A&W's Planning Journal! 1/22/11 - Disneyland Wedding - TR Starting on Pg. 5!

[Safflower]

Here is our menu as well! We're doing a duo plate, which I'm really excited about

Stardust Serenade
- Freshly Baked Breads and Butter

- Creamy Tomato Basil Soup with Balsamic Essence

- Grilled Filet Mignon and Herb Roasted Salmon with Cabernet Shallot Reduction and Sauvignon Blanc Butter Sauce
- Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Haricot Verts + Pear Tomato Piccalilli

- Individual Chocolate Fondue with Lemon Madeline, Purple Cassis French Macaroon, Heart Rice Krispy, Pound Cake with Raspberry, Chocolate Financier Cake and Fruit Empanada
- Coffee and Teas

We'll also be doing a cupcake display a little bit later in the reception, instead of a typical cake. We'll still be doing the cake cutting, but we really wanted to serve the fondue! So the cupcakes will be out while people are dancing to snack on.
The cupcakes will be:
Golden Vanilla Cake with Passionfruit Mousse Frosting
Pound Cake with Guava Mousse Frosting
(They are making the Passionfruit and Guava Frosting just for us! )
Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting

I'll try to get some pics from our menu tasting as well!

 

[Safflower]

We had our menu tasting back in August- it was *fantastic*!! Everything was absolutely amazing. The staff took such good care of us!

We had a pretty big tasting- both sets of our parents came, along with FSIL and my Maid of Honor. We had to pay for the 4 extra people, but it was worth it to have all of us together! My parents live in Hawaii and my MoH is currently living in Japan, so this Disney trip was the only chance that all of us would have to be in the same room before the day of the wedding!

We had our tasting in the Sleeping Beauty Pavilion, which was really lovely! They were just starting to put the treatments on the windows to block out the construction.

The bread basket... (for all of the pictures, just click on them to see the large size!)


We actually didn't get a picture of the soup! It was too delicious

The vegetarian option (ratatouille)


Even I liked the veggie option (and I'm not a big veggie fan) - it was really quite nice!

The duo plate!


The little plate that they gave each of us for the tasting portions


My favorite... the individual chocolate fondue!


We decided to change the items that will be included with the fondue just a bit, as you can see in my menu post up above. The chef is going to make us a purple macron to match our color scheme!

And of course, we had to try some cake!


As I mentioned in my menu post, the pastry chef also made us some special flavors of frosting. I grew up in Hawaii, and absolutely love Passionfruit and Guava. When I initially saw the list of cake flavors, I wasn't really interested, so I asked Traci if it would be possible to get something unique. Somehow, they made it happen, and it was just fantastic! Can't wait to have it on our wedding day

I'm really excited about our menu, and I hope our guests will enjoy it!

 

[jtanddolly]

You have done a great job building your centerpieces. I know how much work that takes to assemble them, and you must have a lot of patience to be able to trim and fold not just one but all of them.

I couldn't resist looking at your thread as you have A&W and I thought I would pass an idea on. Since your initials are A&W had you thought about including A&W rootbeer in your welcome bag/baskets? You could come up with a cute tag for the bottles with something fun like "it's AWesome that you are here - A&W" or "we think it is AWesome that you could make it - A&W"

Anyways...just an idea. I love welcome gifts...especially ones that are unique and or fun. You could also include a set of printables for them to make their own centerpiece. You could take the Disneyland sign and change it up to say something about your wedding instead of "to all that come to this happy place". If you are familiar with photoshop or have a friend that is...it would be an easy edit. You could even do it in MS Word by putting a textbox over the area.

 

[super_k0116]

subscribing!

You have so many cute and creative ideas. Can't wait to see them all come together!

 

[Mindyjoy]

Thank you for posting your tasting pictures! I am in love with the little fondue but sadly it is out of our budget unless we only serve that instead of a main course. And I would prefer cupcakes to cake so it is very nice to know that is an option!

Are you allowed to bring up to 4 people for your tasting? It would be cool if we could bring my parents along.

I am learning so much from you PJ, thank you so much for sharing!

 

[Safflower]

You have done a great job building your centerpieces. I know how much work that takes to assemble them, and you must have a lot of patience to be able to trim and fold not just one but all of them.

I couldn't resist looking at your thread as you have A&W and I thought I would pass an idea on. Since your initials are A&W had you thought about including A&W rootbeer in your welcome bag/baskets? You could come up with a cute tag for the bottles with something fun like "it's AWesome that you are here - A&W" or "we think it is AWesome that you could make it - A&W"

Thank you! I'm lucky to have had some help from bridesmaids and family to get everything together It's been a big project!

