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@@Eadrianne1990 congrats and welcome! You've come to the right place if you're looking for info and planning tips, and the ladies here are always happy to help! I see your wedding is in December so not that far away!! You've chosen a private villa - is that where your wedding is going to be or have you chosen another location? How many guests do you think you might have? Have you chosen a travel agent yet? What country are you in - we have loads of brides here from the U.S. , Canada and also the UK. A travel agent is a great first step if you don't already have one. They will work with you on your budget, the budget you would like for your guests, your wants and don't wants and some of the other details that will help make your decision on locations, packages etc. Good luck!

This will be well woth it ladies! If you just got engaged and feel like you don't know where to start, do a quick half hour or one hour call with Joyce. She will get you pointed in the right direction so that you can move forward with your planning and be relaxed about it!! After all - this is supposed to be a fun time in your life, right? All the best and happy planning!!

Oh god I'm so far behind.... I'm sooooo sorry! Congrats on being a Mrs!!! I'm so glad it went well!! Everything looks absolutely goegeous! You've done so much work! It will all be fantastic and you will be a stunning bride!!! I love the nails!! Great glitter!!! lol we ladies do love our bling!! You'll be in the air now while I'm posting this but now you have to relax and........ BREATHE!!!!! It will be fabulous!! Take it all in. Enjoy it!! Can't wait to see pics and hear all about it!! Have an awesome wedding week and a beautiful wedding day! I know it will be everything you dreamed it would be!!

I'm good any date in March or April. We don't have an April anniversary Ours is October. We got married right before our 10th anniversary (only date we could get after it all fell apart) and our renewal was on our 4th wedding anniversary! April is such a pretty month.....

@@Janjin What a wonderful review! I'm so glad everything went as planned! Your photos are stunning!! it sounds like everyone had a great time! Congrats on being a Mrs!!

Safe the dates are usually a bit more on the fun side. It also depends on the relationship with the particular people you're sending them to. i wouldn't be too formal with them. It's supposed to be your way of saying "hey. we're getting married and hope you can be there" Depending on how many you're sending out, you generally can figure about 50% of the number of people that will actually attend.

@TaraW That's super that you're willing to share! They turned out really great. I'm sure you'll get some takers!! Thanks!

@cksk2016 I was in exactly this same position last October except in Mexico. We renewed our vows and had a super miniature size group, which ended up only being 4 of us. We had our ceremony off site then had a beautiful dinner in a really nice restaurant in Playa del Carmen. I had the same thing happen. I had our photographer booked and wanted him to do getting ready shots and a first look at the resort where we were staying. Plus I booked the makeup people to come and do my hair and makeup and my friend's hair and makeup so that we could get ready at the resort. Wrong! They only charged me $105 which is a day pass for the makeup people but the photographer charge ended up being $435 and it didn't matter how much we argued they were NOT getting on board. I had the same argument - we weren't using ANY of the resort facilities or vendors. We were leaving the resort. They didn't listen to any of it. They said we had to take a 2 hour package with their photographer which was going to cost $350 no matter what. I knew nothing about them, about their quality. I don't even remember the name right now. I told my husband that it didn't make sense for a photographer that we had already paid a fee to for a 5 hour package to not come to the resort and pay another $350 for someone I knew nothing about. I stood in the resort lobby and cried. To me it was just so unfair. My husband is so amazing. He stepped in and we paid the outside fee. I really don't think you'll get around the outside fee for your photographer, but I would absolutely try and get the makeup people in for only a day pass instead. The one thing that works in Mexico (not sure with Jamaica) is that the top makeup people do airbrush makeup and the spas at the resorts don't so you can say you're getting a service that the resort doesn't provide. It doesn't always work but it's worth a shot. I've been on this site since 2010 and the number of times I've heard from brides about the outside vendor fees they get charged..... if I had a nickel for reach time I'd be rich I think. It's one way resorts really do get you. Most of the vendors they use aren't really much good, especially the photographers. I've heard of brides here paying $800 and $1000 per vendor in fees, mostly for photographers, which really is outrageous. For us, in the end, we used the resort's gardens and little bridges for pictures. Since we paid the fee I made absolutely sure we went anywhere we wanted to for photos. I'm absolutely certain you won't regret going off site. I'm soooooo happy we did. Places I looked at just didn't cater to really small groups. Wanting to stick us in a la carte restaurants with all of the other people around just wasn't on my radar. We got a great private room in a restaurant that closed us off form the rest of the venue and it was absolutely great! The other thing to look into is whether or not your makeup people have an off site salon or somewhere that you can go to for having your hair and makeup done. I looked into it and if I had known ahead of time it would be an issue I would have picked a resort closer to town because it absolutely was doable. But it would have meant more than an hour's travel and we were already tight on time. That may be worth it for you if they're able to do it. Good luck! it's a crummy thing that the resorts do and sometimes you need to be creative to make it work but if you can figure it out it will all be worth it.

