acireta

that's awesome, thanks for the info! we're also using Island Bliss Weddings! Janelle has been great so far. Since the ceremony includes champagne/punch and cake, we'll do toasts and stuff there. then i think we'll be doing a lunch reception somewhere on the island, then dinner as usual in the dining room since we have the late seating. if we end up having a huge group going we'll do the steakhouse that night. i hope people will still have a little bit of time after lunch to shop or look around for a little bit. the ship doesnt leave until 6, so i expect they will.

welcome, i'm also an April 2012 bride!

We're doing the cruise wedding thing on Carnival. Our wedding will fall during Holy Week in 2012, but we'll be in port on Holy Thursday so people will be able to go to church during our time in Grand Turk. My family is pretty religious (my mother especially), so it would probably be a big deal to them to miss church on a holy day of obligation. I'm sorry you're having a stressful time with your wedding planning! I hope you guys can nail down a date soon to put your mind at ease!

I'm a Phi Mu, but we won't be doing the sorority traditions at the wedding. My chapter will probably force me to sit and be sung to at our next alumnae event LOL (we have a thing we do when someone gets engaged).

what a great planning thread, and what a beautiful wedding! i have to say thank you so so much for posting your amazing to-do list. i love to-do lists! Being at the beginning of the planning process and completely overwhelmed, it gave me a great starting point to start thinking about all the little things and when they would need to happen!!

i think you need make sure the position of the textbox is set to tight or overlay so that it will move as an image without disrupting text.

that's so great! what a relief for you and for the girls who have weddings today or next week! nice to see such responsibility and customer service nowadays (i sound like my grandma! :-))

by trolling i meant scouring, poor word choice

i have been trolling these destination/cruise wedding boards, and one thing i have NOT once seen is that someone was disappointed in their hair done by the spa. everyone has had nothing but good things to say. i think you have a great plan to do a trial run with the spa. maybe you could do the trial run on the first formal night and look great for dinner!

ahhh that's terrible!

i like the second one, love the colors. could you maybe make the names a little bigger to really make it pop?

So sad! I'm in Downers, so I'm pretty close to you. Let me know if there's anything I can do (i don't have a dress yet so i have nothing to really give to those girls) :-(

beautiful dress, you look great! i think a sweetheart neckline would definitely look nice. it would nicely change up the straight lines of the bodice.

Completely agree, no question. What about the security line and presecurity airport locations? They are completely vulnerable. They'll probably put xray scanners in the security cameras next, instead of actually working with other government agencies to pre-target bad guys.

They have put this into place here in Chicago. My coworker flew this week and chose the pat down. Apparently they pat up your leg until they "meet resistance." That's gross. I'm not sure about the grabbing the boobs part, since he is lacking in that area! Some have suggested that they are trying to make the new pat-down as invasive and embarassing as possible so people will opt for the x-ray machine. I think either option is quite creepy.

Maybe Union Station? That would look awesome! Or somewhere in the theater district? the Oriental Theater is friggin gorgeous, maybe they'd let you take pics in the lobby? I don't know how feasible these ideas are for your location and timeline for that day.

i think we kind of had a breakthrough last night about the on-island coordinator. if we use an on-island coordinator and do a light lunch cocktail reception on the island with time left before we have to reboard the ship, we could provide dinner for everyone at one of the specialty restaurants right? even if we didn't call it a "wedding reception". I've also heard you can special order a cake in this situation?

We do this too, every year! I usually get about $200 a year, just from cleaning out change from my purse regularly! No secret stash for me, but we'll be putting away tax returns and increasing how much we each contribute every month to put more into the wedding fund. once we finish paying off the credit card next month, all the money that would have gone to credit card payments will also go into the fund. i hope we can do some major savings before too many payments roll around!

we're not doing a STD, we're sending out invites one year in advance and then some sort of little reminder postcard when it comes close to booking deadlines. a bit reversed from usual!

that's kind of what i was thinking. Princess might be a bit more upscale, but then again Carnival really was such a good time when I was on it... I have a bit of both in my group I think.

Everyone on this board has so many great ideas I would never think of in a million years, so I wanted to throw this out to see if anyone has some insight. This would be my ideal plan but I'm sure it will evolve along the way! Tentative idea is to take a 7-day cruise (Princess or Carnival) in March or April 2012. We'll book through a TA and use TWE for a shoreside ceremony in St. Thomas (Limetree maybe?), pics on the beach and hopefully Paradise Point, and then a shipboard cocktail reception and dinner in one of the specialty restaurants, heading to the disco after that. I've read the horror stories about TWE but all the things they seem to screw up are either things that I don't care about or things that can be solved on the ship. We also plan on doing a cocktail party early in the week to welcome everyone and maybe a cabana for the group at one of the beach locations. Anyone have any thoughts about this plan? We'll be missing hurricane season, but I wonder if there are other things I should consider before moving forward. We're pretty tied to the idea of a cruise and St. Thomas. Anyone have thoughts of Carnival vs. Princess or other aspects? Thanks!

great passports and packaging, really nice work!

i would buy one in a heartbeat. i would love something so unique!

thank you for the great site for photo charms. i'd like to have a pic of my dad with me since he passed away a few years ago.

oh wow! did you make that yourself? that is such a great alternative to a traditional bouquet!