Everly

Yay planning thread! I have been looking forward to you starting one! Happy Anniversary! Burger and a movie sounds like most excellent plans! I think your engagement story is fantastic. So cute and spontaneous! Must be crazy though to think that yesterday was almost the day. I think its a really sweet that you'll get to do it in Newfie with the parents and grandparents. I'm picturing a cliff by the seaside for some reason! lol Can't wait to hear about all the rest!(And steal some ideas of course! )

Everyone we sent a STD will for sure be getting an invitation! So no worries there! Is all the ones we didn't send it to who are in question now! lol...well not so much as of now...sigh Well ladies, our guest list grew by 30 people!! /faint We are now up to 80! Eeek! So I brought up to FI about not sending out an 'anti-invite' to the family we wouldn't be inviting and he did not like that. The way he knows his family he says they would be expecting an invite he rather just send an email to just get it over with. I suggested he talk to his mom about it, about how to deal with the family and their reaction. He ended up talking to his sister, also our TA, who I knew what she would say cause she had already tried to....we'll go with 'urge', me on it that we should just invite everyone cause lots of people won't come. Again I don't like inviting people hoping they won't come. Anyways thats exactly what we are going to do now after the FI discussed it. Its not the WHOLE family we are inviting, just those we see the most often and FI is a bit closer too. (We had already invited the ones he was closest too) On the one hand I feel like I have been forced into a corner and a choice for my wedding have been taken out of my hands, which hasn't been sitting well. Of course if I had just sat down with FI and really walked through the guest list with him and what would happen maybe this wouldn't have happened( I had tried but got 'It'll be fine!', I should have tried to see it still though). The other hand is I am a little relieved there will be no family drama with the Aunts and Uncles. And maybe the extra guests will help earn us an extra "free room" which we can use to credit against the extra $$ for the guests. Bah! It is what it is and we'll have a wonderful time no matter what and if its extra money...that whats kidneys are for! To sell! Kidding!!

Ah, you ladies are wonderful! Thank you for your different perspectives. You are very right that sending out an "anti-invite" might not be cool and create drama. I'll mention it to FI and see what he says. The problem is his extended family is pretty close, we are kinda on the fringes but the feeling I am getting is that they are all assuming they are coming. But maybe that is just my worry that they are thinking that. Maybe I will suggest FI talks to his mom and sister and get a feeling about it and maybe he can ask his mom to mention it to the Aunts and Uncles when she chats with them(not tell them they aren't invited, just that its going to be small) and we will have a discussion with the two cousins we are inviting. Again thank you ladies so much!! Fingerscrossed it goes well!

Not at the NOW Larimar but it is a FOAM PARTY!

/sigh, I wanted to elope in Hawaii. FI said no. Blah, I was afraid of that opinion. But better to hear and prepare for it now. This is why we were kinda hoping FI's mom would casually let people know it was going to be a small wedding, plant that seed early. Oh well, FI is ready to take this on so I will follow his lead. He also doesn't want to wait to tell people so there are no misconceptions, I would rather wait incase we win the lottery or something, but probably best not to wait on that lol.

I know!! Me too! I will probably still toy with going offsite but ultimately stay on resort. lol, thankfully we haven't had any awkward encounters yet with people talking about coming to the wedding whom we don't plan to invite. I'll be sure to check you planning thread to see how the invite strategy goes!!

Exactly! People don't realize that DW's still cost money if you plan on doing cocktail hour, reception etc. And if you do it on resort they charge for every little thing! I think that may be the most frustrating part, is that people aren't aware of the cost still. Oh man 100 people on the list already! My fingers are crossed for a low yes ratio then for you! My rule though has been, if you invite them, expect them to come. A few brides on here have been caught off guard expecting/hoping people will say no and then they end up coming. Which is why I don't want to invite the FI's extended family expecting them to say no. Just to be 100% I like the invites in waves idea though. That could help!

Oooh! I've been curious about these as well! Look fun in the pictures and I'm sure our guests will be intrigued when I mention them!

