DiggityDawn

Definitely glad I came across this thread. I will be saving my receipts!!

theknot was not for me either.... lol This site is more suited for those of us looking for advice and inspiration, not judgement and etiquette.

Congratulations and welcome. This site will be very helpful for you

Welcome and congratulations!

Where are you looking at for your DW? Which countries? I think Mexico is cheapest and most popular, then Jamaica and Dominican Republic. The reasons why so many of us go to these areas for our DW's is because these areas have the all-inclusive resorts. I would highly recommend staying at an all-inclusive. They are cheaper and they are more convenient for group travel, as your price includes your stay and all your food and drinks. I would also recommend finding a travel agent to book the trip. This will save you and your guests a lot of headaches with the travel planing and will ensure you all get to the same hotel and are in the same area of the hotel. Many resorts will give you kickbacks on your own room price depending on how many people book with your group. Definitely start with an experienced travel agent though. There are a lot out there who specialize in DW's.

My date is 2/14/2014 at The Barcelo Beach Resorts in Riviera Maya. We have about a year left. I think the timing is perfect. Not too far off, but just enough time for everyone to plan and save for the trip and for me to get everything done and planned without stressing. :)

Congrats to you!

Ooooooo!! Very helpful, thank you!!

Very very cool! Awesome job! I wish I could do something like that, but we have too many people to invite and they are all over the country, and 4 are outside the country... ;(

Yes, I am learning to try and keep the FIL's out of the loop... lol They call every other day for updates though, so this week I'm just saying I've been too busy to get anything done. Hopefully my FI and I will find the right balance of info to share with them so they think they are in the loop, without letting them in on what's really going on... lol

This has been a helpful thread, thank you ladies.

Very helpful! Thanks for the post!!

Very nice! Great idea!!

Thank you for your insight! I really appreciate it. I have been struggling through the whole planning process with the in-laws. Mexico was the WRONG choice, then the date we set was wrong and we had to move it back a few months to appease them. Then we were being rude and tacky with the honeymoon registry we picked out, because it basically asks for money and we should do a traditional store registry. Then the website I made was wrong and I had to rewrite everything to fit what they wanted it to be. And now my STD's are wrong too. It's just getting to be too much for me, but I still try to consider their point. That's why I'm not really sure if they have a valid point about my postcard idea or if I'm just not wanting to change my ideas out of spite because everything else I have done is wrong and inappropriate... lol Just needed some insight, thank you.

Well, I know my resort will allow them because they offer a "Star lantern" with the bride and grooms name for $300 as an option. I have not been in contact with my wedding coordinator yet about it so I'm not positive if they'll allow them, but if they offer it, I'm assuming it should be kosher. They make biodegradable sky lanterns which do not have a fuel cell at all, it's actually a candle. It is safe and fire retardant and they are allowed onto airplanes. So I'm planning to use those kind. I'm very sorry to hear about your mother. I lost my father a while back, I know how hard holidays and events like your wedding can be without them there. Thoughts and prayers to you..

We plan to use the sky lanterns (air lanterns) to honor those who have passed. We will have 9, for my FI's 4 grandparents, my 4 grandparents and my father who have all passed.

Lol, no worries, I don't think I am explaining my idea too well... especially after the reaction from the in-laws... lol

I wish the links to the pics still worked. I would really like to see the Std's and invites!!

What you said is exactly what I am doing. We are sending out 88 STD's to everyone invited to go to the DW. I am including a short note to explain our DW and that there will be a reception in Denver after the DW for everyone who can't make it to the DW. My problem is, 52 of the 88 invites are for my family. Of the 52, there are only 2 couples who "might attend". I want to send STD's to all of them, with an informative note, so they know they are invited and not excluded, and that we will have a reception upon return for those who don't go to the DW. But I don't want to send the passport invitations to 52 people who I know won't be going, when time for the invites comes. So along with the STD magnet, and note explaining the DW and receptions, I want to include a postcard reply so that everyone can let us know what they want an actual invitation for. That way I'm not bombarding them with multiple invites to multiple events that they aren't planning to go to anyways. Am I making any sense? Maybe I'm not communicating my thoughts clearly... lol

I've never heard of the shoe game.... Great idea!!!

