody off to the side playing music. We had originally planned to hire the DJ for $900, so I was good with the price. If I had planned out the reception a little more, we might have tried to squeeze in a father-daughter dance, etc. but I think everything worked out just fine, given the timing of everything. By the time all the courses were served and we did speeches and the cake-cutting, our 3 hrs were pretty much over. We gave a "thank you" to the guests and the staff started clearing the tables. Most people went upstairs to the Infinity Lounge for drinks and music then over to the disco for dancing. The food was pretty good- we had beef tenderloin and shrimp as our entrees. Service was just really slow.

Quote: Originally Posted by Taylor-6-19 Petals, Your photos are absolutely gorgeous!! I get married on June 19th and you have helped to put me at ease as I know June is the rainy season. I am glad the spa is just as beautiful. Were you pleased with the U shape setup at the reception? We have about 65 guests and I will most likely go with the U shape but wanted to know how your guests liked it. Congrats!! Thanks! We didn't expect to get rained out, because usually it would just be a downpour and then clear right back up, but of course our wedding day was the exception... lol I've heard that some of the other brides were really heartbroken about the rain but I actually liked the spa setup & thought it was beautiful. I was happy with the U-shape at the reception, but we had some internal drama with our seating (forgot the placecards at home and the friend we delegated seating responsibility to took advantage of the open bar throughout the day and wasn't much help at all.... ). But the guests I've talked to said they enjoyed the U-shape overall. They were generally seated next to some people they knew, but were close to some they had never met, so a lot of different groups got to talk! Quote: Originally Posted by TheGs72509 Has anyone tried to have a meet & greet type dinner for your guests the day/night before the wedding? We would like to have a spot for about 25-30 people. We asked Jacenthyia but her response was vague and sounded like we would have to pay more money per person, similiar to the reception. Jascynthia helped us reserve a table for 20 (for the bridal party & parents, etc.) so that we could have a rehearsal dinner at the Xaymaica restaurant the night before the wedding. She told us we'd have to do a set menu but when we got to the restaurant, the staff told us we could order whatever we wanted from the menu. It didn't cost us anything extra. It worked out well, although about 15 extra wedding guests showed up... we just placed them at all the tables surrounding the huge table for 20.

Welcome home MRS! And date twin! Can't wait to hear all about it. You guys look so relaxed and happy!

Those are too cute, Savannah!

Monique-- I am loving the side ponytail too! Okay, and I just wanna put in my two-cents in favor of the birdcage veil... I did one and I loved it!!!! Here's how my hair turned out on the wedding day: Front Side Back And the veil

For our day-after shots, DH wore some linen pants from Express and a white button-up shirt. He also wasn't thrilled about the idea of wearing clothes in water... but everything came out fine.

Quote: Originally Posted by Scott-Pierre Does your vase come with something to cover the top so u can transport it back home? I have found some really cute vases, but no corks or lids to bring them back home! I had that same issue, so I ended up buying a cheap glass vase at Michael's craft store, and two bud vases from Dollar Tree. (Got the colored sand from Michael's too...) Our vase from Michael's has an airtight cover and our sand made it home intact!

I did fake eyelashes and they were beautiful in the pics (and in person)! I also considered eyelash extensions, but I had never worn fake lashes before so I chickened out...

My wedding was last week and I'm totally on Cloud 9, loving my pictures!!! So, I have to tell you about my fabulous photographer Monica Z! When I first started planning my destination wedding, I knew photography was really important and one of the areas that I didn't want to scrimp on... but I was lucky enough to win a destination wedding photography contest offered by Monica Z Photography! As the contest winner, she agreed to do all-day coverage of our wedding in exchange for travel expenses for her and her husband Chris (her second-shooter). Since I live in the Chicago area (she's based in NW Indiana), she agreed to also do our engagement pictures in Chicago last spring, and they were beautiful! Monica & Chris flew down to Jamaica with us, and gave us all-day coverage of our wedding. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the day: And we also did an awesome day-after shoot! Monica & Chris are a really laid-back couple and our group got along with them really well.. and the pictures speak for themselves! I definitely recommend them for a Chicago-area engagement shoot or a destination wedding!! Her website: http://www.monicazphotography.com Her blog: http://monicazphotography.blogspot.com If you get in touch, tell her I sent ya!

I ended up making a birdcage veil with some help from my mom's friend and I loved the way it turned out! Pic of me on the wedding day:

Quote: Originally Posted by Heather0623 Petals: Your pictures are amazing!! I can't wait to get there! I have a couple questions for you. First, was the steel band worth all that money? Second, did you have any entertainment for the reception? If not, how were things like the cake cutting ceremony run? Thanks! We only hired the steel drum band for 1 hour, and it was DEFINITELY worth the $500 to us. I would do it again in a heartbeat!! The steel drum band set the scene when everybody was arriving and hit all the right cues (i.e. they started playing again when we walked over to do the sand ceremony and sign the register). The ceremony itself was probably 20 minutes long, so afterwards, when everybody was mingling and drinking champagne, they were playing. DH and I actually had our first dance there. It was very nice, unique and made our day so special. After we overheard a wedding reception at Blue Lagoon a few days before our wedding (we were eating at one of the other restaurants), we realized that the dinner service was reaaaallly slow, and they didn't really have time for dancing in their 3-hour time slot. So we just made an iPod playlist of all my favorite reggae music and rented their microphone/speaker setup. The songs played all the way through dinner and people enjoyed it. The mic canceled out the music, so we asked DH's cousin to MC, and he just got up at the appropriate times to announce the cake cutting and bring up the MOH and BM to do their toasts. We didn't do the garter/bouquet toss or a formal first dance. Looking back, I think that having entertainment at the reception could have added a little more flair... but we didn't want to spend the additional money ($900 DJ, $2000 reggae band, etc.) to have entertainment while everybody was still seated and eating. Unless they speed up the dinner service (or if you have a small group), getting everybody seated, served all 4 courses and doing the cake-cutting and toasts can pretty much take up the entire time-slot.

More!! (Mods, could you please add that there's an update w/ more pics in this post? tx!) The spa, our rain location The DIY birdcage veil in action We had the steel drum band play at our ceremony Reception at the Blue Lagoon Poor sleepy flowergirl niece This is exactly how we felt by the end of the night... lol

Thanks! You ladies are so sweet! Here's something else I forgot to add to this thread... lol DIY Sand Ceremony Kit Tall skinny vases- $1 each at Dollar Tree Jar on sale for $3 at Michael's Colored sand from Michael's as well. I soaked off the decal and added raffia and a starfish charm to the jar and I love how it looked at our ceremony! The air-tight seal helped the whole thing travel back home intact! I was considering buying one of the $45 sand ceremony sets but I'm really glad I went the DIY route. :-) Jamaican rum cake favors We decided to give traditional Jamaican rum cake as favors at the wedding. I used the Vistaprint "business cards" with our logo on them as tags for each box, and my cousin in Montego Bay got a local baker to make the rum cake for us. My mom and aunt cut and boxed it once we go there.