meli

Thanks ladies and Jenise please steal away! I'm sure your guests and Haitian artists would appreciate it

Quote: Originally Posted by KarenM Sorry Katie!! Sorry been MIA due non-wedding related DRAMA. I think I'm the last one to get married here. Meli and Jay~ May 31, 2010. Paradisus Punta Cana. DR. Good luck to all the ladies with upcoming weddings! How exciting!!

Hi everyone! I wanted to share this with you since I got the idea from this forum. After the devastating earthquake there were a couple of threads here about how you could use your wedding to help Haiti. Those discussions made me realize that I really wanted to do something to acknowledge and ideally help the people of Haiti especially considering that my wedding is on the same island as theirs and that I have friends from Haiti. I decided to order small personalized crafts from Haiti to use as wedding favors. This would give my guests something small they could take home and remember the wedding by; while, at the same time supporting the Haitian economy and contributing towards the livelihoods of local artists. I spoke to a friend of mine in Haiti who sent me some ideas. Here are just a few of them: I settled on these painted paper weights. Our initials and wedding date will be written on the back like this. I've placed my order and should be getting them the second week of May. I'm so excited! Meli

Quote: Originally Posted by MBBride Great to hear! I'm thinking about doing just the reception there but is it worthwhile paying $1000 to have the entire restaurant to yourself? I'm having about 45 guests and Mayte said it would be held downstairs (dancing and all)...would there be other guests dining there as well if I don't pay $1000? I'm on a tight budget and definitely want to cut costs where ever I can. Thanks, Lisa I'm just doing the reception there too. We have about 46 or so guests and I'm only renting the downstairs area. From what I understand the upstairs will be open to other guests dining but that there are stairs that lead directly from outside to upstairs so we won't have to see any of the other guests. I'm ok with that. I'm on a tight budget and there only 46 of us. I think it will be ok.

Quote: Originally Posted by Lady_Di haha spandex shorts? good luck and have fun! shannon ,have a beautiful wedding! here are pictures from my hair trial. I have clip on human hair extensions in my hair. I am picking the 1st hair style. Great choice! You look beautiful!

Quote: Originally Posted by mnh1983 I think something brown would go nicely. I think brown could also go nicely too but not sure it would match the BM dresses. I guess it would depend on the type of brown...

Quote: Originally Posted by LynnieS I think the gray suit would look good if all your BM's have bright dresses, good choice! Yea...I think it could work! Thanks again for the video.

Quote: Originally Posted by NaM I agree that a dark Khaki or even brown would look good. Depends on your wedding colors too I'd think. I think those could would work too. Officially the wedding colors are ivory and gold but the bridesmaids have different color dresses (turquoise, green, yellow, fuschia) which kind of complicates things. The groomsmen need to match the groom so the suit's color also needs to be neutral enough to match the different colored BM dresses. Sigh. What have I gotten myself into! LOL. FI likes this charcoal color with champagne tie. I think it could work. I also really like the dark khaki suit in the video LynnieS posted. Decisions, decisions. Thanks for your input though. It's greatly appreciated!

Quote: Originally Posted by LynnieS see if this wedding video helps you. Actually this bride may even have been on BDW!! She has on either a champagne or ivory, cant really tell but he has on a dark khaki and its beautiful!! Cancun Wedding Videos | Mayan Riviera Wedding Videographer | Mike Cantarell Thanks for sharing this video Lynnie. I really like that combination! It also really helps to have a visual. Shared it with the FI. Will see what he says! Thanks again!

Quote: Originally Posted by giraffexx Seersucker suits are nice for beach weddings. JCrew weddings on their website has several and I think Macy's usually carries them in the spring/summer. Good luck and happy shopping! Thanks Karen! Seersucker suits could work. Our challenge is which color suit would look good with my champagne dress. Anybody with a champagne color dress willing to share what color suit their FI will be wearing? Help please Meli

Hi everyone, The dress I'm wearing is a champagne color and my FI and I are having a hard time figuring out which color suit to get him. He originally wanted a khaki suit but now we're thinking that it might be too similar to the dress color and won't look right. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions? We're really stuck. Thanks in advance! Meli

Quote: Originally Posted by adenen16 Hi girls! I am also doing my wedding at the Jellyfish February 26, 2011. I am doing both the ceremony and reception there. I was just wondering how Mayte has been with geting back to you. One week she is great and than it takes her a week or two to gget back to me another time! Alisha Same here. Sometimes she's really quick and other times it take her a while to get back to me. I imagine she's very busy given how popular the restaurant seems to be. If you're on gmail you can also gchat with her. She's on pretty regularly. Meli

Quote: Originally Posted by KittenHeart Ok girls, finally updated some pix of my hair trial... excuse the cheese smile in the last one and my nose looks huge... anyways, here's the rough idea: Love the last two! Very pretty!

Quote: Originally Posted by Lady_Di Amy, love the picture!! Here is my dress. without the bra straps, i forgot to take it off! Hehe. I'm thinking maybe i should have my hair up to show off my shoulders. You look great! I agree. Hair up!

Lady Di, Sorry if I missed this but what does your dress look like? Could help with deciding on the hairstyle. The inspiration pics are great though. I really like the Taylor Swift ones. Especially the side chignon. Very nice! M

Hi Ladies, I definitely agree...I will be one of the first to return my RSVP next time one of my friends gets married. Important lesson learned!! Good luck Shannon and Caligirl with your final preps. How exciting! Meli

Grrr...people are starting to drive me crazy. The wedding is in a little more than a month and I'm still tracking people down for RSVPs. Some people haven't answered, some people said yes and are now backing out, and then other people are popping out of the woodwork and saying their coming all of a sudden. My FI's aunt invited her friend (or the friend invited herself, still not clear) without telling us. The woman already bought her ticket and everything. Now I find out that two more people are coming and have bought tickets although there was no mention of them coming before (not even we might come) and they never responded to the RSVP. Sheesh! Managing the guest list has by far been the most stressful aspect of planning this wedding. Sorry. Just need to vent.

Quote: Originally Posted by lovelytlc meli, what package were you planning to go with at ppc if you were having your reception there? i haven't done all of the calculation yet, but im not sure how jellyfish would be less expensive. they charge for decorating, transporation, and then food. are you doing a dinner reception or appetizers? i need to run my numbers to see if its cheaper. i do like the no time limit. what are you doing to after dinner? will the guest stay their to dance, etc? Originally we were doing the Aqua package and they charge $60 for each person over 20 in addition to the $3000 package price (and additional fees for DJ, sound system, dancefloor in ballroom etc.). I have 45 people coming. I don't have the calculations with me but it came out to slightly cheaper at Jelly Fish. The price difference wasn't very big (less than $1000). It's the no time limit that made me go with them. I have friends and family coming from all over and we haven't seen each other in a while. I don't want to feel rushed. We are doing dinner there and then staying to dance. We've booked a DJ through Jelly Fish and have the downstairs section to ourselves.

Sorry. If I come across anything I'll let you know though. We have a similar problem in that half our guest are French speaking but our ceremony is in the DR and has to be conducted in Spanish. We have the option of having someone translate it but that would mean translating it into French and English and we're afraid that would take too long. We're thinking of just having it in Spanish and providing written translations with the programs. Anyhoo, i know that doesn't help you but just thought I'd share my own French dilemma Good luck!

Quote: Originally Posted by Lady_Di i just found out that it will cost us $100 per non resort guest for our wedding. all along, i thought our package of 35 people would cover the non resort guests. i'm seriously pissed. we already have 4 that are staying at another resort and one of them is talking about bringing her relatives. it is bad enough that my FI's aunt is planning to take her brother/sister who lives in Cozumel to the wedding...she and her husband are planning to stay with relatives so that's another 4 people. how do you nicely tell a person that they can't take too many people with them? we decided that we will limit it to one person per guest and that is it. i am so stressed with this. i THOUGHT a DW will be cheaper! i would have picked another resort but i'm stuck with my resort. That sucks. Can you make them pay for the $100 or is too late? I told people if they booked at another resort they would have to pay for a day pass ($95) and that they were better off staying at the same resort as us which everyone did. Also, for people wanting to bring too many guests, can you have your or your FI's parents do damage control? My FI's aunt wanted to bring like 6 friends because she thought it would be cheaper for us but we had my FMIL explain to her that it would actually cost us more. Maybe someone can explain that to your FI's aunt? A couple of weeks ago I also had a friend ask me if she could bring a friend (who I don't know) and I basically told her that it was too late and that I was over budget. A little brutal I know, but at this stage, if you're not on my list and I don't know you, I don't want to have to pay extra money for you to be at my wedding.

Quote: Originally Posted by DDBentley15 Is this Love by Bob Marley! Coool! That's what we're leaning towards too

I have locks and one of my bridesmaids was going to style my hair but she can't make it to the wedding anymore. I was thinking I could try to get it styled at a salon beforehand but I don't think it will hold until the wedding. I have no clue what I'm going to do.

Quote: Originally Posted by finleys7 Meli - We all hear you on the RSVP thing...it's just plain RUDE!!!! I will never forget to RSVP in the future. It has definitley taught me a lesson. =) Sammyhawk - Welcome! And thanks =) Hi Shannon, I totally agree. Lesson learned! I told myself that the next wedding I'm invited to I will definitely send in my RSVP on time! It's so frustrating trying to track people down. Also, some people say they're coming but until they've booked their travel I'm hesitant to include them in the final count. Sigh.. Anyway, congrats on finding your dress! It's very beautiful and suits you well Meli

Hi everyone! I'm also a May 2010 bride. I'm getting married on May 31st in the DR. I'm excited but also a bit nervous and trying not freak out as the date gets closer. I feel like I have so much left to do. Like get bridal party gifts, figure out the flower situation, make the ceremony and reception program, get wedding bands, find a dress for the reception, and make gift bags. Oh and track down people how don't understand the meaning of RSVP. Sigh. Meli

Quote: Originally Posted by lovelytlc meli i like their site, but have you also looked into honeyfund.com? they do not charge a fee for guest or you. if you receive through paypal, then you just pay the paypal fee. Hi Lovely, Thanks for the information. I will look into honeyfund as well! Meli