Katelynn's Planning Thread ~GBP Jamaica

katelynn · April 12, 2011

First of all I would like to thank all the brides on here who I have had interactions with, my wedding would not be anything like it has become without all of you. A big shout out to all my Gran Bahia Principe brides, most nights I couldnâ€™t wait to come home from school and work to see what was going on!

Our Story

Mike and I have known each other since we were in Grade 2 and became good friends in Grade 9. We went to Prom together in Grade 12 (as friends!) and remained very close when we went to College and University the next year. We started dating at the end of our first year of University when we took me on a picnic to Riverside park, and have been inseparable ever since! This year we will be celebrating our 6 year anniversary.

The Engagement

Mikeâ€™s Side

I decided one day while I was at work, I decided that I would do a serious look at rings again. I was looking at the display cases and I just saw it and was like "that is the ring". I went to other stores and nothing caught my eye like that ring did. So I went back and bought it. Then the next step was asking her parents for their permission. I drove to her house and sat in the car for a minute and got all pumped up and went in to see them. Her parents were supprised to see me. I was like ummmmm yea I just came over to hang out with you. So we were watching hockey and her dad was going out and I was like dont leave and I just came out with it. It was very nerve racking. But they said yes, so it was all good. So the day finally comes around where Kate comes back from the U.S.A with the girls and I picked her up from her friends house. I wasnt nervous yet and I was like lets go get a slushy or an ice cream, but I had to go home and grab money a.k.a the ring. So we drove to dairy queen and we went in and I paid but didnt have any cash and Kate questioned me but I brushed it off. So we pull into the park and its a bright and sunny day and we start walking around and my nerves are going a little crazy and I started sweating and I really didnt want any ice cream, but I needed to get her over there and we walked to the centre of the garden clock and I stopped but Kate kept going and was looking at squirrels and I called her over. At this point I am freaking out and shaking and I did have a speech and I started it and then I started getting choked up and nothing was coming out so I got down on one knee and pulled out the ring, and I asked her the big question but I think she was in shock because it took her a second to say anything.... but she said yes and the rest is history.

Kateâ€™s Side

I went away for the weekend with the girls to the USA shopping and came back on the Sunday to have Mike waiting to pick me up. After we dropped all my stuff off at my house we decided to go get an ice cream and talk so I could tell him about my weekend. It was a nice day so Mike suggested we go to Riverside Park right by Dairy Queen to sit and chat...but for some reason insisted on going back to his house first to get money (even though I had some)! We shared a Blizzard and were walking around talking and exploring when we stopped in front of the floral clock and I kept on walking...I turned around and was wondering what he was doing. He called me over and seemed all nervous for some reason ans was shaking when I hugged him ( I still didnt clue in) and then he started talking about how much he loved me and got down on one knee! He opened the ring box and I couldnt focus on what was going on I was so suprised!

The Resort

This was one of the hardest things about the planning process for sure! We ended up choosing the Gran Bahia Principe Jamaica. We have never been to Jamaica but heard wonderful things about it, further it was relatively easy to get married there. Further, it was a 5 star resort, was 24 hours all inclusive and had an amazing gazebo for marriage ceremonies!

We will be getting married on Tuesday May 3^rd 2011 at 4pm in the afternoon.

Theme and Colours

My favourite colour is definitely aqua and my favourite flower is birds of paradise, so we decided to go with Aqua and Orange as our colours. You will also see a lot of sand dollars, which are so beautiful J

Soon after we decided our colours our first DIY project was underway in making our invitations....

katelynn · April 12, 2011

Invitations

I got a 8 Â½ x 11 piece of card stock from Michaels and began experimenting as we knew that we wanted to do a boarding pass type of invitation so I knew we would need something to hold it. I looked on the BDW site and found a template and then made it our own by adding little touches and a quote to the back.

Here is the link for it

One of my bridesmaids works at a printing company so printed 200 invitations for cost and the Best Man is a graphic designer, so designed our invitations after we told him what we wanted.

Shortly after Mike made a monogram for us as he said he wanted to be involved, lol! He also made a wedding website which can be seen at www.katemikeswedding.yolasite.com

Attire

I went to go look for bridesmaids dresses with my MOH and this dress was in the window of the place and we both fell in love immediately. Each of the BM chose a different style they liked, but they will all be wearing this colour.

