TinkerSofi

that would be so funny haha. I'm sure we all have more than a few examples . Mine still doesn't understand what thank you cards are for and wants to skip them hahaha *facepalm* but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it she's been great so far. I'm pretty hands off but maybe because she takes care of so many things on her own so she makes my job really easy and I don't have to be on her case about anything. I'm sure she does a lot more behind the scenes than what I see. I'm really happy with her .

Lovely dress. It is pretty neat that you get to watch the whole process and have a say on it. My question is, how did you narrow it down to what you wanted?? I was so overwhelmed when I first started, I was between 2 different silhouettes, and like 5 different necklines haha. I really needed to try a few dresses on to narrow it down to what looked best on me

I'm no expert but if you block a certain amount of rooms I thought they can't give then to anyone else until your 90 days are over. Maybe double check with your TA about this. I would be a bit skeptical of paying deposits for guests when I don't event know who's coming. Usually deposits are non refundable and depending on the company they could refuse to apply that credit to your own trips. In other words, you might end up losing money if not everyone books. Id make sure to ask what happens if that's the case. I would still urge your guests you pay their deposits ASAP given that the hotel is running low on rooms, just to make sure they get a spot. Maybe what she meant is that they don't have 15 rooms available but if that's the case then there's not much you can do, whether you pay all the deposits upfront or not Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think I was the most upset about the fact that we had booked the hotel almost counting on getting some freebies, but then they changed the rules of the game a few weeks in. I felt swindled almost and since they never even mentioned any perks to me I felt powerless that I couldn't fight it. Everything I've tried fighting so far I've had no luck with, so I'm hoping that having my TA back me up on this one will help. I also felt really bad, because I had gone through all the small print before booking and I couldn't believe I missed such a huge detail! Even for the free ceremony, it said free for the North American market, so I thought "we're good", but no, I guess according to them Canada is not part of North America ? haha. A few weeks in, I go into the website and it says for US market only. I was like, am I losing it here? It is a bummer that you don't get any perks, but I think the biggest bummer here is that they are treating your wedding like it's their last priority. I tell you, sometimes I really don't like them.

ohhh, see you learn something new every day. I never knew the whole something new something borrowed saying until about 12 years ago when I moved here . I think it's definitely a cultural thing, but I'm all for old traditions making a comeback. I love vintage as well So how do you put it in your shoe? doesn't it bug you? hahah

The eyebrows are the most painful! hahah I dread getting them done, so I don't blame you

I don't know if that's the reputation I want but if it helps someone else it's all good haha. I was really scared the first time I tried it too. I thought it would be the most painful experience ever but it wasn't as bad as I thought. My aesthetician actually talked me into it one day . I know, it's weird at first even talking about it hahah. I had a few surgeries around my tailbone area that took a long time to heal and I had a few problems with, so let's just say that a LOT of professionals saw my butt and I feel like i've become somewhat desensitized to it now haha. I used to get more of a rash the first few times I did it. I guess it's kind of like threading your eyebrows that way, the more you do it the less your skin reacts to it. Sometimes I'd get like little pimples afterwards but nothing too major. I have sensitive skin too so it's red for a few hours (no matter how much I've done it). My legs actually look like I have the measles after waxing hahah, and I've been waxing my legs since I was 12. The redness lasts like 3 or 4 hours, then it starts getting better

