Hey Ladies! Hope everyone had a great weekend! All of your checks always inspire and amaze me. I haven't completed nearly anything when it compares to you all, but here it goes. Please don't let the length fool you into thinking I completed a lot!
Save the Dates Sorry I can't get it to flip for some reason. They are magnets. I bought the magnets which came with the envelopes right from Michaels (with a coupon of course....about $8 or so for 30), got an image right from Google and did some work in paint to cover the other info and put ours in. I printed it at my moms (FREE!). I mailed them right before the post office raised the prices too!
Air/Hotel We have been working with our travel agent since about November getting pricing and preparing for the air price release. Just after Thanksgiving is when Continental finally released their prices to P*unta Cana in October (they start releasing 48 weeks out), and just before Christmas we put a deposit on the air (which was the cheapest we found). Unfortunately, Continental canceled the flights, so we had to go through the whole process all over again. We were able to find another flight out of a different airport with another airline. It was more expensive, but the cheapest option.The deposit was placed with the new air earlier this month, and so far so good. The only downside is that the tickets for FI and me cannot be included in the group since we are leaving on a different day, so we have to book separately. **Upside is that the tickets are currently cheaper, so hopefully we luck out if we can pull the money together to purchase before they go up!**
The hotel has a desposit placed on all rooms so far. We had some people pay in full already (Yay them!!) so we were able to shift the money around so that everything was covered until more money startes to come in. I am collecting all money and checks from people and just sending it to the travel agent, so I can keep record of everything (I'm OCD like that
). I have also placed a deposit on the actual wedding to confirm the date.
MY DRESS!!! - I found my dress back on October 20, just days after we decided to have a destination wedding. It was my first time going dress shopping, and not anything like that I thought I would get! Every dress I had a picture of had pick ups (still do not know why I was so obsessed with it!). My cousin looked through my pictures, and saw one with the pick ups that was a little more like a mermaid style. She saw the dress, and insisted that I try it on. After every other dress I tried on, she wanted that one to be the next one. The woman I was working with wanted it to be the last one because she knew it would be the one, and it was! Here is a pic of me in the dress. It is Mori Lee 3091. The bridal salon is adding the sash (my boobs are kind of dominating in this pic so you may not be able to even see it!) Sorry again for it being sideways, and my face haha. The salon didn't like pictures so all the pictures we have were snapped without my knowledge because they had to be done so quickly.
BM Dresses We went BM dress shopping yesterday afternoon. I had 4 BMs attend. My cousin in Texas is my 5th BM, so she will just shop out there. I decided on Coral and Chiffon (thanks DW Knotties FB group for the advice while TK was down!!!). All of them picked their own dresses. Apparently while I was in another section of the store, they decided they would be in the same dress because they all had the same style (they actually picked out the same dresses when they hit the racks). They all decided on something different in the end because different styles flattered each of them differently.
My friend is plus-size and DB didn't have anything in her size. I was on the PS board, and read that someone actually purchased 2 dresses because DB can't get extra chiffon (only satin). I presented this as an option, and she is going to talk to a seamstress at a bridal salon she has been to in the past. She likes elements from all 3 dresses, so we will try to design something that incorporates all 3 designs so far!
My cousin will be looking on line and going to a local DB and letting me know her choice!
Will You Be My MOH/BM? This was my first DIY project, and I asked them shortly after we got engaged. I asked my close friend/sorority sister to be my MOH, FIs sister and sister in law to be BM, and another close friend to be a BM (she used to be our RA in college, and was plotting on setting us up from the beginning by whispering in both of our ears!). Over the years, I became a little distanced from my 2 cousins, one of which is just a few months younger than me and we were super close growing up. I did not ask either of them until October. TBT I slightly resented my one cousin because she didn't ask me to be in her wedding (when she was going to have more of a traditional wedding), and harbored feelings about it for some time. I got over it, and realized that our lives just went in 2 different directions. Her sister (my older cousin) actually had to drop out because of financial reasons, so now I am at 5. These cards were created when we still thought we were having our wedding here in NJ, and I wanted my colors to be a deep red and champagne/cream. My camera that I took the pics of the cards on is MIA, so I asked my MOH to take a pic of this, so excuse her magnet and nails!
So excited for future checks now!