shortnsweet7675

Quote: Originally Posted by echo2_62 and finally my real touch flowers that I just got in the other day. I'm debating on colouring some of them with a dark purple tint for my bouquet so that they stand out a little more from my dress (and please excuse the horribly messy desk in the background!!) my new carry on bag that I just bought - it's also bright turquoise which is one of my favourite colours. Enough so that my friends have re-named it "meghan blue" since we all know exactly the colour then! And last but not least a recent picture of FI and I because it's nearly impossible to get him to smile in pictures! So yes, I probably should have pulled together a planning thread by this point as well instead of wasting all our space here but I had already started posting before I thought of that! LOL! Thanks for sharing all of the pics Meghan! Everything looks great and you look gorgeous in that dress! Oh, Tracy, I like your new centerpiece idea. It was wonderful how everyone chimed in to help you out. I love this forum! I have so much to catch up on this thread... maybe I'll get to it on Sunday. FI's B-Day is tomorrow. Have a nice weekend ladies.

Those came out really nice Mel!

Thanks everyone for your compliments on my dress and bridesmaids’ dresses! Mel, Glad to hear your legal day is finally set and it’s so sweet that your FI arranged for it to take place at the hotel. Quote: Originally Posted by jerseykitten Natasha - LOVE LOVE LOVE the dress on you! It looks so good - bustle looks good - i'm not sure about the necklace - I think it's too much for the dress - just my opinion. Bridesmaid dress is pretty too and I love her shoes. Rings are gorgeous. I love all the pictures too - I'm still waiting for my girlfriend to send my fitting pictures - i finally got my spa day/shower pics - I'll put that thread up soon. Thanks Michelle. That’s funny, my MOH said the same thing about the necklace. It’s such a beautiful handmade necklace from an ETSY seller. If I don’t wear it with the dress, I will have to wear it with something the week of the wedding (maybe on one of the cruise formal nights). I have a backup rhinestone necklace & earring set to wear just in case. Glad you noticed the bridesmaid shoes. We went back and forth on which shoes they would wear. We finally decided on this pair. They are gorgeous, but the heel is high. Glad they can walk in them because I sure couldn’t. Here is a side view of the shoe, don’t think you could see it in the pic of my sister. Quote: Originally Posted by echo2_62 Wow apparently yesterday/last night was totally a photo night and I missed out I love seeing everything coming together finally! Natasha - your dress and your bridesmaids dresses are really pretty! That deep red colour is very stunning and of course matches very well to your garnet rings I love seeing all the original ideas that everyone has had for their rings, including yours! And it is such a great feeling when you know that your dress is really fitting the way you want it to and you don't look at it thinking "if we could just change this little thing" as much anymore. I picked mine up on the weekend and had to hug my alterations lady because I was so happy with it! Thanks Meghan! It is so ironic that the deep-red color of the bridesmaids’ dresses is… Garnet. You’re so right, it is a great feeling to have the dress fitting correctly. I was surprised with my real-touch flowers too. When my sister saw them for the first time this weekend, she kept saying “they feel so realâ€. Your dog sounds sooo much like my Lab/Doberman mix. I tell everyone her bark is vicious, but all she’ll do is lick you to death when she gets to you! And shame on the delivery man for leaving your box like that. Glad they only got a little smooshed and not worse than that. I am totally a control freak too. I fussed at FI when we were putting together the OOT bags because he wasn’t trimming the edges of the bag tags right… and he had a paper cutter to cut them straight! Quote: Originally Posted by caribbeanLover Nat, I forgot to mention (how could I!) how much I love your rings. They are also very unique. Did you pick your E-ring out or did the FI do that all on his own? Thanks Tracy! We had discussed what kind of ring I wanted before we got engaged. I told him that I wanted something unique, like with my birthstone and his birthstone. He picked it out after that. Quote: Originally Posted by hoyt75 FYI to everyone - it seems like everyone started calling me this week to make sure things were in place, and to ask me little q's. So be aware that your all your guests may start calling you in the few days before you go! Not like you need extra stress, but it's def been taking its toll on me! Thanks for the heads up! Quote: Originally Posted by SuzyQ76 Wow everything is really coming together for everyone isn't it!!! I LOVE seeing all the pics, I have not been organized enough to get any pics taken, although I have gotten a few things done that I should have done a long time ago!!!!!! SO at least I feel I'm getting somewhere! Don’t worry, you’ll get it all done somehow. Especially with the help from Meghan, right? Quote: Originally Posted by NyBeachBride thanks so much everyone!! ****UPDATE**** i had my legal day today... Sounds like your legal day went well… you’ll have a nice story to tell your children. Oh, you should definitely play the lotto with numbers like that! Now on to my next project for the evening… finishing up the wedding pre-travel newsletters and updating my wedding website. FI’s birthday is this weekend, so I won’t be able to get much wedding stuff done this weekend.

