KRama

Add me to the O&G list! Some of us probably ride the elevator together every morning and have no idea we "know" each other. haha

Hope everyone's enjoying this fine winter weather we're having! It's days like these that make me wish we had planned our wedding for January!

My friend and I really want to do a boudoir shoot and we found Tait Photography online and saw them at the Bridal Fair. We're really impressed with her work, from our online searches there were several cheesy website and poses, and it was very resonably priced. It's $150 for the session (some we saw were up to $300) and $80 if you want hair and make-up done. And if you book with 2 other people, the session cost is only $100. The best part is the photographer is female and works with an all female staff. We're thinking of booking our session in March or April. Here's the website: Tait Boudoir Photography

Thanks for the info Emme! I'm not happy to see that the land title name change has been your biggest challenge. My FI and I just bought our first house on friday!! I guess I get to look forward to that hurdle in a few months!

Quote: Originally Posted by swocanadianbride Hi Gals... Havnt been here for awhile. Just came back home yesterday. Everything was 100%. The wedding coordinator, Karla was superb. Same as the the resort photographer, pictures that he captured on our wedding day are beautiful and prices are not that bad...Dont worry about tables, flowers and all those little things... Just think about it, your going to a different country, culture. The mexican culture will out do us at any given time, as they sure know how to set up a wedding. Right from the beginning of ur wedding day, until the end... In the end, think about what matters... your getting married in a beautiful country with beautiful people... Well said Elena!! This was a big reason why we wanted to have a destination wedding. We didn't want to get caught up in the "details" of chosing flowers, decor and interviewing vendors. This way, we're given A, B or C, choose and we're done! We're fully confident that we can just show up and it'll be perfect. CONGRADULATIONS and like everyone else, can't wait to see pics!

I was also in a wedding where we took pictures before the ceremony. The couple had some really great shots of their private moment seeing each other for the first time that day. I thought about doing the same thing so we can just celebrate with our guests immediately after the ceremony but my FI had a fit when I mentioned it! Turns out he's really looking forward to that moment when he sees me at the end of the aisle. Who knew, the guy is SO not the sentimental type!

I got my bm dresses from Jcrew as well. We picked an end-of-season color that was onsale for $125 so with shipping and US conversion, they worked out to about $158 each. These are the ones we picked:

Quote: Originally Posted by HereFishie Oh Erica that's crappy. I was warned about that happening from my TA (who is also my friend and wedding guest) too which is why we too moved our date from May. I see you're also in Alberta. Was it Signature? We've had such a headache using them so far! We're also staying at the Coba and the ceremony is at the Akumal beach location but we're 2 days earlier! Our TA warned us about this too. She discouraged us from booking with Signature or Sunwing because of this problem. Instead, she got quotes from both and asked Air Canada Vacations to price match, which they did! PS: I'm another Alberta bride staying at Coba but we're getting married at the Tulum beach location (I hope that means gazebo!)

Quote: Originally Posted by CaraW I was thinking the same thing Christina! I mean, we have 55-60 guests, and even if we go to a dollar store and find, say, hand sanitizers for $1 each, that's already $55 just for one item in the OOT bag. I'm sure they can add up very quickly. I have the same concern. I was thinking of doing an OOT cup...we really want to do the customized mugs so I was thinking of just filling those up with a few travel related items like hand sanitizers, etc.

Yay! Great to hear from more Calgary girls! I got my dress from Mena's on Centre St and 12th. She was fantastic!! I had a similar experience to CaraW in that she brought me a dress I never would have picked out myself and it turned out to be THE dress! My experience at the Bridal Centre was ok. The girl was pretty helpful other than the fact that the dresses she brought me were $1000 over my stated budget! We're having our AHR at the Highwood Community Centre. We have 42 people coming to our DW but another 100 coming to the AHR. It'll be a cocktail reception with lots of dancing so more of a big party without all the wedding formalities. I'm still browsing for OOT bag stuff. I can't really decide what I want to include! We're definitely doing mugs though and I bought travel size hand sanitizers from B&BW. I'll start hitting the dollar stores soon for more stuff!

