echo2_62

TOTALLY feeling you gals on this one! Right now I'm struggling with the fact that FI's parents haven't make any indication of booking their trip at all saying that they'd rather not just jump on whatever prices are available at the moment. And there are two frustrating things to their reason... a) we know that money isn't the issue, and we are fairly sure they are very, very unpleased about the time we booked because it's not ideal for certain members of his family (and p.s. when we booked our wedding, my own parents were unsure of their attendance due to the economy so am I supposed to ask forgiveness that not everyone in his family can attend?!?! Oh, but yes my parents are booked already!!). Plus for those people who think that you're making your guests pay their way into your wedding, you could remind them of the other costs in the background for your wedding package and the dinner etc that is NOT included and, as many others pointed out, your guests get a full vacation out of the deal too! I think the only thing getting me through this ordeal is the fact that we've got awesome friends who are very excited and were the first ones to book their trips! They all knew before FI and I were even engaged that it would be a DW so once the date and location was booked, it was a green light for them. I hope that you are able to get a group of friends that are just as supportive of you and your decision because they will have SUCH a good time sharing your special day. Don't ever feel like you should make excuses for something that is going to make you very happy!

Since I don't know how many people you're talking about this might not be an option for you but I can tell you that we talked to most of our guests over a few days and casually asked if they were considering coming with us, saying that our "travel agent" needed some approximate numbers to start getting our quotes together (we didn't actually book through a travel agent in the end, but didn't know that at the time!). We made sure they knew that of course it wasn't a final commitment by any means, simply a heads up for us. There were a few friends who did actually say that they likely wouldn't be able to come due to other commitments so it did help us narrow numbers a little bit, even though we're still sending invites to those same friends who weren't sure it would work. Another option would be to send out save-the-dates and you could include either directions to your website, or even a return card, with a "keep me informed!" option and a "sorry I'll miss out" option and include a note explaining why you'd like the return card. I think that friends and family will understand that you need to estimate numbers earlier for a destination wedding than you would for a home based wedding, simply because of the nature of a DW. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you!

Quote: Originally Posted by GinalynL I did not find the wind distracting to the ceremony. The microphones and speakers allowed everyone to hear just fine And yes, Bianca and everything about her wedding was beautiful! I love the hanging orchids and white tulle idea! Are you going to use fake or real orchids? That was my exact question too!! I've never seen the hanging orchids before and I think it's absolutely gorgeous! I was thinking that for any decorations like that, I might look into how much it would be to send it down ahead of time (by courier with a tracking number of course) and otherwise I'm flying with WestJet and to take any extra baggage is about $50/piece so if that works out around the same as sending it then I'll just take an extra bag with me on the way down. Mind you, the last time we went to mexico, I only had one bag anyways I think! It's a good thing bikinis don't take up a lot of space

Quote: Originally Posted by lisarussell66 I was wondering how all of you are getting all of your stuff for your OTT Bags on the plane? I will already have way to much!! I really want to go to Canadian Tire tonight and get the bubba kegs but worried about getting to Jamaica!! Please let me know your thoughts Thanks We`re also planning to do a pre-trip distribution so that everyone has their own packages to take down. And for our guests who are departing from a different location (only a handful) we'll probably just pack them in somewhere. My plan right now is to figure out a way to wrap or package them so that people will still have them as a surprise when they get to mexico, and don't open them up too early. I'm not sure HOW I plan to do that... but I'm working on it!

