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Past brides & fellow forum users, I have a few questions: - I heard the resort offers activities during the day (such as wine tasting, cocktail making, etc.). Does anyone have a picture of a past activities schedule that you can share with me (or any recollection of activities schedule would be great)? - Dinner reservations: I have decided not to pay for Royal Service. Does anyone know if it is difficult to make reservations for dinner on the day of or does it have to be booked way ahead of time? - Anyone have the resort room reservation's email address that you are willing to share with me? Thank you so much...

I was size 6 and dropped down to size 2 over the years. I have learned some things during this time: - Muscles eat fat - Muscles need protein to grow - therefore, eat protein and weight train (heavy weights) to feed your muscles - No, you will not look too muscular/bulky if you weight train and eat balanced, healthy foods - Intake of calories < Output of calories = calorie deficit = loss in either fat or muscles (depends on how much carb vs. protein you eat) - 70-80% of what you eat = how you look - Muscles weight more than fat! Don't look at the scale as the only measurement - Drink water - You need carbs to live - just watch out for overloading on good carbs and definitely watch out for bad carbs - It takes time to change habits. Stick with it and you will see results

@@calgarybride2015, you should go! It is soooo fun! @@acw271011 Thanks!!! Pre-Wedding Photos Part II We already had pre-wedding photos in Kelowna...and because of our hectic schedule during whole wedding week, we asked Gonzalo take our TTD photos prior to our wedding. And so, while our guests went to Chichen Itza, me in the least expensive gown and Art in his least expensive outfit, was picked up by my makeup artist to do the consultation. Had my hair and make up done up at their home and then around 3pm Gonzalo came by my makeup artist's place to pick us up and off we went to a beach for some pictures. Here are some of the beautiful shots that Gonzalo took for us: Gonzalo took many more pictures, and I am only posting a small portion of what he gave us during the pre-wedding photos. We were SO LUCKY since right when we are done with the pictures, it started pouring for 2 hours!

Activites Arthur and I planned some activities for everyone to do everyday. We set up a couple of tours to snorkel cenotes, hike up mayan pyramids, and swim with the turtles, etc. Unfortunately, Arthur and I had to skip Chitchen Itza (while all our guests went) because we have to do our pre-wedding photoshoot (will post later). We set up a bunch of silly games for everyone to play. At the end we awarded scratch and win tickets: Walked out to 5th Avenue to do some shopping: Scuba diving: We initially planned to go to Cocobongo on Thursday (the 2nd night there). However, they said the show is sold out So we had to go on the night after our wedding (and that morning we had a super early underwater photoshoot), which is the last night before we had to fly off. Having said all that, it was SUPER fun. Arthur does not enjoy clubs, but he LOVES Cocobongo. Arthur was on stage for Gangnam Style, while I was on stage with him and for a few other songs. To be continued...

HELLO FELLOW BDW BRIDES! I'M BACK!!! I apologize for abandoning my journal and this site for so long. It had been a very, very busy stressful time right after the wedding. I was not able to take a breather until now. I have a lot to catch up, but let's start where I left off... FLYING OFF Two days before flying off, I took the Greyhound from Kamloops to Vancouver to gather myself, groom and pack. I had hair and nail appointments which took a day to finish. I went through my list of things to pack and then went through the wedding things to pack. In the morning, the limo party bus that we booked to pick up our guests arrived on time. My mom and my brothers were late by 15 mins, and another group was also late, but we arrived at the airport with still time remaining. Sunwing's carry on weight limit is very, very low. Most of us had to stuff things in our luggages to meet the requirement. The plane got off a little late (after they defrost the whole plane) and we headed out to the sun! LANDING IN THE SUN We arrived at the airport and we were greeted with a private bus from Sunwing for our wedding party. RIU PALACE RIVIERA MAYA We requested the wedding consultants to help us arrange a welcome dinner party for us. Because of the flight delay, we were late to our dinner. The wedding consultant happened to be at the lobby and was able to arrange with the buffet to keep the welcome dinner party area sectioned off for us. I don't know about other wedding couples, but Arthur and I are always the first ones at any location and last to leave to ensure all our guests are taken care of. The room assignments took a little while and Arthur and I were the last ones to leave the lobby. Welcome Dinner party: Buffet area: During the dinner time Arthur and I talked about the events that we have arranged for the week and just did a Q&A session with everyone. We also handed out the Spanish 101 pocket guide at this time. After the dinner, some people retired back to room, while others (like me and Arthur) are out and about at the bars: More pictures of the resort: Botafogo: Yashima: Best server was in this restauarant...and the best thing is...THEY SERVE WARM SAKE! To be continued...

@@acw271011 Thanks! Finally counting down. Work is really busy these days so I don't have much time to think about the wedding. I'm travelling back to Vancouver on the 28th at night. Hope the Coquihalla is clear that night. Between 29th to 2nd, I have appointments left, right and centre. Oh, yeah, and I gotta pack as well. I don't think I will relax until I get to the resort's bar.

Toronto has much more choices than Western part of Canada. To give you some perspective, our package with Sunwing is $1,608 per person all in for 7 days in the resort flying from Vancouver, while my friends in Calgary paid $1,628 per person and my friend that is coming from Toronto paid $1,455. It depends on your group's comfort zone in terms of travelling. With over 3/4 of our guests having never travelled to all-inclusive and/or Mexico, it takes a bit of convincing talks before we get buy-ins. We talked to the people that we really wanted to be in our wedding to get a sense of what their budget is before we started seeking out a resort. Yes, it is our wedding and my fiance and I are willing to pay much more for the grandest of the grand resorts, but it is a time for us to celebrate with people we love and we had to keep in mindful of their budgets. Our range of pricing after talking to family and friends were $1,500 to $1,800. With this in mind and other criteria that we set in our minds, we were able to select a resort by process of elimination. Hope this helps.

Centrepieces Setup Walkthrough Before I went back to Kamloops on Sunday morning (Nov 2), I insisted on having a walkthrough with the centrepieces setup. Going along our theme of 1920s/Great Gatsby and with our wedding being so close to Christmas, we initially thought of having manzanita branches with a tall cylindrical vase filled with Christmas ornaments as centrepieces. The vase will also be filled with some small battery operated lights. We will also have candle holders as side pieces. The candle holders will be filled with pearls and diamonds. We will have mirrors on the bottom of each piece to throw lights around. Our idea sounded good, but we were very concerned with how we will be able to protect and carry these manzanita branches to Mexico. We thought perhaps we can purchase them from Mexico. We reached out to a few vendors in Mexico, but they either do not have the branches or they charge an arm or leg for rental (About $230 for just the branches and without the vases). We purchased the ornaments (Superstore - $25 for the whole container), tall vases (Homesense - $15 each), larger LED lights ($8 for 2 packs - Ikea), candle holders (Army & Navy - $2 each) after Christmas 2013. We bought the mini LED lights ($10 for 2 packs - eBay), the faux diamonds ($2 per pack - Dollarama), the Strings of faux pearl ($18 - AliExpress) and Strings of faux crystals ($18 - AliExpress) around Spring/Summer time 2014. By now it is August, 2014 and we are still not sure of what to do with the branches. I did my usual and went back to my drawing board. I need something that is easy to pack and light to carry, tall (because we like tall and big centrepieces), and works with our theme. And then I found it: ~OSTRICH FEATHERS (queue in epiphany sounds)~ Yes, they will work. Yes, yes, yes! I found an Ostrich feather seller from eBay and bought 100 feathers ($140) for 20 black and 80 white feathers. We will divide them amongst the three centrepieces. We used floral foam as the base (DollarTree $1.25, we cut 1 block into 3 pieces), and--I kid you not--clear straws to extend the length of the feathers. Anyways, back to our walkthrough. We didn’t turn on the lights, but here is generally how we want it to look like: Please ignore the pink tissue paper. We are trying to figure out how to cover the floral foam. We will buy gold or silver tissue paper to cover the base. Please also ignore all the stickers on the candle holders. They are in the process of removal. We are bringing a few picture frames and have some pictures of us around the table. The large frame will have “Share The Love” picture in gold (the picture is a draft copy):

The offset brooch design is pretty. If you like it, but is concerned about the movement, I would suggest using some sort of adhesive to make sure it stays in place. Some brides, I have heard, use eyelash glue to keep things besides eyelashes in place. 18 bags?!?! OMG...That would've cost another plane ticket! Kelowna is nice, but again, smaller hospital. The best hospitals are where all the best surgeons are...and they tend to stay in the larger cities. Yeah...aside from the cold winters, Alberta's pay is def to be envied by us BC'ers

@calgarybride2015 Wow. That's a lot of bags! What a coincidence! My fiance is a nurse in an orthopedic ward. His workplace offers the program for $11, so you never know! He is looking into getting a job in the local hospital, but since it is a smaller hospital there are not too many full-time position openings. Further, I'm not sure if it is a good idea for him to move to Kamloops career-wise since most of the surgeries and bigger cases go to Vancouver instead. I guess we will just see how this goes for now. @tygrrlily Hmmm....mine has everything from Access to Lync to Word. I'm not sure about Mac since I'm a Windows user. Sorry I'm not too much help with that

Beautiful planning! Congrats!

@@calgarybride2015 Great timeline! Is it simple, yet thoughtful and cute Yes, yes, yes! Publisher saved my (wedding) life. I have done every single printable project on Publisher. Sure, it is not as feature-packed as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw, but Publisher has most of the features us common-folk DIYers need. Check if your work has an employee program where you can buy the full Microsoft Office Suite for $10-$20. My fiance's workplace has an agreement with Microsoft and so we bought MS Office 2013 suite for $12. Check it here. I got something from VS as well! It's kind of hard to use it since my fiance and I don't even live under the same roof these days. The maracas are so cute! Are you planning to distribute them prior flying or are you have a separate luggage for all your wedding things?

Ice wine is lovely. And I agree, it is great when taken in small portions. It is easier on the wallet, too...

@@tygrrlily Thanks! Is it too late to copy the stamps? Have you printed them? You have no idea how much happier I am now that I can parts of my den that I haven't seen for almost a year. Trust me, you will be happier too once the OOT bags are given away. Your wedding is not too far away from mine! This is the final push time. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Go, go, go! We put so much effort in these bags. They better enjoy and use them! Yeah, last week was quite brutal. With a new job and all those things that happened during the weekend, I slept like a newborn soon after dinner every night. I even skipped my workout routine for a whole week! What other projects do you have left to do?

@@acw271011 My recovery was pretty good. I still have some problems breathing, but I hope it will get better in the future. OMG! I LOVE sweeter/off-dry wines. If you like inexpensive, sweeter wines, try the moscato from Barefoot (California). Have you tried German wines? They tend to have a lot of Rieslings. We love Balthasar Ress, Dr. Loosen When we visit the wineries in Niagara region, we fell in love with Palatine Hills' ice & dessert wines. The Okanagan region (Kelowna) has a lot more wine than Thompson region (Kamloops). We really love sweeter wines as well and so we love Hillside Winery, The View Winery, Dirty Laundry Winery, and St. Hubertus Winery that are around Okanagan.