Andreah and Brian - Dec 8th, 2009 (Reception Photos Posted)

[Eeyore's Tailfinder]

Thanks Andreah! We're pretty much a Mac family DF is a IT Technician, so I've just asked him if we can get hold of the program!

Well done on the weight loss! That's brilliant! I really need to get motivated and get some willpower to stick to it! Yes, our date is set to 12 August 2010 (hopefully!) and we cannot wait! We just need to save to pay for it all now!

[29apr00]

Well done on teh weight loss!! 6 lbs is great! And an inch! Now that's what i'd like to lose!

[acwinsett]

I've been working on Save the Dates, and here's a sneak peek:





They're a bit time consuming, but I only have to make 25 or so. Please pardon the photos . . . the colors are showing a bit washed out. I really need a new camera!

[figment fan21]

Originally Posted by acwinsett

I've been working on Save the Dates, and here's a sneak peek:





They're a bit time consuming, but I only have to make 25 or so. Please pardon the photos . . . the colors are showing a bit washed out. I really need a new camera!

...LOVE LOVE LOVE your STD!!!! They're so cute and very creative! Good job girl!

[acwinsett]

The last couple of weeks have been crazy-busy and there are lots of updates to post!

Big Big News!!!!
I just have to take a moment to share how proud I am of my darling Brian! After six months of treatments, we're so excited to announce that he has FINISHED chemotherapy! He'll have some check-ups and that sort of thing, but chances are very very good that this will be the end of it :-) Brian is absolutely amazing! He handled his treatments with as much strength as possible, and somehow managed to keep things "business as usual" at his production studio. Most of his clients never realized that he was away for several days every two weeks. We owe a lot of credit to his Disney-fanatic of an Office Manager / Production Manager. She went "above and beyond" to make sure things ran as smoothly as possible. I'm calling Amber my "Honorary Bridesmaid"! But I think the most amazing thing throughout this entire experience has been Brian's positive attitude. Even when he was in the middle of his treatments and just totally zapped of energy, he'd wake up with a smile on his face. His birthday is next week and we have so much to celebrate!!!

The DFTW Booking Process
Getting back to wedding stuff . . . we're working on the booking process as we speak! We called DFTW a few weeks ago to let them know that we were interesting in switching from Escape to Wishes due to the fact that we have more people planning to attend than we originally thought, and we were going to meet the Wishes minimum anyway. As an added bonus, they are offering special discounts on Photgraphy, Food & Beverage and Floral during our timeframe. Woo hoo!

So, they switched us from Bree, the Escape sales coordinator to Bill Barchick, a Wishes wedding coordinator. They left a meesage for him on a Friday afternoon, and he called me back on Monday morning. Bill immediately confirmed that our first choice ceremony and reception locations were available for our first choice dates and times, and put a hold on those spaces pending the Letter of Agreement. He also sent over the Wishes planning packet and menus for the California Grill. Soooooo . . . It's official!!!

Andreah and Brian
Disney's Wedding Pavilion
December 8th, 2009
5:00 PM

Reception to follow at California Grill

We've been emailing Bill back and forth all day today sending him the information that he needs to draft the Letter of Agreement, and we should be receiving that in a couple of weeks.

Today we got to experience the joys of attempting to set up a room block having no idea which resorts our guests will choose! We had already let everyone know that our favorite resorts are Pop Century, Port Orleans French Quarter and Contemporary. Brian and I will be staying at the Contemporary, so that will take care of 7 of our 25 room nights right off the bat. So we just split out the other rooms equally among Pop Century and Port Orleans French Quarter. I'm sure we'll need to make adjustments down the road.

Save the Dates
So, now that we know our date is available, we have been able to put together Save the Date packets to send to our friends and family. That's kept us pretty busy for the last couple of weeks, but the legwork is just about done. We wanted to make sure that OUR Save the Date information arrives BEFORE the guests receive the Disney Save the Dates. I just want to make sure that they know that they have many other options than booking through our room block.

Our Save the Date packages consist of the following items:

• A Save the Date card
• A small envelope for the Save the Date card
• A Printed Newsletter
• A "Pre-RSVP" Questionnaire
• A Stamped Return Envelope for the "Pre-RSVP" Questionnaire
• A few pieces of homemade confetti (Snowflakes, Castles, and a "Hidden" Mickey)
• An Outside Envelope to hold everything
• And finally . . . Custom Postage with our cartoon artwork!

As soon as our custom postage stamps arrive, we'll drop these babies in the mail and be well on our way! We've also updated our website with the latest information because we're sure it'll be getting a lot of traffic when the Save the Dates arrive at their destinations.

Magic Kingdom / EPCOT Portrait Session
We've made an appointment for our Magic Kingdom / EPCOT portrait session for the day-after-the-day-after our wedding. That would be Thursday, December 10th at 5:30 AM . . . yikes!!!

Hair and Makeup
We've confirmed availability with Patricia Le Jeune for our Wedding date and our early-morning portrait session. We should be getting her contract this week.

