VioletVol

I am a Tennessee girl, so I have everything in orange including shoes! I haven't bought any in years, but I see them often. I believe I have seen them several times at Shoe Carnival, but honestly I haven't been shopping lately so I don't know what is in stock now. DSW & Off Broadway have had orange before too. How fun!!

These look amazing! Great job!!!

I wish we had seen this earlier, I doubt we have time, but it sounds awesome! My FI really needs custom everything--he's a big football player! We did find a suit we liked luckily, can get it in within a couple days, so we haven't ordered, but need to this week. I think he would have loved this though!

This is a major issue for me!!! I'm trying to get the resort to put down boards under a runner. Not sure if its going to work out. I need to get some wedges as a back up, but my dress needs a skinny heel! I will end up in flip flops later, I'm sure, but I definitely want to wear some cute heels. I bought some sea grass mats that I could use as a runner. No clue what to do about the firmness of the sand. My fiance' suggested we wet the sand so it will be more packed in. I'm just not sure how this will be. I would love to hear solutions too!

I love this! Hmmmm, I really don't think I should be adding projects now!

Yup, same thing you can use 10 coupons on 10 items. Of course there are exceptions and some stores are more coupon friendly than others and each coupon has its own wording. I really like hotcouponworld.com too. I really suggest picking one store and sort of learning the ropes that way. I started with Walgreens & CVS. Today is the first time I have ever used coupons at Target, but I did and I got 30 of the sunscreens! Very exciting!!! Walmart can be helpful too. One nice thread on that site is free or cheap stuff at Walmart. Its under the Walmart forum and it stays pretty updated. Target has a similar one too. With coupons you can get free candy bars at CVS in a couple weeks, the coupons were a little pricey on ebay so I don't know if I will or not. Walgreens will have free shampoo & toothbrushes this week after their register rewards (you pay $3.49 and get 3.49 for a future purchase--don't use it on another shampoo or it won't print another). Walmart has Hefty One Zip bags for $1 and there are $1 coupons--I got these to send with my pre-travel brochure, so they will have a bag for their liquid carry-ons. Of course there are endless reasons to have baggies! I'm really thinking hard if there are other deals coming up soon that would be good for OOT bags. I will try to keep posting them as I see them, now that I've bought most everything I may overlook some deals, but I will keep an eye out.

Everything looks so good, I'm glad everything was used!!! I hope people use the stuff in mine. I'm starting to feel like its a lot of work, so I just want it to pay off!

Wow, your criteria is very similar to mine except my price point was lower for my guests sake. Unforunately I gave up on the 'by the beach not on the beach' part with my resort. I almost went with Dreams Cancun because of the gorgeous gazebo. I know we could have paid it and my family would be there, but honestly I don't think any of our friends would have come, so we chose a cheaper resort. But I definitely think you can make this all happen. It is the most difficult part of the destination wedding in my opinion (well that and communication--everyone outside the US seems to email much slower, just more laid back). Good luck! Can't wait to hear what you decide.

I absolutely admire those who can make wedding cakes, but I understand needing to save on this area of your budget. I am looking at doing a smaller cake and a sheet cake to serve the masses (for my AHR, my cake is included in my package at my resort). I really hope this works for you! I'm really going to avoid the 'wedding' word when I'm looking for my AHR cake because I'm probably going with blue & brown colors instead of white. The places I have checked so far did not seem to charge extra because of the wedding, but I just looked online at a place and it seemed that their wedding cakes were more than other decorated cakes. Anyway, good luck!!!

Those look really good!!!

Sheesh, I still can't decide what I'm doing about this! I tried buying the transfer paper that someone recommended, but it just didn't turn out the way I had hoped. I finally decided to let one of my friends with good handwriting do them really cute, but my fiance' wasn't loving the idea & Walmart no longer has the 4/$1 cups I was hoping to use. So now he is considering having cups made, but of course then they will not have people's names. I prefer the names so they don't get mixed up. But we are still in limbo and we have just over 1 month left!

This is a great idea!

