Sparkles8300

So much detail went into your wedding planning!! I love love love the black and white/demask!!! Great job!!

Ocho Rios is BEAUTIFUL but it is a LONG drive from the airport. Your guests who are not staying very long might be more inclined to come to your wedding if you did it somewhere closer to the airport. Just a thought!

VEIL!!!! I was not going to do one but my BFF told me it was a big regret of her not wearing one in her wedding. It is the only day of your life you will be able to wear one and it really does make you feel like a bride!!! (I did both a tiara and veil).

I wanted to re-post the private messagne I sent to Maura, in case it will help to answer anybody else's questions: Hi Maura, Thanks for the compliments! I am so glad you pickd IGRH!! If you get married on Dec 4th that will be our exact one year wedding anniversary and we will be there at the Grand when you get married!! I can tell you, it is hot, but with the breeze off the water, it's not TOO hot to wear your dream gown. I was able to wear my dream dress down the isle, for pictures, and for the first half of the rececption. It does get mighty hot in the open air restaurant that you are planning on renting out, so you will def want to do as I did and bring a shorter dress to dance in after your first dance. Even with all of the fans going, when you have that many people in one space dancing, it gets hot. I actually brought that short white dress last minute "just in case" not really planning on using it, as it was a few years old, and I am SO GLAD I did!! I was dripping with sweat in the gown and felt so much better in the short dress!! We did use all of the services that were listed on the package, too! They don't cut much of a break since each vendor is individual. I think at one point they were trying to make us pay not only the extra $20/pp for the ceremony and the extra $1,500, or whatever it is, to rent out the restaurant but then an EXTRA $20/pp for the dinner! I was like NO WAY. I told them that we will pay the 20/pp for the ceremony and rent out the restaurant but we were not going to pay ANOTHER $20/pp for dinner/drinks, and they OKed this, as we had 55 people with us. They also gave us our cake for $150 instead for the $600 they wanted for it. The flowers on the cake were another $60. I did upgrade the cake and I was suprised at how great it turned out, and it was SO GOOD! We did not do a cocktail hour, because with only a 55 person wedding, all of the guests are so involved in the photos that there really was no point of doing a formal one. Everyone hung around and watched our photos and then went up and took over the lobby bar for the hour in between. Nobody cared that the lobby bar was not "formally rented out" & with such a big group you will just take over wherever you go anyway! We did have a champagne toast, which is included in the 20/pp, right after the ceremony which was a nice time to mingle and get some good hugging photos. As for the DJ, you have to use him to get the equipment, but he was so Jamacian nobody could understand him so Angellie steped up and took over the mic and was our MC for the night. My cousin brought her ipod with all of my playlist on it as backup, Thank God, because he did not have our first dance song. So just be prepared with your songs backed up on an ipod just in case. The butterfly release company is so flaky that I did not know until the morning of that we actually got them!! They are very hard to deal with and the WCs did their best, and it worked out, but the company does not return phone calls, etc..!! But be warned that it is out of the WCs hands and this may be something that won't work out so try to keep the release a suprise from your guests so they won't be dissapointed if it does not happen. To hear the GASP form our guests when we released the butterflies was so awesome!!!! I hope your wedding date is able to be changed and we are there to see your wedding!!! Yes, my hubby is from Philly!!! He is the BIGGEST Eagles fan ever!!! He is on an Eagles blog bleedinggreennation and he is as obsessed with that blog as I am with this one!!! Where do you guys live now? We live in Baltimore, downtown in Canton. Please let me know if you have any questions!!! Who are you using for photogs?? I HIGHLY recommend Sungold!!!! They are worth every penny, and then some!!!! Happy Planning Let me know if your date is able to be moved to the 4th!!!

Great slideshow!!! We also used Sungold and loved them!!! We ordered a canvas print and it is AMAZING! I reccommend doing the same with your print credit they give you....we get so many compliments from everyone who comes to our home and sees it! Congrats!!!

I got ours super cheap from asianideas.com and I also got our paper lanterns from there as well! If you google for a coupon code, you should be able to save even more $

Welcome!!! I am not sure about wheelchair access but we stayed at the Riu in Ocho Rios and it was a great experience. A lot of brides on here had their weddings there and really liked it.

