P&J's Escape Wedding PJ! Feb 15, 2011(SBP, UK Lower) A year gone by...

[neener3]

When we left off, the old men were yelling at me to save myself and the little girls were in awe.

We were quite the procession walking up to Sea Breeze Point. I just watched the video, and DH's family was all teasing him that I was taking so long because I went into the bakery for a snack because bakery goods were more important than the wedding! They DO know me, I love baked goods hahaha. Really, I was on the way! But it's a bit of a walk

I started to notice that people were out of their seats and on the grass in front of the gazebo taking my picture as I walked up. I just chuckled to myself and let Karen deal with it. Guess which side it was? Heh.

Rev. Jack had DH turned so that he couldn't see any of this going on.
And doesn't he look thrilled about THAT???

We lined up to the side and before I knew it, my bridesmaids were walking. This was it!

When the music changed to "So This is Love", my mom and I started walking...and she started talking. About how proud of me she was and how she was always proud, but so incredibly happy for me...and she was crying, and I kind of stopped and said:

"Mom. Thanks and all...but...please stop talking."

OOPS!!!
My poor mom. I think I shocked her into stopping though! I desperately didn't want to turn the corner to walk up the aisle and have DH's first view of me being a sobbing mess. We made it up and he made an appropriate exclamation of how pretty I was.

When my mom left us up front and I went to join DH, I tripped! That is SO me. DH just rolled his eyes at me and laughed.

After this, I can't remember a thing. Not because I have a bad memory, but because I wasn't paying attention! ACK! I couldn't focus for the life of me. Well, let's correct that. I remember thinking:

"Man, he looks handsome in his suit. Heeeyyy, check out the cake table, looks good. So that's the clouding everyone talks about? Hmm, I don't see what's so offensive about it? Oh, the water looks pretty today. Man, we're lucky to have such a beautiful day. Holy, if it gets much hotter I'm going to be sweating majorly in this dress. Ooooo, a boat! Oh, I hope it doesn't honk and interrupt Rev. Jack. Oh man...is that sniffling my mom crying AGAIN? Someone get her a kleenex...Philip looks angry. I wonder why he looks angry?"

(Philip told me later that he was trying to PAY ATTENTION AND CONCENTRATE on what Rev. Jack was saying. I'm glad one of us was, because I could have agreed to be the Queen of Sheeba and cut off all of my hair for all I know.)

I snapped out of it when I realized it was almost my time to say something.
We both made it through our vows, each stopping at the exact same spot to take a huge breath and in an effort to compose ourselves.

There was a kiss, and we were pronounced husband and wife. Rev. Jack PUSHED us down the aisle hahahahaa.

It was so simple, easy, and quick, just the way I wanted it.
I'll leave you with what I call "What IS this?!?!?!"

Still to come: Cake, champagne, Chef Mickey's, a transportation nightmare...and dance moves.

 

[DisneyShamrock]

I'll leave you with what I call "What IS this?!?!?!"

You already had me teary and chuckling quietly, but I lost it at this picture...in the middle of class! It's just too cute.

 

[sw33t_angel]

After this, I can't remember a thing. Not because I have a bad memory, but because I wasn't paying attention! ACK! I couldn't focus for the life of me. Well, let's correct that. I remember thinking:

"Man, he looks handsome in his suit. Heeeyyy, check out the cake table, looks good. So that's the clouding everyone talks about? Hmm, I don't see what's so offensive about it? Oh, the water looks pretty today. Man, we're lucky to have such a beautiful day. Holy, if it gets much hotter I'm going to be sweating majorly in this dress. Ooooo, a boat! Oh, I hope it doesn't honk and interrupt Rev. Jack. Oh man...is that sniffling my mom crying AGAIN? Someone get her a kleenex...Philip looks angry. I wonder why he looks angry?"

LOL this is too cute!! I have a feeling I might be in this same boat....

 

[KristiLyn]

Amazing pics!!! Cant wait to see more!!!!!!

