cherany

Thank you so much for this info! When I started planning, I had in mind simple bouquets made by bunching up 1-2 types of flowers, done at a low cost. I like bouquets consisting only of spider mums or only of gladiolas, for instance, something that seems so easy to me, but seems to baffle florists wanting me to choose bouquets full of varying flowers. I'm not comfortable spending hundreds on elaborate bouquets that, while beautiful, will be tossed in the trash a day or two later, but I do want fresh flowers. I really just want to order stems of what I like and not spend a fortune. I'm not sure what happened to the simple idea of tying a ribbon around a flower bunch, but that's my idea of a bouquet: beautiful and still cost effective. I'll have a friend help with translation and email this shop closer to my date, because I would feel more comfortable knowing I have a say in color selection versus going to Walmart and perhaps only finding red roses, which I don't want.

These look really nice! We considering something like this, but decided it wasn't in the budget. Thanks for sharing the flower info here, too! I should've just asked here, instead of a PM. I can't be the only bride appalled by the prices of a few bouquets from a wedding florist!

Thank you! I have heard only good things about the food, which is really important to Amy. It's important to me that the guests like the food, but I'm such a picky eater, I'm not qualified to judge good food. I'm happy to hear good things! I'm trying not to bring down too much, but I do have a few table decorations and hope to do chair sashes. If the restaurant does not charge us a set up fee, we will definitely add one to their tip! I searched online a bit more and think we may consider these lights, if the restaurant doesn't have any ideas for us (or we don't like the cost): https://www.diyuplighting.com/ I e-mailed the wedding coordinator, too, although we only hired her for the ceremony. We may end up asking her to help with the reception, too, if I get the feeling the restaurant will be overwhelmed. So far, though, I don't think there's a need. I have days where I know everything is going to be fine, having read stories here from so many brides who made many decisions just a day or two before their wedding, but I also have days where I feel panicked and lost, fearing the whole thing will be a mess!

Welcome, MrsHK! Nice to see the plans coming along for everyone. I feel like so much has happened since I last updated, yet not nearly enough is done. I'm feeling the pressure of being behind and getting scared whenever I look at the calendar and see how soon it's all coming! I'm really embarrassed to say this, but I don't even have our invitations out yet! A couple of my bridesmaids came over to help me with them a few weekends ago, but we didn't finish them. I was really ambitious with a DIY message in a bottle invite/boarding pass reply card/passport travel booklet combo. I don't regret my choice, but finding time to finish them has been a challenge. My idea was to get them out in January, since the RSVP date is March 1, but it seems people will pretty much have to return the card as soon as they get it, because I'll be lucky to get them done and mailed out this week. I did send STDs a year in advance from the wedding date, so I remind myself that everyone has had time now to make a decision. Still, I wanted to give them more time with the invite in their hands, as people tend to forget about things they received notice of nearly a year ago. Luckily, we know what's going on with most guests, but I still feel weird and awful about it, like I've messed up an important part of the wedding. There are many other things I'm concerned about, but I think my biggest worry at the moment is that our reception venue is rather lackluster in terms of lighting and color. It's a restaurant with terrific reviews on food, and they've been really helpful and great to work with, but I don't like the neutral decor at all and don't know how to word questions about it without insulting them or sounding like I don't like the place. It's just that we're having a colorful event, and I feel like colored lighting would jazz the place up. If there's something easily packed in a suitcase that can be plugged in and then used to spread colored light over a wall, that's the kind of thing I'm looking for. Or, if anyone has other ideas, I'm open. Some photos of our venue: We're probably bringing down colored table runners and chair sashes (another thing I'm way behind on and haven't done), but because we're asking the staff to put out everything we bring down, I worry about asking too much of them. Of course, now that I"m typing all of this out, it makes me realize I should just e-mail them and ask for suggestions for bringing colored lighting into the room. Surely that is not an offensive question?

Add me to the list of brides super pleased with Amols! http://www.amols.com/browse/search?search=maracas I ordered maracas from them and got them in 3 days! No special shipping, just the regular option. They look fantastic, all with different designs (some flowers, some sea turtles, some chili peppers with sombreros). Of the 24 I ordered, 1 was broken, but I e-mailed them a photo this morning and heard back within 5 minutes that a replacement would be sent out. Very friendly customer service!

