Photography courtesy Stacey Clarke.
Wow, I really can’t believe that our six-month blogging journey has come to an end! It has been so much fun sharing my wedding planning experience with all of you, and Karlo and I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone again for reading along! We truly appreciate each and every one of you…
Now, since the wedding ceremony in Jamaica has passed, and our Vancouver reception just took place last weekend, I feel the best way to wrap this up is to give you my Top 10 “If I could do this all over again” list. Here goes:
If I could go back and do this all over again, I would:
1. DEFINITELY still get married in Jamaica! Our wedding ceremony, in fact our whole trip, was absolutely perfect in every way and was even more than we’d ever dreamed of. For those of you considering a destination wedding, I would recommend Jamaica (specifically, the Riu Palace Tropical Bay in Negril) wholeheartedly.
2. Definitely still write our own vows. I can’t imagine what our ceremony would have been like if we hadn’t had the chance to say our vows in our own words. If you have the opportunity to write yours from scratch, I’d highly recommend it.
3. Make sure to hire a travel agent who has extensive knowledge and experience with booking group travel arrangements, specifically wedding trips. Sadly, our experience with our travel agent was not a good one, and this was pretty much the only stressful part of our planning experience.
4. Hire a local photographer based on peer recommendations. Since we were hiring a photographer from so far away, we didn’t have the luxury of meeting her ahead of time. All we had to go on was her online portfolio and the reviews of her work that I found on the Best Destination Wedding Forum. In the end, we couldn’t have been happier with our decision—our photographer Stacey Clarke did a magnificent job and she was so incredibly wonderful to work with throughout the whole process.
5. DIY as much as possible! Towards the end, I ran out of time and had to let go of some of the DIY projects I had planned. So if I could go back, I would definitely have planned my time better and gotten a few more DIY’s in there. Read the rest of this entry »
So here’s the deal. Growing up, I always wanted to have a big winter wedding. In fact, I went so far as to say I wanted an outdoor wedding, in the snow, wearing a giant ball gown with a (faux) fur coat and hand muff to keep me warm…you know, ride in on a sleigh and all that. Oh, I also said I would NEVER wear white—in fact, I wanted to wear a bright colour (possibly red?) and have the bridesmaids be the ones wearing white, just to keep things “interesting.” Oh boy, have things changed! Now, years later, my ideal wedding is an intimate affair, on a beach in the Caribbean with nothing but Mother Nature as the backdrop. Sigh, I can hardly wait to be there in May. 
First off, I’d just like to say that I’m a Vancouver gal through and through. I was born and raised here, and I have no intention of ever moving away. Why would I? We live in the most beautiful spot on earth, in my opinion, and I want my future kids to have all same pleasures that I’ve had while growing up here. Now, you may be asking why I’d waste 64 words on describing my love for Vancouver when I should be getting down to the nitty gritty of my wedding planning? 
