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@@jennifernoel1 Yes it's def stressful to try to accommodate everyone! I already can't wait for all this planning to be over. I'm just ready to be in Jamaica already! Lol

Thanks this is great! I was wanting to get return labels but didn't want to pay a lot! So we can add our info and print these onto sheets at like staples?

@jennifernoel1@budgetbride2015 I am not blocking any rooms simply because we don't have the money right now to put down and also we don't know how many guests we will have. And with the flight and rooms booked together it will be a better deal I think. I haven't even thought about the fact that rooms would sell out because October isn't their busy season. Hopefully this won't be a problem! Thanks for the info though! Def something to think about. I'm also waiting to book because I'm waiting for the flights to become available and also when you book a few months prior to the date that is when you get the best deal. I'll probably get nervous though and end up booking in like February. Lol.

I didn't give my guests an option to stay at another resort. I just said this is where the wedding is, lol. But I feel like if people stayed at the other ones I'd have to pay the day pass because they're staying at the other one most likely to save costs so it's kind of weird to ask them to pay to come to your wedding as well.

@@StephT0727 Thanks for your review! So helpful. And your pictures are gorgeous! I love the colors. Question though - you said you rented out the blue moon music bar for the private reception? I don't remember seeing that in my wedding documents - only for the disco. I'll have to look through my paperwork again. I am glad to know the space is good though and there is seating bc I was wondering about seating in the disco as I was planning to rent that out for the private reception since its much cheaper than renting out the restaurant.

Yikes! that's alot of extra cost. My wedding package includes my hairstyle so I am just going to do that and use their on site makeup person. I am not going to spend hundreds of dollars on makeup! I am not a makeup person anyway I just want to look nice on my wedding day - nothing crazy! lol

Yes that is another thing I think about when justifying having a destination wedding to people. It will cost probably 3x as much to have it at home. We looked at a venue back home in MA in the burbs mind you, and it was about $20K just for the venue and food. NOT including flowers, photography, music, liquor, etc. We didn't have that kind of cash neither did our families. So destination wedding it is! Def listen to your fiancee! Even if you do go over budget - you won't regret it. You will only remember how amazing your day was! No stress! I was just thinking that as I am reading through these posts....since when did parents receive gifts for weddings?? Crap so much to think about, lol. Yea my fiancee is always asking me what I am doing on my ipad all the time, lol. I say, that destination wedding website I told you about. He doesn't get all the things I think about - it's a girl thing I tell him, lol. We just moved from MA to TX in August so all of my family and close friends are back home in MA. I have one friend here from MA who moved down here a year before us so I have her to talk to - especially because she did the destination wedding thing last year and has alot of advice! - but other than that I am alone So this site answers alot of my questions and concerns! Yes planning a destination wedding is very different for sure! I have a good friend from MA who is also having a destination wedding in Aruba in 2016 so we talk alot about our plans. I keep telling her to go on this site! I am a nurse also! Where do you live if you don't mind me asking? Definite YAY for BDW

