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

[xAshleyx]

Reception Changes & Adding a Dessert Party *2 Month Update*

So I just realized I seriously have not updated my PJ in months. So many changes to fill in on. And as of yesterday our big day is 2 months away!!!!

Lets start with the change of reception- we ultimately decided to not do the Rix Lounge, I loved the idea of it and that we could have a more traditional reception but something about it just didnt feel right. We decided to have a dinner reception at O'hana. It was one of our favorite Disney restaurants and holds a special place in our heart. The pricing is great, its very family oriented and has a fab view of Bay Lake and MK. We called and spoke with the restaurant manager at 180 days out. She was wonderful to work with and very accomodating.

Our ceremony at the Swan did not change- we did move our ceremony time from 4:00, to 3:00 just to make it easier with our 5:00 O'hana seating.

We decided to add a Welcome Dessert Party the night before at Epcot. We reserved United Kingdom Lochside and went with a customized menu. Since we are a Swan Wedding- we booked this through Disney Catered Events. Our planner was fabulous and very helpful.

Our dessert party menu:
Key Lime cupcakes with toasted marshmallow
Mickey Mousse Domes (from Chef Mickey's)
Vanilla Mickey Cake pops (like the ones from Goofy's candy co) in purple, pink and blue....our three favorite colors
Fresh fruit salad
coffee, tea & fruit punch

The Mousse domes are one of my favorite desserts from WDW and we both loved the cake pops from DTD when we went for our planning session in February.

Up next: Our February trip to the World for our mini planning session & My birthday

 

[xAshleyx]

Our February trip to the World for our mini planning session & my birthday

Even though we do not technically have a "planning session" like DFTW Brides- we decided we needed some sort of planning trip to make sure we liked everything we booked. And of course we wanted to meet with Tasty Too for our cake tasting!!
So I had contacted Just Marry and Tasty Too to make sure we could have everything done in the same day. At this time- we were also contemplating Il Mulino for our dinner, so we did schedule a tasting with them for our chosen menu.
We winded up cancelling our tasting before we left because we decided we wanted to do O'hana instead. Il Mulino was really nice to work with and if we would have kept them for our wedding dinner I know we would have been happy with our choice

First stop was the Swan- we met Diana in the lobby and she took us on a tour



Walking down to Crescent Terrace



Walkway to Crescent Terrace



Our ceremony site!!! Probably my favorite thing about this location is the view- Its a great view of the Boardwalk and the water. We saw the friendship boats go by a couple of times and it was just a really romantic and relaxing scene



Looking over at the Dolphin



The beach ceremony location ( set up literally where the hammock is in the second set of trees)
Im glad we decided early on not to go with this location, it is pretty to be next to the water- but it was very loud and open being that close to the playground.



the West Courtyard- this location was very pretty and private- but our guest count was too big for this location



A sample of the ceremony chairs




Diana was very helpful at our meet up- she was really sweet in person and answered all of our questions. She helped ease alot of our anxiety with planning a destination wedding and walked us through pretty much how we wanted the whole ceremony to be. We also decided to have our first dance and cake reception at Crescent Terrace before our O'hana dinner- Diana pointed out great spots on the lower platform for us to do it. Having our planning session with her really helped put things into perspective for us

We left the Swan and went to Downtown Disney for some shopping and then headed out to meet with Heather for our cake tasting.
We got lost trying to find her shop, but once we got there it was really nice.

We sat down and Heather gave us an album to look through with her past work- then she came over and sat with us and asked us exactly what we wanted. I had made a Pinterest board with some suggestions- so I showed her all the pictures and ideas that I had and as I told her about my dream cake she started to draw a sketch.

Heather brought out a tray of samples (We went with my BM and her fiance and the sample sizes were more than enough for the 4 of us) The cake flavors were AMAZING- it was so hard to make up our mind. You seriously cannot go wrong with any of the choices.



We chose Amoretto cake for our top tier- with two layers of Amoretto filing
Coconut cake with raspberry and coconut filing for the middle tier
and vanilla cake with boston creme and chocolate ganache filling for the bottom tier

By the time we were done sampling- Heather had came out with a sketch of our cake!! It was everything I could have dreamed of and the pricing was great!!

We decided a few weeks ago to change the bottom tier from vanilla to Amoretto (to match the top tier) with the Amoretto filling. It was so good we wanted to make sure we had alot of it!!

Our planning session was very helpful- it really helped us feel better about our decisions. We had planned earlier that week to go to Ohana for breakfast since our planning session day was on my birthday- but we had something come up and had to cancel- we have eaten at Ohana plenty of times so we know we will be happy with our wedding dinner there.

The only thing I wish we would have done was made arrangements to meet with our photographers. We had used Randy Chapman for our engagement photos and planned on using him for the wedding day- but we had some issues booking him. Id rather not post them here as I dont want to say anything negative about him- I think it was just an error/miscommunication somewhere along the line and we werent able to get it finalized.

We booked David & Vicki Arndt for our wedding day and are super excited about working with them. In fact- I wish we would have contacted them for pricing for our engagement photos because their work seems to be more our style. We wanted to try and set up for a second engagement shoot with them during our planning session- but we were on very tight time constraints and it just wasnt going to work.

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

Super late to the party.... but it's your wedding month.... YAY!!

 

[djsmith]

your wedding is sooo close now!!!!!!

i love all the pictures from the planning session and glad it helped visualise things for you both. The cake looks soooooo yummy too. We've got its tasty too booked for our wedding i cant wait to taste it wish we could've went for a tasting session but its just too far from scotland lol

The change of reception meal sounds like it suits you guys best

we've got D&V for photography too!! love their style i cant wait to see your pictures

getting very excited for you!!!!!!!!

Debra
xXx

 

[Bewitch324]

HAPPY WEDDING DAY!!!

 

[andeesings]

Happy wedding day!!!