Sarah & Brian's VR - December 2012 - TBD

[sarah_n_brian2006]

I'm sure some of you may remember me from a year or two ago. We were planning a wedding, but had to cancel due to financial reasons. We went to the courthouse and then spent a weekend in Disney World three years ago. Now that we are in a better financial position we are starting to plan again.

We are currently in the process of buying a home. It is a short sale and the sellers have taken us around the world and back, but they have accepted our original offer and we are in the long process of waiting for their bank to accept our offer and then we get our closing date. We could be waiting a while before we hear whether the bank has approved it or not, so I'm trying not to go crazy in anticipation.

Since we are making this step into homeownership, we don't really know what we can afford as far as our wedding, so in the meantime, I am researching both a Wishes wedding, and keeping account for a Escape wedding.

A little background

My husband and I met on February 13th (a friday, by the way) in 2004. I was just getting out of a really bad breakup (together for almost 4 1/2 years, 2 months shy of a wedding, had been cheating on me while stationed in Pearl Harbor.) My best friend, Stephanie, invited me to go on a blind date with her, her boyfriend Brian, and a guy he knew, Steve. The whole night, I was more comfortable bonding with Brian than my date and we became instant friends. In fact, that night, he called after I got home to ask about what I thought of his friend and we talked for hours. We told each other life stories and my ordeal with my ex. I threatened him, like any good friend would do, about hurting my BFF.
Six months later, we were both single and started to hang out. Before we knew it, we were stuck to each other like glue.
We only dated a few months when we knew we were going to get married. He proposed a year later on Novemeber 20, 2005 and we ran off and got married the next year August 4, 2006.
We went through the bad part of our recession months after we married and almost got evicted from our apartment, while he was on bed rest from a serious car accident. He is much better, stable in his job as an ophthalmic tech (an eye surgeon's assistant) making decent money, while I work for pennies (not really, but I joke that I do) at a local high school.

Our Dream Wedding
I really want to have our ceremony in France in Epcot, with a reception in the Bistro. Now I know, we can't afford the minimum food exp. for the Bistro, so I want to break after the ceremony and then reconvene for a reception on the islands in Epcot's France and watch the fireworks.
Our family is mainly in West Palm Beach, so traveling there isn't that bad and most of them travel to Disney on an Annual basis, so I am not worried about participation. Most of them love the idea.
I would love to be able to buy the guests a one-day pass each, or a Disney gift card, but I think I may just offer a lunch at a resort in regular clothes.

The Other Option When we were married, we had a room at the Yacht Club, coincedentially overlooking the Gazebo, for our Disney honeymoon. So we would want to have the Escape there. If we have any youngsters that come, they can hang in our room, while I hope to have the same room. If I do have extra youngsters, they will be invited to the dessert party, hopefully on the UK Lower.

I will post more soon, with more info and pictures

 

[sarah_n_brian2006]

A little more, while I have a moment...

Since we haven't really had a honeymoon, just a really crazy 2 days and 2 nights including a half day site visit event with DFTW, then 4 days for our anniversary. I want us to be able to have a nice trip while we are there, regardless as to which wedding we have.
Originally, I had planned that we would get up to WDW a few days before the wedding to get setup, while staying at the POP. However, my Dh can be a little snobby (raised by a doctor who loved taking families on lush vacations), and wasn't enthused when we stayed there last time for our anniversary, so I will be limiting the length of time we are staying there.
For the night before our wedding, I want to move over to the Yacht Club and stay in the room where we stayed for our wedding night. I want to stay there the night before and two nights after (including the free night with the Wishes wedding).
By then, I assume that our guests would have left and gone back home, leaving us alone in the World. I want to move over to POFQ and stay for as long as I can.

My bff Stephanie (his ex, funny huh? We've been friends since we were 14) is going to be my maid of honor.
His best friend (and our current landlord) Jason is going to be his best man.
My niece, who will be 9 then, is going to be our flower girl.
We don't know who we will have officiate our wedding. We may have our pastor do it, since we're close to their family and I have taught both kids in sunday school.
Both sets of our parents are going to be there.
My grandmother is dying from lung cancer, so we'll only have my grandfather alive to invite and he doesn't travel well, so I'm unsure if he'll be able to come.
I have two single brothers. It would be wonderful if they had a date for then, but they dwell in their rooms on the computer when not working, or with my niece.
He has two siblings, both with families. His brother has early onset alzheimers and we're unsure how long he has, he's regressing very quickly, so he probably will be too far gone, if not completely, by then. But I want to maybe have his daughter as my junior bridesmaid to include her in the wedding and guarantee her and her mother's attendance. His sister, yeah well, she's a half-sister and hardly has anything to do with us, but we love our nephews, and may have our oldest Dylan as a groomsman.

