J and G 2012

Our Logo Our logo I designed myself after getting tips from brides on BDW. I designed it (in a number of different ways) in PPT and saved as picture to be used throughout our wedding suite. Invitations I designed our invitations using the free ayleebits template and word clip art. Everyone was really impressed with how they turned out (we only sent them to those that booked). Here is my thread on making them and the package they we’re included in. We gave most of our invitation packages out at our Jack and Jill. OOT Bags I really wanted to do OOT Bags but we’re on a very limited budget and could not afford all the elaborate things that some of the brides put in them. We also had 90 ppl attend so it was hard to get some of the numbers of those things. We tried to make them as useful as possible and our guests really did appreciate them and used all of the contents. Each couple and single got a bag and the 6 kids that came got their own special bags with colouring books, sand toys, etc.. Bags and key card holders – Oriental Trading, most people used these, I was disappointed I didn’t keep a key card holder for myself! Toys/Activity Books - Dollar Store Decks of Cards – used Casino cards (free) Incents – Liquidation world $0.11! Lighters Ping pong balls Mugs – these were bought by our TA for all our guests even the ones that didn’t book through her. One side had her info on it and the other had stickers that we bought from Etsy seller DavetDesigns. The stickers are waterproof, fade proof and dishwasher safe! The TAs info rubbed off with a little sunscreen. We also got bubbas mugs engraved for DH and me. We used them everyday, and have a great souvenir now! Not the greatest Pic but his says groom and his nickname and mine says Bride and my nickname.

It’s my turn! I’ve been piecing this thread together this whole year to make it a little easier, I wanted to wait until we got our pro pics back, but I can’t wait any longer! Thank you to all the brides I’ve turned to for advice, I don’t know what I would do without this site! That would be my number one piece of advice, start research well ahead of making any decisions, we sent out our STD before I really had any clue of what I was doing! As happy I am with how things turned out, I probably would have made a few different decisions. One of those would be not having a wedding right after Christmas! But it was in fact the best week of my life! Before I dive right into the details about the planning of the week’s events let be tell you nothing went as planned. So “A†type personalities (like myself) be prepared it may not be just as you pictured it, but in the moment it really doesn’t matter! All the little glitches (see Resort Review), problems and changes made our week that much more special. In summary: It wasn’t the greatest resort. It had some bad rooms, we had 3 different rooms ourselves. Then we finally got a suite, which was amazing! But with such a large group a lot of our guests had issues. The Officiant wouldn’t do our ceremony that we wrote (found out 1 hour before the wedding) so my brother read it instead. Catamaran reception was cancelled the day of the wedding because of weather, but it was rescheduled for the day after, which gave us another opportunity to be with our guests and allowed us to let lose and party without our wedding attire on. The Begining Let’s start at the very beginning. I was in high school and had just sworn guys off. I was going to focus on school and my future (that’s what you’re supposed to say, right ), then I met Garett. His friend and my best friend (Maid of Honour) were dating and DH wanted to be set up with one of her friends. There we’re two of us in the running, luckily for me (and him ) he preferred brunettes! We dated for 9 more years. I decided to take things to the next level, and last year we bought a house, even though I didn’t have my ring! Us in the early years J Us on our wedding night The Proposal Our first Valentines Day in our home, we decided to make dinner and stay at home. We cooked up some lobster and had a nice candle light dinner. After which I did my usual, get my pjs on and lay on the couch to watch tv. He came over and said that we “had to talkâ€, my first reaction was “oh shit, what did I do?â€! He proceeded to tell me how much he loved me and that he should have done this long ago (all of which I had to get him to repeat after because I was giggling and crying through his speech!). He gave me a beautiful ring that wasn’t mine (back story: I was going to have my ring made by a family jeweler, but I guess he wasn’t quick enough for Garett, and he picked out his own!). I’m glad he chose the ring himself because it is so beautiful and I couldn’t imagine not having it now! Planning After I got my ring I was a little bit stressed. I wanted “the ring†for so long that I forgot what happened after, … the wedding. In the first few months we we’re throwing around the idea of having a “backyard wedding†at his family farm, we knew we didn’t want to do the regular sit down receiving line/sit down dinner kind of thing, but it was still a little bit over whelming for me. Then we talked about a destination wedding, I had always joked about getting married in a bikini and sarong. We contacted a few friends who were travel agents to get prices for a trip. We had been to the Grand Palladium in Jamaica the year before and absolutely loved it. Unfortunately it didn’t quite fall in our budget for the wedding. We wanted to have as many of our friends and family join us so we had to make it affordable for everyone. So we chose the Sunset Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios. I didn’t do much research in the beginning and booked without looking into the prices for the wedding and extra costs, so make sure you do your research before booking anything! STDs We chose our week and sent out almost 200 save the dates. We wanted to make sure that anyone who wanted to come, could come. We had friends of friends and family book, even some new friends, but that’s they way we wanted it, a big party. Our STDs were designed by Etsy Seller ItsMelC and they were great. She sent me the file and I had a local printer print them all out. If I had of been more familiar with this site and Vistaprint at that time, I would have done them myself.