Laura & Gary Wedding Trip Report - FINISHED!!

[Laurafoster]

I have to work today and the office is empty - so im finally getting a chance to write my TR!

The Wedding went so much better than expected! It was totally perfect and Disney did a great job! The whole day was magical and everyone is still talking about it.

A couple of things im really glad i did:

Choose the Yacht Club Gazebo - The Wedding pavillion is really stunning but it just wasnt us - we only had a small group and wanted something more intimate and meaningful to us. We stayed at the YC on our first trip together so the place held special meaning to us.

Had Mickey and Minnie at the Reception - Ok so they were really expensive but they went down really well. It was such a suprise to everyone and they were really worth the money.

Anyway on to the Trip Report!


November 29th, 2006:

We were not flying out to Orlando until the next day but a 9 hour flight is long enough without adding a 3 hour drive to the airport at 6am! So we decided to book into the London Gatwick Hilton – as it’s only a 5 min walk to the airport! Gives me that extra few hours sleep!

The Cast –

Me - Laura - The Bride :bride:
My DH – Gary - The Groom :groom:
My Parents – Alison and Ian
My Grandparents – Joan and Alec
My Aunt, Uncle and Cousins – Christine, Stuart and Andrew and Robbie.


We left for the airport at around 3pm and as there was no traffic we were at the airport by around 5pm. We got checked in for the flight smoothly. I was concerned about all the extra security as i was taking my dress on as hand luggage and it was slightly over the allowed size. It was fine though, they said it wasnt a problem.

We then headed off to the hotel to get checked in there. When we got to check in they asked if we were going away anywhere special and we said we were off to Florida to get married the Lady behind the desk got all excited and upgraded us to an executive room. The room was fab, really big and had a huge bathroom. We headed out to get something for dinner – the bar in the hotel was so expensive – 1 glass of wine was £8.75 :scared1: so we jumped in a taxi and went to a restaurant instead. We still had a long day ahead of us so we went back to the room to get a good nights sleep with the wedding dress safely in my view!


November 30th, 2006:

Even though the flight was not until 11:15am we were advised that we had to be in the airport no later than 9am because of the increased security. So we got up around 7am and had a nice breakfast in the hotel – because we had been upgraded this was all free so Gary was happy! We headed over to the Airport and met everyone else as they had stayed at a different hotel. We headed over and were relieved to find there were no delays on the flight!

We decided to head straight through into the departures and do some duty free shopping, as I needed to buy a new battery for the video camera. After we had done that we sat down and had a drink around the bar – my mum and nan are terrified of flying so they had a large drink LOL! By this time our flight had started boarding so we headed down to the boarding area, we waited a while as I hate to be the first on when I have to be on there for so long. When we got on the plane one of the cabin crew noticed my dress and made sure that the over head compartment over my seat was empty so that my dress could go in there. She was really excited and was asking loads of questions, she said she had gotten married at Disney a year ago too.

The flight ended up taking off 30 mins late which wasn’t too bad of a delay. About an hour in to the flight they made an announcement over the loudspeaker that we were going to get married in Disney and brought us over some champagne and truffles which was really nice. They also brought over a big box aswell, when we opened it it was a magnum bottle of champagne, when we looked at the bottle it was a special Moet and Chandon bottle covered in swarovski crystals – it was a gift from my parents to enjoy after the wedding.

The rest of the flight went relatively smoothly and we even managed to make up a bit of our delay and landed 15mins early at 3:30pm Florida time.
We collected our luggage and headed off to the Yacht Club.

I have to say that I have never stayed in the YC before and I was really looking forward to staying here, but I was really disappointed in most things at the hotel. When we checked in it was around 5:30, we gave her our room reservation numbers, all the rooms are booked under Foster/Flower Wedding and ours had a note on it saying Bridal Party. I asked if our room request had been met (id requested a room away from my parents room as their room would be used for the men to get ready in and our room for me to get ready in). Her reply was “how should I know” and walked off into the back room. I thought it was kind of rude and not exactly what i am used to in Disney but i didnt say anything.

We headed up to the rooms and I was disappointed to find out that our rooms were next door to each other – I phoned down to the front desk to explain the situation and see if there was any way we could get moved and I was told the hotel was full. I had other family checking into the hotel the next day and I asked if there was a possibility of having their room instead and was told that that was not an option. I wasnt wanting to argue so i just left it. We were all worn out from the flight by this point so Gary and my dad went over to the boardwalk to pick up some pizzas and we sat out on the balcony and ate that. As most of my family had never been to Disney before we were heading over to MK bright and early tomorrow for park opening - we wanted the kids to see the characters open the park.

December 1st, 2006:

We had booked breakfast at the Crystal Palace for 14 of us at 9:20 so we arranged to meet everyone just inside the turnstiles at 8:45. We had a bit of spare time so we thought we would double check on the reservations for the rest of the week. A good thing we did because WDW Dining had cancelled a bunch of them for some reason so we had to spend 20 minutes trying to sort those out. We met my parents who had been waiting for us in the lobby and as we walked outside we saw the MK bus leaving…typical!! So we decided that we would rather pay for a taxi than be late to meet everyone. We got to MK right on time! We met everyone in the right place and waited for the opening show – we were disappointed in this as usually when the train comes there are characters on the train but because the parade was being taped that day there was nothing so we were a bit disappointed in that – the kids still loved it because they didn’t know any different. We decided to head straight to the Crystal Palace to get checked in. The kids saw tigger through one of the windows and started getting really excited.

We had 4 kids with us for the meal – My Cousins Andrew who’s 9, Robbies who is 3, and the kids of a friend of the Family Charlotte who is 10 and Jack who is 7. It was quite funny as they all had completely different reactions to the characters coming over to them. Charlotte loved them but she is really shy normally so she was a bit quiet to start with! Jack was really excited and got out the autograph book I had given him. Robbie was just completely awestruck – it was so sweet. And Andrew who was pretending he was to cool for the characters but asked his Dad to get the autographs for him anyway! Everyone really enjoyed the meal – not so much for the food but more as it was their first real taste of Disney!



After breakfast we headed out and everyone took some pictures around the castle. We then headed off around the park towards Adventureland first. We did the Jungle Cruise first and as we got to the front of the queue the cast member saw our pins and asked when we were getting married. They then asked Gary what year it was, he innocently said “2006” and they laughed and said no it’s the year of a million dreams and everyone in the party got a free beanie hat with the silver ears! Everyone was really pleased with them and we got some pictures of people wearing them.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_011.jpg

We spend the rest of the day making our way around the park, my grandparents, Aunt, Uncle and Cousins headed off at about 2 as the kids were still really tired from the flight and Robbie was not feeling well (The kids are really fussy eaters so they were finding it hard).

The rest of us stayed and did some more rides and watched the parade! I quite enjoyed this parade, I much prefer it to the one before with the snowglobes. We left at about 4pm and headed back to the hotel to rest a little before going out in the evening.

That evening we headed over to Crossroads just outside of Downtown Disney and ate at the TGI Fridays there. We played the Pirates Cove adventure golf too which was good fun even though I lost! Im terrible at things like that! I start off well then if I take a bad shot I loose my patience and end up making worse shots! We then headed over the Supermarket to pick up some beers and snacks etc for when the guys get ready in the Hotel room. After that we jumped in a taxi back to the hotel.

[natalielongstaff]

great start to your TR:thumbsup2 it sounds like you had a magical time and i can't wait to hear more:)

[jns]

Great start
and Congratulations again

How is married life

[arieljasmine]

A lovely start, Laura, can't wait to read the rest. Sorry to hear about the unhelpful CMs at the YC, we have unfortunately experienced this at a couple of resorts too. IMHO, the Pop Century has the nicest CMs.

ArielJasmine princess:

[GrumpyUK]

Hey, what a great report. You were the exactly the same time as us and we heard your wedding announcement on the plane! As we waited hours to get through the airport and you just went through I think we'll do the twilight ccheck in and probable stay over at a hotel in future.

[Laurafoster]

Hey, what a great report. You were the exactly the same time as us and we heard your wedding announcement on the plane! As we waited hours to get through the airport and you just went through I think we'll do the twilight ccheck in and probable stay over at a hotel in future.

Thats cool!! We have never done the twilight check in before either but with 10 of us (including 2 young kids) and all the luggage for the wedding we thought it would be so much easier. I would definately do it again! i felt so much more relaxed getting up later, knowing i had only 5 mins to get to the airport and knowing i had my allocated seats it was great!

[fizz13]

A great start Laura, sorry the Yacht Club were less than accomodating, anyway, looking forward to more:thumbsup2

[KayleeUK]

Congratulations again Laura and Gary :)

When are you posting the next one ;)

[wils]

Great start - look forward to hearing more :)

[Laurafoster]

December 2nd, 2006:

We woke up and headed over to the Boardwalk bakery to have breakfast. It was a lovely day so we decided to sit outside and enjoy our breakfast for a bit before meeting the others. We went back to the room and we had a message waiting so Gary listened to that whilst I got a few things ready. The message was from WDW Recreation, my Dad had always wanted to do the illuminations cruise in the breathless so I had booked it months ago as a surprise for him, the message was regarding the cruise so we decided to go down to the marina area and see what it was. It turns out that the Breathless has several problems with it and it needed to be shipped to Michigan to be repaired so we couldn’t do the cruise. I was really disappointed as I knew how much my Dad would have loved it. However as compensation they said they would give us the regular pontoon boat with snacks and drinks for free! Needless to say that helped the disappointment immensely!! After this we headed back to our hotel room where we were meeting my parents. The rest of my family were arriving today and we had some welcome bags to deliver to their hotels for them.

The bags needed to be put together so we started to do that before my parents had arrived. In each bag had, Disney Dollars, a Disney 2006 postcard with a stamp, a Disney Pen, A Disney pack of playing cards, some of those Mickey Mints, Park Maps, a CD with all the key songs from our wedding on it, Hawaiian Lei’s for each person for our welcome party and a welcome folder which included details about the welcome party the next day, A guys night out and a ladies night out at Downtown Disney, transportation on the day of the wedding and details about Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. My parents had purchased everyone in our party tickets to this as a thank you for flying all the way over for our wedding. We also had a special bag for the kids, this included a WDW activity book, a Disney card game, 2 Disney Cups, Finding Nemo Beach ball and swimming goggles. We had also done 2 different bags for the families staying in villas, in theirs we included a Disney tea towel and some Mickey pasta. We had given these to them families before they left England.

My parents turned up half way through and helped us finish off. We then set off to go and deliver them to where the guests would be staying. We dropped a few off at the front desk of the Yacht Club and walked over to the Dolphin and dropped a couple off their. We also had a few to drop off at the Caribbean Beach so we got a boat over to MGM and then got a bus to the Caribbean Beach. After we had dropped those off we headed over to Downtown Disney to do a bit of shopping. We had some lunch at the Wolfgang Puck express which was really good, ive never eaten there before. We went into the Christmas shop and we brought a red velvet tree skirt and got it personalised win gold with our wedding date on. We then headed back to our hotel as the men had a tuxedo fitting in my parents hotel room at 2pm. We met Gary’s Dad and Uncle who was his best man in the Yacht Club lobby and headed up to the room. My uncle then turned up 10 mins later (he was our usher). The guys were all in the room by 1:50 so me and my mum headed down to the pool bar for a while, we used the excuse that they needed the extra space but really we just wanted the peace and quiet with a mango daiquiri!!

About 45-1 hour later all the men came down to join us, not a single suit was right! Gary’s trousers were too long and the shirt too big. My dad and uncle had the wrong colour trousers, and the best mans and Gary’s Dads jackets were too big!! Needless to say Gary was not happy! We had all the men measured here in the UK and faxed all the sizes over to Carolyn Allens who had completely ignored all the measurements!! Carolyn Allens had taken all the suits away and said they would redeliver them on Monday night – the night before the wedding!! I was not happy. We sat around the pool for a while and we were joined by Garys mum, nan and granddad and my grandparents for a while. We went back to the hotel room to get changed for the evening. The other part of my surprise for my dad was that we had booked the coral reef restaurant for that evening. We wandered over to Epcot – this is why we love the boardwalk area! Its so nice to be able to walk over to Epcot in the evening! The meal at the coral reef was fantastic – we had one of the tables right by the reef and they had decorated the table in loads of Mickey confetti. After the meal we phoned my grandparents to invite them on the illuminations cruise. They had been having a tough time with my aunt and uncle – they had never been and were going around with my grandparents who just wanted a bit of space from the kids so we thought it would be nice for them. They were not in their room so I left a message saying we had a surprise and could they meet us by the marina at 8:20. Sure enough when we got there they were ready and waiting! We told them we had the cruise and they were so shocked, it was really nice to see them so excited! We went to check in for the cruise and we were led down to the pontoon boat. They had decorated the boat with a big congratulations banner and loads of balloons and streamers all over it, I guess Gary must have told them we were getting married because I didn’t. When we got on the boat as well as the snacks and soft drinks there was some chocolate dipped strawberries and a bottle of champagne. It was such a lovely surprise! It turned out our driver had also been the driver on the first fireworks cruise we did too – she remembered us as on that cruise when we parked under the bridge for illuminations a kid dropped a torch off the bridge and it hit me on the head – she said “how cool I remember that as its never happened before” - Gee thanks I feel so special LOL!! She dropped us all back at the Yacht Club, my parents and grandparents thanked us loads, even though it wasn’t the breathless they still had a great time! My parents kept offering me money as they would not believe it was free!

[arieljasmine]

A wonderful day, Laura, except for the suits, of course. I really hope they were right for the big day. What a lovely idea to make gift bags for everyone, they must have been really touched. The cruise sounds beautiful and some great surprises too.

Looking forward to reading the next one.

ArielJasmine princess:

[Sunny Soph]

Sounds like a great day, Apart from the suits. I hope you will get them right just in time for the Wedding.

[Laurafoster]

December 3rd, 2006;

I woke up this morning to Gary loudly rummaging around in the bathroom area. I am NOT a morning person!! I asked him what he was doing making so much noise (politely of course!) and he said that he was looking for a spare pair of contact lenses, as the other ones had split. I told him that the spare pair he brought had been on the side last night

he found those and went to put them in. He opened the packet, which was brand new only to find that one of the lenses had split inside the packet. They must have been a dodgy batch or something. Anyway he starts getting really stressed as he wanted to wear them on the day of the wedding. I could see he was getting really stressed so I told him to go have a shower and I would sort it. As he was having a shower I decided to ring the Opticians back in the UK to see if I could get his prescription, fortunately they were really helpful and arranged to fax the details over to the Yacht Club for me straight away. So I got dressed and popped downstairs to speak with concierge. The lady there was really helpful too and printed off directions and maps for various opticians in the area and gave me phone numbers too. I went back up to the room to let Gary know which made him feel so much better.

After that morning excitement we headed outside to meet my Grandparents, My Parents and Cousins Andrew and Robbie. As a wedding gift for the Best Man and Usher and my Aunt who had helped out with all the table plans and place cards we had decided to book them something special in Disney instead of a more traditional gift. We had booked them on the Around the World on a Segway Tour at Epcot that morning so we were heading over to watch some of their training in innoventions. We got over to Epcot quite early so we went to do a ride for the kids – Journey into your imagination with figment. Robbie was a little scared of the dark parts but he really enjoyed the ride. When we got off and went into the shop he ran straight over to one of the huge stuffed toys and wouldn’t let go! He kept saying he wanted to take figment home, I spent 10 minutes talking him into a smaller version which me and Gary then brought him before heading out of the shop. We then headed over to Innoventions to watch my Aunt and Uncle and Gary’s Uncle on their Segway training. They looked like they were having a good time so we went off to Test Track – Andrew loves cars and had been looking forward to this ride for months! He loved it! As we came out me and Gary got him a test track ride photograph so he could show his parents. We took the kids around to do the new nemo ride by the living seas – that had quite a queue so when we finished we headed off to the electric umbrella to get a drink – Andrew discovered one of the talking bins which amused him for a while! We then went off to meet the Segway Bunch. They all really enjoyed the Segway tour, so I was really glad we chose to book that instead of getting them a watch or something. We left the kids back with their parents and we headed off back to the hotel for a swim.

The one thing I really did love about the Yacht Club was the pool! It was great, definitely one of the best on property. We spent a few hours lounging around the pool and had some lunch at Hurricane Hanna’s before going back up to the room to get changed. We had our Wedding Rehearsal that afternoon at the contemporary and then our welcome dinner at Ohana’s after that. In the welcome bags we had told everyone to meet us at Ohana’s at 5pm – we had 27 people coming so I wanted to get to Ohanas in plenty of time to set a few things up.

Once we were ready we met my parents in the Lobby and got a bus over to the MK, we then jumped on the monorail to the contemporary for the rehearsal. The rehearsal went really well, my Wedding Planner was really sweet and Reverend Jack had everyone in stitches with some of his jokes! Those of us that were there headed over to Ohana’s ahead of the Welcome party to set up a few last minute bits.

As Gary had several family members who were not coming to the wedding we had chosen to have the Welcome Party filmed and included on our wedding DVD. As I walked into the Polynesian I could see Stan our Video guy standing near Ohana’s so we went over and introduced ourselves. I was really glad id chosen Stan to do our Video – he was definitely one of the nicest guys we met during our wedding! He was really friendly and really put our family at ease with being on camera! My uncle went and got the drinks in, they got me one of those cocktails in a hollowed out pineapple, I think it was called a Lapu Lapu. Whilst they were waiting for the rest of my family I went over to the restaurant as we had some things to put out on the table. We had lots of Island confetti with palm trees and parrots etc. We had a small gift for each person which was a tropical soap which I had tied up in cellophane with bright coloured ribbon. We were lucky to all be sat on one long table (27 of us) right opposite the fire pit. One by one all my family arrived – they were all wearing their lei’s too so we could see them coming. Once everyone was here I went over to let the restaurant know and they led us in to the restaurant. No one in our group had ever been to Ohana’s before (except me and Gary). We had told everyone in our family that we were paying for all the food and soft drinks for everybody but if they wanted any alcoholic drinks they would have to pay for those themselves. Whilst we were all eating away Stan went round and recorded a bit with everybody – comments about the upcoming wedding, what were they expecting etc. The food was excellent , but the service was a little slow the waiter had our table and another big table of 30 to look after so it did take a while. Everyone was having a good time though and I don’t think anyone really noticed. The kids loved the coconut races and the limbo etc. Even some of the adults LOL! When it came to paying the bill at the end of the night we had the Disney dining experience card, Both me and Gary had one but we got the discount off everybody which was great. It turned out that only 1 person had ordered a beer so we just paid up the whole bill. After we had finished the meal all the men headed off for a few drinks with Gary at Downtown Disney – they ended up having a few drinks in Raglan Road before heading to the comedy warehouse before coming back to the hotel.

Here are a couple of pictures of everyone at Ohana’s -

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_035-med.jpg

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_032-med.jpg

My cousin Robbie had a great time

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_038-med.jpg

[natalielongstaff]

shame about the hassle with the suits and lenses ! still you seemed to be taking things in your stride:)

[scottishtink]

REALLY ENJOYING YOUR REPORT CANT WAIT FOR THE BIG DAY
lORRAINE

[arieljasmine]

Another lovely day, Laura. Hope Gary was able to get some new contact lenses. The welcome dinner sounds like a great success and what a nice idea to film it for your wedding video. You must be a very organised person, sounds like you had even more planning than usual for a wedding!

ArielJasmine princess:

[jns]

Great report :thumbsup2
any more photos please

[KayleeUK]

Lovely Laura :) More please.............

[Cyrano]

Just caught up with your report.
I enjoyed the run through of the days and feel that I know many of your family already.

Yes more please :goodvibes

[Laurafoster]

December 4th,2006:

We woke up this morning and had a late breakfast in the hotel. We had deliberately not planned anything much today just in case we had anything to do for the wedding. After breakfast Gary met up with my Dad to go and get his contact lenses. I think he was a little upset about this actually, he had phoned his parents the night before to ask if they would take him to go sort out some contact lenses for the wedding – thinking that they had a car and it would be easier to get from place to place instead of getting taxis. Anyway to cut a long story short they said that as he had decided to stay onsite at Disney this was his problem and they were not going to bail him out. Im sure they didn’t mean it as it came across but I think it upset Gary quite a bit. :sad2:

Anyway my Dad said he was happy to go with him to sort it and suggested they go to ESPN for a beer afterwards (Gary looked decidedly more cheerful then!!:rotfl: ). They headed off at around 10am. Me, my Mum and My Nan then headed over to Periwigs in the Yacht Club to have our nails done for the wedding. The lady who did our nails was Jo, and she was such a lovely lady! Really sweet, my Nan was really sceptical of going to have her nails done and was just going to have a manicure, but she ended up with a full set of Acryllics, she was so funny for ages afterwards making my Grandad open the doors for her and put the milk in her coffee etc she kept saying “I cant ruin my nails you know”:lmao:

My mum really enjoyed it too, I managed to talk her into getting a pedicure too, she works in a Docters Surgery and spends all day on her feet at home so I thought it would be a nice treat. I ended up having a pedicure too which was nice and relaxing! We ended up getting finished at about 2pm and I went over to pay for everyone, only to find out that my Nan had been sneaky and paid for everyone when she left! My Nan had an appointment booked to have her hair done for the wedding the next day so I got my own back and paid for that in advance! :thumbsup2

My grandparents are both retired and do not have much money, I know they spent a lot to come out to Florida for the wedding and they also helped out my Aunt and Uncle so that they could afford to come to the wedding as well. Because of this I like to help them out whenever I can, normally she is really stubborn but since I knew she wouldn’t find out until tomorrow and know she wouldn’t argue with me on the day of the wedding I knew id get away with it this time!! ;) ;)


After this me and my mum headed over to ESPN to meet Gary and my Dad for lunch. My parents really love ESPN – well if im honest my Dad and Gary love it more than me and my mum because of the sport obviously. Gary loves the Red Wings – ive never managed to find a sauce that nice back here in the UK?! Gary had managed to get a pair of contact lenses to wear for the wedding, they were a monthly pair so he would be able to wear them for the rest of the holiday too. I was really relieved. It wouldn’t have bothered me whether he wore glasses at the wedding because I think he looks gorgeous anyway. But I could tell it had really worried him and I could see how pleased he was that it was sorted. Everyone was much more relaxed and chilled now that everything was sorted – nothing else to do for the wedding etc. We went back to the hotel and spent a few hours around the pool before going back to the room to get changed. We had a girls night out planned for this evening and Gary, My Dad, Best Man and Usher were headed over to Disney Quest.

The Girls night was at the Raglan Road, which was such good fun! Id never been to Raglan Road before but I thought it was great, Had a really good atmosphere! We found a table and got some drinks in. A waiter asked if we were there celebrating anything and they all said it was my wedding tomorrow. He said congratulations and disappeared back to the bar. 10 Minutes later he came back with a bottle of champagne and a “magical moment’s certificate” that had congratulations on it, and had been signed by loads of different staff members. I thought that was such a nice gesture! We didn’t stay too long as we had a busy day tomorrow so we headed back to the hotel. Gary was going to stay with his parents at the Villa for that night so I wouldn’t see him before the wedding. It was really strange saying goodbye to him knowing the next time I see him would be as I was walking down the aisle! Everyone left and I went round to my parent’s room to have a few drinks, we ended up playing cards for a while before I went back to my room to go to bed. It was strange being in a hotel room by myself, and I had always thought that I wouldn’t get much sleep that night but I was really relaxed and had nothing to worry about as I knew Disney would be fantastic, so I got a great nights sleep ready for tomorrow. :woohoo: :cloud9:

Next up the Big Day!!! :love: - Dont worry i have Photos for this post LOL!!!

[KayleeUK]

Loving it Laura :) Looking for updates hourly ;)

[Sunny Soph]

Sounds like another great day:goodvibes

[ariel75]

can't wait for the wedding installment

[Minniespal]

Excellent Laura ~ Can't wait for the next installment.

[Laurafoster]

Thanks everyone for the lovely comments!! I will get around to writing the next installment soon! But ive just been given the link to my sneak peek video -

http://www.stvsweddings.com/sneakpeeks.html

Just scroll down to our names! Laura (larua i think actually lol) and Gary!

[squitty]

Thanks everyone for the lovely comments!! I will get around to writing the next installment soon! But ive just been given the link to my sneak peek video -

http://www.stvsweddings.com/sneakpeeks.html

Just scroll down to our names! Laura (larua i think actually lol) and Gary!

Laura what a lovley video, absolutley lovely.

[ely3857]

Lovely dress Laura

:yay:

Jodie

[scottishtink]

Lovely video Laura you look beautiful it made me cry!!

[GrumpyUK]

This is a great report, I'm so enjoying it. You guys put a lot of effort in for your guests - and it seems that they have too.

I'm getting a bit dabbing-away-at-my-eyes-with-a-hankie.

Should I buy a hat to read the report of the day itself?

[ariel75]

pass the tissues that was lovely you must be so happy!!!

[granmaz]

That sneak peak video is just so lovely.:) Thanks for sharing.

[UKDEB]

I'm enjoying reading, Laura (although I'm feeling a bit upset that Gary's parents wouldn't take him to get his contact lenses :confused3 :sad1: ) and I'm downloading the video now.

You'll have to help me out with something that's puzzling me from your first post. You say:

We stayed at the YC on our first trip together so the place held special meaning to us. And then go on to say:

I have to say that I have never stayed in the YC before and I was really looking forward to staying here, but I was really disappointed in most things at the hotel.

[Laurafoster]

I'm enjoying reading, Laura (although I'm feeling a bit upset that Gary's parents wouldn't take him to get his contact lenses :confused3 :sad1: ) and I'm downloading the video now.

You'll have to help me out with something that's puzzling me from your first post. You say:

We stayed at the YC on our first trip together so the place held special meaning to us. And then go on to say:

I have to say that I have never stayed in the YC before and I was really looking forward to staying here, but I was really disappointed in most things at the hotel.

Whoops my fault, i meant to say we only stayed 1 night at the YC on our first visit and so this was our first "proper" stay at the hotel and i was looking forward to seeing what it was like, as we didnt get a good feel for the place in just 1 night!

I was disappointed in his parents to but to be honest not suprised. They dont really make any effort, they wont come to visit us at our house - we have to go there! :rolleyes:

[arieljasmine]

Another lovely day, Laura. I couldn't watch the video for some reason, I will try again another time though. How nice that the CMs at Raglan Road did that for you. So pleased that Gary got his contacts sorted.

ArielJasmine princess:

[jns]

going to wait and read the wedding report before watching the video

reall enjoying the report

I call my in laws The OUT LAWS :lmao:
aren't you lucky they do not visit
I would say my MIL has only been in our house a handful of times, we have been married over 20 years

[Laurafoster]

December 5th,2006

The Day of the Wedding!!!

I was quite surprised at how well I slept the night before the wedding – I think had I been having a wedding back home in the UK I would have been worrying about all the little things like my flowers, the cake etc. With the Disney Wedding I had none of those worries. I was really confident that whatever happened Disney would make it wonderful and sort everything out. So my only concern was whether the weather was going to cooperate! Now the days leading up to the wedding were slightly overcast and a little chilly. When I woke up on the morning of the wedding the first thing I did was step out onto our balcony to check out the weather! And it couldn’t have been better! The sun was shining, there were no clouds in sight and it was already a pleasant temperature. The forecast for the weather was sunny and mid 70’s so I was happy with that! I didn’t want a really hot day with everyone standing around in suits at the hottest part of the day.

I was awake pretty early so I sat out on the balcony reading the paper for a little while before getting up and dressed. My parents and I had decided to go for breakfast in the Yacht Club Galley that morning, as it was going to be a long day and I wasn’t going to get anything proper to eat until the reception. We sat down and our waiter came over to take our order, we all had the buffet as it was easier and more convenient. After a rather large breakfast we went for a stroll across the Boardwalk and went into the shop there to pick up some drinks and snacks for the rooms as that is where everyone would be getting ready! We picked those up and continued walking around back to the hotel. We got back to the room at around 10:30am. I had Carolyn Allen coming out to steam my wedding dress at 11am, and my hair and makeup being done at 11:30am so I had plenty of time to have a nice hot shower first.

Here’s everything ready waiting to be steamed!

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_045-med.jpg

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_049-thumb.jpg

Carolyn turned up right on time to steam my dress and my bridesmaids dress, just as she left my mum turned up back from having her hair done at the Periwigs salon in the Yacht Club. A few minutes later my bridesmaid turned up. She is only 10 so her Nan dropped her off and came up to wish me good luck. Just after Charlotte turned up Anna turned up to do my hair and makeup and to do Charlottes hair too. She did my hair first, I have quite thick hair and it takes a lot to get it to stay in place but Anna did a great job with my hair! Next up was my bridesmaid, we had a cute gold headband for Charlottes hair which matched her dress. So Anna just did loads of curls for Charlottes hair! I think Charlotte was so excited about the wedding! Although she did get me into trouble with her family! She had gone to her cousin Gemma’s wedding in September which was back home in England. Her Nan asked her which dress she preferred and Charlotte said she preferred mine as she had a fairytale dress for a fairytale wedding!
Here is a picture of Charlotte ready to go –

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_053-med.jpg


Anna finished up by doing my makeup, I was also wearing my contact lenses and my eyes are quite sensitive so I didn’t want much just something natural! After Anna had left we sat down for something to drink and a little bit to eat. As we were doing this we heard a knock at the door. My mum went to open it, when she came back in there was a vase of flowers with a card attached to it. It was from our Disney Florist.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_046-med.jpg

[foxylady]

More please - quickly!!!

Loving your reports and can't wait to read the rest.

I enjoy reading trip reports, but wedding trip reports are even better.

[wee-haggis]

Just lovely. Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!

[jns]

:thumbsup2 More Please

[prue]

Laura, congratulations to you both. Its brilliant to read your wedding TR. Cant wait to read it all. I loved our sneak preview of your video. Had to show it to the hubby. Both very touched by it all, we are coming up for 18 years this year and I just love reading all about your amazing,special day.

wishing you both all the happiness in the world.:flower3:

prue

[arieljasmine]

Lovely, Laura. I am already getting tearful and it's nowhere near the ceremony yet! Charlotte looks adorable, I bet she felt like a fairytale princess. Can't wait to read more.

ArielJasmine princess:

[KayleeUK]

Wonderful video Laura :)

More trippie and pictures please :)

[Laurafoster]

Wedding Day Continued:

We had plenty of time so we sat down on the balcony to have a drink and something to eat. We were lucky to have a view of the Gazebo so I could see what was going on. I saw people turn up and cut the grass earlier that morning – they were now out there sweeping up any loose bits on the grass and walkway. Soon after a man turned up to set up the seats and the floral we had to decorate the gazebo. After we sat there for a while we went back inside the room and started to get Charlotte ready. She was so excited and really loved wearing her dress and shoes etc. As a small gift I had gotten her some Mickey earrings to wear.

OK so now it was time to get into the dress – for some reason I wasn’t able to step into it, and I knew I had stepped into it at the final fitting – I just couldn’t get it right so they had to bring it over my head LOL it wasn’t a big deal and I had plenty of spray on my hair so I wasn’t too concerned.

I then called our Wedding Planner and let him know that we were ready whenever they was – he said he’d call to let me know when it was safe to come down to the lobby. I was glad i didn’t have to wait long…..

I guess it was about 2pm When I got the call from Karen to say that the coast was clear and that the boys were firmly hidden away in the crews cup lounge. It was then that I asked if there were any Wedding Guests waiting in the lobby, Karen said that Gary’s Mum and Nan and Grandad were still around from taking photos with Gary. She asked me If I would prefer them to head over to the Gazebo? Now originally I had thought I wouldn’t mind if people saw me before the wedding, but now I had decided I would prefer that no one saw me before the actual ceremony. Karen was really great and said she would ask them to wait by the Gazebo – im sure she was laughing when she hung up the phone though!!

We got all my bits and pieces together – all the bridal necessities – spare pair of stockings, bit of chalk, Lip Gloss etc and popped it all into my mums bag. So I left the room as a singleton knowing that later I would return as a Mrs with my new Hubby! That didn’t make me nervous at all!

Fortunately our room was right near the elevators but the corridor seemed to go on for ages! When I got out of the lift there were loads of people milling around. They were all looking and many of them said congratulations! I think I was a little nervous at that point and don’t think I managed to thank everyone that said congratulations. As I walked round the corner I saw Rev Jack who came over and gave me a big hug. Im really glad I chose Reverend Jack as he was ever so sweet and he had such a wicked sense of humour!

I walked out and saw my Dad standing there waiting for me, he came over and gave me a big hug and said I looked beautiful. I think he was really emotional that day as me and my Dad had always been really close. When I was younger I had a disabled sister who took up a lot my parents time, mostly my mums time therefore I spent a lot of time with my dad when I was younger. When my sister passed away several years ago my parents and I became even closer so I knew they would be finding it really emotional today.

As I was standing there talking to my Dad out from behind the Christmas Tree appeared Gary’s Mum. It turns out that when Karen asked her to leave she had come back in and sat behind the tree. I didn’t really think much about it at the time as I was busy talking to Karen about other things but when I thought about it later I was really annoyed with her for doing this. She had obviously done it on purpose and I thought it was quite devious of her.

Whilst Gary’s mum was trying to take pictures I was picking up my bouquet and the corsage for my mum and the bouquet for Charlotte. The flowers were really gorgeous, exactly what I wanted!

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_099.jpg

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_102.jpg

Randy was all set to start taking our photographs in the lobby. I had originally done a “must take” list of photographs but I had eventually decided against using this as I didn’t want to be stressing about what ones he had or hadn’t taken yet and therefore if I didn’t give him a list I had one less thing to think about – how crazy is that thought process!?

We started of with taking some photographs on the staircase, we took some of me on my own, some with me and my mum and me and my dad then we took some of all 3 of us.
We then walked down by the Yacht Club Galley restaurant as there are some nice full length windows and it was quiet so more piccies were taken there. Then it was time for us to go outside, Randy took us out along the boardwalk area and out towards the marina.
Randy had lots of fun taking what seemed to be an endless amount of photos and we were really pleased with how they all came out. A few more pictures here and then we went back through the lobby to get some shots out front.

We headed back inside the lobby and took a last few pictures before Karen said it was time to go round to the door by the Gazebo. It was a long walk down to where I needed to wait until it was my turn to walk up the aisle. My parents had gone off to another door on the other side of the gazebo and Charlotte came with me. I just loved the way that Karen kept talking into her radio and giving instructions, I was imagining to myself things like “the Bride is in position let’s move it! move it!! move it!!

Now the place I had to wait was hardly a classy brides room or anything, it was an oh so glamorous fire escape! Karen had put a couple of chairs there for me and Charlotte and we were joined by my cousin Andrew who was sort of a junior groomsmen/pageboy. He was walking down the aisle with Charlotte. Actually both Charlotte and Andrew were more nervous at this point than I was! Poor Andrew was terrified that he would fall over and embarrass himself. No matter what I said he was still worrying so in the end I told him if he did fall over I would sent it to you’ve been framed or some sort of funniest home videos and he could keep any money he got from it! That cheered him up slightly!!

Karen came and got Charlotte and Andrew just as the music started for the parents to be seated. We had a flutist for the ceremony and for the parents she played Bella Notte. It was really beautiful! I kept peeking out of the fire escape to see what was happening, I saw my parents walk up and light one of the candles on the side of our unity candle and then Gary’s parents walk up and light the other candle and then Gary’s parents were seated and then my mum sat down and my dad walked back down the aisle. Next out came Reverend Jack, followed by Gary and the 2 groomsmen, the music for this was some day my prince will come. Then the music changed to Part of Your World and Charlotte and Andrew walked up the aisle. Ive got to admit I was a little nervous now that Andrew was going to fall over on purpose now to get some money! But he didn’t and they made it up to the gazebo no problems.
It was really windy that day and my veil kept blowing everywhere! Karen straightened my dress. Then Karen looked at us and said OK you’re on ::GULP:: I don’t know who was more nervous my Dad or I LOL actually I think my Dad was. So I reminded him that we had to walk slowly, famous last words, and “A dream is a wish your heart makes” struck up so we took our walk. When I look at the video now there are quite a few people watching me from the boardwalk area but I honestly did not notice them on the day! I can remember walking past our guests and then before I knew it My Dad had walked me to the Gazebo and to my lovely Husband to be. Rev Jack then started the ceremony – My Dad gave me away, willingly and Gary and I held hands. The ceremony was civil and very much focused on love and friendship. Now when we had our planning session back in May Karen had asked us if our Best Man had a sense of humor, we both said yes we thought he did and she asked if we would like to play a little joke on him so we jumped at the chance!! Shortly before the ceremony Karen had asked Mark if she could borrow the rings so that Reverend Jack could bless them before the ceremony! So Mark handed over the rings. Only Karen didn’t give them back. So at the end of the vows when Reverend Jack said can I have the rings, we all looked expectantly at Mark. He then immediately began to panic turning out his pockets etc. Then the music starts playing and through a side door out pops Major Domo – for those of you who don’t know he is the character out of Cinderella who carried the glass slipper around on the pillow. Well inside the glass slipper are the rings. Major Domo comes up and bows and hands the rings over to Reverend Jack, who then turns round to Mark and says “You can relax now”. Everyone laughed – even Mark!!

It was then time to light our Unity Candle, I say light it was so windy I was really worried that the flame would blow out. Stan (our video man) had assured me before hand if it didn’t light he would lay down some magic on the video!! We were then proclaimed husband and wife had some kisses and then were presented to our friends and family.

We walked back down the aisle to our recessional “A Whole New World” followed by our parents, Major Domo, Charlotte and Reverend Jack. We then all went back and did our staged exit of rose petal throwing.

Paul and I had some shots taken with the Bridal party and family near the Gazebo, before all our guests were taken off to the Yacht Club lobby. Our pre reception and main reception were taking place at the Boardwalk so we had a coach for transportation, it worked out great really as it picked everyone up at their chosen hotel before the wedding as well.

Then it was just Gary, myself and Randy left. He took some truly wonderful photos and it’s just gonna be so hard to choose for the album – the three of us had some giggles. Karens assistant Missy came to check on us a couple of times before heading off to the Boardwalk.


Next Up….The Wedding Reception!!

[natalielongstaff]

just caught up with this thread :) your wedding was wonderful and the pictures are so lovely:)

[KayleeUK]

Lovely Laura :) More please!

[jns]

More Please :wizard:
and photos

[cornish pixie]

Thankyou sooooooooo much for shareing your story so far, Im sitting here at my laptop but I am really a guest at your magical wedding.
My two girls were bridesmaids last may and they had the exact bridesmaids dresses as you.
They too looked and felt like princess'spixiedust:
Can't wait to read on.:coffee:
Congratulations and Thankyou.
Cornish Pixie:goodvibes

[Laurafoster]

Thankyou sooooooooo much for shareing your story so far, Im sitting here at my laptop but I am really a guest at your magical wedding.
My two girls were bridesmaids last may and they had the exact bridesmaids dresses as you.
They too looked and felt like princess'spixiedust:
Can't wait to read on.:coffee:
Congratulations and Thankyou.
Cornish Pixie:goodvibes

The dresses are gorgeous!! I spent ages looking for a dress for my bridesmaids but most of the ones i found were just plain satin with no glitz to them!! She made me buy 1 size to big so that she could still wear it to her Christmas party :lmao:

[Laurafoster]

Wedding Day Continued......

Randy took some fabulous photos of us, we got some around the marina area and some beach shots. Finally when the photos were over we headed through the lobby to the main entrance of the Yacht Club where the coach had swung by to pick us up and take us over to the boardwalk. As we drove up we could see everyone sitting out on the Marvin Gardens Patio, we could hear that they were all having a good time, the music was playing and the drinks were flowing! We decided to pop in and see the main reception room and have 10 minutes to ourselves before joining everybody. Karen had set up some of the hors d’ouvres for us to try; we knew we had a big meal so we opted to go for the seasonal fruit display and cheese selection which looked great and was yummy!! After standing out in the sun taking pictures we opted for a glass of water to start with.

When we had seen the reception room in our planning session, whilst it was a beautiful room it was still very plain looking, I was eager to see how Disney had done it up. When I walked in I was completely speechless – It was perfect! They had used soft lighting to create a soft glow in the room, I had 6 ficus trees in the room with the fairy lights on which gave the room a magical feel to it. The tables looked stunning as well. We had Ivory Satin table Linens and Chain Covers tied with a Ivory and Gold embroidered bow. The Centrepieces were shiny gold bowls filled with lilies, gerberas, roses and various other cream and pink flowers. There were several votive candles over each table which completed the look. Really looked spectacular! The cake table was in the corner, which had been decorated with votive candles and rose petals scattered over the table and around the base of the cake. The cake looked gorgeous too!!

We also had a little table set up in the corner where our videographer (Stan) had set up a laptop. His wife Bonnie had edited a short clip of our Ceremony to show at the reception for anyone that wants to look at it. (Our sneak peek) I thought this was a really nice idea, it was surreal to be able to watch it so soon!

Karen then brought our DJ over to meet us, we had DJ Charles Miles. Now Disney assign you a DJ 30 days before the wedding and I could not believe how lucky we were with getting him. He was perfect for our family! He was such a Hoot! We chatted for a while about what music we wanted – I had sent him a list before the wedding which contained a few key songs – like the first dance etc but I really had just said go with what you feel.

We then headed out to spend some time with our guests, and I finally got the chance to listen to the flutist who was really excellent. I headed over to the bar to get a drink first – we had paid for an open bar for our guests which they put to good use!!

I mingled a bit with our guests who were already saying how wonderful the ceremony was and how special it was – I remember laughing to myself thinking the best is yet to come!

I located my mum and asked her to come with me to the restrooms – after standing on the beach taking all those photos I had plenty of sand in my shoes and in that dress there was no way I was going to attempt to sort it by myself! I would have ended up falling backwards into the sink knowing my luck! Shoes sorted and Sand removed it was time for all the guests to be taken into the main reception. I could hear everyone “Oooh-ing and Ahh-ing” as they saw the reception room. When they were all seated Major Domo acknowledged all the Bridal party from their seats, we were peeking through the doors waiting to be announced into the room. Then we were announced and Karen and her assistant swung the doors open and we walked in to our sweetheart table. Major Domo made a farewell speech saying he needed to return to the castle! We had decided to have the dinner first and do the speeches and dances afterwards. We sat down and one of the servers came over to ask us if we would like a drink. One of our servers was the same lady who had been there at our planning visit in May. I remember looking at the table and seeing how great it looked. For our placecards we had Chocolate Mickey heads with the guests names written on in white chocolate, they were wrapped in cellophane and tied with a gold bow. These were on top of each gold charger plate. Underneath this was a menu – we had a surprise course that no one apart from my parents knew about which was not on the menu. We also had our favours in little gold organza bags - we had a couple of chocolate truffles, a candy cane (as we were having a Christmas wedding) and some champagne bubbles for a bit of fun. On our sweetheart table I had a picture of my sister who died when I was younger, I had chosen a picture of her dressed up as an angel for a Christmas play, and put it in a gold frame which had the inscription “Our bridesmaid in heaven”. We had gotten her a wand of 3 pink roses and placed that next to her picture. Id really wanted to involve her in my wedding as we were really close.

Our drinks were brought over and straight away our first course was brought over too. Shrimp Cocktail with Cocktail Sauce. This was really fabulous and the sauce was not what I was expecting! It wasn’t a Marie Rose sauce like we get in the UK it was a red sauce with a bit of spice too it! It was really nice! The next course was a Caesar salad with shaved parmesan and garlic croutons. They brought this out in a big bowl and “tossed it tableside” before serving it. This again was lovely. Next up was our “surprise course”. It was an Intermezzo of Champagne infused sorbet. We had it served in Cinderellas ice Slipper – Its basically a individual ice block carved out into the shape of Cinderellas Slipper on a pillow. Underneath this is a little LED light which makes the whole slipper glow. The DJ dimmed the lights slightly and played the Main Street Electrical parade music and the waiters marched it with these slippers – everyone all went silent and were just staring at these slippers LOL. Even when they were put down for about 5 minutes people didn’t touch them because they were taking photos etc. The champagne infused Sorbet was sat on the end of the slipper, it was delicious! Really light and refreshing!

There was a short break between this course and the main course – think we needed it! Gave me a chance to see how everyone was doing. The Servers were going round making sure everyone knew how to take the LED lights from the Sorbet. Shortly afterwards the main course was brought out.

