lilboltz10

Ask for forgiveness not permission is the saying, right? We are bringing 100+ people the resort ... and paying an astronomical amount of money to do so! If they take the flotation device away from us then we'll just use a table. Where there is a will... there is a way!

Hey everyone! I am a NOOB! My name is Sarah and my FH, Tom, and I are getting married at DPC on December 3, 2010. I have been reading this forum for the past two days and finally got to the end yesterday as I was leaving work! Phew, it was a LOT to take in all at once! I wanted to update everyone on my progress thus far. We only got engaged 6 weeks ago so I feel a bit accomplished but there is still much to do! I am a pretty laid back bride since all I wanted was a beach, picnic tables and a clam bake but when the guest list neared 400 people (Irish Catholic and Greek families are both baby-breeders!) my FH and I jumped ship and decided to do a destination wedding. Our guest list got narrowed down to 210 people and we are expecting 100-115 to attend. We have 51 booked thus far and the STDs have only been out for 3 weeks. Resort Stay - We arrive on Sunday, November 28th and leave on Tuesday, December 7th (honeymoon suite). We depart for Saint Martin (our favorite island) on the 7th until the 12th. So a solid two and half weeks off work (since we'll have off starting Wednesday, November 24th for Thanksgiving) sounds wonderful to us! Dress - I did not want any part of a gown so I went for the simple route. I tried on a fun dress from South Moon Under and it was a nightmare with the undergarments (spanx and chicken cutlets under my boobs -- no thank you!). The second dress I tried on was from White House Black Market and I fell in love and purchased it (and I do not need any special undergarments!) Here is the link to the dress: White House | Black Market - Strapless Tie-Front Dress Groom - Tom will be wearing a white linen Tommy Bahama shirt with white linen pants to match. He is Greek and tan so he'll look awesome! Plus, we wanted to be the only ones in complete white so this works out well. Bridal Party - My BMs are wearing blue Victoria's Secret sundresses and the guys are wearing the same Tommy Bahama shirt as the groom but they are wearing khakis instead of white linen pants. Welcome Bags - Side Note: Tom and I are partiers.. we drink a lot when we are in vacation or away at the beach but at home we only drink socially. We have family houses at two beaches in Delaware so all of our guests have partied with us on numerous occasions. In fact, I built his parents a Redskins beer pong table for their beach house! Yes -- we have fun! Anyway, we decided to get 200 beer pong balls engraved with Tom and Sarah December 3, 2010 which we will give to each guest as well (we are also bringing down two inflatable beer pong tables for the pool!) We also decided to purchase sunscreen and bug spray for our guests. Hm.. what else?? Oh yes! The "big" gift will be disposable waterproof cameras. We wanted something useful and thought of the travel mugs to distinguish ourselves but I think with a crowd of 100 we will not need that! Here is the kicker... we are putting all of these above items in a bucket with shovel.. you know.. the toys kids take to the beach! We liked that idea especially since the buckets were $1.00 each and we had to buy 75 of them (one per couple or single person). Of the 210 guest list, 45 are children (hence why we picked DPC), so we are going to make children's buckets as well with coloring books, crayons and more sand toys. If anyone has a very good map of the resort, do you mind e-mailing it to me ([email protected])? I would like to add that with the welcome letter we are writing to our guests. Ceremony - We are having a Catholic ceremony at the Gazebo (undecorated I think). I think we will have the Trio for this event. I do not like having the ceremony in Spanish but my FH is Greek and their weddings are in Greek so he was "okay" with it. Does anyone know is there is a translator? We both started as non-denom wedding fans but the Catholic and Greek family members insisted on a religious ceremony.. I guess it's better to have a 20 minute Catholic ceremony than a 2.5 hour Greek ceremony, right?? Reception - We will have a cocktail hour following ceremony while the bridal party takes pictures. Since we have over 50 guests we are required to have a buffet (which we actually prefer). We are going to have the Dominican Theme buffet. I would like to have the reception at Himitsu but the max capacity is 100 so it may have to be the ballroom. Set Up - We are fine with the white table cloths but we think we are going to try to find centerpieces and bring them down. We will probably need 10+ tables so we were not spending $1,000 for centerpieces through DPC! We were going to ship down everything but you have all made me nervous about that after reading your comments! Place Seating - We have decided to go along with the beach theme and we are putting the place cards in a box of sand with small seashells around the border. Our tables will be labeled as the various beaches we have visited. Guests will just go to their assigned beach table and find a spot! Invitations - Man, we are torn on this one! We LOVE LOVE LOVE the boarding pass invites but they are awfully expensive when you need 115 of them! We do not have time for any DIY projects of this magnitude! We decided just to get the invitations to match the STDs we sent out. Here is the link: Signature White Textured Wedding Invitations - Beach Bungalow by Wedding Paper Divas. Again, we went with simple when it comes to this wedding! Gifts - Totally undecided! I'm going to purchase the jewelry for the girls and I think I may get them personalized jewelry rolls for travelling and some sort of fun Coach clutch or Vera Bradley duffle bag. The FH is stumped on the gifts for the guys but he is thinking about nice sunglasses. We are giving our parents photo frames with our engagement pics in them. We are also each writing our parents and our in-laws notes about how much we appreciate them for raising such a great family. We figured that would be the best present a parent could receive... to hear that their kids are in love and happy, right? What's next? Sorry, I have an excel spreadsheet with tabs of various notes. Still left to do: -Cake Topper -Cake Cutter Set -Guest Book (I like the idea of one bride using a map of the DR!) -Book DJ Mannia (How do you get in touch with him, can someone let me know this b/c we want an MC not just a DJ as provided by the resort). -Photog - I emailed Michael but have not received a response yet (is he usually quick or slow to respond?) -Video - trying to get Michael (see above) -Garter - FH loves the Redskins (hence beer pong table above) but I'm an avid Eagles fan so I think I am going to "surprise" him with an EAGLES garter! -ring bear/flower girl things -song selections for various dances -wedding rings -embassay translations -priest interviews in the U.S. (we already have the Engaged Encounter under our belts which was horrendously boring) -guest information packet (does anyone have template for what they are using/used for their wedding?) -dress alterations I think that is it! I look forward to spending the next 5 months on this forum! Oh yes, one more thing.. Carolina is my WC. She has actually been very responsive. -Sarah