CanadianLindsey

We decided to just use the complimetary sound system at the wedding ceremony site(Gazebo55) and then rent the $250 stereo for the reception rather than hauling our stereo there. Priscila said we get it for 4 hours so I am hoping it last for fours, by battery or power outlet!

Only 2 months till December and I have so much to do still too! And last week we decided to put an offer in on a house...and we got it! Possession is in two weeks, so now between making OOT bags and programs, buying GM ties and deciding on flowers, music and menus we will be packing, moving and trying to get renters for our condo!!! OMG! This is just crazy! Is everyone else really prepared or do you all have lots left to do too?

We are bringing our own i pod stereo and we have some friends that are going to run the ipod for us. I just made playlists labelled "pre-ceremony" ,"first dances" etc and I am going to get my tech savvy FI to fade some of the longer songs out. Also our friends will be putting our favors and decor out at the reception venue(otherwise it is $5/guest if the resort staff do it). They actually got married this past June and we decorated for their wedding so it worked out well! Wedding hair/make up is $86 for each at the EDR spa and I am still trying to find out a price on renting a tv/dvd player instead of the $600 projector for slideshow! Just in case any other brides were wondering.

These are the ceremony songs we are using: Â Jason Maraz-I'm Yours City and Colour-The Girl Somewhere over the rainbow("50 First Dates" version) Train-Soul Sister (and then maybe some instrumental beachy songs for before the ceremony starts) Â

Does anyone know if you can use or rent a tv at the resort to play a slideshow(if we brought our own laptop/dvd)? I would ask my WC but the lomas site seems to be down and my emails to Priscila keep getting error messages! Grr!! Â

I'm getting married Dec 1 and we are using Marcia Loder to do our legal ceremony in November before we leave for Mexico. I think it is $175 and she is performing it in her home in the south side. Quick and legal is all I wanted, but she did offer longer ceremonies with poems and vows. I want my Mexican wedding to still feel like the real deal, even if it's not legal. (My mom is our officiant so I'm sure it will be even better than if we had regular "legal" at home wedding in Edmonton!)

Yes she can alter every part of your gown, the friend I mentioned had beading all over the bust of her gown and had it taken in 3 sizes. I wouldn't put it past Bridal Debut to be over charging you for the "beading specialist" since it sounds like something every good seamstress should be able to do. Everyone I know that got their alterations done there got over charged for silly things like cutting off crinoline or the ends of strings! They even told me I would have to pay to have the tacking fixed on my dress when it came from the designer with ripped tacking! Â My mom also got her dress from Melanie Lynn in South Common. They are really nice and beachy yet still good for a MOB. Â

I've been a BM in 3 weddings and everytime the pro make up artist has put on way too much makeup for my taste(and my FIs). I'll admit it looks good in photos, but in person it is too heavy. Add that to the Mexican heat and I am afraid I will be really uncomfortable on my wedding day. Also it is $80 to get a pro to do it at the resort! It is bad enough I spent $100 on hair exentions plus the cost of my updo! I am thinking of getting one of my BM to help me out or just practicing lots and doing it myself. I think I'll check out that air brush foundation from sephora too.

I just recieved my seashell lipbalm favors from organicisland.com.au and I am so happy with them!!! Â Seriously they have been the easiest company to deal with ever! I must have emailed Jillian 50 times and changed my mind 10 times! In the end I ordered a mixture of 15 seashell lip balms, various sizes and colours for only $12 each including shipping from Australia. They came in a week and looked exactly like on the website, maybe even a bit bigger than I thought they would be(which was a bonus b/c I thought they may be too small) I asked for them to include a gift tag and the brown cloth bags and they did for free! I'm so excited to have these out on the tables and to see all of the woman's reactions to them. My FI is choosing the men's favors so it was fun to pick something really girly! Here are some photos: Â http://www.organicisland.com.au/lipbalm/gift_ideas_weddings.php

Has anyone gotten a quote for hair/makeup or recently had their wedding at EDR and can help me out with a price? I emailed my WC....but we all know how that's going! I am trying to budget things out and let my BM know how much it will be should they choose to get it done at the spa. Thanks girls!

