Carly and Kyle's Wedding TR!!! ~ 01/08/09 ~ WP/GF - Wedding Day!!!

[auntpunkin]

Your wedding photos are wonderful, you look so beautiful! I love your TR so far and the dinging story was great! I can't wait to hear more!

 

[polynesianbride]

Just caught up and everything is BEAUTIFUL! Your pics are just stunning- I think even though your hair and make-up wasn't what you had in mind I think it photographed beautifully I love your stories about the experiences on the flight down! I can't wait to hear more... and see more pics!

 

[Disney-Bride2010]

Loving the TR so far! Thank god for your DGA!

 

[CoP Luv]

Wow! I would have had the same trembling lip thing going if I had been in that situation. Four days before my wedding, I just came home from work and cried. For no reason at all...If anything had set me off, I would have been a crying baby.

Can't wait to keep reading!

 

[thatdisneygirl]

Day One (Saturday) – Part Two

Pop Century is a fun hotel. That being said, it’s not the nicest of Disney resorts. You don’t get quite the service and attention at the Pop that you do at other resorts on property. When we checked in we didn’t get a congratulations or anything, despite being listed as a Disney Bride and Groom and we had to wait more than two hours for our room with absolutely no estimate on when it would be ready. Like I said, not the worst service but sort of annoying.

While we waited for our room, we amused ourselves by grabbing some lunch and walking around the resort grounds. Pop’s whole thing is oversized relics from days gone by and there’s a nice bridge out in the back that is supposed to lead to another resort. They’ve stopped construction on that one for the time being, but I’m excited to see it completed because the theming will be early decades in the last century…20s and 30s and all that. The bridge is a very peaceful spot, so we went back there and chatted. After some pleading I was able to get Kyle to practice our first dance with me out over the water, using our little iPod boombox. We had been practicing our dance for about a month, but there were still some kinks…(more on that later).

We got our room after a couple of hours, but our luggage was a little slower. I admit that I started to enter a slow panic. See, we had a little bit of trouble with our luggage. To be more specific, I forgot to ship what needed to be shipped and the result was that we had to stuff everything into our bags. No, everything. What is everything, you may ask? Well, everything includes:

• wedding dress
• shoes, veil, purse, jewelry
• tea outfit complete with hat, dress, and vintage heels
• 8 adult size hoodies
• 15 attendant gifts, 7 vendor gifts, 5 parent gifts, 3 child-at-wedding gifts, and one flower girl gift
• 5 bouquets, 7 boutonnières, one flower basket, 5 bags of petals, and one flower wand
• one week’s worth of clothes for each of us
• 2 cameras, one camcorder, one laptop, one iPod boombox, and two iPods
• one copy of every scrap of paper relevant to the wedding
• hair straightener, hair curler, hair dryer, hair products (I have lots of hair)
• bride and groom mickey ears
• Matching Mickey Mouse rain jackets (never worn)
• a partridge in a pear tree

All of this (except for that last one) went into 4 checked bags, 2 carry-ons, and 2 personal items. Kyle and I each had a hat on. He wore his Mickey ears and I wore my tea hat. I knew that we could only carry on so much and the cameras/camcorder/laptop sure as hell weren’t going to survive being checked, so in the end I had to choose between my flowers and my wedding dress. I came damn close to just wearing the wedding dress to make sure that nothing happened to it, but in the end it got checked.

So, when it wasn’t arriving magically via Magic Express, I started to panic a little. Luckily, our luggage got there about a half hour after we did. Both of my suitcases had been broken (one handle and one strap) but the contents were 99% unharmed. The only thing that got dinged was Katelyn’s mini-lunchbox. Don’t ask me how, but it had a giant dent in it when I gave it to her. She loved it anyway.

We finally unpacked, freshened up, and hit the Magic Kingdom. We’d heard (falsely) that it was the last day that Splash Mountain would be open for the week, so we went straight there and stood in line for an HOUR, which is the longest I’ve ever waited for that ride. We did notice a couple of little things when we were floating through on our flume…eyelids that were stuck, parts that weren’t moving…it’s funny to realize that we’ve been through so many times that we know every nod and turn and whistle. Maybe we’ve been over magic-ed.

