beaz2be

Hahah. I totally understand and won't post my dress for fear of lurking eyes as well. Congrats on finding it!! That's so exciting.

I'm debating all of this too. Unlike you we are having a BIG wedding (over 50 booked so far) - but that also includes BIG wedding party. 5 BMs, 5 Groomsmen... and then there is family... MOG/MOB, FOG/FOB... what about my brother (who will MC but not standing up) and grandparents???!! The list gets really big REALLY fast and the bouts and corsages at our resort are NOT cheap! Sigh. I'll be looking forward to any other brides' etiquette advice on this one.

Maggie I think I said this on another threat but I can't get over how much I love that dress on you. The lace is just beautiful and the way it hugs your curves..... GREAT PICK! That's all I can say

Hope things get better for you health wise and work insanity wise.

Hmmm... sounds like I'll probably end up going with discount mugs in the end. Although I'm still wary of brokerage fees, so I'll probably continue to look around up here for a bit first. We still are a ways out from our wedding and will want more finalized numbers before deciding how many to order. Thanks for the advice ladies!

Congrats and welcome!! This forum is an amazing resource. Enjoy your planning

Great idea. I'll go do this now. The new look is definitely great tho (growing on me for sure as I was a bit wary of the change).

I think another meet up sounds like a great idea. I personally will be away for most of this month but would totally be interested in early September if someone sets some plans in motion

Thanks for these suggestions. Will definitely look into these.

Unfortunately I can't see it (still in silly NOOB status). Hopefully I'll become a jr. member today or tomorrow (let's see how many people's posts I can reply to hahaa. Then I'll come back and take a peek.

Have fun lady! I'm sure it will be amazing. Congrats. So excited for you.

These pics are FABULOUS!

SO HAPPY FOR YOU!! Congrats Mrs.

Hi Ladies, I've been so busy all weekend (long weekend for us here in BC) so am trying to catch up. My parents threw us an engagement party which was a BLAST. In not so fun news, the ceiling in our kitchen started raining from the condo above and now I'm sitting here waiting for the second crew of repair men to come a "fix" (sigh). Will try and catch up fast and reserve my comments accordingly oooh. Love! So pretty. Some of you might remember that a friend of mine was down there last week. She brought back lots of pics and info. I'll upload some soon I promise and give you guys her lowdown on stuff..... She DID say that if people were expecting the big white sandy beach they would be disappointed. But if they know going in, then it's not a big deal at all. The nice beach is LITERALLY 4-5min. walk down and also guests can go to Azul Beach (and use the towel/drink services there) which has a beautiful beach she says. I admit, the photos do show a lot of seaweed (especially on the first two days of her trip when the weather was stormy). But she says that they clean it up regularly and it didn't really bother them. (Her husband really prefers a beach so he did walk the 5 minutes most days). Going to AB was fun too (but you have to go past the nudie beach). BEAUTIFUL!! Congrats! Glad to hear the opinion on the DJ. We're still debating on the ipod/hired dj topic. I'm sure $$ will dictate in the end. oooh Bigbop - my colors are Turquoise and Purple (The girls will wear turquoise with maybe the BM in purple). Thinking brightish purple like you'd see in orchids. I'd probably forgo the Free package too with those rates too. There's a big difference there b/w the premium and the others. We decided to upgrade because the premium only worked out to about 1150 more for both of us than for the room we were originally booked in. I figured for the $200 difference it was worth it to get the special premium treatment.

TLGnhci - sorry the Running of the Brides was such a bust!! Just not meant to be I guess. You'll find that dream dress somewhere. Don't worry. Enjoy your afternoon w/ your daughter

oooh Running of the Brides - so fun! Good luck. I have a friend who got a Vera Wang $5K dress for like $400!! Are you bringing friends? She said that was KEY because they all grabbed as many dresses in her size as they could find!! Hope you have luck - and if not luck in the dress then at least fun from the experience.

Agreed! And my TA isn't much help because she just says "oh, it's because your guests are getting such a good deal on their rate"?!? WTF that does not help ME out. If I hadn't gotten good price quotes for our guests originally, I wouldn't have gone with this hotel!