Quote: Originally Posted by jjflipt I feel kind of stupid, but I didn't know I was supposed to get my parents gifts! YIKES!!!!! Who else gets gifts? Wedding party Parents Who else? When do you give it to them? I wonder what else I am not thinking of! scary. It's not really necessary. I think it's an American thing. But, I really just wanted to give them something since they have done so much for us. I'm also giving the wedding party small gifts. I think the gifts are typically given at the rehearsal dinner, but since we are not really having a rehearsal dinner, we will be giving them at our welcome dinner the night before the wedding. If it's something you have no desire to do, I wouldn't stress about it.

Aww, how nice. Thanks for sharing your pictures... I want to steal that T-shirt!

Just wanted to share photos from my 2nd dress fitting today. My sister also had her bridesmaid dress fitting, but she did not need any alterations because the dress fit her perfectly. I still have one more fitting to approve the modification that is being done to the bodice of the dress. I’m having a small ruffle edge added to the top of the bodice. This is to give me more coverage over the 2nd/3rd degree burns I have on my chest. My sister in her bridesmaid dress (my maid of honor will be wearing the same style & color dress). The front of my dress with the hem and alterations in the bust and waist complete (it’s so nice to finally have the dress fit me properly). My hair will be done differently of course. I may or may not wear the necklace. It depends on how the modification turns out. Back view of my dress bustled. The bustle as shown has five points, the seamstress is going to add one more point to the bustle. I think she did a great job making the bustle for this dress. Side view of my dress. Close-up of my veil. It has a pearl edge. I just stuck it in my hair to get an idea of how it would look with the dress, but this is the veil I will be wearing for the wedding. The dress that I am touching has a ruffle edge along the bodice, similar to what will be done on my dress, but the ruffle on my dress won’t sit as high. Oh, and I don’t think I ever shared pics of our rings. My E-ring (white gold with garnet and diamond). My birthstone is garnet and his is diamond. Our complete set. My wedding band is an embraceable that goes around my e-ring. We got him a yellow gold band with white gold accent because yellow gold looks better on his hand than white gold. We will probably also end up getting a set of plain bands to wear to work when we need to.

ewok, loved your rings, very pretty and unique! hoyt75, glad you got a chance to spend a little time with your FI before the wedding. Wow, 5 days to go... how exciting! By the way, I always use the space bags when I travel. They are so handy! Erin, I loved all of your wedding stuff. You were a busy lady this weekend. Must be such a relief to be done with those items. Oh, and I love your rings! Tracy, I'm happy you finally got all of your guests booked. Way to go on putting your foot down with your friend. Great job on your OOT bags. I really like your sand ceremony vases, I considered doing that, but just decided to do the candle lighting ceremony instead. I had my second dress fitting today. My sister had her fitting for her bridesmaid dress today too. I'm getting even more excited now . I have one more fitting before the wedding. I'll post a couple of pics from today's fitting later, after I get them loaded into photobucket.

Quote: Originally Posted by avong1228 Thanks so much! Just ordered them. Great! I'm glad you were able to get it to work for you.

Thanks everyone! I really hope our parents like them.

