PurpleUnicorn

online RSVPs were okay. a lot of people didn't RSVP at all, so i sent follow up reminder emails. i have heard people have that problem regardless of what format they use. And everyone replied to my email, so there was no problem of anyone being able to use the internet! I like vistaprint, but not for last minute shipping! I used them for my AHR and waited to the last minute, so paid extra for fast shipping and somehow, after they confirmed my order was in delivery, it never got delivered. so i called them, they had no tracking number and had to re-order my invites! the second time around they came quickly, but i would just be careful about ordering them early and not right when you need them! the actual product i got was great! love the invites!

oops, i put the wrong web address from where i got my invites. i got them there because they had a whole selection of beach themed ones which i loved! http://www.invitationsbydawn.com/index.jsp

the first pair of shoes i bought, i sold to another bride on this website! and my second pair, that i actually wore in my wedding, i have worn several times since my wedding! the first set of jewelry i bought was not that expensive and actually the necklace clasp recently broke when i moved and i never got to wear it. another set i had bought for my wedding, i actually ended up buying 3 more and giving them all to my Bridesmaids to wear in my wedding! about a year before my wedding, i bought a pair of nice earrings that i thought i would wear in my wedding, but never did, although have worn on many occasions since. and finally, the actual earrings i did wear in my wedding, i have not worn again, but plan to for my AHR and after that i will whenever i have the opportunity! LOL to writing my vows last minute! i didn't plan it that way. all last year i was working full time at my internship and i wanted to sit down and give myself a lot of time to write my vows. and becaise it was so important, i just kept putting it off until i had "time". well in reality, i never had time for anything. so finally on the night before i left for Jamaica (not the night before my wedding), i said i HAVE to get this done before i pack! so i finally did! i think i slept one hour that night. i did also leave some things like tying ribbons to programs for when i was in Jamaica and then i had my bridesmaids help me, so you could always do that with water bottle labels - i wish i had done that with the labels. as for your new questions: i bought formal invitations from Invitations by Dawn (website: www.invitationsbydaw.com) and sent them about about 6 months before the wedding. i also had a website set up through mywedding.com where I had people RSVP. then my travel agent/wedding planner did all the work of contacting my guests and sending them info about the resort and wedding. if you don;t have someone that like that - I HIGHLY recommend the person i worked with, let me know if you are interested. she also set me up with my wedding website and guided me in what to write and include. I was not planning to do an AHR until much later (because so many people couldnt come to Jamaica in the end). So i only told people AFTER I came back from Jamaica through a save the date email and then ordered cheap, but nice, invitations off vistaprint and sent them out last week!

Hey there! i checked to see if you already started a thread about this and you did! where in Jamaica are you getting married by the way? Things I would have done differently - if i had more money - was gone with a different resort simply for a nicer beach. i had a FABULOUS wedding at my resort and it was affordable and both myself and my husband are grad students and our families by no means have money, so the fact that i had such a gorgeous wedding was amazing, but sometimes i wish we waited a few more years till i could have afforded a nicer resort in Negril for example. but on the other hand, i dont think i could have handled waiting a few more years to marry the love of my life!!! so at the same i wouldnt change anything! on a smaller scale, we did a bonfire on the beach as part of our reception. what we didnt know until we got there was that the bonfire itself was not directly on the beach where we partied, it was a bit far out and not totally worth getting. Had we known that could have swapped it for tiki torches instead, we would have done that. - lesson is to try and think outside the box and basic packages you are given. you could probably tailor just about anything the resorts offer! as for wasting money, i guess the bonfire could fall under that. the party on the beach was not a waste of money, just the actual fire did not bring us more light or anything. i also wasted money on personalized water bottles because when it came time to packing for the trip, i couldnt fit them in my suitcase!!! Also, i had bought welcome bags and contents way in advance based on the number of people who told me they were coming....well only half of them ended up coming, so each person rather than each couple got their own bag - so technically i could have saved a lot of money there! and i wasted money on being indecisive in general with regards to dress, shoes, jewelry! i bought two of almost everything! but thats just me i think and not i am not sure how i could have avoided that! finally, yes, we wrote our own vows. i actually wrote them the night before i left for Jamaica - my advice, dont leave things like vow writing and picking ceremony music to the last minute! i was so stressed before i left that i got sick and lost my voice the day before my wedding!!!!! i was able to say my vows with a raspy voice in the end, but it really freaked me out, LOL.

i think its cool to have pics running over and over in the background, but i think a video could be distracting more than overkill. also, i wouldnt want to do that because i would prefer to have everyone give their full attention to it once and watch it in full. just something to consider.

well i guess it depends on when you get your video back? are you having one professionally done? if so, just ask if you can have it by that date - maybe even an unedited version just to show at your AHR. when i refer to my video, i am referring to the video one of my guests took with my own camera! so we had it right away! it was not professional by any means, but he got the whole ceremony, the sound is clear and he had a steady hand, so i love it and i am definitely going to show it. also, depending where your AHR is, you may need to rent a projector and big screen and will need a laptop to connect to. lucky for me, my husband has all these things already, but if we didn't i would either rent, or simply gather everyone around the TV to watch it since the party will be at my sisters house! good luck!

hmmm, i can give lots of advice, do you have any specific questions? when are you getting married adn where? everything went amazing in Jamaica. it does take 5 months for them to send us our marriage certificate, so i haven't looked into making it legit here yet - but i have been told we just have to register our marriage in our state/province. sounds pretty simple to me. what questions do you have? maybe you can PM me. or look at my recaps thread or the thread i started on the resort i got married at - Sunset Beach Resort and Spa - i have answered a lot questions in there.

thanks! and thats awesome about your colors! i hardly see it for DWs! can;t wait to see how yours turn out!

thank you!!

hi, i just timed it - it takes about an hour and a half. so i think considering that i want it to repeat itself a few times throughout the party, i dont need to be so limited in how many pics i put. what do other people think?

