Pucca

I like the Mario Lopez Extra Lean diet. It really re-vamps your eating habits and turns it into a lifestyle. I like the fact that it's not a diet of don'ts or can'ts but rather a diet of potential healthy choices. His meal plans are also easy to follow without any crazy ingredients or involving a lot of cooking if you don't have time for it. It also helps you be conscious of your choices when you eat out. And essentially all it takes is the cost of the book and some time to read it to get started.

I'm excited indeed! We fly 2 weeks from today and get married in less than 3 weeks! But there's so much to do! I hope I can get everything done. Need to finish my place cards, bubble tags, and booklets. And need to finish packing to move next week! Yipes! But certainly can't wait till we get to Mexico!!!

Congratulations Karen! I can relate! I freaked out a bit in the beginning but things are much much better now with everything falling into place. What's great is that the brides on this site can totally relate so you feel like you're not alone (even when you're freaking out!). Good luck and happy planning! And your dress is lovely!! Beautiful!

Totally understand your frustration. Where do you go to look for your airfare? If you look on Kayak.com they have a fare trend chart and such so you can kinda make a better "plan" on when to buy airfare. It's difficult though even with that because it goes up and down like a yo-yo sometimes. So we pretty much monitored the site until we saw some fares that were really reasonable; we actually bought our tickets in early August (and we fly out in early November) so I guess that was 3 months in advance. I told my guests to try and purchase tickets at the latest at least 1.5 to 2 months in advance because I noticed it was creeping up. However, I think it's totally a gamble sometimes. I've also noticed that sometimes airfare goes up right before holidays. But honestly, I've given up trying to make sense out of the fluctuating airfares because there seems to be no rhyme or reason. Good luck!

I think if the final payment is already due at the end of November (it seems a bit early to me for an April wedding but...) you should send out the wedding invitations now. I think the invitations for your AHR should be separate since it is a fair bit in advance for that. Your invites for the AHR should probably go out at the recommended time on wedding checklists (I think it's like 3 months in advance or something). At least that's what I'd do. Hope that helps. Good luck!

Quote: Originally Posted by leigh2011 Is anyone else having a bit of extra stress around what to do with pets while they are away? Paul has never boarded the dog because he has always been able to leave the dog either with me or with his parents. Well, obviously I will be in Mexico and so will his parents. So I have had to research pet sitters and schedule trial visits, etc. I have taken on this task because it needs to get done and we women seem to be better at planning and making things happen. That is one of the major things outstanding with my planning. Also, does anyone have a wedding to attend before they leave? (other than your own legal weddings of course) I will be attending a wedding this Saturday and I know I will be checking out all of the details and thinking about what else I could add to mine. It will be tough, but I will have to let all of it go and know that it is too late for me to include anything else.... I don't envy the task you have ahead of you with finding a place for the dog. But hopefully you'll find a great place where the dog will be happy while you guys are gone. I wasn't stressed until a week ago when my brother-in-law (who unfortunately can't come and was supposed to cat-sit for us) got a ferret. I trust that my cat can handle a small ferret but I just didn't want to put her under anymore stress considering we will have just moved to a new place a week before we leave. I just didn't feel comfortable and not knowing where this ferret came from (he found him on the street), and I really didn't want to risk any fights or something not-so-nice between the two. But thankfully my honey's coworker said he'd be happy to check in on her every two to three days; so I'm relieved because she'll at least be at home amidst some familiar things. I actually went to a good friend's wedding in August and was checking out everything with my wedding in mind of course. But she had a different sort of wedding so it's not like I could steal some of her ideas; and it just made me more excited about my own! So I'm sure this wedding will just get you that much more excited about your own!! So have fun!!

Congratulations! Your engagement photos are so lovely!!

Congratulations! I love Los Cabos and will be getting married there in less than a month! I live on Long Island and we are flying out from Newark - nonstop on Continental. I think the flight is about 6 hours or something. There's a time difference as well; they're two hours behind currently. So that probably also accounts for the seemingly 8-hour trip. I'm sure there are non-stop flights from JFK as well. Good luck and happy planning!

Thanks YWS2012 but I was not the fortunate bargain finder. It was amjohnson whose post I was responding to. Maybe all my multiple quotes got confusing. Sorry! But 3 cheers for her for finding such a great dress at an awesome deal!! Quote: Originally Posted by amjohnson Thank you Pucca! My DW dress is a little more fun and modern, with floral beading and flower petals. As my brother, his fiancee, and my nephews and brother in law will not be at our wedding in Mexico, I kind of want to wear a wedding dress for our civil ceremony here.We plan on doing it at a indoor botanical garden then go out for a nice dinner. I agree with you, I love this dress!..I feel sexier in this one. I am going to try both of them on this week and take some photos and then maybe I will ask you ladies again for your words of wisdom. I may even take both to Mexico, they are both light and can be packed in one garment bag. I could wear this one for the reception... Never thought I would get two dresses and all under900$!!! Okay, that makes sense then!! Yes, I'd like to see the other one too, so take pictures and post them! If you're doing a TTD session, you can also wear this one for it if you want to keep the other one on throughout your entire event. Either way, you can't lose!

I don't know what your DW dress looks like but I think this is dress is gorgeous!!! Would you consider wearing it for your DW instead and maybe just wearing a nice party dress for the legal ceremony? I never considered wearing a wedding dress for my civil ceremony; I just thought it was too much for something that was only going to be 5 minutes long (that's literally how long it took us in front of the judge). I just wore something nice because I wanted to wear the wedding dress for the DW which will actually be the day we celebrate in full effect. I tried on this dress when I was searching for wedding dresses. I really liked the flow of it but I wanted something with straps so I ended up getting something else. Beautiful choice!

Sounds like a sticky situation.... Sorry. Personally, I know it's hard, but I'd just send the invite to FI's grandmother and leave it at that. I think that calling them and uninviting them might bring on unwanted resentment. I think that perhaps your FI can talk to your MIL and explicitly state that it's going to be a small and intimate wedding, that you're watching your budget, and that you're only inviting people you regularly have contact with and want there. And perhaps he can say that he'll accept her inviting grandmother but she's the only exception and that he doesn't really want the other relatives there since he does not talk to them. And all those addresses you copied down so nicely could possibly just get misplaced, oops, in all the wedding planning craziness.... I know it sounds terrible but I didn't want wedding crashers either and people coming out of the woodwork wanting to come to our wedding just to have a vacation and say that they've been to our wedding. I actually had to talk to my honey and tell him that his mom should not be inviting people to our wedding because his mom was telling all her friends and she has a tendency to invite people to things; I understand that people will want to come but this is our wedding and we want it to be as intimate as possible with people WE regularly communicate with and know. He agreed and told his mom this so we didn't really have any problems. But funny enough, just recently she asked us if someone could come if they paid their own way. She wouldn't tell us who. My honey said no because if she's not telling us explicitly who it is, it must be someone we don't really know; besides everyone is paying their own way so that is not a valid reason for this person to be allowed to come. The other thing you could do is perhaps send the invites out to the other relatives a couple of months prior to your actual wedding date when it will be more difficult for them to actually plan the trip. Conniving, yes, but ultimately you DID send them an invitation..... Gosh, do I sound terrible? But ultimately I think you have to have a talk with your FI and decide what stance the two of you want to take and where you want to draw the line. Good luck!

Nice e-ring!!

I think it's normal with all the rain this month. At least that's what I've read. November is supposed to be a beautiful time because of the rains that have fallen prior to it. So the landscape is supposed to be greener.

Taryn, saw your dress on the homepage! Congrats! And way to go on your decision to do the boudoir shoot! Your pics are going to be smoking! Leigh, those are beautiful pictures!! I like the dress and the fact that your honey and the dog match! Too cute!!

I think that's a common theme all around - that people who really care will be there with full enthusiasm; and while it will be sad that others can't make it for one reason or another, I've decided that the bonus will be that we get to have a more intimate wedding without too much craziness. I'm in the same boat as you - my honey's family is from the East Coast and my family is from California, and considering there are more from my family needing to attend, it made more sense to do it in Mexico (ironically airfare turns out to be pretty close regardless of which side of the country people are flying in from). And like you, I wanted people to make it a true vacation instead of just popping in and out for a wedding. Everyone's pretty much on board now, but I did get a lot of questions. The questions however came mostly from family members (older family members and relatives). My friends on the other hand were thrilled. I still hear my mother-in-law muttering about why we decided to do it in Mexico but I'm blocking it out because I know that once she gets there, she will love it. I think the most important thing is to stick to your guns about why you're doing a DW and not take it personally when your guest list starts shrinking. That's what I've learned. And then just have a blast when the time comes, which for me will be in less than a month!