 

[neener3]

LOL this is too cute!! I have a feeling I might be in this same boat....

LOL it was so bad. I'm glad I read the ceremony beforehand!

You already had me teary and chuckling quietly, but I lost it at this picture...in the middle of class! It's just too cute.

Hahaha sorry! I love that picture; it's very real lol.

Amazing pics!!! Cant wait to see more!!!!!!

Thanks! These are all just candids since we don't have the high res cd yet, but they do the trick!

 

[SweetMommy]

I just found your PJ and am so excited b/c I really wanted to find a bride who was doing an escape wedding w/ a dessert party at Epcot!! This is what my DFi and I really want. You look beautiful! Your girls look beautiful. Everything is beautiful! I can't wait to read about Chef Mickey's and the dessert party.

 

[neener3]

I just found your PJ and am so excited b/c I really wanted to find a bride who was doing an escape wedding w/ a dessert party at Epcot!! This is what my DFi and I really want. You look beautiful! Your girls look beautiful. Everything is beautiful! I can't wait to read about Chef Mickey's and the dessert party.

Oh excellent! Glad to be of help! My BEO is posted in here too; that should help!

 

[neener3]

I'm going to pause here mid-wedding day (don't worry, it'll be continuing soon!) for a little therapy.

This year, there were three cousins getting married. A and his wife got married in January, DH and I got married in February, and T gets married in May. We couldn't go to A's wedding (about 5 hours away), because we just couldn't swing it so close to ours (they announced their date about 5-6 months after we had decided ours). There are no hard feelings that we couldn't go, in fact I get the feeling that his wife was relieved not to have to feed us. We've chatted since.

T and I were pretty close growing up, stay in touch, we're going to her wedding. She announced her wedding about 6 months after we decided on ours too...we hadn't announced a "home reception" date but had decided on the long weekend in May. Guess when the wedding is? I'm not much fussed really, I didn't actually want a home reception anyway. It was more for everyone else, not us! We got everything we wanted with our wedding and more.

My hurt feelings? When I got engaged, T heard and called me right away to congratulate me. She was at home with her 3 sisters. None of them got on the phone to congratulate me. No congratulations passed on. No messages on facebook (I know, I know, but it's the least they could do...right?). I ran into one of them at the mall and another at McDonald's. Nothing. Not even a perfunctory "how go the plans?". No acknowledgement. Feelings hurt.

Fastforward to the wedding. Wedding date passed, nothing. Pictures went up, nothing. I don't want a bloody gift, or card, or party in my honour. Congrats. You don't even have to write the whole word. A "hey, you looked beautiful" could work. Nothing. I've been stewing about it. These are my cousins. Give me a break.

So I figured, whatever. They're all pushing 30 or more...have issues? Or something. Then there were pictures of my cousin A's wedding (Jan.), and they had commented on like every picture. About how she was glamourous. Blah, blah, blah.

It's petty that I feel this way, I think? It's stupid that I'm letting 3 grown women hurt my feelings by something that they DIDN'T do. Maybe they're ticked that they weren't invited to the wedding. Who knows. I guess I just thought they were...different.

I'm not looking forward to seeing them at T's wedding.
Gah.

 

[princesswendy720]

I know how you feel. A close family member* didn't say congrats to us when we got engaged, it took him/her like a month and DF had to bring it up. My cousin (whose wedding got called off the year before we got engaged), also never said congrats and didn't turn up to our engagement party. Now she is engaged again and I fear that she will set our date near ours to "sabotage" our wedding. If you let it get to you, then they will have gotten the reaction I'm sure they wanted to get. My best advice is to just take a deep breath, maybe scream into a pillow, let out the frustration, and move on. There's no reasoning with self-centered people who can't be happy for you. Don't let them bring you down.

*Edited out the guilty party's identity

 

[SweetMommy]

Oh excellent! Glad to be of help! My BEO is posted in here too; that should help!

