Those that had DWs...

[nkarma]

How many days before the wedding should we arrive? What do we have to do as far as meeting with the venue or coordinator? This may be naive...I do think a meeting of an hour at most is in order to communicate the schedule and last minute details, but is there anything else?

A flight we are looking at arrives 24 hours before our welcome activity. Is that enough time?

This can be answered by non-DW brides as well...what is it that you do in the days before the wedding? What needs to be gone over with the venue and any vendors??

 

[FrekeChild]

We arrived Wednesday and the wedding was Saturday. Our guests started arriving on Thursday, so it was really nice to have a day to ourselves before all of the hoopla started, and people were demanding our attention. We didn''t have any meetings before the ceremony (Vegas) and the only thing we did have was a photoshoot on Thursday (engagement). My husband thought we spent too long (Wednesday-Monday) there, but I actually enjoyed our time there and I think if I were to change anything, I''d stay until Tuesday instead, because I liked having a day to ourselves.

But as for meetings, I''m really not the best person to ask, because I didn''t have any!

 

[Cupcake*Muffin]

I think 24 hours is good. We are getting in a week before since we rented a week long rental. The wedding is at the end. I didn''t get to meet any of our vendors, so I had to rely heavily on The Knot, Wedding Bee, etc to see what people had to say about the cake person, photographer, caterer etc. We didn''t have to do anything in terms of meeting the people at the venue since we are getting married at the beach house. However, we did have a hard time finding a house that would let us have a wedding there. Which is odd, but no biggie. I think the biggest things for us where to find out the rules of the island and someone to marry us. After that, we were all set. I think the perk of having a DW is to have it low key, less is more

 

[RaiKai]

Date: 3/30/2010 5:55:12 PM
Author:nkarma
How many days before the wedding should we arrive? What do we have to do as far as meeting with the venue or coordinator? This may be naive...I do think a meeting of an hour at most is in order to communicate the schedule and last minute details, but is there anything else?


A flight we are looking at arrives 24 hours before our welcome activity. Is that enough time?


This can be answered by non-DW brides as well...what is it that you do in the days before the wedding? What needs to be gone over with the venue and any vendors??

We flew in late New Years Eve and our wedding was January 2.

We made all arrangements with the venue/resort via our contact at the venue/resort by email and phone, including letting her know our planned itinerary, what we needed in the ceremony room, or at the dinner, and so on. I did not even meet her until the afternoon of our wedding as she was in Mexico for two weeks prior to it. And that was not a meeting. Just a "finally, we can meet!" sort of thing.

I had NO vendor meetings. Absolutely none. I asked my resort contact to either find certain vendors or point me in direction of where to ask (i.e. florist, officiant, stylist). Everything was held on resort (ceremony, a la carte dinner, makeup, pampering, accommodations, so that made it simple too).

Honestly, there was nothing to worry about in respect of last minute details or anything (or maybe, none that we were too worried about!). All we had to do in the "days leading up" to the wedding was drop off the marriage license and fee at the officiant's place (which we did the night we arrived). We did arrange the room a bit about an hour before the ceremony as we had brought some things from home we wanted to place in the room ourselves. Other than that, it was pretty chill. Maybe we just are pretty chill to begin with. It was a pretty small and laid back wedding so there weren't that many things we were panicked about or worried about getting perfect.

I enjoyed being there for a full day before as it gave us time to relax and see our guests for a bit too (they arrived in between Thursday evening and Saturday morning) I spent most of the day before the wedding getting pampered in the spa or seeing my family members (as I had not seem them in several months).

 

[nkarma]

Thanks everyone. I had just heard to get there a few days before. We will be there 2 days before the wedding and 1 day before the welcome activity. The only thing I know we need to do is stop and buy drinks for the welcome activity.

Our family has all decided that they want to come when we come...so it should be interesting not having any time to ourselves before, BUT we will have a whole week honeymoon after. I am just worried there is all this stuff I am not thinking about that you need to do before. I guess it would be nice to have family there to help or may be not nice to have to make happy...we shall see.

 

[wannaBMrsH]

We arrived the night before the wedding (Dominican Republic) and we were originally scheduled to arrive at 4PM, but due to a hurricane and having to fly to a different island to refuel, we arrived at the resort around 11PM. Bear in mind that the DR has no residency requirement, but other countries might (I think Mexico requires 48-72 hours, Bahamas is 24 hours, etc.) and you have to meet that requirement before you are allowed to be married there.

Our wedding coordinator was amazing. She stayed until at least midnight, we met with her first and she made sure that all the wedding guests on our flight and the one after us was allowed to eat after hours.

During our one hour meeting with her, we gave her and her team all of our programs and fans to place on the chairs at the ceremony site, we gave her our cake topper, and the menu and escort cards for the reception as well as the CD and flashdrive with all of our special dances music. We also selected our the flowers for the bridal party and special guests, ceremony, reception and cake as well as confirmed that the organist had all the necessary music. As far as paperwork was concerned, we double checked our passports and that of the maid of honor and best man (witnesses) and submitted all of our church documentation so that the priest could double check it before the ceremony.

We had a great coordinator at the resort. We hired a wedding coordinator and it was truly a waste of money. We would have been better off hiring only a travel agent for much less money than the people we hired as they screwed up our group travel and it ended up costing us so much more in the end. Plus they didn''t coordinate anything for us at all. They kept telling us to check with the resort. Very frustrating. Luckily, our resort was terrific.

 

[mrscushion]

For us, early bird guests are scheduled to arrive on Thursday, though most will get there on Friday or Saturday (day of the wedding). We will get there on Wednesday to have a day to ourselves and check on some of the details.

 

[andex23]

We''re doing a DW at the end of the month in Fiji. We arrive (with the whole gang) on Saturday (or is it Sunday?--there''s a HUGE TIME DIFFERENCE) and our wedding is supposed to be on Tuesday. We''re all staying until the next Saturday.

WannaBMrsH, I think, really brought up the most important point. You need to check the residency requirements to find out how long that you need to be there before the wedding. Sure, we can all be wrapped up in the planning and making sure that everything is perfect, but if you can''t get married because you didn''t fulfill the residency requirement, what''s the point of all the planning. Getting married is the most important thing in this whole process.

Fiji requires us to be there for 1 business day. (Monday). So we''ll get married on Tuesday. Although, as I am sitting here, I''ve realized that it doesn''t matter what day we get married...if it were Wednesday, or Thursday, or even Friday. Since, in our case, everyone (all 16 of us including bride and groom) are all going to be there for the same time, it doesn''t matter when we tie the knot. Just that we did it.

So, nKarma, get there in whatever time it takes for you to fulfill the residency requirement and then RELAX...

 

[katamari]

Date: 3/30/2010 8:40:47 PM
Author: nkarma
Thanks everyone. I had just heard to get there a few days before. We will be there 2 days before the wedding and 1 day before the welcome activity. The only thing I know we need to do is stop and buy drinks for the welcome activity.


Our family has all decided that they want to come when we come...so it should be interesting not having any time to ourselves before, BUT we will have a whole week honeymoon after. I am just worried there is all this stuff I am not thinking about that you need to do before. I guess it would be nice to have family there to help or may be not nice to have to make happy...we shall see.

Our family came with us. While it might have been more relaxing if they didn''t, it really didn''t impact us that much. We also made sure we had the most minimal requirements. We had two sessions of pre-marital counseling (in a language neither of us speak well) but everything else was taken care of remotely before we left. We also only had 5 guests. I assume the more you have, the more you will feel their presence.

Oh, and to answer your actual question, we got to the town we were married in 3 days in advance.

 

[nkarma]

Thanks.

I am rethinking the 24 hour thing and travelling with family because honestly I don''t want to have to worry about anything. I will make sure they have the info to get to the hotel, but I just want us to do our own thing getting there wise. I will still give them the option, but encourage them to take a slightly later and actually shorter flight.

We aren''t getting legally married in Mexico cause it is too much of a hassle so we will probably stop by the court house (with an appt of course) on the way to the airport, so no residency issues which is nice.

 

[GeorgiaGal]

We got married in the Fla Keys on a Saturday and arrived there on Wednesday. In retrospect I would have moved up our arrival one day. We had plenty of time to make our 3 morning meetings on Thursday/Friday (the hotel wedding coordinator, my hired day-of planner and the officiant) and assemble and deliver 50ish welcome bags to 5 different hotels. The problem was that many of our guests arrived the same day we did and our phones were ringing off the hook. Everyone wanted to lay out by the pool, grab drinks, swing by and see us, etc. and we of course wanted to go! I felt so bad that hubby was frantically tying bows and assembling and delivering welcome bags while his buddies were all out at the pool drinking margaritas calling him every 10 minutes wondering where he was It all worked out fine and once my mom and sister arrived, hubby was released to go play. I wish we would have had Tuesday to take care of these last minute things as the party really started mid-day Wednesday when the first guests started arriving Also if you need to have last minute meetings, I highly recommend first thing in the morning if possible, then you have the rest of the day to spend with your guests.

 

[Inanna]

We arrived in Florida on the Wednesday before our Saturday wedding and spent one very fun night in South Beach Miami. The next morning (Thursday) we drove down to the Keys, got our marriage license, had a nice lunch on the beach, and then checked into the estate we'd rented for the wedding.

