After much debate and discussion about our venue for our Welcome Dinner, we finally decided that Aqua Grill will be the place for our family and friends to mix & mingle.  Besides, Irma, the sales manager, had been so attentive and helpful from the beginning that we couldn't pass.  The restaurant was in walking distance from The Westin (where most of our guests stayed), so it was convenient for all of us as well.
     The dinner was held in Aqua Grill's Pavilion area, which was only used for our party.  The chef made a special menu for our dinner to fit our specified budget, Irma then made personalized menus for each place setting, which we thought was a nice touch.     
    

     Our guests were seated and drink orders were taken by our own waitstaff.  The restaurant included beer or wine with the meal as part of our Welcome Dinner.  Irma added this to our event to  convince us even more to host our party at the Aqua Grill.

     While the guests waited for food or drinks, I busted out the trivia cards I made.  They were a huge hit and the guests loved the questions and the pictures.  It also made the time pass by quicker as we waited for the food to come out.  On that note, the food was delicious, but it did take a while for it to get served to our guests.  Management knew the food was taking too long, so they offered our guests another round of beer or wine on the house!  

    Below, Jodi reads a question out loud to the table.  The trivia did serve its purpose!  I love it when a project comes out the way you expected it too!

     When it comes to being the bride and groom, there is a lot of mixing & mingling being done.  So while guests are chit chatting or taking pictures, I do the same thing, but walking around Aqua Grill's Pavilion doing my rounds.  Here I am with my beautiful bridesmaids!  It's funny how they ended up wearing our wedding colors and I didn't even have to tell them!  They love me!

     Jeff does the same and mingles, doing his rounds.  Here he is with some of his boys!

     After about 40 minutes of waiting, the food finally comes.  I ate the Mahi Mahi, which was delicious, as well as the polenta.

     We also served the Asian Chicken, which I didn't try, but heard was flavorful too.

     The best part of the dinner was finally served, Key Lime Pie!  That was really yummy, though I couldn't finish it because of the big meal we were served and the appetizers prior to that!  I had to remind myself that I had a dress to fit into the next day!

     After everyone was done eating, Jeff's father made a speech, letting everyone know how happy they were and thanking everyone for coming and celebrating with us.

     And with that said, Jeff expressed our gratitude and then we passed out the Welcome Bags!  Another huge hit, I just love giving and seeing all the smiling faces!  It makes all the time and money we spent doing everything worth it all!

     I would recommend hosting a party at Aqua Grill, the attentiveness and prompt communication, as well as their willingness to work out our budget were all pluses for us!  Thank you to Irma, for all her hard work and attention!  As far as the waiting, it can happen anywhere, the restaurant was pretty busy including our party, and this is why you keep your guests busy with trivia cards (just kidding), but on the serious note, it's hard to be impatient when you're on "One Happy Island!"  Besides, management handled the problem and fixed it has well as they could have by making our guests happy with more drinks!   
     In the end, all our guests had a great time and it was just the beginning to all the fun we were going to have together on the the wonderful island of Aruba!  So one event down and three more to go! 

     Here is a closer look at the Welcome book I added to the OOT bags.

     Below are 2 of the pages that I added to the welcome book so that our guests were in the know about our events for the weekend.  If you plan on making an itinerary, making welcome books are so fun and easy.  For you Aruba brides, if you'd like the pages just ask me and I'll email them to you!  I added maps of Aruba (geographical, hotel, & restaurant maps), Aruba info, a thank you note, photoshare site info, guest room phone list, & Papiamento/English translation, so thats 13 pages total. 
  

  I bought plastic photo albums from the Dollar Store and printed the pages on linen paper and cut the page in 4s.  I informed the guests to turn the Welcome Book into a photo book after vacay, so that's a 2 for 1 deal!

Here is some Aruba info I added...Weather, transportation, phone calls, just the island basics!

     How do you plan on informing your guests of your wedding events?

     We had family travel from NJ, NY, VA, GA, SC, and even PI (Philippines)!  The event wouldn't be the same without all of them there so to thank them all for coming and welcoming them to the island of Aruba, my Mother-in-law and I put these bags together with the help of others. 

