yycbride2016

@@JenniferH114 Yeah I agree. I decided to go with Etsy and just asked the shop owner if I could make a custom order and he was very willing and super fast to do it. It worked out better because I was able to combine shipping on 3 different orders basically and got a more reasonable amount of starfish. I'm going to be on starfish overload when they arrive haha. You got a great deal on sashes. Do you remember which store you got them from? I'd love to bring my own just so I know its the right color and then I could use them again from my at home reception.

@@TinkerSofi I know it's great! I'm going to take my sister (MOH) tomorrow because she is a teacher and get an additional 15% off! Bubbles here I come!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

FYI Calgary Brides: Sale at michaels this weekend-->Buy one get one 50% off of all wedding stuff! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@calgarybride215 holy! You got so much luggage. I think I need to talk to my TA because I don't even know how much it costs for an extra suitcase and I think that's why Kyle is getting nervous with all y shopping haha. We are flying with Transat and my TA didn't mention any perks for the bride and groom so I think I need to have a chat. @@TinkerSofi I will definitely be asking family to bring stuff with them also but we don't have a very large group yet unfortunately. Including us we are at 22 (still waiting on my bridesmaid to book with her bf to make 24). I know I have to travel to the south of the city in a week or two so I'm going to see if 4 lanterns will be enough. I may just grab one extra to be on the safe side. Good idea on the bubble wrap! I plan to pack inside the lanterns too. Possibly socks or something of that size to keep them from breaking. My dad is considered the master packer in our family so he might have to come over and help me pack haha. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@ that's such a good idea. We get married within the first few days of arriving so I'm not sure we would have time to look in Mexico but we are also staying away from big items. We are also only making them for our wedding party. All the wedding guests will get a wedding favor as well as bubbles to blow at the ceremony so they get stuff too haha Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@ that's good to hear. We have a room in our house (we call it the futon room because that about all it fits) and I've taken it over already with decor and OOT bag items. I think when Kyle found out how much I wanted the lanterns he gave in and felt bad that he was concerned about sizes. All my other decor I'm probably not bringing because they are too heavy. We are going to bring an extra suitcase and ask our family to help us out too! I think it'll workout. Plus we won't have the OOT bags of wedding favors, bubbles, etc. when we come back. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@ aw jm glad you will finally get them done. We were so lucky with the winter we had in Calgary for ours. We did them in February believe it or not. It's nice because it makes them look like it was spring. A few days after our shoot we got loads of snow. We got so lucky! Yeah I know. My FI and I went to ikea last night and he kept giving me glaring looks. I bought cute little lanterns for table decorations. He was shocked that they were coming to Mexico with us hahaha. I think my big items are coming to an end already since he is so concerned about size. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@@calgarybride2015 Haha yeah no worries, I'm so excited I found them at home sense! And for only $8! It was a steal! I bought a real/turquoise candle to go inside it at IKEA yesterday for only $1.60 so I'm happy how it looks. I'll add some sand and starfish to it and it will be perfect! I also found the lanterns at ikea! Amazing! I'll post them later! I found them at superstore too for more money! Glad I went to IKEA! @ thank you! Yours is good too! I love reading everyone's ideas. It's helpful and dangerous at the same time haha. And than you, we love our engagement photos. I really need to get the printed and make a photo book to have of them in the house. I've been so slow doing that. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@@calgarybride2015 haha I know I saw them at Cross Iron last weekend. They were significantly more expensive then the one I found at Homesense though. I'm hoping I will find some fun things like this at IKEA tonight!

@@TinkerSofi Thanks. We were thinking of getting them just for our wedding party since they are the only ones i'm making OOT bags for. I'll have to see how much my FI was blanning to spend on these. For wedding favors we were thinking of doing flip flop bottle openers and then somehow writing on them "Janelle & Kyle Mexico 2016 "

@@calgarybride2015 Yeah no kidding. I’ve been so paranoid about anything I make with text on it because my spelling is terrible and I type too fast haha. I can’t imagine getting things re-printed. I had asked my mum and sister to check over the invitations before print and they said they looked good but when my fiancé looked he found so many weird mistakes, I was so shocked! Hopefully everything with my bridesmaid drama will just sort itself out and all will be great! @@TinkerSofi Haha It worked this time! Don’t even be jealous! Your invitations are gorgeous! I loved them. Making ticket invitations was my first thought but I thought I’d keep it more traditional. The great part about the starfish charms is that it’s actually from a jewelry seller on Etsy and People could take them off and put them on a necklace or bracelet or something afterwards! I may do that if I have any left-over! Right now is the perfect time to check Homesense because they have all their summer stuff just fresh out! I’m going to venture out to IKEA I think tonight after work and see what other little goodies I can find. My fiancé and I are going to sit down and take a good look at the budget this weekend because I’m so nervous about how much I’ve already bought (even though it’s really not much). I wasn’t really planning on bringing any decorations with us until I found this forum hahaha.