We had one meeting at the estate with our rental property manager and caterer/planner Thursday afternoon. Basically we did a walk-through of the property and covered how and where the ceremony chairs, bar, reception tables, DJ booth, outdoor lighting and dance space would be set up. That meeting finished about 30 minutes before our family and bridal party started arriving. From that point we were able to completely kick back and enjoy our guests' company.

If at all possible, I would highly recommend giving yourselves some quality alone time and take care of any meetings before your guests/family arrive. (Another reason I recommend getting to your location a bit earlier is because literally the moment our plane landed in Ft. Lauderdale, 4-5 small pimples sprouted up all over my face. I NEVER break out. I was so glad I had a few days before the wedding for my skin to clear up and adjust to the drastically different climate of our destination.)

 

[nkarma]

Date: 4/1/2010 2:13:06 PM
Author: Inanna
We arrived in Florida on the Wednesday before our Saturday wedding and spent one very fun night in South Beach Miami. The next morning (Thursday) we drove down to the Keys, got our marriage license, had a nice lunch on the beach, and then checked into the estate we'd rented for the wedding.

We had one meeting at the estate with our rental property manager and caterer/planner Thursday afternoon. Basically we did a walk-through of the property and covered how and where the ceremony chairs, bar, reception tables, DJ booth, outdoor lighting and dance space would be set up. That meeting finished about 30 minutes before our family and bridal party started arriving. From that point we were able to completely kick back and enjoy our guests' company.

If at all possible, I would highly recommend giving yourselves some quality alone time and take care of any meetings before your guests/family arrive. (Another reason I recommend getting to your location a bit earlier is because literally the moment our plane landed in Ft. Lauderdale, 4-5 small pimples sprouted up all over my face. I NEVER break out. I was so glad I had a few days before the wedding for my skin to clear up and adjust to the drastically different climate of our destination.)

How do you stop your family from saying...We are going on the same flight as you? Everyone is saying that from his mother to my sister/MOH. I guess we don't mind it's just they will be around and hopefully relaxing on their own while we have these meetings.

 

[RaiKai]

Date: 4/1/2010 4:35:52 PM
Author: nkarma

Date: 4/1/2010 2:13:06 PM

Author: Inanna

We arrived in Florida on the Wednesday before our Saturday wedding and spent one very fun night in South Beach Miami. The next morning (Thursday) we drove down to the Keys, got our marriage license, had a nice lunch on the beach, and then checked into the estate we'd rented for the wedding.


We had one meeting at the estate with our rental property manager and caterer/planner Thursday afternoon. Basically we did a walk-through of the property and covered how and where the ceremony chairs, bar, reception tables, DJ booth, outdoor lighting and dance space would be set up. That meeting finished about 30 minutes before our family and bridal party started arriving. From that point we were able to completely kick back and enjoy our guests' company.


If at all possible, I would highly recommend giving yourselves some quality alone time and take care of any meetings before your guests/family arrive. (Another reason I recommend getting to your location a bit earlier is because literally the moment our plane landed in Ft. Lauderdale, 4-5 small pimples sprouted up all over my face. I NEVER break out. I was so glad I had a few days before the wedding for my skin to clear up and adjust to the drastically different climate of our destination.)

How do you stop your family from saying...We are going on the same flight as you? Everyone is saying that from his mother to my sister/MOH. I guess we don't mind it's just they will be around and hopefully relaxing on their own while we have these meetings.

I don't think you can really "stop" them from saying..or doing it. There are certain flights that work for people over other ones, you know? DH's family ended up on the same flight for part of the leg to our DW. We knew they would be on it and told them ahead of time, they could not sit by us

We did end up sitting near his sister and her boyfriend due to seat availability, but it was kind of fun and did not affect our time together. And it's not like we had to entertain them on the flight or anything.

Anyway, we always made it clear that our intentions were to spend time doing our own thing before the wedding....yes, they were there at the same time, but that did not obligate us to entertain them! They had plenty to do at the resort anyway. We also did not "make plans" with people that were going to be there unless we wanted to. And we declined many requests for "rides" here and there (we rented a car, his family didn't and we were not going to chauffeur them around!) firmly. It was more spontaneous and relaxing that way anyway. Just make it clear, and don't be afraid to say no.

And you can just tell them to pick a seat far away from you on the plane so you and your fiance can have lewd make out sessions and discuss "boring" wedding details Basically what we told ours (we did not have lewd make out sessions - though we did smooch a bit - or discuss boring wedding details, but it did indeed have them preferring to sit far away from us.