mllek1986

Your dress is very pretty, perfect for a DW. What kind of jewellery and you having made? I know what you mean about wanting to show off the new body, why not flaunt it right!? Anyways, its completely up to you and how the dress makes you feel. If you don't think its the one then go try some more on, you never know, you could find something you love better or not like anything out there and realize that this is the dress that makes you feel beautiful and you made the right choice. It's all about your confidence in the dress, you look amazing in it in the pic so I'm sure 15 lbs down you look even better now! Congrats on the weight loss as well, have you just been eating well and working out?

Hey ladies, So I got Insanity in the mail yesterday but I didn't get home until late so didn't have time to start it until today. I just finished the fitness test and I think I did pretty good (minus the pushup jacks... I SUCK at pushups!) but I certainly have a lot of room for improvement. I am really looking forward to the first full workout tomorrow! eeeeek.Wish me luck! Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend.

Hi BarbieBrideU Here are some pics I have:

So how is everyone's planning coming along these days? Mine is going well, all I have to do is a few more DIY projects then I think I'm all done! I did get some bad news the other day that my brother likely wont make it to the wedding as it is the busiest time of year for him right now at work and its impossible to get away as he has a major presentation either the day before or after my wedding. So unless by some grace of god the dates get moved the week before then he wont be able to come. We will likely know by the end of the week. I am quite upset about this as my FI and I have become very close with him over the past few years and I was really looking forward to having him in the wedding party and part of our special day. I knew from the beginning that this was a very busy time for him and that he would only be able to fly down for a few days and not stay the whole week but I never thought he would miss it or I would have chosen a different month for my wedding. I guess all I can do is just wait to get the final word and remember that things always happen for a reason and just stay positive. Anyways, other than that, FI and I have started some pretty extreme dieting and work outs for the 2 months leading up to the wedding. We started a 90 day challenge with Visalus for our nutrition aspect, it is 2 meal replacement shakes a day for breakfast and lunch then 2-3 healthy snacks and a normal well-balanced supper. Then yesterday I ordered the Insanity DVD workouts that are supposed to be absolutely crazy (hence the name), there's a thread on here about it if you want to read more: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/t/71635/the-official-insanity-support-thread/220#post_1696807 It's a 60 day challenge where you workout 6 days a week, for the first month it's 40 min then the second is an hour a day. It's created by the same ppl who made P90X although this is more cardio and plyometrics based. I am hoping with these two challenges combined I see some really great results! Good luck to all of you out there who are trying to lose some pounds before the big day in a couple months!

I loved seeing some of the before and after pics of past brides who've completed the challenge or who are even in the midst of completing it. Anyone else want to share their before and after pics with the group? I promise to share mine when I'm done

Ok thanks. Hopefully it shows up by Friday and I can start right away without missing anything. If it doesn't show up til next week then maybe I'll just cut out part of the recovery as you suggest. Looking forward to the challenge and congrats on being halfway done!! Have you seen good results so far? Are you sticking with the diet plan?

Oh ya, I had a question- I noticed that its a 60 day challenge but then you guys talk about month 1, month 2 and a recovery week. Is the recovery week part of month 1 or is that added on top of the 60 day challenge?

Wowza ladies... I just read through this entire thread tonight, you girls are amazing. You have motivated me to complete the challenge and earn myself a t-shirt. I have already ordered my dvds and hope that they arrive by the end of the week as we leave for our wedding in 66 days, so definitely tight on the timeline but I figure thats even more motivating! I have been working out for the past 3 years or so and have lost and kept off over 50 lbs from my 5'10" frame. I can not seem to lose these last ten pounds so am hoping this at least helps me tighten up before the wedding and lose some inches. I am also doing the 90 day challenge by vi which is protein shake meal replacements twice a day, two-three snacks a day and a normal well-balanced supper. Today is my last day of week one and tomorrow is weigh in/measurement day, hoping to see results! Anyways I will keep you all posted on my start date, measurements etc. Good luck to all you girls, you're an inspiration!

Hi Nikadawn, Is your alterations included in the purchase of your dress? Maybe you could take your dress to a reputable seamstress instead who can do it earlier if you're super worried.

Your makeup is wonderful as well! Makes me a lot happier about my decision to stick with Dreams for my makeup. Did you bring any inspiration pictures or have a trial?

Ya we'll be staying at Dream, also very close to downtown. Can't wait!!

Kya101 - what resort are you guys staying at? I leave in 79 days! yayyy

And they are still valid if you just copy it?