So, I think that just about covers it. That's all the stuff we've been doing since our last update. Our next steps are:

• Select and book an officiant
• Wait for the Letter of Agreement from DFTW to arrive and send them a deposit
• Wait for the Patricia Le Jeune contract to arrive
• Keep checking on airfares for our travel dates, and
• Drop the Save the Dates in the mail as soon as our custom postage arrives

[MainStMandy]

First off, that is great news about Brian!!!

Everything else sounds fantastic! The MK Bridal shoot is awesome...I thought I heard they aren't doing it anymore. And you are booking hair and makeup already...how early do you have to do that??

[MegKate]

Definitely awesome news about Brian!!!

This is a bit disjointed since I'm about to go snooze, but I had to say the following things - LOVE the STDs - wicked creative and just all around perfect! How did you go about making the Mickey Ears? A Punch? Congrats on getting the date, changing to wishes and making so much progress in one fell swoop! But really more than anything congrats on the great news about Brian's recovery! Definitely celebrate!!

[acwinsett]

Originally Posted by MegKate

LOVE the STDs - wicked creative and just all around perfect! How did you go about making the Mickey Ears? A Punch?

Thank you! Yeah, it's a giant Mickey hole punch. Brian bought it for me when we were picking up a Christmas gift card for his sister at Archiver's. So, of course, I was obligated to put it to good use!

[acwinsett]

Originally Posted by MainStMandy

The MK Bridal shoot is awesome...I thought I heard they aren't doing it anymore. And you are booking hair and makeup already...how early do you have to do that??

No more MK bridal portraits??? Really?! Wow, no, I haven't heard anything like that. Our Sales Coordinator, Bill, told us that we should call over to Disney Photography and go ahead and book it, so that's what we did. The lady we spoke to with DPS was really cool when we called and she never mentioned anything about the sessions being discontinued. We're gonna do Magic Kingdom, then EPCOT. I'm thinking UK, France and Italy . . .

I'm not really sure how long in advance you're "supposed" to book hair and makeup, but we're trying to go ahead and make as many of our arrangements as possible now that we have our date.

[29apr00]

OMG yoru STD's are beautiful! I love the date tags!! How cute!!

Yay for Brian! how great that's he's finished with Chemo!!

:lol: sorry you lost Brie....but she's now with me! :lol: I hope she's good! And yeah for getting your date and everything set!! Congrats!!

[acwinsett]

Just sealed up our Save the Dates to send in the mail so I thought I'd share the final results . . .

The Save the Date announcement cards:


We stuffed them inside a small envelope:


Each guest received a printed copy of our first newsletter:


We also enclosed a "Pre-RSVP" questionnaire and a stamped addressed return envelope and a few pieces of confetti. (The stamps are Art of Disney Imagination + a 3 cent stamp just in case they don't return before postage rates go up next month):


All of the above items were stuffed into a larger outside envelope and stamped with custom postage featuring the cartoon version of "Brian and Andreah":


We're so excited to have these ready to send out . . . our guests should be receiving them by the end of the week!

[29apr00]

those look great Andreah! you did a great job!

[acwinsett]

I have just a few updates to post this week . . .

Save the Dates have been mailed, and we've received confirmation of 6 Save the Date sightings . . . (we sent 24 altogether). Everyone else should be getting theirs this week.

I'm so super-excited, because I managed to get our cake topper for FREE!!! It's the Precious Moments figurine "Magically Ever After . . . "



Okay, so it wasn't exactly "free", but I was able to use a stockpile of Amazon.com gift certificates that I received from work vendors and for participating in a Disney focus group to purchase the figurine. I'm so excited . . . I had no idea that Amazon sold Precious Moments. I know how I'm going to use my GC's from now on!

And then today, I won an eBay bid for a new-with-tags bridal handbag from Kate Spade (to match my Kate Spade shoes). I was able to get it for $49.99 + $16.60 shipping, so a total of $66.59 (Retail value $295). I just LOVE shopping victoriously . . .

Here are some photos of the handbag:

[MegKate]

WOW! on the topper - how awesome to get it for free! (Or at least thanks to some GCs!) Love it! Do you have any ideas on the cake? (Or did I miss that?)

[acwinsett]

Originally Posted by MegKate

WOW! on the topper - how awesome to get it for free! (Or at least thanks to some GCs!) Love it! Do you have any ideas on the cake? (Or did I miss that?)

Ooooh . . . cake! The best part! I've come across a few ideas for cake, but haven't come close to making any decisions about it. We're going to have a small group, so we'll have them do the minimum - a cake for 50. I would assume that's 2 tiers, not 3.

I'm thinking of something simple and tasteful (and tast-eee, of course).

I saw this one on the Wilton site, and really like how roses line the border of each layer:



I'd prefer plain buttercream frosting, though, instead of fondant. You know, something you could swipe your finger through when no one else was looking . . .

I also like the "swirly" designs on the side of this cake:



So, maybe we'll ask for a hybrid between the two. I definitely want the layers together and not separated. NO PLASTIC on our cake, please!

Here's a couple of cakes I really like from other brides. I apologize, I can't remember who I swiped them from . . . Hope they don't mind!

Here's a nice 2-layer buttercream frosted cake with roses and swirlies - and OUR cake topper:



And I LOVE things that sparkle, so I like the offset crystal-embellished monogram on this one: