happy new year!

i love this man... 

2012 - the year of wedding is almost upon us. and we still don't have the website done or save the dates out. we both keep promising ourselves - this week we'll get stuff done, but the holidays continue to keep us merrily visiting with friends and family. hopefully jan 1 - in our post dec. 31 new year haze - we'll get to work on wedding stuff again. we promise, it's coming very soon to a mailbox/computer near you!

however, in the meantime, we want to take this opportunity to say - happy new year!!

everyone keeps telling us 2012 will be very exciting... i can only guess they mean the wedding and not flying planes out of earthquakes a la john cusack 2012...  how next year can top 2011, i have no idea - but we can't wait!

happy happy new years to everyone, and best wishes for 2012 to all! we can't wait to see you in jamaica!!!

twas the year before the wedding...

we should be working on our wedding invitations. we should be mailing save the date cards. our wedding website should have been done a few weeks ago.

facebook has been a little too good at connecting and sharing with the people in our life... somehow we already have 22 confirmed guests and we haven't even officially told anyone. don't get me wrong, i don't mind, i'm thrilled - but i do realize there is a clear need to get our save the dates out and website up. as soon as possible.

but... with the festive season upon us, all wedding planning and prep has been stalled.

i've been spending every spare second knitting. seriously. i've even been caught with my needles out at staff meetings, waiting in line at check outs and even the dinner table.

while dave has been pulled away to prep holiday e-cards for random websites. i have found him sleeping at his computer on more than one occasion while trying to make snowflakes fall or build up on screen...

we've decided to embrace the holidays and stop wedding stressing until next week. or at least until we can find elves to hire to help us through to sunday. however, we are oh so excited to get our website up and the save the dates out. until then, i'll be sipping (i mean guzzling) rum and eggnog and knit knit purl purling my way to christmas eve while visions of saying "i do" on a jamaican beach dance in my head.

happy -1 year anniversary!!

so, one year from today will be our wedding day. given that we've already been together 11 years, we figure we deserve to celebrate our t-1 year wedding anniversary.

really, i like to celebrate anything and everything. beautiful sunny mornings make me want run around julie andrews style singing the hills are alive..., while rainy days make me giddy with delight to stay in bed with covers pulled high. even taco night makes me want to break out sombreros and tequila and turn it into a fiesta (i secretly wish every taco time the old el paso man will appear bringing us the instant decorations and mucho fun tonight).

so, why not celebrate now what will be our big day in 2012! really it's just an excuse to drink asti martini...

apparently paper is the traditional one year anniversary gift. i can only assume this means an email or blog post is now the traditional -1 year anniversary tradition.

 happy anniversary dave!! xo

a picture is worth a 1000...?

i'm pretty sure i've harassed almost every professional photographer in jamaica now for quotes. we knew wedding photography was going to be expensive, but just how expensive, we had no idea. i've tried to cost compare with wedding photographers here in ottawa, and though of course there are ranges, it seems jamaica is significantly higher. i guess because they know they'll get the business with so few photographers on the island.

when we were first deciding on a location, i found SAAB photography's blog, which boasted amazing photos! they are absolutely worth checking out: http://saabwedding.com/index2.php  sadly, these guys are way out of our price range.  i then tried four others that had been recommended on a destination wedding forum i was reading. though not quite as pricey as saab, the prices were still pretty high. plus we have to pay an "entry" fee to bring in an outside worker.  we know you have to pay for quality work, but the fees were higher than we were hoping. in fact, high enough that we are now considering offering a FREE trip to jamaica for a professional photographer from here if they will work our wedding for free.  anyone know anyone?

and yes, we realize our friends and family will have cameras, and many photos will be taken. we can't wait to see them all. but, we were hoping for a few professional shots. with professional equipment, to capture those stunning sunsets... someone whose job it is to take photos. we want our friends and family doing what they please - maxin and relaxin!

for now, the search continues for someone to photograph this day for us while staying in our budget. 

on a side note, both dave and i are also considering moving to jamaica to become professional wedding photographers. 

did we really pick the end of of the world as our wedding date?

12/12/12 - we finally set a date. we did not pick this date because of any special reason other than, it would be easy to remember. seriously - neither of us can remember our anniversary now, and we just choose to celebrate the last weekend in march. we figured for the wedding, we'd choose a nice and easy to remember date. plus 12/12/12 is just fun to say. it does help next year will be our 12 year anniversary together too.

as it turns out, if it's anything like 11/11/11, it will be the most popular wedding day of 2012. great...
but all this aside only after choosing this date, did we find it's linked to the end of the world.

these are not the words you want associated with a wedding. especially not your own. ever.

however, apparently the mayan calendar ends in December 2012, and there are many who believe this signifies the end of time....

what's really strange, is most dates linked to this 2012 doomsday, are for 12/21/12 not 12/12/12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon

and yet for some reason, there are people are saying it's going to be Dec. 12th. 2012 http://globalpsychics.com/enlightening-you/prophecy/dec12-2012.shtml

i'm not sure if we just have a bunch of dyslexic prophets quoting this 12th day of december instead of the 21st or if maybe they have the inside scoop on the apocalypse. regardless - neither dave or i normally buy into the end of the world stuff, but if 12/12/12 really is the last day on earth, there will be no where i'd rather be. on a sunny beach with an open bar, surrounded by my friends and family.

trip advisor: you know can't trust all the reviews, yet you can't stop checking

we had narrowed our resort choices down to two. having never been to jamaica, or either of these resorts we couldn't make the decision on our own. and so began the review searches. ahh trip advisor... i have used this site in the past, and know all posts must be taken with a grain of salt. everyone has different ideas of what their vacation should be like, and often people only post to complain. in addition, we're not idiots and realize hotel mgrs. and owners are likely on there also, boosting the reviews and ratings of their hotels.

http://tripadvisor-warning.com/share/is-tripadvisor-manipulating-reviews-for-certain-establishments

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2032997/TripAdvisor-investigated-ASA-fake-reviews.html

outside fancy sofa bed hotel.
at least they gave us an umbrella...

 in fact, i've experienced something similar to this before. dave and i had booked a hotel through priceline a few years back, and thought we had gotten a great deal. when we showed up, we were given a nice room but there was no bed - i guess we got  the living room portion of a suite. we had a sofa bed, pulled out and made up awaiting us. we went down to complain but were told - well it's a bed. having paid less than 100 for the room at this 4 star hotel in vancouver, i wasn't going to complain further. however, when we got home, i did post a review in trip advisor, warning frugal travellers they may be stuck with a pull out couch at this hotel. that's all, not even really a bad review. i received a trip adivsor notification a few months later, telling me i was lying and this wasn't possible and that i'm trying to give the hotel a bad name. obviously, i know i wasn't lying. and who the heck is this person harassing me? i can only assume it's some working at the hyatt... i mean, who else would care?

to make a long story short, i know that trip advisor offers some honest, some not so honest and some crazy reviews. you can't help but read them....

and so began our frenzy of indecision. choosing between two resorts for the wedding - both highly recommended by our agent. each review, both positive and negative would change our minds. what was wrong with us? we know the truth about trip advisor. and yet there we were, hooked on each sentence.

finally, we decided to step away and try some other searches. i searched through blogs and pics of previous weddings at both locations, while dave researched on google earth to really see the size of both the resort, and the beach. we spotted the 7 km stretch of beach at the riu negirl - since both resorts already looked beautiful, we stuck with our beach theme and chose the best beach location.

so, we locked in.

then came the biggest mistake. reading more trip advisor reviews...

in hopes of getting more excited, we got more paranoid. did we make the right decision? should we change to the other?  it's not to late... or is it? i have no idea why, since both resorts have similar positive and negative reviews.

having been on trip advisor so much recently i've noticed a trend. it seems visitors from the europe and canada generally leave reviews for the resorts than americans. i don't know why. perhaps it's higher expectations, or just that americans like to complain (sorry dad). regardless, a recent increase in great reviews,  while looking at actual visitor pictures has made us confident in our choice, and oh so excited.

and though i swear to not bother with these reviews any longer, i can't help but to keep checking back.

have agent will travel

usually i'm online seeking deals, comparing rates and reading non stop reviews. we've never used a travel agent. in fact i thought it was kind of silly to use one. however, the idea of finding a resort, getting rates of travel for people located in different cities and arranging everything so we would all be at the resort for the same time sounded like a logistical nightmare. so... we opted for the traditional travelling planning mode. a travel agent.

having never used one before, we didn't even know where to start. a friend of mine recommended one she had used. we thought great, an agent someone has experience with and trusts. though this agent did respond to our initial email, he was never to be heard from again. no idea what happened to john the travel man...

