Butterflies

Yes, it was the best trip ever! some people asked me if I was nervous the day before the wedding, but honestly we had so many activities with our friends and family that I didn't have time to get nervous! Also it was a great trip for my friends, I had one telling me this holiday is among the top 3 best holidays in her life and that is what we wanted, everyone making friends with each other and having a fun time together!

Thanks a lot Steph! I wish you many happy and fun moments with your wedding preparations

Thanks Miss J! Our photographer is just great and so much fun to work with!!! He travels anywhere and I can assure you he is not expensive at all. He lives in Spain but went with us to Dominican Republic for the whole week, and right before our wedding he went to California/USA for another wedding. He does any country since he is quite international (also speaks English). His name is Santy (http://www.imagingfactory.es/Inicio.html). If anyone wants his details like email/phone, let me know. These are some other pictures he did, but I still don't have the rest... he did like 3 thousand pictures of the whole week, plus videos!!! And the best thing is that he will give us every single pictures in high resolution so that I can keep these, make more informal albums, send to the family He does the wedding album in a very beautiful format, so we are doing our album with him. He designs the album and sends you the pdf for approval before printing - that is great, I think. Moreover, during the trip he even took pictures of my friends' family and kids, that I'll send them once Santy delivers these pictures to me, he is so nice, my guests loved him cause he puts lot of humor into the work! He is also working in a video clip of the wedding, I want to see it soooo much What I like about him is the creativity, but also keeping the soft and romantic side in the pictures. These are some more of Santy's pics! This is at our bachelor party (we did it together at the hotel For the rehearsal dinner we also did a bonfire and Santy did this composition with my friends' pictures This is a composition from our trip to Saona Island (an excursión we did together) And this one is real, with the parrots and all, LOL, I love chickens but also birds in general, jajaja, my poor husband has to bear with this

Hi again, I just realized that there were a few things missing from the planning list, so I'm adding them, in case you find some ideas useful The centerpieces butterflies As I mentioned before, as part of the DIY I had butterflies for adding to the hotel flowers centerpieces. To make these butterflies easy to attach to the flowers, I glued two butterflies together, but adding first a very thin iron cord that I attached with tape. After that, I put some rhinestones as decoration and ready! You can see here the very thin metal cord that was a good solution to easily attach the butterflies to the flowers centerpieces This is how the final centerpieces looked like with the butterflies attach to the roses and plants The cake We wanted a bigger cake than what was offered at the hotel, so we used an external provider and they did a great job. We loved the cake, with so many butterflies on it! and guests liked very much the taste, we had guava filling and other parts with strawberry filling For cutting the cake I ordered an engraved cutting set from Light in the Box, I think the price was around 20 dollars. I put butterflies instead of the lilac flowers. My hair tiara was also from Light in the Box, they have many nice things for weddings and cheap prices. The only advice is to order things with enough time since it can take 3 weeks to arrive! This is a closer picture of my wedding bouquet. It had White and light purple roses. The song that I chose for tossing the bouquet was "All the Single Ladies" (Beyonce) I got the idea from this forum This is the DIY card I made to my friend who went with me to look for the dress, I gave it to her with a personalized gift. This is a close up of the OOT bags flip flop logo And also before going to the Dominican Republic we sent to our guests a card with a bag-shape luggage tag that said "Take me to the Paradise, Dominican Republic", they loved the surprise. Wedding website This is how our wedding website looked like. We did it at www.weddingwire.com At weddinwire you can easily create your website for free, select different designs and put all the travel information, hotel prices, etc. It is a good alternative to sending brochures via mail, with the advantage that you can update the website everytime you need. Also we put there our gifts lists, our contact info, the travel agent contact, the packing list (very recommended to provide a packing list to your guests! and insist on sunblock!!) Check my packing list further below (in both Spanish and English). The website was a great help, since that way people had all the information they needed and that saves you many emails repeating the same information like hotel prices, inmigration policies, etc. The packing list I recommend tha you provide from the beginning some orientation on what to bring, that will be very helpful to your guests. I made a generic packing list, but if you want to be more specific you can add some medicine names and more level of details. Ropa / Clothing: Ropa fresca de playa / Sun-dresses and beach clothes Ropa abrigada para el regreso en avión / Warm clothes for the night flight back (for the plane) Trajes de Baño / Bathing suits Foulards o abrigos para la noche y para el aire acondicionado / Light jacket or sweater for the nights and for the restaurants air conditioning Chancletas o sandalias para la playa / Sandals or flip flops for the beach La ropa de la boda! Traje de cocktail (damas) y traje y corbata (caballeros) / Clothes for the wedding! Cocktail dress for ladies and suit for gentlemen Neceser / Toiletries: Los productos que suelen llevar en su neceser / Usual products that you carry on your toilet bag Lentes de sol / Sunglasses ESENCIAL: Bloqueador Solar, spf 20 es recomendable / ESSENTIAL: spf 20 Sun block recommended Medicinas de uso común: aspirinas/Gelocatil, antiácidos opcional y sus medicinas habituales / Aspirins, antiacids and your usual medicine Varios / Miscellaneous: Cámara o video-cámara / Camera or video-camera Dinero en efectivo para propinas / Cash for tips Importante: en el hotel hay un cajero automático, y también tienen servicio de cambio de moneda / The hotel has a cash machine and also currency Exchange service Pasaporte y reservas, billetes de avión / Passport and tickets Oh Shit! Bride Survival Kit Ok, everyone thinks on a survival kit for their guests, but it is also very important to think on a more detailed bride survival kit, nice and ready for the wedding day. I had a small bag ready that I gave to my best friend, were I put from ballerinas, (to change my high heels when my feet were dying), to retouch makeup, mints and cholocate (I just knew I wouldn't have lunch before the wedding, I just knew it!), a bottle of water, band-aids, pantyliners -just in case-, kleenex... etc. I found this interesting article on the Bride's survival kit and used it as guideline to create my survival kit: http://offbeatbride.com/2012/01/wedding-emergency-kit And now I think this is almost all, if you have any questions or need any help, just let me know! And good luck with your preparations ladies!!! Have FUN