echo2_62

I'm very well known for comparing my dog to other people's children so I can completely relate to how protective you must have been feeling!! You're right that it's very surprising how much power you can have through adrenaline and not surprising that you're sore now a day or two later as a result. I don't think I would have considered the other dog attacking me at all if I was defending my dog (or cats of course, but they mostly stay inside so I don't think of them being attacked). I'm glad to hear that you're safe and that despite some minor injury your pooch will be alright as well. That's the first important thing. The second is that I would try to make sure that you continue to keep your dogs around other dogs frequently over the next few months so that she doesn't get too scared off and fear being attacked by every other dog it sees. As much as you're worrying about her at the kennel because you're not nearby, its actually probably a good thing for her mental recovery right now. I used to work with a dog rescue and often times we'd see dogs come in that had previously had negative encounters with other dogs, such as attacks, and in turn they became fearful or aggressive themselves. Don't be scared that it will be an automatic response by your dog or anything, just be a little more relaxed that having her in the company of other dogs while you're away right now is a healthy thing for her

Are you getting married right near the Falls, or farther away towards Niagara on the Lake?? Weather wise there isn't a huge difference, I'm just curious!! For a May wedding, you might be more of the hit and miss category than anything. Having lived in southern ontario for a number of years I'd have to say that my guess is it will be fairly warm and dry BUT that's if it is a typical summer. There have been wet years when the weather was just crummy for most of the summer no matter where you were! Regardless, you should see lots of green and flowers in full bloom at that time so it will be really pretty! I'd say just keep an eye on the trends leading up to your wedding and that will give you a good indication. Most of your rain will come in March and April so keep that in mind. I've included a quick link that I pulled up just to give you some numbers to work with... hope it helps!Niagara Falls Canada Spring Weather Trends (if you want more info, the title I included for the link is exactly what I googled to find this page!!!).

I think the idea is just fine. We have friends who got married recently and while they did have some of the more comming items on their registry, they also told guests that they were saving for new furniture (they'd also recently bought a condo and just had hand-me-downs) and in the end they got a fair bit of money towards it! Plus, a lot of people will register a honeymoon fund or something so that people can contribute towards that... same idea really. IMO... if your guests know what their money is going towards, they're a lot happier to give it.

I find that I'm in Michaels for lots of bits and pieces of things, more so than any major purchases. If you're not in a huge hurry, the coupons you get on your receipt for the following week can keep you happy with regular trips and less spent than a major shop once in a while. I think it's funny that you stashed your stuff though! Was it the luggage tags that are black leather with the coloured letter in the middle? I bought those for my girls a couple weeks ago! I'd thought about it for the guys but figured they wouldn't really care about them.

Yah my BIL has only been a FF for about 9 months now so he had his recruit graduation in late spring this past year?? I wonder if your FI knows him!?! Ask about Vandenberg. I know he just switched halls in the last week or two so I can't remember where he's just moved to but his last couple of halls he was in the north end of the city. If you need some help deciding between resorts, I'm sure there are lots of us here who could throw in our two cents on how we decided lol! Feel free to pm me if you need to! We're really excited to have our wedding at Dreams Puerto Aventuras in a couple months... and all our friends are really looking forward to it as well.

