So Much to Celebrate. . a Disney Wedding, 30th Anniversary & Easter 2015 Updated 3/29

[vamassey1]

I just want to take a moment to say our little girl started first grade yesterday. So we walked her into the class and met with the teacher. Let me tell you I WAS IN HEAVEN!!!! The entire classroom was decked out in Disney stuff. Even her shirt had a pink, Minnie monogram on it. I couldn't think of the most appropriate way to say, "Can we be best friends?"

I told my boss about it and even he said he anticipates my resignation to go play room mom in the Disney classroom all year. That'll never happen, but we certainly felt like we left her in good hands!

When we were kissing her goodbye I said, "DO YOU LOVE THIS CLASSROOM?!" With her eyes as wide as they can go she tells me, "I KNOWWWWWW!!!"

The best teachers are Disney lovers too!

 

[Princess Leia]

We can most definitely fit you in. You'll have to share your space with a bush though(this will make sense when we get to the wedding). Being at Disney is the best excuse to miss the beginning.

That's great I won't take up too much space!

We love POR. Being from Louisiana it really feels like home.

Wow that's interesting that they've got the theming right!

Lots more to come on the report.

Looking forward to hearing more!

 

[vamassey1]

Life update
As some of you know we live in Louisiana, to be specific Baton Rouge. In the last 2 months we have been in the news way more than we would like to be. First it was the Alton Sterling shooting and then the Officers shootings. We're now dealing with extreme flooding like we have never seen. We use to refer to the flood of 1983 as 100 year flood. At that time I was in high school and our home flooded about 2 feet and it was horrible and horrible to recover from. Luckily I don't live in that house anymore and we are safe and not flooded but many we know are not that lucky. This is much worse than it was in 1983. We spent some time this morning to trying to help some families from our Panthrobotic family. The pictures are from the same street we use to live on. These were taken as the water was coming into the house and the river has not crested yet.








As you can see there are lots of families that need prayers.

 

[ArielSRL]

Thinking of you all there. My DH's family is in Louisiana and several have had to abandon their homes. Please keep us posted if you can.

 

[vamassey1]

Thinking of you all there. My DH's family is in Louisiana and several have had to abandon their homes. Please keep us posted if you can.

Thanks Renee! Where is your husband's family? I hope they are safe.

 

[ArielSRL]

Thanks Renee! Where is your husband's family? I hope they are safe.

Lafayette. I think they all got to go back home yesterday maybe, and now they are all assessing the damage. How about you guys?

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Oh this brings back so many bad Katrina memories. I'm praying for all those effected. There is a family from Denim Springs that is staying in our subdivision in Mandeville. We have been collecting clothes, food, gift cards for them. It's such a sad sad situation. We are Louisiana Strong and will get through this too. So glad that you were spared from the flooding.

 

[vamassey1]

Lafayette. I think they all got to go back home yesterday maybe, and now they are all assessing the damage. How about you guys?

I hope they find things ok. I personally did good. I have no water. I work for an insurance company and worked 12 hours yesterday taking claims and 11 today.

Oh this brings back so many bad Katrina memories. I'm praying for all those effected. There is a family from Denim Springs that is staying in our subdivision in Mandeville. We have been collecting clothes, food, gift cards for them. It's such a sad sad situation. We are Louisiana Strong and will get through this too. So glad that you were spared from the flooding.

This is very much like Katrina. I have one of Danielle's friends staying with us and another will be joining us in a few days so they can continue to go to school here. It's amazing to see how much everyone is helping.

 

[ArielSRL]

I hope they find things ok. I personally did good. I have no water. I work for an insurance company and worked 12 hours yesterday taking claims and 11 today.

I think quite a bit of damage, but they are all safe and that's really the important thing! Glad you guys came out ok! So sorry you are having to work such extra hours, though.

 

[amazingact21]

It was our day, our little secret, and to be honest I really liked the way that worked out. It kept it special between us and took a lot of the pressure off of pleasing everyone else.

I bet! Plus, by not telling anyone until the last minute, you didn't have to deal with a ton of questions or pleas to change your venue.

PLUS WE LOVE THE BEACH! We got to have a Disney wedding and a beach wedding in ONE!

The best of both worlds.

With 11am, we were still able to celebrate and get our butts back into a park with all of our family!

Not to mention, it's warmed up but isn't hot out yet.

RANDY CHAPMAN!

I wondered when I was reading if that's who you chose. I've seen his work before, and it's amazing! Can't wait to see the photos he took.

I loved all the detail and much preferred it to Space Mountain.

Good to know!

You guys got so much accomplished in your first few hours in the park. Definitely makes getting there so early worth it.

Luckily I don't live in that house anymore and we are safe and not flooded but many we know are not that lucky. This is much worse than it was in 1983.

Glad to hear you weren't hit with the flooding. I've been keeping up with the news stories and it's just devastating. I graduated high school in LA and have a lot of friends that went to LSU and settled down in that area, and it's just heartbreaking seeing their facebook statuses. I've been keeping the whole state in my mind and prayers and can only hope everyone can find some sense of recovery in the aftermath.

