acw271011

Thanks ladies. @@snswedding2016 I totally agree!! @ is very talented!! I love what she has put together for me so far!

@@Wafflesmom My dad lives in Langley and turned 94 in May so between Doug's parents who are both 81 this year and my dad, we're making sure that we find a way every year to spend time with them. You never know how long they'll be around. Plus one of our kids is in Vancouver so we'll see him and my dad. Doug's parents are in NB so we literally have to go from one coast to the other! lol

Aww you looked beautiful! And I love the little veil and tiara.... It looks like it was a great night!!! We'll be in Vancouver the 17th to 21st of November - I'm definitely going to add the name of the restaurant to the itinerary. The toys look like a lot of fun too! Oh - I would wrap up the "gun" very well if you're sending it lol I worked for canada post for a number of years and if that happens to get scanned.... lmao someone will have a story to tell!!! that would be something to tell the grandkids.... (oh I'm sitting here having a great giggle!!!!!!!)

It looks like you had a beautiful wedding! Your dress is so pretty and you looked gorgeous! Congrats on being a Mrs.!

Oh shoot. Sorry. Forgot! lol So it's the old Fionn McCools at 181 University Ave, at the corner of University and Adelaide (north east corner). It's now called The Merchant. You access the restaurant from inside the building. You can also use the Path following directions towards the Hilton Hotel. I've added the Trip Advisor review as well. The phone number in case anyone gets stuck is 416.363.1944 http://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowUserReviews-g155019-d8073346-r304140962-The_Merchant-Toronto_Ontario.html Looking forward to seeing everyone! We will have one newlywed in the group again - @@diadiamond will be just back from Cuba so should have plenty to tell us!! lol Then I guess there are a few of us that will be really close to "leaving" (me included!). Should be a fun night!

I'm in and yes - the location is reserved from 5pm until approximately 10pm. But that's not carved in stone - we can cancel if we want if someone finds a better location and we can stay longer than 10. I just gave that as a guide.

@cruisebride2016 I'm not sure what it is you need to "get done" in Ft Lauderdale before you embark unless it's thing related to your wedding. For me, the time at home to pack and have a bit of down time before you fly would be appreciated. Just my opinion.

Congrats and welcome!! Jamaica is a beautiful place to get married! There have been a couple of brides at Royalton and some future brides as well. I've attached one of the threads that I found. Definitely do a search in the search bar at the top of the page and a couple more will come up along with reviews. If you spend some time reading you'll probably get your questions answered, or at least a couple of them. http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/topic/76145-royalton-white-sands/ The other thing is a travel agent. They will be invaluable with taking care of your guests while you plan your wedding! You can speak to them about your wants and don't wants and your budget and the budget you would like for your guests. They can also help out with possible group perks you might be entitled to so definitely worth talking to one to see if there is anything that you might qualify for. You don't say what country you're located in - if you ask the ladies here will definitely provide TA recommendations! Good luck and happy planning!

Both are very pretty. I think I like #1 a little bit better only because I don't like the "one strap" look of #2

ha ha yep. So the gold one is my wedding band. It's an embraceable so my e-ring, which has been a solitaire, fits in between the two bands. looks really pretty. For some reason the prongs on my e-ring have worn down so I decided to have the stone re-set into a halo setting which is the white gold ring (or at least a model of what the new setting will be). I wanted a yellow gold setting but after looking at what was out there, the white gold looked really nice. Plus I had wanted just one band to add with our renewal but the lady in the store showed me the really thin white gold band. I fell in love with it but she said why not add two - one on either side of my wedding ring. it did look really nice so I went for both. The only thing now is that with having my diamond re-set I really hope it's still going to look nice. I didn't have the little thin bands when we went on Friday night so I didn't have them to try all together to see how it looks. I think I'll be ok because my fingers are somewhat long and rather thin so I don't think it will be too much. Fingers crossed. lol I know. I have no idea where the time went. I still can't wrap my head around the fact that we're in September already. The year is nearly over! lol I really don't know if I'm excited yet. I have done so much overtime between January and the end of June that I'm tired more than anything. I'm more excited about just getting to Mexico I think right now. I'll get excited as the time gets closer. I agree on the dress. It was a great deal and you're right that navy is sophisticated. To me it's just looks elegant, especially in a long dress. I'm excited about the new setting for my ring. They don't know why the prongs have worn down - I think I'm really hard on my rings without intending to be. My e-ring was a higher setting and I know there were a few times that I remember hitting it so that might have added to it. Thanks on the dress. That's something I AM excited about lol I was so disappointed when the salon called on Friday to cancel the fitting yesterday, and then when she said after the 27th of September my heart sank. It's out in Guelph so I can't get there going from downtown until at least 7 or 730. Traffic going west on the 401 at night is horrendous at the best of times. In rush hour it's ten times worse so I'd be easily 2 and a half hours from downtown between the train and driving. The earliest is the 1st of October but I would rather do a Saturday so we went for the 3rd. Now I just hope she was right and the alterations won't be too bad and they can be done in less than 2 weeks. And I hope it looks as nice as the one I tried on. It definitely won't be as snug fitting as the photo model!! I'm nowhere near that thin!! lol And I swear they always put a size smaller on those girls than they should!!

