LittleKittyMarie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2011
Wishes in Catsablanca: 7.22.13 Epcot Wedding PJ&TR! Updated 03/09/15
- Thread starter LittleKittyMarie
- Start date
LittleKittyMarie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2011
Day Seven:
The reason we called it a night early the day before (we left before Illuminations) was because we needed to be at Franck's at 9:30 am today for our site visit. Finally, I know. I wouldn't have scheduled the meeting for the last full day of our trip either, but what can you do.
It was torrential pouring rain outside because of Hurricane Isaac. We left quite early to take the bus to MK then the monorail around to the GF. Honestly, it was the first time we'd ever been near a park before rope drop. When we got to the GF we bought our first ever ponchos and boy did we need them! We got lost walking to Franck's, of course, because DF led us into the pool area. I was following him thinking, I've never seen a Disney Bride need to walk through a pool area... I'm fairly sure we wouldn't have made that error if it hadn't been raining. As it was we could barely see ahead of us and we were walking with our eyes downcast. Eventually we made it! We quickly shed our ponchos and headed in.
The wedding pavilion in torrential rain:
We were seated over in this corner and this was our view:
I saw another couple head into one of the meeting rooms while we were seated there and I heard at least one other couple was getting married on that day, and saw a cake being delivered too. (I'm pretty sure a couple of these ladies were fellow DISbrides, but I have no idea who. So if anyone out there was also at Franck's in the morning on August 27th: Hiya, we were sitting in the corner! Haha.) Anyway, It's pretty amazing how much goes on there!
((Just as a heads up, even though we are officially finished working with our consultant I'm not going to name any names in my PJ, at least not at this time and probably not until after the wedding, if ever. If anyone is really curious, feel free to PM me and I'll definitely consider providing more information.))
Okay, so our consultant arrived and sat down with us for a chat about our wedding. She asked us about our inspiration; what kind of feel we were going for; if we'd thought about transportation, a first-look, characters, colours and such. We talked generally about those items for awhile, and it was really nice to finally start talking about it with someone, even if it came to nothing.
We had only a rough idea of our room block numbers at the time, so she advised us on that a little bit too. I believe she suggested we block 62 room nights. (With 62, we need to guarantee that 50 nights are filled, but that number can be dropped to 25 nights later on, which is the amount you need for the complimentary room night.)
I don't recall if I've mentioned this officially, but for our room block we choose Pop Century ($129), Caribbean Beach ($167), Boardwalk Inn ($270) and Grand Floridian ($343) - in case anyone is curious what the room block prices look like in late July 2013. In our actual room block, which we submitted a few days after our site visit, we blocked 89 room nights since NONE of our guests are local or DVC and many will probably have to stay at least three nights.
Anyway back to the site visit. After our chat our consultant asked if we still wanted to brave the weather and see the sites. Of course! We travelled 2,000km, what's a little rain! She drove us backstage to Epcot, and dropped us off at the sidewalk behind France while she parked her car in the mud and then picked her way back to us through foot deep puddles in high heels. Oh boy, did I feel so guilty. But she did it all with a smile. DF said after watching this he was totally alleviated of any worry about the wedding, he could see they were willing to provide good service no matter what. Our consultant most certainly was!
It was still before 11:00am so World Showcase was empty except for a couple CMs walking around and getting ready. She gave DF and I each our own DFTW umbrella, which was awesome, so we didn't need to put the ponchos on again. Although with the heavy rain and winds, DF's huge DFTW umbrella still was turned inside out and there was a little scramble as he, our consultant and I did our best to turn it right again before he got totally soaked.
First thing we went to see Bistro de Paris. To be honest, I was pretty shocked that we were able to see it at all. I knew it was closed for a total refurbishment and to be honest I'm still pretty ambivalent about this. For example, should I even write "Bistro de Paris" in my invitation, because they're going to rename it and it won't ever be called "Bistro de Paris" again.
