Tamu Tamu Breakfast & Discovery Cove Wedding ~ 12/10/12 ~ Start of Day 2

[NeverlandClub23]

I don't know why my Flickr photos aren't showing up . I'll try uploading them to photobucket tonight instead...

 

[lurkyloo]

Great updates! Sorry you have to get up at 4am for hair and makeup, but I have a hunch you'll be running on pure adrenaline all day and won't even notice the lack of sleep.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

Great updates! Sorry you have to get up at 4am for hair and makeup, but I have a hunch you'll be running on pure adrenaline all day and won't even notice the lack of sleep.

Thank you! I don't terribly mind getting up so early (I mean, it is my wedding day after all), but I may be a zombie that night for our dinner at Jiko. My biggest fear about this trip and honeymoon is that I'm going and try to do SO much stuff that I'm going to stress myself out trying to cram it all in. I do that at home and always seem to run out of hours in the day, I'm hoping I can relax and go with the flow more on this trip!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I think the search for the dress I wanted to wear for our wedding night dinner at Jiko was more stressful than finding my wedding dress. I have literally been looking online for months. Well, I finally bought one last night!

I wanted it to be lace (either in white, ivory, gold, or silver) with 3/4 or long sleeves as I am always cold. However, every dress I was finding was either too clubby, too boho and flowy, too expensive, or the lace was too cheap looking (and, I know from experience, that cheap lace dresses will drive you crazy with how itchy the "lace" part is).

I did many Google searches, looked at all 5,291 dresses Macy's has online, glanced through Overstock and Amazon, and did a search on Ebay just about every day.

I can't find a picture of the back of the dress (there is one on Amazon), but it's a lower scoop back.

It's a Ralph Lauren silver metallic dress that I found new with tags on Ebay for less than $50 with shipping . This wedding is sponsored by Ebay .

 

[Bewitch324]

OOOO Pretty. I love your wedding dinner dress. That will look so pretty on you!!!

love the invites too! Fun and festive!

Brooke

 

[NeverlandClub23]

OOOO Pretty. I love your wedding dinner dress. That will look so pretty on you!!!

love the invites too! Fun and festive!

Brooke

Thank you!!

I have about 5 invitations left to put together and then they're done! I mailed most of them out last Saturday and people were already getting them by Monday/Tuesday. Now I just wait for the response cards...

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I was a bridesmaid in my cousin's beach wedding. We were barefoot, which would be fine for any "normal" person. However, I am terrified of stepping on gross and/or sharp things. So all of her pictures of me walking down the "aisle" are of me looking straight down at the ground in front of me. Real nice.

I knew I wanted some type of shoe (if nothing else, I'm pretty sure we're going to be "hid" in the bathroom and I do not want to be barefoot there), but flip flops are hard to walk on the sand and flats would fill with sand. I decided on an ankle strap style sandal and the search began.

I wasn't really sure what I wanted in terms of color and I'm not sure it even really matters since the dress will cover my feet. But I figure for photography purposes or to wear around Discovery Cove that day, I wanted some cute shoes.

These are the shoes I picked:

I love all the stone details. It kind of reminds me of one of the caves on Tom Sawyer's Island with all the gems in the walls.

Made by Steve Madden and I purchased off of Amazon with free shipping for $45. I can venture off of Ebay every once in awhile...

 

[lurkyloo]

. We were barefoot, which would be fine for any "normal" person. However, I am terrified of stepping on gross and/or sharp things.

Oh my gosh, I'm the same way! I won't even go barefoot in my own house, I'm such a scaredy cat!

Nice foot protectors!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

Oh my gosh, I'm the same way! I won't even go barefoot in my own house, I'm such a scaredy cat!

Nice foot protectors!

We must be related! I *hate* being barefoot around the house. The absolute worst for me is if a rogue, loose ice cube melts and I step in the puddle and my socks or feet get wet . I don't know why, I immediately think it's something so vile and disgusting. Or it never fails, I will always step on some crazy loose staple or forgotten earring in the carpet.

Thank you!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

After receiving the link to the custom shirt place from lurkyloo, I was incredibly excited to show Matt. However, he was dead set on the paisley shirt. Maybe this was because his man-pride was getting in the way of letting my brother "win" or maybe it was because he's mentally 5-years-old and wanted it because he got it stuck in his head and, now, that's the only option to him (or maybe a little bit of both...). Anyways, I have never Googled "paisley" so much in my life.