I agree with @calgarybride2015 Very happy to see you come back and post a review! What beautiful pics and I love how they are all decorated up for Christmas!!! Can't wait to read more!!!

1. Budget. What amount are you looking to spend since you will have just spent quite a bit of money on your DW? Did you include this in your overall wedding budget? We ended up spending more on our AHR really than our wedding since our wedding was just the two of us, but with everything I think we were close to $5000 2. Type. What kind of AHR are you planning? Is it formal or informal? How long will it last? Will you also have a dance after the reception? Ours was sem-formal I think. We started with family photos ast 4 pm and went right unitl 1 am. We had a cake cutting, dinner and a dance afterwards with a DJ. 3. When. How long after your DW are you planning the AHR? We had ours 2 weeks after coming home from Jamaica. 4. Food. Are you having a buffet or a formal sit down dinner? We had a sit-down dinner, family style. 5. Clothes. What are you wearing to your AHR? Your wedding day attire or something else entirely? I wore my dress again and hubby wore a tux since it was November and cool out. I had to get a shawl to wear with my dress since it was strapless and the weather got quite chilly. 6. Invitations. Formal or informal invitations? We sent out flat card type invites ordered from Vistaprint. 7. Photographer. Are you hiring a professional photographer for the day? Yes 8. Cake. Are you having a traditional wedding cake for the AHR? Yes 9. Decorations. What kinds of decorations are you having for your AHR? Not a whole lot. I have a friend with a business and she brought some twinkle lights that she put up and another friend made the table centerpieces. 10. DW Photos. Are you going to have these on display and if so, how? The room we rented had a tv screen and we set up a slide show that ran all evening of photos from our wedding in Jamaica.

Oh those are so cute!! They turned out great!!

I hope you'll come back and post a review and pics. It's always a help for future brides! Congrats on being a Mrs!!

Yay! Another thread to read! I love your story! So cute! Sometimes life just does things that there is no explanation for and you just have to roll with it. Making a long distance relationship work for 2 years is no easy feat so congrats to both of you! I love cruising although we're Carnival cruisers. I don't have sea legs though so I live on dramamine the whole time but i'm ok with it. I love being on board! Looking forward to reading more!! This will definitely help any future cruise brides to be that find the site!

