beckys98

The c-word?! Wow...I'm so sorry you're going through this, but your last sentence is exactly right. I wouldn't waste any more stress (or money) on this! You've gone above and beyond to help her and to be subjected to name calling is just not cool. In fact, without an apology I wouldn't even want her there. Nonetheless, it is still majorly disappointing when you are invested in a friendship and the other person doesn't demonstrate the same. And even more disappointing when it is your wedding that brings it out. Hang in there! Make yourself a margarita and dream of your toes in the sand on your wedding day. (Yes, it is only 9:15 am but desperate times call for desperate measures!)

@@rachelia160 I'm the same way (June 11 date) - I didn't do any wedding stuff this past weekend and it made me anxious. There is just SO MUCH we can't do until we have our guest list/count so I want to do as much as I can now to spread it out. I think I'm going to have my fiance and I tackle rings and ceremony script this weekend. @@TinkerSofi I'm with you on the music too. My fiance will mainly handle the reception music, but figuring out ceremony music and music for our bonfire the night before are my main concerns. We haven't decided for sure if we're doing traditional dances (first dance, father/daughter, mother/son) or not, but those will need songs too. Ah! I'm contemplating paying the resort/florist to do the centerpieces. I have ideas of what to buy and bring, but I'm not sure it is going to save me that much. Okay...maybe this weekend I'll also inquire with vendors on centerpiece costs!

Yay! That is so awesome. I had my virtual fitting last week and I was so excited that they could make the dress with the top from a small and the rest a medium (I wish my top was a medium too but, alas) - it is so great that they do the free customization! I'm also having them raise the back one inch to cover a tattoo I got when I was 17 - I'm not anti-tattoo, just mine in particular. Ha. I attached a pic of me in it! (I actually got the Lanai - same as Poipu except for the cup shape.) Are you getting married on the beach? I'm not sure if I should get it hemmed for barefoot/flats, or if I should leave it a little longer for heels for the reception. I don't want to trip on it when I'm wearing it barefoot.

I haven't gotten the chair sashes yet, but I've seen several people post this site and they are like $8.50 for a pack of 10. I didn't think that was too bad, and I don't think they'll take up a ton of room. Heck, I can wrap anything fragile I bring down in them! http://www.linentablecloth.com/chair-covers-and-sashes/chair-sashes.html?color=Turquoise

Hi! I don't know if it is the same on the Cabo side of Mexico, but my sister got married in Riviera Maya in July with her ceremony on the beach and it was fine! There was a very nice, constant breeze off the water that really helped. In fact, we went to a more interior bar to grab a drink before pictures and THAT was when I was hot because the buildings blocked the breeze. She originally planned to have her reception outside as well but due to rain earlier in the day it was moved inside - honestly, I was quite glad for the air conditioning for that. The ceremony is only 20 minutes, but for dinner/dancing it would have been a bit hot.

@@calgarybride2015 Can't wait to see pictures of how everything comes together!

@@Surfingsara our dates are a week apart so we're clearly thinking of the same things at the same time! I've been trying to figure out any decor (since it is one of the things we CAN figure out now while we're waiting on guests to confirm) and it is so easy to get caught up in amazing, gorgeous ideas! But with our guest count looking higher than expected and not wanting to carry a ton of stuff down there, I'm really trying to keep it simple! We aren't even doing a bridal party to help keep it simple and less expensive for both us and our would-be bridal party. I think we've narrowed it down to: Fans on the ceremony chairs (because it is going to be June in Jamaica and HOT) Turquoise satin chair sashes - use same ones on ceremony and reception chairs. Burlap table runners Framed table number Tall vase with starfish or sea shells Small votive candles I'm still debating if I want to do a combo menu/thank you card at each place setting as well...TBD on that one I think I'll need one other table that has our escort cards (we'll have to have something to identify entree choice for our guests otherwise I wouldn't bother), guestbook, and the cake so I might do a runner and votives on that table too, but no cake topper. No extra decor for the ceremony location or huppa - just the standard white fabric - and I'll use the bouquet that comes with my package. Even though I think that isn't a lot, when I list it out it still kind of seems like a lot...Ha!

My sister got married in Mexico in July. Tickets were cheapest about 4 months out and, of course, I dragged my feet waiting for a sale and prices only went up instead of down! I bit the bullet about 2 months out and paid about $125 more!

