My Caribbean Wedding... and bringing the theme back to North Yorkshire!

Lara44

That's a lovely dress for your MIL Birdie - tres chic! It's great she feels so good in it, and it's quite a unique mix of her colours and your style too with the little flower detailing.

bubbles0169

oh yes very posh erm what colours are your h2b and his men wearing? have you got BM's dresses?
sorry if youve said but your thread is so long the wedding will have bin when i find it:rotfl:

Birdie85

Here you go for the BM dress Bubbles!

Birdie85 wrote: »

It's this one! .... It should compliment my dress nicely at is has a similar neck line and the ruching on the bust is quite like my dress so all in all it's ideal! We've got her this flower to go in her hair too which is the perfect colour match, I'm thinking of something like this hairstyle for her and she's wearing a pearl necklace that my Mum gave her for Christmas 2 years ago, I got one just like it and I'm thinking of wearing mine so we can be 'twins'!

I'm also going to ask a friend of my Mum's who makes jewellery (who she bought the necklaces off) if she can make a matching pearl bracelet for my BM.

The men are all wearing neutral colours, white shirts and oatmeal/beige/cream/whatever trousers so a) they won't get too hot b) if they do sweat it shouldn't be too obvious and c) the girls will show up more in their bright dresses! I saw some pictures a while ago of a wedding abroad and all the men had sweat patches on their shirts, it was awful! It wasn't just under-arms either, it was under-moobs! :eek: I'll be gutted if that happens on my pictures so I'm on the look put for a super strong anti-perspirants and I'll be handing them out with detailed diagrams of where it has to be applied! :rotfl:

Tete_en_l'Air

Birdie85 wrote: »

It wasn't just under-arms either, it was under-moobs! :eek:

Yikes - I've never seen that before! Yummy! Glad MIL found her dress though

bubbles0169

i swear by mitchum roll on, it stops sweating and the powder fresh one smells of baby talc!

im not sure if that dress needs accessories as its quite detailed isnt it, maybe just some black drop earrings?

Birdie85

Thanks for the Mitchum recommendation! I'll keep an eye out for that!

I think you're right about the dress not really needing accessories, we'll probably just find some cream sandals and a little cream bag. The mothers are going to look so odd next to each other, my Mum is wearing this with this in her hair! It'll be a nice contrast I'm sure!

I started writing my distressed bride letter last night and OH came and started butting in with 'helpful' comments which just got me confused and cross so I gave up! I'm all about telling them that they're rubbish and I want to cancel everything and he wants to tell them that we're loyal and we trust them and we just want some reassurance that nothing else will go wrong (and free upgrades...). God, you can tell he's never complained before in his life! So now the letter is a confused mash up of both! I'll have another look over it then I'll stick it up so you can help me fix it!

Tete_en_l'Air

I thought that was your sort of tack anyway Birdie, the whole 'so disappointed' routine? Could you mnetion how you went on the holiday last year (was that with TC?) and it was all faultless and you were expecting the same great service, blah blah. At the end of the day you're not going to cancel so there's no point threatening to or alluding to it...? Just a thought, I'm not very good at complaining myself!

Dinah93

Birdie85 wrote: »

Thanks for the Mitchum recommendation! I'll keep an eye out for that!

I think you're right about the dress not really needing accessories, we'll probably just find some cream sandals and a little cream bag. The mothers are going to look so odd next to each other, my Mum is wearing this with this in her hair! It'll be a nice contrast I'm sure!

I started writing my distressed bride letter last night and OH came and started butting in with 'helpful' comments which just got me confused and cross so I gave up! I'm all about telling them that they're rubbish and I want to cancel everything and he wants to tell them that we're loyal and we trust them and we just want some reassurance that nothing else will go wrong (and free upgrades...). God, you can tell he's never complained before in his life! So now the letter is a confused mash up of both! I'll have another look over it then I'll stick it up so you can help me fix it!

