jennierin

Gorgeous shoes and worth every penny (and last breath for that matter)! Congrats, they are perfect!

I just became a Maggie bride this week! I ordered the Melena on Monday and I am just in love with it! Melena - by Maggie Sottero I love Maggie dresses! You all are going to be beautiful! bcbride: I think that dress is stunning! Try it on before you make any decisions. To be honest, the dress that I ended up with wasn't even on my list! They all look so different in person! Good luck!

I love this thread...great idea. Okay, so here goes mine! Scrimp: Flowers - we are going with the flowers that are offered in the wedding package and not upgrading as the flowers look just fine to me...I only have my MOH and my daughter as my attendents so we are only going with them carrying one calla lily each. No corsages or boutonnière's for the Mother's (my Mom actually HATES them) or Fathers. Invites - I didn't do STD's and I made my own travel brochure invite which cost me a grand total of $65 for 100 of them. Also, I didn't send reply cards to be sent back so we requested our guests to RSVP via our wedsite, email or telephone. OOT bags - I got 30 totes for $28 and $20 for iron on transfers. I designed my own logo and did my own pressing. Wedding earrings - This one was unintentional! I got my Tacori earrings for free when my FI and I ordered our rings this afternoon! The rep from Tacori was there from LA to show us different wedding bands and he just gave them to me once we ordered! I was pleasantly surprised and absolutely LOVE them! Wedding footwear - I am actually only barefoot and then wearing plain old flip flops from Old Navy. No AHR - We opted not to have an AHR and just have a big party at our house instead! Legal Day at home - Instead of paying over $800 to be legally married in DR + translation costs etc, we are having a small intimate ceremony at our home the night before we leave for Punta Cana. No one knows about it so it will be a surprise for our parents when they get here. The cost of the marriage license + cost for the Minister is $350.00! Honeymooning at the same resort - We decided to stay at the same resort for an extra week for our honeymoon. We did upgrade to the highest room category but we only end up spending an extra $450 each for another week! Trip to the USA!!! - Seeing all the savings that you girls from the US are getting has prompted my MOH and I to spend a few days over the border to do some shopping for OOT bag contents and various other gifts...which will save us a mint!!! Plus, it's a good idea for a girls weekend! TTD dress - I just bought my dress for our TTD session from Sears (of all places). It only cost me $99. You'll understand why I had to scrimp on this once you get down to the splurge! Wedding Veil - I have opted not to wear a veil. Instead, I will wear one flower which I have already purchased for $45. Splurge: Wedding dress - My original budget for my wedding dress was less than $1000. The cheaper the better right? WRONG! Of course the dress that I had to fall in love with and order (just a couple of days ago ) happens to be close to $800 over budget! Oops. My FI was ok with it provided "I work lots of overtime at the hospital" to make up for it! Believe me...it's well worth working 16hr days for my dress!!! Wedding bands - My FI absolutely refused to scrimp on this! He said that this was a piece of jewellery that we would be wearing the rest of our lives so he wasn't budging on this one. Our two wedding bands ended up costing us $4900. Our budget was $3000. Again...oops! But our rings are simply wonderful! Besides, I got a pair of earrings out of the deal!!! Photographer - Another thing that my FI refused to scrimp on. We are flying our photographers from the US and having them stay with us as our guests for 4 days. It will be totally worth it though and the pics will be AMAZING! Travel Costs - We are paying for my Mother's travel expenses and paying for our immediate families deposit for the trip. Cocktail Hour and Reception - We are going all out for our reception. It will be private and we are having an international premium bar. We are having a DJ with a dance floor. We figured since we are saving money by not having an AHR, we should do this as it will be are only one! We are having fire dancers for entertainment during the dinner. It looks pretty cool to be honest! Also, for our cocktail hour we will hire the Dominican Trio for our guests to enjoy! Beach Wedding - Our resort charges another $300 to have your ceremony on the beach...but this is the reason we are having a destination wedding so this was also a non issue. And that's it! For the mean time anyway...we still have 8 months to go!!!!

That's awesome! Glad you got the dress of your dreams AND made some extra $$ off the one that wasn't! It's too bad I missed your auction...I may have been bidding for it too!

Wow! What a great deal! I absolutely love love LOVE the Melena! It's the dress that I will be wearing as well. The picture just doesn't do it justice!!! Congrats again on the steal of the century!

