LTLFAITHY

I bought my dress yesterday!! And it is absolutely everything I said I didn't want!! LOL I'm not going to wear the strap though, and we're just going to sew a small flower onto the bust line. Without the strap the dress was kind of missing something, but the flower "completed" it! Yay!!!!!

These are the bridesmaid dresses that my girls are going to be wearing! Generally speaking I'm not a huge fan of the one shoulder look, but I LOVE these!! Still trying to decide on a color ~ ahhhh, too many decisions!

I think I found a good solution that keeps with the etiquette of a deceased person not being listed as a host (because there are crazy family members who are VERY "proper") but also allows us to include his mom on our invitations: Mrs. Jane Doe and Mr. John Smith Request the pleasure of your company at the marriage of their children Faith Doe and Michael Smith son of the late Patricia Smith Everybody is on the invitation. Everybody is happy.

Our theme is "Life is Better in Flip-Flops"

I guess I didn’t do a very good job at really explaining the situation. Early-onset Alzheimer’s does not mean that she is in the early stages of the disease; it is when the onset of the disease is before the age of 65. She was diagnosed almost 6 years ago, and today is in the very advanced stages of the disease. She is literally, cognitively unable to even answer the most basic yes or no questions – and even if she could formulate an opinion on something she has lost all ability to communicate, she can’t speak, write, even blink to respond yes or no. So like I said earlier, it’s not that I am not considering her opinion, it is that she literally does not have the ability to have one. And I was trying to maintain a somewhat positive attitude with the question, but medically I am certain that she will not be alive by the time invitations are sent out. I am positive of this. So my question wasn’t whether it would be hurtful to not have her name on the invitation, whether she deserves to be on the invitation, etc. I was simply looking for advice on how others who had lost a parent or parent-in-law incorporated their name on the invitation…………………………..

LOVE!!!!! Who is the designer?!

I am pretty sure that my fiance and I aren't going to get ANY alone time after our wedding, a lot of our friends have mentioned that they are thinking about making a real vacation out of our wedding. Honestly though we are fine with it, we are both from Boston, went to college in Colorado, and are living in Arizona ~ so it's not often that we get to see our closest friends and family. We're excited about getting to spend a week celebrating and partying with our favorite people in the world.

I don't think that there is anything wrong with David's Bridal, I just think that they are such a huge corporation that customer service can kind of be kind of lacking. They don't need the positive word of mouth and recommendations that smaller bridal boutiques need, and I think that comes across with their less than positive attitudes. The other problem that I have seen is that because there are SO many stores (and I'm not sure how their franchises work) I think one store might tell you one thing that may apply to their store, but doesn't necessarily mean that it applies to all stores. My SIL got her wedding dress and we got our bridesmaid dresses from a David's Bridal, we are in AZ but the wedding was in MI. The store in AZ told us that it would not be a problem that we could bring her dress to any David's Bridal a day or two before the wedding (no appointment needed) and have it steamed. Turns out that is not the policy in all stores, and she needed an appointment, blah, blah, blah - anyway, it turned into a huge ordeal. Should she have called the store in MI to confirm this was their policy, maybe, but at the end of the day she was assured something that just wasn't true.

I read this post this morning, and I don't know why but I actually thought about this a good deal today. I 100% agree with JayKay's post; these are your closest friends and family members, so I would hope that they would just have the common courtesy to keep the drinking under control until after the formal part of the wedding day is over. Preventing people from getting drunk the night before is where I would be concerned. Either way, I would definitely talk to them before the wedding and maybe enlist one of your closest bridesmaids and groomsmen to help "police" the situation day off. Nobody else has to know that you've talked to them, but having another member of the wedding party to give the "Hey, maybe you should wait on that 5th shot until after your speech" not only gives you one less thing that you need to worry about, knowing that someone is keeping an eye on the partying, but it also prevents you from having to have any "bridezilla" moments on your wedding day

We've decided to handle things more or less the same way. Both my FI and I have some young cousins (aged 7+), so we've included them on the invitations (it would be a huge issue if we didn't). But as far as our friends go, they all have babies (all < 3 years) so we've told our friends that the resort is family friendly and we'd love to see XY&Z in Mexico, but we're not having young, young children at the ceremony or reception. So far though, like I said in another post, it hasn't been an issue at all. Hopefully it stays this way

The bridesmaids and myself will have bouquets, and beyond nobody is wearing/getting flowers. My FI and the groomsmen are going to be in white button up shirts, and we decided that we didn't love the way a boutineer looked without a suit/tux jacket. My mom is definitely not the corsage type, so we just said screw it, lets save the $$.

Are you hand delivering them? Or mailing them? Either way, holy cow, they are awesome!!

Has anybody done (or thought about doing) a boudoir session as a gift for your fiance?? Even though we've kind of decided on not doing wedding gifts for each other, I think he would LOVE it if I surprised him with a little photo album the morning of the wedding. I don't know if I have the guts to actually do one though......................................

Yeah, I think that explains it. I'm only 5'2" ~ so I feel like wearing a belt kind of chops me in half and makes me look even shorter!!!!

She has early-onset Alzheimer's so she can't really contribute an opinion. And I am definitely on board with screwing etiquette, because we want her name to be on the invitation (which is kind of poo-pooed from what I can find), but I'm just wondering if there are any "better" ways to word things than the traditional examples. Thanks for your thoughts, I appreciate them.

We had ours done through Vista Print. They aren't the highest quality, but they were super affordable and at the end of the day there are other areas that I would rather spend $$ on than the Save the Dates. Here is a picture of them.................

I know this is morbid question, but I'm having a very hard time with how to word our invitations. Here is the deal: Both my mother and my fiances' parents are contributing to our wedding, so we want to have both parents names on the invitation. Sadly, my fiances' mother is terminally ill, and I know that etiquette says that a deceased person shouldn't be listed as a host on an invitation (I know she is alive now, but by the time invitations are ordered, received, addressed, and sent out, that could change), but I also don't want to totally assume anything either way................................... Has anybody dealt with a similar situation, or have any advice on the topic??

Ugh, I wish I was crafty!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could never in a million years make invitations that looked that good! Love them

I LOVE this!!!

Stunning! Stunning! Stunning! And I LOVE the belt. Random, but how tall are you?? I tried on a few belts with different dresses, but they just never looked right. I think it could be because I'm pretty short...............

Thank you!! I'm definitely considering going this route to get things down there

Do you mind passing along the info for the customs broker? And how did that work exactly?

It is made by Watters ~ Dress 1516 http://watters.com/Product/WattersWatters/1516

Oh, wow. I didn't realize that about the $300 in goods thing. That's per person though, right?? So between my FI and I we could have $600? Hope so!!

I was talking about this same thing on another thread the other day. I think it SUCKS that they don't have two sample sizes ~ I totally understand having the 10, 12, etc. so that a lot of girls can fit into the dress, but you just can't tell how a dress is really going to look (even though they can do amazing things with those clamps) when it is 10 sizes too big. Everything is just so out of proportion!! I don't understand why they don't have a 6 and a 12??