cherany

Quote: Originally Posted by Terah Henderson HEY!! SO YOU PRINTED THE PHOTO ON A STICKER - & THEN STUCK THAT ONTO THE MAGNET SHEET - & THEN CUT AROUND THEM ALL? Sorry, I guess I wasn't totally clear. I printed the tag design on magnet paper and cut that out (no sticker involved). The sticker paper was for the design used on the card. I printed onto white sticker paper, but designed them with a yellow background that matched the yellow cards, since clear stickers would've resulted in altered colors when placed on the yellow card. Hope that makes sense! Happy to answer more questions if it's not completely clear.

Quote: Originally Posted by bncandi I love these! I would be so interested in paying you for your template, I've been trying to created something similar I saw on etsy but can't afford the high cost:( my email is [email protected] that's not rude of me lol Thanks! No, not rude, but unfortunately, I designed these in Photoshop element by element (no template). However, I can send you the photoshop design files if you have the program and are able to make use of them. Just PM me or let me know here.

Quote: Originally Posted by NRI-Jamaica Hello Ladies, I just wanted to let you know that I was so inspired by these and decided to use this as my save the date as well. I did find another place to buy the magnet sheets. Please see the link below. http://www.custom-magnets.com/ink-jet-magnet-sheets.htm Enjoy! Thanks! I'm sure a lot of brides will appreciate the link. I knew I could get supplies cheaper, but I was ready to get them done ASAP. It took me a long time to perfect the design (I'm realizing as time goes on that other people know how to use super easy publishing programs, while I only know how to go the hard/long way by designing in Photoshop!), so by the time I had it ready to print, I was super close to my self-imposed deadline, wanting to give these out a year in advance from the wedding.

Quote: Originally Posted by NRI-Jamaica These are amazing! What size are the actual luggage tags? They're about 3" x 4.5". I can't recall what made me go for that exact size, except it seemed close to real luggage tags.

Sorry, everyone! I didn't realize this thread had messages/questions for me; I lost track of it after the thread moved down and off the first page of my subscriptions. I really appreciate all the great feedback!

You could definitely sell them! How kind did it take you for one pair? A lot of my projects prompt people to suggest selling on etsy to me, which is a great compliment, but I am such a perfectionist, I find it impossible to complete anything in a reasonable amount of time I could comfortably charge for. My items would seem overpriced if I wanted to make even a few bucks an hour, which is a much lesser amount than I'm willing to work for. I guess on the bright side, it reminds me why things cost what they do when made by hand. I'm quite frugal and don't usually want to pay the prices I see on etsy.

Great job! I think one of the bridesmaids in our wedding is making her own, since she hasn't found any she loves. Nice to see someone here turn out a good looking pair; eases my mind about them looking like a craft project. I would never think yours weren't made by a pro.

I think the budget is fine and the timeframe is doable, but I agree with everyone recommending you choose your location ASAP and get the word out to friends and family. If you don't have enough details for a proper invitation in short time, at least send Save the Date cards or make a mass announcement via email/web that there is a wedding happening in whatever country in whichever month and that more info is coming soon. This at least tells people they need a passport and to start filling a piggy bank, if they plan to attend. Since it is such short notice, I would lean towards a smaller crowd of close loved ones, but it's a really personal decision. Your desire to elope gives the impression you would rather keep things intimate, which is what we decided to do. I haven't regretted it at all and feel good knowing only people I really love will be there. No obligatory invites, old acquaintances, distant family, etc. I don't have any suggestions on Aruba venues, but I think you're on the right site to find one in a hurry. Good luck!

I'm a 2013 bride, but I started planning in 2011. In some ways, it's great to have the extra time, but for me, I felt the need to plan everything before we even announced our engagement and dove in too deep, too soon. I burnt myself out on planning, feeling like there was nothing left to do for a while, and then felt overwhelmed when I later returned to planning and realized just how much was left in the "closer to the wedding" pile of tasks. I think the best thing would be to pace yourself and to have a drawn out timeline for planning that you can refer to. I wasn't very organized in the beginning, because it seemed like I had all the time in the world, and now I am wondering what happened to my carefree, no stress wedding? DIY projects are especially time consuming, so it helps if you can pace those out, working on just 1 or 2 projects at a time. Don't follow my lead by starting several projects when you have a long time to go, then failing to finish them up in a timely manner. Now that I'm close to my date, I am rushing to get all this half-done stuff completed. So wish I had completed one project at a time, with a timeline to keep me starting new ones as I finished previous jobs.

I haven't seen any posts talking about Martina, but we're really excited to have booked her! She's the airbrush make-up artist for The Best Moments and was highly recommended to us by our photographers at del Sol. She's bringing a stylist for hair, of course, I think the same person mentioned in their vendor info. I've never had airbrush make-up, but after seeing pictures of how flawless it looks, I knew I wanted it! Although I love makeup and tend to play around with color a lot, I don't feel comfortable doing my own for the wedding. Too many things I'm not great at (eyeshadow & liner, I sometimes have to do a few times over before I feel it looks perfect; don't want that extra stress on the wedding day!) and one thing I'm the worst in the world at (incapable of properly applying eyelashes) convinced me I needed to bring in a pro. Now that we have her booked, I feel confident I'll look better than I ever have on the wedding day, which is exactly what I want. We booked with certainty for my fiancé and me (2-bride wedding), and we'll most likely have them do our bridesmaids, as well. I'd love to hear from other brides who used/are using her!

Unfortunately, El Taj no longer allows ceremonies to take place during the day, so we were not able to have a late afternoon/early evening ceremony there and made the difficult decision to switch venues. I don't feel comfortable sharing all the details, since we are still booked at that hotel for a few days, but I would not recommend the wedding planner there. I will happily provide more information once we are back from our trip. Just wanted to give other brides a heads-up about the time issue. You will need to be ok with darkness in your cocktail hour portraits and reception photos if considering a wedding there.

Hi, mairelys! I felt that way at first, too; I think most of us did. I started with no idea which country to choose and just started by considering various places in/around the Caribbean, since there seemed to be more info regarding that area. Still, it felt like I was just browsing the web with little direction for a while. At some point, I figured out looking through wedding slideshows was more helpful in many ways, because I wasn't just looking at hotel info geared towards everyday vacationers. It really helps to see what a wedding can look like at a particular venue or in a particular region. This might sound unconventional, but one thing that really pulled us towards the area we decided on and took us from dreaming of "a wedding abroad somewhere" to "a wedding in Riveria Maya, Mexico" was discovering del Sol Photography's blog: http://delsolphotography.com/blog/ Not only did we fall in love with their work to the point of wanting our wedding anywhere they would be, we were able to check out venues through the eyes of a wedding guest with their photos. They have a ton of slideshows posted on the forum, which I think are super helpful when considering the Riviera Maya: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/a/del-sol-photography-slideshows-riviera-maya You mentioned wanting to go somewhere you've never been, but as a bride who has never been to the country her wedding is in, I can tell you that adds some stress to the planning process. If you think about how many things you learn about a place when you vacation somewhere, that knowledge is really helpful when planning such a major event and when giving info to your guests. I've found myself wishing I had firsthand knowledge of our location. You can always pick somewhere completely new to you both for your honeymoon, when it'll be easier to roll with things, versus it being your wedding day when you need everything to go smoothly. Good luck narrowing the choices!

We're following pretty closely along with the timeline given to us by our photographers at del Sol - they say not to let anyone talk you out of having your ceremony 1.5 hours prior to sunset, a suggestion turned gospel for us. We feel so strongly about ensuring perfect lighting, we switched ceremony venues after our original decided to offer evening/night ceremonies only (a painfully harsh lesson that hotels can change the rules on you at will). The photos are what we get to take away from a day that will surely pass way too quickly, so getting that part of the wedding just right is one of the most important things to us. Photo timeline from del Sol: 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM | Getting Ready 5:30 PM - 6:00 PM | Ceremony 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM | Cocktails + Sunset Portraits 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM | Dinner + Toasts 8:30 PM - 9:30 PM | Dancing + Reception Fun Since we are traveling to our ceremony site, we'll be making an adjustment for that, and we'll likely be done with hair and make-up when the photographers arrive, since we want to do a First Look at our hotel. I'm thinking it will go more like this for us... ?:00 AM - 4:30 PM | Hair & Make-Up (start time determined by hair/make-up team) 4:30 PM - 5:00 PM | Getting Dressed + Final Touch-Ups on beauty (I'd like a few pics) 5:00 PM - 5:15 PM | First Look photos 5:15 PM - 5:30 PM | Travel (it's just a few minutes away) 5:30 PM - 6:00 PM | Ceremony 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM | Cocktails + Sunset Portraits 7:00 PM - 7:15 PM | Travel (short drive) 7:15 PM - 8:30 PM | Dinner (skipping toasts, to everyone we've told's delight) 8:30 PM - 9:30 PM | Dancing + Reception Fun We have 5 bridesmaids & 2 brides, so whatever amount of time the make-up/hair team says, I'm going with. In my everyday life, I'm the queen of starting the getting ready process too late, and that is not an option on my wedding day. It may sound crazy to start in the morning, but I know we'll need every bit of the day to ensure everyone looks fantastic.

Thanks! It's La Casa del Agua, suggested to us by our coordinator, Leanne Marie. She knew we were looking for a place that was welcoming to DIY brides, had excellent food, and had an upscale look & feel. They have no problem with us bringing along an iPod and speaker rental system and were actually quite excited about it, a very welcome change from our original venue, where they were appalled by the idea. (One of several reasons we chose to switch just 6 months before the wedding.) They do have a terrace overlooking the strip, which is our private area for the evening. They also have a rooftop garden, but it's not large enough for our group to have dinner and dancing, although we are heading up there at the end of the night to release paper lanterns. After emailing my coordinator about lighting, she had a positive reaction and said she'd check on price for me, so I'm feeling better about it. I tend to worry about things not being just right before I've had a chance to find a solution (e.g. feeling disappointed that the place isn't colorful and worrying it will ruin the experience before considering some simple uplighting). I really ought to bounce these thoughts off you guys more, because the reality check that everything really will work out fine is often what I need! I'm just not a fan of hands-off planning and not being able to control everything myself, despite those traits not gelling well with a destination wedding. I've never regretted our decision to have a DW (don't think I would want to go through all this planning if it weren't one!), but it seems harder in as many ways as it is easier.