clgriffi7

NEXT WEEK?!!! So exciting.....

One OOT bag item that I think I will really appreciate later is a postcard for the guests to fill out and mail back to us. I ordered them from Vistaprint with a caricature of my fiance and I on one side (it was supposed to look like the 2 of us in wedding attire) and the back side having a message that reads "Please write a message to the bride & groom and drop this card in the mail to give the happy couple a unique souvenir." and it is addressed to us as a married couple (his last name). We will need to buy postage once we arrive in Mexico - hopefully the resort front desk can help us with this... We think the caricature looks funny as the artist drew my Asian fiance to look Hispanic (of course the sad excuse for a sombrero doesn't help).

Good call - I bet you are right that when Claudia said Garden she is talking about that grassy area you described by the pool instead of the spa garden. I am doing all of my events back to back: ceremony at 4:30pm, cocktail hour 5:30-6:30pm, reception 6:30-9:30pm. We will take our bride & groom pictures before the ceremony (2pm-4pm) and then group/guest photos between the ceremony and cocktail hour (5:00-5:30pm, while the sun sets at 5:10pm). I prefer the idea of keeping your guests moving from one event to another instead of sending off on their own. Two things to consider: 1) The sun is harshest at noon and least desirable for pictures, the closer to sunrise and sunset the better the lighting for photographers and 2) a later ceremony = not having to get to the salon as early! I emailed the spa and said I wanted to be out by 1:30pm (to start my pics at 2pm) and that there will be 4 of us for hair & makeup (bride, MOH, MOB, and MOG) and they are starting our appointments at 9:00am!!! Just something to consider. I think looking for shot glasses once in Cancun is a good idea. As for the playing cards, Oriental Trading Company has 10 different options for personalized playing cards. Hopefully the link below will work. Their prices are MUCH better, but the designs they have might not be what you want/like. http://www.orientaltrading.com/toys,-games-and-novelties/games-and-activities/playing-cards/personalizable-a1-388934+18-4-1.fltr Quote: Originally Posted by hairdos11 I believe that you can have it by the spa garden because I know I have seen a pic on this site of a reception there. However the garden reception pics that I was sent by Claudia were of the grassy area by the pool, over that way. Which is still really beautiful because you can see the gazebo, pool, and ocean. Question for everyone, how far apart are you doing the wed, cocktail hour, and reception. We are thinking wed at noon, the pics, then cocktail hour, then dinner at 4pm. I know it seems far apart but since we will be a small group I figure after the ceremony and pictures everyone could go freshen up in their rooms or sit at the bar in between the dinner times. I know all the weddings I went to there was always a huge gap and you socialized in between. Or should I move the wed until 2pm? Claudia thought my gap was big but she said it's up to me. Bags for guest- I got brown gifts bags from Jo Ann Fabrics I did stencils on there of palm trees, hula girls, fish, and cocktails. I picked paints that really stood out, I just put Cancun, Mexico on there. No names or dates, more work then I imagined. I plan to put cards, crossword puzzle books, a bittle stoppers, and cocktail for dummies. Again I have a small group of 15-20 and they range in age so I tried to think of everyone. At the dollar store they have the crossword books, at Target for a dollar they have the cocktails for dummies. Anything else I plan to grab when I'm down there, that way I don't have to lug it in down there. If you buy say 10-20 shot glasses there I'm sure you can bargain for a good price. Sorry so long! Anyone know where to get personalized cards. At becup they wanted $70 for 24 packs (that's the min. you have to order) which includes the setup fee. That seems like alot of money to me!

I bought pashminas for the ladies and aviator sunglasses for the guys from the following website: https://www.firstwholesale.com/

Those pictures are beautiful!! I love the one of you two dancing....that is what happiness and love look like

Went to the Dreams Cancun facebook page and took a look at the Visual Tour. There was a location listed as the "Spa Wet Area" which turns out to be an outdoor location. I asked my travel agent if this is what they consider the Garden (I think the Garden and the Spa Garden are the same thing, right?)

If you find any cheap luggage tags please let me know. I think I read from a previous bride that my travel agent sent out tags and info packets to her guests. I wish I knew whether she still did that so I can plan accordingly. But we closed out our group last week and final payments are due next week so hopefully if she still does those things she will send them out next week. I heard back from Claudia after a couple of weeks and she gave me the option of the terrace or the garden for the cocktail hour and I am not sure which to go with. I have seen pictures of the Terrace so that seems like the safe bet. But part of me thinks it would be nice for the guests to not see the cocktail hour location during the ceremony. Does that seem silly? I wish I knew more about the garden area. I have been to resorts where they have wedding events right next to, or in between, buildings with hotel rooms so you could sit out on your balcony and watch the event. You know the Terrace isn't that way, but I wonder about the Garden. This is what happens when you aren't able to visit your venue before having your wedding. I have asked my travel agent (former Dreams Cancun bride) for her opinion.