HAHAHA!!! Yah I can't complain at spending $65 for the night at all!! And seeing as some of our friends paid $150 each at new years for a buffet dinner and drinks, I'm sure they'll spring for this one!!! SWEEEEEET!!! I think part of the reason I'm so excited is because our last trip to MX (it was my first vacation) we didn't go to any bars or anything and our resort didn't have a club really for night entertainment. This will be entirely new for me and I've heard a lot of great stories from other friends. DAMN IT - WHY DO I STILL HAVE TWO MONTHS TO WAIT?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by hoyt75 How did you girls convince your FI into doing a TTD? Mine's totally not for it, and I would love to do this. Sounds like everyone who didn't do one really regrets it later... Who is everyone using as their photographer? We've booked Sascha Gluck, I feel in love with his photos and he was in our price range. FI was/is completely and totally against having a professional photographer. He figures that there will be enough people taking pictures that I don't need anything more and besides, "his brother didn't have a pro.photog so why should we?" Are you F**KING kidding? I don't care what his brother did or didn't do!!! AGH! That spaz aside, I convinced/told him that we were having professional shots done because I wanted to and because he doesn't have to smile for all of them - just look at me and looooooove me! LOL! It's really hard to get him smiling in photos so I figured that having the more private 2hr shoot on our own would be better for us both since I will get the intimate shots that I want and he'll get to relax a little more and not feel like he needs to have the perma-smile that everyone else will be wanting from him. Basically when I was booking, it came down to the fact that I was putting up with a TON of Sh!t from his parents so my reward was getting what I wanted. Oh so yah, we're not having the pro photogs for our TTD pics, just a more intimate personal photo session away from all our other guests for the most part. I have two friends/guests who do photography as a hobby and will likely be doing our TTD shots. I'm not entirely sure if FI knows about this or not, but he'll be doing them And we have Lori and Lincoln from Moments That Matter and I am SO STOKED that I was able to get them booked!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yes and of all strange things - FI's request was that as soon as we finish the ceremony that we jump out of the gazebo and into the ocean!!! Nevermind that it would basically ruin my chances for wearing my dress the rest of the night and my hair would be shot etc.!!!! So I think we're definitely going to be doing that at some point for pictures. Our friends are cool enough that they'd probably get back into the same clothes they wear for the ceremony just so we could do photos and have it pretend to still be the wedding day!! Quote: Originally Posted by caribbeanLover It's tomorrow!!!! I am so bloody nervous. and my session is a 11:30 Will I look like an alcoholic if I have a few glasses of wine before that? lol I hope not I'll need it!!!! I'm hoping I can find a bar in cornwall(little small town in Ontario) open that early! I will def let you all know how it goes when I get back home! Tracy - most pubs will be open and serving liquor by 11am so as long as you can find one that's really close to your photog. studio/location and you don't mind chugging a little bit then you'll totally be able to get a few drinks down!! And I'm sorry to hear you're still having troubles with your room booking. Here's my perspective - if SOMEONE will admit to making the mistake when booking then that's step 1. If all the regular deluxe suites are booked now there isn't too much you can do about that so you have two options. First, get upgraded to an even better room (maybe wishful thinking, given how stubborn they are being) or at the least get a refund back for the extra money you paid for the better suite but didn't get. FI and I had considered getting an upgraded room but we figured that since we'll be out of our room so often, whether its in town or just out at the pool or on the beach, that it's not the size of the room that matters so much as whether or not we still have everything we want in it. Shower big enough for two - check. Full room service anytime of day/night - check. Restocked bar if we decide to hide out for two (or five) days - check. A nice BIG king size bed - check. So while I absolutely agree that you deserve what you paid for... and you should see it through as much as possible... the other way to look at it is just whether you have your own private space with all the benefits you want. You'll be a MRS and that's what will matter, not the size of your room, when it comes to just the two of you. OMG and there's not a chance at all that I would be allowed to hyphenate my name either!! It would just be WAY too long for me at that point anyways, but I don't want the complications for our kids either because I know it was always confusing at school when I was growing up. Maybe it was just so much less common then than it would be now.

Hhhmmmmm.... well if you're planning on it for your trip then I'll definitely wait and see what kind of deals you get by booking once you're there. I'm sure no one with us would have an issue getting a cab on their own anyways since it's questionable if we'd even last until 3am when the buses are there to take you back to the resort!! Thanks for the links though - this has me so excited!!!

Oh that's so awesome!!! I'd love to do a pub crawl Mexican style!! And our friends are totally the type to go as well so maybe we can convince everyone on that idea. Do you have more information that you could pass along for me? Like who to contact for booking, if it's better to do it all ahead of time or just wait until we get down there? I definitely will have to run this by FI tonight and see what he says

Holy smokes!!! 52oz would be HUGE!!!!!!!!!!! To be honest, I can't even imagine the resort making drinks in that kind of volume for all your guests. That would be the entire blender full of margherita I'm sure! That being said, you're correct that there are smaller versions you could buy instead that might be a little more manageable and there are LOTS of brides that have bought them for their guests so I don't think you'd be out of place at all. And if you think about it, so many people would use them for day to day drinks here at home, so it might just seem that they are ugly in a beach setting?? We just bought a regular 16oz travel mug for our guests and figured they would be good enough even if we do have to keep filling them more often We did personalize them but since I haven't actually received the order I can't even post a picture for you. As part of the imprint we had M*E*X*I*C*O in larger bold text and then our names and wedding date in smaller non-bold text. I really wanted to have something with our names and wedding date on it but we wanted people to (hopefully) use them again afterwards so hopefully we made the right compromise in text size etc...

Hey Dee... I was just reading through your welcome letter template and was curious... You mentioned that one night you want to get a party hopper into Playa Del Carmen to go to Coco Bongo's and Carlos & Charlie's.... which leaves me with a couple questions... What is a party hopper? Where are Coco Bongo's and Carlos & Charlie's? What kind of places are these?? Haha you totally caught my attention with those since we'd love to get a group into PDC for an evening for dinner or drinks etc. THANKS!

