SoonToBeE

Depends on whether you want to do it yourself or whether you want someone else to handle everything. Martha Stewart Weddings usually has great designs in their issues if you want to pick something and bring it to a printer. The other option is etsy - they have great hand made stuff there. Anything you could want, they have! Also, there are a few of us on here (like me) that do invite design. Check out some of the links in the invitation thread and you'll find lots of pros there : ) Good luck!

Here are some pieces from our winter engagement session which will be a stark contrast to our tropical beach wedding! We are so glad that we did them and we loved our photographer. He was amazing to work with, super nice and very talented! Jon Rennie - GTA Wedding Photography

Hmmmm That sounds dicey. The bottom can likely be brought in easily, but the top, with the embellishments may not look as good when you severely alter it. I would take your dress into a seamstress for a quick consult - or call the original seamstress to see what they think. They did the original alterations so have an idea of how much farther you can go. Congrats on the wight loss....sorry it's impacting your dress : )

Also - I just want to confirm that at this time redtagdeals.ca, selloffvacations.com and Flight Center all offered this deal - so if you booked with any of those vendors, through Signature, you should have received this deal!

Quote: Originally Posted by edssbride09 Hey SoontobeE, that is an amazing deal! Ugh, i wish we had been able to arrange something free, we are getting nothing and having 45 people stay at the resort. I am sure it is too late to arrange something now, but there was no promos available when we booked... how did you arrange your deal? I wish we had some sort of perk... now i feel bummed that we get something! That sucks that you did not get any discount or perks for booking! Especially when you are booking more people than we are! We booked through Signature - I would go back and ask your travel agent. Any agent I spoke to about our trip offered that deal. SO maybe she (or he) is holding back. It doesn't hurt to ask! Group bookings usually have some sort of perk. When did you book? DId you book with Signature? I want you to get that deal!!! The details of our deal are as follows (from our travel agent) when we booked in July: Signature is also offering a promotion that every 16th passenger travels free - excluding the taxes so as long as you have more than 15 people, you will receive this promotion. Good luck!

Hi! I have stayed at the resort (3 years ago) it is a good size for a wedding. We didn't see any weddings while we were there, but I have a whole bunch of information about that resort if you are interested! Good luck with the planning and congrats : )

Okay...I LOVE advent calendars! There is something about counting down the days with a piece of chocolate that makes me oh so happy. That's why when I found a giant advent calendar yesterday that I knew I had to 1. Buy it and 2. Make it into something AMAZING! As soon as I set my eyes on the 3 foot x 2 foot advent calendar that I knew what my wedding was missing something.... A chocolate countdown calendar! So, I bought it, came home and made it into my very own custom Chocolate Wedding Countdown Calendar! I like to call it a Wed-vent Calendar! Here are some shots... Here is what the calendar kind of looked like. I had already started to apply the pictures when I took this shot: The chocolates inside: Who knew that a giant chocolate advent calendar could be so useful when planning a wedding. Who doesn't love advent calendars? I now introduce...the Wedvent Calendar! It's so sweet....har har Aww....wedding photos on the outside. Christmas themed chocolate in the inside. Best of ALL worlds. This may be the nerdiest (and tastiest!) thing I have done for the wedding. Have anyone done anything ultra-ridiculous for the wedding? How did your FI respond?

I didn't get the 'all about the bride' package because we had booked. Oh well.... That said - we did get 2 free stays (a $3200 credit) towards our trip because we booked so many people. We got $1580 for each 16th person we booked. We're not sure what we are going to do with this money - we are thinking about giving each person $50 back, but not sure yet. We just submitted our civil wedding application and are putting finishing touches on the decorations. We're also trying to figure out if we're bringing a photographer from home instead of working with local Mexican photographers. Valeria confirmed that if the photographer stays for more than two nights that the $500 fee does not apply. Yeah! She also sent the outline of the civil ceremony if anyone is interested. I can't believe we are 5 weeks and 6 days away from our big day. I can't wait to see Nicky's pictures!!!!!!!

