snswedding2016

@@TinkerSofi everything looks amazing!!! Your signs and tags all look great! The bridesmaid dress looks beautiful! I thought of you today when I was out shopping with my MOH. We were in a store (Express I think) and saw a dress in your exact colour! I picked it up thinking "this is perfect" and then realizing "wait a minute, this isn't my colour" lol! I just got excited seeing a dress in your colour…I know how hard it's been to match to the memorable moments collection. Your bridesmaid dress actually looks really similar to the one I saw today.

I'm with all of you ladies! There will also be no 'giving away' at my wedding. I wrote a bit about this on my planning thread as well but my dad and I are not close. He left when I was very young and we reconnected after I finished University - we're civil but that's pretty much it. I've always known that I didn't want my father to walk me down the aisle but for a long time I wanted my mom to walk me down. My mom being the bigger person as usual has always said "don't make a big fuss, you can let him do it, it's fine" but it wasn't fine with me. My response has always been "it's either you walking me down or I'm walking myself down". I really loved the idea of walking down the aisle with my fiancé like @@beckys98 and my fiancé loved it too but then realized he had been dreaming of seeing me have that moment walking down the aisle to him at the altar….so we compromised. I'll be walking by myself half way and he'll meet me to walk with me to the altar. I also like the symbolism of meeting half way and physically entering into our marriage together. I still wanted my mom to have a special moment, so my male cousins (who are like my brothers and like her sons) will be walking my mom down the aisle. She's excited about it and so are my cousins, they were really touched to be included in the ceremony.

Sounds like it has all worked out! I'm happy to hear that. I would have loved to include my fiancé's sisters in my bridal party too but I had my cousins (who are like my sisters) and friends who I just couldn't do it without. Also my fiancé has a lot siblings - I always break it down by saying he has two of each - 2 full siblings, 2 halves and 2 steps….4 of the 6 are sisters!! That would be a crazy huge bridal party! lol!

@@ashhtayy I feel your pain on expensive flights. We don't go back to PEI as much as you probably fly out to BC but it is sooooooo expensive anytime time of year. It's one thing to fly to the east coast but to get to the island is just sky rockets in price which is why we usually drive. Flights to Europe are usually cheaper than flying to the island!! I have done that drive so many times now that driving to Montreal feels like driving from Toronto to Hamilton lol!! I think our best time so far has been 17hours and the longest has been 24hours …straight.

I highly recommend my TA! I LOVE her - honestly this was the best decision I have made during our wedding process!! I randomly came across this DW event in Toronto that they were hosting and thought I would drop by. I wanted to know more about the Barcelo properties and they were being featured at the event. I started chatting with one TA and then Karen (my TA) who also runs the company came over and we started chatting. She wanted to know about me and my fiancé, the vision of our wedding and within minutes she was coming up with great ideas outside of the box to make my dream wedding come true and stay within my budget. Choosing her was a big decision for me and not because I wasn't sure about her. It was because my mom had a travel voucher of $3000 that she was going to give me as a gift for the wedding but I had to use a specific Travel Agency. I spoke to this place before going to the above mentioned event and was slightly underwhelmed with the service. She seemed a little slow to get answers from and while she had done a lot weddings, that travel agency doesn't specialize in weddings but more so general travel. After meeting Karen I really wanted to go with her but that meant giving up $3000 off of our wedding. Trust me it was really hard to walk away from after only meeting and talking to Karen for a short period of time but my gut instincts were telling me she was the way to go and I don't regret my decision at all! It was the best thing I could have done. She really worked with me to figure out what my needs were, where I wanted to spend money on and where I didn't. She made several different budgets for me for the resort I initially was interested which ultimately didn't work and wasn't the right fit. She then brought several resorts to the table that I hadn't originally known about and presented me a way to have my dream wedding within my budget. It was amazing and she also got us a great rate. Communication is awesome - she is very quick on email and very reachable by phone. I booked my wedding within two weeks of meeting her and leading up to that we were on the phone daily (sometime multiple times a day). Most of all it feels like working with a friend. I really feel that she has my best interest at heart and I completely trust her. I think that is what we all look for in a TA. Her name is Karen and the company is myweddingaway.com, you can find them on Facebook as well. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about working with her - I'm more than happy to help!

I'm glad you said that. Originally we were just going to do the week with our guests and take a honeymoon later down the road. The more we thought about it the more we realized that it would probably be a while before we could take more time off. A couple of months after we booked the wedding I spoke to my TA about adding a 5 day honeymoon at a different resort. We're going to be transferring to the adults only sister resort. It is a big added expense but I'm really excited for it! Can't wait to see the video when it is done!

@@veryvalentine the last minute bookings must be driving you crazy! My TA suggested I make a cut off date early on so we set it for the end of October (for our Jan wedding) when our final numbers are due for the hotel. She said she doesn't mind being the bad guy telling people they can't book so that it takes the pressure off the bride and groom She said she's even done this for couples early on when they reach the numbers they budgeted for. I also think you should create an etsy shop - your creations are gorgeous!!

@@KatieMcBride I got them at Spring $39.99!!! The price makes them even better!

@@ashhtayy I will give you a full report back for sure! Although @@TinkerSofi will have had her wedding at AF before I go to the BDR so she might be able to give us info even earlier. Let me know if you have any questions and I will add them to my list. I totally understand not be able to swing the BDR - it was like that for a while for us too. My fiance's family is from the East Coast so we go back there usually twice a year and it gets really costly. Plus we have a couple of weddings coming up and some work trips. Luckily my mom was able to give me a travel voucher she won last fall (which covered the flights) so we only had to pay the $399. I feel very fortunate to be able to make it down there before our wedding!

