Meagan and Kevin's 1/7/11 wishes wedding WP/GF --We're back and MARRIED!!!

[wintermouse]

Ok, I'm not even really sure how to start one of these, but I lurk on here all the time and since we are only 8 months out, I figured it was time to start my own!

About us:

My name is Meagan and I'm 25 and work in Sales. DF's name is Kevin and he is 26 and works for a small university as the Director of Athletic Communications. We met in college where we both worked for the town's newspaper. I majored in journalism and took the only opening that was available at the paper, in the sports department. I worked the evening desk, taking scores and writing small blurbs about away games. DF was finishing his master's in Sports Administration and worked as a sports reporter for the paper and was constantly out covering games. He ended up working the night desk with me one night and convinced my boss to let me get out in the field as well. A few nights together covering games and I knew he was the one. Luckily he felt the same way and we've been together just over 3 years now.

The Proposal:
After losing my mom in August we decided to spend the first Christmas without her in Disney. We booked 9 days at Port Orleans French Quarter and hoped that being there would take our minds off of not having mom there for Christmas. The holiday was fine and we spent the day at the pool and the evening at Epcot. The next day I wanted to go to Animal Kingdom in the morning, but DF insisted we go to MK. When we got there we ate lunch. Immediately after I did not feel well so DF suggested we just go home. As we walked past the castle the show was going on. He suggested we wait on the bridge and just relax until the show is over and then we will go back to the resort. As the show finished, he got down on one knee and proposed!!!! I said "Of Course I will!" Immediately I felt better and we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the park and our engagement. When we got back to the room there was a card with balloons, pins and lots of mardi gras beads from Mickey. Apparently DF told the resort he was doing it and asked if there was anything they could do. It was the best day of my life!

The Wedding:

It never crossed our minds to get married anywhere but in Disney. DF called right after proposing and arranged a site visit for the day before New Years while we were still in Disney. We are having a wishes wedding January 7, 2011 at the Wedding Pavillion with a pre-reception at the White Hall Room and reception in the St. Augustine ballroom of the Grand Floridian.

I am so excited to really start planning and get some great advice on some of the things I've already started!!

 

[sambycat]

woohoo! i'm 1-25-11! congrats and welcome!! i'm getting so many good ideas and perspectives here! i'm sure you will too!

 

[Brit_Jude]

Hi and welcome! Your DF sounds very sweet. I recently lost my Mum so my heart goes out to you. Looking forward to hearing more about your ideas and plans. The folks on here are great and very helpful.

 

[wintermouse]

Thank you for the welcome!! After reading all of the PJs I suddonly feel VERY behind on planning!

Anyway, we sent in all of our information to our coordinator at the beginning of last week and so far we haven't heard anything or received our LOA. I think I am the most impatient bride ever but I am just so excited to get it signed and get it back. We went ahead and scheduled an "early" planning session so we were able to get some other things scheduled while we are down there. Our coordinator keeps telling me that since it's an early planning session we won't be able to get our BEO right away, but I keep reminding her that we just scheduled it early, that it's really after the 6 month mark and right on schedule. Ahhh... frusterating. Sometimes I think she doesn't read all of my email before she responds!

Does anyone else feel like the room block is the hardest thing you've ever done?! I mean, I sit here with a college degree and think "thank god this wasn't ever a test because I am pretty sure I failed!" We are getting married on marathon weekend so I want to make sure we block enough rooms, but I have no idea which resorts to pick and my guests have no idea either!

On an exciting note, since DF knows how stressed I am he is being extra attentive to wedding stuff. We were talking about our planning session trip and how we are staying at POP Century, but that its going to be a pain being all the way over there since our PS and our engagement session with Misty is at the GF. Welllllll, he looked at prices and decided that he didn't want to deal with a million kids in July either so he upgraded us to the Poly!!!! OMG! I have wanted to stay there my whole life! He is amazing!!!

As far as other wedding details, I have started working on programs. We are doing Mickey fans and I'm making them myself.... so this could be interesting! I am also in the middle of 1000 other DIY wedding projects so needless to say the next 8 months may seem to be very stressful! But I'm up for the challenge!

