AnnaBanana

FI and I have been online friends for... 7 years or so. However, at the time, I was dating someone else. When my boyfriend at the time told me that he had to move to Texas, I decided to come along even though I wasn't too crazy about the place. About 3 months after moving here, things with the ex fell apart. My best friend here ended up moving to Dallas (about 4 hours away), too. I was so bummed. I spent a lot of time talking with FI online and he decided to come visit me (he lived in Cali) to cheer me up. After that first meeting, there was just no denying that there was something else going on here. He canceled his return flight and stayed in Texas. Crazy, right?!

When I first got engaged, I took it off to shower, sleep, and do the dishes/clean. However, when I kept forgetting to put it back on I just decided to wear it all the time. I never take it off now.

My MOH - and I hope I don't go to some kind of friend hell for this - got married 2 years ago and I am sad to say that I use her wedding as an example of everything I don't want. To begin with, enclosed in her invitations was a magnetic photo frame with a picture of her two sons (cute!) which upped the price of postage. She did not bother to research this so ALL of her invitations were returned to her. To make up for this, she just handed them out to people when she saw them with the big ol' red RETURN TO SENDER note on the front. Next, as a BM in her wedding, I was told to "go pick a red dress." That's it. Short? Who knows. Which shade of red? Whatever. Material? Who cares?!?! It was a miracle that we ended up in the same color. Somehow all of us went to the same bridal company for our dresses - amazing since we all live in different states. The photographer was a friend of the groom and a total dips&%t. She kept telling us to stop and pose as we were walking down the aisle. During crucial points in the ceremony, she would tell everyone to stop and hold the pose! She even made my friend do a fake bouquet toss - having her pose leaning back with the bouquet like she was in the middle of throwing it and all of the single ladies pretending to be reaching for it. Seriously, what is that? Now, since only about 40% of the people at the wedding got their invitations, the ones that showed up word-of-mouth did not realize that there was a reception or if there was one, where it would be held. There was no announcement, so half the people didn't show up to the reception at all. Speaking of the reception, she had gone to the venue the night before and filled something like a million balloons (exaggeration!) with helium. As most of us know, those balloons only last about what? 8 hours? Yeah, so when we got to the reception, they were all deflated. Pretty! The reception was held in some kind of sportsman's club with a bunch of crap on the walls and a room off to the side with no door that was stuffed full of random trash. It was so awful. I mean, I can't even explain it's disgusting glory. It was just so BAD. Quote: I attended a wedding of one my former dance student. She was very young 18 year old bride and the ceremony was very nice. At the reception they had just served the food and they asked a missionary to speak. Well she starts a full on preaching sermon and 15 minutes in to it gets mad at everyone for eating and asks us to stop. So we all stop eating while she goes on for another 35 mins while every ones food is cold. And to top it off she keeps referring to the bride as Leeann instead of Luwann. We left right after that, we were scared there would be more preaching done at a wedding! I'm wondering if this guy was my friend's preacher, because I had a similar experience at this wedding! I felt like if I took one bite of that cafeteria style baked ham, I was going to go straight to hell in a hand basket. 20 minutes AFTER the hour long sermon, my best friend was on the dance floor with a bottle of champagne twirl-kicking to Cotton Eyed Joe. It was like everything you don't want to see at a wedding rolled into one horrible afternoon.

Oh, those really are cute!

I am a preschool teacher studying to be a sign language interpreter.

Can't wait to see!

Welcome and congrats! The Bahamas look wonderful, but I have never been. Good luck!

Congrats and welcome to the site! I've not heard anything about that location, but if there was ever a site to look for info, it's this one! Good luck!

Congrats and welcome to the forum!

Congrats, what a nice engagement story! Dreams Tulum is a very nice resort, I'm sure you'll adore it. Good luck in planning!

Welcome! I don't know much about Puerto Vallarta, but I have seen pictures here on the site from reviews and it looks lovely. You should do a quick search for reviews of weddings there. I bet you'll pull lots of information!

Hi Delaina! (what a pretty name, btw) Congrats and welcome to the site. You're farther than I am in your planning, so you're doing great if you ask me.

Welcome and congrats! Good luck with the details, I am dreading that stage!

Welcome! Perhaps if staying at a resort is more convenient, going to an outside location with the photographer might be an option? As some of the girls said, a lot of the resorts have gazebo-type areas for the ceremony.

I think I posted a thread like this awhile ago, too! You just have to pick and choose your battles, I guess. If they can't come, that's okay. If they don't get that you're okay with that, oh well. If they get uptight about it, that's their problem, but don't let it get to you!

Congrats and welcome, Brooke! I've heard many, many good things about Dreams on this site.

Welcome! I think if you're going for the intimate romantic type wedding, Riviera Maya is the best option. Pierre is right, Tulum is a great option and has some of my favorite beaches!

Welcome to the forums! If you do a quick search, you can probably find plenty of information regarding this hotel.

Welcome to the forums! You'll find all kinds of great info here.

I probably won't wear mine at our AHR if it makes you feel any better, cogswellgray! We're going super casual for our AHR.

Beautiful dress!

First of all, I do not think you are being unreasonable as it is YOUR wedding and YOUR event regardless of who is paying for it. If you need time to unwind, there is no reason why your FMIL should push you. End of story. With that said, my personal preference would be to have the AHR as close to returning as possible so that the people who missed out on the actual reception would still feel like part of the wedding "buzz" and I would still be in the wedding mind-set.

I think maybe if you have a bunch of people at the ceremony it would be appropriate but if you're thinking only a small number will attend, I wouldn't do it.

What is your must-have makeup, skin care and/or hair product list and why? (I apologize if this has been done before!) My list goes something like... Makeup: Boi-ing concealer - because it covers up EVERYTHING without creasing Smashbox photo finish primer - love how smooth it makes my skin Sephora brand eyeliner - no joke, I love this stuff. It's cheap, but it's great. Skin care: Boscia anything - that stuff is amazingly. Hair: Biosilk silk therapy serum - makes my hair so soft and shiny

I am looking for one also. Alice Inoue has been recommended to me, but she is a minister. If you check out her ceremony outline, though, a lot of the religious sections are optional and she mentions on her website that she is willing to work with couples to get the ceremony they desire. I'm not certain I will rush out to make an appointment, but it might be worth looking at. http://www.astrology-fengshui.com/we.../document1.pdf