B&P's VR 11/10/2012 UK/AAP/UKDP Day 1 Arrival & Epcot 6/10

[BethieTink]

Well, I decided after lurking and posing the ocassional odd question, I would start my PJ. Not sure how this is going to go, but we will see. Since I have a site visit in 17 days, thought I would start now.

Our Story and Flower Girls

Engagement Story
Wedding Story and Why We Want to Renew
Flower Girls

Attire

Finding the Dress
Accessories and Flower Girl Dress
Flower girls in dresses, FG jewelry, FG hair crowns and Hair clips for me
Clutch for me
Bouts and MY DRESS IS IN!
Dresses for other events, Dress fitting and Pink Slip

Site Visit

Pre-trip Plans
Day 1 TR
Day 2 TR

Paper Stuff

Save the Dates

DIY Projects

First Newsletter
Epcot Passports and Hidden Mickey Brochures
First Tears of Joy Packets and Memorial Candles
Final Tears of Joy Packets
Second Newsletter and Bathroom Poem
Savor the Flavor Tags, Door Hangers, and Years of Significance Pins
Character Pins, Ceremony Jar, and Bear Necessities Bags
Akershus invite and pin cards for FG Breakfast, Pin cards for Veterans and Princess Certificates
Wish Postcards, T-shirts, Straws, and Ear Hats

Planning Session Trip

Arrival Night
Day 1 Part 1 Breakfast and Planning Session
Day 1 Part 2 Tasting
Day 1 Part 3 Magic Kingdom and California Grill
Day 2 Part 1 Hair Trial and Carolyn Allen's Visit
Day 2 Part 2 Impressions, DTD, Regina Photo Shoot, Dinner at Yachtsman
Day 3, Part 1 Magic Kingdom Morning
Day 3, Part 2 Kona Cafe, Pool and Ohana
Departure Morning

MIscellaneous Stuff

Muscial Selections
Anniversary Ring
VR Trip Plan
Photopass Guest Book

Post-event Evaluations
Non-Disney Vendor Reviews

VR Trip Report
Day 1 - Arrival and Epcot

First off, an introduction

Me - 41 Domestic Engineer and Stay At Home Mom to 3 Male Felines I love to read, Disney nut, huge sports fan (Red Sox, Jets and Bruins), and huge Bruce Springsteen fan. Originally from NY, but have lived all over the country and now love living in Boston.

DH - 46 Senior Training Specialist for a local bank. DH also loves to read, huge sports fan (Sox, Patriots, and Bruins), huge Bruce Springsteen fan and a more recent convert to all things Mickey. A Bostonian through and through.

How we Met

In June 2000, Bruce was wrapping up a year long reunion tour with the E Street Band. I had found a ticket on a Bruce website for one of the ten NYC shows and emailed the poster. She sent me the ticket and she also sent me the email of a guy in Virginia who usually had extra tickets for shows, just in case I wanted to go to another one in NYC (where I lived at the time). I sent an email to the address and got a reply back telling me he had extras for June 27th, did I want it? I said yes. We made arrangements to meet at his hotel the evening of the show to get the ticket.

I went to the hotel and met the ticket seller, who told me I would recognize him by the fact that he was wearing a coon skin cap. Wasn't hard to miss. I bought the ticket and thought that would be the end of it. The seller then told me "All my friends are in a bar across the street, do you want to come with me?" I was having a truly terrible day, so I said yes to a complete stranger!

At the bar, coon skin cap guy (Doc) introduced me to some people and promptly disappeared. One person he left me with was a tall, cute guy from Boston, named Paulie. He told me that everyone in this room of the bar had met on a Bruce message board and had travelled all over the country to see him. I thought to myself that as much as I love Bruce this was a little crazy. We walked over the show said goodbye and again I thought that was the end of it.

A few months later, I was bored at work and logged on to the site that the tall guy from Boston had told me about. I found both Doc and Paulie on the board and sent them each a pm. They both claimed to remember me. I posted for a while and then a meetup came about in Atlanta that both of them were going to, so I decided to go.

From the time Paulie and I got together in Atlanta, it was like nothing I had ever experienced before. It seemed so different instantly. We started dating on October 8, 2000. We knew that long distance would be tough, but figured it would be worth a shot. I guess it was, we got engaged June 8, 2001 and married on October 12, 2002.