Gorgeous! I love the colors! You don't need to add a thing.

Cheese: Restricted

good champagne: toast

I am a birthday twin too! What a great day to be born Sylvia! January 9 - Jen (Jennifer Davis) January 16- Carolyn (Carolyn) January 23- Tati (tchuchuca) January 27 - Andi (Andi) January 29- Tina (~*petals*~) FEBRUARY February 3 - Danielle (daniellenderek) February 9 - Candiekiss (Candie) February 14 - April (litl_april) February 22 - Ana (Ana) February 26 - Katy (KatyKo) MARCH March 4-Cachet (cdc0427) March 17 St Patrick's Day - Lisa (lisaloo79) March 21- Danelle (missdanelle) March 21 - Bridget (Bridget810) APRIL April 12- Kristen (kristendotcom) April 15 - Erin (Erin6341) April 25 - Melissa (SgtPepperette) MAY May 9 - Lisa (Chiquita) JUNE June 5 - Jessica (Jess) June 5 - Helen (Helen_S81) June 28 - Heather (*Heather*) JULY July 1- Brandi (MsBrandi), Kaylee (KAMAY11) July 6 - Adrene (YoursTruly) July 10- Susana (Susanandmo) July 18 - Tami (foxytv) July 18 - Lacey (laycj1 July 25 - Deanna (deefalvey) July 29- Desiree (Tylersgirl) AUGUST August 04 - Amanda (BachataBride) August 15 - Abbie August 18 - Kathy (Cattie) August 22-Stacey August 25 - Jenn (JenniferLynn) SEPTEMBER September 15 - ErinB September 16 - Samie (lil_miss_frogg) OCTOBER October 1 - Kathie (Kathie) October 3 - Ashley (Soon2bePowers) October 13 - Kristy! October 18 - Kathy (paraisobeachbride2009) October 29 - Angel (Angel) NOVEMBER November 15 - Sylvia (Syl1115), Jenny (jennierin) November 20 - Kristie (aaronsgirl), Savannah (BillysBride) November 25 - Ayita DECEMBER December 1- Tiffiney (Tiffiney01), Michelle (beachbride0 December 2 - Denise (FutureMrsLewis) December 8 - Casey (*Casey*) December 11 - Lisa (Lisab

I am a birthday twin too! What a great day to be born Silvia! January 9 - Jen (Jennifer Davis) January 16- Carolyn (Carolyn) January 23- Tati (tchuchuca) January 27 - Andi (Andi) January 29- Tina (~*petals*~) FEBRUARY February 3 - Danielle (daniellenderek) February 9 - Candiekiss (Candie) February 14 - April (litl_april) February 22 - Ana (Ana) February 26 - Katy (KatyKo) MARCH March 4-Cachet (cdc0427) March 17 St Patrick's Day - Lisa (lisaloo79) March 21- Danelle (missdanelle) March 21 - Bridget (Bridget810) APRIL April 12- Kristen (kristendotcom) April 15 - Erin (Erin6341) April 25 - Melissa (SgtPepperette) MAY May 9 - Lisa (Chiquita) JUNE June 5 - Jessica (Jess) June 5 - Helen (Helen_S81) June 28 - Heather (*Heather*) JULY July 1- Brandi (MsBrandi), Kaylee (KAMAY11) July 6 - Adrene (YoursTruly) July 10- Susana (Susanandmo) July 18 - Tami (foxytv) July 18 - Lacey (laycj1 July 25 - Deanna (deefalvey) July 29- Desiree (Tylersgirl) AUGUST August 04 - Amanda (BachataBride) August 15 - Abbie August 18 - Kathy (Cattie) August 22-Stacey August 25 - Jenn (JenniferLynn) SEPTEMBER September 15 - ErinB September 16 - Samie (lil_miss_frogg) OCTOBER October 1 - Kathie (Kathie) October 3 - Ashley (Soon2bePowers) October 13 - Kristy! October 18 - Kathy (paraisobeachbride2009) October 29 - Angel (Angel) NOVEMBER November 15 - Sylvia (Syl1115), Jenny (jennierin) November 20 - Kristie (aaronsgirl), Savannah (BillysBride) November 25 - Ayita DECEMBER December 1- Tiffiney (Tiffiney01), Michelle (beachbride0 December 2 - Denise (FutureMrsLewis) December 8 - Casey (*Casey*) December 11 - Lisa (Lisab

Everything looks great! Your invitations are gorgeous. And your dress....sigh...it's so pretty.