It totally helped. It has giving me peace of mind knowing that the budget we are setting for ourselves is a good one. We are aiming to save $15000 for our DFTW/Disneymoon. We are probably gonna wait until 2013 so it gives us plenty of time.

 

[belle2211]

I too know how you feel. But with my best friend from high school.

After calling our immediate family and close friends, I posted my engagment on facebook. Now, this might be partly my fault, but still. For several days, I had updates on how excited I was and talking about plans. Then when I posted that I had bought my dress, my best friend from high school says "buying a dress? wait, why wasn't I told?"

Now mind you, she spends tons of time on Facebook so I know she had seen my updates. And we really only talk once or twice a year so I didn't think to really call her about this (like she didn't call me when she found out she was preggo...which wasn't a biggie to me). Anyways, after I explained it, she didnt' say anything else. No congrats, nothing. Oh, except for her status update "It's sad when people using Facebook over the phone". Yeah, totally aimed at me. At that point, I didn't want to invite her to the wedding but my friends told me to be the bigger person. I've invited her to the bridal shower and we've emailed several times about that but still nothing like "congrats!" gah! Oh well

Anyways, the point I was making was don't let them get to you. If they're going to be rude then that's their issue! But I"m sorry you're feelings were hurt. They suck!

 

[neener3]

I know how you feel. A close family member* didn't say congrats to us when we got engaged, it took him/her like a month and DF had to bring it up. My cousin (whose wedding got called off the year before we got engaged), also never said congrats and didn't turn up to our engagement party. Now she is engaged again and I fear that she will set our date near ours to "sabotage" our wedding. If you let it get to you, then they will have gotten the reaction I'm sure they wanted to get. My best advice is to just take a deep breath, maybe scream into a pillow, let out the frustration, and move on. There's no reasoning with self-centered people who can't be happy for you. Don't let them bring you down.

*Edited out the guilty party's identity

Thanks, I guess a lot of people get this type of reaction...I just didn't really figure they would give me that. Moving on, and making sure my ring is super sparkly for the next family wedding hahahaa.

It totally helped. It has giving me peace of mind knowing that the budget we are setting for ourselves is a good one. We are aiming to save $15000 for our DFTW/Disneymoon. We are probably gonna wait until 2013 so it gives us plenty of time.

Excellent! Well, if you have any questions, I'm here!

I too know how you feel. But with my best friend from high school.

After calling our immediate family and close friends, I posted my engagment on facebook. Now, this might be partly my fault, but still. For several days, I had updates on how excited I was and talking about plans. Then when I posted that I had bought my dress, my best friend from high school says "buying a dress? wait, why wasn't I told?"

Now mind you, she spends tons of time on Facebook so I know she had seen my updates. And we really only talk once or twice a year so I didn't think to really call her about this (like she didn't call me when she found out she was preggo...which wasn't a biggie to me). Anyways, after I explained it, she didnt' say anything else. No congrats, nothing. Oh, except for her status update "It's sad when people using Facebook over the phone". Yeah, totally aimed at me. At that point, I didn't want to invite her to the wedding but my friends told me to be the bigger person. I've invited her to the bridal shower and we've emailed several times about that but still nothing like "congrats!" gah! Oh well

Anyways, the point I was making was don't let them get to you. If they're going to be rude then that's their issue! But I"m sorry you're feelings were hurt. They suck!

They do suck! My feelings are moving on lol. Well, I'm trying anyway. Thanks for the support!

 

[neener3]

After Rev. Jack pushed us down the aisle, we floated around for a bit.
Karen came over to ask if we were ready to cut the cake...WAS I EVER! I was also feeling very festive and completely negated what I originally thought I wanted about the champagne. Hey, a bride's allowed to change her mind! We originally thought that we wanted to not open the champagne...a few non-drinkers in our mix. Well, I didn't care about that! I was floating and I wanted champagne! Not sure how that went over with some, but glasses were half-filled and everyone (except for my 12 year old brother, obviously!) ended up with a glass. We had two bottles there, for some reason I thought only one was included, but whatever! We still left out toasts...which would have been a good time for one; we ended up rounding people up at the Dessert Party for DH's brother to give an impromptu speech. Meh. Champagne in hand, it was time to cut the cake! Now, this did NOT come naturally to us, and resulted in many LOVELY images of me that will forever remain a part of our special day. Ah well, it's who I am..

