# Laelani's Secret Planning Journal



## Laelani

Hi all!!! So I guess I should start off by talking a little bit about OH and I. We met when we were about 11 years old and went to school together for 3 years and then my parents decided that we were going to move across the country so nothing really came of it, especially since we were so young too. I was away for almost 5 years when I returned back to where we had met and we had hung out a couple of times but nothing major. In 2010, we discovered that we were living only 4 hours apart and decided to meet up for the Easter weekend. Needless to say the chemistry was very strong and within 3 days of being here we were a couple. I returned back to my house after the weekend had ended and about a week of being apart and long webcam chats he asked me to move in. So April 17, 2010 I moved in and haven't looked back. That was 2 years ago. :cloud9:

Now our wedding planning is very unconventional in a sense that there is no ring yet. So technically we aren't actually engaged. The reason for this is because there are so many family members that would want into the wedding planning. We want the wedding planning to be done solely by us and then lay it all out for the families. That said we decided to wait until the wedding is completely planned out and we are little more financially sound before getting officially engaged. 

We have a lot of the wedding planned at this point and so I thought it would be a good idea to start this journal at this point so I can vent about the stresses and share my joy when things start falling in place since I can't talk to anyone else about it! The only other people who knows about the wedding planning is the friend who will be my maid of honor and a couple bridesmaids. 

Thank you for joining me in this planning and the journey toward the wedding.:flower:


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## Laelani

Just got done watching My Fair Wedding by David Tutera. Man he's a genius! I would never be able to come up with something that awesome AND put up with some of those brides. I hope that I am not a cranky, uptight piece of work when it comes to my wedding. Wow. I am considering buying his book though it might help with some of the planning...


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## DonnaBallona

your story sounds really romantic :cloud9: good luck planning the wedding. :flower:


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## Eve

They are seriously the cutest couple ever too :cloud9: You could tell how much he loves her, just by the look in his eyes as he looks at her! 
Sorry love, just had to say that! 
I am so happy for you guys and can't wait to hear about your wedding planning! Keeping it a secret sounds like a good idea to me, and I am technically engaged without a ring too :haha: Since my fat arse gained weight after K, it doesn't fit me good anymore, so I need it sized etc.... so I haven't had it on in 2+ years now!


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## Laelani

DonnaBallona said:


> your story sounds really romantic :cloud9: good luck planning the wedding. :flower:

Thank you!!! :)



Eve said:


> They are seriously the cutest couple ever too :cloud9: You could tell how much he loves her, just by the look in his eyes as he looks at her!
> Sorry love, just had to say that!
> I am so happy for you guys and can't wait to hear about your wedding planning! Keeping it a secret sounds like a good idea to me, and I am technically engaged without a ring too :haha: Since my fat arse gained weight after K, it doesn't fit me good anymore, so I need it sized etc.... so I haven't had it on in 2+ years now!

Aww thanks Eve!!! I like to think that but it's good people notice it too. ;) The wedding planning is pretty much done in terms of the big decisions so that's exciting. I will be posting right after this reply with some of the stuff we have chosen so far!


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## Laelani

Ok so today I am going to post some pictures of some of the things that we have decided on. 

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/Wedding/starlight.jpg
This is the reception hall in the Starlight Room at Club Roma. The ceremony will take place at an outdoor pavilion at Club Roma as well. I didn't know this place existed until I saw it on Four Weddings Canada and researched long and hard to find it. So that's where we would like everything to be.

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/Wedding/twobirdsclassicshortbutterfly.jpg
This is going to be the bridesmaid and maid of honor dress. This is from a place called TwoBirds which I learned from My Fair Wedding By David Tutera. I thought they only had one in LA but turns out there is one in Toronto! So that's a definite. These dresses are designed for all shapes and sizes to look great in and the top part is a wrap style and there's over 15 different ways to wrap it. These will be done up in a dark purple (probably Eggplant for you color gurus)

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/Wedding/24429.jpg
This is going to be my earrings. These are found at Ben Moss. I love that they dangle and they are hearts, super fitting. 

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/Wedding/24428.jpg
This is the necklace to match the earrings.

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/Wedding/bridalbouquet.jpg
This is the bridal bouquets. I will have a larger version of this than the bridesmaids and will also have a smaller one for throwing at the reception. I am also going to get purple and white rose petals for the flower girl to throw and some also to line the aisle with. 

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/Wedding/Veil.jpg
This is my veil. It's a walking length and is shimmering with some really nice embroidery along the edges. This is part of the Alfred Angelo Disney Wedding Collection.

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/Wedding/AlfredAngeloCinderella2010.jpg
This is going to be my dress. I found this dress about a year ago and I have not stopped thinking about it so I think this will be the one. I am, however, going to go to a few bridal spots and try on this dress among others just to make sure.

So there's a lot of the big stuff right there. Planning this wedding on our terms is so much fun because we are able to discuss stuff and say yes I like it or no I don't and we can change our minds a million times. I know that if we were engaged we would have family calling here every day and as soon as a decision was made they would all be running out to buy stuff so if we change our mind it costs at that point. This is so much better. I have made a binder with all of the pictures of what we like in it and a big checklist and a pricing list and everything that we are going to present to the parents when we announce the engagement. 

Anyway that's good for me for now. Have a good day!


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## Eve

Awe! Everything looks soooooooo pretty hun! :cloud9:


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## Laelani

Eve said:


> Awe! Everything looks soooooooo pretty hun! :cloud9:

It's going to cost a fortune when all is said and done but we have three sets of parents to help, 2 bridal showers, an engagement dinner, and a stag & doe (not real popular there I don't think) so I'm sure we will manage. So far we are up to about $25,000 and there's a few things still left to decide so I assume we are looking at close to $30,000.


