Raykel

You could try weddingstar.ca I know they had fans, but not sure about parasols. I think there are some on Oriental Trading as well that were reasonalby priced ( I know it is USD there, but with the exchange being so good now and shipping not bad...).

Quote: Originally Posted by Future Mrs. G Everything is almost ready, except for packing!! Just have to go to Staples & print out some stuff and copy the OOT bag receipts. 2 weeks until we're married, 9 more sleeps until we go!! Sounds like you are organized and ready to go! I hope in another 4 weeks I am in the same position:)

Brooke...glad you are feeling better and home! VDay ...Happy Birthday! I know the day is almost over but hugs and happy wishes! I am going to check out your site tomorrow....I can't log in at work. I can't wait to see them! Good for you getting it all done and making the photographer's website! Tricia - a shopping day when you don't even have to play hookie! Woohooo! About your veil...it was suggested to me that I could use some small fishing weights or crystals from an old chandelier....that would hold the veil down and keep it from blowing around so much.

Quote: Originally Posted by svetayasofiya Just curious... what time are all your ceremonies? We are at 4pm... I have always regretted this and felt it was a bit late, but what can you do? *I am stressing over everything at this point. We are at 3pm then dinner at 6 and poolside reception at 8...hmm Susie - do you think we have the same WC? LOL.... You should be good for time, the ceremony does not take that long. Maybe you can get in touch with your photographer and see what he/she suggests. That way you will know they have a plan and you won't have to worry? I am sure it will all be good. You would think a WC would tell you if you were going to loose your daylight before you could take the photos. I like what VDay said as well. You could do some of your photos before hand if you wanted. Quote: Originally Posted by Tinkatude Well im having a drink for everyone tonight... and lots of them.... I am working a double shift this week...and got an email from my maid of honor today telling me she brought a dress for the wedding..I was like....um are you serious... they wanted Victoria Secret dresses and the pic she showed me of the dress she brought was so NOT a Vickys secret dress... and not to mention the color is WRONG! I LIKE what the bleeping bleep de bleep whhhhhhhhhhy cant anything go right with these people.. you all have your chit together on here where as I have NUTS all around me... UGH... I don't even know what to say, other than what is wrong with people? I know it is a long shot, but was she kidding around to try get you going?

Teshy....I have a couple pages to read through yet, so I may bej umping ahead here, but we both live in Edmonton. I have a jeweler you can try...they custom made my ring and it took a few weeks....and they know when our wedding date is and have said to come see them here at the beginning of Jan and they will custom make our bands with lots of time...we leave in 6 weeks, so not that much longer. I will PM you the info....

Jerseygirl - I am sure your photos will be great! Your makeup artist is right...under the bright lights you can lose your eyes without enough makeup on them - I hope you like them because I am sure your sweetie will think they are amazing! Remember they are you, but a little bit of racey you too Well I just booked and the photographer was awesome and has me coming in two weeks! That is just going to fly by!

Future Mrs. G.....holy I just looked at your date - you are almost there! Yippeeee! How are you doing for time...is everything pretty much ready to go? Hepre - thanks for the list...I am having the same problem and we were about to order from Discount mugs in the states. I will try hitting this site again!

Yeah Keira! Its nice to be considered married here too:) Congrats again! Its also good to hear it all arrived with no issues.

Good morning:) Brooke - that is awful! I hope you feel better soon! You are right, thank gosh for good friends...somehow it makes such a difference to not feel completely alone when you get sick like that. Vday - I too agree with what everyone has said....here is something too, he does not want her to think it was a last minute thought and he only asked because they are there for your wedding. My thoughts would be the dinner and romantic evening the day before and then he can propose that evening. That way she does get her own day and its not after everyone has been partying the day and night before and maybe not feeling his/her best either. I am sure he can come up with dinner plans etc.....maybe just get you to email the WC given it is a special plan and see if she will make the res for him at one of the restaurants. The weather better be nice! I know it is not the end of the world, but I will be soooo disappointed if it is raining and crappy out. Erika - that is great you have so many people are booking! Susie...I was going to do a similar centre piece with starfish and candles in sand....but I can't decide if I should bring my own plates (silver chargers that are plastic) or see if Jazmin will let me use hotel ones. That is on my list of q's for her. Did you ask that one yet?