Now to make things easier for ourselves and to avoid any issues on the day we had opted to give everyone the same main course. We had checked with all our family and were fortunate that we had no vegetarians, no allergies and no fussy eaters so that made things much better. We had a duo plate of Beef Medallions with a port wine and pearl onion reduction, Onion Crusted Chicken breast served with Garlic Mashed potatoes and Baby Vegetables. The main course was gorgeous! The Beef was really tender and not fatty at all, the Chicken was really moist! I really enjoyed the whole meal, I couldn’t fault anything at all with the meal. As we finished the Chef came over to say congratulations. It turns out he was the same Chef we met when we did our food tasting at the planning session! He said he remembered us as the couple who wouldn’t criticize his food LOL! I remember at the planning session he had brought out a variety of dishes for us to try and comment on but all we kept saying was Mmmmm! LOL.

After everyone was finished and the plates were cleared away it was time for the speeches! We had 3 people making speeches, my Dad, Gary and the Best Man. I honestly could not say who was more nervous! They were all really uptight about this part of the day. Well my dad was up first and started the speech off with a great couple of jokes! He kept it mostly light hearted and fun but there were several bits where I was nearly blubbing away! Gary only made a short little speech thanking people who had come all this way etc. By the time the Best Man speech came Mark was a little tipsy – well more than a little anyway! His speech was good though and again it was nice and light hearted and fun.

After the speeches it was time to cut the cake!! The cake looked fabulous and I thought there was going to be loads left over as we only had 26 of us and the cake served 50! We were then introduced to the professional cake cutter and server OMG I found this hysterically funny that they had a waiter whose job was specifically to watch over us as we cut the cake then serve it to us and then take the cake out the back to prepare it for the guests to eat!! We managed to fulfill our cake cutting duty and we fed each other and the cake was delicious!

So…after the cake cutting it was time for the first dance! We headed over to the dance floor and our song started to play “So Amazing” by Luther Vandross. No sooner had we started to dance as Gary started to lose it! I could see tears welling up in his eyes, I was determined to hold it together and get through the song so I laughed and actually tried not to look at him throughout the song. The song means so much to us and it was a perfect choice for our first dance as Mr and Mrs!!

Phew first dance over with it was time to head back to the table for some of that delicious cake! It turns out that they had saved the entire top layer for us so they only served up the bottom two layers. The Bottom layer was chocolate sponge with Raspberry mousse and fresh raspberries, and the second layer was Marble Sponge with Chocolate Mousse! Yummy. They had served 2 small portions onto each plate so everyone got to try a bit of each layer. It was almost time for our second surprise of the evening! We had some “surprise guests” coming to the reception and we wanted them to enter the room at a time when no one would be expecting them. So we arranged for them to enter half way through the Father Daughter dance. DJ Miles came over and asked me if we were ready for the father daughter dance and said our guests were ready to come in. So they closed both of the doors and me and my dad headed up to the dance floor. We had chosen Lionel Ritchie – Three times a lady, another song that had lots of sentimental meaning to us. I think I found that dance a lot harder than Mine and Gary’s first dance! A minute or 2 into the dance we saw my cousin heading over to the doors to go and get a drink, it was so funny as he was asked by Karen to wait 5 minutes and he looked so confused. As he sat down we could see the shadows moving outside so we knew our guests were ready to enter! All of a sudden the music changed and the DJ announced we had some surprise visitors who wanted to wish us congratulations! Then in entered….Mickey and Minnie!! When they came in the crowd went wild!! The DJ made me and my dad finish the song – My dad dancing with Minnie and me dancing with Mickey. Then we had some group dances with Mickey and Minnie – the kids totally loved them! Im sure my youngest cousin Robbie(3) is now going to expect them at every wedding! We danced with them the whole time they were with us LOL! I was knackered but felt duty bound to dance with the mouse! We got some group photos with Mickey and Minnie then we got some photos of just us and Mickey and Minnie before they left us.

The DJ then got everyone up on the floor doing some great group dances! He had everyone doing the Cha Cha Slide (even my 74 year old granddad!!) We had a conga line dancing around most of the Boardwalk convention centre and shook our booties to Beyonce! It was just fabulous! I definitely needed a drink by this point so I walked over to the bar, our Bartender was so good that he saw me coming and started to pour my drink before I had even got there! By the time I reached the bar my drink was ready waiting! He was such a nice guy!!

I went back in and the DJ asked me what I was intending on doing with the gorgeous centre pieces. I hadn’t even thought about this so he said he would make each table play a game to win them! It was basically pass the Parcel but instead we were using a napkin! When he stopped the music who ever had the napkin won the centrepiece! It was cheesy but everyone loved it!!

Still time was moving on now and it was almost time to wind down – we were called to the floor for our last dance. DJ Miles made sure everybody was up and dancing for the last dance! It was a wonderful ending to such a wonderful reception. Now everyone knew something was happening at the end of the reception and they knew that they needed to get back on the coach to get there but they didn’t really know what was going on….and I didn’t tell them!! Well not yet anyway!

Karen had kindly already packed all our stuff away and loaded it onto the coach for us, including any left over cake! So we said our goodbyes and Thank you’s to everybody and headed towards the coach. Once everybody was on the coach I decided to tell them all where we were going. I told them we were going to Epcot for a Dessert party and to watch Illuminations from a special viewing area! Now apart from my family (who are hardened Disney travellers like us) no one had been to WDW before this holiday and had no idea what illuminations was!

The coach drove in through a backstage area of Epcot, around the world showcase and the driver was really good and told everyone little bits of information as we were driving past each bit! The coach stopped in Backstage UK. Everyone got out of the coach and there was a host there waiting for us. She opened the door and we walked through Epcot to the Lower UK Viewing area behind the rose and crown. It was really strange walking through Epcot in my wedding dress with everybody staring. I even had one person stop and ask if they could take a photo LOL!! We had lots of people congratulating us, it was such a wonderful feeling. Our host took us over to the UK where we met with Randy again. (Stan had come over on the coach with us!)

The Lower UK Terrace had been set up with several tables with white table linens and glass cylinders filled with a clear gel and mickey head confetti and had an LED light in the bottom. On top of each cylinder was a White rose head which had been dipped in glitter.


The desserts were gorgeous, we had decided on “miniatures around the world” they were Delicious!! LOL we were worried that there wasn’t enough to feed the troops but I believe that there was still some left at the end! We managed to mingle with the guests and check how they were all doing, making sure people were eating plenty of desserts and having drinks from the bar! At the dessert party we also had Hot Choc and Tea, coffee etc. Then Randy and Stan came over to us to give us our Illuminations Pep Talk – i.e. “you guys have seen these fireworks many times before right ? So we need you to work it for the cameras” which we had no problem doing and again we got some great shots. The music started and the lights went out and everyone settled down to watch the fireworks! I’ve never heard our group so quiet!! We have seen Illuminations from many places but we all agreed that the UK Lower had been a most awesome view we’d seen the Illuminations from, and it was the special holiday version too which made it so much better. It was just perfect. Once Illuminations was over there was just about time to have 1 last drink and a few last bits of dessert whilst the park emptied a bit! Then we headed back to the coach. Everyone was chatting about how great the day had been, I was really pleased that everyone had had such a good time! The coach dropped us off back at the Yacht Club first and then headed off to drop of each guest at their chosen hotels, it was also going to drop off Gary’s family back at their villa in Kissimmee.

By now my feet were saying they’d had enough and wanted to go to bed – I felt I could drop any second. We got to the lobby, said our goodbyes and went to our room.

When we got back to the room the bed had been scattered with rose petals and there were 2 glasses of Chilled champagne on the side (from my parents). On the bed we had a card – when I opened it, it was from our housekeeper Winda. She had seen our wedding when cleaning the rooms and had made a huge swan out of the towels which was sat on the bed with the card. We sat down and munched on a little of the left over wedding cake and drunk our champagne before falling into bed.


I will post some Pictures later - im having problems uploading them at the moment!

[granmaz]

I almost feel as though I was there!! Thank you for sharing with so much detail. I'm looking forward to the photos.
I think we saw you arrive back at the Yacht Club as we were in the bar on that evening(5th) and saw a wedding party come in at the other end of the lobby. Somebody we were with wondered if it was you.

[arieljasmine]

Oh Laura, what a magical day. I am sat here with tears streaming down my face, I am such an old softie! Thank you for sharing your wonderful day with us.

ArielJasmine princess:

[KayleeUK]

Laura - lovely :) Can't wait for pictures!

[jns]

Thank you sooooooooooooooo much for sharing your wonderful day :hug:

can't wait to see the photos :wizard:

[lucysdad]

Oh my....a great big sigh! What a wonderful and creative wedding! However did you think of all those special touches? Your sister's roses made me cry. Golly, my daughter is only 8, but I'm going to save this thread just in case she wants a Disney wedding. Please post the pictures soon. I can't get the video to work and I'm dying to see everything. My best wishes for health and happiness to your new little family.
Lucy's Mom

[jockey]

Laura

What a report:) I am a Disney bride too, we got married at the wedding pavillion on the 6th December 2000! I have really enjoyed reading your report as it has brought back so many happy memories for me thanks for sharing your video and pics it brought tears to my eyes:) Your dress was really beautiful! Disney florists do a fantastic job, your flowers were lovely! Congratulations to you both!

[ely3857]

Brilliant :thumbsup2

:yay:

Jodie

[DisneyJo]

What a beautiful wedding, can't wait to see more photo's. All the little extra's you did really made the day even more special. Whilst reading I felt as though I was there with you! To finish your day watching the illuminations was such a wonderful idea. And you were right you definately had to have Mickey and Minnie there. :thumbsup2

[natalielongstaff]

what a perfect end to a perfect day:)

[sue.o]

What a fantastic day! The details made me feel I was a guest! Wishing you both a fantastic life together.:love:

[princess jackson]

Great reading, lovely photos

[wils]

Thank you so much :) Glad you had such a magical day and thank you for sharing it in such detail.

Best wishes to you both :grouphug:

[Laurafoster]

Ok finally i have the link to some of my wedding pictures -

http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?eventthumbs?event=0CQ7007F

Hopefully that should take you to the main page! They dont appear to be in any particular order LOL! He has only put some of them on there at the moment! I actually have around 1800!!!!

I might aswell post the link to my other pictures aswell - http://www.collages.net/disneyweddings/

User Name - Foster / Flower BP
Password - 1971

[jns]

Thank you for sharing your photos with us
Woo they are beautifull

which ones are you going to pick out of that lot for you album

really loved your cake

Oh I wish I could get married again :wizard: and I would code your wedding
everything looks wonderful

when did you do the photos at the castle
we need more of this report

[lorapinky]

Yours pics are lovely, you must be so happy :cloud9:

Thank you for sharing:hug:

[Laurafoster]

Thank you for sharing your photos with us
Woo they are beautifull

which ones are you going to pick out of that lot for you album

really loved your cake

Oh I wish I could get married again :wizard: and I would code your wedding
everything looks wonderful

when did you do the photos at the castle
we need more of this report


Thank you - i really LOVED my cake! It was sooo delicious too! I did the photos at the castle a few days after the wedding - i will get around to that part of my trip shortly :rolleyes1 i promise :thumbsup2

[Laurafoster]

Wednesday 6th December, 2006;

Day after the wedding, We had planned to head over to Seaworld today around midday to meet the rest of the Foster Family clan! So we got up and had a leisurely breakfast over at the Boardwalk bakery! Today was another gorgeous day with the sun shining. :goodvibes


We jumped into a taxi and headed off to Seaworld. We got there a little early so we had a wander through the gift shop….Oh ok then we headed to the Budweiser hospitality tent! ;)

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_054-med.jpg

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_027-med.jpg


So we sat out in the sunshine having a nice cold drink it was almost time to meet the rest of the family. We had arranged to meet by the dolphin pool, now when we got over there I didn’t realise that unless you pay extra money now days you don’t get that close to the dolphins, you have to stand done one end of the pool whilst the people with food stand at the other end – the dolphins aren’t stupid – there like my family if theres food on offer – that’s where they go!! I was disappointed in this thought its another typical way to get more money out of yo but never mind. We spotted my family taking some photos at the other end of the Dolphin pool so we headed over. There was one set of my grandparents (My mums parents) and My Uncle(mums brother) and my aunt and the 2 kids, Andrew 9 and Robbie 3. As soon as we met up with them we headed straight over to do Kraken – now Andrew was actually tall enough to go on this and looked like he really wanted to but his mum is a little over protective and didn’t want him to go on. After some good old uncomfortable temper tantrums from Andrew he got his way and we started to walk through the queue. When the wait time said 10 minutes – they quite clearly meant the 10 minute walk to get to the queue! We got straight on the next coaster! I was fully expecting Andrew to hate this ride, and to be scared the whole way round – what I wasn’t expecting is my uncle – the 42 year old self confessed “tough londener” to be so green when he got off it that he could pass for Shrek! :sick: (He has funny ears!!) Andrew loved the ride!

We got off and headed straight for Journey to Atlantis – My 74 year old Grandad LOVES this ride! I find it quite amusing that he keeps trying to talk my Nan into going on it and she keeps saying “act your age Alec” :lmao:


When we were queueing up I managed to get a seat in the middle of the boat – My Uncle and Andrew volunteered to sit up front as they didn’t believe you would get wet….and it would have been rude of me to correct them. ;)

After the big drop they turned round and said see we didn’t get wet…I just laughed and said its not over yet! For those of you that have been on it you’ll know it’s the little drop that getd you soaked…and they did get soaked – another boat came down the big drop and they got all the splash from that too!!:rolleyes1

We looked at the time and noticed the Shamu show was on in 30 mins so we wandered over to the stadium and got pretty good seats. Everyone really loved the show… well those who hadn’t been before the rest of us were a little disappointed, we thought the previous one was better. As my Dad said “not enough Whale!”. I thought it was too much about the trainers etc.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_072-med.jpg


We then wanted to get some lunch but as always no one could decide where we should eat so we went our separate ways and arranged to meet back at the Clyde and Seamore show. We went over to the Budweiser hospitality area (years of not being able to drink legally in Florida I was making up for lost time!) I had a sandwich which was huge but lovely! We went through and saw the Clydesdales before heading back to Clyde and Seamore. Now id seen this show before and knew there would be a mime in there taking the mick out of poor unsuspecting tourists…..so I did not want to be late getting in there. Id rather laugh at other people than have them laugh at me!!! But noooo people had to go find some restrooms yadda yadda yadda and so we were late! It was pretty full when we got there and I could see my family right at the other side at the top so I knew I would have to walk past the mime guy! :scared1: Thankfully I managed to run past and get up to my seat whilst he was pre occupied with someone else! Phew!

We watched the show which was pretty good – I find this kind of like the Jungle Cruise at MK if you get someone who’s good and got a good sense of humour its great! Otherwise its just average! Luckily we had really good people this time. After that we had a walk around, check out the stingrays, and the penguins. The rest of the family were fascinated to see the manatees as they had never seen them before. After this we headed off back to the hotel.

We had a reservation at Le Cellier tonight and i was really looking forward to eating here as id heard so many fab reviews! We all had the Cheddar Soup and i had the mushroom filet - it was yummy!! We were too full for dessert so we said no to that, 10 mins later our waitress came out with a chocolate dessert with congratulations written over the plate in chocolate and a "magical moments" card signed by the staff. It was yummy but very rich! We watched Illuminations - not quite as good a view as we had at the wedding lol but it will always have those great memories. After that we headed back to the hotel - we were exhausted!

[KayleeUK]

Gorgeous photos Laura :) loving your report!

[SusanEllen]

Dear Laura and Gary,
Thank you for being so generous in sharing your special times. I started reading your reports yesterday during my lunch and today got through your beautifully written description of the wedding. I should have stopped there but was so drawn in that I ran back into my office between a storytime and a class scheduled in the library (in an elementary school) and started reading about your reception. A mistake in timing! Watching the sneak peek of the wedding ceremony brought tears to my eyes, but I'd managed to take control. No such luck when I read about how lovingly placed on your sweetheart table was the photo of your precious sister dressed as an angel. I'm quite sure there is a class of ten year old children in this school right now who are wondering what in the world happened to make me look so stricken when they came to the library this afternoon.
So glad that things went smoothly and happily for the two of you and for your good parents on your most special day. Congratulations. Blessings. Many happy returns of those feelings from that fabulous day.

[DisneyJo]

what I wasn’t expecting is my uncle – the 42 year old self confessed “tough londener” to be so green when he got off it that he could pass for Shrek! :sick: (He has funny ears!!):lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

Clyde and Seamore. Now I'd seen this show before and knew there would be a mime in there taking the mick out of poor unsuspecting tourists…..so I did not want to be late getting in there. Id rather laugh at other people than have them laugh at me!!! But noooo people had to go find some restrooms yadda yadda yadda and so we were late! It was pretty full when we got there and I could see my family right at the other side at the top so I knew I would have to walk past the mime guy! :scared1: Thankfully I managed to run past and get up to my seat whilst he was pre occupied with someone else! Phew!

I just love the mime, I can even remember him from trips as a kid. But like you I'd rather laugh with him than be laughed at.
Good running girl. :thumbsup2

[Chilly]

Your report nearly made me cry at work! It sounds like the perfect magical wedding day. Many many congratulations on becoming a MRS.

I want a disney wedding now!

[Ware Bears]

Just catching up with this Laura, what a perfect day you had. :goodvibes

[natalielongstaff]

brilliant pics laura:)

[lorapinky]

Thanks for more great pics!!!

[Lizzy Lemon]

Thankyou for such a wonderful report and photos. They are just wonderful. I would have loved a wedding like that, wonder if I could persuade DH to have a party for our Silver Wedding there (he's already having a fit on what our holiday is costing us)

[wils]

WOW - those photos - how on earth are you going to narrow them done an album or so

DD has now, after seeing your MK photos, decided that she wants to get married at Disney. She asked me if she could but I suggested that she needed to discuss that with her husband-to-be. She is going to ask Jacob ("as I think I might marry him") so I'll let you know what he says. They are both 4 :lmao: I better start saving!

[arieljasmine]

DD has now, after seeing your MK photos, decided that she wants to get married at Disney. She asked me if she could but I suggested that she needed to discuss that with her husband-to-be. She is going to ask Jacob ("as I think I might marry him") so I'll let you know what he says. They are both 4 :lmao: I better start saving!

That is too funny, Jo!! :lmao:

Loved your pics, Laura, thanks for sharing. Sounds like a lovely day at Seaworld. What a shame that you can't get to the dolphins anymore.

ArielJasmine princess:

[Laurafoster]

Thursday 8th December,2006:

We headed over to Animal Kingdom this morning, we got to the park just before 9am – today it was just me, DH and my parents. We headed straight over to do Expedition Everest – there was quite a big queue so me, DH and my dad decided to go on the single rider line whilst my mum waited outside. When we approached the queue the man saw our just married pins and gave us 3 free fast passes. :thumbsup2 Who Hoo so we went straight on!

We then headed over to the Kilmanjaro Safaris but there was quite a queue so we got some fast passes and went to have a look in the shops. After spending some money we went on the safari – there were loads more animals than I remember seeing last time, I think its because it’s so much cooler. After we did that we decided to head over and do the Kali River rapids – when we were walking along we bumped into Gary’s parents walking around (this is the family who did not want to visit Disney LOL):rolleyes: . Unfortunately we didn’t manage to talk the outlaws into going on a water ride so just the four of us went on – went we got off soaking wet they had disappeared!! We headed back to the tree of life to watch its tough to be a bug and then headed off to get something to eat at the flame tree barbeque. After we had eaten we went off to do Expedition Everest one more time, we headed over to Dino land and ended up going in to see that nemo show – it was pretty clever but I thought it was a bit too long. Didn’t help that it broke down half way through for 20 mins!! We went on dinosaur and then decided to head back to the hotel to chill out around the pool.:beach:

We spent a few hours chilling around the pool before getting changed and heading over to the Magic Kingdom for MVMCP! We headed over at around 4pm as we wanted to stop by Francks – which is next to the wedding pavilion to drop off a card and gift for our wedding planner. We had reservations at the crystal palace at 5:45 with Garys parents, grandparents and uncle – I had been determined to get them to a character meal!! We met them outside and went to check in for our meal, we managed to see some of wishes before they called us in. The meal was lovely – as always the food was fabulous and Gary’s family really enjoyed it – including the characters!!

After the meal we headed over to Caseys corner where we were meeting the rest of the gang! Once all 27 of us were there we headed off through adventureland, the first ride we went on was Pirates of the Caribbean – we got to the front of the queue and they asked how many in your group – poor man looked shocked when I said 27 LOL! :rotfl:
After pirates of the Caribbean we went over to big thunder mountain which was great fun – they saw our just married pins and ears and gave our family the whole train which was great! After that we went to get a drink and get a spot for the first parade. We went into Pecos Bill as a few people were hungry! So we they got some burgers, me and Gary just went up to get a drink and were given 2 free desserts - another perk from the just married pin!!

The Very Merry Xmas parade was really good this year! The kids really loved it too, although I had to keep hold of Robbie as he kept wanting to go and hug the charaters! After the parade we went off to do Buzz light year - I won!! Lol. We then did space mountain and headed back to the castle to watch the Xmas Fireworks! The fireworks were great – I love watching them over the castle!

After the fireworks we split up into smaller groups and some of us went over to do Splash Mountain. After that me and Gary had a wander through the shops before heading back to the YC. We had to be up at 4am the next morning for a photo shoot in the Magic Kingdom at 6am!! Whilst we were excited about the photo shoot, we were NOT looking forward to getting up at 4am!!! :rolleyes:


I do have some pictures from MVMCP so i'll post them later!

[arieljasmine]

Another lovely day, Laura, and some great perks! How cool having the BTMR train to yourselves. Looking forward to hearing about how you got on with getting up the next day!

ArielJasmine princess:

[Chilly]

Another great day. Can't wait to see the photos.

[SusanEllen]

Enjoyed your new installment, Laura. Those Just Married buttons certainly worked some magic. Disney memories are usually special, but you have some unusually special ones!

Question about Wishes--Did I read that right? You saw part of Wishes while waiting for a 5:45 ADR? That seems awfully early in the evening, but I've never been to MVMCP, so am thinking that perhaps they stage an early fireworks for guests w/o party tickets who must leave the park early. Is that it?

[Laurafoster]

Enjoyed your new installment, Laura. Those Just Married buttons certainly worked some magic. Disney memories are usually special, but you have some unusually special ones!

Question about Wishes--Did I read that right? You saw part of Wishes while waiting for a 5:45 ADR? That seems awfully early in the evening, but I've never been to MVMCP, so am thinking that perhaps they stage an early fireworks for guests w/o party tickets who must leave the park early. Is that it?

Yes the fireworks were on before the MVMCP started! i didnt know they would be on at that time but it was a nice surprise!:)

[jns]

Looking forward to hearing all about the photo shoot

[tazz23]

:goodvibes Thank you for sharing and congratulations! Everything sounds incredibly magical, can't wait to hear more! :hug:

[mark&sue]

I have never read a trip reports like this. This must be the most amazing wedding ever. I looked at your photos of the magic kingdom and wondered how you got the place to yourself and now you have explained you had to get up so early it all makes sense.

Looking forward to reading more. I can't imagine the amount of organising that went into your wedding and how perfect it all worked out.

I am just sooooooo jealous!!!!


Susan

[wils]

Sounds like another fab day

[natalielongstaff]

another great day laura :)

[Gina Loves Disney]

I LOVE your pics. the fireworks are amazing!

[my2boysrtwicethefun]

Great trip report. It sounds as if you had the perfect wedding. Congratulations!

[Laurafoster]

Friday 8th, December;

My alarm went off at a stupid 4:30am this morning!! :headache:

I really just wanted to roll over and hit the snooze button, but I knew I had to get up. Anna would be here to do my hair and make up at 5am and I needed to have a shower and dry my hair! Gary decided he wasn’t getting up any earlier than he absolutely had to :rolleyes: so he stayed in bed whilst I had my shower, dried my hair and put my contact lenses in. Gary finally rolled out of bed at around 4:45am and got straight in the shower.

Anna turned up at 5am, right on time and set to work on my hair to start with, took her about 20mins to finish off my hair this morning and then she started on my makeup – I certainly needed a bit more on this morning to make sure I didn’t look as though id barely had any sleep. Make up finished and Anna left at around 5:40. As she left the phone rang – it was our photographer to advise that he would be at the Yacht Club Lobby at 6am to pick us up. Just enough time for Gary to help me squeeze back into my wedding dress and grab my stole - I had a feeling I would be needing it this morning! We made our way down to reception at 5:55am and sat in the lobby waiting. The lobby was quite busy with staff waxing the floor and cleaning everything imaginable. We saw a car pull up outside and figured it was ours….not many other people around at this time! Sure enough it was our photographer Ty. He loaded us into the car and headed off to the Magic Kingdom. We went in through the backstage entrance of the Magic Kingdom, this is on the right hand side of where the busses enter – right behind the hedge. We turned through into a big parking lot area and continued to drive through. We saw lots of staff turning up for work behind what was main street. We drove past where tinkerbell lands when she flys out of the castle during the fireworks, we then drove through a small opening and came out in tomorrowland. Was so strange driving through the Magic Kingdom!! Anyway, we drove through to the castle and parked at the side. I noticed that the castle lights were not on – the photographer said that they sometimes have to switch them on and that he would contact the control room to get them to do this. We decided to wait in the car for this as it was freezing cold out! It was by far the coldest day we had throughout our holiday! Whilst we were waiting in our nice warm car the florist van pulled up and gave Gary his fresh button hole and my refreshed bouquet – it looked like a brand new bouquet!! The photographer came back and said that they were unable to put the lights on the castle as they were filming a new commercial over in the teacups, I was really disappointed but he assured me that we would get them digitally altered so that the castle appeared lit up in my actual photos and that by way of an apology he would let us have some photos for some different sites instead! Normally on a Magic Kingdom photoshoot they take some pics inside the castle, outside the castle and some around the carousel. We started off by taking some photographs down main street – when the big main Christmas tree was, we got some pictures outside the fire station and the emporium at the end too. There were dozens of people in main street working away – checking lights, cleaning the floor but when we were taking our pictures they all stopped and moved everything out of the way as much as they could! We then went and took some pictures up by the castle, we took some at the front by the statue and then we headed inside the castle to take some around the entrance to Cinderellas Royal table and tinkerbells treasures. We then got back into the car and he drove us round the back of the castle where we went through a little gate at the side of the castle and climbed up onto a small balcony there and got a few pictures up there. Once we had done those we headed over to Toontown to take some pictures outside Minnies house. We got some great shots of us inside the house, sitting on the sofa and looking into the mirror etc. By now it was daylight so we headed back to the castle to get a few castle shots in daylight too. Once we were all finished we got back into the car and headed through the backstage area by toontown to exit the magic Kingdom. Whilst we were driving back the photographer was pointing out loads off little bits to us – like the Power Station, the recycling centre – The train station where there get deliveries and the monorail station where they all go at night. We also drove past the spot where they set off all the wishes fireworks which was interesting to see where it actually was in relation to the castle!! We arrived back at the hotel at around 7:45 and by now the lobby was pretty busy. We headed back up to the room to get changed, we had a voicemail on our phone from our wedding planner letting us know that there was a present behind the font desk waiting for us. We went down and picked that up, there were some his and hers watches. They were in a little Cinderella presentation case and you only get them for having a wedding with Disney – so we set one to 3pm and one to 8pm (the times in the USA and UK that we actually got married) and put them away safely. By now we were pretty hungry so we grabbed some muffins in the Yacht Club and went outside to meet the rest of the family as we were off to Epcot today.

We met up with my parents and one set of my grandparents and walked over to Epcot – we headed straight for Soarin and there was very little queue so we managed to go on that twice! We then went on the living with the land boat ride – my Nan loves this ride! We then sat and had a drink in the food area. After the rest of the family had had their coffee fix for the next few hours we headed over to do test track and mission space. Now the first year that mission space opened we all went on it, but my nan didn’t really listen to the instructions of not moving your head and kept tuning around to talk to us – needless to say it made her feel sick and she wouldn’t go on it again! We managed to convince her to go on the non intense version of it this time whilst the rest of us went on the intense version. After that we decided to have a stroll around the world showcase. About midday my grandparents headed back to the hotel for lunch and me, Gary and my parents decided to have lunch in morocco. After this we were pretty worn out so we went back to the hotel to chill out and relax for a few hours.

This evening Gary and I headed over to Magic Kingdom to do a bit of shopping and to watch Wishes. We were pretty tied from getting up so early! We grabbed some dinner at Caseys corner and had a look through some of the shops on main street. It was a night when the park was closing early so wishes was on early too. We went and got a good spot at the end of main street so we had a good view of the castle. After the fireworks we headed back towards the hotel and had a few drinks in the hotel before heading back up to the room and falling asleep.

[natalielongstaff]

another fab day, the photographer seemed to know his stuff:thumbsup2

[dee slack]

what a great morning! Did you take your own camera with you? Just thinking it would be really neat to take some photo's of MK 'getting ready' for the day as it's something you're not likely to see again.

[meryll83]

Ohmigod, this wedding must have cost you a fortune, it sounds absolutely amazing!
I only wish I could afford a wedding like this!

[Laurafoster]

what a great morning! Did you take your own camera with you? Just thinking it would be really neat to take some photo's of MK 'getting ready' for the day as it's something you're not likely to see again.

No your not allowed to take any pictures yourself. Disney wont allow you to take any backstage pics of pics of anything in the parks when closed that wouldnt be there when open.

[DisneyJo]

Wow what a great experience to have the MK all to yourselves (well except for the cm's!) Did you have to pay extra for that or is it in the wedding package?

[dee slack]

No your not allowed to take any pictures yourself. Disney wont allow you to take any backstage pics of pics of anything in the parks when closed that wouldnt be there when open.

shame! Those pic's would be great for scrapbooking a 'before' and 'after' page!

[Laurafoster]

Wow what a great experience to have the MK all to yourselves (well except for the cm's!) Did you have to pay extra for that or is it in the wedding package?


No its an extra you can book - i thought i was expensive at first but im really glad i did it!!

[arieljasmine]

Another magical day, Laura. Well done for getting up so early. I can't imagine driving up to the castle, that must have been really weird. I thought it was so romantic that you set the watches to the time you got married :goodvibes

ArielJasmine princess:

[wils]

Sounds magical :)

[Chilly]

I think the photos were well worth the money! You looked lovely and so did Hubby.

[meryll83]

Is there anywhere I can find a breakdown of cost of all the different elements of wedding packages / photo sections, or can I only find this out by calling DFTW?

[dee slack]

Is there anywhere I can find a breakdown of cost of all the different elements of wedding packages / photo sections, or can I only find this out by calling DFTW?

have you tried the wish book facility on www.disneyweddings.com ? Take a look there and then if there's something specific you want to know, I might be able to help you. Have fun on the weddings site!:bride:

[jns]

What a wonderful day
just looked at the photos again
they done a great job of lighting up the castle
and I just love the one in the mirror
were you gavin a choice where you could get the photos done

Thank you again so much for sharing

[Laurafoster]

What a wonderful day
just looked at the photos again
they done a great job of lighting up the castle
and I just love the one in the mirror
were you gavin a choice where you could get the photos done

Thank you again so much for sharing


Usually your not given a choice as they normally take pictures around the teacups and the carousel but as they were being used to film the commercial we were allowed to choose 1 other location so we chose main street as it had all the Christmas Decorations up. We then had time to go to 1 other location and the photographer suggested Minnies house which i thought was great as they are fun pictures!

[jjpenguin]

Great report and fantastic photo's .... I'm secretly thinking about a vow renewal in 3 years... (10 year anniversary)

[Laurafoster]

Saturday 9th December;

Thankfully we didn’t have to get up early this morning! We got up quite late and had a leisurely breakfast over at the Boardwalk bakery, it was a warm day so it was nice to sit outside.

We had arranged to go to MGM today so we hopped on the boat and headed towards the entrance. We were a bit early so we had a wander through some of the shops. We met up with my parents. We headed straight over to Tower of Terror – Gary wont go on this ride! So him and my mum sat outside and waited for me and my dad to come off. No matter how big the queue is for this ride I always seem to get that one seat right in the middle!!

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_082-med.jpg

Once we had done that we headed over to do Rockin Rollercoaster. There was no queue so we went on twice! We then sat down to have something to eat and a drink – the lady saw our just married stuff and gave us our whole order for free!! Funny thing though, she told Gary off for making me carry the tray! After we had finished eating we headed round to do the muppets, Indiana jones and star tours. We decided to head back to the hotel at around 3pm as it was a nice day again. So we spent the afternoon around the pool with some nice cocktails.

In the evening we had a reservation at Blue Zoo – last time I ate here I loved the restaurant! I thought it had a wonderful atmosphere and so I was really looking forward to our meal. It was a lovely meal, the food was excellent – we had a great waiter who kept us laughing throughout the whole time. He also brought over a free dessert – it was lovely but soooo rich!

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_081-med.jpg

After the meal we definitely needed to walk around! We ate so much food!! We took a walk around the boardwalk and had a few drinks in ESPN before heading back to the hotel.

[SusanEllen]

How sweet that people continued to notice your newly married status and awarded you special treats.

[arieljasmine]

Another lovely day, Laura. How lovely of the CM to give you your food for free, and your free dessert in the evening looks delicious.

ArielJasmine princess:

[Laurafoster]

Sunday 10th December 2006;
We woke up this morning and it looked like it was going to be a nice hot day! So we quickly called round the rest of the troops to see if they fancied heading over to Typhoon Lagoon for a few hours! We got to typhoon lagoon at around 10:30 and the place was virtually empty! Me and Gary headed off to go and get one of the refillable mugs and the rest went to find a sunbed over near crush n gusher! We caught up with them just as some more of the family arrived. We lounged around for a while waiting for any straglers. Once everyone had arrived we went off to do the bigger rides like Crush n Gusher and Humunga Cowabunga as most people didn’t want to do these! We managed to go on each of them a few times. We headed back and headed off with the rest of the family to do the lazy river and we went on some of the kiddie rides with my cousins. By the time we got back to the sunbed we were all starving! So we headed back to the main entrance to have something to eat.

After lunch some people left to go back to their hotels and the rest of us decided to hit the wave pool! We stood in the shallow end for a while with the kids as they cant go out to far – My cousin Marc didn’t realise how strong the wave would be and got knocked over! Wish id had the video camera!!! After quite a while in the wave pool we went back and got changed before heading into the shop! I love the shops in Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard beach – I really love the Roxy T Shirts as they fold up really small and dry really quickly so they are great for Florida! After we had spent our money we jumped on a bus back to the hotel to chil out and get changed for the evening!

We were heading over to MGM this evening as it was time for Gary’s family and a few friends to head back to England the next morning. So we had all arranged to meet at the Hat at 7pm to go and see the OsborneLights! We arrived early and the park wasn’t too busy so we got a chance to go on the Tower of Terror one last time!

Everyone was amazed by the osborne lights! I thought they were really good this year! After we had all walked round we said our good byes to Gary’s Family. Sounds really mean but I saw soooo glad they were leaving! All holiday they had made nasty remarks each time we saw them about my family “tagging along on our honeymoon”. I kept saying to them that this wasn’t our honeymoon and that the cruise was! I also pointed out that everyone that was “tagging along” had taken the time of work, flown all the way out here and spent thousands of pounds to go to Florida for my wedding and we really appreciated that – how rude would it have been for me to say well thanks now go away?! Anyway we were enjoying having all our friends and family with us in the parks! Gary’s always worried about what they might say and if they would offend me or my family so I knew he would relax a bit more once they had gone! I feel so sorry for him having to worry about that! My family couldn’t care less what his parents say – water of a ducks back to my family!

Anyway they headed off and the rest of us went to the Big River on the Boardwalk for something to eat! I love their Mahi Mahi Caesar salad! Another day over and we headed back to the hotel – the men were off to play Golf tomorrow so me and my Mum were heading to Downtown to do some Shopping! Need plenty of energy for that!!!

[DisneyJo]

Great day, I love the water parks, sorry about the family!

[jns]

we love the water parks too

[Laurafoster]

Monday 11th December;

We woke up pretty early this morning as Gary, My Dad,Grandad and Uncle had a Tee time reserved for a round of Golf at one of the Disney courses. I think they were playing Eagle Pines this time. We had breakfast downstairs in the Yacht Club and waited for everyone to turn up, then they jumped into a taxi. As the guys were headed off to play golf we decided that it was only fair that us ladies went off for some retail therapy!! So we got on a bus for Downtown Disney and got off at the Market Place.

We went straight into the Christmas shop - i love this shop! I bought a Red velvety tree skirt with a cream and gold Mickey and Minnie on it, i went and got it personalised with our wedding date in gold embroidery. I paid for that and they said they would have it ready for the next day for me so i asked them to ship it back to the Yacht Club. We wandered through the Marketplace and went into the beach shop (summersands is it?) i love the roxy tshirts they sell in there! They are really lightweight and thin and are great for going on holiday as they dry out really quickly etc! (and i can get more in the suitcase!!!) however there wasnt any that i liked this time, maybe because it was Christmassy stuff and they didnt ahve any summery colours. We walked down through pleasure island and had a look in some of the shops down in West Side, i love the little magnet shop - i always pick up a couple for my friends and work collegues. I got 3 really suitable ones this time, for my dad i got "It is company policy to blame the computer" - he works for an IT company, for My MIL i got "inside every old person is a young person wondering what the hell happened"! And for me i got "i like to cook with wine, i sometimes even put it in the food".

We headed back towards the bus stop and back to the hotel. By now it was lunch time so we headed back to the hotel and headed up to our rooms to put the shopping away. When we got back to the rooms we saw a note my DH had left saying they were back and had gone down to the pool. So we headed down and found them sitting round the pool bar Hurricane Hannas. We sat down and ordered some lunch. We spent the afternoon sitting around the pool relaxing and enjoying the good weather.

That evening we headed down to Downtown Disney again, no shopping this time though. My dad had always wanted to eat at Fultons Crab house but everytime we have been he has made some excuse not to. So this time i had booked the reservation and not told him. He was really pleased when we told him where he would be eating! We were given a seat upstairs by window - looking over Downtown Disney which was great! The waiter was really funny and kept telling us funny stories about when he visited England and asked for Chips instead of Crisps. The food was really good but nothing special i thought it was a bit too expensive for what it was but im glad we ate there!

After Dinner we headed outside and went to the Comedy Club - i love this but i always try to avoid sitting near one of the phones as i hate to be the person whos picked on LOL!

We walked back to the bus stop and decided to go into Raglan Road for a few drinks! I really like Raglan road, i think its got a great atmosphere and its so lively! Although ive not tried the food!

Another night over and we headed back to the hotel before another full day tomorrow!

[Laurafoster]

Tuesday 12th December;

A week after the wedding - time always goes by far too quickly in Disney!! We were off to Universal today and meeting some more members of my family, My Nan,Grandad, Aunt Julie, Marc and George and My Aunt Christine, Uncle Stuart, Andrew and Robbie. As everyone was coming from different hotels we arranged to meet at the Universal globe outside the front entrance. We got there bright and early at 9:15 and Christine,Stuart and the kids were ready waiting for us. We waited for a few minutes before we got a text from my other Aunt saying they were running a bit late and they would meet us in there. So we headed off to do Islands of Adventure first. I really love Islands of Adventure - the way the park is themed is great. We headed ovver to the Hulk first, we left our stuff with my mum who was going to stay with Robbie as she doesnt like roller coasters. The hulk is Garys favorite ride in Orlando - i always think about that scene in the film house on haunted hill where they have the hulk and it flys off the tracks LOL. Anyway we walked through the queue which was totally empty and walked straight on to the coaster. I dont think the others were expecting it to fire you so fast and there were some funny noises coming from the row in front of me! We got off and took a look at our pictures which were quite funny, we walked out the queue and saw the rest of the group and now turned up so we went on it again with them! We went on Docter Dooms next and i know my Dad and Gary both hate this ride but will always go on it anyway?! Wheres the logic in that? Must be a man thing?!

Next up was Spiderman - i think this ride is so clever! We had to go on this in 2 groups as Robbie was too little to go on it. When the second group went on it we went and sat down and got a drink for everyone. Everyone else came out and we sat and had a drink for a while before making our way round to Blutos rapids. I always get soaked on this ride, my grandparents, Julie, Marc and George all put on ponchos - i teased Marc and George about this because they were worried their hair would get messed up! Gary chose not to go one it - he claimed he was coming down with a cold - Wuss!! So the rest of us went off onto the ride we were lucky and it was quite so we got a whole boat to ourselves! As always i got soaked straight away! I think we all ended up getting pretty wet, and George ended up getting loads of water land on his head which did mess his hair up! We got off the ride and chose to go straight over to the other 2 water rides - Ripsaw Rapids and Jurassic Park whilst we were soaking wet already!

After that it was time for lunch - we walked round to Zeus Landing and ate at the big place there. Fortunately the sun was out and so everyone managed to get pretty dried off during lunch. Mum and My Aunt Christine took Robbie over to go on the kids rides whilst the rest of us started walking over to Universal Studios. We walked around to The Mummy and waited for the rest to come along - as we were waiting the Blues Brothers came out so we watched them for a bit. We went on the Mummy and then walked round to do Men in black. After this my Nan, Grandad, Julie and George had had enough and headed back to their hotel - Marc decided he wanted to stay with us and we would drop him off later. They left and we continued to walk round and go on a few more rides - Jaws, Back to the Future, Terminator 3D, Shrek 4D and Twister. We didnt get a chance to go on earthquake as it was getting quite late by that point so we headed back to the hotel dropping Marc off at the Caribbean Beach on the way. We decided to just eat along the boardwalk tonight as we had been out all day so we ate at the Big River, its one of my favourite restaurants in Disney. We didnt do much that evening, we had a few drinks on our balcony before calling it a night as we were all tired.

[arieljasmine]

Three lovely days, Laura. I love the Popeye and Blutos ride too, but always go on it last because I always end up soaked!

Laur's princess:

[Chilly]

Great report as always. Families! Who'd have them!

[Laurafoster]

Wednesday 13th December;

We go up early today as I had booked me, Gary and my parents on the Yuletide fantasy tour as an early Christmas present! We needed to meet in Epcot at the Guest Services at 9:15am so we headed off early to have a nice breakfast over at the Yacht Club. We got to Epcot and found the guide, there were quite a lot of people on this tour – most of them were VERY festive Americans who were already singing Christmas carols! :santa:

Anyway we set off walking towards our coach, we disappeared through a backstage area behind Spaceship earth where our coach was. I found it so surprising that the living seas was so close to spaceship earth backstage because it seems such a distance when your walking around the park! We got on the coach and drove off around the world showcase – we got out of the coach in a few locations – Germany, Morocco and Italy and the guides told us a bit how Christmas was celebrated in each of those countries. They explained about all the Christmas decorations and what they meant – she explained that there were a few countries that didn’t have decorations and the reasons why I think Morocco was one of them. We saw the Segway tour wizzing past us when we were in Italy. After we had been through all of these we headed back to the coach and it was off to MGM. As we went through the Backstage entrance we had to have someone come on and search our bags – atleast they were substantially more cheerful that the people at the airport!! And she gave us all a Candy Cane as she did it! When we were driving through backstage MGM we went past a building site – it was somewhere around where the tram goes on the backlot tour. She said they were building a big new attraction but wouldn’t give any details on what it was. We headed over to the Osborne Lights and she explained what parts of the display mean – they certainly don’t look like much in the daylight! After that we headed back to the coach where we were off to the Grand Floridian next.

On the way there they were explaining that the Grand Floridian have different Christmas tree lights as Victorian England used candles in their trees and they were trying to recreate that soft glow by using dim led lights. The best part of the visit to the Grand Floridian was that we were given a load of free Gingerbread! We headed back to the coach and it had just started raining. Our next stop was the huge warehouse where they keep all the Christmas decorations! As we drove in we went past a bunch of other backstage buildings you don’t normally get to see – the recycling plant – the monorail maintenance area and the train station.

We all had to wear safety goggles in certain parts of the Warehouse so these were given to us as we walked in. The warehouse was HUGE! It was pretty empty now obviously as all the decorations were already up but there were just rows and rows of trees – all in there separate bits. They had rows of tinsel strung up, then they had boxes and boxes of the baubles and ornaments. They had huge sections for each park, resort and cruise ship! All themed accordingly. She explained that the warehouse is staffed all year round and at the moment they were working on designs for next years Christmas! We went through into the workshop area next, she showed us that each tree goes out to the resort mostly assembled – including the lights, tinsel and ornaments and then when they get to the resort they just have to put the tree parts together. She said that they all get a timetable of what resort/park/cruise ship is going to be done on what day and they load everything up into huge vans and they head to the relevant location – if it’s a hotel they wait until 1am before putting all the decorations up in 1 night. She said they get people who somehow find out the decorations are going up that night and they sit there with their video cameras LOL! :confused:

We headed back towards the coach for our final stop on the tour – The Magic Kingdom. We drove through another backstage area and she showed us the place where they build the tree before putting it on to main street. She told us about the decorations around main street before we headed back to the coach to go back to Epcot. It was quite a good tour but I certainly wouldn’t do it again! I found it a bit boring in places to be honest! All I really wanted to see was the big warehouse. ;)

Anyway we got our nice pins and headed off to get some lunch in the land. We headed back to the hotel as I wanted to do a bit of packing – we were only taking 1 suitcase with us on the cruise and I wanted to leave the other one with my parents who were staying in Disney. We decided to spend a few hours around the pool relaxing. We had lovely weather throughout all of the holiday and I was really pleased as last time we came in December it was pretty chilly.

That evening my grandparents were taking me, gary and my parents for a meal in Epcot – San Angel Inn in Mexico. We were given a lovely table right near the water! The food was excellent, and the atmosphere in the restaurant was great. I really enjoyed that meal. We headed back out to the world showcase to do a bit of shopping in Mousegear before Illuminations started. We headed over to Italy to watch the fireworks as its one of the best views ive found so far (except that wonderful place I had my dessert party lol) I knew someone else (from the dis weddings board) that was getting married today and having a dessert party there so I knew I wouldn’t be able to sneak down. After Illuminations ended we strolled back to our hotels, I needed to finish packing before the cruise tomorrow and my grandparents were leaving for home tomorrow to so we all said goodbye and headed off to finish packing!

[Chilly]

Thanks for the info on the tour. No photos?

[Laurafoster]

Thanks for the info on the tour. No photos?

No :sad2: Your not allowed to take photos on any of the backstage areas apparently :confused3

[Laurafoster]

Woo Hoo - our video summary is finally uploaded on the website!! Our actually DVD is about 1hr 30mins but he has uploaded a summary version onto his website -

http://www.stvsweddings.com/gallery.html

[Laurafoster]

Here are some pics from our evening in Epcot -

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_125-med.jpg

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_124-med.jpg

Picture of my mum and Nan

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_117-med.jpg

Picture of My parents.

[Chilly]

Great Pictures.

[arieljasmine]

A lovely day and great pictures. I would really like to do this tour next year as I would also love to see that warehouse. Please could you let me know how long the tour lasts? Thanks very much :goodvibes

Laur's princess:

[Laurafoster]

A lovely day and great pictures. I would really like to do this tour next year as I would also love to see that warehouse. Please could you let me know how long the tour lasts? Thanks very much :goodvibes

Laur's princess:

The tour was very much worth it just to see those bits! I think we just didnt get as good tour guides!

We started at around 9ish and were back at Epcot just before 1pm so its around 4 hours! Not too much walking though which is great!! :lmao:

[jns]

Tour sounds great
waiting hard on hearing all about the cruise

just downloading the video now
most put on the kettle

[jns]

Just watched the Video
You most be very happy with the whole one
Woh it is wonderful
they done a great job
you both look so happy
Congratulations again

[arieljasmine]

The tour was very much worth it just to see those bits! I think we just didnt get as good tour guides!

We started at around 9ish and were back at Epcot just before 1pm so its around 4 hours! Not too much walking though which is great!! :lmao:

Thanks very much for sharing that with me, Laura, I definitely fancy it.

Laur's princess:

[Laurafoster]

Thursday 14th December;

We got up pretty early again this morning so that we could finish off our packing. And by we i mean i was packing whilst Gary was watching some sort of sporting event on the seemingly endless channels in the hotel room whilst making helpful comments about how i should pack the shoes. :rolleyes:

Once we had finished off the packing we tied the DCL tag to the case and put it by our front door just in time for the bell boy to pick it up. We dropped the other suitcase off in my parents room and headed downstairs for breakfast. We had a leisurely breakfast and then took a stroll around the boardwalk to the Dolphin to say goodbye to my grandparents, Aunt,Uncle and cousins. They were enjoying a last morning beside the pool before heading off to the airport to fly home. My 9 year old cousin Andrew had some money left at the end of his holiday and he brough me and Gary the plush bride and groom mickey and minnie. I thought that was really sweet. :hug:

We said our goodbyes and headed back to the Yacht Club to say our goodbyes to my parents - who were rather envious of us going on the cruise! We sat and had a drink with them before we needed to head over to the Beach Club to wait for our coach to the Port. :cool1:

We werent kept waiting long and soon we were on the coach on our way to Port Canaveral - it took just over an hour to get there and soon we were heading over a big bridge and got our first glimpse of the Wonder!! :banana: :banana: :banana:

There was a large queue to go through the metal detectors but it didnt take too long, Check in was really quick and we were soon walking through those Mickey ears onto the ship! When you go through they announce you onto the boat which is kinda cheesy but you've gotta love it! We decided to head straight for the restaurant to get some lunch. We headed to Parrot Cay which was serving a buffet lunch there was such a huge choice of food and it all looked wonderful!! We had our lunch and headed to our stateroom to drop off our hand luggage. My parents had paid for our cruise as our wedding present - they had been really generous and got us a room with the verandah. I was surprised at how spacious the room was and the added extra of the balcony was fab!! We dropped all our stuff off and headed out to the sail away party. :dance3:

We headed down in the lift and started to explore the ship! I was so excited - it was like the first time being at Disney when you just want to rush off and do everything!! First thing we did was head to the bar and get a couple of those Bahama Mamas - start as i mean to go on!!! :lmao: :lmao:

The sailaway was fab! its so exciting when you see the water starting to move slowly!! Its great when you hear the ships horn for the first time!!We went up to the front of the ship to watch us head out towards the sea - we stayed ther for quite a while until it got a bit too blowy and headed back down to our stateroom to get ready for dinner! We were eating in Parrot Cay again that night, we we allocated to a table of 6 so i was anxious to see who i would be dining with! We were on a newlyweds table! There was another young american couple who had just gotten married that weekend before - they seemed really nice! Then there was another couple who were quite a bit older but a really sweet couple too - we quickly realised that they were quite religious with saying grace before each meal etc. We met our waiter, head waiter etc and they all seemed fun! The food was fabulous!! again! I had a baked crab starter which was crab in a cheesy sauce - it was so light and creamy it was great! We then had a tomato soup which was again lovely but so thick! it was so filling! For our main course we had a steak which was beautifully cooked but i hardly had room for it! Then came desserts which were again fabulous! It was a little rocky in the ship tonight - i think i just wasnt used to it. We decided to skip the shop tonight and go explor the ship a bit more. We ended up going for a swim and having a couple of drinks in the Adults only area before heading back to the room exahusted! But really looking forward to the next day in the Bahamas!! :thumbsup2

Our first Bahama Mamas!!

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_118-med.jpg


I do have some more pictures of the cruise but i havent uploaded them yet! I will try and do it this weekend!

[arieljasmine]

What a perfect day, Laura, it brings back lovely memories for me of our cruise. How sweet of your nephew to buy you the Minnie and Mickey, you must have been really touched.

I couldn't believe how big the rooms were either, I had really imagined us falling over each other due to lack of space!

At our sailaway party, I was so excited (and slighty tipsy from the strawberry pina colada I was drinking!) that Andy had to point out to me that the boat was actually moving!!

Laur's princess:

[Chilly]

What a lovely first day on board.

[Cyrano]

Great video and lovely to see you both :goodvibes

[jns]

Looking forward to hearing more and lots of photos too please :thumbsup2

[Laurafoster]

Friday 15th December;

We woke early this morning and I went out onto the balcony to see what the view was. We were just about coming into dick at Nassau in the Bahamas – I could see the Atlantis hotel and all the lovely yachts etc. We decided to head for breakfast and sit outside for a while. We headed to the beach blanket buffet and chose a seat outside – the weather was lovely and hot but quite overcast. We enjoyed our breakfast and by the time we had finished we had docked. We decided to head to our room and grab our things whilst we waited for customs to clear the boat. We headed down to the gangway just in time to be let off the. We had decided not to go on any of the excursions today – although there were a lot that sounded good! We took a walk through Nassau and had a look through the market and a few shops. We picked up a bottle pf rum and some rum cake to take back home. We took a walk to a beach which was really nice. Gorgeous white sand and crystal blue water! There were quite a few locals on the beach, one man with his horse in the water!! After a while we headed back to the ship.We put all our things away in the room and headed to the Adults only pool for a while and grabbed some burgers for lunch. After 2 weeks of hectic running round parks and the wedding it was nice to just chill out and do nothing for a while! Gary took a walk round to the sports deck for a while whilst I sat in the sun lounger with a bahama mama!

As it got nearer to dinner time we headed up to our room to get changed for the evening. We were eating in tritons tonight and I was really looking forward to this meal! It was pirate night tonight so we had bandanas on our plate which me and gary put straight on and so did the other young couple. We decided to get a bottle of wine between us tonight as the waiter convinced us we could take it back to our room later if we didn’t finish it! Once again the food was excellent! For Appetizers I had a shrimp cocktail and gary had a Prosciutto Cup which was filled with salad. The next course I had the Mixed Garden salad served with a red wine vinaigrette with cheese croutons and Gary had the tomato and basil soup. For the main course I had Dijon mustard roasted Beef tenderloin and Gary had the Citrus Glazed Duck. We both had the grand marnier soufflé for dessert! I couldn’t fault any of my food it was all perfectly cooked and really delicious! Just far too much for me! We had actually managed to drink all the bottle of wine so we didn’t have to get it sent up to our room in the end LOL!

The other younger couple on our table we heading to the pool after dinner so we decided to head over and meet them there. They were such a lovely couple, the guy used to work for Disney as various characters like Chip and Dale and he kept us entertained with jokes about what they taught you in “character school”. We left the pool area to head up to the Pirates of the Caribbean deck party – rum cocktail in hand! We got a seat upstairs so we could see everything that was going on, it was so much fun to see all the characters dancing away. The fireworks were pretty cool too. After the party we headed over to wavebands and the crazy karaoke – we were not brave enough (or drunk enough) to get up and sing but the other couple were! There were some really good people up singing actually! Time rolled on and we headed back to the room at around 2am. At this point we were both really hungry so we orded a pizza from room service which was scrummy! We sat out on our balcony for a while eating the pizza – its really strange not being able to see anything at all! We the went to bed as I wanted to be up early to take full advantage of our day at castaway cay!!
http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_132-med.jpg

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_133-med.jpg

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_131-med.jpg

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_119-med.jpg

[jns]

What a wonderful day

is the beach far from the port

[Laurafoster]

What a wonderful day

is the beach far from the port

The one we went to was about a 15 -0 minute walk! But we did have to stop to get some rum :rolleyes1

[DisneyJo]

What a lovely start to your cruise, is all food included?

[arieljasmine]

Another wonderful relaxing day, Laura. Nassau sounds lovely, we didn't get off the boat there. I really enjoyed being in Wavebands it was a lot of fun.

Laur's princess:

[Laurafoster]

What a lovely start to your cruise, is all food included?

Yes all the food is included in the price!

[saratogagirl]

Laura I have just caught up, you bring back lots of memories of our cruise. We are hoping to do the tour that you did (The Yuletide one), I will get Ian to read your report. I am off to watch your video now ...

[Laurafoster]

Saturday 16th December:

WooHoo Castaway Cay!! I was so excited about our day at Castaway Cay – id read so many great things about it and was really looking forward to seeing what it was like for myself! I dragged Gary up bright and early which he was not pleased about after going to bed so late last night! I wandered out to our Verandah and saw that we had already docked. So as Gary was getting dressed I shoved a few essentials into my trust roxy beach bag and we headed for breakfast at the Beach Blanket Buffet!

After we had eaten we ventured out to Castaway Cay – it was another overcast day! It was warm just really cloudy. We decided to walk along to the family beach as I wanted to take some pics of the flying Dutchman! It looked so impressive! We found some loungers and spent a relaxing morning chilling out on the beach listening to the DJ and reading a book. Around midday we headed to Cookies BBQ for some lunch – I thought the food was really yummy! Especially that potato salad!

We headed back to our loungers and decided to venture into the sea! It was FREEZING!! But we swan all the way out to the rope and we warmed up by the time we got there! We swan around for a while before heading abck to the loungers. It was starting to get a bit chilly so we headed back towards the shops to pick up a few pressies for those back home. We chilled out in the hot tub with a nice cocktail before heading back to get ready for Dinner. We had booked Palo tonight as I had heard great things about it. Sure enough it didn’t disappoint! We had a fab table right by the window and the waiter had noticed on our reservation that it was our honeymoon so he had put confetti over the table and a card saying congratulations.

The first course they bring over is “pane casalingo” which is a selection of freshly baked breads with 3 homemade dips some olives, melon balls, Proscuitto and a few other bits. For Appetizer I had Grilled Portobello Mushroom and polenta with a roasted shallot sauce and parmesan cheese. It was sooo delicious! Gary had the Tuscan minestrone soup which he said was lovely too. For main we both had Grilled Filet Mignon with a port wine reduction a gorgonzola cheese sauce. It was great – really tender! We both had the chocolate soufflé for dessert which was scrummy – cant beat a choccy dessert!! We were both totally full! The waiter brought over this complimentary champagne cocktail which was made from champagne and lemon sherbert! It was a bit too sweet for my liking! But it would have been rude not to finish it! We left the restaurant and went for a walk around the deck before heading back to our room to finish our packing and put the suitcase outside the door to be collected. Once we had done that we headed back out to wavebands for a few drinks. We stayed there till about 11:30 before heading back to the room to bed. We had that awful early start in the morning!

Because we had a Disney Wedding and had used so many room nights at a Disney Hotel we were given a free nights accommodation at any hotel of our choice – So we chose the Grand Floridian! Why not!!

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_144-med.jpg

[arieljasmine]

A wonderful day, Laura. I thought Castaway Cay was just like paradise, and the meal we had at Palo is the best thing I have ever eaten!

Laur's princess:

[Laurafoster]

Sunday 17th December;

Woke up really early this morning – about 5:30am!! I got up and had a shower and got dressed and sat out on the verandah waiting for Gary to get ready. We had to be in the theatre at 6am for Immigration! Thankfully there were not many people there and we were out of the theatre pretty quick! We headed up to the Beach Blanket Buffet for our final breakfast and headed towards the atrium. There was already quite a queue building up so we went to pay of our room bill in cash as opposed to them charging my card. No sooner had we done that and everyone had started to disembark!

We found our luggage in about 15 minutes and headed out to get onto the coach to go back to Disney. We were surprised that we were actually in a mears shuttle and we only had one other couple left to wait for! They turned up really quickly and we were on our way. We were going to meet my parents this morning and have lunch with them as they were heading off to the airport this afternoon to fly home!

The taxi driver was really nice and kept us entertained the whole way home – we were the first drop off too so that was good. We headed through the lobby and saw that another wedding was going on – they were busy taking pictures. This wedding was far bigger than mine – they had 8 groomsmen and 8 bridesmaids! That’s over half of my total guests LOL! As we walked through the hotel we saw our wedding planner Karen, she came over to thank us for our gift and asked us how our cruise went.

We headed over to the front desk and gave them the reservation number, they lady serving us asked us to take a seat and someone would be with us shortly?! I was really confused but there was a huge queue behind us so I didn’t argue. Anyway this other man came over and said that we had been upgraded to a concierge honeymoon room! I was so excited!! He gave us our room keys, took our luggage off us and said to come back around 2pm and our room would be ready!

We left the hotel and headed straight over to the Yacht Club to see my parents – we had more good news when we got there – the photographer had been super busy when we were on our cruise and he had dropped off our wedding photos!! We had 2 huge albums each with about 300 6x4 pictures in and then we had 3 CD’s with the pictures on so we can print the rest at home! We had a quick look through before my parents had to check out of the room. They were taking my case home with them aswell as the photos which was great! They left their luggage with bell services and we took one last walk around the boardwalk area and one last look in the shop. After that we headed back to Hurricane Hannas for some lunch and a few drinks! Time flew by and it was soon time for my parents to get the Magical Express to the airport!

We headed back to the Grand Floridian to check in to our room. We were given a honeymoon room in one of the turrets – we walked in and I couldn’t belive the size of the room! It was huge!! Our suitcase was inside the walk in wardrobe and there was a box of chocolates and a bottle of Champagne on the dresser. The bathroom was huge too!! With a full size bath which is unusual for US hotel rooms. We had complimentary bathrobes and slippers too. There was a CD player in the room which had speakers in the bathroom too which was cool! We headed down to the pool for an hour or so – but after Stormalong Bay it was nothing special! We headed back to the room and I had a lovely bath with music! We got ready to head out to dinner.

We were eating in CRT tonight – id heard all the negative reviews but I still wanted to eat in the castle! I actually really enjoyed my meal – we had a seat in the middle of the window – and again they had decorated our table with confetti. The food was lovely –although nothing special. When the characters came out we were given some free champagne glasses – another lovely souvenir! After we finished dinner we walked out around Main street and watched wishes before heading back to the hotel to enjoy our champagne!

Here are some pics of our room –

Behind those doors is the “kitchen” a sink and fridge and cupboard.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_158-med.jpg

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_155-med.jpg

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_153-med.jpg

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_152-med.jpg

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/93882Florida_2006_-_Wedding_Trip_151-med.jpg

[Laurafoster]

Monday 18th December;

We woke up quite early – we were flying home today. We had been given a 2pm checkout which was great as the coach was picking us up at 2:15pm to go to the airport. We head out of our room to the concierge lounge to have breakfast. Our room was on the same floor which was nice. After we had eaten breakfast we headed to the Magic Kingdom for the last time. I couldn’t believe how crowded it was today! There were huge queues for every ride! We grabbed some fast passes for Buzz Lightyear and went off to do Space Mountain. Afterwards we got an ice cream on main street and sat down by the water to eat it. We then wandered through the shops on Main Street and headed back to the Grand Floridian. We had some snacks in the concierge lounge as I always get some lunch at the airport to kill time! We went back to the room – had a shower and got changed into something more comfy for travelling home in and headed downstairs to check out. Check out was quick and we left our case with Bell Services. We had about another hour before the coach would be picking us up so we decided to go and sit and have a drink outside by the marina.

It felt like no sooner had we sat down than it was time to leave! We picked up our case and went outside to wait for the coach – the coach turned up on time and we were soon on our way back to the airport. The queue at Check in was pretty empty and we got checked in really quickly. We had a walk through some of the shops before deciding to head through to departures! We got through pretty quickly and headed straight for the duty free shops! We picked up some Jack Daniels for my Dad and a Brandy for my mum and some more perfume for me! We paid for those and headed over to the other shop to get some snacks and bottles of water for on the flight and Gary picked up a couple of sports Magazines to read on the flight. By this time we were getting pretty hungry so we headed to the Outback Steakhouse for some lunch – this place does great Chicken Wings!! We got a seat looking out onto the runway and had a leisurely lunch and drink. It was getting on a bit and our check in had opened so we got the bill and the waitress had forgotten to put our drinks on it – so the good moral people that we are left her a nice tip and legged it!!

We went to the loo and picked up our duty free and got on the plane – we had a plane with the games so Gary was pleased! I was pleased as we had one of thoses rows of 2 at the back. The plane was pretty empty so we moved our stuff across and took up 2 rows of 4 at the back so we could both have a sleep on the way back! We ate our dinner and both fell asleep for several hours – I woke up just as they were serving the rather questionable breakfast – because of the wind our flight had been under 8 hours on the way back which was super! We got freshened up and we landed right on time!

We got through customs really quickly and I couldn’t believe my luck when our case was first off – we were out of the airport in no time and our taxi was ready waiting for us! We were home in about 2 hours and I thought great I can go to bed – Not So!!

When we got home we noticed that we had a big damp patch on the ceiling in our Dining Room – and through in the kitchen. We went upstairs and pulled back the laminate floor in the bathroom and noticed that the floor was all wet. A pipe from our shower had broken and had been leaking whilst we were away! So we had an exciting call to a Plumber and our insurance company before we could finally go to bed! A wet welcome back to reality!!

[Laurafoster]

Final Thoughts;

High Points-

Welcome Party – im so glad I decided to have this at Ohanas – to me it really has that Disney feel to it and we had a fabulous time!

Segway Tours as presents for Wedding Party – they are still raving about this! Im so glad I did this instead of the more traditional gift!

The Wedding – where do I begin! I couldn’t fault anything – the flowers were gorgeous – the locations were gorgeous! The food was delicious – the cake was scrummy!

DJ Charles Miles – was awesome! He got everyone up dancing away all night!

Illuminations Dessert Party – I couldn’t imagine a better way of ending our wedding!

MVMCP – It was such good fun with all 28 people of us!

The Magic Kingdom Photo Shoot – it was awful getting up that early but I got some great pictures that most people wont get so im thrilled with that!

The Cruise – fabulous, fabulous, fabulous!!!

The Grand Floridian – A fantastic way to end our holiday! We were treated really well here with the upgrade, free champagne etc It was really special!


Low Points –

I don’t really have any low points but the Yacht Club did not live up to my expectations!


Well im finally finished with my recaps – a grand 3 months almost since I got back!!

[DisneyJo]

Laura thanks for sharing your wonderful trip, those last few days were awesome and the GF concierge too. What wonderful memories you must have.

[Tammy Stringer]

Laura

What a shame your report is over. I loved reading every minute of it, looking at the pictures and also watching your video.

I loved all the special touches you organised for your wedding and what a great way to finish with a honeymoon on a Disney Cruise.

Do you have any more trips planned?

Tammy

[jockey]

Laura, what a great report I have really enjoyed it. I love the GF it's my favourite Disney hotel, we stayed here when we got married in December 2000. The cruise was a great way to finish your holday!

[Laurafoster]

Laura

What a shame your report is over. I loved reading every minute of it, looking at the pictures and also watching your video.

I loved all the special touches you organised for your wedding and what a great way to finish with a honeymoon on a Disney Cruise.

Do you have any more trips planned?

Tammy



Thanks Tammy! I actually enjoyed writing it once i got the time!!

Yes we do have another trip planned for September (including another cruise!)

Cant wait - now i can finally get round to doing some planning!

[Chilly]

I loved reading all about your wedding and honeymoon. Thanks for sharing.

[arieljasmine]

Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful wedding and honeymoon with us, Laura. I am quite sad that it has come to an end, and will look forward to reading your next report.

Laur's princess:

[Cyrano]

Thanks for sharing :goodvibes

[natalielongstaff]

i just want to echo what everyone else has said....thanks for sharing your wedding and honeymoon with us :) its was a lovely read and im looking forward to your next report

[jns]

Thank You
Thank you
Thank You

:banana: :banana: This has been one of the best trip reports ever :banana: :banana:

[spencem]

Thanks you so much for sharing this with us. It has given us the idea of renewing our vows for one of our wedding anniversaries in the future at Disney.:love:

I have to ask the question that I think many of us reading are wanting to ask though. How much did this all cost??? Just the wedding bits, not the presents you brought people (fantastic idea with the tours by the way) and spending money. I'll totally understand if you don't answer, but from what I've read it was worth every penny not matter how much.

Thanks again for sharing.

[dee slack]

Thanks you so much for sharing this with us. It has given us the idea of renewing our vows for one of our wedding anniversaries in the future at Disney.:love:

I have to ask the question that I think many of us reading are wanting to ask though. How much did this all cost??? Just the wedding bits, not the presents you brought people (fantastic idea with the tours by the way) and spending money. I'll totally understand if you don't answer, but from what I've read it was worth every penny not matter how much.

Thanks again for sharing.

not a direct answer to your question, but take a look at www.disneyweddings.com and start a wishbook for an idea of what's available and cost. We're having a Disney vow renewal this Dec and plan to spend less than £6,000 but we are having a few expensive extra's like Cindy's carriage!

[happyj]

I would like to add my thanks to a wonderful report .I have often wondered what a disney wedding was like and this has given me a real insight .I was unable to see the magic kingdom photos do not know why.
My daughter will soon be 18 and we always tell her she has to find a disney lover for we want a disney wedding LOL. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
But we could always renew our vows and have our own disney wedding :goodvibes

[Laurafoster]

Thats strange - it wasnt working for me either but it is now?!

http://collages.net/disneyweddings/

User name is - Foster / Flower BP (include the spaces)
Password is 1971

[MissMouse86]

So lovely!

[shellbell]

Great start to your trippie:)

[mainstreetmickey]

Thank you for sharing that!!! My favorite report :)

[Laurafoster]

Thank you for sharing that!!! My favorite report :)

Thanks thats so sweet! I got soo much help from these boards in planning my wedding so it was great to share all the details! :goodvibes

[wils]

Just finished reading and wanted to add my thanks!

What a wonderful Wedding and how nice that you were able to spend time with your family (as well as time with just your DH!)

Congrats on surviving your out-laws! They sound like a bundle of fun :eek:

Thanks for a great read

[shezfrombermuda]

What a great report! Your pictures are fabulous and it sounds like you had a really great time. I am planning on getting married at Disney and I was wondering where you had your reception at Boardwalk? Thanks.

[Laurafoster]

Our reception was in the Marvin Gardens rooms, it was ideal for us as we had that small private rotunda area and the private patio!

[ely3857]

Brilliant report Laura, thankyou

:)

Jodie

[M&M126]

I just now read your TR and it was GREAT!! Thanks for sharing!! :)

[allie_to_you]

Beautiful TR & beautiful wedding. I loved seeing your pictures & wedding video as I am a wedding planner.

Congratulations & best of luck on your life together!

[cazzie]

An amazing trip report, your photos are brilliant and it sounds like a day to cherish always.

Congratulations and good luck to you both. :love:

[KKCannon]

I've just started reading your trip report - 1st day. Hope to get back to the rest of it soon. Congrats on your wedding!

[zippyhannah]

wow finally finished that was the most enjoyable way to send 2 days in work lol :banana: am now going to convince the "wife" (boyf michael) how we need to get married in disney you done every little girls fantasy congratulations and i hope for you a life time of happieness :hug:

[disney-a-holic]

wow, i think i have been glued to my computer screen for 2 hours reading this.... i have laughed and cried and been amazed at your attention to detail...you must be an avid disney fan!!!!! you must be thrilled with your wedding and all those little extras!!!!!!! you have inspired me to try and do little treats for my family when we return ( had very first trip in dec06!!!!! am sure i saw you and hubbie in wedding ears!!!!!!) any hints and tips on magical ideas i now know who to ask..
may yours and hubbies marriage be as magical as the wedding xxx

[BaBeeCee14]

Laura,

Your wedding was beautiful. You had a lot of the things I want to do for my wedding. We want to do dinner at Ohanas, the Illuminations dessert party, Minnie & Mickey, MK photo shoot, and we are planning to go on a Disney cruise after. :goodvibes I'm glad everything went perfectly on your wedding day.

I loved your idea with using the chocolate mickey heads as placecards. If you don't mind my asking, did you have Disney do that for you or an outside vendor? Thanks!

[Laurafoster]

Laura,

Your wedding was beautiful. You had a lot of the things I want to do for my wedding. We want to do dinner at Ohanas, the Illuminations dessert party, Minnie & Mickey, MK photo shoot, and we are planning to go on a Disney cruise after. :goodvibes I'm glad everything went perfectly on your wedding day.

I loved your idea with using the chocolate mickey heads as placecards. If you don't mind my asking, did you have Disney do that for you or an outside vendor? Thanks!

Hi,

Thank you! We had a wonderful day!!

Yes Disney hlped me with all of those! Iwas going to use outside vendors for somethings but i wasnt saving much so i thought i would rather have one person dealing with it all! Saves me having to worry on the day of the wedding. Plus id met with Disney and seen there stuff so i was happy with that.

If you have a particular budget in mind just tell your planner/florist mine were amazing at stopping me spending :goodvibes and always came up with ideas where i could save etc!

[LOUISEANDANDREW]

Hi i've really enjoyed reading your TR!:happytv:
Hope you don't thinking i'm being cheeky, but do you mind me asking roughly how much you paid, all in?:confused:
Reading all what you did sounds really similar to how mines going to b!
We get married feb 12 08 @ WP then whitehall and patio then uk dessert party. We live in the isle of man, so like yourselves will have a lot to arrange!
I'm thinking prob around £10,000 incl favours little gifts etc... What do you think?:confused3
I'm hoping i'll b pleasantly suprised (although i doubt it!):sad2:
Look forward to hearing from u:banana:

[iheartmypanda]

What an awesome wedding!
I would love to see pictures of the MK photo shoot!
I think I really want pictures in Minnies house but I like the carousel too!
hmm... hopefully a miracle happens and Ican do both!

[naner]

It sounds like a beautiful wedding and trip! Thanks for the report!!

[1andrea]

A great report. I would :lovestruc to renew my vows at Disney.

I cant see your pics though :confused: I copied and pasted your username and entered in the password but it says no longer available :sad1:

[wicket2005]

I know it is ages and ages ago when you wrote this excellent report but just wanted to say thanks so much for sharing and I very much enjoyed it. Amazingly I could picture everything in my head from your descriptions it was so well done.:thumbsup2

[enchantednana]

It sure sounds like yo had a very magical wedding. Sooo beautiful & what a wonderful discription of all the events that led up to the big day& more. I could really invision all that happened. What a great report .
Thanks for sharing
enchantednana