SunBride's Planning thread (one year late)

[SunBride]

Okay so I didn’t do a planning thread before the wedding. At the time I wasn’t on the forum nearly as much as I have been in the past year, in part because, well I planned the whole wedding in just 4 months. Also I was a little pressed for time (as most brides are!) and only finished packing 2.5 hours before leaving for the airport (so yes, only an 2.5 hours of sleep! In fact I had only slept 1.5 hours the night before that, and a total of 12 hours in the 4 days before leaving! Learn from my mistake and don’t leave stuff till the last minute!). By the time I returned I guess I was just too focused on my photos to think about doing a planning thread.

 

Since then I’ve really regretted not doing one. I see other people’s threads and I really wish I had as it can be so helpful for future brides. So I figured, what better time (well, other than before or right after the wedding of course) than on my one year anniversary. It’s been a nice trip down memory lane I wish I could go back in time and do it all over again.

 

At this point you have all seen all my stuff in my photos but who cares. Plus I have included some info as to how I made some of the DIY projects so at the very least that will be helpful.

 

Of course you can see how it all turned out in my siggy link.

 

MY DRESS

Mori Lee 2820

I didn’t want to have the long train on the beach so I had it cut off, and all the extra material was used to make a short detachable train (it attached under the top 2 chiffon layers, at the butt and hips).

 

MY BRIDESMAID DRESSES

Sears Catalogue 80$

(My SIL found the dress and I was really hesistant about ordering it because it looked like wrinkled cotton in the picture, I didn’t think it was formal enough, but it was much nicer in person and a beautiful chiffon material)

 

 

 

MY MOM’S DRESS

Bella Formals Bridesmaid dress # 943605

I picked it out for her and I LOVED it.

 

 

TRASHING DRESS

Bought at Fairweather

(Didn’t even end up wearing it because on my wedding day the bottom of my dress got a bit wet and was totally fine so I decided to due TTD with my real dress)

 

MY ENGAGEMENT RING

 

OUR WEDDING BANDS

my wedding band

FH’s (on my hand!)

[SunBride]

MY VEIL

Bought off Ebay for 75$ (I was so happy because in stores, all the Swarovski crystal edged veils were like 200$, and I couldn’t find a used one like this, and it took me forever to find one on ebay that was just what I wanted)

 

MY SHOES

The Shoe Company

wore them until I reached the “aisle” and then slipped them off to walk down the aisle barefoot. Put them back on for pictures around the resort and for dinner

 

MY DANCING SHOES

I had a lot of trouble finding some that my feet would be well strapped in, because we had a choreographed first dance (In the end we didn’t even end up doing the dance till the AHR)

 

JUST MARRIED FLIP FLOPS

They didn’t work in the sand at Dreams Tulum

 

BRIDESMAID SHOES

 

MY NECKLACE

Made by a friend

 

BRIDESMAID NECKLACES

Bought them at Xcetera for 10$ (they are obviously not real silver but I didn’t care, they were just to wear that day)

 

MY PURSES

I found the second one after the wedding and liked it way better than the first so I bought it for my AHRs

[SunBride]

MY FLOWERS

Real touch flower stems assembled by my aunt who is a florist

mine

bridesmaids

Groom’s Bout:

Moms’ Corsages:

Hair Flower:

 

DAD STARFISH BOUTS

DIY:: Spray painted some sugar starfish white and glued some ribbons and a flat pin on the back!

[SunBride]

CAKE TOPPER

DIY: Real Touch flower with charms from walmart

 

BUBBLES

Bought the bottles at Dollarama, cut the ugly dove off the top and decorated with ribbon and starfish gems (also bought at OTC)

 

FANS

Bought them from Oriental Trading Company and decorated with ribbon and starfish gems (also bought at OTC)

 

CENTERPIECES

 

RING DISH

(This is actually a souvenir my friend gave me several years ago from her trip to Cabo!)

 

JUST MARRIED BIKINI

Made it myself using iron on letters from Walmart

 

JUST MARRIED CARDIGAN

Made it myself using iron on letters from Walmart

[SunBride]

INVITATIONS

DIY

 

AHR INVITATIONS

DIY

 

OOT BAGS

The siblings got the turquoise bags and the moms the brown/yellow ones.

 

LUGGAGE TAGS

DIY: Made with kits from dollarama (5 tags for 1$).

 

MUGS

DIY *See detailed info below

[SunBride]

NEWSLETTER

(see all below)

 

GAZEBO SET-UP INSPIRATION

(Side note, most of you have seen this in my review by now, it looked fabulous, in fact, so much that since my wedding almost all the brides have been asking for the similar set-up at Dreams Tulum!)

I wasn’t a fan of the regular gazebo set-up at Dreams Tulum so I bought a bolt of turquoise tulle (5”x40 yards) from idearibbon .com and brought it down there and showed them these inspiration pictures on how to decorate the gazebo.

I also asked for something like this along the sides of the aisle (this is what a friend of mine had done for her DW)

 

I also bought a roll of small tulle (6”x 25 yards) also from idearibbon to do chair bows (the resort has bows available but I wasn’t sure if they would have the right color so for the price it was better to bring this and be sure)

I also attached flat pins to the backs of starfish and brought them down to put on the chairs with chair bows. I used the same pins as above for the starfish bouts (but bigger ones). Some of the starfish were very concave in the middle and the pin wasn’t touching enough so I glued a piece of felt onto the starfish and then glued the starfish onto the felt.

 

[SunBride]

Info on the mugs I made:

I decided to make my own because ordering them from Discount Mugs was too expensive for my small order (10 only).

I searched a lot for places that sold mugs with insert, at the time Oriental Trading Company was the cheapest for me, but recently other brides have found them at Dollar Tree (U.S.) and I’ve seen them at Dollarama (Canada) so they would be much cheaper to make.

Note that the mugs from Oriental Trading Company are not actually insulated mugs (I don’t think the dollar stores ones are either), they look like the insulated ones but really they are more like a plastic cup with a lid. So they won’t keep your drinks as cold as a good quality insulated mug. Also the OTC mugs, the drinking hole at the top is not covered (see below).

I decided to laminate the inserts because I was worried that the mugs would leak and the inserts would get ruined.

So the mugs cost me 2$ each + taxes & shipping (so more like 3,50$ each, but would be a bit less if you have a bigger order since the shipping costs don't increase quickly)

 

Printing the inserts at Staples was 50cents each and then laminating them at staples was 1,50$ each(had to go home and cut them first, so that the seal from the lamination would be around the edge).

 

So total cost about 5$ each which was half the price of discount mugs for me (because I was only ordering 10, it was going to be about 10-12$ each). Also you could make them for cheaper if you buy your mugs at dollar store (or have a larger order from OTC to cut down on shipping costs) and if can print at home and laminate them at home or work.

 

***The clipart image I used for the mugs (and others too) can be downloaded here***

http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t22111

 

OTC mugs:

 

To make the inserts, I just made an image in photoshot on a regular 8.5x11 sheet, then I would print it and place the white OTC insert on top and trace. If anything important from the image was cut off, I would adjust the image and reprint. I probably had to do this a few times before everything fit nicely. Once I had a template that worked I just had to change the text. I traced the inserts using the white OTC insert and cut out my inserts.

Once again, the final mugs:

 

[SunBride]

Info on the T-shirts

Making these shirts was hell, due to the fact that I used dark shirts. I really didn’t want white shirts. Based on my experience, I would highly recommend using white shirts (or at least pastel colors). Read below for more info.

Also I spent so much friggin time shopping for nice but cheap golf shirts, as well as tank tops that had thick straps (as my MIL and probably SIL would not have been comfortable in spaghetti straps) but were not ribbed (you can’t use a ribbed material with iron-on transfers).

Also I spent lots of money on the transfers because the first round I made, the logos were too small, the 2nd round, I forgot to flip my image (you have to make it backwards so that it’s the right way after being ironed on) so I ended up having to print them all 3 times! Also, you need to use an ink jet printer (otherwise the ink doesn’t stick to the transfers), we only have a lazer printer at home so I had to do all this at work with people watching! (note: staples will not print onto iron-on transfers)

I bought Avery brand iron-on sheets from wal-mart. They also sell them at staples.

The final problem I had was that the back of the iron-on sheets would remain white-ish colored when ironed on the shirt, so it looked crappy. If my image had been less detailed, I could have cut around the edges of the image and all would have been fine. But I couldn’t do that around my small text and the palm tree.

Here is what I mean about the background being whitish (I found it looked like a piece of packing tape!)

So what I did to make it look better is I put the iron directly on the logo (without the paper that you are suppose to iron on top) and it melted it and make it more transparent, but it also smeared the logo and got the black ink all over the iron. The logo was not only smeared, but also turned grey rather than black since the iron picked up the ink. It made it hard to read the writting. Overall, it wasn’t really worth putting the logo. Would have been better with white shirts.

Here is how it looked after I melted it by putting the iron right on the logo (note that this is the nicest ones, some of the others were much more blurred. I would not recommend doing this)

I also wrote everyone’s titles on the back. I also did this by printing the words on the sheets and then cutting them out. But once again it looked crappy because of the whitish background. So I ended up buying letters at dollarama. It was so much simpler this way, but the downside is that I didn’t like the font, I thought it was ugly. By using the sheets and printing my own words I could use any font and any size I liked. Again, if I had used white shirts it would have been better as I could have printed my own words and ironed them all and it would have looked great.

Dollarama letters

Titles with dollarama letters

For myself and the bridesmaids, I also put the titles with rhinestones on the front

 

After all this work, I must say it was pretty cool for everyone to wear their shirts on the departure day. I gave them to my husband’s family when we met up with them in Toronto and they changed in the washroom. Overall though it wasn’t really worth the hassle and the cost. Although the colored shirts were nicer than white would have been, using white shirts would have made my life so much simpler, and really, it wasn’t that important seeing as people only wore them for half a day, and then never wore them again (okay, not completely true because the women wore them again for ours “girls night” i.e. sorta bachelorette party at the resort)

 

Conclusion / Recommendation:

 

If you use colored shirts, buy premade letters / designs, do not make your own using the iron-on sheets because the background will be whitish (unless your logo is simple enough that you can cut perfectly around it)

OR

Use white shirts, and then you design whatever you want and use the iron-on sheets you can purchase at wal-mart or staples.

[montegobay09]

Such a great planning thread! congrats on your 1 year anniversary and getting this all done!!!

Your dress is beautiful!!

[Soon To Be Mrs. Gomez]

Thanks for sharing. It's okay if it's late. It has given me ideas. I love the cup idea. Was it good for cold and hot beverages?