Oh, the guy in the coon skin cap (Doc). He has been my Evil Twin since that weekend in Atlanta. I am so grateful to him for asking me to come to the bar. If he doesn't sell me the ticket, then I am not where I am now. I was thrilled to repay the favor to him when I introduced him to a local Bruce fan/friend of ours (Denise). After 5 years of friendship, the two of them realized they were perfect for each other and started dating. DH and I were thrilled 2 weeks ago to be part of their own wedding.

Next up...our engagement and wedding

Sorry this is so long, but couldn't think of how to cut it short. Thanks for reading along so far. Pictures will be forthcoming as well.

Bethie

 

[KristiLyn]

Welcome and congrats!!
Such a cute story!! Funny how things work out like that!

 

[Mindyjoy]

Hi, welcome to the boards! What a cute story of how you met. And DF is a Sox fan too, he even wore a Sox shirt in our engagement pics (with my permission of course )

 

[disneyido2015]

Congrats on you VR. As DH and I hope to have a Disney VR for out 25th anniversary, I especially enjoy reading about other VR. Looking forward to more of your story

 

[BethieTink]

Welcome and congrats!!
Such a cute story!! Funny how things work out like that!

Thanks, KristiLyn!! Paul and I both are amazed at how all the things that had to happen for us to be together. If just one thing goes differently, we are not married now.

Hi, welcome to the boards! What a cute story of how you met. And DF is a Sox fan too, he even wore a Sox shirt in our engagement pics (with my permission of course )

Thanks, Mindy! That's great that your DF is a Sox fan. I will have to look for the engagement pics. I started reading your pj last night. Looks great.

Congrats on you VR. As DH and I hope to have a Disney VR for out 25th anniversary, I especially enjoy reading about other VR. Looking forward to more of your story

Thanks!!! We are very excited about this. Can't wait to get to the good stuff in my pj. 25 years is quite an accomplishment. Congrats!!

 

[wiserabbit]

Congratulations on your upcoming VR for the 10th

Great story about your meeting - what a perfect illustration for how "fate" can bring us together....looking forward to following along with your plans..

 

[BethieTink]

I really want to get to the good stuff of planning, but want to give everyone a background into us and why we want to do this. Sorry if these posts are a bit long.

Our Engagement Story
It was our 8 month anniversary, June 8th, 2001. We had already picked our ceremony and reception location a few weeks before. Paul even had the contract with him for me to sign that weekend. Even knowing that, I was totally surprised by the proposal.

We had gone to Outback in Edgewater, NJ for dinner. We had a very nice dinner and talked about what we wanted for our wedding. Since it was our anniversary, I had not changed out of the dress or shoes that I had worn to work that day. When we got out of the restaurant, Paul suggested we take a walk along this little path by the edge of the Hudson River. My feet hurt, but I went along for a few minutes. Paul kept saying he wanted to go farther and I finally said that I had walked as far as I was going to go. Paul reluctantly agreed and after a minute or two, took my hand and said the following.
“We began dating on October 8th. I told you I loved you for the first time on December 8th. Guess I am going to stick with the eights. Elizabeth Kathryn will you marry me?”

He had swung down on one knee while he was saying it and opened the ring box. I jumped up and down and of course I said yes! The funny thing was suddenly my feet didn’t hurt at all. We spent the next hour or so calling everyone we knew on our cell phones. It was a wonderful night.

 

[BethieTink]

Congratulations on your upcoming VR for the 10th

Great story about your meeting - what a perfect illustration for how "fate" can bring us together....looking forward to following along with your plans..

Thanks!!!

Can't wait to read about upcoming VR!

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Joining in!!! Many congratulations!!! Can't wait to read more!!

 

[that-a-way]

Joining in as well! Welcome and congrats! I can't wait to read your plans!

 

[BethieTink]

Joining in!!! Many congratulations!!! Can't wait to read more!!

Thanks, Joanne! I lurked on your pj for a long time. It was lovely. So glad that it all worked out the way you wanted.

Joining in as well! Welcome and congrats! I can't wait to read your plans!

Thank you, Trista. I read your pj last night and loved it as well. Can't wait to read all your plans too!

 

[BethieTink]

Finally figured out photobucket, so thought I would at least put a photo of the two of us on here.

This was taken onboard The Disney Magic in October 2009 at Palo on our 7th anniversary.

I plan on getting more of our story and hopefully starting some of our plans tonight. We are big Bruins fans and Game 2 of the Finals are at 8, but keeping busy with this keeps me from getting too nervous about the game.

Two weeks till our site visit!! Can't wait!

 

[wiserabbit]

Cute couple .....

OOOO - site visit - I'm jealous now.....

Will keep tagging along

 

[BethieTink]

Cute couple .....

OOOO - site visit - I'm jealous now.....

Will keep tagging along

Mona,

Thank you so much. I love that photo of us!

We weren't going to do a site visit because we know most of Disney so well and thought that the original sites we wanted would work for us, but once I started talking with Disney, we had to make some changes which prompted me to want a site visit. I can't wait. I will post details soon.

Our Wedding Story

We were married in Burlington, MA on October 12, 2002. We had it well planned and nothing major went wrong. We had about 65 people there and to this day some of our guests still say it was the best wedding they have ever been to. We had a Bruce themed wedding. We names the tables after song titles, made tickets for place cards and almost all the songs during the ceremony were Bruce songs. Also, the reception music was predominately Bruce. Everyone who attended knew that was how we met, so they all understood and it was never too over the top.

There were a few things that looking back I wish I had done differently. The first was my dress. I had bought my dress when I was engaged to someone else when I was in college. My mother went with and saw me try on and we both felt that it was the perfect dress for me. About a year later, my mother died suddenly. Less than a year later, my relationship ended as well.

Fast forward about 10 years and Paul and I get engaged. He knows that I have a dress and that my mother saw me in it. Being the nice guy that he is, he told me it was okay if I wore the dress for our wedding. Paul also knew that my Nana (mother's mother) would have been most unhappy if I had decided not to wear it. When I went for my first fitting with my FMIL and really put the dress on for the first time in ages, I realized that it was not what I would select now. My seamstress could sense this and suggested some changes, which all were wonderful and made the dress more current. I and the dress looked lovely, but if not for the sentimental attachment to it, I would have chosen a new one. For the vow renewal, I wasn't going to do another wedding dress, but recently have fallen in love with some tea length gowns and I am now leaning that way.

The other aspect was photography. We were on a very limited budget and we went with a photographer who took just the basic regular photos. They are fine and we have the memories of our wedding, but we don't have some of the fantastic shots that I have seen from Randy, or Misty or (I hope) DPS. We are going all out with the photograhphy for this reason, including (probably) an MK shoot.

Why We Want to Do This

When we got married, Paul had never been to Disney and I didn't think that a Disney wedding was possible, so it never came up. Also Paul's parents didn't travel at all, so it would not have been doable anyway. I was very lucky to have in-laws that loved me like a daughter from the minute they met me. We never would not have had them there. I did always say that for our 10th we would do a vow renewal at Disney.

Sadly, we have not had an easy and always happy first 10 years of marriage. About a year and a half after we were married, my MIL was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that had spread. She waited too long to see a doctor and died within a few weeks. We were both devastated. DH is an only child and was very close to his mom. Four weeks later, Paul's paternal grandmother who had just turned 100, died as well. Sadly, Paul's dad never recovered and died 3 years later. About 2 years after losing both of his parents, I lost my Nana, who I had always been close with, but even more so after I lost my Mom.

We each have also had some medical issues since getting married. I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in 2005 and Paul was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes in 2009. We both are managing our conditions very well and have learned to live life with them.

One good thing through all this bad is that Paul has developed a love of most things Disney. From our first visit in 2003, he has been hooked. We have gone almost every year together, bought into DVC in 2006 and now we are hooked on cruising with Disney Cruise Line.

Through all of this and the normal stuff that makes marriage tough, we have stayed together and built a wonderful life together. This is why we are celebrating. We feel we have earned it.

Thanks so much for reading this reallhy long post, but from here on out, I hope to get to the good stuff.

 

[tinkerbell 766]

You really have earned your special day!!! Enjoy every minute of your planning. I had a blast with mine!!!

 

[BethieTink]

You really have earned your special day!!! Enjoy every minute of your planning. I had a blast with mine!!!

