Jordan and Rob's Fairy Tale Wedding!! WP/SCP UPDATE 10/11: Almost to double digits!!!

[TreasureYourDreams]

Hi everyone :) Well... I've been a lurker now for several weeks, but we booked our WDW wedding today so I guess it's time to start a PJ :)

First, a little about us:

My name is Jordan, my fiance Rob and I live in Texas! I own my own business, marketing a healthy energy drink product (I get to work at home in my pajamas all day :P) and Rob owns an oilfield construction company.

I'm 23 and Rob is 25.

A little over 3 years ago we were introduced to each other by a mutual friend -- we met each other while out dancing one night and I left that night with the impression that he was that "weird drunk guy" lol -- well, we saw each other a few more times in different settings and I quickly realized that he was in fact one of the more normal ones in my group of guy friends, so we began hanging out with each other more and more.

Over the next several months we were nothing more than very good friends -- we met for lunch a few times a week, went to football games together and laughed over the many bad first (and last) dates we had with other people.

Then one day, about 8 months after we met, it just happened. We were sitting next to each other in front of a bonfire on a cold night in December and he kissed me. The rest... I guess you could say, was history :)

That was almost 2 1/2 years ago :) We've been in a wonderful relationship ever since!

The Proposal:
We were in Vegas in the middle of May for the Launch Party of my new company. We had plans to eat at a lakeside restaurant at the Bellagio overlooking the fountains and, of course, the Eiffel Tower from the Paris Hotel across the street (If there is anywhere I love as much as Disney, it's Paris :))

Well, our reservations were for that Thursday evening, before the event started, and lo and behold I woke up that morning VERY sick, so we had to postpone our flight until the next morning and cancelled the reservation.

We decided that if we had time after the event concluded Saturday night, we would try to make it out for a nice dinner then.

Well, Saturday rolled around and Rob informed me that he had made dinner reservations at Alex, a fancy French reaturant at the Wynn, for 9:00 that evening. So, after the event we got all dressed up -- him in his suit, me in my cocktail dress -- and headed to dinner.

http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac113/TreasureYourDreams/engagement.jpg

He had hired a towncar to take us from Ceasars Palace to the Wynn, so we met the car outside and off we went. Upon arriving at dinner we were greeted with champagne and ushered off the cocktail lounge to wait for our table.

We were seated within a few minutes and over the next 2 hours the chef continued to spoil us with a delicious 6-course meal. We ate, and ate, and ate... and then came my favorite part: dessert :)

The waiter brought out my plate of chocolate dessert (I don't remember exactly what it was, but basically chocolate everything lol) and sat an extra plate down on the table with a silver cover over it.

He said "Extra chocolate sauce for your dessert, ma'am"

Of course, that is the first thing I went for and to my great surprise what was under that silver cover was definitely NOT chocolate sauce :)

http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac113/TreasureYourDreams/engagementring.jpg

But it WAS a big, beautiful engagement ring!! Rob picked it up off the plate, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him... it was absolutely PERFECT!! :)

Our Disney Wedding:

My Mom is a huge Disney fanatic and, what can I say, I'm my Mother's daughter so I am too :)

Rob, believe it or not, has never been to Disney, but after 2 1/2 years of listening to my Mom and I constantly gush over "the most magical place on earth" he quickly agreed with me that it was the perfect place for us to get married.

Since we are both still in the process of building fairly new businesses, we didn't want to deal with the stress of planning a big wedding here at home. Originally that was our plan, but when the guest list topped 400 I tossed it and said NO WAY! Destination Wedding, please and thank you :)

So, we are having a small Escape Wedding at WDW with 18 guests followed by a big reception/party back home when we return.

Today, I officially got my wedding on the calendar: It will be on January 24, 2011 at 5:00pm at the WP followed by a dessert party at Sago Cay Pointe to watch Wishes :)

That's about all I got so far, but I'm sure it won't be long before I have more!!

[Princessfifi]

Congratulations on your engagement, and getting your date!:)

[SuzeQ]

Congratulations and welcome! What a romantic proposal. I like the extra chocolate idea. What girl can refuse extra chocolate. :rotfl: Your DF is going to love WDW. You make such a cute couple. I look forward to reading more.

[NYPrincess422]

congrats & welcome :)

[DVC Bride 2011]

Congratulations and welcome! I love the proposal story!

[pink_tink8i8]

congrats and welcome :goodvibes

[BecBennett]

lol, extra chocolate! :rotfl: perfect!!

