Vanessa- figmentfan814 ~ Happily Ever 3/3/08- MK & DHS Shoot Photos Added [Archive] - Page 4 - The DIS Discussion Forums

figmentfan814

08-09-2008, 10:41 PM

Aww Vanessa I am so sorry to hear about your losses! :sad1:

My thoughts and prayers are with you and a big :hug: for you!

I will be praying for the young people who lost their mother and all the rest of your family too!! :grouphug:

Vanessa, you are in my thoughts and prayers. I'm sorry for your losses. I can't imagine how hard that must be to have to go through...

I hope everything works out... I'm sure it will :hug:

Vanessa - sorry for your losses. You and your family will be in my thoughts and prayers.

Just wanted to let you know your family is in my thoughts and prayers. This must be an incredibly difficult time for you and your family.

I am so sorry to hear your sad news. That is such a tragedy...

Please know that we are sending thoughts and prayers your way, and your Aunt and cousins.

I'm soooo sorry for your loss Vanessa!!!
Thank you ladies, your kind words mean so much. Things are starting to settle down back to normal again. I haven't heard how my cousin's two children have been the last couple of days. They had been living with their dad, but it's still been incredibly difficult for them, please continue to keep them in your thoughts.

Oh my gosh :(. My dad and my nephew --husbands side---died on the same day. One death is so hard but 2 on same day :(.

You have given me so much joy in reading your PJ then WR and I have no way to comfort you now that you need a bit of TLC.

I wish you will find comfort in knowing there are a lot of people here that are thinking of you and your family. You could see the love you have for family and they for you.

God Bless and hold you tight.
It is so hard especially when it's so unexpected, I'm sure you felt the same way. Everyone one here has been such a great support system, thank you again for everything :hug:

We have a family reunion tomorrow on my mom's other side, so I think it will be nice to be surrounded by family.

Thanks again everyone and don't worry, I'm still here and intend to get back to my report soon.

dizneyfreak

08-12-2008, 11:30 AM

meryll83

08-12-2008, 11:36 AM

Thanks again everyone and don't worry, I'm still here and intend to get back to my report soon.

Don't worry about your report, look after yourselves and your family :grouphug:

Lizby

08-12-2008, 07:10 PM

Oh Vanessa, I am so sorry for your loss. :hug: I agree that it is very important for you to be with your family at this time...we can wait.

I also wanted to say your GF shots are stunning! I can't get over the ones of you and your husband on the beach with the parasol and when you are turned toward the camera with the breeze lifting your train a little. I agree that the sky does look fake, it's so perfect!! You looked so gorgeous!

figmentfan814

08-13-2008, 04:25 PM

Oh my gosh Vanessa I am so sorry. I just got back from another business trip and I find that I haven't been here to support my very best dis-friend. :sad1: You and your family will be in my thoughts and prayers. What a tradgedy to lose two pieces of your heart at once. I pray that time will heal all wounds and that you take comfort in the good memories you have of your loved ones. I'm so sorry...wish I was there to give ya a good squeeze . :hug: I hope to hear that you and your family are getting along well soon. Take your time and heal...we are all here to lean on if you need us :flower3:

Anna Marie
Thank you, Anna Marie, that means a lot to me. I'm so glad that we were able to meet at Disney; it helps to have that personal connection with someone that you talk to online. Everyone has been such a great support system on here through all of lifes ups and downs :)

Don't worry about your report, look after yourselves and your family :grouphug:

Oh Vanessa, I am so sorry for your loss. :hug: I agree that it is very important for you to be with your family at this time...we can wait.

I also wanted to say your GF shots are stunning! I can't get over the ones of you and your husband on the beach with the parasol and when you are turned toward the camera with the breeze lifting your train a little. I agree that the sky does look fake, it's so perfect!! You looked so gorgeous!
Thank you Meryll & Lizby; regular life is starting to set back in which I think is good for everyone. Having a routine helps you pull things back together. Although I have a friend who called last night who will be facing the 3rd anniversary of her sister's death and it was hard to talk about because her sister faced some of the same struggles that my cousin had before she passed away.

Lizby~ We were really fortunate that day; the weather was amazing and the mid-afternoon sky was perfect. Of course, having Randy as our photographer helped a lot too ;)

I did go to write a short installment this afternoon and realized my photos from the bus incident are on my phone. We were left waiting and no one had their cameras on them. I will have to get my chip to transfer those photos into Photobucket on my computer. It was kind of funny to see me walking around in my wedding dress taking photos with my cellphone in front of the Grand Floridian :)

Some other random updates- we hung up my arrangement from Keepsake with my bouquet in our entryway this week. They did an amazing job. I only have this sneak peek photo of when I was opening it; the ones of the arrangement are still on my camera.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Keepsake/Clean-Ups015.jpg

keenercam

08-13-2008, 04:40 PM

dizneyfreak

08-14-2008, 12:08 PM

Vanessa,
I'm loving the sneak peak at the preserved flowers. That is one of my big regrets from my wedding. My flowers were so beautiful and I didn't have anything done with them. I am thinking about emailing Rose to ask if she could recreate my bouquet for me and send it off to be preserved? What do you think?

Anna Marie

irisbud

08-14-2008, 12:12 PM

Wow! Your preservation looks like it is gorgeous! I may have to have mine done too!

29apr00

08-14-2008, 12:27 PM

I'm so sorry about your loss Vanessa!! Such tragedy.

the preservation looks lovely! Can't wait to see it all!!

WithDisneySpirit

08-14-2008, 05:13 PM

Your preserved flowers look great!!! I want to see them better :goodvibes

I did not have my flowers preserved because of all the peach and coral in it. The Keepsake Floral site said these colors are the least successful to preserve :sad2:

Anyway, I decided to call Laura Kidd and ask her to recreate my bouquet in silk. She did a fantastic job! It doesn't match but definitely is as pretty as can be :lovestruc The gerbera daisies are hard to replicate in silk but I truly love my silk replica. I will be showing it later in my TR :love: :bride:

figmentfan814

08-17-2008, 04:33 PM

Vanessa, sweetie, I am just getting caught up on your journal. I am so sorry for your family's loss. I cannot imagine the devastation and sadness of those two funerals. My parents died 16 days apart and that whole time in my life seems to have passed in a fog. I hope your family's happy memories will soon eclipse the sadness of this time. I am really glad you have your TR to work on -- such a happy task! The sneak peak of your preserved bouquet looks incredible! Can't wait to see full pix!
Thank you so much for your sweet words of encouragement. I agree the TR is a nice distraction from everything. I just realized the pictures of my preserved bouquet are on my mom's camera (I had to open up the frame to fix something so I was able to get some great shots) so I'll have to wait until I am over there this week to get them :goodvibes

Vanessa,
I'm loving the sneak peak at the preserved flowers. That is one of my big regrets from my wedding. My flowers were so beautiful and I didn't have anything done with them. I am thinking about emailing Rose to ask if she could recreate my bouquet for me and send it off to be preserved? What do you think?

Anna Marie
I have read that this is totally possible; I know Lynn mentioned that she had heard of someone else doing this before. I would definitely do it; it is totally worth it! You should definitely do it on your next trip :thumbsup2

Wow! Your preservation looks like it is gorgeous! I may have to have mine done too!
Even though I spent a lot more than I originally planned on :rotfl: it was one of the best expenses from the wedding!

I'm so sorry about your loss Vanessa!! Such tragedy.

the preservation looks lovely! Can't wait to see it all!!
Thank you so much!

Your preserved flowers look great!!! I want to see them better :goodvibes

I did not have my flowers preserved because of all the peach and coral in it. The Keepsake Floral site said these colors are the least successful to preserve :sad2:

Anyway, I decided to call Laura Kidd and ask her to recreate my bouquet in silk. She did a fantastic job! It doesn't match but definitely is as pretty as can be :lovestruc The gerbera daisies are hard to replicate in silk but I truly love my silk replica. I will be showing it later in my TR :love: :bride:
That's interesting about the peach flowers; I know for our stephanotis flowers they painted them to help them retain the white. That is so great that you were able to get a silk reproduction. Did you already post pictures and did I miss them?

DisneyBrideToni

08-17-2008, 05:05 PM

Wow Vanessa! Your flowers are gorgeous!!!! I am so glad I decided to do Keepsake Floral too! Your flowers look just as good preserved as they did fresh!

Mama of Indybride

08-17-2008, 05:36 PM

Your keepsake looks awesome!

It's good to hear everybody is starting to heal, if only a little.

WithDisneySpirit

08-17-2008, 10:03 PM

That's interesting about the peach flowers; I know for our stephanotis flowers they painted them to help them retain the white. That is so great that you were able to get a silk reproduction. Did you already post pictures and did I miss them?

I haven't posted pictures yet because we had pics taken with Randy on our second honeymoon :goodvibes I haven't seen any of them yet =) It will come later in my TR :thumbsup2

figmentfan814

08-18-2008, 10:15 AM

Wow Vanessa! Your flowers are gorgeous!!!! I am so glad I decided to do Keepsake Floral too! Your flowers look just as good preserved as they did fresh!
I was really happy with the quality of the color and the overall preservation; it was definitely worth the wait! They arrived in mid-June, so it was about 3 months from start to finish.

Your keepsake looks awesome!

It's good to hear everybody is starting to heal, if only a little.
Thank you so much!

I haven't posted pictures yet because we had pics taken with Randy on our second honeymoon :goodvibes I haven't seen any of them yet =) It will come later in my TR :thumbsup2
Oh good, I was afraid that I had missed them :goodvibes

figmentfan814

08-18-2008, 10:17 AM

One quick side note, something that we realized while we were riding over to the Grand Floridian was that we hadn’t signed the marriage license yet! We called my mom and luckily they were all just unloading from the bus. A couple of the guests yelled to catch the attention of our pastor and he went into my parent’s room to sign it. Kris and I have an adventure later that night getting it signed by our witnesses, so stay tuned for that update.

Okay, back to the regular trip report~

After walking around the side of the Grand Floridian with Randy and arrived where our wedding party was waiting we noticed something was missing…. the bus wasn’t back yet. We waited around for a few minutes and Randy took the ring shots and I had him take a few of these pictures of our flowergirl.

Here I am fixing her butterflies on her shoes:

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Beach/VK20743-3-08.jpg

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Beach/VK20803-3-08.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Beach/VK20723-3-08.jpg

Finally, after about 10 minutes we started wondering where the bus had gone. My MOH volunteered to go talk to someone at the bellhop, so I said that was fine even though I knew I could handle things on my own. Randy said his good-byes around this time since it seemed like we had things under control and said that he would see us later that night. Her eis my maid of honor as she headed off.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/030308_1436c.jpg

I decided to call Marion too because I felt ridiculous sitting around waiting in front of the Grand Floridian, plus we still had to move all of our stuff from POR to the Grand Floridian, so Kris and I could check in for the night before the dessert party. I got Marion on her cellphone right away and she said that she would call to check on the bus. My maid of honor came back out around this time and said that they had no idea about the bus, but she said that she would go check with the guest services desk to see what they could do.

Here are some shots of us waiting around; my camera was on the bus so I took the shots with my camera phone.

Around this time, Marion called back and said that the bus driver had gone down to the Polynesian since we had mentioned that we might end up on their beach depending on if we ran into another wedding party (ignoring that we had agreed to still meet at the Grand Floridian when we were done.) I asked if we needed to walk down there and she said no that the bus would arrive shortly. I sent one of the groomsmen to get my maid of honor and she came back out telling me that she was trying to take care of the situation; I explained to her that the wedding coordinator had things under control and the bus was on its way.

Here we are hanging out waiting for the ride:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/030308_1436b.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/030308_1437.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/030308_1437b.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/030308_1436a.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/030308_1440.jpg

Needless to say a few minutes later the bus pulled up in front of the hotel. The driver wasn’t too happy, but I figured it didn’t matter since he only half listened to us in the first place. The entire ordeal lasted almost 45 minutes which seemed like an eternity! We finally arrived at POR a little after 3 p.m. Most everyone was going to take a nap and several of us had to get our bags that had been moved that morning when we had to check out of our rooms. We were dropped off at the front entrance and we started heading back to the room not before I took several pictures of the bus for the scrapbook and this report!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld327.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld329.jpg

Around this time, my matron of honor’s husband pulled up around front in the convertible he had picked up the day before. He offered to give me a ride over to the room, so I wouldn’t have to drag my dress along. As he was driving me over he joked how people might think that we had gotten married that day.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld330.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld331.jpg

We piled into my one bridesmaid’s room since most of our things (me and two of the other girls) had been piled in her room since we had to check out that morning and our room was right next store to hers. Kris headed off with his best man to retrieve his bags or so I thought at this point. After about 15 minutes I was getting a little perturbed, after only a few hours of being married I had already been ditched. My bridesmaid and her husband were already changed because they were heading to Epcot for the afternoon. She was taking her dress in a bag that she was going to put in a locker and then she would change back into it right before the dessert party. I tried to call Kris on his phone, but no answer. We were all joking about it, but it was still a little upsetting.

It turned out that he was actually picking up my gift that he had accidentally forgotten back in Ohio . One of his friends that he was staying with had gone through his stuff for him and packed it up and UPSed it over night on Saturday, so he would have it for the wedding. It arrived the same day as the wedding, so it was perfect timing. This will come up again at the dessert party when he gives me the gift. After about 20 minutes he finally made an appearance and we headed off to my parent’s room to grab the rest of our things. We loaded up the rental car and were off to the Grand Flordian!

29apr00

08-18-2008, 10:40 AM

I'd have been very angry sitting there for 45 minutes in a huge hot wedding dress waiting for the bus driver!

Ooooohhhh a suprise wedding gift! Can't wait to find out what it is!

figmentfan814

08-18-2008, 10:45 AM

I'd have been very angry sitting there for 45 minutes in a huge hot wedding dress waiting for the bus driver!

Ooooohhhh a suprise wedding gift! Can't wait to find out what it is!

It was definitely not the best part of our day and the worst part was that everyone was so tired at this point; we were all starting to get cranky :rotfl:

IndyBride

08-18-2008, 01:54 PM

I can't wait to see another pic of the keepsake floral!!! That was nice of your MOH hubby to give you a ride. Very thoughtful!

WithDisneySpirit

08-18-2008, 09:11 PM

More, more, Vanessa :goodvibes at least hubby had a good excuse too for being scarce :lovestruc

dizneyfreak

08-18-2008, 11:37 PM

Vanessa,
I'm betting your bus driver was a man...they tend to not hear the whole conversation at times! :lmao: On a lighter note...the pics you took on your camera phone looked great! I'm so excited for you that you got a suprise present...I can't wait to see it!

Anna Marie

Donald'sGirl

08-19-2008, 11:54 AM

Oh Vanessa I am so glad you did an update! :cool1: I can't wait to find out what your surprise gift is!!

figmentfan814

08-19-2008, 12:24 PM

I can't wait to see another pic of the keepsake floral!!! That was nice of your MOH hubby to give you a ride. Very thoughtful!
I'll get the pictures from my mom today, I'm sure you'll love it. Do they have a company that floral works with out in California for Disneyland brides?

More, more, Vanessa :goodvibes at least hubby had a good excuse too for being scarce :lovestruc
That is so true, after his lame excuse that afternoon I was happy to learn later that it was actually a big surprise :goodvibes

Vanessa,
I'm betting your bus driver was a man...they tend to not hear the whole conversation at times! :lmao: On a lighter note...the pics you took on your camera phone looked great! I'm so excited for you that you got a suprise present...I can't wait to see it!

Anna Marie
You are right about the bus driver ;) I was surprised how good the camera phone shots came out. Stay tuned for the present; it will show up at the dessert party.

Oh Vanessa I am so glad you did an update! :cool1: I can't wait to find out what your surprise gift is!!
It was really a great surprise, I was completely shocked :)

irisbud

08-19-2008, 12:46 PM

Maybe you should have titled this section the bus *finally* arrives!

Loves the pics of you in the car! I bet you are right and a lot of people thought the two of you got married!

Glad things are getting back to normal for you.

Can't wait to read about your special surprise gift!

figmentfan814

08-20-2008, 11:24 AM

Maybe you should have titled this section the bus *finally* arrives!

This is so true; I can't believe how long we had to wait :confused:

Loves the pics of you in the car! I bet you are right and a lot of people thought the two of you got married!

Glad things are getting back to normal for you.

Can't wait to read about your special surprise gift!

Thanks for continuing to follow along. Definitely stay tuned because there is still a lot left from the trip.

figmentfan814

08-20-2008, 11:50 AM

We ran over to my parents’ room to pick up Kris’ belongings since he ended up sleeping in their room the night before the wedding. Finally, we were packed up and headed off to the Grand Floridian. I was so excited to be staying there. It is a place that would normally be totally out of our price range, so having our free night there was a great treat. We had also added on a second night since we didn’t want to be too far away for our Magic Kingdom shoot which was two days later on Wednesday.

We pulled up in the front of the hotel and the bellhop immediately came over to help us with everything. They took our name and then called the concierge who sent someone to meet us right away. The funny thing was at this point no one could spell Kris’ last name, so it became apparent right away that he would soon be called by my last name (which I had chosen to keep) more often than I would ever be called by his.

We had a bunch of odd things to carry including Tupperware containers full of slices of leftover cake and the bouquet of snapdragons from the reception. We had left some of the flowers including the piece from the sand ceremony in my parents’ room. We were escorted through the lobby directly over to the special elevators that take you to the concierge level. Our families are pretty traditional and most people don’t live together or travel alone as a couple before getting married, so this would be our first time we had been staying anywhere on a trip completely by ourselves!

Thankfully we were in the main building which was so cool! The elevators are quite confusing if you have ever stayed in concierge level at the GF you definitely know what I’m talking about. On several occasions over the next couple of days we ended up getting a little lost.

We were finally on our floor and guided down the hallway to our room. It was absolutely amazing. The view from our balcony looked directly across to the castle and overlooked the marina area.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/100_0676.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/100_0678.jpg

I asked the concierge representative whether or not we would have to check in and out again for the next day or if we would be able to keep the same room. We had originally booked our second night through the wedding block and then through a serious of events ended up getting this second night given to us. Well, somehow we were still booked in a regular room for the second night, so she told me to contact my planner and then they would be able to get everything taken care of for us.

The concierge representative handed us over our keys (mine had Kris’ last name, so we had this corrected later) and said that she would keep us posted on the room situation. We had a special surprise in our room too.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld340.jpg

After she headed out I called Marion on her cell and she said that she would handle everything. I thanked her again and then she went over a few more details for the dessert party and told me that if we needed anything else to let her know.

Finally, we were finally able to have a few minutes to sit down and catch our breath. It was around 5:00 p.m. and we had left POR that morning at 7 a.m. We had to leave around 6:30 to head to the dessert party too.

Shots from the room:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld341.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld347.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld346.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld348.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld546.jpg

We also decided to open our cards and the one present that had been loaded with our stuff (we had a few that we in my parent’s room still):
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld552.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld553.jpg
We laid out of our cards on the table; my little cousin drew us the cutest picture to commemorate the day:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld554.jpg

keenercam

08-20-2008, 12:17 PM

Donald'sGirl

08-20-2008, 12:32 PM

Vanessa that view is stunning!!! OMG, I am so hoping for a view like that when we stay at the GF on our wedding night. Oh question, did you have to pay a fee for the upgraded conceirage level room or was it just completely free? DF and I are trying to decide what to do because we are adding 2 nights onto our free night stay and don't want to have to change rooms.

TIA!

29apr00

08-20-2008, 01:13 PM

What a great view!! I want that room! Not that i'll ever be able to afford a room at the GF, but if I did, that is the room i'd want. ;)

Can't wait to hear about the DP! I'm sure you had all kinds of wonderful stuff for that!

Tink901

08-20-2008, 01:25 PM

Vanessa - thanks for sharing the great views from your room. That must have been a great view to wake up to in the morning - besides Kris of course.

IndyBride

08-20-2008, 01:26 PM

What a sweet card from your cousin!!!

lov2b@disney

08-20-2008, 01:48 PM

Yeah for an update Vanessa!:goodvibes

figmentfan814

08-20-2008, 02:24 PM

Oh, Vanessa, the pictures are wonderful! How exciting it all seems! And your view from your balcony? :faint: I am all teary seeing the card your cousin made for you. What a darling! :cutie: Can't wait to hear more, and especially about Kris' gift to you. :love:
What a sweet card from your cousin!!!
It was such a nice surprise to see the card that she made for us. They live in Florida and I had not seen her and her brother for several years, so it was extra special that she wanted to take the time to do that for me :hug:

Vanessa that view is stunning!!! OMG, I am so hoping for a view like that when we stay at the GF on our wedding night. Oh question, did you have to pay a fee for the upgraded conceirage level room or was it just completely free? DF and I are trying to decide what to do because we are adding 2 nights onto our free night stay and don't want to have to change rooms.

TIA!
That's kind of a complicated question, originally when we booked the additional night on our own through the wedding block we were going to have to switch to a regular room for the second night. Through a serious of events pixiedust: Disney ended up giving us the second night free so they kept us in the concierge level.

I know in the past some couples have been automatically upgraded, but I think that is really a big maybe and I wouldn't depend on it. When we were originally paying for the second night the concierge level as an add-on for the additional night was way out of our price range. I know they are really good about moving your luggage, etc. so you wouldn't have that to worry about when switching rooms.

