Dania & Jesus - 01/18/14 - CT/Attic/UK Vow Renewal PJ {UPDATE: Overall Budget}

[disneydania]

First, hello to all the past, present and future brides.

I've been lurking on the board for over a month, and have been so entertained and inspired by everyone's happy wedding/VR stories that I've decided to begin my PJ. Perhaps my journey will help future brides in their planning process too.

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UPDATE:

I'm adding links to posts so ppl can skip to specific planning topics:

*Dress/Shoes (inspiration)
*Final Shoes and accessories
*Final Dress (UPDATED)
*Florals
*Favors
*Wish Box
*Welcome Bags
*STD and Pre-RSVP cards (UPDATED)
*Budget Sheet

I'll add more links as the planning process continues

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And now a quick background story about us...

My name is Dania and my husband Jesus and I have been married for nearly 9 years (our anniversary is in April). We have two amazing and precious boys and are very blessed indeed. We love Disney and decided to turn our 10yr anniversary family vacation in April 2014 into a full-blown VOW RENEWAL!!!

I finally get my Disney wedding!!!

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Even though our VR is still 13 months away, I figured it would be as good a time as any to begin sharing my planning with everyone.

Here we go:

Date: Saturday, January 16, 2014
Ceremony venue: Swan Crescent Terrace (BOOKED)
Reception: The Attic @ the BWR (BOOKED)
Dessert Party: EPCOT UK Terrace(BOOKED)
Wedding Planner: Sunsational Weddings (BOOKED)
Photography: Randy Chapman (BOOKED)
Videography: DeMarco Films (BOOKED)
Officiant: Rev. Kevin Knox (BOOKED)
Hair & Make-up: Beauté Specialé (BOOKED)

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I've booked floral, an officiant and a violinist, but my planner has the names of those vendors and is handling them directly for now.

I'll begin sharing some of my ideas for the VR (I LOVE DETAILS) as soon as I upload some pics.

But for now, I'll share with ya'll that we are having a "Beauty and the Beast" theme.

Thanks for reading.

 

[ShanaMouse]

Welcome from one future Swan bride to another!! I cant wait to read more and it already sounds like you have a lot of the bigger things nailed down, such as venue, photographer, etc.

Happy Planning!

 

[disneydania]

Welcome from one future Swan bride to another!! I cant wait to read more and it already sounds like you have a lot of the bigger things nailed down, such as venue, photographer, etc.

Happy Planning!

Congratulations!!!

I'll be popping by your PJ very soon. It's so much fun to plan for such a wonderful event and share all the excitement with other brides!

 

[disneydania]

So let's get this show on the road with a few inspiration pics because, let's face it, WE ALL LOVE PICTURES!!!

This will be my VR attire inspiration post.

Let me start with some context here.

Here is my beautiful family...

This is a photo of my wedding dress 9 yrs ago...

And this is the dress I have my heart set on for the VR...

I'll be purchasing these lovely shoes very soon (they can be found here)

Since we are doing a "Beaty and the Beast"-themed VR, I am incorporating lots of red into the ceremony and my attire. So the shoes will defnitely be red like the photo.

Jewelry will more than likely consist of ruby costume jewelry, but I will wait until I HAVE the dress to actually purchase any jewelry.

NEXT INSTALLMENT: FLORAL!

 

[MrsDuck]

Love love love both the old and the new dress! So pretty!

Your family is the sweetest!

I suggest PD Weddings for videography. He did an amazing job on my wedding trailer and is a great man. Pretty affordable too!

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[disneydania]

Love love love both the old and the new dress! So pretty!

Your family is the sweetest!

I suggest PD Weddings for videography. He did an amazing job on my wedding trailer and is a great man. Pretty affordable too!

Can't wait to hear more!

THANK YOU!

I've read your PJ and your hubby and you are simply too adorable for words. I also saw the trailer to your wedding video.

Thank you for the recommendation. PD is on my short list along with STVS and Vitalic Photo.

 

[disneydania]

So next up on my VR planning tour rotfl2 our my floral inspiration pics.

Again, the BATB theme will be incorporated in the floral arrangements.

Our VR/wedding party consists of my hubby, me, our two boys are two adorable little girls in our family. Our plan is to have four floral arrangements at the ceremony site (two at the beginning of the aisle and two at the front where we will be standing).

The actual arrangements will be placed inside urns on top of columns. The second pic shows what the arrangements will look like (all roses). The last one shows the red rose flower balls we will have hanging off the chairs along the aisle.