Quote: Originally Posted by nashidab Congratulations Leslie!!! What an amazing thread. Your wedding was gorgeous, love the colors. Since seeing your pics I've decided to add accents of fuchsia to my orange and green color palate:-) Your photography slide show turned out great, makes me so happy that we decided to go with sungold for our photos. Your huppah flowers, bouquets and centerpieces all are very pretty. I'm getting married at the Iberostar suites in October and had contacted Taiflora for a quote before I learned that they lost the resort contract. I've emailed Jamaica flower studio but haven't heard back from them yet. How much were your huppah flowers? Centerpieces? Bride and bridemaids bouquets? Also what size paper laterns did you use? 20 inches? The ones you chose were the perfect size. Thanks so much for sharing!!! Thank you! You made a great choice with Sungold! Huppa flowers were $150 each side. The arrangements are VERY large, they don't show up as large as they really are in the photos. Well worth the $$. The papers lanterns were 20 inches.

Thanks for the compliments ladies. Yes, I did pick this song as it is very fitting for what has been going on in our lives right now. Thanks for your continuing support. This slideshow makes me so happy and makes me believe that there can be a happily ever after, after all.

Quote: Originally Posted by breeze616 GORGEOUS Leslie! Seems like that song was picked especially for you guys hmm? It looks like you had an amazing time and you look so beautiful!! BTW - Who is this Art? (aka the bouncer) and how can I hire his services?? HAHAHHAHAH Art is my MOHs boyfiriend who is a HUGE MAN that looks like a NFL football line backer. He almost had to kick some ass b/c these ignorant Russians kept kicking a soccer ball around my wedding and flicking off the camera. He told them that if they don't stop he is going to murder them and throw them in the ocean LOL and let me just say they stopped!!! I don't know what we would have done with out him!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by blckrevpower thanks for sharing! do you mind telling me how much you spent on photography? We got the platinum package with both Paula and Damien. It was $5,500, which is a lot of money!! However, the pictures are worth it and they are what you have to remind you of the wedding day for the rest of your life. It included 10 hours of shooting on the wedding day, 2 hours for a TTD shoot the next day, 2 slideshows, CDs of all of your prints (so you don't have to buy them you can print them yourself...as many as you want), and a wedding album, plus at $250 print credit which we are using to buy a wall canvas of one of our wedding photos. I cut down in other places in order to afford this...I did a lot of DIY projects instead of ordering things like Save the Dates, Menus, Programs, etc... I also cut back a lot on flowers and I think I made the right choice b/c in the end the day is a blur and all we have to rememer it by are the photos! They do offer cheaper packages that do not include as much as we got.

SunGold Wedding Photography | HOT, HOTTER, HOOTERS! HOME Our slideshow is up on Sungold's blog. It is amazing and brings happy tears to my eyes every time. This reminds me of why I wanted to use Sungold so bad and I am so glad that I did! Be sure to watch with sound on....he set it to Taurus Riley's cover of Stay With You and it turned out beautiful.

Quote: Originally Posted by cyclegirl77 Leslie - Thank you for sharing all your pics & Ideas!!!!! We are getting married in July & finally got our date 7-30-10 @ the Grand We should hire you! ha! It looks like everything turned out fabulous! Congrats Stacie Stevenandstacie.com Congrats on booking your date!! You will have an amazing wedding at the most beautiful resort on earth!

Quote: Originally Posted by breeze616 Hi Leslie, I happened to notice you had nice silver chargers under your plates at your reception - did you bring those or arrange for them, or were they standard at the resort? I want to ensure they will use simple/nice china at the Beach resort and will request those chargers if possible... They were included. They gave me 3 to choose from. They had really pretty hand blown glass blue ones if you have blue as a color they would be perfect!

Thank you all for your words of advice and support. It means the world to me. Honestly it was just too hard for me to even deal with this situation for sometime. We have decided to begin counseling and give this marriage a real true try. I am going to give this counseling about 4 months and then revaluate the situation. I do believe him that he is not talking to her anymore and he has tried to work out of another office as well as signing into his emails and giving me his Blackberry password to build trust. Thanks again for being so caring and understanding, it means so much to know you ladies are here!