What a great view!! I want that room! Not that i'll ever be able to afford a room at the GF, but if I did, that is the room i'd want. ;)

Can't wait to hear about the DP! I'm sure you had all kinds of wonderful stuff for that!
Kris and I joked one morning at breakfast that maybe by our 20th anniversary we could afford to splurge on a one night stay at the GF again, so I completely know where you're coming from on that one :rotfl:

Vanessa - thanks for sharing the great views from your room. That must have been a great view to wake up to in the morning - besides Kris of course.
Yeah for an update Vanessa!:goodvibes
Thanks everyone, the room really was fantastic, it made it kind of hard to go back to POR two days later ;)

keenercam

08-20-2008, 03:38 PM

Kris and I joked one morning at breakfast that maybe by our 20th anniversary we could afford to splurge on a one night stay at the GF again, so I completely know where you're coming from on that one :rotfl:

Vanessa -- This bit had me :rotfl2: Howard and I have always fantasized about staying at the Grand, and there we will be, just past our 24th wedding anniversary and finally having a "honeymoon", kind of another wish come true. I hope you and Kris dont' have to wait that long to stay there again! :hug:

figmentfan814

08-20-2008, 03:59 PM

Vanessa -- This bit had me :rotfl2: Howard and I have always fantasized about staying at the Grand, and there we will be, just past our 24th wedding anniversary and finally having a "honeymoon", kind of another wish come true. I hope you and Kris dont' have to wait that long to stay there again! :hug:
How funny :rotfl: I agree, hopefully we'll be able to do it on a trip that isn't that far off.

Although, I guess we need to pay off the wedding first :upsidedow

You and Howard will absolutely love it; it was such a nice relaxing experience. I loved being on the concierge level too, such a trip!

Donald'sGirl

08-20-2008, 04:44 PM

That's kind of a complicated question, originally when we booked the additional night on our own through the wedding block we were going to have to switch to a regular room for the second night. Through a serious of events pixiedust: Disney ended up giving us the second night free so they kept us in the concierge level.

I know in the past some couples have been automatically upgraded, but I think that is really a big maybe and I wouldn't depend on it. When we were originally paying for the second night the concierge level as an add-on for the additional night was way out of our price range. I know they are really good about moving your luggage, etc. so you wouldn't have that to worry about when switching rooms.

That's ok. I will wait and see what happens with us. We are also using our DVC points as well so it gets a little complicated with that as well. Thanks!

dizneyfreak

08-20-2008, 11:20 PM

Vanessa,
The view from your room was so awesome...too cool for words! We got upgraded for our one free night too, top floor to be exact. However, we had a view of the Wedding Pavillion...it was very nice as well. I still can't wait to hear what ya got from Kris, but I have to say that I am most happy to see you posting again :hug:

Anna Marie

disneychickforever

08-21-2008, 09:31 AM

Great update Vanessa! Love that view.

I'm dying to stay at GF, but I always saw it as a honeymoon resort, it's the only time I can justify spending that much money I guess lol.

Can't wait to hear more, and I hope you and Kris are well.

pjstevens

08-21-2008, 09:59 AM

Yea, all caught up again! WOW!!!! What a view! Can't wait to hear about your gift!!!

irisbud

08-21-2008, 10:10 AM

Wow! what a great view. Can't wit to hear how you liked RPC. The GF is our favorite, especially RPC. I just wish we could afford to stay in style all of the time!

figmentfan814

08-21-2008, 11:09 AM

That's ok. I will wait and see what happens with us. We are also using our DVC points as well so it gets a little complicated with that as well. Thanks!
Good luck, it sounds like if it's not a busy time of year they are pretty good about upgrading people. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you :thumbsup2

Vanessa,
The view from your room was so awesome...too cool for words! We got upgraded for our one free night too, top floor to be exact. However, we had a view of the Wedding Pavillion...it was very nice as well. I still can't wait to hear what ya got from Kris, but I have to say that I am most happy to see you posting again :hug:
Anna Marie
Did you end up adding any extra days to your stay? I felt totally spoiled after staying there. Thank you so much; I'm glad that life is finally settling back down again :hug:

Great update Vanessa! Love that view.

I'm dying to stay at GF, but I always saw it as a honeymoon resort, it's the only time I can justify spending that much money I guess lol.

Can't wait to hear more, and I hope you and Kris are well.
I totally agree, the GF definitely won't be where we stay on our anniversary trip next year! I would rather spend the extra money on food and buying stuff at the stores!

Yea, all caught up again! WOW!!!! What a view! Can't wait to hear about your gift!!!
Thanks for staying around, I know it's taking me a while with the recaps, so it's nice to know that people are still reading :goodvibes
Wow! what a great view. Can't wit to hear how you liked RPC. The GF is our favorite, especially RPC. I just wish we could afford to stay in style all of the time!

figmentfan814

08-21-2008, 11:57 AM

I also had them make a Christmas ornmanet using some of my leftover flowers, but I don't have a picture of it yet. These pictures are with the glass off because the program was flipping open when I got it, so they gave me directions on how to open the glass and to fix it. The frame is 18x20 and I think by the time everything was all said and done between the pick-up fees, having the custom size frame, and adding the ornament I spent around $750! But, don't let this keep you from getting your bouquet preserved; I added a lot to mine that increased the cost. They have basic packages that just have your bouquet that are reasonable. You can also just have an ornament or something done with some of the flowers. The ornament was only $65 by itself.

Here is my bouquet at the wedding:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Girl%20Pictures/VK06223-3-08.jpg

This is the final Keepsake:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Keepsake/Picture001.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Keepsake/Picture005.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Keepsake/Picture006.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Keepsake/Picture004.jpg
Here is that picture when I was opening it again, so you can see the frame.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Keepsake/Clean-Ups015.jpg

Tink901

08-21-2008, 12:13 PM

Vanessa-

Your Keepsake came out absolutely beautiful!!!!!!

IndyBride

08-21-2008, 12:23 PM

Your keepsake is so beautiful!! The colors of the bouquet are still so bright! And, I love the design layout. It's fabulous!

jessesgirl-080708

08-21-2008, 12:36 PM

I love your keepsake! I am thinking of doing that with mine, even though they are silk.. lol.

Yours came out really, really good!!

keenercam

08-21-2008, 12:53 PM

Gorgeous, Vanessa! It is so perfect! :faint:

figmentfan814

08-21-2008, 01:14 PM

Vanessa-

Your Keepsake came out absolutely beautiful!!!!!!
Thank you, I was really pleased with the final result.

Your keepsake is so beautiful!! The colors of the bouquet are still so bright! And, I love the design layout. It's fabulous!
I was a little nervous since I had so much color in my bouquet, but they really did a fantastic job.

I love your keepsake! I am thinking of doing that with mine, even though they are silk.. lol.

Yours came out really, really good!!
I think that's a great idea, plus it would be a lot cheaper because you don't have the preservation cost :rotfl: My mom's bouquet was silk and it just ended up in a box in her closet until her 25th anniversary. You might as well do something with it that allows you to display it.

figmentfan814

08-21-2008, 01:49 PM

Gorgeous, Vanessa! It is so perfect! :faint:
We must have been posting at the same time, so I missed yours :goodvibes

I am so happy I had this done, I love seeing it every day. It is such a great reminder of our wedding and I know it will be something that I'll always cherish :flower3:

Donald'sGirl

08-21-2008, 06:47 PM

Vanessa the keepsake turned out beautifully! I am still trying to decide whether to do mine or not because of the cost.

Flurbee

08-21-2008, 07:46 PM

Vanessa,

Just got caught up one everything. I was really behind!! I am so sorry to hear about the losses in your family. Good to hear that things are getting back to normal. Your keepsake looks gorgeous!!! I hope that I am able to afford to do that. I am excited to hear what Kris got you...can't wait for more!!:goodvibes

dizneyfreak

08-21-2008, 10:16 PM

Vanessa,
Your keepsake is gorgeous...really makes me want to get a replica while I am at the world and have it made into one! Brad and I only got to stay at the Grand that one night...to expensive for our budget. That's why I left the flower preservation out too and I so regret it now. I also regret not having a MK photo shoot. Oh well, there's always the vow renewal I guess :rotfl:

Anna Marie

DisneyBrideToni

08-21-2008, 11:20 PM

Vanessa,

I love your keepsake!!! The colors in your bouquet are still so vibrant. They do an excellent job. Its really and nice thing to have and keep. How cool will it be one day if you have a daughter to be able to show her your bouquet and program, etc. :thumbsup2

WithDisneySpirit

08-22-2008, 08:37 AM

Keepsake Floral did a wonderful job, Vanessa!!! I just love your flowers :lovestruc Thanks for sharing :love:

29apr00

08-22-2008, 09:40 AM

the keepsake looks beautiful! I love it!

tiggerrifficheidi

08-23-2008, 01:59 PM

I'm so glad to see your keepsake turn out so well. Your flowers were beautiful, and I have my keepsake ordered through them, as well.

Your wedding looked like so much fun!

irisbud

08-24-2008, 02:43 PM

That is beautiful Vanessa!

Keira1387

08-24-2008, 04:12 PM

Your keepsake looks amazing!!!

figmentfan814

08-24-2008, 05:06 PM

Vanessa the keepsake turned out beautifully! I am still trying to decide whether to do mine or not because of the cost.
I would definitely check into some of the other options they offer. You could do a smaller item like a jewelry box or ornament with some of your flowers :goodvibes

Vanessa,

Just got caught up one everything. I was really behind!! I am so sorry to hear about the losses in your family. Good to hear that things are getting back to normal. Your keepsake looks gorgeous!!! I hope that I am able to afford to do that. I am excited to hear what Kris got you...can't wait for more!!:goodvibes
I should be able to get to the gift in the next day or two; I know I've had you ladies waiting for several days. Thank you for your kind words :)

Vanessa,
Your keepsake is gorgeous...really makes me want to get a replica while I am at the world and have it made into one! Brad and I only got to stay at the Grand that one night...to expensive for our budget. That's why I left the flower preservation out too and I so regret it now. I also regret not having a MK photo shoot. Oh well, there's always the vow renewal I guess :rotfl:

Anna Marie
I think you should definitely get a replica when you're down there next it's totally worth it. At least the MK shoot is something that you can do for a vow renewal or before your first anniversary. The GF was definitely way out of our budget too.

Vanessa,

I love your keepsake!!! The colors in your bouquet are still so vibrant. They do an excellent job. Its really and nice thing to have and keep. How cool will it be one day if you have a daughter to be able to show her your bouquet and program, etc. :thumbsup2
I was impressed how well the colors came out on the bouquet; I was a little nervous before I got it back. I know I'll really appreciate having it down the road when we do have a family or just in celebrating future anniversaries.

Keepsake Floral did a wonderful job, Vanessa!!! I just love your flowers :lovestruc Thanks for sharing :love:
the keepsake looks beautiful! I love it!
That is beautiful Vanessa!
Your keepsake looks amazing!!!
I was so happy with the final result from Keepsake :love:

I'm so glad to see your keepsake turn out so well. Your flowers were beautiful, and I have my keepsake ordered through them, as well.

Your wedding looked like so much fun!
You definitely won't be disappointed. Do you know what you're going to include in the display?

tiggerrifficheidi

08-24-2008, 05:40 PM

You definitely won't be disappointed. Do you know what you're going to include in the display?

I didn't include anything for the Escape wedding, since it was "impromptu." No invitations or anything like.

I think I'd like to include at least a picture and an invite for the next one!

figmentfan814

08-25-2008, 10:36 AM

The STDs turned out really great; I used Zazzle to buy our custom stamps :goodvibes

The web site turned out fantastic! I love the colors and all the great info for your guests. We did a tea at the Gardenview Tea Room the weekend of our wedding and all the ladies had a blast. We even bought hats to wear for the event :cutie:

DisneyLaura

08-25-2008, 11:03 AM

tiggerrifficheidi

08-25-2008, 12:07 PM

JenniferLeigh

08-25-2008, 12:49 PM

Vanessa,
First I would like to say THANK YOU!!!! You have inspired me in so many ways!! I have been keep up to date w/ your PJ & TR and I must say you went through a LOT and yet kept your cool and had a BEAUTIFUL wedding!!

I am about to graduate in Dec. w/ my Communication degree! Can't wait to see what it hold for me! We are actually actively talking about moving to Orlando and working at Disney (DF worked in the CP) and he wants to go back for a FT w/ his Degree. Nice to meet another Communication girl!

I LOVED how you used your school fight song as your entrance! I think we are going to do that as well!! We are huge football fans (OKLAHOMA SOONERS!!) I am also going to use your idea on the guest signing the photo book. LOVED THAT!!! You were able to just use a sharpie and it didn't smudge or anything?

So THANK YOU again for all the fantastic ideas and Best of wishes to you and Kris w/ your new marriage!

figmentfan814

08-25-2008, 01:05 PM

Thanks! I saw your hats! I loved yours. It was gorgeous and very classy!
It was a lot of fun since it was so out of character for everyone. Did you have your escape bouquet preserved too then? You'll have fun picking out things for your other bouquet; it was hard to decide on the design.

Vanessa,
First I would like to say THANK YOU!!!! You have inspired me in so many ways!! I have been keep up to date w/ your PJ & TR and I must say you went through a LOT and yet kept your cool and had a BEAUTIFUL wedding!!

I am about to graduate in Dec. w/ my Communication degree! Can't wait to see what it hold for me! We are actually actively talking about moving to Orlando and working at Disney (DF worked in the CP) and he wants to go back for a FT w/ his Degree. Nice to meet another Communication girl!

I LOVED how you used your school fight song as your entrance! I think we are going to do that as well!! We are huge football fans (OKLAHOMA SOONERS!!) I am also going to use your idea on the guest signing the photo book. LOVED THAT!!! You were able to just use a sharpie and it didn't smudge or anything?

So THANK YOU again for all the fantastic ideas and Best of wishes to you and Kris w/ your new marriage!

:hug: Thank you so much for your kind words. I'm glad I could help you with your plans; I know so many other brides served as great inspiration for me too.

Congratulations on the upcoming graduation this fall; I know how exciting it was when we finished our different programs :dance3: Plus, with plans to work at Disney who couldn't be excited!!!!

The fight song was a great hit with our guests, we had people that love and hate our team, so it was neat to see the mixed reactions :cheer2:

For the guest book we used a Slick Writer. I bought it at a local scrapbooking store and I think places like JoAnn's, Michael's, and Hobby Lobby should carry them too.
http://www.createforless.com/American+Crafts+Slick+Writer+Pen+Broad+Point+Bulk+ Black/pid122870.aspx?utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=cse

Looking forward to reading about your upcoming wedding too :goodvibes

tiggerrifficheidi

08-25-2008, 01:21 PM

It was a lot of fun since it was so out of character for everyone. Did you have your escape bouquet preserved too then? You'll have fun picking out things for your other bouquet; it was hard to decide on the design.

Yes, that's the one they are working on now. I'll have to get more creative with the next!

figmentfan814

08-25-2008, 01:28 PM

Vanessa - I was away for a week and I have a lot of TR and subscriptions to catch up on. So sorry to hear about your uncle and cousin :hug: .

Enjoyed your updates as usual. I love your keepsake. My mom took some of my roses from my flowers and made a wreath with eucalyptus. I had it hanging on my living room wall for years and then when DH built our addition which included our new bedroom I put my wreath in there very careful so the rose petals wouldn't fall off. Well my boys play in my room all the time (which i don't mind because it's a big room), needless to say I went in there to put something away and found rose petals all over my floor, my wreath had no petals on it anymore. I yelled at them real loud because that's all I have of my flowers from that day. I wish I would have known about that 12 years ago. Can't wait to see what Kris bought ya.

Thank you for your nice words, Laura :hug:

So, sorry to hear about your wreath. I know Kris always slows down when he walks around the Keepsake on the wall, he knows that I would freak if it got knocked down (even though it's in a pretty secure location :) ) At least you were able to enjoy your bouquet for that many years when so many brides don't have anything to remember their flowers from and maybe one day you could have a VR then have a new bouquet made that resembles your first one.

lpizzuro123

08-25-2008, 02:49 PM

dizneyfreak

08-25-2008, 11:35 PM

figmentfan814

08-26-2008, 10:11 AM

Hi Vanessa, loving everything so far and I have gotten so many wonderful ideas from your journals.

We are starting to work on our Welcome Folders and I was wondering if you could email me (or let me know where you got) some of your inserts. I love the fact sheet and hidden mickey sheet. I also love the idea you gave me the other day about the business cards with important telephone info plus your schedule. I just love this and will be adding this also.

Thanks so much for taking the time to help all us former and future Disney brides.

Linda

Hi Linda,

Just PM me your email address and I would be more than happy to send everything over to you. I think everything's in Word, so you can change it around to fit your guests.

I have the Hidden Mickey List, Fact Sheet, and Pressed Penny Guide. If I think of anything else I'll send those over too.

Weren't those cards great? My dad stayed up the night before we left printing those out. They were really handy for everyone once we got there though, it was easy for them to carry around with them while they were visiting the parks. Plus, it kept people from calling us every day asking where we were going, etc.

I'm so glad I could help with everything, I know I don't know what I would have done without this board during my planning too :hug:

figmentfan814

08-26-2008, 10:14 AM

Vanessa,
I got my copy from the publisher today and it is so awesome! I had to get on here and tell you! I know you are going to want to see it so here is the info...
The mag. is Destination Weddings and Honeymoons
It gets released tomorrow on August 26th
Our wedding is featured in the Real Brides, Real Advice column (and yes, there are two pictures with it)
I can't wait for you to see it...let me know what you think!

Anna Marie

Oh, I can't wait to see it :woohoo: :dance3: :woohoo:

I'm meeting a friend for dinner tonight and the restaurant happens to be next to a Borders, I'll have to see if they have it out on the stands.

You should definitely post a thread to let everyone else know that your Disney wedding is featured in the magazine!

DisneyLaura

08-26-2008, 12:56 PM

Vanessa for the pirate:

Vanessa,
I got my copy from the publisher today and it is so awesome! I had to get on here and tell you! I know you are going to want to see it so here is the info...
The mag. is Destination Weddings and Honeymoons
It gets released tomorrow on August 26th
Our wedding is featured in the Real Brides, Real Advice column (and yes, there are two pictures with it)
I can't wait for you to see it...let me know what you think!

Anna Marie

That is so cool.

Lynn5700

08-26-2008, 02:54 PM

Vanessa the keepsake is beautiful!!! I wish i would have done it :(

figmentfan814

08-26-2008, 03:23 PM

Vanessa for the pirate:

That is so cool.

I think we'll all have to check it out this week :thumbsup2

figmentfan814

08-26-2008, 03:23 PM

Vanessa the keepsake is beautiful!!! I wish i would have done it :(

Lynn, I know you mentioned how you can have your bouquet recreated, are you thinking about doing this on a future trip?

Lindsay22

08-26-2008, 03:49 PM

Vanessa
Any pics of the ornament yet? I'm REALLY anxious to see it

figmentfan814

08-26-2008, 04:01 PM

Vanessa
Any pics of the ornament yet? I'm REALLY anxious to see it
Sorry I have the pictures of it on my camera at home, but sadly our cable internet is giving us problems :guilty: I'll try to grab my memory card, so I have it on me when I'm over somewhere that I can get online, so I can upload them. Our internet is supposed to be fixed by this weekend, but I should be able to get it up to you sooner than that :)

dizneyfreak

08-27-2008, 01:40 PM

You are so smart! I so didn't even think about posting a new thread to tell everyone about the magazine. I got so excited when I got it and the only one I thought to tell was you! :hug: I will go and post a thread now. Did you get to see it yet? What did you think?

Anna Marie

figmentfan814

08-27-2008, 01:42 PM

Kris and I only had a little bit of time before we left to pick up my parents, so we sat down on the bed to watch TV. After a few minutes I felt a jolt, I was sitting up in bed and had suddenly fell asleep dropping my head straight on to Kris’ head. He woke me up because it definitely wasn’t the most comfortable position for either of us. I guess I was a lot more tired than I originally thought. I looked up at the clock and realized that we had to run to pick up my parents in just a little while.

As a side note, I had bought white nylons that had sticky/gel stuff on them to keep them up on my leg. I’m not sure if my skin is extra sensitive or what, but my thigh had been bothering me and when I rolled off the nylon the top layer of my skin had been ripped off. I had a red ring around both of my legs! Needless to say I threw on some white socks and my Sketchers before we headed out for the evening.

Kris went to put on the jacket to his tux and realized the coat was way too big. Completely flabbergasted we finally realized that when we had picked up our things in my parents’ room he had dropped his suit coat on their chair. Then when we left he accidentally picked up my dad’s coat. It was a good thing we were meeting up with them before the DP! I felt bad because I had thrown away the boutonnière on the coat since I knew Kris would be getting a new one that night. I did save the crystal Mickey which I later gave to my mom.

We navigated the halls trying to remember how to take the proper elevators out of the concierge area and then went to get our car. It was so nice to hear people in the lobby yelling their congratulations to us as we headed outside. Once in the car I called my mom to let her know that we were on our way and told her about the coat mix-up. We were running a little behind what we had originally intended, so when we got there my parents came straight out to the car to meet us.

Most of our guests were taking buses from their resorts or from another park, so we pulled into the Epcot lot to park. A lot of guests had left for the day, so we got a pretty close spot. We then headed up towards the turnstiles over towards guest relations where we were all supposed to be meeting up. A lot of our guests were already there when we arrived, so I felt a little bad about that but we were still early, so I guess that was still okay.

Our Epcot guide showed up a few minutes later and came over to talk to me about the details of walking through the park. I also had to have him radio ahead because we were having a birthday cake for my younger cousin (who would be celebrating his 11th birthday the next day) and when I asked his brother (my bridal attendant) how old his brother would be he told me 12! :cake: I wanted to make sure they got the correct number of candles on the cake because I knew Ben would definitely notice if we had them wrong! My aunt came over asking about getting a couple of wheelchairs for some of the family members that were having some trouble walking. There was some confusion on whether or not they had to pay for them or not, but in the end he grabbed two and brought them over free of charge.