That's true love, right there.
Ah, much better...

Check out that dreaded clouding peeking through that people hate so much that I was mulling over during our ceremony lol.

Once the cake was cut, I enlisted my brother to carry my dress over the grass to a table. Hey, it's hard work being a bride...

When we sat down our groomsmen and bridesmaids pulled up a few chairs to sit with us. I had that awkward "Should I mingle? Should I put effort into talking to everyone?" moment, but decided that I was going to enjoy my cake and champagne, and I had the big dress so people could come to me. They did, and it was no biggie.

The cake and champagne area, in case anyone needs a look-see! You can tell we didn't do any decor here. No floral, no chair covers, just what was there and included. We didn't miss it!

We had picked the Mickey's Delight for the cake. The bottom layer was Chocolate with Bavarian Cream, which was soooooo good! The top was marble with chocolate buttercream...we dug into it later on in the week and it wasn't so hot. They only serve one round of cake...I wish they had done more. Not because I WANTED more, but because we had SO much cake left over, and didn't end up wanting to lug it back on the plane and through customs...so we threw it out. I know...

I love this of DH and his dad

Doesn't DH's brother look impressed?

While we were eating, we were VERY impressed with the violinist. DH's brother in particular was thrilled with him - he has a degree in music and was requesting some oddball stuff, all of which was promptly played.

With the cake finished, it was time for some family photos. Regina powered through these like the pro she is She was also VERY delicate about DH's family situation (mom, dad, stepmom...his mom and dad hadn't spoken in almost 20 years prior to the trip! ). I had meant to mention that we didn't want any forced family pictures...you know, dad, mom, DH. It wasn't even offered, so yay! I was kind of worrying about it when we started the pictures but it was handled very delicately and not even mentioned. Phew!


After family pics, we sent everyone off to head to dinner while we had pictures done on the boardwalk with Regina. Karen offered the limo for two trips, but we had decided to send everyone via boat to HS Studios and then bus. I'm happy we stuck to it - I think that had we sent everyone via limo there would have been WAY too much of a gap. So for anyone considering a 5pm dinner after a 2:30 pm ceremony, keep that in mind. My mom reports that everyone loved the boat and said how relaxing it was. LOL. Good enough then! We had pictures done, took the limo, and ended up getting there at the same time as our guests. Perfect timing!

Next up: Chef Mickey's!

 

[Sccrmnky2005]

I love everything so far!! Your were stunning!! I love your dress, I really love your pink shoe peeking from your dress when you were walking down the aisle.

Don't worry about your three cousins, I know you probably want something showing they are happy for you, and to tell you how pretty you were. But truly you don't need their opinion at how amazing you looked. I'm sure they are going back to your FB photos and looking through them wishing that was them

 

[neener3]

I love everything so far!! Your were stunning!! I love your dress, I really love your pink shoe peeking from your dress when you were walking down the aisle.

Don't worry about your three cousins, I know you probably want something showing they are happy for you, and to tell you how pretty you were. But truly you don't need their opinion at how amazing you looked. I'm sure they are going back to your FB photos and looking through them wishing that was them

Awww thank you. Who needs cousins when I have the Dis boards, right?

 

[neener3]

Ooo I forgot one part about our day that I would have wanted to be warned about....so that I could warn DH!

Bad Dis Bride.

Obviously, Sea Breeze Point is a very public venue. We had people congratulating us, and people stopped to watch the ceremony (from a respective distance). People shouted congratulations to us as we were eating cake. All good.

However....we were leaving Sea Breeze Point with Regina when an elderly man came up to us and congratulated us. Thinking it was another random well-wisher, we said "Thanks!" and went to move on. He grabbed DH's arm and shoved a paper into his hand, saying "Hopefully you learn to find God in your life. It will help you."

