Lindsay & Ryan's Wishes PJ 10/25/13 **Planning Session TR Pt 4! 5/21/13**

[tinydancr06]

Hi, everyone!

My name is Lindsay and I have been "lurking" on the DISboards (weddings and otherwise) for what seems like forever. I've been wanting to start a planning journal and get involved for a while but never got around to it...until today! Here's a shot of my fiance, Ryan, and I a few days after we got engaged. It was taken for my graduation from FSU but gets the job done until we do our engagement photos.

We got engaged back in April of 2011 and are in the early stages of planning a Wishes wedding at WDW in October of 2013. The engagement feels soooooo long but is necessary for the type of wedding we want. I am trying not to "wish away" my time as an engaged girl but planning a wedding is so exciting! Hopefully, writing this PJ will help me rechannel some of my wedding planning energy seeing as with DFTW there aren't too many things you can be doing "officially" until about a year out.

Who knows? Maybe my experiences will help other DFTW brides and grooms! Trust me. I've already had some great (and not quite as great) experiences.

So, without further ado, here are the basics of our wedding as they stand now -
Hopeful Date: October 25, 2013 (our anniversary!)
Guest Count: Somewhere around 100
Ceremony Location: Wedding Pavilion
Reception Venue: Somewhere at the Grand Floridian (GF Marina, a ballroom, I don't know...)
Other Wedding Events -
Rehearsal Dinner: TBD
Bridal Tea: Garden View Tea Room (I WILL do this!)
Farewell Breakfast: probably something casual at the GF Cafe
...
Honeymoon -
7-Night Western Caribbean Cruise on the Disney Fantasy: Oct. 26

We already had our first contact with DFTW (more on that later) and were assigned our consultant, Bill, back in October and we have our Site Visit coming up in March. Wedding planning is not only fun but a great excuse to go to WDW! Thankfully, I live in South Florida.

So, there's the basic idea so far. I am so excited to be getting this started! Thanks so much for reading my pj!!!

Up next: How We Met & Our Engagement Story

 

[Fay]

Hey Lindsay!

Congratulations to you both! I remember when I 1st started my PJ! hehe It is exciting isn't it!

Oct 2013 will come round very quick! But remember to enjoy the planning bit... I have had my eyes opened by watching BRIDEZILLAS - I just don't get it! If I was like that I'm sure DF would just leave me! lol

Any way... cant wait to hear more about your plans and how you met! Congratulations again!

Happy Planning!

XXX

 

[tinydancr06]

Hey Lindsay!

Congratulations to you both! I remember when I 1st started my PJ! hehe It is exciting isn't it!

Oct 2013 will come round very quick! But remember to enjoy the planning bit... I have had my eyes opened by watching BRIDEZILLAS - I just don't get it! If I was like that I'm sure DF would just leave me! lol

Any way... cant wait to hear more about your plans and how you met! Congratulations again!

Happy Planning!

XXX

Thanks so much! I really do need to enjoy the planning part because I am SUCH a planner that I know I will miss it once the wedding has passed. Oh, and I will definitely do my best to stay away from any Bridezilla-like tendencies haha.

 

[sarahb01]

Hi Lindsay!

You just posted my on PJ so I thought I would come on over to yours and check it out!

Your plans sound so great. I understand about the wait...but it is already next year! When people ask when mine is I just say next year, or next September, doesn't make it seem that far away.

I will be subscribing so I can keep up with your details! Can't wait to read more!

Sarah

 

[tinydancr06]

Hi Lindsay!

You just posted my on PJ so I thought I would come on over to yours and check it out!

Your plans sound so great. I understand about the wait...but it is already next year! When people ask when mine is I just say next year, or next September, doesn't make it seem that far away.

I will be subscribing so I can keep up with your details! Can't wait to read more!

Sarah

Thanks, Sarah! This New Year's Eve we were SO excited because we were finally going to get to say our wedding is NEXT year. You are totally right, it does make it seem closer. Thanks so much for subscribing!

 

[tinydancr06]

Well, to start, Ryan and I both graduated from Florida State University in Tallahassee. He was a year behind me in school (even though I’m only a month older!) and we met at the very beginning of his freshman year at FSU. We both played in band through middle and high school and, eventually, were members of the Marching Chiefs at FSU. Yep, we’re a band geek couple and proud!

We’re both in there somewhere!

