Peach

Quote: Originally Posted by traylynn http://www.shopbubba.com/Default.aspx? You can get them cheaper at Walmart or from these boards I learned a placed called Canadian Tire Yes, they are cheap at Canadian Tire, but that is only in Canada. Only the Walmarts in the States carry them. (As far as I know). We had Bubbas at our wedding in July. They were everyone's favourite thing. They were SO great, and others at the resort were jealous! A couple of our guests (after a few beverages) even made up a song about how awesome they were, to the tune of "Build Me Up, Buttercup", which they called, "Fill Me Up Bubba Cup". They were such a hit!

Quote: Originally Posted by Bride2B26 I don't know if this has already been said, but I would have a picture framed with your pet on your head table or on the cake table. I'm having a picture slideshow at my wedding and we are showing about 20 pics of our cat along with the song 'you've got a friend in me' from toy story! I'm really excited I get to include our little baby in our wedding!! Great song choice! We almost had it during our slideshow at our AHR, but changed it at the last minute.

So cute! From Sweet Home Alabama, right? And it is the answer given to the question, "Why do you want to marry me, anyhow?" How absolutely perfect!

I just PMd you.

Alright, months ago I posted on here asking for an opinion to help me choose a dress... well, I bought the unanimous vote, had it fitted, and wore it on July 18 when I said I DO! (And then again the next day for our TTD, and then a month later for our AHR. woohoo!) So here it is on our wedding day... Thanks so much for your help, ladies! You can see the back here a bit And the top is shown more in this one And here you can see it blowing in the wind... It was very windy! But I liked the movement. It just flowed right behind me

They stopped it when I got to the altar. They quietly turned it down, which was nice. For our bm and mom entrance, they all walked really fast, and they just turned it off when they got to the front. Oh well.

I wanted to do the Hands ceremony element but did not get a say in the ceremony. Oh well. But it is lovely if you can do it. Check out things you are into... poems, songs, quotations from movies. I like some of the ones here for something a little different: http://offbeatbride.com/2008/07/wedding-readings We used Pablo Neruda's poem in some of our stuff, and a quotation from Romeo and Juliet, since I am an English teacher. We are also a little nerdy, so some nerdy movie quotations made their way into our guest book, though we could not use any of that in our ceremony. Just keep searching - there are a lot of non-religious options.

So I am going to add to your confusion... sorry... I like both, but I much prefer without. I just think the dress speaks so much for itself, and when it is on, my eyes are on the applique, not the gorgeous shape of the dress. Just my two cents!

Did anybody have any luck tracking these down? Or ones similar? I downloaded them way back... and now cannot find them anymore. I have 1 - 8, but I need 9 and 10. I need them immediately! Any ideas???

Hi! My dress had a chiffon overlay on top of satin (and a bit of crinoline). It was TOTALLY fine. We did ours on the beach, then rinsed off really well in one of the beach showers, wearing the dress, then went in the pool for underwater shots. After, we filled our hotel jacuzzi tub, put the dress in, and kind of swished it back and forth, just to rinse off the chlorine mostly. Then we hung it in the shower to dry. Like everyone says, it looks cleaner than it did after the wedding. I am wearing it for our AHR this Saturday, and then I will have it cleaned and put away. So I do not know about organza, but my materials were absolutely fine.

Do you have a photographer? We did a TTD at the beach, and then underwater ones at the pool. We had a wonderful time - a highlight of the whole trip! We went with Caribbean Emotions, in the DR. They are actually from Punta Cana, and very reasonable we think (though we do not have our pics back, so I guess we will see then!)

Yes, we did 14 and used a big photobook that people signed yearbook-style. We asked that they write more than just their names! Then we are bringing the same book to our AHR. It would have been too big for just the DW, but a smaller one would still totally work. That is an awesome idea! The only tough part would be packing it I think.

I hear you. We were a group of 14 people; at our resort, there was another group out of Canada there that was 60 people! I totally was intimidated at first, but it was fine. I could not imagine spending for that many people though! The only negative for us, being at a resort with a big group at the same time, was that people - staff and other guests - would ask if we were the wedding group from Canada, and we had to say, Yes, but not that group... we heard a lot of negative things about that group's treatment of the staff, grounds, etc., and it was unfortunate that we were still lumped in with them. But I digress... the smaller your group, the cheaper it is!

It all depends. Some places offer free wedding packages, some do not. It depends where you are, how many of you there are, and what you want. I would do some research for sure.