Quote: Originally Posted by caribbeanLover Nat, Oh that's right, about altering the dress... but you will def get it in time right?!?! can't wait to see pics!!! Don’t think I ever responded to this... The seamstress has told me that she will have everything done in time. She has done the major stuff; at my first fitting she pinned the dress for the hem, bustle, and alterations at the bust and waist. So, the next fitting, we will check to make sure all of that is good. The modification is minor compared to all of that. I will have a better idea on Monday after the fitting. I’ll try to get my sister to take some pics. Quote: Originally Posted by Melidell I had the worst wedding dream last week even though it sounds kind of silly now. I dreamed I was marrying the wrong person and nobody would believe me... I wanted to call off the wedding and I was trying to tell people that this wasn't my FI but some other guy (I think maybe it was an ex). It was horrible! I guess I really do want to marry FI, though, because I was quite upset about marrying someone else lol. Oh wow. I’ve had some had some strange dreams myself lately. One dream, they couldn’t find the right music to play when it was my turn to walk down the aisle. I have a particular song picked out to walk down the aisle to. I was just standing there horrified in the dream. By the way, are you feeling better? I know you mentioned that you weren’t feeling too good recently. Quote: Originally Posted by caribbeanLover I just got my brochures in, and I love them. If it wasn't for you Michele, I wouldn't have been happy with them, Thank you so so much The brochures look great Tracy! Quote: Originally Posted by SuzyQ76 I'm way behind, like need to do a major list - I keep taking on tasks I probably won't complete, Thanks Meghan, lol jk! so all in all I'm nowhere closer to being finished anything than I was 4 months ago.....that's really sad. I have finished 1 BM bouquet - I have to tweak it a little bit, but all in all I'm pretty happy with how they turned out and the price can't be beat!! $13 each, not too bad, eh? Oh and my BM's Dresses FINALLY came in!!! and I love them, now just hoping that they all fit or I'll be screwed, lol, not really funny cause it's true - but they match the ribbon perfect too, considering I made the bouquets before the dresses came in! Phew!!!!!!!!!!! I’m sure you’ll catch up soon Suzy. By the way, your bouquet is very pretty. Quote: Originally Posted by taraappl We are getting married on the 22nd of April and our 2 year anniversary will be on the 29th of April. So... just about 2 years. Its a crazy long weird story. But, since I have time, I'll tell it Here are the characters in my story: Aww, what a sweet story Tara. You two look so cute together! Quote: Originally Posted by taraappl Hey do any of you ladies know where online I could make a photo book by uploading pictures? I am not having my photog create our wedding album for us. I'd rather make it myself online. I used Shutterfly.com to make a photo book of my Family Reunion pictures. This is the site I use to store most of my photos. I use photobucket for sharing photos on this site though. Making the photo book was pretty easy. I just used the option where you drop all of your photos into the file and it automatically arranges the photos on the pages for you. Then, you can go back and tweak the file. I had a 50% off coupon at the time. I’m not sure how their regular prices compare to other sites though. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of it to share since my Mom has the book at her house. Quote: Originally Posted by echo2_62 I should hopefully have my real touch flowers my the beginning of next week so Suzy and I will be hard at work soon after (since I don't have time to wait!!). Meghan, you and Suzy are so lucky to have each other to rely on! Quote: Originally Posted by taylorwd Shortnsweet your stuff looks AMAZING!!! I absolutely love it that you got everyone doors signs. I think that's so creative and unique! Quote: Originally Posted by jerseykitten LOVE THE DOOR SIGNS Natasha!!!! Thanks Ladies! Quote: Originally Posted by hoyt75 Natasha - I love those picture frames! You're fam is going to really like them. Glad to hear that everyone's attire to starting to be finalized. I picked up FI pants yesterday and finally found him a shirt that I liked at Target (of all the places). He's a small guy and most smalls are to big on him, plus my dress isn't white or ivory, it's more of creamy milk color. Anyways, it's was really hard to find him a shirt. Ladies, thank you so much for your encouragement and words about my wedding band. I was just so upset about it, and I was really hoping for tears of joy not sorrow. I drove all the way back to Dallas today to drop it back off at the jeweler. He is going to fix it for me before we leave! YAY! And just to clarify, it's all my fault that's that I didn't like it. I approved the wax, the design, I even saw the wax before he cast the ring.... I just didn't understand how big it was going to be. To be fair, he did do a really good job, I'm just on my own little planet lately. Officially 1 week before we take off! Today was the first day that I could check the weather in Playa del Carmen on the 10 day weather forcast.... not gonna lie, I totally got the butterflies! Finalized everything with the wc and send an email to the photographer. This makes me feel much more relieved then I have been feeling lately. It's really starting to come together ladies!!!! Thanks! Glad to hear things are going to work out with your wedding band. April 3rd… Man you are close! Quote: Originally Posted by caribbeanLover Nat, Just love the gift for the family. The window signs are adorable. Great job!!! Thanks Tracy!

