~Andrea~'s Planning Thread with PICS!!!

[Banana11]

I’m so excited it’s time to post my planning thread!!!!!! At the advice of the Mods I started this a while back as a Word doc and added to it over the months. I highly recommend doing it this way, so much easier and not as overwhelming as the wedding approaches! I’m hoping to give back even a small piece of what I have gained from finding this amazing website!

 

It’s been a long and wonderful journey for FI & I. We started dating in high school and have been together for 13 years! I love him so much and can’t believe our day is almost here! He proposed on my birthday in July 2007 and we knew right away we wanted a destination wedding. We had been on a cruise wedding the previous year and thought it would be a perfect choice for us. Fast forward 1.5 years and here we are!

 

I want to give a big thank you to Tammy and all the mods who work so hard keep BDW up and running, and a fabulous place to share all things “weddingâ€, friendships, and so much more! I really wasn’t as excited about planning until finding BDW and all of you amazing people! My only regret is not finding BDW a year earlier when we started planning our DW.

 

A special THANK YOU to the most amazing ladies my fellow shouters! You’ve all shared pieces of your lives, friendship, support, humor, advice, and I appreciate you so much! And a congratulations to my fellow February brides, can you believe it’s almost our time?!?!?!?! And also a big thanks to my fellow cruise brides for all of their help and advice! One more thank you to everyone for sharing their ideas and planning threads, I’m sure a lot of this will look familiar! Okay, sorry for the mini speech, on with my planning thread!

 

Our engagement story:

http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t25786

 

FI & I at our friend’s cruise wedding a few years ago:

 

 

After choosing a cruise wedding and blocking out the cabins on the ship we didn’t have much time to get the invitations out. We wrote a letter explaining our DW, designed a brochure, put together an info sheet, and included a reservation form. Our invitations weren’t very fancy at all. Functional is a better way to describe them . I would have loved to be able to do boarding pass invites but it didn’t work out for us with our time crunch.

 

Here’s the paper our letters were printed on:

 

 

Brochure:

 

 

I had everyone RSVP to our wedding website. Feel free to check it out: Alan & Andrea - wedding website by mywedding.com. We will have 27 of us cruising together!

 

We are sailing on Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas to the Western Caribbean. Here’s a picture of our ship!

 

 

We have a balcony cabin…

 

 

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[Banana11]

We had two logos that we loved! One was made by the super creative and talented Amy (Amarillis) and the other from the super creative and talented Sarah at Sproullie Designs. Because we couldn’t pick one, we used both! We used Amy’s design in the beginning of planning and at our wedding shower. Here’s a sample:

 

 

And here is the logo from Sproullie Designs we used on our DIY projects you’ll see coming up:

 

 

We wanted to give our guests a gift to thank them for coming to our wedding. We had been on a cruise wedding for our friends (who will be at our DW) and tried to come up with original ideas. They gave out OOT bags so we needed to do something different. I came up with the idea to send out a pre cruise care package. That way we could stick them in the mail a few weeks before departure and not worry about lugging everything with us on vacation.

 

I used Windows Movie Maker to put together a video to send to guests to let them know their pre cruise care package was on the way. We loaded it on YouTube and emailed them the link. Here’s the link to the final version of the video:

 

YouTube - Pre Cruise Video

 

Here are contents of the care packages…

 

2009 Magnets from Vista Print:

 

 

Photoshare Card from Vista Print:

 

 

Luggage tags made with pictures from guests favorite vacations and/or something meaningful to them:

 

 

Link to the thread I posted with the finished product:

 

http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t33048

 

Link to the thread I posted with luggage tag template and instructions:

 

http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t33269

 

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[Banana11]

We did messages in a bottle to let guests know we purchased on board credit for them as a part of their gift. Thank you to Jennifer (jkcz0702) for sharing the website for ordering the MIB supplies! Great quality, fast shipping, and I highly recommend them! FI designed the bottle labels and we used sticker paper to print them:

 

 

Here’s a link to the website for the MIB supplies: Sand Blast Entertainment

 

I wish I could remember who I downloaded the passport template from because it was so helpful! If you recognize it THANK YOU for sharing!!! I used that template to create our own template and passport welcome book. Having that template really helped teach me how to make ours! We printed the cover on heavy textured paper and had them laminated. The inside pages are regular printer paper. This project was truly a labor of love. Oh, the letter might also look familiar as a lot of us have used variations of it . Thanks to whoever the original creator of that letter was!

 

Pics of actual books:

 

 

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[Banana11]

Jpegs of PowerPoint slides:

 

 

Contents of one complete care package:

 

 

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[Banana11]

Miscellaneous items for different care packages:

 

 

We’ve seen a few people open their packages. Everything was a hit but they especially seemed to like the luggage tags. It’s funny because FI was concerned they wouldn’t understand there is a message in the bottle for them to read and you know what, he was right! They all sort of turned and inspected the bottles, but didn’t happen to notice the message and strings hanging out of the top of the bottle! If I were to do them again I would maybe put the sticker about looking inside the bottle for the buried treasure in the inside of the box where they will see it instantly instead of on the back of the bottle.

 

My t-shirt (another Vista Print freebie) for the airplane

 

 

I made goodie bags for the people flying with us out to Miami. I plan to fill them with granola bars, cookies, crackers, almonds, chips, and candy:

 

 

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[Banana11]

We are getting married while in port in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. The gazebo will be decorated with flowers, the chairs will have white covers with deep red wine colored sashes.

 

 

We will place a raffia fan and program on each guest’s chair. When we had four people book unexpectedly I ran short on everything. Ashli (DallasAshli) was so incredible and sent me the extra fans we needed! THANK YOU ASHLI!!! I found this paper I absolutely love made by The Paper Company and called Double Sided Mulberry Red/White Hearts. I didn’t get a picture of the back of the paper but it’s a deep red to match the chair sashes. The front has tiny red heart woven into the material. Here they are:

 

 

Our ring bowl from Etsy seller Paloma's Nest which I love and highly recommend:

 

 

Our rings:

 

 

My dress is actually the very first wedding dress I tried on! It was hard to make that final decision because I felt like it should take a lot longer to find “the oneâ€. I waited for about 3 weeks before going back to try it on again and make the purchase. I have to admit having second thoughts a few months after buying it. I let it hang in my closet a few months longer and after trying it on again I can say I am totally in love with it! Here are a few pics:

 

 

Up close detail of the lace and beading:

 

 

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[Banana11]

The best I could do to get a pic of my veil:

 

 

I purchased my jewelry from BDWer Courtney and her Etsy store Agape Gems! I highly recommend contacting her if you are in need of wedding jewelry or any jewelry! I had no idea what I wanted, sent her pictures of my dress, and she came up with the perfect designs!

 

 

I purchased my hair flower from Etsy seller Mikiye and also highly recommend her! Great quality, fast shipping, adorable packaging, and super strong clip on the back of the flower:

 

 

My hair inspiration pics from BDW posts. I’m not sure what to expect because I won’t get a hair trial until I get on the ship. Here are a few styles I really like:

 

 

My shoes (super comfortable!):

 

 

My mom surprised me with this purse:

 

 

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[Banana11]

FI’s suit on the model:

 

 

Close up of his actual suit with his shirt/tie:

 

 

FI’s shoes that I am totally in love with! They look so good with his suit!

 

 

After our ceremony we will have a champagne toast, cake, and take pictures. Then we head back to the ship for an appetizer/cocktail reception. I purchased a personalized guestbook from Welcome to the Guestbook Store! Guestbooks for Every Occasion! and plan to put it out at the reception.

 

 

Next we’ll head to dinner in the main dining room:

 

 

Finally, we’ll hit up one of the ship’s clubs or music venues to celebrate the rest of the night!

 

I can already tell this will be the fastest week of my life! I hope to stay in the moment and absorb every second of it. Thanks again to everyone for sharing so much!!! I can’t wait to come back a Mrs.!!!

[JUSTUSTWO]

Andrea, everything looks great! You did a great job with all of your DIY projects!!

I'm sure that you & your guests will have wonderful time on the cruise & your wedding day will be amazing!

I know you don't leave for a few more days but have a wonderful trip & can't wait for your return with your review & pics!

[klhutsell]

Everything looks great! I love the idea of the travel goodie bags! And I absolutely love your dress! Congrats- and HAVE FUN!