Italy2013

That sounds fantastic I have to say the "Pre-Wedding Party" was a lot of fun but a lot of work too. The wedding is a lot less work because of the planner. I'm glad I had the party but glad it's over. We ended up with 60 people and my initial budget was $4k for 40 people and I was under that for 60!!! I ended up hiring a planner but still did a lot of the decor and cooking myself. Looking forward to showing up at my wedding and not having to do anything!!!! Good luck and have fun!!!

Struggling with the "Something Blue"! And I leave in 5 days!! Something Old - my Grandmothers ring was made into my wedding ring and I have her hankie and I made the wrap for my flowers out a a remnant from her wedding dress that I hand beaded Something New - my dress and shoes Something Borrowed - my pearl earrings, necklace and bracelet from my dear friend Stephanie Something Blue - ??????? A blue flower tucked in my bouquet, a blue pearl bead on my flower wrap HELP!!:confused:

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!!!

My ring was my grandmothers 50th anniversary ring with 2 white gold bands added. His ring is italian olive wood and titanium. He is a bassist in a blues band and his bass guitar has the same wood. We are also marrying in Montepulciano, Italy.

Wow, your hair looks great!!!

How fantastic to be married in Italy!! My FI and I are marrying in Montepulciano, Italy in just 81 days. Here are my suggestions.... Don't include the AHR on the save the date. Send an invite for that 8 weeks out from the date and that should give people enough time to make that party. Also, instead of with love, use "Con tanto amore". It will get people a little more excited. There are nice stock images or drawings that you can buy to use as the background. I did that for my AHR invites. I have the image posted in my photos. One more small thing... There are some comma mistakes. If you would like me to suggest the fixes, I will.

Less than 3 months!!! My dress fitting is in 2 weeks and I need to lose 15lbs!!! Everything else is done. Instead of OOT's I sent a box of goodies for my travelers including electricity converters, money belts, TSA locks for luggage and those little bottles for liquids when flying. Our wedding will have just 14 including us. We paid for everyone's trip and hotels and we were hoping for a drama free trip. Well, no such luck. Had to cancel my sons wife ticket as he discovered her indiscretions. Not refundable! Bummer. But glad we found out before she was in all of our family photos! We are having a pre-wedding party for family and friends not joining us in Italy. That will be in mid September and will be an outdoor italian inspired party with hand thrown pizza and bocce ball. Invitations went out Friday. We planned on about 25 people and the list kept growing and now it's at 64!!! Now I understand how some can get a little "bridezilla!" Haha! Good luck to all the October brides!!! Not much time left....enjoy every moment!!

No, we are getting married in the town square at 5pm and then walking to our reception at the other end of the town with 3 strolling musicians playing traditional Italian music. I can't wait!

We are sending our guests a package with a note expressing our excitement that they are joining us in Italy for the wedding. In the package we will send luggage tags, electricity converters, to do guides for Rome and Florence (our excursions for the wedding week) blow up neck pillows and money belts.

You shouldn't let the planning stress you out. This is supposed the be the best day of your life! I've decided to do what me and my FH want. Our family and friend love us no matter what and are just excited that we are getting married. A combo party with reception and shower sounds great. If its before it can be a celebration of the upcoming wedding. If its after it can be an AHR. Just make sure that you don't get too stressed by it all. Delegate some if the work. I feel weird about a friend who is throwing me a shower. It seems gift grabby to me but everyone has told me they are very excited to come and definitely want to bring gifts. Best to register for what you want instead if getting gifts you don't need. Anyway, congratulations on your upcoming wedding! Where are you having it?

Our wedding planner, Francesca, is working out the details in Italy. Since she is from there and speaks the language, it is becoming the best thing we have done so far with the wedding planning. The original restaurant for the reception was unresponsive so she has located 2 more that have the same wine cave style and is getting quotes from them. So far everything is far less than we thought so we have decided to have a videographer. Looking through Vimeo wedding videos to get an idea of the style that works for our wedding style. Are there any other sites I should look at for videos? We are going to send gift boxes to all attendees before the trip instead of welcome packages. We will include luggage tags, travel items such as electricity converters, TSA luggage locks, money belts and inflatable neck pillows for the airplane. In the gift box will be a printed note saying how excited we are to have them at our wedding. We didn't send invites, as this was a family vacation that I planned before the engagement and decision to have the wedding there. I would like to have favors but can't think of something that would be useful and something inspired by our italian venue. Does anyone have a suggestion?

I did MediFast from Oct 4-Nov23rd of last year and lost 26 lbs. have gained 5 back since thanksgiving. Going back on to lose 10 -15 more before the wedding. Costs about $300 a month for food.

We are having the last few words from our vows engraved on ours. We found the vows online and mixed a few together. We both have a different phrase that has the same last 5 words.

I went shopping with my mom thinking I would spend about $200 for a dress because I want to have a pair of $1200 Jimmy Choo does. Well, I ended finding a custom dress at Miosa Couture, a local dress maker/designer, including all alterations for $2000. I found knock off Badgley Mischka Ginnie shoes at Off Broadway Shoes for $59. I'm borrowing pearl jewelry and wearing my grandmothers fur stole. I need a "something blue."