Natalie and Joe's TR/PJ- 6/16/07 WP/GF

[DisBride23]

I realize that this is long overdue, I’m sorry! Since my wedding has already happened, I’ll combine my PJ and my TR. I’ll start out with PJ type stuff, and finish with the TR. I hope you enjoy!

Natalie

 

[DisBride23]

Like many native Floridians, I practically grew up at WDW. So, needless to say, I’m a total Disney freak (obviously, I’m on the DIS!). I’ve always wanted that magical wedding at my favorite place in the world. My DH adapted quickly to my Disney-crazy ways and he soon turned into a Dis-freak as well. Throughout the 4 years that we dated, we went to WDW countless times. We loved it. In July 2006, we took a trip to WDW w/ my mom, dad, and brother. As we had all vacationed together before, I did not think anything of it. After a magical day in the Kingdom, we settled in the Castle Courtyard to watch the parade. After the parade finished, my excitement started to build for the “Wishes” firework show. Now, let me just say that Wishes is one of the most amazing shows ever. I’ve seen it a ton of times, and I still well up when I watch it. Suddenly, I noticed that my family was on the move. I started to panic that we weren’t going to watch the show from my favorite location. I tried to ask what was going on, but got no answer. Next thing I knew, a Disney employee was lifting the rope to allow us to go in front of the Castle. My DH explained that he wanted a pic of us in front of the castle. What?!?!?! Now? My family ushered me up the ramp. As we stood in front of the Castle, my brother took a picture. Ok, done-let’s get back into position!! As I started to walk away, I noticed that my family wasn’t moving. My DH then got down on one knee and proposed-in front of the entire park!

After much applause, tears, and pictures, we went back to the courtyard to watch Wishes. The rest of our trip was wonderful. One of the highlights of the trip was posing for pictures with the characters the next day. Minnie made DH get down on one knee to “propose” in front of her- one of our favorite pictures!

On the way home, my dad said “Wouldn’t it be great if you two got married at WDW?” and we all laughed. What a crazy, impossible dream. Right?

 

[DisBride23]

Us

DH and I have known each other for quite some time. We both went to high school together and remained friends throughout college and afterwards. We like to think that lunch period, in particular, is what made us so close. During senior year of high school, I suffered a major injury to my ankle/foot and spent a few years on crutches. So, DH would wait upstairs at my locker, and then help me down the stairs, and to my seat at the lunch table. He’d then wait in line and buy us a Pepsi and a bag of Cheeto’s to split. I, in turn, would always split my turkey sandwich with him. Every, single day: turkey, Cheeto’s and a Pepsi. We were interested in each other, but at different points of our life! I liked him back in High School, but I was just one of the guys to him. By college, he had changed his tune, but I was over him. Thank goodness he asked me out one last time when he returned from college! I finally agreed and we’ve been inseparable ever since.

Picking WDW

Once we set a date, we started looking locally for reception locations. We found that S. Florida weddings are not cheap. So, we looked into Disney as a possibility for a couple of months. We were planning 2 weddings for awhile, a local one, and a Disney one. My DH was in law school, so he couldn’t go up for the site visit. I went up with my parents, thinking “maybe a really small wedding at the Boardwalk or something.” But, I fell in love with the GF. So did my DH (via the pics and video I took). After that, I gave up on a local wedding. I wanted WDW

 

[DisBride23]

Picking my dress was relatively simple. I’m short, so many dresses overwhelm me. One Saturday, my mom and a couple of friends went to Miracle Mile in Miami. It’s basically Wedding Row. The first dress I tried on at the first shop was beautiful. But, to be sure, I tried on a zillion others that day. But none could compare. My gown was an off white, couture, princess dress with gorgeous embroidery and Swarovski crystals. It was a little more than I wanted to spend, and the comb and veils were pricey (of course I wanted the veils that had crystals sewn on them!). We went back a week later with my Dad. He was speechless and I knew it was the one. It took 6 months to make, and it was so worth it! The dress had an interesting bustle; there was an overlay for the crystals on the dress. The overlay lifted in the back, and the fabric tucked right away. It looked like a different dress. It got so many compliments from the DIS wedding planning team that even my DH had to take a look!

Dress Sparkling:

 

[keenercam]

You looked gorgeous! More! More!

 

[PixyDusted]

Sounds great so far! I live in Central Florida and the weddings outside of WDW aren't such a great deal either. That's why we considered Disney in the first place - we thought if we were going to get married in Central FL (where we live) we may as well make it memorable for our guests if the price is the same as outside venues!

Your dress is gorgeous! I'd love to see the back though since you mentioned it!

 

[DisBride23]

Sounds great so far! I live in Central Florida and the weddings outside of WDW aren't such a great deal either. That's why we considered Disney in the first place - we thought if we were going to get married in Central FL (where we live) we may as well make it memorable for our guests if the price is the same as outside venues!