Woohooo! Thanks

Keira that was awesome for details! Thank you. Thank you from all of us to both you and Tlseege. You guys are so good about checking in here regularly and answering all our many questions! I think I can speak for all of us when I say THANK YOU!

Okay, so I had a really good day guys. I am off so I got a bunch of running around done....went for the second fitting and the dress is coming along nicely. They are going to add wider chiffon straps to it because the straps as they are just about make me bleed. Its really bad....10 mins in the dress and it looks like i have been carrying around a 50 pound backpack in a strapless top. So huge relief and I can go back to loving my dress:) Also, getting my inspiration from all you guys, I have been looking for a photographer to do a BD shoot. Without a lot of notice. Well the lady whose work I really like...we connected tonight and she is fitting me in on a Sunday in 2.5 weeks! I am so excited!!! Except of course now I have another thing to do, but it is all good:) Thanks for the idea - I don't think I would have come up with that one on my own. Now I am off to work on my guest book...making that puppy from scratch! Oh...and Susie....do you have a big pot for that stupid stew? I have a few people I would like to add..... TTYL Ladies!

You can tell we are all getting closer. Post in the lunch time area and if you don't get back till the next night there are 3 pages to catch up on! LOL....thank God for you guys. I just told FI I was going on here to catch up with my girls and he started laughing and asked if I was nuts? lol...little does he know Susie - if you don't mind all of us descending on you, it would be great to come. Lets see...friends, a roof over our heads, a pool.....that sounds fine to me! Its is awesome and so generous of you to offer! I am in for the planning, but if you guys are waiting till March, I think I may be the last one getting married in our group, so I won't be back till then anyhow. AHR will be end of March, but that should be a piece of cake (I hope!). Welcome back Erica Welcome to the new ladies too.....I think I have a bunch of sand ceremony stuff....I am pretty sure I saved it, but the link Brooke told you about has most the stuff I have. I will check and send you what I have. Tink....I agree with bringing as many receipts as you can, but something another bride did a couple years ago and she posted about, was she made signs. Everything in the luggage that was for the wedding got some sort of sign that read "For the wedding of XXX and XXX". I am going to do this for everything and put down the wedding date and resort name on it. I am hoping btw the receipts and the signs it is too much hassle to tear it all apart! About 12 years ago a gf and I went to Mexico and planned on buying tons of the blankets to bring back. So...we packed a small suitcase in the big suitcase and stuffed all the extra clothes and stuff around the edges. The only way to get the small suitcases in the big ones though - we had to turn them upside down with the opening at the back of the large one. So when we got the red light you can imagine our panic! The customs lady took one look inside our suitcase, looked back at us and the ginormous line up behind us...shook her head and just closed it all back up! Woohooo:) So maybe that could happen again?

That is definitely an option and a good one....the only catch is I was hoping to hand out the oot bags before we left so we were not the ones transporting them down. We will have to see how the packing goes and then decide I guess. Maybe I will just include on the welcome letter that we have all sorts of painmeds etc wtih us so if someone is short to come and see us.

You are right Shells. I think the FI should do just that since it is his family! I don't mind ordering the extra mugs because we do have some close family and friends that just cannot make the trip, so we can give the extras to them, but the rest of the stuff....I don't mind 10 to be on the safe side, but 20? I don't need to get someone else to accept them....I am in Canada and the price here is triple what it is if I order it out of the US. I would really like to support Canadian business, but when they charge 3x the price it is just not going to happen. I spoke to them about price matching, but the suppliers they use charge them more than what we will pay if we order them from down south. So be it.

Shells...nice...snow days. Those are always nice to have. Too bad for Jon having to walk, but I imagine stopping for a few...umm minutes/sips...will be okay Its good you have the courtesy car...I hate feeling stranded! I realize there is public transportation, but I just like the freedom of my own vehicle!

