acw271011

hi ladies. well, I have some good news (sort of) and some news that is whatever... lol we are being married at home here on Oct 15th. we finalized it yesterday. after many tears and arguments that I thought would split us up, we've managed a compromise and will have a very small wedding with about 20 people. we can't afford any more than that. but it's ok - we have our best friends and some family that will be with us. we lost everyone to go Jamaica so we are now 2, once they all found out what the others did, everyone just assumed that it was done and decided not to go. but the good news is we are still travelling on our date of Nov 12th and will still have our "ceremony" at GBPJ on November 17th only we'll just have a blessing instead. I didn't want to lose our photographer money that was alread paid so we're taking everything they will give us for the "free" wedding and will have pics done just the 2 of us. on the beach like I wanted to have. it isn't what I hoped for or wanted but it's what I have to take and be satisfied with it and enjoy it. I'm still going to have a dress - not sure which one yet. don't know if I want to take my dress all the way there now for a blessing so I might try and find something a little simpler and lighter and a whole lot cheaper!! lol so if anyone is going to be at GBPJ during the week of Nov 12th to Nov 19th, please come and see us at 2:30 pm on Thursday, November 17th. we'll be the only ones at the gazebo so you won't be able to miss us. but it sure would be nice to have somebody else there even if you just say hi and leave. but if you want to join us for a drink you're welcome to do that too.

well ladies, I guess I get to say "see ya". we lost 2 more of our group, which means we're cancelling our jamaica wedding. my FI is so pissed about the whole thing and I'm just heartbroken. I've tried to persuade him that we could go with just us and our wedding party, which is 2 and he won't do it. he says we'd look stupid being in wedding clothes just 4 of us having a "reception' and I can't change his mind. no final alternate plans yet... still looking and it looks like it means we get married a month earlier because the weather here in November is definitely NOT wedding weather. to salvage anything we have to do a Friday wedding because we can't afford a Saturday wedding but to be save weather wise it means either Sep 30th or Oct 14th. we're still going to Jamaica for a honeymoon and the same date that we planned to leave, just not a wedding... no beautiful pictures on the beach like I wanted.. no gazebo. life really just isn't fair sometimes...

thanks ladies, very much for the support, and believe me I really do understand what you're saying. Dutchie - it isn't our first rodeo either and we're both 50+ so you would think I wouldn't be stressing... the thing is we JUST have 10 including my FI and I. we MUST make the 10 or we lose our group rate, so if we lose anymore we're done, then heaven only knows what the rate will go to if we want to keep the trip at all. yeh - there might be snow here when we go and I would love to throw that at some people, but it wouldn't make any difference, but probably not since we're November. we haven't had snow in November here now for a couple of years. it's our children that have backed out and family. it isn't friends. it's the ones that you think you can count on, especially for what we do for all of our kids and grandbabies. we've offered to help even the little bit that we can financially and they just want it all paid for, which we can't do. the insulting part is we're the ones that will be made to pay when we come back because they "missed our wedding". at this point we can't win no matter what we do. so please keep fingers crossed for us that we at least keep our 10. then we'll have a grand total of 6 people (woohoo) cheering us on when we get married. the other 2 are our wedding party. I'm almost ready to hope that some are holding out for the last minute rate - I know it will be quite a bit cheaper than what we're paying and we got a fantastic rate - $1250 all in with the upgrade to the Royal Golden. maybe if they do that they'll end up on the other side of the resort and I can ignore them....

OMG - you made me cry!! The pics are STUNNING!!!!! And the book is gorgeous!! Who did your pictures? One word - WOW!!

ok. so stress level is sky high right now. our whole wedding is in jeopardy. we've had people canel left and right and have now lost 7 that were supposed to attend. if we get anymore cancellations, we'll lose our group rate, which means the whole darn thing will be off. my FI is totally pissed and threatening to cancel it all. I'm actually looking at a back up site of a winery in Niagara that will cost us a huge amount of money... I so wish we could win the lottery right now!!