Oh, wow, thank you so much for pointing that out! A bridesmaid is wearing these in our wedding, and I have a feeling she may have ordered just one...

Here is the listing for you: http://www.ebay.com/itm/280881137698 They come in gold, silver, red, & black. I went with gold since my dress is a warm color.

YAY, glad to be of help!

Sure! Here is the link to the pair she bought, with more available (great price, too!): http://www.ebay.com/itm/Slave-Ring-Anklet-Fashion-Anklet-Rhinestone-LC0670-/271130780434?pt=Fashion_Jewelry&hash=item3f20a76312

Assuming I love these when they arrive (ordered off ebay), these are my shoes for beach portion of the night:

Great price! I ended up buying off ebay: I considering looking for something more elaborate, but I'm reaching the point where I'm just happy to knock things off the list. I do love these, and the heel isn't so high that I'll have to worry about walking in the sand with them. They're just a departure for me, possibly the most casual and low heeled shoes I've ever bought! I'm just hoping I'm happy with them when they arrive. Everyone else in the wedding will have barefoot sandals or nothing at all. One bridesmaid bought this pair on ebay:

Love this trend! Have always wondered why brides who don't really love the idea of white dress end up doing it just because they think they should. I went all out & chose a bright orange dress! There's been some trouble getting it, and I have a back-up dress that's yellow and pink, but either way, I'll be in COLOR on my day!

Don't normally start threads just to vent, but I couldn't find anywhere else to post this and need to get it off my chest! I found out the hard way this week that it is not just wedding gowns that take months to get, but all special order formal occasion dresses. Ladies, no matter what dress you are planning to wear, ORDER EARLY! Even if you plan to lose a tremendous amount of weight, ORDER! Over a year ago, I fell madly in love with a bright orange quinceanera dress and knew it was THE dress I would get married in. It appeared readily available on dozens of authorized websites, so I put off ordering in an attempt to slim down and get just the right size to avoid alterations, having only had terrible experiences before and being way too scared to let anyone touch my dress. (Little did I know, a corset back dress dramatically widens the size range you can fit - I tried on everything from size 8 to 14 from the same designers this week, and they all fit.) I put in my order last weekend and never heard back from the store, so I contacted to see what was up and learned my dress was discontinued and no longer available. They had contacted the manufacturer and found there were absolutely none left in my color and size, just one left in my color that was several sizes too small and one left in a color I didn't want, also several sizes too small. After a brief (ok, hours' long) freak out with me crying and feeling crazy and desperate, I started e-mailing every store (was the middle of the night, couldn't call anywhere) that had the dress on their website, asking if they had any left in stock or any way to get the dress in my size and color. The dress is from a 2010 collection, so it felt pretty hopeless. I stayed up all night looking at other dresses, knowing I might very well have no choice but to pick something else. I couldn't find anything I loved that didn't have a ship date of just days before the wedding, which further put me into a panic. None of the dresses were as good as my original pick, so in a way, I was glad not to be settling for any of them, but mostly I was scared of not having a dress! I compiled a list of every store I could find in my area that carries quinceanera dresses, which was not an easy task, as most Mexican owned dress shops are nowhere to be found online, not even on sites like Yelp. I was only successful in locating most stores by checking designers' lists of authorized retailers. I told myself as soon as shops started opening, I was heading out for a day of non-stop shopping until I had a dress in hand. I was just so panicked, I couldn't stand the thought of waiting even a day or two for responses from all the stores I'd contacted. So, I set out to visit 14 shops in a day, and with the exception of 2 that were closed, I got into 12 and tried on dresses at all that had something to fit me in a color I liked (being so close to the wedding, I was pretty limited in color selection - not just because of needing to buy off the rack, but because I now have to avoid the same color as my bridesmaids, Amy's bridesmaids, and several other things that could've been changed many months ago, but can't be changed now without additional expenses). Nothing I found was as nice as my original choice, and I felt like bursting into tears so many times that day, because that dress was such a huge part of my dream wedding! At the third store of the day, I found one dress I thought I might love, if only I weren't comparing it to the original choice (I couldn't help it!), The price was excellent, much cheaper than anything else I'd seen, but I still hesitated and wanted to check out the rest of the stores on my list. By the end of the night, I had visited everywhere and was still empty handed, so I thought, ok, I'm going to go back and get that dress that I liked. It's not my dream dress, but I do love it, and the price was in the range of a knock-off for an authentic dress (was an older style they needed to clear out, so they were giving me $100 off the already low sale price). I couldn't come up with a good reason not to buy it. Before going back to the store, I had the thought to check my e-mail, and I don't know if I can say I'm glad or sad that I did. I saw several stores had replied to me basically saying, nope, never going to happen with the original dress, but one store had gotten back to me with the "exciting news!" that they had tracked it down in the right size and color and could get it to me in time. I called my fiance crying and upset, because after going through so much panic, I felt like I couldn't trust anything. If something went wrong with the order, then what? I'd be back at square one, and perhaps the one dress in the entire metro area that I liked would be gone. Although unlikely that everything along the way would go wrong and I'd be without either dress, panic combined with a lack of sleep had me thinking I needed to buy the in-store dress AND call and order the original dress. I could always sell one, right? My fiance said better to have a dress in hand and suggested what I already thinking, to get both dresses and sell one. So, that's what I did. I now have a dress in hand that I can't decide if I regret buying or not, and an order placed for the dream dress that I'm still scared will go wrong somehow. I feel better than I did when I first found out I had no dress, because I know I won't be naked now, but I'm still stressed and cry whenever I think about it. In a sickening twist, I learned at the last store I visited that I can wear a size 8 in a corset back dress, which is the one size the store I originally tried to order from had left in my dress. I never would've dreamed it, because the size charts online had me in a 12 or 14, but trying on actual dresses from the designer you like is much different than relying on measurements alone. Shockingly, I can wear an 8, 10, 12, or 14 from the same designer, thanks to the corset back. I never tried anything on in stores till all this happened, because I thought I would lose weight and then figure out my size. Dumb move, especially considering I've barely lost 10 pounds in a couple of months' time! This was a really long ramble, so thank you to anyone who read all the way through. It's far from the first thing to go dramatically wrong in our wedding planning (a huge ordeal with our venue a couple months ago resulted in us switching our ceremony site, reception location, and wedding planner just months before the wedding!), so I'm really in need of support from other brides who understand how stressful wedding planning is! I never dreamed it would be like this, especially not with a destination wedding (breezy and carefree way to do it, I thought - HA!). Lessons learned: Once you find your dream dress, ORDER IT! No such thing as too early! Feeling desperate and panicked is NOT worth it, even if you think you will drop 50 pounds! You can fit MANY sizes of corset back dresses! If you buy a 14 and are a size 8 by the wedding, you can tighten that baby enough to fit, I promise!

I never go anywhere without at least 4" heels on, so I've thought a lot about this. Although everyone else in the wedding will have on barefoot sandals or nothing at all, I plan to wear heeled wedges. I am considering going with a shorter heel than I normally wear, just to safeguard against an ugly fall in the sand, as walking on a beach in any footwear is much more difficult than walking on a hard surface. I found a pair I like on ebay, but I accidentally selected the wrong size, so waiting on the seller to respond and hopefully correct. This is not what I bought, but I saw these while browsing and thought, wow, these would look amazing and very bridal in white, silver, or gold. Had I found a nice pair of plain clear wedges for a good price, I would've done this by hot gluing flowers on myself, but I ended up going with something else entirely. Will show everyone once I get the size issue straightened out and the order complete.

I love this idea! May have to steal it.

Yep, that's my dress! It's a quinceanera dress, so it takes longer to order and receive than a prom dress, but similar price range. Amy is open to something like that, too, but she wants to be able to try the dress on and make sure she's comfortable. I am ordering my dress without having seen it in person and without being able to try it on. Online shopping provides much more selection, but it does present problems for those who really must try things on first.

The Brides for Breast Cancer show is a great idea! Like you said, worth a look. Right now she has no clue what style she wants (I have ideas about what would flatter her, which she welcomes, but I don't want to basically choose her dress for her), and no clue on size (my guess is in the 24 to 28 range, far beyond the size 14 to 18 plus size dresses a lot of places have). Once we've had an appointment or two in a store, we'll have a much better idea of what to look for. So far, she only knows she wants a full length dress in white.