I have been trying to upload pictures on here, but it always gives me the picture with the red x.... any suggestions? I tried using photobucket?! Thanks!!!

 

[wintermouse]

I am super excited that we finally got assigned our planner today!!! We are working with Diane and she seems like a sweetheart! Has anyone else used her??

While we were chatting I found out that she not only grew up in Pittsburgh, but grew up about 5 minutes from our house! What a small world! She also confirmed that she will be at our planning session, which was a huge relief for me since we scheduled our session early because of a great price on resorts.

I feel like it is all so real now, that I can really start planning!!

 

[Princessfifi]

Congratulations! Its so fun finding another 1/7/2011 Bride! I'm also getting married at the WP

 

[Ann117]

Congrats!! I have Diane as my planner and she is great. I live close to Pittsburgh so during football session she was always saying go Steelers in her emails. Good luck with planning believe me the 8 months will go by to fast.

 

[helloirishkitty]

I have Diane as well! I was nervous because we haven't really had a long conversation yet, but I'm glad that everyone else seems to like her

 

[pink_tink8i8]

Congrats on getting your planner. Very exciting!

 

[wintermouse]

Congratulations! Its so fun finding another 1/7/2011 Bride! I'm also getting married at the WP

Ahh congrats! It's so much fun to see someone else share our day! I hope we get warm weather this year!!!

Congrats!! I have Diane as my planner and she is great. I live close to Pittsburgh so during football session she was always saying go Steelers in her emails. Good luck with planning believe me the 8 months will go by to fast.

It is so nice to hear that our planner is great. It really puts my already stressing mind at ease! Just checked out your PJ and you have awesome ideas! We are going down for our planning session two days after your wedding!

 

[wintermouse]

So the real planning begins!!! We are about 3 weeks away from our PS so I *finally* decided to get moving on getting some stuff done. Thank goodness I started now because it took me 4 days just to get the Mickey fan program to look the way I wanted it! If I would have waited any longer I don't know that I would have them finished!!! Here it is so far, not sure if this is the absolute finished project, but this is what it is for now. The other side will have the actual program stuff printed on it.

We also picked out our "memory item." We have a lot of people to "remember" -- DF's dad died 7 years ago, my dad died when I was little and I just lost my mom last year so we wanted to do something special. I know a lot of people do candles, but I wanted something that was different and more "us" and something I could display once we got home and honestly, I would just shove the candle into the display case and never think twice about it. So, we picked this.

The back story is that I took this photo on a Disney trip in 2008 being that was as close to the wedding pavillion as I had ever been. It was a nice picture, but honestly one that I would have probably stuck in our album and not thought twice about, but something kept pulling me to it. After really looking at it, it struck me as the perfect picture... 3 empty chairs (signifying the 3 parents we are missing) looking out over the WP where we are getting married and the GF which is where our reception is! So we are going to frame it and place a little card next to it explaining what it is and set it on a special table. I think it really fits us and it is something we can keep displayed in our home.

In other planning news, we are only 7 days away from being able to make our ADRs for our wedding trip! I know we are going to book Le Cellier because we try and try to get in there but it's always booked when we go! We are also going to do California Grill one night and maybe Jiko another. Other than that I am kind of stumped. DF is no help he just says "pick something good!" Ahhh men. Where else should we go??

 

[wintermouse]

We're here in Disney!!! I will do a full TR when we get home and get pictures loaded on the computer but I just wanted to pop over and say that we had our engagement shoot tonight with Misty and she is fabulous!!! She showed us photos as she went and helped me get rid of the "double chin" look and how to pose so it doesn't happen anymore! I cannot wait to see how all the pictures turn out - Nelio (her husband) said we should get them in about 2 weeks! Anyone who is using her you will not be disappointed. I feel so at ease for our wedding now and they are soooo easy to work with!

Tomorrow's our planning session and I'm so excited excited to finally meet our planner and to really make some decisions. Also we have our menu tasting so it will be nice to try the food we are having at our reception. Although I can definately say that we ate at Ohana tonight and I have to have that salad! It was so amazing... and I HATE salad usually!!

I'll update more when I get home for anyone that reads this??

 

[pixie921]

I hope you have a wonderful time on your PS trip!

And I had to post and say how much your memory item moved me. I actually got tears in my eyes when I was reading the post. What a beautiful tribute to your parents.

 

[Disney9.9.10]

I just wanted to say welcome and congratulations! I hope that you are having a wonderful time at your planning session trip!

 

[kcampbell]

The back story is that I took this photo on a Disney trip in 2008 being that was as close to the wedding pavillion as I had ever been. It was a nice picture, but honestly one that I would have probably stuck in our album and not thought twice about, but something kept pulling me to it. After really looking at it, it struck me as the perfect picture... 3 empty chairs (signifying the 3 parents we are missing) looking out over the WP where we are getting married and the GF which is where our reception is! So we are going to frame it and place a little card next to it explaining what it is and set it on a special table. I think it really fits us and it is something we can keep displayed in our home.

This completely gave me chills. What a picture that is a fantastically unique way to honor your parents. I hope you have a wonderful PS and time in Disney! Congratulations!

 

[Sccrmnky2005]

I just read your PJ the other day and not sure why I didn't post anything but I love the picture of the chairs, what an amazing story!!!


Can't wait to hear more about your plans, and feathers!!!

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

I love your memorial photograph. What a beautiful image and sentiment. Everything sounds great so far and I can't wait to hear about your PS!

 

[neener3]

I'm reading!

The picture with the chairs is absolutely incredible. I love the idea. I'm trying to think of something to do for my grandmother, who has Alzheimer's and so obviously can't come - but being as how she's still alive (even though her mind is gone), it's proving to be difficult.

I'd love to hear about how you get rid of double chins! Share? LOL.

 

[Princess SarahK]

Im in love. Your story is beautiful, and I absolutely love your memorial photo. Ive never seen or heard anything like it and totally love it! Everything looks great, cant wait to see all your pictures!

 

[wintermouse]

We're back from Disney! We had such a great time!! I had mentioned to the Disney reservation lady when we added the dining plan (at the very last minute) that we were going for our wedding planning session. When we checked in there was a package on the bed for free mini golf, half off a boat rental, etc.

I can honestly say that after staying at a Deluxe resort for the first time (Poly) I never want to stay anywhere else! We were such moderate people for so long, convincing ourselves that there isn't much difference.... WRONG! We both loved being on the monorail line and laying in the pool at night watching fireworks. It was a wonderfully relaxing vacation!

We arrived on Saturday and stayed at the Sharaton Safari hotel because I got an amazing deal on hotwire.com. It was okay I guess... definitely not Disney but clean. We checked into the Poly on Sunday and ran straight over to the MK. Around 10pm we headed off to Downtown Disney to grab drinks with friends of mine that I haven't seen for 15 years! This is why I love Disney... what are the chances that we would be there at the same time!? It was great. We ended up going to HS with them and their two kids all day Monday before our engagement photos which was fun because we've never done Disney with kids!

Tuesday we had our PS! We were the first appointment inside Francks since the rennovation. It looks really different than it used to but wasn't completely furnished nor were all the displays out. It is much more chic and elegant but I wish they would have had the displays out because I love looking at all the cool things! Good thing we were able to see everything at our site visit, so I wasn't disappointed!

I was so nervous as the very first thing we went over was when all the money is due! It make my stomach turn. I mean I know we agreed to it, have it set aside, etc. it just always make me squirm to see it with a date that seems SO CLOSE now! But the sooner the payment is due, the closer we are to the wedding so woo hoo!!! Diane was great, full of information and straight to the point. She really worked with us to stay in our budget and figure things out logistically. Then it was time for cake testing.... DF immediately ruled out pretty much everything except buttercream and marble cake. After convincing him he needed to at least TRY the other flavors , we ended up doing a 3-tier mad hatter with the first AND third (take-home) tier being almond cake with baileys filling and the second tier being marble cake with white chocolate filling!

We had some time to kill before our floral appointment and then taste testing so we walked around the WP and took pictures and video and chatted with Diane about Pittsburgh, since that is where she is from too!

Up next Floral appointment/ideas and our tasting!!