echo2_62

bahiabride - I've never heard of giving each table some things to do during the reception but I really like it! While most of our friends are really social, and we only have a small handful of family attending, there will definitely be some segregation between groups so this would be an awesome way to help them interact more! Another couple ideas to add in to the list... At my cousins wedding, they had placed a small dish with Hershey Kisses on every table so when you wanted the bride and groom to kiss you had to bring up one of your Hershey Kisses to fill the bowl on the head table. At my friends wedding just a couple months ago, they had all the guests (in couples) fill out their names on a slip of paper that went into a basket. In order to get the bride and groom to kiss, a couple would have to first "show them how its done" and then the bride and groom had to repeat the same gesture. I think it was a couple from the wedding party who started it out and then they picked a name of another couple from the basket to keep the chain going. If your name was picked you didn't have to go up right away so everyone had a little time to plot their way of acting out the kiss. It was a LOT of fun and even the parents, aunts and uncles etc got involved!

What about using a friend or family members home address, preferrably if you have someone that lives nearby or in between your current and (potential) new house? I'm sure that someone from your wedding party wouldn't mind at all, especially given that it's a situation that is a bit beyond your control. That's probably the route I would go if I was in the same situation.

Awesome thanks Bella!

IrisS - all I can say is thank goodness I was far enough away not to have to help them with it anymore than providing them with all the information! I don't think I could have handled that. I did get a laugh out of it though because my FMIL has caused us some other problems, and she WAS the one who had to deal with the grandparents! Oh sweet taste of revenge! Beth - I can't recall having read about anyone getting kids sizes, but I would bet that you could just email the company to find out if they do them and for how much. I've heard good things about their customer service so I bet if you're ordering for the men anyways, they may be willing to do a child's pair as well. Oh yes and Beth I love the sea turtles in your monogram!! Sea turtles are awesome!

There seem to be a few southern Alberta girls here who would have liked them... maybe you can get a group order together so help share duty charges and stuff. I included a link in one of the last posts but just in case, here it is again... Northern Safety Supplies - NSS

Jackobelle - very good news about your friends daughter!!! I'm sure everyone is happy to have her safe at home again. Otherwise sorry I can't help with the flowers question... kind of wondering the same thing myself.

Thank you B-Bride! You must be SOOOO excited that you're leaving in just a few days! Have an amazing time and I know your guests will love the bags that you've put together for them!

Quote: Originally Posted by Positanobride10 My biggest stress factor has been worrying about my dogs and graduate school. I have two boxers and my Fiance doesn't want to board them since we'll be out of the country for 3 weeks. All of my friends are married and some have kids so they would not be able to come house sit. My vet told me to call her when were are a few months out to see if there was a vet tech who could house/dog sit. Also, I am getting my MBA. Planning a wedding, dieting (to get just 5 lbs off), working full-time and going to school at night is hard. But I think it will be worth it. I am also trying to stay positive about finding someone to stay with my fur babies. All of my guests have been family and a few friends. Getting them to book was easy. I did all the research and gave them options on our private website. To my surprise everyone has plane tickets to Rome, and plans on meeting us there to site see and travel to Positano together. I was shocked that this fell into place. I anticipated this being the biggest stress factor. I have a boxer too!!!! They're the best! We aren't even sure what we're going to do with her yet. Although we're only gone for ten days and not three weeks, any of our friends who could normally take care of her will be in Mexico with us! She can't be kenneled either as she's not social with other dogs so basically our only option is to have someone stay at our house with her. I'm secretly hoping that one of our friends who is NOT able to make it to the wedding will be willing to help us out I'm always nervous about leaving her with someone though, even though I've had to do it for five weeks at a time due to work reasons. I'm totally the doggie-momma who will be calling home every other day to make sure she is okay!! Oh and by the way - I am TOTALLY jealous that you're going to Italy and Rome for your wedding! That is amazing! I know that only a small, small handful of our friends would be able to pull off that kind of DW with us so it wasn't really an option. Agh! Very jealous!!!

Welcome to the site! There are lots of us here from Edmonton, Calgary and the surrounding area so I'm sure you get lots of local help and tons of great ideas from all over! Happy planning!

