skp1

beautiful!

I'm carrying all my stuff too - heard too many stories about shipping and things getting caught in customs. I checked into the shipping broker my hotel offered but its geared towards conventions and minimum price was about $250. I think there is still a chance that you could get caught at customs via airplane but probably not as much. Luckily I have status on Delta and between my fiance & I we can check 3-4 bags for free plus each carry on one. Now my only problem is finding that many suitcases! I have one large one that I NEVER use anymore and my plan was to fill that and leave it in the Bahamas - I was going to get rid of it anyway. Hopefully some of the others will be soft (duffel bags) and they can be packed inside another one for the return trip. Most of our guests are coming from other cities so we can't really spread it out.

I love the background picture with Welcome written in the sand - could you upload that to share? A few other suggestions for more pages. You're doing awesome! 1. If you don't have your itinerary on another document, you may want to add a page for that 2. things to do in Jamaica - my welcome brochure has a section for "at the resort" and "around town." I'm sure no one will use it but it looks right. 3. If you want more games then you can do a word search - mine had all wedding stuff, but you can do Jamaica phrases or something. Or I have one that says "Congratulations Steph & John" at the top with instructions to come up with as many words as possible using those letters. Most of the others are wedding related too - like match the famous couples, match a quote to a movie, match song to artist, etc. 4. This is from the Knot - I think it was their "guest book" - it's mad libs with advice for the couple. I think its so cute. I found the official Mad Libs logo on-line and copied that to the header, but I used the exact same wording (changing names of course).

Oh, by the way I called the spa at Atlantis and they don't use Mac - they use Colorscience which I've never heard of. Good luck this weekend - let us know how it goes.

That's pretty cool about the Marriott registry. Most hotels offer gift cards and that was what we were going to tell our guests to get us. But I've never seen the actual registry so guests can pick what they get you. Guess hotels are adapting to the times....I'm sure we'll see this more often in the future.

I used sandwich size bags - I prefer Glad over Ziplock but neither one had any writing on them. They are a bit thinner than the quart size bags but the first aid fit without a problem. I had checked in the craft stores also but only found ones with open tops and didn't want to have to tie them all.

Wow - your guests are going to be so surprised! I think people expect a bag of goodies (water, snacks, etc) when they travel out of town for weddings, but nothing like this! Absolutely great. I'm trying to figure out bags so I may have to check this vendor - these are really nice.

Wow, I wish I had photoshop! These look amazing and so much fun. I'm working on something similar - only thing left is the crossword puzzle - still thinking of questions and I might steal some of yours.

I am so against registering too as we don't need need anything. But I too am getting hounded by people who want to give a gift (mostly those not attending). I was almost on the verge of breaking down, but honestly I don't even know what to put on a registry. So my new thing now is to just tell people to buy us something at the destination or for our honeymoon. I don't want to do an official honeymoon registry but the same thing by word of mouth - spa treatment, dinners, excursions or just a resort credit or something. We'll see how that works.

coconoir - I used file folder labels - these were Avery 8066. They were a little longer and i just trimmed off the edges to make them the right size. I had to play around with test prints to make sure I wasn't printing on the part I was cutting off. Good luck!

I got the white ones at Party City. I looked every time I went to the supermarket or liquor store and only fond striped ones or wooden ones. I finally found them at Party City - they had a bunch of options. The white ones were a little more money - about $4 for 250. The other options were the same price for like 1,000.

Those look good sharlie - I love the color! I did mine for the wedding (Bahamas) - I'm not having an AHR - still planning on doing a pre-wedding party - something more casual. I made 250 stirrers and when stacked neatly they all fit into a quart size ziplock bag so this is probably the smallest thing I'm packing for the wedding! BDW had been awesome for ideas!

Additional things I put in mine: Guest list (no room numbers - just names Fun facts about the destination (gotten off the official Bahamas website) Photoshare information (same as on photoshare cards) Things to do (just standard stuff like snorkeling, tan at the beach, dance at one of the clubs, spa treatment, etc.) Contact information I haven't uploaded mine to BDW yet since they aren't final (wedding is still 4 months away).

I finally have everything for my photo guest book - its a little different concept than the ones I've seen on BDW where a book is made up beforehand. This will be similar to having a photobooth (minus the booth) and letting the guests create the book. I ordered the book from The Knot which is specially made to go with the Fuji Instax camera. I ordered the camera and film from Amazon. I put together a box of things like boas, leis, funny glasses, beach ball, etc for guests to take funny pics. I printed a sign with instructions (wrote it myself) and had it laminated at Office Depot. We'll probably do the first page with a pic of bride and groom and a thank you to our guests. I'm really excited to see what we have at the end of the night.

I had the same thought too - my wedding colors are shades of blue so I thought it might be nice to have some bit of color in the necklace (my flowers will be white calla lilies so there won't even be color there!) I was thinking something subtle like a mix of clear and light blue stones but have not found anything yet. Glad to see I'm not the only one thinking about this.

