One More Year!

So we are exactly one year away from getting married! This time next year we will be getting ready to get married on the beach in sunny, beautiful Jamaica!

I have to say our decision to have a destination wedding is by far the best idea we have ever had! Where most couples (or brides-to-be) are stressing out and freaking out over all the details....hall, dress, flowers, centerpieces, colors, shoes, limo, etc....I have none of those!!! :)

I already have my dress thanks to my wonderful mom, I plan on being barefoot in the sand (only need some flip flops for walking around) and I could careless about the rest! I'm probably one of the least stressed brides-to-be ever!

I am just waiting for the airlines to post flights for next year, then I can find the best deal and let everyone know.

As the days go by, I get more excited to walk down the aisle...er...the beach...with my loving fiance!

Only one more year to go!!!

Got the Dress!

So I have officially purchased my dress! Well my momma did! Love you! I am so excited!!! One step down...only a bazillion more to go! :)

Save The Dates Are Complete

So I know it may seem cheesy or cheap, but I made my own save the dates. I think they came out really good. I just can't see spending all that extra money on them, when they will just be thrown away eventually. I'd rather save the money and spend it on something else! So here they are, they are complete and mailed!

Front

 

Back 

The back has a magnet on it so they can stick it on their refrigerator so they don't forget! I mailed them out 18 months early to give everyone enough time to save up money for our big day! I hope everyone likes them, the comments so far have been good!

Do We Have a Winner?

So yesterday I went to David's Bridal with my friend who works there to try on more wedding dresses. I think I have narrowed it down to two dresses! The difficult part is they are two completely different dresses!! They have absolutely nothing in common and they are both beautiful dresses!! Decisions, decisions, decisions! My plan is to have a couple of friends come with me to go back and try them on and see what they think because right now I have no idea which one I like better! Here are the two dresses both by Galina:

The Best Destination Wedding Forum

If you are planning a destination wedding it is really hard to make choices on things that are in a completely different state or country. Without physically being there to see how things operate or look it gets to be really stressful. Some people will take a short trip to visit their location so they can make plans and decisions, but some people do not have the time nor the money to do that. I, unfortunately, am one of those people!

I ran across this forum posted on www.bestdestinationwedding.com website and it has helped me sooooo much! There are thousands of posts from other brides, travel agents, wedding planners, and who knows else that give information and pictures of just about every detail needed in planning a destination wedding. There are reviews of hotels, airlines, travel agents, food, photographers, florists, bakers, etc. from just about every popular wedding destination including Las Vegas, Hawaii, Cruises, Caribbean, and Mexico.

Hearing actual experiences from other brides has been the most helpful. Many of them explain what they would and would not do again. They give details about their save-the-date cards, invitations, travel arrangements with lots of pictures so that you can get creative ideas from others.

This forum has really helped me decide where to have our wedding and every other detail along the way. So thanks to all those brides and consultants and wedding gurus who've helped! So if you are ever planning a destination wedding this is the place to start!

Bridal Show Not So Helpful

My 3-year-old son, Cody, and I went to our first bridal show on Sunday at the Canton Summit on the Park. I have been to bridal shows before with my sister-in-law so I kind of knew what to expect. However, the one at Canton was not worth the $8 it cost me to get in. Cody might think otherwise because just about every table had some sort of candy that they were all offering to him and he wasn't declining! He was so good in there with me, I'm thinking partially due to the candy! The bridal shows I have been to in the past were much bigger and had way more vendors. I kind of knew that for the majority it was not going to apply to me since we are having a destination wedding, but I thought I'd go anyways. Unfortunately, I was correct, but I did get some wedding magazines that I didn't have to pay for which would have cost me more than the $8 for the entrance fee. Needless to say, I probably won't be wasting any more money on bridal shows because they really didn't help me. Most of the vendors were photographers, DJs, and bakeries. I don't plan on flying a photographer or a cake out to Jamaica! Oh well, we still had a good time!