I eventually stumbled upon a shirt, um, maker? named Via Uomo that makes paisley trim shirts. I not only found a perfect wedding shirt, I also picked up a short sleeve one for him to wear to our wedding brunch! While the shirts aren't cheap, I picked them up off of www.shirtisland.com with a 20% off discount.

Wedding shirt:

White shirt with white "shadow" vertical stripes and grey/pink paisley. He'll wear this with charcoal grey linen pants (that I have yet to buy). This isn't the shirt my brother owns, but it's pretty darn close.

Wedding brunch shirt:

It's hard to tell from the picture, but the shirt is actually grey vertical stripes with the same pink/grey paisley. He'll wear this with white shorts.

 

[CinderALLIE]

The shirts look nice. Love the sandals too.

I'm also one that can't go barefoot, shoes off and slippers on as soon as I walk in my house

 

[Chilly]

Such a pretty dress!

Great invites as well.

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

Really enjoyed reading your PJ so far! I love your engagement story. A cake is the sweetest kind of proposal. I love your wedding dress (even if it was a bit of a hassle, you still saved a ton of money!) and your Jiko dress is gorgeous. Your invitations are beautiful too! Loving everything in short.

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[lurkyloo]

Oooh! Thanks for the shirt link! I've been wracking my brains trying to figure out what one's husband would wear if one were doing a vow renewal on a beach somewhere, and these could be a good option. Of course there's no way he'll go for my favorite, the purple with the giant paisley print all over!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

The shirts look nice. Love the sandals too.

I'm also one that can't go barefoot, shoes off and slippers on as soon as I walk in my house

Thank you!

Foot Phobias Unite! Besides, it's just much cozier with socks and/or slippers on.

Such a pretty dress!

Great invites as well.

Thank you! I love the dress! I received it in the mail the other day and love the way it fits. I can't wait to wear it!

My FMIL is so wonderful. She has just gone on and on with how impressed she is with the invitations.

Really enjoyed reading your PJ so far! I love your engagement story. A cake is the sweetest kind of proposal. I love your wedding dress (even if it was a bit of a hassle, you still saved a ton of money!) and your Jiko dress is gorgeous. Your invitations are beautiful too! Loving everything in short.

Looking forward to reading more!

I agree! We've been on this stupid wedding diet for over two months now and Matt keeps saying, "I can't wait until December 26th to get some ice cream cake!"

Thank you! I love both of the dresses, even if I can barely fit into one... But I haven't given up complete hope yet to be able to breathe in my wedding dress.

Oooh! Thanks for the shirt link! I've been wracking my brains trying to figure out what one's husband would wear if one were doing a vow renewal on a beach somewhere, and these could be a good option. Of course there's no way he'll go for my favorite, the purple with the giant paisley print all over!

My pleasure! If one were to do a vow renewal on a beach somewhere, I do believe those shirts would be perfect! I was surprised Matt was so into the paisley (however, I doubt he would wear a total paisley shirt, but I do love the purple paisley one!). My Dad questioned whether he was going to have to wear paisley for the wedding with such disgust like I was asking him to wear a dress . Hmmm... I may have to find him a paisley shirt...

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I contacted Happy Limo for all the towncar/van rentals. (Updates in pink!)

Our transportation so far:

• Taking Magical Express to the Polynesian ~ Free
• One-way towncar to Animal Kingdom for Welcome Party ~ $44 Since the welcome party has been moved up to not start until 8:45, we're just going to take the Animal Kingdom bus from the Polynesian
• One-way towncar for Matt to Discovery Cove from the Polynesian for our wedding ~ $44
• One-way towncar for me and my Dad to Discovery Cove from Old Key West Resort ~ $44 My Dad is now going to meet me at Discovery Cove (the house they rented is super close to Discovery Cove). However, my flower girl and her mother are coming to my room for our flower girl to get her hair done so I rented a minivan to take us from Old Key West to Discovery Cove (this classy girl gets to show up to her wedding in a minivan ) ~ $52
• One-way minivan for a group of four of our guests that are staying at Port Orleans without transportation to Discovery Cove ~ $49 (I don't know why this is $3 cheaper. I thought POR and OKW were relatively close to each other?
• One-way 10 passenger van to take us from Discovery Cove back to POR and OKW ~ $79
• One-way towncar to our Wedding Night dinner at Jiko (taking a cab back as I don't know how long the dinner will be) ~ $44
• One-way towncar from Old Key West to Universal Studios (we'll be taking a cab back, we don't want to return at a certain time on this day in case we're tired or want to stay later) ~ $44
• Round trip towncar to Discovery Cove and back to Old Key West for our second day at Discovery Cove for our honeymoon ~ $88

We may take Magical Express back to the airport, but I'm not sure at this point. We're really only saving an hour or so by not having to get on Magical Express 3 hours before our flight, but I don't know if it'll be worth it. We decided to go ahead and book Magical Express and save the money.