We wandered out after Splash Mountain. We’ve never been huge on the fireworks and we were feeling pretty beat after our late night/early morning. We did pop over the Grand Floridian on the monorail so that we could take a look at the wedding pavilion. They were cleaning up, so we were able to actually look in for the first time. We also hung out and listened to the band at the GF, dreaming about the fact that we’d be staying there in just a few days. I’ve walked into the Floridian a hundred times, but every single time it just takes my breath away. So completely beautiful…just breathtaking…

It was late by the time we made it back to Pop Century, but sweet Kyle ran down to the food court and got me my end-of-the-night hot chocolate like he always does. We watched a bit of resort tv, got a phone call from my family that they had arrived at the Polynesian, and then drifted off to sleep in our two queen beds, happily wrapped up in hotel sheets.

 

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

 

[thatdisneygirl]

Day Two (Sunday) – Part One

We usually wake up super early on our first full day of a WDW vacation, but this time we let ourselves sleep in since my family hadn’t gotten in until late and we were spending the day with them. We actually did wake up pretty early, but we stayed in bed and watched TV so that we could let my family sleep. Of course, by the time I actually did call them, I found out that they were all up, that my aunt and cousin staying at the Pop had left without us, and that they were all getting ready to have breakfast. We were left in the Disney dust! I grabbed the duffle bag that had our flowers in it and we caught the bus/monorail over to Poly. We probably could have taken more, since the plan was to slowly move all the wedding stuff over there, but since we had a couple of days to go we figured the flowers would be enough.

We made it over to the Polynesian quickly and met everyone for breakfast at the Kona Café. I love seeing my family, especially when I haven’t seen them for a long time. To give you the full count, it was my mom, my stepdad, my little brother, my aunt, my uncle, my other aunt, my cousin, and my two grandparents. Kona was a ton of fun. I have to admit that I had never been there before. In fact, the only thing that I knew about it was that Van likes to go there for tonga toast and coffee. It’s funny the things you retain about people you’ve never met, isn’t it? Kyle got the tonga toast and mmmmm did it smell good. I was a good girl, though, since I was still on a diet. I admit that I was tempted by the free creampuffs that they sent us, but in the end I only had a nibble.

After everyone had enjoyed breakfast (except for the crash-dieting bride who enjoyed a Lara bar), we went to check out their hotel rooms. It’s amazing the difference between a value resort room and a deluxe resort room. I won’t go into all the details, but I can tell you that we went home that night and just shook our heads at our 70’s themed wallpaper trim.

After we took a couple of moments to enjoy the resort we couldn’t afford, the whole group headed over to the Magic Kingdom. It was quite the journey since we were traveling in a big group and we had two wheelchairs. My mom was also struggling a bit to keep up because she’s getting over a pretty serious knee injury. It took us longer to get over there than it should have because we went the wrong way and ended up walking (and wheeling) to the TTC instead of going up to get on the monorail. It’s so embarrassing to be the Disney experts and start out a week’s vacation with “uh…we don’t know where…wait, how did we…ok, I think if we go this way…screw it, let’s just get on this boat…”

Everyone got through the bag check and in the gates with no real trouble. I collected tickets and Kyle took off right away to get everyone fastpasses for the Pooh ride. (My grandma has a bear thing.) We were sort of a slow-moving bunch, especially by Kyle and my standards, but we were able to keep a good pace and hit a respectable list of rides.

Randomly, we had a little bit of a snag in the Haunted Mansion. I was worried about my grandma getting onto the moving walkway and into the doom buggy, since she has a little bit of trouble, so I dispatched Kyle to walk in front of her and help her in before getting into his own. Somehow, we forgot to save one for him, so Kyle, my mom, and I all rode through the ride smashed into one of those tiny cars. We were cozy to say the least, but somehow we got back out!

Random funny story – so we had worked out this system where Kyle went off to get Fastpasses while the rest of us made our way from point A to point B with the wheelchairs and such, which ended up being a fabulous plan. We’d gotten fastpasses for the Jungle Cruise (turns out you don’t need them if you have wheelchairs) and we were waiting around in the front of the ride for our fastpass time when suddenly two cast members came up. It turns out that one of them reads my blog and recognized us, which was just too funny! I wish I had thought to get a picture with her, but I was so surprised I let her slip off without even catching her name…

Tomorrow - Day Two, Part Two! A tiny video recap of today's post is available at: http://vimeo.com/2928157?pg=transcoded_embed&sec=2928157

 

[thatdisneygirl]

Day Two – Part Two

At some point in the afternoon, everyone got hungry so we headed over to Pecos Bill’s for fries and burgers. Call me tacky and insane, but I freakin’ love Pecos Bill’s…mainly because I love to load my fries up on cheese and mushrooms from the condiment bar. Yes, I know it’s weird to eat a meal that is 90% condiments, but I don’t care. I love it.

