TheWolferts

Heydenay- I had 2 BMs back out and I had paid for all of their dresses... one has paid me back for the dress and is making a lot of effort to be involved with other wedding events, but the other has dropped off the planet, refuses to answer/return texts, phone calls or emails, and has obvisouly not sent me a check for her dress,but wont even mail it back to me so that I can try to sell it. We arent doing a reception when we get back, but if I were in your shoes, I think if your BMs cant make the wedding due to financial reasons and are still being helpful with BM-type duties, then I think it might be nice for them to "be acknowledged" at the head table at your reception.

My only concern about wearing these in the sand is that the sand might rough up the satin causing it to fray. I am wearing a satin shoe for the reception, but wedges for the ceremony in the sand to avoid this.

WPGBride- I have seen a few very similar to your inspiration shoe (see below). Maybe you could find a shoe clip or even make a clip with the flower on them if you really liked that feature on the inspiration shoes! http://www.stevemadden.com/Item.aspx?id=64764&np=127_282-136_394 http://www.stevemadden.com/Item.aspx?id=57094&np=127_282-136_394 http://www.aldoshoes.com/ca-eng/women/shoes/occasion/86771956-durling/35

Woops, I forgot that they come in about 6 different colors too... here is the link: http://www.ninewest.com/Nancita/8449278,default,pd.html?variantSizeClass=&variantColor=TURQUSY&cgid=9546525&prefn1=catalog-id&prefv1=ninewest-catalog

Ladies, I came across these beachy sandals that I thought a lot of people would like so I thought I would share! They are Nine West style Nancita for $49. I already have my shoes picked out, but I thought these would be great to get ready in and have handy for later on in the reception if my heels prove to win the battle with my feet!

Ashbrooke- We are having our cocktail hour on the beach next to Gazebo 55 and using our own iPod docking station to play reggae/beachy music. Our reception is indoors at the Salon Dorado and we were wanting a Sinatra, Louis Armstrong vibe for dinner, so I think because its indoors and less beachy, it will work out nicely. I have a few specific songs that I would like him to play during the general dance portion of the evening, but other than that, I think I will just ask him to keep it to top 100 type songs, with some mix ins from "the older generation's era" for my parents and older relatives LOL. I am such a spreadsheet organizer, so I will definitely be using the one DJ Doremixx provided. I found a comprehensive wedding spreadsheet outline that has kept my guest list. budget, registry/gits received, vendors info. I had to tweak it a bit to suit the needs of a DW, but I live by it!

Ashbrooke- We are using DJ Doremixx as well. I have been working on filling out the spreadsheet they sent me when I first booked their services. It lists our the exact times you want things (first dance, garter toss, etc), so I am feeling pretty good about the timing of things. I have also been trying to think of things that we want to include on our "Do Not Play List" so I will be sure to add that "Chug a lug" song to the list, though my dad loves that song and sings it to annoy me, so he would probably get a kick out of it! Did you use the spreadsheet they provided?

Leah22, We looked into having our wedding in Jamaica, but the flights seemed a bit lower to get to Cancun, rather than Montego Bay. Plus, my cousin got married at EDR 2 years ago so I love that I have seen the property and know the quality of the resort. I think we are headed to Iberostar June 19-24th. Any June 2012 brides staying for additional time after their wedding?

Ashbrooke3ou- What DJ vendor did you use?

We are honeymooning at IGRH in June, so I joined this thread to get some information about the hotel. We are getting married this May at the El Dorado Royale in Riviera Maya. After reading some of your horror stories with outside vendor issues and pricey reception menu options, I have to say I am kinda glad we are just honeymooning here. $70 a la carte per person for the reception seems just as high as many places in the states quoted us. It seems odd that since the guest is already paying for dinner that night in their all inclusive package rate, that the resort would charge that much for you guys to pay on top of what they are collecting from the guest. Kinda seems like the hotel is double dipping. We are having a filet mignon with lobster tail option for $26 a plate and a mahi mahi option for $21 a plate. It also includes a starter salad with coconut shrimp, a desert plate, unlimited premium beverages and a champagne toast. My cousin got married at EDR last year so I have personally had the filet with lobster and they were heavenly, so I know it's not just cheap and crappy. All I can say, is hang in there brides! Once all of this stuff is worked out, you can enjoy all of the fun girly things that comes along with wedding plans! We are less than 2 months out now!

