skp1

I just got back from our wedding with 33 guests. Yes, there are a few people who i wish were there but overall I am sooooo happy we didn't have a group much larger than this. We were able to spend time with everyone. I was busy playing hostess and making my rounds like so there really is no time to rest. But we leave Friday for our honeymoon so I didn't care. The smaller group allowed us to do so much more - our welcome bags were really nice and guests were blown away. We rented a cabana 2 days so we all had a central point to hang out together. And we were able to treat our guests to more. I wouldn't change a thing!

Just got back and I think these went over well. It was HOT!!!!! When I looked out to the audience a lot of people were using them to fan themselves. So glad I made them!

It was a lot of trial and error for me. I took the blank template and just wrote the titles of what I wanted, printed that and see where it ended up. I kept changing it and printing it until I got it where I wanted. THEN I started designing the pages. Hope that helps. I can't access my files until next week or else I'd tell you the order. Good luck!

Same for me. If I check at weather.com it has scattered or isolated showers everyday, but if I go to the Bahamas or Atlantis website it's sunny. So I'm not worrying about it. Keep the positive thoughts flowing . We leave tomorrow morning!

I will have a mother of pearl clutch my friend lent it to me from her wedding. I don't have a picture of it but its very similar to this style - only its all ivory and matches my dress. I plan on carrying lipstick, eye drops, room key, cash. We'll have bathroom amenity baskets so most items I could need will be in there (hairspray, pins, band-aids, etc). I hope my tip envelopes/thank yous fit in there - not sure what I'm going to do with them otherwise.

This website has tons of cool guy gifts for all price ranges: http://coolmaterial.com/gift-guide/ This one is great - wish I had seen it earlier: http://coolmaterial.com/home/goldman-leather-koozie/

I did ivory because it seemed like all the shoes I liked were ivory, not white. Plus I was also thinking like Sharon about the white being too bright outside.

Seating was the thing I was dreading the most. No matter how hard you try, there is always someone who gets the short end of the stick. But I agree you have to do it. It's too chaotic otherwise and puts pressure on your guests ( which of course we don't want to do). We have assigned tables but not assigned seats. Plus we figure the tables are close enough together that you can easily turn around and talk to someone at the next one. So that helped us with coming up with the groupings. It's not easy. We are also doing the sweetheart table - that solves a lot of problems right off the bat. And I also agree, don't separate spouses just because one is in the wedding party. Weddings are such a romantic time so your guests will want to be with significant others. My advice would be to not stress about it until you have a final guest list. I kept making tables and the guest list kept changing and I drove myself crazy. I'm happy with the end result - everyone has at least one other couple at the table they know or would get along with. The whole table doesn't have to click but at least no one is alone.

Sounds like fun! My girls night is in the Bahamas - seems like I'm the last of my group to get married and everyone has either a baby or pregnant. Since most are out of town it wasn't really feasible to ask them to travel twice. So we have to be a little more tame since it will be 2 nights before the wedding I did some packing this weekend too. So far I have a 26 inch suitcase full (and overweight) and 2 duffel type gym bags. And that's not even all the OOT and decor stuff. We can check a lot of bags due to our status on Delta, but the problem is I don't have that many bags. My boss had a luncheon for us today so that was cool - I ate way too much considering its so close to the wedding. Oh well, just have to hit the gym extra hard tonight.

The June weddings are half way over! Mine's coming up next - we leave on Thursday - cannot believe its here already! How was the bachelorette Jess?

Totally adorable Carla! It's your wedding, so nothing is TOO much! Love the shoes too.

I packed everything up yesterday and boy is it a lot! Luckily it's only going way

One of my friends joked that we should tell people we're registered at Wells Fargo. But seriously, we did not do a registry even though people said we really should. I know certain people want to give an actual gift as opposed to cash/money but I couldn't think of anything we needed or wanted that wasn't a major purchase. When people ask I politely answer "we didn't register because we just combined 2 households and don't need anything. But if you like to give us a gift then something for the honeymoon would be great (hotel or restaurant gift card or send a bottle of wine to our room, etc)." I know we're still going to get some random gifts but every one of my friends has too and they all registered.

It’s finally time to post my welcome bags - why do we still call them OOT bags when everyone is OOT at a destination wedding J This project has morphed since I started wedding planning 10 months ago – adding and subtracting items, spending more and more money, etc. There were just so many great ideas on BDW but I really had to stop and think about what I wanted. Our event is only a 3-4 day weekend trip and it’s not an all-inclusive so that was my first way to narrow it down – no rainy day back up plans and no drink containers/tip carriers. I also was very conscious about making the items gender neutral so everyone could enjoy them. And lastly, I wanted it to be easily packable – I attending an out of town wedding where the favors were these cute tea light lanterns but my suitcase was so full I couldn’t pack them. All my welcome bag items will either be consumed on premises or packed flat. So here goes…first the bag. I started out the same as the other BDW brides and thought I would use Vista Print for everything. I ordered 2 sample bags with free promos and they are OK but on the small side. I decided I wanted to do actual beach bags and since I’m not making that many I figured I could splurge a little here – give the guests something they will really use again. I am using the 2 vista print totes for the kids so they aren’t going to waste. I was going to do the traditional boat tote but then this striped bag kept popping up in my on-line searches and I fell in love. They are 100% cotton canvas with a zipper closure. I kept seeing them as bridesmaid gifts but they are also used for corporate promotions so the guys should like them too. I ordered them through Motivators.com and they were a pleasure to deal with. I designed the logo myself (for those of you who have seen my other posts, you’ll recognize my palm tree). The bags are large and good quality. I wish they had an inside pocket, but the 2 outside ones are really deep. I’ve already been using mine at the pool and beach. http://www.motivators.com/6867-custom-items.html I made the tags in Word, printed them on cardstock, glued them to colored cardstock and tied the ribbon – all supplies left over from other projects. Since I was trying to get things done early I had these printed before I knew my guests so I just handwrote their names in later. I tried uploading the template but the format and font is all messed up becasue I'm a different computer. For the contents, I didn’t want to throw things in haphazardly since the bags are pretty large. I decided I would divide the stuff up into smaller baggies and use wedding vows as the theme. I made the labels really early so you’ll see it’s a little different than my later DIY projects once I found my official “tree.†Here is everything that’s inside: Welcome brochure - welcome note from B&G, itinerary, guest list, things to do, fun facts about Bahamas, photoshare info, how to contact B&G, direction to wedding site. All the typical stuff. See separate thread for details. http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/73815/atlantis-welcome-brochure#post_1614425 Nassau map which I’m going to get from airport when we land. Activity booklet filled with wedding themed games and info. See separate thread for details. I was going to do the custom pens from Vista Print but once I started making the booklet, I realized guests will appreciate a pencil so they can change their answers. http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/71042/activity-book-pictures-and-template 2 bottles of water with wedding logos – we are buying the water once we arrive in the Bahamas. The labels I designed in Word – got the template from the Knot DIY board. Again, one of my older projects. “For Better or for Worse†– tissues, shout wipes, toothpicks, mints, sunscreen, aloe – the standard BDW stuff. Sure guests probably won’t need some of this but it’s so darned cute. See separate thread on toothpicks. I don’t have a thread on the mint books, but I got that template from another BDW bride. http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/70884/diy-toothpick-books “In Sickness and in Health†– first aid kit with band-aids, Advil, tums, pepto – again standard items. I got the stick figure template from another BDW bride. All the items are sealed – it costs more but I know people are funny about open meds. “For Richer or for Poorer†- $5 casino chip – no explanation necessary “To Have and to Hold†- these are the actual gifts for the guests (we’re not doing favors at the wedding since there is quite a bit in here) – iPod travel speakers, monogrammed baseball hats, magnets, keychain, Life is Good sticker and CD of some of our favorite wedding songs. I know, I know, CDs are so yesterday, but giving everyone an iPOD shuffle wasn’t in the budget. It didn’t cost anything and people can upload it into their iTunes account. We had stacks of CDs and labels at work that no one uses anymore (we all use USBs now). I created the label in Publisher using one of their predesigned formats. The only expense was for sleeves since I didn’t want to deal with cracked jewel cases. The magnets and key chains are DIY and speakers and stickers are store bought. I had the hats done at a local embroidery shop but designed them myself. http://www.origaudio.com/products/the-six-pack http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/73247/diy-tile-magnets http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/64577/personalized-wine-charms post #17 “As Long as You Shall be Hungry†– snack items to be purchased in Bahamas – pretzels, nuts, cookies, chocolates, etc. For demonstration purposes I just used stuff around the house. For the kids bags there is an underwater camera, Trader Joe’s Snaquariums (seems appropriate for our location), marine coloring kit (not pictured here - they must be buried in with other stuff), water and the same hat as the adults. When we pick up the food in the Bahamas I’ll look for some beach toys to stick in there too. That’s everything, and as usual, my posting is super long. Now, to pack it all up…..we leave in 6 days! water_bottle4.doc

Yeah, I think a lot of time you have to think outside the box - wedding sites are not the only source. I wish I knew about the personalized tattoos sooner - I ordered some temp blue butterflies for my "something blue" but would have loved to do something unique.

Ooohhh. Wish they were around when I mailed my invites. Maybe I'll get them for the thank yous.

Your invites came out great! I'm so glad your guests love them. You did an amazing job. I love your monogram-did you design that too? I was never able to find a starfish I liked in Clip art but yours is so cute.

I tend to agree with the others saying to let your guests have some free time. If the wedding wasn't at a resort then for sure you'd need to entertain them so they aren't just sitting around getting bored. But that's the great thing about destination weddings - there is so much to do! Let people do what they want so they can re-energize and be ready to party with the dinner.

Congrats! Enjoy the second time around in paradise!

What a talented DIYer you are! Everything is beautiful. I love the colors and love how the bridesmaids were alternating colors. Great idea.

Good idea about the iPad. We planned on using a digital photo frame but it needs to be plugged in.

I think the dress would look beautiful without the jacket but most important is how you feel. Last thing you want on your wedding day is to be self conscious. You can alway take the jacket off and show off the detail but I think you will feel happier having the jacket just in case.

We leave in a week so I guess this is the final brochure. I keep making changes - to the schedule, info, etc, but no more time for that! I created the brochure in Publisher using one of their pre-designed tri-fold brochure formats and am printing them on glossy text paper. All the info is pretty much the same as everyone else on BDW. I tried to limit the info since it is only a 3 day affair and the resort is just too big to condense into a few pages. For some reason the bolded font is showing funny in this image but its not really like that.

Well, it's 2 weeks until my REAL visit! Hard to believe how fast it has gone. I'm pretty much done with everything - finalized and confirmed all the details with vendors and have all my clothes and wedding supplies/gifts. Now its just a matter of packing it all! At least most of it is only going one way

Totally - fiance is chill and like "whatever happens, happens." But I guess its easy to be relaxed when he knows I'm taking care of everything. To quote Claire on Modern Family "You can't have 2 fun parents." Someone's gotta be in charge.