skp1

I like to read Jennifer Lancaster on vacations - she is a total hoot. her books are funny and totally easy reads. They are engrossing but not so much that you can't put it down to do something fun. Bitter is the new Black Bright Lights big Ass Such a Pretty Fat Pretty in Plaid My Fair Lazy If You Were Here I only read the first 3 so far.

Oh yeah, the other thing I realized last weekend is that I have to do pre-wedding events indoors. I am a mosquito magnet - we were out on the patio of Seaglass for about 30 minutes and I got about 6-8 bites on my legs. So I have to avoid that at all costs - my wedding dress is short and I don't want to look like a leper!

I am also in the same boat. Originally I wanted to elope and not deal with any of this but my fiance wouldn't have it. So then I figured we'd have something small - close friends and family - 25-30 people. Well, we started talking about it and as usual EVERYONE wanted to come. So we changed our plans - private reception, DJ, table decor, cigar roller, etc. I sent out invites first week in March and out of 44 invites only 11 RSVPs so far. There are 2 more weeks before the deadline, but I'm not so confident. I think we are going to end up with the original group of 25-30 family and close friends which is fine by me, but we spent a lot of extra money to change the event to accommodate 40-50 people that we thought would come based on their initial comments. Those people are not close to us and I won't miss them, but it is annoying because of all the extra time and money we invested. I guess it's not a big deal at a traditional wedding to have 125 vs 150 people but its is a big difference between 25 vs 50. I wish people understood the ramifications before they made comments about attending. And by the way, money IS NOT an issue with any of these people - they have more than they know what to do with - so its really just a matter of convenience to them. Anyway, as long as the important people are there, it will be fine.

I loved the "table art" which is featured on the home page - its such a unique idea and great detail on the instructions.

I forgot to report my update - i was there the same weekend as Crazed Trader. We already did our intital site visit with vendors so this was part vacation, part small stuff. First and foremost we applied for our wedding license - it was really quick and easy - we arranged this service through Mathew Sweeting's office so we had an escort, although i think it would be pretty easy on your own. While it was fast, I'm so glad we did this ahead of time and won't have to leave our guests during wedding weekend to go downtown. While we were downtown, I stopped by Bobbie Brown and arranged for them to come to the hotel wedding day. It's just my sister and me so I was quoted $85/each. I expected that - I'm just glad they are willing to do it. I did a trial - not full wedding makeup, but regular and I completely trust the BB artists to do a soft, natural look. Phew, what a relief. I also did a hair trial at Mandara Spa. They tried to convince me to do it a day or 2 before the wedding but again, I don't want to leave my guests to do all these things - there will be enough to do then. I brought in pictures and thought I was pretty clear about what I wanted but it didn't come out that way. it was OK, but not great and it cost my $144 (including automatic tip). So I'm not sure what I am going to do for the wedding. I don't think I can do it on my own. My friends have said they hated their trial too so I may do it and just be more proactive with giving instructions. Other than that we didn't do anything formal. We met with the GM at Carmines to arrange our rehearsal dinner. Jose was trying to convince me to do Luciano's instead and I know the food is better, the atmosphere/view is better and they are more attuned to dealing with parties, but Carmine's is just so convenient. The dinner is for all family, not just those in wedding party so its quite a group to gather. There are some people who are notoriously late and then factor in the size of Atlantis and not being familiar, there is no way people will arrive on time. At least this way if they are late, its not holding up everyone including the transportation vehicles. I think having it on-site will reduce our stress level - if someones late, so be it, they just need to walk over themselves. We also spoke with someone at Mosaic to arrange our Sunday brunch. I was expecting to see a wedding on the Royal Overlook but my wedding coordinator was incorrect about that. There were TONS of weddings that weekend, but none in my spot Oh well. At least my fiance and I had some time to spend in the areas and work out some of the logistics we had been debating over (like when and where to do the junkanoo). 10 more weeks - lots to do!

KrysP - for STD's you should send those as soon as you set the date (or at least within a few weeks of that) whether this is 6 months or 18 months ahead of time. For invites it really varies - I sent mine 4 months ahead with RSVP 2 months ahead. But a lot of other brides are doing it much earlier. I think it depends on the type of event - mine is just a weekend, no travel agent involved, people picking their own travel dates. I think the people doing a week with everyone coming and going on the same date and from the same place need to send earlier. harkatea-the seal is wax and a stamp. I forgot to add that to the list at the beginning. I got the wax and stamp at Sam Flax (an art supply store). Micheals has some but is pretty limited - just gold and silver wax and initial or heart stamps. You can also do a search on line. The wax comes in little candle sticks and you just light, drip some on the envelope and then stamp. Some of mine came out nice and round but the majority were a little off. but I think that gives it character.

I think technology has changed a lot. I had my bikini and underarms done years ago - they actually changed machines midway through and wow, what a difference. The current lasers cover a much wider area so its soooo much faster. underarms are like 5 minutes. The pain definitely increases as you progress in your sessions - they turn up the volume. I started with my legs about 2 years ago and never finished because my skin holds a tan like you wouldn't believe. every time I went in they told me to come back in another month - I can only do sessions in the middle of winter and even then I'm sometimes too tan. It is SOOOOOOO worth it.

Just do it - it's your wedding so its your choice. Forget about what any guests say - how many weddings have you been to that you were not happy about? It might have been less expensive, but it was still you do something for them. I'm sure no one consulted you or asked your opinion when they made their plans. Now it's your turn. Having close family guilt you is another story. But you have to stick by your guns. If this is something you want (and sounds liek you deserve!), then do it. You will always regret it if you don't and worse yet you will resent your parents for taking this away from you. Their disappointment right now is short lived, but your disappointment will be forever. Anyway, I'm speaking from first hand experience - about 5 months after I planned my Bahamas wedding my mom told me she can't go and in every conversation i hear about "if only you were having it here...". I feel terrible but ultimately know I would be so miserable if I was forced to get married in my mom's hometown. And I would hold it against her and that would ruin our relationship. I'm sad she won't be there, but know I'm doing the right thing.

OK, this one is dorky but figured I'd throw it out anyway. I had a ton of extra ribbon from my invites and thought of making those ribbon pins like for breast cancer. I know people won't wear them the whole weekend but maybe they would just for the first event.

No news on Aura admission. My fiance got the manager's business card to call and try to arrange something but that could literally be a week before the wedding. I guess when you only have one task on your list you don't have to do a lot of planning and time management like we do.

I'm just going to put Atlantis, Paradise Island on them - maybe the palm tree from our logo - I want something unique but not too frufru. I guess some of the older guests might not wear them, but I know all my girlfriends will - especially out at the pool. But its almost impossible to find gifts that everyone will enjoy - we have guests ages 5-75!

I plan on making baseball caps for my guests (they will be in the OOT bags). I'm going to do them with a local embroidery shop. But Vista Print has some too and if you catch a coupon you can load up. It costs a little more but I want my guests to keep the stuff I'm giving out and not just trash it after the wedding.

Ach - I just gave up on the petal fan! Did you cut them out yourself or buy the paper that is perforated? I love the idea but after I cut them and started putting them together, none of the edges lines up. I used a rotary trimmer on the sides which was fine but had to hand cut the curves top which is where the problem came about.

Too funny! I'm sitting at Cain at the Cove now and am loving it. The main purpose of our trip is to get our marriage license. Everything else we are doing can be done via phone but I figured i could use another weekend getaway. And this way we aren't rushed wedding weekend. After wedo our license Monday I plan to stop by Bobbie brown. Worst case if we don't have time I'll do a make up session at home and have them right down the palette. I plan to do my hair at mandate. Not sure if I will do a trial this weekend or just consultation I also plan to spy on one of WC's wedding on royal overlook. Jose said he was booked for private parties this weekend. Very busy due to spring break. He might be at club Waterloo Sunday night.

Oh, I believe it! Before I started wedding planning, my friend who just got married said "everything is negotiable." Well, so far at Atlantis NOTHING is negotiable. I've accepted it by now, but it is frustrating. I am going to Atlantis tomorrow and plan to touch on some of the wedding weekend events (wedding is pretty much set) and one thing is Aura - we plan on going there after the reception. I put my fiance in charge. hopefully being there in person will be more effective than trying over the phone. I was hoping that reserving a table would include admission and maybe it would make more sense than for all the guys to pay $20 a head plus drinks. I figure we'll probably have about 10-15 people who attend the after party. I'll let you know what I find out.

