Lindsay & Ryan's Wishes PJ 10/25/13 **Planning Session TR Pt 4! 5/21/13**

[disneygirl2785]

Hey Girl! You have commented on my PJ a couple times, and so I clicked on your link earlier today and just read your whole PJ! I can't even imagine waiting until October 2013 for your DFTW! DF and I can't even wait until December of 2012!!! Anyway, your plans sound great and I'm glad you are having a great DFTW experience! My experience with them has been great too, but I have heard a lot of negative things on here! Not so much lately, so maybe they are starting to get their act together again! Anyway, you have another follower!

 

[tinydancr06]

Hey Girl! You have commented on my PJ a couple times, and so I clicked on your link earlier today and just read your whole PJ! I can't even imagine waiting until October 2013 for your DFTW! DF and I can't even wait until December of 2012!!! Anyway, your plans sound great and I'm glad you are having a great DFTW experience! My experience with them has been great too, but I have heard a lot of negative things on here! Not so much lately, so maybe they are starting to get their act together again! Anyway, you have another follower!

Hi! The wait is definitely long but I think it will be worth it. When it comes to planning this kind of thing I am a liiiiiitle bit of a perfectionist so I am learning that having all this time to figure things out and plan is a good thing for me! December 2012 will be here before you know it!

I have seen the negatives of DFTW on these boards too so I am so glad that so far our experience has been great. We had a bit of a hiccup in the very beginning but other than that I've loved it all. I'm glad it's worked out that way for you, too! I think you're right about them getting their act together. The wedding planning process should be a wonderful time for any bride so I'm glad that we're seeing less problems!

Thanks so much for reading!

 

[tinydancr06]

Hi, everyone! I hope all of you in the states are having a great holiday! Now that I'm done rambling on about the non-wedding related 5K trip I can give you guys some actual wedding updates!

Let's see, where to start? Well, two weekends ago my mom and I went and had our consultation with J. Morgan Flowers! Let me just say that I loved talking with Jacqueline Goldman. She is way too funny and really knows her stuff. She knew about every facet of a wedding and was a real wealth of knowledge. I learned so much in such a short period of time! Just FYI, this was just a free consultation so we could get an idea of what this florist could do for us and what the cost would be like. Nothing was binding or anything so it was nice to have the consultation without the pressure of deciding right then.

First, let’s talk flowers. My goal was to get some different textures in my color palette and I’m really happy with what we came up with. After talking about my vision and colors and such we decided on three different kinds of flowers for bouquets and centerpieces.

Pink O’hara roses

Blush/cream Sahara roses

and Rosalind garden roses (in a light pink)

I just love all the different textures of these roses! The Rosalind really brings in that sunken look of garden roses and peonies that I love while the sort pointiness of the Sahara contrasts that. I think the O’hara is just beautiful, too.

Jacqueline talked about the bouquets/centerpieces having a round look without being too “tight” which is what I wanted. She also said that we could bring in our pewter color by having pewter bouquet wraps and pewter urns to hold our centerpieces. Imagine this but with the urn being darker.

For ceremony floral, we decided on large arrangements in urns for either side of the altar table on the floor or on Disney’s pillars depending on the size. They would look something like this.

The she said we could do small arrangements in pewter cups for pew decorations. I had a picture but Photobucket is being stupid. You can imagine it. 

She also asked my “normal people” (as in not wedding dress!) clothing size. This was one of the many moments where I learned something new. She said that your bouquet should always be just slightly narrower than your waste because that gives a slimming effect! I love anything that slims!

Another great tidbit I learned from her? If you can only afford a photography package with a certain amount of hours but would like more photography time, just ask your photographer if there is anything you can take out of the package with the length of time you want. She said they all have an hourly rate and if you can take something out that is close to that price you can sub in another hour or two of photography! An example of something you could take out would be like an album. You can always wait after the wedding until you have enough funds and do an album on your own in your own time. I thought that was so interesting!

After we were done talking specifically about flowers we discussed my Sleeping Beauty theme. More amazing industry knowledge: some of the best places to bring in your theme are the place card and guest book tables. She gave us the idea of maybe finding some sort of medium sized spinning wheel (real or fake). We could pretty it up in maybe a pewter color with some flowers in and around it and have it on the place card table. We could then even theme the cards around something to do with spinning wheels. I can totally see this in my head and think it would be beautiful.

She also gave us the awesome idea of creating our own version of the Sleeping Beauty storybook from the beginning of the movie and using it as our guest book! I reallyreallyreally love this idea. I’m going to have to really look into how I would go about making it. In case you don’t remember here’s what the prop book looks like (obviously the one on the left!).