I spoke with my TA today and had a few questions. I think she gave me good news? I sure hope so. For some background info, when we booked the hotel, I thought the basic ceremony package was free. After booking I realized it was free only for US brides, so we needed to pay $950. Then, when we booked, they had a promo going on where depending on the amount of rooms booked with your group you could get free private events (anywhere from a free cocktail hour to unlimited events). A few weeks after we booked, I go into their website and read that the promo was only for US couples again. I thought maybe I hadn't read all the small print but I was sure I had. I took a screen shot but then thought that maybe I missed something? So anyway, today I spoke with my TA. She told me that I'll have my make up and hair for free so yay! and then told me that I should have the free dinner, part of the free private events promo. She actually has a copy of the promo where it says Canadian and US brides. I guess I wasn't going crazy after all! She told me to send them an e-mail and if they say no, she has proof that based on our booking date we should have that for free. She also told me to fight to have the $950 waived for the ceremony since we're upgrading our venue for the ceremony and reception. We'll see what happens with that but I'm hoping for the best. If all this actually goes through, it means huge savings for us which would be amazing (we have a house to furnish ). Even if not all of it works out, and we get only the spa package and the free dinner, I'm happy. It's still going to be awesome and I'm already saving quite a bit of money on my hair, makeup and respective trials. I'm just really happy about hearing this and I needed to share with someone

I'm loving all the stuff in your last post. That basket for the beach balls is amazing. I love how it looks with the coral flower The cups look great and I love the fans. I just love rafia fans I think the pictures with the rings on the starfish are going to look great . What is sixpence? Does this have one of those super obvious answers and I'll feel dumb? haha

@@marinah84 I think as long as you have a floor you don't need the dance floor. Maybe spend that on the DJ? I think french tips will look really nice and classy for the wedding.

I went through the same with the colors, I changed them pretty much every week. I say go for something that you like and that kind of speaks for both of you. For us, I knew I needed to have some kind of blue because that Juan's favorite color and it has grown on me too hahah. In the end I gave him two choices of color palettes and he chose one. I tried asking him before what colors he wanted and it got me nowhere, so the forced choice was a better approach . The resort is really the hard part. I almost drove myself insane trying to compare everything so I agree with Calgarybride, the easiest approach is to make a list of your must haves and budget. Give it to your TA and see what she can come up with. Then do a bit of research with what she gave you to make your decision. That's how we picked ours after our first choice didn't pan out.

It depends where you go but if you get normal bikini (no brazilian) you can usually just move your underwear to one side and they'll wax that part. For bazilian, in some places they'll put a towel on you and move the towel around to only show the part they're waxing, but essentially yes, you're naked haha. It is kind of awkward the first time , I prefer going to younger aestheticians, otherwise I picture my mom and I can only imagine what she'd be thinking hahaha, it just makes it that much more awkward. Also, at some points you have to get into really weird positions haha (like lifting your leg up, etc) but I keep thinking "they see this all the time". The girl I go to says that it's really not a big deal to her, it's just her job.

I think $1400 for Punta Cana is a great price! We paid around $1700 when we went and it was a really nice hotel, but no 5 star. That was from Calgary, which is always a bit more expensive, but still.

I totally understand you with the whole "no sand thing" because I am the same way. That's just not what I wanted. I've seen other resorts with nice venues that are not on the beach, sadly not a lot of them had what we wanted. Many didn't have the space for our guests, but since your renewal will have less guests I'm sure you'll have an easier time finding something . I really hope it all gets sorted out. I'm wondering if your TA can act as the mediator between you and Karisma to get you somewhere with them. I'm really hoping for the best here. I like both dresses. I like more the mermaid style than ballgown but it all depends on you and what you're most comfortable in. I'd say go shopping and try a bunch of things on, maybe even some of the dresses in your wishlist. I was pretty surprised how quickly I made up my mind as to what I wanted and what didn't work for me. Some of the things I loved on models looked horrendous on me and vice versa. Actually, for the dress I got, if I had seen it online I would have never bought it in a million years (or thought to try it really). I don't think the model does it justice.

Good idea! I'll make sure to add bring a pen to the list. I find the Cancun airport is so chaotic that the more ready you are when you get there the better. I really liked it too! I was in between that one and another one that has the message written with blanks and people need to fill in the blanks with verbs, adjectives, etc. I think those would be so much fun too, you probably end up with really funny messages .

