Wishes Wedding 1/17/11-WP/CG-TR Day 6, Last Day

[Jules~Marie]

Hi all,

I've never done anything like this before, but I've been reading some posts and I've realized there's not much info on people who've had their receptions at the California Grill. My fiance and I are having our reception in the restaurant, not in the smaller party rooms. I thought I might give this a try and post some information for anyone else planning on having their reception at the CG as well.

I'm not really entirely sure what I'm supposed to be writing, but I hope I'm doing this right....

About me~ My name is Julia and I'm 24. I live about 45 minutes away from the happiest place on Earth and my fiance and I try to get to Disney as much as we possibly can. We actually became good friends on a band trip to Disney World in 2003 and started dating shortly after.

My fiance's name is Eddie, also 24. He's wonderful with a camera and is really great at graphic design & photography. And he's into Disney as much as I am.

We got engaged in January 2010. I actually had already tentatively booked the Wedding Pavilion for 2011 before we even got engaged...I knew it was going to be happening soon, so I thought I'd get a head start on the planning. :) He asked me while we were spending a weekend in Sanibel, FL. We were on the balcony of our hotel room and there was far off lightning lighting up the sky and it was perfect.

I'm going to try my best to put info on here that I think would be helpful to other brides. I tend to stress little details and I'm already stressing things that are out of my control, like who's coming to FL and where they're staying and for how long, and making ADR's for our family members traveling to Disney for our wedding. We're going to our Planning Session on August 2nd, so hopefully I'll receive tons of information then.

[Disney9.9.10]

Congratulations and welcome! I am really excited to follow a pj for a CG wedding! I look forward to reading more!

[Jules~Marie]

Congratulations and welcome! I am really excited to follow a pj for a CG wedding! I look forward to reading more!

Thank you! I just started on here..I'm reading yours now and everything, I mean EVERYTHING, looks amazing. You seem to be the same way that I am about everything, I keep trying to get stuff done, but everyone keeps telling me that it's too early and I need to wait to do it (like get hair/makeup trial and rent the tux). It's nice to see someone else is on top of things. :)

[Bridie1996]

Congrats and welcome! You're getting married on our 1 year anniversary, so I'll definately be following along. popcorn::

[Jules~Marie]

Congrats and welcome! You're getting married on our 1 year anniversary, so I'll definately be following along. popcorn::

Thanks! Hopefully I have something interesting to report...right now not much is happening, but I'm expecting things to pick up after the planning session. :)

[pixiegirl]

Congrats and welcome!! Can't wait to hear all of your plans!!

[Jules~Marie]

Congrats and welcome!! Can't wait to hear all of your plans!!

Thank you!

[Disney9.9.10]

Thank you! I just started on here..I'm reading yours now and everything, I mean EVERYTHING, looks amazing. You seem to be the same way that I am about everything, I keep trying to get stuff done, but everyone keeps telling me that it's too early and I need to wait to do it (like get hair/makeup trial and rent the tux). It's nice to see someone else is on top of things. :)

That is very nice of you to stop by and to have so many nice things to say!:goodvibes It is nice to see someone else like that - most days I am pretty sure it is an illness :rotfl: But I figure the more I get done early, the less I have to stress about later, right?

[Jules~Marie]

I thought I'd give some background info before I really start getting into this.

My fiance and I are both from Long Island. We went to the same high school, but hadn't really spoken until we went on our class trip to Disney.We really got along great and when we got back to NY, our relationship pretty much just took off.

I started planning our wedding about 2 months into our relationship. I just knew we'd be spending our lives together, so I figured I'd get a head start on the planning. Unfortunately, I didn't realize I'd be waiting another 7 years before we actually decided to seriously get married, but I guess all of the planning I've been doing has been good practice. We moved down to Florida about 3 years ago, and last November I took Eddie to Disney for his birthday (they were doing the free ticket on your bday promotion last year).

He had been resisting going to Disney since we moved down here, he thought it was too expensive. But I knew that once I got him there, he'd be addicted just as much as I am. And, lucky for me, it worked! We purchased season passes as our Christmas gift to each other, and I got back into planning my "make believe" wedding. (We still weren't engaged) Last summer, I found out how inexpensive a Disney wedding is compared to other options, so I really started getting in on Eddie about proposing. The thing about him being so laid back is that it also means he's extremely lazy. I knew he wanted to get married (he'd talked about it a lot), just the actual event of going to the store and getting a ring was taking a little longer than I wanted. I explained to him that we were getting married in January 2011, ring or no ring. ;) I called Disney and had them tentatively hold the WP for January 17,2011, and lucky for me we got engaged just 3 days later and everything just fell into place. :cloud9:

[pixiegirl]

That is really awesome that you took the initiative. I totally would have done the same thing. I was on the verge of telling DF we are doing this on this day so get your tux and be there. LOL!!!

[Jules~Marie]

That is really awesome that you took the initiative. I totally would have done the same thing. I was on the verge of telling DF we are doing this on this day so get your tux and be there. LOL!!!

lol i definitely understand...well my thoughts were, "we've been together for 7 years, everyone knows we're going to get married eventually, and I'd rather do it before I turn 25!" So, we're getting married one month before I turn 25...lol

[Jules~Marie]

I'm starting to get tired of making plans, but not really accomplishing anything! When we decided to do a Disney wedding, I didn't realize that everything was just up in the air until the last minute.

Most of our family lives in NY. We have 6 months til the wedding, and there's only 3 rooms booked...my sister booked (she lives in FL, and she's my MOH), my brother booked (I just decided to book the room for him, he's more of the "tell me when and where to go, and I'll be there" type of person) and my room is booked. I'm starting to stress. Supposedly we have about 30 people that will be at our wedding. I think we're inviting around 70 or so, with the thought that most wont make it down. But I'm starting to lose it over the thought that some people will surprise us and just come to the wedding. I know a lot of people are seeing our wedding as a mini reunion, which I think is great, I just wish they would let me know what their plans are! My DF thinks I'm crazy and that I just need to relax and wait until our invitations go out (but that's not for another 3+ months!!!!).

Ok, I'm from a family of planners, we plan everything out (well my mom, sister and I plan). Apparently, Eddie's family isn't so much into the planning, and I'm the crazy one for wanting to know who's coming to FL and when and how long they'll be here for. I don't think that's so crazy! We need to start making dining reservations, and figuring out our time line for the wedding weekend....ugh. Oh well, I guess I need to be patient. That seems to be the theme of this wedding...learning patience....lol

I just don't know how anyone else deals with everything that goes into planning these weddings. I can't even keep my thoughts together, this is so not like me. Normally I'm very organized, but with the wedding, I'll have a great idea, and 2 minutes later I'm thinking about something else with the wedding and completely forgetting my great idea....I guess that's why i started this pj, just so I have somewhere to organize my thoughts. Here's hoping..

[pixiegirl]

I know what you mean!! I do the same thing I think of something and then I forget I have started carrying around a notebook and pen in my purse so if I think of something I can write it down. I am very much a planner and hate when things are up in the air!!! It will get better!!! Hang in there!!

[Jules~Marie]

Ok, so I'm really into the idea of having a groom's cake at the wedding. We're going to be having about 40 people at the wedding, and DF really wants to have a big traditional cake (regardless of the fact that we wont have many people). So now I'm thinking it'd be silly to have a groom's cake...we'll probably have way too much dessert. But honestly, I just really want to surprise him with a cake, so I guess it doesn't really matter about how much dessert we have left over.

I emailed Jen (wedding planners assist.) a picture of this really cool Mets cake that I found. It's the homerun apple coming out of the top hat, and I just really think df would flip if he saw this. He'd be so excited. She emailed me back that the pastry chef said to recreate the cake, it would be "very expensive" and they wanted to know what my budget for the grooms cake is. I have no idea what the budget should be! I was thinking around $300? Does that sound reasonable? It worries me that all they said was it would be "very expensive". What does that mean? Couldn't they just give me a ballpark figure? "Very expensive" just seems very ominous to me...

Also...I haven't booked a photographer for the wedding. Is this something I should have done? I thought you had to go through Disney for the photographer...I'm starting to freak out now. I'm going to our planning session on the 2nd of August, so I guess I'll get more info then...What has everyone else done for photography? I want to have the MK photo session so I thought we needed to have a Disney photographer for that.

Thanks for any help you can give!!! I feel so confused now! :scared1:

[Mydisneywedding]

Hi Julia

Congratulations on your wedding... I totally understand you. My wedding is on 1/6/11 and I am having issues with people booking their plan tickets from NY. We are paying for their hotel stay so all they need to do is book their flights, it's 5 months away and not one has done it.

I am a planner myself so this is driving me insane..

About the cake, if they said VERY EXPENSIVE... count on it being over $1000 and I am being nice. I asked for a price for a simple NY Yankees cake for my little cousin who will be celebrating a birthday during our wedding and a simple cake with the Yankees logo, made from fondant was quoted $850

I know I am not much help but I just wanted you to know that you are not the only one out there who is going insane... If you need to vent feel free to do so :)

[Jules~Marie]

Hi Julia

Congratulations on your wedding... I totally understand you. My wedding is on 1/6/11 and I am having issues with people booking their plan tickets from NY. We are paying for their hotel stay so all they need to do is book their flights, it's 5 months away and not one has done it.

I am a planner myself so this is driving me insane..

About the cake, if they said VERY EXPENSIVE... count on it being over $1000 and I am being nice. I asked for a price for a simple NY Yankees cake for my little cousin who will be celebrating a birthday during our wedding and a simple cake with the Yankees logo, made from fondant was quoted $850

I know I am not much help but I just wanted you to know that you are not the only one out there who is going insane... If you need to vent feel free to do so :)

Thank you for the response! I can't believe it'd be so much!!! That's so disappointing, but I do appreciate the heads up. I guess I'll just have to figure out something else. I can't believe no one has booked their flights! I guess maybe they just don't understand the fact that yeah, it is 5 months away, but if you don't book now flights will get more expensive and then it's the holidays and no one will even be thinking about the wedding...Oh well, I guess you just can't force these things. :confused3 And yeah, I'm sure there will be more venting to come lol :laughing:

[Jules~Marie]

Ok, I am so confused! :confused:

I haven't booked a photographer because I thought that you had to go through Disney and that they assigned a photographer to you...does anyone know if this is true? I want to do the MK photo session, so I thought you had to use a Disney photographer in order to have that. I'm less than 6 months to the wedding now, and I'm starting to panic that I'm not going to like my photographer (if I even get one now!).

Also, my sister's been begging me to get engagement photos taken. I was thinking that was a good idea being as I'm very shy and uncomfortable being the center of attention, so I figured if we do the engagement shoot, it'd prepare me for the wedding day. So i was looking at Disney, and they do an engagement package for $310.00. Is this a good price? Does anyone know if Disney photographers are good? I guess I'm assuming they're good at what they do since they work for Disney..but now I'm starting to think that I should've put more thought into my photography.

If anyone can help me or maybe has a suggestion for what I should do, I would really really appreciate it! Thanks! :)

[D23Bride]

Hi Jules!
Congrats on your engagement & setting a date. You’re only two days after us. We also thinking of having a MK photo session & a dessert party. I’m actually hoping that we can schedule the MK photo session on the 17th, the day of your wedding :) I’ve contacted my planner but haven’t heard back yet. Did you schedule your MK session yet? As of now we’ve book our photographer, officiant & hair& makeup. We decided not to use a Disney photographer for the wedding. If you read thru the blogs you’ll see what other brides have to say about Disney photographers. We are going to use Disney’s videographer for the wedding, reception & dessert party. Our planning session is not till November so everything else will have to wait till then. Oh & we’ve also put a request for a DJ we’re still waiting to hear back. I spoke to our WP assistant in regard to the invitations & she said that the RSVP date should be at least 90 before your wedding date. So that puts us at October-ish. Our invitations should be ready in a week or so & as soon as we get them we’re mailing them out. Like you I have lots of family coming from NY (we're also from LI:woohoo:) so I want everyone to have plenty of time to book flights, hotel, & take time off from work if need be. Don’t know if this is of any help to you but if you have any questions please ask away.

Yay for January 2011 brides!!! :cool1:

[D23Bride]

I agree with your sister you should do an engagement photo session. We also doing one in November. I think it's a great way for you to build a relationship with your photographer this way the day of your wedding you'll be more comfortable with them. Plus you'll always have those pictures of you & your DF;) Our photography package includes the engagement session.

You're right about being assigned a Disney photographer so I wouldn't worry about booking one if thats who you want.

[April Elizabeth]

Just joining in here! I love Sanibel Island. I can visualize the balcony scene when he asked you to marry him. Very romantic!:worship:

I think the Mets cake would be cool. Hopefully it won't be that expensive because it's such a good idea.

I'm using David and Vicki Arndt for my wedding day, rehearsal dinner/DP at the GF Marina, Engagement pictures, and maybe even Trash the Dress pictures. I love all the pictures and slideshows I've seen here on the boards and on their facebook page and website. I live in Orlando and was able to check out a lot of the local photographers. I fell in love with them and their style. The engagement session is included in their packages.

I'm using DPS for my MK/BP and I'm requesting Regina for that.

[Jules~Marie]

Hi Jules!
Congrats on your engagement & setting a date. You’re only two days after us. We also thinking of having a MK photo session & a dessert party. I’m actually hoping that we can schedule the MK photo session on the 17th, the day of your wedding :) I’ve contacted my planner but haven’t heard back yet. Did you schedule your MK session yet? As of now we’ve book our photographer, officiant & hair& makeup. We decided not to use a Disney photographer for the wedding. If you read thru the blogs you’ll see what other brides have to say about Disney photographers. We are going to use Disney’s videographer for the wedding, reception & dessert party. Our planning session is not till November so everything else will have to wait till then. Oh & we’ve also put a request for a DJ we’re still waiting to hear back. I spoke to our WP assistant in regard to the invitations & she said that the RSVP date should be at least 90 before your wedding date. So that puts us at October-ish. Our invitations should be ready in a week or so & as soon as we get them we’re mailing them out. Like you I have lots of family coming from NY (we're also from LI:woohoo:) so I want everyone to have plenty of time to book flights, hotel, & take time off from work if need be. Don’t know if this is of any help to you but if you have any questions please ask away.

Yay for January 2011 brides!!! :cool1:

Thanks for your help! And yay for LI and January '11 brides!!! I miss LI more than anything! But at least now I'm much closer to Disney. :banana: I feel like I've been completely out of it! We have our officiant booked, and our videographer (we went with George from Apex Media). Other than that, I have nothing done! We're going to our planning session on August 2 so I guess I've been waiting to do stuff...I've had a hard time getting in touch with my planners and honestly, I never thought of asking them these questions. lol Are you using Disney for your DJ? How do you submit a request? Also, I want to have a dessert party, but I've been waiting until the planning session before I asked about it....was this something I should've booked a while ago? I've been searching for invitations online, and I'm waiting on a sample now, so hopefully we like it and can get those ordered and mailed out..Wow, what have I been doing these past 6 months??? :confused: Thank you for your help!!!!

[Jules~Marie]

Just joining in here! I love Sanibel Island. I can visualize the balcony scene when he asked you to marry him. Very romantic!:worship:

I think the Mets cake would be cool. Hopefully it won't be that expensive because it's such a good idea.

I'm using David and Vicki Arndt for my wedding day, rehearsal dinner/DP at the GF Marina, Engagement pictures, and maybe even Trash the Dress pictures. I love all the pictures and slideshows I've seen here on the boards and on their facebook page and website. I live in Orlando and was able to check out a lot of the local photographers. I fell in love with them and their style. The engagement session is included in their packages.

I'm using DPS for my MK/BP and I'm requesting Regina for that.

Thanks for the info! Sanibel is our absolute favorite place (well, 2nd favorite place, Disney will always be first :)) I haven't heard back from my planner about the cake after they told me it'd be very expensive. I sent a second picture, so I'm hoping to hear something soon. I would love to surprise df with it, but my mom had the idea of me getting the cake made somewhere else and having it in our room after the wedding...so I don't know, I might do that if Disney's prices are crazy.

I just went to David and Vicki Arndt's website, and their pictures are beautiful! There's a bride in the gallery wearing my dress! :eek: But the good news is, the dress looks amazing in the pictures! :woohoo: I requested info from them, so hopefully I'll hear back soon..I'm so upset with myself for being so laid back about the photography! And here I was thinking I was on top of my wedding stuff! :lmao:

[Jules~Marie]

Ok, I'm going to try to play around with uploading pictures here. It might take me a few tries, I'm not really that great with computers.

This first one is my ring, it's perfect and exactly what I wanted. I'm not into jewelry, I never wear any, so I really wanted a nice simple clean ring, without a lot of fuss on it..I think DF did really well. :love:

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_IMG_0879.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=IMG_0879.jpg)

We went to Disney for Valentines Day/my Birthday/to celebrate our engagement. When we were there, we went to Chef Mickey's for the first time. I LOVED it there!!! So much fun, and they made a big fuss about us being engaged, and everyone celebrated and they gave us a cupcake with a candle..it was so sweet, I will always remember it.:)
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_DSC01821.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=DSC01821.jpg)

And this is when we got engaged in Sanibel. We were getting ready to go to our favorite restaurant at the resort, and I have to admit, I was getting a little irritated at DF because I knew he wasn't getting ready, I could see him out on the balcony just standing around, so finally I went out there to find out what he was doing, and that's when he got down on one knee.:lovestruc I was totally surprised and soooo excited! I think the picture speaks for itself :lmao:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_DSC01767.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=DSC01767.jpg)

[Jules~Marie]

And now I have some pictures of my wedding gown and all that fun stuff.

I know it's really small, but I don't know how to fix it. Also, I don't have a good shot of the front of the dress on me.
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_P_8350_5_181834.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=P_8350_5_181834.jpg)
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10101.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10101.jpg)
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_Print8x10.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=Print8x10.jpg)
This one has my MOH/Bridesmaid dress..they're going to wear the same dress, I'm just not sure if I'm going to have my MOH have a soft pink bow instead of the one in the picture. Our colors are latte with pink accents. And I really like the bouquet with the tulips, I was thinking of having that bouquet for myself, and then having the girls walk down with just the pink tulips, but I was told they're not in season in January, so we'll see if I can get something else.
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_floating-candle-centerpiece.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=floating-candle-centerpiece.jpg)
We really like candles for centerpieces, so we're hoping we can get something like this.
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_cake.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=cake.jpg)
And we also like this cake, only I think we'd like it in a soft pink color...I dont know....still deciding on that.
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_Hair4.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=Hair4.jpg)
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_Hair3.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=Hair3.jpg)
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_Hair1.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=Hair1.jpg)
And I'm almost completely sure I want this hairstyle. I have naturally curly hair, and I definitely don't want to wear it down because I know it will frizz and drive me crazy. My only thing is, my mom and sister are pushing really hard for me to get a tiara...I really don't think that's my style, but they keep saying "You're getting married in Disney, of course you need a tiara!". Ok, I'm not the princess type girl..I got the dress because my mom liked it, I really didn't care too much for it, and now I'm going to be wearing a tiara??! I don't know, what do you ladies think? Should I wear one?

[Jules~Marie]

Ok, I know this is my third post this morning, but I'm starting to get really excited! I feel like I'm back on track with the wedding. Thanks to the advice of April Elizabeth, we booked David and Vicki Arndt! I looked through their sites yesterday, and loved everything I saw, so I emailed them, and Vicki was so pleasant and so quick with her replies. I really appreciated that. So now she's sending the contract and we'll be good to go! I feel so relieved about that. :yay:

Also, I've lost 18 pounds so far and I feel so great. :cool1: I really don't think I want to lost anymore weight, but now it's time to tone up. I've just been dieting since March, haven't really exercised. I have a hard time with it because I have 4 herniated discs in my back, but I will just make sure I exercise right and I should be ok. We'll see how it goes. :)

I am a little lost when it comes to booking my hair/makeup for the wedding. Does anyone have any suggestions? I've been emailing Janet from On Site Beauty, has anyone dealt with her? I'm not sure when I should get my trial done. My sister says I should wait til it's closer to the wedding, but I don't want to miss out on booking a talented hairdresser. Also, now that we booked the Arndt's we have our engagement photo session to prepare for. I figure we'll do that in November, when it's cooler outside (Florida is just too gross in the summer, ugh). Maybe I should get my hair trial done at the same time?

Thanks for the help! Hope everyone has a great weekend!!! :dance3:

[Bridie1996]

I just gave a quick persual of your PJ, and just thought I'd drop in to give a few suggestions-


#1: if you haven't downloaded it already, get the passporter's book on Disney Weddings! It will answer tons of questions, even ones you don't know you have.

#2- Photography: I used Randy Chapman and DPS ( i had an escape wedding), but if I were planning now I'd also look into Jess Cumbie. Her photos are great and she is very sweet ( I've friended her on Facebook so I know where to find her for future reference). The Arndts are great too though, so you can't go wrong with them!

#3-For hair and makeup, check out other brides' TRs for their vendor reviews! I used Patricia Lejune for the wedding day and Beauty Especial for the MK photoshoot the next day and both did a great job. :) Most brides use their engagement sessions to do the hair/makeup trial- kills two birds with one stone!

#4- The Tiara. Do what YOU want, not what your mom and sister say you should do. I had something that was a a cross b/w a tiara and a headband. Very subtle. OF course, there have been brides with an all-out tiara on too! Either way decide which fits your style, and go with it.;)


Hope that helps!

[tinkerbell 766]

Ok, so I'm really into the idea of having a groom's cake at the wedding. We're going to be having about 40 people at the wedding, and DF really wants to have a big traditional cake (regardless of the fact that we wont have many people). So now I'm thinking it'd be silly to have a groom's cake...we'll probably have way too much dessert. But honestly, I just really want to surprise him with a cake, so I guess it doesn't really matter about how much dessert we have left over.

I emailed Jen (wedding planners assist.) a picture of this really cool Mets cake that I found. It's the homerun apple coming out of the top hat, and I just really think df would flip if he saw this. He'd be so excited. She emailed me back that the pastry chef said to recreate the cake, it would be "very expensive" and they wanted to know what my budget for the grooms cake is. I have no idea what the budget should be! I was thinking around $300? Does that sound reasonable? It worries me that all they said was it would be "very expensive". What does that mean? Couldn't they just give me a ballpark figure? "Very expensive" just seems very ominous to me...

Also...I haven't booked a photographer for the wedding. Is this something I should have done? I thought you had to go through Disney for the photographer...I'm starting to freak out now. I'm going to our planning session on the 2nd of August, so I guess I'll get more info then...What has everyone else done for photography? I want to have the MK photo session so I thought we needed to have a Disney photographer for that.

Thanks for any help you can give!!! I feel so confused now! :scared1:

Could you have your grooms cake at ,say, your rehersal dinner (if that is at a restaurant, that way an outside cake artist could make it and I am sure it will be tons cheaper!!! I recommend Heather at 'It's Tasty Too'!! Good Luck

[Jules~Marie]

I just gave a quick persual of your PJ, and just thought I'd drop in to give a few suggestions-


#1: if you haven't downloaded it already, get the passporter's book on Disney Weddings! It will answer tons of questions, even ones you don't know you have.

#2- Photography: I used Randy Chapman and DPS ( i had an escape wedding), but if I were planning now I'd also look into Jess Cumbie. Her photos are great and she is very sweet ( I've friended her on Facebook so I know where to find her for future reference). The Arndts are great too though, so you can't go wrong with them!

#3-For hair and makeup, check out other brides' TRs for their vendor reviews! I used Patricia Lejune for the wedding day and Beauty Especial for the MK photoshoot the next day and both did a great job. :) Most brides use their engagement sessions to do the hair/makeup trial- kills two birds with one stone!

#4- The Tiara. Do what YOU want, not what your mom and sister say you should do. I had something that was a a cross b/w a tiara and a headband. Very subtle. OF course, there have been brides with an all-out tiara on too! Either way decide which fits your style, and go with it.;)


Hope that helps!

Thank you so much for the advice!!!! I did get the passporters book and I LOVE it, perhaps I'll go read it again, it's been a few weeks since I last looked at it. :) I really appreciate the help, I'm going to check into the photographers you suggested. It gets confusing, every vendor I check out looks amazing! I can't decide on any one person lol. I've been reading other bride's posts and Beaute Speciale comes up so often, I'm definitely going to look into them further, and I have also seen Patricia Lejune mentioned.Man, there's so much to consider!!! And I suppose I just need to try a tiara on and see what I think, I have been thinking of getting a headband so maybe that'll make everyone happy. Thanks again!! Have a great weekend. :yay:

[Jules~Marie]

Could you have your grooms cake at ,say, your rehersal dinner (if that is at a restaurant, that way an outside cake artist could make it and I am sure it will be tons cheaper!!! I recommend Heather at 'It's Tasty Too'!! Good Luck

Oh, that's a good idea! I'll have to check into that. We haven't finalized anything yet for the rehearsal dinner, but that would definitely be a nice surprise! Thanks for the advice!!! :banana:

[alwaysdisney]

Thank you for the response! I can't believe it'd be so much!!! That's so disappointing, but I do appreciate the heads up. I guess I'll just have to figure out something else. I can't believe no one has booked their flights! I guess maybe they just don't understand the fact that yeah, it is 5 months away, but if you don't book now flights will get more expensive and then it's the holidays and no one will even be thinking about the wedding...Oh well, I guess you just can't force these things. :confused3 And yeah, I'm sure there will be more venting to come lol :laughing:

I know what you mean, I've got family members that have not booked yet and I guess everyone is waiting for summer to get over with. I booked our flights, my DF, mine, my step kids flights back in January for the week after Thanksgiving. Hey, if they want to spend more money, then that's up to them but I don't want to hear any complaints.

