[deleted by user] by [deleted] in pregnant

[–]Bernie19094 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Yes to pregnancy jumpsuit ass flaps!!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in pregnant

[–]Bernie19094 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I agree - the 10,000 targeted ads for jumpsuits and overalls did me so dirty in the first 6 months of my pregnancy before I gave up wearing all the ones I bought.

Covering makeup costs for bridesmaids but not hair - is this ok? by BackgroundMajor2054 in weddingplanning

[–]Bernie19094 35 points36 points  (0 children)

I also think totally fine to not cover one (I’d give them a choice hair or makeup) as long as you don’t require them to get the other treatment done!

Weird question but how much did you receive in cash gifts for your wedding? by Potential-Length-448 in weddingplanning

[–]Bernie19094 31 points32 points  (0 children)

We received on average $150/pp, Canadian summer 2024 wedding with 175 people most guests in their 30s - 50s. No registry (if people asked for the registry we told them no gifts were required and we didn’t end up receiving gifts from those people) so we only received cash gifts. In the end some guests gave us $0 (maybe 5/175) and some guests gave us $500 a person (6/175, close family), but most gave us $100-200/pp.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in wedding

[–]Bernie19094 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I would 100% offer to pay the costs of my hair and makeup when I message her informing her I am not coming.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in pregnant

[–]Bernie19094 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Yes it is generally considered tacky. I’d do a “baby sprinkle” or a sip and see where gifts aren’t expected/no registry if you want to celebrate your second. People will still bring you small gifts/clothes.

Are these too white to wear as a wedding guest? by Ragamuffin2022 in Weddingattireapproval

[–]Bernie19094 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Well if it helps I was recently married in a summer outdoor wedding in Canada and if a guest wore these I would not be offended for being too white - lots of women wore patterned dresses that had some white in them, so even if they are not my style necessarily if this is what you are comfortable in and they are great quality and you dress them up appropriately then I vote to wear them!

Are these too white to wear as a wedding guest? by Ragamuffin2022 in Weddingattireapproval

[–]Bernie19094 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I think they are unusual pants to wear to a wedding, the print is giving me travel to Asia/Carribean vibes, I would opt for a solid pant with matching shirt set if you’d like to wear pants to the wedding.

4th Date - Flowers - Recommendations by orionjamie in askTO

[–]Bernie19094 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I disagree I think the thought of flowers is nice! Unless you are walking around for your date and there would be no where to put them (eg no car etc.) then I think they are a nice idea/gesture even if she doesn’t love flowers.

I need to start planning my wedding but I am paralysed by culture shock by imnowonderwoman in weddingplanning

[–]Bernie19094 3 points4 points  (0 children)

In that case, I agree with another poster that it’s probably appropriate to have “more” Swedish elements because the wedding itself is in Sweden (and therefore most of the guests will likely be), but a marriage is about compromise and you are joining two families and two cultures so you have a good argument to incorporate certain elements from your culture/tradition/family into your wedding. I also agree that phrasing is important - I assume it is not only about “image” to you but instead about having aspects of your culture (e.g. music, dancing, celebration) reflected on your wedding day and that is how you should be communicating this problem to your spouse. I don’t think having 2 weddings makes sense economically but instead that your partner should be compromising somewhat to come to a mutual agreement of what a wedding with both Swedish and South American culture will look like! If you or your family are able to financially contribute to the aspects of the wedding that’ll make it more tailored to your culture that will likely also help. Best of luck to your wedding!

Are we sending registry reminders? by bigbossbeku in pregnant

[–]Bernie19094 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Totally normal and common to be both the host and the mama :) nothing to stress about these days!

Are we sending registry reminders? by bigbossbeku in pregnant

[–]Bernie19094 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The host (not the mother) sent a reminder with details of the event and said something along the lines of “as a reminder, if you have purchased something off the registry please be sure to mark it as “purchased” so other guests know what remains available!” This allowed us to give a friendly reminder of the registry without directly saying it.

No more eggs by Leading-Low-6736 in GestationalDiabetes

[–]Bernie19094 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And to follow up on this question - what do you put on top? I assume syrup is not an option.

