**Ashley & Brian's 10/26/13 Swan Wedding**

[xAshleyx]

Hey! SO we have been actively planning our wedding since we got engaged on 01.15.12. We pretty much knew from the start that we wanted a Disney Wedding, but we have been through alot and our wedding is still 10 months away. So i'd figured now is a good time to start our PJ, if i plan on having one!

About Ashley: I am 22 years old and is a claim adjuster for an insurance company. I plan on retiring waaay early so I can move to WDW and live a magical life
Disney Favorites:
Character: Donald & Stitch
Princess: Jasmine & Ariel & Merida
WDW Resort: Polynesian
WDW Park: Magic Kingdom
WDW Restaurant: Ohana
Color: Purple
Band: Hanson - and it annoys me when people ask if they are still around. And even though I usually go to WDW during the food and wine festival, I have somehow managed to have missed Hanson at the Eat to the Beat music festival by 1 or 2 weeks for the past few years.. GRRR.
Ride at MK: Pirates of the Caribbean
at Epcot: The Three Cabeneros in the Mexican Pavilion
HS: Toy Story Mania
AK: Dinosaur

About Brian: He is 26 years old and also works in the insurance industry. In fact this is how we met ! Brian also shares my love in Disney and looks forward to our early retirement plan. I told him I will work as a ride operator, a gift shop worker, or a princess and he can drive the boat around the world showcase
His Disney Favorites:
Character: Donald, DarkWing Duck & Duffy Princess: Rapunzel
WDW Resort: Also, the Poly
Park: Hollywood Studios
Restaurant: Via Napoli
Color: Blue
Band: Blink 182 (yes they are still around too) Ride at MK: Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin Epcot: Soarin
HS: Toy Story Mania
AK: Mt. Everest

And lastly.... the third part to our wedding, Julia Julia is 4 and the love of our lives. When I first met Brian, she had just turned 2. The two of them have bonded so well and she couldn't be more excited to have Brian as her new step dad and get married with us at Disney.
Julia's Disney Favorites:
Character: Daisy & Minnie
Princess: Ariel & Rapunzel
WDW Resort: Art of Animation
WDW Park: HS & MK
WDW Restaurant: Pinocchio's Haus & Askershus Color: Pink
Band: One Direction
Ride at MK: Haunted Mansion
Epcot: Spaceship Earth
HS: Toy Story Mania
AK: Kilimanjaro Safari <-- Julia wanted to pick a smiley to go with her post. lol

Up Next: The Start of the Wedding Plans and the Wedding Party

 

[bradleyjess]

Such a cute story! Congrats, and I can't wait to read more!

 

[xAshleyx]

Such a cute story! Congrats, and I can't wait to read more!

Thanks !

 

[djsmith]

Hi saw u'd started ur planning journal on facebook so thought i'd come have a peek an follow along

ur early retirement plans sound perfect, i'd love to go work in WDW somewhere

just noticed ur the exact same age as me an brian is the same age as my fiance! no kids for us yet tho

ur daughter is adorable i love how she wanted u 2 include a smiley on her bio an how Brian included her in the proposal!
I'd also hoped of a proposal infront of cinderellas castle(i'm sure many of us have had that dream) sadly fiance isnt as enthusiastic as me bout disney so he never considered it instead he proposed on xmas day 6months b4 his first WDW trip, i was jus so happy he proposed tho

look forward to reading more an following along
Debra
xXx

 

[xAshleyx]

Hi saw u'd started ur planning journal on facebook so thought i'd come have a peek an follow along

ur early retirement plans sound perfect, i'd love to go work in WDW somewhere

just noticed ur the exact same age as me an brian is the same age as my fiance! no kids for us yet tho

ur daughter is adorable i love how she wanted u 2 include a smiley on her bio an how Brian included her in the proposal!
I'd also hoped of a proposal infront of cinderellas castle(i'm sure many of us have had that dream) sadly fiance isnt as enthusiastic as me bout disney so he never considered it instead he proposed on xmas day 6months b4 his first WDW trip, i was jus so happy he proposed tho

look forward to reading more an following along
Debra
xXx

yay ! Debra, thanks for following along
I wasnt sure if my link on Swalphins worked lol.
too funny about our ages all being the same !!

