lyndsay_h

I also went with the bd album. I had it done months ago and can finally give it to him in a few weeks...I'm really hoping it's a surprise because I don't think he'd ever expect it.

I just ordered some stuff from Sephora's make up forever line as a birthday present to myself. We don't live close enough to have actually seen it or talk to anyone so I'm crossing my fingers it's worth the price when I can test it out!

A big-boobed friend had a really low backed wedding dress so she used those sticky things. They stick below the nipple then you pull and stick the top part above. It works but looks weird if you're naked...she ended up taking them off for the reception.

Ohh I hadn't even thought about jewellery! And the lipstain is a good idea, I need to get to shoppers to stock up on things.

Sure, no problem. And this is where I got the card holders from http://cgi.ebay.ca/50-Business-ID-Card-Badge-Holder-w-Zipper-Vertical-ZH-/400161978047?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d2b8336bf and the coils http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse/processRequest.do?demandPrefix=12&sku=19/156&mode=Searching&erec=0&D=coil&Ntx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&Ntk=all&requestURI=processProductsCatalog&N=0&Ntt=coil&Dx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&sd=Neon+Coil+Key+Chains

The MC also says who is coming up next to speak, when the first dance is starting. They're kind of like the hosts for award shows... though I think the DJ could probably do the same things if you don't have one.

Does anyone have any updated suggestions for an MC gift? Two of my cousins are going to be co-MCs. I was a bridesmaid in both their weddings and wanted them to be part of our ceremony too. For the bridesmaids I got clutches off Etsy, plus a Brides magazine subscription for my soon to be engage SIL and a photobook about my daughter for my sister who moved to Australia about a year ago. I don't know if MCs are even supposed to get a gift but I do want to get them something...I'm just out of ideas.

I have all of the wedding stuff packed into 4 luggage bags so we got the baggage allowance upped by 10 kg for us, our daughter, my parents and my grandma. That should give us room to bring those and all our clothes. Well...at least I hope it does!

When I first started Room I thought it would drive me crazy that it was from the kid's point of view and that everything had capitals, but then I really got into it and couldn't put it down. That's also partly because I hadn't read the cover and it felt clausterphobic to go to sleep thinking they'd be shut in that room... but them getting out did seem really sudden. Ma did have reasons why it had to be then, like Old Nick losing his job and he wouldn't be able to afford the house but still, she'd been there for so long it seemed strange that she suddenly came up with the idea and it had to be right away. I thought it was really thoughtful that Ma created the whole world in the room for Jack, she obviously didn't think they'd be getting out and that made it so he actually enjoyed the life they had, as hard as that made it to recover from when they did get out. I didn't like that Jack was still breastfeeding... I'm around 5 year olds constantly and the idea of it was just weird. I think it was about Ma still having closeness and a connection with Jack. I can understand a little because it was a strange feeling when my daughter quit at 8 months, like losing something, but she's 3 now and just thinking about if she still was...yuck! It was sad that Ma kind of turned on Jack when they got out but she'd been through so much it made sense. It was worse that Ma's parents weren't very understanding, they'd been through something too with their daughter being missing for so long but you'd hope that they could be there for her instead of it being about them.

We don't want gifts either, people are putting out enough money to be at the wedding ... plus I don't have enough room in my kitchen cupboards for the things I already own! Our wedding website had a place to list your registry and in that section I just put the 'your presence is gift enough' and hoped that got the message across. I had also been pretty clear about not wanting a shower because I didn't want anyone to think they had to buy us a gift.

We just had our Stag & Doe two weeks ago and I’m so glad it’s over. Not that we didn’t have a lot of fun, but I think the planning of it was more stressful than the wedding. So I’m hoping this will help someone else with theirs! Stag & Doe’s are very popular where we live and almost everyone I know who gets married has one, but I know a lot of people haven’t heard of this so I’ll explain... It is basically a big party and fundraiser to help cover wedding costs. Generally you’d rent a hall for a Friday or Saturday night, hire a DJ, invite everyone you know, have games, prizes & food, then drink & dance until 1am. We aren’t having an AHR so we used this as our big party with everyone who wouldn’t be at the wedding. I did most of the planning myself, it’s usually the wedding party but ours is small (plus my MOH lives in Australia) then our family and closest friends all helped out with selling tickets and running the games. So here’s what we did: Tickets were $10, we sold almost 150 in advance then more people bought at the door. It was tropical themed of course so when tickets were ripped for door prizes each person was given a lei. Then they could pay $2 for Goldfish Insurance. That meant that if someone won a prize but didn’t have a fish stamp on their hand they’d have to eat a fish to get their prize. We had a big scary goldfish on display but there were actually a bunch of minnows hiding in the back. Most people take care of their own booze for a stag & doe, buy it then have their friends run the bar. There’s more profit in it that way but it also means buying everything yourself, getting a liquor license, insurance, and being responsible for anyone leaving the hall drunk. Instead our hall ran the bar then refunded us $1 for every drink they sold that night, and rented the hall to us for $300 less than if we’d been running the bar ourselves. This drink refund basically covered the cost of the hall rental…we had 483 drinks sold. We sold over 1000 of both 50/50 tickets and raffle tickets (10 tickets for $5). We had raffle prizes donated from friends or we used our HBC points, airmiles, shoppers optimum points & canadian tire money to get more. Games: There were Joker’s Wild boards on the entry table and we went through 4 by the end of the night. Bottlecap Guess - $2 to guess the number of bottlecaps in a jar to win a Heineken Bubba. There ended up being only about 15 guesses. Crown & Anchor – I don’t know if it was profitable but gave people something to do. Horse Races – These were a lot of fun… It’s a poker-sized table with spaces sectioned off around it, then the horses move after a roll of the dice. People would bet on a horse based on colour then the top 2 winners move on to the finals, the winner got $100. Stomp & Pop – at 9:30 we announced that it was balloon stomping time, and about 20 people paid $5 to tie a balloon to their ankle. When the DJ said to start you had to try to pop everyone’s balloons, last person with their balloon intact won a $50 LCBO gift card. This was fun to play and watch! Paintball Shootout – this was our biggest moneymaker. I’d seen an idea online somewhere and joked about it to FI, who then repeated it at work…then his work people said “We’d pay a ton to shoot paintballs at you!†So we set up an area outside with lights, a girl he knows donated her old wedding dress for Adam to wear, then people could pay per ball to shoot at him. At 11:30 we had a Toonie Toss. We bought a texas mickey of Rum and people got in line to throw/slide their toonies at it. The person whose was closest without hitting it won the bottle. I think we pretty much broke even on that one but it was nice to see someone go home with that giant rum bottle. Our last thing was to put 2 jars out for Pie in the Face. One jar was for FI, one for me, and whoever’s jar had the most money in it by the end of the night would get a pie in the face by the other. I lost, and I’m pretty sure most of the money in my jar came from my FMIL. Anyway, by the end of that week I was so worried that there would be either too much going on because it sounds like a lot of games or that people would be bored… but everyone really did have a good time, there were people on the dance floor all night, and as a surprise my parents brought their laptop and a projector and skyped my sister (my MOH) in so that she was "there" too. Then when it was all over we raised about $3000 to put toward the wedding!