Those are going to be great oot bags! I like the idea from the Martha Stewart site...was going to use that idea too. Great minds For those of you who have bought the big bottles of advil and tylenol....are just putting some of each into little envelopes or ziplock bags? I thought about doing this, but is anyone anticipating a problem with customs? I always travel with the med bottles and don't want anyone to have problems if they get checked....what do you think?

Hi Tinkatude! Welcome and I hope some of our thigs on here can help you out! I agree with Vday Bride and Susie....it is your day. You can only do so much to accomodate other people and you know what? IT IS NOT THEIR DAY! If they don't want to go to Mexico and get a great week long vacation plus attend your wedding - their problem, not yours. Just think...the people who care the most about you and that you will likely have the most fun with - they will be there. For those who genuinely cannot make it due to expenses...then you have some sort of reception when you get home. They will not be the naysayers - they will be the ones telling you they wished they could come. We did not do Save the Dates, but from engagement to wedding is....5 months. So we got our TA to put it all together and we made a powerpoint/PDF that was our initial invite. Those were emailed out to everyone along with a personal note from us letting people know the more formal invites would follow but we really wanted the info out so people had a heads up. Honestly my TA was surprised...she has never had 32 people book within 4 days before! There happened to be a seat sale when we sent our stuff out so everyone wanted to jump on it. That might be something to consider with the time you have.....if you have a good TA, have him/her watch for sales - and you too - and then when there is a good one, send that info out to people. Really you are giving them a years notice, that is lots of time to save if they want to come. Good luck! Susie you are so right about the bouquets......I have the sample one er here now, so hoping by the end of the week I have it in my hot little hands (ok at just short of 6 feet tall not so little hands). Luckily the lady who is making them if all goes according to plan is only 3 hours from here and has said it does not usually take her long to make them but some people place orders 3 days before a wedding and think because they are not real flowers they can just be whipped up. I am hoping that I can relax on this one...I know what I want, I just need to see the samples to make sure I am happy with the real touch. So of course we go to work on ordering the travel mugs yesterday....and in Canada these are ridiculous! On line from discount we can order the same mugs we found here - with printing etc on them - shipping and the exchange makes them less than $5 CAD. Those same (and I mean exact) mugs are $14 here plus set up fees! What on earth am I missing. Does it not seem ridiculous to order something out of Florida and pay 1/3 of the price? One more grump.....so you know how I did not know if maybe I should order a few extras for late bookers....now FI thinks we may have up to 20 of them!!! I am happy they want to come, but no emails or phone calls to let us know...just word of mouth that has gotten back to FI. So do I order another whole set of table take aways and make extra oot bags...all for potentially nothing? I would rather have more than not enough, but I also don't want 10-15 of these things for us to keep afterwards! Argh...... On that note...off we go for another day of running around. Hope you guys all have a good day:)

I am thinking about going with Real Touch flowers as well. I have found a lady in Calagary that seems to be reasonably priced...she is going to send me some sample flowers so I can make sure I like them. I would like to have the fresh flowers included in the package, but this way I get the flowers I want at a far better price and then we can use them again here for the AHR. I think what I will do is have them take the money from the included bouquet and bout and put that towards a couple of centre pieces for the wedding ceremony and then the reception afterwards. I am not sure how to attach the link, but it is called budgetbride.com if you guys want to have a look. Susie....I would want to kill her too.....I like the idea of throwing the breaker. I have an ex....(like when we were 20 years old) and he used to take these really long showers which drove his dad nuts. So if he was in there longer than 10 mins his dad would go and shut off the hot water valve You can imagine the yell that came up from the basement. Teneil.....some people have no class. Its one thing to tell you not to stress it will all work out and offer to help out - but otherwise people need to shut up. Until they are doing what you are doing and feeling what you feel they have no idea. Honestly - I thought this was no biggie....buy the ticket, tell the family and friends and go. Oy! Was I wrong...lol.... Thank gosh for this site because now it will be so much more. Krista....I told FI about your blackberry - and he started laughing and promptly told me the ipod does that too....now it is sitting beside me making farting noises every 15 seconds. lol...toys....

