Meyer2010

Quote: Originally Posted by echo2_62 Erica, where did you get your bags?? They are super cute!!! While I haven't figured out how yet, I'm trying to think o fsomething i could do so that I can hand my bags out ahead of time, but they'd be wrapped and have to be kept closed until our trip... Not sure if it's going to work yet though Hey... thanks! I got them in Thailand! LOL We live in China so we were vacationing there a few weeks ago and fell in love with them! What do you mean your bags would be wrapped? I'm pretty sure if you are bringing them down to Mexico they couldn't be wrapped up. Customs has to be able to see them. Just a thought!

Yes, I agree with you girls. I don't want to give them out before hand because what if the decide not to take them or they forget them. There will be fun things in our bags as well: koozies cups sarongs for the girls visors for the guys tylenol tums tissues sunscreen antibacterial hand sanitizer candy bottled waters beads beach balls Here are some pics of what I have so far: Good Luck girls! ~ Erica

We love our stadium cups. They can fit inside eachother for easy transport and they aren't too heavy! Check them out along with our koozies! Good Luck with the rest of our planning! ~ Erica

Okay... This is what I did. I used Vistaprint to make our business cards with our information for money/tip card holders on one side and on the other side bI put this poem. We will use the tip holder side by putting colored paper behind it and hanging it on the bag. So you can't see the other side. This is the poem we used for our OOT bags: As we come upon our special day, Jason and Erica would like to say… Welcome to Mexico, and enjoy your stay. We thank you for coming all this way. Please enjoy these gifts that we all share. They are brought to you with our love and care. Let’s celebrate and keep those cocktails within reach. As we exchange our vows this Wednesday on the beach! 02.10.10 Hope this helps! ~ Erica

Do you have any luggage tag loops left? I only need 40 of them. Let me know, thanks! ~ Erica

Quote: Originally Posted by Lady_Di For anyone that got in touch with Sharon, how long does she usually respond to emails? I emailed her yesterday about getting a sample but no reply. Maybe i'm just being too impatient! haha Ladi Di, Did you just email her some questions or a request for a quote? I sent her a request for a quote and it took about 5 days to see a response from her. I know they are really busy so just be patient! I know its hard but it will be worth it! I think I'll be finalizing my order next week. I'm sooooo excited!!! Good Luck! ~ Erica

Quote: Originally Posted by svetayasofiya I am so jealous of you brides with JCrew Bridesmaid dresses. I picked out a few that I would have loved to have for my bridesmaids but they didnt want to order online. I gave them carte blanche with the dress shopping with myself retaining the power of veto, but you know, I just don't love their dresses. They are pretty, but they aren't what I would have chosen. They don't even like them that much either but are too lazy to go shopping again to look for others. Nice attitude eh? Ahhh what can you do. Meyer2010: My friend who is going to be at the wedding ordered the same dress your bridesmaids will be wearing but in fuscia. It's a beautiful dress! love the clover. Green would have been my first choice, but my girls will be wearing coral. Awww... well I can't take all the credit for them picking j.crew dresses. It was up to them, I just gave them the color palette they had to follow! I also liked the fuchsia color since that is one of my colors but we though green looked more tropical. My FI will wear a tan linen suit, white shirt and our GM's will wear white linen short sleeved shirts with khaki pants and flip flops. Great feedback girls!!!

Wow... this is great information! I just talked to my FI and he agrees that we don't need a reception. We will have about 30 or so guests so I'm guessing they won't let us squeak by that number in a regular restaurant. Hmmm... we'll see. We want our guests to just enjoy themselves and have it be low key since we are having an AHR when we get back to MI. So, maybe we'll look into having a band or cocktail reception afterwards but then break up for dinner. Thanks for the help! ~ Erica

Wow... amazing pictures!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by imdawn Thanks guys for the compliments on my weddingbycolor site/blog I worked REALLY hard on it! (I still check it actually..and post about stuff and comment on some of my favorite brides pages!) If you are in the planning stages of your wedding...I highly recommend the website..it gave me a lot of really great ideas and the brides are really helpful like on here! Meyer2010-Harbor Springs/Nubs Nob! Wow..that's where I learned how to ski and snowboard too...wow small world huh!? It's about 10 minutes away from Petoskey though so just the next town away =) I love how fast everyone is to reply on here! I intend on doing a LONG review this weekend of our Vegas Wedding/Michigan Reception...but I am dying to see the new Couples Retreat movie first Wow! It is a small world! One more fact, my FI's uncle is the captain of the "Pointer" in Harbor Springs. You might know that boat. It's goes out on tours into the Harbor.

Quote: Originally Posted by jerzygirl85 Erica - did they try the dresses on in the store or did they have to order them online first? They weren't available in the store, so we ordered them online and had them shipped to us.

