Kla.Kari

Oh, that is such a pretty dress. I hear you on not wanting to wait until right before the wedding for the right color to arrive. Honestly, I think you will look wonderful in the white dress, but it is all about how you feel. If the dress shop says they can do the alterations on the right color and it won't come out looking too much different than the dress in the right size, I say go for that.

We are also deciding on photography soon. I have sent you an email!

Thank you all for the advice! We have decided to take the "Screw Ya'll and see you at the AHR" approach. I was happy the day we decided that. SMILES!

Oh, Samantha. My sinscerest condolensces; it is always tough to lose family members, no matter what the circumstances. I wish you well. I did get a few more things done on my list... Our save the dates are sent, created a wedding logo, and narrowed down my dress options. I may post the finalists once I have narrowed it down to just 2.

It's so wonderful! Congrats!

Quote: Originally Posted by Alyssa You know I have been thinking about this for the past month since our wedding and I didn't originally include with my 1st post in this thead b/c I wasn't sure but now I am 100% that if I had to do it over again I would have had our ceremony at 1:00 PM (instead of 5:00PM), had an hour for family / bridal party / group pictures - another hour for pictures of just us two and then some private time back at our room to just hang our and have lunch. I would then have my hair/makeup touched up / refreshed and have our reception at 5:30PM. Maybe wore a different dress for the reception or just put my wedding gown back on (probably the latter) I think all of our guests would have been totally fine with this as well b/c they get a break and can go to the pool, beach, lunch, whatever and then they get to re-fresh before the reception as well instead of coming right from the ceremony. I guess that what i am saying is try to slow things down a bit if you can - it all goes so fast and (at least for me) everything seemed 'rushed' even if it wasn't. Alyssa, thanks so much for that advice. I was actually planning on having our ceremony at 5pm (so I can sleep in, really) but I may take some time to rethink that. Maybe I'll do 3pm so I can still sleep in, but there is a bit of time to refresh before we start the party!

I used vistaprint for my save the dates, and was trying to figure out unique ideas for other wedding stuff I need, especially with all their free offers. These are some great ones; Thanks for sharing!

We are planning on having an AHR about a month after we get back... but so many are not happy about missing the wedding. I guess they just really wanted to be at the wedding, and probably can't go for one reason or another. But my mommy just HAS to be there!

OMG! I can't stand the fact that people pay no attention to RSVP dates .... I mean, there is a reason for that (like in your case, seating charts and probably final catering counts). Sheesh. My aunt has told me she will be in charge of the phone call list after our RSVP date (to call everyone who hasn't responded).

Ok, so I think I may be the most behind April bride there is! Our wedding date is April 11, 2009. Here is what I've done so far: 1. Made a deposit with the location 2. Verbally told family/friends and bridal party 3. Ordered and received STD's Yeah... so I've got a loooooong way to go. Feel free to poke fun at me... ;-)

Welcome fellow Noob! Relax, and definitely don't make any rushed decisions. This is your special day.

Not about my future husband - I can't imagine life without him. Sorry all... this is kinda long... I am having second thoughts about the location. St Lucia is gorgeous and I know that I would love to have everyone join me there to get married. But I feel bad asking people to spend so much to come to our wedding (total cost for 4 days/3 nights airfare and all-inclusive accomodation is around $1500 per person!). Granted I am not using a TA yet, and they may be able to get better pricing or discounts, but still. If I were asked to spend that much to go to someone's wedding, I would probably go and enjoy myself -- but I love to travel and realize everyone isn't like me. Especially with this economy. And my mother isn't helping; she wants me to get married where I grew up (where she still lives) in Minnesota. Her justification is that we can have a cheapo wedding at our church and then splurge on the honeymoon. Then two of my bridesmaids went and got pregnant... lol I'm am happy for them, but they will be in their 3rd trimester and unable to fly. And another is getting married herself and planning to buy a house after they are married next October. Now my FH is saying if I am having second thoughts, then maybe we should rethink the wedding... I just don't know what to do! Should I cancel the plans for the wedding in St Lucia and go somewhere slightly more affordable (like Jamaica or Bahamas)? Should I say "screw ya'll, it's my day" and have it in St Lucia anyway (even though mom and everyone else will complain about the cost the whole time)? Or should I just cancel the whole thing and elope?! Lol @ the last one... that's what FH has wanted since the beginning. Thanks for reading my rant. If anyone has any advice, I would greatly appreciate it! Kari

Found it! http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t19712

I was on earlier and found a good passport template in Power Point... I downloaded it but now I can't find the thread... I will keep looking and post back once I find it (I wouldn't want to upload another copy of the template without the authors permission).

so... I realize this thread has been dormant for the last two months, but I love love love to travel, so I had to add mine in too... 1. United States 2. Florida (it's another country, you know it is) 3. Texas (same reason as many others) 4. France 5. Spain 6. Italy 7. Greece 8. Australia 9. Brazil 10. Argentina 11. Bahamas 12. Jamaica 13. Mexico 14. Canada (day trip from Detroit -- does that count?) I would love to visit all of the neutral and/or "safe" countries in my lifetime. All my friends keep saying I need to get as much travel in before having kids.

Those are really good!

Yes, this is extremely helpful. There are definitely some things I will not be doing now that I have seen what headaches they have caused (like everyone getting dressed together -- oh my)!

Soooo glad I am not the only one. I am totally scared to hand over my hard-earned money to some strangers in another country! I should take up meditating or something!

Wow, I admire you for your courage and optimism. I wish you the best. And there is always the famous motto: live like there's no tomorrow, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like no one is watching!

And as soon as I did, I suddenly got really nervous... I keep feeling like something will go wrong, or like a better coordinator will become available and I will wish I had waited... or no one will come.... ARGGGGHH! Is this normal?!

I feel so inspired to take on my own DIY Passport Cards... What type and where did you get the paper?

OMG! After seeing all of your posts about budgets, and looking at what we may be spending on a DW... I am starting to think we are in over our heads. Our initial budget was about 10k, but it looks like the AHR alone will be half of that! Maybe we should just elope. (I am kidding... just frustrated right now).

Liz, Thank you so much for the info on Dreamy Weddings. They did get back to me today; actually it was Tamara who sent me an email. I am excited to finally start getting some details taken care of!

Hi everyone! We are planning to marry in St Lucia as well. Though we are really far behind the ballgame, I think we can still pull it off. We are trying to do something a bit different than the resort weddings. Though some of them are quite nice, they aren't personal enough for me. I wanted to use Awesome Caribbean Weddings, but they are already booked on the date we want. So... we keep looking. I have sent messages to Tropic Isle and Dreamy Weddings, hopefully I'll hear back soon. If any of you have any recommendations, I would love to hear them. I am also looking into the TA's on the site, seems like this is my one stop shop for everything I'll need! Thanks!

Hi everyone! I am a total newbie here, and so happy I found this forum. I swear, trying to figure out all these details has my mind spinning! I was never the girl who fantasized about her perfect wedding, so everything (even down to the type of wedding I want) was completely new to me. Anyway, my FH and I managed to figure out a few things so far. He has been great, really involved; every one is surprised by how "in the know" he is about our wedding! My Name: Kari FH Name: Sheldon Wedding Date: April 11, 2009 Wedding Location: St. Lucia Wedding Colors: PURPLE! (it is my favorite color) Wedding Theme: Love is Majestic Now if we could just figure out some more details.....