tris

I am paying for my BM's dresses. Considering how much they're paying to come down with us, I felt it was a nice gesture. They are paying for their own alterations (if they need, my 1 BM fits her perfectly, the other is just getting hers shortened a bit). They're also buying their own shoes & jewelery. I think for DW's it can go either way

Our wedding is at 6:00PM (sunset). We're doing pics beforehand of just us, as well as us & the wedding party to make sure they all get done. Pics with the family will be done right after the ceremony. I figure it should only take 10 min to do family pics, and I'd really rather they all have to wait until the wedding to see me hehe. GREAT NEWS! Okay, so FI & I got my wedding ring today! Yay! We'd been having trouble finding something to match my E-ring that wasn't, well, almost as expensive as the E-ring was. We thought it shouldn't be a big deal to find one around the $300 mark but all the ones that matched were around a grand. WELL, we decided to take a peak today and found a jewelery store in the mall that was having a V-day Sale and low and behold they a ring that matched mine PERFECTLY... in yellow gold ! But she called and they were able to order one in. The originally price, $650, marked down to $299!! More than half price!! Yay! While we were paying I also noticed that they had gorgeous white gold princess cut diamond studs regular $399 for $190. ONE PAIR LEFT. FI smiled and said "Do you want them as a Valentines Day present?"... We've never really celebrated Valentines Day. Mostly because our "dating anniversary" is mid-March. We just went all out for that. But this year he's going to be gone all weekend at a concert out of the city with a friend (this March will be our 9 years dating. Craziness). I think he feels a little bad. Also, we're putting an offer in for a house on Monday. It's a little smaller than I would have hoped but it's beautiful. The outside is a little quirky, but the inside is completely flipped. If anyone is interested: http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=10325485&PidKey=290318755 The worst part is bidding wars are insane here in Winnipeg so it will probably go for closer to $250,000. Ugh.... Either way, I think we're going to offer around $230 and see what happens

JayKay - I know that a lot of brides have said that when they didn't use something that was included in the package they were able to substitute. The email I got back said it "depended on the package", so my guess is that if you're paying them they're willing to give you something else, but if you're going with the free option it's kind of "you get what you paid for"... that's the impression I got. We're also doing our first dance right after we get married. I think I'd rather do the cake after dinner though. And we're still unsure of the boquet/garter toss. We were expecting more people to come but many have been dropping out and as of right now it's us and 15 guests. Seems silly to throw a boquet at my 2 bridesmaids & 2 single friends, and the garter at literally the 1 single guy (best man), haha.

Hey acw271011, We're getting a pay package. I forget how much it is, but we went for the middle package. In regards to the menu options, she said that you can only have one of the two restaurants - the grill or the Italian. She also let me know that you really don't have a choice... you can request one or the other (as I have), but ultimately they'll make the decision super close to the date. Also she told me that they menu is subject to change and I'll only know a few weeks before what the menu will be.

Trista's "wedding stuff" weekend plans: - work on ceremony script (I had to stop last time because I was bawling!!) - BD shoot on Sunday at 1:00 (ntm I have to find what I'm wearing, oops) - work on centerpieces (this is an ongoing process it seems) - work on welcome magazine I'm making (again, ongoing process) - buy my wedding ring? (maybe) I think that's about it. Our payments are due in a few weeks so we're also making sure everyone is aware of that... We haven't had much time for wedding stuff this past week because of house shopping. We've seen 8 houses already... 2 we loved but I'm not "sold" yet (haha.. sold...)

Ugh! I got this once and she never responded !! I had you have better luck!

Meggers - My BD shoot is on Sunday. I'm so excited!! I'm just having trouble finding lingerie that I like! I really wanted a nice white lacey corset but can't find one anywhere (all the V-day stuff is black, red & pink). Not to mention lingerie is soooo expensive. *dies* I have extensions ! Just clip ins though. I love them. This way I can have SUPER long hair when I want but I don't need to worry about it thinning my hair or the itchy scalp. Everyone else. I WANT THAT COVER UP TOO! (the emily one). I don't know if I can justify a VS order though... I got 2 VS bathing suits for xmas.

We actually ended up finding a dress we all loved so they do have matching dresses. They're getting their own shoes & accessories though and both of them will have their hair different.

