all the love

...are you treating them like a guest? I know we will provide seats for them at dinner, but should we leave an OOT bag in their room? Should we invite them to our group activities (welcome dinner? rehearsal? excursions?) I'm interested to know how you are and are not including them.

OMG I did my BD pics today, when I arrived the first thing she did was offer me champagne. I think that really helped to relax me, and I actually enjoyed the shoot! I used Belle Femme Boudoir photography, and Tricia was really great. I can't believe I actually convinced myself to do this, but I'm so glad I did.

Hi all, I see a few of you talking about WestJet flights! My FI and I are in the process of firing our travel agent and booking directly with westjet. If you call their group booking line they will set up a 'wedding discount code' for your guests to use when they book. It gives them 10% off any base fare flight up to 7 days before and after your wedding date. You can talk to them about it at 1-888-493-7853. They request a verbal confirmation that at least 15 passengers will book. It's saved me so much stress, hopefully someone else can use it too!

Has anyone had their reception on either the beach or the pool deck, or seen pictures of this besides the two in the package? They don't seem like popular options.

Wow, there are some fantastic ideas out there, thanks!

Hi ladies, We finally have confirmation of our date and have put our deposit down at Now Jade!! We decided to go with a weekday ceremony to avoid the weekend rush. It seems so far away though. I love the low-key no stress atmosphere of the destination wedding, but I don't feel like I have enough to do to keep me busy for 9 months (I'm sure I'll regret saying that later...)

We picked up these great spring/summer dresses at Bellissima for $150 each (FI and I are paying $100 per dress). I love that they aren't typical bridesmaid's dresses.

Hi ladies, Does anyone have a website or email address for the florist whose flowers are included in the packages? Anyone know how flexible they are in terms of switching up the flowers (we don't want boutonniers or bridesmaids bouquets but would like to use those flowers for other things). Thanks!

For those of you not wearing shoes for your ceremony on the beach, are you at all worried about how hot the sand might be?

Here are some of our favorites - shot at FI's work. You can see more on the photographer's blot at http://fulleredgeblog.com/post-515/Stephen-Courtney-Calgary-Engagement-Photographer

Hello all you Jade brides. I'm wondering if any of you have negotiated a group rate for rooms directly with the hotel? If so, who did you talk to and how did the process go? Thanks!

Something I probably wouldn't have ever thought of until it was time to pee. Thanks for sharing!

We are also flying our photographers (2 of them) down from Canada with us, they have guaranteed us 7 hours on day of (getting ready, both bride and groom, ceremony, couple and group pics, and reception) plus 3-4 hours for a second session on a different day (possibly TTD or just some nice couple pictures). Our ceremony will be at 4pm, so probably have them from 3-10pm.

Hi there, Anybody get one of these that they are now finished with? I'd love to get one but they won't ship outside the US and I'm in Canada. Please PM me! Thanks!

I am also looking at two wedding bands, one for each side of my Ering. I was thinking about incorporating both into the ceremony, but that just seems complicated. I think I'll just put them all on in the right order afterwards.

Perhaps something to consider in lieu of 'favors' would be to buy carbon offsets in each guest's name (or on behalf of everyone).

FI and I are thinking of walking down the aisle together. Is anyone else doing this/has done this?

My FI and I have discovered that he cares about wedding planning a lot more than we thought he would - he even vetoed my first color choices and we went with his suggestion instead.

We're paying for the bridesmaid's outfits, but we only have 3, and their 'dresses' are beach sarongs in our wedding colors, so they were really affordable and no alterations required. We just love the casual look and feel of the sarongs. We're also hoping to reimburse them for some of their travel costs, although we'll wait until our costs are final to see how much money we spent. FI's groomsmen are all pretty well off, so we decided to get them nicer gifts and have them pay for their own outfits (about $130 each)

We're planning on 30-50 guests so our OOT bags will have to be relatively small to be able to afford them all. For favors, we're just thinking of a small candy bag for each guest, mostly as just an extra splash of color for each place setting.

I didn't even know there were cute ways to ask them! When I asked my FI's sister, we had been talking about different styles of wedding dresses, and I asked her what she thought she would wear to the wedding. She replied something about some sort of sundress, and I said "We'd really like it if you would wear a bridesmaid dress".

My sister had their vows printed on a blank copy of their invitations and they framed that. If you had really pretty invitation cards this might be a nice way to do it. We haven't really thought that far ahead yet so I don't have any other ideas.

For those of you who are worried about friz and/or poof in the humidity, here is something to look into. I recently went on a cruise and had my hair done with a Keratin treatment right before I left. My hair is naturally curly and frizzy, not nice curly but messy curly. After this treatment, I was able to blow-dry it straight, wear it down all day in the heat and humidity, and just brush it before dinner - it still looked amazing! The treatment wasn't cheap, but so worth it for me. Usually i spent almost an hour straightening every day. I had mine done in Calgary but I'm sure it's available other places as well. The results last anywhere from 3-9 months.

Thanks for your review Michelle! It makes me feel so much better about our resort choice reading such a positive review.

Thanks for this info, that's exactly what I was hoping for!