Elbow length 2 Tier veil - 25" long x 30" long x 72" wide. color: diamond white Both tiers are lined with Swarovski crystal rhinestones. I LOVE this veil. it sparkles SO beautifully, i could not have asked for a more perfect veil. I will only wear it for one hour total - for some post-wedding pictures i am taking, so its really barely used, excellent condition. paid $180 asking $90.

ya i have seen that too, but the purpose for my slideshow is for people who were unable to attend the wedding to see the pictures. i have been holding off on posting them on facebook so i can do the slideshow at the AHR! i think what i will do is put all the pics i want and time it, then take it from there. i dont want it to be too short either since it will be repeating itself. i just wanted to know if someone has done it like this before and could give me an estimate!

how many pics did you put? my plan is to have the slide show going in the backgroud throughout the party, and only stop it when we watch the ceremony video. how many pictures should i include? i have over 1000 pro pics, plus i want to include fun pics of all the guests from the whole trip as we all stayed a week at the resort.

that's my dilemma, do i politely ask the guests not to dress too grungy. I mean i get its a backyard BBQ party, where normally it would be okay to come in shorts and t-shirts. But i am hoping since it is also for a post-wedding reception, people will try to dress nicely. i will be wearing a white dress - not my big fancy wedding dress, but the dress i wore for my TTD pics - which is still super fancy for a BBQ. I know some of my BMs will be wearing their BM dresses again (or for the first time since two of them couldnt make it to Jamaica). So i am wondering - should I put something on my website about what to wear for this BBQ, or just let it go and hope for the best that people put some effort! and if i do put something on my website - how do i word it?? what did you do?? any suggestions are appreciated, thanks!

thank you!! i loved wearing it

hi everyone, i just checked this thread now, sorry! in the end i did not end up going with Alain, my wedding day photographer offered to do it for $350 and there was some confusion with Alain. I had booked him for my wedding a long time ago, but then cancelled and said i only wanted TTD, he said fine. then closer to the wedding, i emailed to make arrangements for TTD - he had said he could pick us up and we would just have to take a taxi back (as we were supposed to go to a waterfall in Ochos Rios and we were staying in MoBay). well then it turned out he forgot i cancelled him for the wedding and could no longer pick us up! so we were a bit wary about taking a taxi both ways to meet someone we never worked with. it made much more sense to do the TTD with our own photographer at our resort and i was so happy we did, it turned out amazing!

thank you

thanks! and true, it is what it is, i had some moments/issues like that too, but in the end, everything was amazing!

thank you!!

thank you!!!

Hi! congrats on your booking your wedding at sunset beach! first off, please dont ever apologize for asking questions! i loved planning my wedding and i love talking about it so i am super happy to help in any way i can!!! i will certainly answer all your questions! i will also refer to you to the thread i started a while back on this resort i have answered alot of your questions there already: look through all the pages as i have answered several brides questions throughout all the comments! http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/68248/sunset-beach-resort-spa-past-and-future-brides-please-post-here ok, so here I go: - i took the most basic package - the free "We Do' package. - as for all the extras/upgrades, i decided them all in advance and went back and forth over email with Natalie the wedding coordinator a million times! and before her, i dealt with two previous coordinators! - as for the ceremony decorations, i paid extra for the arch ($550). it was worth it for me. if you do the ceremony on the beach, you get a simple arch included (see the thread i referred you to for pics), but i wanted the bamboo arch. the other option is to have the ceremony at the wedding gazebo on the grass. its a beautiful gazebo, but it was on the grass and i wanted to get married on the sand by the water! the white chair covers were included. the purple fabric on my arch Natalie threw in as a surprise for me, i was expecting it to be all white. the purple chair ties and silk flower petals i bought myself for super cheap at cvlinens.com and bridesbouquet.com - my bouquet was included in the package. i did not upgrade. i was able to choose the colors and they have a choice of tropical flowers (see other thread for more detail on this). but all i cared about was the color not the flower type. same with my husbands bout. - i did a private dinner reception and got the sit down meal for $30 - it was called Montego Bay a la carte i think. it was absolutely delicious and i am very happy i did not spend more as it really was perfect. - i never thought to ask for fresh flowers for my hair. i had bought my own hair accessories before i went. good question to ask Natalie! - i brought in my own photographer. i highly recommend her - Kim Chapman (kimchapmanweddings.com). i was lucky and she gave me a deal because she was already booked in Jamaica for another wedding the day after mine so she was able to reduce her fee to match my budget and waive her travel fees because they were already covered. whether you go with her or someone else (there are lots of Jamaica based photogs i researched that live there so you dont have to pay their travel fees), i recommend getting a photographer that gives you a DVD of all your pics since the resort one will charge per photo and you will get hardly nothing. Regarding the vendor fee - see my explanation for how i got out of paying it in the other thread. thats all your questions for now, hope it helps and feel free to ask more ANY time!!