jello

Weird. I just got an email from her yesterday at that address. Maybe your emails are being filtered as spam for some reason?

Oh my goodness. I feel you. I've never been a "girly girl" either, but there is just something about planning a wedding that brings out the crazy. The idea of having a parrot deliver rings made me bust out laughing, but don't worry — I've been there too. I heard about a friend of a friend's Indian wedding where the groom rode in on an elephant, and suddenly I really wanted that, even though I'm not remotely Indian, just because elephant = awesome. I think for most of us, this is the first time we've gotten to plan a party with a budget in the multiple thousands of dollars, a guest list in the dozens, and insanely high expectations all around. I know the biggest party I've ever planned before this was a potluck dinner for 20 people, on which I spent a couple hundred dollars. We're in such foreign territory that suddenly that everything seems possible — parrots! elephants! fireworks! Whoo-hoo! I just remind myself that at the end of the day, guests aren't coming to see Cirque du Soleil. They're coming to see us get married, to get a little tipsy and to have a great time hanging out with each other. That's all they want.

Ask your closest (and least-shy) friends in advance to help you get the party started. Think about the people who you know are happy to be ridiculous in public and let them know that you'd really appreciate them getting on the dance floor and showing off a few moves. All it takes is a few people to get things going. Take a look at this video for proof! http://sivers.org/ff. I've also been to two weddings where they hired professional dancers to get things going. One had Brazilian mardi gras dancers in full costume who led a conga line, and the other had salsa dancers who did a performance, then taught everyone the basic steps. Both led to amazing dance parties.

Ask your closest (and least-shy) friends in advance to help you get the party started. Think about the people who you know are happy to be ridiculous in public and let them know that you'd really appreciate them getting on the dance floor and showing off a few moves. All it takes is a few people to get things going. Take a look at this video for proof! http://sivers.org/ff. I've also been to two weddings where they hired professional dancers to get things going. One had Brazilian mardi gras dancers in full costume who led a conga line, and the other had salsa dancers who did a performance, then taught everyone the basic steps. Both led to amazing dance parties.

Ask your closest (and least-shy) friends in advance to help you get the party started. Think about the people who you know are happy to be ridiculous in public and let them know that you'd really appreciate them getting on the dance floor and showing off a few moves. All it takes is a few people to get things going. Take a look at this video for proof! http://sivers.org/ff. I've also been to two weddings where they hired professional dancers to get things going. One had Brazilian mardi gras dancers in full costume who led a conga line, and the other had salsa dancers who did a performance, then taught everyone the basic steps. Both led to amazing dance parties.

Ask your closest (and least-shy) friends in advance to help you get the party started. Think about the people who you know are happy to be ridiculous in public and let them know that you'd really appreciate them getting on the dance floor and showing off a few moves. All it takes is a few people to get things going. Take a look at this video for proof! http://sivers.org/ff. I've also been to two weddings where they hired professional dancers to get things going. One had Brazilian mardi gras dancers in full costume who led a conga line, and the other had salsa dancers who did a performance, then taught everyone the basic steps. Both led to amazing dance parties.

Quick question — I am ready to send save the dates now for my June 2013 wedding, but I'm wondering if it's too soon. I've seen in some places that STD's should be sent 8 months - 1 year in advance, but I've also seen elsewhere that for a destination wedding you should send them as soon as you book the location and date. Thoughts? Should I send them now (15 months in advance) or wait until June (1 year in advance)?

Hi, I wanted to share my design for Save the Dates. We decided to do electronic invitations for our wedding, as it's eco-friendly, inexpensive, and saves us a lot of time. We're also not very traditional people, and our families and friends are all tech-savvy, so electronic invites work great for us. My fiancé and I made these in Paperless Post. I had a lot of fun playing around with the different colors and designs, and I thought I'd come up with something pretty good. But when I showed him my drafts, he totally surprised me by making two changes that just brought the whole thing together. He chose the palm tree image (I had a beach chair there before) and picked the font, and suddenly it looked great! Hmmph. Anyways, here it is:

Thanks to everyone for the input! I really appreciated it. We just booked for June 2013 at Ana y Jose Beach Club in Tulum, Mexico. We ended up emailing these places for their wedding details: Jamaica - Tensing Pen - The Caves - Half Moon Mexico - Playa Azul in Tulum - Playa Azul in Cozumel (not related to the other Playa Azul) - Las Ranitas - La Zebra - Le Reve - Hotel Jashita - Ana y Jose The Caves and Hotel Jashita never got back to us. Le Reve was stunning, but unfortunately at $200 - $400 a night too expensive for our guests. Danielle at Half Moon got back to me right away and was super professional, and I loved the villas that they have, but in the end we decided it was also too expensive for our guests. Plus we weren't crazy about their wedding packages, which included lots of things like boutonnieres that we didn't want. Playa Azul, Las Ranitas, La Zebra, and Tensing Pen were all similarly priced, in the $100 - $300 range for hotel accommodations and right around the $100 pp mark for reception. They all looked beautiful. But in the end we went with Ana y Jose Beach Club. It was a pretty easy decision — Ana y Jose had a gorgeous setting, total flexibility (they only mandate that you spend $3500 on food and beverages, everything else is optional), Jackie's professionalism, and the huge benefit that our guests can stay wherever they want. Whew! I think nailing down the budget, guest list, venue and date will be the hardest part of wedding planning... or at least I hope so.

