EVKnowsitall

Hey, Yea but the thing is we are contracted with Mannia- they cannot just change a contract because they no longer have a relationship with them. I will email both the romance department and Mannia today and find out because if that was the case- someone from either end should have notified me. That is absolutely unprofessional. Am I supposed to show up for my wedding and discover I have a new DJ? In other news- I have an amazing Travel Agent but she is in Long Island. Don't know if that's too far for your family to travel to.

This is so cool! I looks like a seashell above the waves. Which one is temporary? Because I think this is the coolest set I have seen haha I love it.

Holy moley that is some serious bling! It is gorgeous, looks like two stacked bands. That is a very valuable finger hahaha

I have been meaning to comment on your dress for a few days, but I mostly use the mobile app and it can be a bit of a pain to quote posts with pictures. Now that I'm on my laptop I just have to say- there is something about this dress that I think is so adorable. It might be the fact that you are barefoot- which is perfect for a beach wedding or the fact that you look like a ballerina in it. I just think it is so whimsical and while I am normally not a fan of tulle, I love this dress. I love the waist, it looks great on your figure. This is a perfect destination wedding dress.

This is a Maggie Soterro! I wanted this dress when I saw it online for a destination wedding. It's sexy, demure, has bling. I love it! I haven't heard of this site- but I would call a few bridal salons to see if they have it and just try it on at a salon to see the fit. Good luck!

I have been fighting with my bridal party about this! To start- I did not want a bridal shower but they convinced me to have one. Then, I thought to have a shower in someones backyard to save money and told them no one would buy gifts unless it was a catered shower. A few people however, have asked about our registry. I would love to register on one of the alternative sites where you can pick different gifts like myregistry.com, or a site where we can receive monetary gifts but I'm not sure if this is borderline tacky. My friend paid a ton for her wedding and already lived with her fiance and on her invitations, she had a link to a registry that was "cash only". I remember thinking "this is so tacky, yet kind of clever" LOL I do not think you can ask people for just "cash gifts" but have seen it done at the last few weddings I have gone to. The truth is, the money is what we could really use instead of china. I just think it comes off a little ungrateful but the rules of wedding etiquette have certainly changed. We have a decent sized NYC apartment- but definitely no where to store gifts.

WHAAAAAAAT? We have DJ Mannia booked and booked them while they were still connected with the resort. We have already paid the booking fee and no one from Mannia or Paradisus has notified me of any changes, so I suppose that means they will still DJ our wedding. I am not paying the outside vendor fee, they BETTER waive it since I am already under contract. Glad the food is good though! We are going with the buffet because our reception is on the beach and the plated dinner is not an option. Originally I wanted the plated dinner but honestly, the buffet has more variety and seems like a wiser option. A lot of what you ladies are discussing is unbeknownst to me so I am a tad concerned. I booked in 2012, even though our wedding is in 2013, so I must have the old 2012 info. However, all that information has to be honored in terms of pricing and options, because it is already in my portfolio and I made a separate wedding email where I keep all of my correspondence. They do not want to mess with this bridezilla by being shady.

Honestly- I tried telling my briedsmaids this because our dresses are $225. They are from Bill Levkoff and I realize they are slightly pricey for some (although I honestly feel like $200 is the standard for a dress nowadays.) The dresses came out to $225 with taxes included, they were actually $205 before taxes. Although I felt it was reasonable some of my girls complained. The party was split in half with some people saying they could care less what the dress looked like and other girls downright refusing to wear what they considered a cheaply made dress. The bridesmaids dresses are absolutely gorgeous, well made, they have similar elements to my dress, and the exact color I spent months looking for and drum roll.... I got them at the Demetrios salon @ Macy's and the customer service was AMAZING. A mother of another bride recommended them to me and I would recommend them to any bride. Since I live in NY we went to the Herald Square location but they have a few other locations in other states. I went there after having several unpleasant experiences at David's Bridal, a store in Manhattan called RK Bridals and a few other places we tried out. Sometimes you really do pay for the service. But honestly, for the peace of mind- I would rather, thats just me.

Dazey- this is gorgeous. Do you know how heavy it is? Also- how much did it cost? Is it for photos or guests to sign?

How about early evening? Like gather around 5 so you can enjoy the outside for a bit and then party it up! Is that an option? Ours starts at 8 but only because we are having it on a Thursday and want to make sure people have time between work if they can't take off.

You're a month ahead of me. I'm 5 months to the day today and yes. I'm wigging out! I haven't ven done an engagement shoot because we were waiting for warmer weather!!!!!

I'm not having a WC. I live 15 minutes away from the venue and they will allow us to decorate ahead of time as long as there isn't another event and its such an odd day I don't think there will be. Right next door to our AHR is a craft shop and the woman makes phenomenal and gorgeous centerpieces and decorations. My mom is really crafty and can do those things too and even she admires this woman's work. So if we ordered some things, she would just set them up. The place is giving us colored linens and at no cost allowing us to use their centerpeices. We have a choice of long glass vases with floating candles and flowers or candelabras. I will likely use the vases and rent overlays for the tables from the craft shop next door. Then she will set them up haha. Save your money- unless of course you find a fabulous WC for cheap then go for it! Recruit a crafty family member or bridal party member who wants to pitch in. I will likely do it myself.

HMMMMMMMM you're making me think now... I am sure it is not a necessary expense. I guess I shall wait and see what my budget will allow for. It just looked so nice in pictures haha

Hey Katie- I wanted to go with Katya Nova but she will not be in DR on our date. She is amazing. Super sweet and she offers really good advice. Even though I was not her client she continued to email me with a few questions I had. I swooned over her site when I saw her work. It is exceptional. I am getting married in the church! It is called the Jesus Maestro Parish in Bavaro. I am told it is ten minutes from the resort. I looked into transportation suggested by PPR and it was $20 a person! CRAZY! So my fiance is Dominican- born and lived there for a few years before coming to the US and his mother goes every summer. She has a friend who owns a car dealership and he is allowing us to "borrow" at no cost two shuttle vans so we can usher our guests. Unfortunately, it was either that or taxi cabs because I think the $20 per person is ridiculous and I quite frankly cannot afford it. Here are the only two pictures I have of the church, but Katya Nova has some on her website if you look at other peoples wedding albums: I am a teacher and I have the exterior of the church as my desktop screensaver and my students think it is my vacation house. "Ms. is that your house?" they ask. When I tell them it's a church they do not believe me. Rumor around this HS is I am rich...if they only knew haha

Hey- We went back and forth on having an AHR at all- but it was a big deal for me since many people cannot attend our destination wedding. We ONLY looked at alternative options (Sundays, Thursdays, early in the day etc) because that's what we could afford. We ended up doing a Thursday night 8-12 cocktail party- open bar, passed hors' de oeuveurs (I hate that word I cannot spell it for the life of me) and our place threw in a pasta station, a carving station, and a table of salad, meats and cheeses. Sounds like plenty of food to me- only its not a formal sit down dinner. My sister is a baker so she will bake our cake. We weren't going to have one but she insists. We might do a candy table but most likely we will not. We plan to show a slide show of our actual wedding and then just enjoy our company. We scheduled it two weeks after our DW. We told all our friends and most of them are taking Friday off and crashing at our place (I live 15 minutes from our AHR venue). No one complained about taking the day off so your MIL is wrong- choose the day that you want that's within your budget. People will find a way. We are sending out separate AHR invites because we didn't want people to get the impression that it was a wedding and they shouldn't go to DR. We sent our wedding invites out and we are getting these super cute invites form Wedding Paper Divas for our AHr- found them in the engagement party section- because they were less formal than the wedding invites and they are less than $1- waaaahooo! That's awesome- before booking our AHR I explored the option of having it at bars and restaurants. My only issue was that we had a DJ complete with a percussionist because we were initially having a wedding stateside. Our DJ was the only vendor we could not get our money back from, so we decided to make him work! I am TOTALLY wearing my dress again- why not. It cost too much to not wear twice and its fabulous lol. I will just wear it without the cathedral veil- just my headband that I ordered and I will probably leave my hair in an informal style like a beautiful bun or ponytail

Thanks so much for letting me know. I plan on renting the bridal suite and I am having my hair and makeup done and some of my guests and bridesmaids would like to as well. I was wondering how much time we would need to get ready- seems like the whole day! My wedding is at 5 but we are doing a first look and are taking pics before we head to the church so we are looking at a be done up time of 3:30 for an hour photo session and then to church! Or maybe 3:00 so we aren't cutting it close! This was so helpful and of course, I had to be a creeper and check out your photo in your avatar. absolutely stunning wedding picture. Who was your photographer? @ Angelnjewels- I didn't hear about this restriction but since I am getting married in the curch off-sight it probably didn't apply to me. Our cocktail party will be on Plaza Colonial and our reception will be on the beach. I wanted Olympus Terrace but it was booked. I have learned to be happy about the bech but am secretly hoping the other bride wants to cancel Olympus Terrace as her Location. I already requested the Apollo ballroom as my back up reception sight in case it rains. I would suggest you ladies do the same. If there is another wedding on your date and it rains, they might just throw you anywhere. Send an email and have it in writing what you want your backup location to be this way you aren't screwed in the end. Any other PPR brides renting the bridal suite?

I think I'm just milking my wedding for everything its worth- I mean- I took a second job to help pay for the expenses so I think I will milk all I want. I plan to wear the second dress after the reception for the after party- but who knows how I will feel there. I have heard other brides say they wanted to take their dress off right after the church ceremony because they were so hot. I love my dress but it really isn't meant for a destination wedding. But gosh darn it- I am going to rock it as long as I can.

I checked your board out. It's very earthy chic. It looks ethereal. I have a board as well haha but mine is all over the place. I had separate boards for my bridesmaids, but here's my board: http://pinterest.com/mrsevgarcia/our-wedding/

My dress is SUPER heavy so I am considering a switch a few hours into the reception (like its that long to begin with haha). Actually, I intend or hope to keep my dress on for as long as possible and then switch into a more comfy dress just to after party at the lounge at the resort. I found this dress on Camille La Vie for $199 and thought it would be awesome.

So It came down to the two dresses on the left. The Navy blue is a Bill Levkoff and the violet one is a Jordan. I was torn because the Jordan has the color I was looking for but the consultant and my bridesmaids called it matronly. we went with the Levkoff because it was more flirty and fun. I am just having trouble with the colors. He has a color called Cornflower that I love, but its not one of the blues I originally picked for my palette. The pic with the model on my phone and computer looked blue but in person it is a royal purple so I was sooooo disappointed. We went with long gowns because my wedding is at 5, cocktail at 7 and reception at 8 on the beach- so it will be a tad bit cool and I wanted a more formal look.