@@calgarybride2015 good thinking! I think to get 80 medium sized and 200 tiny starfish was going to cost me $100 on Etsy. I'm going to check Ebay since I have 8.5 months to wait for them to arrive haha. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@@TinkerSofi your wedding vows book is so cute! That will be so special at your wedding! And can be a keepsake following! I can't believe someone backed out and left another person stranded as a single traveller! That's shocking. I hope that doesn't happen to us. We need 10 double rooms to have a free wedding and at the moment we have exactly that so if anyone backs out we will have to drastically increase our budget! Good luck with the dance classes! That's so cute and such a great way to get some together time amongst all the crazy wedding planning. Not sure I could convince my FI to do that haha. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@@snswedding2016 yeah I think that's a good idea too. She actually just found out today that she got the job she was hoping for so I'm hoping that means she will be able to book. I talked to me TA today and she said that the airline hasn't released our reserved spots yet so, I'm going to let my bm know later in the week that she can still have a guaranteed spot if she's looking to book with the group. Hopefully it won't be too pushy. @@calgarybride2015 OMG! I had a sheer panic attack when you said Tuesday was spelt wrong! I checked them over multiple times. Luckily that was just me typing into the thread too quickly and that's not how it's spelt on the invitation! That's for the compliment on them! I'm glad so many people like them! I think the graphic design elements of the wedding are my favorite! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@@JenniferH114 where did you get the starfish from? I'm hesitant to order them from Etsy but so far it's the only place I can find. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@@Wafflesmom thanks so much! I'm so glad people like the invitations. I'm so mad I had a design flaw on the final print but at least no one knows what's wrong but me haha. I'm excited to see how all these bits and pieces I'm finding will come together in the end. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@@SusanMarie813 Oh my gosh! I've been trying to find affordable white lanters! Why I never thought to look at IKEA is beyond me. Thank goodness I have a day off on Friday. Looks like I'm going shopping hahahah Thanks!

@@snswedding2016 I'm so glad it all worked out for you in the end. Sometimes its hard to remember that not everyone is focused on your wedding plans and that they have a life outside of your wedding too. I know my bridesmaid just graduated university and is searching for a job. I'm pretty sure the reason she hasn't booked is because she wants a job first to know that she will have enough money to come. I figure I can probably just wait until my sample dress comes in before confronting her about it. I don't want to pressure her or make her feel obligated to drop all this money just for me. Oh and thank you for the compliment on my invitations. I'm so happy how they turned out (although I just noticed a mistake on them it's going to bug me now).

So I went back to HomeSence last night to see what the store near my house had. And they had the cutest starfish vase I’ve ever seen. It was $20 and I wasn’t planning on spending that much on one item but I couldn’t resist it. I also found two turquoise vases for $5 each! Amazing! I still need to go back the store at Market Mall to get the starfish plates because I just can’t stop thinking of them. Invitations: As I mentioned in an earlier post, I used to design Wedding invitations on a regular basis, so I knew I was going to custom make my own and not order a pre-made design (although it may have been cheaper). I think when I started making the design is when I came up with the starfish theme. I was designing waves, tropical flowers, etc. but starfish seemed the cutest. Plus I found the cutest starfish charms on Etsy! I didn’t know how I would incorporate them but I went for it anyways. I think I got about 100 charms. (I had a blonde moment and bought a charm per guest I was inviting… not per invitation I was sending. I think I will have enough to include them on my Thank you cards too!) I loved the idea of pocket invitations. I knew I was going to have to have an At Home Reception so there would be lots of information to give out with the invitations and the pocket concept seemed like the best idea. I found the perfect pocket cards at www.cardsandpockets.com. I would highly recommend them. They have loads of colors. I especially loved the peacock teal color (but it didn’t work out with my design). I chose silver! We ordered lots of sample colors and a couple sample pockets to do some mock ups. I kept the wording fun and cute. I originally went with something more formal but it just didn’t seem fitting to our beach wedding. It reads: Our wedding will take place In the sun’s warm embrace Teusday, the twenty-third of February Two thousand and sixteen At four o’clock in the afternoon Grand Sirenis Mayan Beach, Mexico I’m really happy with how they turned out. Like I said I printed them at Staples and they gave me $20 off which really helped. There were a couple cards I noticed that were poorly cut. But I’m pretty sure I have enough extras that I can just get rid of those cards. I started putting them together last night and man what a pain it is to tie those little starfish on every card! I went to show Kyle what a made one looks like and the main invitation card fell out L I bought a re-stickable tape glue and apparently that means it doesn’t like to stay put. Looks like I need to go to Michaels and get something better. What do you think? Ignore the fact that on this picture the resort is the wrong resort (this was a concept picture) Guest list Also I got my numbers in from my TA yesterday. She was away for a week and last Friday was my 3 month mark and now my reserved spots open up to the public. I have 22 people including Kyle and I. I was really hoping for more but I totally get that it’s not cheap to go. We have a few people who said they might book later because they don’t know about work situations and what not, which is totally fair. We have 2 single travelers but thankfully a couple other single travelers decided to book a double room together and that gave us our 10 rooms for 7 nights! Free wedding here we come! I just hope no one backs out. I’m having a dilemma mini crisis though. One of my bridesmaids hasn’t booked. I talked to her last week and she said she wasn’t planning on booking till the fall. But I want my final numbers in the fall. I don’t know how to bring it up with her and I’m worried she won’t be able to come. I have to buy the bridesmaids dresses in about a month and I don’t know if I’m buying one for her or not. I know she doesn’t have a job at the moment so money is tight but should I confront her? Did any of you have this issue?

@@vancouverpetunia I'll let you know for sure. The price is really good. I can combine shipping if I order all 3 at the same time and then each girl will only have to pay $70! So much better than the $160 at David's Bridal. The color there is amazing though. They actually have a convertible dress there but I think its about $200 I did find out that the men's store Moores is affiliated with David's Bridal so if you wanted to find the same tie color they should have it. I am going to go there once my dress comes in to see if I can match it. I also found teal ties at Le Chateau but they were skinny ties and I think I want bigger ties. There is a seller DQT (I think) on Etsy who sells teal ties. I have a sample hopefully coming my way so I can check out the color and compare to the bridesmaids dresses. Who would have thought this would be so difficult?! haha. BTW I have 3 bridesmaids and all are a different size. 2 are larger chested so I'll let you know how it works with them. I think the beauty of these dresses is you can wear a bandeau with them to help with coverage and it can be worn in different ways up top to allow for more coverage if needed. I'm really hoping that this is the dress!! It should get shipped on Monday!