I decided to share this with all of you in case you are having a difficult time deciding on gifts for your parents. I had such a hard time trying to find gifts for our parents. I finally settled on personalized picture frames. We will give them a wedding photo to put inside the frames after the wedding. Personalized frame for my parents from poetrygift.com (they had three different poems to choose from or you could have your own poem put on it). Personalized frame for my FMIL from ETCTrade.com. It’s a laser-engraved wooden frame. It looks so much nicer in person. They also have frames for bridesmaids and other members of the family. I used the coupon code FGIFT315 to get 15% off.

You might want to try looking through the WeddingStar or The Knot websites. That should get you started.

Here are some pictures of the gifts we got for my parents and my FMIL. Personalized frame for my parents from poetrygift.com (they had three different poems to choose from or you could have your own poem put on it). We will give them a wedding photo to put in the frame later. Personalized frame for my FMIL from ETCTrade.com. This frame looks sooo much nicer in person. I liked it so much that I decided to order one for my Grandma this past weekend. They also have frames for bridesmaids, but I’ve already bought so much stuff for my bridesmaids. I used the coupon code FGIFT315 to get 15% off.

Hey ladies… I have a lot of catching up to do on this thread! Anyway, I just had to share pics of stuff I got in the mail today (from VistaPrint of course). Welcome Sign for our Welcome Dinner (small yard sign from VistaPrint) Sign to decorate our cruising guests’ cabin doors on the cruise (Outdoor Large Window Decal w/ sticky backing from VistaPrint). I thought about ordering the car door magnets to decorate the doors, since the cabin doors are metal, but the magnets costs about three times as much as the widow decals (even with a coupon). Sign to decorate our cabin door on the cruise (also an Outdoor Window Decal)

Everything looks great Michelle! It feels really good to finally have those done doesn't it?

There are a couple of ways to do it. You can design the business card in a program like word, publisher, or powerpoint, then you can select the blank business card to order in VistaPrint and upload your design. Make sure you read their upload instructions so that your design uploads properly. Another way is to choose one of VistaPrint's tempates, then click the "Remove Sample Text" button. If I'm remembering correctly, there is an advanced editing option where you can add text boxes and place your text where you want and format it like you want.

Everything looks great! I can tell you put a lot of work into your planning. Thanks for sharing.

Quote: Originally Posted by caribbeanLover wow I love everything you put together, you did an amazing job... the guest are going to love it.. especially love have you everything neatly in a box lol... mines all still scarttered on the floor in the the bedroom (not even the spare bedroom!!) Feels good doesn't it to hav some things put together and not everyone around the house. That'll be nice you and your sis will be able to spend sometime together before the wedding, some one on one time before the big day!! Ohh, will this be your final fitting?! Thanks! It feels great to finally have that done. It probably won't be my final dress fitting since the seamstress is making a modification to the dress for me.

Quote: Originally Posted by caribbeanLover Kim, that is so great you were able to join in. I'm so happy for a lot of you being able to make new friends from this site. It's so amazing!!!! I'm so glad Erin had a great party, hope she's not hurting to much today! lol. NAt, I agree, thanks so so much!! How are things with you? BTW- Love the siggy pic of your guys, you guys look like such a beautiful couple!!! Thanks Tracy, I’ve been doing some major cleaning around the house this weekend. Everything has been such a mess with all of the wedding stuff scattered around the house. I got the downstairs cleaned up, now I have to work on getting the upstairs cleaned up today. My sister will be in town next weekend from Illinois. She is getting her bridesmaids dress fitting here and I will be getting my second dress fitting the same day (bought at the same bridal shop). I will be carrying her bridesmaids dress down to Miami with me, this way she doesn’t have to bring her dress on the plane. Yesterday, I finally finished up my OOT bags and wedding favor bags. Here are a few pictures; check out my post for more pictures http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...3/#post1226110 OOT Bag & Contents. Wedding Favor Bag & Contents. The sand and shell bottle is in the white box. Packed & Ready to Go!!!

