One Love...Our Honeymoon is Booked!

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I have to be honest...I care more about the honeymoon than the actual wedding. I was never interested in a huge wedding and I was willing to cut back on certain things to have an amazing honeymoon. Luckily, we have been getting really great deals, so we have not really had to give up anything and we get to have an AMAZING honeymoon.

We will be going to Sandals Grande Riviera in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We knew we wanted to honeymoon in Jamaica even before we were engaged. We went on a cruise for our first vacation together and one of the ports of call was Ocho Rios. We went on a private tour and our guide took us to Royal Plantation which is a boutique hotel (now owned by sandals), and fell in love with the place. While we were there we vowed to return for our honeymoon.

Ocho Rios has everything we were looking for in a honeymoon destination; culture, great  nightlife, sun, sand and amazing food. We originally considered Royal Plantation but determined that we could get more for our money at Sandals Grande Riviera. We booked a villa with a butler and a private pool, and since Sandals is all inclusive we dont have to worry about food, drinks or activities. But we are not the type of people to stay on the resort so we will be out and about soaking up the Jamicain culture.

Now we just have to book our flight. Where did you decide to honeymoon and why did you choose that location?

I'm Baaaak! Bride Brain Burnout



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My last post was in November, and though I would like to blame my lack of posting  on the holidays or work, but its  simply not true. The truth is, I just didnt feel like planning for a while. I was warned, that at some point in my planning I would not feel like doing anything wedding related for awhile, but I didnt believe it. Planning was so fun and I had so much to do. Who could get tired of this? Well I did.

I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that we had 2 years to plan. And after having Bride Brain for a year, my brain got tired. So, I simply stopped working on wedding stuff for a few months. But all of a sudden we realized we have 9 months left and we have a ton of things to take care of. So, I guess its time to get back to business.

Was there a point in your planning where you didnt want to think about the wedding?

Save the Dates are Going Out!

We are just under the year mark until the wedding and we are finally sending out our save the dates. Actually, I thougt it was kind of early but we kept getting questions about the date and accomodations so we decided to send them out earlier than originally planned. We got these babies free from vistaprint.com.

Bouquet Alternatives : Brooches & paper & Crystals, Oh my!

Purple bouquet

As you all know I am not a very traditional bride and I could really care less about flowers. Though flowers are beautiful, they make me sneeze and they die. And I have a huge problem with spending so much money for something that is not going to last beyond the day .  At first I wanted purple calla lillies, but after pricing them out and considering how low the bouquet was on my list of priorities, i decided to forgo one all together. But after browsing the wedding blogs the past few months, I have come across a few unique bouquet alternatives that I would consider.

Crystal Bouquet

I originally wanted a winter themed wedding and I thought these crystal bouquets would be perfect. They are really expensive, but pretty easy to DIY. I still love them but they no longer fit our theme.  You can find a great tutorial here or buy them online here.

  

Brooch Bouquet



I love bling so I am drawn to these brooch bouquets. They are kind of expensive but seem pretty easy to DIY if you can find the brooches. I really love these but think they are too vintage for my theme. What do you think?  You can find a tutorial here or buy them here.



Composit Bouquet

I loved these and considered one for my flower girl. I think they are pretty chic and I am still considering them for sure. You can find a tutorial here or buy one here.

Fabric

These  fabric bouquets are by far my favorite. Super easy and the price can vary depending on the type of fabric you use. I will post a tutorial when I'm done making mine but here is where you can buy them.

Some other ideas that are cute but did not fit my wedding

Metal:

Metal

Feathers:

Feather

Fans:

Fans

Paper:

Paper

Candles: 

Candles

In the end I think I'm going to try the fabric bouquet since I like how they look and they are fun to make. Im still going to try the composite flower since that might turn out to be pretty awesome.  But who knows, i might still decide to walk with nothing. So do you/did you have an alternative bouquet? Do you think they are trendy or will they stand the test of time?

My first DIY

Finally getting started on my long list of projects. These are the trial run of my fabric flowers and I LOVE how they came out.

Private Last Dance

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There are several songs the FI and consider "our song", so we had a very hard time deciding on one for our first dance. We decided we wanted to take dance lessons, so we wanted to choose a song early so we have time to take lessons and get plenty of practice. So while browsing the internet I came across a few lovely shots like the one above, that caught my eye.

What happens is, when all of the guests leave to get ready for your grand exit (or when they all leave if you are not doing one), you and your new husband dance together alone. Its just the two of you, the DJ and the photorapher. Or you could even have the DJ start the song and then step out. So not only do you get another intimate moment with your new husband, but you can also get some great photos!

This seems like a great solution to our first dance song problem since we can pick two songs to dance to. Plus we dont have to eliminate any songs that are difficult to dance to since for the private last dance we can just sway if we want. We plan on limiting it to about 3 minutes, which will give the guests enough time to prepare for our grand exit. Plus I love the idea of having a few moments to basks in the last few minutes of our wedding together.

Did you do this at you wedding or have you ever heard of it?

More stuff I Learned From Others Weddings

This year has been full of weddings for my fiance and I, and we still have at least one more to go. Even before we were engaged, after we attended a wedding we would point out what we would and would not do. So here is a few things we learned from the last two weddings we went to:

• Fake flower petals look fake. We originally planned on using silk petals for the aisle and for the petal toss. They are inexpensive, we can get the exact color we want, and nobody will notice the ones on the aisle are fake.....wrong. We noticed and it really detracted from the decor. So we decided real was the way to go for us, even though its going cost a lot more.
• Really long weddings suck. We all like solos and reading, but they get repetitive after a while. And 2 or more hours is way too long to hold peoples attention. At the last wedding several people made us promise our ceremony would not be so long. An hour, tops, is reasonable.
• Dont start late. Again, both these weddings started at least an hour late. That is super annoying to someone like me who likes to show up early to events. We are starting on time even if all the guests are not there.
• You can have great decor on a budget. I really liked the reception decor at both weddings even though i knew both couples had modest budget. They both had rather large ccenterpieces that really added to the space.
• Bands can be awesome. Both weddings had a live band (the same band) and it really created a nice ambieance. I would not do one for the entire night, but they are great for dinner and cocktail hour.
• Have someone with a list of tables. At the last one we could not find our escort card. Luckily the coordinator was walking around with a list so she could tell us where to sit. My FSIL grabbed our card for us, but we could not find her at the time. This lead to out decision to do a chart instead of cards.
• If people eat too much at the cocktail hour they wont eat a lot at dinner. This has been true at almost all of the NY weddings I have been too. At the last wedding the dinner was pretty good but i could not finish since i was still full from cocktail hour. And they had fruit and salad served before the entree and only a few people actually touched it. What a waste. My fiance refuses to serve a lot a food at our cocktail hour for this very reason. So far we are thinking of only offering fruit and veggies since there will be dinner and a late night buffet.
• Serve dinner while the speeches are being given. At the last wedding, I was not really hungry for dinner, but some people at my table were. And it felt like we had to wait forever for the speeches to end to be served.
• And lastly, make sure your venue is committed to service. The last wedding reception was at a very pretty venue but the service was terrible. In their defense the reception started over an hour late and there was another event right after, but the staff still should have been professional. As soon as my fiance and i arrived we heard a few complaining about the late start and how they had to hurry for the next event. During the cocktail hour if we sat our plate or drink down on the table for a second, someone was comming to take it away. At dinner my FSIL bent down to fix her shoe and when she looked up her plate was gone! I understand the need to move things along but at least ask if the person is done. They all seemed very unhappy to be there and it really brought down the experience for us.

Thats all I have for now. Have you been to any weddings lately? What have you learned?