In the Marching Chiefs, when you are a freshman you’re put into a small group and assigned an older member of the band as your leader. Well, Ryan’s leader was actually MY roommate at the time. One day, my roommate invited her group of freshman over to our place for lunch. I had been out with our other roommate (my MOH!) that morning doing who knows what so when we walked in the door of our house, there Ryan was just sitting in our living room! I automatically thought he was cute :: but didn’t think much of it at the time. That was our very first time meeting, but later on that week at a typical college party was when we really got to talking. Here’s a picture that was taken that night! Forgive the darkness and random person's head. Lol.

I think we both knew where this was going because from then on out we were together all the time. We first met in August and dated through to October. On October 25, 2007 Ryan took me to dinner and asked me to be his girlfriend. You can probably guess my answer! That night we both immediately changed our Facebook relationship status because apparently that’s the national standard for serious relationships these days haha. We kind of expected all of our friends to be more excited but most of what we got was “well it’s about time” or “oh, you weren’t already official?” Lol. I guess everyone else knew what was going on, too!

Looking back on our first meeting is kind of surreal for me. The way he was just there one day when I came home is like he was dropped into my life out of nowhere right when he was supposed to be. It’s really funny how things happen!

 

[Fay]

Well, to start, Ryan and I both graduated from Florida State University in Tallahassee. He was a year behind me in school (even though I’m only a month older!) and we met at the very beginning of his freshman year at FSU. We both played in band through middle and high school and, eventually, were members of the Marching Chiefs at FSU. Yep, we’re a band geek couple and proud!

We’re both in there somewhere!

In the Marching Chiefs, when you are a freshman you’re put into a small group and assigned an older member of the band as your leader. Well, Ryan’s leader was actually MY roommate at the time. One day, my roommate invited her group of freshman over to our place for lunch. I had been out with our other roommate (my MOH!) that morning doing who knows what so when we walked in the door of our house, there Ryan was just sitting in our living room! I automatically thought he was cute :: but didn’t think much of it at the time. That was our very first time meeting, but later on that week at a typical college party was when we really got to talking. Here’s a picture that was taken that night! Forgive the darkness and random person's head. Lol.

I think we both knew where this was going because from then on out we were together all the time. We first met in August and dated through to October. On October 25, 2007 Ryan took me to dinner and asked me to be his girlfriend. You can probably guess my answer! That night we both immediately changed our Facebook relationship status because apparently that’s the national standard for serious relationships these days haha. We kind of expected all of our friends to be more excited but most of what we got was “well it’s about time” or “oh, you weren’t already official?” Lol. I guess everyone else knew what was going on, too!

Looking back on our first meeting is kind of surreal for me. The way he was just there one day when I came home is like he was dropped into my life out of nowhere right when he was supposed be. It’s really funny how things happen!

Hey!

Awww you two are so cute! A lOvely story!

Xxx

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

You two are so cute! I'm another 2013 bride on here, and I was totally thrilled being able to say our wedding is next year as soon as New Year's past. I wish it was sooner too, but I have to remind myself I'll spend the rest of my life as a wife but only this short period of time as a fiance. Whatever I have to tell myself...

Looking forward to hearing more about your plans!

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Joining in!

 

[tinydancr06]

You two are so cute! I'm another 2013 bride on here, and I was totally thrilled being able to say our wedding is next year as soon as New Year's past. I wish it was sooner too, but I have to remind myself I'll spend the rest of my life as a wife but only this short period of time as a fiance. Whatever I have to tell myself...

Looking forward to hearing more about your plans!

Thanks so much! That's a great way of looking at it. We should start a 2013 brides calming mantra list!

Joining in!

Yay! Thanks!

 

[DisneyShamrock]

I found your PJ from a random thread, so I thought I would come check it out.

You're getting married about two weeks before me. I can't wait to hear more of your plans!

 

[Icecoldpenguin]

welcome to planning journal world can't wait to hear more

teresa

 

[MrsDuck]

Hello and welcome from another FL girl (I'm a Gator alum but I hope we can still be friends!! )

Your story is so cute! I love it!

I can't wait to hear about your plans and chat-- don't worry 2013 will be here before you know it!

 

[tinydancr06]

I found your PJ from a random thread, so I thought I would come check it out.

You're getting married about two weeks before me. I can't wait to hear more of your plans!

Thanks! Woohoo 2013 brides!

welcome to planning journal world can't wait to hear more

teresa

Yay! Thanks for reading!

Hello and welcome from another FL girl (I'm a Gator alum but I hope we can still be friends!! )

Your story is so cute! I love it!

I can't wait to hear about your plans and chat-- don't worry 2013 will be here before you know it!