I ordered my flip flops from dessy.com (looking at the banner ad right above my text box right now too!) and they are only $15USD and you can customize what colour you want too! I got the Iridescent Taffeta in Royal Blue and I can't wait for them to come in! I don't think that I'll be adding anything to them, but on the other style of flip flops you could totally add rhinestones and stuff to glam them up some more!!

sasse - that's awesome that you two have the same last name!! I'm a little sad that I can't keep my last name because it really is a part of me and my personality etc. but as i'm sure you figured from my last post, it wasn't really a negotiable deal for me. The compromise that I did get was that we could name one of our kids Riley (my last name is O'Reilly) whether it's a boy or a girl. It might not actually happen but makes me feel a little better at least. Haha, and the main benefit I see of changing last names - no more apostrophe to worry about! They are used a lot more frequently in computer programming now and I am constantly running into errors in online documents etc so at least this way using my name in an email address for example will cause a lot less headaches. Tara - Well as much drama as your MOH seems to be causing, at least she's making good steps towards getting everything booked & ordered right now. The main issue is just getting her there and having her a part of your wedding and beyond that, there will be all your other guests to keep you both distracted and so much else going on that I doubt you'll have problems with her once you get to the resort. Try not to stress too much about her over the next couple months and maybe keep a bottle of liquor near the phone so that you can take a shot before answering so that you can deal with her calls better LOL!!!

Nope didn't call you last night Suzy sorry!! I should send you an email with all my phone #'s since I am quite prone to randomly calling from wherever I happen to be and expecting people to know that it's me I love that you ordered a mug with your new name on it! FI is REALLY stubborn about me taking his last name (yes, in a very stone age ME MAN, YOU MINE sort of way!) and is already asking about how soon I'll be getting my new business cards etc once we're official. He'd probably love something like that, just to have it in writing! Are you giving it to him before hand or do you think you'll pack it to take down to Mexico for him?? As for the TTD dresses... is it bad that I totally can't remember what mine looks like anymore!?! It's been at my sisters house pretty much since I received it so I wouldn't have looked in nearly two months now haha! But I do know that it's nothing at all like my real wedding dress but I'm okay with that. Since I'm going to be in all sorts of pictures all over the resort anyways, I figure that being in different dresses isn't going to be a big deal.

oh yes how could i have forgotten to comment on your barefoot sandals! They are SO pretty! I'm totally just wearing flip flops for our ceremony and the entire day. Funny thing, I was in a shoe store the other day and mentioned I was wearing flats with my dress... and the girl starts showing me a bunch of shoes that have heels on them! Most of them were fairly low wedges (compared to the others around them at least) but I would never have considered them to be flats!! Too much of a sale grab I think... plus I've already ordered my shoes so it was easy to blow here off And Suzy has a good point... at least a few of my friends have mentioned recently that their dresses all got stepped on by mistake and wound up being ripped and needing repairs Let's hope that none of us end up with the same fate until after all the pictures are done!

hehe sounds like a few of us bought a dress from Sears because I did too! They don't even have the same one available anymore and I have no pictures but wouldn't it be funny if we had the same ones?!?! My pictures are going to be a little messed up. We have our photographer for two hours right after the ceremony and that's it so I'm really hoping that we can get some good beach pictures that don't involve getting completely soaked because we have to sit down for dinner right afterwards! But I'm very lucky that I have two guests that are photographers as a hobby and will be an amazing alternative for getting my TTD pics done a day or two later. So the reason I got the second dress was just in case I have time with our pro photogs. to do a super quick dress change so that I don't worry too much about getting a little wet. But most of all I'm just going to play it by ear and see how things go at the time. And if my real wedding dress gets a little sandy and I have to wash it off in the shower, well, it's just one more excuse to pull my new hubbie into the shower with me!!!!!!!!

Hey Jessi and welcome to Calgary and our thread! I can relate a bit about working around a fireman's schedule because my brother in law (BIL) is also a fireman and we had to patiently hope that he'd be able to join us but unfortunately his schedule won't work He's got a bunch of tests in the exact same week as we ended up booking but that's just the way it works sometimes. What firehall is he at right now? I wonder if the guys have run into each other If you're getting overwhelmed or need some help/direction with your planning just shout - but you've definitely found the best place ever to help you figure everything out!

YAY KRIS!!! Congrats and being a MRS and welcome back and we can't wait to hear all about it!

