1BeachBride

The website says 2014 wedding packages and last year when I booked it said 2013 wedding packages with different prices. It had to be updated. I don't think it's fair for them to change prices whenever they feel. I was told the same thing about website prices are wrong... however, she is giving us the website price. I think the threat of loosing my business helped with that decision. (Large wedding with many guests = $$$) @himandme $2 difference isn't that bad.

@@FutureMrsGlover King of Prussia Mall I will PM you tomorrow with the exact store. (Too lazy to get out of bed now)

@@FutureMrsGlover Wow! You really do have a great planner! You are so good...planning early! I began one year from my wedding date. It all seems to be working out nicely though. I had gone to a few bridal & trunk shows in the beginning. You are right. Most of the resources there are not for a DW. Good freebies though. You have to comment on any & everything to get your postings up to 150. (Just type thanks or congrats...)Then you'll be able to see photos and templates. People have some good ideas on here that may help you in planning. I kind of had my own vision & just reached 150 this weekend so I already had bought or created everything by the time I could view. Oh well! I'm in the Philly suburbs as well. Main Line. Congrats and Good luck with your planning. I'm in the home stretch now!

Were any of you given different prices other than what the website says? We just looked at the prices Carolina had quoted for our wedding, reception, and extras. They are off from the website prices for 2014 weddings. Off by over 500 dollars. I can put that elsewhere... The discrepancy is somewhere in the prices for extra guests. (We have a large group) but we can't figure out why the prices per person don't match up... I do know that it's not my math. She's quoting every extra person between $5-$8 more than the web lists. Doesn't sound like a lot but it adds up fast. Example, extra wedding guests are $20(website price) not $25(wedding planner) per person. Beach bash extra people are $30(website price) not $38(planner)... I haven't had any issues so far so I'm hoping Carolina is busy and simply made an error when giving me prices. I did email her and we sent a screen shot of the web page with the amount it is quoting us for 50 people and all our extras. Guess I have to wait. Double check your numbers ladies!

@@ak1029 I forgot to mention the exchange value...thanks for that.

Sorry but they no longer carry the larger bags. The ones posted are it now. I asked the manager the end of last summer when I was looking. Try ingreetings.com and cheaptotes.com You can also create your own on vistaprint.com. They always have deals/sales and good prices. And if you create products, let them sit in your shopping cart for a few days without buying them, Vista will email you coupons like 20% off, free shipping, etc. I recommend not buying everything at once. They will email you coupons to keep you coming back. Use the coupon to buy something else, then wait for the next. The coupons are sent like weekly or something. @@malyna They are a dollar and are usually used for OOT bags. Mainly because the price is cheap.

Hello all and Congrats! When I knew I was going to have a destination wedding, I decided I would create a blog to capture my feelings, share ideas, and have documentation of my 1 year planning process. It's an exciting time and I'm really sentimental so I figured it was a good idea. I really did have good intentions. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how much time this process would consume and much of that time I was not just sitting twiddling my thumbs. I was researching, running around like a chicken with her head cut off, trying to keep the million and one fabulous ideas that popped into my head separate and retained. All of this was done while taking caring for others, taking graduate classes, and maintaining a household. Needless to say, the blog idea fell wayside, not intentionally. I find myself now less than two months from the big day- June 21, 2014. I'm anxious but regretful about not noting things like I wish I had. So I'll start but work my way from the beginning (June 2013, one year before our wedding) up to the present. First things first! Choose a location. We decided to have our ceremony in Punta Cana, one of our favorite places, I started researching places online and reading reviews, LOTS of research and reviews. I would suggest anyone doing a dw do the same. Believe it or not, some people don't! They choose a place purely based on price, the name, or pictures on the internet. I wouldn't recommend this, particularly if you have expectations. You need to get a composition book or spiral notebook and make this your wedding book for planning purposes. Grab a two-pocket folder and designate that your wedding folder to store things. This helps you keep all of your info and ideas together. You will have a lot, trust! These have become my best friends through this entire process. Jot down all ideas you have, whether you plan to execute or not. You may change your mind later and it's a pain if you don't have the website, info, number, idea or whatever. (You can thank me later about this ) Just remember to stay calm and don't get overwhelmed. It all works out in the end. Next, choose a wedding date. Now sometimes the date is chosen before the location which is fine. Whatever works for you, (not judging.) WE actually knew our date first because it has meaning for us. Luckily the resort we selected had that date available. But have a backup date just in case the date you want is booked already. In June 2013: Now as for me, I emailed & called (yes, I'm anal too), the resort and booked my own date with the wedding coordinator. You can also go to a travel agent and they will handle that for you. I discovered this after the fact. The travel agent will help you with group rates, booking rooms, and arranging travel with your guests. Oh yeah! ...Somewhere in there, we decided upon our wedding colors. I wanted turquoise. He didn't have a preference. So we are doing turquoise and royal blue, ocean and beach colors. This leaves us open to incorporate a pop of color if we choose. I'm happy and have found plenty of inspiration. At this point in the journey, I was so excited and hyped up that I decided to send out our save the dates (std's. I wish that abbreviation didn't remind me of diseases everytime I say or write it. EWWWW!). My fiance is really sweet and laid back so he let me have most of the say & he just co-signs unless he thinks it's a dumb idea or I'm going overboard. Then he'll speak up. We knew we wanted most of our guests to have enough notice to save money, make plans, take vacation days from work, or whatever they needed to do in order to be able to attend. We figured a year's notice was perfect (for us). I fell in love with so many invitation ideas. I narrowed it down to incorporating 4 things- some kind of invite/std in a bottle, a passport, a boarding pass, and a luggage tag. Basically I wanted to do everything except a traditional invitation. lol. I priced out invitations and such online and was blown away by the prices of these things. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Martha Stewart or master crafter but I am an elementary teacher! I'm creative and have been known to imagine and produce some pretty good stuff. So I figured, how hard could it be? I was a girl scout growing up and I spent my summers doing arts and crafts...I'll give it a shot and save some cash for other things. (Not tooting my own horn. I'm way more ambitious than I should be in many aspects of my life.) Okay, so once I made the trip to the craft stores buying materials, I ended up scratching the message in bottle idea due to mailing headaches. Cute but not ideal to send to guests & I wasn't spending a fortune for boxes and shipping. Remember, I was trying to save a buck or two. So I was left with the other three ideas. And we decided this would be it. The std was created with the help of my teen son who is a technology genius. We made magnet luggage tags for guests to stick on the fridge. They were in cute cards & envelopes with beach colors. We also made beach themed address labels and used post office stamps that said Celebrate. We had guests calling, texting, and telling us how cool they were as soon as they received them. YAAAYYYYYY! We wanted everyone to be as excited as we were so mission accomplished! After that, I created our website. I can't share it because it has our very personal info but there are some great websites out there that you can use. Many are free. Don't think you have to spend money for this. Our website is destination wedding beach themed and shares a welcome to the page note, info about us, our story, ceremony, reception, wedding party, info for guests about the resort, travel info including travel agent, pics of us, and a page for guests to sign in and leave messages. You make your page what you want! This is very helpful to your guests and saves you from numerous questions if you use it effectively and put most of your info on the site. Next was the passport invites which I actually designed online and purchased for a decent price. Our website url was included on the invite. They came quickly & we LOVED how they turned out. They look so much like a real passport! We mailed them out in September (9 months before) while rates were incredibly cheap. Used the same beach themed address labels but with a love stamp from the post office. I also created a boarding pass which was our rsvp. It was perforated so guests would tear part off, and return in the mail the same way a post card works. Well, the feedback was crazy about these! People were commenting about how we had the most unique wedding invitations they had ever seen, they were so original, did I buy or make them, if this is the invite they can't wait for the wedding... It felt really good to know my hours of hard working making them had paid off. Our level of excitement was transferred through the std & invites. I hope this for every couple. That your guests will get a feel of what is to come on your big day from your std or invites. In my opinion, it should be a little preview to create excitement. Well it's a lot I gave (4 months) at once but I'm playing catch up (with a little bit of time). Hopefully this helps somebody get started. Stay posted for more real soon!