My neighbor honeymooned at the Grand Wailea in September of this year and he said his wife was practically crying when they had to leave. I'm pretty sure we'll do Maui instead of Kauai because it would be more convenient for day trips (like if we wanted to do to the Big island or Lanai or something). I'm also pretty set on Wailea as opposed to West Maui after I've done some more research. My coworker recommended Classic Vacations (he's used them for lots of trips) and they have a special now with a $500 airline credit when booking at the Four Seasons. So it ends up not being much more than Grand Wailea. Last week I was busy dress shopping so I wasn't able to do much honeymoon planning but I'm hoping to book within the next 2 weeks. Lanai looks awesome, but my fiance isn't much of a beach person so we have to stay somewhere with more activites.

It's done girls - I ordered my dress yesterday. I decided to go with that flowy Demetrios dress and am so happy about it. I really think it is representative of our event and of me. One more thing off the list!

Welcome to the board! Sounds like you are making some good headway so far. The planning can be a lot of fun and stressful too. BDW has been awesome though! I can answer some of your questions. Although i don't have first hand experience yet since my wedding isn't until June, I did go on a site visit and meet vendors in October, have spoken to others and done tons of research. Flowers - I met with Wildflowers and Cacique during my site visit so those are the only 2 I know. The prices from Wildflowers are so reasonable and they are so NICE! Seriously, I felt so comfortable with Natalie and Alexander and felt they really understood what we were looking for without trying to oversell anything. They were so willing to tweak things to get our price right. Cake - my wedding is at Atlantis and I don't think w e are allowed to bring in any outside food so I haven't checked vendors for that. But the Atlantis cakes were to die for! We tasted 3 and they were fabulous...pricey though. DJ - we hired Jose but I didn't get to meet him during my site visit (he was out of town). I believe he DJs at a club so he has that vibe. here is his contact info: [email protected] 242-324-4903 Entertainment - we are also looking at Junkanoo and have the same feeling about the YouTube videos - some suck and some are great. During my site visit we saw one in the Marina Village (they do one every Saturday so you should try to catch it while you're there). It was awesome but I doubt those are the ones doing weddings. I'm curious to see any responses on this one. Officiant - we hired Matthew and met him during the site visit. We are Jewish and Catholic so we wanted something neutral and Matthew seemed the right fit. We originally looked into using a rabbi & priest but priests wo't' come out of the church so we nixed that. Photographer - I went through the same stressed out period trying to find someone to do the whole weekend and fly them in, etc. But I finally said, forget it because of pricing. I couldn't find any destination deals and then factoring in the flights and hotel it was just way too expensive. I figured there will be plenty of people with cameras as the other events (and I have one friend that does it semi-professionally so I'm thinking of tasking him with some of it). So we are just doing the wedding and hired Tim Aylen. Hair/Make-up - that's my next project. I have 2 names of makeup artists but haven't spoken to either one yet. I wear Bobbie Brown and also thought about going to the store downtown and seeing if someone there could do it. I have another site visit next month so will check the options out. I'm hesitant about using the resort spa. Travel agent - we're not using one so I don't have any info there. Good luck! And ask lots of questions - we've all been there.

Perfect! I'll probably do something similar since I have the extra paper from STDs.

I'm in full swing with wedding projects - here are my bag tags. I'll be using gallon size and sandwich size plastic baggies and the tags will be stapled along the top. I just used card stock cut to the width of the bags and folded over.

I actually went to the store yesterday and tried it on and loved it. I have one more bridal shop to hit tomorrow and then its decision time but I am leaning towards that 3rd one above. The others were not in the store. For me its a ceremony and reception dress so it has to fit both bills. I was surprised how well it fit and how comfortable it was - I can definitely see myself in it all night!

I decided I would do a little amenity basket in the bathrooms since it was going to be so cheap and I already was going to do custom hand towels. The bathroom near my reception site is pretty bare so I felt it needed something. And while its a public restroom, its off the beaten path from anything else so there shouldn't be anyone in there that isn't a guest. I don't want to carry any "baskets" in my suitcase so i just took some old gift boxes and wrapped them in extra invitation paper and put a ribbon around it. Not my greatest work, but hey, its gonna be thrown away. The girls basket is a lot more full than the guys. Here is a list of items I put in: Both: Tissue, lint roller, shout wipes, static guard, Advil, band aids, tic tacs, lotion (using hotel sample packs) Girls only: hair brush, hair spray, hair ties, bobby pins, nail file, tampons The hand towels were ordered from The Knot

Yeah, I'm trying to get away with one dress - its hard enough to spend that money for a one time outfit - i want to at least wear it as long as I can!

natalie, it's by Allure Bridal (their Far & Away line) and I think the price tag at the bridal shop I went to was about $695. Still more than I wanted to spend, but less than the long dresses. Here is a link: http://www.allurebridals.com/far-and-away-gallery.html

I've never used Shutterfly so I can't say anything about it, but I've used Snapfish for years and years to share pictures with friends and its VERY easy. Used to be you could share photos without your friends having to sign up which was why I chose that one originally, but now everyone wants you to join.