snswedding2016

@@TinkerSofi Thanks!! I love the belt too - it was exactly what I was looking for to add a little sparkle. I'm really torn about the veil situation. I didn't think I wanted one either but as my dress designer said "when is there going to be another time where you can wear a veil" ...it's true and as much as my fiance denies it, he can be pretty traditional. I think he would like a veil. The hunt continues!!

@@veryvalentine not that my fiance and I were planning on doing it after but I'm so glad you posted about it on this forum...I never would have known otherwise.

Updates... Some arrivals in the mail: Groomsmen Keychain Shot Glasses - They have finally arrived in the mail!! They look exactly as advertised on Amazon.ca. I'm super happy with them, especially with the price. $20.60 for 6 - free shipping!! Now I just have to find some extra things to go with it. Sean's pretty picky about what to get the guys. I get it, he want to get them something they will use...it's just hard to find one thing that will suit all of their tastes. Dress I went in to the boutique where I got my dress made to look at some option for adding a little sparkle to my dress. Since my dress has a low back I only wanted the beading to go across the front. There were a couple of options but some of them were really meant for a full belt - they looked a little weird stopping halfway (the ends weren't finished enough). I have decided to go with this one (but with a silver background instead of gold): One of my maids of honour lent me her veil. I thought - perfect, I don't need to buy one and it can be my something borrowed. It's nice and simple and really pretty. When I went to the boutique this week I brought it with me to try it on with the dress. My dress designer and I looked at it, looked at it each other and then I said "...does it make my dress look yellow??". Unfortunately the veil is a different shade than my dress and a lot whiter than I thought it was. My dress is ivory but the veil definitely made it look yellow. Womp womp... now to figure out whether I want a veil at all or just a hair piece. Decisions... Legal Wedding We pretty much have everything sorted for our legal ceremony. I'm just waiting on confirming the date with both the location (Ceili Cottage Yurt) and our officiant and we're good to go! They are both available in early Dec so now we just have to nail down a specific date! Random My co-worker was in a little local shop a couple of weeks ago and found these patches with my new name!! So cute! Sean and I are going to find some cheesy matching outfits to sew the patches on to. haha! Things on my short term to do list... -work on ceremony script (legal and symbolic) -finalize legal ceremony date -order real touch flowers (from Bloom Bridal) - will place my order this week -start working on my table decor diy project -order my rehearsal dress from etsy -keep shopping for our wedding bands

@@veryvalentine I thought of you today - I was talking to a friend who just got engaged this week and we were talking DW. She told me her friend (who is also from Ontario) had a DW and did the symbolic ceremony first, she and her husband are now fighting to make it legal as Ontario is refusing to recognize it. Better play it safe ladies and do the legal wedding here first!! Wouldn't want to chance it and have to try and fight it after the fact!

I'm using bloom bridal as well!!! Just for corsages though.

@@racht33 I agree with @@TinkerSofi and judging by all of the brides who have recently returned and their glowing reviews I think we'll be ok. I also read somewhere that a TA heard people getting sick the same week at other resorts too - I think it must be something going around the area.

@@racht33 my fiancé is a big gamer as well and he just laughed when I told him your reference. We're getting pretty excited about our legal ceremony as well. Ceili Cottage has confirmed that we can use the space before operating hours (woohoo!) we just have to pick a date that works for the space and our officiant. Our wedding at Azul Fives is in Jan and we're planning on doing our legal ceremony about a month before (ideally early Dec before the Christmas craziness hits us). I've also heard from another bride on here that you must do your legal ceremony before having your symbolic ceremony but that could be an Ontario law. I know that once you get your marriage license, you must make it legal within 90 days. We're just doing a very basic ceremony, we're not writing our own vows and we're not exchanging rings. My fiance doesn't want to use the terms husband or wife until after Mexico and I'm all for it. We're trying as much as possible to make the wedding the Mexico the main event! @@TinkerSofi I also had to read your description of the new beach location out loud to my fiancé this morning. Bahahaha bull testicles - I totally see it too. Sometimes I think people try and go for a 'modern' look and it just takes a wrong turn somewhere. I'm so glad you guys agree from other forums I was worried that I was the only one who thought this location looked weird for a wedding ceremony! I love that you're having your legal ceremony in your backyard! We totally would have done that if we didn't choose a winter wedding haha! …also sorry about being MIA this week. I've been working from home the last three days trying to get rid of this terrible cold I have. I'll be back to updating very soon!!

@@ashhtayy I had my very first email from Emma but then it immediately switched over to Lynda (who is now on maternity leave) so I'm working with Ivis now.

@@veryvalentine I didn't know the rule about not having the symbolic ceremony before the legal. Luckily we were always planning to do the legal first but didn't know there was a rule about it. Thanks for posting that! Just to compare prices, the officiant we're most likely using costs $275 (weekday) and $300 (weekend) for a simple wedding (couple & witnesses), a small wedding (up to 50 people) is $350.

@@veryvalentine wow that chill out bar is absolutely stunning!!! Sounds like everything is really coming together! It's coming up so soon!!! Very excited for you!!

@@racht33 ohh that's a good point - I haven't see the photos of rooms with the nightstand in the middle. I think it is probably better to ask the staff on site to help you do it, they seem to be a lot more accommodating than when you request things ahead of time...based on reading past brides experiences.

