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Quote: Originally Posted by irishpocahontas Have my wedding pics on facebook if any of you are on there and want to see just request me as a friend......Lenore Collins My wedding pics Feb 5th 2009 just requested you on facebook. btw ladies, i met fellow BDW bride, quackquack (tamika) at dreams. we were both so excited it was silly. since they were still going to be there past when we were leaving, i attempted to have our wedding flowers sent to her room before we left. figured someone should enjoy them. not sure if they followed through with my request or not tho. i saw her FI (DH now!) eating breakfast the morning of their wedding and he was so cool ... not nervous at all. great weather that day too. CONGRATS, girl!!!!

figured i'd post mine despite the fact that it got all screwed up: CEREMONY prelude: nothing else matters - apocalyptica (cover of metallica) bridesmaids' processional: just like heaven - string quartet tribute to the cure bridal processional: canon in D - t. carter music, highland serenade recessional: for once in my life - stevie wonder COCKTAIL HOUR performance by mariachi trio provided by resort RECEPTION first dance: love you till the end - the pogues father/daughter: i loved her first - heartland mother/son: thank you for loving me - bon jovi dinner: somewhere over the rainbow/what a wonderful world - israel kamakawiwo'ole everlong (acoustic) - foo fighters every little thing she does is magic - the police use somebody - kings of leon better together - jack johnson brighter than sunshine - aqualung do ya, do ya want my love - ELO (electric light orchestra) fly me to the moon - frank sinatra desperado theme/el mariachi - gypsy kings i would walk 500 miles - the proclaimers faithfully - journey crazy little thing called love - queen 1,2,3,4 - plain white Ts i'm yours - jason mraz waterslide - the bonedaddys come on eileen - dexy's midnight runners brown eyed girl - van morrison margaritaville - jimmy buffet sweet caroline - neil diamond dancing love shack - B-52s jump, jive an' wail - louis prima great balls of fire - jerry lee lewis safety dance - men without hats la bamba - richie valens cotton eye joe - rednex groove is in the heart - deee lite copacabana - barry manilow you spin me right round - dead or alive baby got back - sir mix a lot hey ya - outkast mambo number five - lou bega heaven must me missing an angel - tavares hey mickey - toni basil i'm a believer - smashmouth what i like about you - the kinks you shook me all night long - ACDC hey baby (if you'll be my girl) - dj otzi tempature - sean paul shout - the isley brothers paradise by dashboard lights - meatloaf girls just wanna have fun - cyndi lauper jump in the line - harry belafonte fergalicious - fergie it takes two - rob base & dj ez rock humpty dance - digital underground push it - salt n' pepa my humps - black eyed peas apache - sugarhill gang ymca - village people i like it like that - tito nieves tequila - richie valens "i'm a believer" got skipped, and "what i like about you" got cut off halfway, and we never got any further in my playlist. i also had "pour some sugar on me" in there for the cake, but since my ipod was not to be found at the time we had absolutely nothing playing for that. we did throw in a few slow songs too ... i think "baby i love your way" and "come fly with me."

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!!!!!!!

hi! i'll let you guys know when my review is posted ... it's kinda overwhelming to do it ... i've started a few times and realized it was crazy long already just going over the travel part. i'm way too wordy! someone needs to tell me to shut up LOL. AND my photographers have already released my photos (talk about FAST) so i've been trying to pick the favorites. joanna, i have no idea why the power outages happened, but i know i felt so bad for poor claudia stuck in the elevator (and was pretty apprehensive about getting in there myself)! after we were back home, i heard about the 7.1 magnitude earthquake off the coasts of honduras and belize that happened early on the day of my wedding. kinda doubt that was in any way related to the power outages tho, so it must have been those pesky flu piggies. simbasim, i scrapped so many things at the last minute. no one but me had any idea. my advice is, if it will stress you, just skip it. no one will care once they're drinking a double mango tango.

thanks everyone! i really loved working with them ... i only wish i had more time for the pics but everyone was waiting back at the reception area for us. i do kinda regret not going out to the lighthouse but tom had very little interest in helping me struggle across the rocky terrain (argued with me about it all week), lol, and i had to admit it would have taken up too much time. thankfully they still managed to get some amazing shots (really guys, if you're reading ... you have been getting tons of compliments on your work ... about how the images look movie- or dream-like). i really can't wait to see them all! i think lincoln & lori figured out pretty quickly that tom isn't much of a picture person (lots of really stiff smiles and squinting in the sun, lol) so they just kept making us kiss over and over and over. i'm thinking it was the only way they could get him to look semi-natural in front of the camera, LOL! oh and i just realized that we did not take a single pic on the beach! so we forgot things like names or "thank you" written in the sand. no biggie, but pretty funny since we were surrounded by the sea.

glad you ladies can learn from my mistake! it's my one real wedding regret. i actually started sorta yelling at DH ... not really mean-like, but it probably still looked pretty bad because i'm sure i was clearly upset. my friend made a comment like, "awww their first married argument" so i guess i did make a bit of a scene. before the ipod got changed tho, i was getting a ton of compliments on the music choices. so dinner music was good at least, lol.

post-wedding confessions: i confess that i felt badly about not spending much time with my best friend during the wedding week (until the night before the wedding, which we spent together, followed by breakfast and beach), and felt absolutely awful about her having to room with my sister, who was almost constantly a miserable bitch AND snored ungodly. i confess that i was inordinately excited to have met another BDW bride (quackquack) at dreams! i confess that there was no consumation of the marriage on the wedding night, nor the next morning. more like a quickie before dinner the next night, lol. i confess that i should have never allowed my ipod to be removed from the dock even for one minute during the reception. i'm still kinda annoyed at the random crap that got played, and how the playlist i worked so hard on didn't even get played halfway through. we missed some of the best songs, and the transitions between ipods weren't smooth at all. kinda ghetto. i confess that i wish i hadn't let my DH convince me to skip the pics at the lighthouse. i love the pics i've seen so far, but i'd wanted those lighthouse photos since the day i chose the resort. i also regret missing individual pics with my girls (there was chaos with power outages before the ceremony), and i forgot some things, like a thank you in the sand. in fact, we didn't take a single pic on the beach, lol. and lastly, i confess that i'm still a little bothered by the fact that our officiant screwed up and pronounced us "mr. and mrs. CHARLES conroy." he skipped over tom's first name and went right to his middle name, which would be no biggie, if my ex's name wasn't charles. ugh.

Quote: Originally Posted by sarah310 Lisa - you looked beautiful!!! And I'm so jealous, I emailed Lincoln and Lori yesterday and they are already booked for my date April next year Ladies, they're popular, email them early!!!! awww that stinks! maybe you can use them for a TTD session the next day?

the half day package normally doesn't include an online slideshow but they did a small one anyway and it's up on their site now! click on galleries and we are the first ones (dreams cancun, lisa & thomas). i already see a few that i LOVE LOVE LOVE!

in total agreement with everything jaime said here ... swine flu actually worked in our favor, because our wedding party practically had the resort to ourselves all week (this normally would have been one of their busiest times, especially for weddings, since it's right outside hurricane season). there actually should have been another wedding the same day as mine but it had been canceled. while all this was great for us and our guests, never having to fight for beach chairs, the ease of getting seating for large groups at dinner, i had to feel a little sad for the resort and mexico in general ... tourism provides their livelihoods and the economy was suffering even before the swine flu mess. the mexicans i encountered were lovely, gracious, hard-working people (it was hard to come home to rude americans!). it was hard not to be happy about an uncrowded resort, but i really felt for them and the hardship they are going through. the ONLY people i saw wearing masks were the few people in the cancun airport collecting your health surveys and taking your temperature scan. no one wore masks on the plane or anything (not even my paranoid niece!). my mom told me that the day of the wedding the paper headline read "it's now safe to travel to mexico!" if you can manage to go ahead with your wedding travel plans (not canceled outside of your control), please please please go to mexico. you will not be disappointed!

i worked crazy hard on mine just to have people pulling my ipod off the dock and replacing it with theirs for certain songs they wanted to hear. the result was me not ever getting to the later songs in the playlist (some of the best stuff, since as you know, you arrange them to build up as the night goes on), and obviously the transition from one ipod to another wasn't smooth at all. honestly it's my only complaint from my entire wedding experience. i should NOT have allowed it to happen ... don't let it happen to you!

hey everyone! we are back (which sucks!) but we had an amazing week at dreams and an absolutely fabulous wedding. i kept joking that i was going to "do all my weddings this way" LOL. claudia was great ... there were power outages during the hour preceding the ceremony and the poor thing got trapped in the elevator, between floors and everything ... they had to help her crawl out and help her down. i felt so bad ... she was clearly still a bit frazzled from the experience but was a trooper for the wedding. my flowers were better than anticipated and everything went very smoothly. food was great too. the cake wasn't what we had picked, and we had to send someone to search for the topper (got it on there eventually) but that was just a small detail and honestly i didn't care much. i will try to work on my review today. everyone commended our choice of resorts ... really everybody loved it, and a couple who went with us has decided to do a vow renewal there. i don't think there could be a better compliment. won't get pro pics for 2 weeks, but here's one my nephew took:

ladies, lincoln and lori are pretty much the coolest people ever, and i cannot wait to see all the pics they took (they said it should be about 2 weeks)! there were power outages in the hour preceding the ceremony and poor lori ran up 9 flights of stairs with her camera equipment just to get to my room in time to take "getting ready" pics. tom said lincoln was great as well, and the guys all felt very comfortable with him. i wish i could have convinced tom to do a TTD session because they were so easy to work with, but tom is SO not a picture person ... i know i was putting him through hell just doing wedding pics. i know there's a few really great shots because i saw a few on screen ... and lincoln at one point told us we could pack it up and not bother with any more pics because he "just got GOLD" lol. if you're second-guessing your photographers at all, without even having seen my photos yet, i can say lincoln and lori are a great choice.

Quote: Originally Posted by sunitam lisa- its almost time for you! Have a wonderful time! thanks again for the shutterbook idea- i am having so much fun putting mine together- i have questions for you before i order it. glad it helped someone a little! i can't wait to make gift albums for our parents with wedding pics! we leave for the airport hotel in about an HOUR; our flight takes off early tomorrow morning! i cannot believe it's here ... so totally freaking out!!! i crammed my dress into a garment bag that is supposed to meet carry-on size regulations. it's a huge traditional satin dress with a cathedral length train, so it is going to be a wrinkled mess. i really hope they know what they are doing at dreams as far as steaming/pressing wedding attire! i just couldn't carry it hanging, it was simply too huge! they would have made me buy a seat for it, lol! sorry no planning thread ... i'm a mess ... FI and i both pulled all-nighters, so i'm not sure whether what i'm feeling is anxiety or sleep deprivation!

i did not personally end up buying from david's, though i could have. LIW, my dress is allure as well! i had to order it in a size 22 and have it altered quite a bit on top. will be wearing it a week from today! don't fret, girls ... there are beautiful dresses out there for us. just be real about what styles look best on your shape (i would have loved something slinky, mermaid, or especially trumpet, but those just don't work with my hips)!

yes, davids bridal has sizes in store up to a 22 or 24 i think. as for other shops, call ahead and ask ... if they want your business, they won't be rude. even when places *do* carry larger sizes, the dress selection does starts getting a little slim as you go bigger. i am about a 16 on top but a 20 on bottom, so it was a no-brainer that i needed to go with an a-line or ballroom cut. because i'm smaller on top, i was able to try on many dresses as long as they were that full cut on the bottom half. also, if you see a dress you like in a size smaller than you wear, but it happens to have a corset-back, TRY IT ON! you will be able to loosen the corset ties at least enough to get it on your body and get an idea of what it could look like.

ladies i'm swamped at work and still so much to do for the wedding ... just wanted to pop in and say sylvia, your pics and review were fantastic! thanks so much for doing it so quickly that i had a chance to see it. everything was amazingly beautiful and very chic. and your hubby is a hottie too! CONGRATS! phillybride, i've been slapping together the last-minute stuff, so it's not at all what i'd planned, but it's *sort of* getting done. welcome brochure became just a card, that sort of thing. i started packing last night and was amazed at how much crap there is, when i know i made a point of not buying big or heavy things for OOT bags, lol. i leave saturday!!!!! aaaaaahhhhhh!!!

snopes.com: Urgent Warning About Gardasil according to snopes (which is a great resource for checking the validity of claims made in emails), there have indeed been 32 deaths in girls who have taken the vaccine, however their deaths have not been definitively linked to gardasil. regardless, i myself am wary of any vaccines that the government pushes on our children, and especially those that are made mandatory for school attendance. the best thing that can come out of this whole thing is that more people will be educated on cervical cancer, its possible causes, prevention, and treatment. knowledge is power.

you say you were a bride on a budget, but you managed to make your OOT bags and favors look so nice and even a bit upscale. i think anyone would love to be a guest at your wedding. very nice job. love the dress and other details as well. congrats, and enjoy your day!

1sunshine, your weight loss is amazing! congrats! for all the ladies looking to order from newport news: memorial week sale event: an extra 30% off site-wide including all summer sale items already reduced up to 50% off and clearance items already reduced up to 80% off. use promo code 502 at checkout. discount applies to in-stock items only. offer valid through 5/25/2009.

i think billysbride's idea is beautiful (though i don't think i could make it thru the slideshow ... i started crying just reading about it!), and dodds idea was very nice too, though i'm not sure how many sets of fathers/daughters you will have attending your wedding, so it might not work for you. have you considered dancing with your new father-in-law? i don't know if you are close yet, but my FFIL has always made me feel welcomed like a part of their family, and i think were i faced with this dilemma i might have chosen to dance with him. i think your FI's family would be touched. edited to add that you would probably have to search for the perfect song for this ... most of the usual ones won't really be appropriate.

damn it, why didn't i see this earlier?!?!

Quote: Originally Posted by PhillyBride09 Oh & Mummergirl where is your planning thread?? Are you doing one before or after missy!!! LOL haha knowing me it will probably not happen until after i get back, lol! i still have tons to do! i have been taking pics of things specifically for the planning thread as i finish them tho, so i AM trying! lots of things are going to be getting sh*t-canned too, as i'm running out of time! i wish i could take time off of work before we leave!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by cancunbride Hi everyone.... Im back from an amazing wedding!!!! I DIDNT WANT TO LEAVE, i will be writing my review later on today omg congrats, sylvia!!! glad to hear everything was fabulous. i'm going to be selfish now and ask you to post your review by thursday so i can read it before i leave, lol! looking forward to your pics!

Quote: Originally Posted by zorlack76 How soon would you recommend making your hair and makeup appointments at the spa? Do you have any idea if they book up quickly? You think I should book them now or just wait until we get down there to take care of that? ditto what phillybride said about this! their beauty salon is very small and only has TWO hairstylists! this is what the spa had to say about it: "In the case that you want to made reservation is important that you do in advance, specific in the beauty parlour, our salon is small, we have only two stylist and is difficult to find space."