ironman

Quote: Originally Posted by meggyducks I've sent 2 Wedding Request forms & emailed [email protected] to simply get the process started so I can put down a deposit, and still no word back! (this has been over the last month, so I've tried to be patient) Can anyone please post or message me some alternative conact information for booking weddings? If their dates didn't fill up so fast I wouldn't be worried, but there is only one date in July left that works well for us! thanks! I'd recommend picking up the phone and calling them. You'll get an instant response, it will be worth the cost of the long distance call!

Quote: Originally Posted by NJBride2014 These are two ring holders that I got monogramed and the one below has our wedding date. These were around $15.00 each. This is such a cute ring holder! Who was the seller?

I just saw a photo on Instagram that Now Jade posted of their "bridal suite" for getting ready. Has anyone used this or know how much it costs? I'm curious what the room has in it, or if it comes with anything. I send NJ a message on Facebook, since they're quicker to reply than the wedding coordinators, but haven't heard back yet.

Quote: Originally Posted by meggyducks Wow! Thank you for all of the info! That's great to know. I've been looking on orbitz and bookit.com - we want to keep it below $1100 per person (based on at least 3 nights stay) for airfare + hotel. I think my brother may need to contact a travel agent because they're traveling with 2 kids and going from Utah to Mexico to California (Disneyland after the wedding!) then back to Utah. How many were in your group? We only have 30 on the invite list (mostly couples) and I doubt there will be more than 10 rooms booked so I didn't think we could get a deal for a group. I'm sure you can find deals for <$1100 per person for at least three nights. I just did a search on RedTag.ca for packages from Toronto, departing July 4, and it came back with 5 night packages for $710, plus $360 in tax. That's definitely in your ballpark price-range, plus it's a few extra nights to boot! I believe we only ended up having 11 or 12 rooms booked through the group booking, and a few that booked on their own. Did you have any luck hearing back from Now Jade yet (I think that's where you were looking to book?). If you haven't, it's totally worth the long distance fees to phone them to get things sorted out!

Quote: Originally Posted by meggyducks Thanks, ironman! Our guests will be traveling from California, Utah, and New York. So far the prices look great, but I just wonder how soon they need to book (us too). I don't know if the Canadian flight prices would be a great comparison but I certainly appreciate the offer! I'm hoping that if people book by January the prices will stay the same (fingers crossed). One of my brothers is travelling from California, but he ended up booking his airfare and hotel separately because he can only come for three nights. For the AM Resorts (Now, Secrets), they have a weekly "deal" email called Suite Deal you can sign up for. I think he ended up getting a fairly decent rate just booking on expedia, or some equivalent (kayak??). This might be a good option if you have any guests who might be travelling with travel reward points, or if they can get a good flight deal. When we were looking around the long weekend in April I believe the prices we were quoted were around $2000 per person. I know a girl who went from Edmonton last January and she paid closer to $2500 for the week (so, flights, hotel, taxes, transfers etc...). We did a group booking with Westjet (a Canadian airline) and for our week in December none of our week long all-inclusive packages were over $1500. It was the highest for our guests from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. It was much cheaper (I think around $1325-$1375) for our guests from Ottawa and Toronto, and from Alberta and BC we are paying around $1425 per person, per week. My guess would be that your prices in July would be even cheaper, since it's a less peak time, and travelling from the USA just seems so much cheaper in general. I'd be curious to hear what you can end up getting! Have you spoken with a travel agent? At least in Canada (or possibly this is just with Westjet, but I'm sure other airlines have something similar) Now Jade has a deal where if you do a group booking they give the group leader (i.e. the bride and groom) a portion back depending on how many guests book. We just received back a surprise bonus of $1400!

Quote: Originally Posted by csho I think white will look really good, but what about purchasing your own chair sashes? I purchased coral ones from ebay. I think I paid about 35$ for 50 of them and they are super lightweight and don't take up much room at all... If you're really set on navy I'd suggest bringing your own. We purchased chair bows and table runners of ebay as well (seller "vlovelife", and they just arrived yesterday! They're organza, so they're super lightweight and won't take up much suitcase space at all. I think they were around $40 for 50 bows and 10 runners. I've heard our resort charges for ironing and setting them up ($40), so need to factor that in to the purchase price as well. For us it still ended up being cheaper than what it would cost to rent them there.