We just booked our venue for June 2013! I can share some information about my venue search process, hopefully it'll be helpful to someone. Our criteria were: a location in the Caribbean with nonstop flights from the East Coast, can accommodate 50-75 people, children must be allowed, affordable for us (~$100 or less per person for the reception), affordable for our guests, and someplace quiet and natural, not an all-inclusive megaresort. Here's the list of places we emailed to ask for details: Jamaica - Tensing Pen - The Caves - Half Moon Mexico - Playa Azul in Tulum - Playa Azul in Cozumel (not related to the other Playa Azul) - Las Ranitas - La Zebra - Le Reve - Hotel Jashita - Ana y Jose The Caves and Hotel Jashita never got back to us. Le Reve was stunning, but unfortunately at $200 - $400 a night too expensive for our guests. Danielle at Half Moon got back to me right away and was super professional, and I loved the villas that they have, but in the end we decided it was also too expensive for our guests. Plus we weren't crazy about their wedding packages, which included lots of things like boutonnieres that we didn't want. Playa Azul, Las Ranitas, La Zebra, and Tensing Pen were all similarly priced, in the $100 - $300 range for hotel accommodations and right around the $100 pp mark for reception. They all looked beautiful. But in the end we went with Ana y Jose Beach Club. It was a pretty easy decision — Ana y Jose had a gorgeous setting, total flexibility (they only mandate that you spend $3500 on food and beverages, everything else is optional), Jackie's professionalism, and the huge benefit that our guests can stay whereever they want.

Yes! My fiance and I decided that we wanted to keep things simple, and that means no headaches with choosing a bridal party or organizing them or figuring out what they're going to wear. Shortly after I was engaged, I sent an email to my five closest friends that said, in part: That is my philosophy regarding bridal parties.

I'm doing the opposite of a lot of you ladies — I'm not getting anyone a gift, and I'm not paying for anyone's hair, makeup, or clothes. But I am planning to rent a villa using vrbo.com so that my close friends and family won't have to pay for accommodations. It's very cost effective, I think something like 1/2 the cost of them booking hotel rooms individually. I think it all depends on knowing your family and friends well and thinking about what they would appreciate the most.

I've been corresponding with Jackie at [email protected]. She usually gets back in 1 or 2 days.

Let me know how the site visits go! Would love to hear what the places in Tulum look like in person. We're not going to get a chance to visit until the summer, but we're already decided, so our visit will be more for menu tasting and scuba diving. P.S. FYI — I also looked into Cabanas Tulum as one possible place for our guests to stay. They offered me a 10% group discount from their rack rates with a 3 night minimum. It also seems like they recently did a very nice upgrade of their rooms, so older reviews / photos on Tripadvisor may not be accurate.

We just booked Ana y Jose Beach Club for June 2013! Happy to share some up-to-date information. We looked at lots of places in Tulum (Las Ranitas, La Zebra, Playa Azul, and Le Reve) as well as Tensing Pen in Negril Jamaica and Half Moon in Montego Bay Jamaica. Ana y Jose Beach Club won out for three reasons: 1) It's a beach club, not a hotel, so our guests can stay wherever they want. This was a big deal for us, as our guests have a wide range of financial situations, and we wanted to leave accommodations open so everyone can choose a place they're comfortable with. All the hotels (including Ana y Jose hotel) had strict minimums for number of rooms and nights booked. 2) Great wedding reviews on this site and TripAdvisor, and great responsiveness from Jackie. I feel like I'm in the hands of a professional. Some of the other resorts didn't get back to me until I emailed them twice, and then not until over a week later. 3) Reasonable prices. Based on the prices that Jackie sent me, dinner will run about $50 per person and open bar is $9-$15 per person per hour, depending on how many premium brands you have. This was at the low end of the other quotes we received. There are no mandatory fees, but if you want to book up the whole property it's $4000 and if you want wedding coordination it's $2000. They have their own DJs, photographers, florists, and officiants that they recommend, but you are also free to bring whatever vendor you like at no extra cost. Now, I'm probably going to use their wedding coordinator and DJ, but I really appreciated that it was optional. They won lots of brownie points from me with the flexibility.

Thanks, Tammy! Good to know about the discount. I'll add Le Reve to the list...

Hi there, I am newly engaged and we just started looking at destinations for our 2013 wedding. I could use some advice! We (and most of our friends) live in NYC, while our families both live in the DC area, so I started by searching for places that have plenty of direct flights from both NYC and DC. That narrowed the list to Jamaica, the Riviera Maya in Mexico, and Puerto Rico. We're probably going to have around 50-60 people, including children, so any resort that is adults-only is out. Finally, we're looking for something more secluded and natural; all-inclusive megaresorts just aren't our style. Based on these criteria, I came up with the following list: Negril, Jamaica Tensing Pen Round Hill Vieques, Puerto Rico W Vieques Tulum, Mexico Cabanas La Luna Nueva Vida La Zebra Las Ranitas I've been to Vieques, but I've never been to Jamaica or Tulum / Riviera Maya area. Can anyone tell me about the general feel of these two places — are they very touristy? Crowded? Is it a "spring break" kind of environment, or more rustic and natural? Also, are there any other places that I've missed? Thank you so much in advance!