JayKay

I love your ceremony fans! They turned out great.

Great planning thread!!! Your ring is beautiful! Love the sapphire!

Stunning photos! Congrats!

Beautiful pictures!!

Here is the link to the other ring thread. There are tons of posts on there with many stunning rings! http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/t/896/show-us-your-rings/1520#post_1749811

I was steered away from satin for the reasons that KalikLove mentioned- its hot, doesnt breath, wrinkles easily and not the best for a destination wedding. My dress was made of taffeta and I loved it. It was light, but yet not as light as organza, it traveled exceptionally well (didnt need to even be steamed once we got there). Does the dress you love come in a different type of fabric?

They are all beautiful dresses!! I guess just try them on and see which is your favorite once you put them on. I thought I knew what dress I wanted until I tried some on, and then completely changed my mind!

We each took a large suitcase that we checked (I think we were allowed 55lbs in each one) and then each brought a carryon, and I brought a purse and my wedding dress on board. Thats all our airline allowed us to take so we made due. In the end we ended up giving some of our OOT bag contents to family members who had a little bit extra space in their suitcases. We didn't bring much extra though so we were able to fit it all in no problem.

Enjoy every minute and day of it! It seems like it takes forever, but when its over and done you will be wondering where the time went!!

Ill try to answer what I can. As to wedding packages we choose the free package as in the end it was cheaper then the other packages. If you are having a large number of guests it may be worth paying for a wedding package. I would say though work out the extra costs of going with the free package and compare it to the price of the package you are considering. I think either location would be beautiful. We chose this resort specifically because of the gazebo so we never even considered getting married on the beach. It is really windy down there so just know that. We used Merrick Cousley for our photographer and we are extremely happy with our photos. His price was great and he was so easy to work with. I definetly recommend him. The chairs without the covers are ugly. They are navy blue with gold. Here is a picture from our wedding that you can see what the chairs look like un covered. There is a guy sitting on the far right of the photo who is sitting in a chair that is uncovered. Hope that helps you out!!

I asked about the indoor option and she told me in the last year there was only 2 or 3 weddings they had to move indoors due to weather. I was told mostly they just postpone your ceremony by a half hour and the weather clears up. I also know some brides who got married in the rain as it started raining once their ceremony started. They do have an indoor setting they use if necessary which is the conference room. I never actually went in it, only walked by the entrace a few times so I don't know what it even looks like.

Glad I could help! We had our drivers licenses notarized and got the long form of our birth certificates that are certified. I think everyone gets told something different.

I did take pictures with me. I actually had a hair trial done here in Canada (my best friend is a hair stylist, so she did it for free) so I took a bunch of those photos. They did it pretty close to the original. I was really happy with my hair. As for the makeup I told her I wanted something really natural and thats what she did. I beleive it was $90 for hair and $60 for makeup, but I cant quite remember. Anything from the spa gets charged right to your room, so don't bother taking cash. Both of the hair and makeup do include trials, which I didnt use, and was told when I booked the prices would be cheaper if not using the trial, but once I got there they said the price is the same whether or not you do the trial. My wedding was at 4pm and we went to the spa at 1pm to get our stuff done. We didnt get done until 330 and had to rush to the room and get into our dresses and rush down to the lobby. I would suggest going to the spa at least by 12 to give yourself enough time.

I love love love your ring!!!

We didn't fill out the credit card form. We were told we just payed for everything once we got down there. The 2012 packages also say that the chair covers are $5. We didnt pay for them and I'm pretty sure they are all included at no charge now. I did have my hair and makeup done at the spa. I booked my appointment about 4 months in advance just to make sure we had the time we wanted. There was just myself and my MOH getting our hair done so they were able to easily accomodate. However, if you are having more then that I would book well in advance to make sure they have enough stylists on that day. The contact info for them is [email protected] And just a note that we were scheduled for two hours for hair and makeup and they ended up taking about 2 1/2 hours so just make sure you allow enough time.

We never had to pay a deposit as we went with the free package. And just a note, I was never charged for chair covers and Chandlyn told us they were now included with all the wedding packages, you just have to pay for the bows if you wish to have them.

There aren't any that are super close. There are some by the pools, but they close those when the pools close, so the closest would be up in the resort where the restuarants are located.

Everything looks great!! Your wedding is going to be amazing!!

Your photos are beautiful! Congrats!

I don't think its rude at all. Thats the one thing I regret most about our destination wedding is that we didnt move to another resort after our wedding. We never had any alone time as we kept running into our wedding group at the resort. I say do it and enjoy the time together.

I can relate to this. My husbands best friends wife is a photographer. She was fairly new to photography when we announced we were getting married. My husband was adament that we use her as our photographer for our wedding. Its not that I dont beleive she is capable of beautiful photographs, its just that she was brand new at photography, and we felt like she would be spending her entire day taking pictures rather then enjoying the wedding events. I would say maybe make a compromise. What about hire another photographer you decide upon after some research and suggest using your fiances friend for say trash the dress photos or just a couples shoot, rather then your actual wedding day.

I ran into a similar situation, except it was with my husbands parents wanting to invite all of their friends. I understand they wanted to have a fun vacation as well. They invited two extra couples, but we made it very clear to them that they would not be invited to our wedding ceremony or reception. They never received any invitations and I think they got the hint that they werent going to be allowed to come to the wedding day events so they ended up not coming in the end. You are definetly okay to not send them an invite for your wedding events. Its your once special day and you dont want to create any family drama with one side of your family upset because some of the other side of the family came.

I agree with Yunric - I wish I had done it like that. At first we were going to but then we decided to just have a few guests. Looking back I wish it was just my husband and I. I think its absolutely okay to have an announced elopment. Do what feels right for you!

I basically complied a list of questions throughout the whole planning process and it was great to have them when I got to our destination and met with the wedding coordinator. That being said, I didnt really plan much ahead of time like some keen brides, such as centerpeices, table layouts, seating charts ect. as we only had 16 guests.