More to come later...

 

[sarah_n_brian2006]

Its been a while, we've had a crazy past couple of months.
We are still waiting on the house to come through. We just faxed over all the financial paperwork that our bank needed from us. Were thinking we may close this month.
I've decided to keep as much of this a secret from my DH until we have the cash in the bank and a contract in my hand requiring his signature. On that note, I found this great online bank that I heard about in a magazine with all sorts of rave reviews. It's called smartypig.com. It's an online bank that is geared to help in saving for goals. You can set it up to receive contributions from your friends and family if you want. It can post updates on Facebook and Twitter to your liking if you'd like. I'm loving it so far.

My grandmother past away right after Christmas. It's hard imagining her not being at our wedding, but she'll be in all of our hearts.

The guy we were planning on being our Best Man, has had a falling out with my DH. I'm not sure who will fill those shoes yet, but I'm not going to worry about it. We have plenty of time and thats a decision I want him to make.

My best friend is getting over her first really bad breakup. Once she's on better grounds, I am going to have her help me start the projects I have in mind for the wedding DIY rojects. I plan on making all of our floral items, as well as all of the invitaions and stuff.

I have Publisher on my computer at work, and I have already started downloading images, backgrounds and inspiration photos to help with them. I have already had plenty of people love the mock-up I have made for my Housewarming Party, so I feel confident in the turnout of my DIY stuff.

As soon as Stephanie and I start working on the stuff, I will start putting pictures up of our progress.

More to come...

 

[sarah_n_brian2006]

Several things have happened lately that have caused some serious changes to our VR plans. My Dh lost his job. Today it has been a month and we're having a hard time trying to find him a new one, partly because his field is so small and all retail and restaurant seasonal positions were filled a week or two before he was let go. The money we've been saving to call disney and use for the deposit had to go to other stuff, so we have to seriously push the wedding back again. We are now thinking about doing December 2012 for more than a couple of reasons. First is the obvious. But...

I grew up love, love, loving Beauty and the Beast and at one time was thinking about theming the wedding that way. Now they are halfway through building the structure of the new Beauty and the Beast restaurant in the Magic Kingdom and I had, had, had to plan that into the wedding. I know that other than the expensive ceremony and MK photo sessions that the MK will and pretty much has been off limits to us DFTW people. But, that doesn't mean I can't have the rehearsal dinner there. I will be planning the time around the opening of that restaurant, because my family and extended family are very big Disney people (his aren't really). Since we are having a Epcot wedding and dessert party, they won't be that wowed with it. (My aunt and uncle have those Epcot after 4 pm passes and have done everything Epcot for the most part). What better way than to open my event with eating at a brand new restaurant themed to the event?

I'm thinking if we wait that long (given my DH gets hired this month) we can plan on having a Wishes wedding. We would have a France ceremony and I haven't decided on the reception site.

The wedding colors will be red and gold, uh, duh. I'm not going to go crazy with the theming, because like I said, his family aren't Disney people (and can be judgy), but little subtle things that those of us that know and love the movie can enjoy.

My list of crafts to do with my bff will consist of making the Beast's rose for the cake table (unless I find one online for cheap but good quality), faux red rose centerpieces that will double as favors (since i haven't ruled out the bistro and the hae small tables, they'll be small, but can also be grouped together to fit on a larger table), a goldish or bluish petticoat to go under my gown. I am also thinking about making aisle decor, but of course, that will all be contingent on whether DFTW will allow me to do so.

Good news, it's taken a long time, but my bff seems to finally be getting over her ex. They were together 4, almost 5, years and broke up in April, but he had his one year anniversary with his 'new' gf in August, what!?

That is it for now. Now the hold is on my DH's job and the announced opening of the B&TB restaurant. All I can do is wait and pray that everything works right this time and we will finally be able to have our long awaited wedding and then work on our next chapter... kids.