GracieBebe

I was also considering a wedding in Italy before we finally decided on France. I did a ton of research and can send you the various places that I got info about. Also, I would definitely recommend getting a WC and TA to handle everything in Italy for you. It just makes everything much more easy and convenient. Try Chateau and villa weddings - Plan a destination wedding in France and Italy. I first contacted them about venues and they sent me so much helpful info. And if you provide them a budget, they will keep everything within the price range you are looking for. PM me if you want the info I have on Italy. Congrats and Best Wishes!!!!

I love the creativity!!! So unique and special to your both! Awesome!!!

Actually, when you have that large of a difference in price, some airlines will credit you the difference back to your account. Especially if you aren't changing airlines or flights or times. You should call your airlines or your TA and look into it. Sometimes, they will charge you a change of ticket fee which can range from $50-150 but still give you the difference back. Hope that helps!

Thank you! Because we're inviting such a small group (approx. 30 people or so), we figured we could splurge a little on the invites. We ordered them through Handmade Wedding Invitations, Unique Wedding Invitations - Beyond Invitations, in case anyone is interested. The lady hand-makes each one of them, so they are a little on the pricey side (but nothing compared to what one of my friends spent on her invitations for her local wedding - $1700 for 100 invitations!!! - I was shocked but that's a whole different subject all together, LOL!!!). She also does Bamboo scroll invites as well as Message in a bottle invites for those of you who are more interested in the beachy/tropical/nautical themes. :-)

Normally I would say closer to the heart. However, me in particular, I choose none of the above. My wedding band is a wrap so my e-ring fits in the middle of it. I plan to have it soldered together before the wedding so that it becomes 1 ring. That way, my e-ring isn't sliding around and not lining up right.

My invitations just came in and they look awesome!!!! These aren't the best pics b/c I took them on my camera phone to send as a pix message to FH (he's travelling on biz) so excuse the poor quality. I didn't take a picture of the tube it came it, but it is a small gold tube with a wax seal that has a castle imprinted in the wax. I just have to print out clear labels with addresses and mail them as is. This is my first time posting a photo so hopefully this works. Invitation Set: Invitation: Reply Card:

I created one of these charts but I don't think it will be useful to you because mine is all on villas and chateaus in Europe, not the Caribbean.

What a really cute story! And we're from CT too! :-)

You can wait as long as you want. I have a friend who took 5 years before she legally changed her name to her husband's name. She kept meaning to do it, but just never got around to it until about 2 months ago, LOL!

We are not doing a sand ceremony, but we're not having a wedding at the beach either.

FH and I go through that every time we quit. And we'll quit for 6 month stints, smoke for 2 wks and then quit for a year, and then smoke for a month, and then quit again, etc. It's a never ending cycle, LOL! The first few times we quit, we went cold turkey and we seriously almost broke up each time. He gets really cranky the first 3 days and I get cranky the next 3 days after that. It was hell! The last couple times we quit, we tried Chantix. I know they say it gives you lucid dreams and/or insomnia, etc, but it's the best thing that's worked for us. We were able to quit without killing each other and it definitely took the edge off quitting. Good luck to you both!

We are staying a week at our DW (Chateau Challain) and with an overnight trip to Paris. After that week, we plan to do 3 days in London and 5 days in Amsterdam, so we're counting the whole thing as our weddingmoon!

Thanks everyone! You girls are the best!!! I'm glad to know that I'm not being unreasonable in feeling what I feel. Like I mentioned before, I do wish her the best and I'm happy for her, I'm just annoyed about the whole thing. She told me she would fly in for my pre-wedding AHR/sendoff party if she can't make it to the wedding. As of now, she's still trying to find out. I'm just bracing myself b/c I know she won't be able to make it. Oh well... And you're right, people don't seem to understand if they aren't currently a bride-to-be. Even some of my friends who are recently married don't seem to understand. The closest one of my friends came is she said I have a right to be disappointed but not annoyed. What's that supposed to mean? LOL!

OMG!!! I read the Sleeping Beauty trilogy in high school also! Boy was I shocked out of my mind! I led a very sheltered childhood so I was completely taken by surprise when I read those, LOL! They are definitely a good read though. I have them upstairs...Hmmmm...I might just have to find them to take another read. It's been years!

We jumped all over the place when we were first deciding on a location for our DW. We definitely wanted to do a DW and thought about various places in the Caribbean that we had not been before. But then, we thought, if we do it in the Caribbean, it'll just feel like another vacation for us since we go there at least 1-2 times a year and we wanted something different. So we started considering Hawaii. It was a place both of our parents wanted to go to and we love tropical places, but then as we started planning, we realized once again, that because it's tropical and beachy, it would seem more like a vacation than a wedding celebration. Lastly, we thought about Europe. FH has never been and I was there as a child and some time in college, so we started looking around all over the various countries in Europe. We looked into villas in Spain, Portugal, and Italy as well as castles in England and chateaus in France. Going by picture alone, we loved the architecture of the chateaus in France and felt that it would give us the look and feel of the type of wedding we were going for so that's how we ended up with Chateau de Challain. FH saw the pictures and knew that that's where he wanted to get married. So, keep searching until you find a place that touches you. I'm compulsive when it comes to searching and researching a place that I too have to put together a spreadsheet to keep track of everything. I literally had one on all 5 countries that we had picked out in Europe, the locations, the price, the rooms available, distance from major city, etc. Another way we ended up finding a place was, I picked my top 10-15 choices and let FH pick out the top 5 he liked from them and then we discussed which ones we both liked the most.

