cruisebride2016

Happy Wedding Day!! I am sure it is everything you imagined and more!!

@@deecol Good luck with your fiance doing the to do list If he is anything like my fiance, expect each task to take at least twice as long as it would take you to do it.

@@acw271011 Haha, I never even noticed that it said Mediterranean. We met in the Mediterrean, but the wedding cruise is in the Caribbean. It is on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas and it is a 6 night cruise. I will make sure to post pictures after the cruise

@@deecol Thank you!! Hope the last few weeks before your wedding go smoothly and you have a wonderful trip and wedding day!!

@@ashhtayy Thank you! @@acw271011 After all the visits, I am happy with the straps! The material was actually a random piece they found. Initially, I thought we would use extra from when we hemmed the bottom. But, they ended up creating more gathers and lifting it up, so there was no cutting or material. We fly to Florida tomorrow, our guests arrive Saturday, then the cruise leaves Sunday Can't believe my countdown for the trip is in hours now and not days.

Only 1 week until wedding day! Yesterday was my last day of work. My coworkers decorated my car, then blinged me out and made me wear it all day Today was a productive and unstressful day. I started the day with a workout, then my final tan. Next, I got my mani/pedi for the wedding. Then, I came home and my fiance and I have been working through our checklist. Thank you to the ladies who suggested 2 full days off prior to the trip! I would have been overly stressed with less time off.

@@ashhtayy So happy to see the dress situation is looking up for you! Belt looks beautiful!! Woohoo on receiving the maracas and being so happy with them

@@tpenner I completely sympathize with being the last friend to get married and feeling like everyone else is too busy with their kids or husbands to be involved in my process!! Honestly, the people who back out now are a blessing. I have one friend who considered bailing right before the final payment and I told her how important it was to me for her to be there. I even changed my "no kid" rule in order for her to come. Now, she has been the biggest troublemaker when it comes to every detail. It probably would have been less stressful for me if she had just cancelled. Hope everything works out well for you!!

Wow, this was a drama filled weekend, but ended well. I hadn't heard from my wedding coordinator or makeup artist/hairstylist in over a week even though I sent multiple emails and called. I finally got a response from the makeup artist/hairstylist on Saturday. On Sunday, I posted on the wedding coordinators Facebook page asking if they were having email problems. Almost instantly, I got a response! We exchanged multiple emails yesterday, so I feel everything is coming together! As I mentioned before, I was also having dress drama. I went back yesterday and there was STILL an issue with the strap. The head seamstress had to undo and repin one portion. Since it would be quick, I waited there for them to fix it. Tried the dress on one more time (and it isn't easy to get into) and was happy with the results! My dress is finally in my house! Considering I am now into the single digits until my wedding...9 days...and we leave in only 4 days, it feels great to actually get that checked off the to do list! It ended up working out OK to need to go back because a friend was available to come practice tying the corset and doing the bustle Advice to brides, if you are doing more than standard alterations, start early, even if the salon says you don't need to. I had planned to start about 2 months before, but they said it would be better to wait until 1 month in case my weight changed. Since I have a corset, my weight fluctuating would not be an issue and instead I was down to the wire hoping they would get it completed in time! Hopefully, the rest of this week is stress and drama free! In the preview, looks like the pictures will end up being sideways. Not sure how to turn them. Sorry!

@@acw271011 Thank you for giving some suggestions! I had tried calling and got a machine. I finally ended up posting on their Facebook page and got an almost instant response. Amazing what social media can do when a company doesn't want bad publicity! We have exchanged multiple emails today and are back on track. Huge relief!

I have been working with Almarie for over a year for my wedding that is scheduled for April 13th. But, I have emailed multiple times over the past week and not gotten any responses. Is anyone else having the same issue? Has anyone talked with her within the past week? I am starting top get frantic that my wedding won't actually happen, so I appreciate any help!

@@vancouverpetunia Reading your post gives me hope that I will be relaxed in the last few days prior to leaving! Thanks for thinking of me and posting on my thread I wish you the best travels and wedding...can't wait to hear updates!

