yycbride2016

@@TinkerSofi My problem is I'm having an at home reception as well so I know that I can decorate things here too. So I may get crazy haha. I think i want to limit myself to 1 extra suitcase and keep the things I bring to Mexico small and light. Already the OOT bags will probably take up a fair amount of space so I have to be aware of these things. I'm pretty sure these glass jars will be too heavy to take with me but I loved them so much I couldn't say no. I can use them on my deck in the summer too so its really a win win haha.

@@ashlynm88 Dreams, Secrets, Now, Breathless (It's a whole chain that has what you are looking for in terms of no reservations and no wrist bands). So far the resorts of theirs I've stayed at are amazing and I will pretty much always want to stay at them. They are higher end and just generally beautiful. The Secrets chain is adults only which is pretty nice. We had really tried to get something in the AM Resort chain (this chain) but it was just too expensive for our guests to fly out. If you are doing a small wedding I would highly recommend it. If you are trying to cut costs or have a tight butdet I wouldn't go with the AM Resorts unless you get a killer deal. We are getting married at the Grand Serenis in the Mayan Riviera. Looks beautiful and looks like its not crowded by other resorts close by. They have a private beach and palapa for weddings you can book which is what sold the resort for us. We wanted to keep things private from other guests so no one was staring at us or watching our wedding while in their swim suits drinking tequilla haha. Check out @@calgarybride2015's review and planning thread. It seems amazing. I would also recommend Cabo. Its got more of a traditional Mexico feel to it. We tried to get married there but nothing came back in our price range Good luck!

So I went and picked up my prints for my invitations last night! Ahh! I'm so excited. You guys have no idea how nervous I was. I think there is an added pressure when you design your invitations yourself. I was so nervous I had made a mistake or had typos or printed an old version of them or something. While Kyle was reading over them I was so scared he would find something. Luckily he said they were great! I had them printed at staples and it was fantastic. I droped them off Saturday and picked them up Monday! They even gave me a $20 discount which helped so much! Id recommened looking for coupons when getting invitatoins done. I'll post a picture of them once I've put them together (there's a lot more work that will go into them: ribbon, starfish charm, glue, etc.) HomeSence was terribly placed right next door to Staples.... I made the mistake of going in haha. They have a whole beach theme going on right now. I could easily spend my entire wedding budget there! I found two cute little teal/turqoise jars that I can put some candles in as table decorations. They also have starfish plates that I might have to go back and buy tonight before they sell out. I found the almost exact same jar at Bath & Body works this weekend for $25, at HomeSence it was $8 I had previously bought one of these tiny vases at walmart last summer for $1 to put inside a silver vase in my bathroom for a pop of color. So I bought some more this weekend since they are small and the right color. I am going to have people instagram our wedding. (I'm addicted to instagram but only post fitness stuff on mine so this is a fun way to incorporate it. I picked a #Hashtag (but i'm not sure if I'm going to use it. I'll have to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get used before our wedding). I'm going to print it off and put it in this cute picture frame I got last night: I've now realized.... I'm dangerous when it comes to finding decorations and everything. Someone is going to have to stop me before I get out of control haha. I'm sure I'll be bringing a spare suitcase as well as everyone else will be bringing little bits and pieces. Also... I bought 1 dress from Etsy that will hopefully be my teal convertible bridesmaids dress! It will take 3 weeks to get here so I'm super excited to check it out. They come in 2 sizes: S-M and a Plus size. 2 of my bridesmaids can try on mine and see if it fits and if they like it. The other girl lives out of town and will need the plus size. But at least I'll be able to get a good idea if I like it or not! So excited!

@@TaraMarie33 Awww your planning thread is so good! I love your engagment story! Super cute. And you're right.. THAT RING! OMG! Amazing! Sounds like you've got things under control. I think 10K as a wedding budget it completely doable. When I worked out my rough budget and put estimated costs in I was under $15K and that incuded our flights, dress, suits, gifts, and an at home reception. I might be a little under budget because now that I'm actually planning and buying things I might have to stop myself from going over board hahaha. I love your theme. Its so nice taht you didn't go with the typical beach theme (like me). I love the idea of it being elegant and romatic and gitlz/glam! It will be stunning!

@@TinkerSofi Haha I know how you feel too. Kyle is so funny when I started making my OOT bags this weekend. He was like what are you doing? You have 9 months to make those. He claims he's going to put together the bags for the groomsmen... I just laughed because If I left it up to him he would do it the day before flying out and would be nothing summery in it since we are getting married in February haha. Men...

@@IzzyDeee You looked absolutely stunning on your wedding day as did your dress! I hope your day was everything you wanted! Congratulations!

@@TinkerSofi Ah I love your planning thread! Lots of cute and fun ideas. Those serongs are amazing!!! I've just started making my OOT bags for the wedding party and its so exciting, only problem is I could spend a fortune with all the things I'd love to put in them. Well done. And your dress is so beautiful! Can't wait to see your wedding photos

Did you find sunglasses? If so where from and were they expensive? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@@IzzyDeee Your dress is absolutely stunning!