I created some! Let me figure out how to post it with pics (my son is a technology wiz & I'm so lost). As soon as I can, I will share with you ladies. Stay tuned.

Nice job with these! I already did my own STD magnets, passport invitations, and boarding pass rsvps. Too late for me... I could've used yours.

@@Meandhim I followed through and went dress shopping...Found 2 dresses in my size in the store that I love. Problem is I can't decide which I love more & should be my dress. They are very similar. I'm going to sleep on it and decide tomorrow so I can purchase Monday. It's good to know that soon I will be able to cross this off my list!

I made an appointment for dress...go in an hour and a half! I will keep you gals posted. @@Meandhim I was thinking nude undies too but since you said they didn't work. Try a high end department store with a bridal boutique in it. They should have some type of full length fitted nude slip that will work. You need a good quality one. You may be a little uncomfortable in the heat but your guests/photos won't detect your discomfort or goodies. Google it: what to wear under see through wedding gown

@@Meandhim I don't... I have selected the dress but have been too lazy to go to David's Bridal for fittings. Made 2 appointments and cancelled last minute. not nervous though. I'm not big so shouldn't have a problem getting the dress or a dress. I'll probably go today since I'm the only one now without wedding attire. I think I'm going to get measured & buy from David's Bridal since China rush thing will save a few hundred but is a gamble. Don't want to be disappointed.

look nice

Me too! My cousin has a business, Embella Hangers, doing personalized hangers for weddings and events. She did Candy's hangers. embellahangers.com She's also on etsy, pinterest, ebay, facebook, twitter (and probably other places too that I don't know about lol)

@@malyna traveled farthest to wedding= duffle travel bag with blanket, eye mask, & neck pillow inside(Bought 2 in case it's a couple). couple married longest= a gift certificate to a fabulous day spa in our area for couples massage. first person to rsvp=a tablet (to relax & read or play games)

HOORAY!!! Ladies, I would like to officially announce that I have reached 150 posts and it's about gosh darn time! (thank you speech coming...) It was a long tedious road but I was able to get there with the help of a lovely supportive group, you know who you are. I would mention names but I don't want to leave anyone out... LOL.Seriously though, I'm so excited I get to see things that I've never seen before! dying laughing, so thrilled!!! Yaayyy ME!

Not necessary. Do as you wish. I didn't do any. We always take pics and have so many of us together that we felt it unnecessary. Rather put that money elsewhere.

We chose DW because 1. we always travel anyway. We picked one of our favorite spots so everyone else can travel with us. I guess that would be family/friends vacation 2. cost is cheaper than home wedding. But not amazingly cheaper like I initially thought. 3. Planning is easier for myself (but it really hasn't been- I've become extremely anal about minute things that are thousands of miles away & I have no control over.) It's okay though.

A craft store like Michaels or JoAnn Fabrics has them for like a dollar. @ lisadra

How glamourous

Don't think we will be doing AHR now. Everyone will be at the actual wedding which we didn't expect. I feel like it will be a waste to pay all that money for a few cousins from his side and mine. We were doing the same insulated mugs that were going in OOT bags as favors. They are personalized.

Best wishes ladies!

I say hire an outside person too. You want your pics to be fabulous.

Same! It's all inclusive but you have to pay for the privacy. We are having a semiprivate reception in one of the restaurants there. After that, we will do a private beach bash (which we have to pay for). Our own open bar, party food, misic, set up on beach. After that, we'll head to the club to party with other people staying at resort.