[April Elizabeth]

Ok, I know this is my third post this morning, but I'm starting to get really excited! I feel like I'm back on track with the wedding. Thanks to the advice of April Elizabeth, we booked David and Vicki Arndt! I looked through their sites yesterday, and loved everything I saw, so I emailed them, and Vicki was so pleasant and so quick with her replies. I really appreciated that. So now she's sending the contract and we'll be good to go! I feel so relieved about that. :yay:

Also, I've lost 18 pounds so far and I feel so great. :cool1: I really don't think I want to lost anymore weight, but now it's time to tone up. I've just been dieting since March, haven't really exercised. I have a hard time with it because I have 4 herniated discs in my back, but I will just make sure I exercise right and I should be ok. We'll see how it goes. :)

I am a little lost when it comes to booking my hair/makeup for the wedding. Does anyone have any suggestions? I've been emailing Janet from On Site Beauty, has anyone dealt with her? I'm not sure when I should get my trial done. My sister says I should wait til it's closer to the wedding, but I don't want to miss out on booking a talented hairdresser. Also, now that we booked the Arndt's we have our engagement photo session to prepare for. I figure we'll do that in November, when it's cooler outside (Florida is just too gross in the summer, ugh). Maybe I should get my hair trial done at the same time?

Thanks for the help! Hope everyone has a great weekend!!! :dance3:

Congratulations on booking David and Vicki! You'll love them! They've done so much with Disney and I've never seen anything of theirs that I didn't love. That's funny how you saw your dress in their galleries. It's got to be a sign, right? :goodvibes Oh, and I love your dress! It's beautiful! The back of the dress is very pretty!

I'm using Ana and her team with Beaute Speciale and will be doing my e-pics after the hair and make-up trial run.

Loving everything so far! Can't wait to hear more!popcorn::



I love your ring too!

[Jules~Marie]

Congratulations on booking David and Vicki! You'll love them! They've done so much with Disney and I've never seen anything of theirs that I didn't love. That's funny how you saw your dress in their galleries. It's got to be a sign, right? :goodvibes Oh, and I love your dress! It's beautiful! The back of the dress is very pretty!

I'm using Ana and her team with Beaute Speciale and will be doing my e-pics after the hair and make-up trial run.

Loving everything so far! Can't wait to hear more!popcorn::



I love your ring too!

Thanks! Yeah, I'm really excited that I booked David & Vicki. She's been so helpful already, I'm so happy. And I totally think it's a sign that I saw my dress!!! I sent an email to Beaute Speciale and to Patricia Lejeune requesting more info from them, so hopefully I'll hear back from them sometime this week and finally make a decision. :)

[Jules~Marie]

While DF is spending the weekend playing some game on his PS3, I've decided to work a little on my PJ. Being as we're paying for this wedding ourselves, we have no life anymore. Every bit of extra money we have is going towards the wedding fund, but it seems like that fund never gets any bigger!!! :confused3 Since we have no money to spend, our weekends consist of me either reading other people's pj's or obsessing over some other wedding related detail.

Today I'm back to obsessing over the ADR's I've made for the wedding weekend. I booked a few different restaurants, but I'm so confused as to what to do. We still only have a general idea of how many people will be at the wedding, and then we also don't know how many people will be staying in Disney and then we don't know how many people will have park tickets! :eek: I keep giving myself headaches trying to figure out what's going to be happening! So what I've done for now is just made reservations for what I think might happen and I guess as it gets closer to the wedding and we get a more definitive guest list, I will make changes accordingly.

My tentative list of ADRs as well as a time-line of events:

Friday 1/14- arrive at Pop Century at around 6:30pm
Reservation at T-Rex @ 8:00 pm (I'm not really into this one, but my DF has always wanted to go there, and we're going to be dining with his parents, who will probably get a kick out of the place)

Saturday 1/15-Teppan Edo @ 5:00pm, Reservation for 10 people followed by Men "drinking around the world" and women going to JellyRolls.

Sunday 1/16-Chef Mickeys @ 10:00am, Reservation for 10 people.
Then since we're hosting a DP as our welcome event, we're going to have the option for everyone to have dinner with us if they would like to. We will not be paying for this, so we're going to try to keep it inexpensive for everyone.

I've made 3 reservations for Sunday night, and I'm going to let everyone decide on which one they'd prefer to go to. The first reservation is at the Captains Grille, second is for 'Ohana, and the third is at Planet Hollywood. The people traveling to the wedding aren't into the really fancy foods, so I tried to pick places that would have something for everyone. My only issue is that Disney only allows you to book up to 10 people online, and Planet Hollywood only allows up to 6. I guess we'll see what happens.

On Monday 1/17 we're getting married at 10am, with a reception at the California Grill until 3. After that, everyone is going to be left alone to do whatever they want. DF and I have made a reservation at Narcoossee's for 8:30, and we're thinking of making it a Sweetheart Dinner for Two.

And finally on 1/18 I made a reservation at Grand Floridian Cafe for dinner. I'm not sure how many people are staying the day after the wedding, but I figure I might as well make a reservation just in case. I've never eaten here, so I'm not sure what to expect.

Does this sound good to anyone? I'm open to suggestions, I just need to keep in mind that most people aren't looking for fancy restaurants in my party, and since our wedding is going to be formal, we're trying to make the rest of the weekend fun and carefree. Also, I'm trying to book places outside of the parks, since I don't know who will be purchasing park tickets. I haven't eaten at most of the restaurants I've made reservations for, so I'm really relying on outside opinions here.

Wow, this is a long post! :lmao: Sorry about that, I just am glad that I have this journal to get everything off my chest, because I'm sure DF is sick and tired of me talking and obsessing about the wedding to him. :rotfl:

[Jules~Marie]

So I've been planning all day. Finally revisited my passporters wedding sheets and updated all of my contact info and payments sent and so on. Also, finally created a spreadsheet for our guest list, so once we buy those invitations, I'll be able to track the RSVP's with little hassle. (hopefully)

I thought I'd add a picture of the engagement notice that my wonderful DF made and sent out back in January (can't believe that was more than 6 months ago!).

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_engagement.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=engagement.jpg)

176 days to go!! And 8 days until our planning session!!! :banana::dance3::yay::cool1:

[Kristinella]

Just got all caught up on your plans! Looking good...do you feel like you got something accomplished today? I have been doing some wedding research of my own all day today too! Isn't it great?:rotfl:

Are you feeling like things are starting to come together a little bit more?! I hope so...

Well I will be following along with your pj...looking forward to more updates :goodvibes

[pezaddict231]

Just catching up on everything. I'm from LI too, and I can tell you that it's about three weeks until our wedding and I suspect there are still a few people that have not booked their room or flights! So don't stress too much about what other people do, it will drive you crazy, I feel like most of our guests booked their room and flights about three months before, even though I gave them a ton of info a year in advance :rolleyes:.

Your dress looks beautiful, congrats on booking your photographers. I found that really at the six month mark or so things started moving along, so don't feel behind, Disney weddings are kind of on a different timeline ;).

For make-up I think you can't go wrong with Beaute Speciale or Patricia LeJeune. I'm using Beaute Speciale and have been very happy with them, I had my make-up done for our epics last June and had a trial in March.

Looking forward to hearing more. :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

Just catching up on everything. I'm from LI too, and I can tell you that it's about three weeks until our wedding and I suspect there are still a few people that have not booked their room or flights! So don't stress too much about what other people do, it will drive you crazy, I feel like most of our guests booked their room and flights about three months before, even though I gave them a ton of info a year in advance :rolleyes:.

Your dress looks beautiful, congrats on booking your photographers. I found that really at the six month mark or so things started moving along, so don't feel behind, Disney weddings are kind of on a different timeline ;).

For make-up I think you can't go wrong with Beaute Speciale or Patricia LeJeune. I'm using Beaute Speciale and have been very happy with them, I had my make-up done for our epics last June and had a trial in March.

Looking forward to hearing more. :goodvibes

Thanks, I think I've come to realize that I can't control what everyone else is doing. We're going to be sending out our invitations, and I'll just wait until we get the RSVPs back before stressing anymore. And it's true, it does seem like things are starting to pick up...and I've noticed the more things pick up, the more money we're spending! :laughing: Oh well, knew that was going to happen eventually. :)

I'm hoping to go with Patricia LeJeune. I emailed her over the weekend, and I'm waiting for a reply back. I'm just not sold on the idea of signing a contract before having a trial done. And from what i understand, Beaute Speciale has you sign and deposit $50. So I probably won't be going with them. I could be wrong about that. I don't know though, I'm still deciding.I just can't seem to make up my mind. :rolleyes1

[Jules~Marie]

Just got all caught up on your plans! Looking good...do you feel like you got something accomplished today? I have been doing some wedding research of my own all day today too! Isn't it great?:rotfl:

Are you feeling like things are starting to come together a little bit more?! I hope so...

Well I will be following along with your pj...looking forward to more updates :goodvibes

It does seem like things are starting to come together. I'm starting to see that as the week progresses, I start to slowly slip into panic mode about wedding things, and then once the weekend hits I'm in such a frenzy over the wedding that I focus only on wedding things, and then after hours of making lists and reading pj's, I calm myself down. :rotfl: But it's Tuesday, and I can already feel the panic creeping up! :laughing:

Thanks for following! :cool1:

[April Elizabeth]

I love the engagement notice! :goodvibes I agree with you about signing anything. Especially with hair and make-up before you do the trial run. What if you don't like it? I didn't know about signing a contract before the trial. I'm not having my e-pics done until this winter but wanted to do them the same day I do the hair and make-up. Let me know what you find out.

[Jules~Marie]

I love the engagement notice! :goodvibes I agree with you about signing anything. Especially with hair and make-up before you do the trial run. What if you don't like it? I didn't know about signing a contract before the trial. I'm not having my e-pics done until this winter but wanted to do them the same day I do the hair and make-up. Let me know what you find out.


Thanks, I think Eddie did a great job with the notices myself :teeth:.I looked at the email I received from Beaute Speciale and I think I misread it the first time. It says a $50 deposit is required to book each event, not a trial. I'm still debating on who I should use. I requested info from Patricia LeJeune, but so far haven't heard anything back. The only person I've had good contact with so far is Janet from On Site Beauty. I think I want to have our e-pics done in November, so I still have some time to figure out who to go with (I hope there's still time, I'm not sure how far in advance we're supposed to book these things :confused:).

[DisneyDiva84]

Love your engagement notices! They are so cute!

[Jules~Marie]

Love your engagement notices! They are so cute!

Thank you! :goodvibes

[pezaddict231]

Thanks, I think I've come to realize that I can't control what everyone else is doing. We're going to be sending out our invitations, and I'll just wait until we get the RSVPs back before stressing anymore. And it's true, it does seem like things are starting to pick up...and I've noticed the more things pick up, the more money we're spending! :laughing: Oh well, knew that was going to happen eventually. :)

I'm hoping to go with Patricia LeJeune. I emailed her over the weekend, and I'm waiting for a reply back. I'm just not sold on the idea of signing a contract before having a trial done. And from what i understand, Beaute Speciale has you sign and deposit $50. So I probably won't be going with them. I could be wrong about that. I don't know though, I'm still deciding.I just can't seem to make up my mind. :rolleyes1

That's a good plan, you can't help what they do, so don't worry too much about it and in the end it'll all work out. :goodvibes

I'm not sure how Patricia's contract works but I'm pretty sure I could cancel with Beaute Speciale up until two weeks before the wedding. You do leave a $50 deposit, they just apply that to whatever services you're getting done, and most of my girls are getting their hair and make-up but we didn't have to do a separate deposit for each of them. I'm sure Patricia probably has something similar though and it couldn't hurt to ask.

[April Elizabeth]

Thanks, I think Eddie did a great job with the notices myself :teeth:.I looked at the email I received from Beaute Speciale and I think I misread it the first time. It says a $50 deposit is required to book each event, not a trial. I'm still debating on who I should use. I requested info from Patricia LeJeune, but so far haven't heard anything back. The only person I've had good contact with so far is Janet from On Site Beauty. I think I want to have our e-pics done in November, so I still have some time to figure out who to go with (I hope there's still time, I'm not sure how far in advance we're supposed to book these things :confused:).

Eddie is a keeper!:goodvibes He did a great job. I love them.
I really don't know how soon you have to book your hair and make-up for the trial. I know I want to do my e-pics with D & V when it's a little cooler. I'm trying to lose some weight too. I officially booked my photography and I've been telling everyone I'm using BS for my hair and make up but haven't officially booked with BS. I hear good things about Beaute Speciale and Patricia all the time. I've got to tell you though, I love it when the vendors answer my e-mails or calls promptly.

[Jules~Marie]

Thanks for the info ladies. :goodvibes I got an email last night from Patricia Lejeune, basically it just gave an outline of how their deposits work. I requested more info from them to see if they can also do any predawn services and if there's any additional fees for that. We shall see what happens.

So, I finally got a response from Jen about Eddie's surprise grooms cake! The chef had said the cake ideas I sent him would be well above my $300 budget, so he went ahead and made a proposal for me. Here's what he sent me:

"I can do a ½ sheet cake, Mets colors around the sides. A print of the New York skyline, and the Mets logo “shadowboxed” on top of that. On the corners of the cakes I can probably find a couple of the current Mets players, print them out, and shadowbox then on top of the skyline as well. This would be about $250, and still look nice."

I was so excited when I read what he came up with! :cool1: I think his idea is great (although I don't know what "shadowboxed" is lol), and I really appreciate the fact that he came up with a great idea that will make both Eddie and me happy and keep below our budget. :cheer2:

I also received a response from Ken on our Magic Kingdom portrait session. We're booked for 6am on January 18th!!! Yay! I hadn't realized that I should've booked that long ago, but I guess it doesn't matter since they had the date we wanted available. :yay: I'm trying to get DF to agree to adding another park to the session, but so far he hasn't caved. :rotfl: I'll keep working on it, I'm sure I can wear him down eventually. :lmao:

I've emailed Jen and Ken to see about doing a DP in Epcot. They haven't gotten back to me yet, but I'm hoping we can go over it some more at the planning session. (in 4 days!!!)

We also purchased our invitations. When we got the email to approve the invitations, we realized we ordered the wrong colors!!! :eek: We wanted brown with pink, but the website defaulted back to the original color of brown and ivory! :scared1: The email with the proof says they won't change the color, so today DF is going to call them and beg and plead to change the color. We're willing to pay whatever the difference is to have the invitations printed on pink paper, so I'm hoping they'll be accommodating. :worried: So for now it's another waiting game... :rolleyes1

[DisneyDiva84]

YAY your planning is coming along great! I feel like I checked your PJ maybe a day and a half ago and there is like double the stuff now! WAY to go! :yay:

I am using Patricia LeJune and honestly I was super worried prior to the Engagment Session but she is so carefree and totally listens to anything you may want or need and BONUS she's super easy to talk with. She actually took down my curls/styled the bridal style/took pics/and started styling for the engagement pics by the time Alex was out of the shower so he didn't see anything :thumbsup2. I can't say anything about the other choices but from the reports on the boards they all have gone over great!

And on the CA Grill either way you choose will be awesome. I have seen pics of people using the restaurant and it looks great. When I was originally signed up for the CA restaurant, my planner offered blocking off a segmant of the restaurant for our group...maybe that's an option :) Either way just go with what you feel will be best and in the end it will be ;)

Can't wait to read more popcorn::

[Jules~Marie]

So yesterday we went to our planning session! :cool1:

It was so much fun! We took my mom and sister (moh) along with us. I value both their opinions, and my sister never got to do a cake tasting for her wedding, so I was happy she got to join us yesterday.


We arrived for our session at about 8:45. Since we were a little early, we had a chance to explore the area a little. They completely re-did Francks since we were last there in February. I think it looks so much better! It used to look like a giant, desperate show house, but now it's much more elegant. Definitely a big improvement. Since my mom and sister had never been to Francks, they were definitely taken by surprise when we pulled in. We only saw workers around the WP, but since I was told by Jen that we couldn't see it, I didn't let my family get close to the building. (I'm a freak about following rules lol). We waited in Francks for our planner to arrive. He had great news, we could see the WP!

We all went up to the WP, and yeah, we've seen it in pictures, but there is truly nothing like walking up to it in person. Ken opened the doors for us, and the sound system was playing "Can you feel the love tonight", which is the song I'm walking down the aisle to! No one but DF and Ken know that's my song. Hearing that playing and standing at the entrance just made everything so real. So yeah, that first view is breathtaking. Absolutely gorgeous. The castle looks amazing when you're standing there in real life. Pictures just don't dot this place justice. I walked down the aisle to get a better view, and when I turned around I see my mom crying her eyes out! :rotfl: She's so cute, she was all embarrassed, she wasn't expecting to be so emotional. So after we all picked our jaws up off the floor, Ken took us around to the Groom's Room and the Bride's Vestibule. Very cool. Then we walked around the property a little and made our way back to our PS room.

Once in the room, Ken jumped right into the planning. We were sitting at a round table, with me closest to Ken. Apparently since I'm the bride, I'm the one being asked all the questions! I felt so embarrassed having to answer everything. But Ken really does make you feel comfortable. Right as we start getting into things like photography timeline and such, someone comes into the room to tell us a bride just arrived in Cinderella's coach. So we all went outside and watched her arrive and meet her groom. It was beautiful. But definitely not my style. So much money just for a picture in a glass case with horses. During the session, we discussed things like hand-held streamers instead of bubbles or petals during the exit, and transportation and cake styles. It was pretty much just going over the planning packet.

Next up we tried cake. I was so excited when he brought the tray in and there was Red Velvet cake on the platter!!! :woohoo: We tried the different flavors...eh...I'm not really into exotic flavors, so I wasn't really into any of the icings except the buttercream. My mom and sister were really pushing for almond with raspberry icing, but bleh, not for me or df. So we compromised and ended up getting bottom tier Red Velvet with buttercream, second tier Almond with buttercream and top tier Red Velvet with buttercream. Everyone can just deal with it. :laughing: We spent a while discussing different cake styles, and ended up picking a square cake, 3 tiers, its going to be bottom tier light pink, and then its going to fade up to the top tier to almost no pink at all, with the castle on top and scroll work on the body of the cake. Very pretty, and they're going to do the design to match the beading on my dress. I was very excited when Ken showed a picture of the layout for our reception. We can utilize a small space on the right side of the restaurant, with 4 round tables surrounding the dance floor, with our table against the window with the castle behind us. :love:

Next up, our floral planner came in. He was very nice. And since I have no clue about flowers and what looks good, he pretty much showed all kinds of pictures. I'm going to get a bouquet with white calla's, and light pink roses in the middle, supposedly they're going to be small so I can just get a little pink in there. My bridesmaids are going to get just the pink roses, and then we have DF with a calla bout., and the groomsmen will have pink roses, and the fathers will have white roses. Blah, boring lol. I honestly don't care about the flowers. Budget permitting, we're going to get a white aisle runner, with pink and white petals down the sides. No floral for the memorial candle. Our cocktail hour is same place as reception, not going to put anything there. For the reception, we're going to have 3 varying sizes of vases with candles floating, and a light pink rose in the water, with pale pink petals surrounding. Should be nice. Hopefully not too expensive. We're going to just use the standard white linens. No fuss. I did get excited for the dessert party. Ken told me earlier that he booked us for the UK Lochside, so I was really excited about that. For the party we're going to get the gel candles with the LED lights, in a pink color. :thumbsup2 I love those candles, so I'm excited and hopefully they aren't too crazy expensive.

After going over our decor, we pretty much were done. Ken came back in, he told us when we'd receive our BEO (apparently he's been on vacation and is really backed up with work, so it's going to be WEEKS!!!). It's ok, we've got a while til the wedding, but I know it's going to take a lot of patience on my part! I want to see where we are budget wise. I already know I'm going to be cutting the chartered buses, for some reason my sister and Ken both kept pushing that we get these buses, but no, I'm not into how expensive they are. Everyone can drive themselves, or we can get them the much cheaper vans.

So now it's yet another waiting game until we get our floral proposal and BEO. But boy, it sure was fun planning my wedding all day. I only wish our passes weren't blacked out, it's torture being so close to MK and not being able to go in! Probably wouldn't have been much fun in 100 degree heat anyway. :laughing:

[Jules~Marie]

I thought I'd share some pictures from the planning session. I didn't take many, but I thought I'd post them anyway.

My sister enjoying the sparkly cake :laughing:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10492.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10492.jpg)

Inside Francks
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10493.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10493.jpg)

DF looking at photos in Francks
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10494.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10494.jpg)

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10495.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10495.jpg)

Wedding Pavilion :love:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10496.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10496.jpg)

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10497.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10497.jpg)

And a pic of my mom in her MOB dress :goodvibes
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10470.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10470.jpg)

[LuvLuvLuv]

loving every post! you're just like me... i told my bf (we've lived together for 2 1/2 years) that April 22, 2013 he needs to be present at the yacht club, lol. i know the ring is coming, he just wants to make sure i get the right one, and i'm sure he'll wait till we're at the magic kingdom. so until then, i will plan a wdw trip every 6 months, lol!! can't wait to read more!

[Sccrmnky2005]

I thought I'd share some pictures from the planning session. I didn't take many, but I thought I'd post them anyway.

My sister enjoying the sparkly cake :laughing:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10492.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10492.jpg)

Inside Francks
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10493.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10493.jpg)

DF looking at photos in Francks
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10494.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10494.jpg)

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10495.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10495.jpg)

Wedding Pavilion :love:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10496.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10496.jpg)

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10497.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10497.jpg)

And a pic of my mom in her MOB dress :goodvibes
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10470.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10470.jpg)

I love everything so far!!! Where did you find your mom's dress? I LOVE IT!!!!!:love::love:

[pixie921]

Your PS sounds like it went great, and thanks so much for sharing the new pictures of Franck's! It looks very pretty. :goodvibes

And your mom looks gorgeous in her dress ... so elegant!

[Jules~Marie]

loving every post! you're just like me... i told my bf (we've lived together for 2 1/2 years) that April 22, 2013 he needs to be present at the yacht club, lol. i know the ring is coming, he just wants to make sure i get the right one, and i'm sure he'll wait till we're at the magic kingdom. so until then, i will plan a wdw trip every 6 months, lol!! can't wait to read more!

:rotfl: I love that you'll plan a wdw trip every 6 months until he proposes, that's basically what I did. I had us spend 3 days in Sanibel, FL every few months, and when I realized it wasn't happening, I gave him the deadline of January 2011. :laughing: Hopefully you get it on your next trip! :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

I love everything so far!!! Where did you find your mom's dress? I LOVE IT!!!!!:love::love:

Thanks! She got the dress at a small boutique here in FL, but I believe the designer is Jovani from New York. You can look at jovani.com and find this dress and others under the Evening gown section. She's walking me down the aisle along with my dad, so she wanted something a little more special than the traditional mother of the bride dresses. :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

Your PS sounds like it went great, and thanks so much for sharing the new pictures of Franck's! It looks very pretty. :goodvibes

And your mom looks gorgeous in her dress ... so elegant!

They did a wonderful job fixing up Franck's. It's much better than it used to be, in my opinion. And thanks! I absolutely love my mom's dress! She doesn't normally spend money on herself, so it did take a little bit of convincing on my part for her to buy it, but ultimately she realized how perfect the dress is and finally bought something she truly loved and looks great in. :yay:

[smileycrissy]

Originally Posted by Jules~Marie We all went up to the WP, and yeah, we've seen it in pictures, but there is truly nothing like walking up to it in person. Ken opened the doors for us, and the sound system was playing "Can you feel the love tonight", which is the song I'm walking down the aisle to! No one but DF and Ken know that's my song. Hearing that playing and standing at the entrance just made everything so real.

I read those lines and I instantly got goosebumps! That is so... magical is all I can say. :rotfl: Leave it to Disney to give you a magical moment on your planning session.

Firstly, congrats. I've just started to read your PJ and I feel connected with you. :hug:

DF and I just moved down from NY (Queens girl!) to FL this April and he proposed right before we left. We've always wanted to live in the land of the happy people and we finally got fed up with NY and decided to come down. It was a crazy move because we both had quit our jobs and are still unemployed. Luckily we had saved money so we're doing ok for now. We just celebrated our 10th anniversary(he knew he was going to get an earful if he hadn't proposed by then, I'm a patient person but that's crazy!).

I would love to do a Disney wedding but have been afraid of costs. Much like you, I'd have a small group probably in the 40-50 range. So I will definitely be following your posts to see how you are doing. You'll be my inspiration that maybe I can do a Disney wedding. :goodvibes

And you hubby-to-be sounds like such a sweetie. He did an awesome job on the ring and your engagement notices.

[Jules~Marie]

So we got our invitations in the mail yesterday! :cool1:

I thought I'd share a picture of the bridal party gifts. We bought these a couple of months ago. We're having 4 people in our party, my brother is the best man, brother in law is a groomsman, sister is the matron of honor and my aunt is a bridesmaid. :)

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10498.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10498.jpg)
The back left bag is a cooler for the groomsman, the bag next to it is a duffel bag for my brother. We bought my sister white gold hoop earrings, and we got Jessica the David Tutera carriage charm. It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but it's pretty and we're going to get her a bracelet to put the charm on.