@@TinkerSofi Yes I looked at that store but the teal was more of a jade so I think i'm going to go with a different seller on Etsy. I just went through reading all of the reviews and they were so positive. People had their dresses within 3 weeks and worked great for all sizes. The one I'm looking at is $60+$30 for shipping. But the only catch is the larger size is $80+$30shipping. I might subsidize the $20 difference for the girl who needs the larger size to make it fair for everyone.

@@vancouverpetunia Yeah I'm with you on the David's Bridal dresses. There are 2 dresses in color Oasis which are absolutely perfect for what I'm thinking. Only thing is they are $160 and I really dont want to ask them to spend that kind of money since it is costing them $2000 to come to our wedding If worst comes to worst I'll just subsidize the cost for them and make it more affordable. My other option is a dress on etsy:https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/230249962/full-length-convertible-bridesmaid?ref=favs_view_10 I might just buy it for myself and see if the color is right. If it is then I'll tell them to buy it, if its not then I just bought myself a cute dress haha. Its kind of a win win situation haha.

@@calgarybride2015 thanks we are super happy with how our photos turned out too. We were surprised they were actually good because we were laughing and making jokes the whole session. I did go to those stores. We went into Oskana but they didn't have our color and I kind of felt like most of their dresses were too blingy for what I'd want. We found a store called Essence that had a super cute dress in it but because it was on sale they o my had two left and I'd need 3. So the search continues. I'm thinking we will end up ordering online and just crossing our fingers that they are good. Ah do you think 2 single rooms would count as one? I'm pretty sure I will have enough rooms booked anyways but still makes me nervous. If we don't get the free wedding I'd want the presidential package for the private palapa...hmm... I am going wedding dress shopping in 3 weeks when my mum comes in from Europe! I'm so excited. I booked a cute little shop in high river. My sister told me 3 of her friends found dresses there and at good prices so I switched my David's bridal appointment to there. I moved my David's bridal appointment to July just as a back up. I wasn't really happy with them though. When we went for bridesmaids dresses they didn't seem to want to help us. She was working with another group at the same time and gave them more attention. Wasn't the experience I was hoping for. (Maybe I'm just picky and a bridezilla hahaha but hopefully I'm not). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok so back from a very disappointing trip to find bridesmaids dresses... nothing... again. But here is another update for you on things that ARE working out for me haha Wedding Website: So we knew we wanted to have a wedding website because that way our guests could RSVP online and not have to worry about emailing us or mailing us their RSVPs. We did set up a joint email address incase any of our guests had any questions or anything. Kyle was originally a web developer so he was going to build a custom website with RSVP, event info, etc. all built into it for us. Unfortunately he has been so incredibly busy at work (covering 2 jobs plus his own) which meant working evenings and weekends. So out the window our idea of a custom site went. I decided to build a website through theknot.com. Its actually super easy and quite cute. I couldn’t find any sites that were teal with starfish which sucked but that’s ok. I put our wedding day info, at home reception info on there, travel/ booking info, pictures of the resort, our engagement weekend as well as our engagement photos. I haven’t even sent out my actual wedding invitations yet and people are already RSVPing to the wedding and reception which is making my life easier! Wedding website: www.theknot.com/us/janelle-and-kyle Booking Process: So we have officially hit our 3 month mark for people booking into the wedding. I’m so thankful I got 10 bookings made because we needed 10 (including ourselves) as a minimum to keep our deposit. My TA is on holidays this week of course (being the final week for guests to book and guarantee a spot on our trip), so I won’t find out what my actual count is till next week. I’m estimating about 18 so far have signed up! Which is perfect because with 2 of those being single travellers that makes our 10 rooms booked for 7 days...aka… free wedding package! So relieved! Not going to lie though, having only 3 months to get your guests to sign up is a bit stressful. One month before the final day I sent out a group message to all of our guests to remind them that they had a month to book in and pay their deposit. I didn’t really hear much response at this point. One week left to book and I sent out another message and sure enough RSVPs started coming in and people letting me know that they might book later, etc. As long as I had my 10 people and my 10 rooms I was happy haha. I think if any of you have the same plan as me where your guests only have to pay a certain amount as a deposit to hold their spot and they have like 6 more months to pay the rest of the trip off, you should make that super clear to your guests. I think a lot of our guests were concerned they had to drop $2054 when they booked in. I think they were relieved to hear they only needed to pay $150 today and they could pay the rest whenever they had the money. One of my bridesmaids didn’t understand this and told me she wasn’t going to book until the fall I was a bit shocked and then when i explained it to her she seemed to think that booking with us now was a better idea. (no idea if she’s actually booked yet though, and it’s making me super nervous) Engagement Photos: Fun stuff now!!! We knew exactly who we were going to get to do our engagement photos since she did our family photos a year prior and they turned out amazing. Her prices are fantastic and she’s really fun and gets the job done. You can check out her work at: www.paisleyphotos.ca. Her work is really cute and she really captures the love in her photos. We actually went up to the Braag Creek area for our photos in February and amazingly enough it looks like our photos were taken in either the spring given the amazing weather we had. Super happy with how they turned out. Now I just need to order a photo book to put on the coffee table of all our gorgeous photos. BTW... you can see these photos on our wedding website too!