I ordered pants in both the english beige and the light beige for our guys and got the lining in all of them. I figured that it was better to know they'd be ready to go with the lining and not have to worry about it, then end up scrambling a bit to make sure they didn't have to worry about lighting and where the sun was shining from etc. Kind of the better safe than sorry thing, you know?! We put our order in the other day so it'll be another couple of weeks before we get them and I can actually comment more on how the pants are with the lining.

Yes I'm pretty sure that the only other option for the ceremony would be on the beach if you've got 80 guests attending. I'm not sure if you're doing the legal or symbolic wedding, but from what I've heard all of the ceremonies are typically fairly short (I've heard as quick as 15min!) so if you think that having standing room for your guests would be sufficient, or appropriate, for you then maybe the DPA wedding coordinator Jacy can comment on that if you send her an email.

I've divided here because FI totally hates flying - he doesn't like the way it makes his body feel, he doesn't like being confined to a closed space etc... he usually drinks to calm his nerves when we fly. I, on the other hand, completely love flying. I probably should be a flight attendant! However, I have mild anxiety issues over other things and always keep a bottle ofRescue Remedy nearby. Oddly enough it was originally recommended to me to give my dog to calm her down for flying, but I know it has a wide variety of applications for calming and relaxation. The bottles are around $10 maybe so it's a relatively inexpensive aid which may be worthwhile.

Oh yes... coverage for seniors (okay or anyone that would be considered our parents age or older hahah!) can be tricky. If they're reasonably healthy then it's not too big a problem but as soon as there are any pre-existing conditions then the dollars can really add up quickly. Tara - we're not really planning much of anything for our guests since a) we'd rather everyone be able to come and go as they please and not worry about being available for this, that and the other according to OUR scheduling, and a big portion of our guest list are friends that all know each other - seriously like 4 of 25 will only know a few of the other guests - so any excursions or anything would all be done together as it is. We're really lucky that it's a big cohesive group and not split groups of people that we have to separate our time between all week. Family will be a little bit different since it'll just be the parents and grandparents there with us. Oh yes, and pictures for Tracy - and everyone else who couldn't open them This first one is really long and is meant to be wrapped around for that kind of Grecian look. Either that or it can be worn as a choker necklace. It's really lightweight wire that she used with some simple beads. The second is also really light weight and super flexible. I find that my head really doesn't fit standard headbands too well so I needed something that I could adjust and form-fit however I wanted. The length is shorter than a headband and it has the loops on the end to pin in wherever I need to. I should be getting them in the mail just after the weekend and I think my dress should be at the store in about a week so it'll be perfect timing to try it all on together while I do my fitting! If anyone is interested in checking out her other work go to: Meister Artisan Jewellery... she does a ton of her work as custom pieces so if you've got an idea then she can definitely work with you to get something made. Thanks for the reminder to get those posted!!!

Well technically my niece won't even be a flower girl as we're making the legal part completely and totally non-wedding like. We have to use a wedding commissioner here in Alberta and she'd suggested my niece stand and hold her flowers etc and honestly I wanted to gag!! It's just SO not what we're like or what we wanted!! But after that, the commissioner said that she could make a copy of the certificate for us and said it would look just like the real thing - so I'm happy with that! I'd love the other link though, just in case we need a back up copy if we don't like hers LOL! Otherwise we haven't picked an actual date yet for the legal part. Both my and Suzy's FI's think its still a bit early to be worrying about it and since we only need to give the commissioner a couple weeks notice, I figured it was okay to put it off a little longer. No matter what, it will still be early to mid April before we actually do the signing (either before I head off to MX or once I get back right before Suzy heads off).

Well technically my niece won't even be a flower girl as we're making the legal part completely and totally non-wedding like. We have to use a wedding commissioner here in Alberta and she'd suggested my niece stand and hold her flowers etc and honestly I wanted to gag!! It's just SO not what we're like or what we wanted!! But after that, the commissioner said that she could make a copy of the certificate for us and said it would look just like the real thing - so I'm happy with that! I'd love the other link though, just in case we need a back up copy if we don't like hers LOL! Otherwise we haven't picked an actual date yet for the legal part. Both my and Suzy's FI's think its still a bit early to be worrying about it and since we only need to give the commissioner a couple weeks notice, I figured it was okay to put it off a little longer. No matter what, it will still be early to mid April before we actually do the signing (either before I head off to MX or once I get back right before Suzy heads off).

Hey Nicole!! Congrats on your engagement and welcome to our thread! I can't remember the specific number of guests that the gazebo will hold but my initial guest estimate was for 50 people and I was told they would all fit just fine. We're now down to about 35 so I have no concerns at all. Honestly I think up to around 60 ppl will fit in the gazebo.