Congrats. Glad to hear it went well and you looked gorgeous!! Your dress is stunning!!! I'm going to add my vote too lol and ask who your photographer was. And also, where did you have your first dance? Did you wait until you went to the disco, or make other arrangements before you went to the disco? How late did they allow you to stay there? I'm hearing more and more that bribery in Jamaica will get you just about anything you want... my FI just found someone that he works with that also got married there last fall and he's giving all kinds of tips and info, but the theme to what he's saying is that if you slide a few bucks around, you'll get top notch service above and beyond!!!

beautiful!! and what a super nice thing for him to do!. that's a great dress for a beach wedding and it looks gorgeous on you!!

hey cupcake - can you post a pic of the luggage tags??? that's one of the things we're doing but I'm having a really tough time finding them. I'd be interested in seeing them and how many you have?? my stepson to be lives in PA so easy to send them if I like them. you can PM if you want to.

thanks for stepping in!! I knew I remembered someone had done a "rehearsal dinner" and had emailed the main Bahia people. I should have remembered it was you because you had such a large group and I think you're so lucky that many people cared enough about you guys to make the trip!!

there was someone on here that did a rehearsal and dinner and now I don't remember who it was. I remember they did have to make special arrangements with the main Bahia office, not Chandlyn but it wasn't a restaurant close down I don't think. try going back to about page 180 and check around the past posts. if it comes back to me I'll try to get it here but easiest way is to backtrack here. sorry it isn't any more help than that

have fun with it and definitely check out David's in Mississauga. they are worth the trip and I bet you'll find something that you love at a great price. I love their stuff and that's where we got my MOH and FG dresses but in the US. good luck. send a pic when you get it!!

my understanding is the guest pass is $75 per and yes, if your photographer is not the resort one, then you need to pay. I guess if you're using a DJ that isn't from the resort either then you would need a pass for them. Chandlyn told me that if they aren't using any hotel facilities like restaurants, you don't pay, but if you want your guests to eat with you, then I guess you need to pay for them.

thanks. I really like both of them. the wedding band is a US jewellers called Gordon's. their stuff is really nice and very reasonably priced. my FI's ring is either Tungsten or Titanium - he hasn't finalized his decision yet, but Gordon's has a pretty good selection of both.

so here is my wedding band. it's call an embraceable. I have a 1 ct solitaire and it looks FANTASTIC!!! the bling is gorgeous!! like I said, the lady in the store nailed it!! I absolutely love it. I also got brave and posted my dress. sorry it's not a good pic but I love it. I got tears with this one. I got it in a cream colour with flip flops to match!! keriltz - your pics are beautiful! thanks for the recommendation of Merrick's work - that's who we're using too. but we have him for the whole day right from when the girls are getting dressed and we have invited him to have dinner with us as well. the poor man has to eat, especially since I know I'm going to work him very hard for pics. I want tons!! lol and thanks for the good word on The Grill. that's where our dinner is too so it's good to know the food is good. I'm glad Chandlyn came through with decorations. I'm not taking any either so I hope it looks nice. we only have our sand ceremony stuff but I'm taking the resort's chair ties. where did you do your first dance?

yes I know! lol I definitely plan to check out a few of them!!! and I'm absolutely going to check yours out lol what time are you again on Friday? you can come peek at ours if you want. we're thursday at 2:30 if we start on time!

oh oh. now I feel a bit weird. I fell in love with my dress from a picture 4 months before I even tried it on. when I finally did it made me cry. does that qualify as "the one"? as for the man I'm marrying, he is DEFINITELY "the one" and sometimes I look at him and love him so much that makes me cry too!!! even after 10 years!

wow - 7 weeks. I wish. we still have 5 and a half months!! I'm starting to really think about it now and really look forward to it just because it's getting closer. I found my wedding band last weekend and I'm in love with it! I didn't know what I wanted but the lady in the store nailed it. you're right about it being so quiet here now. it's weird.

hmm that may be worth looking into. my concern was whether the resort would get it right. they certainly don't have the right "free" bouquets. Tai told me whatever the resort sent me for the freebies was wrong so that worries me a little. I know I can save the credit card fee so I might just be happy with that. As much as weddings are expensive we're still getting off a lot lighter than if we had it here. but I'm going to get in touch with Jennivie and see what she says.

ha - I wondered the same thing!! my price quote also has an $18 delivery and setup fee. not sure what it is they're going to set up????? it's bouquets - what set up is there? PLUS did you notice the tax rate of 17.5%?? my tax alone costs more than my MOH's bouquet!! PLUS watch out for the 4% credit card fee that gets charged too!!! so all totalled on my order it's $93 to pay the tax, have them delivered and then pay by credit card. no wonder the flowers are so much cheaper than they are here!!!! they make their money on all the add-ons!! I'm avoiding the credit card fee by popping across the border to Niagara Falls which we do all the time anyway and going directly to a Bank of America and I'm going to put the deposit directly into the bank account number she gave me. or at least that's the plan. I'll let you know if it works or not. my photographer also is charging the 17.5% tax. is it any wonder it's a poor country?? I thought things were bad here but I don't know how they afford to pay that level of tax down there!!

We're Nov 17th and have a local Jamaican photographer, Merrick Cousley. there are a few girls on here that have used him. his website is www.merrickcousley.com his work looks fantastic and his prices are great. no bad reports that I've heard. he has a FB page too with more pics there you could check out. there is also another one that was posted on here Marcia Roberts I think was her name. her prices seem pretty close to what we're paying and her work seems really great too. you could check her out as well.

I found the review. Thanks a lot!! That's good things to know about the gazebo. We're still deciding on it only because we still don't know our numbers yet so still trying to decide if it's worth it or not. At this point if we don't take the gazebo does anyone recommend an alternative for a first dance??? I'm not liking what I'm hearing about the disco and I doubt too many of our group would be interested in it anyway. I really don't want to do it before we have dinner right after the ceremony. That just doesn't do it for me. But I'm just so stuck over this. The gazebo is quite a bit of extra money if we end up with a group of 10, which at this point is entirely possible. Now that it's coming down to the money crunch people are dropping like flies!!! So any help would be DEEPLY appreciated!!!!! Thanks ladies. This is really buggin me....

our flower girl is 4 (just) and her rate with taxes all in is $750. out TA said it's flight only. in the room with her mom & dad she's free.

hi. burlington, ontario. Gran Bahia on november 17th. we did the email save the dates too and it worked out great. if anyone is interested in the steel drums without paying for steel drums there is a guy with a website that for $6 will send you the tracks of all the typical wedding music in steel drums and they're really great. here's the website. check it out and give it a listen. www.steeldrummusic.net we haven't figured out where we're doing our first dance yet at our resort and I'm not sure yet if we're doing just CD or CD and ipod. still time to figure it out. lol and I do have a DJ in the family so if you have questions I can email him and see what he says. there are a couple of good Canadian places for OOT bags. this place is in Alberta. www.weddingstar.com they have a few nice things. I also have a step-son to be that lives in the US so I order stuff from US sites, then just have it sent to him so it makes it a bit easier. happy planning!!

hey ames - I'm 3 weeks after you, and we did our dresses in March. they said 15 weeks but it came in early so I already have it at home lol unfortunately, the store where I bought mine DOESN'T store it and I had to bring it home, then I have to take it back in September to do the alterations. I'm ok with that though. it's my incentive to stick to my diet!!!!

omg that's beautiful!! I love the colour. that's much closer to the colour I wanted for mine, but I settled on ivory, just not as dark as I was hoping for. where is this dress? it's really gorgeous!!