And now for the invitations. We bought these from American Weddings, and they were so wonderful and easy to work with.
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10513.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10513.jpg)
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10512.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10512.jpg)
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10511.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10511.jpg)
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10510.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10510.jpg)
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_SDC10508.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=SDC10508.jpg)

[Jules~Marie]

I read those lines and I instantly got goosebumps! That is so... magical is all I can say. :rotfl: Leave it to Disney to give you a magical moment on your planning session.

Firstly, congrats. I've just started to read your PJ and I feel connected with you. :hug:

DF and I just moved down from NY (Queens girl!) to FL this April and he proposed right before we left. We've always wanted to live in the land of the happy people and we finally got fed up with NY and decided to come down. It was a crazy move because we both had quit our jobs and are still unemployed. Luckily we had saved money so we're doing ok for now. We just celebrated our 10th anniversary(he knew he was going to get an earful if he hadn't proposed by then, I'm a patient person but that's crazy!).

I would love to do a Disney wedding but have been afraid of costs. Much like you, I'd have a small group probably in the 40-50 range. So I will definitely be following your posts to see how you are doing. You'll be my inspiration that maybe I can do a Disney wedding. :goodvibes

And you hubby-to-be sounds like such a sweetie. He did an awesome job on the ring and your engagement notices.

Thanks! Yes, it was extremely emotional when I walked into the WP, very magical. :) And I understand when you say you feel connected, after reading these journals, you do feel a connection to the people telling their stories.

Yay for NY!!! :banana: I miss it there, but it's way better being down here, much closer to Disney. :rotfl: Good luck with the job thing pixiedust:, my brother is in the process of moving down, and I'm nervous he wont be able to find anything. It took my fiance 3 months to find a job. :eek: We weren't expecting that, and that was back in 2007 when the economy wasn't so bad.

I'm really hoping to keep the wedding right around the $10k minimum, so I will definitely be posting my BEO once I get it so everyone can see how hard (or hopefully easy) it is to have a beautiful wedding while still sticking to your budget. I am sweating it a little, it's nerve racking waiting for that first BEO! :scared: Hopefully it won't be so bad, we'll see what happens! :goodvibes

[DisneyDiva84]

Your planning session looks like it was AMAZING!

Everything sounds so great and I LOVE your invites! My mom just got her MOB dress too. It's black and to her knees because i told everyone to just give in and let me be the only one to die of heat lol. She was so cute in the store, she thought it was too sexy....lol but i'm like if i'm saying its okay hahah Mom's can be so much fun

[Sccrmnky2005]

Thanks! She got the dress at a small boutique here in FL, but I believe the designer is Jovani from New York. You can look at jovani.com and find this dress and others under the Evening gown section. She's walking me down the aisle along with my dad, so she wanted something a little more special than the traditional mother of the bride dresses. :goodvibes

I live in FL so I would love to know where you got it!!! And I would love to look at the store and see what they have for both MOB and MOG:banana:

[Jules~Marie]

I live in FL so I would love to know where you got it!!! And I would love to look at the store and see what they have for both MOB and MOG:banana:

I totally forgot that you're in FL! We got the dress at a boutique called Devi's Bridal. They're website is devibridal.com. They have some crazy outfits in there, but they also have some really nice items as well. Below is their address and phone number. Hope this helps. :goodvibes

10341 Cross Creek Blvd.
Suite B
Tampa, FL 33647

813-632-8815

[Jules~Marie]

Ok, so I hate photobucket. I can't figure out how to make my images bigger, and really I just don't care anymore. :confused3

So I got my pricing for floral and all that fun stuff. :) I'm actually really happy. We're only $400 over budget, and that's because we added the aisle runner and petals down the aisle, something I wasn't planning on doing. We probably will wind up cutting those things. I wasn't expecting the aisle runner to be $260. :scared1: I don't know, maybe that's an average price, but it's a little too much for me. I'm ok with walking on the carpet in the WP. I don't think guests will really care either way. I was excited to see that the ribbon wands for the staged exit are only $3.50 a person, even with them customizing the colors to match your wedding party. :cool1:

I'm actually pleasantly surprised. I was thinking everything would be crazy expensive (maybe because my mom keeps worrying me asking if we can afford this and that, it's driving me crazy! :rotfl:) Anyway, the centerpieces, which are going to be a set of 3 different size cylinders with a rose submerged and a floating candle on top, are only $120 total for the 4 tables. And then for the dessert party, we're having a cylinder filled with pink gel and 2 LED lights inside on 5 tables, and that's only $75.

The most expensive thing is my bouquet, at $300.00. :rolleyes1 I'm actually really nervous to see the bouquet. It's going to be white mini calla lilies, light pink roses, and light pink spray roses. I'm not sure what it's going to look like, but I'm sure it'll be fine. Honestly, the bouquet is one of the only things that I really don't care about. I might cut the floral refresh for the MK shoot the next morning. If the flowers don't look good, I just won't use it in the photos, right?

The bridesmaid/moh are going to have a bouquet of light pink roses and light pink spray roses, and those are $115 each.

We're going to have 4 bouts. Eddie's will be a white mini calla, for $15. The other 4 men will have either a pink rose or white rose and those are $10.50 each.

The 5 mothers/grandmother are going to have a white rose for their wrist, and that'll be $20 each.

We're also having a memorial candle at the ceremony. The candle is $35 and the glass hurricane for over the candle is $17.50.

So the grand total, including aisle runner and petals, is $1881.32. :yay: I'm pretty happy with that. Now all I need to do is hope and pray that we'll get a really good price back for our BEO and all will be great. ;)


PS-If anyone has any questions on pricing for anything, let me know. I'm sorry I can't figure out how to get the spreadsheet on here. Maybe I'll just copy and paste everything or something.

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_untitled-1-1.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=untitled-1-1.jpg)

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/th_untitled-1.jpg (http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/Wedding%20ideas/?action=view&current=untitled-1.jpg)

[April Elizabeth]

Thank you for posting your floral info. Sorry, I don't know much about photobucket or how to load pictures on here either. Hopefully someone can tell us how to do it.:)

[smileycrissy]

Your floral pricing sounds pretty good.

I don't blame you for walking on the carpet - $260 does sound a bit high for an aisle runner. I'd rather spend that on stuff that will be noticed. :)

Can't wait to see your BEO. I plan on showing it to DF and tell him 'See, we can do it!'. :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

I don't really have much to update on the wedding, just working on the newsletter and table cards and such..but we sent out our invitations last week and I'm so excited! We finally have someone outside the bridal party that booked their stay!!! :cool1: My cousin that I haven't seen in years is coming, he lives in Washington DC and I didn't even think he'd come, but he's booked for 4 nights. :banana: That really made it seem real now, having people outside actually start booking. Ah, just 147 more days to go. :goodvibes

[smileycrissy]

I don't really have much to update on the wedding, just working on the newsletter and table cards and such..but we sent out our invitations last week and I'm so excited! We finally have someone outside the bridal party that booked their stay!!! :cool1: My cousin that I haven't seen in years is coming, he lives in Washington DC and I didn't even think he'd come, but he's booked for 4 nights. :banana: That really made it seem real now, having people outside actually start booking. Ah, just 147 more days to go. :goodvibes


LOL - that sounds like updates to me! Glad to hear you are getting some responses back. :woohoo:

[Jules~Marie]

LOL - that sounds like updates to me! Glad to hear you are getting some responses back. :woohoo:

:rotfl: Hahah, I guess it's just not the type of update I'm waiting to write! I really want my BEO!!!! But, it's only been 3 weeks, and I know these things take a long time....it sucks trying to be patient. :laughing: I'm so excited to have someone actually booked for the wedding, it's just making everything so much more real...which can be scary too since I know our minimum is due in just under 2 months. :scared1:

[smileycrissy]

Don't think scary, think happy thoughts. :)

Think of this, you now have 145 days left. If we subtract 60 days (since that is 2 months) you have 85 days until the wedding. That's a happy thought since you'll be under the 100 mark. :banana: Try looking at it this way so that it doesn't seem so scary that you're handing over the money in 2 months. :)

[disfan melissa]

Just caught up on your planning and everything sounds great!!!
I love your centerpiece idea, I wish I had thought of that; I had the hardest time finding centerpieces!
Can't wait to read more about your plans!

[Jules~Marie]

Don't think scary, think happy thoughts. :)

Think of this, you now have 145 days left. If we subtract 60 days (since that is 2 months) you have 85 days until the wedding. That's a happy thought since you'll be under the 100 mark. :banana: Try looking at it this way so that it doesn't seem so scary that you're handing over the money in 2 months. :)

:rotfl: This made me smile when I read it. My sister and I have always used this sort of logic when talking about our age. We'd say, once we're 25, that's practically 30 which is basically 40 and when you're 40 you're almost dead....:lmao:yeah, I guess we have a fear of aging....but I like your way of thinking. yay for less than 85 days until the wedding! :banana::laughing:

[Jules~Marie]

Just caught up on your planning and everything sounds great!!!
I love your centerpiece idea, I wish I had thought of that; I had the hardest time finding centerpieces!
Can't wait to read more about your plans!

Thanks! :goodvibes I hope the centerpieces look nice, we're not really flower people, so we were very excited when we found the candle ones. :)

[Jules~Marie]

OK...I wish they had an emoticon guy that was throwing up or fainting. That would fit perfectly with how I feel about receiving our BEO. :rotfl::sick::scared::crazy2::faint: After looking, I found some that actually fit pretty well lol.

Anyway, we knew that when we received our budget from Disney that we'd be cutting a lot of things. We're going to do anything we possibly can to keep us near the $10,000 minimum. But it is a little nerve-racking when you see everything on that budget individually and then added together. Well, I was thinking I wouldn't post my initial BEO, because it's really not what we're going to be sticking to, but then I realized it's not fair to pretend this initial one never existed. We're here posting on these boards to get an idea of what to expect when planning a Disney wedding, and the truth is, the initial budget is freaking scary! :laughing: So I am going to post it. But I'm just going to type it out. It's easier than trying to post it, I'm not really computer literate. ;) Oh, and if this post doesn't really make sense, just remember that my head is in a fog right now, trying to find ways to cut costs is leaving me with an intense migraine lol.

There's multiple parts to the Estimated Event Budget Sheet. There's the Dessert Party, Wedding Ceremony, Wedding Cake, Pre Reception/Reception, and the Bridal Portrait Session. Everything in Red will most likely be cut or changed. Here goes:

Rehearsal Dinner/Dessert Party-
39 Illuminations Viewing Fee @12.95/guest ----- $537.88
1 Venue Pkg. United Kingdom Lochside @$250 each ----- $266.25
Catering Food & Beverage
39 *MOD*Classic Dessert Buffet 2010 @ $30/guest ----- $1507.72
Catering Fees and Equipment
1 Outdoor Set up Fee @$85 each ----- $90.53
Estimated Event Total: $2402.38

Wedding Ceremony/WP
1 Wedding Pavilion Usage @$3000.00 each ----- $3195.00
Florist
1 Floral Wedding Package @$1766.50 each ----- $1881.32
Transportation
1 Limousine- Charter (3hrs) @$282.48 each ----- $282.48
1 Motorcoach- Charter (7hrs) @$683.55 each ----- $683.55
Estimated Event Total $6042.35

Wedding Cake Delivery
Catering Food & Beverage
1 Wedding Cake-No Service Charge @$970.00 each ----- $1033.05
Estimated Event Total $1033.05

Pre-Reception/Reception
Bar
38 Calif Grill Pkg Call Brands Bar (4hrs) @36.00 Guest ----- $1762.87
1 Soft Drinks & Bottled Water Pkg (4hrs) @$20.50 Guest ----- $26.42
9 Wine Sparkling-Champagne Toast @$37.00 bottle ----- $429.12
Bell Services
1 Room Delivery @$10.00 each ----- $10.00
39 Cal Grill San Mateo Plated Lunch 2010 @$41.00 Guest ----- $2060.55
3 Chef's Choice Vendor Meal @$23.00 each ----- $88.92
40 Domestic & Imported Cheese Board @$12.00 Guest ----- $618.55
40 Sliced Seasonal Fresh Fruit & Berries @$8.00 Guest ----- $412.37
1 Wedding Cake Handling Fee @$203.70 each ----- $216.94
Catering Fees and Equipment
1 Dance Floor Rental (9'X12') @$450.00 each ----- $579.89
1 Fee Bartender @$100.00 each ----- $106.50
Entertainment
1 DJ Wedding Package @$1150.00 each ----- $1150.00
Estimated Event Total $7462.13

Bridal Portrait Session
Photography Video & Multimedia
1 2010 MK BP Session (FL) @$1100.00 each ----- $1100.00
Estimated Event Total $1100.00

Estimated Program Total $18039.91

OK, so that's it. If anyone has any questions about anything, just ask. :) We're going to work on this over the weekend, and send it back to the planners. Oh, and I got the BEO for the surprise Grooms cake. That's $322.00. :rolleyes1 In happier news, we're going to Disney tomorrow!!! :cool1: We plan on heading to MK in the morning, getting some sandwiches at Earls in Downtown Disney for lunch and then going to EPCOT. :yay:

[pixie921]

Thanks for posting your BEO. It really does help to see how the different elements break down budget-wise. Good luck deciding how to work it out!

And have a great time at Disney ... I'm jealous!! ;)

[disfan melissa]

Hey, since you are looking to cut costs, a few things we did after we got our initial BEO were:

-eliminate the champagne toast (no one realized and they toasted with their drinks. Hey, we were paying for an open bar!)

- instead of the motor coach we did vans from Contemporary to the WP and back (most of our guests were staying there anyway). Since it was round trip pickup and not a charter, it saved a lot of $. But we had fewer guests so I don't know if it will save you as much or if you need to have more stops.

-I think if your bar bill is over $500 you don't have to pay the bartender fee so you may want to check with your planner. I know it's not a lot of $ but every little bit counts.

Good luck cutting it down!

[Deb loves Disney]

Thank you for posting your BEO. We are having our reception at Cali Grill also and it's nice to see what the costs are in writing.

We are also having the ceremony at the WP and want an Isle Runner. When I spoke to the florist she at first quoted me runners that were upwards of
$800 :scared1: I asked her what the cheapest one was and she said $75. It is white with no designs on it but looks great in pictures. We added this and also asked for a lighter version of the isle petals and got that down to $100. :goodvibes So now we will be having the isle runner and petals for only
$175 :banana:

HTH and best wishes for your wedding!

[Nikisha421]

Thanks for posting your original BEO it's good to see what it really cost when you want to put the ideas in your head on paper. I can't wait to see what your revison will look like hope that it brings you closer to the minimum limit that you need to stay close to.

[smileycrissy]

Thanks for posting the BEO. My mouth dropped when I saw that final total because I knew you wanted to keep it near the 10K mark. Yikes, its scary how all those things add up so quickly. I'm sure you'll be able to bring it down to the number you want.

As Disfan Melissa said, maybe you can do a few vans. I say try Mears, they seem to run the cabs over here by Disney. Here's their website so you can see if you can get a price quote or call them to see what it'll cost. http://www.mearstransportation.com/ Disney actually uses them for the Magical Express buses (check out the front driver side door next time you see one, it actually says Mears on them.) so I can't imagine it'll be too bad. We used them once to go from Old Town to the Swan hotel and it cost us $18.


Hope you had a blast at Disney! :cool1:

[Jules~Marie]

Thanks for posting your BEO. It really does help to see how the different elements break down budget-wise. Good luck deciding how to work it out!

And have a great time at Disney ... I'm jealous!! ;)

Thanks, we had a great time..but I think we'll wait until it cools down a bit down here before we go again:laughing:

[Jules~Marie]

Hey, since you are looking to cut costs, a few things we did after we got our initial BEO were:

-eliminate the champagne toast (no one realized and they toasted with their drinks. Hey, we were paying for an open bar!)

- instead of the motor coach we did vans from Contemporary to the WP and back (most of our guests were staying there anyway). Since it was round trip pickup and not a charter, it saved a lot of $. But we had fewer guests so I don't know if it will save you as much or if you need to have more stops.

-I think if your bar bill is over $500 you don't have to pay the bartender fee so you may want to check with your planner. I know it's not a lot of $ but every little bit counts.

Good luck cutting it down!

Thanks for the tips! Yes, we are definitely cutting the champagne toast. I figured at the planning session that we'd add it in, but after seeing the cost, I'm definitely OK with toasting with what we're already drinking! And the same thing goes for the charter, I've been against it ever since I started reading other peoples PJ's and have seen how expensive it is. I think most of the guests will have their own cars anyway..so we'll see about transportation, hopefully we'll only need one van. My planner had said the the vans were not reliable..so I was nervous about that. Did you have any troubles with the vans?

[Jules~Marie]

Thank you for posting your BEO. We are having our reception at Cali Grill also and it's nice to see what the costs are in writing.

We are also having the ceremony at the WP and want an Isle Runner. When I spoke to the florist she at first quoted me runners that were upwards of
$800 :scared1: I asked her what the cheapest one was and she said $75. It is white with no designs on it but looks great in pictures. We added this and also asked for a lighter version of the isle petals and got that down to $100. :goodvibes So now we will be having the isle runner and petals for only
$175 :banana:

HTH and best wishes for your wedding!

Wow, I didn't know that I could get one for $75!!! That's a huge difference! I really don't like the way the carpet looks in the WP, so I'm going to have to ask my planner about that. Thanks so much for the tips, I really appreciate it!!!

[Jules~Marie]

Thanks for posting the BEO. My mouth dropped when I saw that final total because I knew you wanted to keep it near the 10K mark. Yikes, its scary how all those things add up so quickly. I'm sure you'll be able to bring it down to the number you want.

As Disfan Melissa said, maybe you can do a few vans. I say try Mears, they seem to run the cabs over here by Disney. Here's their website so you can see if you can get a price quote or call them to see what it'll cost. http://www.mearstransportation.com/ Disney actually uses them for the Magical Express buses (check out the front driver side door next time you see one, it actually says Mears on them.) so I can't imagine it'll be too bad. We used them once to go from Old Town to the Swan hotel and it cost us $18.


Hope you had a blast at Disney! :cool1:

Haha, I was worried about you reading the BEO post since I know you're looking to find someone who can keep the cost of the wedding low. Thanks for the advice about Mears. I definitely plan on checking them out. I've never wanted to use the bus for the guests, I think the 5 hour minimum and price is just ridiculous! I'll have my stepdad drive all the guests to the WP before I spend over $600 for that bus. :rotfl: We're working on the budget now...We've cut a lot out, so slowly but surely we're making our way back down to where we need to be. I have faith that it'll work out right. :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

This morning Eddie and I performed major surgery on our BEO. :rotfl: We knocked off a bunch of stuff that we really didn't expect to have at our wedding, and one thing that we were really looking forward to doing.

We've been going back and forth on whether to change our DP to Sago Cay instead of Epcot. It'd save us about $890 or so if we switch, but we both have decided to stick to Epcot and only change it if we absolutely have to. I think the dessert party would be fun at either location, however, we both feel our guests would appreciate and enjoy Illuminations much more than Wishes. We also like the idea of the party being held in Epcot. It just seems like a cooler experience.

We decided we need to take off at least $400 from our wedding cake. I don't know how we'll do this, but I plan on emailing my planner and asking her what options we have. I can't see us paying over $1200 total for a cake.

We're also knocking down our open bar from 4 hours to 3 1/2. That'll save us $120 and I don't think anyone will notice the bar not being open at 11am.

We're going to use an outside florist for our bouquets. I can't see spending over $150.00 for my bridal bouquet and I don't want to go over $75 for each of the bridesmaids. Disney quoted my bouquet at $300.00...that's not happening. We also took off the $260 for the aisle runner, $200 for the aisle petals and $100 for roses on the reception centerpieces. We also decided to take out the ribbon wands for $140.00.

We also took off the 7 hour motorcoach, saving us $683.55 and the champagne toast saving us $429.12

Our biggest change is the most depressing to me. It was my idea to remove it, but I'm still kinda bummed about it. We decided to cancel our MK photo session. :sad1: It'll save us $1100 plus the hair & make up fee of $175, the $15 bout., and the $75 floral refresh. As cool as it seems to me, it's really not the end of the world to not get these pictures. I was really looking forward to it because to me it's a once in a lifetime opportunity, but I realize that it's not the most important thing about this wedding. Who knows, maybe we'll have a vow renewal in 5 or 10 years, and we'll get the photos done then. :confused3 For now, I'll just concentrate on winning that lotto! :rotfl:

All in all, we've gotten our total to around $14,362.30. :) Not down to where we want it yet, but it's a pretty good start! We just have about $1500-$2000 more to trim. :rolleyes1

[smileycrissy]

LOL. Yes I am following you closely. But not in a scary, creepy way. LOL.

Aw, I feel so bad you have to cut the MK photo session. I understand what you mean about it not being necessary but would've been great to do. I hate having to do the 'needs' vs 'wants' comparison on things. I saw that package too and was really excited about it but I've decided I'll have to put it in the back of my mind because its more of an 'I want this' than a 'I need this'.

Just curious, if you are doing the reception at 11am, do you really think you'll need the open bar? Do you have a lot of people who like to drink that are invited? Maybe you can cut the open bar and replace it with the soft drinks (it looks like a $600 savings for you). I'm not a big drinker, so I know when it comes time for me to plan (yes, I'm trying to be optimistic :) ) I'm sticking to water & soft drinks. I know I have one person in particular who is a heavy drinker and would probably be the only person to say something. I fully intend to tell him if he wants to drink, go drink his way around Epcot. :laughing:

I'm sending some Pixie Dust your way in hopes that you'll be able to do some magical cuts to the budget and put the MK photo session back in. :wizard: :goodvibes

[ckpoodge]

Also, instead of having an open bar, maybe you could just do "billed on consumption". Since you're having an early reception, chances are people aren't going to be drinking the 3 or 4 drinks necessary to break even on the open bar. Also, maybe if they are drinking, they will be having light drinks, rather than hard alcohol.

Like the above post, we're not big drinkers either. So we're only doing a bar for 1 or 1 1/2 hours. We're going with consumption, rather than open. We're then switching to sodas, etc. And yes, we heard about it from *all* the drinkers!

Hope this helps!

[NYPrincess422]

Just wanted to chime in - we're having a lunch reception and have decided to do Billed on Consumption as well for the alcohol. Its a tough call. Yea, some people may not drink that early in the day, but it is a wedding, your in Disney, some folks maybe on cloud 9 for you guys and have a drink or two. But at least with BOC - its based on what is actually consumed rather than what Disney thinks you will consume.

Also, we're doing vans for the transportation for $25.00 - to h*ll with the charter bus :lmao:. Majority of my guests are staying at 2 of the resorts, so its 8 people per van, and you just have to determine how many vans you would need, if you decide to go that route. The only thing Ive heard about using the vans are, being that there is an 8 passenger limit, they are strict with that, so 10 people cant hop in the van or the van wont move. Eh. I can live with that.

Hope you figure out your budget, I know it can be hard :)

[mrsksomeday]

Great planning journal. Maybe this will help with the size of the pictures:

To change the size of your pictures in Photobucket, look underneath the "Upload images and videos" button. You should see (more options), click it.

It should open up a different window showing many sizes. The Large size (640 x 480) are great for message boards. I hope this helps.

[Jules~Marie]

LOL. Yes I am following you closely. But not in a scary, creepy way. LOL.

Aw, I feel so bad you have to cut the MK photo session. I understand what you mean about it not being necessary but would've been great to do. I hate having to do the 'needs' vs 'wants' comparison on things. I saw that package too and was really excited about it but I've decided I'll have to put it in the back of my mind because its more of an 'I want this' than a 'I need this'.

Just curious, if you are doing the reception at 11am, do you really think you'll need the open bar? Do you have a lot of people who like to drink that are invited? Maybe you can cut the open bar and replace it with the soft drinks (it looks like a $600 savings for you). I'm not a big drinker, so I know when it comes time for me to plan (yes, I'm trying to be optimistic :) ) I'm sticking to water & soft drinks. I know I have one person in particular who is a heavy drinker and would probably be the only person to say something. I fully intend to tell him if he wants to drink, go drink his way around Epcot. :laughing:

I'm sending some Pixie Dust your way in hopes that you'll be able to do some magical cuts to the budget and put the MK photo session back in. :wizard: :goodvibes

:rotfl: Good to know you're not following in a creepy way. :lmao: Yeah, I'm pretty bummed about the MK shoot..I still am trying to find ways to squeeze it in. We'll see what we can do. I wont cancel it until the last second though..you never know what might happen!

As far as the open bar goes...yeah, we can't cut that. :laughing: Eddie and I rarely drink, but we do have quite a few people that will be looking forward to that bar once the reception starts. I'm still trying to convince Eddie to cutting the bar down to maybe 12-2 or 12-2:30, but he thinks 11:30 is the latest we can open it and he's being really difficult about it. I know he doesn't want to disappoint our guests, but it would save us so much money just to trim it down a little more.

Thanks for the pixie dust! Hopefully it starts working it's magic. :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

Also, instead of having an open bar, maybe you could just do "billed on consumption". Since you're having an early reception, chances are people aren't going to be drinking the 3 or 4 drinks necessary to break even on the open bar. Also, maybe if they are drinking, they will be having light drinks, rather than hard alcohol.

