downtownlagirl

You should be able do do it with Ustream or similar as long as you have a webcam at the wedding, or a videographer with a web feed. Should be pretty easy and you can set it up yourself.

I got my heart set on including sarongs in our welcome bags and I searched searched searched for good-quality sarongs at a decent price. Best I could get even with bulk buys online was around $9-10 each and as our guest list swelled my heart was dropping! One of my bridesmaids and I took a walk to the downtown fashion district. There's a store on the northeast corner of Santee and Olympic- on Santee one shop away from Olympic- I bought 35 sarongs for $3.50 each!!! They are $6 individually but you can bargain. They are really good quality- certainly as good or better than the $10-$15 ones online! They will set a chic tone for the bags. Thought I'd pay it forward

As soon as I know what we are shipping down I will post it and find out how long the hotel will hold. Then maybe anything that's in demand could be passed on from BDW bride to bride!

We are well over (like 20%) what I had set as our budget - and well under what FI expected!! I had a panic attack/meltdown and he actually said "Oh, that's way less than I thought we'd end up spending!" So I guess that's all good But we DO have more people than we thought- I thought 40-48 and it's 60. So that is part of it.

Mrsrice11, that's awesome. I will keep you updated on exactly what we do have and how long the hotel will hold it. I am still 50/50 on whether we are doing parasols.

Hi ladies, We are bringing down a number of decor items for our April 30 wedding in Montego Bay. Most of this is NOT coming home with us. We had considered donating it but so far haven't gotten recommendations on how to do this from our WC. Right now it looks as though we will have: enough clean (sanitized, no surprises!) driftwood to run down the center of a 35 foot long table; 24-48 mercury glass candle holders, globes and votives; 75 good-quality black napkins; ten white feather pomanders with black ribbon; and possibly a whole bunch of white paper parasols. If our florist does not take it all in trade, which she may, I am happy to donate to another bride who could pick it up at our hotel after the wedding. I don't know how long they will be happy to hold it, so it's probably best for an early May bride. This is "pay it forward" time...of course if you want to chip in that is much appreciated, but mainly I do not want it all to go to waste if it could make someone else happy!

Astef, it's totally doable. We are doing the whole thing at a very nice resort with no great deals for $25K for 60 guests not including our attire - on which we went overboard so no need to discuss ;-) But I could cut $5k in open bar, flowers, and photography without too much pain. You will be fine!

Unfortunately there is no way to take fireworks on a commercial airplane. It's against federal law. I am not sure about private planes.

We decided we prefer to do our legal ceremony in Jamaica if at all possible - but we need a rabbi in that case. I searched the threads and nothing recent. I've heard rumors that there is a rabbi in Kingston but have found no information.... We know one in St. Thomas but he officiated at my FIL's funeral, so I think that will be a sad association, plus of course it is expensive to fly him. Anyone? Bueller?

My planner has worked with him and likes him but honestly, I was not a fan of his portfolio. The price is not that crazy low, though - you should be able to get that price from a number of on-island photogs. I know Sandy May quoted me around that. I actually sent Alain's website and Sandy's website to all my bridesmaids, told them one was my fave and one was my planner's fave (but did NOT say which) and asked them to choose. It was unanimous on Sandy. (I ended up flying in a photographer from Chicago.) But...if you love Alain's work.....there are a ton of shots on his website so you should be able to get a good idea! Good luck.

I think it's sparklers for us! But did you ship them directly to Jamaica?

DizzyDiamond, that is so funny....one of my bridesmaids (we don't really have them, but she will be helping me dress etc) lives in one of those buildings! Small world. I am further east in the Arts District. We are getting married at Round Hill in Montego Bay on April 30. Any good wedding finds in DTLA yet? I need sarongs ;-) Catererbride, I personally wouldn't risk that on a commercial airplane...but if you have any guests flying in private...well....

You can do it but the fireworks need to be imported three months in advance minimum - that is what I was told by our hotel. I REALLY want fireworks! The costs I was given range from $5000 for five minutes to $8,500 for three minutes, which is too high for our budget. If ANYBODY has gotten a lower quote I'd love to know about it. (Although I am now within the three month rage - OMG!)

We aren't doing a deposit for rooms - we have 25 rooms held for three nights each and if we don't release 60 days before we owe a portion (that is a LOT of money!) - but we are for sure releasing 60 days before! I don't like the upfront deposit unless you aren't paying any deposit for the venue or food.

We are doing really nice OOT bags so no favors - it doesn't make sense to me because everyone's going back to a hotel room right on property - not like they will take a souvenir home that night - and I don't want to give them anything extra to pack. beaches - I was thinking about tattoos too! A lot of our guests are from our Burning Man camp and we often do tattoos for that....so it would be a kind of fun thing. Let me know if you find a resource! TIA!