So today is our At-Home Reception. This past week I have been going absolutely bonkers trying to get everything together and finish up all the tasks that were still on my to-do list. It was like starting the wedding planning process all over again.
I think it will be fun, but for any future brides planning an at-home reception, I recommend keeping it as small and casual as you can. This feels like a bigger production than my Disney wedding, but this time there's no planner and fabulous team to take care of all the nitty gritty and make sure everything runs smoothly. Just me.
Anyway, I will depart for today's events with a TR update.
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Day Four
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Wedding Eve: Meet and Greet
Sunday was supposed to be an easy day after a long day spent at the parks, but I woke up before dawn. In the days before we left for Disney, it seemed as if I was waking up an hour earlier each day and the tradition was carrying on despite exhaustion. I ended up messaging DH at 7:30 a.m. After some back and forth, we agreed that we hadn't had a chance to have some time together, just the two of us. We snuck out of our rooms and met in the lobby for a morning stroll along the Boardwalk. Well... the three of us, even though I'm pretty sure everyone I know knows that Bryan and I carry around our little Yeti mascot around for amusing photos, we didn't actually want to do it in front of them.
If the hotel itself is unremarkable, there's no doubt that the Boardwalk is a great feature for guests. On this morning alone, we ran into DH's parents and aunts, out enjoying the Boardwalk as we were.
We decided to try to go to Kouzzina for breakfast. We didn't have an ADR, but it was later in the morning, so it was only a little bit of a wait for a table. We weren't in any kind of a hurry. At another table were my mom's friends, and we exchanged pleasantries. We'd been to Kouzzina for dinner before, and it was unspectacular. Breakfast, on the other hand, was pretty darned good. Bryan had the Kouzzina breakfast and I had the waffles. We brought our pal Yeti with us, and our friendly server offered to bring him a dish of cream! She was so sweet to us!
Classic Golden Waffle with Whipped Mascarpone Cheese, Honey, and Chopped Pecans and side of Chicken Sausage
Stacked Kouzzina Breakfast - Two Poached Eggs, Kalamata Olive Toast, Artichoke Spread, and Sweet Potato Hash with side of Chicken Sausage
Breakfast over, there was business to be gotten down to: meet 'n' greet time! We stopped by the Screen Door General Store on the way back to the rooms for a few more supplies: some juice for punch, more chips and Mickey-shaped pretzels. As a DVC resort, the General Store is fairly well-stocked with a better selection of everyday goods than a regular gift shop, though you're definitely paying a premium for their wares.
Back at the room, Bryan and Ryan set to work prepping the food for our Mary Poppins-themed meet and greet party - cutting vegetables for a crudites platter, and heating up frozen hors d'oeuvres. The spread also included Florida orange wedges, wafer cookies and chips. To drink, we had sangria, punch and beer. And the girls and I set up the various decorations, mostly them. I was so stressed out I don't even remember what I was doing at this point to be honest. Or actually, I think Ashley blew dried my hair for me. Honestly, I was useless. I did the planning... good enough, right?
We patched in Mary Poppins to the TV from DH's iPad and piped in the soundtrack in instrumental form from my iPad. (My carefully planned playlist was MIA thanks to issues I had with iTunes the day before we left. Unfortunately it was only at this moment that I realized it.)
With thirty guests spread out over four hotels, we weren't sure who would show up. Our welcome bags had instructions on how to get to the Boardwalk from each hotel, but it was impossible to know if they'd read the instructions or received the welcome bags at all. We were glad, then, that almost all our guests found their way to the party. It was a great way for the guests to meet each other, and we were able to don our
travel agent hats and give our guests some WDW advice.
The party wrapped around 4:00, and after cleaning up, the wedding party splintered into its various parts. The wedding was less than sixteen hours away.
Groom here.
After the Meet 'n' Greet, my BM and I went back to our room to rest and prep our tuxes for the wedding the next day. We'd both rented from a place in Toronto and brought the tuxes down to Florida in our suitcases, so they needed some serious ironing. Nicole told us that the wool coat would need a piece of fabric between it and the iron to prevent it from becoming shiny, so we had that covered. Nevertheless, both the iron and the ironing board in the room were much the worse for wear (the iron was weak and the board uneven) and they made the task of ironing each garment incredibly difficult.
