Lydia and Dave's Disney Cruise Wedding, 10-26-2014

[lydianne]

.................................................Our Wedding Website.........Our Registry

This is my second take on my PJ. I originally started it 18 months before the wedding, but now that we are only 6 months away and SO much has changed I figured I should start fresh. [=

Fast links to keep it organized:

About Lydia and Dave
My Wedding Gown!
The DCL Planning Process
Color Scheme and Theme
Bridal Party
The Photography
Wedding Favors
The Planners
Current Guest Count

 

[lydianne]

About us: Dave and I met back in 2011, when I was in college and he was visiting for a military event (he is an army officer). We met by chance and pretty much became best friends instantly. We hung out every day that we could, and he even took me skydiving. [= Before he left town we both agreed we didn't want to risk our new friendship by trying to date long distance so for the next eight or so months we just kept in touch, and then when he visited again we ended up deciding to give a relationship a chance anyway. After a year of daily phone conversations, weekly Skype dates, and monthly visits, he asked me to marry him and I said yes (and bought my dress the next week haha)! Fun fact: Our first kiss will be after we say "I Do" [=

We were originally planning on a short engagement, but the army threw a curve ball at us and sent him to Afghanistan for a year. So we changed the wedding from October of 2013 to October of 2014, and decided to do a destination wedding. He is obsessed with cruises, and I am obsessed with Disney, so it made sense to do a Disney Cruise wedding. We are doing a 5 night Western Caribbean cruise on the Disney Wonder. Our destination ports are Cozumel and Castaway Cay [=

Me and my incredibly handsome fiance:

 

[lydianne]

So hopefully I am not alone in my belief that the dress is the most important part I went to a couple bridal salons but didn't fall in love with anything...then my mom convinced me to visit this little hole in the wall thrift store and I found THE dress <3

 

[Disneyducks12]

Glad to see you started a new PJ I loved your last one!! can't wait to continue to follow along I can't believe you are already 6 months out! Congraulations on that, I just started my PJ a month ago and will be looking at your PJ for advice and tips

melissa

 

[lydianne]

Glad to see you started a new PJ I loved your last one!! can't wait to continue to follow along I can't believe you are already 6 months out! Congraulations on that, I just started my PJ a month ago and will be looking at your PJ for advice and tips

melissa

Aww thanks Melissa! I am going to be following along on yours as well =D I am so excited for you guys that you were able to finally pick a date!! And you know if you have ANY questions don't hesitate to ask! It is so helpful having someone a few months ahead in the process. I would be so lost if I didn't have other brides to talk to

 

[Disneyducks12]

Aww thanks Melissa! I am going to be following along on yours as well =D I am so excited for you guys that you were able to finally pick a date!! And you know if you have ANY questions don't hesitate to ask! It is so helpful having someone a few months ahead in the process. I would be so lost if I didn't have other brides to talk to

Your welcome and thank you the date choosing was a nightmare!! as if weddings aren't stressful enough and I will be asking lots its so helpful that you are a few months before me i look forward to following along but I did have a quick question for you in regards to your wedding favors are you shipping them to the boat or flying with them? I have heard brides do different things but I wonder what is easier?

 

[lydianne]

Your welcome and thank you the date choosing was a nightmare!! as if weddings aren't stressful enough and I will be asking lots its so helpful that you are a few months before me i look forward to following along but I did have a quick question for you in regards to your wedding favors are you shipping them to the boat or flying with them? I have heard brides do different things but I wonder what is easier?

No problem, ask away! I am actually driving down so I will just be taking the favors with me. I would say a lot depends on the size of your favors though. Since mine are the thin magnets they stack neatly together and could just be slipped into the outside pocket of a carry-on bag if I were to fly. If you are doing something more bulky I would probably recommend shipping them down instead of taking up all that space in your luggage. [=
And I am SO sorry about your date change drama =/ you handled it way better than I would have though.

 

[Disneyducks12]

No problem, ask away! I am actually driving down so I will just be taking the favors with me. I would say a lot depends on the size of your favors though. Since mine are the thin magnets they stack neatly together and could just be slipped into the outside pocket of a carry-on bag if I were to fly. If you are doing something more bulky I would probably recommend shipping them down instead of taking up all that space in your luggage. [=

Oh lucky you I wish we could drive but from san diego to orlando that would be crazy!! and i am leaning towards shipping i just get nervous what if it doesn't get there but I am doing alot of luggage seven day cruise for the wedding, seven days for a honeymoon plus a few days at WDW lol I don't think my luggage could handle wedding favors too!

 

[lydianne]

After going back and forth between a few different ideas, I settled on a black and red "hidden Mickey" themed wedding. The girls are all in matching black cocktail dresses with red clutches instead of flowers, and the guys are in black suits with red ties. I am incorporating hidden Mickey's into the invitations, my bouquet, the cake, the girls hair pins, and the guys tie clips.

