acw271011

Hi. I would love a report on your photographer as well as pics when you can. we're November 17th and using him and as much as I love his new website, I would love to see pics even though we've already booked him. his work seems really great!! good luck and I know everything will go well!!

Congrats Erin!! glad everything went well. it's such a relief for the rest of us!! lol can't wait to see pics!!! let's hope we all get to say "no rain" first question - the resort did your sand ceremony??? I've already seen here that it got left to the groom to bring with him and set up! if there is any chance I can get them to do it that's great. it's the only way to make sure it gets done the right way. my other half has already asked what the heck we're supposed to do with this thing??? which confirms what I've always believed and that is that all men are hopeless!! lol but we love them anyway!!!

hey - that's who we've booked for our wedding in November. If you backtrack through this site, there are recommendations somewhere because I remember reading them. he has just redone his website - go take a look. www.merrickcousley.com his pics look wonderful. unless you have a fantastic deal to take someone down there, we just have not found that it's worth it so I went looking for a local. I've communicated with Merrick several times and I like how he sounds. plus you have him for the whole day and his rates are great!! I would definitely say take him and I haven't even had any picks done yet lol

please don't say "down to the wire"... my wedding is a week before yours and I'm still thinking I have almost 7 mths still to go and is there something else I need to do?? I wasn't going to fill in that form until like maybe August... I'm just going to go with their sashes and I'm close on the free at 16 (I think) so covers are free and sashes at about $35... I'm fine with that. I was told cake could only be white. No colour added. I wanted to do fresh flowers for the top to try and give it some colour. I've looked at tops and they're all plain so it's too much white. We were going to stay with white cake though only because we know we have people with berry allergies so not taking any chances.

Now you've got me worried. I'm using Tai Floral and she sent me the quote but I went by the numbers of the pics in the catalogues she sent me and said I wanted this and this in these colours and ribbon colour, etc. I figured how bad can they screw up what they've already made?? Now I'm not so sure...

gee. it's going to be weird missing bodies over the next 2 weeks, but hopefully it means a ton of reports and updates and of course a ton of pics too!!!

to the ladies I missed sorry... we're travelling so this is from "on the road". tris, eric katelynn - good luck all of you. have a wonderful time and a happy day. want all the details and pics when you're back! I ordered our flower girl dress today. omg it is soooo adorable. got our bubbles today too and ordered our glasses and cake set. that takes 6 weeks but got ribbon in a colour I wanted. definitely a productive day. got little tubes of suntan lotion in walmart and chapstick sun protector for the guest bags. I found a mini photo album that has starfish on the cover that will hold about 20 pics. thinking about them too but they're online. store didn't have them. does anyone know what the sashes are made of at the resort?? are they satin or organza? we're going to use those I think but I wonderedif anyone asked and got an answer from Chandlynn?

picking up my dress tonight. can't wait even if it did come in 4 months early!!! my step-daughter to be is doing our invitations - watermelon and guava same as our dress colours and she got the paper for them today!! the colour combination is called "tropical punch" but without the rum... so I get to see that on Sunday! even though the calendar says still 7 months to go it actually feels like things are getting done!

good luck, enjoy and make absolutely certain we get a FULL report AND pictures when you get back!!!

ha ha - did the same thing I did... ya gotta coupon wherever you can!! this wedding stuff gets expensive!!!

I'm curious why, when your weddings aren't until next January that you have to have bookings by next week? Gosh - ours is in November and our cutoff for the group rate date is July 6th.

Ok. from the old lady that has been through this before many, many years ago and is silly enough to do it again when I'm this old... you're going to be in charge once the reception gets going. you'll be at the head table. if you can stick the parents at a separate table even if you have to use the excuse that the resort policy is that the tables are smaller so parents can't be at the same table with you. unless someone starts a speech, or speeches, just don't do any. don't open up an opportunity for any. is she the type of person that doesn't mind looking stupid? would she stand up all by herself? let everyone else know that you aren't doing speeches, ones you know who will respect your wishes. if she stands up on her own, get someone to cut her off, either by changing the subject or set up a signal with someone you trust to start tapping their glass for you guys to kiss right in the middle of her talking. that will definitely shut her up. as to the dancing, tell your FI to wait until you're dancing with someone else to go over and ask his mom to dance. there isn't any law that says it has to be in a specific order. so just do your own thing and when the opportunity presents itself, he can go ask her to dance. make sure your dj knows that you aren't dancing with your dad. believe me - that's no big deal either. if people are rude enough orignorant enough to make comments or ask questions tell them it's none of their business. which is the absolute truth. and finally ladies - don't worry about what everyone else thinks. I know it's hard when you've had financial help in terms of planning the wedding. the people that pay think they have a say in it. the comment to that is that's fine. when you get home you'll pay back the money. that generally shuts people up because it makes them feel guilty. you emphasize that it's YOUR wedding and that there are certain things that you want and don't want. and if they can't agree with it, they can just stay home!! it's your wedding. enjoy it!! and if you have to, be blunt and tell the offending person that if they aren't willing to cooperate, then you don't want them there. when someone has paid that much money for a trip, they generally think twice if there is a chance they might lose the money because you tell them you don't want them there. hope this helps. everyone is stressed at this stage because your wedding is so close. if she's driving you to drink, then go ahead and have one and beat her to it!!!

well I got our sand vase at Michaels. had a 50% off coupon so it worked out great. sand we'll look at in party city in the US this weekend. I have guava & watermelon (pretty close to orange & pink but not quite) so I'll see what there is. I really like the vase and I think I'm going to take it to Things Engraved and see what they'll charge to have our wedding date put on. final decision is we're doing the resort chair sashes. we're going to be such a small group that for 25 to 30 bucks I don't have to carry them down myself. I'm still looking for feedback on where to have our first dance if we don't get the gazebo. numbers will dictate, but I'd also like somewhere that we can get together. opinions on the piano bar that I've seen mentioned?? this is the one thing I'm struggling with.... did anyone try to do anything different with the cakes they offer? I asked about colours and was told that I can't change from exactly what the pics are so I'm trying to do fresh flowers on top to liven it up a bit. are the cakes exactly like the pics? they show several layers, or the one that is spaced out on separate trays, which I don't like but I'm trying to figure out if you have a nice cake to cut or not...

if you back track through some of the posts here you'll see that the reviews on the photos done by the resort photographers are total crap and not woth it. there are a couple of local Jamaican ones that there are quite a few comments about and some people seem to have been lucky enough to get deals with taking a photographer with them. we're hiring a local Jamaican one

congrats!! so glad it all went well and thanks so much for the "critique". definitely reassuring for the rest of us to know that GBPJ really seems to care about the couples that get married there!!

That's perfect - thanks, and exactly what I wanted to know. We're still debating about the gazebo to rent. We've just booked and are now waiting for guests to book so it will depend on numbers, but we were wondering where else we might be able to do our first dance...

ok. next question. this will be for you ladies that are the newlyweds. does anyone know with the Pueblo Principe - is it just stores, or are there actually bars and stuff? we read on a site that Pueblo Principe is NOT included with the resort, i.e. you have to pay extra for drinks and stuff if you go into bars there. but we couldn't figure out if they are actually part of this Pueblo Prinicpe or if they're still part of the resort or what? any info would be much appreciated!!

is that Michaels too? that one looks great too!!

hey - that's a nice one!! I saw one on the Michael's site too that is a heart shape, comes with a stand and a stopper too but no sand and that's where I said the sand colours are a bit funky. funny you should say about the coupons because I got a bunch yesterday on my email and there's 50% and a 40%, plus a 20% off your entire purchase. I saw the sand on a US website as well so I'm thinking maybe I can do the Michaels set from here, then maybe check out the sand elsewhere. would a melted candle work as far as sealing it up?? that's a pretty cool idea.