@AmberDee Congrats! Dreams resorts seem to have good reviews! I'm curious about one thing - why would you not put together a proper dinner for all your guests? That may be rather awkward just showing up and asking for seating for 68 people, and my concern would be depending on the time, they may turn you away, or seat some of you but not all of you. That would concern me for your guests. I know it's an all inclusive but that's a large number to try to seat all at once. The restaurant would need time to set up I would think, and if it's at a popular time, they may just tell you to come back or have you stand around and wait. The other thing I noted was that you mentioned only 30 minutes for photos. I can guarantee that isn't enough time, especially if you have 68 guests!! Don't you want family photos, or individual photos with parents or whatever? Then of course there are the photos of just the bride and groom. The photographer will generally ask for a minimum of one hour and longer if you have specific photos that you want taken. Same thing with your cocktail hour. I'm thinking trying to squeeze your dances and speeches into 30 minutes is going to be really tight. Are people going to stand around for half an hour, or are you going to arrange seating for them? What are you doing for music? Do you have a DJ? You don't say what date in September you're getting married. That will determine how much daylight you have. The sunset starts at the beginning of the month at about 7pm and by the end of September it's 6:30 pm. We renewed our vows in Mexico last October 20th and by about 6:15 the sun was starting to set. The difference there is that the sun goes down very, very quickly and it gets dark fast. Even if you are at the beginning of September and have a 6pm ceremony and go with your proposed time frame, by 7pm it will be dark so your cocktail reception will be finishing when it's dark. Just a couple of things for you to think about. The other thing when emailing the resort - try to put all of your questions in order in one email and it makes it easier for the coordinator to respond. I'm a bit surprised you haven't received any communication. Generally you'll get a confirmation or something that says when they'll get in touch with you. Good luck!

I'm going to agree with everyone else and say that having your coordinator meeting the day before, if they'll do it, is no issue. Just make sure you have your questions, notes, emails and set up instructions on hand with your for your meeting. It can last anywhere from and hour to 2 and a half hours depending on the size of your event and they'll go through all of your details with you. The coordinators are professionals and do hundreds and hundreds of weddings every year. It will all work out.

@MrsGuralewycz2B I'm absolutely on the travel agent side!! First of all, why would you want the stress? Let a professional handle it. A good agent will work with your budget and the budget you have for your guests as well as helping you stay within that budget. They'll also help with your wants and don't wants. Your guests will have a resource for their questions instead of trying to contact you while you're in the middle of wedding planning! A travel agent is definitely the way to go and one that specializes in destination weddings is a good route to go. The owners of this site - Wright Travel - are destination wedding specialists. You can go to the top search area and look under vendor reviews for the section on travel agents and see what past brides have said about their experience. I'm also an October bride and we renewed our vows this past October in Mexico. For health reasons I couldn't go full steam on planning until about this time last year and it all came together in time so you're fine to put it together for October of this year! Good luck and happy planning!

Generally with a destination wedding brides will do something more local to where they're having their wedding. Many brides have done maracas with a Mexico wedding or small tequila bottles. I've seen a couple of suggestions as well for Jamaican destination weddings. With chocolates you still need to worry about transporting them, no matter how they're packed and if you're in a tropical climate, chocolate doesn't hold up that well sitting out on tables.

@@jmp403 Congrats on your upcoming wedding! AHR can be tricky things sometimes.You definitely have some challenges associated with yours, namely the fact that you have two cities 6 hours apart. We had an AHR 2 weeks after we got married in Jamaica. It was a small group though - only 30 and we had a sit down dinner with a bar and DJ. It was great and everyone still talks about it 4 and a half years later. We held it in the city where we live. We made hotel arrangements for our out of town guests and managed to get a group rate for the cost of a room. The only thing I would be concerned about would be expecting people to drive from 6 hours away with all of the costs involved with that, to attend a stop and go. Just my personal opinion, but if we were invited to something like that I don't think we would bother. Could you not do something in a family member's backyard in "city A"? I think people might be more liable to attend something "short and sweet" like that if it's close to home. Is there a special reason why you don't want it to be a reception? One of the "hitches" of a DW is the people that can't attend and it's actually pretty common. If you have that large of a family and feel the need to do something to allow those people to celebrate with you post-wedding, my feeling is that you might be the ones that need to do the travelling back to your home city. Then you may be able to have a stop in type of situation. Otherwise if you're expecting people to travel 6 hours, you will likely need to rethink your idea of no reception. Good luck!

We renewed our vows last fall in Mexico as Joyce mentioned. We were a very small group but still wanted something nice so we went off resort for our renewal ceremony and a dinner afterwards and it was perfect. I didn't have a great experience with resorts because we weren't 30+ people so it made it a little frustrating. I'm not saying it can't be done. I just knew what I wanted and the resorts weren't great at providing that. We had an absolutely beautiful day and reminded both of us what it is that brought us together. It was really special!