Quote: Originally Posted by marryinghimagain Sharing my info: I heard back from Jacy. She said that we can add whatever extras we would like in addition to the complimentary package. A private dinner will be $25.00/pp and can be held in the gazebo or on the beach. The cake cutting and toast can be held after the ceremony or at the private dinner. Guests can just go to one of the bars for an informal cocktail hour while pics are being taken. Then back to either gazebo or beach for the private dinner. An extra bouquet for bridesmaid is $45.00, an extra bout is $20.00. As for music.... there is electricity in the gazebo that we can use free of extra charge. She said many brides bring their own Ipod and speakers. To use their sound system equipment is extra charge (as we all knew). We can add whatever photo package we would like. I can bring whatever decorations I would like and they will put them up with no additional charge. She was very helpful. I feel much less stressed about it now. She said all these things can be handled once we arrive and everything can be as I want it. She gave me the minister's email addy so I can talk directly to him with any concerns. I know feel like I have a plan! YAY! Quote: Originally Posted by mwcfarms Thats awesome. Yes she told me private dinners were 18/25/45 US depending on menu. And she said if you bump up the package and dont need the photographer you can sub in for extra decorations or video etc. Which is great. Now I just need to sit down this weekend and figure out which is going to cost less and how much. Echo what weight is your cardstock. Some printers only go up to a maximum weight in cardstock. That might be the case with yours. Cant wait to see how they turn out. I took Becky's template and made mine like hers but then I added an embossed palm tree and embossed outter envelope. Very much the same as hers though. Thanks to Becky hehe. Okay so I just want to be totally clear before I get too excited here... you're both going with the complimentary wedding package so the quotes for cost of a private dinner (18/25/45 per person) was not in addition to any other fees is that correct? We hadn't made any definite decisions on what we wanted to do for a dinner yet and were actually considering going into Playa del carmen somewhere if the cost was going to be the $55/65 as quoted for the silver/gold costs. If we can do something more basic - which is totally more our style - for the prices that you've mentioned here then that will be infinitely easier and less stressful for me to manage. We're still having some "discussions" about what to do for photos (a rather frustrating story) so having more of an open, informal cocktail hour would work well for us too. Wow, pre-emptive sigh of relief here. As for the paper weight, I'm using a 110lb cardstock. And my office computer has a setting specifically for cardstock but that doesn't seem to matter. I'm wondering if part of the problem is because it's a laser printer (I think!) and not an inkjet printer? Oddly enough I got a bit better print when I did it as a photocopy rather than as a direct print off my computer. There are a couple other ladies on my floor that seem to be better with the printer anyways so I might ask them for help too! They all love to hear stories about my planning so I may as well get them involved!! -> marringhimagain: I can totally feel your planning relief from here and I'm so happy for you!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by badrianne echo, Dang you accomplished a lot! which program did u use to convert word to pdf? i need to do that for my invites too. Thanks The website I found was: Convert MS Word (doc) files to Adobe Acrobat files (pdf) for free. No login required. and just at the bottom of this page there is Browse button. Just navigate to your saved .doc word file and then click Convert Document. Be warned however that your formatting from Word may not convert exactly as you see it so you'll probably need to do some tweaking and editing (and the final word document might end up looking rather messy too!). My challenge now is to figure out how to get this stupid printer to give me better copies than what it's doing right now! Yes, I'm being sneaky and printing them at work - or at least I thought I was being sneaky! The print job looks amazing on regular paper but isn't coming out so nice on the cardstock I might just see how much it is for the copy shop downstairs to do it if I can't figure this out. Arg.

Quote: Originally Posted by jlizabethm I'm so frustrated. I'm getting married Sept. 18th and arriving on the 14th and Jacy STILL hasn't returned my emails. Hmmm..not good. I'll let you all know when she finally returns my email........ I know that someone mentioned Jacy had been away for a long weekend and just got back maybe monday or so? I would just call her and try to sort things out, or at least remind her that you emailed (and give them the date you last emailed stuff - that seems to help!). And try not to stress, you'll be in the beautiful sun soon and we'll all be totally jealous!! Quote: Originally Posted by jac28 btw has anybody found any wickerish type of bags for cheap? I was actually at a Dollarama store this past weekend looking at some bags that were meant to hold a wine bottle but were totally that coarse wickerish type that I think you mean. Not sure if you have the same chain where you are, but your local dollar stores might be worth checking out. If not, let me know how many you need and I could see about rounding them up for you! They had light beige ones w/ dark trip, medium brown w/dark brown trim and medium brown w/ burgundy trim I think?! Let me know!