 

[DVCShannon]

I love these trips! So exciting when people share their special trips at such a magical place! Thanks for letting me in on your beautiful trip. Great photos Love getting an inside view of resorts that I am less aware of, Disney does a great job of making each of their resorts so beautiful in their own magical way!

 

[glennbo123]

I've been wondering how you've made out with the flooding. Glad you're okay and able to help some others in the area.

 

[vamassey1]

I think quite a bit of damage, but they are all safe and that's really the important thing! Glad you guys came out ok! So sorry you are having to work such extra hours, though.

The damage has been devastating to so many. But everyone just keeps moving on along. Work hasn't really eased up. We come in early so we can get a little done before the phone start ringing at 8. We work through lunch and then after 5 to try and get caught up. I'm hoping next week will be better.

You guys got so much accomplished in your first few hours in the park. Definitely makes getting there so early worth it.

I love how much you can get done in the mornings. It's worth to get there early when you can.

Glad to hear you weren't hit with the flooding. I've been keeping up with the news stories and it's just devastating. I graduated high school in LA and have a lot of friends that went to LSU and settled down in that area, and it's just heartbreaking seeing their facebook statuses. I've been keeping the whole state in my mind and prayers and can only hope everyone can find some sense of recovery in the aftermath.

Michelle went to LSU. So many of the people she graduated went moved away, mostly to Texas. It has been hard to see the destruction but we're also seeing everyone pick up the pieces and move on. Thanks for keeping them in your prayers.

I love these trips! So exciting when people share their special trips at such a magical place! Thanks for letting me in on your beautiful trip. Great photos Love getting an inside view of resorts that I am less aware of, Disney does a great job of making each of their resorts so beautiful in their own magical way!

This was a very special trip. I'm happy to have you here.

I've been wondering how you've made out with the flooding. Glad you're okay and able to help some others in the area.

Thanks Glenn. It's really great to so many helping each other. I had 2 extra teenagers and a dog but I'm back down to just one extra teenager now. The kids went to school for 2 days then the flood hit and now they won't go back until after Labor Day while they finish repairing some of the schools. It's the endless summer here.

 

[vamassey1]

April 4, Magic Kingdom Part 3

I'm really sorry it has taken me so long to do an update. The Flood has taken up a lot of our time and energy. Things seem to be slowing down a little for now.

When I last left off we had just taken a boat trip on the Jungle Cruise. It was now time to use our second FP+. We headed to Fontierland. Was our next FP+ here?





No we traveled a little farther until we came to here.




Big Thunder Mountain is a big family favorite. I love riding it in the daytime so we can see everything but it's really best to ride at night to experience the real fun of the ride.









After riding the train we stopped for some more photopass pictures.




It was still early in the day, not quite 10 am. Our next FP+ wasn't until 10:20 so we had some time to kill. We had a lunch coming up but not until 12:55 and by this point we were hungry. We decided to see if we could get something to eat at Dennis' favorite counter service Pecos Bills. Believe it or not they were open and serving lunch this early. Dennis got a burger and we shared some chili cheese fries and enjoyed some drinks. Hopefully this wouldn't be to much to mess up our lunch plans. We paid out of pocket for our shared meal. After our tummies were full it was finally time for our final FP+ at Splash Mountain. I don't have any pictures of the ride but we did get some more photopass pictures.



I just found this lovely picture taken after our ride with my phone.



Since our 3 FP+s were used it was time to try for the 4th FP+. At this time you still had to go to a kiosk to get one. We were lucky and snagged one for a night ride on Big Thunder Mountain for after diner.

The park was starting to get a little crowded and we had already hit the big rides we wanted to do so now it was time to do some of the little things we like. Dennis and the girls love to do the shooting arcade. I usually take this time to take some pictures. I'm not much of a shot.


I've hit my upload limit again. The rest of the is update can be found here.[URL="https://www.disboards.com/threads/so-much-to-celebrate-a-disney-wedding-30th-anniversary-easter-2015-updated-3-29.3525836/page-14#post-57871562"]So Much to Celebrate. . a Disney Wedding, 30th Anniversary & Easter 2015 Updated 3/29[/URL]

 

[vamassey1]

Continued...

It was now time to try something I had never done. We had not seen the new circus area of Fantasyland so we caught the train in Frontierland and rode it on over. We wanted to ride the Barnstormer but the line was too long so I settled for some pictures.



I was finally ready to try a ride I never thought I would do. You see I don't do round and round. I have equilibrium issues. I had finally decided I wanted to at least try Dumbo. It was so pretty and I figured the height would help me get over the round and round. So we got in line. I don't have small ones anymore so the new play area didn't hold much interest but it sure was nice to have an indoor line for a while.



Here's proof I got on the ride.




And I rode.



So what's the verdict. I did much better than I thought I would do and I'm glad I finally did it. Will I ride it every trip, no but at least I know I can now.

It was getting to be about time for lunch but we still had time for 1 more attraction if we hurried and if the line wan't too long. It was something Danielle really wanted to do and something Dennis had never seen. It also wasn't far from our lunch destination. We hurried over and made it into Enchanted Tales.