Amsterdam Tailors/Bridal and Tuxedo Junction just behind Grant MacEwan is great too. My friend had her dress hemed, bustled, bra added in and sides taken in 3 sizes(she is really tiny!) for $300. I am in the process of getting mine altered too and for the hem, bustle and bra it is about $200. Hundreds of dollars cheaper than what Bridal Debut quoted me and I'm dealing with one seamstress from start to finish!(My SIL had an awful experience at Bridal Debut with a crooked hem, multiple seamstresses and extra charges for cutting strings!)

Sounds like your doing something similar to us with the flowers. I love the candy bar idea(we aren't having a cake either as I have a allergy to wheat)! Do you know if Mexican customs will be a problem at all with the candy or are you buying it in Cancun? Â

1. Registry:no gifts 2. OOT bags: walmart, michael's, dollarama & vistaprint.ca(made our own "hangover" kits with meds, first aid, aloe, etc) 3. Wedding Attire: Dress-Bridal Debut in alberta(but I don't reccomend them!), Shoes-Winners Bridemaids-Bryan's Groom/Groomsmen-Le Chateau 4. Rings: Scott Kay 5. Invitations: memorylaneinviations.com-Mina was amazing and totally affordable! Our invites were awesome! I'll post a pic in the Edm thread. 6. Flowers: resort 7. Decor: weddingstar.ca(beach disposable cameras and candle holders) 8. Travel Arrangements: SignatureVacations.com 9. Are you active on any other Canadian Forums? (if yes which ones): 10. Other: favors for girls-organicisland.com.au(seashell lipbalm) favors for boys-resort(cigars) Â

Can I ask where you got this dress from? I love it! Â

Priscila finally got back to me after about a month of nothing. She said she had switched computers and was having truble with her email. Hopefully now communication will go smoothly. She suggested a schedule of 4pm ceremony, 5-7 cocktails(we're having the donkey too!), 7-11pm dinner-at Tucannes. Is anyone else doing a schedule like this? We only have our photographer for 3 hours so I hope it works. I'm assuming she will start before the ceremony at like 3:30pm? Â We are also having to choose our flowers and decor now. I want to save money and just get 4 flowers chair corsages and 2 hanging flower arrangements for the ceremony gazebo and then move them to the reception as centrepeices. Is anyone else doing this or has done this? Wondering if I should rent vases or just wing it! Maybe use the bridesmaids bouquets too...so many choices, so little money!

I have Priscila as my WC too and she had been very speedy at replying and is really nice, but lately she hasn't been replying at all. I wonder if she is on vacation or really busy? My wedding is 3 months away and I need to have my final optional amenities in soon so it's kind of worrying me that she stopped responding!

You could just not replace her and then it is one less thing to stress about. I was in a wedding where one bridesmaid didn't show up, so two GM ended up walking one BM up and down the aisle, it was cute b/c she looked so proud to have a guy on each arm! Â I agree with you on the money thing. Being a BM for an at home wedding(which I have done 3 times) always ends up costing me $700-$1000, plus the time that goes into planning showers and stagettes. All I'm asking my BM to pay for is their trip and their shoes. No bridal shower, maybe a stagette, we will see! Â Good luck with everything and remember that is why we are marrying our FI's, they are our best friends and stick with us through everything! Â Quote: Originally Posted by AshleyL Tell me about it! In total we spent over $4000 for my friends wedding - travel, hotel, dress, hair etc. And my Aunt ended up planning my bridal shower because neither of my bridesmaids did anything. I don't even want a bachelorette for the same reason. It would just be my aunt stuck planning everything and those two not helping at all. I wish we had decided on no bridal party from the beginning. Too much stress and drama. Now I have to find a replacement MOH but I can't ask anyone until she announces her pregnancy because I'm the only one that knows about it. Too bad we aren't going to be in Jamaica at the same time - we could have a double bachelorette party at the resort All my b**ching aside, I think you definitely have the right attitude about everything - you are right all that matters is that I will be marrying my FI. I have to see past all the drama and focus on that. Thanks!