The two little girls will be dressed up as Belle in the classic yellow ball gown . My two boys will be dressed up as Chip (not in cup form of course). The girls will be carrying wands and the boys will bring in a sign that says on the front "Tale as old as time...". When we walk back out after the ceremony, the boys will lead us out an flip the sign around. This time the sign will read "And we lived Happily Ever After". ADORBS!!!

I found the sign on Etsy.com.

Our sign will have an ivory background and red lettering. This is a pic of the mock up.

I will be the only one carrying flowers, but I decided to do something different with my bouquet this time around. Here is a pic of the brooch bouquet I will be purchasing soon. I found it on Etsy.com

Hubby will have a simple red rose as his boutonniere.

So that's it for ceremony florals.

NEXT INSTALLMENT: FAVORS!!!

 

[SeaBreezeBride]

everything is so cute! Welcome!

 

[Summer Daydream]

I love your story and your ideas so far. Beauty and the Beast is such a fun theme. No love the shoes, too! I may have to get a pair for myself. Can't wait to read more.

 

[disneydania]

I'm back to share a few more ideas. First up, our favors! Since this is a "Beauty and the Beast" theme, we're going with the obvious - a rose

Here is a pic of the actual crystal rose (I e this so bad).

The rose inside its ivory box will be placed inside these muslin bags I found on Etsy. The phrase on the outside of the bag is sort of a running theme throughout the VR (we're using it on our invites too).

I'm also working on thinking of what to put inside our welcome boxes. Aside from the usual stuff, I wanted to do something different, so we're including LOTTO TICKETS! (imagine if someone hits the lotto from one of our tickets). We purchased these beautiful lotto ticket holders.

That's it for now. Next time I'll share some of our ideas and purchases for decor during the ceremony and for the reception.

 

[disneydania]

I love your story and your ideas so far. Beauty and the Beast is such a fun theme. No love the shoes, too! I may have to get a pair for myself. Can't wait to read more.

Yay! Glad I'm not the only one that likes a little color in her shoes

everything is so cute! Welcome!

Thanks. I'm "stalking" your PJ (in a totally friendly, non-threatening way )

 

[disneydania]

So I was going to post a few of my ideas for decor at the wedding, but I've been working on what to do about welcome bags so I think I'll share that instead.

Since I plan to include quite a few things inside our welcome bags, I chose a large reusable tote bag to put everything inside. These just came in the mail today:

I'll probably buy Disney folders to put a welcome letter, maps and guides and itineraries. I'll be including a goodie/snack box inside each bag to incude some of our favs and a Disney specialty cookie too.

I'm also including lots of little travel size OTC meds and things like hand sanitizer, sun screen and stain wipes, and I'm putting them inside a big zip lock bag with a cute little topper:

Did I mention we had custom lip balms done? So pretty:

I'm also throwing in a poncho because we live in FL and it rains ALL THE TIME!

A few other things might make their way in those bags, but these are the basics.
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On another note, I've had a tough week planning this thing. I've had to change a few things. The first of the changes is the time of our VR ceremony. We're moving it up from 5pm to 1pm. We're hoping to follow it up with brunch at The Attic! I've spoken to a planner at Disney Catered Events (Melissa) who was absolutely lovely and very informative. I'm looking over menus from 2013 to get a feel for what we can get, but I LOVE that these menus are customizable! YES!!! And it's a lot less than what I expected it to be per person so I think I can now swing an all-out dessert party!

It seems that EPCOT has blocked many dates around the time we're traveling (April 2014) because of Easter/Spring Break so I'm bummed about that. The GF or the Contemporary (where we're staying) are now our best options. I think I'm leaning toward a DP at the Porte Cochere @ the Contemporary with lots of our fav desserts and plenty of liquor to top it all off

Yep, that's right, we're gonna PARTY! And I regret nothing

So that's it for now. I'll post as soon as I get the details of the brunch all ironed out so anyone interested in having an event there can see what the budget would work out to be.

 

[disneydania]

So I took the opportunity of no-school yesterday to venture out on a little dress shopping trip. I even made a couple of appointments at some local dress shops.

I decided to go by myself after my BFF canceled on me. The first dress shop was an absolute bust. The staff made me feel like Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman". Seriously, people STILL act like fools in the 21st century? The one consultant seemed to be peeved I was just shopping for a "vow renewal" dress. Guess she figured I wouldn't spend enough? Little does she know me and my spending habits.

Next up was another little dress shop that didn't have a sample of the one dress I had my heart set on. But the staff was very friendly. The consultant gave me some very good advice about where to score a short dress so off I went.