 

[xAshleyx]

**double post**

 

[celerystalker]

Your wedding is three weeks before mine, so I'm definitely in! Your daughter is beautiful! I love how your df included her!

 

[redlight]

Will be reading.

I love your hat in the first pic!

 

[Summer Daydream]

I love your proposal, it was so sweet. And your daughter is adorable!!! I look forward to following along with your plans

 

[xAshleyx]

Your wedding is three weeks before mine, so I'm definitely in! Your daughter is beautiful! I love how your df included her!

Ahh ! That's so excited !! The fall is so nice at WDW

 

[xAshleyx]

Will be reading.

I love your hat in the first pic!

Thanks lol. I love the Epcot Pavilion

 

[xAshleyx]

I love your proposal, it was so sweet. And your daughter is adorable!!! I look forward to following along with your plans

Thanks for following. Hopefully I'll have more updated today. I had a whole post typed up yesterday but I timed out and lost it all

 

[xAshleyx]

The Wedding Party I have 3 bridesmaids: my best friend Laura, as my MOH; My other best friend Natalie and my cousin Tara 1 junior bridesmaid- Brian&#146;s cousin, Mary Rose And 2 flower girls- Julia, and my sister Adriana, who is 5. Brian has two groomsmen: his brother, Devin and our good friend Dave I have to work on getting a good group photo of all of us to post. Onto the initial wedding plans.. After the engagement in January we were pretty excited about planning a Disney Wedding. It was what I always wanted !! Brian had only been to Disney once as a child- and me and him had gone to Universal Studios for a weekend that past fall with one night at MK. He shares my love in Disney movies and characters, but we are still working on getting him accustom to the parks. However, being the amazing man that he is- he is willing to do whatever makes me happy. (**update**to date, Brian, Julia and I had our first family vacation at WDW this October, and Brian is also now a WDW fanatic*) So I started by looking into a WISHES wedding. I was sold. I had my heart set on having my ceremony and reception at the Italy Isola in Epcot. I LOVED everything about it. I had this amazing wedding thought up in my head and couldn&#146;t wait to call and start the planning. And that&#146;s when everything kind of went down hill. DFTW was horrible with their customer service. They weren&#146;t willing to give out any information until I would pay a $2k deposit and give them confirmation of my Disney Vacation Package,.. so annoying. Then I discovered the DIS and started lurking on the boards. I picked up a copy of Carrie&#146;s book and it pretty much answered all of my questions. I faced a harsh reality at this point- that if I wanted an in park wedding I would have to adhere to DFTW strict guidelines- (i.e having my ceremony before or after park hours, not using an outside photographer- etc.) I thought It would be reasonable at first because after all this would be my dream wedding. But then I read somewhere how Disney can add or change their EMH up until the day of my wedding. That wasn&#146;t cool, at all. I have MAJOR OCD when it comes to planning- so going through the next year and a half not knowing if all of my plans would change last minute- would drive me nuts. That left option two- falling in love with an out of park venue. At first I started looking into Sea Breeze Pointe and Ariel&#146;s, which was nice. But then realizing I was spending a WISHES minimum on something that wasn&#146;t inpark- seemed a little expensive to me. So then I looked into an ESCAPE wedding. I didn&#146;t like the guest max and again all of the strict DFTW rules. But I was trying to convince myself I could make it work. I changed my mind 101 times between WISHES and ESCAPE before I came across the DCL thread on DIS. That gave me the best of both worlds. And my wedding/honeymoon in one package deal. I called DFTW back to try and get some more information on this option- they were a little bit more accommodating but still really wouldn&#146;t give me any information until I booked my DCL Vacation. The other thing I didn&#146;t like about this option was that I wouldn&#146;t know which day was my actual wedding day until the cruise itinerary was finalized and we knew which was our &#147;at sea&#148; day. Not knowing which day I would be getting married on- messed up my whole plan. We had our heart set on 10.19.13 and that&#146;s the day I wanted ! I found a PJ on a Swan and Dolphin wedding and had contacted Just Marry for some info. They were really accommodating and super helpful. So I had planned on maybe doing a Swan and Dolphin wedding with a dessert party at Epcot. I went back and forth between Swan and Dolphin vs. ESCAPE for a while. The only thing I didn&#146;t like about the Swan and Dolphin was the indoor back up locations. I had read a couple bad stories about those and that was really holding me back. So I decided to dis-count the Swan. I started talking to Brian and our friends and family about an ESCAPE vs WISHES wedding. My parents thought we should just go all out and do WISHES- and im not going to lie, it seemed really exciting ! I failed to mention- that in the beginning. I had a total of 5 bridesmaids and my 1 junior bridesmaid. 2 of my bridesmaids are no longer in the wedding because of some planning drama &#150;which is now why I have 3 and 1 jr. We will refer to these girls as Girl 1 and Girl 2. During the planning process Girl1 was very opinionated, telling me how I will regret a destination wedding and that im making a huge mistake my going this route. Essentially she guilted me into thinking that my wedding was an inconvenience to my family and friends and that if I didn&#146;t have a huge traditional reception up here, I would regret it later on. So Brian and I started looking into venues up here. We decided we could have a big wedding/reception up here- honeymoon in Disney and have a 1 year vow renewal in Disney. By this time it was March- and we had finally found a fabulous country club in PA that we loved. We booked it- we booked our DJ, our photobooth, and our photographer. We had well over $2,000.00 in deposits out. I felt so relieved that I finally had everything set in stone and could really start moving forward with the wedding planning. The more I got into planning though, the sadder I felt. This wasn&#146;t Disney- - I don&#146;t want to be married on a golf course. I want to be married with my Mickey Ears ! My friends and family were really comforting, they helped me find cool ways I could incorporate Disney into my at home wedding and Brian kept pointing out fun stuff we could do on our DisneyMoon. By June- I had officially given up on my wedding up here. I refused to not have my dream wedding. So we were down $2,000.00 in our wedding planning budget, and back to square one with planning. . . . Up Next: the Disney Wedding Planning begins, again.