I'm going the tanning route. If you check out my profile picture you can see that spray tanning will not help me at all, and the sun in August over there is super strong. I'm also bringing tons of sunscreen and putting like a timer to reapply, especially on my face since the nose is the first thing to burn. I'll have to be careful and wear a hat all the time and things like that, but I think with a base tan I should be ok. I do tan, thankfully, but it has to be pretty slow and gradual so I have to hit the tanning bed before going. Living in Canada doesn't help. By the time I go to a tropical destination I'm basically as white as I was when I was born haha. When I lived in Argentina you never get that white during the winter, but here winters are very long, and the sun in the summer still isn't as strong. I would suggest not going for hard wax (the one that they pull off the wax, vs. the one that has a fabric strip). For some reason that seems to hurt more. For hard wax they need to put a thicker layer of wax so it doesn't break when they rip it off, maybe that's why it's more painful. Most places use the one with the fabric strips nowadays. You can also take a painkiller like advil before going (something that doesn't thin your blood though), it might help with the pain a little and if you can get recommendations from anyone that would be awesome. There's some people out there that are very good at waxing and it really minimizes the pain, and others not so much, and it hurts more. One day, my aesthetician was sick, but I really needed to get my brazilian done so I went with someone else. She was so rough that I had little bruises down there the next day, and not to mention that it hurt going to the bathroom . Not to scare you, but if you hear good things about someone book with them

That's exactly what Juan thinks. I know what he says is usually coming from a good place, but not everyone might perceive it that way.

@Meandhim @nadiakat17 I wanted to get the guess work out of the way for my guests, and when I'm a guest the pictures help to decide what to wear . I just don't know what gets into people thinking that a DW is any different from a local wedding. I will seriously never understand. I'm not expecting suits, but just something nice. Maybe they think I'm getting married in my bathing suit? hahah.

Every time I picture "losing my composure" I imagine myself standing at the altar with dark circles under my eyes from not sleeping and laughing/crying like a mad woman hahaha. I'm sure it won't be that bad, but this image cracks me up every time bahaha.

It took a while to convince mine that we even needed OOT bags. He said "why?" so I told him that it was just a thank you for people spending so much money to come to our wedding. Well, his response was "whatever, they're going on vacation, they're not doing this for us" What??! hahah Eventually I managed to convince him that while yes, it's a vacation, we're basically dictating where they're going so in a way they are doing it for us. Then he agreed to do OOT bags Juan can sometimes be a little rough around the edges when it comes to decorum but then he usually comes around. He never understands why some things we need to do, even if we don't want to, just to be polite .

I loved reading this. I knew that you guys had to deal with some serious health problems but I never knew exactly what happened. All I can say is wow, you guys have really been through thick and thin but I think it's those things that make a relationship stronger. I'm glad you're doing well now and let's hope that everything stays that way . You mentioned that maybe it wasn't meant to be for you to go back to Jamaica. Juan believes the same thing, there's places we've tried to go several times, and always something happens, he just says that he's not going to try anymore, because maybe we're not supposed to go there. I think of it as listening to the signs that life is giving you . I can't wait to read more, and even if it isn't a wedding, I'm sure there's lot of ladies around doing vow renewals and it might also be helpful for them