Here we discovered a faint-but-still-very-noticeable stain down the front of my white dress shirt, like someone had spilled red wine on it, and then it had been washed--poorly. Thanks a lot, Andrew's Formals. We called the front desk and asked if they did emergency laundry on site (they didn't) and if there was a place to purchase a new white dress shirt nearby (not on a Sunday evening in Disney World.) Anyway, we discussed the various options before us: 1) just wear the thing and not open up the jacket, or 2) wear a regular white button-up shirt I'd brought. Ryan then offered up a third option: I'd wear his clean shirt and he'd wear the dirty shirt. That's a true friend for you--the shirt off his back, literally.
If you see the pictures, he's a lean, tall guy, but his shirt actually fit me and vice versa. The big difference was the neck size (my neck is thicker) so his shirt came across as a bit too big for him and a bit tight for me. In any case, crisis averted!
As my last meal as a bachelor we decided (somewhat reluctantly, due to the rain) on Big River Grille, which was fairly mediocre. I'm fine with that: it meant I had better food to look forward to in married life. As we sat by the window, we reflected on the at times unexpected courses our lives had taken, and the inevitable surprise ahead. I watched another wedding go by along the Boardwalk; it looked like the reception was happening at Atlantic Dance Hall because a limo was pulled up to the door.
(Bride interruption: Have you guys noticed how my DH knew and was even excited about writing this TR since before the trip, but didn't actually manage to take any photos of the stuff he did? Boys. If it had been me I'd have taken a stealth photo to find out if this was a DISbride wedding.)
On the way back to the room, we ducked into the General Store so I could get a card for Nicole's wedding gift: an antique Victorian padlock locket made of gold and jade. Never mind that I'd had months to buy a card. In any case, I searched around the store for an appropriate card and found only postcards. Moments before settling on a postcard with Mickey and Minnie on the front, I spied what turned out to be a fridge magnet set with Minnie and a speech bubble saying, "Isn't It Romantic?" Talk about a moment of serendipity, because "Isn't It Romantic" is the song Nicole and I were going to dance to for our first dance. I bought the thing, taped it to the gift box and knew that Nicole would know the significance.
My very last task before the wedding complete, Ryan and I retired back to the room and spent the rest of the night watching Arrested Development off Netflix. Not exactly your wild bachelor party, but, hey, it's who I am, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Back to the bride:
After the party-goers left we packed away the welcome party materials, my cousin Kevin who had arrived the previous day and was now also staying in our room went off to hang out with my aunt, and us girls started preparing for the next day. I had had a call that morning from Carolyn Allen's asking if they could come in an hour earlier to steam the dresses, at 5:00pm instead of 6:00pm, and pretty soon they had arrived.
It was a man and woman team, I confess I can't remember their names. The man was hilarious making jokes and chatting with the girls, it helped temporarily lighten my nerves. While the lady was steaming my gown she noticed that some of the netting had not been properly cut back on the hem of my dress. I always carry small sewing scissors with me so I did a quick snip, snip and got rid of that quickly. Of all the things, doing alterations to my dress the night before my wedding actually centered my nerves for a moment.
My dress on the ironing board all ready to go for the next day.
Focusing on things. I should have made more tasks for myself to focus on that day. I felt basically sick and nauseous all evening and night. Not because I was nervous about getting married, it was just so much hard work was about to all come together and there was so much potential for it not to work out. I had Disney taking care of it so I know I needn't have worried, but still, you can't help your nerves.
Vanessa did my nails. We'd picked out a pale sparkly pinky-champagne type colour and she had gotten Mickey Mouse head vinyl nail decals. I hate to even write this, but she probably did my nails about six times that night. I was so edgy that I kept ruining them before they'd dried. I could not sit still and be calm and wait long enough for them to dry. It was ridiculous. A couple of the nails she actually had to finish up the next morning because we just had to get to bed! I snacked on dry cereal that night. I was not hungry at all, but they made me. All the while we watched Newsies, which was perfect. And the Disney World episodes of "Full House" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch." I had come prepared. I also wrote my card to Bryan. I had such a hard time focusing my thoughts I wish I'd written it before I'd left, but eventually I managed to collect myself enough to write my thoughts.
Around 8:00pm or 9:00pm we got a call from my cousin's girlfriend, saying they'd lost Kevin! What the heck! I was like, how could they do that but also I was like, you guys figure it out, I've got my own issues right now. Someone else can deal with that. Around 10:00pm there was a knock on our patio door. They'd brought Kevin back. The losing Kevin call had been a "Home Alone" reference. Ashley dealt with them (Kevin is her brother). I was like whatever, go away, I have to wake up at 3:00am.
Up next: The big day is finally here!
They were in our safes, where they should be Disney! 
about the photo, I never thought of that, but after you mentioned it it kind of looks like that... 
I'm looking forward to reading my own TR at this point too, who knows what it'll say. 