     The canvas bags were printed in the Philippines, thanks to our Uncle & Auntie, who brought them to the states upon their arrival.  They also printed swim suit bags (his & hers) and bought fans to add to the bags. 

I also added Tylenol, First Aid kits (which we're actually used by a lot of our guests), gum, granola bars, personalized water bottles, postcards (in lieu of a guestbook), a welcome book I DIY'ed, an Aruba booklet, & a Westin itinerary.  Antibacterial & luggage tags hung from the bag handles as well!

     Here's the bag and all its contents!  Jeff & I personally handed each one during our welcome/rehearsal dinner and it was a huge hit, everyone loved it! 

What did you give your guests as a thank you for coming to your event?  If you had OOT bags, what did you include in them?

     I just found this picture and I feel in love!  I know you hear me say that a lot, but its true!  During my wedding planning our MAC and the Web have been my vice (just ask my fiance)!  Anyway, when I was thinking about what I wanted to stuff in our OOT bags, I thought it would be neat to add some Virginia flair to it since that's where we live together.  Thinking of things that were "Virginia,"  ham was the first thing that came to mind, but whose gonna give that as a gift?!  Not me!  Then I thought PEANUTS!!  That would be a not-so-much-hassle thing to bring right?!  So in my search I found this today! 

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     Isn't it too cute?  Now I just have to look for the sack and stop by our local Virginia Store (another excuse to go to the mall and shop)!  Don't you just love it when when you get inspired by others!? 
     Oh yeah, do you think this will be a problem at the airport or customs!?  I hope not 'cause I'm lovin' the idea!

     Rewind to the post I wrote about our OOT bag inspiration.  Remember seeing this beautiful puppy, a Longchamp "IT Bag"?  Beautiful isn't it?  Modern with a little twist and it's trendy.

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Feast your eyes on this bad boy...

     About a month ago we got this mock up mailed to us from Nana (fi's wonderful cousin).  We love it, but there was still something that didn't get our full approval. The date is what was throwing us off.  We wanted bags that we knew our guests could use again and sometimes using dates or monograms can shy them away from reusing the bag.  To make it less obvious, we wanted to change the date format so Nana emailed us our choices of fonts to use.  I know, minor detail, but still a detail that needs attention (my crafting side is very meticulous)! 

     But even after reviewing our choices we thought it still needed a change.  I came up with the idea of making the numbers look like a serial number (ladies you know what I mean- the serial number in the bag that certifies the bag is "authentic").  Doing it this way wouldn't be so obvious that the numbers shown was our wedding date.  So we jointed it down on paper (the date without the decimals) and we were really liked the way it looked.  Afterwards, we shared our thoughts with Nana, she agreed and now we present to you the FINAL LOOK of our OOT bags hot of the press!!  Gorgeous isn't it!? 
What do you think of the "serial number/date" idea?  Do you think I was being too picky and it didn't matter or do you think this looks better and I was right in changing it? 

     Hello friends, family, and fellow brides!!!  Sorry I've been MIA for a while, things are always crazy during the holidays, right?!  Hope everyone got enough to eat and got shopping done (for Christmas, not yourself)!  Though I've missed a week, no worries, I'm still FULL ON wedding planning with a couple of projects in between!  In spirit of the holidays, this is was I just finished working on:

Here's a closer picture!  It's basically a banner I made from scrapbook paper and my Cricut!  It reads "Merry Christmas" and will go on the wall above the tree!

     Besides doing that, I just finished a couple of secret projects, that I so want to show off, but you'll just have to wait to see them!  But I can share what I just finished this evening.  I had the inspiration to add postcards to our OOT bags instead of doing a traditional guestbook. 
     The inspiration pic :

I just finished ordering 100 postcards on Vistaprint for FREE!!  Yes folks for free, I just had to pay for shipping!!  The process was simple, I just uploaded a fav picture that Jeff took while we were in Aruba, did a simple text, designed the backside and viola!

     So like the inspirational picture, we'll be asking guests to share their favorite moments!  We will be ordering more (for free hopefully) so that guest can keep them for themselves or mail one to a loved one!  So what do you think of these postcards instead a traditional guestbook?  Yay or nay?