Thanks, you girls are so sweet! I'm so excited to give the bags out, it's hard not to be able to show anyone but we still have over a month to go!

Trip Info Pack – It’s going out a month before we leave with 2 luggage tags for each person . I borrowed someone’s huge info sheet and changed it into a brochure after being told “auto workers don’t read†by a couple of the guys coming. OOT Bag OOT bags – As soon as my mom learned about an “OOT Bag†she started going overboard… Tote bags Amazon $3.99 Bucket hats Michaels & Dollarama $2.29 & $1.50 Insulated mugs www.discountmugs.com $3.94 Aloe, lip balm, pepto bismol, advil www.minimus.biz Sunglasses www.sunrayzzimports.com $15/dozen Beach photo albums www.newfavors.com $2.55 First aid kit Dollarama $1.25 Keycard/tip holder ebay coil www.orientaltrading.com $2.99/dozen Beach toys Dollarama $1 each Playing cards www.orientaltrading.com $6.99/dozen Candle in tin Michaels $0.40 Granola bars & Mini cookies Walmart Post-its Walmart Ring pops in honour of my original engagement ring In Sickness and In Health Also in each bag is a welcome letter, wedding day plan, key Spanish phrases translation sheet, Things to know note, and guest listing with a spot to write room numbers (vistaprint, large postcard). **Most of my templates were borrowed from other BDW girls, so thanks for all your help! Trip Info - letter.doc LT - Front.doc LT - Back.doc Brochure front.bmp Brochure inside.bmp OOT Bag - Welcome Letter.doc OOT Bag - Spanish Translation.doc OOT Bag - The Big Day.doc

It was a great story, I stayed up way too late reading it because I didn't want to leave off at a depressing spot...but most of the book is pretty sad. I just heard about The Help today, I think I'll look for it to read next.

I didn't even notice she was Canadian! I thought it was cool when I finished Book of Negroes that the author lives close to us.

Our wedding is on Nov 23rd but we're getting there on the 20th, and that's a saturday...we were told by Sharon it's just a thing they say but it's not a requirement.

We're having a lunch tour on La Barcaza as a gift for our group and when we asked about bad weather they said "have protection in the first floor in case of rain, but if the weather that day is very bad, we need to move the tour for the following day..." I haven't actually been on the boat to know but we have 5 kids going so I hope it's safe!

I have the sony and it's great for me because I download all my books on the computer so I don't want a Kindle with it's wifi, keyboard or touch screen.

and ebay too http://cgi.ebay.com/VIDEO-GAME-junkie-GROOM-IDEAL-WEDDING-CAKE-TOPPER-/110586363783?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19bf75ff87

Be careful!! I ordered my pashminas from my website and 4 of them had black stains all over them, they came wrapped in the package like that. I've emailed them several times about it with nothing done. Pretty ridiculous since I ended up paying an extra $90 in border fees for 28 scarves.

Finally got a picture of mine! Still needs alterations though Â

Cool, same here! That's how I got mine read. Plus FI is on nights this week so after our daughter goes to bed I've got hours to myself. Â

I'm pretty sure the book 5 rooms get the 6th for free was offered by Dreams, and I know the $1000 off per 10 people was a special that the airline was having. Though we were told that when your travel agent requests to block a number of rooms for a group the resorts raise their prices, so i think getting the 6th room free offsets that cost.

I just finished it! It was hard to put down. Â

When we were booking we looked at doing a group booking through expedia instead of using a TA and the expedia lady was pretty honest and helpful. If you have a few people it's fine, but it with the size of our group (40 people) it would be a gamble... The price will be good for the first person who books, but as people start booking the price will increase because they'll realize demand is going up. So hard to coordinate everybody in your group booking simultaneously. Plus each website is only give a certain amount of rooms, so the availability might not be there anyway. I think it sounded ok if you don't have a whole lot of people. We ended up doing a group booking with a TA because with the discounts (book 5 rooms get a 6th free, then $1000 off the group price per 10 people booked) it ended up being reasonable, and out of that only 1 couple decided to go with orbitz instead. I think they're regretting it a little because they didn't realize at the time that everyone else would book with the group, and are now the only ones on a separate flight.