echo2_62

I think they should have had a top 20 dancers from the start and still eliminated one b/g per week, but then they could have brought in the all-star dancers when they got down to the final 10 or something. But since that's not the way it is, my understanding is that they're only going to eliminate a single Top 10 dancer each week and that the all-star dancers are there simply to be dance partners and perhaps they only reason they'll be "eliminated" is if their partner is?? I definitely can't see them having the all star dancers as part of the actual competition because that would totally be unfair to the new season participants. And not that I don't think Billy Bell isn't a good dancer, but I agree with a lot of the rest of you that they shouldn't have chosen him over Anthony. And please don't think I'm being insensitive when I say this, but does anyone else think it might be because of whatever "illness" they mentioned as the reason he couldn't continue through last season?? I mean, he's clearly talented and everything but say it was something terminal that he had do you think the producers would have chosen him since anyone else would have the chance to come back and he wouldn't? I'm really just throwing random things out there, but when they said that in commentary it just got me thinking.

while I'm not sure that I've even seen the pkg option for creating your cards & thank-you's but I can add a few generic comments. We had ordered both the standard and oversized postcards and the quality on them was really good (just using the images they have already, not uploading one of my own). They had a really high gloss finish to them and essentially looked like any other postcard that you would buy at the store so we were really happy with them. On the other hand, I selected the folded note cards to use for our thank-you's and I created my own image, uploaded at a medium resolution (but one that was accepted by their system as being of sufficient quality) and had the option to request the matte finish which I thought might be okay seeing as the postcards were just *so* darn shiny. I just got those a few days ago and was SOOO disappointed with the quality. They were printed on paper that was lighter than a quality cardstock (sorry I don't know my actual paper weights) and the rough look made them seem kind of unfinished. In addition, each card had been cut from a larger piece of paper so the side that it had been cut on was rough and definitely evident compared to the uncut sides. It didn't help either that my image had a solid black border all the way around so any edges that were unfinished were especially evident. The good thing is that Vistaprint has an excellent quality guarantee so i was able to get a refund on the notecards because I definitely wouldn't be sending them out as they are. The bad thing is that after having spent so much time creating my image and then waiting on these to be shipped, we're nearly two months out from our wedding and I feel extremely rude for not having thanked all our guests yet. I think my overall advice is NOT to use vistaprint for your actual invites as they just might not end up looking as polished and finished as you would have liked. I'm confident that there will be LOTS of girls here who can recommend other places to go that have comparable prices too. Good luck!

Haha okay I can totally see the confusion!! We'd chosen the basic wedding package so our reception meal was not included and we had to pay for it separately (ie. it wasn't the Gold or Silver menu option). You can ask Jacy for the menu in case they've made any editions since I'd chosen our meal, but I've added the one I have here. I think our options were in the range of $25-35USD per person (plus taxes). Hope that clears things up a bit!! Menu options.pdf

I haven't ever heard of that myself but I think it's a really good idea!! And just to expand on what the other girls suggested, you could always pull out a single memory each on an anniversary or some other special occasion, and then save the whole lot of the others for the bad times when you really need the extra reminders And no one says you can't put them back in the box once you've read the notes either! And Taylor, I have to say that your comments about how you and hubby did that for an entire year to work through your problems really hit me today. I know I'd shared with most of you the problems I was having before our wedding around FI's bachelor party disaster (which I could barely bring myself to admit nearly ended our wedding plans) and while I have absolutely zero regrets in marrying him, I'm still having huge difficulties dealing with the issues that event created especially related to my trusting him in some aspects. What you said just seemed to make so much sense to me because deep down I know that despite the really stupid decisions that were made and how hurt or angry I feel, there are a million more reasons that I love him in spite of all that... and I really need to make sure I focus on those things every day!!! Thank you so, so much!! And I must add (on a positive last note!) that I love your pictures Michele & Taylor!! I didn't get any sorts of those shots so I'm completely jealous that you both look so gorgeous!

Oh the dresses were perfect for the wedding! They were nice and light weight which was great in the heat (and dried quickly in the rain!!) and I know at least a couple of them have already worn their dresses for something else in the last couple months. I was of the same opinion that I didn't want them buying dresses they would never wear again but all my girls agreed these ones would definitely get worn a lot. I think the dresses were definitely dressy enough for our wedding (which I should admit was a bit more casual than some anyways) but there were tons of compliments all around so it's not something I would stress over at all unless you're going super formal.

That sucks you can't get the convertible dresses ordered from VS as that's what my bm's wore and they all loved their dresses! My suggestion, depending on how many dresses you need, is to check on ebay and see if you can find them. I'd been debating about adding another bm to our wedding party and finally decided that I really wanted to but of course the colour of the dresses wasn't being made anymore. We lucked out and found the exact size and colour available through ebay and it was still a brand new dress.

If he's wearing a really light grey suit with a light pink shirt, have you thought about going with white shoes?? I'm thinking that what FI has in mind is that the black shoes would be too great a contrast (remember also the light coloured sand he'll be walking through/standing in) whereas a grey shoe wouldn't be quite so stark. My hubby had white pants and our gm's had a grey checkered type pattern so the white they wore looked really clean with the outfits. I really liked that we went that way!

The menu I had included about 6-7 set meal options that each had some type of soup, salad, main course and dessert. We did a little bit of mix & match between a couple and wound up with Minestrone soup, Caprese salad (my absolute favourite!!!), Beef Medallions (which were amazing tasting steaks which is saying a lot coming from a group of folks who are used to Alberta Beef!!) and Brownies for dessert (which are totally NOT your cookie pan, bake sale kind.... these things were DIVINE!!). I'm unable to attach items because of my work filters but PM your email to me and I can send it as an attachment for you that way.

Linds- totally a good idea to call or email and see if you can purchase the bouquet jewels locally!! Sometimes even if it's not something they would typically do, it can save them so much hassle if they don't have to deal with all the paperwork of shipping through a registered service (like UPS). That said, I had an order through an office supply company that was literally down the street from my parents and they said no to pick up since their warehouse is so huge and it was actually easier for them to do the shipment!! Hopefully it works out for you!

I remember being really concerned about how many guests we were inviting because we didn't want to wind up having issues with our reception options. In the end we'd invited about 60 people in total and wound up with 33 so we were lucky to be under the 40 limit because our meal was AMAZING! We had lots of compliments all around about the food so it's definitely worth it!

Just a reminder for those of you booking a room for your photographers for the night.... if you call in your reservation and tell the hotel that it will be a Mexican resident staying there, I believe you get a WAY better rate even though they make you pay in pesos at whatever the current exchange is. Someone had mentioned this some time ago and it was after I'd already done my photog. reservation so I'm not 100% on the details, but its definitely something worth checking as it may save some decent cash.

Oh Cara! Your pictures are just stunning!!! I'm so very jealous of them! You're a beautiful bride and I love the pics of your wedding party too! Congrats!!

Not sure on the outside DJ sorry, but in regards to the last question about a plated vs. buffet meal, I think it comes down to preference. Your guests will likely have a good mix of each just using the resort restaurants throughout the week already. It also depends on the size of your group as well because I believe that if you have over a certain number (40?) they prefer to do a buffet anyways. We had chosen the basic wedding package and paid for our private reception separately and only had 33 guests (including ourselves) so we had the plated meal and the service was excellent. One of the few specifics that my hubby gave me during planning was that he wanted a plated meal and not buffet so as I said, personal choice for us. Plus nevermind our guests, hubby and I were just so glad to be sitting down and relaxing finally so having the food brought to us was very well received

mexico102 - I don't think any of us who are DPA brides could give anything other than great reviews about thre resort! I know it can be tricky to take the words of a bunch of people you don't know to heart, but trust us when we tell you that you will have a beautiful wedding there in November!! And that's coming from someone who got completely rained out the entire trip and still got compliments on how wonderful everything was.

OMG!!! I'm so happy that things have worked out for you!! Hubby and I had some really difficult problems just before our wedding as well and even though we didn't get to the point of calling it off, I can kind of relate as to how it feels once you do get married and know that it's the right thing despite all the problems. And let me tell you how much I *LOVE LOVE LOVE* your little white dress that you wore! It is SO cute and looks great on you! It's wonderful how accepting your family is being and I'm sure will be lots of fun to have your reception later in summer with the rest of your family. CONGRATS!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by meldal101010 Does anyone know a good place to buy chair sashes in the city? I'd rather try to find a place to get them here then order online & pay crazy shipping. Thanks ladies What colour are you looking for? I've got dark purple ones that I'm going to be posting for sale soon if that might work for you? Otherwise it sounds like you've got a few leads so hopefully they work out for you! Quote: Originally Posted by pamphilia someone else mentioned that they had a great experience with Mena's too, so i will check them out as well, thanks again, linds! i was pretty stressed about the bears - the conservation officers were out with their guns and some other campers got pics VERY close up (like 15 feet away)....i have a bit of a bear phobia, so it was pretty intense the snow hardly bothered us though! we are tough cookies! It was ME who mentioned Mena's before and that's where I bought my dress. The girl there was super nice! And we had bears in our campground last year as well out near Golden. It was dark so no one really realized they were even walking through until a) someone spotted them and some dogs were barking and we had to scramble to round up our friends dog who loves to wander through everyone else's site for a visit! The bears left quite peacefully and we all wished that it hadn't been so dark so that we could get pictures!! Quote: Originally Posted by MissNatalie18 Hi All, I am actually moving to Calgary on June 7th and in the midst of planning my wedding for April 2011. It would be great to meet some friends on here. I was actually in Calgary for my first time over the long weekend! It is very different than Toronto, but I am hoping I can meet some friends soon to make the transition easier. Natalie Welcome Natalie! I saw your second post that mentioned you are originally from Oakville - my grandparents have lived there longer than I've been alive! I really like it there. I lived in Burlington for a long time and St Catharines too but have been here in Calgary for about 6 years now. I think it's really easy to get used to the city here, but maybe harder to get used to all the amazing open space *outside* the city!! Anyone who's born and raised here just can't picture driving for six hrs and never leaving the city (like driving from Niagara to Kingston) while people from southern ontario who have never been here can't imagine driving 20 minutes and being completely out of the city. I think you'll be surprised at the number of people living here who have come out from Ontario... every manager I've had in my office came from there at some point! And p.s. June 7 is a GREAT day to move... happens to be my birthday LOL! Quote: Originally Posted by CaraW I would love to get together also! I live in the SE but work downtown, I'm easy so I'll just go where you girls would like to go. Cara Just a thought, but if a lot of us work here in downtown would a lunch date interest anyone?? I figure that if we all have different times that we'd be finished work or don't want to worry about traffic etc then maybe we could go somewhere in Eau Claire or on Stephen Ave one day?

Hahaha, Tracy you make me laugh with all your indecision. I know how frustrating it can be too though so I'm sorry you're just so caught up in it. There's no way I could convince DH to do anything else wedding related at this point. He's so happy that I'm not trying to do *something* wedding related anymore and has even asked how soon it will be before we're completely free and clear. We still have our thank-you's to finish and send out since I'm including a few pictures in them for everyone, and then of course there definitely needs to be the big clean-out of all the leftover stuff that i need to sell or pass on and just get out of my house! LOL! But on a fun note... we've been having a bit of fun spending some of our wedding money that we got in gifts on some new deck chairs etc. so with the awesome weather we've been having, it makes for a great weekend!

yikes it's been quiet around here lately! How did all your AHR's go

Adrianne - are you back yet? We want to hear all about it!!

It was reasonably humid while we were in MX but I didn't have problems with swelling up at all. My clothes and my rings both fit well the entire time but I know one of the guys we were with couldn't budge his ring from his finger the whole trip! Honestly I think most people usually only have swelling issues with extremities (fingers and toes) more than their entire bodies. Other than that one guy, I didn't hear any of our guests complaining at all so that makes 1 in 35 that had problems?

Thanks Linds... I've been ridiculously busy since we got back from the wedding so I haven't been able to post much of anything but I'll let you know when I get some more of my dress up. I bought it at Mena's Bridal on centre street just south of 16th ave in the NW. I don't think I'd have picked it out if I hadn't tried on a bunch of dresses around the city before going there since it's a smaller store - but it just had the right combination of things I wanted. The only addition I would have made (would have been easy but thought of it too late) is to have the little buttons sewn on the back down the zipper, but it may have just been too busy with the corset style back that it has. I did love my dress though and everyone else seemed to think it suited me as well which is nice!

Okay so here are a couple pics of the dresses that my BM's wore. We got the flirty convertible style which is on sale for $95, so not quite the same ones that are on for $39. One of the girls spent some time figuring out all the ways that you can wear this dress and I think she got up to 15 or something crazy like that! I've also got an online video fo rthe different ways to wrap it but that's in my work email so I can't get at it just now. The material of these dresses is really nice and all the girls are happy that they'll be able to wear them over again. They have about six colours to choose from right now but these change every once in a while. We bought all of them online and mostly just guessed with the sizing and they worked out really well. Pretty much all my girls and I order from VS regularily enough anyways so if you're splitting the cost of shipping etc between a few girls then it doesn't add a heck of a lot (it just might seem like a lot if you're paying for the dresses and everything yourself!). It's also worth checking on ebay just in case you can find the right dress a little bit cheaper as that's what we did for one girl when the colours changed on us!

easy rule of thumb when shopping for summer clothes - they are always out WAY earlier than you would even be thinking of wearing them! It's a little crazy but typically you'll start seeing capris and shorts etc as early as February sometimes despite there still be snow on the ground here in Calgary! If you're looking for summer dresses then I can guarantee they're already out in stores in full swing. If your wedding isn't until next summer then you could look now and if you don't find anything wait for next season to roll around. And for those of you mentioning different size Bm's and their dresses... the ones we had from VS did fit well (surprisingly) on two small girls (size 2-6), one average (size 8-10) and one small plus size (about size14?) and honestly the dresses looked amazing on all of the girls. When I get home I can get a picture of them posted for you to compare! I do understand the girls wanting to try them on first, but we all found the sizing to be very reasonable to regular clothing.

My girls all ordered their dresses from Victoria's Secret and they were awesome! They got the Flirty convertible dress and they were the best of both worlds for having matching fabric/colours but allowing each girl to wear it however they wanted and suited them best. We ended up with two girls wearing them strapless (but using a different way of wrapping one looked shin length, the other above the knees), one with a twisted halter and the fourth wore a single shoulder strap. They all had so many comments about how good they looked and what a great combination it made etc. The material description says jersey something or other but don't think t-shirt at all! It was a super nice, light-weight and soft material that was nice and flowy. My four bm's all had very different body types too and it worked across the board.

Oh hey speaking of brides heading down to DPA soon, I am hoping someone can help me out with a small favour. In the gift shop they have these really cute little stuffed turtles in a kids pool in the middle of the store. We kept meaning to go get one of the small sized ones but usually remembered just as we were heading out to the beach. Is there any chance someone could pick one up for me and ship it once you're back home again?! It's the cute looking green ones (they come in a large and small size, I'd like the small) and is embroidered with the Dreams logo in like, gold writing or something. Thank you!!!