I'm with you Birdie, if you go softly softly you get nowhere. And at the end of the day they can't offer the guarantee your OH wants. So I think you're right looking for compensation or the like - I'd be devestated they'd changed it and my friends could no longer attend my wedding. But his are still coming so its understandable he's not as upset.

bubbles0169

i dont mind if my party doesnt match just aslong as they dress for the occasion!
i saw some wedding pics where they wore baseball caps?????(your party would get away with it on a beach but not at a posh hotel!)
and another where a, shall we say 'older', lady wore some thing that im not even sure a teenager could get away with!

re the letter cant you do both?
just say how dissapointed you are theyve cancelled the flights so half the wedding party are frantically trying to find alternative ways as theyd trusted TC to be professional so can you imagine how im feeling
i just want some clarification as to why this has been done less than a year away when theyve been booked for X months?

birdie if they dont give you answers and any freebies or anything id then go harder on them saying your not satisfied with their response its all alot of hassle with no compensation can you not reimburse us in any way? could we not have an upgrade here or there?

you can also post on the 'vent board' and see what they can advise x

Birdie85

Right, here's my tale of woe! Written in between phone calls at work so might sound a little bitty! What do you think?

I am writing to express my upset and anger relating to changes made by your company regarding my wedding in the Dominican Republic next year.

Having never flown with you before we felt that we were taking a risk in booking our wedding, the most important holiday of our lives, with you but we did so because of the monetary saving you could give us against Thomson and the convenience of your flights. We booked to go for 2 weeks leaving on the 12th February and planned the wedding for the following week. We have 4 very close friends, one whom is a groomsman and 2 whom are bridesmaids who all happen to be teachers and therefore could only travel over half term so they would have flown out on Saturday the 18th February 2011 and return the following week.

We spent a lot of money making and sending out detailed invitations to our family and friends, feeling very pleased that we had managed to find an airline that would accommodate everybody’s needs and we expected to then relax, enjoy our ‘stress free’ wedding planning and wait for everyone to book as and when they had the money saved up. To date 13 guests have booked holidays with you and we’re expecting at least another 10 guests to book. My Fianc!’s brother and best man, along with their partners booked to come out for the second week, on the 18th February as they were unable to join us for the full 2 weeks. As I mentioned above, we have 4 other friends who were planning on booking the same holiday due to working restrictions.

Imagine my shock, anger and devastation when my soon to be brother in law’s girlfriend informed me that she had received a phone call late on Tuesday 8th June from the Ripon branch informing her that the flight on the 18th February had been cancelled and she could have her money back or book a different holiday. The branch could see that they had linked their booking to our wedding party and yet this was not considered and we have not been informed of the changes to the party. Our best man booked his holiday through the Harrogate branch and has still not had a phone call from them to inform him of the changes which is incredibly poor communication. Over the following 2 days my Fianc! spent 5 hours going into travel agents trying to sort out alternative arrangements for his brother and best man which has ended up in them being booked onto a Thomson flight, albeit still through your agents, flying out on Tuesday 15th February and leaving the following week. This means that the wedding has had to be brought forward to accommodate these changes, meaning that, ideally, we’ll be getting married on the 18th February. I’m getting very upset that this can’t be confirmed until we arrive as I’m worried that some guests may miss the wedding.

The changes to the wedding plans and the cancelled flight mean that there is no way that our 4 teacher friends, who had roles in the wedding and for whom 2 bridesmaid’s dresses had been purchased, can come. I am absolutely devastated that these people can’t attend my wedding and would not have booked it if I had known this before. I have had to make the very upsetting and embarrassing calls to these friends to tell them that they can no longer attend our wedding and that there is nothing I can do about it. The last thing a bride-to-be wants to have to deal with is this kind of stress and awkwardness in the lead up to the biggest day of her life, having to un-invite old friends and contact other friends to make them aware of the changes to the plans, it has been mortifying and distressing.

I have read several negative reviews about Thomas Cook’s organisation of wedding parties and basically the reviews were warnings to ‘steer clear’ but I wanted to ignore them as the agents in the Ripon branch did seem very competent. I’m now not so sure about my decision after this event. There are 8 months left to go until we fly, I doubt I’ll feel relaxed about it until I’m there and talking to the wedding planner to confirm the date and time of the wedding. This is not how I should be feeling. I should be happy and excited; instead I’m sad and on-edge.

We had been planning on booking our honeymoon to Orlando through you for next September but I’m now not convinced that I should trust you to handle it, we had asked for Thomas Cook vouchers to go towards the honeymoon from some friends and family who can’t attend the wedding and wanted to give us a gift, we’ve now changed that request to something else as I don’t want to be forced to book another holiday through you if anything else goes wrong.

I hope there is something you can do to make me feel more confident that my wedding will not be ruined and that I do not have to spend the next 8 months panicking that only half of our guests will actually be able to witness our vows.