Oscar_Ernie

Our Welcome Bags: The bags are screen-printed. Got the canvas bags from cheaptotes.com. The mugs are from Oriental Trading Co. They were the Mother's Day ones. I took out the coloring page and put in my own Cricut creation. They took a LONG time to make, but turned out super cute. Ceremony fans are from OTC as well. I embellished them. =) Survival kits were once Walmart 1st Aid Kits from the $1 bins. They took up too much space, so I took them out of their plastic box and put them into ziploc baggies. We also included pens, pencils and puzzle books from the Dollar Store. We're going to buy chips and salsa to put in them once we're down there. Maracas will be our "centerpieces".

Here's the wrap I knitted for our Mexico ceremony. Our pre-travel brochures and luggage tags. We have five babies coming, so they got special baby pirate tags. I actually created two brochures through Vistaprint. I only used the center section of the second brochure and cut it out and put it into the first one. So, it looked like an insert. It turned out great. You'd never know they were once two separate brochures.

My shoes were SO difficult to choose! Dressy looking solid wedges were very hard to find. This is what I ended up going with. Here's the shrug I knitted for our legal ceremony.

Dress is Pronovias Hoguera, which I purchased "pre-loved" through an online site. My hair will be done by a friend who's attending the wedding. Here's pictures from our trial run back in May. Here was a trial make-up run, but I may end up going a different route.

We're mere hours from heading off to our hotel at the airport (5:30am flight tomorrow!), but I've been so excited to post this that I'm going to try to get as much on here as I can right now. A big thank you to Tammy and everyone else who posts on this site! I certainly couldn't have done this as well without you. You will notice that I don't think that I have anything original. I begged, borrowed and stole shamelessly! Here we go... We did not send out STDs, but did send our invitations out about nine months in advance. I headed down to my local Paper Zone and picked out all the papers. Then, along with my trusty Cricut, put all these babies together.

I would REALLY appreciate it! PMing isn't working for me right now, but I'll keep trying. I'm very curious as to what to expect. I just noticed in the paperwork that there are three different set-ups depending on your package choice. I wasn't sure what we'd be getting with the mid-package...thanks for the offer. I'll try to PM my email to you again later.

Sorry, girls. I feel like I've totally been dominating this thread lately, but I have another question! Does anyone have pictures of the standard set-up for the reception? Jacy hasn't gotten back to me yet and I was hoping maybe one of you already has these? Thanks!

Thanks for the help! We decided that we'd go with just one per guest. We did, however, order a couple extra pairs. FI was really excited about the colorful idea, so we went multi-colored. Can't wait to see them in person! Everyone seems to rave about them so I have high hopes.

Another good point! Thanks!

Oh, boy. I came across this thread just at the right time! I tried to assign the music task to FI, but didn't seem overly thrilled (which completely surprised me, but that's another story). We leave in 3-1/2 weeks. Gotta get on this!

We're not having a bridal party either. With only 22 adults and 5 babies, it just doesn't seem necessary. None of my friends have acted offended by it, which was what I was most worried about. I've been in A LOT of weddings and I was sure they'd be upset for not being asked to be in mine. I have three sisters, a future SIL and many friends I'd feel obligated to ask. It wouldn't be long before it'd only be our parents sitting in the seats! LOL I have tried to include them in various parts of the planning, so that they still feel like they have "the inside scoop"-which has always been my favorite part of being a bridesmaid! One friend (the one I was most worried about offending), did announce awhile back that she'd decided that her two-year-old would be the unofficial flower girl. (Ya just gotta know this girl! I can't help but love her.) She was quick to say that she wasn't going to walk down the aisle or anything, she just wanted a reason to dress her up. That just made me laugh. I told her that she could do whatever she wants! She called me the other day asking about the color for her daughter's sash...wanted to make sure she coordinated! LOL I'm thinking I might surprise her the day before the wedding and offer to let her daughter walk down the aisle. Her daughter's pretty shy, so I'm not sure she'd even be able to do it, but I might offer anyway. She's been so wonderful and helpful for not even being an actual bridesmaid! The one downside of not having bridesmaids: You gotta do everything on your own! I know I could ask my gals for help (and I've definitely sought out advice from some of them), but I feel bad asking since they're not bridesmaids. Luckily, I love doing crafts, so it hasn't been a huge deal for me, but it's something to consider.

I'm not sure if it's a new policy, but even here in The States they'll only allow four free items per order. For our brochure, I ended up just using one of their "travel" ones, but customized it with my own info. I tried to figure out how to change the background colors and pictures, but it was going to be too much of a pain since I don't have Publisher or any of the other programs that they recommend. I even sent a plea out these boards to find out how folks changed all the colors, but no one responded. =( Hopefully, someone will chime in here for you! Even as they are, I still think that look great and they've been very well received. My mom thought it was something the resort put together for us! Good luck! I spent hours and hours designing and formatting mine!

Hmm...the 8 per "centerpiece" is a great way to look at it! From what I understand, Dreams PA seats eight per table as well. My only worry about using them as the centerpiece, is what the table will look like once people start grabbing them. But maybe I just don't care enough to worry that much about it. Thanks for the input. I hadn't thought about it in that way!

So I keep going back and forth on this. Obviously, it's cheaper and takes up less space in our suitcases to give each guest only one. But, maracas come in pairs, right? Plus, these may end up serving as our centerpieces (what I have pictured in my mind doesn't look tacky, but who knows), so if I give away pairs, then it'd fill up the baskets/bowls better. I'm turning to my trusty BDW girls for this one! What do you think? What did you do? What are going to do? (I also just threw on a couple of color options to the poll as an afterthought. Part of me thinks it'd look totally cool to have all the multi-colored maracas hanging out. Another part of me thinks it'd look way nicer if the colors correspond with our wedding colors. A little help on this one would be great too!) Thanks gals!

Congratulations, Bella24! Can't wait to hear more and to see pictures! Question time... Our wedding is November 6th. We leave in less than a month (the 1st). Should I be getting emails from Jacy at this point to nail down details? I was just scanning this thread and noticed some folks got a Wedding Questionnaire a month prior to their wedding? Jacy took two weeks and two emails to respond to my last (very simple) question. I know she mentioned early on that I am to send our guest list to her a month in advance. Do I just do this on my own? Or is there some form she's supposed to send me? To those of you who brought maracas for your guests http://www.amols.com/catalog/product/MX700: These 8" maracas...how well do they travel? I'm concerned about consuming precious suitcase space as well as how fragile they are. Any help would be appreciated! I'm trying to decide whether to pre-purchase and bring down with us, or take the time while we're in Mexico to hunt some down... We've decided to go ahead and use the resort photographer. The pictures I saw from a previous bride's wedding (I'm so sorry I forgot your name. I've been rereading through most of this thread today!) were great, but there weren't any pictures from the reception. Does the resort photographer only shoot pre-wedding and during the ceremony? Thanks for any help you guys can offer. I keep reminding myself that there's no need to stress because everyone says it turns out magically...