@@racht33 I would say don't even tell AF that you're doing it and push the beds together yourself. I don't think they can bill you if you do the work. lol! My fiance is a total macgyver - he moves furniture around in every hotel room we stay in to make the most out of the space. haha

@@diadiamond I'm doing something similar. We have 5 bridesmaids and 5-6 groomsmen (waiting on one confirmation). I would have been happy with two bridesmaids but my finace really wanted a larger bridal party. He initially wanted 8 and I talked him down to 6. haha. He has pretty much given me free reign to choose whatever I've wanted for the wedding so I couldn't really say no to wanting all his guys to stand up there with him. If it makes him happy, than I'm happy. We are asking our bridesmaids to choose any dress as well as long as it is blue (we gave them a range of blues to choose from), the groomsmen just have to buy grey dress pants (40% off at Moores) and wear a white dress shirt (they should have their own, we're not picky about having the exact same shirt). We are giving them gifts but we're not paying for their outfits. All the weddings I've been a bridesmaid at I paid for everything (specific shoes, dress, hair, make up, spa day etc) with the exception of one wedding but the bride wanted custom made bridesmaid dresses that would have cost me $450 (her mother generously paid for it).

@@TinkerSofi love your playlist! I couldn't remember that Little Mermaid song and had to youtube it right away - love it! I think it will fit really nicely with the feel and look of your wedding!

@@TinkerSofi I think I saw someone post that the new section (Essence) has 10 deluxe rooms with king size beds

@@vancouverpetunia sorry! I totally thought they were local and readily available they way they are listed in my options for our wedding package. I assumed since it wasn't an upgrade in my package that the delphiniums were local flowers. I wonder if the time of year has anything to do with it for us. Or maybe my bouquet is a premium option and I didn't even know it!

@@TinkerSofi yea 30% it pretty terrible when they make the call hours before during the initial set up. Does anyone know what that giant table is actually for at the grill? I've never seen it but just heard stories about it.

I love the look of the garden reception myself but the Oriola grill looks really pretty as well especially if you're concerned about the weather. It is still open air and you have a great view of the beach and it is fully private. Some past brides have mentioned though that there is a large table in the middle of the space that they charge you to move. The only time I've heard of Karisma not charging you to move the table is if you use the Oriola grill because you were forced to relocate due to bad weather. Just something to consider.

@ ya I have a feeling we might just bite the bullet and pay the extra fee. We might be able to move some things around in our budget so that we don't have to pay that much more. I was looking at the decor package we added and there are a couple things on there that I can get rid of if we change our ceremony venue to the sky deck it won't end up costing us an extra $1700 to our existing budget but maybe more like $900. Ceili Cottage is a really cool place - love the feel of it in the winter and the summer. There is a great patio in the summer where the yurt is in the winter. It is in Leslieville (on Queen East between Jones and Greenwood).

Yup you do need witnesses! I found out too that so many of us DW brides request to just sign papers - apparently that isn't legal ( I had no idea!). You actually need a verbal ceremony. ------------------------------------------------ This is from www.elopetoronto.com It's Spring, and people are planning destination weddings, or they've already had a spiritual or religious ceremony, and they have been contacting us to 'register' their other wedding, or to 'complete the paperwork' for Ontario. As we have stated repeatedly, a legal wedding requires an actual verbal CEREMONY, not just a 'signing'. Once you have your legal marriage license, you must still hold a short ceremony conducted by a legal officiant properly licensed in Ontario, in front of two witnesses. The 'signing' part is simplyrecording this legal ceremony. A legally licensed officiant will either blend the legal sections into a traditional ceremony, or conduct this legal part before the other celebration. So if your spiritual or religious officiant is not licensed in Ontario, or you held your other ceremony in another jurisdiction, you will need to hold a legal ceremony in Ontario to become legally married. After this short ceremony, your licensed officiant will forward your license to the Registrar General to complete the Registration of your change of legal status as a married couple.

@@veryvalentine we're going to get our marriage license and then hopefully use Mary Beaty as our officiant (http://weddingsoftoronto.com/) we still have to contact her to see if she's available but she's our first choice. I'm not sure of the fees, we'll be requesting the info soon. We just secured our location. Since our legal wedding will be in the winter is posed a couple of challenges for us. We are using the yurt at Ceili Cottage as our location. We're really excited about it!! http://www.ceilicottage.com/yurt-winter-patio/ it doesn't look like the link works. here are some pics.

@@Meandhim yes can't wait for a little warmer patio weather!! Don't worry about your planning - you're well on your way and love all your ideas so far! I'm terrified my planning will come to a grinding halt when the summer hits. I get so busy at work and this summer is supposed to be the busiest summer we've had in a long time, which is great for paying for the wedding but just not for planning it. haha let's talk and we'll plan something soon!!

@@Meandhim Whaat?! Such a small world - we're so close to each other!! I work very close to Queen and Broadview. My fiance is from east coast as well (PEI) so we have that connection too! If you ever want to get together to grab a drink and vent over wedding stuff or talk planning - let me know!

So the guy from Ceili Cottage got back to me yesterday and he said we can definitely use the yurt for our legal ceremony!! Yay!! We're going to use it half an hour before they officially open and then stay afterwards to celebrate just the two of us! So happy this is working out! Now we just have to pick a date and contact the officiant!

@@Ydolem I've spoken to the Toronto Karisma rep at length about why Canadians done receive any of the resort perks and free events like the Americans do. The short answer is that our packages work differently - us Canadians buy a package with the flight included where as the Americans have to add the flight on separately. This results in their travel costs being much higher. With Transat now being the sole operator they are very focused on working hard at keeping costs low. To be honest I would rather have the cost of the trip be lower for my guests than have a couple of free private events. Just wanted to put this out there…hopefully it might make you feel better about your costs.