My fiancé and I are getting married on 9/3/16!
We are having a destination wedding in Montego Bay, Jamaica! I absolutely cannot wait. I've never really been one of those girls that dreamed about their wedding day. I mean, yes I had a wedding inspiration board on pinterest, but I wasn't daydreaming about the day as a little girl or saving up my allowance for it. The thought of planning a wedding and being the center of attention for an entire day kind of makes me anxious. I'm the type of person that loves for everyone to have a good time. So being responsible for so many peoples "good time" really stresses me out.
My fiancé and I had dated for over a year. We had met and hung out with one another's families several times but our families had never met one another. Kinda odd I know, but when your families live three and a half hours away it is kind of difficult with everyones busy schedules. For this reason we decided to have a save-the-date engagement party so that our families could finally meet and hangout.
I was very nervous initially but honestly the day could not have gone better! My sister and I had even made games to break the ice. We made a family bingo game boards and tickets for the forbidden word game but we didn't end up playing either. Everyone was eating and talking and laughing we really didn't see the need to play them.
Of course at the party we gave out our save-the-dates. We were extremely proud of these! They came out exactly like we wanted them to. The lady that helped us design them has a company called Atheneum Creative. I found her on pinterest, sent her an email and I could not believe that she actually lived in Charlotte! We met up a couple times at Dean & Deluca to go over the details and she provided us with luggage tags, boxes, filler and stamps. She offered to put our save-the-dates together for a fee. To cut cost we declined and did it ourselves. It was very tedious and time consuming but also really fun!
We also incorporated one engagement picture in each save-the-date box. Our engagement photos were taken way back in April. We wanted them to be taken at the beach to keep with the destination wedding theme. I emailed a photographer I knew from college. His company is called Jaxonphotogroup and he is based out of Atlanta, Georgia. He's amazing. So we drove down to Hilton Head, SC where Jack and his makeup artist Ashley Gray met us for the shoot. We kind of make a mini vacation out of it and stayed at a little condo walking distance from this natural beach. My fiancé found the condo on a website called Home Away. This is a site where people rent out their property to vacationers. It was so convenient! The photos only took about 3 hours and we had 3 outfit changes! It was kind of chilly and windy but it was really really fun and I was so pleased with the images.
To avoid the headache of having to prepare food we decided to get a few items catered. We used a company called Your Catering Company! They were so professional and nice! We wanted to incorporate the Jamaica theme while still keeping the food easy and casual. My dad made a few hotdogs on the grill too.
Save-The-Date Menu
-Jerk Chicken Strips
-Hamburger Sliders
-Hot Dogs
-Shrimp and Pineapple Skewers
-Cucumber Dill Pasta Salad
-Baked Beans
-Salad
-Cookie Plater (Sam's Club)
-Almond Cake (Custom made by Cook's Cakes)
There is a really popular bride blog called The Coordinated Bride. We were featured on their site on 9/3/15! Go check it out! You can also see some of our engagement photos there as well!
http://thecoordinatedbrideblog.com/we-found-love-in-the-perfect-place/
Here are a few images from our save-the-date party!
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| My finance's dad in the white polo and my dad in the stripped shirt! |
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| Dre Fly on the ones and twos! Having the music really helped set a fun loving tone to the party! |
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| For drinks we had two cocktail mixed drinks, wine, beer, water and juice |
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| I bought those ceramic letters from amazon for $9.00 and just filled them with jelly beans |
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| My mother in law in the blue jean top and my mom in the dress! |
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| Everyone really loved the shrimp! |
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| We had the party at our club house and outside by the pool we have these fire pits! |
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| This is the chaos of putting together the save-the-dates |
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| This is the outside of our save-the-date boxes we wanted it to kind of feel like you were getting a package that is why we liked the travel stamps |
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| This is what the inside looks like! |
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| Me and the boo! |
Philippians 4:4-9
"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, my brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."
Love,
April M.
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