When we booked, we had been considering travelling around Easter (April 2014) and the prices were a fair bit more expensive (about $500/per person). We ended up booking in mid-December for a better rate. I'm not sure how prices would be affected by travelling in a summer month, or what I would guess is low season? My fiance and I went to Mexico in September once, booking last-minute) and got a smoking hot deal to the Sian Ka'an at the Gran Bahia Principe. I know you also posted in the Now Jade forum. Where would your guests be travelling from? I'm in Canada, and can give you my prices if those would be helpful comparisons for you.

Quote: Originally Posted by AdamShannon Does anyone know if travels checks are accepted and a way to avoid some of the service charges or transaction fees? Could you pay the bulk with travelers checks and the last little amount with a credit card? That's a really great idea. This is the first I've heard of the extra transaction fees, so I'm curious as well about ways to avoid.

Quote: Originally Posted by EVKnowsitall Although its a bit more pricey- Insanity is the business! I lost 60 pounds. The program takes 60 days to complete and you can lose upwards of 20 pounds in those 60 days. I started it a few months before I got engaged because at the time I also had braces and I wanted to transform myself completely. The braces came off and so did the weight! My fiancé and I did it together and he actually turned into a huge healthnut after. It's 6 days a week- 45 minutes a day for 30 days then an hour for the next 30. It's high impact- I def cried the first day and I hated it but I stuck it out. I went from a size 14 to a size 2. I purchased my dress when I was sort of in between a 4 and a 2 and I think it's a bit snug because unlike most people who lose weight due to stress, I am a stress eater. And I have been stress eating but I'm 4 months until our wedding and if I lost 20 pounds in 60 days I can less in 120. And if I'm being honest about weight loss- I gave up alcohol while I did insanity and I loooove wine so that was a toughie. I also cut out white- white pasta, rice, bread, & replaced it with brown pasta, lean proteins and veggies. I also eat 5 meals but controlled portions. And yes- I occasionally cheat We started Insanity five weeks ago and are starting the second 30 day set of the program today. Although we haven't noticed as drastic results as you I definitely feel fitter! We started following the nutrition plan, but I'm also simultaneously training for the NYC marathon on Nov 3, and I was way too starving with the running combined. So now we're hoping Insanity will help us lose a few inches. It's a tough workout program!

Quote: Originally Posted by jackshayne0123 Hello Canadian Brides! I'm happy I found this forum! I'm getting married at the Blau Varadero in Cuba in January, can't wait! Looking forward to hearing about everyones experiences. Just wondering - is anyone bringing favors/decor/centre pieces for the tables at the dinner reception? Or not worrying about it? Jackie Hello! We're bringing welcome bags for our guests in lieu of a wedding favour (travel mugs with customized labels, hand stencilled beach bags and a few other goodies). We're bringing down out own lanterns with LED lights, as well as chair bows and table runners (way cheaper off ebay than what our resort was offering). Haven't quite figured out the centrepiece bit quite yet.. If we don't figure something out before we leave, I imagine we'll just get a few smaller flower bouquets for the tables. In general, I've found it's much cheaper to buy stuff here and bring it down, than it is to "rent" it from the resort.

How's everyone been doing?! Our wedding keeps getting closer and closer, I can't believe it! We're just over two months away from departure (Dec 11)! This weekend I did a 29km run in prep for the NYC marathon on Nov 3. We're also about to start week # 6 of the Insanity DVDs. They've definitely been helping a lot! I need to bring my dress in for alterations in the next week or two!

Quote: Originally Posted by Jennkn87 For the girls going the route of no wedding party- Have you thought about things like speeches? Will you still have anyone speak at your dinner? Who will bring the rings? I am still undecided if I want our family (brothers and sisters) to stand up or not. I want to save them money as well...so I'm thinking I wold purchase the attire for them since they are already paying for the trip. Any suggestions on this? I sort of just want to say oh well and just the two of us stand up front, no speeches, totally untraditional, which is fine by me!! We're going to have our parents each give a speech, as well as us to give a speech to them/everyone. We also have good friends attending, and we might ask some of them to give a toast to the bride and to the groom (still undecided!). It's less the cost I am worried about by having no wedding party though - it's that none of my fiancés really good friends will be attending. There are a few girls on my side I could ask, but I don't want to have someone and him to not.