 

[xAshleyx]

The downfall of two bridesmaids... So once we started telling everyone about the switch back to Disney they were actually supportive, well mostly. My parents knew this is what I had always wanted so they were glad we were going the disney route. My dad wanted me to have it in park at tower of terror. It's his favorite ride. But once I told him the price, he understood why that wasn't an option. Girl 1 and Girl 2 were pretty annoyed that I had changed my mind.. Again. And decided they no longer wanted to be apart of our wedding. When we were originally starting to plan a disney wedding I had prepared myself that some people would not be able to come to our wedding or be apart of due to the cost and travel etc. it just annoyed me that these two said yes up front when they knew about it- convinced me to change my mind- and then bailed out 6 months later. Needless to say they are no longer in my wedding and no longer invited. Onto more Disney planning ... Brian and I contacted both DFTW and Just Marry again. We gathered as much information as we could and decided to weigh out the pros and cons of both choices. If we went DFTW it would need to be ESCAPE. We are saving for a house and I refuse to spend $12+k on a wedding when we can have something smaller and more affordable. The final decision boiled down to these key points : DFTW: would allow us to have a MK photoshoot, annual passes included with the ESCAPE wedding which would lower out travel costs, and the indoor backup locations seemed a lot nicer than the Swan, they also offer the WP which would have been a guaranteed indoor location Swan: MUCH cheaper, more flexible, better customer service, can use outside photography/floral, no guest minimum I also realized I probably wouldn't need the photography services and limo included with an ESCAPE wedding. So I liked that the Swan let me customize a package that fit my needs. Plus by the time I added in annual pass costs to the swan wedding that I was customizing it was STILL cheaper than ESCAPE! So that was it. I emailed Erin at Just Marry (she was my initial contact back in January after we had gotten engaged and I emailed for info) and we went to work on deciding on a date and location. I was set on crescent terrace, even though I loved the beach location-just not the lack of privacy ! And we wanted our date 10.19.13, which was available. At this point we were getting ready to leave for our family vacation to WDW that September/October and were going to try and meet with Erin and check out some possible reception ideas. I told Erin we would wait and handle the deposit and contract after our vacation. I had pretty much narrowed down reception choice to Fultons or Il Mulino. We had been in contact with Fultons and their pricing was very reasonable. I liked that we would even have a private area and could have a DJ, photobooth, etc. so we made arrangements to go check it out during our trip. Oh! I also forgot to mention. We read amazing reviews about Randy Chapman and booked him for our engagement photos during our trip. We had initially booked through Disney Events and Photography for an in park Epcot shoot. But I had read some horrible reviews and was nervous about spending so much money if I wasn't sure of the quality. Randy's photos were exactly what we were looking for and half the price ! Up next: our trip to the World, engagement photos, and a visit to Fultons ..

 

[MickeysStarTrader]

Hey Ashley! What a cute family you have! I was so excited to see that you and I are getting married at Disney on the same day!!! I will definitely be following your plans! We can keep each other in check this will be a little long and I apologize, but some of the things you've said have really hit home with me

I faced a harsh reality at this point- that if I wanted an in park wedding I would have to adhere to DFTW strict guidelines- (i.e having my ceremony before or after park hours, not using an outside photographer- etc.) That left option two- falling in love with an out of park venue. At first I started looking into Sea Breeze Pointe and Ariel’s, which was nice. But then realizing I was spending a WISHES minimum on something that wasn’t inpark- seemed a little expensive to me. So then I looked into an ESCAPE wedding. I didn’t like the guest max and again all of the strict DFTW rules. But I was trying to convince myself I could make it work.

I think it's very brave of you to voice this, I get the feeling that some brides think that people holding this view are criticizing their decision to have a DFTW. But everyone is entitled to their opinion I had my heart set on a DFTW but after discovering all the rules, I couldn't handle it. I went through the same thing you did and I agree with you completely!

Essentially she guilted me into thinking that my wedding was an inconvenience to my family and friends and that if I didn’t have a huge traditional reception up here, I would regret it later on.

I'm sorry that this happened to you I had some people guilt me that my wedding was an inconvenience - but I'm not making anyone go!

If we went DFTW it would need to be ESCAPE. We are saving for a house and I refuse to spend $12+k on a wedding when we can have something smaller and more affordable.

I agree with you again, I don't think that you should spend $12K necessarily just because you can. Again I think for a lot of brides it can come down to DFTW and wait longer for a house or form a new plan and have a house sooner. We decided we wanted the house sooner and we're happy to sacrifice a Wishes wedding for that... but again many brides think that my opinion there is a criticism of them

Plus by the time I added in annual pass costs to the swan wedding that I was customizing it was STILL cheaper than ESCAPE!

We noticed this too! The APs were a huge factor in persuading us to go with Escape beforehand

I had pretty much narrowed down reception choice to Fultons or Il Mulino

Both great choices! I can't wait to hear what you decide!

We had initially booked through Disney Events and Photography for an in park Epcot shoot. But I had read some horrible reviews and was nervous about spending so much money if I wasn't sure of the quality.

I've read similar things and now we can't decide on an in-park shoot! Have you come to a decision? So excited for more!

 

[xAshleyx]

Hey Ashley! What a cute family you have! I was so excited to see that you and I are getting married at Disney on the same day!!! I will definitely be following your plans! We can keep each other in check this will be a little long and I apologize, but some of the things you've said have really hit home with me

I think it's very brave of you to voice this, I get the feeling that some brides think that people holding this view are criticizing their decision to have a DFTW. But everyone is entitled to their opinion I had my heart set on a DFTW but after discovering all the rules, I couldn't handle it. I went through the same thing you did and I agree with you completely!