I made my own little postcard with a vintage Mexico vibe. The back of the postcard is an old vintage spanish postcard, I created my own postdate with our wedding date on it and found a Mexican stamp to use as well. The front image felt perfect for our wedding. We're using these as place cards, but thought others may be interested in them as well : ) Etsy :: jennle :: Unique Place Card - Custom Spanish Postcard I love them and can't wait for our guests to see them as their place cards : )

I'm wondering if anyone will be at the EDSS the week of March 14-21? We are thinking of bringing in a local photographer and want to see if we can share him with another bride. I know it soulds crazy, but I've heard of so many DW brides doing this to save money. We just got our engagement photos done by a Toronto based photog and he was absolutely amazing! We really really want to bring him along ebcause he is so much better than comparably priced photogs in Mexico. AND we know how it feels to work with him. You can check out some of the shots that he took during our engagement shoot at his Blog: Jon Rennie - GTA Wedding Photography If anyone is interested please PM me. By splitting I think we can get him cheaper than the 3 hour packages, and then he'll be around to shoot your other events. Right now he is booked on the 19 the 17 and the morning of the 20 (TTD!). I can negotiate on those dates if anyone is really interested.

Here is my nerdy list with all the major details you need to know about the resort. I sent this out to my guests, will leave a copy with our at home emergency contact and will also print it out so I have on hand at the resort. It's always nice to know what time breakfast is over - or when lunch starts or exactly what is and isn't included! Hope this helps : ) The Mexico.doc

oops duplicate post!

Hello ladies! I can't believe how soon everyone's weddings are!!! Carolyn, you must be so excited! I actually bought the fans from the first link. We ordered extra fans because some aren't perfect and we needed some extras so that we could pick the best looking fans. I bought ribbon from Fabricland and wrapped them around the bottom of the fan. I also designed custom tags using caricatures of us that I designed on Vistaprint. They are pretty fun! I did have the fans shipped to a BM in the US, it was easy but obviously not for everyone! Thanks for all of your notes on the planning, pier etc! We noticed that all the Karisma prices jumped in the last week so we would caution anyone getting married later to take screen shots of all the items on the Lomas site so that you can lock in the best prices! (Beach Weddings, Anniversaries and Honeymoons in the Riviera Maya) OUr bouquets just jumped in price (50 to 90) as well as our photographer (978 - 2200). It's crazy! Also, negotiate with your photog before you contact Lomas. That way you will get a better rate and you are giving more money to the photog and less to Lomas....which is the way it should be! Also, I'm a bit anal and like ot make a travel document for every resort I go to in order to give to all my guests so that they are prepaered. I'll upload that for you guys to check out!

Queenie - How did you decorate you fans with ribbon? Would love a mini tutorial if you have the time : )

Quote: Originally Posted by sunsetbride1 I completely understand. I have not spoken to my mother in years and even though I have come to terms with it; it is still hard sometimes. She will not be invited to the wedding and I don't even know if she knows I am engaged. She is not a good person and that is all I can say... I don't need her there. Yes, it makes me sad that she won't be there when I am getting ready like Mother's should be; but she has never been a good Mother so it's nothing I haven't been dealing with for many years. That's the way I am feeling right now. I want to have all of the 'mother daughter' times that happen when one is planning a wedding, but I know that she can't do that, and I wouldn't want her to. I guess I just miss the idea of having a 'TV mom.' I think my mom knows I'm engaged. I sent her an email but she never responded.....I'm in the same boat - she hasn't been a mother for years, but I notice more now than I ever have before...... Sucks that so many people are in this same boat : ( I could be your proxy mom?

I'm glad you are okay - what a scary experience. So terrible - is there any way that you can file an insurance claim for the ring? If you have a police report you should be able to recoup the ring....right?

love them : ) You guys look so happy! Congrats

men....hilarious.

I thought I would start a list of some random things I have done because I am super excited about my DW - I'd love to hear everyone else's random DW habits: ) So here is my little list - I'll add as I do more and more random things : ) - bought coconut scented deodorant because it reminded me of suntan lotion. Now every time I sweat it smells like the beach. - changed the screen saver on all of my computers to a photo of the beach. - wake up every morning counting down the days until the beach - spent hours hand crafting my own tropical invites - have fallen in love with palm trees and starfish and have the urge to buy everything starfish and palm tree that I see Okay - it's a short list...but I'm really excited to see what everyone else has to offer

haha - just read your last posting.....tee hee!

Does anyone else have important family members that they are not inviting for good reason? We are getting married in a few weeks and from the start I knew I couldn't invite my mom or my brother because of a big family feud. I don't talk to my brother and I haven't spoken to my mom in over a year. I had to shut them out of my life. It's sad and it's so hard to talk to people who ask why these key family members aren't invited, but I know it's the best - it felt worse to imagine them at the wedding than it would to imagine them not being there. I knew when I felt that way that I had made the right choice, but it's still hard. Anyone else in the same boat where they aren't inviting a really important family member (that will be obviously missing)?

I'm sure you've already heard this a million times buy that sucks. I reevaluated my friends a little based on how they responded. Even if you can't make it to a local wedding you tell the person why. I'm sure they feel bad and don't know how to tell you without feeling awkward, but a call telling you why isn't asking too much. At least they sent you a wedding cheque! I have been to all of my friend's weddings and have spent at least $250 on wedding gifts for each of them....and went to their showers which is more money....and they have done nothing. They didn't even RSVP! I had to call and ask if they were coming when we were down to the final week of the RSVP deadline.....And our RSVP was online. I see you on facebook all the time, at least go to the site and click on no! : P Anyways, it sucks that you are going through this. It's sad when people let you down, but you're not alone. You have a nice supportive community here!

that's f*cked. You should let her wear the dress to show how crazy she is.

Quote: Originally Posted by edssbride09 Thank you so much for letting us know all of this... now my wedding is in 3 months so it should be warmer at night, so temperature wise i am not so worried, but the wind is a problem! We are paying $1560USD to rent a tent which is non-refundable so if we change our mind when getting there we would be out a ton of money. Do you think a tent (with 2 sides open and 2 sides closed) would be a worthwhile investment? EDSS Bride - I spoke to my WC and they say they have a back up location planned if there is rain during the wedding (ceremony and reception), but she did say that it is unlikely to rain, so the chances are good that there wouldn't be rain. She said the choice of a tent was up to me, but that it wasn't necessary during the dates we were looking at (March). January to mid-April is the dry season in Mexico, so you can expect few (if any) days of rain - and even when it does rain it only rains for a short period of time. For that reason we're not renting a tent. We're going to chance it and have our dinner out in the open. If it rains we'll have to move it inside, but I'm okay with that given the small chance of rain. For $1650 the tent just isn't worth it for us.

Quote: Originally Posted by edssbride09 Ok, this is all so confusing... so I have seen that list before, however i was under the impression that that one was for El Dorado Royale and NOT EDSS... i have one that is specific to EDSS for 2009, and it is different... there are no set menu options like that. Do you know for a fact that you can order off that one even though it says EDR at the top? Ok, i am annoyed! I may inquire about doing our welcome reception as our free dinner, but it seems we will have 45 people, so it may be tough. Otherwise Carolina suggested just meeting at one of the bars and having drinks and food that is already included in our all-inclusive resort! Oh and about the cake, i decided to go with a candy table, a pinata, and ice-cream sandwiches as opposed to cake, but i think if you saw samples and liked them, the cake is a good call! Go with what your dream is! I was actually sent this list by our WC and she said we could order that menu. I haven't seen the EDSS specific menu, but just assumed that this was their event menu for all of their properties. When I spoke to our coordinator she said we could pay for people if our numbers went over the 30 free seats ($25 US for each person over the 30 up to 40-45 people) I would inquire to see what they can do. Also - I have called and spoke directly to my WC a few times. It makes such a difference because you can have a conversation and she can give you suggestions for various options that aren't listed. We asked if there was an option for a dessert buffet and she provided one! I found it was so worthwhile to call her. I bought a good long distance card and have called her on it a few times, so worth the $20!