danak71

Hey thank you so much! I'm sorry but I didn't design it so I only have the PDF...I have a graphic design person that's doing all the collateral pieces for me.

Hey Tova, Thanks for the quick feedback! They are actually 2 separate documents. I haven't decided yet if the doorhanger will have the same info on both sides or just on one side and blank on the back. That might come down to difference in cost between 1 side and 2 sided. I'm wondering if the colors aren't showing up the same on your monitor. I'm at work now and the colors aren't the same on this monitor for some reason as they are on my laptop at home. But there's no black text anywhere on either document. "The Big Day" is actually a silver font that looks like rhinestones. On my monitor at work the text looks kind of pink or magenta but it's the same font she used for the invitation which when printed looked like a dark and lighter shade of purple (which was what I was going for). But I do like the idea of trying to find an even darker color like eggplant for the headings. Because of the hole, I don't think we can go too much higher on the text, but I do think I might be able to go up a litte bit for better spacing. Thank you so much for all your suggestions!

Got a couple more of the design pieces finished...what do you think? Would love some feedback...anything you think needing to be changed? (There are some times I can't confirm yet which is why they've been left out.) Also, Tova I love the pic of you and Justin!!! You look awesome together! L&M_doorhanger_itinerary_v5.pdf

Hey there Mrs. Napolitano!!!! Thank you so much!!! I don't think we had talked about it and I've picked your brain SO much since you've gotten married I was trying to give you a break! LOL I probably just need to talk to Nayeli about it because there are several different songs I want played during the ceremony. Certain songs I want played during the prelude as guests are seated, then a different song when they seat my mom and the wedding begins, a different song when the bridal party starts walking and then my Godsister is singing yet another song live when I walk. That's a lot! But our DJ is willing to make that part happen with the right equipment. As far as the reception, I don't think the BOSE will work for us. We definitely are bringing half of Atlanta AND Boston! LOL And they are a rowdy bunch unfortunately! But since our friend is going I'd much rather have him DJ because he knows us and knows exactly what to play and when. However, to rent the sound system is $500 and it just includes a speaker and a cordless mic. Mark and I are thinking it might be better for us to bring a speaker (if we can find one small enough with enough power) and our own mic. I'll try and see if I can get in touch with their A/V folks and find out how many watts is the speaker that they rent and go from there. Planning is going really well. Just got my invitations out a few weeks ago and I absolutely love them! Started getting the RSVP cards in the mail which made it all feel official! :-) We're in the process of doing the rest of the graphic design pieces (door hanger, favor tags, etc.) The girls just ordered their dresses last week. We had our engagement shoot about a month ago. We actually shot on 2 different days because it started raining on the 1st day and cut our shoot short. Here's a link to our photographer's blog if you're interested in seeing some of our pics: http://mwsphotoblog.com/atlanta-botanical-gardens-lenox-park-engagement-session-lynn-marcus/ Hope the rest of you ladies are enjoying your planning! I'm so excited to be only 6 months away!

Sorry I'm not sure about that but it seems like she did say that's still how it was. Not sure if it HAS to be though. I'll have to ask about that myself.

Hey Tova, I'm not sure. A bride on the Excellence Playa Mujeres thread got married in May and it changed right before her wedding. She emailed me after her wedding to let me know how easy the process is now after just having gone through it. I emailed my wedding coordinator and she confirmed that the laws in Quintana Roo had changed and all we needed were the blood tests, passports and tourist cards. That sealed the deal for us. Mark is divorced so we were looking at having to get his divorce decree transcribed as well as our birth certificates, etc.

Fortunately in the part of Mexico we're getting married in we just need our passport, tourist card (that they give you on the plane) and blood tests done at the resort. Neither of us mind the blood test part so it made sense for us. We (along with our witnesses) do have to be in the country 3 days before the wedding but there are about 5 of us going down 1 week prior (to shop and put OOT bags together) so that wasn't an issue. Many of my guests are making a vacation out of it and coming down 3 days before anyway. They just changed the law fortunately because earlier this year we were considering doing a symbolic ceremony because of the reasons you mentioned-translations, expense,etc.

My wedding isn't until May 2013 but I'm planning on doing silk flower bouquets. My aunt makes silk floral arrangements so I'm having her make them. We're still using the ribbon, etc. but this will be far cheaper than paying for all the bouquets I would need for my bridesmaids. She's also making the centerpieces for the reception. We're keeping it relatively simple with vases, floating candles, etc. I did inquire about having a soloist instead of the trio and Nayeli told me that was fine. There was no additional charge if you had the gold package.