There were several people who had decided not to attend the DP. Since we had not allowed kids at the reception or wedding, we had told everyone that children were welcome that evening. We had a few additions of small kids, and I had told some of our guests who had other friends traveling with them that they were welcome to come along too (that also didn’t attend the wedding since DH & I don’t know them). I think with all the additions and subtractions were still around that 50 person mark.

Now, I know there have been some changes with the viewing fee charges, but we were allowed to have our guests with tickets enter through the main turnstile and then the guide took the rest of the guests (I think there was around 20 without tickets) through the side exit gate. It was weird going through the park turnstile in my wedding dress and to have security search my purse! :bride:

Since we had to walk to the other end to meet the guide and the rest of our guests I pulled Kris to the side when I saw a Photopass photographer. I had to have my picture with Spaceship Earth all lit up behind us. I already knew my mom was buying us the CD off our Disney Honeymoon Registry, so this was going to be a great wedding shot! (Same shot just with a different border)
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/image062.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/image064.jpg

We were then on our way to the back of the park, it was exciting to walk through my favorite park with all my family and friends along. Just a shot of our group walking:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-17.jpg
We stopped along the way and took some great pictures.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-18.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-15.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-14.jpg
The black jackets my MOH is wearing are the ones that we (her bridesmaids wore at her wedding 4 years ago)
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-13.jpg
Another reason why we didn’t end up providing a bus that night was that several of our guests have their own scooters and Marion had told me that the most one of the buses could hold was one. Here is maid of honor zipping through the park, she has a muscle disorder so it’s easier to use the scooter.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-12.jpg
My mom and her best friend:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-11.jpg

Just as we were getting to the World Showcase I spotted a turkey leg counter. My one bridesmaid had told me before the wedding the one thing she wanted to get down there was a turkey leg! At the P&PP on Saturday we made a special trip to the cart and it was closed and I knew she was leaving the next morning. I was closer to the front of the crowd, so I slowed down and pointed out the stand to her.

Kris stopped to wait with her since she had never been to Epcot other than for our wedding that morning. I had given her and my MOH some Disney dollars with some flowers as a thank you after my bridal shower and she had saved them just to buy her turkey leg. I’m sure this unscheduled stop completely broke Disney rules, but no one yelled at us :p

My mom and I were now towards the back of the crowd, so we stopped to get some pictures with another Photopass Photographer on the bridge near France and the International Gateway. He didn’t do a great job on these and my dress makes us look washed out, but heck we are still getting wedding day pictures in Epcot!

As you might noticed my mom had a different outfit for the DP too. I was surprised how many people had bought special outfits to wear for the evening festivities too. It was kind of exciting getting these Photopass shots because I felt like I was breaking the rules a little and that’s out of character for me. My dad was nowhere to be found at this point, I think he stayed up ahead with the rest of the group.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/image067.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/image069.jpg

Just we started to walk away Kris showed up, so we got some shots too.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/image088.jpg
Put on your glasses for this one look how bright my dress looks! :cool2:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/image079.jpg

Randy and Stan had arrived a little before us, so they were able to get some pictures of the setup. We were in the Lower French Island. We also had a few people who met us in that area since they had spent the afternoon in the park. Notice the colored napkins under the centerpiece. These were only $1 each and were added just a couple of weeks before, I think they added some needed color to the tables and for $10 who could beat that price!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK20963-3-08.jpg

We had a Figment theme since the kids would be there that night. Here are the glow cylinders. The alternated purple and orange.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK20983-3-08.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-19.jpg

I also added the Figment napkins (which we had that scare with at the regular reception) they were a little pricey, but so cute and definitely worth adding!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/100_1632.jpg

The coffee bar; we just used the standard setup and I was really pleased with the variety that was offered. The only drink that we had switched was lemonade for the fruit punch; I didn’t want to chance anyone spilling something on me!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK20943-3-08.jpg

figmentfan814

08-27-2008, 01:43 PM

We went with the Child in You menu which is no longer available. There was an assortment of cookies, lemon bars, brownies, chocolate peanut-butter marshmallow bars (my favorite!) and rice crispy treats; they were all so yummy!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK20853-3-08.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK20883-3-08.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK20893-3-08.jpg
Disney Floral also included this big Figment statue. It was such a great surprise and we didn’t have to pay anything extra for him.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK20873-3-08.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-21.jpg
We had a lot of people ask us who that dragon was that was on the decorations, Disney virgins!:figment:

Here is a shot of me walking down with our flowergirl (notice the white socks) and Kris with my one bridesmaid’s husband and our good friend.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/of50480480.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/of50590393.jpg

Still a lot more dessert party to come! :mickeybar

keenercam

08-27-2008, 02:00 PM

dizneyfreak

08-27-2008, 02:07 PM

Vanessa,
Yea! I'm so excited to see the desert party! It looked gorgeous and so makes me wish mine wasn't washed out. :sad2: The Figment theme was perfect! I can't wait to see the rest. :surfweb:

Anna Marie

Tink901

08-27-2008, 02:13 PM

Great Pictures Vanessa! The figment napkins and theme was adorable!!

irisbud

08-27-2008, 02:17 PM

Your DP looks like so much fun!

figmentfan0724

08-27-2008, 02:19 PM

the DP looks amazing! I absoutly love the Figments!

lpizzuro123

08-27-2008, 02:20 PM

The dessert party sounds great and I love those personalized napkins. What a great idea about a photopass photographer - I would not have thought about that but now this something else to add to my list.

Most of our guests are staying at POFQ so they will be entering through the front of Epcot and we have already ordered a wheelchair for Sheldon's dad. There are about 8 of us staying at either The Boardwalk or the Yacht and Beach Club so we are entering through the International Gateway. We have to pay for an extra host to do this but I thought it would make it the easiest for our guests as we are not getting a bus for them for the dessert party.

Looking forward to more.

Linda

padisneyfour

08-27-2008, 03:15 PM

The personalized napkins are great! I love the image color on the purple.:goodvibes

IndyBride

08-27-2008, 03:54 PM

The DP looks great!! The napkins really did add a nice touch to the tables. Hmmm... perhaps I willl have to add some to the prereception...

figmentfan814

08-27-2008, 04:08 PM

Vanessa -- Thank you so much for the most recent installment! It is wonderful. I LOVE that you and Kris got your picture in front of Spaceship Earth and kissing on your way to the DP. The pics of you and your Mom together are wonderful! :hug: Can't wait to see/hear more!
It was so exciting to get some more of the pictures at Epcot. Plus, we didn't get any shots in France that morning, so the pictures on the bridge are a great addition to our around the world photo shoot!

Vanessa,
Yea! I'm so excited to see the desert party! It looked gorgeous and so makes me wish mine wasn't washed out. :sad2: The Figment theme was perfect! I can't wait to see the rest. :surfweb:

Anna Marie
Just remember you can always come up with a reason to have another DP perhaps for a VR ;) At least you were moved to a pretty nice location. I really like the AAP.

Great Pictures Vanessa! The figment napkins and theme was adorable!!
Your DP looks like so much fun!
the DP looks amazing! I absoutly love the Figments!
The personalized napkins are great! I love the image color on the purple.:goodvibes
Thanks everyone, I was really happy with all the little Figment touches. I was originally going to have Shelly from Impressions do some decorations, but she honestly was way out of my budget. We were able to do all the centerpieces (including the linens) and napkins for around $225 and we had 10 tables. The color on the napkins is printed in iridescent; I love the final effect.

The dessert party sounds great and I love those personalized napkins. What a great idea about a photopass photographer - I would not have thought about that but now this something else to add to my list.

Most of our guests are staying at POFQ so they will be entering through the front of Epcot and we have already ordered a wheelchair for Sheldon's dad. There are about 8 of us staying at either The Boardwalk or the Yacht and Beach Club so we are entering through the International Gateway. We have to pay for an extra host to do this but I thought it would make it the easiest for our guests as we are not getting a bus for them for the dessert party.

Looking forward to more.

Linda
Linda~ I never would have thought of the Photopass guys until we saw them that night either; although I'm not sure if they were really supposed to have taken our picture :)

That is a great idea just adding the second guide. They originally wanted us to all come from the International Gateway, but no one was staying at any of those resorts and since most of our guests had never been to WDW before I knew it would be nearly impossible to give directions to that location.

Plus, it was fun walking from the front of the park with everyone. It will be nice for you to have some time with less people around if you are coming from the back.

The DP looks great!! The napkins really did add a nice touch to the tables. Hmmm... perhaps I willl have to add some to the prereception...

figmentfan814

08-27-2008, 04:09 PM

The DP looks great!! The napkins really did add a nice touch to the tables. Hmmm... perhaps I willl have to add some to the prereception...

It was such an easy touch and for $10 total on all the tables it really added a lot. I was so happy when my floral manager suggested it. :thumbsup2

WithDisneySpirit

08-27-2008, 10:37 PM

Your DP looks great and I also love the Figment theme!! :lovestruc What a novel idea to grab the Photopass person along the way :cutie:

lov2b@disney

08-28-2008, 11:03 AM

Photopass was a great idea!! Loving figment! Everything looks great and yummy too!

Donald'sGirl

08-28-2008, 07:27 PM

Vanessa the DP looked great! I Figment theme is so cool, my DF loves Figment! Great job with the napkins! That was an awesome bargin!:thumbsup2

teruterubouzu

08-28-2008, 08:40 PM

I just love your wedding. Epcot is also my favorite park. The photopass photos are a fun touch, and I love your photos from your dessert party.

Lynn5700

08-28-2008, 09:36 PM

Lynn, I know you mentioned how you can have your bouquet recreated, are you thinking about doing this on a future trip?

I really want to do that!! I'm thinking when we go back in May I will do that.

Your dessert party was so cute with Figment!!!!!! I like the pics of you in front of Spaceship Earth!! Too cool!

DisneyBrideToni

08-28-2008, 10:13 PM

I love the figment statue!!! I have a big one of Donald Duck like that. I wish I could bring that down with me...lol

Flurbee

08-29-2008, 09:45 AM

Vanessa,

Everything from your DP looks great!! The food looks yummy. I also love the figment decorations and the bright colors. Now that we are waiting awhile for our vow renewal, I am seriously thinking about adding on a DP!! It makes me excited to wait now!! :lmao:

Jennifer48

08-29-2008, 10:37 AM

Vanessa the Figment theme is too cute! Subtle enough but perfect. :thumbsup2

Is there little Figment's in the centerpieces? How did you do that?

DisneyLaura

08-29-2008, 12:52 PM

Vanessa - I love the Figment theme for your dessert party. Those napkins are very cute. Love the picture of you and Kris in front of Spaceship Earth. Can't get enough of that Spaceship Earth pictures.

lpizzuro123

08-29-2008, 01:08 PM

Hi Linda,

Just PM me your email address and I would be more than happy to send everything over to you. I think everything's in Word, so you can change it around to fit your guests.

I have the Hidden Mickey List, Fact Sheet, and Pressed Penny Guide. If I think of anything else I'll send those over too.

Just wanted to thank you for sending me the Hidden Mickey list (and the other also). I changed the HM list a bit and added the resorts where my guests will be staying. Also, instead of the picture of Mickey that you put on the cover, I used a picture of Sheldon's son showing off his Hidden Mickey picture in Morocco. This way he is included in our wedding stuff.

Thanks again,
Linda

pjstevens

08-30-2008, 05:51 AM

Vanessa,

Everything looks great with the DP, can't wait to read more! Loved your Figment theme!

Mama of Indybride

08-30-2008, 11:01 PM

As always, another fabulous report!

I can't wait to see what the gift is!!!

You should write soap operas with your cliff hanger out there!

figmentfan814

09-02-2008, 12:34 PM

As always, another fabulous report!

I can't wait to see what the gift is!!!

You should write soap operas with your cliff hanger out there!
I hope to finish it in the next day or two, I know I'm leaving you ladies in suspense. I'm teaching some college courses in addition to my regular job and tomorrow's the first day of class :scared1:

Vanessa,

Everything looks great with the DP, can't wait to read more! Loved your Figment theme!
Thanks, it really was a lot of fun. I only wish that you were allowed to have Figment appear as a character because I definitely would have found room in the budget for him!

Just wanted to thank you for sending me the Hidden Mickey list (and the other also). I changed the HM list a bit and added the resorts where my guests will be staying. Also, instead of the picture of Mickey that you put on the cover, I used a picture of Sheldon's son showing off his Hidden Mickey picture in Morocco. This way he is included in our wedding stuff.

Thanks again,
Linda
Linda, that sounds fantastic! I'm so glad that you were able to add your personal touch to the documents. Definitely let me know if you have any luck with the scavenger hunt!

Vanessa - I love the Figment theme for your dessert party. Those napkins are very cute. Love the picture of you and Kris in front of Spaceship Earth. Can't get enough of that Spaceship Earth pictures.
It was so cool to be able to get the shots of it at night with all the lights :goodvibes

Vanessa the Figment theme is too cute! Subtle enough but perfect. :thumbsup2

Is there little Figment's in the centerpieces? How did you do that?
We bought the glow gel centerpieces from Disney Floral. They normally put Mickey confetti in them, but you can have a lot of different characters added. Later in the report, you'll see where we took them apart to save some of the Figments.

Vanessa,

Everything from your DP looks great!! The food looks yummy. I also love the figment decorations and the bright colors. Now that we are waiting awhile for our vow renewal, I am seriously thinking about adding on a DP!! It makes me excited to wait now!! :lmao:
The DP was definitely a highlight for our guests. I highly recommend including it if it's at all possible.

I love the figment statue!!! I have a big one of Donald Duck like that. I wish I could bring that down with me...lol
You should ask Disney Floral they might have one that you can use :goodvibes I didn't even know they had the figment statue, so it was a great surprise to see him there that night.

I really want to do that!! I'm thinking when we go back in May I will do that.

Your dessert party was so cute with Figment!!!!!! I like the pics of you in front of Spaceship Earth!! Too cool!
Thanks, Lynn! I hope you're able to get your bouquet done, I know it will be a great keepsake for years to come.

I just love your wedding. Epcot is also my favorite park. The photopass photos are a fun touch, and I love your photos from your dessert party.
Thank you so much, Epcot is my favorite too, in case anyone couldn't already tell ;) I'm glad you're enjoying the report so far :)

Vanessa the DP looked great! I Figment theme is so cool, my DF loves Figment! Great job with the napkins! That was an awesome bargin!:thumbsup2
Photopass was a great idea!! Loving figment! Everything looks great and yummy too!
Thanks so much, I'm glad you're both enjoying it so far. The treats were definitely really good. I wish I could get those peanut butter bars somewhere now.

Your DP looks great and I also love the Figment theme!! :lovestruc What a novel idea to grab the Photopass person along the way :cutie:
It was a spur of the moment thing that ended up being such a fun thing to do :goodvibes

Tomorrow is our 6 month anniversary; it's amazing how fast the time has flown by already!

Flurbee

09-02-2008, 09:01 PM

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!:lovestruc

irisbud

09-03-2008, 10:31 AM

Happy 6 month anniversary!

Donald'sGirl

09-03-2008, 12:22 PM

HAPPY 6TH MONTH ANNIVERSARY VANESSA!!!

dizneyfreak

09-03-2008, 12:36 PM

Six months already...how times flies! Congrats girl! :hug: Tell your honey his Disfriend says congrats too!

Anna Marie

figmentfan814

09-03-2008, 06:29 PM

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!:lovestruc

Happy 6 month anniversary!

HAPPY 6TH MONTH ANNIVERSARY VANESSA!!!

Six months already...how times flies! Congrats girl! :hug: Tell your honey his Disfriend says congrats too!

Anna Marie

Thanks, ladies, we're heading out to dinner now. It's hard to believe how fast the time has flown by since March. Although, I would have thought that I would have had my trip report done by now :rotfl:

figmentfan814

09-04-2008, 01:49 PM

After taking a few minutes to check out the decorations, I headed over to the dessert table. Most of our guest had already hit it up, so it was already starting to get picked over a little. I loaded up a plate and took it over to the table near some of the members of our bridal party. I knew we wouldn’t have long before pictures, so I wanted to get in a few bites before that time.

I then headed over to the coffee bar for a beverage. We had swapped out lemonade for fruit punch (I had a fear of red drink staining my dress before the MK shoot) but I wasn’t really in the mood for anything too sweet. I mentioned that I wish I could have some iced tea and the lady running the bar offered to make me a small cup full using the hot tea packets and adding ice. I thought this was so nice of her, of course I’m sure it helped that I was the one standing there in my wedding gown and since we were paying for everything.

So, I went back to my seat to taste some of my treats in the meantime. My bridesmaid and her husband were at the table next to us and they said that they had picked up a gift for Kris and I while they were in the World Showcase that afternoon. It turned out to be a wooden carved fertility god that they bought at the African outpost. The funny part is that everyone knows Kris and I plan to wait a very long time before we start a family (we only want one child anyway since we’re both only children too) so it was a joke that we all enjoyed :rotfl:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/of5059039321.jpg

Around this time the coffee bar attendant brought over my tea and I was able to grab a few quick bits of the items on my plate before I was whisked off to work on handing out the glow necklaces and bracelets that we had bought for favors for the guests. I didn’t realize that the necklaces were the ones that had to be charged in the sunlight in advance. Randy took them and put them under one of the lights that run along the patio for awhile and this helped some, but not a great deal. I enlisted the help of my younger cousins to help pass out the bracelets that were all ready to glow. The ones that wouldn’t charge I ended up saving to pass out at our at-home reception a few months later.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK21273-3-08.jpg

Stan had also brought back the laptop, so more people were able to check out our sneak peek video. I’m not sure if I mentioned this or not, but Kris and I were able to watch it at LS earlier that afternoon :happytv:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/of505903931.jpg

I had my MOH and MOH (maid and matron of honors) help me get out the Mickey ears that I had brought for some shots. I wanted to have some pictures of the ladies showing off our Mickey ears :earsgirl: I love these shots! Randy asked us to turn around because he was going to photograph the names on the back. My one bridesmaid said that might be a problem, mine says “John” (my dad’s name.) It was true; we had gathered matching ears from my family members, so most of them weren’t correct ;)
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK21423-3-08.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK21493-3-08.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK21523-3-08.jpg

Within a few minutes, our Epcot guide came over asking when I wanted the cake brought out for my little cousin :cake: I told him that it was fine to bring it out now, so Kris and I headed in his direction. The look on his face was priceless. He had already told everyone that the party that night was for him and we didn’t tell him otherwise. My cousin has some special needs and it was so sweet to see the excitement on his face!
:bday:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/of50590393321.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK21873-3-08.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/100_0659.jpg
To this day, he still tells people that DH and I got him fireworks for his birthday. He was visiting MI on my birthday in August and he wrote a song for the occasion. It was quite original and Kris says that it will be an annual birthday tradition to sing it each year :rockband:

Just as we finished singing to my cousin, Kris pulled me off to the side. I don’t remember what he said at this point (I guess I need to watch the raw footage from the video) and then he pulled a small box out of his pocket. I slowly unwrapped it and inside I found a beautiful sapphire necklace that matched my engagement ring perfectly. It was such an amazing gift and I knew that he had gone great lengths to get it there after having forgotten it in Ohio. I was shocked; it was way beyond anything I expected to receive.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK21703-3-08.jpg http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/100_0656.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/of505903933.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK21753-3-08.jpg

I quickly took off my Swarovski necklace that I was wearing and switched into my new gift. Then we were swept off by Randy and Stan to start shooting shots since Illuminations would be starting shortly. I won’t bore you with the details of the show since most of you have seen it no doubt. Periodically Stan would ask us to point as though we were staring in amazement (we just kept cracking up whenever we did this and you can tell it’s so exaggerated on the video! :lmao:) We also had to hold several kissed poses and dips throughout. During the low point when the video is playing on the globe we had a few minutes to watch the show, but not for long. Stan also had us break into a dance at one point too.

irisbud

09-04-2008, 01:55 PM

figmentfan814

09-04-2008, 01:57 PM

Here are some shots throughout the show. Randy really is awesome and the video from Stan of the show is breathtaking. We were told that we lucked out because the wind had changed direction shortly before our arrival. If it hadn’t we would have been engulfed by smoke from the show
pixiedust:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK21953-3-08.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK22653-3-08.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK23343-3-08.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK23643-3-08.jpg
You can really see the smoke in the distance is this shot:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK22753-3-08.jpg
It looks like the fireworks are shooting out of our hands in this shot: http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK23463-3-08.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK22903-3-08.jpg http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK23013-3-08.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/VK23123-3-08.jpg

These are just some regular shots of Illuminations that my maid of honor caught on her camera; I thought they turned out great too. My mom has a picture of some of our guests looking in awe at the show which I forgot to upload. Most of our guests had never seen Illuminations before and it was great to see their reactions. It was definitely worth the small price of adding on the DP. At our MI reception, Kris’ best man who had skipped the DP came up to me and started raving about how amazing the fireworks show was on the video. I kept thinking that he had already saw it in FL, but it dawned on me that he had went to his hotel early that night and missed out on the show, so he saw it for the first time on our video.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/DSCN0510.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/DSCN0521.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/DSCN0511.jpg

At some point, Randy and Stan caught my mom with the veil on her head. In the video she describes how I wore her veil and what we had done to transform it from the original one that she had worn 30 years earlier.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/of505903932.jpg

These are some other random shots from the DP. My maid of honor went around and got most of these for me.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/DSCN0535.jpg
My parents look tired after the long day:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/DSCN0546.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/DSCN0551.jpg
The only shot I’ve seen of our two moms together.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/DSCN0541.jpg

figmentfan814

09-04-2008, 02:05 PM

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/DSCN0550.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/DSCN0539.jpg

After the show was over our guests started to trickle out. A lot of them were leaving early the next morning and it had been a long day for everyone. I had asked about adding on time to the DP, but honestly with a morning ceremony we didn’t need it all. So many of our guests just wanted to go to bed at that point, we didn’t really need it. Around this time people started talking about the post-wedding brunch that we had scheduled for the next morning at 1900 Park Fare. We had scheduled it for 11 am since we knew everyone would be tired from the day before. It turned out that out of the 20 people that were originally going to be attending, 12 had to catch the Magical Express so early they wouldn’t be able to make it. We talked to my parents and decided to just cancel it and to meet at the Magic Kingdom instead. (Later we discovered that we forgot to tell my MOH and her parents about the cancellation; this will come up later in my report.)