So, that’s just a taste of everything we discussed at the consultation. It was so informative and fun and I’m very glad we did it. Jacqueline gave us a price quote for everything we discussed that was right around 10% of our entire budget which sounds about right. We could also add/remove things as we need like everyone does with Disney. We are not definite on using J. Morgan yet but we are SERIOUSLY considering it! Right before we left I took a pic of their little studio. It was very cute.

Ok, on to my next topic. Sorry to be so wordy but I haven’t given wedding updates in a while! This weekend we went to a wedding up in Jacksonville and while we were there we visited my cousin and asked her daughter to be our flower girl. She said yes! She’ll be going to Disney for her first time in February for her fifth birthday so she is very excited to be in a Disney wedding. She even asked me if we could ride the rides together and I was like “um, duh?! That would make my day!” I gave her her Very Fairy Princess flower girl book (in Disney princess wrapping paper, of course) and she loved it. I am so excited to have her in our wedding! Here we are after meeting up for ice cream.

And since we were on the topic, we called and asked our ring bearer if he would be in our wedding and he said yes, too! I don’t know why but I am always so excited and honored when people agree to be a part of the wedding. He is about the same age as the flower girl (they will both be 5 by the wedding) so that will be a lot of cuteness! I believe our wedding party is now complete!

Later that day we went to my friend Anna’s wedding. She was just so incredibly beautiful and is a huge Disney fan too so I just had to show you all a couple pictures. She looked like a total Disney princess!

And here we are at the wedding dreaming about the day it will be our turn!

The newlyweds are now on the first leg of their honeymoon at you guessed it … Walt Disney World! After that they are heading to Sandals in Antigua. I am so happy for them and only slightly jealous that they are on their amazing honeymoon right now.

Alright, I’m all done talking at you for now. I hope everyone has a fabulous week!

 

[CinderALLIE]

Great update.

Good luck with making the guest book. It will be so cool.

 

[MrsDuck]

Great update! Sounds like you accomplished a lot on your trip!

I love the tip about your bouquet being a bit smaller than your waist-- gotta love slimming tricks! The floral inspiration is just gorgeous!

 

[tinydancr06]

Great update.

Good luck with making the guest book. It will be so cool.

Thank you! I think the guest book was such a great idea. I hope I can pull it off!

Great update! Sounds like you accomplished a lot on your trip!

I love the tip about your bouquet being a bit smaller than your waist-- gotta love slimming tricks! The floral inspiration is just gorgeous!

Thanks! I was so thankful that she was on top of the slimming aspect. I'll take any amount of slimming I can get!

 

[DisneyShamrock]

That guest book idea is AWESOME!! I can't wait to see how you come out with it.

If you have trouble with the cover, you could get a thick cardboard scrapbook and add the designs on top.

 

[tinydancr06]

That guest book idea is AWESOME!! I can't wait to see how you come out with it.

If you have trouble with the cover, you could get a thick cardboard scrapbook and add the designs on top.

Thank you! I think it's so awesome, too!

Thanks for the tip. I was thinking about what I would use for the actual book part of it and I thought of either a scrapbook like you said or one of those nice journals that are like a blank book. I'm gonna have to look around to see what I can find. Fun!

 

[BritKansas]

Just caught up with everything, and everything looks so good! I absolutely love your theme! Good luck with planning & I can't wait to read more!

 

[MickeysStarTrader]

Hi Lindsay,

I just found your PJ and read through it, I really enjoyed reading about your Expedition Everest challenge, I've heard about it and always wanted to know more. Your wedding plans are awesome and I wanted you to know that I'm right there with you on it being a long time away my fiancé and I just re-evaluated our financial situation and realized if we want a Disney wedding we're looking at October 2013 too.

I'm subscribing, it'll be great to see how you're doing with our weddings being around the same time.

 

[2013disneybride]

I love that you have made all your post in pink, makes it so much easier to follow along. I am new to the boards, but hoping to pencil in my October 2013 wedding very soon! So exciting! can't wait to read more!

 

[tinydancr06]

Hi, everyone! I know I've been dead to the DIS world for a while now. It's been a busy summer with not much wedding related going on but now us teachers are gearing up for the school year and I'm getting back into my wedding plans. I so appreciate those of you who have read along so far and can't wait to chat more!

Just caught up with everything, and everything looks so good! I absolutely love your theme! Good luck with planning & I can't wait to read more!

Glad you're here and thanks so much for reading!

