DisneyGroom POV: Heather and John's Wishes Wedding 10/24/12- Hallowedding LOA Signed!

Hi. Just joining in. popcorn::

So glad to see a guy so involved with the wedding plans, can't wait to read more!

Thank you!! I know it's rare, but that shouldn't be. It's just as important, cool, exciting and special for the groom as it is for the bride. Especially with a destination wedding like Disney!
 
It's so cool that you're doing a PJ as a DisGroom. I'm doing one as a DisBridesmaid and MOH (for 2 separate weddings) and I love getting a different take on the planning. Your book is so cool, especially the large picture of Big Thunder Mountain (my favorite ride!) I can't wait for more!

What is super cool is how you are in two Disney weddings! While it must be daunting to help plan out things with the bride, it's way exciting to be a part of the magic!

Good luck and I'll be reading your PJ.
 
Just a quick update...

Our consultant emailed us back (we asked about Summerhouse and if it was going to be available on our day). He mentioned it was open for a private event, and in case of weather issues, it would be moved to the GF Convention Center.

Also, I asked my 2 groomsmen and best man over the weekend. It was a simple get together with them individually. Seems as though they are excited as I am! Each was given a huge Beer mug what was engraved with either "Groomsman 2012" or "Best Man 2012" accordingly.

Lastly, looking at pictures from Carrie's blog, we like the Marina Patio & Terrace at GF for the dessert party over Sago Cay. Just a little decision, but that won't be a big deal.
 
Very interesting to get the groom's side of things, I'm looking forward to it! But... shame you you for your Hawaii joke!! ;) I'm just kidding, it seems you have learned your lesson and though I'm sure it was a little hard at the time, it makes a memorable story now.

Your book is gorgeous! What a fun way to propose :)
 


Just caught up on everything so far--- and I love it!!! The book is SO romantic... what a great job!!!

Congratulations, and I can't wait to read more. :)
 
18 MONTHS TODAY
It's been a while, but while it seems like there wasn't much going on, there has been a ton of decisions being made in the last few weeks.

First off, let me get right into it. We entered the Disney Royal Wedding contest on Family.com. Now, at first, I thought (and still do think) it's either a memories or escape style wedding and we won't have any ability to upgrade anything. It kinda bummed me out, which is why we didn't enter for a while. But then I read the part where the winner of the fan voting portion of it, receives a $1000 gift card to Alfred Angelo. While receiving a free $15,000 valued wedding seems awesome, the likely-hood we could win a fan voting seems more in our control. So, we went ahead and entered.

http://family.go.com/happily-ever-after-contest/stories-category/our-magical-story-67353/

Please go ahead and vote. I could go on and on saying how much it would mean to us and such, but the reality is? It would be nice to shave $1000 from the total wedding bill for her dress. Hey, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it... :goodvibes

Moving on...

My DF sent me a few ideas if we choose an indoor reception. It has been a daily occurrence of us changing the idea of either outdoor (Summerhouse) or indoor (GF Convention). Okay, Okay, maybe a daily occurrence of ME, but yea, anyways. ;)

We know there is a lot more customizations available if we choose indoor, and while it would really seem awesome for an outdoor, we just can't justify 100% doing it outdoors. Either way, here are some of the looks we have been looking at:

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I'm not sure I like the "traditional" type look, but we put it out there as inspiration

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I'm really loving the blue here. It's definitely BOLD. But is it too much?

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Another "traditional" look, but tweaked. I guess I'm more into the bold blue than pretty pink.

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The glow tables are huge inspiration, and have me working on grand entrances. I'm not a fan of the glow chairs, but the tables are awesome looking.

Music...

DF decided on the music for the ceremony... and I couldn't be happier with the choices she came up with. I LOVE it, and I love how the ceremony will be sprinkled with Disney pixie dust!!!!! pixiedust:

Parents/Groom/Groomsmen/Bridesmaids: A Whole New World from Aladdin (instrumental version)

Bride: Cannon in D (This would be played live by a violinist)

Unity Candle lighting: Tale as Old as Time from Beauty and the Beast (instrumental version)

Recessional: A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes (instrumental version)

So that's it for now... In the coming days, I'll be writing about our journey to the Bridal showcase, meeting David Tutera, and how we changed our entire original plans after we went down.:thumbsup2
 
Wow.. yea, I let a lot of people down on this one...

So, it's been a couple of months since my last post. The world travels so fast when you're saving for a Disney wedding, doesn't it?!

Since my last post, we haven't made huge strides in planning. A few details in the looks/colors and a particular theme were made. Also, we have been working on a grand entrance, which seems to be an awesome opening to the reception. More on the entrance at a later post.

We also added another bridesmaid and groomsmen. Unfortunately we haven't told the groomsmen yet.. we are getting there. So now we have 4 on each side.

We have been going back and forth with a few emails to our consultant, Bill, who has been really awesome so far.

One of the biggest changes so far we have done was change our reception from the outdoor scene at The Summerhouse to an indoor show at the Grand Floridian Ballroom (not exactly sure which one yet). The change was not exactly what we wanted, but we knew we needed to do. From extreme heat to insects and bugs to hurricane weather, we just couldn't take the chance. I don't need my guests to "try to" enjoy a 4 hour reception sweating in the 90+ degree heat. It's not what we want. So, instead it's the GF ballroom, with AC! But now, with all the customizations, we are turning this "reception" into a Disney-like Show! We want it to have a look and feel as if you were experiencing any of Disney's indoor shows turned into a Wedding Reception. More on all these ideas another time, but it's an idea we have been toying with.