Email back from Beverly.. I don't know if any of these will answer questions for people, but maybe it will I just had a few more questions... sorry!! 1. In regards to our long form birth certificates. We have them and we're wondering how we get them to you? Fax? Scan/Email? What works best for you? Please have your documents scanned and sent to me. 2. We understand that restaurants cannot be reserved until a month before or when we get there but we're wondering if we can put down a request for the Italian? Noted and will be placed as request. Confirmation will be advised closer to the wedding. We'd prefer that option if it was available to us. Also, in regards to this, are the tables round/square? Your tables are square. And how many guests would be at each table? (Right now there's about 20 of us). We do as many as 8 or 10 persons each table. I'm just curious because we're making our own simple centerpieces to bring down with us and I need to know how many to bring ! We're thinking of doing a sweetheart table for Kai and myself as opposed to a head party table, but we're open to ideas. Sweet heart table sounds great. Noted and confirmed. Also, is there a choice of colored linens for dinner, or will it be white? Table linens are white. 3. I'm still waiting on song choices for the steel drum band. We're fine with them playing whatever they'd wish before/after the ceremony but we'd like to get some ideas of song choices for the bride walking down the aisle, as well as the wedding party. Or should we just bring ideas of songs that we like? I am looking into this. Most time the steel band plays songs such as "pacabel canon in d major for the bridal party walk down or here comes the bride on steel band which is quite unusual. 4. Considering we're bringing our own photographer we won't be needing the resort photographer. Another bride mentioned that they were given a credit towards flowers for this. Would that be available to us? I've already made contact with the florist the resort uses and given them a general idea of what we're looking for (pretty simple). Please find that this is based on the wedding package selected.

This is gorgeous!! I wish I was having a larger bridal party, I love the idea of the mix and match dresses. Since I'm only having 2 attendants it seemed a little off to use 2 different dresses.

Brandy I love this one!!!

This is my mom's dress. Super sexy ! She's got a killer body so I want her to show it off. We looked at doing a very "beachy" dress but decided her daughter only gets married once so she should look formal . (from Le Chateau)

Hey... yah, not really. We all still have our bachelor or bachelorette parties. The social is thrown (usually by the wedding party) a few months usually before the wedding. A hall is rented, there's a cash bar, silent auction, etc. You sell tickets... friends, family, friends of friends all come and dance the night away.

I forgot that I hadn't share this yet, I had mentioned it before the weekend. The most amazing videography in the world. The make your wedding day into a movie... YOU WILL BAWL (this is a warning). I wish I could afford something like this. Their photos are great too, but I urge you guys to watch a few of their videos. They're beautiful. http://www.stillmotion.ca/

bryanandchar - We were kind of on the fence about a registry as well.. we’ve lived together for almost 5 years and pretty much have everything. But we decided to do one anyway… this way if someone WANTS to get us pots & pans, we’ll get the ones we like. AND the store we registered with gives us a whole year after the wedding to have 10% off anything on our registry that wasn’t bought for us! Plus it’s fun J Lua – that’s awesome about the photographer!!! And my FI does the same thing. I get so stressed about getting stuff done and he’s so calm about it “just relax, it’s fineâ€. NO IT’S NOT! IT NEEDS TO BE DONE!

Buck & Doe is a very Ontario, CND thing. In Manitoba we have "socials", which are the same thing pretty much. It's a big party that's thrown in honor of the couple before the wedding. There's a cash bar, silent auction, usually some games, a DJ & dancing. It's a fundraiser for the wedding of sorts in addition to a big get together. I know most people who don't live in one of these two provinces that I've spoken to about it think it's extremely tacky but it's totally the norm here. Most people have one and it's almost expected in many groups of friends. We had ours before my good friend left for Australia and had an amazing time. I know some people also call a joined bachelor/stag party a buck & doe.

Welcome Don't worry about Beverly... emails usually take a while, she's a super busy woman. She will get back to you. If it's been more than 2 weeks and she hasn't I'd resend it with the subject line: "PLEASE RESPOND" (that's worked for me, haha). We're using Sungold Associates for our wedding. Photography was super important to me and I wouldn't be happy with 10 shots from the resort photog. We're paying $2500 for our photo package which includes 8 hrs on the wedding day with 2 photographers, plus a 2 hours trash the dress the next day. Out of it we get all of the digital images edited on a DVD (YAY!). It's expensive, but to me it's worth it. I haven't heard anything about vendor fees as of yet but when I mentioned to Beverly that we were hiring an outside photog she was completely fine with it. If you PM me your email I can send you the flower info from tai flora. I know some brides have gone to other florists but I'm fine with Tai. We get a free boquet & bout so all the flowers for our wedding (including corsages for the moms & grandmas, & bouts for the dads & gramps) is $200. We're bringing our own centerpieces down with us. I've seen some pics with the wedding on the beach and it's done right beside the gazebo. I originally wanted the beach, but when I saw the gazebo I changed my mind

Lisa - Yah... me too. I'm trying to bring as less down as I can. Especially since I've read up and my airline only lets us have ONE carry on and ONE bag on trips to Mo-Bay. Seriously?!? So my dress counts as my carry on and I have to cram all my carry on stuff into my purse and FI's bag? Not fair. So right now we have centerpieces (that I'm still working on), fans (that will have the programs tied to them), the magazines, menus, etc. it doesn't seem like much but I can see it all adding up quite quickly! And since we'll be down there for 2 weeks I don't want to skimp on clothes just to accommodate wedding stuff. Ellabaja- I KNOW! I'm so pumped. We did have around $7000 saved up on our own, but most of that was for the wedding. I feel so loved!