I started out intending to do a book for kids with coloring and games but then decided, why not make it for the adults? I know I sometimes get antsy sitting on the beach and this would be a fun way to keep occupied and provide a few laughs. I know a few other BDW brides have combined a welcome book with this sort of thing but I have a separate welcome brochure so I made this strictly fun and games. Most of these are typical bridal shower games with a few extras thrown in. I intend to have an answer key at our farewell brunch. I got the booklet framework (page set up, margins, etc) from The Knot DIY board so it was easy to paste all my stuff into it. I did everything else myself - titles, pictures, tables, and biggest of all - searching the Internet for all the answers! I had some help from the following sources (The Knot, romancestruck.com, bridalshowergamesAtoZ.com, puzzle-maker.com and various other information web sites) Since its nothing formal, I printed this on regular copy paper and then added a colored cover (also copy paper, not cardstock). Getting everything in the right order was a little challenging - its printed double sided and folded so the template is not in order. I stapled the inside pages together and then spay glued the cover on. Here are pictures, the template and answer key.... activity book 2.docx activity answer key.pdf

Awesome! I still have another month or so of DIYing. Seems like there is always something to do.

ooohhh, I love it!

Hi Amurka, I did make the logo myself in Word. In one of my many clipart searches I came across the palm tree - it wasn't a stand alone picture though - it was part of a group picture and I deleted the rest of it. I just looked again the only way it will come up is if you search for "sunscreen" (that's one of the 3 items in the picture-I inserted it below so you can see). Once you have it in Word, first make it the size you want then right click and chose "edit picture" so you can delete the other stuff and change colors. I downloaded (for free) the Honey Script font from Dafonts and used that for our names. the rest is standard Word stuff - inserting text boxes and dotted lines. Hope that helps - unfortunately I don't have a clean Word copy of the monogram - only in JPG now.

How about golf balls? Those can be done pretty cheap and its more specific to them (as opposed to the camera which is neutral). Cigars are probably too expensive but what about a cigar cutter or something like that? We're doing all neutral items in our gift bag so I don't have any first hand suggestions.

I saw this in a restaurant last summer and loved the idea – instead of a book of matches advertising the restaurant they had what looked like matches, but inside were toothpicks. I knew right away I wanted these for my wedding. Problem is the idea has no caught on. I could find plenty of wedding vendors selling matchbooks, but none sold toothpicks. The only ones I found on-line were geared toward restaurants with the lowest minimum quantity being 4,000! I was going to go ahead and purchase them anyway because I really wanted them, but seriously, what am I going to do with 4,000 of these? So I decided to make it into a DIY project. Using the tattered sample from last summer I made a template in Word and printed it on white cardstock. I neglected to try one out beforehand and after getting carpel tunnel from cutting and folding, I realized I was 1/8 inch short. Ugh! I adjusted the template and started over. Due to all the angles, it’s easier to cut with scissors as opposed to the rotary cutter so I can’t make too many in one sitting. I cut the inserts using a craft knife left over from my STDs. Then folded the flaps and along the dotted lines. The “book†is made to hold 7 toothpicks – the fancy style ones with rounded tops. I got a box of 250 for a little over $2.00 at my local supermarket. So not counting my time, it’s a pretty cheap project. I’m putting one book in each OOT bag and then a few in the bathroom amenity baskets. I’d love to have some more, but they are time consuming to make so I’m not sure I’ll be able to do it. I have a few more projects to do, so we’ll see. I'm attaching pictures and template in case anyone else wants to do it too. toothpicks.docx

I've definitely heard about this problem on message boards - I think its fairly common. I put a line item for names so I have been OK so far (knock on wood). But I have noticed about half the people are not putting return addresses on their RSVP envelopes. I've never heard of couples having to put the that on the envelopes - I mean these are going to adults - they know how the mail works. Not sure what the solution is for you. I guess at the deadline, maybe you'll be able to figure it out by process of elimination. if not, some e-mails/phone calls will be in order I saw one suggestion a while back (which I was too lazy to do) was to hand write a small number in the corner of each RSVP and correspond that with the guest list. Then if someone didn't put their name, you'd be bale to cross reference the number.

Our wedding party is going to be family members only. MY sister is my MOH and originally my fiance's 2 sons were going to be joint best men. That's totally reasonable since you don't want to chose one over the other and hurt any feelings. But then my fiance decided to have his brother be his best man so I assumed his sons were groomsmen. Well, I was working on making program fans and had them listed that way and my fiance said I should change it because his sons think they are all 3 best men. I know destination weddings don't have rules and you can do whatever you want. We are having an uneven wedding party which I am fine with. If I wasn't making programs I would care what they called themselves, but it just seems odd to have them all listed as best men. Should I go along with it? I guess in the scheme of things its not a big deal but just wanted some feedback. By the way, the sons are 20 and 25.

Lovely! I particularly like the outside of the brochure with the wavy photo across the middle.

I agree with you that you don't need anything. Like you said, the folder will hold it together. Without attaching them, your guests will be able to flip through more easily.