Lurkyloo's PJ: Morocco/Attic/UK Lower - Greetings from WDW!!!

[caryndisneydiva]

i'm in the same boat (without the friendship boat ) with transportation. we have to have 2 buses because we have so many people. when i went to book my reception, there wasn't a place that i could find that i didn't need the bus. this is the only part of my dftw that i truly feel i have no control over. i can deal with food, photography, videography and floral...but transportation has eluded me because of my guest count. since yours is less than mine, you might have more options...

strap on some and here we go...

1. you know the bigger limo that they offer, instead of the rolls/anitque ford, i think they call it the stretch? why can't you hire more of them? you'd probably need maybe 4? i'm not sure how much this costs though...

2. lets say disney refuses option 1, why can't we hire our own transportation? we can hire our own photographer and videographer...just a thought. i'm sure that their own towncar company is just TERRIBLE, but orlando is a tourist town, and i'd venture to bet that there is more than one transportation company out there who would be willing to do your wedding.

 

[lurkyloo]

These are great ideas, and when my planner freaks out at them, I will tell her they were all yours!

I'll see what I can find out... ON!!!

 

[Kristen14]

I put some of it in white to keep the surprise in case some of my guests stumble upon this post. (I'm trusting they'll be savvy enough to find this post but not savvy enough to figure out how to read white text... )

Lurkyloo you crack me up!

 

[Kristen14]

For some reason the whole charter bus thing has never bothered me Although my floral bill is another story!!!

I'm going to completely fill 2 buses... hopefully I wont need a 3rd! And we're getting a limo and the rolls. I guess transportation is one of the only things with Disney that hasnt caught me off guard.

 

[figmentfan814]

I was reading through your post about transportation and thought I would chime in about the buses for the dessert party. We were also concerned about people finding their way to the International Gateway. However, after some insisting on my part I was able to get my planner to allow our guests to meet at the front gate (since a lot of ours won't have tickets either.) Our planner said that it is a really long walk for our guests, but they will allow you to do it if you are persistent. That was a great way to save a little extra for us and to make it easy for our guests. Only my DF and I have to enter through the International Gateway since we'll be in our wedding attire.

 

[JaxTeach]

I share your frustration with transportation, but they really have that all figured... they know everything we're going to ask and they know just how to scare us into agreeing with their ideas... Just reading the words "It is at Epcot's management's discretion whether they allow you in through the International Gateway in formal attire..." was enough for me to first laugh, think "There's no way they won't let us in, we're doing it anyway," and book transportation the following week for fear of not attending my own Dessert Party.

I love you transportation post, you had me laughing with your "evil town car stranding guests." But according to DFTW it's the truth!

 

[lurkyloo]

I However, after some insisting on my part I was able to get my planner to allow our guests to meet at the front gate (since a lot of ours won't have tickets either.) Our planner said that it is a really long walk for our guests, but they will allow you to do it if you are persistent. That was a great way to save a little extra for us and to make it easy for our guests. Only my DF and I have to enter through the International Gateway since we'll be in our wedding attire.

Hmmmm..... this is also a very good idea! I am going to see what DF thinks about this (although I feel bad taking out the DP bus because people just got the transportation schedule I stuck in the invitations that says they'll be getting a free bus ride )

 

[lurkyloo]

I share your frustration with transportation, but they really have that all figured... they know everything we're going to ask and they know just how to scare us into agreeing with their ideas...

TOTALLY! It's the scare tactics that bugged me...

 

[Rora]

I love your PJ!! Thank you so much for making one and helping all of us other Brides out!!

 

[lurkyloo]

We knew from the start that we didn’t want to use Disney Photographic Services for our wedding, due to the crummy combination of high prices, lack of digital photo rights, and a style that doesn’t fit with the fresh, modern look we want.

Now that DPS offers a dessert-party photo package, we briefly considered using them for our Illuminations party. But our photographer gave us a great quote on the DP, and this way we can save money, have all the digital rights, and get the same style of shots for both events.

Finding a photographer was a little overwhelming. Many of the popular outside photographers did not have a style that suited us (although they all sound like really great people to work with!). I started lurking on the Knot boards to get other recommendations. It’s funny, but they have their own set of favorite photographers who are also not really our style…

Rootography was one of the many results I turned up from digging through pages and pages of Google results. The prices listed on their site were out of our range, but I emailed to ask if they could customize a package for us.

I was impressed to get a real live phone call back from Nathan Root, and even more impressed by his eagerness to work with us despite my insistence that we couldn’t afford him! DF and I loved the work Nathan and his soon-to-be wife Jensey have on their site (www.rootography.com), so we arranged to meet with them during our Planning Session visit to Walt Disney World.

Even better, they emailed us a few days later to offer us a free engagement portrait session! We took pictures at Wilderness Lodge and the Polynesian. Like many people, I feel pretty awkward in front of the camera, and I usually end up looking fake. But we had so much fun just hanging out with Nathan and goofing off, that it didn't feel weird at all. The three of us had a blast, and I think the results show it.

Here’s a link to all the pictures, if you’re not bored yet!
http://rootography.instaproofs.com/enterEvent.php?id=28985&returnURL=/collection.php?event=28985

We were able to customize a photography package that includes ceremony, reception and dessert party coverage, two photographers, and discs of all the images. I highly recommend talking to the photographers (and videographers) you’re interested in about customizing a package to suit your budget – the good ones can be flexible!

