GracieBebe

If you want sparkly cheap stuff that looks good in photos, I got mine at Sam Moon in Dallas. They have a website at Sam Moon Trading Online. Their stores have a ton more stuff but the website has a decent selection. :-)

We requested that everyone arrive at the chateau by a certain day because we are going to be having a welcome dinner instead of a rehearsal dinner (b/c the welcome dinner was thrown into our package for free). Luckily, we have a WC who is doing all of the work so we don't have to worry about anything. If you can find out when most of your guests are arriving, have one somewhere in the first few days you and most of your guests get to your location. I don't think something like that has be on the 1st day. You'll be on Caribbean time so everything will be laid back anyways. I don't think people will notice that it's not on the 1st day they happen to arrive. They'll understand you're having it so that you can accommodate your other guests as well. Don't stress the little stuff. Best of luck to you!

Quote: Originally Posted by jesjess You should definately visit the Anne Frank House. You get a good taste of how it hase been during the war, I visited twice, and still want to go again. The red light district is also a must go! Its a huge tourist atraction. Dont expect to see, little dirty man :-) ..alot of tourist come to see the " Girls" And it is a very nice place to visit! You will see al kinds of people walking around, also families with kids. Its very teastfull. About the weather, your never sure if it is ok, but august september are the months we see the sun the most.. but we dont see it alot.. :-D Some tips you should go when you visit Holland, If you like party's, Holland has the largest dance events in Europe, so if you visit you really should vist one! in August we have " Mystery land (29-0" , this is huge outdoor event, and very popular! Its great! Hope you will enjoy your stay! Thank you for the advice! We love dancing and parties and clubs! Unfortunately, we won't be there in August for Mystery Land, but hopefully there will be other dance events there we can attend. Do you have any suggestions of good clubs and nightlife? We generally like dance/techno type music (it's the only thing we both agree on as I generally like country and he likes hard rock, LOL!) I also did a bit more research and saw that there is the Van Gogh museum which I think would be fun to see. We are also considering renting a car for the day to go out of the city and tour the countryside and see the windmills and fields and take in the beauty the Holland. I will definitely be taking a lot of pics for everyone to see. I'm not a picture taking person, but this (wedding and honeymoon) is something I want to capture for a lifetime! :-)

If you like the babydoll type, you should try Amazon.com. I was able to get like 8-9 things for my friend for her wedding night/honeymoon for a total of less than $200. She said she had 1 to wear every night and you really can't go wrong with baby-doll style cuz it's usually flattering to every figure!

Thanks! I am so looking forward to it! I haven't actually done enough research yet to know what I want to see in Amsterdam. I definitely want to see the Anne Frank House/Museum and I would like to take a tour along the canals. Maybe rent a bike and ride around the city. Of course we have to check out the Red Light District (just for curiosity's sake)! Any suggestion of things to see while we are there? We will be there around mid-September which I have heard is an ideal time to go, weather-wise.

I'm so excited!!! We just booked our honeymoon hotels in London and Amsterdam and we got amazing deals through Priceline! I've never used it before but the rates we got were fabulous. We were able to get a 4 star hotel (Hilton) in a really great location for only $97/night in London by bidding our own price. Then, for Amsterdam, we were able to book a 5 star hotel (Grand Hotel Amrath) for $140/night. This hotel usually goes for approx $350 a night so I can't believe we got it for less than half that price!!! We're also doing 1 overnight in Paris during our wedding week and we also booked that through Priceline and got a 4 star (Hotel Concorde) near the Arc de Triomphe for $150. So, my only possible concern is what kind of room do you end up with when you book through Priceline? I've read a ton of reviews on Tripadvisor for each of the hotels we got and a lot of the reviewers also booked through Priceline or Hotwire and say they got fabulous rooms and/or fabulous views. I tend to take the negative reviews with a grain of salt as not everyone has the same likes and dislikes, etc. Now I just wish it was Sept already!!!

I guess it depends on where you want to have your DW. Are you set on the Caribbean? You could always do Europe as a DW. That is what we are doing. FI and I rented an entire castle for our wedding and are only going to have about 20-24 people attending. Renting out the entire castle was about 10,000 Euros plus the wedding reception costs and wedding coordinator fee. So, depending on your budget, if this is an affordable option, you should check it out. It will give you privacy, limited guest #, and a fairytale wedding. Check out my wedding website to see pictures of the castle and see if you would be interested in that. Best wishes in your search!

have you thought about having only 2 bridesmaids and having 2 groomsmen walking on either side of each bridesmaid. That way you have it match but it can be uneven at the same time. :-)

Where did you find the shoes? I'm not a size 6 but I love how they look and would like to try to find them in my size. Thx!!!

Wow! It seems like you have a lot planned and know what you want already which is half the battle. That's definitely good to look at dresses online. That's what I did for my wedding dress. I brought a bunch of pictures of the styles that I liked to try on. However, I ended up going with a dress my friend tried on the year before for her wedding (she ended up choosing another dress), and when I tried on the dress, I just fell in love with it! I also love Tripadvisor. We use that site for every vacation we go on to find out which hotel to book at and what we want to do in the area. Sure, there are a few bad reviews for a location, but that's with every place. Some will like it, some will not. We're definitely still in the planning stages too and time's running out. We have our coordinator, the flowers (roses and stargazer lillies), color scheme (red, white, black, and hints of gold), STD's, and invites all set (not necessarily completed but at least picked out), but we still are trying to decide on music, menu, entertainment, etc. So much to do!!!