Bailey - Yah.. sometimes I just ramble and by the end I read it over and think "hmm, does anyone care?" then I click Submit anyway. Haha! We were going to do wine bottle stoppers because our fam's are such big winos. But we'll see... Since we started house shopping and have been told by our broker "PENNY PINCH!", the idea of spending around $100 on wine stoppers that everyone has a few of already seems, well, like a bad idea. Omg I've become cheap lately because of this house business! I guess that's a good thing though!! Haha. If we don't do stoppers we will do something. The OOT bag just didn't make sense for us. My family travels all the time so they know what they should all bring, and FI's mom is a pharmacist so she'll have the whole medicine cabinet with her... haha. So if we were to put together OOT bags for everyone I feel like they'd have everything already and it would be kind of a waste. We're doing little things though.. like I said the magazine (which is turning out really cute), and we're upgrading our parents & grandparents without letting them know. (oh, and super awesome news, FI's parents are GIVING us our down payment as a wedding present. $15,000. love)

ooohhh waxing. My sis is an esthetician and months ago I mentioned to her that I was thinking of doing a brazilian and she said she'd totally do it for me, but after some thinking I honestly think I'd rather have a complete stranger "up in my business" than my sister. Hmm.. haha. Sometimes I feel like the only person here who isn't doing OOT bags. Mocha - I'd try hot glue. It's worth a try at least

Congrats Ashley!! We have our rehearsal booked for the day before but we don't have a dinner planned. I know the resort offers things such as a bonfire, etc, but we didn't really want to spend any more $$ considering it's an all inclusive resort and all . I know it's offered though! Just a question to you ladies who've already gotten married / asked Beverly. The tables at the restaurants - are they rectangle/square or circular? I'm getting my centerpieces going and I kind of would like some idea at what I'm looking at tablewise. Also how many did they seat at each table? Thanks ladies!

Hey! I can go tomorrow and find out how much shipping would be, I'm sure it won't be bad at all. Just a heads up they're a few different sizes and they're already wrapped with blue/turquoise ribbon (which can be easily taken off or covered if need be).

I ordered 28 from another bride on here and only need 14... I can send you the rest (14) if you'd like? I paid $25 + shipping for all of them so I could send you them for $10 (and I'm sure the shipping wouldn't be bad as I'm only a province away)...

Thanks for the support ladies.... sometimes I just need to let it out! It's really hard to spend less time with her because she's one of my best friends AND she doesn't have a lot of friends so I'm pretty much her #1 support (after my mom, who is in Mexico right now). I feel selfish not being there for her 24/7, but I'm only getting married once. Her last breakup was AWFUL. She's only had long term relationships and the last one was a 2 year relationship that she took over a year to get over. In that time we had stopped talking completely, and she was on meds and seeing a therapist. She's an amazing girl but we've both had such a rough childhood that I don't blame her for being kind of, well, emotional.... I sometimes forget how lucky I am to have my Kai. I feel much better today though... we went and looked at 5 houses ! 2 were great but I don't think they're for us. I'll have to catch up on all of these posts later on

Teira - BD! I'm so excited for you!! Mine is next Sunday. I still need to get on the lingerie shopping! Ladies... I don't mean to be a downer but today was the worst day I've had in some time. Work was awful... I actually bawled my entire drive home... I went for dinner with my parents which was great, but went out with my sister after and she's still talking non stop about her ex (read: I don't want to be a horrible sister but I really don't care anymore... enough is enough....), and she complained about how we're switching rooms around (because of her ex no longer coming) and flat out refused to share a room with my other BM, who is one of my best friends and also a friend of hers (they are in no way strangers), saying "I'll kill her if I have spend a week with her". So she wants her own room. Fine. Whatever. But then she was like "Mom says that I can use Brett's deposit towards my trip" (ahh?) me: "No. I mentioned to Mom that the TA said she may be able to change the name on the deposit if someone else wants to go, but that's it". her: "Well Mom will help me pay for my own room then, I won't stay with Jenn". I go on to tell her how it only made sense because then GM would share with Kai's brother. If she gets her own room we have 3 people in their own rooms (@ $600 extra). Just silly. The only person we anticipated having their own room is Kai's grandmother, which makes sense. THEN we started talking about dogs somehow and she's like, "So are you guys going to get a dog once you get your house?" me:"Eventually yah. I miss having a dog" (We have 3 cats, 1 is mine, 2 are FI's) her:"Isn't that going to be a little much? (in a snotty voice). me: "Why? We'll be in a bigger place I don't see it being a problem". her: "Well it's a lot". me: "I don't see why it matters. I wouldn't even give up my cat and I wouldn't ask FI to give his up". her:"Well it's going to stink". ...... this is all as we're walking around the mall looking for wedding shoes for me, oh wait, no I WAS looking for wedding shoes, she just was looking for stuff for herself and showed no interest... I'm just illustrating how irritating she's been lately. Sorry. *PULLS OUT HAIR* Now I'm at home and FI is DJ'ing and it's loud and awful and I just want to curl up in a ball. ... and I'm not even on period. Ugh.