Hey... okay so a couple quick things to consider when you're picking your date (which also affect the 'day' you'd prefer as well). First of all - where do you want your wedding? Mexico, Cuba, Hawaii? Consider costs for you and your guests, weather, peak travel seasons, stat. holidays (which can be different from ours!) etc. Do you and FI have times of the year that you can't travel for work reasons, times that are difficult to book off for vacation? Would your guests find it difficult to travel during the holidays? Would summer months be too hot for everyone? Are there stat holidays in the destination country that would limit the quality of your experience (I think DR is very strict around the easter holiday so some resorts will only have limited staff on site and not offer as many options that week). Is it hurricane season? Will you have enough time to obtain all the necessary paperwork in time for your wedding coordinator/location? Hopefully that can help you eliminate a few months of the year to start! If you're down to choosing between a couple months, sometimes the size of the resort itself may dictate some of your decision. A smaller resort could fill more quickly so you may have to choose a wedding date that is farther down the road so that you have a better chance of getting everyone booked. Even if you're able to email a couple of resorts to find out what the availability is over a few different weeks, they can likely give you an indication of how busy they are and what times tend to book faster than others. One really important addition for you as well. You definitely need to find out what the rules and requirements are for the country you want to get married in. This will directly impact the 'day' of your wedding. For example, Mexico requires that you be in the country for a minimum of four full business days before you can legally be married. So if you arrived on a Saturday or Sunday, you could have your wedding on the following Friday. But if you arrived on a Monday, you couldn't get married until the following Monday because your arrival date does not count towards the requirements. Other countries will be different in this regard so make sure you know for each one. Oh and that's for a legal ceremony only. If you plan to do the legal part locally and just do a symbolic ceremony somewhere else then you don't have to meet the same requirements.

sorry, double post...

Raykel.... I know what you mean about getting conflicting prices. I found that issue most obvious when I was trying to get prices with a TA so we just didn't use one. You'd mentioned just calling your WC to work a bunch of stuff out and I thought I would mention that the best way to do that is buying a CiCi calling card. They have probably the best one around... no connection fees and I think on my $20 card I got something around 400 minutes which has been more than enough for the handful of calls that I've had to make to Mexico so far! You can pick them up at most convenient stores or gas stations. Sorry for sounding like a commercial but I hope it helps!!

I love your bags and wow I should not have gone shopping on that ewam.com site!! I just spent a little too much on some really awesome stuff, and not just for the wedding alone! I was really curious about your "boy" bags that you mentioned. Were those the solid blue ones that were beside the polka dot ones? I have some single-travelling guys that I need to do bags for and I'm really struggling with the actual bag part, not so much what to put in them. Any recommendations??

p.s. Suzy..... LOVE your picture!!

Quote: Originally Posted by ebredhawk maybe waiting to know exactly who is coming is part of the reason why DWs don't feel real until you're there!! meghan, i've done the same thing buying stuff for OOT bags. i pretty much know how many people are coming, but i bought stuff before then.. it's bad because every time i buy too much i just say "ehh.. i can sell the rest on BDW." i still giggle every time i type STD. mature huh? okay so I know that I've booked a bunch of stuff, and people are booking their trips etc. but I agree that sometimes I don't believe that I'm getting married. I TOTALLY had a "holt sh!t I'm getting married in five months... me, married!" moment a couple days ago and nearly split from laughing so hard!! And I've already been selling stuff here... some success, some surprising failure. I had posted my rotary trimmer since i know I won't really use it any more and its almost new (except for my invites of course) and didn't have any interest in it! Shocking considering the number of brides here who are all DIY'ers. Giggle away! We all do I'm sure Quote: Originally Posted by SuzyQ76 Just wanted to pop in and say I miss you guys, but I've been really enjoying my vacation - a little too much. I know my dress isn't going to zip up after this trip! lol I shouldn't be laughing, I'm actually really worried! I haven't caught up on anything in this thread yet but just wanted to let you all know I think about it often! lol I'll be back home on December 4th - just in time to put up my Christmas decorations and sit down for some good ole' BDW gossip. Meghan - still working on our little US purchase...I'm sure I'll find them somewhere! Hope everything is going well for everyone!! Suzy out... ;o) SUZY! I've missed you darling! How much longer are you in the US for? If you can't find our stuff in stores then I can just order it to your brothers place and hopefully you will get it before leaving for the coast? Let me know if you get this in time. I think delivery is only a day or two....

Thanks for the reminder Tonya that the hotel might be able to hold the rooms until a certain date. The only part that concerns me is that we didn't use a travel agent at all so far, so it just might be a little more tricky since we don't have an existing group booking. I guess if I was able to prove all the other reservations that we have already it would help my case. I'll look into it some more. And Mel I agree with you that I'm completely impatient! I've already bought half the stuff for my OOT bags and based it on the max # of people we invited (which was about 50ppl total). So far we have 26 confirmed or booked, only a few no's and the rest are unheard from as I mentioned. I'm actually considering sending out a few late invites now just because we had to limit our guest list from the beginning but I don't know what can of worms I'd be opening up doing that.

Quote: Originally Posted by IrisS This is an awesome thread! Now i need to convince FI that it's ok to order from the "World Wide Web".. he's a bit conventional that way,. LOL... oh my goodness you have no idea how hard I'm laughing about this right now!! FI's family, and specifically his grandparents, are from fairly small town Manitoba and they were so completely reluctant about booking their trip because there was NO WAY they could use their credit card online to book, and even giving someone their credit card over the phone just wasn't right.... so they had to find a travel agent that they were comfortable working with in person before they could get their trip booked!!!

Thanks girls! Looks like the works are now spoken for and I'll PM the lucky buyer.

Wow! Fastest sale that I've ever made, thanks girls! I will PM the lucky buyer!! All the items were ordered from Northern Safety Supplies (NS Supplies who are based out of the US and I will warn any CDNs that the duty charges are a bit brutal! There were a couple of us that went in on an order together so we split the cost which I think still made the purchase worth it.

I have some extra packages of Advil (30 x 2pills/pack), Immodium (18 x 2pills/pack) and MediLyte (30 x 2pills/pack) that were above the quantity that I needed. The MediLyte is an electrolyte replenishment similar to what Gatorade does for you, just in pill form not drink form. Asking $8 for the Advil (0.26 cents per pack), $8 for the Immodium (0.44 cents per pack) and $5 for the MediLyte (0.17 cents per pack). This was just the price of the packages and doesn't include any part of the shipping or duties that were paid for the whole order.

Hey.. so I'm going to post this int he Buy/Sell section but thought I'd add it here too since I know some things are frustrating to get for us CDN brides! I have some extra packages of Advil (30 x 2pills/pack), Immodium (18 x 2pills/pack) and MediLyte (30 x 2pills/pack) that were above the quantity that I needed. The MediLyte is an electrolyte replenishment similar to what Gatorade does for you, just in pill form not drink form. Asking $8 for the Advil (0.26 cents per pack), $8 for the Immodium (0.44 cents per pack) and $5 for the MediLyte (0.17 cents per pack). This was just the price of the packages and doesn't include any part of the shipping or duties that I paid for the whole order. Let me know if you want these for OOT bags!!!!

Tonya - we're also waiting on a GM to book his trip still... and my sister who is my MOH! I think the only reason we're not panicking (yet) is because we know that they'll both be there come hell or high water but are waiting to find out whether their spouses can attend which unfortunately is going to be more last minute. It almost makes me want to look into reserving an extra room for them both just in case and then the flights could be done separately, but I'm not sure how much more expensive that might end up being, to do the booking separately. Grrrr. Just one of those things we'll have to wait on i guess!

For teenagers, you could throw in a current magazine last minute. Sports Illustrated or something like that for the guys... US weekly or People for the girls? You can also get cards for purchasing songs to download which I'm sure would be kind of cool for them to receive since it's something that could easily be used anytime!

Awww I'm sorry to hear that! But as hard as it was to be in the room with him, I think down the road you'll be glad that you did because you were able to say goodbye and be with him to the end. I totally think that counts for something! We have a senior cat that we rescued this year who our vet thinks is about 16 yrs old so we know that sooner than later we'll be in the same position that you are and we're just grateful that she'll get to spend her last time with us nice and warm and loved. And I'm sure that your cat had a long happy life with you and that is the best you can do for any pet!

So random thoughts here this morning. I know that a lot of you have been struggling because guests are taking their sweet ass time to book, and I'm really lucky because my friends (locally anyways) have been awesome and booked super fast... but we have not been so lucky with some of FI's friends that he grew up with. A bunch of our mutual friends have booked (and by mutual, he still thinks of them as MY friends even though they all call him to do stuff even without me there.. goofball) but really none of HIS friends that were pre-us. It really frustrates me that he's known some of these guys since they were kids and yet almost none of them have even gotten around to RSVP'ing or even given us any hint about which way they're leaning.. I don't deal well with a lack of any response. Tell me no, tell me maybe - whatever! Anyways, the reason that I'm happy this morning is because thankfully at least one of his friends FINALLY came through and it was the most random thing ever! I've met this guy and his girlfriend only a handful of times and we hardly ever get to see them nevermind even talk to them much because they live about a days drive from us and a lot of time their work takes them out of phone range. So I had managed to get a hold of Mark about three or four weeks ago, just enough to get his email so that I could send him some of the info that way, along with the RSVP link for our website. I still didn't have a house address so I couldn't even send the invite but at least he had the critical info. Again, that was near the end of October and I hadn't heard from him since! But last night, I noticed that they had RSVP'd on our website so I emailed and just said that whenever they got to booking to send me a copy of their itinerary so we can keep track of everyone... and I had it in my email this morning when I got to work!!!! So it just goes to show you that people can totally surprise you and that totally random acts like that can make your day start off so well. I'm glad that he'll at least have a few people there who've known him a long time to support him and be part of our wedding. And at the same time it makes me more frustrated almost with his other friends that it doesn't even seem to matter to them. Bah, happy thoughts, happy thoughts!!!