I think this is a great idea! I agree most guests are not expecting an OOT bag, we just spend so much time on here that it seems normal, but most guests are not aware that some brides do this. I love the idea of putting a welcome letter in their room. Possibly in the note you could say something about 'as a thank you for coming, we invite you to join us for a cruise and have made a donation to ....' Obviously worded better, but you get the point. Without spending much money (depending on your ink / printing situation) maybe you can even print a whole welcome book (many examples on here) with information about the resort, area, schedule of events, games, and include the information about the cruise & donation. It could look really impressive & welcoming without the expense of the OOT bags. No matter what, I definitely don't think your guests will be disappointed, you are going above and beyond. And while I tend to do the same, my fiance' keeps reminding me, it is not our job to spend a lot of money on the guests, they are coming for us and getting a vacation--they will be grateful for whatever we give them.

I LOVE the luggage tags!!!

Oh and I meant to say that I have read in some places that you should keep an eye on your registry so if all the items in one price range get bought you can add more selections. I'm afraid this may be the case with us--we registered for quite a few big ticket items that might be good for people who go in together, but I am sure I will be checking to make sure there are plenty of lower priced things, I don't want anyone to feel like they can't find something within their budget.

I have only checked mine once and nothing was purchased yet. I'm sure I will start checking it more often as the wedding gets closer. I'm only a little over a month out and as of last week nothing had been bought, so I'm totally jealous. But invitations to my shower just went out, so I'm sure people will start to see some changes soon. I believe most people will wait until our AHR and that isn't until October. But I think its normal and exciting!!!

If you're worried about buying too early, check the expiration date. I know some of the sunscreens don't expire for 1 year or more, so you may be able to knock this off early & cheap. Good luck!

I hadn't even thought about finding my own officiant, but I would love to know what you found out or if anyone has suggestions. I think that what the resort charges is high too! I have toyed with the idea of one of my guests doing it, but I'm just not for sure. Anyone get their own?

This is the hardest part. I spent the first 4 months of my 9 month engagement trying to make this decision. I wanted a gazebo and low cost for my guests. It was more important to me to choose a place that would cost my guests the least amount possible. I knew my family would come no matter what, but some of my friends would have to base their decision on the price. Unfortunately I am not getting my gazebo, but I have several friends going who I could have never expected. We chose Sandos Caracol because of the price and we had been there before. I have read that some people are scared because it is so inexpensive they are worried about the quality of the resort, but since we have been there twice we know what we're getting. I'm certain there are nicer resorts, but this one is very nice. I have had no complaints in the 2 times I've been there. It is also kid friendly which turned out to not be a huge issue, but I did want children to be allowed in case some of our friends with children came (they are coming, but leaving the kids at home now!) Good luck! I know its a tough one!

I hope more people will post on this, this is a great thread! I haven't had one big money saving moment yet, but I have had a lot of small savings. I would say the best thing for me has been using coupons to save on OOT bags, I am getting to do a lot more than I would have if I had to pay for everything. Even $1 items can really add up. Also for our AHR we chose a venue that has tables, chairs, sound equpment and other things we would have had to rent separate. The venue was a little more than our 2nd choice, but it has paid for itself. Our dj is charging us half price since he doesn't have to bring his own equipment.

Thanks a ton!!!

I've been torn about this too. I'm most likely getting them there, but I certainly understand the desire to take them and get exactly what you want. I like most all flowers, so I don't mind if things don't match exactly, I'm saving all my OCD tendencies for the AHR where I have more control.

I love these, I'm thinking about making cones for easy throwing, but I"m really not sure. I'm so running out of time, gotta start deciding!

I definitely do not think it is necessary. I think you get to do whatever you want, its your day, but for me that's part of having a destination wedding is that everything is more laid back.

We are going with DIY from Michaels. They were $40 for 30, but if you sign up for the email you get a 50% off coupon that says you can use once per person per day. So I got them for $100 for 150 invitations. But I'm printing myself. For some reason, this was something I really didn't care about, but I know some people really like nice invitations.