inanna

Congratulations Stina! You're going to have such an amazing time... ENJOY!

Quote: Originally Posted by huongii Inanna, I would love to see more pics of your wedding but I don't think I have the option to PM you yet. If you don't mind, I would really love to see more pics. My email is [email protected]. Have you heard of Pierre's? I am still debating between Cancun and the Keys. Thanks so much for sharing! Huongii - I'm emailing you a links to a slightly bigger wedding album (250 pics). Pierre's is absolutely STUNNING! If we hadn't chosen a private estate for our wedding, Pierre's would have been at the top of our list. Right next to Pierre's (same owner) there's also Morada Bay Cafe, which has the same amazing views, but is more casual and affordable.

Hey stina - if you want something truly "Keysy" for your OOT bags, you may want to just stop for some items when you get to the Keys. Once in Key Largo on US 1, you'll see tons of shell stores and souvenir places. One of them is Shell World, which also has a website: Shell World Key Largo You may also want to stop at Worldwide Sportsman or Robbies of Islamorada - both sell souveniers like beer koozies/shirts that say Islamorada on them. There are also several small boutique stores in Islamorada, but some of these stores are on the pricey side: http://www.islamoradachamber.com/listings.cfm?sid=16. You might also give Debbie a call at Floral Fantasy and ask if she has any cute, affordable ideas - I believe her shop also specializes in gifts.

We sent out save the dates 9 months before the wedding with the wedding date, location, and our wedding website address. We included hotel block information, things to do in the area, flight info etc. on the our website. If you have a wedding website, I'd put any relevant hotel information there ASAP. Since our wedding didn't involve international travel (sounds like yours doesn't either) we decided to send out invites 3 months in advance. For those who hadn't already booked their hotel room based on the website information, this gave them about a month a half to book their room before the block rate expired.

That's appalling! I'm so sorry! Are you looking for a new place to have your wedding in the upper Keys? I have heard that the Key Largo Grande Resort & Beach Club and the Marriott Key Largo Bay Resort are both very good. Or if you're willing to consider a venue a bit further south in Islamorada, here are some locations you may want to look at (locations our caterer has worked with): http://www.islamoradaweddings.com/we...locations.html. You may also want to look at the Islander Resort and Cheeca Lodge. Best of luck to you with your planning, and again, I'm so sorry you've had to deal with this.

The private estate we got married at in the Florida Keys can sleep 24. There are two beach houses and two pools. The real estate company can apparently arrange for a private chef. Here's the link (its the first property listed): Vacation Rentals Florida Keys Taxes in the Florida Keys are 12.5%. We ended up hiring a local company, Caribbean Catering, to handle the food for our wedding reception.

Its definitely optional. I was a bridesmaid in a DW that had a bridesmaids lunch the day before the wedding, and included the MOB/MOG and other close female family members of the bride. We showered the bride with lingerie for the honeymoon. Meanwhile the guys went on a deep water fishing trip together. It was really fun, but not a requirement.

I'm not sure how much help I'll be since I got married in the US (Florida Keys), but I had a non-resort wedding. Basically you just have to be prepared to book many more vendors than you would at resorts which typically offer a package deal for everything. It was a bit overwhelming at first, but overall I found planning extremely easy and fun once I discovered some great vendors in the area. I felt like I had a lot more input and customization by hiring separate vendors for each aspect of our wedding. We ended up renting a private estate (2 beach houses) which I found on VRBO.com. VRBO lists rental properties worldwide, so you may want to take a look. Looks like there are fabulous properties in that area - like this: Cabarete - Magnificent Beach Front Mediterranean Villa. The houses functioned as a secluded event location and also doubled as lodging for our immediate families and bridal party. Our next step was to find a caterer and figure out how to arrange for ceremony and reception tables/chairs/etc. We found a caterer who could provide all of the rentals we'd need, food, cake, reception staff, day of coordinator and even outdoor lighting. I'm not a DIY type person and wasn't interested in lugging a bunch of decorations on a plane, so our florist handled all decorations and of course the flowers. Vases/candles/glass hurricanes were borrowed from that florist, so we didn't have to worry about what to do with them after the reception. The florist staff just picked them up the next day at the same time the catering company was picking up the rentals they'd provided. We then chose a photographer and DJ and nearly all of our work was done. We chose vendors based on local recommendations (the real estate company we booked with and our caterer were a great help with local vendor recommendations) and on reviews from sites like WeddingWire.com. Tripadvisor.com and WeddingMapper.com were also somewhat helpful. Since I'd imagine finding vendors may be harder in the DR than in the US, you might want to talk to your FIs family who live there about any recommendations they have for florists, caterers, bakers, etc. Or perhaps hire a well connected wedding planner who lives in the DR, especially if there will be a language barrier. I'm sure you can find photography and other vendor recommendations in the DR forum. You might also want to bring a photographer to the DR with you. Some photogs will give a hefty discount if you pay for their travel expenses. I hope this helps a little. Congratulations on your engagement and good luck with planning.

I've seen bridesmaids carry parasols instead of flowers.

