clgriffi7

Your charm is beautiful and will be something you can treasure long after the wedding.

In this situation I would do a symbolic ceremony in DR (first) and then come home and do the legal ceremony with all of the parents. You could then plan a nice dinner out after the civil ceremony for the 6 of you without it getting too pricey. I plan on getting legally married first, but if you are worried that your DR ceremony would then not feel like your real wedding then you could get symbolically married first. For your legal ceremony there is the option of going to the courthouse or you can pay an officiant to marry you at a location of your choice. I think I will have to do the latter because my fiance really wants our dog (this dog is his baby) to be involved and I am certain the doggy would not be allowed in the courthouse.

TA Jill specializes in the Dreams Resorts and was even married at Dreams Cancun, so she is who I am using. At this point I would highly recommend her. Several of the brides married at Dreams Cancun have used her and gave her great marks on their post-wedding reviews here on BDW.

Those pictures are too cute. You are a lot braver than I am :-)

I never got a response through the Dreams website. I didn't try her direct email, instead my travel agent was able to get a quick response. I am using TA Jill through this website.

You didn't plan anything in advance? Not flowers, cake, menu, DJ, photographer details, etc.? I would love to not have to bug the wedding coordinator ahead of time (as all of the brides say how busy they are with the weddings that are in progress), but I would be scared to think that they couldn't accomodate my request because I didn't give them notice.

Congratulations on your upcoming bundle of joy!!! I love the white dress you wore for your rehearsal but the size isn't right for me. Could you tell me where you got it? Thanks.

I say that you should let your fiance keep the new shirt - as you said it is his wedding too. But I would be ticked too that he waited so late to speak up. I think your best bet is to get a new shirt for the best man if you think things won't look right together. The dads don't have to match the grrom & best man.

We are doing an At Home Party (not reception). The cost of having a full sit-down meal would be too much. We have found a banquet hall to rent on a Friday night for $700 (compared to $2400 for Saturday). One great thing about this place is that you bring your own alcohol and just have to pay for a liscensed bar tender, which will save us a ton of money. So our plan is to have the party from 8pm to midnight with free beer & wine (and we will make sure there is no chance of running out), hors d'ouevres only (thus why we are starting at 8pm instead of 7pm), cupcake tower, slideshow including wedding pictures, and music for dancing. We have to decide whether we will have a DJ or a ipod hooked up to their sound system. In total we will likely spend between $2500 and $3500. Spending up to say $8000 for a full reception was just not in the budget.... I personally like the idea of a big BBQ to keep costs down, but we are getting married in November so not a good option for us.

I guess $600 doesn't sound that horrible to me if all of the guests would stick around and really dance (though it would be +>$300 for an extra hour for the DJ). What do you think about adding an extra hour? Currently, my wedding will be at 5pm, cocktail hour (might make this just cocktails from the bar if too many people attend) from 6-7pm, reception from 7-10pm. Would it be worth it to extend the reception to 11pm? I assume the meal will take from 7-8pm, leaving after 8pm for dancing. Thanks in advance for your opinions. (though I know any answer is partially dependent on how many people and what mix - family vs friends - attend)

Ladies - What are you doing for music for your reception? If we get enough people to book I would like to have a DJ as I really want this reception to be fun. I have no problem with using the hotel recommended DJ. I am about 11 months out from my wedding and I am not sure when I need to make the call as to whether I will have the DJ. A few months ago - before I had reserved my date and when I was stalking this thread - I thought I read that a bride had gotten a discounted price on the DJ and dance floor when the DJ had a deal posted on their website. Has anyone gotten a better price than what is posted in the wedding planning document? Thanks in advance.

I hope someone responds to you - as I am interested in looking for a snorkeling trip as well. If you get a quote from them, can you please post it or PM me? I have done a bit of searching on the web, but I haven't started looking for reviews. Maybe tripadvisor would be helpful - I have looked at that site for some cruise excursion operators before. Courtney

One thing to note is the length of time the sale is good for at the bottom of the email. Today's email says the deals are good through Dec 25th. I was interested in the free tote, but the t-shirts aren't free and neither are the note pads. So I put the free tote into my shopping cart, but will wait to order until I get another email with free t-shit and such. Happy shopping.

You are correct - you have to pay separate shipping each time you order more than one of a the same free item. However, you should try and group mutilple different free items per order. For example, (on a good sale day) you could order a free tote, free t-shirt, free postcards, free pen, and free notepad and just pay one shipping cost (likely around $8 for that many items). You can put in multiple of those orders, but each one of them will be at $8 each. In the end you will have a lot of stuff for the price, but the price will have snuck up on you! If you need 10 bags, you are still looking at $80.

Rachel - Hopefully someone else can give you a definitive answer, but my assumption was that the cost for an extra hour at the reception would be based on 1) the DJ and 2) the per person price of the open bar for an hour. Online (in the info pack with the packages and upgrades) it says "Includes 3 hours International Open Bar" under the Recption section, but then under that it says "Additional Hour International Open Bar $15/person/hour". With the 11% tax and 15% gratuity, that is $19.15 per person. At this point I think I would love to have a 4th hour as well - but I don't think my fiance would go for an extra $20/pp. Maybe you can negotiate a lower price per person. I understand why they need to charge because the servers will have to stay longer, but $20/pp seems like a lot.

Hmmm - we will be having a November sunset ceremony - so 5pm (we will do pictures first). I guess that means we won't get to cocktail hour until 6-7pm, based on the contract I was sent. Sounds like the free apetizers might not work for my wedding. Bummer.

I am really interested in not paying for the cocktail hour. If I end up with more than the 20 ppl included in the package, I know my fiance will not want to pay extra for the cocktail hour (I forget the exact amount but it is maybe $23 per person after tax & tip). By not paying for the cocktail hour were you able to get extra guests at the reception for free? Based on your cocktail hour on the terrace, do you have anything you would change? Were you able to get it decorated at all, if not - would you have wanted to? Sorry for the odd questions - not sure how to ask what I am after. I want the feel of a nice cocktail hour while guests listen to the Mexican Trio, but saving money if the guests won't know the difference would be fantastic. Thanks Courtney

My fiance and I are in the same situation - we each owned our own homes and then moved in together once we got engaged. We had to donate a lot of items as we had essentially 2 of everything - so the last thing we need is items off of a registry. We have decided to register for a honeymoon online (we are staying a few extra days in Mexico after the wedding, but our realy honeymoon will be for our 1 year anniversary). Basically anyone who wants to give us a gift (which we will not request) can donate money online with the understanding it is going to the honeymoon. That way we aren't asking for cash, but we are getting money for something we would have paid for anyway - so the same as cash.

Mariel - Congratualtions on your wedding!!!! Your pictures are great - you were a beautiful bride. What struck me was how much fun everyone looked like they were having at the reception! Looked like quite a party. I love the idea of the first look on the pier - might have to steal that idea :-)

Questions that will help us help you!: Are you getting married on the beach? Are you planning on having a reception with dancing? I think dress #1 would have a better chance if you were at a gazebo or an inside chapel instead of on the sand. Again dress #1 would have a better chance if you do not plan on dancing a lot. 30 lbs is a lot or weight! I think both dresses are great, but I would suggest #2: I think it still has plenty of detail and personality. Not to mention the mermaid shape will give a bit of sexiness to the dress.

I am not sure if I will wear my necklace either - might be a game time decision. The necklace was only $20 extra, so I figured it would be a good investment.

I agree that I would be paying for everyone's trip to the wedding. If I had won this theoretical lottery before starting the planning, I would likely have chosen a more exotic location... Also, I would have the most amazing honeymoon trip. I wouldn't have to worry about vacation days from work (just don't pay me for those extra days I am taking) or the cost of traveling to several locations.

Thank you! It makes a girl feel good to hear compliments like that :-)

Thank you ladies. I can't wait for next November to get here. I was planning on starting to look at wedding bands over the holidays but I have to take my e-ring in tonight because the stone is loose - so I may have to start looking while I wait :-) Because I am worried, I am not wearing my ring today for the first time in almost 6 months - it feels so odd to not have it on! Courtney

Here is the jewelry that I bought from Silverland Jewelry http://www.silverlandjewelry.com/ They will make any of their designs for you in any of their shades of pearls or colors of crystals. Here are the designs I chose - but I had them use the white pearls.