CEH & CJG Wishes Wedding - WP and Napa Room 16/02/2012- Update - My Wedding Dress!!

[cehardy2012]

As it is 11 months to go today and lots has happened over the last few weeks I thought this would be a good point to start my planning journal.

Although we do have quite a lot planned as we have now been engaged for 2 years, I am going to start at the beginning and work my way through it so that I can remember everything we have done so far!!

How we met

When I was at college I worked in the local shop, and there was a guy - my now DF - who came in every Saturday night to do the lottery. I thought he didn't like me at first because he didn't talk to me - only to my colleague. Turns out he was shy Then this guy became my boss for 2 weeks when the owners went on holiday and we got on really well. Unfortunately I was with somebody else at the time, and it took DF a few months to persuade me I would rather be with him. This turned out to be the right decision as we are still together 6 years later!

The Proposal

We had been going to jewellery shops as it was around Christmas and DF wanted to buy me something 'sparkly' for Christmas. Whilst we were there DF also suggested I should start looking at rings. I found one I loved, it is fairly unusual, it is like a Celtic band with a nice sparkly diamond in the middle of it. I showed it to him and he liked it but didn't really say any more about it.

We had a trip to New York planned in March 2009 but were were going with DF's parents so i wasn't expecting a particularly romantic trip. However, I had arranged for us to have one romantic dinner on our own at a nice French Restaurant. The proposal wasn't necessarily unexpected as throughout dinner DF decided that he wanted to talk about options for an engagement party! However after dinner we went up to the very top of the top of the rock. We took some lovely pictures of the empire state building from up there, and when I turned round DF had pulled out the ring that I had chosen. Even with all of the hints it was still 90% a surprise! I think I worried him because I didn't answer in that second - I was trying to think about what to say, somehow just yes didn't seem enough, so I kissed him instead. But he didn't like that - he pulled away and said "is that a yes" so I said yes

Wedding Planning

So we went to see lots of venues all over the UK, from Portsmouth and Hampshire where we live, to London and even all the way up to Scotland! We could not find the perfect wedding venue that fit within our budget because we would have about 125 'close' family and friends for an at home wedding. One night, quite late, I suddenly found out that you can get married at The Rock I New York. When I told DF about this, he said "well if you're going to do that then we could get married at Disney...". We talked for most of the night about this option. It was the most excited about getting married either of us had been since getting engaged. We quickly contacted Disney to get some information. However, after a couple of days we put the idea on the back burner because we weren't sure what family we would get out there with us, and both of us had envisaged a big family wedding.

I'm going to leave it there for tonight, it is very late our time and I have work tomorrow!

Sorry if this post is a bit wordy - there will be pictures as soon as I work out how to post them!!

Coming up... Escape vs Wishes, and I have my beautiful dress!!

 

[KristiLyn]

Welcome and congrats!!! Can't wait to see all of your plans and pics!!

 

[cehardy2012]

Originally we had thought we would go with the Escape wedding package. In March 2010 when we first started talking about the idea with our families, we seemed to have about 20 people think they would be able to come, including three sets of parents (mine are both re-married), my sister, DF’s brothers, and my Grandparents and uncles on my dads side. We had other relations who wanted to come but felt at the time that they could not afford it. My step-mother asked if she could bring her youngest son and his partner with them on holiday, and we said that this was fine but they may not be able to attend the ceremony or cake reception, but we would include them in whatever dinner reception we were doing as this would take us over the 20 maximum for the escape package and we couldn’t justify going to Wishes just for just these two people.

A few months later, one of my aunts on my mums side and a few other people indicated that they would now like to / be able to attend our wedding, which took us to about 25 people, 27 including us. This was very over the limits set for the Escape package, and there were people now asking to come who we could not exclude from the ceremony if they were to come! So we sat down and worked it out and found that as long as we kept to roughly the minimums on everything, there was about $1000 difference between the packages, by the time we added on a formal reception to the Escape package. But with Wishes you seemed to get a lot more for your money – the annual passes, the free room night, planning session etc, and a lot more flexibility with when you can book things. It would have driven me insane if I had to wait until 8 months beforehand to be able to book the wedding, when we would have had to be booking travel arrangements before this.

So, after a lot of deliberation over Christmas, a lot of waiting for people to come back to us to confirm whether they would be coming, a newsletter out with Christmas Cards (for a later post!), suddenly thinking we might even be having 50 people come with us and panicking about the logistics, a few tears and arguments when some people responded negatively, we finally decided to go with a Wishes Wedding.

 

[Fay]

Cehardy2012! Yay and congratulations!

Your engagement sounds gorgeous! We got engaged too in NY central park! We are from the UK TOO! Its a bit daunting trying to plan a wedding abroad! but will be fantastic and the weather will be great too!
We are going to florida this May to make bookings and dates and flowers... and cakes! hehe so so so exciting!

Cant wait to hear more!

