MichCraw

Groom's Attire/Ring Bearer & Flower Girl Our colors for the wedding were dark purple and hot pink. We bought my boyfriend's shirt at Le chateau, the tie, pants and belt at Mexx. He found some shoes maybe 3 weeks before we left, Shoe Dept beige shoes for 15$ on sale, one pair left and they were his size! Lucky guy! Sorry shoes are not pictured on this picture! My daughter (5 years old) and my son (2 years old) were the flower girl and ring bearer. I found a dress at a local wedding store, had a purple sash added in the back, as well as purple flowers added instead of the white ones that came with the dress. She had some cute little white sandals, hot pink earrings, a purple and pink pendant I gave her as a gift before the ceremony and I had a purple, pink and white ribbon/barrette made in her hair. My son was almost the exact replica of his father, purple shirt, beige pants, white belt, puprle colored tie and brown sandals. Purple & Pink Decor/Accessories Ring Bearer Pillow & Flower Girl Basket ( and ribbon for flower girls hair) Etsy: Chair Sashes & Table Runners efavormart: My maid of honor and I DIY'd the raffia fans as well as wedding day programs: To be continued....

Our Story/ Background My boyfriend and I have been together for 10 years. We were engaged 8 years ago around Christmas time, however 2 children later our plans for a wedding were put on the back burner. Last year when we realized that A: Our 10 year anniversary was coming up and B: Our family was established and we were happy with our 2 beautiful children. We decided that we would make our dreams come true...a destination wedding!!! My husband is an avid diver, loves the ocean and the sand and what girl hasn’t had the dream of getting married with the tropical blue ocean in the background! This for me was my dream come true! The rings My e-ring is a solitary diamond with white gold and the band, which you can't see properly in this picture is the same design as the e-ring but with 3 little diamonds in the front. My husbands ring bought off ebay for 10$ made out of tungsten hehe ... he didn't want to make a hassle of getting an expensive ring. Where he works he isn't allowed to wear any type of jewellery and he didn't want to get something expensive and then lose it because he has to take it off regularly. We don't have any engagement pictures, in all honesty I had never heard of this before coming on this site! I have known couples to wed and never has anyone I know done this... however I would have loved the idea! Wish I had known.. oh well .. more money in my pocket I guess! Picking a Resort/Date We wanted to get married on 11-11-11 like a lot of people did. The resorts that we could afford didn't have that date available, therefore we chose the first week of December, because we wanted the hurricane season to be over. We picked the 7th, because 7 is usually a lucky number, and my daughter's birthday is on the 7th.... simple as that! As for the resort, we had a few criteria : We wanted to go to a place neither of us had ever been before, I had to get married in a white gazebo, there had to kids games/water amusement for our two children, and the price for 1 week had to be in between 1200$-1300$ in order for most of our guests to afford to go. Would we have chosen the Majestic Colonial if there had been no price issue... NO...however thinking back we were too worried about who would and wouldn't come because of the price and we should have been thinking about what would make us the happiest and this was a one and a life time moment for us. This is a picture of my white gazebo, taken when no wedding is scheduled. Even with no color enhancements I find it to be quite beautiful! We booked our wedding date and wedding week 14 months in advance. We wanted to give everyone that was invited enough time to save up some money, so that they would be able to afford the trip! 20$ a week times 14 months and the trip was PAID! So we made our own invitations and sent them out really early! We didn't have a theme or color scheme determined yet, but we knew the when, where and how much so we sent them out as quickly as we could. My dress and wedding attire I went dress shopping too early. I was determined to get fit and in shape and lose weight, however I went shopping when I was at my heaviest. The boutique had maybe 3 dresses for me to try on, I was discouraged I put a deposit on a dress that I " sorta" liked, thinking that I would be crazy to order a dress I loved in a brochure and then pay for it and it looked awful on me when I got it. So I put a deposit on a size 22 dress, started working out in Jan 2011, eating healthier without starving myself or depriving myself of anything I wanted to eat. The weight came off, I was looking and feeling good.. I was having nightmares at night of the choice of dress I had made. During the summer, I did the what some brides must do... went dress shopping even though I had already put a deposit on a dress... of course with some weight off I could try on more dresses.. and I realized quickly that the shape of dress I had bought ... no longer looked flattering! (If it ever did) So I mustered all my guts and pride and went back to the boutique, talked to the manager and told her that I no longer wanted to purchase that dress and if she would be so kind as to put it back on the rack and maybe let me shop for another dress in the store?! She did, and I tried on quite a few dresses ... and picked one that had almost all my criteria! 1: Sweatheart neckline 2: White not ivory 3: Long train 4: Beading 5: A-Line .. I got 5 out of 5, the dress is partly satin however it didn't bother me one bit on the day of the wedding! First on the model and then a few of me in the dress late lateeeee on the day of the wedding. To be continued....

Just noticed you added some great pictures! Wow photographer did an amazing job, wonderful memories!! Congrats again!