Your dress is gorgeous! I'd love to see the back though since you mentioned it!

We live in South Florida, so asking our guests to go to Disney was not a big deal. And we got so much more bang for our buck!

I'll try to find a better pic of the back of my dress, but here's one for now. As you saw in the previous pics, I had a good sized train. Here, it looks as if the train had been removed, but the crystal overlay just lifted right up so that you can tuck in the bustle:

 

[DisBride23]

I had 6 BM/GM and 1 Jr. BM/GM. The dresses for the BMs were easy to pick out. I knew I wanted ball gowns of sorts. My colors were champagne, ivory, and black. Champagne washed out most of the girls, so I went for the all-flattering black, with champagne sashes. After running from shop to shop we ended up buying them where I bought my dress. They gave us 15% off and a flat alteration rate of $30, which really helped out. My flower girl had a dress from another wedding, so she used that again. A relief for both me and her family!The guys wore tuxes from After Hours, since they delivered to our hotel on property- a BIG time and effort saver! Here are some shots of the bridal party.

Somebridesmaids coming:

and going...

The hubby..

 

[DisBride23]

DH and I thought long and hard about what to get our bridal party. I wanted our gifts to be special. Our Bridal Party was coming from all over the world to celebrate with us. The GM got these cufflinks in blue from Banana Republic. Very nice. I wrapped them in Simpson’s wrapping paper (my husband’s favorite show).

The Jr. Gm and RB (brothers) each got Pirates of the Caribbean book bags filled with pirate things, all from the park.

The BM gifts took a lot of time, but I’m really happy with the outcome. I created photo albums filled with my favorite memories of each girl. Each book was specific to that girl. Instead of it being a regular album, I designed them digitally and had them printed; costly, but personal. The BMs also got personalized totes, filled with pink rubber duckies, Bath and Body Work products, and earrings to match their dresses. My Jr. got a tote, American Girl bath products, earrings, a Disney princess coloring book, crayons a yoyo, and an antique sterling silver brush and mirror set. The FG got a mini tote, princess books, crayons, and a set of “pearl “earrings, necklace, and a bracelet that she wore in the wedding. All of the princess stuff was found in the Target dollar aisle! The antique silver set and the pearl set were bought on eBay, and the totes were bought from Cathy's Concepts. The BM earrings were from White House Black Market.

I got a very similar (and smaller) pair for the Jr BM from a kiosk in the mall.

My cousin was a reader and we wanted to get him something special as well. Being a huge Goofy fan, we had a sketch of Goofy made for him at Epcot. The artist personalized it, and we framed it for him back home.

We wanted to get our parents gifts, as they were not only financing, but really helping to plan the wedding. We got my parents gift certificates for massages at a day spa. We bought his parents Disney gift cards to use during their stay.

For ourselves, we had found out through DH's brother that Disney was quietly opening a new section of bricks on the Walk around the World path. So, rather than buying each other gifts, we chipped in and bought ourselves a commemorative wedding brick right outside the gate to MK!

 

[DisBride23]

Welcome Bags
I had never even thought of the idea of making welcome bags for our guests. But, you wonderful brides on the DIS totally inspired me! Thanks for all of your help and inspiration!

As we had about 150 guests, I was not going to make one for everyone. So, we made them for the bridal party, and the close family. I bought plain, white paper gift bags from my local craft store. I also bought wedding themed stamps and gold and black paper. I tried a few times to get them to look right, but as I am new to the craft world-they sucked. So, I pulled in my crafty friend Tiffany. She took the supplies and made them look wonderful! The front had a bride and groom stamp and said "Once Upon a Time" and the back said "and they lived happily ever after." I got all craft supplies from Micheal's. I filled each bag with:

• Bottle of water
• Can of soda
• Small bag of pretzels
• Disney postcards
• Disney pens/pencils
• Shout wipes
• Disney stickers
• Instant ice-tea mixers for the water bottles
• Cry packs (made with the same gold and black paper)
• A welcome letter/timeline
• Door hangers
The letter welcomed everyone to our wedding weekend. It also contained a timeline for the weekend and a contact sheet in case anyone needed help. At the time, the Disney website had a “create your own stationary” feature for the Year of a Million Dreams. I created one with our names on it, printed it, scanned it back into my computer, and saved it as a background. I also downloaded the Waltograph font to use. So the bags were as Disney as you could get! I printed out labels for each bag, noting the name of our wedding, the name of the individual guest, and their check in date. The guests got their bags without much trouble and loved them!
Here's a pic of the bag:

The door hangers were also an idea courtesy of the DIS boards. Most people used foam hangers, which looked nice, but they didn’t match anything I had. So, I bought thin wooden hangers, premade from the craft store. I then painted them a light blue and decorated them using scrapbook decorations. I made ones that said parents of the bride, bridesmaid central, bride’s room, groom’s room, jr. bridesmaid, grandparents of the bride, etc. I wanted to do the same for the groom’s side, but he wouldn’t let me

Here is a pic of the doorhanger I made for my room:

 

[DisBride23]

Flowers
Ok, I admit that while I definitely have a girly side, I must have missed a few days at girl school. I can’t paint my nails, I just bought my first hair dryer (for my dog! I still can’t use one!), and I know NOTHING about flowers. I like them; they’re pretty. But I know nothing about them. So when it came time to discuss flowers with Rose, I knew I had to suggest something! I told her that I wanted white-ish flowers (turns out that means Ivory ), with some Champagne colored ones, candelabras, and some foliage, but not much. The only helpful thing I contributed was that I hate carnations. So Rose took my few hints and created these wonderful centerpieces. The tables also had votives and rose petals surrounding the centerpieces.

I knew that I wanted to hold calla lilies- (she suggested that they be mini calla lilies), and that I wanted a champagne ribbon around my flowers. Then she told me about the little crystal Mickeys that they sew on instead of buttons. Sold! And Mickey crystals in my flowers? Sold!

Me showing my dad the Mickey crystals (I was VERY excited about them for some reason!)

The girls held champagne and ivory bouquets, and my MOH had crystals in hers. The FG threw ivory and champagne petals.

The guys wore white roses, while my dad and DH wore calla lilies.

 

[DisBride23]

I love all those cute little favors that you get at weddings! But, I always throw them away when I get home. I don't know why. I just don't like to keep a bunch of stuff around my house. In fact, I usually try to give them away to someone else at my table that will use them! That being said, I would have felt very silly buying something that I would normally throw away. That, coupled with my serious love for chocolate, led to the idea of chocolate favors. BONUS: people wouldn't have to travel with them!
During my planning session, Rose showed me the chocolate placecards. 2 birds, 1 stone, Perfect! We went with milk chocolate placecards, with white chocolate writing, and a white button. You were able to choose from a selection of images to put on the button, and we chose the Castle. I did see another bride who used the different characters on her buttons to signify which character table each person was seated at. It was very cute!

We liked the idea of the guest frame, so we had our guests sign this:

I wanted to make my own programs, especially after seeing the variety on the DIS! I consulted with my graphic designer friend, Nancy, for some help. We used ivory cardstock with gold gilded edges that I bought from Target (on sale- like 200 for about $30!). I couldn’t get them to print on my home printer, so she printed them up after designing them. The pack of cardstock was intended to be used as invitations, so it came with small response cards. Nancy used those cards to create matching menus that were tucked into the napkins. They looked so pretty and professional. Here is a picture of the Menu:

 

[Racey]

Im loving the idea of easy to read report - thank you.

Love the choc place cards - can I be cheeky and ask how much each one comes out at roughly.

Also, can I quickly ask who did your photography on teh pics you have posted so far.

Your dress looks so sparkly

 

[DisBride23]

Im loving the idea of easy to read report - thank you.

Love the choc place cards - can I be cheeky and ask how much each one comes out at roughly.

Also, can I quickly ask who did your photography on teh pics you have posted so far.

Your dress looks so sparkly

Thanks! The place cards cost $6 each. Christopher Patrick Photography did my photos (loved them!).

 

[Racey]

oh thank you - will definitely be puttng them on my wish list

can I ask how you got that brick? Are they still available? how much is it to get one. I always wondered about those, but thought they didnt sell them anymore

 

[DisBride23]

One day, my BIL and his family were heading into MK and they saw that the little kiosk by the bricks was open. They walked up and bought a brick! When they got home, they told us and gave us the phone #.

We called immediately. This is where things got sketchy. The person answered the phone "Walk around the World" . When I asked to buy a brick, the guy told me that they hadn't sold the bricks in years. "But, my BIL just bought one yesterday!" I replied. He put me on hold, then transferred me to someone else who took my order! I was kind of concerned at first that I was going to get scammed out of my $300 but, a few weeks later, I got a certificate in the mail telling me where my brick would be located. And, as you can see in the pic, it is definately there! LOL I'm still not too sure as to what was going on. Maybe they only had a few to sell???? Or they were replacing old ones? I just called (407) 824-7890.

Good Luck. Sorry if I wasn't much help, but as I said before, I'm not too sure what happened!

 

[Racey]

hmmmm, thats a bit of a mistery what he said at first isnt it? Oh well, at least you got one in the end.

I will keep my eyes and ears open for when we go on our trip then

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

what happened to this report??? any more coming???? I love reading it! (and i LOVE the dress)

 

[DisBride23]

Sorry about that! I was busy for awhile. We bought our first house (yay!) right before the holidays.

But, I'm back and ready for more. Thanks for asking. I'll be posting the next segment very soon!

 

[TeresaNJ]

Subscribing! Hoping my DD will one day have a Disney wedding. Just wanted to say your gown is one of the MOST beautiful I have ever seen!