Our Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Wedding Day ~ 3/8/10 ~ Ohana's/Grand 1/WP/Narcoossee's

[ZipADeeEm]

Yes. I am finally starting my TR. I never quite got around to doing the whole PJ-thing, but I wanted to put this out there for a couple of reasons.

1. I am hoping to add to the amount of helpful information out there for future DisBrides. I know I learned so much from these boards, and I just want to give a little back. But before you get the tissues out, I do plan to keep it brief and just do the highlights. I’m a busy married woman now!

2. I wanted to show off the work of our vendors—which I know we are all interested in! We had such a great experience, and it wouldn’t have been possible without all their help. (I think I’m going to do vendor reviews as I go along, just to keep you reading!!)

At the end I’ll do a summary of what our favorite parts of our days were and what we wish had gone differently. But all this to say we had an awesome Disney wedding, and we will fondly remember it for the rest of our lives.

So sit back and keep your hands and arms inside the ride at all times….

[ZipADeeEm]

Stats:

Bride and Groom: Emily and Ryan
Guest count: 25 (including us!)

Welcome Events: Saturday night
Ohana’s, followed by the Grand 1 yacht for “Wishes” fireworks

Wedding Events: Monday morning
Escape Ceremony ~ the Wedding Pavilion @ 10am
Brunch reception ~ Narcoossee’s (at the GF) @ 11:30am

Additional Wedding Day Vendors:
Hair/Make-up: Patricia LeJeune
Photography: Misty Miotto
Special Guests: Mickey and Minnie Mouse
Silhouette Artist: Kathryn Flocken

Hotel: Animal Kingdom Lodge—we had rooms in both the Jambo House and Kidani Village (love DVC!)

Total time in Disney: Saturday – Wednesday (4 nights)

Honeymoon: Princess Cruise through the Panama Canal (I know....not Disney!)

[ZipADeeEm]

To peak your interest before I get into the nitty-gritty details (and the not-so-professional pictures my family took of the Welcome events!!), I thought I’d throw in a few of our favorite pics from Misty Miotto!


http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/smallAKLkiss.jpg


http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/smallcar.jpg


I already posted this one on the POTD thread...
http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/smallerMMheart.jpg

[Princess Cinders]

Can't wait to hear all about it. I love the picture with mickey and minnie

[Sarah84]

Can't wait to hear all about your wedding, lovely pics the one with Mickey & Minnie is so cute :)

[polynesianbride]

Can't wait to follow along! We are having some of the same vendors (Misty & Patricia) and we are having Ohana's and possibly a Wishes cruise as well so I'm really excited to hear all the details:hyper:

[ZipADeeEm]

Can't wait to hear all about your wedding, lovely pics the one with Mickey & Minnie is so cute :)

Can't wait to follow along! We are having some of the same vendors (Misty & Patricia) and we are having Ohana's and possibly a Wishes cruise as well so I'm really excited to hear all the details:hyper:

Yeah! Thanks for joining!! Get ready for the next installment!

[ZipADeeEm]

Our sub-title to our wedding should have been “A Wishes Wedding on an Escape Budget.” DH and I are very budget-minded (I'll try to point out things we did to save $$ throughout this TR!), and we carefully calculated out all that we wanted for our wedding. After considering that the Escape package included all the taxes and gratuities, we figured that we could have everything that we wanted (including the welcome events, the brunch reception, and the characters) for slightly less than the minimum for Wishes. Of course to make this happen, we were very tight in some areas (like additional floral and no upgrades on the cake, etc.). Other reasons we wanted to stay with the Escape package were that we were interested in keeping a relatively small guest list. And honestly, I didn’t want to deal with the room block! So it worked out best for us to do the Escape package, but that meant that I had to arrange all the “Welcome Night” Events myself!

