2012mrstobe

I included hats in the bags for the guys (sarongs for the ladies) I ordered the hats from Vistaprint and they just said "Jamaica 2012" with a picture of the same sunset I used on the canvas bags. I also inlcuded 2 keyrings in each bag. Both the keyrings had the Jamaican flag on it but I thought one was more geared for men and one for ladies. The one geared towards the guys was a nail clipper and a bottle opener. The one geared towards the women was a little flashlight and a bottle opener. I also ordered a case of Appleton Rum. (the bottles were MUCH larger than I expected them to be). I put 2 bottles in each bag; one for the male and one for the female. If they didn't whether anything in that bag at all was geared to them, they knew one of the bottles was for them! Hope that helps!

Yes, your dress from Jasmines will come with a garment bag, but it won't hide the dress. The front of it is sheer. The garment bag is also made where it can fold in half (and it zips) so you can carry things in it. When I carried my dress on the plane with me, I opted not to use the garment bag from Jasmines because my FI (at the time) hadn't seen the dress and I didn't want him to. But the bag was great for transporting the dress back home because I hung it up in the bag, folded the bag in half and zipped it. (It even has two handles on it) Hope that helps.

Yes I think I must have missed the mid production pics because I was sure waiting on them. (I just went back to take a look at them though). I bet they were surprised to see someone send them very detailed changes like that (exact inches, etc.) Your seamstress is on it! I think Jasmines did a really good job of replicating the original dress and I love how flowy and drapy (if that is a word). Can't wait to see the final pics! Glad you had a pleasant experience!

I am only 5'2", 120lbs. and I will be going with a mermaid style.

My dress was packed very tightly, but remember, once you unpack the dress, the rosettes you are speaking of are fabric, they won't stay smushed forever. By the time you get the dress out of the bag, try it on, let it hang until you leave, etc. they will certainly be fluffed out by then. If by some miracle that they aren't, just hang your dress in the bathroom the morning of and run a hot steaming shower and the steam will surely fluff the fabric out (will also knock any wrinkles out of the dress as well). Hope that helps.

His name is James; I think he is actually Lisa's husband.

Donna...so excited for you! You know the routine; we're looking for pics as soon as you get them!

Fabulous!!! I really like the style of the ruffles too!

......breathing a sigh of relief for you...... I am so happy you have your dress in your hands and you are pleased with it! Can't wait to see pictures!

Whew! You made my head spin with the thought of trying to prepare 100+ OOT bags for guests! But I think you are headed in the right direction by giving your guests an OOT bag with a true Mexico feel. The items you suggested are very good ideas. If you use the kraft bags, you can vary the color of the bags and the tissues to tie your wedding colors in (as well as making sure the hang tags incorporate your logo and your colors). As far as the bags, you can find them as fancy (with handles) or plain as you want them. It will be so much easier to wait until you get to Mexico and go into town to purchase those things since that will be an awful lot to carry over there. We only have 14 bags to prepare and although I put a personal touch on a lot of the items in the bag (first aid kit, room key holders, sewing kits, etc.) I will still be purchasing rum when we get to Jamaica as well as some local snacks to put in the bags.

Here is my real touch bouquet from WedIdeas. (I just realized that this is the one she sent mid-production; the actual bouquet has orange ribbon around it to cover up the green florists' tape)

For both FI and I, this is not our first wedding so we both wanted to do something different. We are both avid travelers and knew we would be going on a honeymoon somewhere anyway, so after doing some research on resorts, wedding costs, etc. I realized that we could get more bang for our buck! After all the planning and money that went into the first wedding, I knew I didn't want to go that route. Also, my little sister got married just last year and a very close friend of mine got married last year as well. Almost every conversation I had with them was about the high cost of this or that for their at home wedding. That was confirmation that there had to be another way! Besides, it would be a great time to get our immediate family and very close friends together to have an awesome vacation!

.......................and then she breathed a sigh of relief......aaaahhhh! I am happy you got it all worked out, even though the dress isn't here for your "fake" wedding date! LOL Just as long as you have it before the "real" big day, I am sure that's all that matters!

Girl you know we wanna see pics!!!!! I went with white as well and when they were sending me the mid-productions pics, I just kept looking and saying "Man, that's REALLY white!", but I didn't want to go with off-white or ivory because FI is wearing all white linen and I didn't want our pics to mis-matched with him in pure white and me in off-white. Waiting on pics!!!