@maria1488 Wow - you've done a fabulous job of putting everything together, and your date is really getting close now!! You and @@yycbride2016 are very close together! Definitely keep posting your updates so we can see your plans coming together!

@deecol Wow Dee - that's awesome!! Let me know what the cost will be. I have UK pounds at home!! Thank you!! @perianjay I know!! lol She really looks like she wants to be in the pic!! I thought about chopping the photo to cut them out, and might still. I think that's why Kim was so confused about who was in the pic!! lol

@nadiakat17 I totally agree with you! I watched something on the news last night about this exact same thing! Brazil is NOT a country with a great healthcare record to begin with, and with it being such a highly catholic country, birth control is not regularly practised so there is a high birth rate as well. But the news report stated that the investigation has begun as regards the microcephaly and that it hasn't yet been determined that all of the "reported" cases have been caused by the Zika virus. I completely agree that the media have really seized hold of this virus reporting and jumped all over it. I know the WHO has issued a statement as well and I know there is some concern about the increase in cases over a short period of time. But for the MAJORITY of people, the virus is of no concern, and there are people that don't even know they've had it! Yes - the biggest concern seems to be for women that are pregnant or trying to become pregnant. But Mexico has only 1 or 2 reported cases and they were in Mexico City, not in the Yucatan or in the are of Cabo. I read that there were 2 cases in Vancouver of people that came home with the virus I believe they had been in the DR but don't quote me on that. I would have to look up the article. But there was someone on tv from the Canadian CDC and he said the breed of mosquitos here cannot support the Zika virus, that it is a breed typical to climates like that in Brazil so there is no concern of the virus being transmitted here by mosquitos. We've been to Mexico about 6 times now and have never once received a mosquito bite. We were in Cuba a number of years ago and took bug spray with us and it never was taken out of the suitcase! We ended up horribly sick from something else, as did about 8 other people on the resort. I would be more concerned going to the DR than I would about going to Mexico, particularly given that the Chikungunya virus also seems to be very prevalent in the DR. They seem to get it all there!! The fact remains that you're going to countries where the level of "protection" isn't what you're used to at home so naturally you should take precautions. If there are recommended vaccines for a specific country, it only makes sense to get the vaccines. I'm going to say again what I said earlier - BE AN INFORMED BRIDE. It's that easy. Obviously your guests are going to make their own decisions in the end, and what is best for them. But if you have someone that seems to be spreading panic, try talking to them and discourage them from making comments that might upset other guests, and back it up with information! Forewarned is forearmed! And again - countries like Mexico that rely heavily on tourism aren't going to risk something like this that could cause a mass panic and bring down the levels of tourism. Mexico has proven that they are becoming very proactive in dealing with situations that they can deal with to keep the tourists coming!

@2ndTimeMrs Just wanted to wish you a wonderful wedding day!! I hope it's everything you wanted it to be and more!! Can't wait to see photos!!

Of course! @ashhtayy ask and you shall receive..... lol Just ignore the group at the other table!!

@@TinkerSofi I'm in with everyone else. Love the pics. Gorgeous in your dress! Definitely looks like it was a great party! It's too bad you got sick but glad it all worked out! Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

@snswedding2016 Great info Steph. Thanks for helping out the "up and coming" brides!! It means a lot to have information passed on!

@Brandie Congrats and welcome! Secrets WO is a beautiful resort. There have been several past brides that have been married there. If you do a search up top in the search bar for your resort you'll get some threads to read through. You can pretty much bet that every question you have has been asked and answered somewhere here! In fact there is a bride there right now that is getting married on Tuesday! Good luck and happy planning!

@Brandie If you do a search up top on DIY or boarding pass invites you'll get a ton of threads. They're very popular with brides here and there are a number of them that have posted their templates. Publisher does seem to be the most popular for designing them but I've also seen them here done in Word. Just do the search and you'll see what comes up. You can also do that with just about any other project you think of because I'm sure it has been tackled by brides here before. Good luck!

@Berg999 Hi! Have you tried checking any of the Karisma threads to see what past brides have posted? There are several - Azul Fives has a couple of popular threads and I'm sure that if you do a search up top on El Dorado Maroma or any of the other properties you'll find threads to read and get opinions. Good luck!

@Vivthebride Congrats and welcome! As you can see there is no shortage of help here when it comes to planning a destination wedding! The brides here - past and present - are always willing to pass on information and suggestions! Absolutely the best place to start is a travel agent that specializes in destination weddings. Depending on your resort and the number of guests you have there might be special perks available and it's only a TA that will know what you qualify for. Picking a resort will be the hardest part. After that, you can have so much fun with it!! A travel agent will help you with your must haves, what you don't want, your budget, your price point for your guests. Even which country works with your wedding vision. Good luck and happy planning!