Kris’ mom came over and took me aside and told me that it had been a beautiful wedding and it had all been very elegant. She told me that I had done a good job planning everything. Since she had not been a fan of a Disney wedding I knew this was a big step for her to admit too. She told Kris and I that she was going to try to get an earlier flight out the next day though because she was ready to go home. (Kris had booked her a night flight, so she could spend the day in Orlando, but she decided against this and ended up going home on standby.)

We took a few last shots with members of our bridal party and then Stan and Randy headed out. We thanked them profusely for their amazing work and for being a part of such an important day in our lives. We asked Stan about Club 33 since we want to make it out there some time in the next couple of years and he said just to let us know when we want to make it there. He is a member there and will make a reservation for any of his clients. Club 33 is a private club at Disneyland. Randy told us that our shots would be up in a couple of weeks online. I said that I had heard he was running a little behind and he admitted that it would be a little longer than the normal 3 week window, I assured him that would be fine. Stan also told us that the sneak peek would be online the next day and then they headed off :thanks:

We stuck around talking to our Epcot guide and filling up our goodie bags. It turned out our guide’s daughter had gotten married at Disney 8 years earlier (prior to his retirement to Orlando and before his Disney employment) and her DP was in the same location, so it brought back a lot of great memories for him. I wish we would have gotten our picture with him, he was such a sweet man. After seeing all of Lynn’s shots with cast members, it made me regret not getting one.

We had bought some baggies to bag up any leftover treats. All future brides make sure to bring these because any leftover food will be thrown away otherwise. Although, we didn’t end up with much food left, I think we probably filled 5 or 6 quart size bags. There weren’t any brownies or lemon bars left if I remember correctly. That’s okay because we still had plenty of cake from the reception.

The funny thing was that the one Epcot staff person who was replenishing the food said that he had never seen a group eat so much of the sweets! I guess there is usually a lot leftover. They even brought over some things from a DP that was taking place at the United Kingdom. I’m not sure what goodies these were though because they were gone by the time we were done with our fireworks shots.

I had asked Laura about keeping the centerpieces and she said we owned everything in them except the vases that were rented. She said that we could take what we wanted and then she would retroactively charge us $5 each for the cylinders. After looking at the centerpieces we decided the only thing that we would really want to keep from them was the Figments and some of the glow ice cubes, so my mom and her best friend decided to disassemble a few for us. It was funny to see them digging through the gooey gel :rotfl2:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-10.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-9.jpg

I should’ve had them pull out all the Figments, but I didn’t think of it at the time :figment: I still ended up with 3 of the figurines to keep, but since we technically had bought them all I really should have gotten all 10! We divided up the ice cubes among her best friend’s kids and us and then we decided to make the walk to the front of the park.

Around this time I decided I should take some pictures with my cape on that my matron of honor’s aunt had so graciously made for me 2 weeks before the wedding. I was worried about it being cold outside, but we had perfect weather. I wasn’t cold at all, but I wanted to show appreciation for all her work because she did a truly amazing job. I had bought the material and had arranged to pay her to make it up. When my MOH picked it up for me her aunt said that there was no charge and that it was a gift. I thought that was so touching.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-7.jpg

As we headed out we stopped to take some more pictures around the World Showcase and the fountain near Spaceship Earth. We probably spent 30 minutes leisurely walking to the front gate. The park was nearly deserted and it was funny walking around in my wedding gown.
Attempting a shot in the UK:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-6.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-5.jpg
Canada:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-4.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-3.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney_Wo.jpg

:tink: I wanted to get some shots by the Year of a Million Dreams sign since our dreams had truly came true that day!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-1.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Wedding_March_3_2008_Walt_Disney-2.jpg

As we were walking out we realized that we had forgotten to get the marriage license signed by the best man and matron of honor. They had early morning flights, so that meant we still had to pick it up from my parent’s room then head over to their hotel on Hotel Plaza Blvd. near Downtown Disney! :eek: :scared1:

Up next… we are officially married; at least our license is finally signed!

Btw- my one bridesmaid had her baby last night. It's so strange to think how much everyone's lives have changed this year already. My matron of honor is due with her second set of twins in November :goodvibes

29apr00

09-04-2008, 02:07 PM

great shots!! I love the necklace! sapphires are my fav, since that's my birthstone!! :rotfl:

figmentfan814

09-04-2008, 02:13 PM

Oh, that necklace is gorgeous! I am certain you were thrilled with it. You look so happy in the picture where you are recieving it!

I think that having the cake for your cousin was a very nice touch. I'm sure he will remember that forever!
Kris really did surprise me, I definitely would've never guessed my present.

It was a lot of fun having my cousin's cake, I know it was the first time he had gotten to spend his birthday with the majority of his family (since he lives in Virginia and we're all in MI) plus what kid wouldn't love to have a bday at Disney!

great shots!! I love the necklace! sapphires are my fav, since that's my birthstone!! :rotfl:
Thanks! You're lucky, I'm stuck with the peridot for mine :mad:

padisneyfour

09-04-2008, 02:19 PM

What a magical ending to a such wonderful day ....

Tink901

09-04-2008, 02:25 PM

Vanessa - that is a lovely gift from Kris and great shots from your DP.

figmentfan814

09-04-2008, 03:12 PM

What a magical ending to a such wonderful day ....

Vanessa - that is a lovely gift from Kris and great shots from your DP.

Thank you ladies :cool1:

Donald'sGirl

09-04-2008, 03:12 PM

Vanessa that necklace is beautiful! It looks perfect with your ring! I am so glad everything turned out perfectly for you!

disneychickforever

09-04-2008, 06:25 PM

Great update, looks like you had a great DP. I love the necklace! Sapphire is my favorite stone :)

Can't wait to hear more.

IndyBride

09-04-2008, 07:52 PM

Vanessa, thank you for not giving up on your TR! I just realized today that it's almost 60 pages long already!!! Wow, it's already been 6 months since you've gotten married??? It's amazing how fast time seems to go. Beautiful necklace and that's so sweet to get your nephew (or cousin?) a birthday cake! Can't wait to see pics of your at home reception!

WithDisneySpirit

09-04-2008, 08:32 PM

You always write the best installments, Vanessa!!! :goodvibes I love your fireworks pics too! What a big day you had; I can't believe you were still moving at that time and thinking up more pics to do on the way out! :worship:

starann

09-04-2008, 08:53 PM

2nd set of twins!!!?!?!?! Looks like she held your fertility god too much!!!!:rotfl2: :rotfl2:

Everything looked so beautiful...The picts that your MOH took of the fireworks were amazing!

Mama of Indybride

09-04-2008, 10:21 PM

What a lovely dp, Vanessa!

Your cape is too cute, and I LOVE your necklace.

I am a sapphire fan as well, and fell in love with your ring the second I saw it. To have a necklace to match, your cup must runneth over!

Thanks for sharing more of your magical trip!

DecemberBride

09-04-2008, 11:37 PM

I'd die with another set of twins!!!!!! One is enough thanks!

Vanessa, loved your update! You always do awesome ones! Thanks! :goodvibes

Flurbee

09-05-2008, 08:17 PM

Vanessa,

Your DP looks like such yummy fun!! All your pics are great, and your necklace is beautiful!! What a good end to a perfect day!!

DisneyLaura

09-05-2008, 08:54 PM

Tomorrow is our 6 month anniversary; it's amazing how fast the time has flown by already!

Happy 6 month anniversary. Such a lovely DP. Love your cape too.

Btw- my one bridesmaid had her baby last night. It's so strange to think how much everyone's lives have changed this year already. My matron of honor is due with her second set of twins in November :goodvibes

Congrats to both of them. Hmmmm due in Nov, looks like Disney babies to me. I know this because my DD's birthday is in Nov so I know when they concieved ;)

teruterubouzu

09-05-2008, 09:05 PM

These illuminations party updates really make me want to have an event an Epcot. My parents have a lot of health issues, so I doubt I'd get married far from home, but someday, I'm going to have some sort of party there. Thanks for sharing your photos and memories!

keenercam

09-05-2008, 10:12 PM

Vanessa -- Your DP looked like so much fun! Love the pic of the "Moms". Kris' gift to you so was so sweet and thoughtful and I LOVE that he went to the trouble to get it down there and didn't just wait until you got home. What a sweetheart! :love:

figmentfan814

09-08-2008, 03:43 PM

Vanessa that necklace is beautiful! It looks perfect with your ring! I am so glad everything turned out perfectly for you!

Great update, looks like you had a great DP. I love the necklace! Sapphire is my favorite stone :)

Can't wait to hear more.
Thanks, ladies, DH really did a great job at picking it out :lovestruc

Vanessa, thank you for not giving up on your TR! I just realized today that it's almost 60 pages long already!!! Wow, it's already been 6 months since you've gotten married??? It's amazing how fast time seems to go. Beautiful necklace and that's so sweet to get your nephew (or cousin?) a birthday cake! Can't wait to see pics of your at home reception!
Val, thanks for continuing to read the TR too. I'm so happy that you ladies have continued to be patient with me. Now that the wedding is over, I will do a lot shorter recaps for the rest of the trip that way I can share some pictures from our honeymoon to Hawaii that we took in April and our at-home reception that was in June.

You always write the best installments, Vanessa!!! :goodvibes I love your fireworks pics too! What a big day you had; I can't believe you were still moving at that time and thinking up more pics to do on the way out! :worship:
We still have a couple of hours left of running at that point, so stay tuned. You can definitely see why we needed to sleep in the next day and to skip the brunch!

2nd set of twins!!!?!?!?! Looks like she held your fertility god too much!!!!:rotfl2: :rotfl2:

Everything looked so beautiful...The picts that your MOH took of the fireworks were amazing!
Plus, she has another little girl in the middle. They'll all be under 3 1/2 when the little ones are born later this year.

My maid of honor did a great job with her shots, I know she had just gotten a new camera, so I'm going to have to see what she ended up getting.

What a lovely dp, Vanessa!

Your cape is too cute, and I LOVE your necklace.

I am a sapphire fan as well, and fell in love with your ring the second I saw it. To have a necklace to match, your cup must runneth over!

Thanks for sharing more of your magical trip!
I only wish that I could have gotten more use out of the cape; it had sparkly material that caught the light just right :upsidedow Although I won't complain about the beautiful weather.

Thank you so much, I absolutely love my ring and necklace. I guess I'll have to continue to add to my sapphire jewelry collection over the years :laughing:

I'd die with another set of twins!!!!!! One is enough thanks!

Vanessa, loved your update! You always do awesome ones! Thanks! :goodvibes
As I mentioned above she has a little girl in-between too. You have to admit though they are a lot of fun :goodvibes

I'm glad you're enjoying the updates, I only wish I could move through them a little faster. I'm just excited to almost be finished with the wedding.

Vanessa,

Your DP looks like such yummy fun!! All your pics are great, and your necklace is beautiful!! What a good end to a perfect day!!
Thanks! :)

Happy 6 month anniversary. Such a lovely DP. Love your cape too.

Congrats to both of them. Hmmmm due in Nov, looks like Disney babies to me. I know this because my DD's birthday is in Nov so I know when they concieved ;)
They originally put her due in the middle of December, but they ended up moving it up. Her husband joked at our at-home reception that they brought home a little gift ;) It was a vacation that just included the two of them since their 3 little ones stayed at home.

These illuminations party updates really make me want to have an event an Epcot. My parents have a lot of health issues, so I doubt I'd get married far from home, but someday, I'm going to have some sort of party there. Thanks for sharing your photos and memories!
I hope you get to have an Illuminations party some day. There's always hope for a vow renewal or celebration of another special occasion like a birthday :goodvibes I know it is a hard decision to make when you have family members that can't necessarily make the trip.

Vanessa -- Your DP looked like so much fun! Love the pic of the "Moms". Kris' gift to you so was so sweet and thoughtful and I LOVE that he went to the trouble to get it down there and didn't just wait until you got home. What a sweetheart! :love:
Thank you, Cam, it was so sweet to see how much effort he went to in getting my gift there. He was so worried about it because he originally thought it was in the lost luggage, but when that arrived and it still wasn't there he rushed into action to get it sent down to him. It's funny because in all the excitement he forgot to give me his card that he had for me. I ended up getting it a couple of days later :)

lpizzuro123

09-11-2008, 11:19 AM

figmentfan814

09-11-2008, 11:51 AM

Morning Vanessa, I just booked my MK shoot and I am sure I saw photos of your (including the book they gave you) somewhere but i can't seem to find it now. Was it in your journal or was it in a separate post? I would love it if you would direct me there.

Thanks,
Linda

Linda,

That's so exciting that you booked your shoot :cool1:

Here are the shots of the pile of pictures we got and the two books. We got two books because we did the two-park shoot.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Pictures%20and%20watch/DisneyPicturesWatches016.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Pictures%20and%20watch/DisneyPicturesWatches018.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Pictures%20and%20watch/DisneyPicturesWatches019.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Pictures%20and%20watch/DisneyPicturesWatches021.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Pictures%20and%20watch/DisneyPicturesWatches023.jpg

Sorry the one shot is so small, I had it resized in PhotoBucket for something :confused:

lpizzuro123

09-11-2008, 11:56 AM

They came out great. Did you get the 4 x 6 or did you upgrade to the 8 x 12? I think we are going to stick with the 4 x 6. The person also mentioned something about a proof book with contact sheets spiral bound with a nice cover. Did you receive this also and if so what is it like?

I am so excited that we were able to book this. Although I could only get the 5:00am shoot. Maybe we should just stay up all night. At least this way we will not have to extend the time for DF's tux.

Thanks,
Linda

figmentfan814

09-11-2008, 11:56 AM

When we took my parents back to POR we went into their room for a few minutes to open some presents that didn’t make it into our car with us. On the way over Kris called my matron of honor’s husband to get their room number. They were staying at the SunSpree Resort off Hotel Plaza Boulevard and we needed to get the license signed since they were flying out early the next morning. The best man (who skipped the DP) had also moved over there.) Thankfully we were able to catch him since he had kind of disappeared.

Some of my family that live in Florida had bought us some household items including a silicon baking set and a nice set of sheets for our new King bed.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Dancing-Moving067.jpg

:tinker: Then my dad handed us a big bag from Disney that had some really cool things in it.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Dancing-Moving068.jpg
He had bought us a platter that showed the castle and that was in the colors of the YOMD. He also got us two large pin sets- one was of the Castle and the other of Spaceship Earth (to commemorate our photos in the MK and our wedding at Epcot). We also got another commemorative set of Disney pins. These were some fun gifts that I absolutely loved! (Our regular gift was a washer and dryer set that they had bought for our house :laundy:)
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Dancing-Moving069.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Dancing-Moving065.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Dancing-Moving070.jpg

After grabbing a few more items that we had left in their room we headed over to SunSpree. At this point, it was already around 11:30 pm, it had definitely been a long day. We pulled up in front of the hotel and left our car there, we figured who would give us a hassle when we were both in our wedding attire. We walked in the lobby and people were still yelling congratulations to us! The lobby in this hotel was very nice, but as we headed up the elevator the view got a little worse. I wasn’t too impressed by what I saw in the hallways leading to the rooms. We went to my matron of honor’s room first; they were in one of the outside towers and it was kind of scary walking to their room. They were all in bed already. One of the bridesmaids had bunked with her that night too.

Here she is signing the license. I still can’t believe that we had forgotten to get it signed up until that point in the evening! We said our goodbyes and let them get back to sleep since they had an early flight out the next day.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Dancing-Moving082.jpg

Kris got a hold of his best man and we headed to his room which was in the main tower. There were a lot of teenagers staying in this resort too; I’m thinking they were school groups. He had been asleep for several hours, so I told him I would make sure that I didn’t put his face in the picture.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Dessert%20Party/Dancing-Moving081.jpg

We chatted for a few minutes and then it was time for us to head out too. As we were walking downstairs I told Kris that I was starving! We were worried that we wouldn’t be able to get any room service at that time of night, so guess where we went.... McDonald’s drive-thru :rotfl: We just drove across to the Crossings. It was funny because there was two young girls working at the window and they were leaning out asking us if we had just gotten married, etc. (I wanted to laugh because I was in a wedding dress, so I thought that would give it away.) We munched on our late night snack as we headed back to the Grand Floridian for the night.

It was just after midnight when we got to the room and since we had started our day at 5 a.m. that morning we crashed! :faint: On a side note, Kris had arranged for a dessert tray to be sent up to our room that night. Since we got in so late we weren’t able to get it. I thought it was so sweet :lovestruc that he had thought about doing it though because it was just another thing that made our day all the more special. They offered to bring it the next night, but since we had a refrigerator full of leftover cake we decided against having it delivered.

It was finally the end of our perfect day, I couldn’t believe that after all the planning and hard work and with everything that we had gone through that year it had finally happened. We were both so happy with how things turned it, the wedding was amazing! :bride: :groom:

Even though I was slightly disappointed, I knew that we still had 5 days left at Disney and our MK shoot was in two days! pixiedust:

keenercam

09-11-2008, 12:27 PM

irisbud

09-11-2008, 01:06 PM

Great installment as always, Vanessa.

I LOL about the girls in the drive-thru. "No, I just wore this for fun" :rolleyes:

Can't wait to read more!

lov2b@disney

09-11-2008, 01:28 PM

:rotfl: Gotta love the McDonalds drive thru on your wedding night!

figmentfan814

09-11-2008, 02:11 PM

Vanessa-- Thank you for another installment. I am so hooked that I get a little edgy when we go for days without hearing more about your amazing day. LOL! I can't believe how perfect you still looked when you were opening presents. I would have been a slumped, exhausted mess by then! ;) You are so gorgeous! So happy that you were able to deal with the marriage license issue pretty uneventfully. :thumbsup2
Looking forward to your next post of the honeymoon installments! :love:
First, I have to say that I'm so jealous that you'll be at the World this weekend :goodvibes We were definitely pretty exhausted at this point, I had been in that dress way too long and it was pretty heavy to haul around :rotfl: Thank you so much for continuing to folow the report. I'm hoping now that all the wedding festivities are done it should go a lot quicker.

Great installment as always, Vanessa.

I LOL about the girls in the drive-thru. "No, I just wore this for fun" :rolleyes:

Can't wait to read more!
It was pretty funny and I tried not to be sarcastic, but that was really funny for them to ask :goodvibes

:rotfl: Gotta love the McDonalds drive thru on your wedding night!
I know it was pretty funny, I told Kris this would be a good story for the future about how we had dinner at McDonalds after our wedding ;)

teruterubouzu

09-11-2008, 08:45 PM

That's hilarious that you went through the McDonald's drive through in your gown! Fun update.

WithDisneySpirit

09-11-2008, 09:28 PM

You must have gotten some kind of third or fourth wind by the time you were opening gifts because you looked wide awake and beautiful still! How did you do that, Vanessa???

figmentfan814

09-12-2008, 10:54 AM

That's hilarious that you went through the McDonald's drive through in your gown! Fun update.
It was funny because when I mentioned it to my mom several months later she started cracking up she couldn't believe that we had made a fastfood run that night :lmao:

You must have gotten some kind of third or fourth wind by the time you were opening gifts because you looked wide awake and beautiful still! How did you do that, Vanessa???
I definitely think you're right it was probably the 3rd or 4th one at that point. Maybe my body was finally adjusting to the lack of sleep. I think it had been over a week since I had more than 4-5 hours of sleep per night ;) We had been so busy doing things leading up to the wedding it wasn't that I couldn't sleep, I just didn't have time to do it!

I had bought some Tylenol sleep to take on the trip to help me relax and I never had enough available time to take them since you're supposed to be able to dedicate 8 hours to sleep after taking them :rotfl: We did sleep in pretty late the next morning, so that definitely made up for the lack of sleep.

DisneyLaura

09-12-2008, 11:07 AM

The girls at McDonald's :lmao: Glad you had a wonderful day, can't wait to hear more and about the MK shoot.

Donald'sGirl

09-12-2008, 11:38 AM

Vanessa great installment! That is hysterical about the drive thru! :rotfl2: It sounds like something I think my DF is going to do but his choice would be Taco Bell! Can you imagine?!?!?:rotfl:

Jennifer48

09-12-2008, 03:48 PM

Wow that's a long day! I'm sure your adrenaline got you through it.

Great update! That's so something I would do, going through McD's drive thru! I did that after the prom my senior year of HS in a limo! :rotfl:

figmentfan814

09-14-2008, 12:09 AM

The girls at McDonald's :lmao: Glad you had a wonderful day, can't wait to hear more and about the MK shoot.
The MK shoot was a lot of fun, I only have one day in between to talk about and we went to CRT that evening for dinner, so stay tuned.

Vanessa great installment! That is hysterical about the drive thru! :rotfl2: It sounds like something I think my DF is going to do but his choice would be Taco Bell! Can you imagine?!?!?:rotfl:
Hey, there's one of those in the Crossings too, so I guess you would be in luck :goodvibes

Wow that's a long day! I'm sure your adrenaline got you through it.