I was a busy bee this weekend. I worked on a few projects , even though it might be kind of early for some of them. I followed your guy's advice and I'm going to do the guest book with the "cued" responses and then I'll add a photobooth. I'll just put the two together afterwards. So with my mom we worked on designing the cards, and this is what we came up with: It's not the final copy yet and there's some things I want to change about it. Then I worked on the little vases for the tables. I just put some ribbon and lace on them and this is what they look like: The bridesmaid bouquets are going to go in there on the tables. Then I started thinking of what I want for the table numbers. I found what I liked so I made them haha. I know it's super early for this but I made more than enough. I cut them using a cricut machine that my mom has and I'll put them on some kind of holder like the first picture. I played around with the colors but in the end we both liked black numbers better, so I made them all black numbers and pearly ivory background. I just have to glue them on now and that's why they don't look even on the paper Then I also edited the website. I changed the times of the reception to reflect our changes, and I also added a page on dress code. I had a few people ask me so I thought I would create something with some picture examples so there's no guess work. It was so hard to find pictures of guys' attire haha. Originally I was so strict about the attire, but now I realized I was being totally unreasonable, especially given how hot it's going to be out there. If people are uncomfortable they'll just end up leaving early and I really don't want that to happen. Originally I didn't want guys to wear shorts, etc. I guess I was afraid of people showing up in beach shorts. The whole thing really started when I went to hand out the invitations and one of my friends was wearing a beach cotton dress. So she asked me what she should wear, and her mom chimed in saying "Oh, something like what you're wearing is fine" I didn't really know how to tell her that it was a more formal event haha. So awkward. So anyway, the main thing is I want people to look good and keep it somewhat formal, but I'm not going to turn into a bridezilla/fashion police over such a small detail. This is what I wrote on the website (I added pants for the ladies, although I really doubt anyone will wear any pants, unless they're crazy haha) http://www.weddingwire.com/wedding/UserViewWebsitePage?wid=852284c5602fe01f&pid=38a4641049732b85 That's it for now! I'm tracking the jewellery, it's in Mississauga now, but needs to go through customs and that can take a while sometimes. Can you tell i'm a bit anxious? haha

@@ashhtayy We paid $300 for the two of us which blocked 15 rooms (or 30 people). Then our guests had 90 days to pay $150 to reserve their spot, or $300 per room I suppose. After the 90 days we released all the rooms from our block that hadn't been booked (which was none, we actually went over a couple). You shouldn't have to pay upfront right now for all your guests, at least not with transat. This way your guests have 90 days to decide if they're coming or not. @@calgarybride2015 their prices are very tempting, but I guess that's what brings all the spring breakers in the first place hahah. Totally fun for a vacation, but not what I had in mind for my wedding

@@ashhtayy I heard there were shows, and the club can be hit or miss, they put music but sometimes no one dances. I'm guessing that if you bring your wedding guests there the party will actually be good. Out of all the AI i've been to, the clubs are always hit and miss, it all comes down to the people that go there. In Punta Cana, people were kind of lame and didn't dance, which made the club kind of boring. When I went to Cancun, the Riu's club was great, everyone was dancing and having a good time. The second resort I went to, people were more into drinking and doing silly things, so no one danced, which again, not our cup of tea but it's wasn't awful either. I think the only exception is if you book a resort like the Oasis in Cancun, and trust me, you do not want to have your wedding there hahah. Well, that's unless a spring break theme is the main goal . The positive thing is that if people want to go out, downtown is only 10 min away and there's quite a few clubs there. That's why we chose it. We thought it was nice and quiet, but the party was only a few minutes away . I always tell people, you will never find a resort that has absolutely everything you want or that will be 100% perfect, so you have to go with the one that has the most things . People have given us all kinds of excuses for why they don't like our resort, from "I wanted to spend $1000 max on my trip", to "You have to walk 5 minutes to the beach" and "It's too honeymoonish". So yeah, you can't make everyone happy so focus on what makes you and your fiance happy Yeah, they just changed the small print. A few weeks ago it was Sensatori only where it wasn't free, but I guess now they added Fives to the list. One piece of advice, make a screenshot of absolutely everything when you book. Sometimes they change things without warning.

@@pddcmc There is a big possibility that I might react like that. When I'm nervous I smile and I laugh uncontrollably haha. @@kcole123 are you sure you're not getting married with my fiance?? hahah I am so glad he's not planning this. But I agree with the comment that when they see everything pulled together they like it and they're thankful that we spent so much time on it. He also said no to kids' stuff, for the exact same reason! I told him that it's just a few toys for the sand and a beach ball, and there's only 3 kids coming so it won't be much, but it will keep them entertained . He still said no, but i'm going to sneak some stuff in hahah. He can't say anything then! (I really don't like doing things behind his back either, but I doubt he'll even notice that it was us that gave them the stuff haha)