Do you have a copy of these cards? Â

So I went to try on my "huge" dress for the second time since it came in, but this time with the owner of the bridal store to show her the problem. Amazingly, this time it fit perfect! And the tacks/threads that were torn or missing last time were fixed! My mom and I are certain that they switched the dress( other girls ordered the same dress that day as it was a trunk show). How else can you explain it? The store owner could offer no explanation to why it fit fine now other than that maybe we remember it being worse than it really was. I don't think so!!! We don't really care what happened we just took the dress and ran! I will store it at my mom's for now and get the hem, bust and bustle alterations done somewhere else closer to my wedding date. I was sick to my stomach thinking of having to argue about it and cut my dress all apart, but it worked out perfectly! Happy Bride!

Thank you for the offer and encouragement! I am in Alberta though, but I did call the bridal store on Monday and made an appointment to try the dress on while the stores owner is in. So hopefully she will see that it is their measurement error and do the alterations at a discount. Otherwise, I'm taking my dress and my money elsewhere!!

Quote: Originally Posted by gettingmarried I just went through the same thing...it was so big they had to order me a whole new dress, and the I went home thinking I made a mistake about picking that dress. I'm sure once the alterations are done on it, it will look great! You should see if they will do the alterations for free because of the mess up with the sizes, that's the least they could do! The same thing is happening to me. I was the last appt during a trunk show and I guess the saleswoman was distracted because when my real dress came in and I tried it on it was huge on me-2 sizes too big! To be honest in all of the excitement I didn't even look at what size she measured me at and what size she actually ordered. Now I am thinking I should ask the store to give me a deal on alterations b/c of the mistake, but I have heard their seamstress is expensive and hard to deal with since no one speaks english there! It does ruin the moment a bit when you put on "your dress" and it doesn't fit...at all! But hopefully we will all end up happy once it fits. Fingers crossed.............

Wow, very cool idea! I hope you can find a way to make it happen at your wedding. It would be a very unique and memorable touch for all your guests. Owls are so graceful, it makes the Pedro the donkey we are having at my wedding seem even more funny and awkward (he is just bringing tacos and beer to the cocktail hour, not the rings, but if my FI could get him to do that he would love it!)

Has anyone found a marriage commisioner in Edmonton to do their legal ceremony? We are doing a symbolic ceremony in Mexico to avoid the paperwork and blood tests, so we need to do the legal stuff here. I found a list through www.servicealberta.ab.ca of names in the Edm area, but I have no clue where to start. It seems that $100 is the lowest for a legal only "ceremony", plus the costs of the licence and certificate. Does anyone have any advice or recommendations?

I love your idea! I wish we would have done something fun like that. I LOVE games and theme parties! My brother already had his wedding planned for the following summer when we got engaged, so we talked about it with my parents and told them we wanted to do a DW and my mom said "I will pay you to have a DW!" She loves traveling and hates wedding planning! So we planned it for 6 months after my brothers(we talked to him and my SIL about it first too). It's great because we got to live the big at home wedding through them and then everyone close to us gets to jet off for a week in mexico while it's freezing here in Canada! And my brother and SIL will be celebrating their honeymoon too! We can't wait

Quote: Originally Posted by *Rachel* Lindsey- my dress is light gold Maggie. the lace was a light gold-coral combo. I wore gold jewelry but the only thing that sucked was my ring was white gold- so it didn't match my earrings or bracelet. But I didn't really have that on til the end anyways so it wasn't a big deal. I doubt anyone noticed but me! My ring is white gold too so maybe I'll have to do a combo of both. What colours did you use for your decor/BM? Do you have photos on here I can check out? I am thinking of doing a turquiose/teal for the girls and maybe for my shoes too, but not sure how that will look with my dress. This colour thing is tricky, but it is such a unique and beautiful colour for bridal gowns, that's why I choose it!!