Good news and bad news today. Bad news: Went for the "final" dress fitting and the straps were still wrong and the bead decoration had not been reinforced. I bought the sample, so the strings of the beads were loose and some beads had fallen off. Since the first alteration appointment, I had been asking about the beads, so it was on their list of to dos, but they just never did it. The manager got involved and said the initial seamstress will not do any more work on my dress and the head seamstress came over and repinned the straps. They said I could wait 30 minutes or come back tomorrow. I decided to wait until tomorrow. Hope it is truly the final fitting tomorrow. Good news: Cake topper came today and looks good!

Finally got a proof for our cake topper yesterday afternoon and approved it, so it is in the mail We were worried she would be rushing and that would lower the quality, but fortunately that was not the case. If we had more time, I would have been nit picky about a few details (such as the groom's actual boutonniere does not have any greenery), but it looks great the way it is and I want it ASAP, so I wasn't going to waste time with little details. The groom has not seen my dress, so when I showed him the picture I put a little icon over the dress It is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, so crossing my fingers that shipping goes smoothly!

@@ashhtayy Yes, I hope the dress is perfect on Saturday! I am not bringing a whole lot of decor, so that cuts down on how much we have. My fiance has a Samsonite hard shelled 4 wheel suitcase that is just open space. The top portion has a zipped cover, but aside from that, there are no pockets or anything. I think this helped because we were able to play tetris within the bag to get everything to fit. Every day I take a deep breath and remember this is an enjoyable and exciting time of my life. This helps me relax and stress less. Having a supportive and easy going fiance helps too! We have checked a few more things off the to do list: -completed diy wine charms. I am really happy with how they came out! -Confirmed reservation for restaurant on cruise ship for our farewell dinner -Got confirmation from cruise topper lady it will be done tomorrow, then we can proof it and if OK she will ship same day. Fingers crossed it comes in time! -Emailed wedding coordinator to confirm setup of venue, but haven't heard back in a few days. -Emailed hair/makeup artist to confirm, but haven't heard back in a few days.

Well, I finally feel like my tanning is paying off. I started tanning at the beginning of February. I splurged on the lotion from the salon because this is a special event and don't want any problems with the tan. Initially, I only had time to go once a week. I started out low on the time to prevent burning and increased the time with each session. I had been going for about 6 weeks and barely noticed anything. I was able to make time to go 2-3 times per week and had increased the time for each session. After 1 week of this routine, I started to notice a difference and people around me (who don't know that I am tanning) started commenting on it also. I am happy to see my efforts finally paying off! I am trying to decide how close to the wedding I should make my last session. We leave for Fort Lauderdale 5 days before the wedding, so I will probably make the last session 6 or 7 days prior to the wedding (3-4 days prior to the beginning of the cruise). I have not really been burning since it has been a gradual tan, so I think this will be ok.

@@ashhtayy My dress fitting experience wasn't as bad as yours, but it definitely made me nervous for a while. We were working on the bustle and the seamstress was struggling with it because my dress has asymmetric bubbles from the waistline and partway down the skirt, therefore the bustle needs to match it. She even admitted at one time that she had never done a bustle like that before. Luckily, the bridal salon has each bride working with a consultant and a seamstress. The consultant could tell that we were not going to get very far with the seamstress, so she went and grabbed the head seamstress. That lady came in and pretty much undid everything the other seamstress had spent about half an hour doing. I felt pretty confident after that although I knew the original seamstress would actually be doing the alterations. Luckily, it all worked out ok. At least you are starting early and hopefully, the salon is close to you so that you can easily make multiple trips to keep trying it on. I am going again on Saturday and it is my 4th and supposed to be final fitting.