Quote: Originally Posted by Italy2013 We leave this next Friday for our wedding in Montepulciano, Italy. We are having just 12 guests and we are paying for the travel, accommodations and car rentals for 8 including us (our children and their spouses). We are both 50 and our kids are 22 - 30 and we have one granddaughter. My parents and my brother and his wife are also going. The wedding and reception are really reasonable. The travel expenses are higher but we all get a vacation in Tuscany too! Our family will leave after a week and we are staying an extra week and traveling up to Portofino and Barolo for our honeymoon. Here are our costs. Efffetti Wedding planner in Italy - $1,881 Piazza Comunale Town hall - $1,300 Jay Studio Rome photography - $1,040 Jay Studio videographer - $1,235 Wedding/reception flowers - $630 Enzo Polito Musicians - $1,170 Bottegga del Nobile wine cave reception - $1,560 Wedding attire (both) - $2,375 At home reception (60 people) - $3,915 Travel for 8 - $15,600 Honeymoon - $3,000 Total $33,706 Not bad and about the cost of a wedding at home but we get to be in Italy!!! That sounds incredible! What a beautiful time of year to go to Italy too. I hope you have an amazing time!

Quote: Originally Posted by EmmA1025 Hey Everyone! Im about 7 months away from our wedding and although i still have time it seems like its coming so fast!!!! Im going to order invitations soon and im thinking of mailing them out beginning of january and asking for the RSVP by March 1st. Our wedding is may 16th.. does this timing sound about right? For past brides or any brides to be.. has anyone not given the dj a set list of songs and just let them wing it? I am going to give a few specific songs that must be played like our wedding song and mother son and father daughter dances but I am just soo bad with remembering names of songs and artists... Im thinking about just telling the DJ the type of music we like and hopefully they will just play good songs? I dont know if this is risky to do... any suggestions? OHHH and one more thing.. where are you ladies planning on going for your honey moon if you plan on leaving now jade? I want to move onto a different resort still in riviera maya area for about 5 or 6 days to honeymoon but not sure where to go. Our wedding is December 16, 2013. We sent out our response cards requesting an October 4 reply. We've only received about 1/3 of them back, and I wish I had done online RSVPs and saved myself the postage. Granted there's a few days left to RSVP, but I'm a bit annoyed at the people who haven't even bothered to send back a pre-paid envelope with their decline. We're going to be staying at Now Jade for a week, and we decided to go to Secrets the Vine Cancun for our honeymoon (4 additional nights). I've also heard good things about the Beloved Hotel and Sun Palace.

Quote: Originally Posted by hortonk Good morning Now Jade Brides!! We are almost 3 motnhs away (time is going way to fast) and I know I have seen this answered on here before, but I cannot find it anywhere, so i appologize for a repeat question! Are we allowed to bring fake sea shells into Mexico? I am using them as part of my centerpeices and bought them from Party city. I am terrified of getting questioned at the airport and them taknig stuff away. Also, i wil be brining my welcome bags down to give out at the welcome reception. How much is each person allowed to bring into Mexico? Any other tips, advise, or helpful info would be SO helpful! Thank you!! Are they fake shells? Like made out of plastic? I can't see how those would be a problem. I've read threads on here where people bring in dried starfish without any problem.

Quote: Originally Posted by christina111213 HI Ladies! So its officially 45 days out for us (OMG) I sent in all my forms, just waiting on confirmation of DJ and hair and make up appointments which leads me to my question...Our ceremony is at 4PM and we may do a first look but will also be doing pictures prior to that. When should I get my hair and make up done, I also have 5 others who are all getting hair and make up done? I was thinking of starting at 11AM, any thoughts appreciated!!! Our ceremony is at 3PM and I booked my hair and makeup for 11:30 AM.

Quote: Originally Posted by AdamShannon Has anyone had to contact the resort via email for an existing wedding booking recently. I took the advice of a previous poster and sent my additional questions and requests to all 4 emails listed previously. I instantly got an auto reply stating that the wedding planners were out of their office around the resort helping other wedding groups. It states that all questions relating to quotes will be answered with 72 hours and all other inquires will be answered within the same business day. I'm still waiting for a reply since I just sent my message, but have other recently had quick reply's? Previous emails to the resort sometimes took a week or so to get back. It was only the second email I've sent to them, but it took about 2-3 weeks for my last email to be answered. I just got a response last week.