When Danielle was little she was chosen to be Chip in the old Storytime with Belle. She has always wanted to get picked again for a part. On this visit she was picked to be the Wardrobe. She actually did a really good job of sounding like the Wardrobe when they asked her.





Of course the photopass pictures are much better.





I just found this and it won't fit on the first part of the update. It was taken on Splash. As you can see we really enjoyed our ride, but the lady up front and the couple in the back don't look like they did.



Up next is lunch...

 

[mFont23]

Like my mom, we've all been trying to get back to normal after the flood. Our house did not take on water, but many, many friends and family did. It's been a multi-city-wide recovery effort with split school schedules, sharing football fields, donation centers on every corner, among so many other ways everyone has come together to make it work. There was no one unaffected by the floods, that's for sure. So I apologize for not posting sooner.

More about planning this wedding and realizing I'm not as high maintenance as I thought... (mom, please don't disagree)

To be honest, and I’m sure all would agree, your big day is what you make of it. We had the smallest wedding package and we were able to make it the most special and intimate day of our life together. So there was a lot of planning and purchasing ahead to make the most of what we got. And planning AND purchasing are some of my best work. My mom wanted to do something special, so she had a cake ordered through Disney and ready for us at lunch. I made sure to bring lots of props for the pictures like sunglasses, leis, our Mickey wedding ears, and giant mickey hands (wait till you see what we did with these). We even brought a Beats Pill (portable speaker) to lunch for our “first dance.”

We had great communication with our officiant. We even did a phone rehearsal a week or so before and that certainly put me at ease. Plus, he was just wonderful and charming. We did our Florida mail away marriage license. I pretty much just sent emails to whoever I needed, things were booked, and all I had to do was show up. IT WAS AWESOME!

The hard and not-so-fun part of planning was figuring how to get everything to Florida and make sure nothing was forgotten! Surprisingly, I wasn’t as stressed or worried as I thought I would be.

Even though it was kind of a big secret and a small affair, I tried to keep up with details that my children will one day want such as invitations. We ordered them through Etsy and had them printed at Vista Print. We sent them to our family that was coming and also used that as our big Facebook announcement right before we flew to Disney.

Here's our "invitations". Bear with me, I've never uploaded a picture here before. It has the wedding Chapel in the background since that's where we originally had it planned, but I mean we were just going to be a smidge down the beach, so who cares?! And the back I did myself on Vista Print with a picture I found on google.

[URL=http://s1064.photobucket.com/user/michellefontenot23/media/e950ec2a-aeb5-4185-a8ed-00e28a16558a_zpsogi1bvqy.jpg.html][/URL]

Later, I’ll get more into planning and packing for a Disney wedding with a child that doesn’t know and a husband that is too spoiled to pack himself.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I just love the invitations! Can't wait to hear more about the wedding.

 

[ArielSRL]

Loved the time in Frontierland! And yes, BTMRR is so good at night! But I'll take it any time of day. Has to be one of my faves at WDW. Loving all the family photos.

My mom has the same problems with round and round rides. I'm glad you were able to do Dumbo with minimal issues!

As far as the flood, several of my DH's family were all staying at his aunt's house in Carencro because she didn't get any flooding. Not sure if they are all back at home or not, but they've posted the damage on FB and they are working on getting it all fixed up. Thank goodness.

Love the invitation! And I totally agree about it is what you make it. I had always dreamed of a huge wedding but then when I got engaged, I just knew that I wanted a small wedding on the beach and it ended up being perfect and so much less stress for me. I did look into a Disney wedding but it was just a bit more than we wanted to spend. I'm sure it would've been beautiful, though!

 

[vamassey1]

More about planning this wedding and realizing I'm not as high maintenance as I thought... (mom, please don't disagree)

I do disagree. But you're an excellent planner.

I just love the invitations! Can't wait to hear more about the wedding.

The invitations were really cute.

Loved the time in Frontierland! And yes, BTMRR is so good at night! But I'll take it any time of day. Has to be one of my faves at WDW. Loving all the family photos.

So much theming in Frontierland. BTMRR is a family favorite. We made time for lost of family photos at the beginning but as the trip wore on we did less and less.

My mom has the same problems with round and round rides. I'm glad you were able to do Dumbo with minimal issues!

I think Dumbo is as far as I'll go. I think the height helped. I'm staying away from the Carrousel and the Tea Cups.

As far as the flood, several of my DH's family were all staying at his aunt's house in Carencro because she didn't get any flooding. Not sure if they are all back at home or not, but they've posted the damage on FB and they are working on getting it all fixed up. Thank goodness.

I'm sorry your DH's family flooded too. It's such a long process. Everywhere you go people are comparing notes on where they are in the recovery process. Tomorrow the kids finally go back to school.

 

[amazingact21]

BTMRR is always better at night! It's like a totally different ride.

Looks like you guys had a blast on Splash Mtn. And how fun that your DD played the wardrobe at Enchanted Tales.


Very cute invitations! Fit in perfect with your Disney wedding.