Like the above post, we're not big drinkers either. So we're only doing a bar for 1 or 1 1/2 hours. We're going with consumption, rather than open. We're then switching to sodas, etc. And yes, we heard about it from *all* the drinkers!

Hope this helps!

We actually thought about doing "billed on consumption", but we're really nervous about having to owe after the reception...And we know for sure that there are some guests really looking forward to their liquor :rotfl: A party's a party I guess...doesn't matter what time it starts lol. Thank you for the suggestion though! I'm definitely going to look into the bill on consumption again, it might save us more than we originally thought. :)

Just wanted to chime in - we're having a lunch reception and have decided to do Billed on Consumption as well for the alcohol. Its a tough call. Yea, some people may not drink that early in the day, but it is a wedding, your in Disney, some folks maybe on cloud 9 for you guys and have a drink or two. But at least with BOC - its based on what is actually consumed rather than what Disney thinks you will consume.

Also, we're doing vans for the transportation for $25.00 - to h*ll with the charter bus :lmao:. Majority of my guests are staying at 2 of the resorts, so its 8 people per van, and you just have to determine how many vans you would need, if you decide to go that route. The only thing Ive heard about using the vans are, being that there is an 8 passenger limit, they are strict with that, so 10 people cant hop in the van or the van wont move. Eh. I can live with that.

Hope you figure out your budget, I know it can be hard :)

See, that's exactly what we're thinking..that our guests are going to want to party, no matter what time it is. :lmao: But now that we're starting to get RSVP's back, maybe I'll take a look at exactly who's coming to the wedding to see if maybe BOC could save us some money.

Thanks for the advice on the vans. As long as they're reliable I'm ok with getting them. My former planner had said that you can't really count on the vans or something, so he made me nervous, but after searching the boards I think we feel confident enough to reserve them. Did you have to go through the company directly, or did you go through your planner to book the vans?

Thanks for all the help! :goodvibes I'm sure we'll get the budget sorted out one day-hopefully.... lol

Great planning journal. Maybe this will help with the size of the pictures:

To change the size of your pictures in Photobucket, look underneath the "Upload images and videos" button. You should see (more options), click it.

It should open up a different window showing many sizes. The Large size (640 x 480) are great for message boards. I hope this helps.

Thank you so much!!! I've been dying trying to figure out how to post the pictures correctly lol. I really appreciate it! :)

[Kristinella]

I agree with you on a face needed for "receiving a BEO"! We are not even that far and my fiance and I are both getting those :sick: feelings about what it MIGHT cost! I am NOT looking forward to what will happen when we see what it WILL cost:scared1:!

I know that we have some drinkers in our crew but we have decided to do open wine and beer only and a "signature drink" BOC. Maybe you can do the same and do a bloody mary for your "signature drink" or a mimosa? Just a thought! :rolleyes1 Looking forward to more updates!

[disfan melissa]

Thanks for the tips! Yes, we are definitely cutting the champagne toast. I figured at the planning session that we'd add it in, but after seeing the cost, I'm definitely OK with toasting with what we're already drinking! And the same thing goes for the charter, I've been against it ever since I started reading other peoples PJ's and have seen how expensive it is. I think most of the guests will have their own cars anyway..so we'll see about transportation, hopefully we'll only need one van. My planner had said the the vans were not reliable..so I was nervous about that. Did you have any troubles with the vans?

Not sure if you have already made any decisions about the vans but here's our experience--we had no problems with the vans and we actually changed the pick up location to the Garden Wing of the Contemporary from the main lobby the afternoon of our wedding. The vans were from Disney and cost $120 each. I am sure they were the Mears vans. Our guests were very happy with the vans, they were there 20 minutes early and our guests said the drivers were very nice.:thumbsup2
I should probably stop reading trip reports though because it seems there were better prices out there than what we paid :confused3 Oh, well at least someone else can benefit!:lmao:

[April Elizabeth]

Thank you for posting your BEO! You came up with so many great ways to cut back. :thumbsup2 Be careful with the cheap isle runner. I was in a wedding recently (non Disney) and the isle runner was plain white, but more of a plastic and not the nice cloth ones we see in Disney wedding pictures. I think I would go with the carpet rather than the plastic runner. Even though it was pinned down it bunched up and wrinkled as we walked down the isle.

DF and I are a lot like you and Eddie. We don't drink much but our guests would be very disappointed if we didn't have an open bar for the whole reception. I know as soon as the reception starts, they will be ready to party!:rotfl:

[NYPrincess422]

Dont get be wrong, I love Disney, but my planner too tried to push the bus, even after I said it would break our budget. If the vans are just as adequate with providing transportation, I dont see what the problem is, but I felt like they just wanted us the spend the additional 500-600 bucks.

For example, they kept pushing that we needed to rent a coach for our DP at Epcot, when I was already told at our planning session that we didnt have to use the coach. So I decided since there were so many guests who are renting cars, we're all gonna drive and park at Epcot. But when I discussed this, the planner said "you all will have to pay for parking" - but after doing some digging, I found out (not from the planner) that if your guests are staying on property, they get free comp parking at the parks, so we dont have to pay. I was perplexed why this wasnt brough to m attention.

Anyway, my point really is, do what's comfortable for you and DF, and DIS provides so much info, its been a saver to me and DF's wallets :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

I agree with you on a face needed for "receiving a BEO"! We are not even that far and my fiance and I are both getting those :sick: feelings about what it MIGHT cost! I am NOT looking forward to what will happen when we see what it WILL cost:scared1:!

I know that we have some drinkers in our crew but we have decided to do open wine and beer only and a "signature drink" BOC. Maybe you can do the same and do a bloody mary for your "signature drink" or a mimosa? Just a thought! :rolleyes1 Looking forward to more updates!

That's an interesting idea, having a "signature drink". I like that...I wonder how much that'd save us if we change to wine and beer...we definitely have beer drinkers in our group, so they'd still be happy. My BIL is the only major guest that drinks liquor and such, but I'm sure he'd be happy bringing the flask we got him for his bday lol. I love the idea of mimosas! My sister would love that, I just don't want to limit anyone at the reception. I'll have to talk to DF and see what he thinks. Thanks for the advice!!! :goodvibes
Not sure if you have already made any decisions about the vans but here's our experience--we had no problems with the vans and we actually changed the pick up location to the Garden Wing of the Contemporary from the main lobby the afternoon of our wedding. The vans were from Disney and cost $120 each. I am sure they were the Mears vans. Our guests were very happy with the vans, they were there 20 minutes early and our guests said the drivers were very nice.:thumbsup2
I should probably stop reading trip reports though because it seems there were better prices out there than what we paid :confused3 Oh, well at least someone else can benefit!:lmao:
Thanks for sharing your experience. :) I'm glad to see that they worked out so nicely for you. I can't believe they were $120 each! :eek: It's still way cheaper than the chartered bus, but after seeing what other people have said they paid for them, that's a crazy price difference! I can understand you not wanting to read any more trip reports. :lmao: I'll contact my planner to see how much they'd cost us. Thanks for giving me a heads up on that though. Now if she tells me they're $120 or so, I wont be taken by surprise!
Thank you for posting your BEO! You came up with so many great ways to cut back. :thumbsup2 Be careful with the cheap isle runner. I was in a wedding recently (non Disney) and the isle runner was plain white, but more of a plastic and not the nice cloth ones we see in Disney wedding pictures. I think I would go with the carpet rather than the plastic runner. Even though it was pinned down it bunched up and wrinkled as we walked down the isle.

DF and I are a lot like you and Eddie. We don't drink much but our guests would be very disappointed if we didn't have an open bar for the whole reception. I know as soon as the reception starts, they will be ready to party!:rotfl:

Thanks for the advice on the aisle runner...I definitely don't want it to be crinkling up on us. I'll have to ask what the difference is between the different runners they have. I wonder if we can buy one from an outside source and then have someone put it down before the wedding?

Glad to see we're not the only people that have guests that'll drink at their wedding! lol I know it's and earlier reception, but a wedding's a wedding...they will for sure be partying. :rotfl:

[Jules~Marie]

Dont get be wrong, I love Disney, but my planner too tried to push the bus, even after I said it would break our budget. If the vans are just as adequate with providing transportation, I dont see what the problem is, but I felt like they just wanted us the spend the additional 500-600 bucks.

For example, they kept pushing that we needed to rent a coach for our DP at Epcot, when I was already told at our planning session that we didnt have to use the coach. So I decided since there were so many guests who are renting cars, we're all gonna drive and park at Epcot. But when I discussed this, the planner said "you all will have to pay for parking" - but after doing some digging, I found out (not from the planner) that if your guests are staying on property, they get free comp parking at the parks, so we dont have to pay. I was perplexed why this wasnt brough to m attention.

Anyway, my point really is, do what's comfortable for you and DF, and DIS provides so much info, its been a saver to me and DF's wallets :goodvibes

Yes, at my planning session it did seem like the buses were pushed onto us as well. I wonder why that is? It did seem like our planner tried to save us money on other things, like trying to talk us out of our cake, which we stubbornly held onto, and now after seeing how much it's going to cost we have to change it anyway, lol.

I'm surprised they would say your guests would have to pay to park! I wonder if they thought that your guests were staying off Disney property? :confused: That's really strange to me. I'm hoping we don't have the same problem. We were told at our PS that we don't need to rent any transportation for our DP too, so hopefully we don't have any surprises as it gets closer to the wedding. I love that I found all these wonderful planning journals and forums here. I don't know what I would've done without them!

[Jules~Marie]

So, taking a break from the scary budget and all that goes with that, I've decided it's time to post our newsletter. :) Now that we started getting our RSVP's back, we've started to send out the newsletter. Instead of sending them out all at once, we decided to send one out whenever we get a "yes" in the mail. We posted a thread asking for help with our newsletter, and we got a lot of great responses from different brides. We loved Andrea & Brian's newsletter, and basically used theirs as an outline for ours. I can't remember if that was her name on the boards, so I'm sorry if I'm not giving the credit to the appropriate person. But in case you're out there, thank you thank you thank you for sharing your wonderful newsletter!! It seriously helped us out so much, and hopefully you don't mind us stealing a lot of your ideas. :rolleyes1 I do have to say that Eddie did all of the work on the newsletter. He is the graphic designing pro, really he should be doing that as his career, but that's a discussion for another time and place, lol. I did help with as much as I could with it, and I sat next to him the whole time we worked on it, but, being the Groomzilla that he is, most of my ideas weren't used. :rotfl: Anyway, here it is, let me know what you think! :goodvibes

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n250/ilovejules25/Wedding/newsletter_1.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n250/ilovejules25/Wedding/newsletter_2.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n250/ilovejules25/Wedding/newsletter_3.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n250/ilovejules25/Wedding/newsletter_4.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n250/ilovejules25/Wedding/newsletter_5-1.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n250/ilovejules25/Wedding/newsletter_6.jpg

[Nikisha421]

This newsletter is really great..:thumbsup2

[Deb loves Disney]

Wow, I didn't know that I could get one for $75!!! That's a huge difference! I really don't like the way the carpet looks in the WP, so I'm going to have to ask my planner about that. Thanks so much for the tips, I really appreciate it!!!

You're welcome...I questioned my planner about the quality of the runner and she said it is still paper, not plastic. I was really happy about that! She also said that she has never had a bride's heels break through it yet...hopefully I won't be the first one for that to happen to :rotfl:.

Oh and I love your newsletter!!! The stick figures with the Mickey ears are so cute, where did you find them? I am going to try and be brave and make one myself soon. Maybe I can get DF to do it for me, although I don't know if I could give up all the control on it! ;)

[NYPrincess422]

Your newsletter is awesome! What program did you use???

[princesswendy720]

I love your newsletter! I've been trying to make ours in word, but it's just so frustrating and won't always let me do what I want to do! Did you use Photoshop? I think I'm going to try making one in there tonight. My df went to school for graphic design, so he has been a big help!

[smileycrissy]

Love the newsletter. :)
You Disney brides are so crafty. :rotfl:
I don't think I would've thought of doing a newsletter but I really like that idea. I've got so much to learn on this board. :)

[ValerieDFTWBride]

Wow, I love your newsletter. It looks amazing!

[Kristinella]

Love the newsletter! It looks great! You should be very proud of all your hard work and I may be PMing you for the document so I can modify yours :rolleyes1

Thanks for sharing!:lovestruc

[Jules~Marie]

This newsletter is really great..:thumbsup2

Thanks! :goodvibes

You're welcome...I questioned my planner about the quality of the runner and she said it is still paper, not plastic. I was really happy about that! She also said that she has never had a bride's heels break through it yet...hopefully I won't be the first one for that to happen to :rotfl:.

Oh and I love your newsletter!!! The stick figures with the Mickey ears are so cute, where did you find them? I am going to try and be brave and make one myself soon. Maybe I can get DF to do it for me, although I don't know if I could give up all the control on it! ;)
That's great news about the runner!!! I definitely am going to ask for that one. :) We found the stick figures when we googled Mickey & Minnie bride and groom. Good luck with making one! It actually wasn't so bad, I was terrified whenever I thought about making it, but it turned out super easy (with the help of the boards and my talented DF ;))
Your newsletter is awesome! What program did you use???
Thanks! We used Photoshop. :)

I love your newsletter! I've been trying to make ours in word, but it's just so frustrating and won't always let me do what I want to do! Did you use Photoshop? I think I'm going to try making one in there tonight. My df went to school for graphic design, so he has been a big help!
Thank you! Yes, we used Photoshop. Honestly, I have no idea how to use the program, I just watched Eddie click around and magically make this newsletter. :rotfl: I'd be a mess over this thing if it wasn't for him. :)
Love the newsletter. :)
You Disney brides are so crafty. :rotfl:
I don't think I would've thought of doing a newsletter but I really like that idea. I've got so much to learn on this board. :)
:lmao:I WISH I was crafty! :rotfl: When I thought about doing the newsletter, I would break out into a cold sweat. lol I had no idea that all I needed to do was show DF a few different newsletters from past brides, and he would go from there! I really lucked out with him, because when it comes to crafts and things, I'm totally lazy and give up really fast, and he is the exact opposite. haha
Wow, I love your newsletter. It looks amazing!
Thank you! :goodvibes
Love the newsletter! It looks great! You should be very proud of all your hard work and I may be PMing you for the document so I can modify yours :rolleyes1

Thanks for sharing!:lovestruc
Thank you! I am really proud, especially of Eddie since he worked so hard on it. Basically, I sat next to him and just helped with the wording lol...totally not helpful really....but I tried! :rotfl: Definitely PM whenever you want, we received so much help from the boards and we definitely want to pay it forward. :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

On Saturday night we went to the California Grill to do a "trial" of our wedding meal. We've never eaten there, so we thought it'd be a good idea to at least see how the food tastes. They didn't have the exact items that we're having served at our wedding, but we had an amazing time! Our reservation was for 7:35. We checked in around 7 and were immediately led upstairs where we waited all of 30 seconds for our table. I was kicking myself because I didn't mention that we wanted a window table, but luckily that didn't matter. We were sat right at the window and our table was decorated with mickey confetti! It was such a surprise! It was so nice because we were seated right at sunset, and we had a beautiful view of the Magic Kingdom and the orange sky. :lovestruc

We ordered the triple cheese flatbread, goat cheese ravioli (on the wedding menu), oak fired filet of beef (on the menu, minus the teriyaki sauce), and the chicken. Everything was delicious! Absolutely amazing. When it came time for dessert, we were trying to compromise on something to share. We weren't making any progress on what to get, when our waiter came out with a huge slice of chocolate cake! It was the most delicious chocolate cake I've ever had in my life (the fact that it was free didn't hurt either :laughing:).

It was around 8:45 by the time we paid our bill. The HalloWishes fireworks show started at 9:30, so we decided to go hang out on the observation deck until showtime. The show was amazing! It's so cool to hear the soundtrack as you watch the fireworks. We've never seen the Halloween show, so it was really neat to see something new. I took some pictures, unfortunately we didn't take any of the food (except the cake), but I'll post them anyway.

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10529.jpg
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10530.jpg
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10533.jpg
Free Dessert!
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10534.jpg
We were really excited about the cake :rotfl:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10536.jpg
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10550.jpg


Only 119 more days until the wedding!

[smileycrissy]

I love the fireworks shot. I keep telling DF we should check out California Grill for dinner so we can see the fireworks up there. It looks so amazing.

Aw, how nice of them to bring you a slice of cake. My brother-in-law loves that restaurant (he's such a foodie).

Wait a min - are you near the 100 mark for days until the wedding? :):cool1:

[April Elizabeth]

Your news letter is so good. I love the pictures from California Grill, especially the fireworks. :thumbsup2

[Jules~Marie]

I love the fireworks shot. I keep telling DF we should check out California Grill for dinner so we can see the fireworks up there. It looks so amazing.

Aw, how nice of them to bring you a slice of cake. My brother-in-law loves that restaurant (he's such a foodie).

Wait a min - are you near the 100 mark for days until the wedding? :):cool1:

I enjoyed the California Grill...maybe it was little too fancy for my tastes, but it's worth it to go just for that view!

And YES! We're at 107 days!!!!! :yay: I'm so excited, I'm driving everyone at work crazy updating them everyday with my countdowns. I have 70 working days before the wedding, 104 days until we leave for our Disney wedding weekend, 107 days until the wedding, and 112 days until our honeymoon!!! :rotfl: I can get a little carried away when it comes to countdowns lol.


Your news letter is so good. I love the pictures from California Grill, especially the fireworks. :thumbsup2

Thank you! :goodvibes

[DisneyDiva84]

Everything looks fantastic thus far! I will definietly post our review of CA Grill from the reception for you!

Can you believe we are so close! :cool1:

[Belle2Be]

I'm still reading so I don't know if this has been mentioned, but if anyone is going to stay in the parks, if they have a park pass (which is likely) then you don't have to pay the $12 viewing fee for illuminations. I was under the impression that you do have to have a chartered bus for the show, however.

[Jules~Marie]

OK!!! Time to really get excited now!!! Only 100 days left!!!!

I can't believe that we're almost into double digits. I'm so excited and freaked out at the same time! Our minimum is due on Oct. 18 or 19 (can't remember), so I'm stressing that. We have the money, I just get panicked at the thought of spending it!!! :rotfl: I feel like we have so much left to do. And I haven't really updated in a while on here. I get kind of bored with the wedding (if you can believe that!). I just feel like I'm thinking about it constantly, and then to sit and write about it just makes me stress even more sometimes. But, I'll fill everyone (anyone? don't know if anyone's really reading this lol) in today.

So we spoke with our new planner Amy on Sept. 30th. I loved speaking with her. She was so easy to talk to, and she really got that we want to keep our costs down. Ken was wonderful too, but I think I'm more comfortable with a female planner for whatever reason. So we talked about taking out all of the things I've previously posted about. No charter bus, no champagne toast. We also discussed taking some items off the dessert party menu to get our price closer to the $23/person minimum. Right now we're at $30/person for the DP menu.

She's looking into changing the cake to two tiers instead of three. She agreed that with the addition of the grooms cake, there's no need to have three tiers. That would be a ton of cake. She's going to get a quote for a square cake and for a round. I would like to stay around $500 for the cake, instead of the $1000 that we're at now. Also, we changed the flavor from almond with buttercream to almond with raspberry mousse filling. Eddie and I weren't too fond of any of the cake flavors. We only care about the Red Velvet layer, and my mom and sister really liked the combo of almond and raspberry, so I figured why not change it for them?

We also are going to change to a Bill on consumption bar thanks to the suggestions from my fellow DISers. :) It definitely makes sense since it's an early afternoon wedding, and it will most likely save us quite a bit of money.

Also, we've decided to go with Blossoms Orlando for our flowers. Disney's quote for my bouquet was $300...Amy from Blossoms gave me a quote of $125 for my bouquet. Disney had my bridesmaids at $115 each, Amy had them at $40 each. Really no contest there. Going with Blossoms is going to save us over $450. :eek: It's crazy the difference in price. I have to say I think Disney might take advantage of the fact that some brides just don't want to bother with going with outside vendors. However, I haven't seen the difference in quality between Disney and Blossoms, so maybe there's a reason the prices are so drastically different. Either way, flowers are very low on my priority list, so I'm happy to spend so much less on them.

I'm now awaiting my new BEO's from Disney floral and for the wedding. We've decided to keep the MK photo session for now.:yay: With all of the cuts and changes I think we're around $12000, so we're much happier with that. I will post the exact figures once I get the budgets in.

Now, I'm just working on getting a list together for everything we have left to do. Our RSVP's are starting to come in now, the deadline is Oct. 17th. We're completely shocked at how many people are actually making the trip down. It's cool and exciting and scary all at the same time. I think we might go over 40 people!

Sorry, I'm kind of all over the place today. I will post my to do list later today after I get it all sorted.

Almost 3 months left! :cool1::sick::eek::yay:

[Nikisha421]

Im reading each and every time you post. I happy to see that the revisions are making you a bit more comfortable with your choice to have a DFTW...and going with Blossoms will not be a bad decision at all...no contest at all...becuase their work is great and their prices are right....

[DisneyShamrock]

I just stumbled onto your PJ. Everything sounds pretty good.

I like to follow my January 17th ladies, since I'm hoping to get January 17, 2013. :thumbsup2

Cutting the BEO always seems like it's the hardest part, but it looks like you did a pretty good job.

I look forward to reading more. :yay:

[April Elizabeth]

I'm still following too. Blossoms sounds like the way to go. :thumbsup2 Can you post the link to their website or phone number. Thank you.:hug:

[smileycrissy]

I'm so happy that you are keeping your MK photo session!!! :banana::banana::banana:

Wow that is a big difference in prices for the florals. Are you getting similar bouquets to what you were going to have at Disney?

I'm happy that you are getting responses back. Of course your families are going to want to attend your wedding... especially considering it's at Disney. :)

And yay for reaching the double digit mark!:cheer2:

[KitKat5]

Hiya! Just caught up! Everything sounds so great! I cant wait to see pics of it all!! :goodvibes We actually have the same wedding dress!! Great minds think a like eh?! :thumbsup2 Im still waiting for my floral BEO so I hope it isnt much longer but seeing yours has reassured me that it might not be as bad as I think!! :lmao:

[Jules~Marie]

Im reading each and every time you post. I happy to see that the revisions are making you a bit more comfortable with your choice to have a DFTW...and going with Blossoms will not be a bad decision at all...no contest at all...becuase their work is great and their prices are right....
Thanks for reading, sorry for being so boring! :lmao: I'm very happy that we decided to go with Blossoms. They've been great communicating with us and their work looks amazing.
I just stumbled onto your PJ. Everything sounds pretty good.

I like to follow my January 17th ladies, since I'm hoping to get January 17, 2013. :thumbsup2

Cutting the BEO always seems like it's the hardest part, but it looks like you did a pretty good job.

I look forward to reading more. :yay:
Thanks! Yay for 1/17 brides! But Jan 17, 2013?! And here I thought I liked to plan in advance. :rotfl: I hope you get your date. Thanks for reading! :goodvibes
I'm still following too. Blossoms sounds like the way to go. :thumbsup2 Can you post the link to their website or phone number. Thank you.:hug:
Thanks for following, I love these boards. No matter how bored you think everyone's getting with your wedding, it's nice to know there's a place for you to go and people will still be interested in what you have to say. :) I think everyone around me everyday is kinda over the wedding already lol. :rotfl:

Here's the link to blossoms: http://blossomsorlando.com/ Amy has been absolutely wonderful with answering my questions and keeping in touch. :goodvibes
I'm so happy that you are keeping your MK photo session!!! :banana::banana::banana:

Wow that is a big difference in prices for the florals. Are you getting similar bouquets to what you were going to have at Disney?

I'm happy that you are getting responses back. Of course your families are going to want to attend your wedding... especially considering it's at Disney. :)

And yay for reaching the double digit mark!:cheer2:
I am totally psyched about the MK photos!!!! :dance3::banana: I'm really glad we're going through with them, it's the one thing I've really wanted to do since we decided on a Disney wedding. :)

It's a huge difference in price! I'm under the impression that the bouquets are still going to be similar to what Disney was going to do. At our planning session I showed Warren a picture of the bouquet that I want, and for Amy at Blossoms, I emailed her the same picture. She didn't say that it would be any different...I emailed her basically the floral BEO that Disney sent me and she came up with an estimate that mimicked Disney's, only the price was way lower. :thumbsup2
Hiya! Just caught up! Everything sounds so great! I cant wait to see pics of it all!! :goodvibes We actually have the same wedding dress!! Great minds think a like eh?! :thumbsup2 Im still waiting for my floral BEO so I hope it isnt much longer but seeing yours has reassured me that it might not be as bad as I think!! :lmao:

I can't believe we have the same dress!!! That's amazing. :) I keep going back and forth about the dress...it's beautiful, but if I don't try it on every couple of months, I imagine it getting bigger and bigger. :rotfl: But I think it's perfect for a Disney wedding (I'm a little biased lol). Good luck with your floral BEO! I was pleasantly surprised when mine came in..not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I think it helps that we aren't doing floral for centerpieces though. Thanks for reading! :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

OK, so I had said I was going to post my To Do List on Saturday, but a funny thing happened...I discovered the dining reviews boards!!! :lmao:Holy crap those reviews are addictive! So I spent all Saturday night and almost all of yesterday reading and reading and drooling over people's reviews. It was a nice change from reading about weddings (don't get me wrong, I love reading about the weddings...just nice to change it up a bit!). So now I'm back where I belong on the weddings boards...and now it's time to get down to business!