I'm sorry that this happened to you I had some people guilt me that my wedding was an inconvenience - but I'm not making anyone go!

I agree with you again, I don't think that you should spend $12K necessarily just because you can. Again I think for a lot of brides it can come down to DFTW and wait longer for a house or form a new plan and have a house sooner. We decided we wanted the house sooner and we're happy to sacrifice a Wishes wedding for that... but again many brides think that my opinion there is a criticism of them

We noticed this too! The APs were a huge factor in persuading us to go with Escape beforehand

Both great choices! I can't wait to hear what you decide!

I've read similar things and now we can't decide on an in-park shoot! Have you come to a decision? So excited for more!

Hey !! Thanks for following along !
Same day?! That's so exciting. What location and time is your wedding ?
I'm glad you mentioned I'm not being negative about DFTW. I think their FABULOUS, just not for my budget and needs

I'll have another update hopefully later today. I'm starting my PJ pretty much a year after we got engaged so I can't wait to catch up on everything so I can share some current updates lol

 

[xAshleyx]

Our trip to the World: We left for our 9 day trip to WDW and were super excited about staying at the new Art of Animation Resort (Ariel room of course, since she is my favorite) and most importantly, really starting the wedding planning. Our trip was a ton of fun- and it was our first family trip together to WDW.

Time for Engagement Photos. . .
Towards the end of our trip it was time to meet with Randy for our engagement shoot. We met him in the lobby of AoA and Julia went with my parents for the day. We started with some photos at the Cars section- which I had not ventured over to until this day. It was seriously like walking into the movie. Such fun props and a TON of places to take photos. My favorite is the one of us with Lightening McQueen and the Cozy Cone Motel.

Randy was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. we went with him soley because of his reviews here on the DIS, and it was a great decision. He was so nice and easy to work with. We took a ton of photos over in the Lion King area- the Nemo section didn&#146;t have too many places for photos since the majority of the stuff was in the actual pool area.

By the time we were done at Lion King I was sweating so bad. I did not expect Florida heat in October to be that bad. It was so horrible that Randy told me we should go inside to &#147;wipe off&#148; hahah it was gross and I was so embarrassed. We took a few photos in the lobby and outside of the resort and then we hopped in Randy&#146;s truck and headed over to the Boardwalk.

Randy dropped us off out front so we could head in to change. I went in and changed in the bathroom and met Brian back out in the hall next to the lobby. As I walked out I saw a look of horror on his face- and I knew something was wrong. Anything that he prefaces with &#147;now don&#146;t be mad. .. &#147; can never lead to anything good. Here, he had put his button up shirt on the sink while he was getting changed (not realizing the sinks were automatic) so as he was moving around to change his shirt the sink turned on and wet half of his shirt. So we were standing there with a half soaked button up shirt. We had nothing else for him to wear- so I made him go back into the bathroom and wet the rest of the shirt so the color matched. All of our photos at the Boardwalk/Beach Club were taken with Brian in a SOAKING wet button up. Hahaha- later in the day it made for a great story.

Our photos around the Boardwalk were my absolute favorite. The first time Brian told me he loved me was on the Atlantic City Boardwalk- so it was fitting that we took photos in an AC type resort. We had a lot of fun and by the time we were done with all of our photos we had been shooting for 3 hours !!! Which meant we were late for meeting with Ashley at Fultons.. . . Headed to Fultons. . . We told Randy and he was nice enough to drive us over to DTD so that we didn&#146;t have to wait for the bus. I had never been to Fulton&#146;s before- funny since I am considering having our wedding dinner here, but I was really impressed. It had a nice feel inside and I loved the look of the riverboat. We waited downstairs in the lobby and Ashley came down to show us around. I fell in LOVE with the outside deck- I love the string lighting and the amazing view. The bar inside the lounge was nice and I liked it better than using the bow room with a roll up bar. Ashley also mentioned that having our ceremony here was an option. And for a second I thought about it- I LOVED the outdoor area and it would have looked so cool with the lights of DTD at night, but I was already sold with the Swan. Before we left I had asked if Ashley knew anything about Portobello and if they offered any type of private dining (since they are Italian like Il Mulino) she said she also handled their private events. Basically with them it was either you buy out the whole restaurant- or this small patio area near the water. Other than that she said we could all be seated together in like a back corner to feel more &#147;private&#148; but it wouldn&#146;t really be private dining. The only plus with this- is there would be no food and beverage minimum to meet since it wasn&#146;t private. She walked us over to Portobello&#146;s to check it out. I have photos, but I have to find them ! Ultimately, I opted to not consider Portobello for our dinner, since I wasn&#146;t too impressed with it. We took some more photos outside of Fulton&#146;s and headed back to the hotel to meet with Julia.