The resort photogrpahers are normally just okay. Reosrts are going to choose a photographer that is good enough to not lose them wedding business by not good enough to be highly sought after and thus highly paid. My resort actually used to contract with a photographer that everyone loved (Juan Navarro) but now they have switched to using a different company. However, it is often not as inexpensive as you might think to use that resort photographer. I am purchasing the $2800 wedding package from my resort which comes with ~3 hrs of photography and 50 printed pictures. To have added additional time on the wedding day, a TTD session, and to get the CD of the pictures would have cost me ~$1600 more. For that kind of additional money it was worth it for me to find a local photographer willing to give me a good deal so I could get a lot more pictures.

4 weeks?!! I am so jealous. I only get 15 days from my job for the year... For 20 nights you will need a lot more of those heavy items - but it would be so worth it to have 20 days!!! Not sure about JetBlue, but my baggage fee is either $25 or $30 and I bet if you pay for an extra bag, even if it were just for your sunscreen, you will make that back by not buying just a single bottle from the resort. When I was last in Cancun I remember seeing sunscreen for >$25 (rip-off). One of the items lots of brides talked about in the "What I would and wouldn't do again" thread is to not bring so many pairs of shoes. They all say that they brought heels and ended up only wearing their sandals. I definitely plan on bringing gym clothes! Whenever I go to an all-inclusive or on a cruise, the only way I don't feel guilty and can really indulge myself is to work out on the days when it is possible. I will be at my resort for 7 full days and I plan on taking 4 or 5 sets of gym clothes. I try and work out right after I get up so I don't feel like I am missing a part of the day. And after working out so much before the wedding to fit in my dress and look decent in a bathing suit I would hate to ruin all of that hard work. But I will say that I don't do a hard workout - just something to burn say 200 calories or so (even walking a couple of miles on the treadmill which would only take 30 minutes).

Wow - JetBlue screwed your entire family!!! Your resort should be getting some sort of kickback from the airline on this one... I read a random comment online that says a good rule of thumb is 2 bottles of lotion per person for a 7-day trip. So, if you count the 3 spray cans = 1 bottle comment I also found online, I will be bringing the equivalent of 6 bottles or 3 bottles per person for 8 days. And that doesn't even count the excursion sunscreen. Right now I am expecting for my fiance and I to have 4 checked bags (so 2 free and 2 paid) for our trip. He seems to think that we can do it in 3. I have already packed up the OOT bag items (minus the welcome letter and itinerary) into one really large duffle bag. The idea with that one is to either leave it in Mexico or to flatten it and put it in the bottom of one of the other bags on the way back so we don't get charged a fee for it. I think I will have one other large suitcase to check of wedding stuff - this would have been more but I decided I would rtaher pay for centerpieces at the resort (we will only have 4 guest tables) than worry about getting items there in one piece. So my fiance thinks we can get all of our clothing into one suitcase, I am thinking 2. We will see who is right. I am really hoping there will be enough empty space in a bag on the way back to fold my dress and check it instead of lugging it through the airport. Fingers crossed. I think I would even rather pay the baggage fee ($25 or $30) for the duffle bag on the way back than to have to carry that dress again. Joanne - it seems that you will be staying at your resort for a long time, so I can imagine you will have a lot of luggage.

I think you should definitely call/email her and ask her what is going on. If she is your BFF, then it is best to get things out in the open. But I would phrase it in a way to say that you noticed she wasn't acting like herself and you were wondering if there is something going on in her life or if it has something to do with your wedding.

Joanne - Thinking of you.... Ladies - I am at work and had to listen to a 1-hr web cast so I decided to take one of my "to do" items off of the list "buy biodegradable suncreen" for the excursion we are offering to our guests. I think I went a bit overboard. My fiance is going to have a fit when I try to pack all of this sunscreen for the trip. But I would rather have too much and have to bring some of it back then have to buy it there at double or triple the price. This is how much I have: - my fiance and I had already purchased spray sunscreen from BJ's: 3x cans of SPF 30 and 3x cans of SPF 50 (I plan on using 50 before the wedding to make sure I don't burn and then switching to SPF 30 after). I read that one bottle of lotion equates to about 2 or 3 cans of spray! - so I bought lotion on amazon.com during the web cast: 1x bottle of SPF 50 and 3x bottles of SPF 30 - and for the excursion, I bought 3x bottles of SPF 30 biodegradable (hoping that will cover ~15 ppl for 1 day) I just spent $71 for the lotions and I am sure we had previously spent $30-40 on the cans - so we are talking over $100 in sunscreen....eeek.