Great update! That's so something I would do, going through McD's drive thru! I did that after the prom my senior year of HS in a limo! :rotfl:
I guess then that's a tradition you need to continue. I only wish that we still had our limo at that time of night instead of being stuck in our rental car :upsidedow

Mama of Indybride

09-14-2008, 01:51 AM

Oh my. I don't think I would have been as good natured as you trudging all over the place to get the license signed!

Nor as good natured as they to have to wake up to do it!

But McDonald's is a place I must give myself an excuse to go to, and your excuse was the best ever!

Crown_princess

09-14-2008, 01:47 PM

I just want to say that you are the most gracious and good-humored bride I can possibly imagine!
:goodvibes

oh...and also, we are planning on having our DP at lower UK. I think I will freak if I have to trudge thru a turnstile in my dress! Definitely going to talk to the planner about that one. :scared1:

You mentioned Kid in You isn't a DP option anymore.
There is one called "You're a Kid at Heart" but it isn't like yours.
I think the closest to yours is now called Desserts Created by You. :confused3

dizneyfreak

09-16-2008, 06:21 PM

Vanessa,
Geez woman! I go to see the mouse for a week and when I get back your done with your wedding! I'm so sad that it's almost over, but happy at the same time to see it all. On a side note, we will have to continue to PM each other after your trippie is over...I would love to meet up with you and Kris in MI sometime for a weekend or something! :hug:
I loved this installment from the fireworks pictures right down to the candids from other peoples' cameras. Kris is such a sweetheart. Your suprise was beautiful and so thoughtful to boot. The fact that he tried so hard to get it there made it that much better too! :love: I love that he tried to have the plate of chocolate covered strawberries and champagne sent up to your room for the night too. Brad wanted to do that, but we were so exhausted that it would have been a waste. We did get roomservice however a bit after midnight. I got french onion soup and he got a burger...they stay open all night at the GF. Believe me...we were very grateful for that one.
Can't wait to see the rest!

Anna Marie

figmentfan814

09-18-2008, 10:16 PM

Hi Ladies,
Sorry I've been gone for a few days. I was out of town for work for several days and my grandma's been in the hospital (nothing too serious, it took a while to find the source, but she's having her galbladder out in the morning)

On the positive side, I have been able to type up 4 more days of my report in Word. I'm slowly going through and adding in the photos to actually have the posts ready, but I should be able to get these up relatively quickly :banana:

Oh my. I don't think I would have been as good natured as you trudging all over the place to get the license signed!

Nor as good natured as they to have to wake up to do it!

But McDonald's is a place I must give myself an excuse to go to, and your excuse was the best ever!
I think I was just looking for an excuse to keep the wedding day going :goodvibes Thankfully, no one was too grumpy after getting woken up, but I know my matron of honor had been waiting around for us, so I'm glad she wasn't too upset :) The McDonald's trip will definitely go down as a family story for years to come :rotfl:

I just want to say that you are the most gracious and good-humored bride I can possibly imagine!
:goodvibes

oh...and also, we are planning on having our DP at lower UK. I think I will freak if I have to trudge thru a turnstile in my dress! Definitely going to talk to the planner about that one. :scared1:

You mentioned Kid in You isn't a DP option anymore.
There is one called "You're a Kid at Heart" but it isn't like yours.
I think the closest to yours is now called Desserts Created by You. :confused3
Thank you! :goodvibes

You should have a great view in the UK since that's right near where we were at for ours :)

I'm sure they probably would've let me go through the side thing for wheelchairs and strollers, but I didn't even think of it at the time, I'm sure they'll be accomodating, so you're not stuck doing the same thing :goodvibes
So, what menu have you decided on for your DP? I know they used to outsource a lot of the cookies and bars, so maybe Disney is doing more of them in-house now :confused:

Vanessa,
Geez woman! I go to see the mouse for a week and when I get back your done with your wedding! I'm so sad that it's almost over, but happy at the same time to see it all. On a side note, we will have to continue to PM each other after your trippie is over...I would love to meet up with you and Kris in MI sometime for a weekend or something! :hug:
I loved this installment from the fireworks pictures right down to the candids from other peoples' cameras. Kris is such a sweetheart. Your suprise was beautiful and so thoughtful to boot. The fact that he tried so hard to get it there made it that much better too! :love: I love that he tried to have the plate of chocolate covered strawberries and champagne sent up to your room for the night too. Brad wanted to do that, but we were so exhausted that it would have been a waste. We did get roomservice however a bit after midnight. I got french onion soup and he got a burger...they stay open all night at the GF. Believe me...we were very grateful for that one.
Can't wait to see the rest!

Anna Marie
I'll definitely keep in touch; it would be fun to do a MidWest meetup, maybe we could even get some other brides in on the fun too :thumbsup2 I totally forgot that you were going to be gone at Disney of all places; I'm so jealous :)

I wish that I would have known about the room service being open late; I guess we didn't need the McDonald's trip after all :laughing: :rotfl: :laughing:

figmentfan814

09-18-2008, 10:26 PM

The next morning we slept in as late as possible without missing the concierge breakfast. Kris actually had to run down ahead of me to get us plates.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/Dancing-Moving084.jpg

While I was getting ready my maid of honor called because somehow her family didn’t hear that we had decided not to do the brunch at 1900 Park Fare. I had even called the restaurant that morning to leave a message for them about our group not being able to come to brunch. I asked if she wanted Kris and I to come down and she said not to worry about it that they would catch up with us later. I felt so bad that they hadn’t heard at the DP; I tired to talk to everyone but it was inevitable that we would have missed someone. We had over half the people that were originally planning to attend that couldn’t make it because of the time of their Magical Express pickups, plus with everyone so tired from the night before it didn’t make sense to try to squeeze it in that morning.

Around the same time I got a text message from my matron of honor who was at the airport getting ready to head back to MI. She sent it to all of the girls in the bridal party and said that she looked forward to Kris and mine 10th anniversary being celebrated at WDW too!

After breakfast Kris and I called my parents to see if they were already at the park yet or not. Everyone was going to the Magic Kingdom, so it was fun to just jump on the monorail for a short trip to get there. On the ride over we ran into another couple that had just gotten married. The groom asked if we had our “special gift” and I said no that we hadn’t gotten it. He showed off his to us. We chatted for a few minutes and then when we arrived at the park we went our separate ways. It’s too bad it wasn’t a bride that I knew from the boards.

When they walked away Kris asked why we hadn’t gotten that gift. I never mentioned it to him because I wanted it to be a surprise; I told him that I would have to check to see. I ended up asking Marion’s assistant after we got home and it turned out that she forgets it a lot. We were mailed the gift a month after the wedding, but at least we got it. I don’t want to reveal too much as a spoiler to future brides. Just don’t be shy about asking for your gift since they are suppose to give it to all the couples, I think it just slips their mind sometimes.

I had forgotten my bride ears in a bag of stuff from the dessert party that had been sent back to my parents’ room, so our first day officially married and I was earless :sad2: We had put on our Just Married pins and it was neat to hear so many of the cast members saying congratulations to us.

When we first arrived we took the train to the back where we rode the two mountains.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving087.jpg
We got off in Frontier Land where we rode Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain before meeting up with the family.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving090.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving091.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving088.jpg

We met my parents and some of the family at the shooting gallery where my dad and cousin were having a competition we then headed off to the castle where we got a group shot before heading off to Tomorrowland. This was one of the shots that we got off PhotoPass CD.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Groupshot.jpg
As you can see it was really starting to get dark outside.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/KV.jpg

My cousin and his girlfriend had ran into the Dream Squad when they were coming in that morning. They gave away the night in the castle to a couple that was right in front of them; they were so close to one of the best dreams! I joked with him and said that since it was the week of my wedding he would have had to share with us!

We got a fastpass for Buzz Lightyevar then jumped on one of my favorite rides the Peoplemover.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving099.jpg
My mom and dad:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving098.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/100_0669.jpg

We then went on Buzz Lightyear where I actually scored high enough to move into the second category which has never happened to me! I finally hit one of the 100,000 targets.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving096.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving094.jpg

After that my cousin and his girlfriend came with Kris and I to ride Space Mountain. By this time, my aunt and other cousin had called my mom and they were heading in our direction to meet up too.

Since we had gotten such a late start it was already mid-afternoon at this point, so we decided to head towards the front of the park stopping at Pirates of the Caribbean along the way we got to see Jack Sparrow too.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving102.jpg
Everyone was asking about our room and what it was like to be staying on concierge level, so Kris and I decided to invite them over to check it out.

While all of these members of my family are avid Disney lovers at this point none of us would ever be able to afford a stay in the Grand Floridian especially on the concierge level, so we thought it would be nice to share a little of that experience with them. The characters in the carpet along the hallway:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/100_0680.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/100_0683.jpg

Out on the balcony:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/100_0674.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/100_0670.jpg

We took the monorail over and then took the different elevators until we arrived at our floor. We walked everyone down to check out our room and at that point my little cousin (who we had the cake for the night before) was saying that he was starving. Since it was his birthday I said why we don’t go check out the snacks that they have in the lounge. The group of 9 of us then heads down to the lounge where we snacked on lots of delicious appetizers and treats. I was really impressed with the variety of things offered. They had some really yummy cupcakes too!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/100_0687-1.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/100_0688-1.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/100_0689.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/100_0693-1.jpg

figmentfan814

09-18-2008, 10:27 PM

After everyone finished their snacks it was almost 5 pm. We took a couple of pictures before splitting up.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/100_0700.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/100_0701.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/100_0702.jpg
Looking over the balcony at the live band:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/100_0698.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Grand%20Floridian/100_0697-1.jpg

Most of the family headed back to Magic Kingdom since there was a group reservation for Liberty Tree Tavern that night in honor of my cousin’s birthday. Kris and I decided to stay behind to get dressed for our dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table that was scheduled a little after their reservation at Liberty Tree. I also told my mom that I was going to swing by their room to get my bride ears.

I had actually made the reservation as a surprise for Kris. I know Cinderella isn’t his thing, but the fact that we were going to get dinner alone when he knew that the week was jammed packed with family events was the main surprise. I had waited to tell him until that morning. He knew I had a special surprise for him, but he didn’t know what it was going to be until that morning.

After getting dressed Kris and I went down to get the rental car and ran over to POR real quick to pick up my ears. I loved having valet parking during our stay, it made everything so convenient. After dropping the car back off to the valet we went upstairs and rode the monorail over to MK.

Along the way we decided to get some pictures in front of the castle.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Castle.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Castle2.jpg

We then headed over to Liberty Tree to say hello to everyone that we had missed early. Kris and I also had a gift for my cousin that we wanted to give him at dinner. There was a group of around 16 that were eating at Liberty Tree. We had no problem finding them and spent a few minutes visiting.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/100_0721.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/100_0729.jpg
It was so cute to see my grandma and aunt (both 85) interacting with the characters. My aunt kept saying that “those animals” were so much fun. She had no idea which characters were which, but she was still enjoying herself!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/100_0710.jpg

We gave my cousin his gift and then it was time for us to head over to CRT. While we were checking in I made sure to mention that Kris and I were just married the day before (after all I was hoping to get a good seat for the fireworks) and we were presented with another set of Just Married pins that had Mickey and Minnie on the front instead of just Cinderella.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving134.jpg
We then went into the lobby where we got our pictures with Cinderella. I have to admit I was a little jealous of the little girls whose tables were called because they were given wands from the fairy godmother.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving109.jpg
Here’s the knight which Kris would soon get his picture in front of the next morning.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving133.jpg

We only had to wait about 15 minutes before our table was called. We were given a seat in the main area in the center of the room, but we still had a perfect view of the windows. I have to admit I felt a twinge of disappointment not getting a window seat (after all how many times do you have the excuse that you just got married at Disney) but I quickly got over it. We had a great waiter who catered to our every need. Our table was sprinkled with Cinderella confetti, so I had to take a picture of it. The pair of champagne flutes was also brought to our table for us to keep as a souvenir of our meal.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving110.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving118.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving119.jpg

For the appetizer I had the egg roll and Kris had the salad.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving120.jpg
For the main entrée I had selected prime rib and Kris had the salmon.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving123.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving122.jpg

Midway through the meal, the fairy godmother and the two mice came out to do their show. I had gotten out my video camera and was filming them as they went around the room. The fairy godmother :wizard: ended up coming to our table and she asked Kris if he was Prince Charming? She then asked how long we had been married and when he told her we had just gotten married yesterday at Epcot she made a long speech congratulating us and saying that he must be a prince if we had gotten married at Disney World princess: I know he was a little embarrassed, but it was fun to get the extra attention.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving126.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving127.jpg
Our waiter is in this shot too.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving128.jpg

figmentfan814

09-18-2008, 10:28 PM

By this time it was time to order dessert. I had the chocolate dessert and Kris had a blueberry cheesecake. You can see one of our champagne flutes in this shot too.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving124.jpg

Around this time the fireworks started going off for Wishes. It was so cool to see them through the windows of the castle. They even pumped in the music for the show.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving112.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving113.jpg

After the fireworks were over our waiter brought over the photo package that was included with the dinner. They had given us several extra 4x6 shots as a souvenir of our evening since we were newlyweds. It was so nice to see all the little extras that we got during our meal.

Finally it was time to head out. The park was already closed, so we slowly strolled down Main Street before we headed out for the evening.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving139.jpg
Riding the monorail back:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/Dancing-Moving140.jpg

After taking the monorail back we stopped in the concierge lounge again where we had some desserts. Kris tried some drink that he had heard about and he hated it, but at least he got to try it while it was free!

We decided to head to bed early since we had a 4 am wakeup call. The first day of married life was officially over and the next morning we had to get up early for our Magic Kingdom shoot :bride:

keenercam

09-19-2008, 09:48 AM

lpizzuro123

09-19-2008, 10:01 AM

Great installment - I love those shirts you had on. Where did you get them - or did you make them. Especially the great brown sweatshirt with the carriage on the front and the writing down the arm.

Looking forward to reading more.

Linda

disneychickforever

09-19-2008, 10:14 AM

Love the installment :)

irisbud

09-19-2008, 10:16 AM

I love that shirt also!

It sounds like you had a great day!

Donald'sGirl

09-19-2008, 11:04 AM

Vanessa that is a great installment!! I love the pics of the lounge at the GF! DF and I are trying to decide whether to upgrade to it or not. Did you think it was worth it for the money? Did you use it a lot?

dizneyfreak

09-19-2008, 02:28 PM

Vanessa,
Your first day of coupledom looked like great fun. I'm glad you got to share your room with everyone. I'm sure my family would have loved to see our room, but we never got the chance to show them.
I too adore the brown sweatshirt. You must share with you adoring fans where we can find them so we can look just like you :goodvibes
I'll be waiting patiently for the next day...oh yes and I'll be waiting patiently for our midwest meet up :hug:

Anna Marie

pjstevens

09-19-2008, 08:08 PM

Wow Vanessa, I can't believe I missed a couple updates! It sounds like you had an amazing first day of married life! And to have dinner in the castle that evening, WOW!!! Looks really nice. Can't wait to 'see' more!

Crown_princess

09-19-2008, 08:57 PM

I'm so glad you took lots of photos! It's helping me do my research for what I want to do the week Kev and I are in the World for our wedding. :thumbsup2

WithDisneySpirit

09-19-2008, 10:13 PM

Just wonderful, Vanessa! Your trip report is a treasure, you know!! I love the dress you wore for your castle dinner too :lovestruc :goodvibes

figmentfan814

09-20-2008, 12:50 AM

Vanessa-- What a wonderful installment. And you looked absolutely beautiful that entire day! Where do you find the energy? It was so much fun to see all the pictures. Wow, the concierge lounge looks incredible. I LOVE the GF pix. I can't believe we are finally going to get to stay there.
BTW, where did you find the brown Happily Ever After hoodie? I NEED that!!! LOL.
More! More!
Thank you so much for all your wonderful words :goodvibes The concierge level was amazing!

I actually got the hoodie from Disney Shopping. I was actually buying things for our welcome bags and when I saw it I knew I needed to buy it for myself :cool1:

I already have more written, so it's just a matter of putting in the photo codes. I promise to add more this weekend.

Great installment - I love those shirts you had on. Where did you get them - or did you make them. Especially the great brown sweatshirt with the carriage on the front and the writing down the arm.

Looking forward to reading more.

Linda
Hi Linda,

As I mentioned to Cam the sweatshirt was from Disney Shopping. The pink one I actually bought at the Disney outlet just down the road from the Crossings by that Mary Queen of the Universe Shrine. It was funny when I bought it the lady at the checkout asked me if I had a Wish that was coming true. I told her that I was going to be getting married at Epcot later that year and she said well I guess the shirt has already worked for you :)

Love the installment :)

I love that shirt also!

It sounds like you had a great day!
Thanks so much for keeping up on the report; it's great to see everyone's comments :cool1:

Vanessa that is a great installment!! I love the pics of the lounge at the GF! DF and I are trying to decide whether to upgrade to it or not. Did you think it was worth it for the money? Did you use it a lot?
We used it a lot just because we wouldn't have the opportunity again. I think if we had been visiting other parks besides the MK it might have been more difficult to utilize everything. The breakfast was fantastic and the evening desserts after 7 or 8 pm worked well to for coming back from the park. The concierge services are also great if you need help getting tickets or reservations because they will handle everything for you. I would say it would probably depend on the price difference. It is definitely a once in a lifetime experience, so it would be worthwhile to at least indulge for a couple of days :cheer2:

Vanessa,
Your first day of coupledom looked like great fun. I'm glad you got to share your room with everyone. I'm sure my family would have loved to see our room, but we never got the chance to show them.
I too adore the brown sweatshirt. You must share with you adoring fans where we can find them so we can look just like you :goodvibes
I'll be waiting patiently for the next day...oh yes and I'll be waiting patiently for our midwest meet up :hug:
Anna Marie
I was a little worried about trudging everyone up to our room, but thankfully it worked out just fine :wizard: It was nice to have the little extra time to share it with them. Of course, we were there for 2 nights too which helped out.

We should definitely talk about a meet, that would be so much fun! :cool1:

Wow Vanessa, I can't believe I missed a couple updates! It sounds like you had an amazing first day of married life! And to have dinner in the castle that evening, WOW!!! Looks really nice. Can't wait to 'see' more!
It really was so nice to have the dinner in the castle with just the two of us. The setting is so romantic!

I'm so glad you took lots of photos! It's helping me do my research for what I want to do the week Kev and I are in the World for our wedding. :thumbsup2
The possibilities are endless; it really was such a fun week. I only wish we had more time there. I would have loved to included a dinner at the Yachtsman or something like that too for the two of us. We had also wanted to do a segway tour or carriage ride, but just didn't have the time. It's on our agenda for our 1st anniversary trip.

figmentfan814

09-20-2008, 12:50 AM

Just wonderful, Vanessa! Your trip report is a treasure, you know!! I love the dress you wore for your castle dinner too :lovestruc :goodvibes
Thanks! I'm hoping to save it and have it printed like Caryn did with her report. It's my favorite "tropical" dress. I've had it for a while, but it usually makes its way down to Florida for a trip. I usually wear it for O'hanas ;)

figmentfan814

09-20-2008, 02:00 AM

:coffee: The wake up call came way too early in my opinion and shortly after we got up Anna called to say that she was in the lobby. Kris went down to get her since there are all the different elevators to take for concierge. He had not met her the day of the wedding, but thankfully she was easy to spot with her toolbox full of makeup. She set to work right away recreating the same hair style that I had two days prior. I had forgotten my veil at my mom’s room and since there was nothing that we could do we just adjusted my hair a little bit to compensate. We talked about the details of the wedding and she finished up in no time and we said our goodbyes. It was kind of surreal that I would never see her again after first meeting her for my trial back in September; it was official that the wedding was finally coming to an official end :bride: :groom:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving146.jpg

Kris and I got ready pretty quickly. I decided to wear my sapphire necklace that Kris had bought me as a gift instead of my Swarovski crystal one that I had from the wedding. I grabbed my camera and started taking some shots in the room before we headed to the lobby. It was fun walking into the lobby in our wedding attire again, although it was pretty empty since it was shortly before 6 am. I looked around for another Disney bride that I knew had the early 5 am shoot who was married the day after us, but I didn’t see her.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving147.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving148.jpg

We walked towards the front doors where we met Paul Looper and his assistant. We walked outside and jumped in the Disney van and headed over to the Magic Kingdom. On the way over Paul started asking about what shots we wanted and we talked a little bit about our wedding and his work with Disney Photography. He said that he had been out of work for the last week because of an injury, but since he knew we had requested him he wanted to make sure that he came in for our shoot. That was why he had an assistant with him to help carry equipment around for him. Here is a picture of Paul and his assistant for the day:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving154.jpg

It was so fun to pull in the back of the Magic Kingdom near Frontierland then drive right up behind the castle. I had been in that area of backstage before during the Keys to the Kingdom tour, but it was still exciting to be there again. We headed straight to the front of the castle to get some shots while it was still dark out and while the castle was changing colors. My bouquet hadn’t been delivered to Paul in advance and someone from Disney Floral met us in front of the castle with my bouquet. It was so nice to see it again all freshened up from the wedding.