At this point- we were waiting to put a deposit down with Ashley- I was still looking into Il Mulino and waiting for the 2013 Menu pricing before making a final decision. One big plus that Fulton&#146;s has over Il Mulino- is the privacy. Fultons also allows you to use the outside deck without paying more money. Il Mulino was charging an extra $1k food and beverage minimum for use of their outdoor courtyard. I also factored in the cost of transportation . . .since Il Mulino would be literally right next door to Crescent Terrace. I read some reviews about people using Mears vans for their guests for around $14.00- which seems reasonable and doesn&#146;t really make up the $1k difference to use Il Mulino. I also really liked the idea of having a Dj or Ipod dock at Fultons so we can have some type of dancing. If we go with Il Mulino we will have our first dances at the ceremony site, which will still be cool too, but I think I like the idea of the dances being at Fulton&#146;s&#151;that way we can walk in and officially be &#147;announced&#148; as husband and wife- Fulton&#146;s also allows us to have photobooth. Which Randy was telling us about during our engagement shoot. He told us it was something new that he would be starting and how he could customize a package for us to include it. He won my heart over when he told me his prop box was filled with pretty much any Disney character hat we can think of !! Up next: Drastic news from Erin and my first wedding crisis

 

[xAshleyx]

Im trying to really catch up on this so that I can finally be up to date with current plans !!

Drastic news from Erin and my first wedding crisis . .

A few weeks after we got home from our trip, we got our DVD from Randy with our photos ! It was so exciting. I made my own engagement album through Shutterfly and ordered it right away.
You can view our engagement album here: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AasWjhi0cNmT6o

I contacted Erin and sent back the signed contract for our 10.19.13 Crescent Terrace Wedding.

Brian and I were getting so excited about everything and I started picking out our floral. I wanted to have our main color be dark purple- like an Eggplant color. I don’t know much about flowers at all so I just started looking somethings up on pinterest. I found a bouquet that I LOVED and emailed Erin the info for some pricing. I knew I wanted the pillars instead of an arch way- so I had Erin start my custom floral quote. I told her that I wanted to stay around or under $200.00 for my bouquet and she was really helpful.

This is the bouquet :

Brian will wear a matching boutonniere that’s a purple orchid. I haven’t decided if we will have the groomsmen wear the orange roses like the ones in my bouquet, or if they will have orchids too. Erin included two matching floral arrangements for the pillars, I told her I wanted them to be useable as centerpieces too incase I decided to bring them to the reception. I don’t have a photo of them, but she told me they would match my bouquet. I plan on making my bridesmaids floral. I want them to carry Mickey pomander balls with the orange, purple, and pink flowers similar to what I am carrying. I haven’t decided if I want aisle pedals either. I forget whether or not the swan allows the artificial pedals ?? I know Erin said that usually its around $75.00 for the aisle pedals- but if I can buy them from Michael’s it will save me some $$$

So far my floral quote is :

Bouquet: $225.00
Boutonniere: $16.95
Rental of White Columns: $50.00 for the pair
Delivery/Setup/Pickup of Columns: $65.00
Coordinating arrangements for pillars: $195 each ($390 total)

Grand Total (so far) $746.95

If I opt to add the groomsmen boutonnieres it would be $16.95 each for an orchid, or $12.95 for a rose
Bridesmaids bouquets similar to mine: $100.00 each
Floral for my hair (to match the one in the photo) $1.95 for the purple Dendrobium Orchids and $8.95 for the hot pink Phalaenopsis Orchids

I was pretty happy with my floral quote. I don’t plan on ordering any extra floral for the reception dinner.