Definitely sounds like you needed the wine! I know what you mean - it would be a lot of fun to hang out with other DW brides and work on all of the DIY projects. Friends and family keep saying they want to help but oddly they never seem to show up when there is crafting to be done. At this point I have just stopped asking and have decided that it will just be a surprise to all of them. Is it bad that the person who knows the most about my wedding plans is my coworker that I have only known for a few months. She is honestly the only one that really seems interested. I think she knows even more than my fiance since I have quite a few secrets I am keeping from him. Joanne - I feel just a tiny bit of your pain as we have had our Expedia moment with this wedding as well. We booked the flights for my fiance's parents (as they do not even own a computer) through Expedia to fly from Raleigh/Durham through Atlanta to Cancun. Well, we booked and paid and thought all was well until I asked my fiance to forward me the flight info from his account so I can keep track of it. When my fiance went into his account, Expedia had somehow missed a leg of the trip so his parents were flying from Atlanta to Cancun and back from Cancun through Atlanta to Raleigh. My fiance had to stay on the phone with them for quite a while to ask how we could have even done that on a single itinerary if we had tried. They finally told him it was all fixed and sent him an email with the correct itinerary. Several months go by and I decide to check their itinerary on AirTran's website. I pull up the itinerary and it says the fligths could not be ticketed because of an outstanding balance. Apparently when Expeida added the extra flight leg back in it incurred a charge that they had not paid for. After long phone calls to both Airtran and Expedia, I think it is now worked out. But it just pisses me off because Expedia said everything was okay but the Airtran lady said that my fiance's parents would not have been able to board the plane with that outstanding balance. I wish you the best of luck and think it is great that you are trying to find the positive in the situation. Whether you end up with a lay-over or pay the extra to stay another day, it will all work out in the end and you will have a wonderful trip and a beautiful wedding.

That is crazy!!!! How could they not contact you to tell you that your flight had been cancelled?! Is there an option of getting your money back (as they are the ones that cancelled the flight) and taking a non-direct flight with another airline? I know have a lay-over isn't ideal but if it can save you $1000....

Does your resort happen to offer a steaming service for your dress? I plan on just taking my dress on the plane in the dress bag with full knowledge that I may have to fold it over in an overhead bin. Luckily my resort includes a dress steaming in the package I am purcahsing. Best of luck. Don't let this stress you out too much!

I hope this doesn't sound too rude - but I think it was insensitive of your father to say that to you. In the past weddings were more about the families (a way of linking two families together), but now weddings are about the union of two people who truly love each other. If you truly want to make your family happy, then I like Bride2012's idea of the two of you eloping and getting married in the gorgeous destination of your dreams (un-encumbered by cost restrictions of guests) and then return home and have a legal ceremony and reception (based on what you can afford) back home.

We bought our bags at the Dollar Tree. I am relatively certain that some of my guests will leave their bags at the resort and the rest probably wouldn't use it again if I put my name or wedding date on it. So I didn't want to waste a lot of money on the bags. The personalized koozies came from discountfavors.com Good luck with choosing your items. Courtney

I have my OOT bags mostly complete - and I actually not only selected items based on cost, but on size too. Imagine how much luggage space it would take to travel with that many towels! The "nice" items I put in my bags: pashmina for the ladies (in a neutral non-wedding color so they can use again) aviator sunglasses for the men (both of these items from an online wholesaler) sun visors (not personalized) travel mugs (from dollar store - not personalized) personalized koozies Then I put a "In sickness...." bag with: tissues Advil Pepto aloe gel first aid kit hand sanitizer And a "...and in health" bag: Propel drink packets gum jelly beans floss picks (and maybe one or two more tiny things that I can't remember) What I haven't completed for the OOT bags are the Welcome letter and the itineraries. I plan on having a guest version of the itinerary and and family version (includes family picture times and rehearsal/dinner). Hope that helps. If you are interested in where I bought anything, just let me know.

Both A and C are beautiful - and now it is apparent that you have focused in on a dress shape that you like and that looks great on your body. Once again, good choices. I see dress A as more classic and dress C and more flirty and sparkly. (there may be bling on dress A, but I can't tell from the picture). If it were me, I would go with dress A because I am not a sparkly kind of girl. But the question is: Are you a more classic kind of girl or a more flirty/sparkly kind of girl? When you look back at the pictures years from now you will always love a dress that is true to your personality.

Thanks Joanne - I often wonder if I would have picked the same dress if I went shopping later on, but I never went back to look again because I was afraid I might find something else. I have been doing the same thing with a planning thread!! Ever since I joined the forum I have loved looking at planning threads, but they seem like they would be so much effort if you waited until the end to put one together. I have my ceremony music decided on and confirmed with my fiance. I have chosen the dinner music but have not tried to force my fiance to sit down long enough to go through the list with me. I have a list of potential dancing songs, but I haven't started to finalize that one yet. Here are our ceremony songs: Artist Song Title When to Play Bruno Mars Marry You Guest Seating Ingrid Michaelson The Way I am Guest Seating Micheal Buble Best Is Yet To Come Guest Seating John Legend Stay With You Guest Seating Keith Urban Memories of Us Guest Seating Michael Buble Everything Mothers' entrance Flower Girls' & MOH entrance Train Marry Me Bride's Entrance Everlasting Love Natalie Cole Recessional And here are the special Reception songs: song artist Comments Celebration Kool & the gang Introduction Song When You Say Nothing at All Allison Krauss first dance I Loved Her First Heartland father/daughter dance What a Wonderful World Louis Armstrong mother/son dance I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) The Four Tops cake cutting song And finally, here are the dinner songs (selecting 12-14 was recommended by the DJ): song artist I've Got the World on a String Michael Buble All I Do is Dream of You Michael Buble Lovesong Adele Sea Breeze Tyrone Wells Come On Get Higher Matt Nathanson I Do Colbie Caillat I'm Yours Jason Mraz You Are The Best Thing Ray LaMontagne Just The Way You Are Bruno Mars Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic The Police Bless the Broken Road Rascal Flatts I Could Not Ask For More Edwin McCain Honey Bee Blake Shelton Quote: Originally Posted by JoanneIreland Oh Courtney I love your dress, it's so beautiful! Lucky you getting to try on your dress so often. I think I'll have to pick mine up the day before we leave because if I had it in the house I'd probably wear it all day, LOL! I do have a picture of me in the dress but I can't post it, couple of my friends going to the wedding are on this forum too! We are all in the double digits now with regards how many days left. I can't believe how quick it's going. I started working on a planning thread a while back and add to it as I go. Watching that grow really hits home about how much has been done so far! Had an email from my w/c last night, she is amazing and on top of everything, I think we have all the details (well as much as we can in advance) squared away with her now. Has anyone but together a full music list yet? Anyone got good suggestions for songs during dinner, and songs for dancing?

For any November brides that are planning on ordering chair sashes and haven't done so yet, I got this email today from http://www.tableclothsfactory.com (where I ordered my chair sashes, table runners, napkins, and AHR tablecloths): Dear Customers, Thank you for shopping at tableclothsfactory.com. We would like to inform you the great news of our summer sale on our chair sashes. styles of Pintuck Sashes, Organza Sashes, Polyester Sashes, Satin Sashes, L'Amour Sashes, Taffeta Crinkle Sashes. Discount Code: f32sd34se Time is limited. Come visit our website, order the special items between August 17, 2011, 12:00AM - August 22, 2011, 12:00AM, and apply the discount code to enjoy 8% additional discount on them. note: the coupon is good for one time use, it cannot be combined with other offers.

80 days to go for me!! I actually purchased my dress in July of 2010 and it was in by the end of August 2010! I had planned to "just look" but I found a dress I loved and it was on sale... My dress has been hanging at my parents' house for the past year and about once and month I visit the dress and try it on. I know - that is bad, right? What is really cute is that the dress is in an upstairs closet and every time there is a storm my mother carries it downstairs to her closet to help keep it safe. Isn't that sweet of her? (the history behind that is in 1994 we had a hurricane come through my city and knocked trees over onto the house and one broke through the roof and into that closet) I have contacted a local alterations lady and have an appointment to take my dress in on September 12th. Starting the dress alterations will be another big milestone and make things feel even more "real". Joanne - Do you have pictures of your dress? Here is a picture of me in the sample (I had to order a size up because I barely squeezed into the sample, as evidenced by the back-cleavage, but of course now I need to have mine altered down in size):

I am only doing the first look because of the time of year I am getting married and how early the sun sets. If I were getting married when the sun sets after say 6:30 PM, I would wait and have him see me for the first time when I am walking down. But the sun will set at 5:10pm on my wedding day and I really don't want to have the ceremony so early (so there is light after the ceremony for pictures) that my guests have to wander off and entertain themselves before the night cocktail hour & reception.

Meghan - Thanks for the info! I do have a couple of follow-up questions if you don't mind... Did Claudia send you any pictures of the spa garden? I am trying to deicde if there is a better option than the Terrace for the cocktail hour. The Terrace seems fine, but it can't hurt to see more options. Did you schedule your private dinner with Claudia over email or are we supposed to do that once we get there? I will definitely PM you for that dinner information. Thanks for the info on the champagne flutes - you too NurseM! Courtney

post against forum rules.