NJBride2014

@@nadiakat17 yeah I found it to be very simple and much cheaper than getting it custom made. Just remember when yoi print your design that you flip the design so you iron it on to the bag correctly.

I wanted to do custom matchbooks too but when I called United Airlines to see if we could put them in our checked baggage I was told it was not allowed. Kind of a bummer because we are having a cigar station and will have sparklers.

I did this and it came out great. I bought my totes on bagiva.com really cheap and then bought iron transfer paper at Michaels with coupons. My brother in law did the design and I printed it out on my home inkjet printer. One or two bags did get a little messed up because I didn't apply enough heat so make sure that you buy a little extra of both bag and iron paper. Here is what my bag looks like. Oh and I saved a lot of money for 40 bags came out to like $90 for everything.

Man I wish I could do it.....I just know with my family it would be me explaining it to everyone and then them complaining about having to find white outfits. lol Just more work than I want to deal with now. I was planning on adding it to our pre travel packets as well but oh well. I finally get my brochure's in tomorrow from vistaprint and then I can mail out everyone their pre travel documents, brochure and luggage tags and cross one more thing off my to do list. Your welcome party sounds like its going to be so much fun!! We wanted to do cigar rollers for the reception but opted to just buy cigars and have a lounge section with cigars set up for the guys and do a photo booth instead.

My fiance sounds a lot like your fiance. He's so over me asking him what to do about this that and the other, that he is just letting me handle everything from here on out. lol I tell him when he gets to the resort and sees how much work actually went into it he'll know exactly just how much I really did. He just thinks its an email here and there, no its a lot emails to several vendors and then research, contracts, payments etc. My living room also looks like a wedding factory and it keeps multiplying the closer we get to the wedding. As for the groomsmen outfits we also bought them their pants and that was not fun trying to buy pants that will look good on 5 guys who are built completely different. Now we have to make sure they all fit but that's another headache and my fiance should be handling this but again its like pulling teeth to get all the guys over to try them on. Last night I made my fiance try on his suit with new shoes and tie and he whined the whole time lol I was like don't you want to make sure everything looks right and fits good before we are in Cancun. I don't get guys sometimes. I'm usually not this demanding and crazy I'm actually really chill and go with the flow but this last month is really making me stressed. We were also thinking of doing a white party for our rehearsal dinner but scrapped that idea that would be another headache trying to explain to all our guests to wear white.

I have wedding related nightmares sometimes if I'm doing any wedding planning/research before bed. I wake up and tell my fiance about it and he looks at me like i'm crazy. I'm definitely not going to miss wedding brain after the wedding is over. Only 37 more days of planning and then finally I get to enjoy all the hard work that's been put into it all....in the end it will all be worth it is what I keep telling myself. Eloping sounds like the way to go now....lol j/k What if my guests hate the wedding and are mad that they paid all this money to come all this way? Will I mess up my vows? Will it rain on my wedding day? Will everything go smoothly at my resort? A Lot of these things I can't control but I still want everyone to have a great time and I'm such a planner and organized person that I can't help but try my best to make it as close to perfect as possible. I just need to learn to let things happen and I can't control everything.

Yeah I would wait to speak to your onsite planner about getting a room for a night that's what I did and she said one night would be fine (printing out the email just in case). I actually found the rooms online way cheaper than my TA and the hotels site so paying for their rooms wasn't too bad, way cheaper than an $800 vendor fee for each vendor....ouch! Plus since I'm getting them rooms my DJ and Videographer all agreed to give me a little bit of a discount and the DJ comes with a lot more than either JSAV or PSAV for the price and DJ Disco Movil's communication is so much better. @@tygrrlily who are you using for decor?

Yeah the vendor fees are a killer, I'm paying for day passes for my photographers, and a night at the hotel for both my DJ and videographer and having the flowers dropped off all to avoid vendor fees. lol It's like a game trying to see how to pay the cheapest fee to get the vendors you actually want. I would have gone with the resort vendors but honestly they were very expensive, communication wasn't the best and the quality just didn't match to what I could find outside of the hotel. So even if i end up paying what I would have paid for their vendors at least I know I got the best and it was the vendor I wanted and didn't settle for theirs just because that was the only option. It is my wedding after all so I didn't want to settle. haha I mean our wedding....my fiance is just as picky as me and didn't like any of the hotel vendors.