I think I've been avoiding writing out a To Do list. It's just so scary to know that we've been working so hard and we still have a ton of things left to do! Well, anyway, here goes:

TO DO:
Buy wedding bands
Get alterations on dress done
Rent DF's tuxedo (in ivory, ugh :sick:)
Buy wedding shoes
Buy earrings for wedding day
Make table cards
Purchase frames for table cards
Make place cards *we have the design made, just need to add names
Bring dogs to vet-get shots to prepare them for boarding in Jan.
Make reservation for dog boarding
Make label for welcome bags
Purchase items for welcome bags
Find some kind of favor for wedding guests..
Maybe purchase a tiara?? (If I give in to my mom & sister)
Lose more weight-tone up :rolleyes1 probably not happening :rotfl:
Book hotel for night before honeymoon
Book rental car to get to Miami for honeymoon
Uuummmm....I don't know, what else... I give up! lol

I'm sure there's more that needs to be added to the list, but my brain is jammed and I can't think of anything else, haha.

For our welcome bags, we were going to purchase personalized ones through a website, but it was coming to around $80 for about 15 bags...:scared1:
So instead we found nice-ish bags at Michaels for $7. :woohoo: We're going to design a label to slap on the outside of the bags, and voila! personalized bags. lol I don't think anybody's really going to be caring about the actual bag anyway..We're happy with the ones we bought, they're pastel colored and a good size, can definitely fit at least 2 bottles of water, and they're a good quality, so yay!

Also, I don't know if I've ever talked about our honeymoon...We're going to be leaving for a 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise aboard the Carnival Liberty on the Saturday following our wedding. :yay: We love Disney, but it's not really a "honeymoon" location for us being as it's only 45 minutes from where we live. We booked our first balcony room and decided to splurge and make it a suite! Woo! We are so excited for this trip, it's going to be amazing! :woohoo:

I was thinking it'd be a good idea to write out a timeline of our wedding events, so here it is:

Friday- Jan. 14:
Arrive at Disney's Pop Century resort at 1pm (if I can get off work early!)
Deliver items to Francks before 4pm
Dinner with Eddie's parents at Portobello at 8pm

Saturday-Jan. 15:
Enjoy some parks time :thumbsup2
Bridal Party dinner at Wolfgang Puck Cafe (changed from Planet Hollywood-it's just too darn noisy in there!) at 4pm
Grooms friends Drink Around the World at 6pm(?-time isn't set yet)
Bride's night out at Jellyrolls around 7pm

Sunday-Jan. 16:
Check out of Pop and check in to Contemporary :) (our first deluxe stay!!!)
Breakfast at Chef Mickey's at 10am :woohoo:
Early dinner at Coral Reef Restaurant at 4pm
IllumiNations Dessert party at UK Lochside at 8pm

Monday-Jan. 17-Wedding Day:
Ceremony at 10am-hair & makeup to arrive at...ugh probably ridiculously early lol
Reception at California Grill from 11-3
Private dinner at Narcoossee's at 7:30pm

Tuesday-Jan.18:
Magic Kingdom photo session at 6 am!!!!
Breakfast at Cape May Cafe at 10am
Hopefully get in some parks time
Dinner with my dad and step-mom at Grand Floridian Cafe at 6:30pm

Wednesday-Jan.19:
Breakfast at The Crystal Palace at 9:30am
Check out of Contemporary :sad1:
Maybe some parks? Go home and pick up my babies (chihuahua's) from the vet.

Thursday-Jan.20:
Hopefully go to the bank and deposit tons and tons of money from all of the generous people that attended our wedding! :rotfl2:

Friday-Jan.21:
Pick up rental car & head down to Miami
Check into hotel

Saturday-Jan.22:
Leave for 7 nights on the Carnival Liberty!!!!

Saturday-Jan. 29:
Back to reality :sad1::sad1::sad1:

OK, how am I ever going to be able to go back to work after 2 weeks off at amazing places?!?!?! I'm already feeling upset over the fact that it will end, and it hasn't even happened yet!!! hahaha :rotfl::lmao: That can't be normal lol.

Woo, anybody still with me after that!? lol That was a long post! Sorry, this is what happens when I have a three day weekend and DF is still sound asleep. I get bored and start thinking waaaaaayyy too much about everything.

Only 98 days until this awesome adventure begins! Hopefully I'll be able to cut down that To Do list sometime soon...right now DF is focused on our annual Halloween party, so once that has passed I think we'll get back on track with the wedding. :thumbsup2

[TreasureYourDreams]

Yay! I just found your PJ, and will definitely be following along... we're getting married exactly 1 week after you!! :)

Everything looks awesome so far... that's so cool that you are getting a few days at Disney AND a cruise. How awesome!

Enjoy the last few months of your planning... can you believe how close it finally is!! YAY! :cheer2:

[Nikisha421]

as alwasy faithful Nikisha421 is still with you...as long as it was I read every single word...I most certainly love the part about depositing all the cash from the guest....:rotfl2:...i mean besides the wedding itself and the money what else is there to smile about....it is a party right party:????

[Jules~Marie]

Yay! I just found your PJ, and will definitely be following along... we're getting married exactly 1 week after you!! :)

Everything looks awesome so far... that's so cool that you are getting a few days at Disney AND a cruise. How awesome!

Enjoy the last few months of your planning... can you believe how close it finally is!! YAY! :cheer2:

I absolutely cannot believe how close we're getting! It's so exciting! Congrats on your wedding!!! You're almost at the 100 day mark! WOO! :cool1:

as alwasy faithful Nikisha421 is still with you...as long as it was I read every single word...I most certainly love the part about depositing all the cash from the guest....:rotfl2:...i mean besides the wedding itself and the money what else is there to smile about....it is a party right party:????

Thanks for sticking with me Nikisha421!! :yay: I'll try to keep my future posts shorter for the sake of my readers. :rotfl: Sometimes I just get on a roll and can't stop myself! :lmao:

[Jules~Marie]

We got our new floral BEO in the other day. :) Since we're going with an outside vendor for our bouquets, this new BEO is very easy to live with.

I did ask Warren about getting a cheaper aisle runner, and he said that Disney no longer offers any other less expensive runners. He said something about heels getting stuck in the old ones and having other issues with it, so it looks like Eddie and I will be buying one ourselves, or just going with the carpet that's already in the WP. I still don't want to pay $200 for the runner!

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/newfloralbeo-1.jpg

For the reception, he accidentally left the scattered rose petals for $100.00, but we're going to go through our florist for those, which will save us around $40 or so.

So our grand total for Disney floral (minus the $100 for the petals) is $324.94 (might be a little different once we get those petals off and the tax is recalculated).

Blossoms Orlando gave us a quote of $462.21 for the floral, so total we are going to be spending $787.15 for our decor and floral!:banana: I know we should probably spend more and decorate the wedding pavilion and stuff more, but I just don't think it's necessary. I'm very happy with everything and so excited that we're so under budget with our floral!

We're at the 3 month mark!!!! Time to go shopping for our wedding bands. :woohoo:

[smileycrissy]

You're so silly, of course we're still following you. :)

LOL, I hear ya about getting 'trapped' in one section of these forums. It's happened to me many times, especially in the weddings. You go from one thread to another to another etc. :rotfl:

Great deals on the florals.

Yeah, you know I agree with skipping the carpet at WP. It truely doesn't make sense to spend that money on something that you are literally walking once in each direction. I seriously doubt you'll get your dress dirty in that time frame.

Any ideas on what kind of wedding bands or earrings you are interested in?

I'm going to PM you a thread I found on here a few months back that offered some discounted pricing on hotels. Maybe you can use it to book your one night in Miami.

[Jules~Marie]

You're so silly, of course we're still following you. :)

LOL, I hear ya about getting 'trapped' in one section of these forums. It's happened to me many times, especially in the weddings. You go from one thread to another to another etc. :rotfl:

Great deals on the florals.

Yeah, you know I agree with skipping the carpet at WP. It truely doesn't make sense to spend that money on something that you are literally walking once in each direction. I seriously doubt you'll get your dress dirty in that time frame.

Any ideas on what kind of wedding bands or earrings you are interested in?

I'm going to PM you a thread I found on here a few months back that offered some discounted pricing on hotels. Maybe you can use it to book your one night in Miami.

Hey girl, thank you so much for those links! Once I figure out exactly how to get the discount for the hotels, I'm going to book my stay! :rotfl: I really appreciate the info, especially since all of the hotels in Miami are super expensive.

I have no idea what kind of earrings to get...I don't wear any jewelry so it's kind of stressing me out thinking about it. I think since my dress has so much beading on it that I should probably get a simple drop earring with just one shiny diamond type thing at the end. :confused3 Don't know what you'd call it but I know I've seen something like that before lol.

[smileycrissy]

Maybe you could check QVC or Home Shopping Network for something. My future sis-in-law LOVES (and I mean LOVES) to watch those channels. She'll call me from time to time so we can watch the shows together. I was on the website the other day (yeah, she called me for my opinion on some jewelry on the site :rotfl:) and they had some nice selections in the clearance area.

Although that got me to thinking, wouldn't it be funny & cute for you to wear Mickey earrings? :lmao:

http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/view.2/app.detail/params.item.J112534.desc.Disney-Choice-of-Mickey-or-Minnie-Mouse-Stud-Earrings14K-Gold

[amberg@eastlink.ca]

just joining in cus your date caught my eye- it's my bday. so have a wonderful wedding day! :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

Maybe you could check QVC or Home Shopping Network for something. My future sis-in-law LOVES (and I mean LOVES) to watch those channels. She'll call me from time to time so we can watch the shows together. I was on the website the other day (yeah, she called me for my opinion on some jewelry on the site :rotfl:) and they had some nice selections in the clearance area.

Although that got me to thinking, wouldn't it be funny & cute for you to wear Mickey earrings? :lmao:

http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/view.2/app.detail/params.item.J112534.desc.Disney-Choice-of-Mickey-or-Minnie-Mouse-Stud-Earrings14K-Gold

I haven't thought to check those channels..probably because I was banned from watching anything similar to that by Eddie. :rotfl: If I see infomercials or home shopping, I'm immediately sold on whatever it is they're selling. haha I do really love those mickey earrings! I wonder if I could get away with wearing them, if they come in silver/whitegold? :)

just joining in cus your date caught my eye- it's my bday. so have a wonderful wedding day! :goodvibes

Woo! Looks like we picked a good day! :banana: Thanks! :goodvibes

[amberg@eastlink.ca]

Woo! Looks like we picked a good day! :banana: Thanks! :goodvibes



you welcome! i'll be thinking of you on your day on my day! lol the highlight of my bday is spending it with my sparks(your equivilent is daisys). so i think we'll be celebrating with the family the nite before.

[jesemeca]

I saw you on the January POP thread and followed you over here. I just wanted to say congrats and you picked an awesome day, My Birthday. I will be in WDW less than a week after "our" day. LOL.

[Jules~Marie]

I saw you on the January POP thread and followed you over here. I just wanted to say congrats and you picked an awesome day, My Birthday. I will be in WDW less than a week after "our" day. LOL.


Thanks for stopping by! I'm definitely hoping you have an awesome birthday! :goodvibes Can't wait to go back to Disney! :banana:

[Jules~Marie]

We bought our wedding bands...mine we bought a few weeks ago, it's expected to arrive in the store on Saturday! :woohoo: We bought Eddie's on Sunday, and yesterday I got a call that it was ready to be picked up! Yay!

So here's a couple of pics:

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10687.jpg

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10685.jpg

He didn't go the traditional route with his ring, but we absolutely love it. When he first said he wanted a black ring, I thought he was kidding. All I was picturing was a very "goth" looking ring, but once I saw what he was talking about, I fell in love with it. It's perfect for him. :goodvibes

I will post my ring once we receive it!

[smileycrissy]

Oooh, can't wait to see your ring. :goodvibes

I like his ring. It's different.

LOL, are you going to be able to resist wearing the rings now (well at least when you finally get yours in)? :)

[Jules~Marie]

So we went yesterday to pick up my ring. No, we can't resist wearing them! haha Eddie especially wants to wear his. I'm a little nervous about mine. I feel like the silver doesn't match or something. I don't know. I think I'm just being too critical, it looks fine.

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10797.jpg

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10799.jpg

I like it. I just need to get it centered. On a side note we're getting married in 75 days!!!! Where did this year go?!?!?! :confused3 :banana:

[Kristinella]

Your wedding bands look great! Very nice :thumbsup2

You are getting so close...looking forward to more updates!!! Congrats!

[Jules~Marie]

Your wedding bands look great! Very nice :thumbsup2

You are getting so close...looking forward to more updates!!! Congrats!

Thank you! I honestly cannot believe how close we're getting! Hopefully I'll have some interesting/good things to post about soon. A lot of stuff is going to start happening real soon, like dress fittings and welcome bags and all that fun stuff. It's so exciting!! :yay:

[smileycrissy]

WOW!! Your wedding band is beautiful. :lovestruc

LOL, you're going to blink and next thing you know you'll have a week left to the wedding. :)

[NOMNOMNOMS]

I just caught up on your PJ! Everything is amazing so far...I'll definitely be following along. Our wedding is in April, 2011. I love seeing how far other brides are along on their planning since i feel I'm way behind... I can totally sympathize with paying for everything. We are also in the same boat. Thanks for all the budget tips BTW! :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

WOW!! Your wedding band is beautiful. :lovestruc

LOL, you're going to blink and next thing you know you'll have a week left to the wedding. :)

Thanks! :) I know, I was telling DF that it feels like we slept right through this year. It's strange how quickly time is passing. But it's so exciting!!!!

I just caught up on your PJ! Everything is amazing so far...I'll definitely be following along. Our wedding is in April, 2011. I love seeing how far other brides are along on their planning since i feel I'm way behind... I can totally sympathize with paying for everything. We are also in the same boat. Thanks for all the budget tips BTW! :goodvibes

Thank you! I feel like I'm always way behind everyone else, especially after reading these boards, but I guess everyone just does everything at their own pace. The budget thing is definitely a big stress. We were right on track when we made our minimum payment to Disney, now it just feels like we're trying to keep our heads above water. It's ok though, I've taken on the belief that everything will just work out. haha :rotfl: We're blindly moving forward. Probably not the smartest thing, but what else can ya do? Good luck with everything, and congrats on your wedding!!! :goodvibes

[sambycat]

as to your budget stress, just wanted to chime in we are right there too! we made a 14K payment on our minimum due date, so along with the deposit, that gives us a 15K balance towards our total. we need to scrape up like just under 2K for them BUT we owe probably 5K for all our other things!!! his ring! the condo! rest of the photo/video! OMG!!!!!
:scared1:

[Jules~Marie]

as to your budget stress, just wanted to chime in we are right there too! we made a 14K payment on our minimum due date, so along with the deposit, that gives us a 15K balance towards our total. we need to scrape up like just under 2K for them BUT we owe probably 5K for all our other things!!! his ring! the condo! rest of the photo/video! OMG!!!!!
:scared1:

The budget is literally making my hair turn gray! And now Eddie's truck broke down. That darn thing has been causing so much stress on us this year. We've already put more than $1000 into it this year, and now they're saying to get it fixed it's going to be another $2000.00. The truck isn't even worth that much, so now we're looking into finding a really cheap car that will just get us through January. I'm so over it, it's not even funny! :scared: :rotfl: I've adapted an "I don't care, whatever happens, happens" attitude, and it's scaring the you know what out of me! :rotfl: Good luck girl!

[Jules~Marie]

Ok, so I totally had an amazing day today. :goodvibes My sister and mom totally surprised me with a bridal shower! I was completely shocked and surprised, and it was so much fun. I had told everyone I didn't want a shower, and I wasn't expecting one. I can't believe they kept it a secret for so long, and it all turned out perfectly. I'm going to go pick up our gifts now from my moms house, but I will post about it and put up pictures when I get back. I'm so happy right now! :cool1:

[Jules~Marie]

So for about 2 weeks my sister has been telling me that she took off from work on Sat. the 13th and she really wanted to go Christmas shopping with me. I figured that sounded like a good idea, and since DF works Saturdays, I'm always up for hanging out with someone instead of spending the day alone. My sister kept saying "lets get dressed up to go shopping, we never dress nicely anymore", so I thought that was a great idea. :confused3 Why not get dressed nicely and spend the day shopping with my sister. She also said we'd grab some lunch too so it sounded like a perfect Saturday. I got suspicious at one point on Friday night. We had a lot of family drama going on on Friday afternoon, and it wasn't going to be resolved until Saturday, so I was surprised and suspicious when Kristyl (sister/moh) said she still wanted to go shopping.

Saturday morning comes around, and despite the drama, we got dressed and went shopping. My suspicions subsided as we actually went shopping. We went all over town, running around stores getting Christmas shopping done. I was shocked! I really didn't think we'd be shopping, so then I came to the conclusion that she really just wanted to hang out and get her shopping done. I was fine with that and decided to enjoy the day.

When it was time for lunch, we went to a restaurant that we don't visit often so I wasn't realizing that they were taking us into the back party room. When I entered I was completely shocked to see my bridesmaid from NY sitting in the room! :scared1: I was completely taken by surprise and I had the best day ever! :cool1:

Here's some pics:
Me crying like an idiot! :rotfl: I was so shocked to see everyone there and to see my BM! My mom flew her in as an extra surprise.
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/75742_1723792774648_1233235902_31991257_7977714_n. jpg
My first time holding a newborn baby...it was pretty scary. And then he peed on me. :rotfl:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/73007_10150299581065024_902015023_15554356_6427773 _n.jpg
My wonderful sister and mom :hug:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/76016_10150299581735024_902015023_15554370_5166151 _n.jpg
My cake. Apparently this really upset my mom and sister. It was supposed to be a gorgeous castle and I guess the guy at Publix didn't make it the way the picture looked, but I loved it. :)
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/148780_10150299578165024_902015023_15554267_971151 _n.jpg
All my wonderful gifts
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/149860_10150299575220024_902015023_15554224_368447 1_n.jpg
My bow bouquet
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/149590_10150299580060024_902015023_15554332_481131 5_n.jpg

I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful family. :goodvibes

[sambycat]

how sweet!!! heh- i thought someone got you a baby as a gift! then i would have to fear for my own "surprise shower"!!! (guess the baby gave you a shower too??) good to know that giving babies is not a new trend!!

how fun! you look super cute! :cheer2:

[smileycrissy]

Aw, what a wonderful surprise!!! :banana::banana::banana: I probably would've cried too.

That is too funny about the baby.

I hope you got lots of wonderful presents.

By the way, you looked so pretty! :goodvibes

How are the Publix cakes? I've been meaning to try one. Over here where I'm at I've got a Publix like every 5 feet but haven't found any bakeries so I figured when it comes for birthdays I'll probably have to use them for cakes.

[Jules~Marie]

how sweet!!! heh- i thought someone got you a baby as a gift! then i would have to fear for my own "surprise shower"!!! (guess the baby gave you a shower too??) good to know that giving babies is not a new trend!!

how fun! you look super cute! :cheer2:
:rotfl: I would've asked for a return receipt if someone gave me a baby! I am NOT a kid person, at all. So everyone was all shocked when I held the baby, and I guess he sensed that I don't have the kid lover gene so he peed all over me. :lmao: But it was a ton of fun!
Aw, what a wonderful surprise!!! :banana::banana::banana: I probably would've cried too.

That is too funny about the baby.

I hope you got lots of wonderful presents.

By the way, you looked so pretty! :goodvibes

How are the Publix cakes? I've been meaning to try one. Over here where I'm at I've got a Publix like every 5 feet but haven't found any bakeries so I figured when it comes for birthdays I'll probably have to use them for cakes.
Yeah, apparently when it comes to anything wedding related, I'm just a big cry baby. I was just so shocked by it all, I couldn't hold it in. haha

We got a ton of presents!! Currently they're sitting in our living room, and Eddie is being a weirdo and wont let us use any of our new things!!! :eek: He's so annoying! :rotfl: He thinks we should wait to use our new pots and pans and things until we get our own house...which wont be until next year! :scared1: Psycho. We've been using a broken iron for months, and we finally got a brand new beautiful iron, and are we using it?! NO. :rotfl: Oh well. Sorry, had to vent about that.

Publix cake are delicious! If you're into frosting, you will love their cakes. They have the best frosting ever! The only downside about this particular cake is that they messed up the design, but normally they're very good about things like that. :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

Oooooooooooooook. So today we hit the 60 day mark until our wedding! :cool1: And we have 40 days of work left! :banana::banana:

In honor of the little milestone, we decided to cancel our MK photo session. I know that sounds weird, and we were looking forward to it at first, but it's the right decision for us. First of all, it's a lot of money. $1100 can go a long way. Secondly, I asked my assist.planner if our time was changing from 6 to 7:45 and she said yes, someone from photography would be contacting me. I really only like the pictures of the castle lit up. If we did a 7:45am shoot, it would all be in daylight, and that really just takes away from the specialness of the shoot for me. Lastly, Eddie made a good point:What are we going to do with all of these pictures of ourselves?! I have to admit, that's a good point. We really don't need them. I feel pretty good about this decision, plus it's not only saving us the $1100 but also saving the money for hair and makeup for the shoot since we were doing it the day after our wedding. I've made my peace with this decision, so now I'm going to move on.

Since we're saving some money, we've decided to go ahead and get the aisle runner from Disney. :) It's $200, so it's a little pricey, but it'll look good in pictures and I know Disney will provide a quality runner, so I'm excited about this.

I almost forgot to write about it, but on Monday I had my hair/makeup trial with Patricia and Eddie and I got our engagement pictures taken by David and Vick Arndt!!!! :yay: Unfortunately, the only picture I have of my hair/makeup is on my cell phone, and it's not very clear, so I don't have anything to show you guys, but I was SO so so pleased with Patricia. I wanted an updo, but she convinced me to go with half up/half down. She told me my hair was perfect for curling (well yeah, it is curly so I can understand it holding a curl :rotfl:). I wasn't convinced until I saw what she did, and I agree, it looks good half up. I like the curls over my shoulders, especially since my dress is cut straight across my chest, the hair around my back/neck all curled looks good and offsets the wideness of my shoulders. I also LOVED the airbrushed makeup and my eyes!! She was trying to talk me into getting eyelashes, but once she went to apply the mascara, she realized that's not needed. Good thing, cuz I don't think I would've been able to have the patience to have those things applied to my eyes! I definitely think it's awkward getting your eye makeup done. She kept telling me to look at her, and for whatever reason, I couldn't stop laughing. Yes, I'm a child.:rotfl2:

Then we went to the Boardwalk to take pictures with David & Vicki. Oh my gosh, they are my favorite people, EVER! They're so friendly and easy to work with. The morning of the pictures, Eddie and I were both trying to come up with reasons to cancel the pictures, we were so dreading it. But now we're so happy we did them. Vicki is an absolute sweetheart, and David is so funny!!!! They made us so comfortable, and we didn't feel nearly as silly and foolish as I thought we would. We really lucked out too. There was almost no one on the Boardwalk that night, and we had the most gorgeous weather! We started taking pics at around 3:45, and continued until 6. The sunset was gorgeous, and I'm so excited to see our pictures! I hope I don't pick myself apart too badly. I really want to enjoy some of the pictures we took, so I have to remind myself to be kind to myself! Vicki said they've been crazy busy so we'll have our pictures in about 4 weeks, but she said she'll try to post some teaser pics on her facebook before then. I can't wait!

We also rented DF's tux last week. I'm glad that's done with. He went with the ivory tux with champagne vest, and the gm will be wearing a chocolate tux with champagne vest. We're excited to have that taken care of. I go for my dress fitting on Saturday, hopefully it wont be too expensive! I'm afraid the bustle is going to be kinda pricey. I guess I'm done rambling on. haha I'm so excited the wedding is so close!!!! WOO!:cool1:

[smileycrissy]

Firstly, a lil dance for the 60 day mark!!!! YAY!!!! :cool1::banana::cheer2::cool1::banana::yay::woohoo ::cheer2: :dancer: LOL.

What?!? I have to agree Eddie is nuts. :) Maybe you can slowly open up stuff and swtich it out to replace the other items. (I do that with purses so my DF doesn't notice them :rolleyes1)Or maybe you can tell him that you don't want to lie to people when you send your Thank You cards by telling them how much you are enjoying their gifts, when you haven't opened them yet. :rotfl:

Sorry to hear about canceling the MK shot but if you had your heart set on a certain time for a certain look and you won't be getting it, then I don't blame ya. :)

Aw man, you know we would've loved to see your trial hair/make-up. I love having my make-up done. I've been a bridesmaid so many times I know how to sit still and let them do their magic. I keep telling DF we've run out of weddings to attend so we have to start planning ours. :) On a side note -he was talking about one of his co-workers who got married there and said they were joking about having his wife & I sitting down to discuss their experience. I was so shocked, I'm guessing he's thinking of it becoming a possibility. :)

I bet the sunset pics came out real nice. I like to walk the Boardwalk for exercise whenever I can. You better post a pic from those shots, don't be picky about your pics. I am sure you look beautiuful! ;)

[Jules~Marie]

Firstly, a lil dance for the 60 day mark!!!! YAY!!!! :cool1::banana::cheer2::cool1::banana::yay::woohoo ::cheer2: :dancer: LOL.

