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My fiance and I decided we are not going to have a garter. Everyone except 3 guests that are going are all married. So no point.

I'm debating whether to travel to MVP's studio in PDC to avoid the $250 vendor fee. Our hotel is only 10 mins away from PDC so I don't really know for sure what to do.

Hey @@tygrrlily, thanks! Everything printed out clearly for our designs and words. I don't recall Vistaprint saying our resolution is too low. Have you tried perhaps using word? Or finish designing from PowerPoint and then export/save it to Word? PowerPoint is a presentation program so it may change the size or resolution of the images. Also try to save it as a JPG and see if that works. If it is something basic, will it be easier to design right on Vistaprint?

Congrats! Our family didn't really mind having a small tea ceremony so are planning to have a tea ceremony in Mexico. Beautiful qipao! I ordered mine a couple of weeks ago on Taobao and we are asking my fiance's parents to bring it back to Canada after. I hope my measurements are correct and that it fits!

Congrats! Welcome to the bittersweet planning stage.

Yes to pro MUA. We wanted our pictures to be taken at our best.

Thanks @@acw271011! I try not to worry about RPRM's reviews, but we just really like the colonial look of the the RIU resorts. That was the reason we picked the RIU chain in the first place. Since RPM remodeled we are definitely sticking with RPRM for the look. Hey @@NotSoWitty! I was in your shoes not too long ago and I couldn't see the attachments. Frustrates the Bejewels out of me. Keep up the posting and you can see them in no time!

Oh for sure! Some other questions we thought up: - What do you think we should remember most about our wedding day? What will you remember most? - Give us some ideas for a date night - what makes us a perfect match? - what should we focus on during difficult times? - who will cry while watching the wedding video in 25 yrs? - which wedding gifts will we use first? - how should we spend our 1st anniversary?

I don't think the resort will provide transportation. Have you reached out to the resort to see if they provide that kind of service? I heard the "luxury" buses (ADO) is pretty safe and comfy to travel around the area. http://www.ado.com.mx/ado/index.jsp Hope this helps a bit

Low season is probably when people don't have time to go on vacation or want to save their vacation until they can combine it with a holiday. For instance, it is high season during the last 2 weeks of December since that's when people want to use their vacation in combination of holidays. Prices are usually lower in the first 2 weeks of December and January because it is before and after the holiday season. The only bad con to going in December or January is that sun sets earlier than in the summer so there may be less time for photos.

I'm doing a similar postcard guestbook. Instead of postcard size, I'm using invitation card size. I'm planning to scan the cards and upload them as pictures into a photo-guest-book afterwards. I have upload some pictures of the invitation cards here: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/topic/76802-elsas-arthurs-wedding-rprm-20141208/?p=1867696

VistaPrint Galore: Kissing Menu/I Spy and Guestbook We can't help but get something from VistaPrint. We wanted to make sure that people have a great time while there. Rack cards We wanted to make sure people take pictures of the whole week there, so we made a rack card that has I Spy list of items to photograph. The front (glossy side) is the kissing menu. Instead of having maracas or bells, we decided to have a list of items that guests can do to get us to kiss. We used publisher to create the look and then imported it into VistaPrint via pdf since Publisher doesn't import well with VistaPrint. We ran into a problem where the Publisher doc was a bit narrower than the VistaPrint's version so we had to made a few adjustments with the sizing and upload it a few times before we are satisfied. $9 for 100 cards + $8 for shipping (WTF...) = $17. Guest Book I love the idea of having guests write in a photobook for us to read up every now and then. I don't like the conventional ways of making a photobook guestbook because: 1) Guests tend to smudge the words and thereby ruining the book/pictures next to it. 2) Guests generally write "Congrats! Love, <name>" and that's it. Com'on man! Put some effort in that stuff! 3) The writing tends to fade over time So I decided to make guests put in some effort in our guestbook. I designed 10 different invitation cards (printed only 7 designs @ 10 cards each) and will MAKE each guest fill out at least 1. My fiance originally designed them all...but I just found that they didn't look that pretty...so I took on the role to redesign them all to fit our theme and my vision (LOL). These cards took much longer time than the rack card because of the special fonts I downloaded and used. When we saved it as pdf the fonts didn't transfer to Vistaprint. We figured out that we had to save it as a jpg so that the fonts are uploaded as we see them. The problem is, again, on the borders and bleed. We had to fix it a few times and upload it a few times before we are satisfied with the look. Examples of some cards (front & back): We ordered 7 designs with 10 cards. Came up to $41.93 + $8 (shipping in Canada is expensive. sigh) + $2.45 GST = $52.37 The orders came in. I didn't want to unwrap them because I fear it will be more difficult in transporting them to Mexico. Once these cards are filled by all the guests I intended to scan them in high resolution and upload them as a picture so that I can combine them into one guest-photobook.

Oh good! I was thinking I have to lather myself in citronella to reduce bug bites.

Are there a lot of mosquitoes in Mexico?

I very much dislike insects. Was it just one reviewer out of a lot of reviewers mentioning the tarantula? Perhaps the chance of actually encountering one in the resort is slim?

Oh wow. That's a bit more than ours. I already think having 2 BMs is enough. I can't afford a 3rd BM. Lol I told my fiance that other cultures' tradition has the BMs pay for their own dresses and then the brides buy them a gift. He said "Why do so much work to be ended up with the same costs? And why would I be a BM if I have to pay to be one?" Lol! We have lived in Canada over half our lives and we are still learning something new everyday.

Beautiful story!

Our Boutonnieres & Hangers: My Fiance's DIY Section My fiance may not be the most creative person, but if given specific tasks and direction, he just works on it and they look not too shabby. Hangers We wanted wired hangers that other brides had done. There are a lot of step by step tutorial on this one so I'm not going to go into detail. We just made one modification - we wanted the hangers in gold. We went to home depot and purchased a can of gold spray paint and 12 gauge wire. We then took out the bottom rail on the hanger and taped the hook with painter's tape. We got an apple box from a grocery store and used it to spray paint. We were too lazy to prime the hanger first so all we did was applied 2 coats of paint. My fiance downloaded the font, printed the words on a legal sized paper and proceed on bending the sh*t out of it. The result Boutonniere My fiance has been a groomsmen quite a few times and always noticed that the fresh flowers boutonniere tend to wilt and bend to 50 degrees by about mid-afternoon. We decided to find an alternative option for the boutonniere. We set our eyes on a feather & jewel boutonniere on Etsy but we found it to be too expensive...Ok...so DIY time! Material: - Feathers: We bought different kinds from Michael's, Walmart, DollarTree - Skewers: DollarTree - Feather pin: Ebay - Boutonniere holder: Michael's - Glue gun - Well bond glue My fiance used the glue gun to glue the feathers together on one skewer and then glue feather pin on another skewer. He then use the glue gun to glue both of them together. We then put tons of glue in the boutonniere holder and then the result is:

In the Chinese culture all BMs are used to having their dresses purchased for them by the bride...plus the hair and makeup. So I bought my BMs dress at $70 each and will have to pay for the makeup and hair as well ($140 each). Some brides also buy accessories (shoes, jewelry, etc) for their BMs as well. I bought my BMs barefoot sandals and a pair of earrings ($8 each).

I asked my WC @ RPRM but they said she doesn't have the 2015 costs yet. My WC mentioned to email [email protected] and they should be able to give you more pictures and other additional information for RPRM or RPM Have you checked out Oyster and Tripadvisor? Some of the pictures are older, but maybe it will give you some ideas http://www.oyster.com/playa-del-carmen/hotels/riu-palace-mexico-all-inclusive/photos/ http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Hotel_Review-g150812-d219633-Reviews-Hotel_Riu_Palace_Mexico-Playa_del_Carmen_Yucatan_Peninsula.html

Hey @@jessg619, planning is challenging but fun at the same time. It's really hard to find pictures of RPM. I have info and pricing for 2014, which may help you with planning. We have about 26-28 guests coming so we calculated that it is cheaper for us to have the free wedding package. The free package doesn't include the minister, but it includes 10 guests. Which means we will have to fork out $25/guest x 16-18 guests + $300 for minister from outside (if we want to hire the in-house minister, it will cost $800) = $750 total. Reason why we didn't get the caprice/royal package: - Costs more than $750 - We get free room upgrade from our flight + resort package from sunwing, so we don't really need the upgrade option in the caprice/royal package. Anyways, I save at least $1k for stuff that I don't really need. So I can use it for other things...like my photographers.

Yay! Hello fellow RIU bride! I'm getting married at nearby RPRM in Dec 2014.

I see. Unfortunately, I only have the 2014 information. I'll ask the planner @ RPRM to see if she has pricing for 2015.

Thanks for reading, @@calgarybride2015! Time flies when we are all having fun!!

The inability to talk to vendors in person to plan it out. I feel like I'm a slave to emails all the time.