Thanks!! So nice to know that they could get drinks right by the reception area too (we're also going with Plaza Zavaz). That way I'll suggest people mill around there rather than head over to a different lounge etc. I will definitely put it in the program that they need to be at the reception for a certain "start" time.

I know some girls have done it that way and I am sure that will be fine. I was going back and forth about that too until Amy B brought up a good point. If you want everyone to be at the reception when you enter with DH and be announced, you run the risk of some people not being at the reception on time and missing your entrance. My mom flipped out about that so we HAVE TO have a cocktail hour. It works out because we got the free cocktail hour promotion after some urging. Ask about it, maybe they are still running it. I remember this discussion going on and that thought totally had me worried. Unfortunately, I've been told I do NOT qualify for the free cocktail hour as I'm Canadian (again... argh). So, we've decided to do a receiving line upon the entrance to the reception. That way, I'll be sure to know if anyone "important/critical" is missing before we do our official entrance/introduction. Private cocktail hour would totally be ideal but I have a feeling I'm going to have to fight tooth and nail against this Canadians don't get any of the deals thing going on - so I want to try and pick my battles. :-) Good lookin' out tho'. I think the private cocktail hour will be perfect for those who can swing it.

From what I understand the 20% off the private event is just off the food/cake/drink price. Not all the additional stuff like centerpieces, music etc. But I could be wrong. So far I don't qualify for ANY bonuses like that so I might not have it exactly correct. I'm totally not doing a private cocktail party. We're going to suggest all our guests go to a certain bar/lounge while we take photos after the ceremony (or they can just do whatever they want - take a nap for the older folks, go feed or entertain their kids etc.) Then the reception will be about 1 1/2 hr. later. I figure with enough people in our group in one location it will be almost as good as a formal cocktail hour anyways (and free haha)

I feel like I'm never going to make it to Jr. Member. Sorry for the many posts in a row - it's partly because I want to be a JM and partly because multiquoting is just hard on the new forum I'm sure I'll get better tho!

Thanks to everyone for your opinions on the BM dresses. I totally appreciate it. I think that if a) my sister (MOH) wants to, I'm going to go with her in purple and everyone else in turquoise. I'm relieved that none of you think the 2 colors is too much! I'm kind of excited at the vision of pulling it all together now. (Of course, theme is still beach and main color still White! haha) Oh right... I remember all that now. I love your dresses! They're going to look awesome. I have tonnes of time still (May 27, 2011) so I'll be sure to think on it for a bit too. And I too think the peacock feather idea is a GREAT inspiration. Thanks so much for your input!

Can you share info if you have any success with this? I'd like to pay for the girls hair too - but I'm afraid $85 plus tip for 6 girls might be out of the budget. If we can get a "package" for a bunch that might be workable.

Yay!! Congrats. Ditto others comments re: tripadvisor oooh love the logo! Congrats on the reception location. That's where we're having ours too. Seems like it will be great!!

Ok looking for opinions here. Originally I wasn't really into having a "color scheme". I figured my wedding color was "white" and my theme was "beach". I knew there would be color involved through the BM dresses and figured that would influence. So, I found BM dresses that I really like and there are 2 colors that I like - turquoise and purple. I thought that it might be cool to have 1/2 and 1/2 (I have 6 in my bridal party... huge, I know)... Then I was worried that 2 colors would be too busy (although I like the look of them together) and that I'd go with purple and then use turquoise as an accent color. Since then 2 of the BMs have voted turquoise (I was surprised), 2 don't care and 2 haven't been canvassed. Long story long - do you think having both purple AND turquoise BM dresses is too much?! If so.... would you vote all purple or turquoise? (the purple is called "plum" - but it's not nearly that dark). Here's a link to the dresses if you're interested. The style is BM1277 but the colors I'm looking at are the "plum" and "turquoise". http://www.venusbridal.com/bridesmaids/bella-maids Thanks for your opinions. Sorry so long!