FH and I are completely going on blind faith when we chose Chateau de Challain. I had been to France when I was a kid and London when I was a freshman in college for spring break, but FH has never been anywhere in Europe. When he saw pictures of the place, he knew that where he wanted to get married. So we are basing everything on photos and reviews and trusting our WC. We figured you really can't go wrong when Tripadvisor shows 5 stars from every single person who's ever reviewed the place except for 1 person who didn't even stay at the place. I've never seen such consistently high ratings of any place on Tripadvisor!

...but I'm kinda ticked off that my MOH is 13 weeks pregnant right now and is due on Oct 4 (and she has to have a scheduled C-section the week before her due date because her pregnancy is too close to her previous one where she also had a C-section) when she's known that our wedding is on 9/9/09. I mean, I'm not expecting people to put their lives on hold but she knew well in advance about this trip and has already booked her tickets but now, she's not going to be able to come because she'll be past her 36th week by the time the wedding comes around. She mentioned to me that she and her husband wanted to start trying soon but that they weren't going to start trying until Feb or March so they can time it with the trip. But she also told me they weren't actively preventing the whole situation also. I mean, I wish and hope the best for her and her pregnancy and the baby, and I wouldn't ever say anything to her about it because I am happy for her, but she accepted the position of MOH and I really wanted her to be there! And now, she won't be!!!!!!!!! I guess what I'm upset about is that I just really wished that she had just waited a couple of months and was a little more careful because she obviously wanted to be there for our wedding since she and her husband and 1st baby already bought tickets and now they won't be. I'm just more disappointed than anything else.

Our wedding date is on a Wednesday also, but we rarely get those questions. Since our DW is in Europe, you kinda have to go for at least a week anyways to make it worth while so most people thought it made sense to have it on a weekday. The only time anyone asks us is if they don't realize that we are having a DW.

We are having our AHR before our DW. Although we will not be having a ceremony, we rented a picnic area and are going to have a casual bbq. Someone else commented that it is like a Send Off party which I thought was a great way to describe it! Definitely look into catering options. One of our friends found a place that does a full pig roast with sides dishes and all for approx. $20/head. I think that's a great deal! If you decide to do a bbq, I don't think you want to be cooking the whole time during your AHR so maybe hire someone for a couple of hours to do the grilling/cooking if you provide the food and prep. Hope that helps!

Quote: Originally Posted by DGG Grace -- Do they all know you are paying for the accomodations?? Maybe they don't realize you were going to do this and you can have them chip in.. If that first friend knew that you would be paying for accomodations and booked her flight without an invite, that's pretty rude... For the second couple, at least they asked.... but I understand your feeling - if it really bothers you, you can talk to them and say it is really going to be close family/friends only and would rather keep it at that.. I hate that it is really these ppl who are being rude, but I don't want to be rude back so I'll probably just give in too... We've let everyone know that we are providing accommodations since we first decided on the DW and found our location. And I can't have 1 person chip in for their accommodations when everyone else is getting it for free. I guess we're just going to have to go with the flow with this one. As for the invitations, we decided to order invitations ourselves and just say that FH mom bought us our invitations as a wedding gift. This way, we avoid the whole gift mess all together.

Quote: Originally Posted by wededbliss2010 Gracie: I thought exactly the same as you did with regards to making the wedding next year because I thought that was my FH wanted. Hence, the 4/24/10 date. He dated the same woman twice within a 10 year period and he always told her that he felt a couple should be dating 3 years before that got engaged. So imagine my surprise when he proposed to me after 1 year. We got in engaged on NYE and by the time we got home we had already agreed on the 4/24/10 date. When I suggested that date, I thought I saw a look of relief on his face , but he actually wanted to get married this year so VEGAS here we come! I, like you bought my dress the month after we got engaged. The funny thing was we hadn't changed our date as yet, so he thought I was crazy to have bought my dress 14 months before our wedding. I have to read your other post about unexpected guess. BTW, his ex-girlfriend and her whole family are coming to our wedding YIPPE! Aren't I a lucky girl! You're kidding!!! I give you mad props cuz I don't think I would be so good if FH wanted to invite his ex. Funny coincidence, FH also dated his ex for 10 yrs (since high school) before things ended very badly between them. Because she was a freshman when he was a senior, he was basically the only guy she ever had been with and knew that when she hit about 24 or 25, she wanted to see what else was out there and explore her options. So, things kinda ended pretty badly between them. So since she was the one to leave him, I always wonder if she were ever to want him back, what would happen. I mean, I know he loves me, but you know how it is with first loves. And she only lives 1 town over. I guess I don't have to worry too much as I've heard she's a complete mess right now, constantly in bars, addicted to Vicodin, swings both ways, etc. Her mom ran into FH a year ago at the grocery store and tried to get him to come to her son's wedding so he could "accidentally" run into her daughter. Thank goodness FH has a better head on his shoulders and turned her down. So, is the ex invited because she and her family are family friends? Are you friends with her? G'luck with that!