I say if someone wants to throw you one and is really into it just go with it. I didn't want one either but my sisters insisted on it and they threw me a bridal shower and this past weekend a bachelorette party and it was so much fun and I got to celebrate with a lot of people who aren't coming to the wedding in Cancun. Its ok to celebrate and let people make a fuss over you this one time in your life. lol

@@tygrrlily Yeah I know what you mean I always envisioned high ones too and really fell in love with the pics he sent me but ultimately its just flowers and I settled with the low ones just to make it easy I'll still get the same flowers I wanted but smaller. I will also save money with the smaller centerpieces and guests can take them back to their room if they want. I'm doing 5 round tables and a sweetheart table. These are our centerpieces but with more coral and white flowers I really wanted something with orchids so this was great not too many orchids just a couple too keep the price down. These were the ones I loved. .

@@shellsal yeah it sucks with all the extra costs....tip to future DW brides expect extra people coming last minute and budget for it and buy extras of everything. UH I'll have to suck it up to and just pay but I just don't get people they should know its a wedding and we do have to pay for all extras such as private events, at least be considerate and respond by the deadline. People think oh its an AI resort and that we are getting a free wedding definitely not the case......ok end rant! lol

@@tygrrlily I'm using Maya Floral for all of my flowers. The quotes I was getting back from the resort were just way too much for the flowers I wanted. I was going to compromise and pick less expensive flowers to avoid going with an outside vendor but with Maya I get the flowers I want and it was much cheaper. Are you looking to do high centerpieces or low centerpieces? I originally wanted high and low but that would mean they would need to come in and set up and then come back to take the flowers down. Maya suggested to do low centerpieces and then I'll just send the groomsmen to the lobby to pick them up and they will put them on the tables. This way we avoid them having to come in at all and having to pay any sort of outside fee. The tall centerpieces although nice are also not so practical for the money since after the wedding no one can really take them home with them and enjoy them. I haven't even told my wedding planner about any of my outside vendors I'll handle that when I get to the resort and talk to my onsite planner. Another florist that was reasonably prices was Flores Riviera Maya I ultimately chose Maya because of his fast response and flower choices I just felt like i was getting my money's worth. He's providing flowers for rehearsal dinner, bouquets, bouts, corsages, centerpieces and petals for about the same price I was quoted for just bridal party flowers from the resort.

@@shellsal wow that's crazy I agree with @@shan0487 if these extra uninvited guests are going to cost you extra for having them at all your events then I would make sure they know they are not invited. If it doesn't cost you anything I would just avoid the awkward conversation and just let it go. How did they know what TA to contact are they coming with other invited guests? I have some guests who are booking even after our booking date has passed which is getting a little annoying because now it's throwing off my seating arrangements, welcome bags, favors etc. Also since they are not booking through our TA I will need to pay for every event they come to. With 37 days left until I leave for Cancun I really don't' feel like adding more stress on top of everything else. Its nice that people want to come but so last minute is not cool. I think people think that a DW just happens and the resort takes care of everything they don't' understand all the little details that goes into planning the wedding weekend.

Wedding Decor and Signs The frames I bought at Walmart and Home goods and just sprayed painted them gold. The signs my graphic artist brother in law helped me with some and the some I did by downloading fonts on Dafont.com. The runner I bought on etsy they are very cute and add a little something to the table and very reasonably priced. This is the seller https://www.etsy.com/shop/VowWowDecor?ref=l2-shopheader-name. The coral napkins and gold rings I actually bought from a BDW bride and they also add a pop of color that I was looking for. A lot of my candle holders and items came from Michaels with coupons and I just spray painted them gold to match my color scheme. Wedding Favors DIY I ordered my wedding favor maracas off of amols.com for a really great price and then just customized it myself with the help of my brother in law again. He's so freaking talented lol I need to get him a nice thank you gift after the wedding. He also made these cute tags to go with the maracas. Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Festivities!! When I first decided on the DW I told my bridal party/sisters I didn't want any pre wedding celebrations because didn't want them spending money and for any guests to feel obligated to also give gifts etc. My sister/maid of honor told me to stop talking crazy and that I should do all the same stuff that any other bride would do at home. My maid of honor/sister and other sisters planned the best parties they did an awesome job at both my bridal shower and bachelorette party. I'm so grateful for them and happy they didn't listen to me. lol Here are some pics. Bridal Shower My fiance actually made the taco stand/bar that we used at the bridal shower. It came out great. Used this camera for our photo booth and it was a hit. I love photobooths and polaroids. Bachelorette Party My sisters are little crazy and surprised me with some "entertainment" but it was all in good fun and all the ladies had a great time at the bachelorette party. Wedding Day Gifts for the Parents We bought the mothers and my grandparents embroidered hankies and they came out great. I used this seller on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/shop/PromiseForever?ref=l2-shopheader-name.