After getting shots in front of the castle we headed inside to get some shots near CRT and in the archways. I requested some shots with Main Street in the background and somehow I mentioned wanted to get some shots of my bouquet before they took it again. Paul asked if we had our camera and I said it was in the van, so he said that Kris could run down to get it and that we could take shots during our shoot. Kris ran ahead and then came back to meet us just as we went in the lobby of CRT. We talked about how we had just been there less than 12 hours prior getting our picture with Cinderella. Unlike some of the unsightly exit signs that other brides have had in their pictures Paul did some really creative shots that I couldn’t wait to see.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld700.jpg

As we finished up there and headed over to the Wishing Well for some pictures he asked if we wanted any pictures at the carousel. I said that really wasn’t us and asked if we could get some pictures by Big Thunder Mountain because it was one of our favorite rides. He was excited and said that he liked when couples asked for something different because it made his job more interesting. At the wishing well:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld693.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving149.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving151.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld698.jpg
We got some shots on the balcony and then jumped in the van to head to Frontierland. We got some shots on the bridge leading to Big Thunder with the castle in the background and then got a variety of shots with the Mountain in the background.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld706.jpg
On the way over to Thunder Mountain:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving164.jpg
Splash Mountain without any water!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving168.jpg
Kris and I have also been to Sedona, AZ which they say is where Walt modeled the motif for this ride, so it was also fitting for our shoot.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving167.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving166.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving165.jpg

It was then time to hop in the van to head to MGM. Along the way I tried to get some shots of my bouquet and Paul said to remind him while we were there and he would take some for me.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving162.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld716.jpg
Our flowers had arrived late the day of the wedding and Randy had told me that he didn’t get as many of the shots as he typically did of the flowers. When we mentioned Randy, Paul said how he had shot a wedding with him one time before and that Randy was a great photographer and that he was on the move so much at a shoot it was hard to keep up with him. We talked about how he had found him through the boards. Paul said that the boards offered couples an important way to connect with other Disney brides. He said he knew that people liked his work and that he knew it was important to treat each couple with the same level of respect and creativity because you never know who was connected to the boards and how one bad move might impact your reputation.

Kris and he talked about how amazing the networks were that existed within the boards. It was proof that people at Disney definitely pay attention to us and what we’re saying over here. It’s too bad that Paul is now officially gone from Disney. Does anyone know if he has gone out on his own?

At MGM we parked near Rock’n Rollercoaster and then we headed into the park on foot. He said that we would be able to stay in the park longer if we walked because they kicked cars out earlier than they did regular foot traffic. We were actually in the same area where the ESPN activities were set up that weekend. We asked to get some shots in front of Rock’n Rollercoaster since this is one of Kris’ favorite rides in all of WDW.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving184.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving185.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving187.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving188.jpg
We then headed down the street towards the main area near the Great Movie Ride. We got a few shots with Tower of Terror in the background, but neither of us are big fans of it so we kept moving.

Paul had me take some shots in front of the jewelry store because after all we all love jewelry. We got a few pictures in front of the sorcerer’s hat, but honestly I think it detracts from the Great Movie Ride itself. We walked around front and got some really cool dip shots with the theater in the background. Since we were doing a red carpet theme for our at-home reception I wanted to make sure that we got some of these shots.

figmentfan814

09-20-2008, 02:01 AM

I also asked to get my picture with the Judy Garland footprints since I’m such a big Wizard of Oz fan. We were looking for them in the footprints when another cast member came up. When they asked what we were searching for they were immediately able to point it out. I had called Disney Photography before our shoot and asked if we could get permission to get shots inside the ride on the Wizard of Oz set, but since it wasn’t an early entry day they said there wouldn’t be anyone there to let us inside. I was so disappointed, but the picture with the footprints was still pretty cool too. I got an enlargement of this and its setting with some of my Wizard of Oz collectibles. I’ve even dragged Kris to Wizard of Oz festivals, so I’m pretty intense when it comes to that stuff.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving189.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving191.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving192.jpg

After we finished up there Paul asked if we were Star Wars fans, when we both quickly declined he suggested moving towards the backlot instead. Along the way I mentioned that we both loved Muppets and asked if we could stop in their courtyard. He said it wasn’t a normal spot for a shoot, but since we still had some time we ran over there. It was tricky getting shots in front of it since Miss Peggy spins in the fountain.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving193.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving194.jpg
We got some really cute shots here and then headed over to get ones with the different city backdrops. We also got some great shots on the stoops.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld740.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20shoot/Dancing-Moving196.jpg
Before finishing up Paul took some shots of my bouquet and then it was time to head back to our hotel. I couldn’t believe that the shoot was already over.

figmentfan814

09-20-2008, 02:03 AM

It was nearly 9 am and we had been taking pictures since shortly after 6 am. The time really flew by that morning. Paul told us that he had taken nearly 300 shots. I would love to see if there were more that weren’t on the site or in our proofs. I’m trying to wait the 3 years to get the discounted CD, but it is hard to wait that long!

After getting back to the hotel we said our goodbyes. Paul offered to take my bouquet to Disney Floral since it was going to get picked up by Keepsake later that day for the preservation. We walked into the lobby of the Grand where lots of people stopped and stared. I had to chuckle to myself because I knew so many of them must have thought it was our wedding day. After all how many brides get the satisfaction of wearing their dress twice! Once back in the room we took some picture on the balcony and then decided to get a quick nap before we had to check out. We also ran down to the lounge to grab breakfast before catching some Zzzs. I had already changed, but I still had in my tiara. I had a little girl ask me if I was a princess; it was funny because I was wearing Capri’s and a polo shirt, but the tiara must have been a sign.

Before we had our nap I decided to take my hair down. It wasn’t done as tightly as she had done it for the wedding and since my hair doesn’t hold curl well anyway I decided it was best just to take it down.

After a quick nap of about one hour we got up and packed up our luggage. Kris called down to concierge and they said that they could handle the moving our luggage over to POR from the GF. That was a relief considering we still had a lot of miscellaneous things like flowers and my dress that we were already going to have to handle anyway.

We went over to POR to check in and we ran into several family members including my grandma and aunt in the lobby who were leaving that afternoon. They still had 2 hours until their Magical Express, but they wanted to make sure that they didn’t miss it! After chatting with them for a while we went to check in and discovered that we had actually been given a King room. I know these are hard to come by, so I was excited. Disney Honeymoons had also left a certificate at the desk in our name which was a nice touch too. Our room wasn’t ready yet, so we headed over to my parent’s room to pick up the tuxes that had to be delivered to Men’s Warehouse that day. They were really great about letting us keep them the extra two days until our MK shoot.

We loaded up our car and then my parents headed over to Animal Kingdom while Kris and I went to take the tuxes back. We discovered that we had misplaced his suspenders and we had to tell them that the one tux had a rip in it (it was there when the best man first put it on) so after that was all straightened out – thankfully they didn’t charge us anything extra- we decided to stop for lunch. Several family members had stopped at the Five Guys burger joint near the mall a few days earlier and our other family from Virginia had talked about it too, so Kris and I decided to check it out. We are big burger fans and we loved it. They pretty much have every topping imaginable and then you select what you want for your burger. They also had cut their fries and it is deliciously sinful!

After finishing up our lunch we called my parents to see where everyone was at the park. We told them that we were headed in their direction and we drove over to Animal Kingdom. The first thing we did was to meet them by the Tree of Life where we took a couple of shots.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Animal%20Kingdom/of503164420908893.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Animal%20Kingdom/of50590421.jpg
We then went over to get fastpasses for Expedition Everest. Kris had never ridden this up to this point, so I was excited for him to have his first ride. We rode Dinosaur while we were waiting twice in a row!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Animal%20Kingdom/100_0759.jpg
Then at that point since we didn’t have that long between we hung out in the area with the carnival games near Primeval Whirl. Kris and I rode Primeval Whirl three times in a row (another one of our favorites) http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Animal%20Kingdom/Dancing-Moving209.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Animal%20Kingdom/Dancing-Moving210.jpg
Then Kris and my dad challenged each other in the shooting game.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Animal%20Kingdom/100_0757.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Animal%20Kingdom/100_0761.jpg
At that point it was time for our fastpass and we headed over to the ride. Kris loved it!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Animal%20Kingdom/100_0769.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Animal%20Kingdom/of50316442.jpg
After we finished we headed towards Africa where we rode the Kilimanjaro Safari. I decided that on this trip I wasn’t going to take any pictures. I usually take a ton of animal pictures and the last few times I had written it I was with my maid of honor who has me take even more than I normally would; I swear I’ve had 100 shots from one single ride. It was nice to sit back to enjoy the ride. When we were getting ready to unload one of the jeeps accidentally went up on something near the loading area, so we had a little bit of a backup, but nothing too bad. It was starting to get late and we had a group reservation at O’hanas, so we headed towards the front of the park. On the way out we hit up It’s Tough to be a Bug and got some more shots in front of the Tree.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Animal%20Kingdom/of50316442235623.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Animal%20Kingdom/of50316442432.jpg

We then piled in the car and drove over to the Polynesian with my parents riding along. We were going to have a pretty big group that night too that included some people that hadn’t made it to Liberty Tree the night before. Some of Kris’ family was even able to make it which was really nice too. When we got there a few of our guests were already there, so I ran up to get us checked in at the podium. Trying to give people directions over the phone; this was an image that was repeated throughout the entire week:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Ohanas/DSCN0739.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Ohanas/DSCN0740.jpg

We only had to wait about 20 minutes before our table was ready and by that time all of our guests had arrived. A lot of people had already gone home, so it was nice to still have a decent size group with us that night. This is by far one of our favorite restaurants.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Ohanas/Dancing-Moving224.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Ohanas/Dancing-Moving228.jpg
My mom and I had picked up special leis for him and I to wear and the lady who does the singing came over to our table just after we had our salads and asked about our wedding. She gave us some more leis and invited our group to stand up to learn a special hula.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Ohanas/Dancing-Moving219.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Ohanas/DSCN0751.jpg
Maid of honor and I:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Ohanas/Dancing-Moving218.jpg
We actually got quite a few members of our group up for the dance which was a lot of fun. My maid of honor grabbed my camera to capture the moment for us. My little cousin who had celebrated his birthday the day before really wasn’t too into it at first, but after a little coaxing he agreed to join us. He looks totally bored in some of the shots. It’s funny because we’ll still mention doing the hula and he says that we made him do it.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Ohanas/Dancing-Moving238.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Ohanas/Dancing-Moving247.jpg
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http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Ohanas/Dancing-Moving252.jpg
Just as we were finishing dinner Wishes started going off at MK. We had a great view through the windows. It was cool to watch Kris’ families' expressions since they were not visiting any of the parks that week. They were amazed at the quality of the fireworks. They were staying on property, but were just enjoying the resorts and had done other things in the Orlando area besides Disney. They had missed the DP because they had gone to the beach with their sons, so this was their first exposure to Disney fireworks.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Ohanas/Dancing-Moving222.jpg
The evening was quickly drawing to a close. Some of my cousins were heading off to DTD, but Kris and I were exhausted from our 4 am wakeup call, so we headed back to POR and crashed.

irisbud

09-20-2008, 10:14 AM

figmentfan814

09-20-2008, 12:34 PM

Another great installment! It really is too bad that Paul is gone from Disney, most of the pictures I have seen from him are gorgeous and yours are no exception. Too bad that you couln't get Wizard of Oz pictures inside the ride!

So far it looks like you managed to avoid family drama, which is great. It looks like you all had a really good time together and everyone had a fun trip!

Can't wait to read more!
I know it was a little disappointing that I wasn't able to get inside the ride :sad1: It was still nice to get at least one shot with the Wizard of Oz stuff in the background. All of these pictures were taken by Kris or I on our camera, so it was nice to be able to have these at least. I also bought one of the ones that Paul took with the Judy Garland footprints.

Yes, thankfully we avoided any major family drama. Most of the people that might have caused problems didn't end up coming to FL anyway which helped out a lot. Although, we had some people down there that didn't get along that great, but thankfully everyone was acting on their best behavior ;)

Donald'sGirl

09-20-2008, 04:40 PM

DisneyBrideToni

09-20-2008, 06:54 PM

Yay another great installment! I am so happy to see the MGM shoot because I decided to do that. Your pictures were great. You were very lucky to get Paul! I am hoping to get Ty or Amy now.

figmentfan814

09-20-2008, 10:57 PM

Vanessa theat was a great installment! I am so happy you showed some shots from your HS shoot. DF and I are going to be doing just that shoot so it was nice to see where you had your pictures taken. It is sad that Paul is not there anymore, he sounded like he would have been great to work with.

Can't wait to hear more!
There are so many more great shots there that you will love. Some of the ones that I got enlarged from Paul's pictures include a great dip shot in front of the Great Movie Ride and one walking down the street with ToT in the background :goodvibes

Yay another great installment! I am so happy to see the MGM shoot because I decided to do that. Your pictures were great. You were very lucky to get Paul! I am hoping to get Ty or Amy now.
The best part about MGM is that there are a lot of cool little places to get shots depending on your personalities and tastes. I'm so excited that two more brides are getting shots there because I know that most people who pick a second park add Epcot.

DisneyLaura

09-21-2008, 09:42 AM

When they walked away Kris asked why we hadn’t gotten that gift. I never mentioned it to him because I wanted it to be a surprise; I told him that I would have to check to see. I ended up asking Marion’s assistant after we got home and it turned out that she forgets it a lot. We were mailed the gift a month after the wedding, but at least we got it. I don’t want to reveal too much as a spoiler to future brides. Just don’t be shy about asking for your gift since they are suppose to give it to all the couples, I think it just slips their mind sometimes.

I would love to see what they gave you since I'm not going to get married at WDW (celebrating my 12th anniversary in Oct). Is there anyway you can email me a picture of it? I don't want to spoil it for the other brides and ask you to post a picture here.

Love the MK shoot. I was under the impression that you only got to go to one park but you did two (MK and MGM oops DHS). The pictures came out really pretty.

dizneyfreak

09-21-2008, 07:10 PM

Nice photos! Is there any way you can post some of them on here or do you have to wait the 3 years to get the license to do that? :confused3 You'll just have to bring them when we meet up so I can see them then. :hug: I loved the shot of you two on the bridge in Frontierland. So cool...I didn't even know you could see the castle from there. (Mental note...remember to take picture on bridge in Frontierland next visit).
The dinner at Ohana's looked like a blast. In all my visits I have never ventured over there. I saw that you mentioned that you and Kris would like to eat at the Yatchsman. This is a must for Brad and I on every trip. The food is outstanding and the deserts are equally matched. You have to try it! As for the carriage ride...we did this on our engagement trip. It is a lot of fun as well...and relaxing. We took a ride at POR and went all the way through Riverside and FQ. It was beautiful. Try to take it at sunset as the colors on the waterway next to you are gorgeous and so romantic...not to mention, not as hot!
Can't wait to see more!

Anna Marie

PixyDusted

09-22-2008, 10:39 AM

Such fantastic photos! I've been to the park before anyone's been in there as a former Imagineering intern but I forget how cool it is to be there when it's empty! And especially to get such gorgeous photos! Cherish them, always!

29apr00

09-22-2008, 11:26 AM

Missed a lot of updates but i'm all caught up now!!

Hooe your grandma is doing better!!

love all the pictures, and the concierge at GF sounds so wonderful! What a great splurge!!

figmentfan814

09-22-2008, 03:58 PM

I would love to see what they gave you since I'm not going to get married at WDW (celebrating my 12th anniversary in Oct). Is there anyway you can email me a picture of it? I don't want to spoil it for the other brides and ask you to post a picture here.

Love the MK shoot. I was under the impression that you only got to go to one park but you did two (MK and MGM oops DHS). The pictures came out really pretty.
I will send you a PM right right after I finish this post :goodvibes

It was only $300 extra to add the second park and since we were getting married in Epcot I figured why not get shots in 3 out of the 4 parks!

Nice photos! Is there any way you can post some of them on here or do you have to wait the 3 years to get the license to do that? :confused3 You'll just have to bring them when we meet up so I can see them then. :hug: I loved the shot of you two on the bridge in Frontierland. So cool...I didn't even know you could see the castle from there. (Mental note...remember to take picture on bridge in Frontierland next visit).
The dinner at Ohana's looked like a blast. In all my visits I have never ventured over there. I saw that you mentioned that you and Kris would like to eat at the Yatchsman. This is a must for Brad and I on every trip. The food is outstanding and the deserts are equally matched. You have to try it! As for the carriage ride...we did this on our engagement trip. It is a lot of fun as well...and relaxing. We took a ride at POR and went all the way through Riverside and FQ. It was beautiful. Try to take it at sunset as the colors on the waterway next to you are gorgeous and so romantic...not to mention, not as hot!
Can't wait to see more!

Anna Marie
Unfortunately, I won't have the copyrights until the 3 year mark. Right now it would cost $750 to buy the disk and even after 3 years it will be $500, but it's something that I want to have to keep, so I guess I better start saving a little here and there to get it at that mark ;) Plus, they're not online anymore :sad2: I can definitely bring all the proofs to a meet! We have bought a couple of 8x10 and 5x7 enlargements too :thumbsup2 The shot in Frontierland is pretty cool, I never knew you could see the castle from there either!

You must try O'hanas; it is so yummy! Although, I know they just changed the menu again, but the meat on the grill is so tasty :) I totally agree about Yachtsman; we have been there before, but it just didn't fit into our agenda this trip. I love their mushrooms too! Our last visit was during our planning sesssion trip last September.

I'm glad to hear the carriage ride was worth it; it's definitely something I want to do on the next trip.

Such fantastic photos! I've been to the park before anyone's been in there as a former Imagineering intern but I forget how cool it is to be there when it's empty! And especially to get such gorgeous photos! Cherish them, always!
It was so neat seeing the park coming to life that morning. We had done some of the behind the scenes tours where you see some of the areas, but it's not like being driven around though the center of the park.

How cool that you did the imagineering internship. I have known some people who have done business and other areas and have worked at the parks, but nothing that interesting!

Missed a lot of updates but i'm all caught up now!!

Hooe your grandma is doing better!!

love all the pictures, and the concierge at GF sounds so wonderful! What a great splurge!!
Grandma just went home from the hospital today, so she's definitely on the road to recovery :sick:

The GF was great, Kris and I joked about being able to go back for our 20th anniversary, so maybe it will happen someday ;)

Keep an eye out; I have more updates written; I'm just trying to get all the photos uploaded.

Tink901

09-22-2008, 04:18 PM

Great Pictures Vanessa - thank you for sharing!!

Brenda

Lynn5700

09-23-2008, 12:02 PM

Hi Vanessa!!! I'm all caught up!!!!!!! you guys had soo much fun!!!!!

Goldeelox9

09-23-2008, 12:36 PM

I never noticed before you didn't have your veil on. Your pictures were so pretty, I doubt anyone noticed! I love that you are finishing your TR. There is nothing I love more then a juicy TR full of pictures!

I had heard you were not allowed to take any pictures during the MK shoots with your own camera, now I need to find a way to smuggle mine it. I am so said Paul is gone!

figmentfan814

09-23-2008, 02:14 PM

Great Pictures Vanessa - thank you for sharing!!

Brenda
Thanks for keeping up with me, it's been taking me forever to get through this report :rotfl:

Hi Vanessa!!! I'm all caught up!!!!!!! you guys had soo much fun!!!!!
It really was a blast, it was so great to have such a large group of people down there at once :)

I never noticed before you didn't have your veil on. Your pictures were so pretty, I doubt anyone noticed! I love that you are finishing your TR. There is nothing I love more then a juicy TR full of pictures!

I had heard you were not allowed to take any pictures during the MK shoots with your own camera, now I need to find a way to smuggle mine it. I am so said Paul is gone!
I think you're right, once the shots were taken I didn't really notice the misssing veil either :bride: Thanks for going the course with me so to speak on the TR, I know it's taking me a little longer than most brides.

I didn't think we were supposed to take pictures either. But, after we had done our shots in front of the castle I mentioned to Kris that I wanted to get some pictures of my bouquet in the van on the way to MGM. The photographers overheard us and asked if I had my camera on me because they could take a shot or two for us. We had left it in the van, so when we were back near it, I had Kris run to grab it out :thumbsup2

adisneygal

09-23-2008, 08:39 PM

It was only $300 extra to add the second park and since we were getting married in Epcot I figured why not get shots in 3 out of the 4 parks!

This is a good idea. I think I might add DS now. Did you get to pick where you wanted pics there?

I love your TR. Figment is a fav of mine since I was little and I love how you added him into your DP.:thumbsup2

figmentfan814

09-23-2008, 09:05 PM

This is a good idea. I think I might add DS now. Did you get to pick where you wanted pics there?

I love your TR. Figment is a fav of mine since I was little and I love how you added him into your DP.:thumbsup2

Pretty much, we had a lot more freedom there than at MK. After getting the standard shots with the ToT and the Sorcerer's hat and Great Movie Ride, he asked what things we wanted :thumbsup2

Glad to meet another Figment fan :figment:... did you hear that they stopped doing character meet and greets with him now in the park. We saw him in March, but I heard he's gone now :sad2:

IndyBride

09-23-2008, 11:09 PM

thatdisneygirl

09-23-2008, 11:25 PM

It's true, Vanessa, your TR is awesome. I love checking in for updates. Glad your grandma is feeling better!!!

Glad to meet another Figment fan :figment:... did you hear that they stopped doing character meet and greets with him now in the park. We saw him in March, but I heard he's gone now :sad2:

You're kidding! We looked for him when we were down in August, but we thought we were just unlucky. I hope they bring him back, I love Figment!

