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Hi Arch ~ Thank you SO much for the compliment!! I'm happy to talk to you about passport invitations. Just PM me! Xoxo, Tam

Thank you! I'm also a teacher. Wow, my mind actually can't seem to remember how I did that, haha. It may be because my Granny actually did that part, and I put on the labels. I'm sure it's pretty easy with scissors and peeling it off. Happy Planning, fellow educator!

Jocelin - I sent two of my invites to England. I can't remember the cost. But they definitely recieved them. So, apparently, you can "export" sand, LOL! Best wishes!!

Thank you! I got them from a bridal store in Mesa, AZ. Luckily, they flattered all of my BM's!!

Congratulations, Mrs. Wright!!! This photo is incredible. I can't WAIT to see the rest and hear how all of your amazing work paid off for your wedding! xoxo

How exciting!! I hope you'll be sharing pics of your Save The Dates! Make sure to buy yourself some yummy treats as you DIY, too. That's one of my secrets. (lots of wine for me!) Cheers!

I love the luggage tags you made for yourselves!! Is that "Wright" lettering hung up in your house? I love that idea!!!

So excited for you, Chanel!!! I think I can speak for many of us when I say that I'm SOOOO beyond looking forward to hearing how amazing your wedding events go. Thank you again for helping a lot of us make our dreams come true on here. You're such a wonderful woman that deserves every happiness. Love, Tammy

Nope, they didn't charge us anything for our welcome dinner. At first, one of the hostesses was skeptical that we could do it, but I kept asking. And finally, a male host/waiter helped us make it happen (moved a table that she said we couldn't move, haha). It all worked out well! We were all seated at a very long table (tables pushed together). I just asked my coordinator about having the reception dinner there. And we went from there. If you PM me your email, I'll email you the details on the menu!

Dominiqueamber, Thank you!! YES! The magnet-words-on-the-fridge thing is EXACTLY what I was going for! The "Shepherd's Hooks Words" as I call them, were super easy. I bought these cardboard sheets from Hobby Lobby in the cake making section for the backing. Then, I bought chipboard letters and scrapbook paper and just made different words out of all of those materials, hot gluing them together. Then, I hot glued twine on the back. I'd say if you're going to do something like this, make it super obvious that it's available. I forgot to ask the coordinator to hang up some words on the hooks, and I don't think anyone but the Best Man even knew they were there! I did words like, "Love, Mexico, Friends, Us, I, Me, You, Treasure, Forever, etc." Basically, I thought of sentences that could be made with the fewest possible words, i.e. Friends Forever, I Love You, I Love Mexico, etc. Happy Planning! Tammy

JustineHeart ~ (Love that BDW name!) Actually, he wasn't too involved at all. Most of the time, he thought I was crazy spending so much time on this! He would have been happy just getting married at the courthouse. But he knew that this meant a lot to me and he really wanted me to have a special day. He just didn't mind not being a part of it (and actually preferred it that way, I think)! I found it challenging to ask for help and have him really involved in helping (more than say, an hour every once in a while... whereas, I spent probably close to 30 hours a week on this stuff). Tips - bring over a recently married couple and have the girls work on something while the guys work on something. And get beer for the guys. (This is how the invitation edges got burned, haha!) Other than that, I'd say if he isn't enthusiastic, quit pulling teeth. Invite girlfriends over that want to help. The boxes are bought from the same company that makes the bottles. So they fit snugly in the box. Once the wood excelsior is put inside as well, you have a very well packaged invitation that will arrive safely. (One of our guests said that their mailbox was vandalized WITH the invite inside.... as in, the mailbox completely got smashed and fell down, and the contents went everywhere... and the invite was still perfect!) Hope this helps!! Xoxo, Tammy

We had our dinner at El Caribeno. It was for 18. Normally, they don't allow reception dinners at El Caribeno (glad you got it too, Shane!!). There's a list of restaurants that you can use for your reception dinner, and this restaurant is not on it. What my coordinator had me do was to email her ahead of time what each guest wanted to eat. (I put together a set menu that my guests chose from, and then I got what they wanted for an appetizer, entree, and dessert, and sent that list to her.) IT WAS GREAT! I highly recommend it. It's not outdoors but indoors. You also mentioned you didn't qualify for free events. We didn't either. For our welcome dinner, we just had everyone meet at the restaurant without a reservation. (I got there about an hour early with my bridesmaids to start getting tables for us.) We did ours at Los Caporales - right next to Arrecifes. Maybe if you can't decide between these two restaurants, one of them can be for the welcome dinner, and the other for the reception dinner? Hope this helps! Quote: Originally Posted by mrsbruff2b I thought it was only dinner. I wasn't expecting anything more? Are these both outdoors? Quote: Originally Posted by mrsbruff2b May I ask how many people you booked for? (Or if you know the max capacity?)

