J and G 2012

Love these! So glad I found them. Th edetailed instructions are perfect, I'm going to mock one up tonight! How much did it cost you per-invite for postage? Thanks!

Thank you Sharon, The Bubba Kegs were from Canadian Tore (on sale of course) and I brought them to 'Thing Engraved' and they did them for about $50, but you pay by the letter and we had alot on them! Thanks Sunshine! We did have a blast! We didn't get a group rate for the cooling runnings (didn't know you could do that). We had originally planned just to take the bus over (some of our guests did) but we were convinced by others to take the catamaran and it was great!

I can speak to this as a child of parnets who eloped. My dad remairried when I was about 12. I remember being very hurt that I was not included. Being recently married away, I know that some ppl were disappointed that they could not attend (for financial or other reasons) but at least I gave them the opportunity. I don't have the greatest relationship with my Dad (he didn't come to our wedding) but I think if he made more of an effort to include me in his life things might have been different. To each their own, this is just my experience.

Forgot to post the link! http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/t/77997/j-and-gs-after-the-fact-jamaican-planning-thread-long-and-lots-of-pics#post_1729698

I finally posted my planning thread! I wanted to wait until I got our Pro picture back but I couldn't wait any longer! Jamie

`Rehearsal` Dinner The resort didn`t offer a rehearsal and due to a conflict we didn`t have our bridal party together the night before the wedding we had however scheduled a post wedding dinner for the bridal party and their spouses. This was great because there was no stress and we got to thank everyone for all their support and tell them how much we loved them and being part of our week! Experience with WC The communication with the WC sucked. I’m sorry to be so blunt but that’s just the way it was. I know that they are very busy with lots on Wedding and only 2 staff but I didn’t find them very professional either. I had inquired about the cost of a rehearsal dinner early in our planning stages and she called me the day the payments were due to get the fees even though we had not discussed menu, location, etc etc. Thank goodness we really didn’t want a rehearsal dinner. In the very beginning of the process we chose to do the free wedding only at the resort, to avoid all the extra fees and hassle. The one thing I can commend the WC on was that she did get us a reservation at an a la carte for our 25 person bridal party. In Closing You can DIY some things, don’t tackle it all or you will go insane! I thought I was going to do it all in the beginning but after a few unsuccessful attempts, I left the important things to the professionals. Don’t let the drama get to you. Sometimes weddings bring out the best in people, sometime the worst, but in the end, it all works out. We will be having an AHR this summer in our backyard. I’m still in the planning phase, so I will be around on the forum until then if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask! Here are a few more of my fav pics (so far!). I will post more when I get them back in the next few weeks.

Flowers Another big decision for weddings! Originally I was going to make my own. After playing around with it for a few months I decided that some things are best left to professionals! I went with Bloom Bridal last minute. Judy was amazing to work with and turned out better than I expected! They are much more colourful in real life! I also ordered some loose hibiscus to but on the cake. Just want to mention that my chest looks so fabulous thanks to “Flaunt†inserts! The Wedding Day Details Because our group was large we qualified of a free cocktail party with horderves which I had scheduled right after the ceremony while we were doing pictures. It was supposed to be outside but because of the weather it was moved to one of their smaller banquet rooms. I just recently found out that the horderves consisted of Banana chips…that’s it. Luckily my guests didn`t care, I I was too oblivious to notice. The evening of the wedding we had dinner just the 2 of us. It wasn’t anything to right home about, I was hoping that the resort would have done something a little bit more elaborate. We just ate in one of their a la cartes. But it was nice to have the time together to recap the day’s events. Reception As I said before I didn’t do much research before we booked so I was surprised at the cost of dinner at an AI resort! I just couldn’t see spending that much money when all of my guests were staying at the resort and would be eating their anyways. So we decided to do things a little different. I started looking for Catamaran Charters for a cocktail party. DH went on a fishing expedition with Island Routes last year so I contacted them. Melissa Forbes got back to me with some quotes and I just had to go with them. She was so amazing to work with, I even invited her to the wedding! The Island Routes staff made our party that much more exciting! Besides being very professional they interacted with our group like they were part of the celebration! They partied just as hard as the rest of us! The menu included kabobs and crackers and cheese, fresh fruit etc. it was just what everybody needed! The thing we (and our guests) liked best about it was that it was so different than a usual dinner and dance that we could have done in Canada. We did our cake cutting, speeches and dances all on boat. Our first dance was one of the most epic I’ve ever heard of and it wasn’t even planned! We we’re on top of the catamaran at sunset dancing to God Gave Me You by Blake Sheldon. The Week's Events We didn’t want to plan too many activities because we understood that this was a vacation for all of our guests as well. But we did want to ensure that we had time to spend with everyone that came down. Volley Ball Tournament We had a volleyball tournament on day 5. It was an optional event but we had a great turn out. Because we had such a large group, it was nice to get everyone together and have fun. Dunns River Falls This was an awesome day, definitely a highlight for me! We took the Cool Runnings Catamaran to go snorkeling and then climb the falls. It was so much fun and exhilarating! After we came back down the mountain we had a great party on the boat. I’m really glad we did it this way instead of taking the bus to the falls, so much fun!

For decorations we paid a few extra dollars for tulle and rose petals. I created our program/fans using postcards from vista print and paper from Papercircle, everyone loved them! I made reserved signs using the same scalloped paper. The Ring ‘pillow’ was a conch shell I’ve had since I was little. I spray painted it white and glued some ribbon to it. The flower girl basket was metal and I got it from goodwill for a buck. Spay painted it as well, a few bows and ta da. I also brought bubbles down for after. Love this picture!