Up next was Alfred Angelos. I tried on two dresses there: a bridesmaid dress that comes in ivory.....

and a bridal gown that was short in the front and tapered to the ankle at the back.

Both were nice, but they didn't "wow" me. Not to mention that the second gown was a sample two sizes too small for me, and I COULDN'T GET OUT OF IT! There I am reaching for the ceiling while this poor consultant is standing over me on a chair pulling this dress off of me for dear life. Who knew dress shopping could give me a near-death experience?

So I grabbed some luch and pondered my last appointment at David's Bridal. Should I risk more failure and possible humiliation stuck in a dress?

I decided to go because I'm a risk-taker at heart.

So I got to the shop and the sweetest consultant you could ever meet came over and walked me to the back of the store. I tried on a dress I had picked from their catalog, and I definitely liked it but, again, no "Wow" factor.

I thanked the girl for helping me and was about to leave when she asked me a few questions about the vow renewal. I told her it was being held at Disney and it was a Beauty and the Beast theme. She got all excited and said "Really? BATB? Oh I have the perfect dress for you". She came back with an ivory, tea-length dress with floral appliques in gold threading. It was PERFECT!!!!!!

I jumped up for joy because I found THE perfect dress. I couldn't believe it since I was about to leave broken-hearted. We added a sweet little chiffon bolero jacket and red shoes to the mix and it all worked beautifully. So I ordered the dress and jacket and ended up spending $775. Not bad for the perfect dress.

P.S. - Sorry I don't have pics of me IN THE DRESS, but no one was there to snap any.

 

[ShanaMouse]

oh I am so glad you found a dress!!!
Its very pretty!!! maybe when it comes in and you get to take it home you can snap some pics for us to see

cant wait to read more!!

 

[Summer Daydream]

I love the dress...it seems perfect for your vow renewal, how it fits with your theme.

 

[disneydania]

oh I am so glad you found a dress!!!
Its very pretty!!! maybe when it comes in and you get to take it home you can snap some pics for us to see

cant wait to read more!!

I know. it was the only real bummer of my happy moment. Not having a pic to show my hubby was disappointing, but as soon as it comes (3-4 months I believe), I'll take hubby and the kids to try it on and definitely get a photo of me in it.

I love the dress...it seems perfect for your vow renewal, how it fits with your theme.

Thanks. Even though the website photo is of the white dress, it still shows off beautifully and how much it goes with the understated BATB theme I'm aiming for.

 

[pkdang]

Etsy. The phrase on the outside of the bag is sort of a running theme throughout the VR (we're using it on our invites too).

I absolutely love this phrase! You don't mind if I use it too? I'm not sure where to incorporate it in, but I really love it!

Also I'm super excited you have found your perfect dress! You've done so much already in your planning can't wait to see more!

 

[disneydania]

I posted my STD cards and pre-RSVPs on another thread, so I figured it was appropriate to put them in my PJ too.

Save The Date card

Pre-RSVP card

I have to give credit for the pre-rsvp wording to jessiegirl84. The background for the STD was on the internet and another DISboard bride was using it for something I believe, but I didn;t bookmark it.

 

[disneydania]

I absolutely love this phrase! You don't mind if I use it too? I'm not sure where to incorporate it in, but I really love it!

Also I'm super excited you have found your perfect dress! You've done so much already in your planning can't wait to see more!

Well the phrase is not mine. I've seen it EVERYWHERE on Etsy, so it must be very popular. Feel free to run with it.

 

[disneydania]

Some of the items I've ordered for the VR are slowly coming in.

Since our luncheon at The Attic will be very simple (no reception at all), we wanted to have something that our guests could leave us. We went for a wish box instead of the standard guest book. Such a lovely idea! I can gather all the cards that our guests fill out and put them in our scrapbook. Better than a guest book you'll never open again.
'
I ordered this one from Lis on Etsy because it gave the 'Beauty and the Beast' vibe we're going for. She's going to send me a different saying for the inside of the frame since we're already married.

We also received personalized fans we're giving out at the ceremony since it's at 1pm outside in April (FL HEAT!!!). Also got these from Etsy.

And, finally, received a BUNCH of stuff to wear on the day of the VR while I'm getting dolled up. Here is a pair of comfy flip flops I had customized with "I STILL DO". Adorbs

Well, that's it for now. I'll probably be posting some pics of me IN MY DRESS over the weekend because it already arrived. I'm going to the store with my hubby on Saturday to try it on. Until then.....