Thanks Leigh!! Lol! I think that's sweet! I take it as a good sign that the guys want to wear their rings. After all, I was wondering how my honey (I'm going to call him that from now on to not do the fiance/husband thing cuz that gets confusing) would stick to wearing a ring when he dislikes wearing jewelry.

Congratulations! I am not sure how much info there is on this forum with respects to planning a DW in Hawaii, but I suggest you take a day and comb the forum for information. There is a section specifically for weddings in Hawaii. I'm not sure what your budget is but you have some time to do some comparisons and research. One of my close friends had her wedding on Oahu last year and from what she told me, I think there are ways that you can save if you attempt it on your own. However, packages I'm sure are less work on your part. So it depends on what your priorities are as well. Good luck and happy planning!

Thanks Taryn! The legal ceremony takes literally 5 minutes so at least it's not so lengthy! As for your dress, it's beautiful!! Looks great on you!! Exciting!! Yeah, alterations do end up costing quite a bit, unfortunately. Thanks Sarah!! I am working on my planning thread too. But I have some more pictures to take.

Thanks Joanne!

Yay!! Can't wait to see your pics!!!

Joanne, this looks great! Leigh, your photos are gorgeous!! I can't wait to see what wedding day photos are going to look like!! I can relate. We just had our civil ceremony yesterday. It was nice, short, and sweet. But it was by no means complete with the wonderful dress and all the prep that has gone into the DW. I said he could wear his wedding band for the past two days but no more cuz I don't want it to get dirty or anything for the DW in Mexico. Lol! I just used my engagement ring for the ring exchange. We tried to keep it as low key as possible but my mother-in-law (one of our witnesses) just kept on and on about how important the legal ceremony was (even if we didn't tell them where we were going till the night before). And we haven't told many people, and don't intend to until later. But I know my fiance/husband is chomping at the bit to change his FB relationship status. Lol! He's just gonna have to wait till the DW! Here's a snapshot of us after the civil ceremony:

I saw this idea earlier in my planning stages and was thrilled until my fiance pointed out that these rocks had to come home with us which meant lugging them around after the wedding. So I was more interested in using these as place cards/escort cards so that initially it would be heavy but then each of the guests could take it home. But again the weight deterred me (well fiance still wasn't so thrilled about adding them to our luggage) so I have decided to go in a different direction. But I still like the idea, considering I already have a huge vase filled with smooth pebbles at home -- I go collecting them on the beach nearby! And I think the shells is also a wonderful alternative!

I use flickr frequently but I don't have a template for instructions on how to share because honestly I never thought of having people upload to flickr. But my understanding is that you have to invite your guests to your group, unless you've made it a public group where they can just join after registering for a flickr account. So I guess depending upon what your group setting is (public, private, or by invitation only) the steps to upload will differ. Making your group private is probably best for this purpose but you'll have to do the inviting, so step one would be either you inputting everyone's email (or searching to see if they have flickr accounts); then they can join the group and begin adding photos to the group by clicking on the "Add photos" under the group title. So if this is the way you want to go, I'd probably add everyone to the group once they've RSVP'd; maybe you can collect their emails with the RSVPs. Then for the wedding you can just make a little card that shows the name of the group, a reminder that they've either been invited or will need an invite from you, and just to click "Add photos" under the group title to upload photos of the wedding. I know that isn't exactly a template or what you wanted probably. But I hope it helps! Good luck and happy planning!

I just got a flyer from Costco and they have a variety there of LED candles there as well. If you're a member of Costco, check it out. There's a coupon for $4 off a pack of 24 tealights or 4 pillar candles. And from the picture it looks like the tealights have the wick thing.

I'm pondering this. May end up getting him a record player which he's wanted for a long time. Other thoughts were nice, polarized sunglasses since his are getting beat up right now, or a nice watch.