Well it's easy to not go over budget when you don't have any money saved and little to work with, lol. I want to do the OOT bags and some cute stuff, but honestly, if I just don't have the money for it I am not going to stress over it. I have read reviews where brides said most of the guests barely used the stuff in their OOT bags or had already brought items they included in them - which is a huge waste! We are not having a bridal party because he has way too many brothers and best friends and I also didn't want to add additional costs for them on top of travel expenses. This is a big part of my stress free planning. I don't have to think about their dresses and attire or gifts or anything. We are only spending on items that are necessary. Right now all we have done is booked the resort and photographer. As much as I want a TTD photo session - we don't have the money for it. I want a private reception - but again - depending on how many guests we end up with - we may not be able to afford it. My resort has an option though to rent out their club for 2 hours prior to opening to the public for $450 including the DJ and open bar. So if anything we will be doing that and then the semi private dinner is included in our wedding package. Of course I'd love to have the traditional reception - but it's a destination wedding so it's far from traditional! We will do the first dances, mother/son, father/daughter dances during the 2 hours in the club. Our cocktail hour is included in our package. Alot of the stuff we felt were essential are included in our wedding package. I know it's hard for us girls to not buy cute stuff when we see it and like it and it is cheap but if you do it alot it will add up. I haven't purchased anything yet for my possible OOT bags because I am waiting to see how many guests we have. The only thing I have done is send out STDs and I will be ordering my invitations in the next few months unless I decide to do them myself - from what I am seeing though, it seems the cost is pretty much the same to DIY or order online. So I will have to decide if I want to spend the extra time and possibly extra money on supplies etc to make them myself. Just try to breathe! And relax. This should be fun - not stressful! Try to prioritize what you can't live without. Are people going to remember what your favors look like in a few years? Probably not. After all you don't want to go over budget and then after the wedding and honeymoon you're struggling to pay bills, etc. Happy planning!

@@budgetbride2015 I'm using a TA. It's much easier that way and she books a flight and resort package for everyone....they can just put down a deposit to hold the price and pay off the balance as they go.

@@amyknight11 yes definitely ! Have you picked a resort yet?

@@budgetbride2015 oh that's weird I didn't get any weird charges when I paid my deposit via debit card. Yea I'm def waiting until like right before to pay for everything so I don't pay for stuff we don't end up needing or using. @@budgetbride2015 I also read about the free welcome party. I plan to ask the WC about that when we start communicating directly with her

@@amyknight11 Well I've never been to Jamaica but my fiancée is from Jamaica and he says it only rains for a short period of time during the fall months. And I've seen a ton of brides get married in October in the Caribbean so I'm guessing they all didn't have rainy weddings

I hope I don't run into problems with getting people to book :/ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I was wondering how people printed them so I just asked this question in another thread lol! Thanks for the info! I was debating about doing my own but now I'm wondering if it'll save me a ton to do it this way....did you incur any other costs other than the printing at staples and stamps to mail them out? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Where are you printing them? I'm debating if I should do my own invitations but my printer at home drains the color ink quick so I'm afraid I would spend a ton on color ink to print all of them. Is there a way to print them at like a fedex/kinko? And the template you just downloaded to your computer and you were able to edit and customize it? I'm new to this whole DIY thing, lol. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yea I've seen some beach ceremonies with teal chair sashes and it wasn't too bad I suppose lol. Yea I'll try to contact the florist and see if that's a possibility or to get rid of the red flowers and put orange/peach ones in there. I found some inspiration on Pinterest and I'm kind of in love with these colors now. I'm on my phone so I don't know if you'll be able to see this picture but I'll post it anyway. I posted it in another thread somewhere about wedding colors I think last night from home. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I haven't made any payments just the initial deposit. We are still saving. I would just put all the wedding money in one account and when it comes time to pay just make one lump payment if that works for you. I'm going to open a savings account just for the wedding fund. I am doing the gold package as well. I'm waiting to get a final guest count to decide if I want to pay extra for a private reception. I figure if we have enough people the semi private will feel private anyway since we will be taking up most of the restaurant, lol. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I finally made it! Yippee!

I wanna go check out Dollar Tree soon and see if I find any! Our wedding is over a year away but it seems things sell out quickly!

This thread is making me want to buy a topper now...lol. I was going to just stick with the cake that comes in our package that has flowers on it. Pretty and simple. But maybe I'll look online and see if I find any toppers for a good deal!

I'm getting married October 2015 as well. Have you made any progress? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks for sharing!

Haven't seen any recent threads here for next year other than the one for 2014-2016 so I figured I'd start one for October 2015 since I know there's a quite a few of us on here. Just a place for questions, concerns, advise, etc! Advice*

Found these cute barefoot sandals on etsy so I thought I'd share!

Ok I figured how to post pics so I'm on a roll here....lol Sorry for the poor lighting