Wow, I feel really lucky now that I see what some of you are going through! My biggest stress was just figuring out how to "do" the whole DW thing. Finding a resort for a price we wanted (when prices weren't available yet) for dates within our desired time frame. Then it was figuring out how to book guests when the quotes we were getting were only valid for two weeks. In the end we sent out a STD email explaining the booking process. A few weeks later, we got a new quote and immediately sent out another email telling people they had 2 weeks to call our TA (who's my dad's GF so no problem finding one!) and pay their desposit. This worked SO well. Everyone was booked on time, minus a few stragglers and about 10 that RSVP'd but need to book later. Where I've been lucky: 1) When we got engaged we spread the word that we were planning a DW to "test the waters" and everyone was thrilled with the idea. If our core group wasn't into it, we probably wouldn't have done it. 2) I have a sister and 3 BFs, my FI has a brother and 3 BFs = instant wedding party! 3) We both have extremely supportive parents who want us to be happy and do whatever we want to do! 4) Part of the whole reason I wanted a DW was the lack of involvement in the planning! I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of girl and have no problem planning a wedding 2 days before it happens.

Thanks Nicole! I was so excited to see your review! Your wedding sounds just like we have planned so I'm so happy to hear that everything went well!

Just read your review Keira and got an extra big surge of excitement!! One question: were you able to select a color for the chair sashes or do they only come in white? Thanks!

Thanks for the review Keira! I was really looking forward to this one! Great pics too!

Quote: Originally Posted by kat_mc13 KRama, just curious since yours sounds a lot like what I am planning on doing - how are you fitting an open bar into your budget? Or is it a place where you can bring your own booze in and that's what you're serving to people? The hall we rented allows us to bring our own booze so we're going to purchase it all at Superstore (estimating $2K). They let you return anything that's unopened so we can save that way too. We have friends of a friend that offered to bartend for us for $150 for the night and the DJ is also a friend of a friend so we're getting a discount that way too. It's all about who you know!

Congrats Keira! I love your siggy pic! Can't wait to see more and read your review!

We're planning to spend about $5K on our AHR for 150 people. We're having a cocktail reception at a community hall, having a caribbean themed appetizer buffet, open bar and a DJ for lots of dancing. We still want it to feel like a wedding reception (minus the all the formalities since I hate that stuff too!) since we are only having 40 people join us in Mexico so the whole wedding party will be wearing their attire and we'll show a clip of the ceremony. I'm almost looking forward to it as much as the actual wedding!

Wow! You are SO ahead of the game and everything looks great! I need to get a move on!

Of course it's convenient for her, you've done all the work! You've researched the dates, found the resort, found the flights, invited guests and now all your friend has to do is send out invites! Not fair. This would abosolutely bother me and I can't imagine asking someone if I can tack on my vow renewal to their wedding. Like sweetiecat said, if it's a handful of mutual guests attending and it doesn't interfere in any way with your own wedding week activities, I could maybe go with it. If it's almost ALL of your wedding guests, I'd ask that they arrange their own trip so you can enjoy the spotlight on yours.

Quote: Originally Posted by HereFishie New Coba bride here. I'm so sorry to hear some of you are really having a tough time with the photography fine print! I'm so glad one of our friends and guests is a photographer. He's doing our pictures for free as his gift to us! Me too! I'm so grateful two of our very good friends are coming as guests and have offered to do our photos for us! They are just starting to build their photography business and want to get some DW experience! Lucky me!

We're having one and I'm really excited about it! We've been to so many weddings where the bride and groom don't even really get a chance to enjoy their day because they spend so much time trying to catch up with all their guests. That's why we decided to just invite immediate family and close friends (~ 40 people) to Mexico so we have an entire week to spend with everyone. That being said, we both have large extended families and many more friends that we want to include in the festivities so we always knew we'd have an AHR. We're having a cocktail reception at a community hall with a carribean themed appetizer buffet and lots of dancing. I'm wearing my dress again and the wedding party are wearing their outfits so it still feels like a wedding. I don't find it a hassle at all to plan since I'm still 6 months out from my DW and don't have much to decide until 3 months before. I know a lot of brides on here are pressured into having one but you really need to decide if it's right for you and your man!

This has been happening to me too! At first I thought maybe it was just a broken link but it continues to happen even on current threads...

I'm just wearing a flower. I think my dress is too detailed and a veil would make it look too over the top for a beach wedding. Plus I have this vision in my head of my veil wrapping itself around my face while I'm trying to say my vows. hahaha

I love the door hanger idea. One question, probably a dumb one but I guess I'm not criminal minded enough to know...what would be the security issues of having your name on your door?

These look amazing! I really love your mongram!