So far our transportation totals: $400 without tip.

I still wouldn't mind getting a rental car instead of all of this, but I think Matt is most looking forward to not having to drive or worry about parking. He better not get used to this!

In other news, I purchased some gray linen pants for Matt for the wedding. How exciting .

I've been working on my wedding bouquet, which so far I love. I'm also considering a wedding guest book that I may have to make (depends on how much time I have).

That's all for now!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I'll have an update post soon, but I thought I'd share the pictures from our trip to Discovery Cove last year. We ended up getting the CD with all of our images on it, as well as promo type pictures that they put on it. All of their photo packages are pretty pricey and I wish we had taken more advantage of the Photopass type of photographers around the park. Basically, they take your picture then scan your ID card on your lanyard (that you're required to wear around the park, you wear it around your neck but under your wetsuit) and at the end of the day you can buy individual pictures or different packages. We got a package with a bunch of prints, the CD, and a really neat frame (for the budget-busting price of $150). I hope you enjoy them!

Hmmm... Don't know why this one is showing up tiny...

This picture cracks me up. We were floating down the Windaway River and came upon a photographer. We were trying not to float away and get our picture taken so we didn't really discuss what we were going to do for the picture. She just said to go under the water. I couldn't see a thing, but looked in her general direction. I think we should've worn our masks...

Never saw this turtle...

Serenity Bay which opens up into the Windaway River

This is the entrance to Discovery Cove

I have a few more on the CD, but these are my favorites.

I'm starting to get response cards in the mail! Well, three of them. 2 yes's and 1 no. It's a start!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

My Mom has become my biggest asset in interrogating, I mean, talking to people and finding out if they're coming to the wedding or not. It's looking good that at our max we'll have 28 people! We definitely have 22 people coming, but I have six wild cards that may decide not to come. Hopefully, they let me know that and don't say "yes" and not come. With that being said, it has really opened up our budget from when I was planning on 40 people coming.

I talked to Matt about getting the ride mix-in with Kilimanjaro Safari for our Welcome Party. I started to think about how most of our guests are not planning to go to any parks and/or it's their first time at WDW (and most of them are getting there the day before and won't have a chance to go to any of the parks yet). The Safari is such a great ride in that we can all ride it together and I think it'll be a great memory for all of us. Matt is extremely excited about it so I will be sending the email to get that added on. My planner suggested it during the planning phase, but at $15 per person, I was hesitant that it would be THAT great of a memory . I am kind of sad because his parents won't be able to make it to the Welcome Party . His Mom thought they booked their flights Saturday to Saturday and it's really Sunday to Sunday and too expensive to change them.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

Having a videographer was probably my biggest wishy-washy decision. One day I really wanted one, the next day I would think it's a waste of money and I'd never watch the video. It went on like this for months. Matt finally said, "Which would you regret more, getting a videographer or not getting a videographer?" That was an easy decision for me. I would very much regret not getting the video more than I would ever regret getting one.

When I originally booked Randy Chapman for photography, the email also included a sort of package with STVS video. I like Stan's work (and prices) so I contacted him to see if he was available. He is so I booked him and will have video for our wedding! Plus, our plan is to play the video during our at-home reception (whenever that may be, we're currently thinking March/April).

I then contemplated getting the live-feed for our guests that can't make it, but most of them will be at work on a Monday morning and I didn't think it would be worth the money.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I still haven't decided on a gift for our flower girl yet (Matt's niece), but I have finally figured out what I could get her to do. I didn't want to be running any errands in the days before our wedding having to pick up flowers or flower petals (because it's my vacation and I don't want this wedding interfering with that ), plus Discovery Cove isn't being very responsive to any of my questions in regards to ceremony music or if she could even toss flower petals (apparently they were really serious about not working out any details until 30 days before the wedding).

I have seen signs other brides get for their flower girls and ring bearers and found one I really liked on Etsy. It's $54 with shipping, but since I can have the other side say "...And they lived happily ever after" with our wedding date I figured it would look cute in pictures and I could hang it up when we got home .

The sign:

I'm thinking about splurging and spending the extra $3 to get a pink ribbon instead of the white one.

And now I'm off to work on more wedding stuff and get Ace of Base's "The Sign" out of my head...