Geez - they say when you have kids, then grandkids and get older time goes by so much more quickly. They ain't kidding. I cannot believe we leave 5 weeks from today! Ouch. I'm also in the middle of a major arthritis flare up right now so it has been a really tough 2 weeks. I hope we get it under control before we leave. I have to climb stairs up to the ceremony terrace and right now, there is no way in a dress and heels that will happen!! lol Update Just as an FYI for ladies still looking for bridesmaid dresses, with credit to @@nkavanaugh (and I think someone else. apologies to whoever I'm forgetting. its old age!) I ordered a dress from lulus.com to take to Mexico, figuring it would be great to wear for dinner since we have a dress code where we're going. I thought if I ordered a basic colour it would be a good addition to my closet and wearable for lots of events. I ordered it in navy but there are a ton of other really pretty colours. It's called the Royal Engagement dress and was only $68US A warning though I find it fits small but I'm definitely on the heavy side so it's probably just me. I'm sort of in between a 12 and 14 and wear a large top and I ordered an XL in the dress and it's perfect. Way too long mind you, but the fit is just fine. No alterations needed at all except hemming it. I don't know why I can't get the pic to be right side up - it's fine in my file folder but whenever I upload it here it's sideways. Sorry. My rings came in already so I picked them up yesterday, and here is the ring I got for Doug. I asked again yesterday at a different jewellers and they said the same thing about sizing. Can't be done but they said if we have an extended warranty we can return and get another ring. We don't sadly. But it's ok. I'm ok with it. I'm disappointed that he can't wear his wedding ring where it's supposed to be worn but it is what it is. But absolutely if anything happens going forward, this ring can be adjusted!! We were out on Friday night, and I think I mentioned before that I had talked to Doug about resetting my e-ring. We had it checked and they told me the prongs are wearing down so we needed to do something with it before the diamond fell out. Well we ended up at Michael Hill and this is the result. And after nearly 4 years I'm relinquishing my wedding band for 2 whole weeks and they're taking the guards off, sizing it properly and putting all 3 together. Surprisingly the white gold, in the new setting, looks totally fab with my wedding band. I couldn't get over how gorgeous it looks. We used a ring in the store to choose the setting so they had one that I used as a "model" to see. I was blown away. With the little rings on either side, I think it's going to look really pretty. But now I have no wedding band or e-ring on my hand and it's driving me crazy!!!!! Oh yeah - and I finally lost some weight!!! On my fingers! woohoo. Gotta start somewhere I guess..... Ring size is down to between a 5.25 and a 5.5 Now if we could just get that to translate into some weight loss somewhere else...... sigh I ordered Vows Books from a seller on Etsy that I found that is canadian. In BC to be exact - Peachland. She was wonderful to work with. Super easy going, very quick to reply and she has some cute designs. Plus, being in canada there was no postage to speak of. The total was $17.75 cdn all in and she'll work with you on both design and colours. Since we aren't having a wedding ceremony it means we pretty much will write what we say. We have an officiant that specializes in renewals thankfully but I've known pretty much since I came out of the hospital what I want to say. So here's the pic of how they turned out: Couple of things I picked up for the guest bags, thankfully only 4. So very easy on the wallet. I know others have bought the sunglasses from Logolenses. Just a quick question. These seem like really hard plastic - does anyone else find that? Or did I order the wrong ones? lol I ordered turquoise, pink and black. The turquoise and pink are for photos but there is no way Doug will wear the turquoise for a whole week so the black is to bribe him with to wear the turquoise for pictures! lol I have never met anyone that can go through sunglasses like my husband. I think he's on his 4th pair this summer! Because we're doing dinner in a restaurant off the resort, we had to make menu choices (like everyone else) but i was kind of nervous about it. I hate choosing something for someone else to eat, and sure enough when I showed Doug what I had picked for the menu, he didn't like it. My husband is one of the pickiest eaters (for a man) that I've ever come across in my life!! But he loves Mexican food as do I so he immediately was looking for something with poblano peppers. Really?? Are you kidding me?? lol So I changed the menu and we now have 5 choices available for the main course. I've said before I don't have a creative bone in my body. God handed out the design gene and totally skipped me. But there is someone here that does some absolutely incredible, totally beautiful work and has a new Etsy site. So with the help of @ and her "somethingmint" site, I now have a great looking menu and a door hanger too! Door hanger name out.pdf Lastly, I said I wouldn't do this but the schedule of things has gotten all screwed up. My dress is in already and I was supposed to go and get it fitted yesterday and talk to the seamstress about blinging the dress up just a little. But her aunt passed away and she has a week's vacation scheduled after dealing with that so I can't get in now until October 3rd. To say I'm nervous.... well that's an understatement. I told the lady at the salon to guarantee me that my dress will be ready by the time we leave which will literally be 2 weeks. She feels based on measurements there will be almost nothing beyond the hem in terms of alterations, and since it's just a single layer, that should be really simple. There is boning in it that has to come out because my surgery scars just can't handle it but again, she said this is really easy to do. I want her to make some little cap sleeves out of the stuff she cuts off the bottom, and like I said, add some bling somewhere. I think I'd like a line of crystal buttons down the back seam and add something to the bottom in the back so that it looks nice from behind. Then of course we have to do the bustle but with the style, again the lady in the salon said it will be very easy. They're outside of Toronto too so she said alterations won't be hugely expensive. So here it is: Obviously, my size won't be anywhere near as "clingy" as this and it likely won't look as nice as on this model. But I was happy with what I put on and it's a bit "older" in style (in my mind anyway) and just a bit sexier than my first pick. The whole top is beaded and sparkly as I want but the sides are see through. Just a little bit of pizazz. All of our stuff is done in terms of arranging things except for deciding on a schedule with the photographer, Samuel Luna, and I'm struggling with that. We've now decided we're going to have Styling Trio on resort because it's half an hour from the resort to their studio then back again to get ready, and travel was just taking up too much of the day. I've asked Doug about a first look and he seems to be on board but now it's adding more time to the schedule that I hadn't planned on but Grand Coral doesn't have a lot of places for photos unfortunately except the beach and I definitely don't want sand in my dress or my shoes. At least not before dinner. So with the layout of Valentin, a first look might be a good option. So we're trying to work it out. It will come and Samuel is being so patient with trying to put it together.