I have not been able to stop crying for the past 30 hours. My whole world is completely shattered. Yesterday my husband borrowed my computer and logged into his work email. When he gave it back he had forgotten to log out. I felt the urge to snoop (which I have honestly not done in YEARS) and looked through his inbox....well there was nothing in there *whew*...then I looked in the trash can (which he obviously forgot to empty) and HOLY SHIT he has been having some sort of an affair with one of the admins at his work. Back in Aug. I almost called off the wedding when I found flirty texts from her in his phone. Then at his company happy hour his business partner at the time had a few too many drinks and told his wife how Erin (the admin) had a thing for Jay (my husband). I told him to stop all contact with her and he agreed to do so. I, being that we were about to get married, trusted him to break it off before it got too far) he obviously did not. I am not sure if the affairs just emotional or if it is more than that. I am probably kidding myself. There were emails on there from back before the wedding, and even THE DAY WE GOT BACK. Saying how he missed her (which he says was a joke). It breaks my heart. And the worst part is she is from a trashy part of Baltimore and is not pretty. I don't understand what he sees in her or why we got married if this is what he wanted. Here is part of the one email I managed to copy before he came in the room (out of the FIFTY emails over the past 2 weeks) mind you this girl does not work with him at all, she is an admin for a guy in another department so he really has no business talking to her in the first place (the convo starts at the bottom and ends at the top, just like in an email): From: Jay Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 3:19 PM To: Erin Subject: RE: You better be kidding. Come do what you’re supposed to do when you apologize to me From: Erin Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 3:18 PM To: Jay Subject: RE: LOL…you know I’m just kidding Erin From: Jay Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 3:00 PM To: Erin Subject: RE: Well YUCK YOU I guess. From: Erin Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 2:59 PM To: Jay Subject: RE: LOL… or Mr Yuck Erin From: Jay Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 2:59 PM To: Erin Subject: RE: Isn’t that a symbol for being disgusted and vomiting? From: Erin Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 2:58 PM To: Jay Subject: RE: :x Erin From: Jay Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 2:46 PM To: Erin Subject: RE: Apparently. But I figured that 2 drinks may = : o Three definitely would! From: Erin Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 2:45 PM To: Jay Subject: RE: LOL…no, not enough! Erin From: Jay Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 2:45 PM To: Erin Subject: RE: Damn girl, that one drink hit you hard, huh? From: Erin Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 2:43 PM To: Jay Subject: RE: Ha! You want love from Shelley?! Erin From: Jay Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 2:43 PM To: Erin Subject: RE: Increasing the workplace love! From: Erin Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 2:42 PM To: Jay Subject: RE: LOL…why? Erin From: Jay Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 2:41 PM To: Erin Subject: RE: Haha. I was hoping you all had a few each! From: Erin Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 2:41 PM To: Jay Subject: RE: We all had one drink (except for Lisa...she had water). I wasn’t ready to go; I wanted more drinks! Erin From: Jay Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 2:40 PM To: Erin Subject: RE: You get some drinks? From: Erin Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 2:35 PM To: Jay Subject: RE: Whatever, who cares! Erin From: Jay Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 2:34 PM To: Erin Subject: RE: Just letting you girls be girls. Didn’t want to be the only dude crashing your party From: Erin Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 2:34 PM To: Jay Subject: Why didn’t you go to lunch with us party pooper? Erin Mind you this is a girl he told me he had NO CONTACT with after the first flirty text I found back in Aug... and did not have a good feeling about. He told me it was no big deal and he would not talk to her anymore. Then I find a million emails like this one all flirty & even ones where she is complaining about her on again off again boyfriend. He even jokes (I hope it is a joke) about good now they can be together now that she is done with him. I am so over it. I feel like the fact that they have been doing these flirty work emails day in and day out for at least 6 months must have lead to something (or it sure would sooner or later). He says he has never even been to lunch with her...which I don't buy b/c why would she be asking "why didn't you go to lunch?" and I had been noticing that he had been buying lunch for 2 very often over the past few months but I figured it was for his own admin. Now I see what it really was. I really feel so betrayed and disgusted. I told him to leave and the only way we could possibly work this out is if he gives me his email passwords, works out of the other branches office, and emails her to let her know they are done, I also asked for her phone number so I can look at phone records and make sure he is telling the truth about not speaking or texting her and he won't give it to me. Of course he would not do any of those things. He says he is so sorry and he loves me (over and over) but he is not willing to do what I need him to do to fix this and prove he is not going to do this anymore. I told him to get out and I am done with him. This hurts so bad. We just got back the wedding photos and they want me to pic out my faves for my album and we are probably not even going to be together. It is so sad.

Quote: Originally Posted by Meitra Christy355, Since you said you will be getting married on the beach at MDV, I was wondering if you know if the beach there truly is private or not? The website says it is, but from what I remember about 7 mile beach is that it is all public. The beach is private down to where that tree is on the beach that is in all of the photos with the canoe under it. When we were there they put up white fabric to block out the ugly bar next door when a wedding was taking place. They also have lifeguards and security who keep everyone out. All of the locals do respect them and will not come on to the property even if you want them to.