We were nervous about the change, because it would cause our booking to be pushed back from 16 months out to 12 months out. When we emailed Bill our changes he noted that he would still book our ceremony at the WP, and place a space for our reception at the ballroom, but only the convention center can kick us out of the ballroom before October, not another wedding... So, in this case, we are good to go, and almost have it all guaranteed, except if there is another convention being booked before October for that date, in which case, we would be bumped off. We're happy not having to lose our space, even with a reception at a ballroom!

Till next time...
 


Just joining in...and I love that i get to finally read a groom's PJ! It makes me want to ask my DF to do one too... but he is already apart of so many math,science and English boards I dont think he could handle another one! LOL...

I love your story, engagement and how enthusiastic you are about the planning. I have to say I am glad your DF straightened you out on that joke! LOL but its good that you did it, because I feel everything happens for a reason!

Our wedding is going to be on 10.11.12. I think I may try to start a thread for couples who are getting married around that time to see if anyone wants to get together for a meal during that week and we can all take a picture together. The DisBoard bride and grooms of that week! is that too cheesy?:laughing:
 
Just joining in...and I love that i get to finally read a groom's PJ! It makes me want to ask my DF to do one too... but he is already apart of so many math,science and English boards I dont think he could handle another one! LOL...

I love your story, engagement and how enthusiastic you are about the planning. I have to say I am glad your DF straightened you out on that joke! LOL but its good that you did it, because I feel everything happens for a reason!

Our wedding is going to be on 10.11.12. I think I may try to start a thread for couples who are getting married around that time to see if anyone wants to get together for a meal during that week and we can all take a picture together. The DisBoard bride and grooms of that week! is that too cheesy?:laughing:

Thank you! We are heading down to Disney in April of 2012 for our, 6 month 'til the wedding, meet with planner and menu tasting... Maybe we can meet up then?

It's a great idea for a thread to setup a brides/grooms get together!
 
Thank you! We are heading down to Disney in April of 2012 for our, 6 month 'til the wedding, meet with planner and menu tasting... Maybe we can meet up then?

It's a great idea for a thread to setup a brides/grooms get together!

I dont know when exactly we are suppose to go down for our 6month. I know my future mom-in-law had hopped in late march, but i dont know if that is going to be too early for DFTW. If we can work it out to meet then I would love to meet up! :)

Thanks for the vote on a thread for brides:bride:/grooms:cool2: get together! I will have to start that later tonight!
 
Personally, I think you made the right choice by moving the wedding inside! I totally agree with you that given the heat, bugs, and rain that you get in Florida, there are too many things that could make it uncomfortable for guests. Plus, it's one less thing to worry about on the day!
 
Personally, I think you made the right choice by moving the wedding inside! I totally agree with you that given the heat, bugs, and rain that you get in Florida, there are too many things that could make it uncomfortable for guests. Plus, it's one less thing to worry about on the day!


I mean, it would definitely be awesome setup wise. And we wouldn't need much in terms of floral/decor because it has the water as a backdrop and the beach theme already there... however, there is a lot more options with having it indoors as well. So, so far, we are happy. (but obviously there will be 30,000 more changes from now 'til July of 2012)
 
A few ideas I've been kicking around on the design of the monogram... Three styles so far. Not considering color, opinions?

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Option2.jpg


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Each day our we look through the guest list, see changes, update guests, and while we know we have a budget on the number of guests arriving (60 max), we feel we're inviting too many. It's hard to just not invite people, especially ones we have a really good relationship with. My Italian side of the family is big, and as you can tell, it's hard to leave them out of the biggest party of the year!

Currently we are at 100 people on the invite list. However last night, we realized we are missing a good 20-30 more people total on both sides.

I'm hoping we don't get all 100-130 people to say yes... We feel at least 40 will say no, and we hope this isn't the time that everyone wants to just pick up and go on vacation to Disney.

We'll see.. Heather says she knows a lot won't come. I'm banking on that statement.
 
I like your monogram designs! I think I probably like the last one the best. And hopefully your guest list will work out... I do think destination and Disney weddings get more "no's" than the average wedding. I'm having an at home wedding and we invited 125 but have a budget for about 100. I read somewhere that if you're planning for 100 you could invite 125 and expect about 100, so I imagine that in your situation it would be even more. Good luck!!
 
I like your designs! And I too like the last one best. If it helps any, we invited 161 people and 90 people came.
 
I like your monogram designs! I think I probably like the last one the best. And hopefully your guest list will work out... I do think destination and Disney weddings get more "no's" than the average wedding. I'm having an at home wedding and we invited 125 but have a budget for about 100. I read somewhere that if you're planning for 100 you could invite 125 and expect about 100, so I imagine that in your situation it would be even more. Good luck!!

Thank you! It's a start. I will have other designs from the mixture of opinions I've been getting soon. We decided to keep the guest count low, so we are finding out how we can keep it to 100 invites and not the 130+.

I like your designs! And I too like the last one best. If it helps any, we invited 161 people and 90 people came.

lol. What was your budget for the number of guests? Were you surprised on the final count?
 
lol. What was your budget for the number of guests? Were you surprised on the final count?[/QUOTE]

Well, my budget was high because my parents were very generous and I got everything I dreamed of...so don't hold this too carefully but it was 50,000. But that includes lots of extras like the carriage, and the MK photo shoot and engagement shoot, and the ice slipper sorbet for every guest, extra bogos, expensive centerpieces, videography, photography, plus things like flower girl baskets, ring bearer pillows, guest books..

And I was surprised at the number of people but even though DH and I are local, are families aren't so it was truly a destination wedding. Another friend who got married at Disney back in 2002 invited 210 and had 150 come so they had around the same number decline.
 
I just read through your whole PJ. Congratulations! I have really enjoyed reading about a groom's perspective. Keep the updates coming! :yay:
 

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