JayKay

Thanks everyone for your kind comments!

Have a fabulous time!!

Have fun!! Can't wait to hear about your special day!!

Happy New Year!! That means its January!! Yay. Just wanted to say have an amazing wedding day to all those who have already left or will be leaving soon! Can't wait to hear about it! One week from today we head to Calgary for our early monday morning flight!! So excited, can't wait!!

I still haven't receieved the starfish from Jmikla.

That is so exciting, it really is a great resort, and I'm so excited to go. We leave in 10 days and get married in 14!!

It's coming up so quick!!! See you soon!!

I'm really sorry you have to go through this, especially this close to your wedding. I think that everyones emotions run high around weddings and most times that not good. Its really unfortunate that you have to sever ties with your family. Just remember the only two people that truly need to be there are you and your fiance. Anyone else is a bonus. Try to make the best of the day. And remember you will be getting married to the man of your dreams in Mexico and starting a beautiful life together as husband and wife! Good luck with everything! I know you will have a magical day that will be perfect no matter who is there.

I posted my planning thread, maybe it will help someone else on here out! http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/t/77260/jaykays-jamaica-january-13-2012-wedding-planning-thread-detailed

I posted my planning thread, in case anyone is curious!! http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/t/77260/jaykays-jamaica-january-13-2012-wedding-planning-thread-detailed

Wedding Day Details -Ceremony Script We wrote our own ceremony script. It basically comes from a compilation of others I found on here. We personalized it to make it our own: -Ceremony Location Our wedding will be held at the Gazebo with our ceremony starting at 4pm. We will have the same set up minus the flowers and our chair bows will be turquoise. I purchased our chair bows from http://weddinglinensdirect.com/. They cost $11.80 + $9.69 for S+H. Flowers At first I wasn’t too concerned about flowers. I’m not much of a flower person at all. The free wedding package we chose includes a bouquet and boutonniere. When I first booked my wedding date the resort send me three choices. About three months prior to the wedding when I had to provide all the detailed information, such as flower choice, I was told those bouquets were no longer part of the free choices. I explained that they had sent me those choices when I first booked my date and they agreed to honor it and give me one of those bouquets for free. My MOH will carry the same bouquet, just a smaller version. Parasols I wanted to have parasols for myself and MOH to use for pictures. I think they just look so elegant in pictures. I purchased two turquoise parasols from http://www.weddingfavours.ca/p/3050/Coloured+Paper+Umbrellas.html They cost $17.50 for two, plus 6.99 S+H. Boutonniere Our free wedding package included a free boutonniere. We chose not to use it as I don’t like flowers on guys. Instead we purchased these from etsy seller amirandas. Two of them cost $5. I was able to customize the ribbon colors to fit our wedding colors. Sand Ceremony The next thing we purchased was a sand ceremony set. We kind of went back and forth for awhile between a set of glass vases or a frame. We decided on a set of glass vases. I bought them from Michaels and the set cost $42, but I used a 40% off coupon for a total of $25.82. I also purchased a tube of blue sand for $4.99. The set does come with a lid so it won’t spill. I am planning to pack the sand down and melt a candle on top of it to prevent mixing on our trip home. Photographer My FI and I are good friends with a couple and she is a photographer. They were going to travel to Jamaica with us and she was going to be our photographer (for free!) for the day. Unfortunately, she found out she was expecting a baby and is due the end of January Since she wasn’t going to be able to make the trip to be our photographer we started looking at other photographers to bring with us to Jamaica. We soon found out that this was out of our tight budget. Instead, we hired Merrick Cousley from Jamaica. The package we chose includes: all day coverage, a DVD with all images, and photo retouching. We paid $1050 for the wedding package and $200 for travel fee. http://www.merrickcousley.com/ So far he has been so amazing to work with and I can't wait to see the results. I plan on giving him a short list of a few photos we want. -Hair and Makeup I am getting my hair done at the spa at the resort. I am having a trial done right before I leave and plan on taking pictures so I can take them to the resort with me. I will also be getting my makeup done there as well. Here is my inspiration -Music At first we wanted to hire the steel drum band for music at our wedding. However, we just couldn’t justify spending $400 for one hour. Instead I was given this website where I was able to purchase steel drum music for $6. http://www.steeldrummusic.net/buycds.html We are going to use that music for before the ceremony starts and after the ceremony during the chamagne. We are going to be making a CD (probably 2 of them to be safe) and taking them with us. Bridal Party Entrance: Somewhere Over the Rainbow-:Isreal K. Brides Entrance: Marry Me- Train Signing of Registar: A Thousand Years- Christina Perri Sand Ceremony: Wonderful World- Isreal K. Exiting Gazebo: Better Together - Jack Johnson -Reception Our reception will be held at the Grill Restaurant. We are just using the décor provided from the resort. After the reception we plan on going to the disco to party the night away! -Guestbook I didn’t want the traditional guest book with just names written in it. I wanted something we would actually look at and that would mean something to us. We decided to purchase a fingerprint tree from Etsy. We will then ask all our guests to stamp our tree with their fingerprints and write their name underneath. As we are having a small group I had to have a tree custom made. I worked with seller forkeepsdesigns. It cost $44. Here is our tree: I purchased two different colors of ink, blue and brown, for our guests to stamp their finger print with. I purchased those from Michaels for about $10. I also purchased a scrapbook pen so that guests can write their names under their fingerprint. That was from Micheals as well and cost $4. After our wedding we will get it framed and hung on our wall. Track I made this sign to put beside it and bought a frame from the dollar store to put it in. -Cake Our free wedding package from the resort includes a cake. We got to choose the flavor, we chose chocolate and vanilla. Gifts for Parents We wanted to get our parents something that they would actually enjoy and not just something for the sake of getting them something. We decided that once we receive our pictures from our photographer we are going to make them photo books online and give that to them as our gift. I’m still undecided where to make the book. Any suggestions are appreciated! Registry We originally were not going to register because we felt that everyones gift was to come along with us to celebrate our wedding. We also don’t expect gifts from people who are not attending. However, we had lots of people ask what they could buy us as a wedding gift. We decided to register for a few things that people could purchase that we didn’t have or wanted to upgrade (like the 15 year old toaster we have!) We chose to register at The Bay. Random Extras -Bra Bag/Panty Pak I received these as a gift from one of my girl friends for my engagement. She has a set and said she loved them and wanted to give me one for my trip. I haven’t used them yet. She got them from http://www.thebragcompany.com/ Luggage Tag/Passport Cover I purchased these from Etsy seller GracieDesigns. I was able to choose what fabrics I wanted. They are great quality. Budget The very first thing we did when starting planning was to sit down and make a budget. Our original budget was $9500. In the end we spent a little more then half our budget, about $5200. I was able to organize the budget, along with guest list, and other things on this spread sheet. I got this from another bride who posted hers on here but redid it to fit our wedding. Thats everything! If you have any questions or need more information on anything, just ask! Thanks for making it through this massive thread!! CeremonyM&J.docx Photography List.docx