I'm hoping that for my BM dresses that we can take advantage of either some end-of-season sales or wait a little bit longer and catch the start of christmas dress shopping. That's right, I said CHRISTMAS, in September! hahahaha! Our main wedding colour is dark purple which has been super popular this year so I'm going to cross my fingers that we'll find something easily enough. I don't really want to be ordering dresses since we're planning things so casually anyways. Ooh, and I received my confirmation date of when my dress is supposed to be in and if all goes according to plan then I'll have time left for alterations and then some. The girl ordering my dress told me straight out that she'd lie about my wedding date on the order form just to make sure it was delivered in time! Looks like it worked - Yay!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by mwcfarms I am currently working on my STD's and not sure what to do. I am a bit of a perfectionist and hate trying to cut straight lines even with my cutter. And I have a 7 week old kitten from work that is determined to screw things up by being in my face constantly lol. Or on my keyboard or in my embossing powder. She's a brat but totally adorable. Well back to work. Awww kitten!!! Don't tell my FI about it, he's a total cat lover and my house (and vacuum) can't handle much more than the two cats and dog we have already! He'd be very envious of your barn and it's cats! As for being a perfectionist, I'm right on board with you! The biggest time consumer with my invitations was that when I tried to print them from word (oh, I'm doing the boarding ticket invites!) a couple of the images were awful looking - very pixelated! So after some trickery, I found a website that converts word documents to pdf really easily and the picture quality was WAY better. The downside was that a good portion of the formatting from word to pdf was completely off so I had to do a bunch of editing so that the pdf print version looked the way I wanted it. If you saw the result on my word document you might think I was cross eyed or something! The long weekend couldn't have been at a better time though because I was in my office using my dual monitors to work on all this and I doubt I would have finished nearly as much just using my laptop at home. And overall, it might not have been the most direct route to accomplishing the invites, but I'm pretty happy with them so far. They're off for approval at the moment - a.k.a. FI is looking them over briefly - so I'm hoping no major changes will need to be made

Quote: Originally Posted by mwcfarms I emailed her and phoned the next day to follow up. I know it might rack up the bill but I hate waiting for a return email. Hope you get it all figured out. I bought a CiCi brand calling card to use for my calls to Mexico and the rates are Great! I think on a $20 card I got about 300 minutes to use and they have no connection fees. By far my recommended calling card! You can pick them up at most convenient stores I'm pretty sure! Quote: Originally Posted by GinalynL No problem, I love this forum! DH makes fun of me because I still do wedding "stuff" even after we're married, haha, boys just don't understand I had my reception by the lagoon. Boys don't understand AT ALL! The last couple weeks (yes, since I found this site) I've been on the computer quite frequently and FI has been complaining that I am on so much Of course he doesn't realize everything that gets done without him knowing either! But he was very confused as to why I was searching individual Advil packages yesterday until I reminded him of the OOT bags that we (I) am doing. Thankfully he hasn't asked how much is going into them yet!! Hehehehe! Oh! And did I mention that I bought my dress this past weekend AND got my invitations all done up and just about ready to print?!? It was a very productive weekend!!!!!

Three Michaels' locations, three Walmarts, two scrapbooking stores and still no palm tree punches larger than 5/8". This is not fun

I love your invites!! I was also wanting to use a palm tree punch for the front of mine but I can't find one anywhere yet! If there is anyone who's also used a large size one for their invites or std's that would be willing to sell it, please message me! I need one ASAP My own fault for leaving it too long and thinking I'd be able to find one easily.

I think the punches at Michaels must be seasonal because I've been looking for one there for a few weeks now and they haven't had them. Maybe I'll check if they can special order one but i just don't know how long it would take. If anyone else has one still that I cold buy from them i'd totally appreciate it! I never thought these would be difficult to find so of course I don't have much time left to get one! Thanks!!!

Well there must be a time change somewhere along the way because it wasn't 5:30... but sadly it *was* 6:30! I get to work horribly early but I miss traffic for the most part. And believe me, I'm totally not a morning person! And I'm TOTALLY going to do OOT bags!! I don't have the full idea of what I'm going to include so far, but there will definitely be insulated mugs of some sort. Have you seen the master list (with spreadsheet already built for you??) for one of the other threads? Ginalyn had attached a link for me around page 18 of this thread if you haven't. Sorry I don't have the exact post number right now.

Thank you! It totally feels good!! Were the pictures actually big enough to see? They looked really small to me so I wasn't sure if I should repost them.