I asked this multiple times to different coordinators (in case one of them gave me a different response, which we know they do), and I was always told that you can't. That the resort credits are always for you. BUT that wouldn't stop me from asking, just in case! Maybe they'll give you a better answer. Good luck!!

Again, thank you SO much for your kind words!!! I LOVE hearing your feedback and especially how some of you have found inspiration to do your own DIY! Woo hoo!!! That's more than I could hope for. LilLadyBug & JustineHeart - That's what I loved about the DIY projects for our wedding: they made things SO personal. It didn't feel like a cookie cutter wedding... it felt like US. And it didn't feel like a big show... it felt like a celebration of our Love. I'm so happy that you feel that too looking through these! I wish you the very same for your Special Day. P.S. Now I'm off to make invitations for my Snow White & The Huntsman all-girls party I'm throwing next month! (The movie looks awesome!) I think I'm making more excuses to DIY now that the wedding's over, LOL! Happy Planning (and DIYing)!! xoxo

That sounds great for your AHR!! Great idea. The HE and SHE are actually computer printed, not stamped, believe it or not! You could probably try stamps as well. That's too funny that our S.O.'s have that in common!!!! Haha.

Hi Anna! First of all, congratulations! Only about 5 more months for you! Secondly, I'm tickled pink by your compliments and your ULTIMATE compliment of asking me about making yours! I just emailed you. Love, Tammy

Sent!!

Mine had me come pick up everything at her office at Nizuc a couple days later. Then, when the starfish for our rings wasn't there that Zuniga said I could keep, she had it delivered to our room a day later. Hope this helps!

Wow, Coco. Where do I start? I just read your thread after completing mine. (I didn't want to read yours and get COMPLETELY inspired that I ended up doing mine just like yours, LOL!) And I'm blown away. (Even more than I thought I would be... which is a lot!!) I want to share something with you that's a bit embarassing but truthful. When I first met you on the Moon Palace 2012 thread that I was jealous of you at first. Yup. Crazy. I know, right? I guess it was just that you embodied everything I wanted to be on here: genuinely encouraging, super generous, supportive, helpful, amazingly creative, and just an all-around beautiful person. And then I asked myself, "What Would Love Do?" And I decided to quit being jealous and do my best to live out these qualities towards you and every other bride on here. I want to share that because not only have you completely inspired me to live out the wedding of my dreams in my own DIY projects and have truly supported me on here when I was in dire need of it... ......... you have inspired me to be a better person. So, thank you with all my heart. I'm so blessed to have met you on here. Celebrating you with so much Love as you prepare for your amazing Big Day. You deserve EVERY happiness. Lots of Love,Tammy

I hope I've helped and inspired you!! Best wishes for all of your planning and making your wedding dreams come true! Lots of Love, Tammy P.S. Our photographer was Octavio Montes. Highly recommend him for the Cancun area! Check out my review.

BAM! That's all of the items I made for our wedding! Now, as promised, here are some more pictures of our wedding! Cocktail Hour. Project pictured - Centerpieces. Flowers. Another pic from Cocktail Hour. Project pictured - Shepherd's Hooks Words. NOTE: I didn't post about this project because our Best Man (below) was the only one who caught on and used them at our Cocktail Hour! I made a bunch of words and put a lot of cameras out for people to make sentences and take pictures. Haha, oh well! Reception Dinner: Bride & Groom Table. Project pictured - Centerpieces. Flowers. Reception Dinner: One of our tables. Projects pictured - Favors. Centerpieces. Flowers. Reception Dinner: Cake Table. Projects pictured - Favors. Napkins. (This is also another project I didn't feature on here. I just bought napkins from Party City and stamped our initials and a starfish on them! BAM! Instant customized napkins on the cheap! ) Sand Dollar Confetti. (made with Martha Stewart Sand Dollar paper cutter I bought at Michael's! Got this idea from Coconoir!) Just for fun, this is us cutting the cake!

Bridal Shower Favors I was an exceptionally fortunate woman in that I had three showers thrown for me!! One in Arizona, where I grew up; one in Missouri, where we live now (which was a surprise shower thrown by my husband's family! Me so lucky!); and one from my work! I was crazy in that I offered to help make the favors for the shower at home and the shower at my work. But, in addition to my love for kits, I also have a complete LOVE for miniature things. Which I think is why I LOVE favors at weddings, hehe. Anywho... The heart tins, Thank You labels, and heart jewel stickers were all from Michael's. The blue candies were from Party City. These were SUPER easy to put together. To make 25 of them, I think it took just 20 minutes. I made way too many of these for the work shower, since I didn't know who would come. So, I actually took the leftovers to Mexico as favors at our reception dinner! The boxes, ribbon, and silver-lined labels are all from Michael's. The Thank You stamp is also from Michael's, I believe. For the insides, I just bought mini packets of M&Ms from Party City. They came in a mixed pack of plain, peanut, and peanut butter (like you'd buy for Halloween). I chose these because I didn't want people to get grossed out if there were loose items in the boxes.... I wanted them already packaged. It also made the process super easy!

