Cotton114

Great review! Thanks for sharing it. We are getting married on Maui in about 5 weeks at an early morning wedding too! 530am wake up time sound about right....yikes!

Thats great, autjo! I might use that as well! We are having an early morning ceremony in Hawaii, with a brunch right afterwards. So to our family on the east coast, when we are raising our glasses of champagne in Hawaii, it really will be 5 o'clock there! How cute! Thanks!

Thanks so much for all of the replys! I was 95% sure I was going to do them, but now I am 100% I know my guests will love it, and its something fun for me to do! Thanks again!

We are getting married in Maui too, and we have already realized our rsvp yes list may be very small, especially in this economy. But thats A-OK w/ us! Like the other girls said, you should do what you and your FI want! Thats really all that matters. Chiquita, I am putting together (or trying to) my OOT bag stuff....what all did you include?? Thanks so much!

We are having a pretty small group (10 confirmed, possibly up to 6 others). Has anyone gone to the trouble of doing OOT bags for such a small group? I want to do it, because it seems like a fun idea, but I just dont know. Thanks!

I'm so glad everyone here has been helpful for you. I went through something similar (had to postpone my wedding right before it was set to happen). Because I didn't know about this site then, I went to another site, with lots of women (and some men) who have had their weddings canceled on them, or have been the one with the cold feet. Its called There Goes The Bride (theregoesthebride.com, and click on forums). It definitely helped me through my difficult time. I'm so sorry this is happening to you....good luck with everything!

I can definitely relate to this post! My FI and I got engaged in '06, planned an elaborate wedding for 300+ guests for August '08, and unfortunately had to postpone it in the week before the wedding due to FI's illness. Now, with things much better, we have decided on a DW (mostly for my sanity...cannot do all that planning again!!). You'd think in this situation, our guests would understand our decision and be happy for us.....and while most are, we have still received THOSE comments that all you girls talk of. Its unbelievable!!! After all the trauma we've gone through, some people are still upset about the cost. Bottom line.... you shouldn't worry about what people think, and do your wedding for YOU! My FI and I couldn't be happier (and this time around, we are actually enjoying the planning process, instead of stressing out!), and thats all that matters!!

We are also getting married on Maui, August 2009 at the Grand Wailea. The wedding coordinator has been super helpful! We wanted our wedding planning experience to be stress-free.....and it sure has been! Good luck!

We are having our DW in Hawaii in August '09, and our AHR on New Years Eve. Seems simple enough, but here is the twist. We were all set to get married in August '08-- invited 350+, had 200+ coming-- when we had a situation arise (FI's illness) that made us postpone our wedding 4 days before it was set to happen. This was extremely tragic....and although we've recovered (both physically, mentally, and emotionally), our idea of what we want for our wedding is drastically different than it was a year ago. We are not inviting many people to our DW- just immediate family and a few friends each (total of about 15 people). As for our AHR, we don't want to invite all of the guests from '08-- its just too many people. We have scaled down our list to about 125 people, which obviously is leaving many people out that were on our original list. So this is what I'm thinking of doing: 1) all of the people coming to the DW are already aware of all plans, etc, so we've just been emailing about that (no formal invitations to go out). 2) sending a combination announcement/AHR invite to those we want to invite to our AHR, and 3) sending just an announcement to those we dont want to invite the 2nd time around. I'm sure etiquette would say this is a no-no.... I'm just not sure what else to do. Its a special situation that, honestly, I never thought I'd be in. I want to include something in the announcement (to those not invited to the AHR) thanking them for their continued support during this difficult time for us, and for their understanding about not being included....or something like that. I'm just not sure how to proceed from here. I'd appreciate any comments, feedback, advice.... Thanks so much! Rebecca

We are getting married in Maui in August, and we've decided to have at at home 'reception' as a New Years Eve Party. We have rented out a restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh with roof access (free fireworks show at midnight....can't beat it!). We may do a slide show of our wedding photos, but not sure yet. We're not wearing our wedding attire, but its going to be black/silver/white themed, so I will get a new fun party dress! We'll be iPod-ing it for most of the night, and we will have a band play from midnight on (my dad's band....kinda cute!). We wanted something that was more of a party, and less of a reception, and I figure....everyone is always looking for something fun to do on New Years Eve!

Thanks everyone! I am over-the-moon excited about our DW.... I wish it was tomorrow! :-)

Hi everyone! Thanks in advance for all the advice and information I know I'll find on this site! My name is Rebecca, and we are getting married on August 9, 2009 in Maui at the Grand Wailea. We opted for a destination wedding for a few reasons....we've always imagined getting married on the beach, and also because of our unique situation. We were originally set to be married in 2008- all the plans were made, down to the final detail....and then sadly, 4 days before our big day, my fiance became ill, was hospitalized, and we had to postpone our huge wedding (250+ confirmed guests). I'm happy to report that things are going great, and I'm so happy to have our new date set. But because of everything that happened last year, I knew I couldn't plan a huge wedding again... even though it didn't happen, I feel like I've 'been there, done that.' So we decided to take 15 people, our family and closest friends, to Hawaii in 5 months for a simple, yet (hopefully) beautiful ceremony. Thanks for listening to our story, and congrats to all the brides! :-)