Oh ladies! I turn to you for your amazing advise and assurances(hopefully) and maybe some commiseration! Our wedding is going to be November 2016. We already had a guest list made and sent out STD's but there is trouble on the horizon possibly. FI has a large extended family, about 21 first cousins. We are paying for this wedding ourselves and part of the reason for a DW is to save money/get the most bang for our buck (I sold the FI on it by pointing out we could spend 13-15K on ONE day or on two weeks in the Caribbean). We want to get a house in the next two years so need to be careful with our money. In the early stages of planning FI told his mother we weren't going to invite everyone and just put it out there as a warning. I KNOW this is not her job or obligation to do this (although it might have been nice to have her help on this one thing since we are going to be paying for her trip. Again for all the haters out there, it is not her job, I know this!) So we just found out this weekend that she hasn't mentioned it to anyone. So now FI feels we need to let people know so they aren't expecting to get an invitation. While we are both not on Facebook he wants to go back on so we can send a note to everyone letting them know its going to be a small wedding only. We are inviting his one Aunt who is his godmother and her two kids that we are close too, and one other cousin from a different family that FI is also very close too(who is currently living in another country) and thats it for the extended family on his side. I know I know, inviting only some and not all is asking for trouble but FI is pretty adamant on this and seems willing to take on any disgruntled family. While we had no plans to have an AHR after we get home I brought up that perhaps we should let them know we will have a big family BBQ/picnic in celebration when we get back, perhaps this will sooth any grumblings. My question is, how do you go about letting family know that invites are limited and they won't be getting one? Is sending out an email/message on facebook ok? Is there a better method? Agh!! I really hate this. Its not that we don't love his family, we do, they are awesome its just we want something small with just the nearest and dearest. And we only have a limited budget. I don't think I could handle more then 50 people(I'm hoping for 30), I get all stressed and flummoxed with lots of people around. Thankfully my family is small so the issues with them are for totally different reason, LOL.

Very happy you had a nice experience at David's! Honestly I has having a great time and my consultant was wonderful. It was the store manager who did all the pressuring when she kept stopping buy. The dress I ended up loving was one I saw on another bride which was just gorgeous and I asked to try on. I'm not anxious or ringing my hands that I didn't buy it so I think that's a good sign for me. Ohh the dress sounds lovely! You should post a picture!!!

Congrats and welcome!! So nice to have the dress. Now the key I heard is stop looking to help stop any second guessing. But since you only tried on two I'm thinking you have that down pat! What kind of dress did you get? Our wedding is November 2016 and I ended up going dress shopping just to try on silhouettes and see what works for me cause Im usually not a dressy girl. Found a gorgeous dress that I love, it was a little over my price range though and the store manager, not my consultant who was very nice, was very PUSHY which I did not like. Telling me if I wake up tomorrow it could be discontinued. She told me this a few times. I did not appreciate this and I'm just going to let it simmer for now. If the dress is still around by the end of the year I will try it on again(at a different store) or see what else is out there. Trying to have fun with this experience and not let anyone stress me out (cause I'm sure my family will be doing that enough! lol) Very happy you had a little more luck with your shopping! Sometimes you just know when you put it on!

Richmond Hill here! One of my bridesmaids gave me a heads up on a groupon deal for the Toronto Bridal Show here. I wasn't initially thinking of going since we're having a destination wedding but it'll probably be my only legit chance to go and I'm sure it will be fun and the BM's can get to know each other........plus I hear there is lots of cake tasting!!

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing! I just wish we were ready to book! Although after checking the NOW Larimar is not included. I guess they don't need any help getting more weddings in there! lol

@@Meandhim Yay booking deadline!! Is it like a big sigh of relief or like a starter's pistol cause now you can actually order things and plan and have real tangible numbers to work with??!!! @@Kerrierf Urf! That is a frustrating situation. One of our guests can be like that as well. I wasn't worried about him during the wedding but just during the rest of the trip. lol. Its an all-inclusive so even if you don't have an open bar at the wedding site he will be able to find it close by. (unless you are doing it offsite?! ) So I agree with @@Meandhim, others will miss it and it might not help any. Hopefully he either keeps it within limits or he'll be so hung over from the night before he won't want to look at a drink! lol As for myself...well.....had FI look at the different resorts and we ended up going with NOW Larimar! lol Nothing officially booked yet since it's going to be November 2016 but that's the plan right now! I'll still be peeking on this thread though as my almost resort and you know for tips and ideas!!