Thank you, Joanne. Your event was lovely. I really enjoyed reading your plans and your report afterward.

The Plans So Far

We have had many changes to our original venue ideas, but at the moment, this is what we have.

Our favorite park is Epcot and we own our DVC at Beach Club, so we want to keep all the events in this area.

Colors: Pink, silver and cream
Theme: Rockin' All Over The (WD) World
Wedding Consultant: Diane Mahoney-Brown (who is awesome)
Resorts for Room Block: Beach Club and Coronado Springs

Friday Events -
Ladies Luncheon/Tea - Asbury Patio 12:30ish?. I am planning on doing a Mad Hatter style event (no props).
Guys Lunch/DATW - Epcot (still to be determined by Groom)
Welcome Dinner - Asbury Room around 6:30 We are planning a "Bella Notte".

Saturday/Vow Renewal Day
Ceremony: Epcot UK Rose Garden 9 am
Brunch Reception: American Adventure Parlor (waiting to hear from Diane about this), if not then Asbury Room.
DP: UK Lower

I will fill in details as they become a little bit more settled.

I am counting down the days until our site visit on the 17th. In addition to sites above, we are also seeing the St. James room at the Boardwalk and the courtyard in France.

We are also meeting with Shelley from Impressions that afternoon. She has some fabulous ideas for our theme already, so we are very excited. I am not crafty or DIY by nature, so I probably won't have some of the great stuff that I have seen other DisBrides post on their pjs, but I will do my best. Or at least show off what I have purchased from others or from their templates.

As always, thanks for reading along.

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

you're VR is 5 days after my wedding

maybe we'll see ya there!! our 16 month window is next month and i'm getting sooooo excited!!! i'm excited to stay at bcv in november!! you're sooooo lucky to own there!!

your plans look great!! can't wait to hear more!!

 

[BethieTink]

you're VR is 5 days after my wedding

maybe we'll see ya there!! our 16 month window is next month and i'm getting sooooo excited!!! i'm excited to stay at bcv in november!! you're sooooo lucky to own there!!

your plans look great!! can't wait to hear more!!

Thanks Deena! I am very excited about the 16 month window. I am also excited about my site visit. I will be coming down a few days before our VR, so maybe I will see you.

We love owning at BCV. We bought into DVC in 2006, when they were pushing Saratoga Springs. We told our consultant in our first call that we only wanted BCV. Saratoga is nice, but not what we wanted. We had to wait for our points (maybe a month), but we finally got them. One of the best decisions we have ever made.

I do have a significant update to post, but it will have to wait till tomorrow. Too hyped up about the Bruins win tonight.

 

[BethieTink]

Well, I didn't intend to make this purchase so soon, but when I found this I just knew I had to have it.

I have gone back and forth about what I want to wear for my VR. I originally thought I would go with an Alfred Angelo tea-length bridesmaid dress in pink. (will try to post pic later) I still may chose this one for my Welcome Dinner dress.

Then I thought about it and since I didn't "love" my dress the first time around, why not wear something that I loved this time. So, I started searching for tea length bridal gowns. Most of the ones I found were made in China. I liked a couple of them, but the made in China things really made me nervous.

Well, on Monday, I did a google search for designer tea length bridal gowns and was brought to the Maggie Sottero site for the Isadora Ann dress. I clicked on it and absolutely fell in love. I did a quick check to see where I could see it in person and luckily a bridal store one town over is a Maggie dealer. Gave them a call and they raved about the dress, so I made an appt. to try it on for Tuesday morning.

Well, they weren't exaggerating. The dress is even more gorgeous in person. Wow!!! I put it on (it is a couple sizes too small, but got the idea) and fell in love. My first thought was now I really want to do an MK shoot.

I don't want to post a pic of me in it yet, since it is not quite fitting right, but here she is from the Maggie site.

I could not be happier with this selection, if I tried.

I also bought a small headband/tiara, but the pics are on the phone and not posting right. I will post them as soon as I get it fixed.

 

[elleinad16]

Your dress is so gorgeous! I just looked on the Maggie website cause that pic is too small and didn't show the details, but WOW I love it. I think it'll be perfect for your VR! I can't wait to see your accessories that go with it.