It felt like such a relief to have one more thing crossed off my list. My ceremony site, date, engagement album and floral was all taken care of.. or so I thought. . .

I received an email from Erin a few days after we had discussed my floral. She said that the Swan had just contacted her and advised their annual Food and Wine Classic was confirmed for October 18th and 19th. Which meant if I kept my wedding there would be a ton of tourists, vendors, and live music all around my wedding. My heat completely sank and I was so upset ! I cant even describe the disappointment. Erin had suggested moving the wedding to the West Courtyard for more privacy, which I don’t mind the courtyard but it wasn’t big enough to seat my approx. 40 guests. I told Erin I really needed to think this through and weigh out my options.

My first option was moving the wedding to November 8th. The Christmas decorations usually go up on November 9th and we would be able to enjoy the MMVCP during our honeymoon, which I had never done. It would also be cooler out – so I shouldn’t have any sweaty moment a la Randy style and if we left earlier that week, we should catch the end of the Food and Wine festival at Epcot. So I emailed Erin to check availability for that date.

She emailed me back the next day and told me it was approved. But it just didn’t seem right- I really had my heart set on October and Brian and I were considering going to Discovery Cove to swim with the dolphins and I just kept thinking about how November may be too cold to do this. So I emailed Erin back again- and told her I couldn’t go through with that date either. . . After the wedding, I have to send her a nice gift for dealing with my crazy decision making.. . .

I told her that at this point I would take any date available that week- the 17th or 20th
She told me she would submit those requests and hopefully get back to me soon. It was a day before thanksgiving and she said she probably would not hear back from the Swan until after the holiday. In the meantime, she had emailed me other venues that Just Marry services that may be available on my date if I wanted to look into them.

I really liked the beach venue at the Loewes Royal Pacific. Erin forwarded me pricing for that- and I started really looking into having the wedding there. I contacted Emeril’s Tchoup chop restaurant and really liked their private dining menu and the restaurant. I thought the tropical vibe of my floral would like nice there too- and we could still honeymoon in Disney.. .

I figured Thanksgiving coming up would be a nice time to think about everything and talk with our families. And recover from the shock of all of this drama.

Erin emailed back and advised that the 17th and 20th were pretty much out of the question too, as the Swan couldn’t promise that they would have all of the banners, etc. down from the Food and Wine Classic- this was pretty disappointing . .

After Brian and I spoke with our families, it was kind of a mutual conclusion- that getting married at the Loewe’s wasn’t for us. I wanted a DISNEY wedding. Due to the circumstances I was just looking for alternative choices, since I really wanted to keep my date. Ultimately, I decided I wanted to keep the Swan, and I would just need to be flexible with our date.

I sent Erin an email to check availability for October 25th and 26th and hoped for the best.

She got back to me very quickly with the good news that the 26th was available and approved. She sent me the contract and we got everything straightened out. It was a huge relief to get this sorted out. I was pretty bummed though since I had already spent around $100.00 on my engagement album from Shutterfly that had a whole page with our “10.19.13” wedding date. So I needed to re-order it with the correction. We had also been in contact with David’s Disney Vacation Club rentals about a DVC villa for our dates. Luckily we hadn’t signed anything yet- so we weren’t completely out of that money. Im just grateful that I hadn’t ordered my Save the Dates !

Up Next: The First Dress Shopping Experience & Our Guest Book

 

[redlight]

Love your engagement pictures. Awaiting your dress!!

 

[tinydancr06]

Hi! I've enjoyed reading your pj so far! It seems like you've had a lot of hard decisions to make so far but it looks like you're doing a great job! I am glad you decided to be flexible with your date so you could still have your DISNEY wedding Your wedding is the day after ours!!! I will definitely be following along