We will be doing some excursions, but primarily because my fiance grew up in Jamaica and we know a lot of the guests on his side will want to have some off-resort experiences with him. I have talked him into only planning 2! I vetoed anything the day after the wedding - people will be hung over and tired and I want ONE day when our group is all together at the pool/beach just hanging out. But we are looking (unexpectedly) at 80 guests so we can't accommodate everyone, so we are banking on only a portion of the group wanting to go. We may add it to the RSVP on our website and ask people to confirm ahead of time. Our wedding is on a Thursday, so we'll plan something on Tuesday and Saturday. Not everyone will be there yet on Tuesday and some people are leaving on Saturday, but people can always go off and do things during the day on Wednesday and Thursday before the wedding when we are busy. In the evenings we will have a dinner/bonfire the night before the wedding, then the wedding, but we didn't plan anything else at night.

Hi - A lot of people on this board are Canadian and their TA arrangements are VERY different than in the US! I did not block off any rooms or have to guarantee a number of rooms or anything. And our guest don't *have* to use our agent. But I can tell you the rate she is getting us on the resort is about $100 less per person per night than what is published on other travel sites! A lot of people are using her for the hotel booking but not flights because they have miles/points to redeem (us included) and that is no problem at all. If anyone does find a cheaper price elsewhere she will beat it - so I like knowing our guests are getting the best deal. Plus, we will get booking incentives at the resort because we are a group and I'm not sure if you can get those with people just booking individually. She also can set up payment plans for the guests and stuff like that. It has been really nice to direct all guests' travel related questions directly to her so I don't have to deal with it People forget to RSVP to me but have put their deposits down ($150) so she has a more accurate guest list than I do at this point! Just food for thought!

This is the dress! http://www.katiemay.com/products/poipu I would post the pictures of me in it, but I took them myself...in my bathroom...and I'm not an experienced selfie taker! I'll have my sister take a better one tomorrow when I see her

Oh how funny yours came in today! I would definitely want to wear it! I'm hoping with the complimentary adjustments they do that I won't need much in the way of alterations once it arrives. I told my fiancé to show me a picture of what he thought was a good beach wedding dress and he picked out ones that were very similar, so it solidifies by decision! I don't really think he'll be expecting it, but he'll love it. It is 2 degrees in Chicago today so I will spend my evening fantasizing about wearing that dress for my June beach wedding in Jamaica!

@@Sabes44 I had to report back that I had the Katie May dress sample shipped to me and tried it on today (there are no salons nearby that carry her dresses). Ever since I saw your post I've had it in my head and nothing has compared! It is exactly what I envisioned for my wedding, even though with a slighter higher price tag. I have a "virtual fitting" with the shop in LA tomorrow evening and I'm 99% sure I'm going with this dress - assuming they can make it in time. I know I'll be cutting it a little close. I'm not that sentimental so I definitely plan to sell it after my wedding to subsidize the extra cost. But all the other dresses I looked at were like $1,300 anyway. Thank you SO MUCH for posting it on here! My time "investment" in this site is paying off. Haha.

I love it! I find something so romantic about the time capsule idea. Sometimes I force myself to stop and think back on us in the earlier days of our relationship because, if you don't, it is so easy to forget those memories!

This is not in any way MY original idea...I saw it on here somewhere...but I think we might do the "message in a bottle" idea where your guests write a message or advice on a slip of paper and put it in a bottle. Then you read them on a later anniversary (maybe 5 years). I'm sure our group will give us a healthy mix of sentimental and hilarious notes that'll be fun to read later!

Well, I have the opposite problem (need a smaller top than bottom) and have had some luck with Voda Swim, which is still not cheap but they have sales and coupons. The material is really nice. Actually, my favorite bathing suit right now I bought on super clearance for like $5 at Old Navy! It just fits the best

I'm with you on not wanting to miss such an expensive part of the day! We actually decided not to pay for a private cocktail hour because it would have been about $2k not including any music. We'll have champagne on the beach after the ceremony and then direct our guests to the lobby bar, which is right next to the reception location anyway. We are, however, splurging on the steel drum band to play at a bonfire reception the night before. It is $450 for one hour for the band. For us it is just an overall better spend of the money and it'll set the tone for the wedding the next day! (Plus, we'll get to enjoy it.) Not that that solves your problem! How many guests do you have? I think you could probably get away with no music - people will be so excited and socializing they may not even notice!

Thank you for the detailed timeline and commentary! This is really helpful as I think about the flow of the day!