[TreasureYourDreams]

Yay we got our photographer booked today!! After lots of online research, I decided on Misty Miotto :)

I love, love, love her pictures!! She reminds me so much of one of my favorite photographers here in Texas -- the one I would have used had we planned an at-home wedding.

Here's her site: http://www.MistyMiotto.com

Since we're having a Monday wedding, we were able to book the 6 hour package for only $2400.

Here's what all it includes:
Package 2) "Simply Elegant Package"
- 6 hours of coverage
- up to 1000 edited images
- a high resolution CD with all finished images
- release form with reproduction rights assigned
- professional assistant during all getting ready, formal and bride and groom portraits
-Unlimited travel between locations
- second Photographer during entire ceremony and reception
- password protected preview section allowing you to share your images with friends and family online for up to 3 months
- 300 4x6 professionally processed color and black and white prints
- customized Leather proof box to store your 4"x6" images (See image on album page) (Also option to add artistic border)
- (6) 8"x10" professionally processed prints
- (12) 5"x7" professionally processed prints
- (1) 11"x14" professionally processed print
- up to 60 artistically enhanced advanced edits including black and white images with color spotting

Photography is taking up a BIG part of my budget, because I feel like it's all we'll have to remember the day years and years from now :) It's definitely the MOST important part (well, other than Rob... of course!) to me.

Other than that... still waiting on my LOA to arrive. I'm so impatient :upsidedow

[BecBennett]

I booked Misty too, I love her work! :goodvibes

I don't think I've heard a bad thing about her!

[Disney9.9.10]

Congratulations and welcome!! Your ring is beautiful! Misty takes amazing pictures, so you will be really happy with her. Looking forward to reading more!

[tinkerbell 766]

Congratulations and welcome
I am glad us 'Disney' mothers are having an influence!! My kids have been brought up the Disney way and are now into early adulthood still big Disney fans!!!
Happy planning!!

[redlight]

I enjoyed your beautiful proposal story. Welcome!

[Disney Bride To Be]

I loved reading your proposal story! So sweet. I haven't heard of Misty before but after looking at her pictures all I have to say is WOW. Love the artistic feel! I can't wait to read more! Happy Planning. (=

[TreasureYourDreams]

*sigh* I keep forgetting to update this thing!

Let's see... well, we FINALLY got our LOA last week. Bill Barchick (or, who I have started referring to affectionately as Mr. "Out of the Office" -- because I swear he is never there when I call!! lol) apologized for the 4 week delay... but I'm still not sure what took them so long :)

Of course, we reviewed, signed and returned it that same day -- so I'm hoping *fingers crossed* that we get a planner soon!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I bought my wedding dress a couple of weeks ago too!!! :)

It's Mccall by Maggie Sottero

http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac113/TreasureYourDreams/photo1.jpg

http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac113/TreasureYourDreams/dress_back.jpg

http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac113/TreasureYourDreams/dress_detail.jpg


I LOVE it!! :) Can't wait for it to come in... but that's not until November :(
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We had originally thought we'd have an at home reception after the wedding, but have decided to have a huge couple's shower instead.

So my MOH and a few of my other friends are working on that :) Our biggest problem so far has been trying to pick a date -- we want to have it on a Saturday night to give it more of a party vibe, but we're both HUGE football fans and don't want it to interfere with a big game. lol

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We booked our honeymoon yesterday!!!!!!!!!! We are flying to Disney the Friday before our wedding (getting married on a Monday) and will be staying with our families until after the wedding.

Most of our family is staying at the Boardwalk, so in effort to stay close but still get some distance, we opted for the Swan and Dolphin. (plus, I think their big fluffy white beds just scream "honeymoon" :love: )

We'll be staying there from our wedding night (Jan 24) through February 1st -- so 8 nights, in addition to the 3 nights we will be at Disney before the wedding. I'm SO excited -- I can hardly wait!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Other than that there isn't much to report... I guess once I get a planner I will have more updates :)

That is one thing I love about the Escape package -- I feel like I should be doing something, but there really isn't anything to do! Which is nice and kind of nervewracking all at the same time :rotfl:

So I guess that's it for now!

[Disney9.9.10]

Your dress is beautiful! Maggie Sottero has some amazing designs. I feel for you with the delayed responses, I am going through that myself right now and it is really frustrating - but keep on them and they will answer. I had Bill as my consultant and he was fantastic, but I think that they are all busy or short staffed or something at the moment so hang in there!

[redlight]

I love your wedding dress!

[TreasureYourDreams]

I feel for you with the delayed responses, I am going through that myself right now and it is really frustrating - but keep on them and they will answer. I had Bill as my consultant and he was fantastic, but I think that they are all busy or short staffed or something at the moment so hang in there!

Yeah it really doesn't bother me most of the time... because there really isn't much for him to help me with at this point. I've found emailing him tends to work MUCH better than phone calls, so I try to just stick with that when I can :)

So was Bill your actual wedding planner? Or just the person who worked with you up until you turned in your LOA?

[BecBennett]

Your dress is gorgeous!! :lovestruc I'm expecting mine in November too, it seems so far away!!

[Disney9.9.10]

Yeah it really doesn't bother me most of the time... because there really isn't much for him to help me with at this point. I've found emailing him tends to work MUCH better than phone calls, so I try to just stick with that when I can :)

So was Bill your actual wedding planner? Or just the person who worked with you up until you turned in your LOA?

Bill was just my initial consultant, so I don't deal with him much anymore now that I have been assigned a planner. I also use e-mail more than phone calls, it usually seems to work better, but not always lol

[TreasureYourDreams]

Thanks everyone for all the sweet compliments on my dress :) I can't WAIT for it to get here!!!

I wanted to post our wedding website -- we created it on mywedding.com, it was free and I was really happy with all the options to customize it and add the things we wanted :)

Then after we made it we just went to godaddy.com, bought a domain name and had it forwarded to our site so it would be easier for guests to type in and remember!

So here it is...

http://www.JordanAndRobert.com

[BecBennett]

You've done a really good job with your wedding website. I'd be happy with that!

[sambycat]

congrats! we are getting married the day after you and we live in texas too!! hope to see a glimpse of you both somewhere around the WDW i january!! good luck in all the planning!!

[DisneyDiva84]

Congrats!

That is such a sweet engagement story and I LOVE Your dress! you are going to be gorgeous in it!

I haven't seen my dress in a month or so due to fittings. my second fitting is in a week or so and I cannot wait to put it on and have it actually fit lol.

November will be here before you know it and then the countdown will really start to tick by fast. I feel like my two months out flew ha

Can't wait to read more! popcorn::

[TreasureYourDreams]

*sigh* -- I know I said this last time I updated, but I REALLY stink at updating this thing!!:rotfl:

I can't believe that this month marks the halfway point between the proposal and the wedding!! WOW -- the last 4 months have gone by sooo fast... I hope the next 4 go just as quickly :yay:

We basically went through the entire month of August without even mentioning the word "wedding" -- *gasp!* I know. But it was sooo worth it because the company DF and I work with was offering a trip incentive to anyone who qualified for a certian promotion level by the end of the month and now thanks to our hard work and focus when we go to our company's 4 day convention in November we get to leave on an 8 day cruise with 25 of the other leaders in the company instead of having to come back home!!!! :cool1: We're so excited about it, and it'll be fun to have a pre-honeymoon trip to the Caribbean!

So since we took a month off from planning, when Sept 1 came around we had to get busy -- LOTS has been done since then!

First, came engagement pics: Here are a few of my faves...

http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac113/TreasureYourDreams/Untitled13.jpg

http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac113/TreasureYourDreams/Untitled11.jpg

http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac113/TreasureYourDreams/Untitled7.jpg

CJ Duncan Photography here in Texas did the pics for us, and we LOVE them!!

My Mom and I also had our first phone planning session with our planner, Tanis Armstrong. I LOVE her so far!! She has been so helpful and really seems to know exactly what she's doing! :goodvibes

We picked the music -- a blend of Disney and traditional. The song I'm most excited about is "All I Ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera which will be played while we do the sand ceremony. It's our favorite broadway show, and the music from it is my favorite part!!

We also picked the cake -- marble cake with white chocolate mousse filling :) yumm!! And we picked one of the all-white Escape designs because it matches the top of my dress perfectly (of course, Rob doesn't know that part! hehe)

We booked Mickey for the wedding... origionally we were going to do Mickey AND Minnie, but we decided to take that extra $450 in our budget and apply it towards the budget for the DP which we have now decided to make a reception with hot apps instead of just dessert.

I found an outside vendor for the ceremony decor -- a company called Special Event Solutions and they are providing the following decor:

Column Set -- 6 columns (2 tall, 2 medium, 2 short) with white tulle draping and silk fern pots. $175

Aisle Draping -- white tulle draping with purple ribbon bows at each clipping point (4 on each side). $160

Set Up/Delivery/Take Down: $100

So $435 for total decor and I think it will be BEAUTIFUL!

Check out her website at: www.specialeventsolutions.com and you can see a picture of the columns set up in the WP

I bought my shoes but they didn't dye them so I'm having to send them back... I'll post a pic when they're finally finished!

Now I'm just waiting on Tanis to send me the menus so we can select the food for the reception, and then my appointment with Rosie which should be sometime around the first week of October!

Oh yeah, we also booked Stan with STVS Videography to video the entire ceremony AND broadcast it live online!! This is one of the things I am most excited about, since I have good friends I work with who live all over the country -- this will be the perfect way to include them in our big day!

And here's a pic of the webcast invitations we'll be sending out:

http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac113/TreasureYourDreams/disboardsinvite.jpg

That's pretty much everything for now! I can't wait to talk to Rosie and get the flowers all figured out... that's the last thing that's really driving me nuts! I'll be glad when it's all done! :yay:

[BecBennett]

wow, you have got a lot accomplished!

Congrats on the cruise. I wish my company offered incentives like that :rolleyes:

you got some really nice egagement pics. My favourite is the 2nd one.

The price for your decor is really good. To stick close to the minimum we're going with Disney Floral, but I always see brides who go with out side vendors and think that they get such good deals!

[2nd Time Bride]

Awesome idea on the webcast, I wish we would have had enough time to book an outside company who could do that! We are such geeks, I cannot believe neither of us has thought of it!

Also - love your engagement pics and your wedding dress! :goodvibes

[TreasureYourDreams]

Okay time for my monthly update, I guess! :)

Things have kind of come to a screeching halt since the last time I updated... I guess that's the advantage to having a destination wedding, there just isn't that much to do! lol

I keep feeling like there is tons of stuff I need to be doing, but I guess there isn't. Our wedding shower is coming up in 2 weeks and I am SO excited! We are using this as an opportunity to see everyone and party a little since we are having the wedding so far away... it will be on a Saturday night, and we're having all of our close friends bring some beer for later that night!

I'm really just looking so forward to seeing everyone :thumbsup2

We had an engagement picture NIGHTMARE -- apparently our photographers have always wanted to shoot a wedding a Disney, and when we told them we already had another photographer booked (Misty Miotto) who actually lives not only in the state of Florida, but actually in Orlando, they threw a hissy fit and jacked up the prices on us for everything we wanted.

And when I say jacked up the prices, I mean $700 for a cd with 30 engagement pictures on it!! :eek:

So... in the end, it was cheaper to retake the pictures with another photographer and order the CD from her. After freaking out for about 24 hours, it ended up working out well and I actually liked the pictures even better than the first ones.

It seemed REALLY silly to get dressed up in the same outfits, go to the same places, etc... but in the end, it was okay!

We also booked Patricia Lejuene for our hair and makeup the day of the wedding! :cool1:

I've also been working on our plan of attack for the honeymoon -- DF has never been to Disney (gasp!) so I want to make sure we SEE everything, but I also don't want us to be dragging ourselves out of bed at 7am every morning and running until 9:00 that night. After all, it IS our honeymoon :rolleyes1

I've made dinner and lunch reservations at all the "must eat" places, and cordinated them around which parks we want to visit on which days. Some of it is flexible, because on the 2 days before the wedding we will probably hang out with our guests at whatever parks they decide to visit... but I think I got a pretty good idea of "the plan" and even managed to squeeze in 2 days at Universal Studios (Major Harry Potter fan here... ohhhh words can not express my excitement!!!!)

That's about all I have to report so far!!

Next on my list:
-- send out invitations/rsvps to those who are planning on coming to the wedding
-- book the Hoop Dee Doo Revue for our "rehearsal dinner"
-- wedding dress alterations (my dress is supposed to come in while we're on our cruise next month... I'm hoping and praying it gets here a week early so I can try it on before we leave!!)
-- flowers (Rosie is supposed to call me any day now...)

And, well, that's about it!!

We are SOOOOO close to double digits it's ridiculous.... and with our wedding shower in 2 weeks, a 12-day trip to Florida coming up a week after that (for a work conference and cruise... no Disney, this trip), immediately followed by Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, my siblings' birthdays, and football season (my absolute favorite time of the year, EVER) .... well, I know it's going to fly by super fast! :yay::yay::yay: