Tam

I am having my soon-to-be step daughter my "head" flower girl. I also will be having 4&5yr old girls too, I wouldn't worry too much about a title. they are just happy to be involved.

A groom can totally change his name too.. I know of a couple where the groom took the bride's last name and didn't tell anyone until they announced it after they kissed in the church... I wasn't there, but apparently there were quite a few gasps. You can make your name whatever you want even if you never married!

hey, Your dress is normally the something new, garter is usually blue, but often now girls are having blue nail polish or shoes/purse etc. You could even use your wedding jewellery for colour too Borrowed could be jewellery or whatever.. someone has lent me a flower girl "purse" but I don't think I'm going to use it. Another popular trend is to have coloured shoes.. I am going to have fuschia (sp?) ballet flats I think... I can't do heels b/c then I would be taller then my FI. Hope this helps...

Quote: Originally Posted by lrdavis23 Heyyyy Tam... Glad to see that things are shaping up for you and even more happy that your bouquet will finally be arriving lol.....I am getting excited for you because before you know it you wil be a MRS.... Thanks Toya.. I am starting to freak a bit though... suddenly seems to be real and happening... not just at the planning part anymore... things are really showing up at my door!

Very excited as my FLOWERS FINALLY CAME THIS MORNING!!!!! YAY! Now I can finally figure out my own bouquet etc. Also, very proud of myself as I just worked out for the last 1.5 hrs.. cardio, weights and situps.. also am watching bulging brides.. good motivator

Is your dress still available??

What's up chikitas... A couple of things: Deyanira got back to me today with a possible layout for our dinner but I don't care for it. She proposes the FI and I sit at one table alone facing four tables of 8. I also found out my dress came in early today so it's at the store... kinda nervous about that as I only tried it on once the very first time I looked at dresses..(yes I did go shopping 3 other times though)! Anyhow, still good right? My candles I ordered from another BDW bride arrived today too and I should be FINALLY getting my flowers tomorrow!! Then I can actually start to seriously figure out my bouquet and whatever other flowers I need... On the downside of the fast approaching date, I realized that I must get serious about working out!! 2.5 months will fly by and wishing my butt smaller doesn't seem to be doing the trick... :S

Quote: Originally Posted by lrdavis23 At some point I will have to cut off maybe like 2 months before because like you say at some point decisions have to be made as far as budget, reception site, ordering items I want to take, programs, menu cards etc..... I don't want to be stresing at the last minute because some guest choose to wait a month before to book there trip, that is a bit inconsiderate of the bride and groom IMO. After all the advice given on here, I have decided to not do OOT bags, a formal private welcome welcome dinner (we will have a informal welcome meet n greet), and I cut the excursions, this will save us at least 4K from the budget. so we will see how this works We aren't even doing OOT bags for everyone, just our wedding party... I really don't think it's necessary though it's cute while you're down there, but really afterwards no one cares... We are just going to do travel mugs for everyone from discountmugs.com. they have pretty good prices... the ones we chose don't even match with our colours, but they're really cute... blue with palmtrees all over them, almost shadow like... we're not evn putting our names on them, just maybe the date and place?? haven't decided that yet. Once again, I started rambling. My point to all that was if you want to do something for everyone, it could be something small like that and at least people could use it again... beach towels are always useful too, but can be expensive...

Quote: Originally Posted by lrdavis23 Tam and SSNM, I have ask the TA if me and Mike can get our room for free since we have soo many quest that have booked, Im waiting to hear what she will say. I hope so because we now have 57 guest confirmed. I would hope the resort would do that being that we will have 30 + rooms booked with them under one event. They should give it for free, that was part of our offer when we were booking. For every 16 rooms booked, one room was free ... we had an even better one but it would have had to have been booked within a week of finding that out. We still didn't even manage to go for free We were just short a couple of rooms which totally sucks a$$... ANyways, all that I was trying to point out was the hotel totally does do that, I don't think it is part of a tour company...

Quote: Originally Posted by lrdavis23 I agree Sheree10, it is alot to think about and I am going to take your approach and make a list of must haves, and optional things pending number of guest. I think the first thing I would cut would be the private welcome dinner like you said and just have an informal gathering at the bar/lounge. I may also have to cut paying for an excursion for all our guest wheewww I don't event want to think about how much that would cost to pay for 80-100 guest to go on an excursion lol.... but I think by teh end of December I will have a better idea of how many people will really be there, give or take a couple guest may book at the last minute but most people need more time to make payments. Has anyone had guest book a month or 2 before the trip ? I may be having people book just before we leave.. not sure yet, but that's their answer right now... we'll see. What if you did a cocktail cruise excursion ?? that's what we're going to do and there's different packages available. you can go all out or (what we're probably going to do... get a basic package).. even then it is still going to cost around $1200.. still a lot especially when we won't even have half the number of people you will. I agree with cutting out a lot of the extras at least until you have firm #s and then try to barter a bit if you want to ?? Try to remember what will matter after it's all over.. will anyone think about how you guys didn't pay for a day trip? No, probably not.. but they will remember having an awesome time being with friends. I have been stressing about centrepieces and then had that thought.. in the end, will it really matter? HOpe this helps.. and remember people will realize how expensive things can get the larger the number of guests.. and don't worry, no one thinks you are being ungrateful with the #s..