Ooooh, nice, @@Soon2beMrsJ! My fiance grew up in Jamaica so, while its perfect for our wedding, it doesn't feel very "honeymoon" enough to him! I think Panama could be cool. We've heard great things from friends who have visited. But I think if Peru is REALLY what my fiance wants to do than it make sense to just do it later in the year from Chicago. If we're going to spend money and vacation days on something, might as well be what he really wants! I'm leaving it up to him ultimately

My fiance is set on getting a Go Pro as well! I just added it to the budget We also are not paying a professional to video the wedding day. I figure we'll have pictures of that (and we'll have someone record the ceremony on a regular video camera). But how fun to make a video montage of clips from the week to share with our guests?! We think it is worth the cost versus a professional for the wedding day. He is in charge of this so I'm not sure which model he is thinking of getting, but I can report back on what he decides

Hi @@desmiv! Congratulations on your engagement! Picking the resort is by far the hardest decisions, but it gets easier from there! I would suggest trying to narrow down which country you want to be in and I definitely think picking somewhere that it is easy for your guests to get to is important. Espeically if some people only come for a long weekend, you want them to get there and back without wasting too much time. Our pick of Jamaica was a no-brainer because my fiance grew up there, but even still we would have picked Mexico, Jamaica, or the Dominican Republic because you can fly direct to those locations from Chicago for a fair price. They also tend to have more affordable resort options than some of the other islands. We want to accommodate children as well and I had a travel agent try to push hard for us to go with Beaches. While the wedding itself would have been pretty much free for us, the cost for our guests would have been at least 3x the resort we ended up with! Plus, not everyone has kids (or they have kids but aren't bringing them) and I thought a dancing Elmo around the pool might not be ideal for the rest of the group. We stayed at a Dreams (Dreams Riviera Cancun) before and it was very family friends with a kids club and activities, but wasn't nearly as expensive as Beaches. The food was fabulous and we loved the resort overall. The resort we selected (Iberostar Rose Hall Suites in Montego Bay) has a kids water park on site, a kids club, and babysitting available so I think it is a good compromise. Are you using a travel agent? They are generally a big help in narrowing down resorts - so long as they aren't obviously pushing one brand over another. The other thing I would say is make sure you get the full pricing information for the wedding at the resorts you are considering (packages and costs for add-ons). Some look like such a good deal but then they nickle and dime you for every little thing. When i had it narrowed down to 2 resorts, i did some calculations on the cost for the actual wedding and reception and there was a huge difference. Also check what group incentives they offer. Our resort refunds us the value of one guest's stay for every 20 guests we have. We are expecting 80 so that is a significant amount of money we can put toward something special for our guests. Good luck! I had the hardest time deciding even though we knew the country we wanted. If you are considering Jamaica and have any questions, just let me know.

Hi @@Surfingsara - I originally thought we'd do printed for sure. But it IS expensive! Plus, we don't have anyone's addresses, our guests are internet savvy, and we were trying to get the STD out fast with the website and booking information. Plus we could see who opened it and link directly to our website, which we hoped would increase the likelihood that people would go to it. I actually paid $15 for a designer on Etsy to create a custom STD as a jpeg and uploaded it to Celebrations.com. Paperless post is also really nice. They animate the email so there is an "envelope" in the email that the recipient clicks to open. Both sites have great templates you can use, or you can upload an image like we did. In the RSVP section on our website we asked people to enter their mailing address. That way we have it for a pre-travel mailer and thank you notes when the time comes.

We decided not to do a registry because we have said gifts are not expected and we want our guests to take that seriously. I think if you say "no gifts" but you post a registry, people will give a gift anyway because they don't want to be the one jerk who doesn't! At least I know that would be the case for our guests, and for me if I were a guest. That said, I think the gift/shower decision is a personal one and there is nothing wrong with doing it! My sister had a destination wedding and did a shower/registry and there was no issue. I just think saying "no gifts" and registering can be a little confusing.

Ha! Well, he is Jamaican and, true to their reputation, he just tends to move on "island time." I'm the anxiety riddled planner of the pair! But I don't think he understand just how many small details there are - even though it is far less than if we did a traditional wedding. I feel like there is almost more to figure out and we pick and choose which traditional things to do and where to add our personal touch! We asked for deposits by February 6, but full payment isn't due until April 6 so I bet we'll have plenty of people waiting until then. They don't *have* to do the deposit, but I'm paranoid the resort will sell out so I'm pretending like they do have to Flight schedules for June only recently came out so I think we'll get more people booking soon. A lot of people know they are coming, they just don't know for how many days so they haven't booked yet. Or, in some cases, they don't know if they are bringing a date yet.

Congratulations! Your ring looks just like mine!! My fiancé picked it out all by himself and it is so pretty. Have you selected your wedding band yet? I want to get that taken care of soon. I'm all about trying to chip away at things we can control now, since there are so many things we can't do until we know our guest count. My fiancé keeps looking at me like "WHY are we talking about this NOW?" Haha. I have to do what I can to minimize my anxiety We're about 5.5 months out...I wonder if I should start a thread. Honestly, most ideas I have are stolen from others so I don't know if anyone would gain anything out of mine