Hi Lindsay,

I just found your PJ and read through it, I really enjoyed reading about your Expedition Everest challenge, I've heard about it and always wanted to know more. Your wedding plans are awesome and I wanted you to know that I'm right there with you on it being a long time away my fiancé and I just re-evaluated our financial situation and realized if we want a Disney wedding we're looking at October 2013 too.

I'm subscribing, it'll be great to see how you're doing with our weddings being around the same time.

Aw, yay! I'm glad there are some other October 2013 brides out there now! As we all know, a Disney wedding is totally worth the wait. I can just get a little impatient now and then, though. Thanks for subscribing!

I love that you have made all your post in pink, makes it so much easier to follow along. I am new to the boards, but hoping to pencil in my October 2013 wedding very soon! So exciting! can't wait to read more!

I wish I could say I was the first to do the colored posts thing but I definitely wasn't! It really helped me when reading other PJs so I'm glad it did the same for you. Wow, another October 2013 girl! Exciting!

 

[jacque1282]

I just stumbled upon your thread and I love it already! Can't wait to read more about your planning. Y'all are so cute! Congratulations!

 

[tinydancr06]

I just stumbled upon your thread and I love it already! Can't wait to read more about your planning. Y'all are so cute! Congratulations!

Thanks so much! So glad you're reading!

 

[tinydancr06]

Finally!!! An update! This may be long but it’s all wedding stuff so here we go!

Wow! It really has been such a long time! So sorry to those of you that are (hopefully) still reading. Honestly though, it’s a good thing because I didn’t have much wedding related stuff to write about over the summer so I would have been talking your ears off (eyes off?) about Lord knows what!

ANYWAY, now that school is well under way and I have some time to breathe I actually do have a lot to catch you all up on. Let’s see, where to start…


We Had Our Conference Call!

If you remember, back at our site visit our coordinator told us to plan on having a conference call sometime in August or September to get things finalized before the process to officially get our date began. Well, a couple of weeks ago we finally did have that conference call with Diane. She is really lovely. We just finalized our 3 dates to go for and our 3 preferred times. Basically, at the site visit she let us know that October is a busy time for Disney weddings and that we needed to have a back up plan so here’s the plan.

Ideal date: Friday, October 25, 2013
Second choice: Thursday, October 24, 2013 (the day before our ideal)
Third choice: Friday, October 18, 2013 (a week before our ideal date)

Ideal time: 5pm
Second choice: 2:30pm
Third choice: 12 noon

Now, because of the fact that Disney can’t put in for your date until exactly a year before, we will find out backwards. First, we’ll find out whether or not we got the 18th. Then a week or so later we’ll find out if we got the 24th or 25th. They put in for the whole weekend at once so we’ll find out about the 24th and 25th simultaneously. Then, we’ll go with whichever date was our highest choice. I know this sounds confusing but it’s really not so bad. I hope the information helps other brides better understand the process!

Diane also told us that currently it seems that there is only one other couple going for our date but obviously that could have already changed. She also said that right now there aren’t any big conventions/events planned for the GF for then which can be an obstacle in October as well.

We’ve been a little nervous about the whole process of getting our date but after talking with Diane we feel much better. We also have been warming up to the idea of our second choice date because that would give us a day at the parks with friends and family before leaving on our honeymoon on the Fantasy! Diane said that we won’t find out whether or not we got a date until 3 or 4 days after a year out so we should know by the end of October what our date will be. Stay tuned to see how it all turns out!


Engagement Shoot and MNSSHP Trip

Our annual big group trip to Disney for the Not So Scary Halloween Party is officially scheduled for the weekend of October 5th! We’re going to the party that night and then will spend the weekend in the parks. Our group costume theme is ::drum roll, please:: TOY STORY! Ryan will be Woody, I’ll be Bo Peep, and we’ll have maaaany other characters represented. We’ll be staying at the same resort as the Everest 5k trip except we will have a 3 bedroom villa this time instead of 2 so we’ll have even more space and the same nice big kitchen. I can’t wait! I so look forward to this trip every year!

The wedding related part to all of this is that the Monday after the Not So Scary weekend is the day we’ll be doing our engagement shoot with Regina Hyman at Port Orleans Riverside! I already booked hair and makeup with Beaute Speciale because I do NOT trust myself to do a good enough job for such important pictures! I am excited to get to use them before the actual wedding.