Quote: Originally Posted by ebredhawk echo, i will be keeping my fingers crossed for your dress hunting! you are bound to find your perfect dress here soon and i can't wait to see it when you do! Quote: Originally Posted by miss di echo2 - you can do it!! good dress buying vibes coming your way from SF! Well the good vibes reached me miss di!! My trip last night was finally successful and I bought my dress today!! It has everything that I wanted from the other dresses - all in one! I'm super excited And of course since you wanted to see pictures, so I'll figure out to get those posted shortly since the only attachment I could get so far was ITTY BITTY. So now it's on to the BM dresses! Thank goodness the guys are all wearing khakis and button downs! They`ll be the easy part I hope! -meghan

Quote: Originally Posted by jetsbride what seller on ebay did you get the books from? Are they the big version or pocket size? I want to get these but i haven't had any luck finding them. Your help would be awesome, thanks! me too!! Me too!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by miss di erin...can't wait to see your pix!!! (ps. got ur poop stickers today!!) scubadiva & echo...hope the shopping trips went well for each of you. do you ever feel like you just need to take an hour or two and just regroup??!? look over all your notes and scribbles and lists and start fresh again with a new list full of crap to be taken care of? that's where i'm at right now...kind of frustrated. i'm totally procrastinating that "hour or two"...blah. Well nevermind the wedding planning alone, I'm totally the kind of person who needs to make lists for everything! Groceries, packing for a trip, errands to do on the weekend... I won't sleep well if my head is busy trying to keep all those things straight! And if you think about it, you make lists to help organize your thoughts. So if your lists start to get disorganized then no wonder you feel extra chaotic and more frustrated. I think it's also helpful to go over your lists now and then because you'll be able to see how much you've accomplished already and then maybe what's still left for your 'to-do's' won't seem quite so overwhelming. Maybe go buy a pretty new notepad or something like that to sit down and re-write your lists out. That way you'll know that this is the updated and revised version and at least visually it might give you a bit of that fresh, organized feeling that you need to get going again. Besides, it's FRIDAY!

Quote: Originally Posted by Kim08 Thanks echo2_62 I sure hope they honor my Marina Honeymoon room. Maybe the change is only for 2010 brides? I emailed Jacy. I will probably have to wait a week to hear anything *sigh* Kim - Did you ever hear back about your room booking? Was it okay for the 2009 packages? Quote: Originally Posted by Jenna20 Hey Echo...just thought I'd give you an update. I have also still not heard back from westjet. It was sounding like I may hear something by the end of the week, so I will see if anything comes through tomorrow! On another note Ethos did mention that it would take 6 months to order a dress, and from other friends who have bought at other stores in the city, that seems to be the standard. I know...pressure! Esp if you need alterations, that would put us around the time frame of end February, beginning of March...wedding April...? I'm not sure if you have seen the billboard for the Calgary Bridal Fair in Sept. I believe its on the 27th, I hear they have sample sales, however not sure if I would want to take my chances on it and not find something? Jenna - how goes the resort selection? I remember that you hadn't settled on one the last we heard from you. Have you heard back from your TA and westjet for prices yet? I'm still waiting on one more and seem to be stuck in that long wait period again, even though I got a few of them together really quickly. We ended up telling our guests about the seat sale they had on and a few people were able to take advantage of it which was great! I was just really happy to get our stuff booked finally and not worry about all the waiting times!

Just curious... were you able to buy chapsticks that didn't have a label on them, or did you find some with labels that were really easy to peel off??

Thanks for all the support with the dress-buying. I'm heading out again tonight for another go at it, and I've liked a lot of the dresses on their website so here's hoping! And of course you know I'll post if I do find one

Yay for another Calgary bride! Have fun searching through everything here.. there is SO much!

Thank you!!! I'll check out some of those fonts tonight and see what I can dig up!!

okay sappy alert on high here, just to warn you all. The joke about the blue shoes is that back when I was all nervous one night on our vacation because I wanted to tell FI that I loved him for the first time, I finally worked up the nerve to say it. And when he said I love you back to me, it was just so casual from him even though I knew he meant it. So when I got back home and had to spill to my sister (who hears everything from me!), I told her it was so casual that I felt like I'd actually said something like "I have blue shoes" and he said "I have blue shoes too"... just all in that very matter of fact kind of way that you wouldn't associate with telling someone you love them for the first time!! Haha so now, for any given reason or if we're trying not to sound too lovey around other people, then we say 'blue shoes' instead of I love you. It's super cheesy but it all just went down so oddly and I thought it was kind of hysterical too... so it just stuck!!

I have this font on some monograms being created but I can't find it to use on my own anywhere!!! I've tried dafont and a couple other websites but no luck! Help me please!! I'm working on my invites right now so I'm hoping someone can help me soon!!! thank you, thank you in advance!! -meghan