Quote: Originally Posted by remykion ha ha wedding crashers i like it lol :-) Do you know if we can take our own silk petals to put on the reception table and for the flower girl to sprinkle down the walkway? xxx I was told a few months back that silk flower petals were okay. And now this new planner emailed me earlier this week saying they are not (after I went out and bought some, of course). I'm super frustrated with all of the inconsistencies. Can anyone please help clarify this for us??

Quote: Originally Posted by DinaQtobe Hi Everyone, I am curious if any brides have flown with WestJet. I am starting to get anxious about flying with my dress and my FI's suit... I should probably just call WJ and find out directly, but I am curious if any brides here have past experiences (good or bad!) I know there is not a closet to hang our garment bags, we will have to put them in the overhead bin. Can other brides share their experiences with this? Were most other passengers ok with moving overhead bags for the dress? I am worried because we are not flying with any family or friends, it will just be the two of us. Also, we are not flying direct. We fly Toronto to Ottawa, and then Ottawa to Cancun. It's really the Toronto to Ottawa flight that I am concerned about... Would anyone recommend putting both the dress and suit into the same garment bag? To maximize our other carry on luggage? Anyway, I am probably getting nervous for nothing. If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it. Less than two months away for me now! We're also flying with Westjet and have two flights (Edmonton-Calgary, Calgary-Cancun). They do not have a garment closet, I believe that our dresses will need to go in the overhead bins. I think we're going to do pre-boarding, load up our carry-ons, put the dress on top, and then shut the bin, to indicate it's full. I'm hoping that other passengers will understand it's a wedding dress and they won't smoosh it. TOTALLY understand the nerves, I am definitely nervous about flying with the dress as well. If you do contact Westjet and they tell you anything differently, please let me know!

Quote: Originally Posted by MKEbride2be If you have the Divine package, the sound system for the ceremony is included. You can move your musician to the cocktail hour without needing to pay extra for your music to be played at your ceremony. At least this was how it worked for our wedding in June. Not sure about how this works with any other package. We had the guitar player for the cocktail hour and it was really nice--he was able to play for much more than we would have used him at the ceremony and it made for a nice ambiance. This was the impression i had as well (sound system included). We're contemplating using the musician for our cocktail hour as well.

Quote: Originally Posted by remykion ooooh me too please - [email protected]. Thank you Sarah Sent it to you both!

Glad to see I am not the only one out there not having a wedding party. After the one person my fiance wanted to be his best man can't attend our DW we kind of decided to not have a wedding party. I do feel a bit sad about this, but think it will end up being okay. We're 2.5 months out and "determine wedding party" is still on my to-do list, so chances are it won't end up happening. We're doing a symbolic ceremony in Mexico, so you don't even need witnesses anyways. One of my brothers will be the officiant for us. My niece and nephew will have jobs, but that's more for fun than being an actual wedding party. A flower girl and possibly ring/bearer or sign-carrier. Haven't decided yet.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jenny2014 We got a Boxer Oh he looks so insanely sweet! What a cute little face. Enjoy! He looks like he's going to get big fast!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Kasey04 Forgive me if someone already posted about this, it's hard to trudge through all the pages of each thread! But my fiance came across this, and even though it's quite expensive, we have decided that it was just too perfect to pass up! The website is http://www.unityinglass.com/ . It's a place where you order different colored glass beads, we would pour them into a vase at the ceremony like you would sand. And then you send the beads back in and they melt down the glass to form these beautiful glass creations (figurines, vases, etc). I love that it's something we can keep forever and, god forbid it breaks, we can just send it back in to be melted together again, lol! Wow, those are gorgeous!

Quote: Originally Posted by Jenny2014 Great job ladies! Sounds like most of us are doing so well, and showing some serious results! I fell off the work out wagon I was so good for so many weeks, and then last week it started to peter out, and this week, I did nothing at all AND I ate pasta on Wednesday. (which I haven't had in nearly 8 weeks!... however, it was a major, major craving and I felt sooo much better haha). So that stops now! We pick up our puppy tonight, so no more excuses to be lazy and not go out and do anything! Walks multiple times a day now, and spending every last moment outside while this weather stays decent! (you wouldn't know it today... had to break out my leather jacket because it's only 11 degrees out! celius, to my american friends ) Awww what kind of puppy are you getting?! We want to get a dog so bad, but just can't right now. Post a photo!!!!