My First Dress Shopping Experience

Yesterday my sister-in-law, April, and I went to a bridal dress shop to try on dresses. This is my first time ever trying on a wedding dress and boy was it weird! I must have tried on 20 different dresses of all styles because I never knew what I might like or what looks good on me. There were some really beautiful dresses, but I felt so odd in them. The lady at the shop said it's normal because I mean how often do you try on wedding dresses? Either way we had a blast and I found a couple that I really liked. Maggie Sottero was probably my favorite designer, she makes gorgeous dresses! I definitely found my favorite style too but I'm still going to be open since that was my first experience. I'm glad I brought April along because she has the same style an opinions as I do so it was easy to say which dresses we liked and we didn't. And it was nice to have someone I know see me half naked and staring at my butt each time she had to zip or tie up the back of a dress! Much better then having a stranger do it! She was definitely a trooper, got the blister on her fingers to prove it! :)


Out of all the dresses at this particular bridal shop, this is the dress I liked the most. But I'm going to keep on looking because nothing really gave me that WOW factor!

Maggie Sottero

The Date is Set!

We officially have a wedding date! 

Yes friends and family the date has been set. We will be married on 6/23/12 at the Iberostar Rose Hall Suites in Montego Bay, Jamaica. It all seems so real now that we have set the date! I am sooo excited. I am currently contacting a travel agent to get some price quotes and an idea of costs to pass along. I will give more detail about the resort too. I really hope everyone can make it! Keep checking back for more information and I'll be sure to let everyone know what I find out.

Save The Date Ideas

So I suppose if I want to give everyone enough time to save up I should be letting them know where and when the wedding will be! I have a few save the date cards in mind that I am going to play around with, but I really need to get them done and out! Luckily my fiancée will be going ice fishing this weekend so that will hopefully allow me some time to work on these. Since it's a destination wedding I wanted to keep with the theme so I found these really cute save the date ideas: a luggage tag or a boarding pass.

From www.emmalinebride.com

From www.thestylishscribe.com

I think I am leaning towards the luggage tag, but I am going to try and make them myself...should be fun, get my creative juices flowing! So be in the look out for a save the date for our wedding...I promise it will be in the mail soon! :)

So It's Going To Go Like This

My fiance and I have talked about getting married for a long while before we were actually engaged, I mean we've been together for five years and have a 3-year-old son so it was inevitable. We discussed different options, where to get married, when....have to work around his fishing and hunting seasons lol...etc. After attending a couple weddings of family members and seeing how much they spent on that one day, we both knew that was not the route we wanted to take. Obviously, the majority of the money spent is on the dinner for all of the guests and if we decided to have a traditional wedding we would want to go all out, we don't want to be cheapskates on the food! So after much discussion and Googling ideas we decided on getting married in Jamaica. For half the cost we get a week's vacation in the Caribbean, get to get married on the beach, and stay at an all-inclusive hotel. We are in love with the idea, however, many of our family and friends are not.

To any couple who is pondering the idea of having a destination wedding I want you to go into the idea that people are going to complain and some people are not going to attend. But you have to remember....this is YOUR wedding day and you should do whatever makes YOU happy! We of course would love to have all of our family and friends attend our Jamaican wedding, but unfortunately we can not pay to have everyone there and we totally understand if they don't make it. But that is not going to sway our decision.

So here's the plan....We are going to get married in Jamaica in June 2012, everyone is invited, and we are going to have a big "reception" party when we return. Not sure on all of the details yet but stay tuned for more information, frustrations, venting, and everything else that comes with planning a wedding!

My Birthday Surprise

It all started last year on my birthday, August 28th, when my loving boyfriend, Tim, planned a surprising fun-filled day for me. We began the morning with a round of golf, it was the perfect day too, sun shining, weather just perfect.This summer was my first try at golf and I have to admit I wasn't that bad at it. Anyways, the day was perfect and it was just me and my boyfriend and we were having a great time. We get to the 9th hole and I'm trying to putt my ball in the hole when I notice that the hole was not empty. I'm looking in the hole like 'What the hell?' when Tim pulled a silver box out of the hole, got down on one knee, opened the box displaying a gorgeous diamond ring, and asked me to marry him! I was in complete and utter shock, I swear my heart stopped beating, I wasn't breathing and everything in the world around me stopped! I, of course, said YES! Well, if you ask Tim he said I looked horrified, but like I keep telling him I was in shock. It was so unexpected. He had it all planned ahead of time, he had given the ring to the golf ranger and Tim called him when we were on the 8th hole and the ranger put it in the 9th hole so it was there before we got there.

The rest of the day continued in its greatness, Tim had also planned a surprise dinner for me at a Brazilian steakhouse that we have been wanting to try and all of my family and friends were there. Afterwards,we met some of my friends up at the bar for a few drinks. It was the best birthday ever! So from that day forward I officially had a fiancée and the best one I could ever ask for!!

And here is my gorgeous ring!