Amy7979

09-24-2008, 09:43 AM

Around this time, my matron of honor’s husband pulled up around front in the convertible he had picked up the day before. He offered to give me a ride over to the room, so I wouldn’t have to drag my dress along. As he was driving me over he joked how people might think that we had gotten married that day.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld330.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld331.jpg

Hey! That's my car! :) I've been a lurker on your TR since the start, I love reading all of your details... but I had to say something when I saw you guys in my car's twin! :)

adisneygal

09-24-2008, 08:52 PM

Pretty much, we had a lot more freedom there than at MK. After getting the standard shots with the ToT and the Sorcerer's hat and Great Movie Ride, he asked what things we wanted :thumbsup2

Glad to meet another Figment fan :figment:... did you hear that they stopped doing character meet and greets with him now in the park. We saw him in March, but I heard he's gone now :sad2:

Unfortunately I haven't gotten to a meet and greet with Figment. I looked for him in our Aug PS trip and a CM said there were talks about bringing him back this fall. I haven't heard anything else about this though. I fell in Love with Figment in the 80's. I still have my Figment stuffed animal that is dated 1982. I wanna meet and greet...:sad2:

I have thought about adding a Figment theme to our DP as well but we are over budget as is.:scared:

Great TR, I have throughly enjoyed it...:thumbsup2

figmentfan814

09-25-2008, 09:22 AM

Unfortunately I haven't gotten to a meet and greet with Figment. I looked for him in our Aug PS trip and a CM said there were talks about bringing him back this fall. I haven't heard anything else about this though. I fell in Love with Figment in the 80's. I still have my Figment stuffed animal that is dated 1982. I wanna meet and greet...:sad2:

I have thought about adding a Figment theme to our DP as well but we are over budget as is.:scared:

Great TR, I have throughly enjoyed it...:thumbsup2

Well, that's good to hear that they might be bringing him back. I guess that means we all need to contact guest services whenever we're at the park to demand his return! I know it worked a couple years ago when they removed him from the ride. In just a few short months he was back!

Actually, the Figment theme for our DP was one of the cheapest things of our budget!

We spent a total of $240 which included the glow centerpieces, colored purple and orange napkins centered in the tables to place the centerpieces on and the personalized napkins. If we hadn't gotten the napkins (they were $95) it would have been only around $140. We had 10 tables at the DP too, so that included 10 centerpieces :banana:

figmentfan814

09-25-2008, 09:26 AM

Vanessa what fabulous stories you have told!! Can you believe your trip report is over 60 pages?? Your bouquet looked beautiful in that picture you put up there. I don't think I had seen any real close ups of it before.
I know I've been surprised how long its getting. I wanted to get it printed off like Caryn did, but I can't imagine adding in my PJ which was also quite long :rotfl:

I was really happy with the bouquet; they made it exactly how I wanted with all the beautiful spring flowers :lovestruc
It's true, Vanessa, your TR is awesome. I love checking in for updates. Glad your grandma is feeling better!!!

You're kidding! We looked for him when we were down in August, but we thought we were just unlucky. I hope they bring him back, I love Figment!
Thank you so much for following along and keeping up on the report and for the get well wishes for grandma!

As I said above, I guess that means we all need to contact guest services whenever we're at the park to demand his return! It worked a couple years ago to bring him back to the ride!
Hey! That's my car! :) I've been a lurker on your TR since the start, I love reading all of your details... but I had to say something when I saw you guys in my car's twin! :)
Thanks for keeping up on my report! How funny about the car, it was definitely a nice ride :cool1:

Flurbee

09-25-2008, 08:27 PM

dizneyfreak

09-25-2008, 08:28 PM

Bring back Figment! Bring back Figment! Everyone together now, BRING BACK FIGMENT! I totally agree. Vanessa, do you know part of the story that I don't? I knew Figment was taken out of the ride and then brought back, but I didn't know any of the details...fill us in girl!

I'm so sorry I missed the part about your grandmother being in the hospital the last time I caught up on your report. I feel like a jerky disfriend. :sad2: I hope that she is doing well now and she will be in my prayers. :hug:

Anna Marie

Pooh_Girl

09-29-2008, 12:18 PM

Great MK and DHS pictures Vanessa!!! You looked lovely!!! I just wanted to let you know that I have absolutely loved your TR. I really appreciate all the work and detail you have put into it so that we could all experience your special day. Thank you so much!! :hug:

figmentfan814

09-29-2008, 01:15 PM

Vanessa,

Just finally got caught up on your TR!! I have been out of the loop lately. It looks like you guys are having so much fun on your honeymoon. I enjoy reading all of the details!! :goodvibes Keep it coming!! :)
I definitely have more to come, I'm hoping to upload the next day worth of pictures to Photobucket tonight. Thank you so much for following along with my report. You have all been so patient with me :goodvibes

Bring back Figment! Bring back Figment! Everyone together now, BRING BACK FIGMENT! I totally agree. Vanessa, do you know part of the story that I don't? I knew Figment was taken out of the ride and then brought back, but I didn't know any of the details...fill us in girl!

I'm so sorry I missed the part about your grandmother being in the hospital the last time I caught up on your report. I feel like a jerky disfriend. :sad2: I hope that she is doing well now and she will be in my prayers. :hug:

Anna Marie
He was taken out of the ride, but there were so many complaints from guests they decided to add him back into it. From what I heard it was kind of like when everyone got upset over Mr. Toad, but at least Figment came back. I know though they kept Mr. Toad at DL.

Grandma is doing much better now, so thank you for your thoughts. She is officially back in her own apartment after spending a week at my aunt's house after leaving the hospital :thumbsup2

Great MK and DHS pictures Vanessa!!! You looked lovely!!! I just wanted to let you know that I have absolutely loved your TR. I really appreciate all the work and detail you have put into it so that we could all experience your special day. Thank you so much!! :hug:
Thanks for all of your kind words, I'm so glad everyone is enjoying it. I have to admit it really has been something for myself too because I don't want to forget any of the little details ;) Definitely stay tuned there are still a couple days that I have written up. I just keep forgetting to upload to Photobucket :guilty:

figmentfan814

09-30-2008, 01:33 PM

I totally forgot to mention that I got a massage at the Grand Floridian the day before after our MK shoot right before we checked out. As part of my therapy from the car accident I get 2 massages per week after my therapy sessions, so after not having one in over a week I was ready for it. The GF spa was really great!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MK%20After%20Wedding/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld751.jpg

The next morning we had group reservations for Chef Mickey’s at 10 am. Kris and I headed towards my parents’ room to meet up with them and my cousins before heading to the bus stop. When we got to the front depot, there were a ton of people waiting around. I had read that Disney was experimenting with some changes in their bus system that week and this was the result. Instead of continuously running them, they had them on 15 minute increments which meant that there was actually less buses running.

We decided that instead of waiting we would just pile into the rental car. Now, we had a group of 7 people and the car only seats 5, so this turned out to be quite an adventure. After piling 5 of us in the back seat we headed towards the Contemporary. I was worried that the guard at the gate would say something about all of us being piled inside, but thankfully he just laughed and ushered us through.

Once inside we headed upstairs where we met up with 6 more people which brought our group up to 13. I was so happy that I had made the group reservations in advance to the wedding. It was a great way for us to periodically catch up with our guests throughout the week and it helped some of our guests who weren’t familiar with the parks hit some of our favorite restaurants. For those of you who weren’t around during my planning, I made so many reservations throughout the week and let people know where they were each at and the prices for the meals. I then had people let me know on a first come, first serve basis which ones they wanted to attend. Most of them filled up that week which was great!

Chef Mickey’s was a lot of fun. Kris and I were given special placemats and at the end of the meal, they brought out a special cupcake for our wedding celebration.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Chef%20Mickey/100_0778.jpg
You can see the cupcake in the corner of this shot:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Chef%20Mickey/100_0779.jpg

I loved some of the character shots we got with everyone. Plus, we got a great group shot where they have you take a picture before you’re seated.
Some of my cousins:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Chef%20Mickey/100_0787.jpg
Mom and dad:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Chef%20Mickey/100_0792.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Chef%20Mickey/100_0789.jpg
Donald checking out my ring:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Chef%20Mickey/100_0785.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Chef%20Mickey/100_0788.jpg

After breakfast everyone went their own ways with the majority of us heading over to Epcot. The same group of 7 that had written over with us piled into the rental car again and we went over to the park. Inside we got some shots in front of Spaceship Earth.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/image169.jpg

Once we had looked up our three panels we jumped on Spaceship Earth. This was the second time I had ridden it on this trip and I really love the new changes. We also took some time to play in the area after the ride with all the interactive exhibits which were a blast! Our faces on the big screen; Kris and I along with my two cousins:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/100_0794.jpg

By that time we decided to head towards Living Seas. I offered to take everyone’s tickets to get fastpasses for Soarin’ and my cousin decided to tag along. The rest of the family decided to wait for us near Innoventions. We ran over to grab the fastpasses then headed straight back. By that time the group wanted to head to Living Seas, so we all went to ride the Nemo ride. We were all talking about how we were just there for the wedding and it was amazing to think that the last time I had walked up to that ride we were getting pictures taken in our wedding attire! I honestly am not that thrilled with the changes, but I know some people really love it.

Afterwards they all decided to wait to watch Turtle Talk with Crush and Kris and I decided to head out for a little while on our own. I wanted to take him over to Innoventions to check out the Segways. I had originally wanted to book the Epcot Segway tour or the one at Fort Wilderness, but since our week was so busy we decided to wait until our 1st anniversary trip. Anyway, we wanted to check out the demonstrations anyway. We sat through the presentation and then got our 2 minute rides on the Segways. I had done this the year before and knew Kris would love it.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld800.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld802.jpg

Afterwards we went to get my Disney Visa cardholders picture with the characters before we headed over to the Land. Mickey checking out my ring:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/image182.jpg
Minnie “asking” about our wedding:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/image184.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/image190.jpg

We rode Living with the Land since they had just redone it where you don’t have a captain on the boat anymore. Mickey pumpkins!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld810.jpg
We saw some people on the Behind the Seeds tour which I really want to take on a future trip.

When we were getting off we noticed my family was in the food court getting a snack, so we decided to join them plus it was getting close to our fastpasses for Soarin’ anyway. Kris and I went up to buy two pops and he was getting a cookie. The girl at the counter told us to take two cookies as a special gift. It was just one more little extra perk that we got that week. The picture of me with the cookie turned out really blurry, but I’ll post it anyway.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld812.jpg

Finally, it was time for Soarin’. Everyone had a great time on that ride as expected and then we headed out to hit up my favorite- Figment!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/100_0796.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/100_0798.jpg
As we headed towards the pavilion he was outside taking pictures with guests. Usually he is back in his little area up above Honey I Shrunk the Audience which is really cute, but is so out of the way most people don’t even know it is there. Anyway, it was exciting to see him outside and we had to get our picture. My cousin told him that he was at our DP earlier in the week and I think the character was totally confused on what he was talking about!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/100_0799.jpg
I later learned that this might be my last picture ever with Figment because they stopped character greetings with him in the middle of that month. I am so upset about this change; it’s almost as bad as when they took him out of the ride!

After riding Journey into Your Imagination we played around in the Kodak area sending emails.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld799.jpg
Then we headed out to Ice Station Cool so my dad could check out the Coca-Cola stuff since he’s an avid collector. We tricked my cousins into trying Beverly from Italy (which I later learned several people did that week since I had mentioned it as our favorite in the tips sheet in the Welcome Packets, I guess people really did read them!)

By this time we decided to split up since we had reservations with my parents in Mexico and my cousins were going to head to DTD. We actually took the boat across to Morocco and then walked back to Mexico. Kris and I got a quick shot in front of the rotunda which I need to get from my mom. It was actually closed for a private event that evening, so we couldn't go back to the scene of our wedding!

figmentfan814

09-30-2008, 01:35 PM

We had made this reservation when we were originally heading out to Hawaii the next morning kind of as a thank you to my parents for everything they had done that week. We ended up with a pretty good table and the food was fantastic. I love the atmosphere in there, I also used up the last of our Disney Visa Rewards for dinner that night; I had been using the card all year to get Disney dollars for our trip.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/100_0805.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/100_0804.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/100_0801.jpg
We just ordered the nacho appetizer to split and it was yummy!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/nachos.jpg
After dinner, we rode the ride with the new additions of Donald and the three caballeros which are cute, but not super exciting.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/100_0813.jpg

We decided to run up to Norway to hit up their ride before we headed back towards the front of the park stopping to get some night shots with Spaceship Earth. Checking out a Figment hat along the way:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/100_0816.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/image210.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/image196.jpg
Notice the Epcot anniversary logo here; I didn’t realize they had an exhibit in honor of the anniversary near the Character Connection; I’m so upset that we missed it!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/image194.jpg

We wanted to hit up Test Track and Mission Space before we left that night. We didn’t have to wait too long for Test Track and on Mission Space Kris rode the regular version while my parents and I opted for the mild one. I normally ride the regular one, but it didn’t sound fun after eating a big dinner.

At this point we went over to Mouse Gears for a little bit of shopping before heading out of the park for the evening. We also went over to the kiosk inside the camera shop to look up our blocks in front. We had ordered them the year before right before they finished selling them. Kris and I got two and my parents got one in honor of their 30th anniversary.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Epcot%20After%20Wedding/100_0826.jpg

We drove back to the resort while my parents headed to DTD. Kris and I were leaving for Sarasota the next day, so we had to get everything packed up that night. Plus, we were meeting up with his one groomsman that night to say goodbye before they headed home. I do wish we would have stuck around for Illuminations since I really didn’t get to see it at all that trip since we were too busy with taking pictures at our DP to really enjoy it. Although, Stan did a great job filming Illuminations so we can really watch it anytime at home.

Once we got to POR we met his groomsman and his wife in the lobby area for a short visit. They had been doing Sea World and some of the other parks that week since they had been to Disney in December, so we really hadn’t seen them since the DP. It was nice to visit with them for a little while since they were flying home the next morning. They live in MI, but are almost 2 hours away so we don’t get to see them very often. We also had a few packages to pick up at the General Store and then we headed back to our room to do our packing for our weekend in Sarasota or so we thought :confused:

Jennifer48

09-30-2008, 03:07 PM

We also had a few packages to pick up at the General Store and then we headed back to our room to do our packing for our weekend in Sarasota or so we thought :confused: :eek:

figmentfan814

09-30-2008, 03:09 PM

:eek:

I guess I should preface that with that we did end up in Sarasota, just not for as long as we originally planned :goodvibes

MiaBella05

09-30-2008, 03:39 PM

Where is the Disney Visa cardholders picture with the characters located? I didn't even know they had this opportunity available for card members! :wizard:

figmentfan814

09-30-2008, 04:12 PM

Where is the Disney Visa cardholders picture with the characters located? I didn't even know they had this opportunity available for card members! :wizard:

It's located inside Innoventions (I can't remember if it's East or West). If you're facing the World Showcase with Spaceship Earth behind you, it's in the one on the right.

The room is towards the back near the video games and where the Segways were located. It's behind a curtain and is only open in the early afternoon for like a 2 or 3 hour time span. I think you can see the times on the Disney Visa web site. You have to show your Visa card to get in and they have rotating characters. At the camera shop you can redeem a voucher they give you for a free 5x7. It has to be done the same day inside the park though in order for it to be valid.

figmentfan814

09-30-2008, 04:12 PM

Duplicate post

bridetobe789

09-30-2008, 04:15 PM

We have never been to chief mickey's and were going to plan a breakfast with everyone when we were down there... recommend???
What is the other pin you guys are wearing as well ?

lov2b@disney

09-30-2008, 05:28 PM

yeah for another update Vanessa!:cool1:

starrzone

09-30-2008, 06:20 PM

:scared1: Wow, I just realized that your 1st anniversary is in less than 6 months!!! Holy cow; where has the time gone???

I too am a big Figment fan; Journey Into Imagination (boy, I hope I got that right; the name has changed way too many times over the years!) is one of the rides I remember the best from my first Disney trip in 1990 when I was 8. I remember Dreamfinder riding his bike/flying contraption up in the sky above the clouds, and that he had really curly hair and rosy cheeks and a top hat..."One little spark"...ahhh how I miss the good old days!:cloud9:

figmentfan814

09-30-2008, 08:24 PM

We have never been to chief mickey's and were going to plan a breakfast with everyone when we were down there... recommend???
What is the other pin you guys are wearing as well ?
I highly recommend Chef Mickey's; it was definitely one of our best group dinners. They also do a picture before you sit down and then they bring it around to your table if you want to buy it. This was one of our best group shots from the trip. I definitely recommend getting everyone together for this at the beginning before your meal. They made extra copies of the shot for multiple members of our group to purchase.

Overall, it's a great setting and a lot of fun for people of all ages. They seated us really quickly too and we were a group of 13.

yeah for another update Vanessa!:cool1:
:goodvibes Thanks for keeping up with me!

:scared1: Wow, I just realized that your 1st anniversary is in less than 6 months!!! Holy cow; where has the time gone???

I too am a big Figment fan; Journey Into Imagination (boy, I hope I got that right; the name has changed way too many times over the years!) is one of the rides I remember the best from my first Disney trip in 1990 when I was 8. I remember Dreamfinder riding his bike/flying contraption up in the sky above the clouds, and that he had really curly hair and rosy cheeks and a top hat..."One little spark"...ahhh how I miss the good old days!:cloud9:
I know I can't believe we're closer to our first anniversary than to our wedding :upsidedow It's amazing how quickly time has passed since that day. I actually think this year has flown by faster than last year while we were doing the planning!

Based on your reference to your trip at age 8, it sounds like we're pretty close in age (I'm just 1 year older :) ) I miss Dreamfinder so much and love to hear the original song that was played in the earlier version of the ride. I had to search all over to find the song online to have Stan include in the video for a portion of the DP coverage. It has been pretty tough to keep up with all the different names of the ride through the years :figment:

teruterubouzu

09-30-2008, 09:32 PM

I'm sad about Figment too. Maybe he'll be back someday in something closer to his original meet and greet appearance!

irisbud

10-01-2008, 10:46 AM

Great update Vanessa! It looks like you had a fun day!

figmentfan814

10-02-2008, 12:04 AM

I'm sad about Figment too. Maybe he'll be back someday in something closer to his original meet and greet appearance!
I know, I loved the little area that they had made for him. It's too bad it was kind of off and most people didn't know about it.

Great update Vanessa! It looks like you had a fun day!
We really did have a great time, I have to admit it was a blast spending time with our family and friends that week!

dizneyfreak

10-04-2008, 12:40 PM

WithDisneySpirit

10-04-2008, 08:12 PM

I belatedly just read the latest installment, Vanessa, I enjoyed it very much! We also had a wonderful visit to Chef Mickey's during my vow renewal trip. My whole family loved it!

Donald'sGirl

10-05-2008, 04:58 PM

Vanessa that is a great installment! I didn't know about the Visa cardholder picutres and free 5x7, that is awesome! I hope they still have it in a year when I go for my honeymoon!

I am glad you had a good experience with the massage at the GF, I am thinking of doing it as well but I wasn't sure how they were.

Can't wait to hear about your delayed weekend in Sarasota! I am very curious.

figmentfan814

10-05-2008, 09:44 PM

Vanessa,
Oh I'm so jealous! I soooooo wanted to get a massage while we were at the GF, but we just didn't have the time. :sad2: Maybe next time...I always say that! :rotfl: You look like you had a blast with your family. Some of our family and friends stayed for a few days too and we had a great time with them! Gosh...I sure do wonder what happened with the Sarasota trip? I wonder if you might have run into anyone by accident when things didn't turn out as planned....hmmmmm. :lmao: I can't wait to hear all about it!

Anna Marie
The massage is totally worth it, although it cost a lot more than at home, but it was such a great way to relax!

It really is so cool to have everyone together like that at Disney; it's too bad it doesn't happen more often for all of us :goodvibes

:rotfl: Its so funny that at least one DisBride knows part of the story before I get it posted!

I belatedly just read the latest installment, Vanessa, I enjoyed it very much! We also had a wonderful visit to Chef Mickey's during my vow renewal trip. My whole family loved it!
I can definitely see why families have reunions down there; its such a blast doing things together in the Happiest Place on Earth!

Vanessa that is a great installment! I didn't know about the Visa cardholder picutres and free 5x7, that is awesome! I hope they still have it in a year when I go for my honeymoon!

I am glad you had a good experience with the massage at the GF, I am thinking of doing it as well but I wasn't sure how they were.

Can't wait to hear about your delayed weekend in Sarasota! I am very curious.
I think you should be in luck because they've had the character greet area during my last 3 trips :) Here's the link to the site that lists the in-park benefits for cardholders.
http://disneyrewards.disney.go.com/cardbenefits/waltdisneyworldresortbenefits.html

The massage was amazing :) I requested a therapist that specialized in deep tissue massage and she was great!

DisneyLaura

10-06-2008, 01:44 PM

Vanessa - great update as usual. I have a Disney Visa as well so I have to remember to do that photo.

figmentfan814

10-06-2008, 03:19 PM

Vanessa - great update as usual. I have a Disney Visa as well so I have to remember to do that photo.

The biggest pain is just getting there at the right time since they're only open for a few hours, but we usually try to make it there every time :goodvibes

Donald'sGirl

10-06-2008, 06:22 PM

I think you should be in luck because they've had the character greet area during my last 3 trips :) Here's the link to the site that lists the in-park benefits for cardholders.
http://disneyrewards.disney.go.com/cardbenefits/waltdisneyworldresortbenefits.html

The massage was amazing :) I requested a therapist that specialized in deep tissue massage and she was great!