Little Palm Island is on my list of places to stay at some point in my life, but it is extremely expensive! Its a private island only accessible by boat or sea plane. Currently there is a room sale going on at Jetsetter.com and the starting SALE price per night is $430 (normally rooms are $700+/night). I'm sure its an absolutely fabulous wedding location, but I can only imagine the cost of hosting a wedding reception there. In Key West I've heard that the Pier House and Southernmost on the Beach are among the better large resorts. Beach locations are very limited in Key West, and they have them. Throughout the rest of the Keys, there's the Islander Resort in Islamorada (I didn't get married there but many of our guests stayed there and enjoyed it). There's also Casa Morada, Cheeca Lodge, The Caribbean Resort, and Key Largo Grande - all popular wedding locations in the upper Keys. Unfortunately I've never heard anything about Kona Kai.

My husband's stepmom performed our wedding in Islamorada, FL and also performed another wedding in Key West the week before ours. She got "ordained" online through the Universal Life Church: Universal Life Church Monastery | Become an Ordained Minister I believe those ordained by the Universal Life Church can officiate weddings in all 50 states because they are recognized as ordained clergy. Before performing our wedding, my husband's stepmom did call the county clerk's office to confirm that she could perform these weddings legally. (She did not need any documentation. After she performed our ceremony, she simply filled in her information on our marriage license in the appropriate boxes, with her title being Minister in the Universal Life Church.) I believe she called the Plantation Key office when getting information, so if it was the Key West office that wasn't very helpful to you, you may want to give another office a call. We also went to the Plantation Key office to obtain our marriage license two days before the wedding, and it was a breeze - it took about 10 minutes. The next business day after the wedding, your officiant (i.e. your friend) should just mail the completed license to the office that issued it, and within a few weeks you should receive your official marriage certificate. Here is the Monroe County marriage license webpage with most of the information you should need: http://www.monroe.fl.us.landata.com/...rriagelic.html

My mom wore a silk BCBG dress (sorry the pic is so small): MIL (in the center) wore a long periwinkle blue dress. I'm not sure what brand. Christian's stepmom (on far left) wore a long Calvin Klein deep blue dress. You can also see my bridesmaids and Christian's Aunt and Grandma's outfits in this pic: This isn't the greatest pic of my FIL's suit, but he wore an ivory suit jacket and pants with a navy blue t-shirt underneath. He was going for a Miami Vice look (I really liked it).

We had both our ceremony and reception on a (private) beach. No regrets here. Getting married outdoors on the sand was one of the major reasons a DW appealed to me. Luckily the weather was perfect (not too hot or too cool) and there was minimal wind. Our location also had porches with plush furniture where people could lounge, so that was a bonus.

Our rings are insured through Jewelers Mutual. We looked into adding them to our renters insurance, but the coverage was not sufficient in case of breakage, loss, or theft outside of the home. Your jeweler should handle the appraisals for you.

Angie - there are a ton of private estates in Islamorada that allow weddings. The estate where we had our wedding is called the Island Palms Estate. Here are some of the rental companies in Islamorada that I contacted: Stay in the Florida Keys Imagine Rentals Island Villa Properties You might also want to take a look at VRBO.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner). This is where we initially found the property we ended up booking. Although I don't think its listed on VRBO anymore, I'm sure there are other properties there that might we worth consideration.

Hi amylina - I was a Florida bride, but I wanted to suggest that you check out Vacation Rentals by Owner (Vacation Rentals By Owner.com) for potential wedding locations/estates that will also double as lodging for you and your family. This is where I found the property I got married at and about half of our guests stayed with us for 4 days at the estate. I absolutely loved having a private estate wedding. We actually found a caterer who included wedding coordination in her fees and provided all of the rentals (tables, chairs, tent if necessary, etc) for our wedding. Perhaps there are similar type services in Maui. We're currently planning a family vacation to Hawaii, and have been considering this estate, although its in Oahu: Plantation Style Estate at Velzyland

I think one of the major bonuses of DWs is that you CAN do the bare minimum for decor. A stunning setting really doesn't need much, if any, embellishment. Here is a picture of my ceremony - as you can see, we had no chair sashes, no arch, no aisle runner, no sprinkling of rose petals down the aisle, NADA. Yet I still think it looks elegant. And we were happy to use that money we saved on decor to pamper our guests with a great food and alcohol selection. We did not bring ANY decor items with us. Our florist provided very inexpensive flowers and candles for the reception tables, and we did splurge on the bridal/bridesmaid bouquets (which ended up as extra table decor once the reception started). My MIL did bring some white decorative pumpkins for our tables and around the venue, and they were adorable, but truthfully, very few guests noticed them. I really don't think most guests remember the little details at any wedding. They remember the food, music, and how much fun they had.

Those are AMAZING!!!!! Seriously, these have the best wedding invitations I've ever seen. Nicely done!

My husband bought his suit pants and jacket from Nordstrom. They were a 80% linen, 20% silk blend (the pants and jacket together were around $350, which I thought was pretty reasonable coming from Nordstrom). All of the guys bought their linen shirts from Island Importer and the groomsmens' linen pants were also from there. Currently Island Importer is having a 20% sale on all of their linen shirts: islandimporter.com Here's a pic of the guys:

I think its absolutely fine.