Hi everyone, I have been struggling with our STD's. We are about to send out our STDs. I am making magnets with vistaprint for the actual STD, and including a letter of explanation with our website and travel agents info. But I was thinking to also make postcards with vistaprint to include with the STD that will ask people to mark what they would like an invitation for and send back to us. The choices to mark on the postcard include: ___Mexico wedding celebration ___ Denver wedding reception ___ Both events ___ Sorry, can't attend either I am going to make it clear that it is not an RSVP for anything, just a heads up to let us know what they want an invitation for (We are actually having a reception in Atlanta before the trip that my FI's parents are hosting, and a Denver reception after that we are hosting, as well as the actual trip.) I know many of my family won't travel to Mexico for our ceremony, but they will ALL most likely go to our Denver reception. My question to you ladies is this: Do you think my postcard idea is tacky or pushy? I had an extremely negative response from the future in-laws that this is very pushy and postcards are tacky for an RSVP. They were so busy telling me everything wrong with this idea that I couldn't even explain that it is not an RSVP, just a postcard requesting to know which event people would want an invitation for... I just didn't want to bombard everyone with invitations to all these events that many might not even plan on attending. Nor do I want to take the time and put in the expense of making invites to everyone for all our our events that many won't plan on going to anyways. Any suggestions or comments are appreciated... I am very overwhelmed and reconsidering my STD plans now (again) because of my future in-laws... Thanks!

I have been struggling with this issue as well. We are about to send out our STDs. I am making magnets with vistaprint for the actual STD, and including a letter of explanation with our website and travel agents info. But I was thinking to also make postcards with vistaprint to include with the STD that will ask people to mark what they would like an invitation for and send back to us. The choices to mark on the postcard include: ___Mexico wedding celebration ___ Denver wedding reception ___ Both events ___ Sorry, can't attend either I am going to make it clear that it is not an RSVP for anything, just a heads up to let us know what they want an invitation for (We are actually having a reception in Atlanta before the trip that my FI's parents are hosting, and a Denver reception after that we are hosting, as well as the actual trip.) I know many of my family won't travel to Mexico for our ceremony, but they will ALL most likely go to our Denver reception. My question to you ladies is this: Do you think my idea is tacky or pushy? I had an extremely negative response from the future in-laws that this is very pushy and postcards are tacky for an RSVP. They were so busy telling me everything wrong with this idea that I couldn't even explain that it is not an RSVP, just a postcard requesting to know which event people would want an invitation for... I just didn't want to bombard everyone with invitations to all these events that many might not even plan on attending. Any thoughts?

Thanks for the insight ladies! Great links....

My TA is awesome! I think he deals specifically in all-inclusive vacations. But that includes cruises! He does a lot of destination weddings and cruise weddings. He is located in Denver, but he arranges travel for people all over the country. I have been really impressed with him so far. He is very patient and knowledgeable. Check out his website if you want, www.all-inclusivevacations.com My agents name is Stephen Lord. But he has a decent size staff who all work on DW's from what I see. Goodluck! A TA is definitely the way to go.

I feel you EVKnowsitall. I have been getting grief from the future in-laws for months because we haven't started a registry. They wanted us to create one the second we were engaged so that we could receive engagements presents too. They have even gone so far as signed us up for Crate and Barrel and Bed, Bath and Beyond catalogs... I mean really!!!!!! The problem is that we don't need ANYTHING. I kept telling them we don't need nor do we want an entire store's worth of knick knacks and home furnishings that we already have. We mentioned that we were going to do a honeymoon fund and a universal registry like myregistry.com. This didn't go over too well, and I got the response of, "oh, so you just want cash? Well, I feel uncomfortable telling people that you want cash, so you should let them know that is all you want." I think that the mold is really starting to shift to more modern times with all of the alternative registries like myregistry.com and other honeymoon fund sites. Many of us are getting married at a later age and have been on our own for years. We aren't getting married and going straight from living with the parents to creating our own household. Etiquette is outdated. It does not fit the mold of modern times, and it is us who unfortunately has to break these traditions and appear to some to be "tacky and classless". It just takes some educating.... Our message on our website and on our registries states to people that we have been living together for quite a while now, and we therefore have everything we need that traditional wedding gifts would furnish, which is why we are signed up for some more modern registries like honeyfund.com and myregistry.com. And once the future in-laws finally saw the registries, they both liked them and said they had no idea things like that existed and they realize that those registries make more sense for us. They admitted they thought the idea was tacky until they actually saw the registries, but that they are actually quite neat as they loved being able to see all the things we want to do on our honeymoon listed out.