Thanks for all of the compliments! It feels so good to finally get them done.

Kimmy, Thanks for letting us know how Erin's bachelorette party went. Sounds like fun. Tracy, I agree that having your hair up is probaly best to avoid having it blowing all over the place on the beach! I think it will look great on you.

Hey fellow cruise brides, I just posted pics of the OOT bags and wedding favor bags for my cruise wedding in April. Thought you may be interested, here is the link http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...3/#post1226110

Quote: Originally Posted by DWbridetobe I love the bottles! It's such a perfect gift for guests! Good job! Thanks so much!

Pics of OOT Bag that I purchased from VistaPrint and its contents. I wish I had made the font on the bags a little larger, but it will work. Cruise Week Survival Kit Pics. Survival kit Contains: Shout wipes, tide packet, bath and body works room spray, disinfectant spray, Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer wipes, antibacterial wipes, hydrocortisone cream, earplugs, Dramamine, band-aids, Kleenex, pepto bismol tabs, Advil. The couples get a few more items than the singles do in their bags. I had extra card stock left over from my pocketfold invitations. So, I used this to design the label for the survival kits. I used double-side tape to seal the cellophane clear favor bags from Party City. I actually used two cellophane bags for each kit (one with all the meds inside and one with the tide and sprays inside). I just folded over the labels, trimmed off the extra card stock, and stapled to the top of the bags. I purchased items for the survival kit from minimus.biz, drugstore.com, bath and body works, and Target. Pics of the mugs in the OOT bags. Blank mugs from discountmugs.com and stickers from vistaprint (outdoor window decals). Other stuff in the OOT Bags: Welcome Card (vistaprint), Lanyards with retractable cord (from another BDW bride), resealable keycard/tip holders (from another BDW bride), retractable badge clip from Wal-Mart (for those that don’t want to use the lanyards), highlighters, pens, post-it notes, waterproof wallet (amazon.com), sewing kit (Wal-Mart), and Ziploc bags. Keycard/Tip Holder Pics. I got the plastic holders from another BDW bride. I used some business card paper that I had at home to print the inserts. I designed the inserts myself. The picture is actually one I took on a cruise a few years ago. OOT Bag Tag Pics. I used extra card stock from my pocket fold invites to print the tags at home. I designed the tags myself. I just used clear address labels to print the names of the sailing guests on and stuck them on the back of the tags. I trimmed the tags down to size and inserted them into the ID holders that came with the lanyards (I used resealable id holders on the lanyards instead of the holders that came with the lanyards). The ID holders that came with the lanyards were pretty flimsy, but I didn’t want to just throw them away, so I used them as bag tags. I tied the tags to the OOT bags with raffia ribbon. I wish I had used a different color ribbon and a different color combo on the tags cause they don’t really look that good with the canvas bags, but I didn’t feel like re-doing them. That’s it! Let me know if you have any questions.

What a relief! I finally finished my Wedding Favor Bags and OOT Bags. We are having a cruise wedding on 4/25/10. We will be getting married on the ship on the day of departure, before it sails out of the port of Miami. We chose this option because we can invite guests that will not be able to cruise with us. We have 13 people cruising with us and 40 people that will be attending the wedding ceremony/reception only. So, all of our wedding guests will be getting the Wedding Favor Bags (1 bag for single and 1 bag per couple). Only the cruising (sailing) guests will be getting the OOT Bags (1 bag for single and 1 bag per couple). We are driving to Miami, so we don’t have to worry about transporting all of this stuff on an airplane. We are having a Welcome Dinner in Miami the evening before the wedding, so we will hand out all of the bags then. Pics of the Wedding Favor Bag and Contents. I bought the silver bags before I bought the white favor boxes, so the fit was a little tight, but I decided to use the bags anyway. The sand and shell bottle is inside the white favor box. Everything I bought for the bags: silver mini organza tote bags (beau-coup.com), personalized deck of cards (wrapwithus.com), sand and shell bottles (Americanbridal.com), sand dollars on sand/shell bottles (qualityshells.com), favor box (papermart.com), bag tag (invitations by dawn), thank you note card (vistaprint) Note: I had to break this up into two posts since I have so many pictures... See my next post for OOT bag pics.