Thanks everyone for the advice! I'm glad to read that there are some who are doing wedding favors as well as others who are not. I will have to think it over, but I don't think it will be in our budget to do them. :-)

I just had a question that I just am not sure what the answer is to. We are planning on having and AHR/Send off party a couple of weeks before our DW. It is a very very casual bbq/picnic. We are going to state that no gifts are necessary, etc (with appropriate wording), and because it's so laid back, we're not even sending out paper invites, we plan to just send out an evite. Now, because it's so casual, are we expected to have wedding favors for all of our guests? Is anyone else doing wedding favors? I wasn't sure what the correct etiquette/protocol was. I really appreciate all of your advices!

Quote: Originally Posted by dolcegirl01 Grace, that is great information! What airline did you go through? We have a whole bunch of airline miles and were considering using those. Were there any good books, etc you would recommend for planning a multi-stop Europe trip? Some people have said Rick Steves' books, but I hadn't picked one up yet. We went through a TA who booked us on Air France. It works for us cuz most of our miles are through Delta and Northwest. We haven't really looked at any travel books yet. I usually go to tripadvisor for most of my info. I know people are all over the place with their reviews, but I'm a researcher so I tend to read every review so as long as most of the reviews are good, I'm ok. Every place always has a handful of bad reviews cuz you can't please everyone. And a lot of these reviews always recommend things to do, etc. Also, there are forums on tripadvisor that I've always found really helpful to ask questions and stuff. Quote: Originally Posted by wededbliss2010 Gracie: The funny thing is we were going to get married on 4/24/10. We choose that date because it was a play on both our birthday. Him being born on the 4th and me on the 24th. We were also initially supposed to get married in Vegas, but thought it to much work. I am actually glad we decided against it now, given the state dept's warning to tourist traveling to Mexico. After Mexico was out I began looking for other places to get married. Vegas was naturally one of the places I looked at seeing that it is considered the Marriage Capital of the world. And they had all these deals for 09/09/09 weddings. I discussed it with my FI and he thought it would be a cool idea. We liked the fact that we could fly in on one day and get married the same day if we wanted to. It just seem effortless. I checked out your wedding site, you wedding location is absolutely beautiful. You itinerary looks great! Have you found your dress, your BM's dress etc? My FI cousin got engaged 10 days before us and their wedding is 4/18/09. I could not imagine trying to put a wedding together in less than 4 months. And they are having 100+ people. We are having 61 people and it is still taking me 9 months to plan. Good luck with all your planning and I will be checking in from time to time to see how things are coming along as we get closer. Thank you!!! I'm so glad you liked it! When FH saw the pics of the place, he knew that was the place we had to get married at. We were originally going to get married in June 2010 (I suggested that time period cuz I know how gun-shy he was about even proposing since he's heard so many horror stories about marriages that end in divorce). But once we got engaged, he was all gungho about it and thought we had no reason to have an overly long engagement and so we thought 9.9.09 would be an easy date to remember so chose that one. I bought my dress that first month we got engaged last Sept. and my BM's have picked out their dresses but haven't ordered them yet. They have bought their plane tix though. We have 9 people (including ourselves) booked so far! One of my BM's is pregnant so she has to find a new dress cuz she will be about 6-7 months by the time our wedding happens. Anyway, your Vegas wedding does sound so stress free!! That must be so nice! We've run into the strangest issues during the planning of this wedding from unexpected guests to guests asking for us to help pay for their wedding gift to us (that's a whole different story you can find in the Vents section under Uninvited guests thread). LOL! Anyway, g'luck with your planning! I love hearing everyone's updates.

Ok, maybe this is related, maybe not. But have any of you wondered how a company like GM or Citigroup who both begged the gov't for bailouts because they were on the verge of shutting down, could not even pay their employees' payrolls, etc. and were so desperate for this money only 2 months ago, are now saying that they don't need additional installments, are posting profits, and are even able to pay back the bailout loan early?? I mean, if you think about it, for those of your in the corporate world, how long does it take your own depts or groups to complete a project? You can barely get a business plan together in 2 months let alone finish the whole entire thing! And yet, these corporations are able to do a 180 degree turn around of a large, global conglomerate/company?? Doesn't seem to make sense! Were we scammed?? Sounds kinda fishy to me...