Okay, back from our wedding. My sister and I were the only ones at the salon. I had a mani/pedi and she had a pedi the day before the wedding. We tipped, but my sister covered that, so I am not sure how much. I tipped after my hair the next day, 20%. We did NOT tip the photographer/videographer. We paid for their room for two nights at a fabulous resort, plus a travel fee, and they own their own business, so all the money goes to them. We DID tip the coordinator. I think it was $50 American, or something to that effect. Maybe it was more, now that I am thinking about it...? For some reason, I think we threw in an extra $20. She was good. Not AMAZING, but good. She answered questions, was there throughout the ceremony and again for a bit during the dinner. My MIL and a friend of the family did the decorating, but she helped (a policy apparently states that someone from my group had to be in charge of it). She added a lot of nice little touches though, which were really lovely surprises. However, likely due to some communication problems, there were a few minor inconvenient mishaps (aren't there always?). But overall, it was all good. We did tip our servers for our meal, same as we did throughout the vacation. We did not have a DJ - we showed up at the disco on the beach with an iPod full of music and tipped the DJ there about $10 to play some music. He said he would just play a few songs, which he did... until my very lovely sister and another younger lady went to ask him again. We had our music mostly the rest of the night. So I am not sure the tip was necessary! LOL I think that about covers it. I also wanted to mention, if we had a larger group (there were only 14 of us), I would have given more to the coordinator for sure. I think that determines a lot.

It is TOTALLY doable. We did our wedding at a luxury five-star resort, and spent two weeks there, which was almost five grand on its own. If we has stayed at a cheaper place, there is NO way we would have spent that much. We would have been under five for sure. As it was, we will be about 10-12 thou, INCLUDING the AHR. Here are the top five recommendations I have for keeping costs down: 1 - prioritize. We wanted our location, so that is where the biggest moolah went. Then a photographer. That was the second biggest expense. Everything else was just gravy. And if we could not afford it, we did not have it. Simple. 2 - Keep that guest list down. Okay, I know for some people this is not a possibility. But we had some family drama and some resort changes, which meant we only had 14 people (plus photographer and videographer) with us. We were able to spoil them a bit with gifts, but even so we spent way less on everything. This goes for the bridal party too. 3 - DIY. (If you can). If I could make it, I did. I stopped short of making the maid of honour and bridesmaid's dress, but that was about it. That being said, I craft already, so it is not like I had to go buy a bunch of stuff. For example, I wanted a personalized hanger. I saw them on etsy for $20+. I used materials around my house to make my own for free. Even if you do not DIY, be creative. Ask around for ideas on ways to save money. 4 - Discount shop - I did not pay a single thing full price, except the wedding package (but our trip was cheaper, because we booked early and in the off-season.) I rarely bought anything that was less than 40% off; that includes everything from my dress to little crafting supplies. 5 - Long engagement. We were engaged exactly two years. Which means we researched, priced things out, shopped around, collected coupons, compared, watched for deals, had more time to DIY... so definitely worth it. This is all true of our AHR as well as our DW. We factored everything together. Yes, even the engagement ring. He had set himself a specific budget for it; I would have been angry had he gone over it; I did not know about it before, but I would have found the cost eventually; all of our finances are together. For us, FI was finishing school, we just bought a car and need a second one now, he was looking for work, we were moving.... we were trying to pay OFF debts during our engagement, not acquire new ones! So THAT was the priority. We wanted to have a wonderful experience with a few people, but mostly we focused on each other, enjoying everything leading up to it, and loving the beautiful location. And you know what? It was perfect. So if you only want to spend $5000, only spend that. You can totally do it, and still be left with wonderful memories, a fabulous experience (and yes, I am sure you can even get some awesome pictures too).

I just did them on Word, then placed a text box on it. Printed them off in colour, then used clear packing tape (yup, that's right) on them to "laminate" them. I printed off Dominican Republic, 2013 and glued them on the back, then "laminated" them there too. Then I hole-punched them and used ribbon and hemp cord for the ends. Hope that helps!

Thanks! I am going to be posting more now that I am home from our big day!

Thank you!

Some people used our bags, some did not. Some used a few items from our "for better or for worse" mini bag, which was small, but most did not. No one used our digital flip camera, but that was because we did not give them memory cards (duh!) for them. We had a few small items (like pens and sticky notes), and people liked our welcome/activity passport books. The biggest hit was DEFINITELY the bubba kegs!