acw271011

Of course you need to do a thread!! Almost everyone does, and the ladies love to read them!!! You can see that the timeline varies a lot from one bride to another. We're still 6 months out from our renewal, and I started just jotting ideas down. Some ladies start at a year out just to try and keep themselves organized. Others wait until their date is a bit closer. I would say it's entirely up to you and whatever you're comfortable with. My guess would be start now. At four months out you're likely getting into the thick of the planning and as many brides to be have found, it does help to keep their thoughts all in one place as well as ask for opinions. Go for it!! We'd love to read your story!

Ok ladies. This is from the horse's mouth: "OK so yes, Azul Fives is expanding the resort rooms. They are adding one and two bedrooms, but they are not adding deluxe rooms or renovating what currently exists. They do have a very small handful of deluxe rooms with king beds, 5 I believe. They don't advertise them because they have so few. We can request the king beds but just like every other hotel, they cannot guarantee that you will get them as they are based on availability. This would apply to every other resort that offers both one and two bed options for the same room. Requests are NEVER guaranteed. I would of course add it to the booking and email the hotel directly to emphasize the request but not a done deal." So definitely worth getting guests to have the TA email in advance to see what they might be able to get. Still waiting to see if it's going to be a deal breaker for us. For the Canadian ladies, Air miles if you're working with Transat, and depending on your agent, allows you to use your air miles to purchase certificates that will reduce the cost of your trip. I found out with a Transat travel service (few locations around the country. google to find one close to you) that you can also use them with that TA for air Canada vacations as well. They have just raised the amount for Transat to $800 per person that you can reduce your trip. If you collect air miles, which we do with an air miles Amex, go to the air miles website and click on travel and using your points. It will explain it there. We should be in line to easily reduce our trip cost by about $600 each. There are a few rules but they're easy to find out. Do they actually make up the two beds pushed together as one bed???? That would be ok but if they turn around and pull them apart to make them every time you push them together that sort of defeats the purpose. If they make the bed up as one bed , hey that works for me!!!!!!! And it just might fix it for our friends too!

Well there's your planning project over the next few days! Take your time - mine I swear took me a week by the time I shifted the pictures and changed the backgrounds and played with the sizes..... until I finally had what I wanted. Plus, our photographer with the equipment he uses, the photos were too big to download. It kept telling me that the file size was too big!!! But hang in there. It will turn out beautifully if you're just patient and take your time. I think they're a great thing to do. We did one for Doug's parents and my father as well and they loved them. I did one of our engagement pics, one of our wedding in Jamaica and then one of our AHR since it had all the photos of our kids. Once I did the first one, I was hooked lol And I wanted to do more. Have fun with it. Wagjag also has coupons all the time so keep an eye out for them. So does Picaboo, which is the other software. They're constantly sending me deals.

You may not have thought to look at yourself in the mirror but you remember the funny little things and that's what's most important. You remember being anxious to see your husband. That's what counts. The photos will show you how gorgeous you looked and you'll have that memory for years to come, but it's the funny little things that you'll tell everyone about and your children years from now, not how beautiful you thought you were. The pictures will show that to everyone. You were gorgeous! I'm so happy that it all worked out in the way you wanted. Thank you for sharing everything with the ladies here. Your thread will definitely help other brides to be that come through the site on their way to their big day! Congrats again to both of you!

Kristy you make me laugh being the "old married lady" now telling the girls to relax and not sweat the small stuff!! I did exactly the same thing almost 4 years ago!!! I love to read the reviews when everyone is getting so stressed and I know I'm talking to a hole in the wall when I say "relax. it will all work out" and I know darned well nobody believes me!! lmao Then everyone comes back and says "I worried for nothing and it all worked out and ladies, don't sweat the little things". it all makes me smile. Your review is great and I'm so happy that everything worked out so well. Your pics are gorgeous. You definitely scored with your photographer. No doubt there at all. I'm sorry I didn't look up the photobook stuff. It was a wild week last week and I honestly slept so much on the weekend. I didn't realize I was so exhausted! But it sounds like you made out ok and if you got the message there are no errors you should be fine! Again, congrats lady! Ya done good!!! lol

The other thing with Amols is they'll ship maracas. Mexican Maracas won't . They were insistent on shipping to my resort which a lot of resorts don't allow you to do. I let it go and said no thanks.

They go twice a week in October, which is why we might have the option to go 8 days. The flights are both saturday and sunday. If I could just get an answer about the beds we could get it figured out. The prices have come down too so we could get something nice for a good price. But it's our friends I'm worried about. I'm really hoping I get an answer to the email soon. Otherwise I'm going back to travel agent and tell him to contact them.

I found their costs were really high and they kept bugging me to have them sent to Mexico. I wanted them to go to the US and they wanted to charge something around $80 to ship them. I basically said thanks but no thanks and I'm going with Amols instead.

I haven't had time to read here at all so if you say its been dead I'll believe you!! lol I've tried to scan a bit in the morning on the train but just too tired. I've tried to take the time for some extra sleep instead!! lol Wow - 6 hrs worth of music sounds great!! What kind of songs did the resort give you? Just curious....

We used mywedding.com 4 years ago and it worked out fine for us. It's funny because I didn't have any trouble putting pics on it or moving them how I wanted. But at my age 4 years ago is taxing on my memory..... so it's likely I'm remembering it all wrong!!

@@hellosassypants At last - the third bride is back safe and sound! Congrats on being a Mrs! You were absolutely gorgeous and I love your dress! it really looks like everything went well. Your pictures are great! And a GoPro is a great idea! Something I never thought about! Looking forward to seeing more photos!

@pddcmc It's good to see you back and congrats on being a Mrs!! You looked absolutely stunning and I LOVE you hair!! It turned out absolutely beautiful!! Who did you have do it for you? Looking forward to seeing more photos!! Your resort looks great too! Which cenote is it that you went to? We went to one the last time we were in Playa and loved it. That one looks gorgeous!

We did have an AHR and we had a blast! Our story is a bit different though. We're much older and it was also a second marriage for both of us. We had everything planned for people to go - we have grown kids and grandkids, as well as elderly parents - and things just fell apart. It was tough but we went ahead to Jamaica and got married just the two of us so we didn't have a huge outlay of money for our actual wedding. We had a full sit down dinner and DJ with dancing afterwards as well as another photographer to get all of the family pictures that we didn't get in Jamaica. We only had a small group though - only 30, and it worked out perfectly. People still talk about it almost 4 years later. Having said all of that, I think you're on the right track with keeping things casual and having simple food. If you made it a cash bar would that let you invite more people? I almost want to say that if I was your aunt I would be offended for not being invited, particularly if it's a relatively close family. But if you're not inviting aunts and uncles why would you invite all those people that you only see once or twice a year and their husbands that you don't know? Family would take priority in my mind and if your mom is throwing a shower and inviting the aunts they might wonder about the rest of it. There must be ways you can find to save a bit of money. Go for it. Invite the family and have fun with it! Good luck!

You've done an awesome job on everything!! It all looks great! I'm going to steal the towel idea - they're fantastic!! It won't be long and you've picked a resort that a lot of ladies here seem to really like!! Congrats and keep posting your planning updates! We all love to read them!!

Very pretty!

I'm so sorry for the loss you've experienced. I know there are a few ladies here that have been through it, myself included but mine was so many years ago. I might be on the wrong track but if these are people you're very, very close to, I would leave things alone for the moment with your invitations. Do your other invites if you would like to, but not your uncle and cousins. Do you talk to them quite often on the phone? Maybe give them a bit of space with your wedding but make sure you stay in touch since they definitely need the support right now. You could always hand deliver an invitation a bit later. You still have lots of time for your deadline and it will allow your loved ones to get through their grieving and figure out if making the trip is something they'll be up to. Everyone handles things differently, and some people, a trip would be the best thing for them. Other people, it would just be worse, and it's difficult to figure it out sometimes. Hugs and all the best. You'll get it figured out I'm sure and in the way that works best for you.

Kristy - which one are you using? I should still have my files so I'll try and open them back up and see if I can see what's up.

I got those too!! lol I got the blue for my girlfriend and I got the white one with peach. Not my colours and I haven't figured out yet if we'll get to wear them but I did get them for one heck of a great price!! Well worth it!!

My lord that's gorgeous! What a beautiful setting for a wedding! I'm sorry you're getting stuck like this. I went through something I didn't like with the resort. I booked what I thought was the Pier for just 6 to 10 of us. The system let me book it and I thought everything was good. It took two weeks before I had an answer back. The Pier wasn't available and the system had stuck us in the garden at 2:30 in the afternoon. Nope. They told me we could go to Azul Beach instead but I wanted Fives. I tried every which way from Sunday to sort out something. Thought we had the Zky Terrace at the time we wanted. Nope. Had to wait until 5:30. Ok we could do pictures first so we don't lose the light. Nope again. Two other weddings going on that had the Sky Deck, the Zky Terrace and then the Pier. We couldn't even get the nice spots for pictures so I just said thanks but no thanks. It was ok though. We got an off resort spot that is gorgeous, it's not our wedding - we're renewing our vows, and we're going to dinner right in Playa del Carmen at a rooftop restaurant. I'm totally happy with what we've got booked. I used someone that is on this site - Joyce from Dream Weddings and I think she's super. But now I just found out that the deluxe rooms are only 2 double beds. I've emailed the resort to see what they say about it as one of the ladies here said there are deluxe rooms with king beds. Keeping fingers crossed!! Well I'm looking for a pat on the back tonight girls. I made it!!! 64 hours this week!!! 3 nights working until nearly midnight, having supper at 1 am and crawling into bed at 2 lol only to turn around and get up at 6 and do it again! And what's totally sweet..... I made my deadline with a whole 12 minutes to spare!!!

Haven't done this for a while, but if I remember correctly you have to have an even number of pages and you have to have pictures on each. I don't think it likes blank pages. So think of it that you have two pages, but it in actual fact has 4 sides. It should allow you to do a review and set the book up so that you can look at it exactly like someone else would be looking at it.

Congrats and welcome to the site!! You've definitely picked a good place to ask for opinions! You'll get a ton of them here and the ladies are always willing to share! You have a pretty comprehensive list of resorts. There are reviews available here for all of them. Just go up to the top to resort reviews and you'll get both good and bad experiences, so good info to make your decision. I can't stress strongly enough the value of having a good travel agent. They will become your new bestie as you go through your planning journey and will help you with your resort decision based on what you want, what you would like for your guests, the time of year, your price point and a whole lot of other factors. Absolutely Beach Palace is one that's favoured by brides here and it has good reviews, but a good travel agent will be the best person to help you out with what will likely be the biggest decision of your destination wedding!! Good luck and happy planning!!!

There is also Picaboo. I've done books with both Picaboo and Photobook. They're both good, both have nice styles. It will likely come down to pricing depending on what you want and how many pages. Like @@Meandhim said, there is Groupon, plus Wagjag does them and so does the other one.... can't remember. They're well worth it. I did a book of our engagement photos and one of our wedding shots and combined them with our AHR. It can take a little time so be ready to be patient. Even if you pick a premade layout, you still have to pick the shots and it doesn't always put them in the order that you want. It's fun to do, really. I enjoyed it and they do make wonderful gifts!

We have our other April 17th bride still awol too. Hope we hear from her soon!

So I'm not losing my mind! ! I knew I had heard somewhere and I figured it was here since you ladies are the only ones that really know anything!! But I couldn't remember which bride it was. We're also looking at doing 8 says instead of 7, which I would live yo do if the bed situation works out. I emailed the resort with the contact the TA gave me but nothing back yet.

That's one of the things I'm worried about!! One of us would for sure end up on the floor or we'd have to sleep separately (not). We have a king at home. We can compromise with a queen and have but a double? lol not a chance. We even made sure when we bought our camping trailer that it had a king bed!! lol