Vikki

Congratulations! I considered Stacey...she was in the top two-I'll be interested in seeing your pictures and I'm glad you had a wonderful experience.

Congratulations on your engagement and welcome to the forums! You'll find lots of help and advice here.

I'm so sorry for what you're going through.

Very nice! One more thing to check off your to do list.

Congratulations on your engagement. We looked at Sandals first as my brother and his wife spent their honeymoon there and had a great time. We ended up choosing Couples instead. The cost was a little lower and our TA had wonderful things to say about her visits to the resorts. Have a wonderful time with your planning-you'll find these forums are full of information.

Wonderful shots-I can see how much fun you're having from the twinkle in your eyes! I mentioned this to my FI and he thought it was a great idea. I'm going to look and see if I can find something like that around here...

Welcome and congratulations! You'll love all the ideas and help from these forums.

Welcome! I would vote Jamaica....but I'm biased! Good luck with your planning.

Yummy! Now I'm hungry.

Hmm... we have the same taste in signatures huh?

Enjoy that feeling - I felt like that until I started reading all the forums. Now I feel like my to-do list is out of control-and we've only got 6 people coming... I kind of like it though-it makes things fun.

We're doing the same thing-a small private ceremony and sending announcements. FI has been married before so we don't want to put a big emphasis on a traditional wedding process with an expectation of gifts but we want his family to know. And my family will want something more than an email from my mom... My question is when to send them? A couple months before? 6 weeks? What have others in a similar situation done?

I have worked in banking for almost 10 years and one of my jobs is to review credit reports. Be very careful about going over your credit limit. I don't want to alarm you but if you intend to carry that balance, even for a short time exceeding your credit limit will not only charge you an over limit fee but the lender has the right (and I can almost guarantee) will skyrocket your rate into a default rate on your entire balance-which will hurt. We're talking 30% and over. They will also report on your credit report that you exceeded your limit. Call your bank-regardless of the time of day there should be an 800# on your card and you can talk with them. Request a credit line increase, lots of times that can go through right away. I don't want to discourage you but as a newly wed the last thing you and your FI want to worry about is a negative reporting you your credit card. Saving $300 now is not worth the damage you can do. Good luck - and congrats on booking!

Beautiful! I've been thinking about a second dress for TTD. My mother really doesn't get the TTD concept and since they paid for the dress she's not thrilled-even though I explained that you probably won't be able to tell the difference after a good cleaning. How long did it take? I'm about 6 months out!

You all are scaring me.... I've actually been wondering about this myself. This happened to me last year-we went to Taiwan for 3 weeks in August and knew about it 18 months in advance. So we planned and spent lots of time talking about it and getting ready. Then we went....and we came home. And it was hard to come down. So now I'm planning my wedding, which is 100x better than a trip to Taiwan and I'm trying to prepare myself for the same let down. But... there is the AHR, the holidays (we're getting married in Nov) and then maybe, sometime next year we'll think about adding to our family. Oh..and I'm struggling with the name change too....I'm well established in my career (8 years) and going from my unique name to his common one feels....bland? I voted that we play boggle with the letters of our last names, blindfold ourselves and order the blocks. FI wasn't so impressed with that idea. Something about carrying on the line of Parkers. (Because Parker's are a dying family name). *sigh* Anyway, I'm glad this thread is here and that I'm not the only one that's going to go through this.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jacilynda Vikki I love this thing!! I posted it for everyone on page 10 post #397!!! **points up yonder to post #397** My buddy is waaaay ahead of me lol. (betcha didn't think of the weekly pictures or the extra measurements I added though did ya Jackie... ) Oh - and if I haven't said it I love having all these people along for the ride to help motivate me! You guys rock.

Quote: Originally Posted by SgtPepperette I think Ill track my measurements to. But to get some weight off my mid section would be fabulous. As long as I keep at it eventually it has to pay off though! I'm doing this also. I have a sneaking suspicion I won't be posting major losses for this but being able to see the measurements helps a ton. I have a great excel sheet that has a place for measurements then uses a basic formula to calculate body fat. I'm updating that weekly as well as inserting weekly bikini pictures (depressing at the moment....) to keep me motivated and help see the difference. Between this week and last even I could tell! If you want a copy of of it - or if anyone does - let me know. I don't know how to upload it here and I'm too lazy to go look for the instructions. Just PM me your email :-) Keep up the work!