Updates from this weekend: -Hadn't heard from the cake topper vendor, so emailed her and let her know that we need to receive the cake topper by Saturday, April 2nd. She hasn't sent us a proof, but responded to my message saying that she will get it to us by Saturday. -Did another dress fitting on Saturday. The hem and bustle are done. I added straps and they need to be permanently sewn in, then it wil be done. I have an appointment to go in on Saturday, April 2nd for my final fitting and the plan will be to bring the dress home with me that day -We have gotten our rings sized, rhodium dipped, and cleaned, so they should be ready to go. Since I am still wearing my engagement ring daily, I might go back for a quick cleaning one more time. -We organized all of the things we are bringing with us (T-shirts, flowers, welcome bags, etc) and put them into our bags. We were able to fit everything into one extra bag. This is great because we have the ability to bring 2 extra bags, but the fewer we bring, the easier to get around with our bags. I had lost sleep over thinking about what needed to be packed and how we would pack it, so this was a huge relief for me! -We made a guestbook binder on zazzle. This weeked we decided what we would make for the pages. We are going to make it like a passport. We have traveled a lot, so we will take pictures from various trips and make them the background of the pages. Then, we will customize passport stamps for the countries we have visited. We will print these out and guests and sign notes on them for us. -My parents have passed away, so I am planning to have a chair that is a memorial to them. I bought a frame and created a draft of the saying and pictures I will use. -A friend of ours created a photobooth for their wedding. They offered to bring it for our wedding. We have decided on what design we would like for the print outs and need to talk with our friends to see if they can create what we want. -Today, I emailed my makeup artist/hairstylist with my inspiration pictures and with all the details for the wedding day. I haven't heard back from her to confirm everything. -We picked up the groom's suit after it was tailored. The shop is going out of business, so he was very worried that they would close their doors before he picked up his suit. Fortunately, it all worked out! -We are going to bring sparkling wine onto the cruise to have a toast. We went to Total Wine and bought bottles to taste test. Last night, we did the taste test. We narrowed it down to 2 bottles and will decide between them depending on availability at the store in Fort Lauderdale. We sure enjoyed the taste testing -We have a draft of our script for the wedding ceremony. There are great examples on this website that I pieced together to create ours. -I ordered a few new bathing suits, shorts and dresses online. They should be arriving this week. It is much easier to shop online instead of going to multiple stores to find what I need. -We booked a cocktail party in our room during our reception once we get back on the cruise. This seems like it should be an easy task, but our travel agent made it much more difficult than it needed to be. It feels great to have the work behind us and have this checked off the list. Since we are 2 weeks away from the cruise (even less from when we leave to Florida), I would expect almost everything would be checked off. Sadly, we are still adding more things to our to do list. I am pretty stressed about what we have left to accomplish, although most of the things are little details that if they didn't get accomplished no one except the bride and groom would know. We still want to try to complete these tasks, so hopefully it won't drive us insane.

@@Natasha28 StempleShop is still available because I recently ordered from them based on the recommendation of @ and another bride. Here is a link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/StempleShop

Well, my most recent drama has been our cake topper. We ordered it back in December from etsy. It is a customized topper that will look like us. She said she was booking out 2-3 months in initial conversations, so that worked in our timeline and we ordered. Once we paid, she said we would have our topper by March 16th and she would send us the proof about 1 week prior for approval. Well, March 9th came and went and we hadn't heard anything. I sent her an email and didn't hear back from her. Then, I sent an etsy message and still nothing. A few days later, I found another email address on her etsy page and emailed that. Finally, on March 19th (10 days after I should have gotten a proof and 3 days after I was supposed to have my topper) I finally got an etsy message from her. She said her father had a medical issue and she was behind on orders, but I should have the proof by the end of this week. I understand family emergencies, but she owns a business and should do a better job of communicating with clients. I hope she comes through as promised and we don't need to make any changes because it will still need to be shipped after she finishes it. We leave for the trip in about 2 weeks, so it is going to be cutting it close. Here is the sample on her page:

@@LADYJUSTICE Yes, our wedding day is 3 weeks from today!! And, the cruise starts in 18 days. We ended up having 20 people book with our travel agent, so we earned the tour conductor credit for 1 guest and some group amenities. We are in the process of booking the cocktail party during our reception through the travel agent. We will also be able to use the money to book a dinner at a specialty restaurant. I ended up deciding to do matching T-shirts for the first day of the cruise. I really like them!

We ordered T-shirts from custom ink for everyone to match on the first day of the cruise. We went with one color for the print and only on the front because it decreases the cost. They only cost about $7.50 each and were really easy to order. They have free shipping (at least in the US). I'll try to remember to post a picture once I receive them. Here is the proof we got:

@@deecol Sorry about what happened to your friend and that it is distracting from your wedding planning. I absolutely love the heart vases!! Your sandals are cute, mine are pretty similar.

@@ashhtayy The flowers look great! So glad you are happy with them. Can't wait to see them at the actual wedding!!

@@ashhtayy Glad your flowers made it to Canada, but boo that they were not able to be delivered and that you have to pay so much in customs. You make me feel lucky to live in the US and not have to pay the customs on top of the base price. Looking forward to seeing your pictures!!