Not crazy at all! I have seen another bride do it at a different resort and she seemed quite happy with it. I attempted to price out the packages to see how much everything cost on its own compared to the package....I gave up though. Kinda a pain in the ass since not everything provided in the package is listed on the a la carte list. But maybe if you just price it out if you go a la carte and then compare it to the package? You don't want to be paying for a bunch of things you don't want in the package. I want to bring my own flowers so having them in the package is just taking up space!(But I might just use them as centerpieces, we'll see) Did the WC send you the excel sheet which will calculate the prices for you if you change/add things? I don't have this myself have just heard about it through the thread. I have been using this for the ala carte prices, which is the one through amresorts. Let us know what you decide/think you will be going with!! lol

Ooooh okay thanks! That makes sense. I guess I was just hoping the other way was possible(which wouldn't make too much sense actually! lol) Looking forward to more more planning goodies!!

Yay! I'm so excited to read all about it!! What a fantastic how you met story! Pretty incredible to have such a tangible spark like that that's still there 5 months later! Love your colors and look! Oh man though, those invites?! They are great and just that much more impressive that it was all DIY! (Staples printing them doesn't count). They are beautiful, you should be very proud! Question, you said " The first thing we did was reserving the date for our wedding. Our TA took care of that. Once that was confirmed and we had an actual date, then she made the room block for 30 people with the tour company, Transat." Does that mean you booked a date without booking with the resort first? Our TA (aka sis-in-law) advised we need to book first and then do the wedding date. Just curious now! Can't wait to see what else you have planned!

lol, oops!! I meant 1.5 YEARS away. Not months. It won't be until November 2016. We figure by this summer we will book the resort and do invites. Admittedly there is a part of me that worries about waiting in case we miss something but we don't want to surprise any of our guests with having to put a deposit down within three months for a wedding that's still 640 days away.I just want to give them a little heads up since we haven't been talking about it at all to anyone. I have sent an email off to the photographer! I feel better now that its done, although nervous on their reply for some reason! lol. And it would be a huge bonus to lock in prices too!

What a fantastic time you had! A great review. Have been reading bits and pieces of it since you came back and enjoyed seeing it all in one shot with the details now! I have totally taken some of your advise now and added it to my notes, so thank you!! How terrible for your dad that he was injured! That is a fear I have, you would just be my luck! Happy he was okay though and still able to walk down the aisle! Your reception pictures look like so much fun! Gah! Love it!

You ladies are wonderful! Thank you for the advice! There is one photographer I definitely want. The only thing is we haven't booked the resort yet. Being in Canada once we pull the trigger to book it guests only have 3 months to place their $150 non-refundable deposit. Which 3 months from now is still 1.5 months from the wedding. We wanted to give them more time to plan and consider coming before making them commit. Our TA(also future sister in law) suggested waiting until the summer to officially book. I wasn't sure if "booking" the photographer before actually having the resort booked would be......silly/weird/uncouth. (I know we can't book the photographer without the date but at least get a dialogue going) So I will get in tough with the photographer I have my eye on. I would be devastated to wait 6 months and then find out they were booked for our estimated date! Appreciate all your bridal words of wisdom!! Thank you!

Those are gorgeous! Who wouldn't be excited to get one of those!!

So we have settled on the resort in Punta Cana and the time, November 2016. How soon is too soon to contact photographers? FI says its too soon. Should we wait a few more months? I know we can just ask about pricing now but we can do that a few more months from now as well. Nov'16 is pretty far off still. How far out do they normally book? Appreciate any advise or insight that can be given!

Can't Help Falling in Love - Elvis Presley It was our first song we danced too. Was thinking we would have it lead into the UB40 cover of it which is faster paced and get everyone up and dancing with us.

Ooooh! I like this! Been noted. Although I worry about dribbling or coughing it up on my dress......would make for a hilarious picture though! lol EDIT: Uhhh, also do not google 'shot at the altar' . I thought I would find fun ideas to have a tequila/rum shot during a wedding ceremony......I really didn't think that through .