Smckinney22's Planning Thread for The Royal PDC 10-09-10

[smckinney22]

Well I'm not the best at these sort of things so I'll try this and hope it comes out decent.  I planned (ahh strange to put it in the past tense) for 18 months.  We got engaged in July of 2009 and was married 1 week and 2 days ago on October 9th, 2010.

 

I got my Save the Dates from efavormart.com  They were luggage tags in individual plastic boxes.  We put a slip of paper in the back that gave details on how to book the vacation.  And on the inside where you'd usually put your name and address for the luggage tag we put a little message.

 

 

For our Invites we wanted to keep it simple but relevant so we went with post cards.  They had the pictures from our Engagement shoot and were cheap to mail and everyone loved them.  Simple and sweet just like us lol  My cousin took the pictures and her husband is a digital editor so he made the post cards for us.  They say "Leave your life and ride"  It's a quote from a Carey Brothers song (our favorite song and also our first dance song.)  Also totally appropriate since we like to ride the motorcycle and also we're asking the guests to leave their live and ride to come to our wedding

 

Here's a picture of my dress.  I'll just post only the dress here so I can post the other full pictures of me in the dress in my review.  It's a Mori Lee style # 6204 and I wore turquoise shoes as my 'something blue' and turquoise was also my wedding color.

 

I'm a loser and didn't take a picture of my bridesmaid gifts.  But I got them all a pashmina, a pair of turquoise earrings to wear with their bridesmaid dress, a rhinestone purse hook, a luggage tag with their initial, and I got each of them a gift that was meaningful to them and their hobbies that way it was still personal to each girl.

 

The OOT bags were a big hit of course!  We assembled them here and packed them in a box so they were ready to go when we arrived.  Here is a picture of the contents but we also added an underwater camera to each bag (purchased off ebay) but we took this picture before they came in.

-Bags were actually the drawstring backpacks and EVERYONE used them.  I'm so glad we went with these instead of tote bags.  They were easier to use and people walked around with them and took them to the beach.  They were somewhat waterproof in the fact that you could put wet stuff in them and then just wash them out without them smelling like the canvas bags may have done.  We got them off Oriental Trading website. 
-The mugs were given out to each guest and they loved those too.  They would take their drinks and dance with them without them spilling.  These were from Family Dollar and worked great.  They were in our wedding color too!
-I got Cocktails for Dummies in the dollar bin at Target.
-Purell hand sanitizer was from Office Max and it was .30 cents per bottle.

-Mr. & Mrs. note pads and the Fiesta maraca ink pen were from Oriental Trading website.

-Gummy candy in the shape of flip flops and the umbrella straws were all also Oriental Trading website.
-As I said we added underwater cameras bought from ebay for about $4 a piece.

-We included the Wedding Weekend Survival Kit.  I used a fellow BDW bride template for the sticker on the front.  The box came from Dollar Tree.  We included SPF Chapstick, 2 for $1 at Dollar Tree.  We included, Pepto, Immodium, Tylenol, Bandaids, Safety pins, Doublemint gum

-We also included a Thank You note and a "Find the Couple" itinerary.  I had seen somewhere on the forum someone else who had done an Itinerary and loved the idea.  Our guests could find us throughout the weekend without having to use cell phones.  We gave them out before the trip so that our guests sort of plan ahead and could meet up with us if they wanted to but if they wanted to do their own thing that was cool too.  We wanted to let everyone have their own vacation, after all they paid for it themseleves, but at the same time we wanted them to be able to hang out with us if they wanted.  It worked out perfectly.  Some people met us for most meals and others we only saw a few times.  It was all about just letting everyone have a great time without roping them into 'required events'.  We gave out the OOT bags at the welcome cocktails on Friday, the night before the wedding.

 

 

More to follow...

 

 

 

[smckinney22]

Here is a pic of our ceremony set up from the front and the side.  I bought the turquoise lanterns from Target dollar bin.

 

 

Here are our wedding programs.  Me and mom made these.  Our colors if you haven't guessed, were turquoise with pink accents.  There is a little heart charm on each one that says Love.  I got the charms at Hobby Lobby.

 

 

At the ceremony we gave the wedding coordinator our "memorial frames" in honor of my grandmother and my husbands grandfather both of which have passed but were a really big part of our lives.  She set them on the first 2 aisle seats.  Me and my mom made these 2 frames.  One of my little cousins and one of my husbands cousins (both granddaughters of each grandparent) put a rose on each chair. My cousin put a rose on the chair with the butterfly frame, my grandmother loved butterflies.  And his cousin put a rose on the chair with a fishing pole, his grandfather loved to fish.  It was a special way to include the kids of each grandparent who is no longer with us and to honor their memory.

 

 

 

 

We did a sand ceremony and I found a frame that you can put a photo in but still pour the sand behind.  It's called Umbra Ether frame and here's the link http://www.amazon.com/Umbra-8-Inch-9-5-Inch-Picture-Nickel/dp/B000FHHAU6    Blue sand bought from OTC and the other sand was from the beach!  Shhhh!

 

 

We brought our own table decorations.  Believe it or not we fit everything in 5 small boxes.  We had 4 tables of 10.  We brought turquoise table runners, rattan charges with turquoise rocks and in the center were battery operated candles, 3 large piller candles with pink ribbon and a rhinestone and then 5 small tea light candles with pink ribbon.  Here's a picture of the table set up.  The centerpieces got a little jumbled but you get the idea.

 

And we also opted for the lounge furniture and got turquoise and pink pillows.

 

Here's a pic of the cake table and cake.  It was Tres Leches and it was GOOD!

 

And last but not least here is the picture right before the madness on the dance floor brought on by Mr. DJ Ivan with Doremixx.

 

 

[Bride2B22]

So Beautiful!!! Did you have to rent the lounge furniture? and did the DJ provide the dance floor, included with his standard price, or did you have to pay extra? 

[Eliana]

Wow everything looks amazing! congratulations!!!!

[Lisa DSO]

Everything looked awesome! Great job!!!

[smckinney22]

 

 

Originally Posted by Bride2B22 

 

So Beautiful!!! Did you have to rent the lounge furniture? and did the DJ provide the dance floor, included with his standard price, or did you have to pay extra? 

 

Yes we rented the lounge furniture from Mayan Hospitality.  The DJ brought the dance floor and it was an extra charge but totally worth it.  It lit up the whole beach area and caught everyone's attention...at BOTH resorts AND the people on the pier!  We were the talk of the hotels lol  Stay tuned for the review

Here's one of the pictures of the dance floor after we all got crazy.

 

 

[smckinney22]

Here's another of the dancing when we started the conga line!

 

[natalie7]

AWESOME!!! How much extra was the light up dance floor??? Was it an arm and a leg??!?!?! lol I wonder if they can offer something like that in DR!

[msredd3129]

You looked beautiful..Everything looked great...CONGRATS!!

[msglave]

Everything turned out perfect! Welcome back and congrats!