Ayita

We got engaged last Saturday of Sep 08 and got married first Saturday of May 09. So planning was 7 months. The first month was dedicated to picking a destination, resort, an date. We sent STD right away (electronically). November was the dress month, December was the on-site visit, food tasting, wineries visits, and meeting with wedding planner and minister. The last four months were dedicated to the rest of it - the website at the beginning of January, and mostly shopping (mostly online ! BM and GM outfits and gifts, rings, FI outfit, flower girl and ring bearer outfit, OOT bags, flowers, cake topper, etc), all the DIY stuff (invites, programs, table numbers, place cards, welcome booklets etc), and fine tuning (picking music, first song, readings, writing ceremony, picking lounge, chairs, table plans etc). It was just perfect amount of time for me and avoided me to go crazy with a too long planning - or procrastinating.

Quote: Originally Posted by bahiabride2010 You can't keep that a secret! What's the trick? I'm happy today because I had my bridal shower last night! Lol. Well I'm on weight watchers but instead of eating what I want within my points, I'm doing the 80% alkalizing foods / 20% acidifying foods. It worked wonders !! I hope it will keep on going like that cause I still have 25lb to go I'm happy because the weather is so GREAT today !!!

Your dresses are all awesome !!! Shuzzy - same opinion here - dress number 1 has the va va voom effect!

Just being over with two tons or URGENT projects at work - meaning I can leave early tonight for the first time in weeks (I spent my Easter week-end at work, and most nights until 9-10pm since about a month !) !!! AND I'm super happy because my new diet works !! I was on a plateau since, wow, August 2009 and even dieting and exercising hard (I run 10k races) wouldn't change anything ! But I found this "trick" 3 weeks ago and since I've been using it, I'm off 10lbs (in 3 weeks !!) and almost reaching a symbolic threshold I set for myself... so happy ! Maybe this week-end I'll be under that one and can then go on with losing the rest of it !

We used our real rings and I also had my ering. Make sure there's a safe in the room for when you're not having them on you.

I did the same - legal wedding in the US and non-religious ceremony in Mexico. I did the following : - a time line in my welcome booklet that you can find there : http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...emplate-41189/ - a ceremony with non-religious readings - I had my brother and my FIL read them. The program included the name of the people in the party, some readings, the text of the songs we played and the text of the readings we got - all with translations in French/English - plus a few other quotes that we found appropriate (for us). I found a really nice program paper at paperdirect.com - I used these : Island Tropics Programs by PaperDirect and then I did some insert pages with some other "tropical" backgrounds. I could post my program template later on if you're interested - I'm not at home so I don't have it with me. Here are some pics :

I did not invite anybody from work. I know a few of them and I see them outside the office, but there are not "friends" in the true sense of the word. I told everybody it was only family and close relatives so nobody would take offense - and at least I avoided the 9she got invited not me why" drama.

Question 1 : I ended up with only one BM (that became my MOH...) and FI had one Best woman and one GM... (the swine flu hit us). So we ended up having BW+GM walk down, then my MOH walk by herself. It was really OK even if she did not have anybody with her. Question 2 : whatever feels good for you and does not hurt your dad's feeling is the right answer... there is no "must" or "must not do" there... it's YOUR wedding not anybody else's.

Quote: Originally Posted by lexibride Ayita, by any chance do you remember how many pounds of sand was in each bag? Maybe 2 pounds? It seems that is a pretty normal size across the board. I can't remember and i cannot find the site where I got mine - looks like they are out of business or something ? But they were small bags really. Maybe only 1 pound I think ! You know what, if you have your frame, why don't you try with sugar ? You'll see how much it take to fill it up !

Quote: Originally Posted by lalanyc Has anyone else here had windscreens for their wedding? If so, did the hotel provide it or did you have to get it through an event planner? windsreens have to be part of the structure of the building I think. At any rate the ones of my hotel were. I cannot think of a screen that would not be attached to the wall ?

Quote: Originally Posted by lexibride Does anyone know how much sand to purchse to fill the frame? We are doing this with me, my daughter and fiance, so there will be three colors. I just don't know how much to buy. We just two small bags (two colors) and that was enough, we even have some sand left.

Quote: Originally Posted by lovelytlc ayita, How did you play the music? Did you download the software to your ipod or an mp3 player and hook it up to a speaker? No actually, everything played from FI's netbook. We had an ipod for a back-up - in case the netbook would fail or we could not plug it in or something. So we downloaded the software to the netbook and imported all the mp3 from the desktop we have at home. The netbook was connected to the speakers we rented - for the party we rented just speakers and lights - and to the hotel speakers system (they use ipod themselves for their music) for the welcome party, the cocktail, and the lunch the next day.

On our side we went with neither DJ nor Ipod ! We used a software called virtualdj. VIRTUAL DJ SOFTWARE - MP3 Mixing Software It is awesome. You just have to select the musics, put them in the order you want them to play (or not if you're fine with random) and the software will do all the transitions, fading etc. We did not want to end up with musics people would dislike and wanted a mix of everything. And FI was so happy to take care of the music - it made him feel integral part of the planning . The party ended up awesome. Dance floor was always full. even my mom danced all the time ! We ended up dancing until 4am. Yeah - another coold thing about NOT hiring a DJ : you're not stuck with nothing once he or she leaves the party !

I prefer the Jasmine !

You can also try to see if any of the following can happen in Cabo - men usually love this stuff : jet skiing segway tours sand buggy / ATV tours zip lining

Quote: Originally Posted by MissJenna Does anyone have recommendations for a TTD photog who doesn't charge over $1500? I am having the hardest time getting quotes from some of these people. Most want me to reserve them before they'll tell me a price. It's frustrating. I just need a good photographer who is in Playa Del Carmen who doesn't charge an arm and a leg. Any suggestions help! I already know I cannot afford Claudia Rodriguez, Del Sol Photographer, and Elizabeth Medina (all the good ones I know) Thanks everyone! I'm surprised. Last year Claudia had a TTD package around 1000$ for a TTD in only one location (it was only more expensive if you wanted to go to different places - and even though not more than 1500$). Did she revise her prices so much ? **edit*** I could open the pricing 2010 I found in another thread and I confirm : the packages start at 1000$. Starting at 1,000.00us depending on the LOCATION Same resort Wedding took place 1,000.00us Different locations (beach, ruins, Puerto Morelos) from 1,200us to 1,500us depending on distances. Cenote TTD 2,000.00 This includes 2-4 hours photographer and assistant services, transportation, Cenote entrence, all the photos taken on CD’s High Resolution, edition and special effects.

Quote: Originally Posted by becks1581 You've already gotten a few great suggestions but here's one more (to either help or add your confusion!)... Take a look at Hacienda Tres Rios. It's in the Playa del Carmen area. It is eco-friendly and has a very upscale, elegant atmosphere. It's relatively new and there haven't been too many brides on the forum who have gotten married there but I'm going on a site visit there in May. My brother stayed there with his kids because the resort I was getting married at did not allow kids to stay - even though they were welcome for the event. The resort is beautiful and the food excellent. You can even choose the cenote as the place to hold the ceremony ! http://www.haciendatresrios.com/ Another stunning and family-friendly place on the Riviera Maya is the Grand Velas, but it's VERY expensive. http://rivieramaya.grandvelas.com/

Quote: Originally Posted by buehler.allison There is a Costco in Cancun that should have wine. The Costcos in Puebla and Mexico City have wine and liquor anyway. I wonder if the resorts would have an issue with bringing alcohol from off site... I went to La Europea in Cancun. They have a great choice AND they will refund unused bottles. Be careful not to chill the white wine you want to return... it's very easy to find. LA EUROPEA The resorts that will allow you to bring your bottles (you have to check before hand) will charge a corking fee. You have to check the fee, it's usually different for wine, liquor and champagne. Even with the fee it was still much less expensive than through the hotel. I also checked the Walmart and the little winery in front of the Walmart in Playa del Carmen, but preferred the choice at La Europea.

Quote: Originally Posted by Matt Adcock SOME reception locations actually have built in wind blockers for receptions... so, the location can be outside in a Palapa or a deck / terrace area and also have wind protection in case of high winds.... SO my recommendation is to ask about this kind of thing with the places you are investigating. + WIND equals BIG BIG veil shots too Good post... two things : - at my hotel they indeed had some screens on the side of the beach, so the location was still pretty open but I think one or two screens were down for the dinner - I have fantastic pics of my veil in the wind... I would defiinitely go for it (at the beginning I did not want one and changed my mind after seeing so many beautiful pics with it)

Quote: Originally Posted by ask9999 The night of my rehearsal dinner it was not windy, but on my wedding day it was. It was also really windy a few nights before. I did not wear a veil because of the wind and woudl tell you to do the same. I woudl still have it outside though. Totally worth it. (also, the wind is good in some ways b/c it decreases the amount of bugs. I was covered in bug bites from the days/nights when it wasnt windy). I took the veil off after the pics

Quote: Originally Posted by Sita&Nate Ayita, I am now in your shoes a year ago! I am pulling together all last minute details and my favorite thing has got to be receiving all the great stuff I`ve ordered from etsy and the like in the mail, its like Christmas Thank you in advance, because I am totally adapting your welcome booklet template which I love. I can`t wait to post my planning thread. That's cool I like to know I helped a lot of other brides ! and I know how it feels - did it feel like Christmas every day ! It used to drive FI nuts !! A delivery again ? That was really cool. Quote: Originally Posted by DWbridetobe Ayita, if you'd like to relive those days, I'll happily let you take over my DIY'ing and planning! HAHAH! haha ! I have a lot of other projects - but I'm just missing this one... I really enjoyed it !

Hello Lalanyc ! It was very windy the whole time for my wedding - the ceremony, the cocktail hour and the dinner. Everything was outdoors - or kind of outdoors for the restaurant, that was covered but with no walls. It did not seem to bother anybody (except me, because the little vases I had for my sand ceremony could not stand on the table because of the wind and it was also difficult to find a place where to set the place cards without them blowing away - we ended up setting them in a tray full of sand ! My veil was also blowing everywhere). It never got cold. The wind is not chilly at all and the temprature was very warm. Plus, we had lots of food and drinks and dancing and it was actually very refreshing. People ended up in the pool at 4am, so I believe they were not cold I would not change anything in the way I did it. I went to Mexico to be able to enjoy outdoors - I live in Houston and here, it's impossible to be outdoors in other months than April or October because it's too hot and humid - and I did not want a reception in a closed, banal hotel reception room.

I used a bright orange. This is perfect against any color - green (grass), blue (sea), white (sand) and is perfect in a sunset set of colors...

Quote: Originally Posted by miznunu2010 Please tell me what you think so far. The tears of joy are just a test of the way I want to fold them. I have a stamp and was thinking of added a flower in the center of it. Please be honest cause my family will! These are bubbles purchased from michaels $8.88 for 36 but used 50% off coupon, and the flowers were from michaels $4.99 a steam for 7 flowers These are the micheals passport covers, wrapped in lime wrapping paper form party city ($.99 which wrapped 12) and the ribbon and tags came from michaels Beach kits. I wanted to really use my colors. I will do the same for the hangover kits as well. In them is travel size sunscreen, aloe vera (from walmart $.99) and chapstick (dollar tree 2 for $1) Chapstick-bought 1 sheet labels and borrowd a template from on of you! Cake box from michaels, i think $5.99 not sure how many it included. Used spray paint for boxes Sorry bad pic! Great job girl ! Plus, it makes me so happy to recognize one of my little guys on a project I spent a long time creating them and now they live a long and happy life

I don't remember exactly - think I paid 1,500$ for the wedding pics, and another 1,500$ the TTD. It was a local photographer, specialized in weddings - so no transportation.