Congratulations!!! You look amazing, your colors, your dress, the reception...all of it. I love the way the wedding arch looked with the wind blowing. Oh - and loved the last chance sign....might have to borrow that idea :-)

I would be so scared! Looking at the other posts it looks like lots of people have had similar experiences with no problems so hopefully that's the result.

Ooh, I like this thread! I've been working on a list myself. Here's one that is a must do for me: A shot with our rings, my bouquet and pictures of my grandparents-sort of as a tribute to their legacy. I'm going to get some small ornate silver frames to put the photos in :-)

Thank you guys for the support! Quote: Originally Posted by BachataBride I am so sorry...about your grandfather and your pet. I am dreading the day I have to lose either. My grandparents are getting older & it's pretty much a given that I will out live them. I don't know if you've done this or not but I had the honor of being able to interview my grandfather last year and make an audio recording. I bought a professional mic (about $80) and hooked it up to my laptop so I would have a high quality recording. You could use a little tape recorder, whatever. I had a list of questions about his life, his family, his profession, ect that I asked. It lasted just over 45 minutes. After the funeral my mom and her sisters and I listened to that recording-they didn't even know it existed. He shared wonderful stories with me about each of them and other experiences they didn't know about. I will always cherish that recording and I was able to bring happy tears and smiles to my mom and her sisters at a really difficult time. Just a thought to pass on.

Quote: Originally Posted by soccergurl3 Wow this is Exactly like my FI. He got laid off from work about 2 months ago and ever since then has been laying around the house doing nothing. He gets a measly $350 a week from EI and thinks that giving me $100 of that for bills is suffice. As soon as he got laid off he called me one morning and said his car broke down and needed to go into the shop. It's been 5 weeks alreadya nd no car so I asked him how long it takes to fix a broken car! He said oh another week. So another week comes around and he finally gets his car back....NEW paint job and all of a sudden his car went from a Automatic to a standard....WTF. So i asked him how much it cost and he told me $500.00. WHich I thought was fishy so I went onto his online banking and he took out $3200 dollars for this fricken car. I seriously was shaking beyond no belief. He hasn't had a job since Novemeber because he was laid off and then he went to school for a trade for 2 months in January and hasn't had a job ever since. So the grand total of his contribution in giving me money ....$800.00 in 5 months. I am seriously thinking about backing out of marrying him. Isn't the man supposed to support the woman? and did i forget to mention we have a 2 year old son! I am jsut so livid with his spending habits and his car obssession that I am seriously thinking of calling it quits! And on top of that I work 10 hours a day and am completely stressed because the two ladies higher up then me got laid off and now I have to take over there jobs. Then I come home make dinner completely take care of the son by myself while he just sits on his Lazy ass the whole night......I am so sorry about the ranting but I am FUMING RIGHT NOW!!! Hmm. Be really careful with this guy. I dated a guy for 5 years, truly loved him and wanted to marry him. But if he would have asked me to I would have had to say no. The bad part-it's because of his money management. I know that sounds shallow, love should be more important than money but we live in a world where poor money management can lead to a difficult quality of life, and that strain is never good on a marriage. He had $28K in defaulted student loans, bad credit cards and worked for his Dad for several years getting paid under the table. There were periods of 4 or 5 months where he wouldn't work at all. The worst part is we (and by that I mean I) HAD the money to be paying on all of those debts-and I would have done it in a heartbeat!! He had this really strange view of money, one of those conspiracy theories about the government owing the people, ect ect. His father spends his whole life looking for ways to cheat the system, from one shady deal to the next. I knew some of this when we first got serious but not all of it until a couple years in and because I loved him so much it was hard to pull the plug. But, when I wanted to purchase a home and realized he would never be able to share that responsibility with me and when I began to think about children I realized I did not want them to grow up with this influence. It was the hardest thing I've ever done to leave him but I'm so glad I did. I joke now with my FI that I would never have agreed to marry him if I hadn't seen his credit report. And it's partly true.. Good luck and remember, you and your FI are the example your child will follow!

