TheWolferts

MsTigger, If you are a list person, Birdal Magazines tend to have lists with the timetables you need to do specific things in... of course you will have to modify the timeline slightly since you are having a DW! I found it really helpful. I also found an excel spreadsheet (which I tweaked a little bit to meet our needs) online that was my life saver! I kept track of EVERYTHING in it and even kept it on a USB drive that went everywhere with me! It really helped me keep a running tally of my budget, guest list, food orders, events, gifts, etc. weddingplanningtemplate.xls

We had a 4 hours reception and it was PLENTY! To be honest, you will be entertaining people all week and all day long, so it was nice to know an end point. Most of our guests were beyond ready to call it a night (most of our guests were partied out earlier in the week), so the few of us that wanted to continue the night went to the main resort bar and it didnt feel weird to be there at all. An open air restaurant for your reception sounds beautiful, so dont give that up because you cant have a longer than average DW reception. I think most places do receptions for 4 hours. If you have having a cocktail hour before your reception, that gives your guests about 6.5 hours of libations! I had a lot of guests telling me that they drank so much at the cocktail event that they were completely ready to be done when the 11pm reception end was finished.

I'm fairly petite (5'3" size 2) and I found that Maggie Sottero or her "couture line" Sottero Midgley fit me really well and didnt swallow me up! Her price points are really great too!

Have fun! I keep telling my husband that I cant wait until we go back for our 1 year anniversary! I think we are leaning towards going to another resort in the Karisma chain just to switch things up and I have already been to EDR twice, so we thought we would go to either El Dorado Moroma or Seaside instead.

We chose a DW because our budget could be stretched quite a bit further. It was sooo expensive to get married in my home town and we knew we couldnt have our dream wedding back home. We splurged on everything we could have ever wanted for our DW and still came in a couple thousand under budget! We also wanted to have a couple of days with our friends and family rather than a few minutes at a packed wedding with a lot of people that we barely knew.

We did not include a card with payment info because by the time we sent out formal invitations, the people that were realistically coming had already seen the pricing and many had already paid in full.

We chose Doremixx because all of the approved vendors on EDRs list were at least $2k each. They must have decreased prices since people were using outside vendors.

What is EDR quoting you for the outside vendor fee? What about DJ Doremixx?

We brought our own tray, and they charged us a flat fee for everything we needed set up at the reception. I think we only had place cards at front door, table numbers, menus and cake topper. Good thing about a tray is it packs flat... just make sure you get it back! My grandfather made our tray and it was not among the things that the WCs gave back to us the morning after our wedding.

Hi there, I didn't get my dress in DC since I wanted to my mom to be able to come with me to pick out my dress so I found my dress in florida, but my husband and I live in Arlington and I found all my accessories and veil at Rosalyns Bridal. It doesn't look like much on the outside but the staff is sooo nice and they looked like they had a great selection of dresses. I had a TERRIBLE experience at Hannelores in old town Alexandria so I would Void going there if I were you... I said I wasn't really interested in spending a lot of money on a veil and the owner actually suggested one, put it in my hair, and I actually ended up liking it... Just not for over $800!!! Very pretentious store :/ but you should really check out Rosalyn's!

We had the onsite WCs set up our place cards as part of our set up, so we were charged. We just had to tell them how we wanted it set up and it worked out fine. Quote: Originally Posted by AllieH enjoy!!!!!! did past EDR brides do place cards? if so, did EDR do a set up for you, with a tray and sand or anything? I'm a little worried about them blowing away, but I don't want to haul a tray down too. Appreciate any input! here's what I've made for our place cards:

I saw a picture of a bride doing the bustle to the side and I thought it look a bit like a growth or tumor... I believe mine is a 5 point french (so it tucks under), but since there is so much fabric cascading down from the beading at the thigh, my seamstress added a clear bead to the beading at the thigh, so that we could give that side of teh dress a bit more support and pull it up off the floor. Here's a pic of the back: Here's the side with the beading:

I wore the Sottero Midgley Adorae as well on my wedding day! I am only 5'3" and new I would be wearing heels for the reception so I found great wedges that worked well in the sand because I got it hemmed for the reception length. I asked my salon if I should order the petite and they advised against it since they said it would be better to have to take the hem up than for it to be too short. If your petite length fits a 5'5" inches plus 1 each heel, Im glad I ordered mine in the regular length since I wore 4 inch heels! I had always wondered if I should have gotten the petite, but now I know! Are you getting a bustle put in? I got a 5 point french bustle put in.

Maybe a flower in the BMs hair, but a fascinator and bird cage veil? LOL If i were in a wedding and the bride mentioned that, I would obviously do as she wished, but would be thinking WTH Look at it this way, would you ever want your GMs wearing baseball caps or other headgear? Probably not

Glad you had a great experience. We filled out his excel sheet with specific times we wanted all the events to occur so that he could keep track of everything. Apparently he wasnt watching the clock very well because I had timed our reception based on when our photographer and videographer time was up... our videographer came up to me and said he was leaving and we hadnt done the bouquet or garter toss, so I had to beg the videographer to stay longer.

I think a swim up casitas or infinity edge casitas would be great for a honyemoon, but we really didnt spend any time at our room except to showerand sleep. We with our guests at the pool or beach during the day, so I cant imagine we would have used it much.

Tink- I did not add additional crinoline, just wore the layers that came with it. Since crinoline is basically stiff netting, I dont think that added to the weight of the dress. I think the stretch satin and the flowing bottom of the dress add the weight. I really like the look of the flare out of the bottom and think it looks good with the bubble hem. I think if you took the crinoline out, you would lose a lot of that and the dress would just be sheath or column structured. Maybe you could look for a knockoff version of the Adorae to buy as well and use that for your TTD. Since it's a kncok off, they likely wont do it in the nice heavy satin, so it might be lighter.

I think we were upgraded originally, but when we checked in, we asked to be put in a Casitas that was close to the regular side of the resort, so we would be closer to our guests... so they did, but I think at the expense of giving us a regular casitas

I got married in the adorae and it is EXTREMELY heavy! I recently sold mine and we had to weigh it for shipping and it weighed about 7.5 pounds. It's also not the easiest dress to move in since there is so much fabric on the bottom, but everyone I have seen in the dress looks AMAZING! I think it was worth the look I was going for and I would do it again, but it was definitely heavy and hot. I did not do a trash the dress, but dont let that dissuade you from getting the Adorae! The dress resells for quite a bit of the full value (I paid $1400 and sold it for $850), so if you are concerend about the weight when it's wet, Id get the adorae to wear during the wedding/reception and get a cheap white BM dress for the trash the dress.