Wafflesmom Moon Palace Planning Thread - January 23, 2016

[Wafflesmom]

It is now 6 months until our wedding so I think it’s about time I started my planning thread. Like many of the beautiful and helpful brides I’ve come to know from this site, I thought that starting a planning thread would not only get me organized but also give me valuable insight and advice from you all.

 

How we met:

 

In 2010 after ending a very long-term relationship with my ex-boyfriend, my friend kept encouraging me to sign up for online dating. I won’t lie to you and I was very skeptical about online dating and thought that there was no way I would even try it. After months of hearing her stories about how much fun she was having meeting new people and dating men she would never have met otherwise, I thought, what’s the harm in trying. So in December 2010, I created my online profile. I will admit that dating again was fun. I had no intention of getting into another relationship; I just wanted to meet new people. Well you know how they say that things happen when you’re not looking for it? Well in less than two weeks, I received a message from Derrick that just said, “Hi. How are you?” I thought that was a pretty lame message but I looked at his profile. I thought he was really cute so I messaged him back. We were messaging back and forth and soon enough, we agreed to meet for a date.

 

We met at Starbucks. I figured it’s a safe place to meet in case he turned out to be a creep! LOL As soon as I saw him, I remember the sigh of relief, he looked like his profile pic, but was actually cuter in person. Despite the usual first date jitters, we had a great conversation and it felt natural. After Starbucks we went to watch a movie. I don’t know why we went to the movies considering we talked the whole time. By the end of the night, I knew that it was the best date I’ve ever had.

 

After that date we basically saw each other every day and he would text me daily to see how my day was going. I knew that we had something special and what proved it was when he went to Vegas for his best friend’s bachelor party. It was 3 am and my phone rang, it was Derrick. I got worried since it was early in the morning. I picked up the phone and he was clearly drunk. Before I could get annoyed, he told me that he loved me and that he missed me. There he was in Vegas with his friends having fun, and he still thought of me. Right then and there, I knew he was a keeper.

 

The proposal:

 

As a bit of a background, Derrick had asked me before if I wouldn’t mind if he used a diamond his grandmother had gifted him to give to his future wife. I knew how close he was to his grandmother (she had passed away before I got the chance to meet her). So during a trip to Puerto Vallarta with his family in March 2014, his sister and I were walking the Malecon and they thought it would be fun to go to a jewellery store to try on engagement ring settings for me. I typically don’t wear rings so I didn’t know what setting would look nice on me, especially since my hands are small. I instantly fell in love with a halo setting. So when we got back to the resort, Derrick’s sister instantly tells him what we did, just to tease him and he got up and said, ok let’s buy it. LOL So to my surprise, we bought the ring. But before buying it, Derrick told me that even though I knew what my engagement ring looked like (minus the diamond), he would still keep the proposal a surprise since I wouldn’t know when he would do it. As you can imagine, he had fun with that. Being the jokester he is, we would go out, tie his shoes and look up at me to make it look like he was going to propose.

 

It happened on June 30, 2014 during our annual fishing trip to Ucluelet, BC. The weekend started off normal with Derrick joking around about proposing. Jokes included writing down "ring" on our list of things to bring to the island and Derrick singing "put a ring on it".

 

On the last day of our trip, Derrick suggested going for a walk to the beach after dinner and go beach combing. Derrick and I love to go beach combing anytime we're on Vancouver Island. I told Derrick that his mom and I saw a beach that morning when we walked the dogs along the lighthouse trail so we headed in that direction. As we walked to the trail, Derrick kept asking me to walk on his left side, closer to the road. I made fun of him, joking that my friend's husband always walked on the side closest to traffic to protect her, meanwhile Derrick wanted to use me as his shield. Apparently he had the ring box in his right pocket and didn't want me to see it. I should have clued in on this but still didn’t even think anything of it.

 

As we got to the beginning of the trail and looked at the map, I pointed to where we saw the beach. Derrick said he didn't want to go to that beach since it would be crowded. He suggested we keep walking to find a nice new beach that wasn't full of tourists. As we walked along the trail, Derrick pointed down the cliff and said, "Let’s go over to that beach, no one's there". He suggested going down the cliff using these old ropes tied to trees. I told him he was crazy and there was no way I'd go down old ropes, only to die falling off the cliff! So we kept walking and he eventually found a better way to go to the beach. To get closer to the water we had to walk and balance on what seemed like miles of rocks. In my usual "positive" vibe, I grumbled and complained the whole way. I think Derrick's favourite line was, "we're beach combing here? You know what we'd find under these rocks, more (insert expletive) rocks!" He would just turn to me, smile and say, "This is what I love about you, your positivity"

 

When we finally got to the water, I had to admit that the walk was worth it, the view was breathtaking. On top of that, we were the only ones there! We climbed over rocks as Derrick showed me starfish, sea anemones (or what I call sea enemies" and more rocks (lol). After looking around, we sat on a huge rock and just looked out towards the ocean and enjoyed the peace and quiet. I heard Derrick say, "Jer", and as I turned to face him, I saw him on one bended knee, holding a ring box and said, "Will you marry me?" I said "of course" and hugged and kissed him.

[Wafflesmom]

Aww thanks @! Now that I'm in the 6 month mark, I thought a planning thread will keep me organized.

 

And I'm like you, I was never a fan of online dating but I'm obviously sold on it now. Der and I always say that we don't think we would have ever met had it not been through online. Although our personalities are quite similar, our interests are pretty opposite.

 

P.S. Don't you love that the list has stars around the ring too lol. He's such a dork and I love it

[Wafflesmom]

Haha he did that too. He would tie his shoelaces then look up at me to make it appear as if he was proposing. Then another night, we were watching TV and he said, "Jer, will you (long pause) pass the remote control?" and then start giggling! So when he wrote that on the list of things to bring, I thought it was just him playing a joke again lol

[Wafflesmom]

Destination Wedding: Choosing a location

 

Der and I have always known that when we get married, we would definitely be having a destination wedding. We’ve both previously attended destination weddings and had a blast. Plus, our families were always excited and supportive about the idea of going away for our wedding.

Initially we wanted to get married in the Dominican Republic. We’ve both never been there so we thought it would be a great location with the beautiful Caribbean water. Right away I started contacting destination wedding travel agents. One of them contacted me right away and asked to meet me in person so we could chat about what we were looking for in a resort and to think about our must haves and must not haves so she can help in narrowing down resorts. I met with her and she impressed me right away. She knew all the resorts from first-hand experience (they tour the resorts frequently) and she had actually just returned from the Dominican. We started talking about flights and I was disappointed to hear that there were no direct flights from Vancouver.

 

When I got home from our meeting, I briefed Derrick and we both agreed that the flight to the Dominican was already long and adding stop-overs would basically mean that we would basically lose two days of our trip just on travel alone. I called our travel agent and she suggested we look into Mexico, specifically the Riviera Maya. We didn’t even have to think about it, we decided that we were going to have our destination wedding there.

 

Right away she gave us suggestions based on what we were looking for: kid-friendly, good food, and plenty of amenities. She suggested three places, Moon Palace, Dreams Riviera and Beach Palace. I loved all three but based on the photos and the wedding perks, we went with Moon Palace. We knew that Moon Palace was a big resort and that’s what actually sold us. Unlike most brides, we wanted a big resort so our guests wouldn’t feel like they had to stay with the wedding group throughout the whole week. It was after all their vacation as well so we wanted them to have the luxury of going anywhere they wanted to. Plus, it was family friendly which was a big thing for us since we have two nephews who mean the world to us. We wanted them to have fun too.

 

Now that we had decided on the resort, we had to figure out the date. My brother had gotten engaged a month before we did and their wedding date was June 2015. There’s a superstition in the Filipino culture that it’s bad luck for siblings to get married in the same year, so we would be married in 2016. Given that our wedding would be somewhere warm and sunny, we thought that early in the year would be a great time to go. Yes, it’s high season but we liked the idea of getting married around the same time we had our first date. So we asked our travel agent to find rates for us in January and we would go with the cheapest week. The rates came to $2022 (incl taxes) for travel January 19-26. We consulted with our family about the rates and they all said the price didn’t matter, just tell us when and where and we’ll be there (I love them so much). So from there, we put down our deposit to lock in the group rate.

[ashhtayy]

@@Wafflesmom

 

yay! so happy you started a planning thread.

 

love your story. my gf has been online dating for about a year now - hasn't found the lucky one yet but (most) of her date stories are amazing. it is incredible the people you meet through online dating that you wouldn't have otherwise. i couldn't agree (and relate) more - things happen when you least expect them to.

 

derrick sounds like such a character! such a fun person to share life with. love that he teased you so much about the proposal and that in the end it came to you as such a surprise. what a beautiful spot to be proposed to!

 

btw, i also LOVE the list he made and am so happy you thought to take a picture - great keepsake!

 

your resort came recommended to me from a girl on my hockey team. she went to a DW there a few years ago and instantly fell in love. i think they have a sky deck too? interested to read where you've decided to say your 'i do's'.

 

can't wait to read more!

[calgarybride2015]

Awe love your planning thread

 

I love a great sense of humor and having fun with your partner and it sounds like you two have a blast men really can be awesome can't they? Love your story!!

 

I also met my husband thru online dating!! E-Harmony to be exact.

 

My kid's dad used to always make me walk on the inside away from traffic so that made me LOL when I read it

 

Your ring is gorgeous and so special considering his grandmas diamond in there.

 

Ohhhhhh. Calling you drunk and saying I love you. This is a true story. We were in kelowna for a weekend and had, had to much to drink. Shawn says to me "you have no idea how much I love you. I mean like you. " I still tease him about it. If I wasn't so nervous talking in front of a group I would have told the story at our wedding!!

 

Can't wait for more!!!!

 

 

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Edited July 23, 2015 by calgarybride2015

[Wafflesmom]

@@ashhtayy thank you so much you guys are so helpful and I think it will help a lot to get advice and opinions from friends who are going through the same thing. Derrick is definitely a character! Lol He always makes me laugh and smile ☺ I took that photo of the list after we got back from our trip. I thought it was a joke but I guess not!

 

@@calgarybride2015 thanks to you as well! You are always so thoughtful and helpful, and your insight is invaluable! We met through plenty of fish. I didn't have high expectations going into it but I'm so glad I did. It brought me the love of my life and I love that my e-ring is extra special. He was really close to his grandmother so I'm touched he wanted to give it to me. He asked me if he could use it bc he thought that I may not want a "hand-me-down" diamond. I told him that was a ridiculous thought and it made it more special that it was his grandmother's! Men! Lol

 

And you should have mentioned that story about Shawn! Alcohol makes people drop their guard and their true feelings come out. As ridiculous as it sounds, it was a sweet drunken gesture lol

[calgarybride2015]

Hahaha exactly. It was his grandmas not an ex. Now that wouldn't be ok!!!!

 

 

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[Wafflesmom]

Hahaha exactly. It was his grandmas not an ex. Now that wouldn't be ok!!!!

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Kim, I know someone who replaced her e-ring diamond with one from her ex since it was bigger! I don't know why her now husband didn't object and I don't know why she'd even say something like that out loud!

[calgarybride2015]

Omg you must be joking??? That's like a large slap in the face to her husband isn't it?

 

 

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