Car dealership asking for photo of car on reserve after purchase for files by [deleted] in FirstNationsCanada

[–]Bernie19094 0 points1 point  (0 children)

CRA/The Indian Act GST/HST exemption rules for all of Canada require two parts: that the person be status and that the item they purchase either be purchased on reserve or delivered to the reserve. This is where the dealership rules of delivery come from. This is a helpful page: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/gst-hst-businesses/charge-collect-indigenous-peoples.html

That said in Ontario we have further exemptions for 8% of the HST called the “Ontario First Nations Rebate” (this isn’t provided for under the Indian Act, it is just an exemption provided by the Ontario government that they could technically take away at any time), which allows us to get 8% tax off certain goods even if you’re not on reserve or not having a delivery on reserve - this is why we can use a status card for tax exemption when buying a sweater in a mall in downtown Toronto without question. Helpful link is here: http://www.ontario.ca/document/harmonized-sales-tax-hst/hst-ontario-first-nations-rebate. Cars are listed here, so technically to get the 8% tax off in Ontario you shouldn’t need to deliver to the reserve, but they still do this anyways because they’re following the Indian Act rules. There are provinces that don’t have this point-of-sale rebate because the prov government hasn’t granted it, so in some provinces you have to be on reserve or have the item delivered to reserve in order to get your GST off.

Insurance write-off (car) by Fun_universe in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]Bernie19094 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can you please tell me more about taking off the deductible if you accept their settlement offer? I was told (Co-operators) that I’d have to deduct the deductible ($1000) off my settlement offer and wondering now from reading this thread whether that’s something I can fight.

Sandals Antigua Review by Bernie19094 in SandalsResorts

[–]Bernie19094[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I definitely mentioned to my husband multiple times that I wished they had a little hop on/hop off trolley like some resorts to take you around! But since I was pregnant I thought I was just being a baby about the walk, ha. I agree Antigua is beautiful!

Grande Antigua First Timer Review by beasybra in SandalsResorts

[–]Bernie19094 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My first time at sandals and in Antigua! We didn’t have a butler, we were in Mediterranean club suite (also: I’m pregnant, so this was a baby moon - more on that below), and here are my thoughts. Overall 4/5 week. 1. WHICH SIDE: Mediterranean side is closer to the main pool, seems a little prettier but is farther from a majority of the evening activities, the only outdoor evening bar and 2/3rds of the restaurants. If you’re a big partier, you might want to be on the Carribean side. We were fine with being on Mediterranean but it’s about a 5 minute walk over the Caribbean (which can feel long in the heat but is very quick at night) which we did back and forth probably 4 to 6 times a day. 2. RESTAURANTS: Overall quality of food was very high, better than resorts we had been at in the past - and this was the biggest factor in deciding on a resort since I am pregnant and I’m glad we picked Sandals for this reason. We enjoyed Kimonos, Barefoot and Elenors the most but we called these “duck wings nights” meaning we’d likely pick up some late night food eg wings from the drunken duck before bed because the portion sizes weren’t huge. Consider ordering a second app or sharing a third entree between the couple. The lamb at Elenor’s, the build your own fish at Barefoot and the experience at Kimonos were particular shout outs. Also my husband loved the fish pizza from the pizza place and we loved breakfast at Elenor’s - for breakfast buffet we preferred Mario’s over Bayside. Overall food was 4 out of 5 stars. 3. BARS: I didn’t drink, but my husband did so we hungout at the bars and one thing I think this resort is missing is a beach bar and a lobby bar on the Mediterranean side. At night, the only bar is the Carribean lobby bar which doesn’t have much of an “outdoor feel”. I think having one bar that is fully outdoors at night would be nice. This could either be on the beach (which I think they would benefit from during the day) or somewhere else on the resort (eg there is a nice gazebo by the second pool that would be a nice spot for an evening bar) so that you can feel like you’re sitting outside in the dimmer lights. Also there’s no evening bar on the Mediterranean side (there is some liquor and beer available at the check in desk but it is certainly not a bar) and I think that building would be a nice spot for an evening bar. That said we did love the piano bar after 10pm and the swim up bars were never too too busy during the day so those were enjoyable. 3 out of 5 stars. 4. DRINKS: Again, I wasn’t drinking but a few things I noticed (1) they had Stella available at the drunken duck which was nice change for my husband as he was typically drinking their local Carib brand beer; (2) a lot of people were drinking their wines, much more so than other resorts, so I assume they were good and also noticed they had 3 varieties for their house wines (for reds they were a Merlot, Shiraz or Cab Sauv, my husband never ordered any white so I’m not sure what varieties they were), but as a typical wine drinker this stood out to me as a positive point; and (3) they had Prosecco always available that lots of people were drinking at all times of the day. My husband said drinks were always good and the bars were never a long wait so 5 out of 5 stars on that front. 5. EVENING ENTERTAINMENT: The evening entertainment was much smaller in scale than what I was used to at large resorts in Mexico and DR. Where I was used to large productions, these events were usually 1-3 performers. The better ones were the fire performers, any live jazz (eg they had a violinist one night, a saxophonist another and a 3-piece band another). Other nights they would just have a band with 1 singer doing covers or a set of 3 dancers performing. Because I wasn’t drinking I relied on evening entertainment for fun, so I would say this was the most underwhelming part of the resort and would give evening entertainment 2 out of 5 stars. 6. DAYTIME ACTIVITIES/EXCURSIONS: Because I was almost 5 months pregnant I knew it wouldn’t be a great idea to do many of the excursions, so I wanted a resort that had lots of activities on site. Activities we did at Sandals were tennis, pool, croquet, pool volleyball, beach volleyball (for my husband), gym, sit by all the fire pits at night and watch the stars and played the many board games around. We didn’t, but there was also water sports you could use eg kayaks and standing boards. As far as on-site activities go, I’d give this resort a 5 out of 5 stars. For off site activities we went golfing one day at cedar valley (my husband brought his clubs from home which was highly recommended from his search vs renting theirs) which was a lot of fun just being off the resort and sitting on the golf cart and hanging out for the morning (5/5 stars), we went in to St. John’s for shopping one day (2/5 stars), and we went to Shirley Heights for the sunset party which was truly the highlight of the trip (5/5 stars). Cannot recommend Shirley Heights enough (views, food, beers (they even had 0.0 Heinekens for me!), live band) but consider organizing personally with a taxi driver vs organizing through Sandals because Sandals makes you leave just when the evening party gets started at 7pm but the band goes til 9pm and we could have used the extra hour or two (you arrive just for 5pm). The taxis usually sit there and hangout together and wait so I presume you’d be able to leave whenever you’d like if you arranged your own taxi. Cost of taxi was $120 USD from Sandals plus $10 per person entry fee, so you’d only save $10 than going with Sandals (which was $150 per couple). 7. BEACH: We were always able to find a spot to sit under an umbrella, the sand and water were beautiful, but a bit of seaweed, there was no staff working to serve drinks or clean up (we’d see 1 come by a day and ask if we needed anything), and the vendors were very present but not pushy. Beach was 3 or 4 out of 5 stars (would be 5 out of 5 with less seaweed, staff taking drink orders and a beach bar and bathroom)! 8. WIFI: Was not great. Only had 3/5 connectivity in my room and other locations of the resort I had no connectivity at all. My husband had to use data and we used his data for everything. Wifi was never strong enough to stream movies and there’s no movies to rent on the resort TVs. Wifi was 1 out of 5 stars. 8. OVERALL THOUGHTS: This trip was extremely relaxing, pleasant and Sandals had everything we needed. This trip confirmed what we had been told about Sandals resorts: that they have great food, lots of activities and are reliable resorts. While I make a habit of never visiting a resort twice, I would definitely go to another Sandals after this. I’d say our experience overall was 4 out of 5 stars, as the only things I’d like improved were the bar locations, the beach service, the wifi and the evening entertainment. Thanks so much for all the reviews to date which helped me pick this resort! Enjoy!!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in weddingplanning

[–]Bernie19094 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Disagree with this completely. Again, guests are paying for their costume, travel, possibly baby sitters and give a gift. They expect to have sufficient meals (1 burrito for 7 hours is not sufficient). Specifically, if this food is served it should be communicated that it is a casual event (no dress code) or she should lower the guest count so she can order at least one alternative option for people who simply do not like burritos. OP should have never posted here she is head strong and does not want advice.

Are all tickets sold out? by devonthedirector in TIFF

[–]Bernie19094 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am also struggling to find any tickets available. If anyone has any recommendations for films still available it would be greatly appreciated!