A year and some in the making.....sorry for the lateness of this planning Journal......08/04/12 Sunset Beach Resort, Montego Bay, Jamaica

Okay….yes, my thread is after the fact…..I’m  really bad at multitasking L. So I will start this thread now, I recycled many of the ideas already on the board….thank you brides, especially Acierta!! 

Me and my now husband met in college 12 years ago.  We dated for a while but ended up going our separate ways due to various reasons.  In the beginning of 2009, he called out of the blue and we have been together ever since.  He proposed to me on his birthday in Sept 2011.

I was fine with going to the Justice of the Peace as I didn’t require anything special but he said he wanted to do something else.  I love to vacation so I figured lets just knock it out in the middle of our next summer vacation but our families wanted to be there so we decided on Sunset Beach Resort in Montego Bay.  It was affordable for all and they allowed children, he has a 9 year old son.

Boarding Pass invitations and Party

I knew I wanted to do the boarding pass invite after seeing some examples on this board.  So I brought all of the items necessary, mostly from Amazon and printed them.  I then had a diy party. I brought food and alcohol and amazingly people showed up....lol. They were then mailed out in January 2012.

Luggage Tags/Headed to Jamaica

A month from the trip I mailed out these packets.  Aceirata  was my inspiration…okay, I just flat out borrowed her idea.  It was just too cute to pass up. I included luggage tags, a pamphlet, a packing list, and a passport wedding itinerary and info.

Inside, I listed my passport

A pamphlet I created from Vistaprint:

I sent this off to the guest right before the wedding in a white envelope with labels I printed from Oriental Trading.

OOT Bags

A friend at work made the design.  I brought the bags from theknot.com for 1.99.  They were huge and a great price.  I found a screen printer that charged $2.50 a bag. 

I put a welcome pack together that included a lanyard for the keycard (oriental trading) , postcard (vistaprint) and thank you note(vistaprint).

I also included a FIRST AID KIT.

It included: Band-aid (target), hair band (forever 21, 10 for $1), pepto bismo (amazon, multipack), advil (amazon, multipack), chapstick (oriental trading), handwipes (amazon, multipack), shout wipes (amazon, multipack) and napkins(oriental trading).

Fun and Sun Kit

Includes: 16 oz personalized cup (discount mugs.com), word games book(dollar tree),  star key chain (theknot.com), playing cards (oriental trading), pen (oriental trading), writing pad (oriental trading)

Old School Candy

Included: Lemon heads, red hots, trident gum, sour heads, hot balls

If you have any purchase questions...please feel free to ask. 

Decorations:     

Seashells

I colored seashells using spray paint and glitter. I also ordered napkins with our names with a groupon special at a local party shop.

Parasols

I ordered them from oriental trading and a co-worker decorated them.  We used some of them for decorations and some were used for shade.

Sign for my son

Our son carried this sign…again made by a co-worker  (she was really a DIY life saver)

Placecards:
I ordered these starfish from ebay and spray painted them.  I then used a placecard template and printed it on stock card paper.

Raffia Fans:

I ordered the fans from oriental trading and wrapped the handles with ribbon.  I sat these on the chairs for the wedding.

Flowers: 

I can't take credit for the flowers. I used Jan's Flowers for decorations that I didn't not want to bring.

I brought the orange sashes from EBAY and had the rest provided from Jan's.

The posts were also decorated by Jan's.

Center Pieces by Jans

Bridesmaids Flowers:

Gent's Bout and my Bouquet

Our picture frame from Etsy.  I brought the sand from Hobby Lobby

As they say better late than never.  It all looks great especially your bags

Wedding Favors:

I have every one a shot glass and a bottle of appleton’s at the reception.  I had the shotglasses  made at a good price from discountmugs.com and I had the appleton’s vendor bring over a case after we arrived at the resort. I put the shot glasses in little silk bags that I brought from ebay as well.  Note: some of the shot glasses broke during the trip to Jamaica so I had to run out and but a few more. 

For the winner of the bouquet toss, I used a shirt from vistaprint ( I think I had a free tshirt code to use)

Cards, Cards and more Vistaprint.....

I made the obligatory door hanger using rack cards with a discount codes from Vistaprint.

Wedding Ceremony Program

I made these using the rack cards too.

Menu Cards for reception

I made these using the rack cards too.

The Gear:

I brought this dress off of the clearance rack for $50 at David’s Bridal for the rehearsal.

I brought the starfish sandals from ninewest.

I brought my wedding dress from a woman on Craigslist who found out her fiancé was cheating.  We happened to be the same height and size.  Great!!!  Almost forgot, I picked the personalized hanger from Ebay for $10.

The shoes....I loved these shoes from Macys. I ended up getting them on clearance.  Funny story, when I brought the shoes, I didn't check the box.  Well on the day before we were getting ready to leave, I decided to look them over again.  They were two different shoes. Fortunately, there is a land of lost shoes in the back.  My matching shoe was sitting there!!

We chose matching wedding bands.  We ended up getting those at Macys as well on clearance too!!

Groom & Groomsmen

For the men's suits, I was going to go the route of Studiosuit.com but I ended up finding something similar at JCP for a decent price.

I ordered the ties from Amazon for $5 bucks a piece.

Bridesmaid Dresses

I used etsy to order my BM dresses.  I loved how they turned out.

I found some small starfish sandals from Old Navy. I know they were on sale. I don't think I paid more than $7.50 for each pair before any sale discount.

The Bridal Party....thank you SWAG!

Bridesmaids Gifts.....I got really carried away!! 

Michael Kors tote (Macys), MK flip flops (Macys), Starfish Flip Flops (Old Navy), MK comestic bag packed with makeup goodies from estee lauder (Estee Lauder Outlet), another MK small tote (Macys), sunglasses (aliexpress), bangles (NYandCompany),passport cover (amazon), a flower for the wedding(etsy), a personalized compact and personalized purseholder (ebay) I got a little carried away.

SHIRTS (All from Vistaprint):

For my mother:

For My Bridesmaids:

For Me:

For his Mom:

For Him:

For his dad:

For my son, the ringbearer, I got him this dufflebag with toys and a shirt. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a pic of it but here is an example. They were both ordered from Oriental Trading....

I will try to wrap this up tomorrow.....

Amazing thread!!! You did awesome for your wedding!! Beautiful!!! Thank you for sharing