Expensive: Taste

What a gorgeous dress! I am unsure of the cost to alter a dress with such beautiful detail at the bottom but I do know that they usually won't hem the dress at the bottom but would bring it up at the waist/bodice. I would go to a bridal shop that offers alterations and ask them their opinion on how a dress such as this one would be fitted to your specifications.

I sent my actual travel brochure invites last month to give my friends and family lots of time to save money for their travel. I haven't had any negative feedback about it...as of yet. I figure the more notice, the more people that will join us!

Oooo..thanks for that info...I'm going to check it out for sure!

What a beautiful dress! It looks wonderful on you!

old school: retro

Quote: Originally Posted by August2010Bride Jenny, Do you have a pic of your invites... I've heard of brochures for welcome bags.. but never as invites.. Its really a good idea.. Where did you get them? Did you DIY? My brochure invites were DIY. I went to staples and bought brochure paper and actually had them printed there as well. Altogether my invites (including postage) ended up costing me $130.00. I'll try to post some pics here but I'm unsure how to do it. I will definitely get back to you on that!

Quote: Originally Posted by InspiredBride Thanks for the input. So Jenny, you sent out your invites already? That was my other issue...I sent out STDs and emails with cruise info but was going to wait until June to send out my invites. Otherwise I'm afraid people will lose them (and the information!). I also have some questions about your website... Also, it looks like you're using the Ewedding website. I'm using the same one, but can't figure out how to change my URL (the one I have is really complicated). And my other question is about the RSVP feature. Guests have gone on to RSVP for my cruise (not the ceremony since that is happening before we sail), but when I get the RSVP it only tells me how many guests are coming and not their names. Have you figured out a way to get their names to show up? I did send out my invites already. I sent them out early because I wasn't going to be sending out STD's and most of my guests needed the next 9 months to save for their wedding vacation. So far the response has been pretty good. We actually had already registered this URL before we found ewedding.com. FI is a programmer and knows how to link a URL to a site. Not sure how to do it but I will ask him when he gets home from work. The easier way to do it though is to upgrade your account and you are able to change your URL from there. I'm not sure if you have an upgraded account but I did upgrade. When someone RSVP's I can see their name on my edit page but not on the actual website. I think that you need to upgrade to see the names on the RSVP. I promise I'll get back to you about the URL later today.

Quote: Originally Posted by Trice 30 minutes on the elliptical and jogged 3.5 miles on the treadmill yesterday. I did a body check also. I'm down to 23% body fat. In June of last year I was at 36% so this is great! Trice, that's awesome! I only started a real workout regiment 2 weeks ago and am hoping that I drop 30 lbs and I go from 35% to 20% by October! Reading this has given me inspiration! Well, on that note, I am heading downstairs and doing 45 min on the treadmill!

I actually did exactly what you are thinking of! I sent out DIY travel brochure invites. We included the week of travel, information of the resort, what was included and little extras. We also included the name of our TA and the cost of the trip. As far as the RSVP was concerned, we decided to have our guests RSVP to our wedding website. I think that it was a great idea and most of our guests that plan on coming LOVED it too! Besides, we like to think that going "green" was the most responsible way to do it.

Patsy Cline song: classic

I too had the same problem. We were engaged the end of September and I started going to get price quotes on resorts for November 2009. The prices were horribly high compared to 2008! The reason that I was given was because the prices were not published yet and therefore the tour operators can give you any price that they want at that particular moment. We were advised to either change our date to the month before (which is what we did), or to wait a little longer for price quotes. I'm sure if you hold off for a little while the prices "may" come down. Also, you could decide on having your wedding during off season, which is from May - November. Prices are always lower during that time period. I really hope that things work out! And don't get discouraged, things always have a way of righting themselves in the end!

My best friend is my MOH and FI's brother is his BM. My 9 year old daughter is my flowergirl/junior bridesmaid/escort down the aisle. My father will walk me half way down the aisle where my daughter will meet me and walk me the rest of the way down to my FI where we plan to unite as a family. I didn't want a big wedding party but we do need witnesses so therefore planned to have one person each stand up for us.

Welcome and happy planning!