Woohoo! It has taken me about three hours, but the ceremony is pretty much done! All we have to do is decide where to put one reading and the music. I say "we" but it is really me. FI helped pick out vows he likes and ring exchange wording but when I told him to read it over he told me he was playing a farting game on ipod. Yes a farting game. Argh!!!! Who else but men would even find that entertaining? So I told him I was coming on here to vent to you guys.....now he is reading the ceremony in the livingroom. Thinks he is soooo funny. I agree...it would be really nice if we could all meet up somewhere later in the year and talk in person:)

We rule! What else is there to say

CowtownBride.....being from Edmonton thought I would share. Two of us are using the same travel agent and we are both getting married at this resort, so Kelly knows what is going on and a few of the hiccups that have arisen. If you don't already have a travel agent, I would suggest calling her....she is really good and thorough and I know she has phoned and spoken with Paloma on our behalf a few times, so she has a good working relationship already built. Like I said, her name is Kelly and she owns Terra Travel....her number is 1-877-304-7226. Good luck and happy planning:) Wendy and Mike congrats and hope you have a wonderful trip!

Hahaha...Susie you have the best stories! The step-daughter I can see pushing the envelope, its the whole parent/kid relationship. But the friend...wow that is some nerve. I would never have spoken to my friends' parents that way - even now! KristaB..I think it was you who posted the link for the ceremony samples. That was a great link - thank you so much! Shells I forgot to say it earlier - sorry about your car.

These are wonderful! What a fantastic thread....I got choked up reading a bunch of them. When we have ours done I will post it here too! Thank you all so much for sharing.

On that note - Happy New Year everyone! Our NY was good. We had a couple of friends and their kids over and we ate and ate, then we went to a neighbours to say hi and check out their newly renoed home. Back we came for midnight and then hung out and visited for another couple hours. It was nice....nothing to crazy, but that is what we wanted:) Then the last couple of days we have literally bummed around. It has been FANTASTIC! I really needed a couple of recharge days. The only down side is recharging sometimes = sick. Uh oh...the sniffles is not a good thing. Shells I hear you with the needing to eat good food again. So last night I went to the gym with FI. Because the last couple of months it just did not fit into the schedule I am worried about the old bikini too - I am a good little half Ukranian girl and carry all the fat in my thighs. Ugh. So I had found this new work out you do for your legs for one month....wanted to try it a while back and thought I would start last night! Well....I am almost crippled today so hoping that means awesome legs and butt in a month like my Oxygen mag promised! IF you guys want to try it....takes about 20 mins. It is all squats. I used a 45 pound bar and did not put any weight on it since there were so many sets....7 of them. Set 1 and 2: normal squats, feel just inside or about shoulder width apart. 10-15 reps with 45-60 sec rests btw Set3: move your feet 2 inches further apart 10 reps with same rest periods Set 4: move your feet 4 inches apart (from original stance) 8-10 reps Set 5: move your feet 6 inches apart 8-10 reps Set 6: move your feet 8 inches apart 8-10 reps Set 7: move your feet 10 inches apart 8-10 reps By the end you are almost in a plie position.....you can point your toes out a bit for balance, but not a lot because you want to work your thighs, hams and but, not inside of thighs only. You can do this every couple of days for a week and then it changes to lunges for a week. Let me say holy crap! By the last couple of sets I was getting 8 and the last set I could only do 6....bugger! My muscles were all jumpy and shaking trying to stand back up. This workout is for a month only and then you have to go back to a normal workout because you can cause injuries.....seriously you guys have got to try it...even if you do it at home with no weights. Well off to work on some wedding stuff. FI and I are doing a bunch together tomorrow. He still has no passport so that is top of the list for tomorrows activities! Catch up with you guys in a bit!