 

[lydianne]

Oh lucky you I wish we could drive but from san diego to orlando that would be crazy!! and i am leaning towards shipping i just get nervous what if it doesn't get there but I am doing alot of luggage seven day cruise for the wedding, seven days for a honeymoon plus a few days at WDW lol I don't think my luggage could handle wedding favors too!

Oh wow, yeah I would definitely recommend shipping. What are you thinking of in way of favors? I am not caught up on your PJ yet, I am trying to organize this one so that my OCD stops freaking out haha

 

[lydianne]

For those that are not familiar with Disney Cruise weddings, it is very different from a Disney Fairy Tale Wedding at one of the parks or resorts. After we booked the wedding, we were sent a Disney Cruise Wedding planning guide. The guide contains all of their wedding options: 6 bouquet options, 3 cake options, 20 music options, etc. We go through and check off what we want and mail it back in to Meredith. The ship determines everything else like the day of the wedding, the location, and the time. My ideal (if we can't have the grand atrium) is either 2 or 3PM in Wavebands on the very first day at sea.

 

[lydianne]

We were originally going to go with a DCL photographer, but we did the math and when we added up everything we wanted it turns out it would be the same price to hire a professional photographer for the week. We hired the same guy who did our engagement session, and we are so excited! He does great work. Some of the pictures he took of us:

 

[lydianne]

For wedding favors we decided to do personalized Mickey head stateroom magnets for each guest. The left ear will say "Dave and Lydia's Wedding, October 2014" in small print, the right ear will have the guests name in larger print. I found an Etsy seller who is going to do a bulk order for me at a reduced cost so it is right inside my budget. This is the design I am leaning towards:

 

[lydianne]

The Maid of Honor is my sister, Elisabeth, and her "co-maid" is my sister-in-law Jenell. My three bridesmaids are Sara, Sarah, and Katarina. My junior bridesmaid is Abigail, and my flower girl is her sister Faith. The Best Man is Jason (Dave's best friend) and the groomsmen are Matthew, Vincent, TJ, and Hollen. The junior groomsman is Ethan and the ring bearer is his brother Silas. Our pastor from NY is going to be officiating the ceremony.
I will edit this with pictures soon! [=

 

[lydianne]

Our Disney wedding planner is Katy, who took over for our original planner Meredith when she left the company. Our travel agent is a family friend named Sharon. Sharon is coordinating all of the cruise bookings, flights, rental cars, and hotel reservations for everyone to keep it all organized and to relieve stress from me.

 

[lydianne]

Final payments have been made, the cruise is at capacity, and the final guest list has been mailed in to DCL...
which leaves us with the grand total of:

45 guests

 

[Disneyducks12]

Soo I am in LOVE with your wedding website I have been looking for a new one I hate the one I used through Disney Honeymoon regisrty bleh its so plain yours is so cute i love it what site did you use ( i might have to use that site its one of the best and most organized i have seen yet )

 

[lydianne]

Soo I am in LOVE with your wedding website I have been looking for a new one I hate the one I used through Disney Honeymoon regisrty bleh its so plain yours is so cute i love it what site did you use ( i might have to use that site its one of the best and most organized i have seen yet )

I used Wix to make mine [= it is pretty easy to use and there are a lot of templates to choose from, and then you can break it down even further and customize each option [= I used to code my own websites but didn't want to put that much energy into it, Wix gives almost the same level of freedom to design it. If you want help with it just holler, I made most of my friends websites for them with Wix

 

[edeneye]

Oooohhh, shiny new PJ! I agree, your wedding website is great. Looks really nice, easy to use and has all the relevant info without being anywhere near overwhelming. The portraits on there are amazing too, I can see why you're using that photographer again! Definitely a good choice there, both mathematically and because you already know that you've got someone you work brilliantly with and who does excellent work. I really like the stateroom magnets too as I've said on the previous journal! I've never seen that image before and it's such a good one. It's really the ideal choice as a favour, something your guests will be excited to use during the trip and a great unobtrusive reminder they can keep when they get home again.

 

[lydianne]

Oooohhh, shiny new PJ! I agree, your wedding website is great. Looks really nice, easy to use and has all the relevant info without being anywhere near overwhelming. The portraits on there are amazing too, I can see why you're using that photographer again! Definitely a good choice there, both mathematically and because you already know that you've got someone you work brilliantly with and who does excellent work. I really like the stateroom magnets too as I've said on the previous journal! I've never seen that image before and it's such a good one. It's really the ideal choice as a favour, something your guests will be excited to use during the trip and a great unobtrusive reminder they can keep when they get home again.

Thank you Ben! I love that image so much. At first I was going to just do the solid black Mickey head, or the Mickey/Minnie's for guys and girls, but I saw that image and it was just too perfect. <3 I have been following along on your PJ too, sorry I haven't been posting there! I love seeing how everything is coming together though. Are you getting so excited?? Just over 6 months for the both of us now!!