My mom and I also recently found my dress for the shoot! It’s exactly what I imagined and I was so excited to find it! Here it is:

It’s not that short on me for some reason. It falls just above my knees which I like. I plan to wear nude heals (and maybe bring some cute strappy sandals in case my feet start to hurt) and some sort of cardigan with it. I haven’t found the cardigan yet. It has to be perfect to go with this dress! I’ll post eventually when I have our outfits finalized but the dress was a BIG step in the right direction. So excited!


The Find-A-Gown Get Down

We are officially scheduled to have my wedding dress shopping extravaganza the week of November 3rd! My future mother in law, sister in law, sister, and maid of honor will be traveling to come shopping with my mom and I. They are all flying into Ft. Lauderdale (where I live) for the weekend on Friday and then we will all travel to Miami Saturday morning. We have 2 townhouse suites booked at the Westin Colonnade on Miracle Mile for the night because we will be shopping at 3 different wedding shops on the Mile. They are all within walking distance of the hotel! We’re very excited about the suites, they were actually a reasonable price! Here’s just a peak at what they look like:

The 3 shops I’ll be trying on dresses at will be Coral Gables Bridals:

J. Del Olmo Bridal:

And Merlili Bridal:

After the 3 dress appointments we’ll be having dinner at Benihana (I love hibachi! ) on the Miracle Mile and going out for some drinks. Then we’ll crash back at the hotel.

So, that’s the main plan for the dress shopping weekend. I researched all the bridal shops on Miracle Mile (there are a lot!) and decided on these 3 based on their dress selection and general atmosphere. I’ll probably post at some point about the dresses that the shops will hopefully carry that I am hoping to try on. I am super excited about it all since it will be the first time having all of these people in the same place! It should be awesome. I’m sure I’ll have lots of pictures to share!


Sweating for the Wedding!

LAST but not least I have officially begun my diet/exercise plan that will get me to where I want to be for the wedding and all of its related events, especially the dress shopping coming up! I had been watching what I was eating and working out for a while but I just wasn’t being strict enough with myself so I started with Weight Watchers online 2 weeks ago. WW is the only plan I have done in the past that had SERIOUS results so I was very excited to start something that I knew would work if I stuck to it. I have already had a lot of success and even got a “have you lost weight?” comment today so I am feeling really good!

In addition to the WW eating plan I have been going to a VERY tough TaeBo class three times a week and either running or doing the elliptical all the other days. I am working on keeping up my running because … I SIGNED UP FOR THE DISNEY PRINCESS HALF MARATHON!!! I know this is a very big jump from 5k to half and I don’t take it lightly but it is such an inspiring goal to work for! Right now I am just working on keeping my endurance up and improving my pace and then I’ll start the Jeff Galloway Princess training program on October 2nd. I have already found one 5k local to me to run before the princess and I would like to do at least one more in addition to that. It will take a lot of hard work and determination but this race is kind of a dream of mine so I am so happy to be doing it!


OOOOOOOOOOK so I really think that is everything for now. If you read all of that you are a saint! We’re getting close to a year out so I guess I should get used to having lots of things to tell you all about. I am so thankful to have people who actually understand what I’m talking about!

Thanks for reading and I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

 

[CinderALLIE]

Great update. Can't wait til October to see the halloween costume pics...plus engagement pics

 

[BethieTink]

Great update!

You will love Regina! We had such a great time at our shoot in April. Can't wait to see her again for our vow renewal and bridal shoot in November.

Can't wait to see your photos at POR.

Good luck dress shopping!

 

[ShanaMouse]

Okay so I just read through your entire PJ (decided my homework wasn't as important lol). I love all of your plans so far!
Love the dress you picked for your e-session. DF and I just had our e-shoot with Regina a couple of days ago and she is amazing. I am sure you will have a great time. Can't wait to read more!

 

[CMA21]

I just finished reading through your PJ and I love everything so far!! I loved your last post, because I'm in a very similar situation right now! My DF and I are also planning on having an October 2013 wedding, and we're waiting to hear about our dates also! We've chosen October 13th as our first choice, but Diane told us similar, that October was super busy, so to choose a back-up, which is now October 6. So our dates are coming up, and we're getting just as anxious as you sound to find out! We only got engaged a month ago, so I CAN NOT image having to wait the amount of time you have had, so you must be beyond anxious!!

I haven't gotten around to starting my PJ yet, but it's so fun finding out brides who are in similar situations, and I can't wait to keep reading all about your up-coming plans!! I also hope you have lots of fun on your upcoming trip and engagement pictures!

 

[MrsDuck]

Congrats on signing up for the Princess Half! That's a great goal!

Can't wait to see your e-pics!