RonNMel

I sorta went through this too, but a bit different. For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to adopt a child. For one thing, I think little Asian girls are super cute, and I really like the thought of giving parents and a loving family to an orphan. Also, I've NEVER wanted to be pregnant or give birth. Pregnancy was just not attractive at all to me, and I am not a baby person at all. They kinda scare me. I love children, but after they start talking. LOL Well, around the same time we started talking about marriage, I started thinking about pregnancy. I knew my FI really wanted us to have a child of our own, but all of the sudden, I started wanted this too! Now I think pregnancy would be a wonderful thing to happen to me and I can't wait to start my little family with my future husband. Oh, and it helps that he's Asian so I'm going to get to have my little Asian looking child after all. Plus, mixes are always so pretty. :-D

I'm on page 6!! Hahahaha

Thank you everyone. That just confirmed what I was thinking. It's FI, the one who's actually going to eat the lobster, who didn't think that way. Quote: Originally Posted by Salamander I am also a ILA Varadero bride. I have found myself in a splurge/save situation. I am having a late ceremony (6:30pm) and am paying an extra $150 for it since it is outside the notary hours, the trade off is that I will have a later seating for dinner (8:30pm) which is free (where you would have to pay a fee for dinner during prime time). The benefit of the later seating is that by the time dinner is finished the disco should be open so we do not have to pay for a private reception............ therefore after this long winded explanation I will pay for lobster for my guests who choose to have it. Maybe you can find a way to save money somewhere else to splurge on your guests for lobster dinner? Our ceremony will be very early, but we will have a late dinner too so at least that will be free. Guests will be free to do whatever they want in between. And just like you, I like the fact that the disco should open not long after the dinner. We've also decided to save money by doing the legal part here and just a symbolic ceremony there, so that's how I convinced FI that paying for the lobster is the right thing to do. :-)

The lobster is free for the bride and groom, and there is NO WAY that my FI will pass on the chance of eating lobster. He likes it way too much. I know many of his family and friends will want it too, as they are Asians and love everything fish & seafood.

The dinner for every guest is included in my wedding package. We choose a set menu as there will be over 15 guests. However, every guest has the possibility to choose lobster instead of our set menu, at an extra cost of 18 CUC. Who should pay for that extra cost? Reading other threads, I would guess that etiquette says I should pay for this. But at the same time, this is not something I choose for them, but something that guests choose for themselves. Also, since not everyone will choose the lobster, I feel bad for paying an extra for only some of my guests. Those who eat from the regular menu won't get that extra money spent on them. What to do?

I just received my postcards that I ordered free from vistaprint. I dind't notice if it was .ca or .com. What I did is click on the free postcard offer straight from the email to do it.

Thank you!! Yes, I know I'm very lucky to have a FI that is very involved in the wedding planning. :-) Though we do get tensed with each other sometimes when we have to sit at the computer and actually *work* on something wedding related. I think he has keyboard/mouse control issues, doesn't want me to use it. LOL

Thank you for the explanation!

This past week I sometimes had problems of pages loading very slow and even timing out. I usually would come back 15 minutes later and everything was fine again. But yesterday, between 6pm and 7pm EST, I could not get on to the forum AT ALL. The main page would load at all, it would always time out. I didn't try later that evening.

Quote: Originally Posted by caribbeanLover Oh wow, and they are in mtl? it's pretty cheap for an hour.. is ther any extra fee to be able to just buy the cd instead? Do you have a pic of your dress, would love to see it!!! where did you get it? Her studio is on Ile Perrot, just off the 20 close to the West Island. No clue how much it would be to just buy the CD, though when I asked about pricing I got the impression that she doesn't do that. I can't post a pic of my dress here, as my FI sometimes surf around this forum. He knows to stay off the wedding dresses thread, but that's it. LOL You can check it out in this thread, post 714: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...5/index72.html Let us know how your boudoir shoot goes!!

Quote: Originally Posted by ewok I thought your FI was totally against doing the legal part here, so I guess the budget won out! (And I think the money you spent on your dress is better spent, it looks terrific!) Do you think your parents will be disappointed? And this photographer is fantastic... I wonder how much a boudoir session would run me, did you get any pricing? This would make great souvenirs when we are old. Thanks, I do love my dress! He was REALLY against the idea, but he also didn't like "wasting" all that money on translating papers (we are both divorced so it was getting ridiculous). I suggested to him to call a few of his most trusted friends, some of whom are also close family friends, to get their advice. They all said "who cares if you get the legal stuff here, nobody is going there to see you sign papers". So now he has come around. :-) I don't think my parents will care at all, but his parents are much more traditional, so maybe... Hope not. The actual boudoir shoot with Amelie Cousineau is not very expensive, about a 100$ for one hour I believe. What's expensive is that each individual picture you choose to buy is 45$. It can add up very fast. She does retouch every single picture though, so that's why it's expensive. I think it's also an extra 10$ per picture if you want them digitally.

My first wedding was a civil ceremony and it wasn't very hard. just fill in the forms and make an appointment, about 3 weeks later. That was it. For this wedding we have decided to do a secret civil ceremony too. We will just keep our parents in the loop, but not tell them until it is very close. As for the boudoir shoot, I'm not doing one (budget too tight, and went over budget for my wedding dress, oops), but if I ahd been I would have used Amelie Cousineau. AMÉLIE COUSINEAU Photographe I really wish I could bring her to Cuba and do the boudoir shoot, as I love her style. At least I'll get to do a studio shoot with her and my FI, as we won it at the Salon Marions-Nous. :-D

My first wedding I had my grandpa walk me down the aisle, even though my dad was actually attending the wedding. I just felt like my grandpa had been a better parental figure than my dad. Now for this wedding, my grandpa has passed away and my dad has made efforts in the last few years, so I will ask him to walk me down the aisle. I also have asked my mom because she deserves it more than him, and it wouldn't be fair to exclude her.

I don't have any experience with that once, but a travel agent told me that Sol Melia is very good for weddings. I know on this forum here a lot of brides are getting married at a Melia resort.

I don't know about the Marina Palace, but lots of us here are getting married at the Laguna Azul. Just check out both threads: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...-brides-45963/ http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...big-day-54225/ Both resorts look great, but one complaint I've read about the Marina Palace is that it is HUGE. While there are lots of rooms at the laguna Azul too, the layout makes it so that everything is close by.

Congratulations and happy planning!! I see you already started poking around the Cuba forum, that's a great place to start. :-)

That's great news!!

Love the dress on you Islandbride! The back is so dramatic.

I went there on vacation 4 years ago. It was a great resort. I don't really remember anything special about it, good or bad. Except the guy that made the fried donuts on th bottom floor of the lobby, LOVED those. LOL

Quote: Originally Posted by heidilynn28 The French sounds good girls.. just read over what you've been posting. RonNMel: My family is English and his is French so will have the same wording troubles soon enough with save the dates, etc.. prob is I'm not even sure my MIL is even going to come.. ugh. Just tell me if you need any help! That sucks that your MIL might not be there.

Oohhh, I really like using the word "paradisiaque" instead of just "paradis". Love "Une plage paradisiaque, notre mariage, votre présence" Merci!!

I have to agree with those who said to keep an open-mind. Like Nicole, the style I had envisioned really did not look good on me. I wanted the flowy dress, turns out it made me look pregnant. As for the sitting in your dress, I probably should have thought about that. Though I don't think it would have given me a true answer, as the sample they had me try on was WAY too big.

Quote: Originally Posted by ewok But he won't understand the one in French, will he? LOL, no he won't. How would you translate : Join us for a wedding in paradise"? "Joignez-vous à nous pour un mariage au paradis" is a little long, and for some reason I don't feel like paradis in french means the same thing as paradise in english. I wrote "Billet pour un mariage à la plage", but I'm not sure I like it.

Thanks Ewok! Yeah, I meant something like that. Though now my FI is telling me he doesn't want anything too poetic. So I guess let's just scrap that idea. LOL

Quote: Originally Posted by bahiabride2010 RonNMel...love the rouching detailing across the bodace of the dress! Beautiful! Were you able to buy it off the rack? Even better...I'm getting very impatient waiting for my dress to come in! Thanks! TheFutureMrsSears, I'm glad you think it's perfect for a destination wedding. I thought so too, but it's nice to get reassurance from somebody else. No I didn't buy it off the rack. All they had was a size 14 and I'm a size 2!! They ordered it and I should receive it in many months. No rush though, my wedding is only in a little over a year. :-)