Thanks! Of course we can be friends! Just don't expect any orange and blue color schemes in this pj. Lol.


I'm so happy people are actually reading my pj! After reading so many myself it's just so cool!

 

[tinydancr06]

The Proposal

I have to preface our engagement story with juuust a little bit of background so here goes! My major at FSU was music education and as a requirement to earn your degree you have to spend your last semester doing a full time internship OUTSIDE of Tallahassee. For most students, this means living back at home for the semester so you don’t have to pay extra rent, and that’s exactly what I did. So, DF stayed in Tallahassee while I spent the semester in south Florida. The drive between the two is around 8 hours so we were essentially in a long distance relationship for almost a year. We saw each other as much as we could but Skype became a big part of our relationship.

Now, on with the fun part!

My internship had just ended and I was going up to Tallahassee for my graduation. I was going to get there on Monday, then Wednesday and Thursday DF and I were having a mini-vacation at WDW, and be back in Tallahassee on Friday before graduation on Saturday.

When I got to Tallahassee on Monday, DF was insistent that we go out to dinner that night. This was weird because he is always down to go out but very rarely plans it himself. I didn’t really think anything of it, though. So, we went to a hibachi place (love hibachi!) that night and had a great dinner. After that I was stuffed but DF suggested that we go get frozen yogurt. Again, he doesn’t usually suggest things so I figured he really wanted dessert. Haha. After we bought the yogurt we went and sat outside to eat it. There were 2 strange things I noticed at this point: he ate like no yogurt at all and even after I was done we just kind of sat there and talked for what felt like a really long time (turns out that he was stalling because dinner took less time than he anticipated and he had “helpers” getting to the proposal spot at a later time). Me being a girl I just thought it was nice to sit there and talk. Usually, though, when he’s done eating he’s ready to leave right away. I thought of this but AGAIN didn’t think anything of it. After that we were going to go home.

As we were driving I realized that we weren’t headed towards home at all. DF parked the car in a random parking lot on campus. This is when I started to think something was going on (ya think?!). He told me he needed me to hold his hand and close my eyes and he would walk me to where we were going. Oh, and to not ask questions! Lol.

I was familiar with the area of campus and could tell that we were walking up hill so I had a guess of where we were headed. Then, I started to hear people singing The Hymn to the Garnet and Gold. It’s a song in 4-part harmony that’s a very sentimental tradition in the Marching Chiefs. It got louder until I could hear that the singers were standing around us.

When we finally got to where we were going DF stopped and told me to open my eyes and he was down on his knee!!! I was totally surprised! He said some super sweet things and then popped the question and, of course, I said “yes!!!” Now that my eyes were open I saw that we were in front of the Westcott Building, a landmark on FSU’s campus. It’s so pretty at night!

This is the Westcott Building during the day. Pretty right?!

Here's the building at night since that's the time of day he proposed. He did it right in that spot in front of the fountain.

The other amazing thing was that all of the singers were a bunch of our closest friends! It was so special to have so many of our friends there to be a part of the moment. Some of them didn’t even live in Tallahassee anymore and had traveled just to be there! Of course, the girls were crying and swarmed me to ooh and ah over the ring and the guys did their guy thing (man hugs and congrats, lol). After lots of pictures were taken and hugs were given, we all headed out to a classy local bar to celebrate.

Some of the girls (all 4 will be bridesmaids!)

All of the girls.

The guys.

The newly engaged couple!

I never really imagined how I would/wanted to be proposed to but I don’t think I could have imagined anything more perfect. DF told me later on that he had actually been torn between this plan and another one that would have been in front of Cinderella castle but he said that he just couldn’t wait until Wednesday! I told him that what he did was perfect and I loved how much effort he had obviously put into it. It was an amazing night I could never forget!


Sorry this has been incredibly long but I always like reading really detailed proposal stories so that's what you get!

**Ring pictures coming soon**

 

[yourgypsy]

Aww, what a FANTASTIC proposal! That's truly incredible - all of the work he put into it and that he got your friends involved!

 

[sarahb01]

Your proposal story is wonderful! So romantic!

 

[tinydancr06]

Aww, what a FANTASTIC proposal! That's truly incredible - all of the work he put into it and that he got your friends involved!

Thank you! I was kind of in awe myself

Your proposal story is wonderful! So romantic!

Aw, thanks Romantic would definitely be the word!

 

[CinderALLIE]

Congratulations. What a unique proposal story. How sweet that your fiance included your friends.

 

[tinydancr06]

Congratulations. What a unique proposal story. How sweet that your fiance included your friends.

Thank you!