While we were there, we caught up with some family friends that I’ve known since birth. It really started to sink in that we were bringing people from all over the country and all different parts of our lives together. I mean, I guess that’s what the point of any wedding is, but the fact that we were sitting in the Magic Kingdom with 12 of the people who are central to my life was pretty incredible. I also started to get the sinking suspicion that no matter what happened on the wedding day, the fact that everyone was going to be there meant that it was going to be awesome…(but more on that later, of course)…

My grandparents were done with rides after we finished eating, so we took them over to see the stage show and to nab good seats for the parade and fireworks. After they were situated, the rest of us ran back to ride Splash Mountain, which was not closed like we thought it was going to be. We filled up the log with our party (and weighed it down a considerable amount) so we ended up getting soaked. There’s nothing like the sun setting down on the MK while you walk around wringing out your t-shirt.

Kyle’s brother and his girlfriend caught up to us after we got off the ride and we all caught the light parade from the wooden sidewalks of Frontierland. Once the parade was over, everyone started to head towards the castle. And by everyone, I don’t mean just our party…I mean EVERYONE in the whole park started to head to the castle. So, when my aunt called and said that they were saving us a spot down front, my initial thought was “yeah, right.” Luckily, my uncle is really tall and he was waving a pair of those light-up ears like there was no tomorrow, so we actually made it to the impressively large spot that they had saved. I will say this about my family – when it comes to saving stuff, you really can’t beat them. They’ll be all polite and sweet one minute and then the next minute you’ve got lots of tiny, angry Chinese people who are telling you off. It’s pretty scary.

I’ve never seen the fireworks from right in front of the castle. Part of that may be because you can’t actually see the fireworks from right in front of the castle. See, the fireworks are actually set off in Fantasyland, so when you’re right up in front, the fireworks are behind the castle and you only catch a bit of one every so often. The view of the castle was incredible, though. It was still done up in the holiday lights and it was simply stunning. Kyle filmed the whole thing so I could sneak peeks back at my fam. I loved watching their faces every time a really big one went off. I wish I’d gotten some pics, but it would have ruined the moment. :fireworks:

It was extra magic hours so we headed over to Tomorrowland after that. My cute grandparents just kept going and going! We thought for sure that they would tire out after a while, but they were having a ball.

As it got later and later Kyle and I decided to split off from everyone and go ride rides with his brother, his brother’s girlfriend, Craig, and his wife, who had all met up with us at the park. The six of us did the late night rides thing, got thoroughly soaked on Splash Mountain, and didn’t get back to the resort until after midnight. That’s ok, who sleeps at WDW, anyway?

Highlight reel available here: http://www.vimeo.com/2962360

 

[tiggersam00]

wow I feel like I have missed so much here! 1st of all I am beyond impressed by your spur of the moment programs, they look beautiful!

Your pics are so elegent and fun, the roots did a great job and your and your DH look amazing, your dress is such a great princess dress!

I love your TR so far, the pics of your fam at the MK are so much fun, it's so great to have important people together like that, you had me tearing up !

Your DGA was a lifesaver! Could you imagine what woudl have happened had she not been there omg!
Cant wait to keep reading, it looks like a great wedding and trip

 

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

We dont sleep at WDW either! No time for sleep...I love the pic of your DH holding onto his ears! Too funny

 

[thatdisneygirl]

Day Three – Part One (Monday)

On Monday morning we opened Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The initial plan was to meet at DHS as a big group, but when push came to shove only Aunt Carole, J.W., Kyle, and I made it to the park opening. The rest of the group caught up with us after breakfast. To be fair, I’m not a huge fan of opening parks in groups of 6+ because people are always so pushy and rushed in the morning. My family doesn’t really do well in pushy and rushed (wheelchairs and all) so that early morning bottleneck run through DHS’s main street would have been really annoying.

As soon as we got inside the gates, Kyle took our four tickets and ran back to Toy Story Mania to get fastpasses. We learned our lesson during our honeymoon when we tried to get fastpasses for Toy Story at 10 AM, only to learn that they had sold out for the day. In the meantime, J.W., Aunt Carole, and I were able to walk onto Tower of Terror with only a ten minute wait. I adore TOT. It might be my favorite ride ever, although I have to admit that a lot depends on the people you get stuck with…like teenagers who yell just to yell or screaming/hysterical children who have been drug onto the ride by parents insisting that they’re “going to have a lot of fun.”