Quote: Originally Posted by Morgan we just set our guests free. Some ate ice cream at the creperie. Others went to the bar. basically,e veryone just returned to their favorite spot at the hotel. Some watched us take pictures from afar. I didn't know they were watching until I saw their pictures of us taken from way back. overall i don't think you need to schedule anything because it's so easy to entertain yourself at an AI. So, you didn't have a reception? I'm still debating whether to have one or not.

Quote: Originally Posted by Tifuhhknee I saw a post about the airport taking good care of people needing assistance. They were fantastic! I have an uncle with a hip replacement, one whose back was out of whack, and my dad's hip was giving him trouble (all on the way there, crazy). We breezed through that airport and customs by being with them. Also had assistance in Houston airport, which is huge. We had to run to keep up with the airport wheelchair pusher and we got to ride on those carts a lot of the time. They go above and beyond at airports to assist those in need! Not sure if swine flu is still a concern in airports. Went in June and all they did was check our temperature at Cancun airport upon entering. Observed that people with sunburns were checked under their chin instead of on forehead. Filled out a little paper about if you had fever and stuff past 2 days. This is GREAT to hear! We will need all the help we can get! I love your logo too! Very colorful/tropical! If anyone is doing the "Renewal of Vows" ceremony I got the actual verbage of what they will say. See attached doc. Enjoy! ~ Erica Wedding Speech.doc

Quote: Originally Posted by koolatta I will take 7 shots..one for good luck..hehe. Another thing we have in common: we flew my gramndmother down from FL to be at the courthouse when we made it legal since she cant go to mx...great minds think alike :-) I did some of my guests since I see all of them often and i am horrible at keeping a secret..ans so is my family. but they mostly all knew our plan ahead of time because we told them about the whole having to give blood thing for legal ceremonies in MX and we picked Oct 8th since it was our 9 year anniversary so everyone thought it was cute we have 2 double meaning anniversary. The Pure chille out bar menu price includes rental of the space and bar so for the grill menu I am paying $58 per person. Here if the email i got from them explaining pricing for the private reception: For a dinner reception we have several menu options, I am attaching a document with all the menu choices ( all buffet ) for 2009 The prices that you will find are in USD per person and already include the private space, our “PURE-CHILL-OUT-BAR, special decoration, beverages from the regular bar menu and the service. Special decoration means : all the wooden columns of the beach bar will be decorated with white fabric and palmtree leaves, white tablecloth and chair covers with bows, an arch of white balloons and a podium for your guest book at the entrance and candles decorating the walkway. For up to 50 guests we have enough space inside the bar, including the buffet and dancing space. With reserving the dinner reception you will have the Bar available for your group until 10:30 PM. Some of our wedding packages include already extra flower decoration which could be used afterwards for decorating the reception area. You can pick the type of flowers still upon arrival, together with your bouquet etc. Extra flower decoration is available at an extra cost ( for example center pieces for the dinner tables ). I am attaching some pictures of past wedding receptions so you can imagine the place a little better. Please note that some of the flowers and extra table decoration ( give aways ) are not included. Those were either ordered separately ( a flower arrangement per table is about 30,- USD ), or brough by the bride. Music during the reception is not included. We are offering a DJ service , this includes that we are preparing the CD`s with your choice of music, we provide a microphone for speeches / toasts ( you and/ or your guests ), and our DJ/MC is available for the usual announcements. For example when you are arriving at the reception area, the first dances and the cake cutting ceremony. This service has a cost of 100,- USD per hour. Background music without DJ/MC/microphone is available at a cost of 40 USD per hour. I hope this information was helpful to you, please let me know if I can be of any further assistance . Looking forward to hearing from you soon again Let me know if you need any more info. BTW - I love the cups and koozies!! They are awesome. I'll post my pics later tonight so you can see mine!! I booked my photographer for 8 hours but i was lucky enough to find him and post about him before the others on BDW so I got him for a great price. He may be increasing his prices soon thanks to all of our BDW brides telling him how wonderful his prices are..lol.. What time is your wedding? Mine is at 3:00 and the reception starts at 5. Maybe that will help determine how long you need the photographer? I know some brides who do all the special things (cake cutting, first dance, etc) early and then they excuse the photog after that...just another thought :-) Happy planning!! Awww... thanks! I can't wait to drink/use them! Nice job on the photographer! 8 hours... well I read most photographers charge $500/hour so I'm not sure we have that in our budget! Luckily I don't need any video services as my brother has his own business in videography! He is really good and he will be making our video for us! Maybe we could book a photographer from noon-6pm. That way I can have pictures of me getting ready/the guys getting ready, guests waiting for us, during/after wedding ceremony, and then some reception pictures and do the cutting of the cake and stuff early like you suggested. ;-) Our wedding is at 3pm too! What will your guests do after the wedding? We were thinking of doing a cocktail hour but maybe we'll just set them free for a few hours before our reception starts. Will you also have a DJ or band? Sorry if you already answered this question. We are having an AHR so I'm unsure if we are going to do the first dance stuff in Mexico since we will do all of that at our AHR. Looking forward to your pictures! ~ Erica

Quote: Originally Posted by shankd This is excatly what I want except I want the lilies to be orange!!! Hope this works.....If anyone out there knows of a place in the Greater Toronto area that can do real touch flowers for me, to please let me know where!!!! Not sure if you are interested... but I just saw this on ebay. Love the bright colors!!!! Real Touch Silk Flower Wedding Bouquet callas orchids - eBay (item 180415782852 end time Nov-03-09 12:00:31 PST) I noticed they ship to Canada too! Good Luck! ~ Erica

Quote: Originally Posted by shankd This is excatly what I want except I want the lilies to be orange!!! Hope this works.....If anyone out there knows of a place in the Greater Toronto area that can do real touch flowers for me, to please let me know where!!!! Not sure if you are interested... but I just saw this on ebay. Real Touch Silk Flower Wedding Bouquet callas orchids - eBay (item 180415782852 end time Nov-03-09 12:00:31 PST) I noticed they ship to Canada too! Good Luck! ~ Erica

Wow.. I just checked out your website! Looks like you had a great time and you looked beautiful! Love your flowergirl's dress... she looks like a "mini me" of you! My FI's family is from Harbor Springs! Love that area. I could spend any time of the year up there. Actually, Nub's Nob is the first place I learned how to ski. Now we live in China and aren't able to visit up there like we used to. I miss it! Thanks for sharing! ~ Erica

Quote: Originally Posted by sjmacphe Erica, that's too funny - my BMs are all wearing the second dress in the same color (clover right??), I think they are going to look great on them - have your girls tried them on yet? Only one of my has ordered hers, I hope it fits her well ! Great taste! Yes, they are J.crew in clover! They both tried them on in July - they looked fabulous! I initially ordered #2 dress for both my MOH and BM but got to thinking I wanted my MOH to stand out. Not to mention she is my only sister. So, I just ordered #1 dress online the other day. So, we will return the #2 dress when she gets #1 dress. Wow... is that confusing or what!?? LOL The only bad thing is they come folded up in this little bag and were really wrinkled. Luckily we will be bringing a portable steamer to Mexico! I don't know if you or your BM's know but j.crew just had a online deal that was 20% off your online order of $150 or more. Enter SHOPFALL in the coupon code at checkout! But it was for a limited time only! Otherwise, they run these coupon codes every few months... maybe have them sign up for j.crew emails and then they will get alerted when one is coming. Good Luck! ~ Erica

I plan on having maybe 2 Mimosa's to calm the nerves! I'm sure my FI will have at least one beer. So have a drink in moderation! Just don't do this!!! LOL

I agree with your view on engagement parties. IMO I think they are selfish and I know if I was invited to one I would have a hard time buying the couple presents for E party, bridal shower, and wedding! That's alot! Well, it looks like you are getting next summer so I would think you would have family members on both sides throwing you bridal showers. I had 4 "family" bridal showers and one "couples" shower. My FMIL, my aunts (dad's family), my aunts (mom's family), my aunts (stepdads family). I was pretty lucky! My families got along great and it was alot of FUN! I bet you will get someone in your families to throw you a bridal shower. Hang in there! Good Luck! ~ Erica

Quote: Originally Posted by Lady_Di I love Sharon's work! I emailed her to get a sample for this bouquet!! Love the colors! Love her work! Do any of you know how far in advance they send your flowers after you order? We live in China and won't be home (Michigan) until Christmas and our wedding is in February and I really want them around Christmas but I'm wondering if that is too soon.

Hello and welcome! You will LOVE this forum! We chose the Catalonia Riviera Maya because it was the most reasonable. My guests are paying $1100 for 7 days/6 nights, including flights from Michigan to Mexico, all transportation and it's also an AI resort. Not to mention it is kid friendly as we have friends/family bringing some kids. Good Luck in your search! ;-) ~ Erica

We've known eachother for: 10 years Dated for: 6 years Engaged: after 5 years We should have gotten married years ago, our clock is ticking! LOL

Awesome website! Thanks for sharing! ~ Erica

Okay, I've heard of this before. I think you have to travel down there, meet up with them and give them some money under the table. I'm guessing a $100 bill would work. I think there was a bride on here that did the same thing. Unfortunately, Mexico Customs is much more different then American Customs. :-( Good Luck! I will search for that other forum... Check out this link: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...-thread-41422/ ~ Erica