 

[cehardy2012]

Cehardy2012! Yay and congratulations!

Your engagement sounds gorgeous! We got engaged too in NY central park! We are from the UK TOO! Its a bit daunting trying to plan a wedding abroad! but will be fantastic and the weather will be great too!
We are going to florida this May to make bookings and dates and flowers... and cakes! hehe so so so exciting!

Cant wait to hear more!

Thankyou Whereabouts in Central Park did you get engaged? It's so lovely in there!

When are you thinking of getting married? It is daunting, but Disney do make it seem really easy! Try and get your full planning session in if you can, we've just had ours (full trip report coming up!) it was so much fun, especially the cake!

So much still to do though!

 

[cehardy2012]

Welcome and congrats!!! Can't wait to see all of your plans and pics!!

Thankyou! More updates coming up as soon as I can post pictures!

 

[cehardy2012]

I have been subscribed to two wedding magazines since Christmas 2009, so last October I decided that I had been waiting long enough, and I wanted to go wedding dress shopping! Whilst I was happy to keep a fairly open mind about dresses, and I did try on all different styles, the majority of the dresses that I had liked in magazines were the same kind of style, and I had picked out a few that I defiantly wanted to try on, so planned to go to shops where I knew they stocked these dresses.

The three that I had specifically wanted to try were these:
Dress 1:

Dress 2:

Dress 3:

We went out for the first time one Saturday morning, and because DF’s mum couldn’t come with us (but I just couldn’t wait another 2 weeks!!), I decided to go to the 3 shops locally where I was fairly sure that I would not find a dress, because they didn’t stock any of the designers that I liked etc etc. I was wrong.

One of the first dresses I tried on was an absolutely huge meringue dress. It was about the most expensive dresses in the shop, and I had to try it on because, well, you have to try on at least one giant dress! It actually didn’t look to bad, except that there were these little bows all over the back which looked awful and made a very expensive dress look very cheap!!

I also tried on these dresses because I liked the idea of having purple in my dress which could only mainly be seen from the back which I thought would be great during the ceremony.

I did really like this dress, but it ended up being overshadowed. I suddenly noticed that they had the 3rd dress on the above list. It was hanging on its own in the last shop that we went to, and I was not expecting to see it! Because it was there I had to try it on. It fit. My mum cried. I said that DF would kill me if I went home and said that I had ordered a dress on the first day, and that I thought DF’s mum should be there when I ordered. I also had all of the other dresses to try on!

So my Mum, Sister and DF’s mum and I all went out one Saturday. I tried on all of the above dresses. Dress 1 and 2 looked absolutely awful! I had been warned that dress 1 did not hang right because of all of the panels, which was true. The second dress just did not sit right, possibly because the sample was not the right size, but I think the style just did not work because I have quite large hips!

We then went to another boutique. It was lovely in there, and it is run by two guys who are really lovely and have exceptional taste. They only carry a few dresses at the time but everything they do stock is very well chosen. I went there because I knew they had dress number three and I wanted to try it on there because I had heard such good things. DF’s future sister in law also brought her dress here. I chose a few dresses to try, and picked out dress number 3 to try last. They also do the dress in coffee and cream in a T-Length which is beautiful:

The shop owner recommended another couple of dresses to try on, including this one:

I did really like this dress, and it did look nice on (actually better then the picture!), and it fit as well which helps. But I did not like the bow. I never wear bows in my normal clothes. When I was looking at the bow in the mirror, and when I was thinking about the dresses afterwards, the bow seemed to keep growing! By now, the bow basically covers the whole of the dress. However, everyone I was with at the time, even the shop owner kept saying how amazing the dress looked and how I should get that one.

I then tried on dress number 3. Unfortunately they only carried the dress in a US size 8, so it was too small. They did their best, but it didn’t look as good as it did in the first shop. I still loved it, and felt like this should be my dress. But everyone else thought I should get the other dress. When we left the shop, my Mum went on about the dress with the bow and how much she liked it. I am extremely lucky because my Mum had said that she wanted to buy me my wedding dress, so her opinion was the most important, and I was a bit confused because she had loved the other dress so much before!

I had a bit of a dilemma and thought about it for a long time (about 2 months!). I took my sister and another friend back to just try on those two dresses to try and choose between them, even though it wasn’t really a decision between the two dresses, it was a decision about did I go with what I wanted, or did I go with what everyone else thought looked the best? I eventually decided that if I didn’t go with the dress that I wanted, I would regret it when I looked back at the photos. I didn’t want to look at my wedding photos and just see a huge bow looming out at me! I really didn’t want to tell my mum because I thought she would get upset because she loved the bow dress. When I eventually plucked up the courage to speak to her about it, she was fine! She said she loved both dresses equally and just wanted me to make the decision. She did say that as the dress I wanted was a bit more expensive, I would have to buy my own shoes, but that was fine as I had been expecting to anyway!

So I went back to the boutique and ordered the dress on December 31st 2010. It will be coming in about the end of November 2011. I decided not to try it on again as I want to see it fitting properly! So I now have a very long wait!

Coming up next… Contracts and Decisions, and a Christmas Newsletter.

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Welcome and congratulations from another UK (VR) bride!!!!
My daughter lives in Hampshire (Farnborough).
I love your dress - it is very classy!!!
Just a heads up - you get the annual passes with both a Wishes and an Escape wedding.
Can't wait to hear the rest of your plans!!

 

[Fay]

Hey again,

LOVE LOVE LOVE your dress... you are also super organised like me! I got my dress in October 2010! hehe Dont you hate that we cant take photos of ourselves in the dresses!

We got engaged near the Boat house resturant, Central Park! we found out later it was where Carrie pushed Big in the water from Sex in the City! hehe

We are planning to get married sometime in May, and will be visiting Florida to book our venue etc this may! which is really exciting! Cant wait!

Where abouts in the UK are you from!?

Faye xx

 

[KristiLyn]

LOVE LOVE LOVE your dress!!! It's gorgeous!!!!!!

 

[sarah_n_brian2006]

The dress is gorgeous and can't wait to see it on you!
Can't wait to hear more details!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Congratulations and welcome to the boards! Your dress is absolutely beautiful. what a great choice! It is so feminine and pretty, I love it

 

[sw33t_angel]

Your dress is....

Congrats!!!

 

[cehardy2012]

Thank you for all of the lovely comments about my dress - I can't wait to see it and try it on properly and have it fit me!

There have been lots of wedding bits and pieces going on. The weekend after we got back from Florida and had our planning session we found out about the building work next to the wedding pavilion. We had a bit of a wobble and have tried to come up with back up plans for if DFTW tell us that it is going to have a big impact. I have found it really difficult to talk about as it has been upsetting. We still have no information about the possible impact though. We have decided that we are going to stick with the plans as they are at the moment, and continue to review as more information is revealed. It still worries me that our dream wedding has been affected. It feels that even if we do stick with all of the current plans we have to make compromises. I was sad because I wanted group pictures on the beach and to walk with my MOH and my dad along the pathway from the Grand Floridian, but I will have to find other ways to get these special moments!

But onto the good things we have decided:

We have decided we are going to go with Rev Kev for our ceremony - I love the fact that we can basically pull together our own ceremony. My DH would have had a traditional church ceremony if he had his way. I am completely non-religious and I would feel like a hypocrite to have a church ceremony (no offence to anybody). However it feels that this way Chris can still include religious readings etc if he wants to. In the UK you can only have a religious ceremony - 99% of the time in a church, or a civil ceremony in which case you can't have anything religious in it. This way means we can have a combination.

I have also decided to go for Patricia Le Jeune for hair and makeup. She will do my hair and make up, my mums hair, and probably my sister (and MOH's) hair. I can't decide whether to have her do my sisters make up as well - she doesnt usually wear much make up so it would be a nice treat for her, but I'm not sure if I can justify the cost - I was originally not even going to have somebody do it for me - until I saw all of the pictures here on the boards!!

I have also brought my veil and hair piece. I decided I wanted to go 50's style with the rest of my outfit and my MOH's outfit, so I have gone for a birdcage veil. It turned up in the post in a very small box!! I really like it, but think I need to wait for a hair trial with my hairdresser to get the full effect!!

Veil:

I really like the way the woman on the right is wearing it.

Hair piece:

They look really nice together

That's it for now, this was a longer update then anticipated! I will finish my trip report for our planning session soon!

 

[DisneyChicky]

YAY! A February 2012 Bride!

 

[cehardy2012]

Hey again,

LOVE LOVE LOVE your dress... you are also super organised like me! I got my dress in October 2010! hehe Dont you hate that we cant take photos of ourselves in the dresses!

We got engaged near the Boat house resturant, Central Park! we found out later it was where Carrie pushed Big in the water from Sex in the City! hehe

We are planning to get married sometime in May, and will be visiting Florida to book our venue etc this may! which is really exciting! Cant wait!

Where abouts in the UK are you from!?

Faye xx

I've just been to nosy at your plannig journal - your dress is beautiful as well! It is annoying not to be able to take pictures, but the people at the boutique were lovely and i think I'll be able to take lots when I have the fitting so I don't mind too much!

We're from Portsmouth - been enjoying it by the sea in the good weather over the last few days! Where are you from?

 

[Fay]

Hey,

Ive got two weeks off at the moment for easter! and then weve all got loads of bank holidays and yay to the wedding! lol Happoy planning!

So, in answer to your question were from a place near solihull/coventry! The weather has been good recently,.. but I dont think it will last! lol

Yes I think the fitting is a must for a photo opp! It will be a lovely experience! heheh how exciting... our fittings are in September for me and the BMs!

Any way...

Talk soon!

XXX