Thanks for the link Vanessa, that was sweet of you!

figmentfan814

10-06-2008, 09:52 PM

Thanks for the link Vanessa, that was sweet of you!
No problem!

figmentfan814

10-07-2008, 03:21 PM

The next morning after checking out, we had to meet up with my parents at MGM to go to the Brown Derby to pay for the Dining with an Imagineer that we had gotten for them as their gift. We still had a little time before meeting them, so we decided to head to Rock’n Rollercoaster for one last ride. The line wasn’t too bad and by that time it was almost time to meet my parents.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/Wedding_March_3__2008_Walt_D.jpg

We started walking down that street talking about our MGM shoot there a few days earlier and when I saw the McDonald’s fry cart I was starving and went up to get us a fry to split while Kris ran to the restroom. The girl at the window smiled at me and asked how long we had been married, I told her 4 days and she said to take the fries as a gift. I was so excited and thanked her before walking away. Even though things like the cookie and fries were such little things it still added to the excitement of Disney.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/Wedding_March_3__2008_Walt_3.jpg

I then called my mom to see if they were at Brown Derby yet and we walked over to meet them. We walked in together and I checked in making sure that they would take care of the payment in advance since we had bought it as a gift. My mom was so excited for the lunch since it is something that she has wanted to do for a very long time. I was so glad that they liked their gift so much.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/100_0832.jpg

Here are some photos of their lunch. They got a personalized platter that was signed by the Imagineer. He told them lots of great stories including the fact that the walk in front of the Chinese Theater with Judy Garland’s name was made from imprints of the real ruby slippers!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/100_0829.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/100_0838-1.jpg

While they were enjoying their lunch Kris and I headed towards Sci-Fi Dine-In where my family was scheduled to eat lunch. Since we were heading to Sarasota this would be our last chance to say good-bye to several of them. We had a little extra time, so as we were walking past the Great Movie Ride Kris suggested that we take some time to ride it.

As we started to walk into the main waiting area with the movie screen I spotted the Dream Squad! I was so excited, they were handing out YOMD ears and we each got a pair! :earsboy:

Kris has on a little scary look here:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/Wedding_March_3__2008_Walt_4.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/Wedding_March_3__2008_Walt_2.jpg
My favorite section of the ride:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/Wedding_March_3__2008_Walt_8.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_13.jpg

Kris isn’t into wearing the ears too much, but he downed the YOMD ones for a few shots. After the ride I told him that we had to pose in front of the Sorcerer Mickey Hat with them on too! :smickey:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/image230.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/image234.jpg

On the way out, we headed to Guest Relations to see what could be done with the one day pass that we had bought Kris’ mom that she didn’t want to use. Thankfully since it was a one day they told us that it would never expire and they gave us some type of receipt that we needed to keep since the ticket had originally been in her name. There are some great people in guest relations there and we ended up chatting with them for a while before heading out.

While we were waiting for them to fixed the pass, I played around taking some pictures of our ears.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_11.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_14.jpg

On our way out of the park; our dreams had really came true on this trip!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_15.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_16.jpg

One last shot on the tram to the parking lot:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_17.jpg

After leaving MGM we headed to Downtown Disney because we had a couple of things to pick up off of our honeymoon registry. Some fellow Disney brides had surprised us by getting the Disney cookbook and Mickey and Minnie wedding frame for us. I was so excited! The first stop after arriving at Downtown Disney was the scrapbooking store. I stocked up on a few things that I knew they wouldn’t have at the World of Disney (where I could get the annual pass discount) and we mailed our postcards there too in order to get the special postmark. Our presents:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/MGM%20After%20wedding/100_1057.jpg

We then headed into the Christmas shop where I picked up the ornament that we had personalized earlier in the week. My family has one artist Rosann that has done our ornaments there for years and we always request her work. I had to control myself from buying anymore and then we headed to the kitchen store. While I was picking up our cookbook and a few items for our Mickey kitchen at home Kris ran into my maid of honor’s parents who were outside eating at Earl of Sandwich. We sat down and talked to them a few minutes since they were leaving for California later that afternoon.

After a few minutes of visiting we headed towards the World of Disney. Along the way, I stopped at the pin station and picked up a few more things to put on a cork frame that I had bought at Target. I picked up a Leap Day special edition with Tinkerbell and another wedding pin. Here’s a shot of the frame that has all the pins from our trip. My mom had a cork frame like this that she bought years ago at DTD, so I was excited when I found them at Target earlier this year. I’ll take a picture of some of these things to post soon.

Once at World of Disney we stocked up on lots of goodies. I bought a scrapbook, scrapbook kit, several picture frames, and some of my favorite foods including some Mickey and Minnie pasta for our housewarming party at our condo (which we still haven’t had yet!)

I could tell Kris was starting to get bored after almost 2 hours of shopping, but I was finally done. We headed out of the World for what we thought was the end of our Disney trip, but little did we know we would be back very soon!

We took the freeway south where we stopped in Lakeland, so I could get some shots of the Tiger’s stadium for the scrapbook. None of the guys had taken pictures when they came to the game the weekend before. Plus, Kris wanted to see if their team shot was open. Unfortunately, the shop was closed, but I did get some pictures of the stadium.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Bridal%20Tea/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld056.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_12.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Bridal%20Tea/WeddingMarch32008WaltDisneyWorld057.jpg

We then got back on the freeway and headed towards Tampa. Two of my friends (they’re actually more like my brothers) had left Orlando earlier that week and headed over to Tampa to stay with one of their friends for a few days. They’re brothers and the oldest who is my age was the one who had came back from New Zealand just in time for my wedding.

Halfway there it started pouring down rain and it didn’t stop for the rest of the night. It was nice driving through Tampa because I had never been there before, but we hit a ton of Friday night traffic. Finally, after reaching her house we rain inside getting drenched in the process. Our friends had went to see Cirque du Soleil La Nouba at DTD on Tuesday night, so they showed us the program and talked to us about the show. We shared Disney stories from the past week while enjoying fresh chocolate chip cookies that their friend had just backed. After enjoying our pre-dinner dessert we headed out for dinner.

We went to a Japanese steakhouse not too far from her place and the food was pretty good.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_13.jpg

After getting back from the restaurant Kris and I decided to head out since we still had about 1 hour drive. Plus, my friends were flying out in the morning, so they were going to head to bed early.

We arrived at our hotel in Sarasota pretty late, around 10:30 or 11 p.m. I had some rewards nights through La Quinta, so the room was going to be free which was a bonus. This was one of the nicer La Quintas that I’ve ever stayed at and was really surprised by how big our room was there.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_15.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_16.jpg

After getting in the room I still had one last piece of wedding cake that Kris and I shared while we were looking through brochures trying to decide what we wanted to do the next day.

Up next… what are we doing here and will we be lucky enough to get some extra time at WDW?

jessesgirl-080708

10-07-2008, 03:32 PM

irisbud

10-07-2008, 03:48 PM

I'm always so sad when we leave, and I'm sure leaving after the wedding/HM is extra hard!

I did the lunch with an imagineer with my Dad last year when we went on a father/daughter trip. It was a great time and well worth the money, we thought. Glad you enjoyed the experience as well!

Can't wait to read more!

figmentfan814

10-07-2008, 04:11 PM

awww.
I was so sad on our last Day at Disney! Up until then I was really excited to go on our cruise, but when the day came to check out of Disney and head to Port Canaveral I did not want to go! I wanted to stay in Disney where all the pixie dust was! I remember watching the Contemporary dissapear out of the rear view.. all depressed looking:sad2: But we had a good time on the cruise.. there's just nothing like Disney!!:goodvibes

I missed alot of you TR... looks like you guys had a good few days at Disney. I LOVE Chef Mickeys too! Their food is soo awesome!! I love your Rockin Rollercoaster shot!
I'm glad I'm not the only one that was so let down when it was time to leave. It was hard too because we were originally supposed to have been leaving for Hawaii, so Tampa/Sarasota is a little disappointment comparatively ;)

I'm always so sad when we leave, and I'm sure leaving after the wedding/HM is extra hard!

I did the lunch with an imagineer with my Dad last year when we went on a father/daughter trip. It was a great time and well worth the money, we thought. Glad you enjoyed the experience as well!

Can't wait to read more!
Unfortunately, Kris and I didn't get to go to the luncheon :sad1: We had bought it as a gift for my parents and didn't have the budget to actually go ourselves too. We're hoping to do it on our trip next year for our anniversary :thumbsup2

irisbud

10-07-2008, 04:14 PM

Unfortunately, Kris and I didn't get to go to the luncheon :sad1: We had bought it as a gift for my parents and didn't have the budget to actually go ourselves too. We're hoping to do it on our trip next year for our anniversary :thumbsup2

:upsidedow oops! I can't read! I'm glad your mom and dad enjoyed it then :laughing:

Gives you something to look forward to next time :wizard: :goodvibes

keenercam

10-07-2008, 04:25 PM

Awesome TR, Vanessa! Love all the pix of you guys in the YOMD hats -- what great luck to have scored those! :woohoo:

Donald'sGirl

10-08-2008, 09:45 AM

Leaving is always the hardest part of any trip to Disney! It's so sad! :sad1:

Great installment though! :yay:

29apr00

10-08-2008, 10:11 AM

Yeah for all the shopping!! I can't wait for DTD! We didn't get to make it this year, but i definately want to schedule time for it next trip, espically since it will be xmas time!!

lov2b@disney

10-08-2008, 03:18 PM

Yeah for another great installment Vanessa! I wanted to win hats too! OH well, another shot at it next month!:cool1: What a nice present for your parents, glad they enjoyed it!

arwood82

10-08-2008, 06:27 PM

Wow I am completely amazed. I have sat here all day today reading your trip report. (Sad, I know) My dog had surgery yesterday so I have to be at home to make sure the recovery goes ok so I read your trip report. We have just recently decided on a disney wedding so I am so super excited. However, we are onlygoing to do the escape wedding since we do not have that many people that will make the trip. I have a couple of questions. First of all if yocould please send me the stuff you have for your welcome folders and your newsletter so I can get a few ideas. I was also wondering where yo got the figment napkins from for your DP. I am a huge figment fan and purple is my favorite color so this would be perfect for us. I think I am looking forward to planning the wedding more than the actual wedding itself. I am so glad that yor dreams really did come true.

figmentfan814

10-08-2008, 10:00 PM

:upsidedow oops! I can't read! I'm glad your mom and dad enjoyed it then :laughing:

Gives you something to look forward to next time :wizard: :goodvibes
Definitely, I can't to do it!

Awesome TR, Vanessa! Love all the pix of you guys in the YOMD hats -- what great luck to have scored those! :woohoo:
I was so excited, it's the little things that can really add a lot! :earsgirl: :earsboy:

Leaving is always the hardest part of any trip to Disney! It's so sad! :sad1:

Great installment though! :yay:
Just wait though, there might be more ;)

Yeah for all the shopping!! I can't wait for DTD! We didn't get to make it this year, but i definately want to schedule time for it next trip, espically since it will be xmas time!!
DTD is a definite must; especially World of Disney. The hard thing is trying not to buy too much :rotfl:

Wow I am completely amazed. I have sat here all day today reading your trip report. (Sad, I know) My dog had surgery yesterday so I have to be at home to make sure the recovery goes ok so I read your trip report. We have just recently decided on a disney wedding so I am so super excited. However, we are onlygoing to do the escape wedding since we do not have that many people that will make the trip. I have a couple of questions. First of all if yocould please send me the stuff you have for your welcome folders and your newsletter so I can get a few ideas. I was also wondering where yo got the figment napkins from for your DP. I am a huge figment fan and purple is my favorite color so this would be perfect for us. I think I am looking forward to planning the wedding more than the actual wedding itself. I am so glad that yor dreams really did come true.
Thank you so much for reading through it because it is quite a daunting task :goodvibes Our dog just had surgery a couple of weeks ago, so here's wishing your :dog: a speedy recovery.

How exciting that you're having a Disney wedding :bride: It was the best decision we made! I would be more than happy to send you all the materials. Just PM me your email address and I will send you everything over.

I actually bought the :figment: Figment napkins through Disney floral. They were a little expensive, but in my opinion well worth the cost. Happy planning and I look forward to reading all about them :mickeyjum

DisneyBrideToni

10-08-2008, 11:46 PM

Yay for updates! You look like you had a great time and free fries and hats!!!! That is awesome! That hotel you stayed at in Sarasota was really nice!!! Can't wait for more!:thumbsup2

figmentfan814

10-09-2008, 10:56 AM

Yay for updates! You look like you had a great time and free fries and hats!!!! That is awesome! That hotel you stayed at in Sarasota was really nice!!! Can't wait for more!:thumbsup2
The funny thing about the hats was that I had been whining that morning that we hadn't seen the Dream Squad during our trip. I guess it worked :lmao: All the other little perks like the fries were nice since I wasn't expecting too much which made every little thing all that more special. I was really happy with the hotel; I had some more shots, but they never made it to Photobucket ;)

dizneyfreak

10-13-2008, 04:20 PM

figmentfan814

10-13-2008, 10:29 PM

Yea for another post! :woohoo: I love your YOMD hats! On our trip in September I was complaining that I had been to Disney 5 times during the YOMD and never seen the Dream Squad. The September trip was my last chance and sure enough we got hit twice, once with the ears and once with Dream Fastpasses. Isn't it exciting when you see them? :wizard: Can't wait to read more...

Anna Marie

pixiedust: It is so exciting to get the extra pixie dust. That's so cool that you got the dreampasses too!

I can't believe I missed your 1st anniversary :upsidedow How was it? I hope you had a fantastic one!

dizneyfreak

10-14-2008, 12:59 PM

DisneyLaura

10-14-2008, 02:23 PM

Vanessa

I love the Christmas and kitchen stores in DTD. I always get an ornament when we go to Disney with the year on it. I also have Mickey heads with each of our names and our birth years on the ear. If I can find a picture not in a scrapbook I can post one. The scrapbook store is also a favorite of mine. That cookbook can you only get it at Disney or can I order online from somewhere?

I cry at checkout my last day at Disney too. You're not alone.

figmentfan814

10-14-2008, 07:13 PM

Our anniversary was lovely and thank you for remembering. :flower3: We wanted to go to Disney again for our 1st, but Brad's work had a blackout for vacation the first two weeks of October so we went the first week of Sept. instead. (By the way...if you ever want to go to Disney when there are absolutely no lines what so ever you need to go the first two weeks in Sept. It was so cool!) Brad took me to a bed and breakfast not to far from here and it was so relaxing and yummy to boot! We shopped at the outlet mall, I kicked his butt in some mini golf, and we just cuddled in the awesome feather bed in our room watching TV. It was an awesome two day get-a-way. :cloud9: Then back to reality...don't ya just love that part! :upsidedow

Anna Marie
I totally agree, it is great at the beginning of September; we were there last year for our planning session and the year before I was there with a large group of my family for free dining :cool1: I'm glad that you had such a great time! It looks like we'll be going to Disney a little before our 1st anniversary too because of my class schedule. Plus, it would be peak season when our actual anniversary falls :goodvibes

Vanessa

I love the Christmas and kitchen stores in DTD. I always get an ornament when we go to Disney with the year on it. I also have Mickey heads with each of our names and our birth years on the ear. If I can find a picture not in a scrapbook I can post one. The scrapbook store is also a favorite of mine. That cookbook can you only get it at Disney or can I order online from somewhere?

I cry at checkout my last day at Disney too. You're not alone.
Hi Laura :)

I actually ordered one of the cookbooks from Amazon not too long ago for my cousin.

Here is the one that I got; it has the cheddar cheese soup from Le Cellier, tonga toast, and Brown Derby's Cobb Salad to name a few :
http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Mickey-Chefs-Disney-World/dp/0786864729/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224026689&sr=8-4
Here is Volume II:
http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Mickey-Gourmet-Cookbook-Disneyland/dp/B000ANSWI4/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224026689&sr=8-7

My mom bought an ornament and had all the family names of everyone that came to the wedding from our side put on it :earsboy: I can't wait to go back to get an ornament for our 1st anniversary!

Flurbee

10-18-2008, 11:08 PM

figmentfan814

10-18-2008, 11:20 PM

Vanessa,

Just finally catching up on your TR...I haven't had much time to get on here lately....I am enjoying all your stories, I kind of wish it wouldn't end!! :goodvibes Sounds like you had an awesome time...can't wait to hear what happened next.
Thank you so much for catching up on everything :goodvibes Things are crazy for me right now with my work the last few weeks before the election. I'm hoping to still finish the last couple of days of my TR soon.

figmentfan814

10-30-2008, 11:16 AM

Sorry that it has been so long since I posted an update. Things are crazy with work leading up to the election. I actually had a few minutes to spare this morning, so I wanted to get something up.

The next morning we got up fairly early and I started looking through our brochures to plan out the day’s agenda. We were originally supposed to be going to a spring training baseball game that afternoon too. One of my clients had also mentioned that we should visit Myakka River State Park where you could actually rent canoes and ride through the river that was full of alligators which sounded pretty cool to us.

As I was doing this Kris looked outside the window and noticed that there were pretty fast wind gusts blowing through the area. We turned on the computer to look up the weather and it wasn’t looking good.

Even though the torrential downpours from the night before were over it was freezing. Even for our Michigan blood, a day at the beach or at a baseball game in the upper 40s, low 50s didn’t sound that appealing!

Kris said he didn’t want to go to a spring training game in this weather and asked me what we could do that day since going to the beach was out too and I said we could visit Siesta Key which is an area with shops and that we could still try to hit up the park. I also mentioned a couple little restaurants that sounded nice too.

At this point, he looks at me and says there’s not much to do here, why don’t we just go back to Disney tonight! I was shocked when I heard these words coming out of his mouth. He likes Disney when we go, but it’s never his idea for a trip there :yay: :dance3: :woohoo:

I tried to hide my excitement and calmly said that sounds like a good idea, I’ll start looking for a hotel. Since we already had the computer out, I looked for a room on Hotel Plaza Blvd. We were staying in Sarasota using some rewards nights and didn’t really have a lot of room available in the budget for paying for another night at a hotel. I can get a government rate on rooms which is pretty good, but for that night the cheapest I could find a room anywhere was $180. I even called Disney to check for a room, but nothing was open at any of the values.

I told Kris our options and said that I could start calling some other hotels “outside the World.” A this point, he said why don’t we spend money on a nice dinner and then just see about staying with some of our family that are still there. Not exactly what you want to do on your quasi-honeymoon, but since we were going to Hawaii alone in a few weeks and we were going back to Disney for one more night. I agreed that it was probably the most responsible thing to do. I then called the front desk to see about cancelling our room for that night (I wanted to make sure that I didn’t forfeit my rewards points). Next I called up my parents to see if we could crash in their room that night. I told them how we were coming back to Orlando and couldn’t find a room in our price range, so they agreed without any problem.

After getting off the phone with them I called the Disney Dining Reservation line to see if I could get us in somewhere for that evening. I thought it would be easiest to try a resort restaurant since we could drive straight there, so I asked for availability at several places that we hadn’t been to that week. Most of the places didn’t have anything available. I asked about Artist Point at Wilderness Lodge and it wasn’t available, but Whispering Canyon had some openings. Not exactly romantic, but Kris loves the Lodge and the food is pretty good there, so I took it.

The reservation wasn’t until 7:45 pm, so we had plenty of time to spend the day in Sarasota. After checking out we decided to drive around town since Myakka River State Park was on our way back to Orlando. We stopped near downtown to take some pictures with the ocean in the background. We found out that none of the boat tours were even running that day because of the waves!
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_19.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_17.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_23.jpg

We then drove through town a little bit near the Siesta Key area and didn’t even stop. It seemed nice enough, but it just wasn’t really our scene. Let’s just say we were young enough to be everyone’s grandkids!!

We grabbed lunch at our new favorite burger joint for the second time that week.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_21.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_25.jpg

Then headed off to Myakka River State Park for the afternoon, which was just a little ways out of town. We had a little adventure trying to find the expressway, but we eventually made it there. The ranger at the gate told us that they weren’t running the air boats that day because of the winds. Darn another activity lost to the weather!

We drove through the park and went to the back where the boats are normally launched. We considered renting bikes, but the rental stand was closing in less than an hour, so our time would have been cut short.

There were a ton of birds flying in the air and it was quite creepy! I couldn’t get them all in a shot, but I would say there were probably 30-40 like these guys:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/birdss.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_35.jpg
Kris blowing in the wind; the area behind him is where the airboats normally are launched.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_28.jpg

We decided to jump in the car to drive up to an area where there was a lookout point and a long rope bridge strung up between the trees several hundred feet in the air.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/of5059044292365.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/of50590455.jpg
On the bridge:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_40.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/of50590442.jpg
It was a little wind on the top:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/of5059044578.jpg
Views in the canopy:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_46.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/Wedding_March_3__2008_Wal_39.jpg

After going to the top we took a short hike on the trails in that area then decided to head out. As we were circling through the park we came to the area where the alligators are normally spotted, so we pulled over to check it out.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/gators.jpg
But the only wildlife we saw was this guy:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/bird.jpg
It was a pretty view of the river though:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x62/vcf81/Wedding/Sarasota/of50590442110.jpg

At that point we decided it was time to hit the road and we started making our way back to Disney! We made a couple of stops along the way including a side trip to Walmart for Kris to get new earphones for his iPod which he knew he would want for the plane ride home. After all, he would be flying back to Ohio by himself. It was an interesting town where most of the people that run the traveling carnivals across the country live during the off season. There were carnival rides and food trucks everywhere through town. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful.

When we got into Orlando we decided to stop at the Outlet mall at the end of I-Drive (I always forget the new name- it used to be Beltz). I wanted to go to the Disney store and Kris wanted to hit up the Puma store. We were running a little tight on time, so we were in and out in about 30 minutes. I bought some Disney scrapbooking supplies although I was tempted to buy much more!

It was around 6:30 p.m. at this point and we figured the expressway would be backed up, so we decided to cut down past the convention center. This was a bad idea! There was a comic book convention going on and the streets were packed. Not only were there a ton of cars there were people in costumes wandering in and out of the street! I have to admit it was pretty interesting though :rotfl: Finally, shortly before our reservation we pulled on property back by Downtown Disney. We cut the back way around by the campground and arrived at Wilderness Lodge just in time :woohoo:

Up next our dinner at the Lodge and time at the park?