DH did NOT take it well. He shoved the paper back at him and said "I'll be just fine, KEEP it."


Uggghhhh I don't know why he couldn't just keep it and move on. But he did explain himself later. Based on what the guy said, he obviously WATCHED our ceremony and saw that it wasn't religious. And then either waited for us or doubled back. DH was really mad that someone would interfere with judgement on us for how we were choosing to live our lives.

So that's that. Is this a Florida thing? We were accosted at Sea World last year too. I don't know...maybe we have the look about us. We're cool with God and religion, and were brought up Catholic, but it seems like we have the look that says "Please! Shove your religion down our throats!"




Anyway, be prepared for it. It was awkward.

 

[I'm.a.Disney.Bride]

must have more TR haha

 

[Disney9.9.10]

I love the pictures! You had a really beautiful wedding day. I don't think I've seen anyone else with tables outside of SBP and I'm not sure why - it looks beautiful!

About the religious guy, we have this happen all of the time where I live (in Canada) they come right to your door and put things in your mailbox or try and talk to you. When I was first born, my mom had someone come to our home and tell her that I was going to die before I was 2 if we didn't join their religion! It is too bad that you had to deal with that on your wedding day. People just need to live and let live.

Anyway, beautiful pictures!!

 

[neener3]

must have more TR haha

LOL, coming right up. Sorry 'bout that!

I love the pictures! You had a really beautiful wedding day. I don't think I've seen anyone else with tables outside of SBP and I'm not sure why - it looks beautiful!

About the religious guy, we have this happen all of the time where I live (in Canada) they come right to your door and put things in your mailbox or try and talk to you. When I was first born, my mom had someone come to our home and tell her that I was going to die before I was 2 if we didn't join their religion! It is too bad that you had to deal with that on your wedding day. People just need to live and let live.

Anyway, beautiful pictures!!

Thank you! We did have a gorgeous day. SO lucky, because 3 days before we were freezing in hats, mitts, gloves, sweaters, and jeans at Magic Kingdom.

We have Jehovah's come around here in Canada too...I dunno, this just seemed crazy to me though!

 

[neener3]

DH and I had gone back and forth and back and forth about dinner on the wedding day. ORIGINALLY (as in, way back before I discovered the DIS boards and got crazy ideas ) we were sticking to the Escape ceremony, then parting ways with everyone to have dinner at Jiko. THEN we were going to just book a large party seating at a restaurant and pay for our guests to have dinner. What would have happened if I had never discovered this place (and Carrie's passporter)?! Once my ideas started getting a little bigger, we ended up with lunch at The Attic. The Attic seemed VERY us.

Then I started having some major dessert party envy. I mean, we could have lunch in a nice place here at home...The Attic was gorgeous but didn't scream "WE GOT MARRIED AT DISNEY!" to me. Although if we had won the lottery we would have added it back + the dessert party for sure! We didn't win the lottery. When free dining came out we demanded that everyone book hahaha. Added the dessert party and told everyone that dinner, should anyone like to join us, would be at a restaurant and they could use a free dining credit. I'm sure it seems tacky to some, I don't really care though. We had 18 of our closest friends and family. Would it have worked with 100 people? Of course not! But it worked for us. We tossed around some ideas and decided that we'd love character pictures, we just couldn't justify the cost of characters at that point. Enter Chef Mickey's.

When we entered The Contemporary we were greeted by some of the nicest people that we encountered on our trip. They whisked our cake from us (somehow I didn't realize that we'd end up carrying two HUGE cake boxes around after the wedding...is that standard?) and stored it for us. DH made a few inquiries and they happily shipped it back to POP for us!

We had a bit to wait before Chef Mickey's opened so everyone just kind of explored around a bit. I ended up being asked to take pictures with random guests and little girls. I thoroughly enjoyed my princess time. I am a forever part of some stranger's trip lol. Where was DH during all of this? In the arcade of course. People kept asking where my prince was.

Just hanging out by myself...

We were among the first called in. They said that we were the first bride and groom they had, hahhaa. They made sure to point out the big washroom for me and my dress, so that was really nice. We were ushered in for our photo, which ended up being a fiasco when it came time to buy...we wanted to buy it so it was passed around the tables and my MOH held onto it for us....well DH's Grammie bought it and thought that it was lost so when we all left the restaurant I guess she got into a "little argument" with the staff about it. Whoops. She was NOT very happy with my MOH over it, but she really didn't know and was trying to be helpful...we ended up with ours and Grammie ended up with hers in the end. I'm glad I was on still and missed all of that!

Anyway, back to dinner.
The gang's all here:

We were seated upstairs in a corner close to the windows. It really worked for our group, which I was thankful for. We had two huge circular tables. I didn't eat too much (I think that's the theme for brides, really), and scolded people for getting dessert What I ate was fine, nothing spectacular but NOTHING near the horror stories that I had read on the dining threads. We came for the character interaction and that was fabulous!

Pluto gave me a big kiss and I had to tell him that I was a married woman now and couldn't be carrying on like that!

Our groomsmen really liked Minnie...

But she had other plans for me! I was roped into her plan to get Mickey to settle down!

Our old pal Mickey, well he was just full of excuses. First he "told" us that he had cold feet. Then it was the money excuse. Men. I was sure someone got a picture of that, but I can't find it!

As for Donald, well he was just tickled pink that we were there with him.

Here's one of the tables so you can see how we were set up. The other one was literally just to the right.

One with just us girls:

And I love this one of me with my aunt and Donald:

Can't forget about Goofy!

We didn't feel rushed at all with dinner or characters, but it did go by surprisingly fast! We ended up with more time after dinner to kill. Whoops. Ah well. We all headed downstairs to wait for a bit. When we had a seat we noticed that there were two vans out front. DH went to see if they were ours, and came back with "Yup, they're ours. There's only two out though, so I told the guy we were waiting on the third and he said no problem. We'll just wait out here."

Well we waited....

And waited...

And waited...

Then, it was 7:30. And I had read our BEO thoroughly (remember that!). I knew we were supposed to be picked up and on our way by 7:30. I stalked out the the van to get the two loaded up while we were waiting for the third. The guy greeted me and we loaded up. And waited.

Finally. FINALLY! After being told FORTY-FIVE minutes before...he says "there are only two vans ordered here."

There are no words to describe how much I wanted to bash that guy over the head with my flowers at that moment. I swear, DH put his arm in front of me to hold me back. I think I uttered "EXCUSE ME?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!" I knew there were three ordered. We paid for three. Three were on our BEO. He then proceeded to argue with me about whose fault it was (he blamed Karen), and then asked me if I'd like to call his central bookings to find out whose fault it was.

I told him, in no uncertain terms, that I did not give two flying ****s whose fault it was. I wanted to be on my way to my dessert party that we paid thousands of dollars for, NOW. And somebody needed to fix it NOW. The guy just stared at me. DH looked at me helplessly.

And DH's brother leaped out of the van, ran over to a random cab, flagged the guy down, asked him how much it would cost to get our guests backstage. The guy told him 20 bucks. He threw a 20 at him, loaded DH's family into the van, jumped back in ours, and told our driver in no uncertain terms: "Drive."

We drove. Backstage. He got lost. I. Was. Losing it. When we got out of the cab the random cab driver tried to tell DH's brother that a 20 didn't cover it. He told him too bad. We met our event guide and I'm pretty sure I ran to the UK.

Bah. I ended up emailing Karen when we got home and she said that original stupid van guy should have called her immediately. We ended up being refunded for the van that we never used, and she apologized profusely. I was really happy that she followed up on it. It was my MAJOR bridezilla moment of the day. Major. But once we got to the UK, and saw how pretty it was, it was all gone.

Until someone spilled tea on my dress.