Bachelorette Party "Hangover Helper" Kits & Gifts I thought it'd be nice to give the girls a gift, especially since I only invited my bridesmaids out for the Bachelorette Party. Hangover Helper Kits are hanging on the customized waterbottles I made, and the gifts are laid out on the table. I got the idea for this in a magazine or online and HAD to do it for something for the wedding (I've been obsessed with kits ever since I was a kid, haha). It really came in handy after our night, LOL! The favor bags are from the Hobby Lobby wedding section. The stickers come with the favor bags, and you just design them on your computer. I added pink rhinestones that I found in the same section at Hobby Lobby. The names are alphabet stickers I found at Hobby Lobby. I made the waterbottle labels following the instructions in Khris Cochran's book The DIY Bride Crafty Countdown. I bought photo paper from Office Max, and designed labels in Microsoft Word. I printed them and cut them out. My Granny helped me get the labels off from the waterbottles (see pics below), and then I put the labels on and secured them with double-sided tape. THEY ARE NOT WATERPROOF! Just a head's up! Granny helping. She's 90 years old and absolutely one of the best people on this planet!! The gift. I made the M&M bags and tied them on with Bachelorette Party ribbon I found at Michael's. For the M&M's, I bought the little baggies from Michael's, the M&Ms can be bought from Party City, and I made the tags on the same photo paper and just stapled them on. I saw these "Bitch Bags" on Etsy and LOVED them! The seller is PillowSewCute. She gave me a great price on them! I got the contents from Walmart's toiletry travel section. The girls really loved these! As soon as they arrived, they begged me to open their gifts, and I made them wait. I keep mine in my gym bag and occassionally use it in my purse!

Postcard Reminders (for people to RSVP on our website) So, as usual in weddings, not every one RSVP'd in plenty of time before our deadline. And, as usual in weddings, it's crucial for the bride and groom to have an accurate head count of the guests in time for everything for the wedding to be made/paid for, etc. We decided it'd be effective to send out a reminder for people. We agreed on postcards since it fit our theme and was cheaper to make and stamp. I believe they worked. We did get more RSVP's afterwards, even though everyone still didn't RSVP. Top - The same image we used as the background to our actual burnt-edge invitation (in the bottle). For the image, go to google images and search for "antique quintana roo map." I added the compass and treasure X and path, as well as the saying at the bottom. Bottom - I bought the antique postcard stamp at Hobby Lobby and used the brown Archival Ink large stamp pad. Before I stamped them all, I designed the front and backs in Microsoft Word (with the antique map image on one side, and the message for the Postcard on the other) and printed them all out on leftover Resume paper from the invitations.

Website This project took me a couple of months. I did a lot of research as to what I wanted on my website, and by research, I mean stalking other bride's AMAZING websites, especially Coconoir's! (Gotta love you, girl!! ) I wanted the website done before I sent out the invitations, since they could look up all of the info they needed to make a decision on whether they were coming or not. Also, there's an RSVP section on the website, so it saved us money in not making RSVP cards & buying stamps for those. I wanted to use a free website. At first, I started with theknot.com. I was really disappointed in their lack of options as far as customizing the look of the pages. So, I switched to weddingwire.com. I'm REALLY happy with using that website. I would really recommend it! The welcome page. It's flash player and moves the images one at a time onto the page - looks very snazzy and upscale! They give you an option to password protect it for just your guests' eyes.... that's what we did. Our home page. A lot of the wording was from other brides on BDW! Thank you so much for sharing your websites with me!! Bride & Groom Page. Coconoir had the awesome idea on her site of having the Groom write about the Bride and vice versa. So that's what we did. I think it's a nice touch.... and then it's also not like you're tooting your own horn so to speak. Wedding Party page. I used a lot of the "custom" pages on weddingwire so that I could make it look how I wanted. I wrote about my bridesmaids, and Casey wrote about his groomsmen. I hope this gives you some ideas for your own! If you're looking for ideas for your own website, please PM me for the password to our site. I'd love to be able to help you! I don't know what I would have done if I couldn't have looked at other brides' sites! Love, Tammy