Jamaica2016

I looked in to buying a knock off Inbal Dror dress from DHgate. The shops I looked in to had good reviews, but none on the specific dress I was going to order. I emailed them and asked if they had pictures of THEIR work, not the stock photo of the real dress. Their response was that "it would look like the photo". That response terrified me! I did a little more research and saw a couple 'fails' of the dress I wanted and quickly changed my mind! Even if I was getting a very expensive dress for $200 it wasn't worth it if it wasn't wearable. I looked for several weeks on Ebay and found someone that actually received the knockoff dress I wanted. She decided on another dress. I bought the dress for cheaper AND I got to see the actual dress before hand! My point is, search ebay and other used wedding dress sites before you risk spending hundreds of dollars and get and unwearable dress! https://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/blogs/entry/174-%7B%3F%7D/

So, it has been a while since I've made a post! I've been busy with work and school. I feel like I have no free time, which is making wedding planning difficult!! BUT, back in December I found my dream dress and ordered that thing faster than you can even imagine! It was my Christmas present to myself! Here is the deal, I had been searching months for hours a day and my fiancé was really starting to get annoyed. It was so bad that he 'banned' me from searching for wedding dresses for a month! Oops! Anyway, my dream dress was a lace Inbal Dror with pockets! I couldn't find anything remotely close in bridal stores around here and there was absolutely no way we could afford the real thing! So, I started getting desperate and looking into those sketchy foreign dress sites where they use the designers stock photos instead of their own. After, seeing too many dress 'fails' I told myself I would need to see it before I ordered. I found my dress and the designer had good reviews, but there weren't any reviews on the dress I wanted so I sent them an email asking if I could see a picture of one THEY made. This is the response I received: "we dont have,dear,but it would like the picture". So, like any reasonable person I ran for the hills! It worked out for the best! I started searching ebay since I knew what to use in the search, now. After a few weeks, MY dress appeared! Not only was it the dress I was going to order, but it was cheaper! Turns out, the lady had changed her mind (for the fourth time!!). So, she was selling the dress that she ordered off one of the sketchy sites! Not only was I able to see the actual dress I was getting, but two out of the four measurements were the same! Yayy for less alterations! It was meant to be and my fiancé is happy that I'm no longer obsessing over a dress and have turned to AHR details! The attached picture is the stock picture of my dress. I don't want to post pictures of myself in it until after the wedding!

Thanks for the advice everyone! I think we have decided to do the dance and cake cutting since our grandparents won't be at our wedding and it is kind of a big deal for them. We aren't planning on having speeches, but if someone decides they want to give an impromptu speech we are fine with it. I do plan on wearing my dress for at least a little while, but I will probably change in to something more casual.

I think they look great! Congratulations!

We are considering having our 'honeymoon' 6 months later or maybe having a really awesome trip for our 1 year anniversary. I think waiting a year would make it more special and be a nice way to celebrate!

Hello again! So as we are getting closer to the Holiday season, I've had a lot of family start asking what we want for Christmas. Overall, there is absolutely nothing that we need, but our families do not take 'nothing' as an answer! Is anyone else's family like this?! I am hoping I can get some ideas from you all! I would really like to tell them to save their money and that all we want is for them to attend our wedding in Jamaica in 2016! However, $2000 isn't nearly close to what they would spend on us for Christmas or even all of the holidays combined for 2 years. Is there a nice way that I can say this or hint at it? Or should I come up with some random small things that they can buy us? I considered telling them that they could put the money they were going to spend on us toward something for the wedding like the cake, catering, my dress or his shirt and tie. Again, I'm not sure that they would go for it... Thoughts?!

June 14th, 2016!

No problem! I have been using that function a LOT for wedding things! I figured out the designer of the dress I want by doing that! lol

@ If you go to google, click on images. In the search box there is a little camera to the right. If you click on that you can upload an image or paste a URL. This will search the web for places where that image can be found and might help you figure out where you can order them!

I am beginning to work out some details for our AHR. I know we want a DJ with dancing and just a fun celebration, but I'm wondering about including some of the traditional reception things. Are you guys still having a 'first dance'? It won't technically be our first dance since we will go dancing while we're at our DW. Are you doing a traditional cake cutting? Again, we will cut our wedding cake in Jamaica, but very few people will be there. Speeches? We won't have a bouquet toss or any of the cheesy dance songs, like the cupid shuffle, but I just can't decide on some of the others! HELP! What are you all doing?

I love this thread! It is helping me get some ideas for things I've been struggling with for our AHR! 1. As cheap as possible, hopefully under $2000 2. Semi-formal 3. Just under a month after we return 4. Undecided. Maybe a little Jamaican twist somewhere in there since we're getting married in Jamaica? 5. I'll wear my wedding dress at least for the first part. Then, maybe change in to something easier to dance in? 6. NO IDEA?! 7. I'm hoping a friend who is starting out in her photography business can give us a deal. I'd like to capture some of the celebration. 8. Undecided. I'm considering making my own since I love to bake and it would be cheaper. 9. Also undecided. Strands of lights. Im thinking eclectic and mismatched to go along with our bohemian beach wedding. 10. I think we will play our wedding video and maybe do a slideshow of pictures from our trip.

I LOVE your post! I have a lot of the same reasoning as you! The only difference is that I AM being guilt tripped by both my mother and my FI's dad about the price. We keep telling them that they aren't required to be there and that we are planning to have it recorded to play at our reception when we return. I don't however understand why they are complaining about the price when, like you said, they take large trips every couple years AND they offered to help pay for a wedding if we have it locally... Uh, well! I get to marry my best friend! I am happy as long as we are both there. Anyone else that comes is a nice little bonus!