This ride in particular was really good. They change up the drop patterns on the ride all the time and since I’ve ridden it easily more than 50 times, I’ve kind of been through it all. This one sucked my breath out, though, when it went straight up instead of dropping, paused, went straight up some more, and then sucked us all the way down. I was easily in the air for 30 seconds, butt off the seat, floating up against the pull of the seat belt. Heaven.

By the time we got off TOT (love it!), Kyle had almost made it back and he had his brother (Justin) and brother’s girlfriend (Tracy) in tow, so we waited for them to ride Rockin’ Roller Coaster. I have to admit, it’s actually my favorite first-ride-of-the-day ride. I can think of four or five times when I went to MGM by myself as a CP so that I could start the day by riding RRC before I had to go to work. Kyle doesn’t share my enthusiasm for the coaster as a substitute for morning coffee, but since it doesn’t make him sick like teacups or Mission Space, he humors me. Aunt Carole and J.W. were all up for it and loved it…until Aunt Carole about toppled over while getting out of the ride. Flipping upside-down before 9:30 AM tends to play tricks on your inner balance.

The rest of my family finally got there and were waiting for us when we got off the ride. My grandparents and my Aunt Darlene and Uncle Denis don’t do coasters or rides that spin or rides that drop (or really anything that involves motion) so the group split up with part of the fam going off to watch the Beauty and the Beast stage show and the rest of us going to ride Tower of Terror and the Rockin’ Roller Coaster. I had been talking these rides up to my little brother and my mom ever since we’d worked at WDW in 2002, so I was beyond excited to get them on. As I thought, they loved both of them. Photo op!

After we got off the rides, my mom decided that her knee was really giving her a lot of trouble, so the boys went to get her a wheelchair…which made the fourth wheelchair in the group. It was also the last wheelchair, which was fortunate because we were running out of people who could push!

After we got everyone back together, I gave my mom, my grandma, and my two aunts pin lanyards, so that they could start pin trading. They like collecting things like that so I figured it would be a fun little distraction. Little did I know, it was to become a whirlwind obsession…(more on that later)…

We split off from everyone at that point. We still hadn’t ridden Toy Story Mania, but we had lunch reservations with Justin and Tracy at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater and we didn’t want to be late. As we wandered away, we realized that it was really the first time we’d had alone together where we weren’t sleeping. I’d like to say that we did something wildly romantic and talked deeply about our thoughts on marriage, but in reality we went and saw Muppet Vision 3D and then tried on all the hats at the gift shop. Good times.

Lunch at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater was AWESOME. I had never been there before and I was completely blown away when I walked in. The inside of the restaurant is just a big room with a tall ceiling and it’s done up to look like you’re walking around outside at a 50’s drive-in theater at night. There’s a big movie screen playing clips and commercials of campy B movies and the tables are actually little cars that you sit in, 2 by 2. There are actual tables that you can get, but we hopped into a car, with Tracy and Justin sitting in the front and Kyle and I sitting in the back. It was sort of nice, actually, because we were able to chat and visit with them, but at the same time it was like being on a date with just the two of us.

I got a turkey sandwich and a cherry coke (and officially started to fall of the diet wagon) and Kyle got a Reuben (like he always does) and an alcoholic milkshake with a glowing ice cube in it. We had the give-us-free-stuff-bride-and-groom-hats on, so the waitress made a big deal and brought us a free sundae, which we couldn’t even finish. I don’t remember what Tracy and Justin got, but I know that everyone was happy and everything was delicious. Ah, it’s a rough life at WDW…

Highlight reel available here: http://www.vimeo.com/3000917

 

[thatdisneygirl]

Day Three – Part Two

We left the Sci-Fi Dine-In with super full stomachs and an empty day ahead of us. Justin and Tracy took off to do their thing, since Tracy had never been to WDW before and they were taking the do-as-much-as-you-can approach. Kyle and I were more on the we-own-this-town approach, so we were content to wander around slowly and chill. We ended up wandering back to my family, who were at the pin trading kiosks.

Yes, I had unleashed a monster. Not only were my four female relatives taking full advantage of the lanyards I had gotten them, my grandfather also got in on the action and started his own set. Even Kyle couldn’t resist. He bought himself an Ireland flag Mickey and got a Germany flag for my stepfather. I figured this was a sign that we should hit Epcot, so we decided to park hop and catch the boat over.

Unfortunately, we picked the WORST time in the history of the world to try to leave Epcot. We were down to only three wheelchairs because part of our party split off to stay at DHS, but we ended up having to take those three wheelchairs down the sidewalks of main street during the Block Party Bash, which in retrospect was a really stupid idea. Once we saw that it was going on, we should have just stayed put. Kyle and I wanted to beat the rush, though, so the boat wouldn’t be too crowded, so we ended up struggling past people all the way down and, holy crap, it gave me a new appreciation for how rude people are to people who are in wheelchairs. Nobody would move or step to the side or wait for us to go by. People actually climbed over the chairs in order to get around us as we were moving and other people would step right into the path between the wheelchairs once we had made room for them to go through, just so they could stand a little closer to the show.

After a thoroughly frustrating trip from one end of main street to the other, we got organized and got on the boat. I noticed that Kyle and I had sort of taken to just shouting and pointing at everyone. “Left! We’re going left! To the ramp…over there over there over there…LEFT!!! What are you doing? No, no ice cream…no time for that…let’s go let’s go let’s go…” We weren’t so much “good tour guides” as we were “bossy relatives on a mission”. Oh well, at least we got where we were going.

The boat ride to Epcot was nice, like it always is. I really like how quiet that cruise is in comparison to the busses and the ins and outs of the park gates. The only bad thing about it is that I had forgotten that this was everyone’s first trip to Epcot, so they missed out on seeing the ball looming over the park gates. I always thought that that part was pretty cool and I would have taken them around the front if I’d thought about it. Instead, we eased into the park via the International Gateway, which is lovely but pretty understated.

As soon as we got in, Kyle was dispatched to get fastpasses for Soarin’ and the rest of us started to wander around the pavilions, starting with France. Let me just say here, I heart Epcot. I heart Epcot so hard. If Kyle and I were banned from all Disney parks but one for the rest of our lives, it would be Epcot without hesitation for both of us. There’s something about the pace and all the little details that just really gets me. Plus, I’m sort of in it for the food. Mmmm, internationalness.

My family really took to Epcot. Everyone loved all the little shops and the street performers and that whole different-alcoholic-beverage-in-every-country thing. We just wandered and stopped and wandered and stopped as the sun started to set and all of those pretty lights came on over the water. Kyle made it back to us once we hit Germany. It turned out that the Soarin’ fastpasses had been long sold out, so he got a bunch of passes for Test Track. Unfortunately, the vast majority of my family, including me, doesn’t do Test Track so the boys ended up with about three passes each.

We had brats in Germany for dinner and I was having a grand old time, but I started to notice that Kyle was looking a little worn down. The thing about Kyle (good or bad?) is that he is such a trooper. When things are going on, Kyle never complains about anything. He just keeps going, keeps running around, keeps up with the group…on the one hand I’m really lucky because it is so nice to not have to have one more person to worry about, but at the same time it’s hard when Kyle gets worn out because usually you can’t tell until he’s really, really worn out.

So, when we stopped for dinner and he sort of collapsed on the curb and said he couldn’t eat anything, I really should have heard a little alarm bell going off…but, being the terrible person I am, I just believed him when he said he just a little headache and was totally fine otherwise. See, that’s the other thing about Kyle. He’ll lie until he turns blue if it means he can avoid inconveniencing people. He claims that at the time he really did think he was fine, but looking back I definitely think we should have split off from the group and gone back to rest at the resort.

But, we didn’t. We followed the countries around and down and then went over to The Land so everyone else could eat. I had forgotten that most of my family is either diabetic or on really strict sodium limitations, so most of the international food didn’t work for them. Luckily, we were able to get some great things at Seasons and we had another yummy meal, while the boys popped over to Test Track to use up their fastpasses. Grandpa had had his face painted so he looked like a tiger (he loves them) and he was so cute because he proceeded to growl and snarl at everyone for the rest of the night. My grandpa tiger-snarling is the best…

Now, I know that these last couple of paragraphs only consist of us entering the park, eating bratwurst, and then going to The Land pavilion…which makes it sound like we just zipped from one place to another. Oh no. This entrance to bratwurst to Land journey took us about FIVE HOURS. Like I said before, my family is slow. So, once we were finished with dinner #2, it was pretty late and the boys had already ridden Test Track three times.

Justin and Tracy had caught up with us by then and my family was engrossed in yet another pin trading kiosk, so Kyle and I split off from them and went off with his brother to ride a couple of rides because it was Extra Magic Hours that night. Kyle was feeling a lot better at this point and I was excited because we hadn’t really ridden anything, so even though we were exhausted we stayed out late against our better judgment. We did Nemo and Spaceship Earth and wandered around a bit…nothing too exciting but still enough to leave us totally worn out by the time we got back to Pop Century. The no sleeping was starting to get to us a little, but on the whole we were still feeling pretty good. Little did we know…

 

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

I love how you tell a story! Thanks for the update!

 

[tiggersam00]

The picture of your tiger grandad is the cutest thing ever!!! And the wheelchair sword fights, your family really rocks in my book!

By the way I can totally relate to the 5 hours to change parks and eat thing... on our E-trip we went with DF's entire family (9 of us) and it took forever to do things... the family's D.A.D.D (Disney Attention Deficit Disorder) kicked in majorly and we were constantly stopping for food, bathroom breaks, pictures etc...

 

[torsie24]

Dum dum dummmm,

I hope it doesnt turn out too badly, poor kyle, i hope a good nights sleep made him better!

 

[KSchwagg86]

I'm having fun!!

 

[thatdisneygirl]

Day Four – Part One

On Tuesday morning we woke up early to open Animal Kingdom with my family. Already, the red flags were flying. Usually when we wake up at WDW we’re up and about really early, bouncing around the room and grabbing hot chocolate and singing along to the resort television commercials. Tuesday morning found us dragging ourselves out of bed, bleary eyed and bleh. We both took a packet of Emergen-C and a multivitamin, but the reality is that we weren’t getting enough rest. We were opening parks with the people in our group that opened parks and then when those people went back to the resort to rest we were busy closing the parks with the people who had slept in. It had only been a couple of days, but all the stress involved in getting ready for the trip had really left us without much of a cushion as far as not wearing ourselves out.

Most of the time, I’m the whiner. I get sick all the time because I have the immune system of a newborn and I’m the one who gets tired/hot/hungry. Kyle is the one who pushes through without complaint, especially when we’re at WDW. So when we were sitting on the bus to Animal Kingdom and he put his head on my shoulder and said that he was only going to stay at the park a little while, I knew we had overdone it. There we were on the bus at 8 AM, with our matching t-shirts and our wedding ears, completely wiped out.

We made it to the park and caught up with my family, most of whom were wearing 6 pounds of pins around their neck. I sent Kyle with all the tickets to get fastpasses for Expedition Everest and the rest of us made a beeline for Kilimanjaro Safaris. My grandma had been wanting to ride that ride more than any other, so everyone was pretty excited. Even at our slow pace we made it to the Safari before Kyle came back. Honestly, I probably shouldn’t have had him run back to Asia, but I was still thinking that we were doing all right. He made it back to us, fastpasses in hand, and we made our way up the line to the Safari. Apparently if you’re in a wheelchair you don’t really have to wait because there’s a whole other car just for special needs vehicles so we walked right on. It was a good safari…no giraffes (bah!) but pleasant with a non-annoying tour guide.

After the safari there wasn’t much to do but make our way over to Everest. I like Animal Kingdom, but honesty there isn’t a lot there. We never go to Rafiki’s planet watch, we rarely hang out with the characters in North America, we hate the whole midway/dinosaur thing they put up in Dinoland U.S.A., and we think that Kali River Rapids gets you way too wet. Oh, and I don’t do Bug’s Life because I don’t like getting poked in the back and I’ve never been able to keep my eyes open for Dinosaur because I’m a complete coward and I’m pretty sure that dinosaur at the end will actually try to bite me.

So, once everything on that list was crossed off, all that was left was the trails, Everest, and the shows. I think my family was a little confused by the fact that Kyle and I were meandering slowly towards Asia instead of marching firmly on with purpose, but between the exhaustion and the fact that we needed to wait for our fastpasses, we weren’t in any hurry. We were able to spot at one of the picture spots and get group picture with the Tree of Life in the background, which was really nice.

One of the Photo Pass photographers did it with both his camera and mine and he did a really nice job, especially since we were backlit. I hate it when the PP photographers intentionally take crap photos with your camera so you have to buy the nice ones they take on theirs. C’mon, Disney. I’m sure you’re doing ok without needing to have your photographer take a shot that includes only my chin and my husband’s elbow.

We made it up to Asia and the group decided to split up into Everest riders and non-Everest riders. Kyle and I went with the Everest riders, but I’m not sure why. I know this is sacrilegious, especially since it’s Stacy’s Number One Must See Attraction at Walt Disney World, but we’re not huge fans of Everest. In fact, I would say that we’re bigger fans of the line for Everest than we are of Everest itself, but being idiots we always fastpass it, thereby missing the line and the best part of the ride.

The thing about Everest, if you’ve never ridden it, is that Disney did a very nice job. It’s a smooth ride that doesn’t jerk your head around or use cheap props to simulate being on Mt. Everest. Everything is very detailed and smooth. That being said, it’s not an easy ride to go on. Not only are there lots of tall drops and swirling around in the dark – the ride also goes forward and then backward and then forward again, which is probably the easiest way in the world to make someone nauseous for a very long time. We’re also pretty disappointed with that Yeti that everyone talks about. Yeah, he’s in there, but he doesn’t move much and I’ve never seen him because he’s right at the end in the dark and my eyes can’t adjust that fast. I hear there’s a Yeti in there and not just a strobe light, but you couldn’t prove it by me.

We got off Everest and the rest of the group went back to ride it again, since we had extra passes, while Kyle and I grabbed some hot tea and sat people watching. We’re so ready to be elderly, you don’t even know. After a while, I dispatched Kyle to go back to the resort. He was really starting to look a little bad and since he’s done Animal Kingdom so many times, he didn’t feel like he was missing out. Plus, everyone and their dog was showing up on property throughout the day and he wanted to be back to welcome people when they got there.

After he left, I sat and people watched a little bit more and I realized something. When there are two of you in wedding ears, people congratulate you. When there’s just one of you and you’re in wedding ears and you’re sitting on a rock drinking hot tea by yourself, people glance around for a stray pair of groom ears and then avert their eyes when they realize there are none in a 30 ft radius.

Once everyone else had ridden Everest again, we met up with my family for the Festival of the Lion King, which is probably my favorite thing at Animal Kingdom. Again, all of the wheelchairs came in handy as we were the first group in and the first group seated. I was a little worried about the show, actually, because I didn’t know how many people in the group had seen the Lion King and I wasn’t sure if they would be into it. Well, I was silly to worry! My family LOVED it. In fact, I think it might have been their favorite thing from the whole trip!

After the show (and a couple of pit stops for cast member pin trading), we made our way over to Pizzafari. I was a little concerned about Kyle so after a quick kid’s pizza lunch, I left everyone with a couple tips on what to do for the rest of the day and then went back to the resort. The bus ride back was the first time I’ve ridden around WDW alone in a long time and it was sort of like when you’re at a really loud concert and then go out into the parking lot only to discover that you’re completely deaf. It wasn’t until I was sitting on the bus, looking out the window, that I realized how tired I really was, how many people from my life were all going to be on property in a few hours, and how Kyle and I were going to be married in just two days time.

 

[HeatherNJNC]

Carly, I have to admit I found your blog online in September of last year and have been following it ever since! I got my mom hooked on it too! You are the reason why my fiance and I are getting married at Disney! You write beautifully and have such a great sense of humor! I'm hooked! So glad things went well and you are happily married! Best of luck to you and Kyle!

 

[thatdisneygirl]

Thanks!!!!



Day Four – Part Two

Kyle was at the resort when I got back and we had some more us time. I thought he’d be sleeping, but we took a walk around the resort and stopped in at the arcade for a little while. We also loaded the iPod into the mini-boombox and did a couple run-throughs of our first dance back behind one of the buildings. We had been working on our first dance for a couple of months, but it still wasn’t quite right. I started to get really frustrated with the whole thing – more because I was tired than for any other reason – but Kyle was really sweet and was trying really hard. We ended up having a wonderful time waltzing around between the laundry carts while the maintenance people smiled at us and said things to each other in Haitian.

Honestly, it’s this sort of stuff that I think I’ll remember about our wedding trip. Obviously I have a lot of pictures and video from the ceremony and the reception and being out at the parks and all that, but what I really remember without any help from photos are things like my grandpa doing tiger growls, my little brother cracking up out of sheer joy during Mickey’s Philharmagic, and Kyle sweeping me around in circles at the Pop Century resort.

By the time we were all danced out, Kyle had gotten calls from people who had just gotten to Orlando and who wanted to meet up at the parks. Since he hadn’t seen any of his people, I felt sort of bad that I had worn him out by hanging out with my family so early, but he took some more zinc and cheerfully headed out on the MK bus. I stayed behind, partially to finish wrapping the attendants gifts, etc., and partially to collapse on the bed and watch resort TV for a while. About ten minutes after he left, I got a phone call from a local number. Thinking it was Marion calling to go over things, since I hadn’t talked to her in months, I picked up. But it wasn’t Marion. It was Rev. Kevin Knox, calling to cancel on our wedding rehearsal.

Canceling on someone’s wedding rehearsal without giving them at least 24 hours notice is pretty bad form. It’s even more bad form if they’ve had you booked for a full year. But it’s SUPER bad form if you actually tell them that you’re canceling because you got another wedding booked and you would rather go to their rehearsal since the one you’re canceling sounds pretty “boring”. Um, bite me. He did say that he was sending his wife to do the rehearsal, so he didn’t leave me completely in the dust. I actually got the impression that he wanted me to be happy that he had thought all of this out, but throwing your wife in at the last minute isn’t exactly saving the day. I said it was fine (what else could I do?) but internally I began to have second thoughts about our officiant…

I cheered up when Kate, one of my bridesmaids, showed up. I never ever get to see Kate because we haven’t lived in the same city for about ten years now and she’s in the Army at the moment, which makes it a little bit harder to just pop in for a visit. Not including my brother, I’ve known Kate the longest out of all of my attendants. We bonded in the 8th grade over a general rejection of teacher authority and an affinity for Marissa Tomei movies.

We were still in the process of catching up when Michelle knocked on the door. Michelle and I have been friends since high school and we went to Europe together for a couple of months after I graduated from college. She’s pretty much my travel buddy…we’ve been all over the place together. This was the first time we’d been together in Orlando, though, since she was studying in Essox while I was on the college program. I wanted to hang out with my girls and visit, but Kyle and I had reservations to go to the luau with my family that night, so I had Kate and Michelle come with me to the Polynesian to help me take some stuff over.

Kyle was there when we got there, which was great since he and Kate had never met, and we were able to visit with them for a minute while they caught some food at the café. He seemed to be doing a little bit better, but when we were walking over to the luau I noticed that he was really warm and kind of quieter than usual. Kyle generally produces a low level of noise at all times, either through singing or humming or talking or just general random sounds, so the fact that he was just totally silent didn’t bode well, especially since I knew he was excited about the luau.

I had never been and didn’t know what to expect, but it was all pretty lovely. The tiki torches were lit and we hung out and looked out over the lake before going in to our table near the stage. I was a little nervous about the food, since I’m allergic to tropical fruit in general, but there were a lot of delicious things that I could eat. I love themed food…especially when they come with themed drinks in coconut monkey heads!

After dinner, the stage show started. The first part was heavy on audience interaction, which was a bummer because I ended up going up to hula with the January birthdays (I’m awkward and terrible at hula-ing) and then Kyle and I ended up going on stage to slow dance alone in front of everyone since we had our ears on (we’re awkward and terrible at slow-dancing on stage during luaus).

I survived the spotlight, though, and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the show. The things that those people can do are completely incredible and it was a lot of fun to see the show with my brother since he’s Samoan and was really, really into it.

Kyle held up really well during the luau. I could tell that he was still feeling a little off because he didn’t drink much and he used up all of our Kleenex, but he had a really good time and didn’t seem too bad. He sort of deteriorated on the way home, though, since it took us an hour and a half to get back to Pop Century. Apparently there are busses that leave for the resorts right after the luau, but we were dawdling with my family and we missed them, so we had to take the bus from the Polynesian to Downtown Disney and then switch over to the DD bus back to Pop Century. Bleh.

When we got back to the hotel, we told ourselves that we were going to go straight upstairs and go to bed. It was after midnight at this point and we had to check out the next morning to make the move over to the Grand Floridian for our free night’s stay. However, when we walked through the food court to get some hot coca, we ran into two of Kyle’s groomsmen and another friend who had just gotten into Orlando that night. We visited with them for a while and then ran into Neaner and Nate hanging out at the pool. Kyle ended up chatting with his friends out on the landing in front of our room and I took Neaner, Nate, and Michelle on a walk around the Pop Century grounds.

One of the things that I noticed during our trip is that I have awesome friends. Most of my bridal attendants didn’t really know each other, since they were from different parts of my life or hadn’t seen each other in a long time, but when they got together they all had a lot of fun. Neaner and Nate just picked right up with all of my friends from high school and they all ended up hanging out together without me. I can’t even tell you how much easier it made it not to have to divide my attention up into hanging out with each individual person.

Kyle and I went to bed around 1:00 or 1:30. We hadn’t packed or anything at all, so we told ourselves that we didn’t have to get up to open any of the parks. In our heads this meant that we would have lots of time to do everything that we needed to do and get all the rest that we could ever want. Because that’s how bright we are…

 

[accountingbabe08]

great installment can't wait to read more.