Sorry to hear about your guests BusyBee123, I know what you mean about ppl not understanding how much time and effort is spent planning a DW. There's no way that the company will reimburse you for the excursions? I'm sure everything will work out in the end, you still have a few months to fix up any personalized items that need changing. Maybe just take a wedding planning breather for a few days, let it all blow over... that or crack a bottle of wine Sending happy vibes your way ~~~

Hey girls, Since we're on the subject of jewellery I thought I would post mine that I ordered about a week ago. I am from Canada but my parents go down to Arizona for the winter so to save on shipping I had everything (except my barefoot sandals) shipped to them. My earrings I got on sale from beyondtherack.com, they are cz diamonds but real freshwater pearls. They were regularly $300, I got them for $69. I fell in love with this bracelet on overstock.com but then went to buy it one day and it was sold out! I waited a few weeks and it was back, thank god, I almost had a heart attack as I searched high and low for one like this (real pearls) with no luck, all the ones on etsy were swarovski pearls and pretty much the same price. This bracelet (with a 10% off coupon) costed me $88. My barefoot sandals which I adore were purchased off of etsy from seller brilliantbeadsbling. Total cost was $44. So I budgeted $200 for all my jewellery (which I thought was very low seeing that I wanted real pearls) and spent $201. Go me!! Enjoy your planning ladies!!

Everything looked beautiful Kerri. Congrats!! Quick question- where did you get the PV discount cards from? Thanks

Amazing planning thread, I love all the details! Congratulations and I look forward to seeing your wedding pictures!!

We are doing assigned seating mainly because of the different meal choices we are providing. I made my seating chart on weddingwire.com, its super easy to use and really helped me play around with who to sit at what table as well as the set up of our reception. I am doing "Message in a bottle" escort cards: Then at each setting on the table I will have a coloured starfish with a tag and their names on one side and a cute starfish saying on the other. The starfish colour will represent their meal choice for the waiters. They will either be either: Silver = Steak, Purple = Fish, Green = Vegetarian, Natural = Gluten-Free The starfish saying on the back will read: The Symbolism of the Starfish Both the star and the Starfish are seen as celestial symbols and, as such, represent infinite, divine love. In addition to love, the Starfish also holds characteristics such as guidance, vigilance, inspiration, brilliance and intuition. In Christian symbolism, the Starfish represents the Virgin Mary (Stella Maris means Star of the Sea) who lovingly provides safe travel over troubled waters and salvation during trying times. MAY YOUR TRAVELS BE SAFE. MAY YOUR LOVE BE BOTH INFINITE AND DIVINE. Thank you for sharing this special day with us, Love, Katherine & Colin

Sorry, I should have mentioned that this was discussed in this thread earlier but I wanted to know what recent brides have done as things seem to change all the time. Past brides said they tipped the following people: WC (not allowed to tip with any alcohol) DJ Photog (some said not to do this though) Officiant Bartender Waiters Hair/Makeup Is this what recent brides have done? thanks

Hi everyone, I just had a general question about tipping... I read a thread on here about it: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/t/76104/how-much-do-we-tip-the-wedding-coordinator but it says to tip the WC and I remember reading somewhere on this thread that our WC at Dreams do not accept tips, is this true? To all you past brides can you explain what you did for tipping staff involved in the wedding? Who and how much you tipped? Thanks! Kate

They will provide the white chairs with covers for all your guests with no extra cost, if you want to upgrade to the chiavari chairs then its $7 a chair. Enjoy the planning!

Congrats on your upcoming wedding! You are right about the wedding coordinators being a little dicey in the past but I've been very impressed with the current one (Fatima), all in all she will be my fourth I have worked with but I have also been planning for about a year and a half. The main issues I've had in the past was having them honour prices that past coordinators have provided to us, but it was always resolved and honoured after I copied and pasted responses from a previous email. Other than that I have constant contact with Fatima and she usually responds within a max of 2 days. We have around 55 guests coming to Dreams for our wedding in January and we are also getting the Ultimate package, so we're paying about $75 per person above the 20 for the cocktail hour ($30 per person) and plated private reception ($45 per person). I would put in your request immediately with them to reserve your date ($500 deposit for ultimate package) and get them to write you up a contract asap before they start implementing the 2012 prices (they've been known to go up by more than 50% on certain items). Good luck with your planning. I don't believe there's a better place to get married than at Dreams!

Perfect, thanks for your help

Hey, love the colour! Just a quick question in regards to sizing. I read somewhere (maybe it was you) that they run big in size so I told my girls to go a bit smaller than usual i.e. if they are 7.5 to get a 7 not 8. How do you find yours in comparison to your normal shoe size?

Hey, Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! You will love Dreams I'm sure, great choice! Just an FYI, I was just looking at your webpage and noticed that in the wedding part you say you want the location to be a surprise but then you wrote underneath where the itinerary is that the boat arrives at Las Caletas. Kate