is anyone, or does anyone know anyone, that is doing or has done the sand ceremony? Tai Flora wants $70 for it but they'll seal it up to bring home. I've looked on a couple of the wedding sites and they're cheaper but don't include anything to "close it up" to fly back. the sand colours too are a bit funky too. any suggestions or recommendations???? if anyone really wants the flavour of Jamaica in their ceremony here is a link for steel drum music. check it out. the guy is pretty good and he has ALL the traditional wedding music. I'm not paying for the steel band but this guy has all of it anyway. we even put a couple of the tunes on our wedding website. I ordered his albums and he sent the mp3 links for only $6 US each through PayPal, plus bonus tracks. I figure we'll make up a CD and maybe use it as background music while we're signing the licence and even while we're doing pictures at the gazebo or something. http://www.steeldrummusic.net/ I think I know which one I want for that looooooong walk down that walkway but still deciding.

I just received my price quote from Tai Flora. it only took her a couple of days to reply. I just went back to them on the bouts because I couldn't find which one was included. the one I want is $18 and that's a rose and orchids in off white so I don't know yet what kind of credit we'll get on the bout. I asked for 3 the same only because of colours. it just makes it easier. I know the groom is usually a bit different but I really like what I designed so I'm just going to do all 3 the same. Jennivie told me on a bridal bouquet they'll credit $25 towards whatever you want if you don't take what is with a package at GBPJ but I went back to her on that too because she told me #149 to #164 in the catalogue, but what Chandlyn sent me isn't covered in those numbers except for one. we'll see what she comes back with. I also asked for an approximate quote on a semi-cascade and a cascade just to see. otherwise my MOH boquet is perfect, the FG posey is a great price and the corsage for the MIL is godd too. the one other thing I want is a fresh flower cake top so I sent her a pic of roughly what I want to see what she says for price. what I have now for 3 bouts, MOH bouquet, FG posey, MIL wrist corsage with roses and orchids in 2 colours and a bag of petals is $273 with the taxes. I figure we'll be close to $400 with all of it.

they say "domestic" in most cases unless you go with the royal golden, then I think "premium" labels are served. generally it's the cheap stuff unless you tip well then they'll serve you the good stuff if they have it. I believe for beer it's again the local stuff.

what did they say for how long? I would love a report on them when they arrive. I don't need them for a while yet, but I'll order them and have them sent to my stepson in PA. I checked the site and I see they're in Dallas. I saw the organza - they look really nice. did you ask GBPJ is they'll put them on for you or are you going to ask a guest to do it?

ha. I'm with you jaykay. I wanna go tooooooooo. there won't be anyone left here by the time we go since it's not until november. nobody to show pictures to... all of you that are going soon you ALL have to promise that you're posting pics!!! hey missy&eric - we have friends in Appleton that we're hoping will make it to the wedding!! not divulging anything private, are you close to there? it's about a half hour from Green Bay if I remember correctly...

yahoo - we're officially booked. jamaica - here we come. now we wait to see how many sign up. we may have 16 in total if we get everyone that says they want to go. as long as we get 10 I don't care from there. we got a fantastic price that I'm really happy with and our 16th person is free so if we get that many it's an added bonus and we'll deduct for everyone. my dress has arrived - only 2 and a half months ahead of schedule. not happy about that one... MOH dress is gorgeous and it arrived 2 months early too. way to go Davids in NY. but we got sale prices so I don't think I'll complain too loudly lol we put a temporary hold on the gazebo for a private reception, but haven't decided for sure yet if we'll take it or not. still on the fence but numbers I think will decide for us. Donnalee said 8:30 to 10:30 is the time we can have it but our dinner isn't until 7. I definitely don't want to be rushing through dinner just to get down to the gazebo. still loads of questions... oh yes - and I was told that our ID had to be notarized, and that was in an email yesterday. so we're back to the who got told what?? I work in a law firm so it's nothing for me to get notarized and I think we'll be doing it to be on the safe side. did anyone else decide what they were doing? tris? schayer - what did you do??