For those of you wanting to try out Insanity before you buy it or instead of buying it, I found this site that has all of the videos uploaded to it in their entirety. Our apartment gym has a wifi signal so I brought my laptop down and would take over a small area to get my workout in! I just cant push myself in my apartment because I get distracted. http://tumblrgym.tumblr.com/Insanity

We are going through Lomas and have been working with Valeria for about a year now. She is great! Maybe you could request to work with her. I am a perfectionist and very detail-oriented and she is really on top of things as well, so we make a good team. I have never tried emailing the resort, all of my correspondence with the resort has been through Lomas and our TA Christine with DW.com.

I have been doing Insanity for quit some time now and love it! If you want to step it up a notch or are getting bored with Insanity, I suggest doing Insanity 2 aka Asylum! There is a weight workout, an Olympic sports workout and several cardio agility tracks. Warning though, Shawn T is actually kinda mean/less motivational talk this go round!

Does your resort allow you to ship down items/decor right before your date?

Since my fiance is a foot taller than me, I cant imagine not having some added height on our wedding day, sand or not! I bought cheap white and cork wedges from Charlotte Russe to wear just for the ceremony on the beach. For the reception and as my official wedding shoe (the pair shown in pics), I bought these! They are so flattering, comfortable, and can go with many other dresses in the future! http://www1.bloomingdales.com/shop/product/ivanka-trump-doublet-evening-sandals?ID=536830&upc_ID=945753&Quantity=1&seqNo=1&EXTRA_PARAMETER=BAG

I might have to steal this!

This thread is great! I was trying to decide how best to disseminate all of that information to the guests and didnt want to just put a piece of paper on their rooms.

Umm you might be able to get them from http://www.goodthingsweddingfavors.com. We opted not to do mugs because our wedding is at an all inclusive, so we didnt think that people would carry them around the resort with them, plus we didnt want anyone to feel obligated to fly back with it.

We are doing: playing cards (we bought personalized beach themed cards here http://www.goodthingsweddingfavors.com/personalized-beach-themed-playing-cards.html) hand sanitizer (got ours at B&BW for $1 a piece) mini candles in case the rooms r a little musty (got these at B&BW too, for about $2 each) First aid kit hangover kit aloe vera/possibly a small bottle of high SPF (for those that only head down to mexico with dark tanning oil and burn the first day!) White canvas tote bag that my mom is painting with our "wedding logo" (great website! http://www.ingreetings.com/onwholortot.html) Shout wipes/Tide pen

What else are you putting in your OOT bags? We are thinking of doing a hang over kit as well

I couldn't find anything on the online Walmart store, but I did find these on amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Compact-42-Piece-First-Aid-Kit/dp/B003LS6AZC/ref=pd_sim_sbs_hpc_3 May be too much stuff, but for $1.85 a piece? Cant beat it!

Are you just doing a small legal ceremony?

Just curious, is everyone doing the legal aspect of the wedding in the states or in Mexico? Also, is anyone planning on doing a separate reception after the Mexico festivities for friends and family that couldn't make the trip down?

Thanks for letting me know they now put conditioner in the rooms! I have long, very fine hair so it was awful not having any when I visited in 2010. We werent going to bother with the aloe and sunscreen, but when I went to my cousins wedding, I didnt bring a very high protection of sunscreen so I was very grateful that she included some higher SPF sunscreen in her OOT. The personal cards are looking like they will cost about $2.50 a deck and I would need 21 decks. I found plain cards on amazon for $.69 a pack and my FI is a big cards player so he said he would rather have quality cards, rather than "cheap" pretty cards... since Im monitoring the budget and in charge of ordering items for the OOT bags, I have yet to make the final decision on that one LOL. What what you put in the Hangover kit? So far all we have is Advil and Pepto, possibly Emergen-C.

Since we have our guest list finally narrowed down, we are starting to get the items for our OOT bags!!! I was hoping to get some input on items you would or would not put in your OOT bags. So far we have (all in mini travel sizes): - hand sanitizer - chapstick - aloe - sunscreen - deck of playing cards customized to our wedding theme (FI thinks this is stupid and wants normal cards, but I think its cute! Thoughts?) - Hangover kit items: Advil, Pepto tablets, Emergen-C - hair conditioner (FI doesnt get this one, but I forgot conditioner when i was at EDR and they only had expensive,huge bottles in the gift shop, so I think the women would appreciate it) - Tic Tacs - Mini candles (my room was a little musty/humid so i thought it would be nice to have these to freshen up the room if needed) - canvas tote bags (my mother is painting our "wedding logo" that we used on our save the dates on each bag) If anyone is doing OOT bags too, what items were you thinking of putting in there?