This is a tough one! I would ask before, but also let them know that there is no pressure to attend! I have one best friend that I know is attending and will be a bridesmaid and another that I am not sure will be able to make it. If she is unable to attend the wedding, she will play a major role in our reception when we return! This way she still gets to play a 'bridesmaid' role and be by my side.

I would walk down alone! The day is about you and your soon-to-be-husband. I think the moment will be even better between you two when it is just you two looking at each other with no one else to worry about!

Love the idea! So much more fun than another email/letter and who knows where a luggage tag might be by the time the trip actually comes!

Those are super cute bags! I would try to do a reverse image search on google to see if you can find the original supplier. I would also recommend looking on etsy.com for them or even orientaltrading.com to see if you can find ones you like!

So, I got my dress in the mail yesterday that I was so excited about…. The fuchsia from the bottom of the dress bled on to the crochet top during shipping or while sitting at the warehouse. Even if it wasn't ruined I'm not sure that I would've liked it 100% anyway. It has the open back and the pop of color that I want on my dress, but it just isn't IT. Im going to contact the company to see if I can return it even though there were 'no returns' on the dress since the top is ruined and I won't be able to wear it for another occasion. Has anyone used DHgate.com for their wedding dress? Its kind of sketchy and I've read some reviews on some of the dresses I like, but would like some first had reviews about people's experience with the site. My other thought is trying to find a cheap vintage dress that has details I like and having a seamstress fix it up for me. My goal is to stay under $200 with alterations though, which would make this option difficult. Back to the drawing board for my dress!

Thank you so much! I've been wanting to do the boarding passes, but haven't found a template online for how to do it myself to save money! You're a life saver!

Hi Sabrina! We are getting married at Iberostar Rose Hall Suites in MB on June 14, 2016. Iberostar has 3 resorts right next to each other. If you have people wanting family friendly and adult only, this is your place! Rose Hall Beach is the cheapest and super family friendly. The most expensive one, Iberostar Grand, doesn't allow kids and Rose Hall Suites, the middle one, is a little of both! I would try to book in their off season if possible, which would be cheaper. Also, consider that hurricane season is technically from June-November. Obviously we'd all hope there isn't a hurricane on your wedding day, but when you're planning more than a year out, you just don't know. Hope some of that helps you out! Congratulations!

We are getting married there in 2016. If you haven't found a travel agent who has experience with destination weddings, I would find one ASAP! Our travel agent has been extremely helpful! Also, I would email the resort's wedding planner and see if they can give you some direction. I know they don't do much planning on their part until a few months before, but you can at least look over your options and figure out what you guys want out of it. Hope this helps a little bit!

I understand where you are coming from! Although our wedding is still over a year and a half out, almost all of our previously supportive family has changed their minds in the last 6 months! My mom decided to buy a lake house and now can't afford to come, my FI's dad has decided that it is too expensive and has been trying to convince us to have a wedding locally instead and offered to pay a portion of it. I can't for the life of me figure out why he can't just take the money he wants to put toward the "local wedding' and put it towards the trip since that is where we want to get married... I hope you had a beautiful wedding and enjoyed yourselves even if no one made it!

Hello everyone! Since this is my first post I will give some background about us. We got engaged in April this year while on vacation celebrating our 7 year anniversary! Yayy! We are both recent graduates, so we're broke, but we Love to travel! We decided that a destination wedding was perfect for us because it allowed us to share something we love to do (travel) with our immediate family and our extended family is huge and would be very costly if we had a traditional wedding. So, we decided on 2016 to give us and our families plenty of time to save! We have always talked about having a destination wedding. So, within weeks of getting engaged I contacted our travel agent to narrow down our destination. At the beginning of June, we sent out a letter to our parents, siblings and best friends to let them know of our plans so they would have 2 years to save. Everyone was thrilled, extremely supportive and said they would be there. Beginning in September, my FI's dad began to complain about the cost of having to travel to Jamaica for our wedding. Since then, he has complained about it almost weekly and tried to convince us to have a wedding here in the States and again in Jamaica so he wouldn't have to pay to go. We have told him that if he doesn't want to go, that it is fine. We will be having a large reception when we return so we can celebrate with everyone. However, nothing has changed and we both dread when we see his number on caller ID because at some point the conversation will turn to the wedding. Now, within the last week, my mother called me to tell me that she doesn't think that she or my step-dad will be able to attend because they just bought a lake house and spent all of their money on that. Has anyone else had these issues?!?! We are both okay with our families not being there for our wedding, but we are a little bummed about the circumstances. We gave them notice months ago and no one is saving for the trip or is even acting like they care about going. My mother was going on and on about buying a new tv and furniture for her new lake house, but she doesn't want to save to come to our wedding? WEDDING PLANNING: So far, we have our date and resort set and have kind of figured out our theme. I love the bohemian beach wedding feel and lots of color! Our main colors are fuchsia, cobalt blue and aqua. I bought a white maxi dress with an open back (one of my dress requirements!) that is dip dyed fuchsia at the bottom! It should be here in the next few days and I'm dying to try it on! *fingers crossed* it will work! I want a bright flower crown and a large bundle of bright flowers for my bouquet. My FI wants to wear a cobalt blue shirt and a bow tie. I think I will let my two best friends pick our their dresses and just give them general color guidelines. I want to make sure they like their dresses and are able to wear them again. I would love to hear from you all: advice, thoughts, anything! Thanks for reading!