The GM will be wearing an off white shirt with dark khaki pants which they got at the Easton Centre Mall in Torontoâ€¦.here is one of the GM and the best man modelling, haha!

I got my dress from a local shop and it definitely was love at first site, it was actually the first one I tried on and it ended up being the one!! Here it is on the model, I donâ€™t have any pics with me in it seeing as I have a VERY nosey groom and FMIL!!

Accessories

The jewellery I am going to wear with it I bought from Etsyâ€¦.I must say the brides on this site got me addicted! I got my hair flower from the bridal shop, but it hasnâ€™t come in yetâ€¦eek!

I got these from pookafan and would definitely recommend, who can pass up $5 earings?!

The most exciting thing of all was purching my shoes from an ebay seller. They are Juicy â€œFrankie. I also purchased an Ankelet from Cathy5591 for my something blue.

Lastly, I purchaed a dress hanger from Etsy seller DawnsCraftStore and she was lovely to work with, she painted the hanger a dark aqua colour and it looks amazing!!

Hair Inspiration

I am going to go with the bottom left one, and use the pins I bought from Etsy for it.

Flowers

Like I said above, I LOVE birds of paradise so I knew that I wanted them in my bouquet. Another bride from BDW actually sent these pics to me (thank you!!!) and I fell in love, the only difference is where the green orchids are we will be using white and blue/aqua orchids to match the girls dresses. Mikeâ€™s boutonniere will be the same as below but with a white orchid, and the GM with the blue/aqua ones.

I will also have a blue bouquet starfish from the passing thread on the site that I should be getting any day now from the previous bride.

Cake

I found this cake on the BDW website I believe and loved itâ€¦we will be using the blue/aqua and white orchids above for the flowers on it along with birds of paradise! And our flavour will be white chocolate J Our cake topper is a â€œPromiseâ€ Willow Tree Angel.

more to come.....

Wedding Invitation.ppt

katelynn · April 12, 2011

DIY Projects / Beach Bags

Wellâ€¦.this site has also help a lot with all of the DIY projects for our wedding. I knew I wanted to have a unique touch to it and it also helped a lot with money. We also decided to make a beach bag for each of the guests coming as a thank-you for sharing in our big day. Sorry I donâ€™t have pics for all of this but we have them out last week and I forgot to take ones beforeâ€¦.

The contents of the bag are as follows:

I got the beach bags from our local Dollarama for like $2 and they are amazingâ€¦I actually saw them again this year and would definitely recommend them. We put name tags on all of the bags, Mike made one's for the men in photoshop of a Red Stripe beer with their names on it.

We got aloe, sunscreen and lip balm from Avon when they had their summer sale. We also got lint rollers for the men from Target and Sewing kits for the women from Fabricland. It also included gum, Advil sachets, Gatorade sachets, Kleenex, hand sanitizerâ€¦and lots more that I cant think of right now.

Towels â€“ got them from Sears in the USA and I made a tag for them and we wrapped them with raffia so they were more compact in the bags.

I made bookmarks for all the women with cute sayings on them...I got the original template from anohter BDW bride

Then we made luggage tags for all the guests using the front side of a vistaprint business card

First Aid Kits and Hand Sanitizer's with labels

We ordered mugs from discountmugs.ca and they were amazing to deal with and not too costly. We used a black and white version of our monogram on a clear orange mug, and it turned out great. Sorry that I donâ€™t have any pics. We also made key card holders and attached it to the mug handle with a silver carabineer.

We also have each guest a desk of cards with a DIY label

We were thinking of making a signature drink for the wedding but then decided after researching that there were way to many good ones so we made a guide of Jamaican drinks for all of our guestsâ€¦.many people have already told us they plan to try them all, lol.

We also made a guest game for the airport to kill time and so everyone gets to know each other better, and even better the winner gets a bubba mug! We have one child going to we also made a package for him to keep him busy on the plane.