@@TinkerSofi I think you're right . The more I look at the more I think I don't need to add the lace. I think I was originally worried that the veil without the lace would make my dress look like a different colour. That's what happened with my friend's veil. I think I might take my dress in to the shop and put them together to see. Thanks for your input - I really appreciate it! We're pretty excited about the BDR but because it is pretty close to our wedding I think it will be more to report back to our guests about as most of our plans will be set at that point. It will be nice to just get away!

I'm probably going to go barefoot on the beach but wanted flats for our reception in the garden. These are the flats I picked up last weekend!

These are mine! I wanted flat sparkly sandals that I could dance in all night!

@ Thanks!! I'm pretty excited about wearing them! The ceremony script has been a tricky one from the beginning. I started working on it early on and then would leave it for a while and then come back to it. It's the most personal emotional part of the day - I think it was intimidating me for a while. Glad to have it pretty much done! I still have to work on the legal ceremony script but that one will be very much technical and going through the motions, so that the one is Mexico feels that much more special. Unfortunate news about my veil - my designer emailed me today to say that the supplier no longer carries the lace from my dress. She even checked her studio to see if she had any left but there was nothing. Now I'm wondering if I should just buy the veil as is without the lace or try and find a similar lace that will go with my dress or to not do the veil at all and just do a hair piece. Gah! Back to square one... In other news we booked our flights for the Brides Dress Rehearsal at Azul Fives in September so we're all set to go for our site visit!!

@@Wafflesmom haha yes I get the smacking sound too! I will be planning on wearing my hair pretty low and I didn't want the veil to cover the back of my dress to much so it worked out that the shortest veil length worked! It also helps that it is the cheaper option.

@@TinkerSofi I've considered a wedge shoe but if I end up keeping the beach ceremony (although nowadays I'm more leaning towards no) I'll be barefoot so to keep the alteration lengths consistent I thought flats would be the best. I'm still open to looking for some (especially if I change ceremony locations) but I haven't found any that I really like yet. Keeping my eyes open though. I might go back for the sparkly flip flops just to have (not for the wedding) because they're cute! haha! Your veil is gorgeous!! Can't wait to see the new pics from your fitting!! Fingers crossed that they'll be able to attach the lace from my dress easily to the veil!

Wedding Shoes I was wandering around the mall yesterday killing some time while Sean was finishing up work and stumbled upon my wedding shoes! I've been looking off an on but never found anything I liked. I was looking for flat sandals with some sparkle (we're going to be on the grass and possibly the beach). I found two pairs that I loved but one of them were like flip flops and I could just imagine dancing away and my shoes flying off. The ones I picked have an ankle strap so I can dance the night away without worrying! Veil I forgot to upload a pic of the veil I was looking at. Here is the veil length I'm thinking of and hoping to custom make it by attaching the same lace from my dress. I also worked on our ceremony script a lot this weekend and it's almost finished!

@@TinkerSofi Thanks!! The link wouldn't show me the one your purchased but it did send me to the shop's page. Love all the lace!!! I'm definitely going to have look through all of the items tomorrow!

@@TinkerSofi haha love your Carmen Sandiego reference!! Sounds like you had a very productive weekend!! Do you mind sharing your the etsy seller you used for your garter? that's also on my to do list. Sending you good dress fitting vibes!! I totally agree - if it looks good after all the bread it will look great in Mexico! My designer said the same thing to me after I had some fittings during the holidays …after all of the Christmas cookies! Just looked at your ticker - 3 months and 3 days!!! Woohoo! I just got really excited for you! Sooooo soon!!!

@ I know it's pretty crazy! I really feel like it was yesterday that I started planning this whole wedding and we had 14 months to go! Can't believe it! I'm getting really excited that it is coming up so soon but also realizing all of the things I still need to do! haha

I went to Sussman's bridal accessories this week (twice actually). I tried on a bunch of birdcage veils and a bunch of regular veils. I love the look of the birdcage veil…I've always loved them but for some reason I just didn't love it on me. I was talking to one of the ladies at the shop and I'm now considering having a veil made. I'm planning on wearing my hair lower and I don't want the veil too long so the one I was looking at was $45 for a single layer and it would be an extra $30 to add the lace of my dress to the edging of the veil. I think this is the way I'm going to go. I just need to grab a swatch of my lace from my dress designer to see if Sussman's can work with it. I also just got a message from a friend (who is a photographer) today on Facebook who has offered to do an engagement shoot for us for free this summer. It was so sweet and nice of her to offer out of nowhere! We were talking location ideas and she randomly threw out the idea of a treehouse and she didn't even know that Sean proposed at a treehouse! Crazy! So we might go back to the proposal location but the only issue is that it is a 4 hour drive for us. I kinda feel bad asking her to drive all that way when she is doing this for us for free. I suggested maybe we find a place that has a similar vibe. We're both going to do some research. Also we're getting married 8 months from today!!!

@@TinkerSofi sending lots of good healing vibes to your dad for a speedy recovery!!

@@veryvalentine Ahh so exciting -everything is coming up so quickly!! That's kinda funny that the clerk thinks you're trying to pull a fast one...even though you're just trying to get the info. Did you get it at Sussman's bridal on Queen? They have a ton of accessories in there! I think I might have to make a trip over there. Please post pics I would love to see your veil!!!

@ we're totally in the same boat. We're not going to exchange rings and we won't be calling each other husband/wife until after Mexico.

Love the first aid kits!! The labels are the cutest!!!

@@veryvalentine Totally!! Love that you'll have a flower crown and a birdcage veil. I was initially thinking about a bircage veil, I really love the vintage feel. I just haven't found one yet that I love. I think that might be my side project today to start looking around for more options. @ I know - I really wanted nicer weather too but we're kinda stuck with January wedding. My fiance didn't want to do it too far in advance to our Mexico wedding.