Well, my mom just called and it looks like we'll be putting my cat "Question" to sleep. The vet says there are some tests we can do to find out what exactly is wrong and depending on what it is there are treatment options but he's 16 years old and it doesn't make sense to prolong his life just because I'm selfish and don't want him to die. So if he doesn't start eating then we'll take him in. If he were younger maybe but not at this point. I've known this was going to happen for a while but having it hit right now is awful because my grandfather passed away on the 8th. And I'm in no way even close to dealing with that. And I'm thinking to myself-what else can possibly go wrong this month? Sorry to be depressing I just needed to vent.

The biggest loser competition has motivated me to start using my Bodybugg again and I realized why I love it so much! It has been really helpful to me as I’ve lost and kept off 40lbs over the last year and a half. For my birthday last year I upgraded from my old bugg (the one I’m selling) to the newer one with a watch display and this little guy has just been sitting in his box under the sofa gathering dust. So rather than have it continue to do nothing I wanted to offer it to any upcoming brides trying to adopt healthier eating and exercising habits as they approach “the big dayâ€. I’m asking $30.00 as is and I'll get you a quote for shipping depending on where you live. Probably $3 or 4 bucks USPS. I would love to see someone have the same success with it that I had. The cheapest version I saw on E-Bay was $41 with 11 bids and 2 days remaining so I think this is a good deal. Your $30 includes: •2 Armbands (Med & Large) One is new, the other lightly worn. •1 Bodybugg, with packaging (original version, aprox. 4 years old, used for aprox 18 months) •1 Wireless Charger •1 Instruction booklet •1 Blank Apex Fitness Health Tracker Guide (Just a little wallet size book that includes common food item nutrition information and a daily tracking record) What this does not include: •The online membership required by Apex to upload your data from the bodybugg and track your food consumption. I want to make it very clear that this WILL NOT WORK without a subscription. You can go to Welcome to myApex! for more information. I think the subscription is $100 for 6 months but I'm not sure. I'm at the monthly plan now and it's 14.99. If you decide you really like it and want to upgrade to one with more bells and whistles (like watches…..) you don’t have to pay the initial subscription fee again, just the monthly fee. •Depending on the size of your upper arm you may need a larger/smaller arm band. These can be purchased from Apex for about $10. There are two included. Here’s a description of the whole Bodybugg concept (I borrowed this description-much easier than writing my own) It's all calories in vs. calories out. Bodybugg® - the world's most intelligent calorie management system. Bodybugg takes the guesswork out of weight loss by monitoring your calorie expenditure and consumption using the most sophisticated consumer body monitoring capabilities available on the market today. You always know when you need to move more or eat less. In studies comparing calorie expenditure measurements from the Bodybugg device to calorie expenditure measurements in a metabolic chamber (the "gold standard" of calorie expenditure measurement), the Bodybugg achieved average accuracy rates of 92%. It's easy- just manage your average daily caloric deficit number. It's flexible- eat what you want when you want. Work out on your own terms. It's personal- no more guessing. you determine how many calories you want to burn to reach your goal. The apex site is Welcome to myApex! for information about how to sign up for the program. If there is any interest in this I can post a couple pictures of the bugg and of me wearing it-I just don't have any ready now. This was working the last time I used it-because of the way the program is set up it will only let me sync with my current bugg but if for some reason this isn't working I'll gladly send your money back.

That's funny...I saw on a review online when I looked up their phone number and someone had experienced what you're talking about. So, when I went in to try on dresses I refused to give them more than my name. They were really cranky about it, like they wouldn't let me try on dresses unless I filled out the little card. I simply explained that I had heard they shared information and did not want that to happen to me. The assured me they do not..... I still refused to fill out the card and they did let me try on a some dresses but the fitting specialist made no recommendations, had no suggestions and put me in a small room away from the long mirrors-even though they were really slow. Needless to say even though they have a huge in-stock selection, better than anywhere else I shoped I wouldn't have walked out of there with a dress if they had paid me to. I was so unimpressed with the entire experience and I'm really glad I didn't give them my info. I hope your post will keep other brides from having to go through what you are!