Well ... planning your wedding and preparing for your big day is so much fun ... but with it also comes some stress and hard work.

Weight loss ...

From what I've read approximately 75% of all brides want to lose some weight for their wedding and I'm no exception.

The first step was to actually weigh in and see where my weight was as a starting point. Yikes! Not anywhere near where I wanted to be ... in fact, 23 lbs more than I wanted to be for my wedding day.

So ... where to start? I'll list out the things I decided to try and I'll be updating often to let you know how I do with each one:

• Watch What I Eat
• Treadmill
• Slim in 6 Video
• BeachBody Shake & Pills
• Isagenix Cleanse & Shake

One of the first things I did was I put up a weight loss goal board. I took a piece of poster board and drew a grid of sorts (boxes across and up and down) and then I put my starting weight in the top left box and started counting backwards. I then scoured the internet for pictures and I printed them the size of the boxes. As I lose weight I put one of the pictures over the weight I've achieved.

I'll check back in with what is and what isn't working for me and I'd love to hear from you with any tips, ideas, and encouragement while I try to hit my goal weight before my wedding day.

Are you trying to lose weight for your wedding? If so, what are you trying? Have you tried something that has worked well? Please share your thoughts so we can all help and support each other. *SmiLes* Suzanne

Our Destination Wedding Budget

One of the most important aspects of your destination wedding planning is your budget.

Truthfully, we had absolutely no rhyme or reason to our budget. Ken asked me if I could set up a nice destination wedding for $15,000 and I said, "I think so."

This amount is intended to pay for the travel for all seven of us (we have 5 kids), our accommodations, our food and drinks, spending money, the wedding and reception, dress, shoes, everyone's wedding clothing (the seven of us), jewelry, passports, decorations ... well ... everything wedding related.

When I agreed to this amount I had NO idea what everything would cost and as I'm sure you can imagine it "went" really fast. I've found myself stressing out ... especially once I figured out that it was going to cost about $7,000 grand just for our travel, accommodations, and food and drinks (we chose an all-inclusive). I've done OK with this amount and I'm cutting costs in the areas where I feel I can and we'll see how I do when all is said and done.

I know how much it helped me to see other people's budgets that they posted online so I've decided to post mine (what I have so far). I hope it helps others ... but of course each item is such a personal decision so I'm not totally sure how much help it is. I will write a post about what's included in our "wedding package" and once it's done I'll link to it.

Let's have a look at where I'm at so far:

I am certain that I will "need" things that are not on here yet ... and we don't know yet how many guests we're having so some of the items could go up once we have that number. Some of the numbers might look funky so please ask me questions if you want to know about something specifically.

Let's do a poll too:

Are any of you willing to share your destination wedding budget? Do you have any questions, comments or suggestions for me on my budget? I'd love to hear from you ... and remember your comments help others too.

It's always fun to see where everyone else is having their destination wedding isn't it? Please take the poll (if you've decided on a destination) and then leave a comment below so others can ask you questions too. Remember what a huge help it is if we all help each other out with our wedding planning ...
View This Poll

Were you surprised at the locations that others are choosing? If you've decided on a destination be sure to add you comment below ... it's a great way to help out fellow destination brides who have selected their destination yet. *SmiLes* Suzanne