I'm glad that you caught our little joke! We really wanted to serve A&W as our "signature" beverage at the reception, but it was a no-go since Disney is exclusive with Coke
Using it in the welcome bags is a great idea though! We'll be having lots of guests from Nothern California and out of state, so I've been wanting to do a little welcome gift. I wonder if we could get those mini cans!

 

[Safflower]

Thank you for posting your tasting pictures! I am in love with the little fondue but sadly it is out of our budget unless we only serve that instead of a main course. And I would prefer cupcakes to cake so it is very nice to know that is an option!

Are you allowed to bring up to 4 people for your tasting? It would be cool if we could bring my parents along.

I am learning so much from you PJ, thank you so much for sharing!

The fondue is great! Although it is a little pricey. Cupcakes were a great alternative to regular cake though - especially since Will isn't a big fan of cake.

Yep! You can bring up to 4 people to the tasting. Which is nice so that you can all make the decisions together.

I'm glad I can finally help someone after my total lack of posting before!

 

[jtanddolly]

Thank you! I'm lucky to have had some help from bridesmaids and family to get everything together It's been a big project!

I'm glad that you caught our little joke! We really wanted to serve A&W as our "signature" beverage at the reception, but it was a no-go since Disney is exclusive with Coke
Using it in the welcome bags is a great idea though! We'll be having lots of guests from Nothern California and out of state, so I've been wanting to do a little welcome gift. I wonder if we could get those mini cans!

If you wanted to really go all out with the A&W root beer idea. Get someone to redesign the logo using your wedding colors and maybe the year you started dating for the "since 1919" or the date of your wedding. Then you could use it to make bottle wrappers for the A&W root beer and other fun things like gift tags, stickers, etc. I made fun wrappers mimicking the labels for Mike & Ike, Good & Plenty and Jr. Mints for Amanda's (sccrmnky) candy buffet at her wedding using her signature colors.

 

[Tale as old as Time]

I love Love LOVE your centerpieces!! They look phenomenal!!! Where did you get them? Did you buy sets you had to build?

Thanks!

 

[Mindyjoy]

Safflower, I met with Traci last week for my site visit and she said she had a wedding coming up and the bride was calling everyday for last minute questions and details. (This came up not in a bad way, but because I apologized to Traci for contacting her so much and I hadn't even signed a contract - LOL - and she assured me that was normal.) Anyway, I thought to myself, I wonder if it's Safflower?

Anyway, whenever the wedding is, I can't wait to see pics.

 

[KristiLyn]

I'm chiming in here a little late, but I had to tell you that I LOVE your centerpieces! They are amazing!!!
And I can't wait to see pictures of the wedding! We have the same exact hair/makeup inspiration pic!!

 

[SaidYes]

Wow! You are really talented to make those centerpieces! Your Disney land one is ridiculously good!

 

[Safflower]

Just a quick update as we wait to get off of the maiden voyage of the Dream =)

Here is our teaser wedding video!
http://vimeo.com/19268646

Enjoy!

 

[Mindyjoy]

Love the video!!!! I love the grand ballroom so much! You made a beautiful bride!

 

[Sccrmnky2005]

AMAZING Video!! Can't wait to hear about everything!

 

[Safflower]

I love Love LOVE your centerpieces!! They look phenomenal!!! Where did you get them? Did you buy sets you had to build?

They are available online from http://disneyexperience.com A wonderful man designs them and makes them available to download! I suggest printing them on a medium weight cardstock on a laserjet printer (not inkjet!) and having lots of extra sharp xacto blades on hand... along with quite a bit of time!

Safflower, I met with Traci last week for my site visit and she said she had a wedding coming up and the bride was calling everyday for last minute questions and details. (This came up not in a bad way, but because I apologized to Traci for contacting her so much and I hadn't even signed a contract - LOL - and she assured me that was normal.) Anyway, I thought to myself, I wonder if it's Safflower?

Anyway, whenever the wedding is, I can't wait to see pics.

Haha! It probably was me- Traci and I were talking quite a bit before the wedding! I was always joking with her that I would wind up calling her almost every day... and that's about what happened She was so patient through everything- she is just the best!

 

[Safflower]

Now that the wedding is past, I wanted to share some pictures of our save the dates and of our invitations

For our save the dates, we did a little flat card in a simple envelope- we went during the morning extra magic hours right before xmas to get a shot without anyone else in the picture

 

[Safflower]

For our invitations, my DH designed everything, and then we had most of the items printed at a local print shop that does letterpress and digital printing as well- they were amazing to work with! I would totally recommend them to anyone in the Bay Area/ California - http://mercuriobrothers.com/

The main card was done in letterpress, and everything else was flat printed.

 

[Safflower]

Here are some preview photos from our photographer as well- I can't wait to see more!

 

[weedee]

so pretty!! that bubble shot is the money, turned out beautifully