If it comes to $0.96, there are $1 stamps you can buy which means you would only go over by 4 cents, but you only have to put on 1 stamp for each envelope. FH has a business and before we bought an envelope meter, we had to hand stamp everything so I know the $1 stamps exists. You can even order them online directly from the USPS website if your local post office doesn't have them. Another thing you can consider is to find a place that meters envelopes and have them meter it for you. Then you just have the meter stamp on the envelope. Hope that helps.

Ok, I wasn't sure if this should go in the Etiquette section or the Invitations section but here it goes... I finally convinced FH that we should have an AHR for those who are unable to be invited to our DW so we are going to have a very picnic at a local park that has softball fields, volleyball courts, horseshoes, and something called frisbee golf (have no idea what that his, but I'll bring a few frisbees :-)). It will be very casual, very backyard bbq, outdoorsy feeling and we are going to ask for no gifts from them because it's so laid back (If people insist on gifts, we will let them donate to our charity registry). We plan to grill food (burgers, hotdogs, some steaks), have side salads/dishes, and a wedding cake. So, the question is, would it be too tacky to send these people evites instead of actual paper invites? I feel like paper invites would be such a waste of paper and an evite would be so much more eco-friendly. Not to mention, it's going to be so casual that we don't want people to think that it is this formal or even semi-formal affair or anything like a real wedding reception. And I feel like I will get a better RSVP response through an evite than I would if someone had to mail an RSVP back. Is an evite an etiquette no-no? What do you girls think?? TIA!!!

You could always book at an adults only resort. Then you wouldn't have to worry about it.

I like option 1. If I were a guest, I would totally be up for that. Besides, any excuse to go on a cruise is a good thing! I totally understand about budget constraints and so I would be happy to be part of the honeymoon and celebrate with the bride a groom. So for me, definitely option 1.

I guess this type of thing is getting to be pretty popular: Wedding Gift Registry: Charity, What More Engaged Couples Are Asking Of Wedding Guests - CBS News

Definitely! Feel free to PM me or just post on this thread anytime! I would love to chat about our DW's! When we were considering Italy, we definitely were considering the Amalfi Coast or the Tuscany area. The coast was just so pretty! We decided on France because when we were looking at the various venues in both locations, we knew we wanted to rent a chateau/castle and we just fell in love with the styles of chateau/castles in France. I totally know what you mean when you say fairy tale wedding. Even my dress looks princessy! Have you found your dress yet? Other than location, how much of the wedding planning have you gotten done? Well, I see you're wedding's not until May 2010 so you have plenty of time. :-)

I believe the WC I recommended you is located in Italy which might make communicating a little more difficult because of the time difference, but will probably know more things locally for you. We are using a WC that lives in both France and NJ so it really makes things convenient for us when we try to get in touch with her and arrange things. Best of Luck!

I wrote you a response in your other post about anyone getting married in Europe. I recommended a WC that I was in contact with when we originally were considering Italy for our DW. She was very attentive and helpful!

I think you should do whatever you want that is within your budget. If you can afford to, great; if not, then that's fine too. FH and I are paying for all of our guests accommodations, but that is because we are renting the entire venue out for the week so we have the ability to accommodate all of our guests, but we are letting them know that this is our wedding favor to them.

I think that's an awesome idea!!! I just told FH about it and he likes the idea too! We are thinking about having an AHR before we leave for our DW (because the weather will still be warm before and might be a little chilly if we have it after), but FH doesn't want to seem like we're gift grabbing to our other guests by having an AHR. This totally solves our problem. Thank you for the great idea!!! YAY!!!!

FH and I are having our ceremony in France. Technically, we cannot get married in France as we are not French citizens, but we will do the legal ceremony quietly here in the States, and have our destination wedding ceremony and reception at a Chateau in France. We are also combining it with our honeymoon so that we can tour areas in Europe. Feel free to check out our wedding website, if you like. We have pictures of the chateau where we will be getting married. We're so excited, we can't wait!!! What made you decide on Italy? We also looked at getting married in Italy. I saw in another post of yours that you are looking for a wedding coordinator in Italy. I found that Elena Piemonte of Chateau and Villa Weddings (Plan a destination wedding abroad in France or Italy, in exclusive locations - European castles) was very helpful when I was first inquiring about locations. Her email address is [email protected]. Hope that helps!

I think it's completely your perogative who you wish to have at your wedding and who you don't. For instance, we are having a few of our guests who are single bring a date, because we don't want for them to have to travel all that way and be alone. However, we are not allowing FH's twin brother to bring his g/f of 8 years because in the past few months (as well as the last 8 years but definitely more so lately), she's done some really disrespectful, atrocious things to FH that really crossed the line with no apologies (and FH's twin was aware of all those things cuz he was copied on all of the emails that went back and forth) so she has been banned from attending our wedding. Granted, we understand that it probably means FH's twin brother will not come without her, but FH is aware of the repercussions and it was solely his decision.

Quote: Originally Posted by DallasAshli Our decor and invitations are centered around our "lime" theme. FI really loves limes (limeade, lime sherbert, lime anything) and since limes are everywhere in Mexico, it made it easy! Our color is green and our centerpieces will have limes in the vase. Not hard and it seems to really pull everything together! OMG! That sounds so cute!!!!!! It will looks so contemporary and elegant!

I know most people are having beach weddings and so their whole theme/idea is based around the beach, but on top of that, is anyone doing any specific theme such as "An Evening under the Stars" or "Casino Night" or "Pirates of the Caribbean" or any other ideas out there? I'm just trying to decide if it's worth considering or not. TIA!!!

Are you looking for some place tropical or are you also considering Europe at all?