Hey, just a thought, but can you barter with the hotel at all if you have high numbers? Like maybe get more of a discount per dinner or something??

Awesome pics, thank you for posting them!

Quote: Originally Posted by Raykel The remote control toy is a great idea! So is the underwater camera. Thanks! If you think of something more, please feel free to throw it out there what about a book or those hand held games you can get at walmart for under $20.. like yahtzee, etc. they have all different kinds there. You could always go to toys-r-us and ask someone who works there what is popular with his age bracket too.

Quote: Originally Posted by jetsbride Has anyone seen where I can buy inflatable water wings and floaties?? I have been looking but I have had no luck finding them at this time of year... I was at Loblaws last night and bought some rafts for $1.87 each. They also had some waterwings left, not many though.

Sexy shoes!! love them, get them for sure.

Quote: Originally Posted by nsbride2010 Tam you are getting really close!! WOW, I wish mine was close, I feel so prepared except for my centrepieces too actually.... haha we won't have that any to bring though! Does your carrier let you bring more but charge for it? I'm not sure, I have to check. Another interesting thought regarding civil or symbolic ceremony is that today I was told that to get married here you can just literally get a marriage certificate by going to city hall and only having the papers signed. So, technically you are married but really haven't had any kind of ceremony so you're not even misleading people ...really.... all that's happened is a legal document has been signed.... I also was thinking that I would rather put the money we saved doing it here towards the meet n greet boat cruise at the beginning of the week... It's going to cost about $1500 for what we want so those are my thoughts... I gotta say I am starting to get sick of all these decisions that need to be made without much help...(except from my BDW peeps)! maybe cuz I'm just tired right now I actually bought some centerpiece trios that hold tea lights tonight... going to try a bunch of different things and see .....

That's a lot of invites! I think we only invited about 70, 34 are coming and some are still not sure. At this point I don't care anymore... but already it's getting more and more expensive, so I can only imagine how it is for you. ... at least you have lots of time to save?? it's a toughy for sure. Do you think everyone you invited are going to come?

I know, it's weird, this is the quietest I think I've seen this thread. I have just been busy and working a lot. I am really trying to figure centrepeices that don't weigh a ton to travel with ... I think we are only allowed one bag each, so now I am worrying about how to get everything down there.. That's about it for me... still waiting for my flowers too... next week now 27ish? who knows, but fedex says they're on their way.. Went to ikea tonight, they have lots of cheap candle holders... even black and fuschia(sp?) ones too.. so many choices, so much money, so little suitcase space!

This is a tough one Toya because you sent out the STDs already. Do you think you will reach 80? How many STDs did you send out? I probably wouldn't cap it if you think you will be slightly over 80..but if it's going to be over by a lot, then you're going to have a huge decision to make.. I still probably wouldn't simply b/c I don't think you should reneg (sp??) on your invites.. It does say a lot that everyone wants to come, but I totally get the expense part too.

OMG, I just realized I am in the 2 month mark now on my siggy!! WTF! Where did all the time go....

Here is the link for a cruise company: Wedding Punta Cana. The best Wedding in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.. The company is called la barcaza. They have different kinds of cruises with just drinks or snacks or full meals etc..

Love those shoes!! So sexy and fabulous

Quote: Originally Posted by rdhbride tam- if you could send me the flowers would love it! [email protected] and we are doing a civil at home , secretly so no one will know, i def want my dad to have his moment:) and i hate paper work! lrdavies- i love the shoes!! i;m thinking of fuschia for me RDH, I will send it to you now... love the idea of fuschia shoes too,.. actually what I was thinking too. Do you feel guilty about not telling anybody you are getting married before you go? hey Toya, checked fedex today and the flowers are on their way!! should be here Oct.26.

beautiful dress Nat! Your jackass smile is funny.. I will post my dress once I figure out how.. I can't even post a profile pic on here.. tried to though.

Quote: Originally Posted by nsbride2010 Here is what I am playing around with!! How pretty!! Are you using glass vases?