I cannot wait to see our wedding photos. Right now I’m making a guest book on Blurb.com using some of our engagement pix – I’ll post it when it’s done!

Yesterday we got a message that one of our engagement pictures has been entered in the Roots’ year-end photo contest! If we win, we get a ginormous 16x20 canvas print of one of our pictures – whohoo! It’s by popular vote – if you want to check it out, we’re #6, and the link is below:

http://rootphotography.blogspot.com/2007/11/100th-post-extravaganza_14.html

A lot of wonderful DIS brides have helped us out by voting - thank you!! And the picture that’s beating the pants off us in the contest is the one that pretty much sold us on using the Roots, so I don't feel too bad...

 

[caryndisneydiva]

are you able to use your photographer for your dp?

 

[lurkyloo]

are you able to use your photographer for your dp?

Yes, and it's saving us $150! Also, I know Randy Chapman does a lot of dessert parties, so this has been going on for a while....

 

[lov2b@disney]

The pictures are beautiful, natural and fun! I'm still looking for a photographer I think we will take a furthur look! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Bostonbride6292008]

I really like your pictures. It is always important to have a photographer that knows the style you like. You guys seem very comfortable with them.

 

[ohgosh]

oh wow. you know, i had grown pretty fond of Randy's work, but i think i may be a convert. i prefer silly photos to the ultra sappy stuff you normally see. and oh boy, the colors! i'm not sure if its the camera, or its just been too long since i have seen some green trees and blue skies....

so basically what i'm trying to say is thanks for sharing

 

[mla1977]

This is my favorite picture. I start laughing everytime I see it!

 

[lurkyloo]

The pictures are beautiful, natural and fun! I'm still looking for a photographer I think we will take a furthur look! Thanks for sharing!

I just can't say enough good stuff about the Roots - I hope you like them too!

I really like your pictures. It is always important to have a photographer that knows the style you like. You guys seem very comfortable with them.

I agree! DFTW brides are lucky -- there seem to be a lot of really friendly wedding photographers in Orlando!

oh wow. you know, i had grown pretty fond of Randy's work, but i think i may be a convert. i prefer silly photos to the ultra sappy stuff you normally see. and oh boy, the colors! i'm not sure if its the camera, or its just been too long since i have seen some green trees and blue skies....so basically what i'm trying to say is thanks for sharing

I'm with you on the ultra sappy stuff - when I told Nathan Root I didn't want a picture of us smooching under my veil or me peering over my bouquet or looking pensive he was like "Right on!"

This is my favorite picture. I start laughing everytime I see it!

 

[lurkyloo]

For a long time I didn’t want a videographer. I liked the idea that our wedding would be preserved in the Roots’ glamorous photos of us, and these carefully captured images wouldn’t be competing with jerky, muffled video of me scratching my nose and stumbling over my train… Also, as with photography, I wasn’t crazy about the traditional-style wedding video and the cheap feel of video vs. film’s richer look.

But people always talk about how the whole day was a blur, and they needed the video to go back and see all the stuff they missed. Plus, I worried that I would regret not having friends and family members on tape.

So kind of at the last minute (3 1/2 months; I think most wedding timelines say 9 months to a year or something!), I started looking. I’d heard of companies that shoot on Super 8 for a vintage ‘60s look, but they were all pretty expensive and, realistically, the footage looks cool but it’s really jumpy and low-res (great if you’re going for that! Not great if you want to remember every detail…). Film was totally unaffordable. And most of the wedding video samples I saw were either unacceptable – shaky camera work, bad lighting and sound – or just too traditional for me.

Thank goodness for Craig’s List! Among the Orlando-area search results I found Star Fruit Productions (http://starfruitprod.com/). The demo on their site caught my eye because it looked like it was shot on film, and the unobtrusive documentary style mixed movie-style cinematography with guest interviews and a great soundtrack (the song transitions are a little jarring on the demo, but the full-length real sounds great!).

http://starfruitprod.com/wedding.php

Sage at Star Fruit was very accommodating when I wanted to customize one of their standard packages to fit my budget and requirements. We’re having two cameras at the ceremony and one at the reception, and we get 3 DVDs and a copy of all the raw footage on mini-DV so that we can always edit our own version at some point if we want. One bummer is that Disney won’t let Star Fruit grab sound from Disney’s sound system, so the officiant and groom have to wear two microphones – how dumb is that gonna look?

I will be sending Star Fruit a CD or two with all the song selections from our ceremony and suggestions for the reception. And we get our video just a month after the wedding! I can’t wait to show it at our at-home reception.

So videography was the last thing I wanted, and now it’s one of the things I’m most excited about!

 

[caryndisneydiva]

One bummer is that Disney won’t let Star Fruit grab sound from Disney’s sound system, so the officiant and groom have to wear two microphones – how dumb is that gonna look?

i'm using starfruit as well and NO ONE has mentioned this microphone issue to me. how did you find this out?

 

[lurkyloo]

Well, when I saw the video package included microphones, I asked my WP if Star Fruit could just plug right into the sound system Disney's using to play our ceremony music and broadcast the groom and the officiant. The WP said no dice - something about an outside vendor screwing up their sound board once blah, blah, blah and then tried to convince me that it won't look dumb for them to wear two microphones each...

Are your guys going to be miked by Disney at Sea Breeze Point? I think if you're not using the soundsystem to play music, it shouldn't be a problem...