What?!? I have to agree Eddie is nuts. :) Maybe you can slowly open up stuff and swtich it out to replace the other items. (I do that with purses so my DF doesn't notice them :rolleyes1)Or maybe you can tell him that you don't want to lie to people when you send your Thank You cards by telling them how much you are enjoying their gifts, when you haven't opened them yet. :rotfl:

Sorry to hear about canceling the MK shot but if you had your heart set on a certain time for a certain look and you won't be getting it, then I don't blame ya. :)

Aw man, you know we would've loved to see your trial hair/make-up. I love having my make-up done. I've been a bridesmaid so many times I know how to sit still and let them do their magic. I keep telling DF we've run out of weddings to attend so we have to start planning ours. :) On a side note -he was talking about one of his co-workers who got married there and said they were joking about having his wife & I sitting down to discuss their experience. I was so shocked, I'm guessing he's thinking of it becoming a possibility. :)

I bet the sunset pics came out real nice. I like to walk the Boardwalk for exercise whenever I can. You better post a pic from those shots, don't be picky about your pics. I am sure you look beautiuful! ;)

:rotfl: I think that's a great idea to slowly switch out gifts. I may have to try that.

Yeah, I completely dropped the ball when I got my hair/makeup done. I had the camera and everything and just forgot to take pics. :rolleyes:

:cool1:That'd be awesome if he's coming around to the idea of a Disney wedding! Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

And I absolutely cannot wait to get the pics back from the Arndts!!! I'm dying of anticipation! I will definitely be posting those pics, without a doubt. :)

[Jules~Marie]

Should I be annoying and bug my planner for my updated BEO? I know they're super busy and all..but our final payment is due in exactly 1 month...I feel like it's not a totally crazy request to know what we owe, right? :confused3 We had a phone meeting with our planner on Sept. 30th....it's been over a month now. And yes, I know October is like the most crazy month ever for them...and now we're coming up on the Holidays...but come onnnnnnnn! I am freaking out not knowing how much we owe! I hate bothering them. Whenever I send an email, I get a quick response from the assistant, but I still feel like a pest.

Do you think I should email them and ask when I'm going to get my revised budget, or should I just let it be and wait til they send it to me? I owe everything by December 19th...and would like to get it paid as soon as possible...ugh.

[smileycrissy]

I would email them for the updated BEO. You have 30 days before you have to completey pay them off (and pull you hair out and such LOL). Plus you have very politely given them 30 days to provide you with this.

Does it seem to be the norm that they take forever to respond? I think I am noticing a trend with that from reading a few other threads.

[LuvLuvLuv]

i just caught up with everything!! last time i posted on here, i wasn't engaged and i was going to get married in april 2013, lol. fast forward a few months, i'm engaged and it'll be november 2012!!

i can't wait to hear how things go with the california grill. we're going with wp/napa room and i'm just hoping everything goes well for you!!! we love their food sooo much!! i would check with them regarding the beo... it can't hurt!!

you're getting so close!! it's so exciting!! yay for the wedding shower as well!!

[tinkerbell 766]

Hey sweetie
I am sorry you have cancelled the MK shoot but, on balance, I think you may have made the right decision.
Being a S/D bride, I was never going to have a MK shoot (and to be honest it wasn't high on my list of priorities). We could have done one in another park, but in the end, we have opted for a 'Trash the Dress' shoot with Randy instead. I am really looking forward to it, and think we will get some shots that are totally different to the more formal VR pictures.
Sorry about your BEO issues - planners being busy seems to be a common problem!!!

[April Elizabeth]

I'm so happy for you! Less than 60 days!:cool1: You must be so excited.
Please post some of your e-pics when you get them! I'm excited because we are having ours done with David and Vicki too! I still haven't decided on the location but I love all the ones I've seen at The Boardwalk.:cutie:

I'm a little annoyed about the MK shoot time change. I wanted the pictures with the night sky and the castle lit up. Those were my favorites. Now I'm not real sure I even want MK. I'm thinking about just doing a resort Bridal Portrait at the Poly with David and Vicki and getting some nice shots of the castle from the beach. Maybe I'll do Epcot too. I just wish they wouldn't have changed the time for MK.:mad:

Let us know when you get your revised BEO. If you don't get it soon, I think I would call or e-mail. Your shower looked like so much fun! I love Publix cakes!

[Jules~Marie]

I would email them for the updated BEO. You have 30 days before you have to completey pay them off (and pull you hair out and such LOL). Plus you have very politely given them 30 days to provide you with this.

Does it seem to be the norm that they take forever to respond? I think I am noticing a trend with that from reading a few other threads.
Yes, unfortunately for me at least, it does seem like they sometimes take forever to respond. But the closer we get to the wedding, the quicker their responses so I won't complain too much. :) I always email the assistant all of my questions, I've never emailed my planner directly, but it seems to work out ok.

I did email them yesterday and they sent me the updated BEO a couple of hours later!!! I will be posting it later today. :thumbsup2

i just caught up with everything!! last time i posted on here, i wasn't engaged and i was going to get married in april 2013, lol. fast forward a few months, i'm engaged and it'll be november 2012!!

i can't wait to hear how things go with the california grill. we're going with wp/napa room and i'm just hoping everything goes well for you!!! we love their food sooo much!! i would check with them regarding the beo... it can't hurt!!

you're getting so close!! it's so exciting!! yay for the wedding shower as well!!
Congratulations!!!!:banana: I'm so excited that you're going with california grill. Their food is amazing, and I can't wait to see how it all turns out in January.

Hey sweetie
I am sorry you have cancelled the MK shoot but, on balance, I think you may have made the right decision.
Being a S/D bride, I was never going to have a MK shoot (and to be honest it wasn't high on my list of priorities). We could have done one in another park, but in the end, we have opted for a 'Trash the Dress' shoot with Randy instead. I am really looking forward to it, and think we will get some shots that are totally different to the more formal VR pictures.
Sorry about your BEO issues - planners being busy seems to be a common problem!!!
I can't wait to see your TTD pictures!!! They're going to be so amazing! I wish I could do that. I think my dress is a little too big and I would probably be terrified to get in the water in January...maybe some time in the summer I might do it...you never know. ;) Yes, I understand the planners are very busy, that's why I hate bugging them so much! But at least they never seem too upset when I send them a million questions! :lmao:
I'm so happy for you! Less than 60 days!:cool1: You must be so excited.
Please post some of your e-pics when you get them! I'm excited because we are having ours done with David and Vicki too! I still haven't decided on the location but I love all the ones I've seen at The Boardwalk.:cutie:

I'm a little annoyed about the MK shoot time change. I wanted the pictures with the night sky and the castle lit up. Those were my favorites. Now I'm not real sure I even want MK. I'm thinking about just doing a resort Bridal Portrait at the Poly with David and Vicki and getting some nice shots of the castle from the beach. Maybe I'll do Epcot too. I just wish they wouldn't have changed the time for MK.:mad:


Let us know when you get your revised BEO. If you don't get it soon, I think I would call or e-mail. Your shower looked like so much fun! I love Publix cakes!

Oh for sure I will definitely be posting some pics of the e-shoot. Vicki emailed me last night and said they should have some up on facebook next week.:cool1:

I think a resort shoot would be amazing!! It'd look so nice and would be so unique. I thought I'd be more upset that we cancelled the MK pictures, but it is nice saving all that money! :rotfl:

Publix cakes are amazing!! Gotta love that frosting! I asked my planner when I'd be receiving my BEO and they emailed it a little while later, so I will be posting that tonight! :woohoo:

[Jules~Marie]

As promised, here is my revised BEO. I did notice that we're missing pricing for the Dessert Party menu, so that will need to be added to the final price. Amy was trying to get a quote from Epcot to try to get the menu at the lowest price possible. I'll post what I think the price for the menu will be and hope for the best! :)

Dessert Party:
39 Illuminations Viewing Fee @$12.95 Guest = $537.88
1 Venue Pkg. United Kingdom Lockside @$250 = $266.25
Menu = maybe $800? TBD
1 outdoor set up Fee @ $85 = $90.53
Now, they have the dessert party based on 39 people. We will only be having 25 guests, so the price will be less...also they have it charging everyone $12.95 but the majority will have passes already.
Total for DP = $1694.66 (probably less- more like $1400.00 or so.)

Wedding Ceremony
Wedding Pavilion Usage @ $3000 each = $3195.00
Floral Package at $559.00 each = $595.34
1 Limousine - Charter 3 hrs @ $282.48 = $282.48
Total = $4072.82

Wedding Cake
1 Wedding Cake - No service charge @ $550.0 each = $585.75
Total = $585.75 ***I am very excited about this! Amy worked with the bakery to get a more reasonable price. Since we have the Surprise grooms cake that will feed 50, we are going with a 2 tier wedding cake that will feed 30 people. It will still be pink faded to light pink and square, with the castle topper. It will no longer have the lace work that resembles my dress. Our original cake was quoted at $1033 so this is so much better!!!***

Pre-Reception/Reception
1 Calif Grill Hosted Call Brand Bar @$1140.00 each = $1469.06 **We changed this to Bill on consumption, so hopefully we get some money back after the wedding. The original price was $1782.67 for open bar.**
1 Room Delivery @$10.00 = $10.00
39 Cal Grill San Mateo Plated Lunch @$41.00 Guest = $2060.55
3 Chef's Choice Vendor Meal @$23.00 each = $88.92
40 Domestic & Imported Cheese Board @$12.00 Guest = $618.55
40 Sliced Seasonal Fresh Fruit & Berries @$8.00 Guest = $412.37
1 Wedding Cake Handling Fee @$203.70 each = $216.94
1 Dance Floor @$450.00 each = $579.89
1 DJ Wedding Package @$1150.00 = $1150.00
Estimated Event Total = $6606.28

Estimated Program Total = $12959.51
***Original Event Total = $18039.91!!!!***

We're very happy with our new total. It will be slightly changed...we're now up to 43 guests, and everything is based on 40 total, so that needs to be tweaked. Also, we need the pricing for the dessert party changed, but overall I feel pretty good. We're getting a good price with our outside florist, we owe $200.00 to her, plus everything we owe to the other outside vendors (:sick:), I think we should turn out fine ( I hope! ). Now after receiving this, I feel even better about cutting the MK pictures. I don't want to overextend ourselves with our budget, and saving $1100.00 feels pretty good right now. :)

Woo, I can't wait to have everything paid for and to stop thinking about money!!! (It's hard for me since I work in a bank! hahahaha :rotfl:)Tomorrow DF and I are going to look for a new car since his crapped out 2 weeks ago (again-:sick::sick:). Wish us luck! pixiedust:

[pixie921]

Congratulations on getting your BEO down to where you want it -- that's a big change from your earlier total! :thumbsup2

And good luck on the car hunt ... here's hoping you can find a great deal! :goodvibes

[tinkerbell 766]

Yay for trimming down your BEO!!!
Which outside florist are you using, if you don't mind my asking?
Good luck with the car!!

[Jules~Marie]

Congratulations on getting your BEO down to where you want it -- that's a big change from your earlier total! :thumbsup2

And good luck on the car hunt ... here's hoping you can find a great deal! :goodvibes
Thanks! :goodvibes

Yay for trimming down your BEO!!!
Which outside florist are you using, if you don't mind my asking?
Good luck with the car!!

We're using Blossom's Orlando. Another DISer recommended them, and so far Amy (I think she's the owner) has been wonderful with replying to all my questions, and their prices are SO reasonable. Disney quoted my bouquet around $300, I showed Amy a picture of what I wanted (the same pic I showed Disney) and she gave me a price of $125!!! Here's their website: http://www.blossomsorlando.com/

[smileycrissy]

Woo-hoo!!! :cool1: You are so much closer to your original 10k budget now than before. :goodvibes :)

Aw, I can't wait to see pics of your wedding. :hug:

Good luck with finding a car. Here's to hoping you find a great car at a great price!!:wizard:

[Jules~Marie]

Woo-hoo!!! :cool1: You are so much closer to your original 10k budget now than before. :goodvibes :)

Aw, I can't wait to see pics of your wedding. :hug:

Good luck with finding a car. Here's to hoping you find a great car at a great price!!:wizard:

:banana: We're so excited to be down below $13000.00. I feel a little bit more relaxed now that we know how much we're going to be spending.

Thanks, hopefully we find an affordable car that will last. Eddie works over an hour and a half away, so the car has to be able to travel a lot. We'll see what happens! :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

Good news! My wonderful fiance got my pictures from my cell phone onto the computer for me! I couldn't figure out how to work the bluetooth with the computer, so luckily he stepped in and saved the day. :)

I only have 2 pics from the hair trial, and one is kinda blurry, neither of them are really great but I figured I'd post them anyway. The curls will be more defined and a little bit tighter the day of the wedding.

I'm mainly posting the pics because I don't know what to do about headpieces. I have a veil and a blusher, and I feel that if I don't have anything in my hair at all, it might look kind of weird. But my fiance and I both don't really like the idea of me wearing a tiara on the wedding day..so I'm looking into wearing a headband of some sort. I was interested to see what you guys think I should do...

The back-sorry it's kinda blurry..it was taken on my cell..
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/1115101504-00.jpg
the front...I don't know what my face is about-apparently I didn't feel like smiling! :rotfl:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/1115101505-00.jpg
One of the headbands I was looking at. Do you think this would work with the hairstyle I'm going to have? Also, we'll need to fit the veil and blusher in there somehow...
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/headband.jpg

Thanks for any advice you can give! :goodvibes

[smileycrissy]

OMG Julia, you look so beautiful!!!!!! Not that you aren't pretty to begin with but you are going to look so pretty on your wedding day. :) I love the hair in the back.

I always love the job make-up artists do for weddings. If I ever hit the lotto I am going to hire one to do my hair and make-up everyday. LOL. :lmao:

I like that headband, it looks like a tiara. It's elegant enough to add some wow & pizazz but not too big to take away from your hair. Do you know what I mean?

[tinkerbell 766]

Aww Jules sweetie you look so gorgeous!!
I love the headband but have no idea how you would marry (pun intended!!:lmao:) it with the veil. I am not so good at picturing these things!!

[NOMNOMNOMS]

You look GORGEOUS!

[princesswendy720]

I think the headband will flatten the front part of your hair..at least some of it. I'd suggest getting some rhinestone hair combs or pins. If your hair was pulled straight back..the headband might work. But since it is parted in the front I don't think it will.

[Jules~Marie]

OMG Julia, you look so beautiful!!!!!! Not that you aren't pretty to begin with but you are going to look so pretty on your wedding day. :) I love the hair in the back.

I always love the job make-up artists do for weddings. If I ever hit the lotto I am going to hire one to do my hair and make-up everyday. LOL. :lmao:

I like that headband, it looks like a tiara. It's elegant enough to add some wow & pizazz but not too big to take away from your hair. Do you know what I mean?
Thanks, I felt so cool getting my makeup done, and afterward I didn't feel like there was too much makeup on or anything, I just felt great! :)

Haha my sister and I always say when we win lotto we're going to have our hair stylist live in our basement and do our hair everyday. :rotfl:

Yes, I know what you mean about the tiara/headband. I think technically it is a tiara, but it's not a crown which is what I don't want to wear. I like it, I'm just not sure it'll match the hairstyle..:confused3
Aww Jules sweetie you look so gorgeous!!
I love the headband but have no idea how you would marry (pun intended!!:lmao:) it with the veil. I am not so good at picturing these things!!
:rotfl: I don't know how I'll marry it with the veil either! I'm horrible at picturing these things...maybe I'll buy something and bring it to Patricia and let her figure it out...I assume she's got plenty of experience with these things! :laughing:
You look GORGEOUS!
Thank you! :goodvibes
I think the headband will flatten the front part of your hair..at least some of it. I'd suggest getting some rhinestone hair combs or pins. If your hair was pulled straight back..the headband might work. But since it is parted in the front I don't think it will.
Thank you for your input! I totally agree with you. I was thinking the same thing when I found the headband online..I like the idea of the hair combs. Now I have some shopping to do! Time to search for some combs! :)

[Jules~Marie]

Since I'm not cooking today (yay!), I figured I'd update my pj a little.

We purchased our favors! Woot! One less thing to do! Here they are:

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/favor.jpg
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/favor2.jpg

Eddie designed our table names/place cards/welcome bag labels, so I thought I'd share those with you today. :)

Place cards (sample name ;)) -
(They're going to be tented)
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/placecard_full.jpg

Table Name - *We decided to name our tables after cruise ships. We thought they were fitting since they have kind of "magical" names, plus we're going on a cruise for our honeymoon. For the table names we have: Magic, Imagination, Dream, Destiny, and I think the last one was Fantasy. The names might change a little.
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/tablecard.jpg
Now, we're thinking we might make this pink with brown writing..but we're still not sure about that. We're going to put these in clear frames on the tables.

Lastly, we've been purchasing things for our welcome bags. We're still planning on buying a few more items. We're going to put a couple of bottles of water in the bags, some more snacks, and my sister and I think we can make mickey head rice krispie treats...we'll see how those turn out! :laughing:
The bags (purchased at Michaels)-
(hehe, I just noticed you can see my dogs head in the top corner:))
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10868.jpg
The goodies (so far)-
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10867.jpg
The labels-
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/welcomebags.jpg

I went for my dress fitting on Saturday. The woman at Davids Bridal that helped me was so amazing. She spent over an hour showing me different bustles until she came up with one that I absolutely loved. I felt so bad making her go through all of that, but all she kept saying was this is your day, you need to love your gown. :) She was amazing, and I fell in love with my dress, finally! :love: I was on the fence about it for a while, but after it being pulled in to fit me and having the bustle up, it looked amazing! I can't wait to show you guys! I pick it up on Dec. 15th.

Well that's all for now. I hope everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving!!! :goodvibes

[tinkerbell 766]

Everything is looking fantastic Jules!!!
Glad you are so happy with your dress!!

[Jules~Marie]

Everything is looking fantastic Jules!!!
Glad you are so happy with your dress!!

Thank you! :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

I. Am. Freaking. Out.

I don't know where the time is going and I'm losing my mind! I gave myself an awful headache today thinking of everything that needs to be completed.

I'm having an issue with transportation....A lot of our guests will have cars with them, most are driving down, but I'm nervous about everyone getting to the WP and the Contemporary Resort on their own. I know I probably shouldn't worry about this, but it is causing me so much stress. I asked if there was anything cheaper than getting a chartered bus, and I was told I could charter a "mini bus" for $100 cheaper than the regular bus. :confused: That's not really that helpful...I don't want people to be confused the day of the wedding, I'd like everyone to have a way to get there without having to think too much. Everyone's spending a fortune to go to the wedding, and I feel that they shouldn't have to be concerned with how they're going to actually get to the wedding. Should I just rent the smaller bus? I was told it's around $450 or so.

I also completely forgot that I'm going to need to tip everyone!!! :scared1: How dumb am I?! I swear I am losing my mind. I know I'm supposed to get my planner/assistant a gift, but I didn't even think about videographer/photographer/DJ...who else??? Hair & makeup?? I know I've read threads on here about tipping before, but honestly it hasn't been very helpful to me. Everyone just says if the person owns the company, then don't tip...but that doesn't seem right to me. And if I want to tip, how much should I tip??!!! I don't think $20 would be sufficient... ugh. ugh. ugh.

I feel like we have nothing done. I have to relax, I am getting so many freaking gray hairs it's unbelievable! :eek:

[smileycrissy]

BREATHE!!! :) :hug:

Don't freak out, I know its easier said than done. Trust me, I freak out over everything and give myself tons of headaches. As for the headaches, may I suggest Excedrin Tension headache. They work wonders, in 15-30 mins the headache is usually gone or lightened up. You may want to get yourself a small bottle since you may have random freak out moments. :)

Were you able to call Mears for a quote on transportation? Do you want me to check what other charter buses there are in the area (since I'm in Orlando and near Disney)?

As for tips, I tend to tip everyone. DF and I are very generous tippers to those who deserve it. I would say if you feel the hair stylist, DJ, photographer, florist (?), etc deserved the tip, then give it to them. The tip should vary, I agree you can't give a $20 tip to someone who's been working for a few hours like the DJ/Photographer versus someone driving the charter bus (if you go that route). Maybe $20 an hour for the photo/video/DJ? I think that sounds fair.

Can I suggest something as a gift for the planner/assistant? What about a nice pen set? You figure they must use a lot of pens throughout the day. :)

Don't freak out, everything will turn out ok. :)

Oh, by the way I LOVE the favors. They are too cute and so fitting for Disney. I can't wait to see your dress.

[Jules~Marie]

BREATHE!!! :) :hug:

Don't freak out, I know its easier said than done. Trust me, I freak out over everything and give myself tons of headaches. As for the headaches, may I suggest Excedrin Tension headache. They work wonders, in 15-30 mins the headache is usually gone or lightened up. You may want to get yourself a small bottle since you may have random freak out moments. :)

Yes it is easier said than done lol! I definitely am a bit of a worrier, I can't help it! See, I was missing the tylenol yesterday. I ran out of everything. I am definitely going to pick up some Excedrin today! Thanks for the avice. :)

Were you able to call Mears for a quote on transportation? Do you want me to check what other charter buses there are in the area (since I'm in Orlando and near Disney)?

You know, to be completely honest, I had forgotten all about my previous transportation issues. My family all told me everyone will be fine getting to the wedding, so I kind of let it go. But yesterday I just started thinking of everything and I convinced myself that I need to get everyone a way to the wedding. So then I dug through my PJ and found the link you had provided for Mears. I am still trying to figure their website out, I think tomorrow I will just go ahead and call them and see what we can do. We only need transportation for 20 people, so hopefully I can spend way less than $450. Thank you so much for the offer to look for other transportation! :hug: You are too sweet. I think I'm going to call Mears and talk with them, and I also asked my planner if she had any other suggestions besides the vans. If I still don't get an answer I'm looking for, then I might take you up on that offer! :)

As for tips, I tend to tip everyone. DF and I are very generous tippers to those who deserve it. I would say if you feel the hair stylist, DJ, photographer, florist (?), etc deserved the tip, then give it to them. The tip should vary, I agree you can't give a $20 tip to someone who's been working for a few hours like the DJ/Photographer versus someone driving the charter bus (if you go that route). Maybe $20 an hour for the photo/video/DJ? I think that sounds fair.

That's a good idea, $20 an hour. I'm definitely going to want to give something, I can't believe I forgot all about tipping! I honestly don't know about the florist, since she is the owner do I tip anyway? I guess if I absolutely love the flowers, I will have something ready to give her. Ugh, it's always so awkward giving tips. This little job will gladly be handed over to my brother (best man)! :laughing:

Can I suggest something as a gift for the planner/assistant? What about a nice pen set? You figure they must use a lot of pens throughout the day. :)

I LOVE the idea of a pen set!!! I have an obsession with pens, I'm always on the hunt for the perfect pen at my job, so I think this is a great idea. I was originally going to get them a fruit basket, but this is SO much better!!!!

Don't freak out, everything will turn out ok. :)
:rolleyes1 We'll see if I can listen to that advice, I'm going to try very hard to remain calm. :rotfl:

Oh, by the way I LOVE the favors. They are too cute and so fitting for Disney. I can't wait to see your dress.

Thank you!!!!!! I absolutely love our favors!!!! I can't wait to get them in and see what they look like in person! Thanks for all your help, you're the best! :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

I posted this on the main board, but I also wanted to post here.


Vicki posted some pics from our engagement session on her facebook page! :cool1: I haven't saved them to my computer yet, so here's a link to their facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/NayliseNJoseph#!/album.php?aid=253622&id=111170876189



49 Days!!! :yay:

[ValerieDFTWBride]

Your pictures look great!!

[neener3]

You can spend way less than $450!

We're transporting 8 people to SBP via van for a grand total of $25.00. Of course, it's only one way, but you could do 3 vans for $75.00, or $150.00 for a round trip.

These are the options my planner sent me:

Town car charter (3 hour minimum) - $120.00
Charter van (3 hour minimum) - $204.75
Charter van (one way) - $25.00

HTH!

[smileycrissy]

You look beautiful in your pics!! You guys make such a cute couple.

I love the one at the photo booth, it looked too cute. :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

Your pictures look great!!
Thank you! :)
You can spend way less than $450!

We're transporting 8 people to SBP via van for a grand total of $25.00. Of course, it's only one way, but you could do 3 vans for $75.00, or $150.00 for a round trip.

These are the options my planner sent me:

Town car charter (3 hour minimum) - $120.00
Charter van (3 hour minimum) - $204.75
Charter van (one way) - $25.00

HTH!
Thank you so much for the info!!!! This helps so much, I'm going to email my planner to see what we can get. Thanks again!!! :goodvibes

You look beautiful in your pics!! You guys make such a cute couple.

I love the one at the photo booth, it looked too cute. :goodvibes

Thank you!!! I really like the photo booth one too, although my sister and Eddie both think it's cheesy.:laughing: I think the one of us in front of ADH is WAY cheesier than the photo booth one!:rotfl:

[April Elizabeth]

You look beautiful in your pics!! You guys make such a cute couple.

I love the one at the photo booth, it looked too cute. :goodvibes

I love the photo booth one too! :yay: I also like the one on the beach with the orangish sky.
You have such a nice variety. Your hair and make-up look so nice too.

