jsal4

Customs went through my stuff. They just kind of shuffled it around. I had all the receipts (not very well organized). Every time they asked me about the price it took me a minute to find the receipt. The receipts they asked for were mainly the big items...like the 30 pashminas or 100 tea lights I had. I think they got sick of waiting for me to look for receipts that they just let me through.

I did Pashminas/Shawls/Scargs and everyone loved them. I was planning on getting ones that matched the wedding colors, but instead I bought several different colors and styles to try to fits a wide range of tastes. There were a huge hit and every time I see one of my guests now, they are wearing them. I bought mine at http://www.fashionunic.com/

I picked out my dressed online from Nordstroms. Glad I did, because they looked great in the pictures!

I did not have my reception on the beach, but I did have a bonfire party one night.The bonfire was small because it was so windy. I am not sure if it was mosquitoes or "sand fleas" but in the beginning some people were getting bitten. I luckily brought down two bottles of deep woods bug spray that everyone used. No one got bit after that. Here's some pictures, so you can get a feel of the lighting. I did not anything for the lighting, but I am sure you could maybe bring some extra lighting down.

Decorations - You can bring down as much or as little decorations as you want. I brought down 90% of my own and rented a couple things from the resort. The resort will charge you to set up the decorations (I paid $250). But it was still cheaper than renting everything from the resort directly. Photographer - I loved my photographer! Ivan Lucky with Luckie Photography (www.luckiephotgraphy.com). Pictures were very important to me and his photo journalistic approach was exactly what I wanted. His price included the wedding day and the trash the dress and was way more reasonable than other photographers I received quotes from. Guests - I mailed out invitations with an RSVP by date. I also ended up contacting all those who did not respond to make sure I had an answer from everyone. Entertainment - I had Firedancers and LOVED them! It was a surprise to all our guests. They performed at the end of the cocktail hour. Everyone loved it. I went with an outside vendor who they no longer allow in :-( But I saw their prices for their firedancers have come down a lot, so it might be a good option for you. HAPPY planning!

I was married Oct 12th and had the wedding ceremony at 5pm. It was great timing as during the ceremony it was bright out and we took a ton of pictures all the way to sunset. On the way to the ceremony about 5pm: During the ceremony: After the ceremony 5:30pm: After 6p, during cocktail hour:

Great pictures!!!!

Just a tip...luggage space is always an issue when bringing down decorations and favors. But somehow I managed to bring only 2 suitcases and 2 carry ons. The thing that was the most helpful was SpaceSaver Travel Bags. I used them for the 50 koozies and 50 shawls, plus all of our clothes for 8 days. These items basically fit in one luggage.

I had my hair and makeup done by the spa. They did a great job! I just brought pictures and it was duplicated perfectly. Below are some pictures...the first one is to show the makeup (the picture was later on in the night, it was very windy so my bangs are all over, but the makeup stayed on well). The second picture shows my updo better.

Yes, the amp was definitely loud enough. There is an employee who changes out the playlists. We had things on our play list like, first dance, dinner music, last song, etc.... When dinner started, they did not play the correct music and also when we walked into the reception as the new Mr. and Mrs. a random song (not on any of the playlists) was playing. I had my brother-in -law MC the whole wedding and he was great, but I should have told him to make sure the correct music was playing too.

I had a symbolic ceremony so we were able to do our own vows.

I meant "directory" instead of "directly".

I am back from my wedding! It was really an amazing experience. We had a group of about 40 and everyone got along and had a great time. We had a wedding, another couple got engaged, a wedding ring was lost and then found....endless laughter and many fun experiences shared! Of course, there were a couple of very minor, very tiny things that did not go as expected, but in comparison to what went right...I am the happiest girl ever! I am not going to list out all the goods and bads...because that is somewhere already on this thread. I will just list out a couple of things that I wanted to share: We had 20 rooms booked. My sister had a brilliant idea to get a directly of our guests from the wedding coordinator. This helped out so much as when plans changed, we could easily make a phone call and leave a message. When you get to the hotel, make sure you know what places are open on what days and for what meals. We had to switch our restaurants twice as one was no longer ope for lunch and another was not open on Sundays. No big deal...thanks to the phone directory we had. Since my hubby and I were so busy...we hardly took any pictures. Thank goodness 4 of our friends took over 500 each. We created a photo sharing site on shutterfly. We rented the Amp...even though we had a very detailed list of music, the people controlling the amp did not follow it. Whoever is your MC, make sure they are on top of those people. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy! It goes by so fast.