we then thought we'd try our chances and just wander into the local travel agency at the nearby mall. we were greeted, well not even really greeted, more... eye rolled, by the most unenthusiastic person we've ever met.
granted, dave and i didn't really have all the information needed to book that day, but that's why we were there. all we knew was we wanted to go to jamaica, and we'd be bringing a group. hey - at least we chose a country.  one would think that after hearing "we're looking at booking a destination wedding next year in jamaica and want to go over some pricing and locations" an agent would be somewhat excited. or at least fake it. both for the newly engaged couple, and at the possibility of a major commission. however, this one just tossed us some west jet vacation and air canada vacation books and sent us on our merry way. actually - she did suggest one thing. a naked wedding. WTF - are you actually suggesting the hedonism resort for our wedding? you do realize we'll be bringing parents... and we requested child friendly... i'm pretty sure this woman was not joking. all that aside she did explain that there are some weird travel booking guidelines whereby if we booked in October we'd have to pay that month in full due to some strange early bird rules. this also meant she couldn't give us pricing, or really any details, or... really anything. i suspect she just couldn't be bothered helping. also - fyi. west jet and air canada offer pretty much the exact same vacations to the exact same resorts. we didn't need both books - actually, we didn't need the books at all. we have heard of the internet before....

so, i decided... maybe i should do this myself. we're not having much luck with this agent. i started comparing rates online between the major travel agencies. while on there, i took a chance and emailed one randomly about group planning. to my surprise, we got a quick pleasant response, that actually made us more excited. we started working with natalie - our ace agent, who had quotes ready for us within 24 hours for 5 different resorts. she was able to give us background and insight on most of the locations, having travelled there herself, or her coworkers. we then narrowed it down to two resorts. then it was real decision time... through the whole process this agent has been nothing but efficient, very quick to respond and always sounds happy and pleasant. it helps the first thing she said when she found out she was helping plan a wedding was - yay. congratulations. for those of you who know me well, yay is a staple in my vocabulary. but all this to say, the right agent really does make a difference. natalie - i'm so glad we found you.

son of a beach...

well... really sons and daughters of the beach. dave and i. though we had no idea where we wanted the ceremony, we were both sure there had to be sand, water and trees. ideally an outdoor ceremony. through our travels we've discovered we are both drawn to the waves and serenity that is the beach. we can spend hours wandering, exploring and just enjoying the scenerey. we frequently pass up popular tourist sites to just visit the local beaches while travelling. so, we figured this had to be the setting.

our dream beach - tofino BC

our favourite spot in canada, so far. schooner cove, tofino

dave happily searching for crabs 

fun at the beach

sadly, these beach spots are on the other side of Canada, and often involve a kilometre long hike to reach. not really realistic for a wedding setting. 

we also love the idea of the ceremony being at my parents property on the muskoka river. we had visions of lanterns through the trails and down on the dock, cheesy canoe photos, and local wildflowers everywhere. my parents air stream trailor would be the perfect back drop for some cheesy wedding shots. we then realized, one outhouse, though it is the fanciest outhouse we've seen, would not be sufficient for our guests.

 

while one outhouse might be fixable, we started looking at the logistics of getting everyone up to bracebridge and it became obvious this was not something we could pull off at this time.

not wanting to wait another 10 years until we could afford this dream muskoka ceremony, we set our sites on a destination wedding. we figured the caribbean is our best choice to keep it somewhat economical for everyone- my dream of a trip to tahiti will have to wait. however - white sand, crystal blue water. hot sun. a beach lovers dream. a visit to punta cana a few years ago proved to us, we are definitely beach babies.

having been to dominican, we wanted to visit a new country. cuba was not an option, as we do have US resident family members. dave's been to mexico -  so, we've decided to move forward with planning our wedding in jamaica.we dream of settings like this:

and photo moments like this:

we realize not everyone will be able to join us. but we're hopeful some folks will be up for a sunny vacation, while joining us for a wedding that's been more than 11 years in the making at the same time.

is this really happening?

this was my response on a hot summer friday night in our new home when dave proposed... what started as just a relaxing fun evening together after work, turned into THE story. i guess really this is dave's story and not mine, as from what i understand i inadvertently ruined all the previous "attempts". however, as the question was being raised, i was laughing - sure, we'll get married someday. a few more, no - i'm seriouses and - well, here we are.

the moment, captured

the ring - beautiful black diamonds set in white gold

and so... the planning begins.