After reading the great reviews of Ohana’s on here, we thought it sounded like a great, family-friendly option. We had our family join us for the event @ 5:30pm Saturday night. The check-in process was a bit of a pain, but the environment of the Polynesian was great. My BIL said he felt like he was in Hawaii—which I thought was a great compliment. All 18 of us were seated at one huge table, the food was to-die-for, and the entertainment (a traveling ukulele player/singer—I had to look up how to spell that one!) was great. In the ressie I had mentioned it was some of the kids birthdays, and they brought them cupcakes! Although we had also mentioned in the ressie that we were getting married, they didn’t do anything for us—which was totally cool for us because we both don’t like to be the center of attention. And we also didn’t have any wedding clothes or paraphernalia on! Sorry I don't have any good pics of the food!!

(side note: I looked all over for a Disney hawaiian shirt for DH, but couldn't find one at a price I wanted to pay! So, I printed an image from the original Tiki Room poster on an iron-on transfer, put it on a t-shirt, and it turned out looking great! He actually put this shirt on tonight after work!!)

http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/smallOhana.jpg

http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/smallOhanagroup.jpg


I’m going to steal Boardwalk Bride’s rating system (hope it’s not patented!)

Ohana’s for Welcome Dinner: 10/10


From here was all took the monorail over to the Grand Floridian, of course point out the Wedding Pavilion on the way!

[polynesianbride]

I'm so happy you had a wonderful experience a Ohana's! Very reassuring! Anxiously awaiting your post on the Grand 1!

[Disney9.9.10]

Great start to your TR! It looks like you had a lovely time at O'hanas (10/10 is pretty good lol) I look forward to reading more!

Oh and your sneak peek wedding photos are beautiful!

[ZipADeeEm]

I'm so happy you had a wonderful experience a Ohana's! Very reassuring! Anxiously awaiting your post on the Grand 1!

Everyone (young and old!) had a great time there. I'm so glad we did this because it really set the mood for a fun wedding experience. And the yacht post is coming up next!!

Great start to your TR! It looks like you had a lovely time at O'hanas (10/10 is pretty good lol) I look forward to reading more!

Oh and your sneak peek wedding photos are beautiful!

Thanks! :goodvibes

[ZipADeeEm]

We finished at Ohana’s at exactly 6:30pm, took the monorail over to the GF, and hung out in the lobby for a bit. It was a good time for our families to mingle, especially since my sister and her husband have never met DH’s family before. Can you tell she’s shy?!?!

http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/MelanyTate.jpg

We wanted to watch “Wishes” from the yacht (another idea I got from the DisBoard) which started @ 8pm, so we booked it for 7:30pm for one hour. It was pretty cool that night, so we bundled up and headed over to the marina (@ the GF). I had a surprise for DH waiting on board—a Splash Mountain-themed cake! I had worked this out with Pat at the GF Bakery. The cake was delicious—it was marble with custard and fresh strawberries for the filling. A number of our family said it was the best cake they ever had!! We served that up as we sailed around Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon. The captain even took us over to the WP, but we almost got stuck in the sand because the water is really low there! He had to rock the yacht out of the sand bank! I thought my FIL, who has spent a lot of time on the water, was going to burst! Then we legally “parked” with a perfect view of the castle and fireworks. It was so great to share that with our families.
The yacht was amazing with three bedrooms, a washer and dryer, and multiple sitting areas. We comfortably fit 18 people on there, and it was wired with the Wishes music. And the captain and assistant were very friendly, gave us a few extra minutes on the yacht, they dropped us back off at the Polynesian (where most of our guests had parked), and they took a group photo of us at the end of the night.

It looks small in this picture, but big in person!
http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/grand1.jpg

They had it decorated for us!
http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/backgrand1.jpg

Checking out one of the bedrooms aboard!
http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/sophieyacht.jpg

We gave out gifts to everyone, and all 18 of us (and the 2 CMs!) squeezed onto the upper deck!
http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/upperdeck.jpg

Our view of the fireworks!
http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/grand1fireworks.jpg

Grand 1 yacht: 10/10 for a totally unique experience!