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## Laelani

So I was looking at stuff again today and thought I would share the stuff I saw or at least some of it. 

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/Wedding/tiara.jpg
This is tiara I want. It has pearls in it as well as crystals. Would look stunning with the veil I posted earlier.

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/Wedding/tablerunner.jpg
A personal touch for the head table.

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/Wedding/aislerunner.jpg
Love this!!! Must have it!!!

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/Wedding/caketopper.jpg
Cake topper. Beautiful!

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/Wedding/candyboxes.jpg
Wedding Favor 1 - To put candy from the candy buffet in

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/Wedding/cupcakeboxes.jpg
Wedding Favor 2 - For their "slice" of wedding cake (which will be a few tiers of cupcakes!) 

So yeah all amazing things!!! :) I'm so excited!


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## Eve

Yep, gorgeous! Expensive but gorgeous!


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## Laelani

Nothing much to really report here in terms of planning. That being said we might have to change our date, again. :cry: It just seems like we will never get married! We are now considering a move which will set our budget back about 4-5 months if not a little longer. Ugh. I guess the longer we wait the more money we will have to do it because we will have more time to save? I keep telling myself these things so I don't go absolutely insane.


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## Eve

:hugs: hun... it's only 4-5 months longer though right?


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## Laelani

Eve said:


> :hugs: hun... it's only 4-5 months longer though right?

Yes and we will get a home finally instead of an apartment and then can really get down to the final planning. We will just need more time to save up that's all. It's all good as long as I have everything planned out and most of my stuff booked before I start school next year I would be willing to wait a whole other year to actually do the wedding. I just don't want to plan a wedding plus try to go to university. Too much.


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## comotion89

so when's the big day planned for? :D


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## Laelani

comotion89 said:


> so when's the big day planned for? :D

We were looking at August 25, 2013 but are now in the process of discussing a move which is likely to be happening in the next few months so that might put us behind. It will definitely be within the next 2 years.


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## Eve

I'm planning for summer of 2014 so we can plan and countdown together (kind of lol)


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## Laelani

Eve said:


> I'm planning for summer of 2014 so we can plan and countdown together (kind of lol)

:rofl: Sounds good! :)


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## Laelani

Sorry I've been MIA here lately but I haven't been really concentrating on wedding planning for myself right now. I have been getting myself enrolled for school. Funny part is it's a school for Event & Wedding Planning! :rofl: Wish me luck!


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## Laelani

Not much has been going on still with the wedding planning. We are at a stand still for the time being. I will continue to update as things occur. :)


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## tasha41

Club Roma looks absolutely stunning!! Just saw this thread and thought I'd take a peek, I think I remember talking about venues in the area awhile back :)

Love what you're looking at so far, can't wait to see it come together!


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## Laelani

tasha41 said:


> Club Roma looks absolutely stunning!! Just saw this thread and thought I'd take a peek, I think I remember talking about venues in the area awhile back :)
> 
> Love what you're looking at so far, can't wait to see it come together!

Thank you!


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## Laelani

So I think I am beginning to have a change of heart with this wedding. When OH and I originally starting talking about our dream wedding he always said he wanted to do a cruise wedding. Well I will tell you right now I will NOT do a cruise for my wedding. That's more of a vacation or honeymoon for me, personally. I like being in one spot for more than a day so a cruise doesn't speak to me. Although throughout all the months of our planning I keep have this nagging feeling in my heart to somehow give him that dream wedding he wants too. Also at the same time I'd like to have a smaller guest list so that I don't have to worry about problematic family members making an appearance. So I began doing research on destination weddings and I found two very perfect resorts that I am going to bring up to OH as a surprise _*after*_ we are officially engaged. Which by the way is happening at Christmas 100% now. 

The resorts I looked at the Beaches Resort in Turks and Caicos and the other is the Aulani Resort & Spa in Hawaii (which is a Disney resort). Gotta say though I have heavily leaning toward Turks and Caicos because the photos I've looked at of the beaches are absolutely breathtaking. Here are a few pics of the resort I really enjoy:

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/Nikki-Beach-Resort-Turks-and-Caicos-Islands-300x203.jpg

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/14668.jpg

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/grace-bay-beach-1.jpg
How can you not fall in love with this beach?!

Have you or any of your friends had a destination wedding? If so how did it go? Do you/they regret it? How expensive did it end up being overall for the wedding and for the guests?


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## Laelani

Omg we did it!!!!!!! Not only did we finally choose a location but we chose DATES!!!!!!!!! :happydance::happydance::happydance::happydance:

We have decided to do a destination wedding afterall at Coconut Bay Resort & Spa in beautiful St.Lucia!!!!

https://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab30/Laelani21/EternityBeach.jpg
This is what our ceremony will look like, just not in that color. In this photo what you see is called Eternity Beach which is a private island exclusively for weddings. Who gets married on a private island?! This girl!

So yeah we are getting a wonderful wedding package and are adding on a few things just to make the day that much better. The guest list is up to about 170 people but we expect 50 or less people will show. We will be putting down a deposit in March 2013 as the dates we chose are March 20-27, 2014 and we are going to go down 2 days earlier than that. The reason we have to wait until March to put our deposit is because the resort won't take the deposit until 12 months or less remains before the big day.


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## hopeandpray

Looks beautiful!


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## Laelani

hopeandpray said:


> Looks beautiful!

Thank you!


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