I think you've gotten a lot done! So far I've done engagement pics, ordered bridesmaid dresses, selected my dress (not purchased yet), selected groomsmen outfits and where to purchase them (haven't purchased yet), sent save the dates and invitations, booked DJ, photographer, videographer, selected menu, booked excursion, booked rooms, completed wedding website, booked spa appts. for bridal party and participants, purchased sand ceremony frame, and some of the items for OOT bags. What we have left to do is purchase my dress and jewelry, groomsmen attire, airfare, wedding bands, foot jewelry for bridal party, thank you gift for my mom, select sand colors and purchase sand for sand ceremony, figure out and purchase reception decor (center pieces, lanterns, etc.), complete remaining graphic design pieces (favor tags, thank you cards, wedding weekend timeline, door hangers, etc.), write vows, put together song list of "Play" and "Do Not Play" for DJ. I started feeling the same way recently. I got a lot of things done early because I didn't want to be frantic at the end but I started feeling recently like I need to pick up the pace!

Thanks! Fortunately because we booked a group rate we're getting a ton of amenities due to the size of our group. One of them is one free room for every 10 rooms booked. Instead of just giving you a "free room", they actually give this amount back to you as a credit. Because of the # of rooms we have booked we'll get the amount of 3 rooms for 3 nights credited back to us (minus taxes and fees of course). But since the reason we're getting this money at all is because of our families and friends supporting us, we decided to just take it and spend it on them. I think it should be a lot of fun!

We're using Induna Charters. We booked a private catamaran excursion as a gift to our guests. He's charging us $1500 for the first 25 people and $35 for each additional person. So far we have 60 people booked and are expecting no more than 70. The boat fits 100 people. He's taking us to areas for snorkeling and swimming and then to Isla Mujeres (Island of Women) where we can go shopping, sightseeing and/or lie on the beach. The rate includes lunch onboard the catamaran as well as rum punch, beer and soft drinks. There's a marina within walking distance of my resort and he's picking us up from there so we won't have any additional transportation costs. All the other companies I contacted were going to charge us a transportation fee ($15-$17 per person) to have a bus pick us up from our resort and bring us to a different marina. They weren't willing to pick us up from the marina right near us!

Hey Jass7, We're planning to have our reception at CECO Terrace. Do you think that would work for that area as well? How did you get your system down there and how large is it? Did you just plug your ipod into it? When you say you brought your BOSE system, what components exactly did you bring? Sorry to sound so dense! :-)

I'm planning to get some from the flea market when I get to Cancun. I'm thinking I'll be able to negotiate the price better in person down there as opposed to an Internet site.

I told my bridal party they really didn't have to throw me a bridal shower or a bachelorette party since they were already spending so much money just to attend the wedding in Mexico. They wouldn't hear of it. They are insisting on doing both. I also have several people that are attending the wedding (some in other parts of the country) that are really looking forward to the shower and keep emailing or texting me to make sure whoever is doing my shower knows to let them know early so they can make arrangements to get to Atlanta for it. I don't think there are any hard and fast rules anymore. For me I think because it's been a while since we've had a wedding in our family that people are just really excited and they want ALL the experiences that go with it. I know sometimes it's hard to have the spotlight on you but I say when people want to support and celebrate you, let them! :-) As far as inviting people that aren't invited to the ceremony, I think that's a personal decision as well. Because we had a large guestlist for the wedding, I didn't really invite anyone that wasn't invited because I was trying to minimize the expense for my girls. But I definitely invited all the women that were invited to the wedding which probably was still about 70 or so people. If we were inviting only a few people to the wedding, I probably would have invited more people to the shower, not for the gifts but because I think people would have appreciated being included. Especially if you're planning to invite them to your AHR when you get back.

Does your wedding coordinator have any pictures of receptions that used lanterns? Or are there any past brides on the Now Jade thread that used lanterns that have pics of how theirs looked? I'm such a visual person that I literally feel like I have to see everything in advance or at least a picture in order to know whether I will like it. I have a hard time trying to conceptualize things in my head. Coupled with the fact that I'm not creative AT ALL when it comes to decorating, not a good combination for me! Which is why I'm so glad all you ladies are so I can just piggyback off of your great ideas! :-) WEDDING Paper Lanterns.pdf

Hey Ladies, I have a question for past brides at EPM that DID NOT hire a dj but rented the sound system from the resort. 1. What all does it include? 2. Where did you have your reception and was it loud enough? 3. Was there anything that you had to bring with you or felt like you needed to go with the sound system? One of our guests is a professional dj and has offered to dj our wedding as a gift to us. Since he's staying the 3 nights as a guest, we won't have to pay an outside vendor fee for him and he dj's from his laptop but I just want to make sure we'll have what we need. Thanks for your help! Kim good luck with your wedding next week! I pray everything goes perfectly for you! Can't wait to see pictures! Lynn

Tova, Thank you! I would love to see your diagram in Powerpoint! We have about 50 people with their rooms reserved but my issue now is that several of those are single people that are now saying they're bringing a guest plus we were thinking there may be an additional 10 people coming (that might each bring a guest) so I'm looking at an additional 20-30 people probably. I just don't wanna start ordering and not order enough and then not be able to find more of the exact same thing at a later date, etc. I'm getting anxious though! I want to know that it's done! Here's a pic I saw recently that I liked as well... .

Tova I LOVE your inspiration pics...I might steal some to add to my pinterest board if you don't mind since we have some similar colors. I'm definitely thinking about glass and I'm shipping my stuff down ahead of time so I'm really hoping it all gets there in one piece! I have the same dilemma about whether to do white or purple lanterns. I'm also confused about how many lanterns I'll need. Is there any rule as far as how many per sq ft of space, etc.? I haven't purchased anything yet because I'm still waiting to see how many people we'll have. My invitations are out but my RSVP date isn't until Feb. 1. I'm hoping everyone doesn't wait until then to send theirs back (they're slowly coming in now one by one LOL). Do you think Feb. is too late to start buying stuff if I at least know exactly what I'm going to buy and just am waiting on quantity?

My colors are white and eggplant (deep purple)...I think purple will look awesome with the gray and I definitely don't think it's too dark for a May wedding. We're getting married in May as well and my girls' dresses are white with eggplant accents and the guys will be in white suits with eggplant shirts or ties, depending on their roles.

Ours is $45 for everyone over the allotted $25...we're just going with it (we're expecting between 50-60 people) but we did know about it so we included that in our original budget. One bride that got married in May said to make sure they charged everything in pesos and not US dollars because she said they saved a ton if money that way. We are planning to do that.

Hey Ladies, in case you're interested, here's our photographer's blog with some images from our engagement session: www.mswphotoblog.com Click on Atlanta Botanical Garden for our images... Question: What are your Fi's and Groomsmen wearing? For anyone getting married on the beach, are the guys wearing shoes? If so, what kind?

Hey Bride81, so sorry to hear about your FI's grandfather! Please know that both your families are in my thoughts and prayers. I wasn't sure who you were talking to regarding the link for the $15 download for the passports but I've been speaking with David Mills...his email address is [email protected] you reach out to him and he'll send you a Paypal link for the $15 and then all the instructions you'll need! I purchased paper from Michaels (which is what Vanessa and David initially did) but I think they're recommending a different paper now. He'll give you all that information if you reach out to him. They used hemp cord to bind theirs and then manually bound them together, but as mentioned before, I'm not a DIYer at all! So I had the print shop that printed the invitations cut, assemble, bind with saddle stitches (basically 2 small staples along the spine) and round the corners for me. I thought what they charged me to do all that was VERY reasonable and I didn't have to get all the girls together and make them spend their Saturday putting together my invitations! Good luck with your invitations!

I wanted my bridesmaids in all white so I did a search on Google for white bridesmaid dresses. I looked at all the images that came up and fell in love with some white Bari Jay dresses I found. I don't know that I would necessarily have thought of Bari Jay had I not seen those dresses as my inspiration. Not sure if that helps or not but that's how I found mine. If these are the colors you really want I would say dont change colors but maybe keep looking for styles you like and then check to see which designers have similar styles in the colors you chose. Good luck in your search!

We did get travel insurance because while we felt like there was nothing that could prevent us from getting married on May 4, we're both VERY family oriented. A couple years back I lost a very close family member unexpectedly and it shook my entire family. I'm praying that nothing tragic happens to prevent us from getting married on the day we planned; however if either of us were dealing with something like that, we knew we would postpone. We purchased the insurance and advised all of our guests to as well.