We got the ¼ sheet cake, based on the number of people that we had. We had massive leftovers, and the assistant on the yacht even gave us boxes to cut it up and distribute to our families. It made a delicious breakfast the next morning! I was slightly disappointed in the cake decorations (I had said “Splash Mountain,” with Disney nametags [Ryan worked in Disneyland for many years], and the saying "taking the plunge"—I thought they would have been a little more creative, but I think they were wanting it to look classy), but that is only because I know how much it cost!

http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/cake.jpg


GF bakery cake: 8.5/10 delicious, but pricey!



After this evening, I wondered if our wedding could be better than all that we did this evening!

[NYPrincess422]

Wow, the view of the fireworks show is amazing from there! How awesome :thumbsup2

[camnhan]

I love the Splash Mountaing cake with "taking the plunge"!! what a cute idea!!

[Disney9.9.10]

Great new post. The Grand 1 is such a unique experience that you will never forget! We did something similar on the last big family trip that we went on, and it was amazing!

That cake looks like the most delicious thing...ever lol

[Boardwalk_bride]

I don't care that you are using my rating system :lmao: To me, it is easier to understand!

I love that you got picks in AKL with your wedding gown. When I checked in there, I wished I would have had pre-ceremony photos there, since it is so beautiful!

I'm glad you enjoyed Ohana's. We had awful service there, and DH and I were not impressed with the food, although other members of our group were. I think we may be the odd ones out in terms of food, but everyone hated our waiter.

The grand 1 looks amazing! I wish I would have done for our rehearsal instead of an Epcot DP!

Can't wait to read more!

[emilymad]

Great reviews! I am so glad to hear a good review of 'Ohana. We are doing our welcome dinner there and there are so many mixed reviews.

The Splash Mountain cake is so cute! It came out really good.

[Sarah84]

Glad you enjoyed the experiance on the Grand 1, the photos are lovely. We are planning on doing the Wishes cruise on that on the evening of our wedding.
The cake looks fantastic. Look forward to the next installemant :)

[weedee]

yay I'm glad you started your TR!! I'm happy to hear you had a good review for Ohanas since that's where our Welcome dinner will be!

[brer rabbit 28]

Can't wait to read your next instalment:goodvibes

[ZipADeeEm]

Thanks, ladies, for all your responses! I'm back after a very busy time at work!!

Wow, the view of the fireworks show is amazing from there! How awesome :thumbsup2

We all had a great time viewing the fireworks from the Grand 1! It was a *grand* experience!

Great new post. The Grand 1 is such a unique experience that you will never forget! We did something similar on the last big family trip that we went on, and it was amazing!

Indeed, I'm sure everyone (especially the kids) will think of the Grand 1 everytime they watch fireworks in the Magic Kingdom!

Glad you enjoyed the experiance on the Grand 1, the photos are lovely. We are planning on doing the Wishes cruise on that on the evening of our wedding.
The cake looks fantastic. Look forward to the next installemant :)

What a great way to end your wedding day!! :thumbsup2

[ZipADeeEm]

I love the Splash Mountaing cake with "taking the plunge"!! what a cute idea!!

That cake looks like the most delicious thing...ever lol

The cake rocked! I still think about it--and I hate to say it, but this one was waaaaaayyyyy better than our wedding cake! I looked for a pic of the "inside" of the cake, but I guess we were all too busy eating and no one took any!

[ZipADeeEm]

I don't care that you are using my rating system :lmao: To me, it is easier to understand!

I love that you got picks in AKL with your wedding gown. When I checked in there, I wished I would have had pre-ceremony photos there, since it is so beautiful!

I'm glad you enjoyed Ohana's. We had awful service there, and DH and I were not impressed with the food, although other members of our group were. I think we may be the odd ones out in terms of food, but everyone hated our waiter.

The grand 1 looks amazing! I wish I would have done for our rehearsal instead of an Epcot DP!

Can't wait to read more!

Thanks for sharing your rating system. I thought almost everything would have got an "A" ! Only the +++ would have differed! I like this system much better! Sorry you didn't have a good time at Ohana's--I'd heard a variety of reviews of the place, but we took our chances and had a great time! AKL pics coming up soon!

Great reviews! I am so glad to hear a good review of 'Ohana. We are doing our welcome dinner there and there are so many mixed reviews.

The Splash Mountain cake is so cute! It came out really good.

yay I'm glad you started your TR!! I'm happy to hear you had a good review for Ohanas since that's where our Welcome dinner will be!

Everyone in our party thought the environment was great and the food was delicious. There was plenty of options for everyone! I hope you have a good experience, too :goodvibes

Can't wait to read your next instalment:goodvibes

Coming up! Thanks for reading along!

[ZipADeeEm]

Saturday before the Welcome events we spent with DH’s family. Sunday morning and early afternoon we spent with my family. Everyone wore the t-shirts I had made, which was fun to see everyone enjoy the fruit of my labors!

http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/smallshirts.jpg

In the afternoon, DH and I went off on our own for ressies at Tony’s Town Square in the Magic Kingdom. I love the “Lady and the Tramp”-themed restaurant! We went on a few rides, and then headed back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Now I didn’t talk about our check-in experience the day before, now, did I?!?! We showed up @ 9am Saturday morning at Jambo House (the main section of the Animal Kingdom Lodge), the time I had stated in our on-line check-in. They told us our room wasn’t ready—Ryan was staying in the value studio (aka parking lot view, but the cheapest for DVC points that time of year!). They were going to text us. Well, when we showed up at 3pm that afternoon, needing to get ready for our Welcome events, they told us our room still wasn’t ready! What! I hadn’t showered since yesterday and needed to get ready!!! But with a little pixie dust, a CM supervisor upgraded us to a savannah view room! What a great treat!!

Now Sunday I also checked into the Animal Kingdom Lodge, but the Kidani Village side, which I believe has all DVC rooms and is fairly new. The rooms are supposed to be slightly larger, which I thought would be helpful with getting ready the next morning. Thankfully we got right in. Our room was off to the side. My sister’s pedometer clocked it at ¼ mile from the lobby to our door. This was fine, but would prove to be a problem the next morning (suspenseful music should be playing in the background right now)!!!!
How do you rate a place where you wake up in the morning to see five giraffes eating breakfast?!?! It was amazing, there were subtle “Lion King”-themed details (the entire lace curtain are small images of the characters) and hidden Mickeys throughout the room! I picked this location because DH and I love to travel all over the world (but I haven’t been to Africa yet!), and I also considered our “first look” pictures. I knew I would love this location as a background for our pics, and Misty did not disappoint one bit!
Also, the day after we were married, we got a special yummy “gift” from the AKL staff.

Animal Kingdom Lodge (Jambo House and Kidani Village): 10/10

Some of our pre-wedding pics:

Getting ready in the room
http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/smallroom.jpg

A "bridal" shot (acutally by the elevators!)
http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/smallwindow.jpg

Our first look. Totally loved doing it this way!
http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/smallfirstlook.jpg

A couple pics in Sanaa, the restaurant in Kidani Village
http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/smallsanaalights.jpg

http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/smalltree.jpg

And one of my most favorite--in the lobby.
http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz115/ess113/smalllobby.jpg

(Can I just add here that Misty Miotto ROCKS?!?!)

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

WooooHooo! I got in on this one BEFORE PAGE 7!!! :yay::yay::yay:
Yes Misty Rocks! I can't wait to use her in November!
Can't wait to read more!!!

[Boardwalk_bride]

I love your first look pics! Did you go down to Sanaa for them (or the one with the "ceiling trees"?

[sparkle.castle]

Love the photo in the lobby! Gorgeous!

More, more, more! popcorn::

[tinkerbell 766]

Just caught up with your TR. Beautiful!!
I am so glad you liked 'my home' :thumbsup2 I am completely in love with it myself!!

[Brit_Jude]

Looking good so far.....more please