cinnagirl

I'm still very (im)patiently waiting for my dress to come in, so in the meanwhile here's a pic of it on the model: It is super light and so soft. The layering of the fabric really emphasizes your curves. It's one of the Vera Wang Whites that are in David's Bridal stores now. 7 more weeks until it comes in!!

We're going to be doing a first look at around 3:30 before we head to our venue for the ceremony. I love the idea of that special first time that he sees you all done up. We'll do some pictures then and then the rest with family and bridal party after the ceremony during the cocktail hour. I'm hoping that way the photos after the ceremony aren't as long.

Just what Venus said. If you have a smaller group, generally ~20 people then it's okay to do a la carte but if you have a higher guest list number then it would just take too long to make all the food. I wanted to do a la carte but our group is too big right now unfortunately.

That's awesome!! I bet you feel so relieved. Ladies, what are you doing for menu options? Are you choosing one of the options from the brochure, making your own menu or having everyone choose their own dish?

When we first started looking into a DW I feel in love with the venues in the Bahamas, but they were out of our price range - both for the wedding and our guests. Maybe we'll go for our honeymoon. I have a friend that went to a wedding at Majestic Colonial, and she said it was amazing. She also said the ME side was even better and they tried to sneak over there but always got kicked out, lol.

Dreams Palm Beach is our number 1 pick right now. Nothing set in stone yet. Our back ups are Paradisus Punta Cana and Now Larimar. Have you guys decided on a resort yet?

Happy to help! We sent out our save the dates back at the start of March to 76 people. We'll be sending out invites in the summer sometimes once we get a group quote back that we like. That way people can put a deposit down if they want to come and pay the balance closer to the wedding date. That way we'll have a better idea of how many people will actually go, because we have a lot of people saying they're going to go right now...but when it comes down to it I don't think they'll put down the money. It's safer than us paying the deposit for them. So we're inviting 76 for the first round and we're hoping to have the number around 30-40. Max is 50, just because the prices at our venue jump once you have more than 50 people, so it's a cost thing for us. We know for sure that 20 of those 76 won't be going either due to financial reasons or just not wanting to travel. Once we find out how many people are no's for sure, then we'll do a second round.

I know that we'll be in good hands on our wedding day.

Hey, I'm getting married the day before you! We sent out our Save the Dates in March this year. Just a little note saying we're getting married May 28, 2013 in Punta Cana. Gives our guests enough time to start saving. Once we get a group rate for our resort that we like (hopefully this summer), we will be sending out our invitations. I think we'll be going through Sunwing, and from what my TA says you have 90 days from the day you get the group rate to change the number of people the rate is for. So once we get the rate, invites will go out with an note along the lines of "Please RSVP by (date) in order to secure group travel rates" and we'll have the date be a week or two before the 90 days is up. I think we'll also put another note on there asking people to contact us if they will be attending but plan to book their travel by their own means. I'm hoping this covers all our bases, but we'll see when we get down to it! I think it might be easier for us since we are getting married off resort, and the quote we get can be changed at any time. Maybe see if your numbers can be changed as you get RSVPs back? We're starting off with getting a group rate number for 30 and we'll go from there.

Hey Kat, If people ask if they are invited just day that you're having a small wedding with very close family. We have a few friends that we didn't invite for one reason or another, and they accept this reasoning quite well. I think it's expected that DW are a smaller crowd so not everyone will get an invite. We are using the same line of reasoning with family members that we are not close with that we are not inviting. We plan on doing a second round too. There's a couple friends that we aren't extremely close with but who would be fun to have there. People are very understanding when you explain that you had to invite certain people first (like family) even though you know they won't show, before you can invite everyone else. I'm not sure if this is the right way to do this, but it's how we've been handling it so far and no one has been offended yet.

That sounds amazing! I just bookmarked their site. Thanks so much!

I'm going to try and get my girls to get their dresses this summer. We went to a wedding in May in Aruba a few years back and I had a really hard time finding a nice summer dress before we left. Everything was more left over winter/springish.

Quick question: how many of you are having exclusive use of the restaurant for your wedding? I saw on *****'s review that she did not and she said it was fine. The main reason why I went with Jellyfish was because it could be just me and our party, but now I'm wondering if I should just suck it up and save the $1000.

Alex, it's so nice to hear about how your big day went!! The pictures look great too. Thank you for such a thorough review!! You touched on details that I never would have even thought to ask about.

We're going to do one of these for our guestbook:

I went to two David's Bridals in my province to find my dress (it's one of the Vera Wang Whites) and called a few across the border in the States to see if they even had it. The first city was 2 hours away and the dress I wanted wasn't even there. The second city was 2.5 hours away and they only had one sample of my dress left...a size zero. I tried on a bunch of dresses in my hometown but none of them were quite it. I found a couple that could have worked but I saw this dress on the David's bridal website and was determined to try it on. I couldn't buy another dress without knowing how this one looked on me. I'm so happy that I trusted my gut and kept searching for this dress. I ended up buying it, it was perfect. I don't think you're crazy for flying that far to look for a dress, because you're getting a totally different experience than you might get a home. The Kleinfeld's experience. Do whatever makes you happy, I say!

We were gonna go with Sunwing through our TA. That's an amazing price you got and a great deal too! We'll see what the TA gives us for costs, but if not at least I know there's a back up.

Congrats!! Can't wait to hear all about it and see your photos. I'm glad you had such a great time.

Jellyfish Restaurant, Punta Cana - May 28, 2013

What cruise is this? This sounds like a really great excursion!

I really like how you put that: "if they haven't taken an active interest in our lives and who we are, it just didn't make sense for them to witness and celebrate one of the most important day's in our lives." That's exactly how I feel. What's so important about the wedding that it suddenly makes you want to participate in my life when you haven't been there at all for however many years? Funny thing is, she hasn't even come to me telling me how excited she is for the wedding, it's only been through my parents. Thanks for your advice, and I'll be sticking to my original plan with this one and not inviting those Aunts. I think they would actually show up to the wedding. It would be different if it was a wedding in my hometown where I only see them for one day, but the idea of having to spend a week with them just sounds awkward and not something I want to deal with. Thanks for your input, I really appreciated it.

50 people is our max financially (we know for sure 20 of those 75 aren't coming at all), because once we go over 50 at the venue everything goes way up in price. So I guess that at least give me a concrete reason as to why we cannot add more to our guest list should we be asked. Thanks for your help! That's the thing, I don't feel like I would regret inviting her. I don't feel like having my estranged Aunts would add anything to my wedding day. Thanks for the advice, I'm gonna stick to my guns on this one.

DId she say why that was a good time? Ours is schedule for 5 PM as of right now.

You are so brave!! Amazing picture though.

Can I get some opinions on this? I really want to know if I am being reasonable or if I'm totally off my rocker. We're inviting 75 people to our wedding next year. So that's immediate family, relatives on my mom's side (as we see them on a regular basis), my fiance's relatives (mainly his dad's side as his mom's side are MIA) and some close friends. We were also planning on inviting my grandparents on my dad's side (even thought they drive me batty), though I had no intention of inviting my dad's sisters. My dad has no issue with this, by the way. My dad's sisters have no been a part of my family's life for a long time, like 15+ years. No phone calls, no birthday cards, no contact at all. My parents really made an effort with them, but after being shrugged off enough just gave up. Somehow my one aunt and I connected on Facebook 4 years ago and have had one conversation on there that amounted to "How's life? How's school? Okay I'm busy, I have to run." However, ever since I got engaged 6 months ago she's made a few comments, either on my facebook profile or in a card to my dad (the first in 15 years!) about how she's really excited for the wedding. I don't consider her family - blood relative, yes, but family, no. So I don't feel inclined to invite her and her family, or my other aunt's family to my wedding when I'd rather have those spaces filled by people that have been there for me and my fiance. Is this horrible of me? Am I supposed to invite them just because they're family? Can I just explain to them if they ask that we're limiting our wedding to close friends and family? Any advice would be much appreciated.