[Kristinella]

Just caught up on your plans..love how it's all coming together.

Breathe..everything is happening so fast but you need to breathe so you can enjoy it..it will all work out!

Tipping is fine to do if you feel that the particular wedding professional did above and beyond what you hired them to do..you don't necessarily need to tip everyone or anyone for that matter. See how you and YOUR HUSBAND (:)) feel after your wedding day. It's always nice (and good etiquette) to send a handwritten note along with a tip..so don't worry about carrying extra cash on your for your big day..take the time after your wedding to thank the pros for going above and beyond. Anything, even if there is no tip, will be greatly appreciated by the wedding pros who you hired for your wedding day.

I hope this helps, please let me know if you have any other questions or if I can help in any other way. THANKS! :love:

[Princess SarahK]

Not sure where Ive been to miss your PJ but im hooked! Im so sorry to hear you are stressed! It will all work itself out! Its awesome you dropped your overall cost, youve got me going back and looking at my budget now. :lmao: I wanna save too! lol Thats great you are now in love with your gown, I cant imagine not being in love on your day..who knows how you would feel then..you know? Oh and I peeked at your E-pics, they are gorgeous! ;) Stay calm and the Excedrin really does work! I work myself up too, so I know all about it!:laughing:

[Mydisneywedding]

I had the chance to read your PJ today and love all the plans, your picture are so nice. I was getting excited as I was reading, as much as I freak out about planning a wedding right after Christmas I feel so much better I am not the only one.

I loved that your family surprised you at the Shower... My mom and sister knew I didn't want a shower but gave me one any way and I cried like a baby when I walked in so don't feel bad. It's just an emotionl time.

Keep posting updates, and I will try to do the same... We'll keep each other sane in the next 4 weeks!!!

[Jules~Marie]

Just caught up on your plans..love how it's all coming together.

Breathe..everything is happening so fast but you need to breathe so you can enjoy it..it will all work out!

Tipping is fine to do if you feel that the particular wedding professional did above and beyond what you hired them to do..you don't necessarily need to tip everyone or anyone for that matter. See how you and YOUR HUSBAND (:)) feel after your wedding day. It's always nice (and good etiquette) to send a handwritten note along with a tip..so don't worry about carrying extra cash on your for your big day..take the time after your wedding to thank the pros for going above and beyond. Anything, even if there is no tip, will be greatly appreciated by the wedding pros who you hired for your wedding day.

I hope this helps, please let me know if you have any other questions or if I can help in any other way. THANKS! :love:
Thanks for the tips on giving tips! lol I never thought about sending a tip and note after the wedding, that makes sense and makes me feel a lot less stressed. I'm not really up to speed on good etiquette for a wedding, so it's great coming here and finding out what is best to do! :) Thanks for making me feel so much better about this!
Not sure where Ive been to miss your PJ but im hooked! Im so sorry to hear you are stressed! It will all work itself out! Its awesome you dropped your overall cost, youve got me going back and looking at my budget now. :lmao: I wanna save too! lol Thats great you are now in love with your gown, I cant imagine not being in love on your day..who knows how you would feel then..you know? Oh and I peeked at your E-pics, they are gorgeous! ;) Stay calm and the Excedrin really does work! I work myself up too, so I know all about it!:laughing:
Thanks for reading! I feel so great about our budget, it's sometimes a little sad when you have to cut things you really wanted to have, but I had to tell myself it was necessary and now I don't have to worry about stressing the budget, I can just stress everything else instead lol. And hey, I still might win lotto before my wedding and then I'll be able to have everything I want! :rotfl:
I had the chance to read your PJ today and love all the plans, your picture are so nice. I was getting excited as I was reading, as much as I freak out about planning a wedding right after Christmas I feel so much better I am not the only one.

I loved that your family surprised you at the Shower... My mom and sister knew I didn't want a shower but gave me one any way and I cried like a baby when I walked in so don't feel bad. It's just an emotionl time.

Keep posting updates, and I will try to do the same... We'll keep each other sane in the next 4 weeks!!!
It is such an emotional time! I can't believe how crazy I've been, I've been crying while watching "Say yes to the dress" in the lunchroom at work...I look like a complete idiot! hahaha I will try to continue posting updates, and I am counting on you to keep me sane now! :rotfl: Good luck with all of your planning!!!

[Jules~Marie]

I've been searching Ebay for headbands, and found 2 that I think might work.

My mom would like me to wear a thicker headband, while I think I should wear a thinner one.

The one I like:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/headband-1.jpg
The one my mom likes:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/headband2.jpg

What do you guys think?? Do you like them?

Also, my sister renewed my gym membership yesterday! :yay: She's the best! :hug: We went today for a quick refresher. Monday we will start taking our spin classes and aerobic weight training classes again. :scared1: I've managed to keep 20 pounds off since May, but now I need to tone up. I'm so excited to start going again! :woohoo:

Also, I emailed my planner, and she assured me that the guests will be fine getting around to the wedding. She doesn't think we need to spend the money on extra transportation, so I feel much better about that.

Tomorrow we are going to Disney!!!! I can't wait to see all the decorations. I'm trying to talk Eddie into going to Hollywood Studios, MK and AK, but I don't think he's going to go for it! :laughing: I can't wait to go! :santa:

[smileycrissy]

Are you going to wear it like a headband or slanted like a tiara? I like the single headband too but I think I understand why Mom is saying the thicker one. I think the single will almost disappear once you place it in your hair since its thick & curly.

Aw, what a sweet sister. :)

Oh man, too bad DF is working tomorrow, I would've tried to meet you at Disney to say 'Hi'. LOL. I hope you guys have a blast!!

[April Elizabeth]

Both headbands are very pretty but I'm leaning a little bit toward the thinner one.

Your sister is so sweet. I wish I had a sister.:goodvibes

[Princess SarahK]

I like both headbands but agree that the thinner one might disappear in thick hair. Theyre both pretty and either will look fabulous! Im jealous about the gym...I need to suck it up and join one too...:headache:

[Jules~Marie]

Are you going to wear it like a headband or slanted like a tiara? I like the single headband too but I think I understand why Mom is saying the thicker one. I think the single will almost disappear once you place it in your hair since its thick & curly.

Aw, what a sweet sister. :)

Oh man, too bad DF is working tomorrow, I would've tried to meet you at Disney to say 'Hi'. LOL. I hope you guys have a blast!!
I want to wear it like a headband, not like a tiara. I'm having the same thoughts as you about the thinner one disappearing in my hair. Humm I don't know what to do! :confused3 Eddie prefers the thinner one, so I might just let him make the decision lol. It would've been so cool to meet you at Disney!!! We'll have to do it one day! We had so much fun today, but we only made it to MK and DTD. I had the BEST chocolate covered waffle cone with a scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream from Ghiradellis, oh my freaking goodness that thing was delicious!! So much for going to the gym!:lmao:


Both headbands are very pretty but I'm leaning a little bit toward the thinner one.

Your sister is so sweet. I wish I had a sister.:goodvibes
Thanks for your input, I think I'm going with the thinner one. I absolutely love my sister..most of the time!!!:rotfl: hahah just kidding, she seriously is the best person ever!

I like both headbands but agree that the thinner one might disappear in thick hair. Theyre both pretty and either will look fabulous! Im jealous about the gym...I need to suck it up and join one too...:headache:
Yeah, I love the idea of going to the gym, but the actual task of getting up and going is not as much fun to me. :lmao: But I only have 43 days left until the wedding, and then we're going on a cruise, so I really need to get my butt in shape! lol

[tinkerbell 766]

Hi Jules!!
Just wanted to say I LOVE your engagement pictures!! They are gorgeous!!
I like both the hairbands but I am leaning toward the thicker one too!!! It would definately show up more. If, however, Eddie likes the thin one you should go with that. He is the most important person to please (after yourself) after all!!

[smileycrissy]

Oooh, you are slowly approaching the 30 day mark.!!!! :cool1::banana::yay:

Tell Eddie you have to come back to see the Gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian and the big tree at the Wilderness Lodge. DF and I did that a few days ago and it was soo nice and relaxing (other than the craziness at the Gingerbread house of people taking pics). All we needed was some hot cocoa. :goodvibes I just thought that might be a nice little escape for the two of you for a few hours. :)

[Jules~Marie]

Hi Jules!!
Just wanted to say I LOVE your engagement pictures!! They are gorgeous!!
I like both the hairbands but I am leaning toward the thicker one too!!! It would definately show up more. If, however, Eddie likes the thin one you should go with that. He is the most important person to please (after yourself) after all!!
Thank you! I love how our pictures came out. :) I think I decided to go with what Eddie likes..it's probably best to do that! ;)

Oooh, you are slowly approaching the 30 day mark.!!!! :cool1::banana::yay:

Tell Eddie you have to come back to see the Gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian and the big tree at the Wilderness Lodge. DF and I did that a few days ago and it was soo nice and relaxing (other than the craziness at the Gingerbread house of people taking pics). All we needed was some hot cocoa. :goodvibes I just thought that might be a nice little escape for the two of you for a few hours. :)

I know, can't believe we're less than 40 days away. I told Eddie we should've stopped at the GF when we were there!!! I've never seen it all decorated. Maybe I can convince him to go back on Sunday!!!! :laughing:

[LuvLuvLuv]

I'm on a simple sparkly headband hunt myself. we had one of those single thin headbands at dillards where i work, and i tried it on... it was really thing and got totally lost in my hair. i either need a thicker one like your mom liked, or one that has a little design to sit up higher.

i really liked the thought of the simple one like you like.... but once i got it on--it just wasn't enough.

you'll find one you love... don't worry!

[Jules~Marie]

I'm on a simple sparkly headband hunt myself. we had one of those single thin headbands at dillards where i work, and i tried it on... it was really thing and got totally lost in my hair. i either need a thicker one like your mom liked, or one that has a little design to sit up higher.

i really liked the thought of the simple one like you like.... but once i got it on--it just wasn't enough.

you'll find one you love... don't worry!

It's a lot harder to find a simple, sparkly headband than I thought it'd be. We bought the one that Eddie and I liked, and it came in the mail yesterday. It actually is nice because the stones are sort of raised, so it shows just enough sparkle. Hopefully on the day of the wedding, the hairstylist can make it work. If not, I'll just take it out and have her style it without anything! I only spent $15 on the headband, so if I don't use it, it wont be the end of the world. Good luck on your hunt for the perfect one!!! :goodvibes

[Jules~Marie]

Well, we've decided we're going to do a petal toss after the ceremony. We weren't going to do a staged exit, but I found a good deal on petals so we went for it. After learning about freeze dried petals on the boards, I searched online and found a 50% off coupon and purchased 34 cups of petals for $40!!! My florist was quoting over $200 for petals to throw, so I'm super excited about the deal we got. Also, I emailed the company late Friday night, and they replied almost instantly! I love that.
These are the ones we bought:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/flyboynaturals_2136_86567054.jpg

Also, I purchased my shoes. I am NOT a shoe person...I absolutely dread shoe shopping. I know, it's weird. I can appreciate a nice pair of shoes, but I just don't like going out and buying them. lol Plus, it's really hard for me to buy high heels because of my back problems and the fact that Eddie is just slightly taller than me. I do not want to be taller than Eddie on our wedding day, so it was difficult finding the perfect shoes with a low heel. Well after months of searching, Eddie was the one that found the perfect pair. I wanted to be cute and get colored shoes, but Eddie really preferred that I get ivory shoes. Whatever, I let him make the decision lol. It's easier sometimes to let him get what he wants. :rotfl:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10837.jpg
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10835.jpg
They're unremarkable, I know..but they were $14 at Sears lol so I really don't care. You can't see them under my dress anyway. ;)

We went and bought a guestbook. Years ago, Eddie came home from work one night and brought with him a guestbook that he purchased. He was so cute, said that he thought the book would be perfect for when we got married. I cried, thought it was so sweet that he actually thought about our wedding. :laughing: Well, we took the guestbook out of storage the other day, and it had gotten yellow (used to be white). I was bummed because I really wanted to use it, but Eddie didn't care. He thought I was crazy for holding onto that thing for 5 years! I wont throw it out though. That thing I'm keeping forever! So we went to Michaels and purchased a new one:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10889.jpg
Matches the wedding colors perfectly. :)

Lastly, I realized I haven't posted the menu Eddie created for the wedding day. (At least, I don't remember posting it...maybe I have??? :confused:lol)
So here it is:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/menu_printable.jpg

Sorry, I know I always post a bunch of things at the same time, but I was having trouble sleeping last night and thought of all the things I could post today. :rotfl: So you get one giant update! hahaha Enjoy!

[smileycrissy]

Aw, Eddie sounds like such a keeper and such a sweetie!

I hate shoe shopping, I've got Fred Flinstone feet (flat and wide) so I always have a horrible time looking for shoes.

I totally agree about keeping the book, it has sentimental value. :) I do like the new guestbook. The menu is adorable!!

What a deal on the petals!!! You know someone is going to ask where you got them from, so I'll just ask for them :rotfl: 'Where did you order them from?' LOL. And besides, I'm trying to keep track of everything so that hopefully soon I can start buying these things....:rolleyes1 LOL.

[Jules~Marie]

Aw, Eddie sounds like such a keeper and such a sweetie!

I hate shoe shopping, I've got Fred Flinstone feet (flat and wide) so I always have a horrible time looking for shoes.

I totally agree about keeping the book, it has sentimental value. :) I do like the new guestbook. The menu is adorable!!

What a deal on the petals!!! You know someone is going to ask where you got them from, so I'll just ask for them :rotfl: 'Where did you order them from?' LOL. And besides, I'm trying to keep track of everything so that hopefully soon I can start buying these things....:rolleyes1 LOL.

I'm so glad there's someone else out there who hates shoe shopping too! :rotfl: I can't believe I didn't write who I got the petals from! I bought them from Flyboynaturals.com. I absolutely love how quickly they replied to my email, I think it's fantastic! :)

[Jules~Marie]

I forgot to post the lyrics that we're going to print out and frame and place next to the memorial candle. We're going to have the candle at the ceremony and at the reception, but we want to keep it off to the side so it doesn't depress anyone. I found a song by Josh Groban that I'm going to type up and display next to the candle. I've been on the hunt for the perfect frame to place next to the candle.

Here's the lyrics:

"Remember"

Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me, in your memory

Remember, when your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
Just remember me

I am the one star that keeps burning, so brightly,
It is the last light, to fade into the rising sun

I'm with you
Whenever you tell, my story
For I am all I've done

Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me, in your memory
Remember me

I am the one voice in the cold wind, that whispers
And if you listen, you'll hear me call across the sky

As long as I still can reach out, and touch you
Then I will never die

Remember, I'll never leave you
If you will only
Remember me

Remember me...

Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me
In your memory

Remember, when your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
I live forever
Remember me

Remember me
Remember... me... by Josh Groban

[DisneyShamrock]

I forgot to post the lyrics that we're going to print out and frame and place next to the memorial candle. We're going to have the candle at the ceremony and at the reception, but we want to keep it off to the side so it doesn't depress anyone. I found a song by Josh Groban that I'm going to type up and display next to the candle. I've been on the hunt for the perfect frame to place next to the candle.

I love Josh Groban. This is such a good song. It gives me chills every time I hear it. :thumbsup2

[Jules~Marie]

I love Josh Groban. This is such a good song. It gives me chills every time I hear it. :thumbsup2

I love Josh Groban too!!! It upsets me, because no one at work knows who he is, so they never know what I'm talking about when I mention him. I actually never heard this song before I started searching for memorial songs. I think it's perfect. :)

[Deb loves Disney]

I love that you did a menu for California Grill. I really wish we had done that because our guests didn't know what to expect and my son said he thought that the appetizer was the only thing he was going to be served, lol. How could I not even tell my son what to expect :rotfl2:???

I am in full agreement on the shoe shopping thing! I don't like it either because after childbirth my feet expanded/grew or something crazy and now my feet hardly ever fit the right way in shoes. Plus, I hardly ever wear heels and felt really obligated to have a pretty pair for the ceremony. I now kinda regret the heel size I chose due to a really embarrassing thing that happened in the middle of the ceremony that I will post details about soon in my PJ. :blush:

I think the heel size you chose is smart, not too high and not too low. I also had a very sensible shoe to put on after the ceremony (flats) and am so happy I had them.

Good luck...the time is approaching so quicky!

[Jules~Marie]

I love that you did a menu for California Grill. I really wish we had done that because our guests didn't know what to expect and my son said he thought that the appetizer was the only thing he was going to be served, lol. How could I not even tell my son what to expect :rotfl2:???

I am in full agreement on the shoe shopping thing! I don't like it either because after childbirth my feet expanded/grew or something crazy and now my feet hardly ever fit the right way in shoes. Plus, I hardly ever wear heels and felt really obligated to have a pretty pair for the ceremony. I now kinda regret the heel size I chose due to a really embarrassing thing that happened in the middle of the ceremony that I will post details about soon in my PJ. :blush:

I think the heel size you chose is smart, not too high and not too low. I also had a very sensible shoe to put on after the ceremony (flats) and am so happy I had them.

Good luck...the time is approaching so quicky!

I love the menu, I wouldn't have even thought to do one but our planner asked about it and that made Eddie want to make one! I'm so lucky he's into making all this stuff. :laughing:

It was so hard finding a good heel size..I actually would prefer if they were a little lower still, but these were the best I could find.

[Jules~Marie]

We got everything printed out today; menus, table names and place cards! :cool1: It's nice having everything all done. Now my sister and I have to sit and cut out everything and fold the placecards in half...:eek: I am not good at cutting in a straight line lol.

Eddie designed the table names, he even drew the pictures that are on each of them. I love how talented he is. :love: He also came up with the idea of how they will be presented on the tables. I thought we'd put them in a frame and place in the middle of the table, but Eddie suggested we get little holders (don't know what they're technically called) and we hot glued them to coasters. You'll see what I mean in the picture below.
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10911.jpg

I think I like the "Dream" one best! :goodvibes I'm so happy to have everything coming together!!! It's such a great feeling. :yay:

[tinkerbell 766]

Jules, these are so pretty!!
You are right, Eddie has a real talent!!

[smileycrissy]

Aw, how pretty are your table names & settings. :)

He did a very good job with them!!:thumbsup2

What's the gift box looking thing in the backgroud? LOL, it's cute whatever it is.

It seems like you are a lot more relaxed then before. I'm so glad to hear that. :hug:

[Bippi]

WOW! So I dont know how I ever missed your PJ but I just read through every post and page and response! I love your little details and touches! I am January 14, 2012 and very simplistic with decor as well but I am also very detail oriented and want to have it all planned for yesterday! I loved watching you transform from excited and frantically engaged to a much more calm beautiful bride!

Your e-photos are stunning, your rings are gorgeous, your floral is feminine and delicate and everything is going to be sooo beautiful!

Great ideas on how to save some bucks here and there! I may have to research all the options! I am planning my Disney wedding from Northern Virginia/DC and all the advice helps!

I may be PMing you for that phenomenal newsletter too!

Congratulations and good luck in the final days of planning!

[Jules~Marie]

Jules, these are so pretty!!
You are right, Eddie has a real talent!!
Thank you! I'm so lucky that Eddie is not only talented, but that he also has such an interest in planning this wedding..I'd be completely lost without his help! :)
Aw, how pretty are your table names & settings. :)

He did a very good job with them!!:thumbsup2

What's the gift box looking thing in the backgroud? LOL, it's cute whatever it is.

It seems like you are a lot more relaxed then before. I'm so glad to hear that. :hug:
Thanks! The gift box looking things is actually a candle that a coworker gave me last year for Christmas, I think she bought it from Partylite. I haven't burned it, I think it's too cute! lol

I feel so much better than before, I'm known to have mild freakouts now and then, :rotfl: but I've come to the conclusion that it's better to just enjoy this time than to start worrying over every little detail. :hug:

WOW! So I dont know how I ever missed your PJ but I just read through every post and page and response! I love your little details and touches! I am January 14, 2012 and very simplistic with decor as well but I am also very detail oriented and want to have it all planned for yesterday! I loved watching you transform from excited and frantically engaged to a much more calm beautiful bride!

Thanks for reading!!! I think it's so funny how much I've changed throughout the year while planning this wedding. Hopefully I'll continue to be calm from now on lol.

Your e-photos are stunning, your rings are gorgeous, your floral is feminine and delicate and everything is going to be sooo beautiful!
Thank you! :)


Great ideas on how to save some bucks here and there! I may have to research all the options! I am planning my Disney wedding from Northern Virginia/DC and all the advice helps!
I can't imagine planning the wedding from so far away, I was completely shocked when I realized how much more affordable outside vendors were. I still am planning on winning that lotto before the wedding though! :laughing:

I may be PMing you for that phenomenal newsletter too!
:thumbsup2 I think I'm most proud of our newsletter. :)

Congratulations and good luck in the final days of planning!
Thank you! I got chills when I saw "the final days of planning" :laughing: I'm a dork lol. Could be I got chills because its 29 degrees in Florida right now!!!! hahaha

[mjem216]

Congratulations

[Sccrmnky2005]

I can't believe your so close!!! LUCKY GIRL!

I love the table names! They are so simple and elegant!! :goodvibes

I can't wait to see everything together in pictures!

[smileycrissy]

Thank you! I got chills when I saw "the final days of planning" :laughing: I'm a dork lol. Could be I got chills because its 29 degrees in Florida right now!!!! hahaha

OMG, Jules I just flew up to NY today to visit my family and it is FREEZING up here. I'll gladly take that 29 degrees down there than this cold weather up here. I barely made it two blocks outside before I told my mom 'This just isn't right, it shouldn't be this cold!!' :rotfl:

[Jules~Marie]

Congratulations
Thank you!
I can't believe your so close!!! LUCKY GIRL!

I love the table names! They are so simple and elegant!! :goodvibes

I can't wait to see everything together in pictures!
I can't believe we're so close either!!!! It's crazy and scary at the same time haha.
OMG, Jules I just flew up to NY today to visit my family and it is FREEZING up here. I'll gladly take that 29 degrees down there than this cold weather up here. I barely made it two blocks outside before I told my mom 'This just isn't right, it shouldn't be this cold!!' :rotfl:
Yeah, I definitely don't miss the freezing temps up there...I just wish my house here had central heat instead of these little wall units..they really don't do much, just blow in semi warm air lol. It's ok though, we're supposed to get into the 70's the rest of the week! Hope you're staying warm up there!!!

[Jules~Marie]

I went to pick up my dress last night from David's Bridal. My sister came along so she could learn how to do the ridiculous bustle.

The store is an hour away from where we live..it's not very fun getting there, but we made the most of it and got some dinner and then went to get my dress. I don't know why there's so many dumb people in this world! :laughing: My dress has a crazy long train. I knew the bustle would be difficult, but I didn't realize that when I originally went in to get my alterations done, the lady had "made up" a special bustle for me. It's not the normal bustle that goes with my dress. So, since I have this "special", 9 point bustle, do you think the woman that made it up would be in to help us???!!! NO, of course she wasn't in. So instead we had 2 woman trying their best to get the bustle up. There was even a map drawn so they would know how to do it. Well something went wrong with it. The map showed 9 points, they could only find 8. The left side of the train was way too long, and the rest of the bustle just looked like a jumbled mess. Ugh. It was so annoying. I also didn't like the beads that they added to the train so they could get the bustle up. This dress is all about the train. Now there's a button right in the middle of it, just looks odd to me. I'm rambling now. Sorry lol.

So the 2 ladies helping us decided that they could either add 2 more points to my cruddy bustle, or I could make another appt. to meet with the woman who designed the bustle. I decided to make another appointment for Monday at 7:30. Another late night I guess. This time I'm having my mom come with me. She was there the first time and she knows how it's supposed to look.

I know it's not the end of the world or anything, and I know they'll get it right. It's just sooooo annoying going all the way out there and then not even being able to see the dress come together. Also, I do not recommend eating before you get into your dress. :rotfl: I felt like a huge fat cow. It was disgusting. I don't know if I put my bra on wrong or what, but I had major armpit/**** flab hanging over my dress!!! :lmao: Sorry, tmi.

Sorry for the vent, I'll go back to being happy and giddy tomorrow. lol

[Sccrmnky2005]

I'm so sorry you had such a bad experience this time around at your dress fitting! :mad:

Maybe by Monday, after you go back in to talk to the lady that made the bustle you will feel better! Make sure you have at least one person (like you mom) or a few more come with you that can be shown how to do your bustle! GOOD LUCK! Hope everything works out!! Can't wait to see final dress fitting pics!:goodvibes

[Mydisneywedding]

Oh the bustle..... I totally feel your pain. I too went yesterday to get the dress fitted for what I thought was THE LAST TIME and was told that the bustle style we had discussed doesn't work well with the dress. ( My dress has buttons from the top to the tip of the train).... so intead of them calling me before I went in for my last fitting they decided to tell me when I arrived.

My dress location is not too far but it's so annoying to have to go back again.


I totally understand how you feel... but look at the bright side we are almost at the finish line and I know your dress will look amazing...

[smileycrissy]

Bummer about the bustle problem. But at least you had a nice night out with your sister, so that was a nice plus. :thumbsup2 I hope they have the bustle figured out on Mon. Yes, please take pics so we can "ooh' and 'ahh' over it. :)

[Jules~Marie]

:banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::cool1: :cool1::dance3::dance3::dance3::dance3::yay::yay: :yay::yay::yay::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::dancer: :dancer:

ONE MONTH!!!!!

[sw33t_angel]

WHOOOOOO!!!! You are SO close!!!! :woohoo:

[smileycrissy]

Oooh, less than a month!!! :) :yay::yay::yay::yay:

How did it go with the bustle?

[tinkerbell 766]

Yay Jules, less than a month!!! So exciting!!!
:yay::dance3::woohoo::cheer2::banana:

[Jules~Marie]

WHOOOOOO!!!! You are SO close!!!! :woohoo:
:cool1:
Oooh, less than a month!!! :) :yay::yay::yay::yay:

How did it go with the bustle?
I can't believe I only have a few weekends left until everything begins!!! It went great! Unfortunately my pictures are butt ugly...shouldn't have gone straight from work right to the store, oh well. lol

Yay Jules, less than a month!!! So exciting!!!
:yay::dance3::woohoo::cheer2::banana:

:banana::banana::banana:

[Jules~Marie]

I went to get my dress again last night. This time I brought my sister and my mom with me. This time around, the woman who designed the bustle was there. I absolutely love this woman. She is so sweet, and so very good at her job. When we arrived, she already had the bustle on the dress, so when I put it on we could see that it was correct right away. Apparently the other two ladies that helped us the other day just couldn't figure out how to read the map that showed them how to do the bustle. It's ok, it's a complicated bustle and I'm not upset that we had to go back anymore. The woman showed my mom and sister how to do the bustle, and then she let them take it down and do it themselves. The act of getting the buttons and loops together isn't that difficult, the most difficult part is all of the tucking they have to do. My train is so large, to put it up makes it look like a droopy mess unless you tuck all of the extra material into the bustle. Don't know if that really makes sense to anyone :confused3 but I don't have milk in my house so I wasn't able to have coffee (and I still don't have a car since Eddie's truck broke down a while ago so I can't get myself milk...) so I'm probably not thinking too clearly right now. :laughing:

Ugh, pictures. I had my sister take a couple of pictures with her phone. I had taken my camera with me (which has a nice "beauty shot" setting that makes you look great even without make up on!) but I couldn't find my camera when we got to the store. When I pulled into my driveway when I got home, I saw the camera laying on the ground. Guess I dropped it....
So anyway, it was super busy at work yesterday, and I went straight from work to the shop. My mom and sister did the same thing, but they didn't have to be in any pictures. So just be nice with the comments, I know no one would say like "Oh ew Jules you look horrible" :rotfl: but I still don't want anyone thinking that! hahaha I need coffee.

Sorry for the quality. We'll have gorgeous dress pictures in 27 days. ;)

The back before the bustle. Don't know why this one is so tiny.
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/unbustled.jpg
Bustled.
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/bustlenew-1.jpg
Ugh. The front with the bustle up.
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/bustledone.jpg
:rotfl: I tried sitting in the dress with the bustle up. Hahaha oh it's going to be so much fun at the wedding. I know this pictures is ridiculous I just think it's so funny.
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/sitting2.jpg

So all in all I'm thrilled with my dress. I love the bustle and I'm glad it's done and I don't have to think about it. On Friday my sister and mom and I will be spending the day baking cookies and watching Christmas movies. We're also going to be doing all of the wedding stuff that's left. We have to fold the place cards, cut the menus, print the labels for the welcome bags, put the labels on the welcome bags and fill the bags and fill out the tags for the welcome bags. Hopefully we'll get everything done. That'd be great! :thumbsup2

Also, last Friday we got a call from our DJ! :yay: In the message he said he's DJ Steve. I looked him up on the boards, and if it's the same person I read about it seems that we got a good DJ. I'm really excited!!! He sent us some sheets to fill out, so we'll get those done soon, hopefully. Also, my final payment was due to Disney on Saturday. I asked them for the past 2 weeks for my final payment amount. They said they were working on it. I still haven't received anything from them! Hopefully I don't get in trouble for the payment being late..I don't know what else I could've done though..I don't know how much to pay! :laughing: I can't believe we're getting so close! I'm so excited!!!!

[smileycrissy]

Jules you are too funny!! Your dress is BEAUTIFUL and it looks absolutely gorgeous on you.

OMG, I totally understand about the no coffee thing. If I don't have that dose of caffeine by a certain point in the day, my head is killing me and I'm super cranky. :rotfl:

Still no luck with the car hunt? What about checking with Enterprise? Sometimes they sell the car rental vehicles. A friend of mine bought a saturn up north thru Enterprise for a decent deal. The only downside is you know some of those cars have had a lot of abuse.

Aw, I hope you guys have a lot of fun on Friday. Family, cookies and movies (and maybe popcorn) - you couldn't ask for anything better.

[Jules~Marie]

Jules you are too funny!! Your dress is BEAUTIFUL and it looks absolutely gorgeous on you.

OMG, I totally understand about the no coffee thing. If I don't have that dose of caffeine by a certain point in the day, my head is killing me and I'm super cranky. :rotfl:

Still no luck with the car hunt? What about checking with Enterprise? Sometimes they sell the car rental vehicles. A friend of mine bought a saturn up north thru Enterprise for a decent deal. The only downside is you know some of those cars have had a lot of abuse.

Aw, I hope you guys have a lot of fun on Friday. Family, cookies and movies (and maybe popcorn) - you couldn't ask for anything better.

Thanks! Yes, Eddie has learned that I absolutely need coffee in the morning or else lol.

Honestly, we haven't even looked for a car. Originally we were going to buy one, but my brother hasn't been working since he moved down so he's been driving me to work and I'm just giving him money for it. It works out pretty well, except when I need to go out and get myself milk for my coffee! After the wedding we'll start searching for one I guess.

Hmmm, popcorn is a great idea!!! :laughing: I'm really looking forward to having some fun family time tomorrow..this week has been hell at work, I'm being buried alive by paperwork and I'm really trying my hardest to not have anything pending in my file for the 2 weeks that I'm gone...we'll see if I can accomplish everything before then! Only 14 working days left for me! :yay:

[puente0629]

Your going to look beautiful, the dress is amazing.:thumbsup2

We actually still have to finish the tags for our welcome boxes as well, it still feels like we have so much to do in so little time. :scared1:

Oh, don't worry about getting in trouble for not paying on the date the balance was due on, it happened to us as well. Just make sure you look over it because we had things we removed that were still on the BEO.

[Jules~Marie]

Your going to look beautiful, the dress is amazing.:thumbsup2

We actually still have to finish the tags for our welcome boxes as well, it still feels like we have so much to do in so little time. :scared1:

Oh, don't worry about getting in trouble for not paying on the date the balance was due on, it happened to us as well. Just make sure you look over it because we had things we removed that were still on the BEO.

Thanks. :)

I know, I thought we were doing well with doing everything that needed to be done before the wedding, but we're quickly losing time. I can't believe I actually forgot all about the welcome bags labels and tags. Hopefully today we'll get a lot of the stuff done.

I actually emailed my assist. planner yesterday and asked her what I should do. I've been asking for weeks for a new BEO because I removed and changed some things, and I never received it, so she told me just to pay what the balance was on my latest budget. It kind of made me upset since I want everything paid correctly. I really want to get my $1000 retainer back after the wedding...I guess we'll see what happens.

[smileycrissy]

I hope you enjoy your day with your Mom & sister. In case I don't log on again by then, Merry Christmas!!

[Jules~Marie]

I hope you enjoy your day with your Mom & sister. In case I don't log on again by then, Merry Christmas!!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! I can't believe it's already come and gone and soon we'll be in 2011!!!! Crazy!

[Jules~Marie]

We have 3 weeks to go!!!! :cool1::scared1::yay::eek::woohoo:

I'm trying to get everything together now. My sister and I did a great job on Friday getting everything cut out. We have 2 placecards left to print out, a couple of menus got messed up and we have to print out the memorial song. We also need to get the labels for the welcome bags done. We'll probably do all of that on Sunday.

Last night I emailed our officiant. We haven't heard from him since we booked him back in April, which is fine I don't expect constant contact. But now I really want to know what to expect at the ceremony. We really don't want anything overly religious, something short and sweet would be perfect. Hopefully I'll hear back from him soon.

I kind of forgot that Eddie and I need to get a marriage license. :rolleyes1 I think we're going to try and get that on my lunch break today. I'll see how busy we are at work...kind of need to get that soon, I guess it's important. :laughing:

Oh and we need to practice our first dance. We're not doing anything spectacular, we just didn't want to sway to the music so we looked on youtube for some steps, and now we need to learn them. :laughing: That's going to be tough.

I can't believe we're so freaking close now!!!! It's so exciting, I can't concentrate on anything else. :rotfl:

[Princess SarahK]

WOW!! You are really getting close! I was a little shocked this morning when I read my ticker said 10 months..and I had a little freak out but 3 weeks to go!! Girl, thats awesome! Your dress is soo pretty and the bustle is gorgeous. You are going to make the most beautiful bride! Will you upload pictures of all your programs, menus, etc? Or have I missed them? Cant wait to read more!! :goodvibes Yay for having a low countdown!!

[smileycrissy]

Oh my gosh, three weeks?!?! Yay!!!! :yay::yay: How many more work days?


You had me chuckling about the license. :rotfl: You would think it would be at the top of the list but I can see how it can be easily forgotten too with all the other things. At least you remembered now and not the day of. Then you would've had to :scared1:

I'm so excited for you!! Enjoy these last three weeks. :)

[April Elizabeth]

I can't believe you're so close Jules! :cool1:
I love love love your dress! It's beautiful on you!:cutie:

[Jules~Marie]

WOW!! You are really getting close! I was a little shocked this morning when I read my ticker said 10 months..and I had a little freak out but 3 weeks to go!! Girl, thats awesome! Your dress is soo pretty and the bustle is gorgeous. You are going to make the most beautiful bride! Will you upload pictures of all your programs, menus, etc? Or have I missed them? Cant wait to read more!! :goodvibes Yay for having a low countdown!!
Thank you! When I started this PJ it was back in July, and I can't believe how quickly my little ticker has been counting down! I am completely shocked that it was almost one year ago that Eddie proposed and we started all of this planning. It truly does fly by.

We didn't make programs, we didn't really see a need for them. I think I did upload the menu somewhere on here, but I'll repost. :) I love them!!! :love:

Menu:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/menu_printable-1.jpg
Table names:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10911.jpg
Place cards: (these will be folded in half)
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/placecard_full.jpg

I think that's everything we have for the tables, plus our favors will be put out.

[Jules~Marie]

Oh my gosh, three weeks?!?! Yay!!!! :yay::yay: How many more work days?


You had me chuckling about the license. :rotfl: You would think it would be at the top of the list but I can see how it can be easily forgotten too with all the other things. At least you remembered now and not the day of. Then you would've had to :scared1:

I'm so excited for you!! Enjoy these last three weeks. :)
12 work days!!!!!!!!! :banana:

:rotfl: I can't believe we forgot about that license. But yeah, we remembered it just in time. We got it yesterday, so yay that's out of the way. :woohoo:

I plan on enjoying every minute of these next few weeks! My sister is starting to freak out now, I called her my MOHzilla :rotfl: but she's just stressing about the timeline for the weekend and everything. I told her to relax, everything will work out. It's great having her share in my concerns though, because now we'll work harder to get everything finalized. :)

I can't believe you're so close Jules! :cool1:
I love love love your dress! It's beautiful on you!:cutie:

Thank you!! I can't wait to see the dress on with my hair and makeup done. I think that will make me love it even more. :) Soon you'll be reading my trip report!!!!!! :scared1: :laughing:

[Jules~Marie]

I had emailed my planner and told her we planned on doing a petal toss staged exit after the ceremony. Well, the assist. emailed me back saying you can't use fake or freeze dried petals for the toss, they must be fresh and you need to designate 2 people from your wedding party to clean them up afterward. :sad1: Major bummer. We already purchased the dried petals. So now we're trying to figure out what to do for the exit. We can always go the bubble route, but I wanted something different, so many people do bubbles now. My mom and I are going to try to make streamers for the guests to use. I'm not sure how they'll come out, but we'll give it a try.

I still never received the price of my cake (they were going to see how much it'd be to add on a design) and I've never been given a price for the dessert party menu. I already made my final payment, and that didn't include a dessert party price. I'm thinking it'll be around $800 or so, so I guess that'll come out of the $1000 retainer that they have. :confused3 I was hoping to get that back after the wedding, but I couldn't pay for the menu if it wasn't listed.

My mom and sister are entering panic mode over the wedding. Apparently there's so much to do still. I don't know, we'll get it done this weekend, I want to tell everyone to RELAX. :laughing: They just want everything to be perfect, it's sweet. But it is starting to make me nervous!

I don't know when the videographer will get to the ceremony, don't know where he'll start at. I guess he'll just start at the Wedding Pavilion? I don't know what time the florist will be delivering her items. I don't know if she will be able to get to the ceremony, reception and our rooms in time for everything to begin. I think the hairstylist is going to be arriving at 6 am. I'm hoping that's enough time to do 4 people. I don't understand the timing of the limo...I need to revisit my BEO. They really should map it out better for you, it's so confusing. The only people that have been in contact with us has been our photographers. :hug: Thank goodness for them. They actually emailed us saying they wanted to go over the day with us. No one else has done that. I guess I need to start contacting people.

My officiant ticked me off a little bit. But I think he might not be good with emails, maybe he doesn't understand how to make the tone of the email sound nice instead of rude. Maybe he doesn't like that we want a contemporary ceremony instead of a religious one. :confused3 I don't know what his problem is, as long as he's at the rehearsal and the wedding, I really don't care. lol

I guess I'm not feeling as excited today as I have been in the past. It's been a long and tiring week. I can see why people really look forward to the honeymoon. I haven't been getting home until 9 every night, it's exhausting. I just feel like there's no communication with some of my vendors...I'm spending all of this money, you think it'd be easy for them to just shoot me a quick email. I'm not demanding anything unreasonable, I'd just like to know what the heck will be happening. :rotfl:

Happy new year to everyone! Be safe tonight.

[LuvLuvLuv]

Happy New Year to You!

It sounds like you have a lot on your plate. It will all work out in the end, and you'll have a wonderful day! Take one thing at a time, and hopefully you'll get quick responses from all your vendors!

[smileycrissy]

Aw Jules, firstly Happy New Year to you! I wish you both tons of love & happiness for 2011 (it's your special year!!!!).

Secondly, it will really all work out. I promise. :) Spend this weekend enjoying time with friends and family. Make one phone call at a time starting on Monday because some of the vendors won't probably be responding this weekend to any calls since they are also probably dealing with friends and family. And you don't want to get frustrated further wondering why they aren't answering you.

That's a bummer about the dried petals. I wonder why they have to be fresh if in either case someone is going to be collecting them from the ground afterwards. :confused3 Well if you do the bubbles maybe you can get some funky bottles, I know I've seen all sorts of cute shapes & such for wedding bubblesin magazines and online. That way it'll be a little different than the standard bubbles. Do you think you can use the flowers for anything else?

Don't worry, the excitement will return back to you again. It's just you had an off week. :) Maybe next week you'll be feeling like this again ::cool1::banana::yay::dance3::cheer2:

[Jules~Marie]

I'm sorry my last post was so depressing! I don't know why I sounded so bummed out. I'm actually really excited about everything, I think just some things are frustrating me so much, but I don't care, I know everything will come together at the wedding. It's so nice being able to come here and let all my frustrations and worries out, to have a place to vent. Everyone at work expects me to be perpetually excited and happy for the wedding. I am. I just can't be like that every second of every day! :rotfl:

Eddie and I got so many things accomplished yesterday. :) I decided I wanted to pack everything up into totes, one to go to Disney with everything for the ceremony/reception, and one for us with all of our extra wedding things. It was so nice getting everything organized. We got the memorial song printed out and framed, the last couple of placecards printed (or so we thought..), a few extra menus printed, and we finally finished our welcome letter/itinerary! That thing was a pain to get together! :laughing:

We decided to fold all of our placecards up, and noticed we were short one. Thank goodness we checked, or my aunt wouldn't have received one! That wouldn't have gone over well. :rolleyes1

I wanted to put our wedding bands into our tote, so I took them out and decided to look at them. Good thing I did! My band is missing a diamond on the side!!! :scared1: I don't know how that happened, or when, but today we're going to the store to get it corrected. I'm so glad I looked at that last night instead of waiting until Disney. I would've been so upset about that.

We still have to send our DJ our song requests...we're such procrastinators. :laughing: And we're going to pack all of our clothes for Disney/the cruise today to make sure we don't need to buy anything extra.

Things are starting to come together again!:cool2: I emailed Disney asking to set up a phone interview with my planner, I think it's time we stop with the emails and I actually speak to someone. It's a little easier that way sometimes.

Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive to me during my mini freak outs! :rotfl: You guys are the best! :hug:

[SwedishPea]

Hi Jules,

Congrats on your upcoming wedding! I was very excited to find your post because I'm getting married this May and also using the wedding pavilion and Napa room for about 40 guests. I don't have my planning session until the end of the month, and the budgeting process is so overwhelming! Your BEO post is WONDERFUL and really helps me put things into perspective - so thank you! I can't wait to see the pics from the big day!

Also, where did you find your favors? I've been looking at those on several sites and just comparing costs.

So exciting!

Lisa

[Jules~Marie]

Hi Jules,

Congrats on your upcoming wedding! I was very excited to find your post because I'm getting married this May and also using the wedding pavilion and Napa room for about 40 guests. I don't have my planning session until the end of the month, and the budgeting process is so overwhelming! Your BEO post is WONDERFUL and really helps me put things into perspective - so thank you! I can't wait to see the pics from the big day!

Also, where did you find your favors? I've been looking at those on several sites and just comparing costs.

So exciting!

Lisa
Thanks! I'm glad the BEO helped you out, I know I have relied on these boards so much throughout the planning process. You'll feel much better about budgeting once you get the planning session over with.

I bought the favors from platinumgoodies.com. They were pretty quick with the shipping, I think I paid $2.50 each. We only got 1 per couple, not 1 for every guest. But they are so cute and it's nice that they're already packaged. :)

[Jules~Marie]

I thought I'd post our Welcome Letter/Itinerary, completed welcome bags, and our memorial song...

We searched online for welcome letter ideas and found one that someone had posted on the dis a while ago. We pretty much used all of her wording lol, we were having such a mental block when it came to making this! :rotfl: We kept it in the same style as our newsletter.
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/welcomeletter_disboards.jpg

Our welcome bags all lined up, we just need to make the mickey rice krispie treats and they'll be done.
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10928.jpg
Everything we're bringing to Disney, we might need to rent a moving truck.:rotfl:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10932.jpg
The bags with the labels on them. We printed them out ourselves, I think they came out pretty good. :thumbsup2
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10936.jpg

Our Memorial Song. Eddie used one of his pictures that he took on our last cruise for the background. We put this in an espresso colored frame.
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/memorialpoem_disboards.jpg

And lastly, a couple of gifts Eddie got me for Christmas. :yay:I really really wanted Lotso from Toy Story 3, and he surprised me with it, I didn't think they even made it. The figure on the right I put in his stocking. We're such kids! :lmao:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae203/cocoangel216/SDC10927.jpg

13 days, 15 hours until the big day!!! :yay::yay::yay:

[smileycrissy]

Everything looks and sounds great Jules!!!

Aren't those the hats (Pluto & Sorcerer Mickey) that you had in your pic before? :) Yeah, I notice those kind of things - I've got an oddball memory :lmao:

Yay, I can't wait for your big day! You've worked so hard for it. :)

Wow, good thing you checked the ring.

[Jules~Marie]

Everything looks and sounds great Jules!!!

Aren't those the hats (Pluto & Sorcerer Mickey) that you had in your pic before? :) Yeah, I notice those kind of things - I've got an oddball memory :lmao:

Yay, I can't wait for your big day! You've worked so hard for it. :)

Wow, good thing you checked the ring.

Yes, those are the hats that I had in my pic before. :rotfl: We're huge dorks and love to rock the crazy hats at Disney. :lmao: We did purchase the bride ears and groom top hat too, so we'll be alternating while we're at the parks. :)

[sw33t_angel]

Everything looks great!!

Glad everything is coming together, and that you noticed about your ring!!

13 days!! :goodvibes

[sambycat]

i feel like i might throw up. but in a good way. you too? heh!


looks like you are all ready to go! i feel the pain on the officiant deal. DF talked to him several months ago when we booked (and paid). i want to touch base and am suddenly feeling like i should know what all this person will say or talk about! i mean what if it is way too short and dumb? but he seems reallllllyyyyy difficult to get ahold of and the fax # was just ringing and ringing.....

so hang in there!!! cannot believe this year has gone by!!!:rotfl:

[pixiegirl]

I love your welcome bags!! Are those stickers on the bags or did you print them? I guess how did you do it? I have been trying to get some ideas for the bags myself!! Thanks so much for your help!!

I bet you are so excited!!!

[Jules~Marie]

Everything looks great!!

Glad everything is coming together, and that you noticed about your ring!!

13 days!! :goodvibes
Ya, I'm glad about the ring too!!!! I'm so excited!!! 12 days, 3 hours!!! :rotfl: :yay:
i feel like i might throw up. but in a good way. you too? heh!


looks like you are all ready to go! i feel the pain on the officiant deal. DF talked to him several months ago when we booked (and paid). i want to touch base and am suddenly feeling like i should know what all this person will say or talk about! i mean what if it is way too short and dumb? but he seems reallllllyyyyy difficult to get ahold of and the fax # was just ringing and ringing.....

so hang in there!!! cannot believe this year has gone by!!!:rotfl:
Yes, I have that same exact feeling! :laughing: Yeah, I guess I'm learning to just be OK with not having contact with some people...they've done Disney weddings before, I'm going to trust that they know what they're doing...:rolleyes:

You hang in too!! It's almost here!!!
I love your welcome bags!! Are those stickers on the bags or did you print them? I guess how did you do it? I have been trying to get some ideas for the bags myself!! Thanks so much for your help!!

I bet you are so excited!!!

Thanks! I love the welcome bags too, they were so much cheaper than buying personalized ones online. We bought some bags at Michael's for about $7 (15 bags), and then my DF designed a label in photoshop, and then we purchased full sheets of clear labels from Staples, and he printed them out. That part is a little bit of a mystery to me, since I didn't watch him do it. But buying the full sheets of labels made it easier so we didn't have to make them fit into a specific size. He just made the label whatever size he wanted and printed them out. Then we cut them out and stuck it on the front of the bag.:thumbsup2 :rotfl:I hope I made sense! I would definitely suggest making them on your own, when we looked online for personalized bags, everything was coming up to around $80 for 15 bags, unless we wanted to get super small party size bags which wouldn't have been able to hold more than a piece of candy. :rotfl: Good luck!!!

[Disney9.9.10]

I can't believe that your wedding is so close!! I have been really MIA from the boards lately, so I haven't commented much, but I want to wish you a wonderful wedding day!

[pixiegirl]

Thanks so much I will definitely try that out. I have been wondering how to get personalized bags without the price tag!!! I can't wait to see how your day turns out!!

[smileycrissy]

Woo-hoo 10 days to go Jules!!! :banana:

[Jules~Marie]

I can't believe that your wedding is so close!! I have been really MIA from the boards lately, so I haven't commented much, but I want to wish you a wonderful wedding day!
It's good to see you back! :) Thanks for the well wishes! :goodvibes
Thanks so much I will definitely try that out. I have been wondering how to get personalized bags without the price tag!!! I can't wait to see how your day turns out!!
I can't wait either! And good luck with your bags!
Woo-hoo 10 days to go Jules!!! :banana:

:banana: Woooo!!!!! :cool1:

[Jules~Marie]

I'm sick. :sick:

I am being positive and seeing this as a good thing. I'm sick now. 10 days before the wedding. In 7 days we'll be in Disney. I have 6 days to get better. Keeping the positivity going! I will get better I will get better I will get better. Eddie will not get sick Eddie will not get sick Eddie will not get sick. Here's hoping!!!



...Eddie just said he can feel it in his throat. We're both going to down some Nyquil and rest up. I'm also going to douse ourselves in pixie dust...:rotfl:pixiedust: Is it bad luck to give yourself that??!!?!

[smileycrissy]

Just make sure you guys rest up as much as you can so you can get better quickly!!

Here's a ton of pixie dust for you:
:wizard::wizard::wizard::wizard::wizard::wizard::w izard::wizard::wizard::wizard::wizard::wizard::wiz ard::wizard::wizard:

LOL

[Jules~Marie]

Just make sure you guys rest up as much as you can so you can get better quickly!!

Here's a ton of pixie dust for you:
:wizard::wizard::wizard::wizard::wizard::wizard::w izard::wizard::wizard::wizard::wizard::wizard::wiz ard::wizard::wizard:

LOL

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! Hopefully it'll start working soon! :rotfl: Eddie is trying desperately to avoid getting sick. The one good thing about this, is I have no appetite whatsoever. :thumbsup2 Maybe I'll drop a couple holiday pounds that I gained. :laughing:

[Jules~Marie]

9 days to go!!! :banana:

Tomorrow we will pack and get everything sorted. We still have one placecard to print out and I have to pick up my wedding band. We also are going to pick up some bubbles for the staged exit. If I start feeling better during the week, we'll make the mickey shaped rice treats. I'm not 100% on that.

It's going to be so much fun, I can't wait!!!! :yay: