Calgary Brides!

[Boo]

I should also say - thank you so much to all the ladies that have weighed in on this and the plethora of other questions that float around here, you and this forum are truly a source of sanity in a choatic time.

[MayanLily]

Not sure what area you live in Boo but there is one I've heard is great. Its put on by Northwest Bootcamp (i think) It's not specifically designed for brides but the great thing about it is: you choose 2 or 3 day and you can go any day of the week instead of tues & thurs only like most BCs. If you google northwest bootcamp it comes up.

 

I'm not really into bootcamps myself but I have been following a workout program called "Buff Brides" it's a book I ordered from chapters and i really like it. It's a 24 wk program and i am currently on week 13!!! woohoo. I mostly like the fact that I can cross off the workout each day I do it LOL I'm all about crossing stuff off my lists!

[BeachBrideSoon]

Hi ladies!

I've just come accross this forum and I'm super excited to see Calgary Brides! I haven't started too much, as I thought the TA was where to go first before starting the planning but nope, that's not the case. I will be contacting resorts now to narrow down my choices of countries(Dominican is what I've been leaning towards).

I am wondering how to pick a date if you have people travelling there from all over Canada(Calgarians will depart a different day then BC or ON) or do you just pick a week? Also, November they say is hurricane season and so much can be pushed around(flights, cancellations etc.) any experiences, my other option is January 2011.

I know this forum will be super helpful and I'm looking forward to it!! Thanks!

[echo2_62]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeachBrideSoon Hi ladies! I've just come accross this forum and I'm super excited to see Calgary Brides! I haven't started too much, as I thought the TA was where to go first before starting the planning but nope, that's not the case. I will be contacting resorts now to narrow down my choices of countries(Dominican is what I've been leaning towards). I am wondering how to pick a date if you have people travelling there from all over Canada(Calgarians will depart a different day then BC or ON) or do you just pick a week? Also, November they say is hurricane season and so much can be pushed around(flights, cancellations etc.) any experiences, my other option is January 2011. I know this forum will be super helpful and I'm looking forward to it!! Thanks!

Well it sounds like you've got a good start on picking a date already, just by narrowing it down to two different months. I think we started the same way.
Choosing your resort is just a matter of knowing what options/ammenities you want (night club, a la carte restaurant options, proximity to shopping & excursions) and what is in your price range. Once you've got it down to a few resorts, try emailing the wedding coordinator to see if they can send you a brochure of the wedding packages they offer.

I personally found that working with a travel agent wasn't the best option (for me) so I did the leg work of narrowing down which departure dates we liked best. We also had guests travelling from Calgary, Winnipeg and Toronto and wanted to have the option for direct flights from each city. In the end we had half our guests book through WestJet Vacations (highly recommended!!) on a Monday-Monday package, and the other half through Air Canada on a Sunday-Sunday package. We left it open to those two days so that our guests could determine for themselves if one day worked better than the other. Just about all of our guests were able to take advantage of seat sales so the prices worked out better than any quote I received through a few different travel agents.

Another option is to inquire what kind of group rate you can get through your resort directly, and then book flights separately. This seems to be the typical approach for everyone in the USA but I find us Canadians typically go for the package deals through a vacation group such as Signature Vacations.

Hope that helps get you started and you're right that you are definitely in the right place to get lots and lots of help!

[MayanLily]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeachBrideSoon Hi ladies! I've just come accross this forum and I'm super excited to see Calgary Brides! I haven't started too much, as I thought the TA was where to go first before starting the planning but nope, that's not the case. I will be contacting resorts now to narrow down my choices of countries(Dominican is what I've been leaning towards). I am wondering how to pick a date if you have people travelling there from all over Canada(Calgarians will depart a different day then BC or ON) or do you just pick a week? Also, November they say is hurricane season and so much can be pushed around(flights, cancellations etc.) any experiences, my other option is January 2011. I know this forum will be super helpful and I'm looking forward to it!! Thanks!

The best advice I can give when picking a date is "try not to overthink" If you're first thought is November, go with that. Like a snowstorm in Calgary, hurricanes can happen anytime. How ticked would you be if a hurrican flew through in January! It's your wedding and the way that I look at it, nothing can ruin that! Having said that though, if you are going to be stressed for 9 months about it, choose the safe route.

If I had to do the travel planning all over again, this is how it would be. "We are getting married on October 21 at [insert resort here]. We would love it if you could come. " Boom. Done. LOL Keep in mind you are talking to a lady who had a nightmare of a time with her travel agent.

Enough with the cynism! Welcome to the forum! We are all happy to have another calgarian to bounce ideas off of. You will find a wealth of information on here and if you have any questions, just ask. We're all really nice....right ladies?

[pamphilia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeachBrideSoon Hi ladies! I've just come accross this forum and I'm super excited to see Calgary Brides! I haven't started too much, as I thought the TA was where to go first before starting the planning but nope, that's not the case. I will be contacting resorts now to narrow down my choices of countries(Dominican is what I've been leaning towards). I am wondering how to pick a date if you have people travelling there from all over Canada(Calgarians will depart a different day then BC or ON) or do you just pick a week? Also, November they say is hurricane season and so much can be pushed around(flights, cancellations etc.) any experiences, my other option is January 2011. I know this forum will be super helpful and I'm looking forward to it!! Thanks!

hi and welcome!

echo covered a lot of good points there..

i just wanted to say that i am going the Dominican in January 2011 as well. it was just a time that worked best for the guests (trying to save $) and my wedding party (as we felt them out before committing to a date).

we live in calgary, but most of our guests are coming from toronto and ottawa - and i have no problem with us all not arriving or departing on the same day. when you tell them what day you are getting married, they can work around when they want to plan their holiday.

i am a travel agent, so i knew a lot of the basics already - but yes, you should try and narrow down a destination and a resort before heading to the agent to price things out.

you will find this site full of awesome information!

[KRama]

Hey BeachBride! Welcome to the thread!

 

Our whole group is coming from Calgary so we got off easy in that aspect. Finding a date was an interesting process...so many factors to consider! Like pamphilia we bounced a few dates off of our VIPs to find something that worked. Some are in school and our best man (FI's bro) finishes his hockey season in April, so May was the best choice for us.

 

We narrowed down resort by checking Expedia for our dates so we could see what would fall in our price range. Then we worked with our TA to get group quotes. She recommended Air Canada Vacations since they are the least likely to cancel or reschedule flights (so far so good!).

 

We wanted to maximize the chance of getting amazing weather so anything in hurricane season was out of the question. And although it's unlikely, if you do book during hurricane season, prepare yourself for the possibility of unpleasant weather.

[*Nadine*]

Hi Beachbride All the ladies covered the main points. I think my biggest piece of advice is to pick the date that you and your fiance want and not worry about what works for everyone else b/c in the end the people that want to be there WILL be there. We went with christmas/NYs week which was pretty expensive to accommadate alot of students and teachers and in the end alot of them didnt end up coming. I dont think I would have changed our week even still, but just reinforced the fact that you should look our for what you guys want first and foremost.

 

take a gander around the forum, you will see a ton of reviews on dif hotels, that will definitely help. I used a travel agent only b/c we had guests flying out of 6 canadian cities and 3 US cities.. however my TA SUCKED big time.. she still got us the best deal though.

[Boo]

Ha ha yeah I didnt find TAs to be too helpful either to date, most people so far booked thru expedia.ca and the rest thru westjet vacations and we have Calgary, Winnipeg, Minniapolis and NY - its crazy cheap from NY atleast a 1/3 off the price that we pay out of Calgary.

 

Anyhow for us choosing the date and resort was by far the most stressful thing, only replaced by the fact that outside those we knew would come 100% very few are actually booking, wish more people would book already. We chose mid to end of November as well, our reasoning is we are travelling with grandparents so no summer, I was a bit too worried about Sep and Oct as well, but as one of the other ladies said you can never predict weather regardless and we feared that Dec. and Jan. would be too expensive so it was March or Nov. and we got engaged in October so a year of that was enough for the two of us.

 

Happy planning!

[*Nadine*]

Boo, I wouldnt worry about people not booking yet.. your wedding is still pretty far away.. Most people usually will put down a deposit or else just not book until like 3 or 4 mths before the wedding.. We even had people book the month or two before.