We also got ahole of a packing list that we thought would be helpful for people

PLAYING CARD LABELS.doc

DRINK GUIDE.ppt

KidsBrochure[1].pdf

Getting_to_Know_You.pub

PACKINGLIST.doc

katelynn · April 12, 2011

Vistaprint & More!

Again, we wanted our wedding to be memorable and unique and we wanted to keep people excited seeing as they booked in September and we were not flying out until the end of April, further lots of people were asking us questions so we decided to made a newsletter for each season.

Fall

This included a book about Jamaica that I got from calling the Jamaican tourist board in Toronto, along with a pamphlet about TwinRix.

Winter

It also included a book from the tourist board but it was about excursions. I also made a more condensed version on Vistaprint, along with a magnet about our Travel agent for final bookings

Spring

This included a â€œGet to Know the Guestsâ€ brochure I made from Vistaprint along with a magnet as we are taking a bus to the airport, so it will remind them of the pick up time.

The day that we get there we plan to deliver welcome post cards to all of our guests

On the wedding day we will be delivering another post card to all of our guests along with do not disturb signs. (I made them from a brochure as you end of getting 3 for each one)

I also found an idea on the Martha Stewart website for a Good Morning news which highlighted the important events of the day. I made a similar one in Microsoft word to make it more unique. Along with this I also made a Looking for Someone so all of the guests can easily find one another.

We also made a large postcard and we are going to ask everyone on the flight home to write their favourite memories etc of the week on it and give it back to us as a keep sake.

FALL NEWS.doc

WINTER NEWS - FINAL.doc

SPRING NEWS.doc

LOOKING FOR SOMEONE.doc

GOOD MORNING NEWS.doc

Islandgirl910 · April 12, 2011

Great thread! Thanks for sharing. I'm going to use your template for the drinks!!

katelynn · April 12, 2011

I also made our menu. We will be putting this at the guests seats along with a large real starfish that I ordered from a store near my home town

And lastly our ceremony programâ€¦â€¦On the back we have a sea glass poem and we are going to attach a piece of it to the back. Everyone will have it with them during the ceremony and then at the end we have this candle holder vase that they will deposit it back in. We are going to have it under our picture signing matt at home with a group picture as each piece of sea glass will represent someone in the picture and someone that was there with us on our wedding day J

We will also have tears of joy with Kleenex I bought from Michaels with little hearts on it, which will be put in Vellium envelopes I bought from Ebay. I bought stickers from Michaels also that say Today I marry my best friend...

Here is our Ceremony script that we also made with help from the BDW thread.

DÃ©cor

We were at our local mall one day and decided to go into Stokes for something and we found these for $20 on sale. I already got one for Christmas and loved it, so we bought 5 more for our wedding as the centrepieces.

I also got aqua and white paper lanterns from a local store here to hang in the wedding gazebo to give it some colour. I bought our sashes from weddinglinensdirect.com and they were amazing to deal with and the colour matched the girls dress exactly!!

I bought cake boxes from another BDW bride and made a label with ribbon for them. I also have a grey frame and I am going to put this inside so people know to take it back to them room and eat it!

Our table numbers are numbers written in the sand, which I got from just googling it. They will be held by real starfish with a slit in them, which I bought from Etsy seller Gallery360.

Thank-you Gifts

I bought 5 hankies from Etsy seller Mollyandmom and I cannot say enough about the owner Cathy. I got one for my mom, FMIL, grandma, me and my groom. Mike and I deficed that instead of gifts we would write a heart felt letter to eachother, I posted mine belowâ€¦hopefully he uses his hankie after he reads it.

For the BM I got them each a necklace set from the bridal store where they bought their dress, a flip flop luggage tag from michaels and a starfish ankelet from Ebay (cant beat it for only $3) I also got each of them a nice card with one of these poems inside of it.

For the GM they are getting a personalized flask that we bought from Ebay along with a bottle of Appelton Rum!

For the people doing readings I am giving them a â€œThinking of You â€Willow Tree Angel to thank them.

And for my uncle who is playing acoustic guitar at the wedding I ordered him personalized guitar pics from Ebay. This is what he will be playing when I walk down the isle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmuqORloBJw it is by Keith Urban asnd is called Ã–nly you can love me this way"

Thats all for now ladies...I hope you enjoyed and this can help someone in some way!