We did not get married at MDV, but we honeymooned there and did our TTD and shoot at MDV and MDC. Here is a link to our photos from Sungold photography..click on the honeymoon link to see the pics taken at Moon Dance. Both are amazing. They were filming a Smantha Brown Travel Channel show about Jamaica and the whole crew was staying at MDC while we were there which will be airing in April and hubby and I are on it!!! So be on the lookout! ..:: Pictage | Registration ::..

Quote: Originally Posted by NegrilLB Leslie, I was looking at the picture of your cake and it looks sooo much nicer than the other ones I've seen from Iberostar. Is this the type of cake they offer now, or did you have to make a special request and pay extra for the style that you got? I was planning on getting a cake from an outside bakery, but if Iberostar is offering nice ones now I might just go with theirs. The cake is $400 extra for a 4 tier plus $60 for the flowers. It is so worth it and a fondant cake like that would be even more at home. I was worried b/c the ones included are so tacky looking but he pulled it off just like the Ace of Cakes would do it at home in Baltimore!

Here is the link to our all of our pro wedding photos for the getting ready, ceremony, reception, and honeymoon (aka TTD shoot). I love how they turned out! My only complaint is that the posed "formal" pictures I wanted did not turn out as good as I had hoped. Sungold are more photo journalistic photogs....I wish they had taken the time to make sure everyone was in the correct position and doing what they were suppose to do during the formal shots. The only formal group one I like is one of the ones of us all jumping and even that one has my MOH with her hair in her face. It was small things like telling someone to move over closer to somebody, or telling someone to pay attention and look the correct way that were obviously not done. I am upset b/c as the bride I thought everyone was doing the correct thing and now I see they look like crap. I am very happy with most all of the other ones. Also, my guests got better cake cutting pictures so I was upset that they did not capture that. You know they say people will talk more about their complaints and that is true b/c I don't mean to sound unhappy overall. It is just I paid so much I expected the formal shots to be good too. http://www.pictage.com/781988

Quote: Originally Posted by Lady_Di Speaking of freeze dried petals, did the customs allow you to bring them in Jamaica? I am not sure if Mexican customs would let me to bring freeze dried petals into Mexico. They are fine to take into Jamaica. As for Mexico, I think I found a thread that said that brides just bagged them into a bunch of small ziplocks and put them throughout their luggage so that if they did get checked they would only lose the bag that got checked, just in case they were not allowed. Since I don't think anyone knows if they are allowed or not. As for the paper for the Passports, I know they called it Shimmer White but I have no idea where they got it from. The site I ordered them from was home

Quote: Originally Posted by thefuturemrslutz Thanks for all your suggestions! My colors are hot pink as well. Which color did you choose for the rose petals? $200 is tons better than $1000! That's ridiculous! I used the coral color...the fuschia ones they sent looked very dried out an almost white in the sample pack. The coral ones were much more pink!

Quote: Originally Posted by Sita&Nate Leslie, Where did you get the parasols/umbrellas from? I am wondering if they are pretty sturdy (i.e. won't rip?) Thanks! I got the cheap ones ($7) from Asian Ideas...great vendor and the fans were good quality for the price. The pink ones were actually way nicer than the white one, but in the photos you can't tell anyway! Paper Umbrella Section: Large selection of Chinese Japanese Umbrellas and Parasols, Paper Lantern I got the large ones. Also, I was wrong about where I got the lanterns from, I also got those from Asain Ideas as well. I accidently ordered the nylon ones (tacky!) and they returned & sent the rice paper ones to me for free shipping!! Just in case anyone wants to know where I got the freeze dried rose petals, they were from Petal Garden Freeze Dried Rose Petals - Petal Garden and I got 112 cups for $219 and it was the perfect amount...any less would have been way too few...the beach is breezy so you lose about 1/2 in the wind so to still have a good amount you need to order extra. The florist wanted over $1,000 for the same amount of normal rose petals and these looked way better for way less. Be sure to order the samples b/c the color I ended up going with was not my first choice looking online.

Quote: Originally Posted by nsbride2010 Where did you get your short white dress? Its gorgeous!! I got it at Loehmann's it's a high end discount store in the DC,MD,NOVA area...I think there is on in NYC too http://www.loehmanns.com/. It was reduced from $600 down to $100 and then it was on clearence so I got it for an extra 20% off!! $80 for a $600 dress!!! I have had it for YEARS and never wore it and just threw it in "just in case" and I am so glad I did b/c it gets SO HOT being outside and dancing in a big gown!

I am sorry to hear that the China dress did not work out This one looks great on you! My China dress held up so well during the TTD in the ocean and the pool, you can't even tell that I trashed it at all!!!