@@Meandhim That's great news about your nan. Happy to hear she's improving. You're another bride that is so crafty! Wow! Everything is really great. Love the meet everyone idea. It makes it very personal for sure. And the message bottles - totally cute!!

Yay! Congrats on being a Mrs!! The big date in Mexico will be here before you know it!!

Yay! You're getting so close now! I so can't wait to hear all about it when you come back! It will definitely fly by, and taking a few days before you leave was a super smart idea, plus a couple on the return side as well. All 3 locations look really pretty. It will all be beautiful, I'm sure. Love the flower ball! And the other decor bits will be perfect! We had a steamer in Jamaica and it was invaluable and plan to take it to Mexico too. You will definitely appreciate having it because as @@calgarybride2015 said, the resorts charge a fortune for steaming. You're on the same schedule we were! lol - We left on Saturday, got married on Thursday and came home Saturday. it definitely does fly by! Make sure you take some time to look around and take it all in. Deep breaths! It will all be gorgeous!!

Nicely done! The pics are beautiful!

Congrats and welcome! I'll totally agree with the two previous posts. There are several threads here about Azul Fives if you just search up top in the search bar, and MTM provided you with a couple as well. It's a beautiful resort and the Sky deck is very popular, but be aware that it's at a cost. Good luck and happy planning!

Oh I love everything! It's all coming together beautifully! I like the colour change too! lol Groomzillo lol I like that! But sounds like he had a good idea! Doug did that too when we got married. That beach location is really beautiful, and with that gazebo and the draping - gorgeous. I don't think it matters if it's painted or that colour. Both will be beautiful! I've heard good things about Tulum Beach as a setting too. You can never go wrong with a buffet, unless you have like 200 or 300 people. lol Then it gets complicated (jk) But really, a buffet to me works so well in a setting like you have where the groups are more intimate and as you said, something for everyone. I think it will work out just fine. I have to agree with @calgarybride2015 Don't let your mom get you down. Parents can sometimes be tough on kids when there's a marriage breakup, and that's speaking from experience. It isn't to be mean. It's just that feelings are raw and emotions can get the better of you. I think it's wonderful that you have such a special relationship with both your parents and its so sweet that you can still have your dad walk you down the aisle in spite of the tension between them. I can't see why anyone would question it. Your dress is so pretty and suits you beautifully! That veil is beautiful too! And talk about luck! Wow. You know, even if it isn't a perfect match, unless it's way, way off in colour, I think a little bit of a difference is ok if only so that both the veil and the dress get the spotlight. The flower is pretty and while it seems a bit big, once your hair is properly done the stylist will set it up in such a way that you're happy with it and it will work out great. By the way, (I'm behind here lol) I love your STD and invite cards. I think they turned out great!

Oh I know this goes all over the world. Absolutely. But I'm a bit more careful about pics and so on that I post here and last names don't get put here. And my FB account is closed only to friends with some things locked for only me to see and I don't use tags. We've also asked the kids not to tag us in photos. If they want us to see them, email them to us. Doug uses Twitter. I've never been interested in it. The only reason I set up Wedpics is because there are only 4 people that are going to be there besides us so it will be easy to ask them if they take pictures to put them there so we can access them. Technology has exploded just a little too much for my taste. We found out the sex of 2 of our grandchildren on FB and believe me, we read them the riot act. I know for all of the young people here and our kids it's all technology but it's a bit different for us. We still try to keep some of it out of our lives.

I dunno..... still sounds pretty complicated to me. I think it's something I'll pass on for now lol I don't want anything I post to go all over the world.... I did sign up for wedpics though. Not sure if that counts or not! lol

But on which page though? I post pics on FB all the time and have never used that hashtag thing??? People can still see them (I think).