We went in and were able to see the space for the first time. I love the space, it was mostly still the same as the photos I've seen of it, except the tables were stacked by the windows and a couple things were starting to be pulled apart. Our consultant never said I couldn't take pictures, but I didn't bother because it's going to look completely different anyway. The actual space and windows and layout was really lovely though, and I think I've accepted no matter what Disney does to it, it's still going to be beautiful and perfect. It was worth the trip to allay that fear (although to be fair, we made the trip plans before I knew I'd have fears that needed calming).
Next we headed to France Lower/Eau de France to check out the DP view. It really is fantastic. There are the trees in the view, but I think it's still perfect. I may need to ask someone who has used Eau de France, but I do find it a little interesting (by which I mean strange) that people will be looking down at us during our DP. I hope there's no one obnoxious up there... I guess Disney would take care of it, if it came to that.
Lastly we went to have a look around Morocco. The option to have the ceremony in the little temple area would be nice, but looks like it will be too small for our numbers, and our consultant pointed out, probably much hotter in July than out in the open air. We also looked at the back alley area near the restaurant Marrakesh, but it's just not as dramatic as standing out front with the fountain and the big archway.
On the drive out our consultant gave us a mini "tour" of things going on. It really was amazing. She didn't have to say anything, but there she was giving like, a free backstage tour. I can't say enough good things about our consultant, she was absolutely lovely to meet and work with (even though I was a little too shy to contribute much, I hope she understood that) and we couldn't have been more happy.
On the way back she dropped us off at the Poly, where we grabbed a quick bite at Capt. Cook's and DF and I discussed the experience and how we'd spend the rest of the day.
The reason we called it a night early the day before (we left before Illuminations) was because we needed to be at Franck's at 9:30 am today for our site visit. Finally, I know. I wouldn't have scheduled the meeting for the last full day of our trip either, but what can you do.
It was torrential pouring rain outside because of Hurricane Isaac. We left quite early to take the bus to MK then the monorail around to the GF. Honestly, it was the first time we'd ever been near a park before rope drop. When we got to the GF we bought our first ever ponchos and boy did we need them! We got lost walking to Franck's, of course, because DF led us into the pool area. I was following him thinking, I've never seen a Disney Bride need to walk through a pool area... I'm fairly sure we wouldn't have made that error if it hadn't been raining. As it was we could barely see ahead of us and we were walking with our eyes downcast. Eventually we made it! We quickly shed our ponchos and headed in.
The wedding pavilion in torrential rain:
We were seated over in this corner and this was our view:
I saw another couple head into one of the meeting rooms while we were seated there and I heard at least one other couple was getting married on that day, and saw a cake being delivered too. (I'm pretty sure a couple of these ladies were fellow DISbrides, but I have no idea who. So if anyone out there was also at Franck's in the morning on August 27th: Hiya, we were sitting in the corner! Haha.) Anyway, It's pretty amazing how much goes on there!
((Just as a heads up, even though we are officially finished working with our consultant I'm not going to name any names in my PJ, at least not at this time and probably not until after the wedding, if ever. If anyone is really curious, feel free to PM me and I'll definitely consider providing more information.))
Okay, so our consultant arrived and sat down with us for a chat about our wedding. She asked us about our inspiration; what kind of feel we were going for; if we'd thought about transportation, a first-look, characters, colours and such. We talked generally about those items for awhile, and it was really nice to finally start talking about it with someone, even if it came to nothing.
We had only a rough idea of our room block numbers at the time, so she advised us on that a little bit too. I believe she suggested we block 62 room nights. (With 62, we need to guarantee that 50 nights are filled, but that number can be dropped to 25 nights later on, which is the amount you need for the complimentary room night.)
I don't recall if I've mentioned this officially, but for our room block we choose Pop Century ($129), Caribbean Beach ($167), Boardwalk Inn ($270) and Grand Floridian ($343) - in case anyone is curious what the room block prices look like in late July 2013. In our actual room block, which we submitted a few days after our site visit, we blocked 89 room nights since NONE of our guests are local or DVC and many will probably have to stay at least three nights.
Anyway back to the site visit. After our chat our consultant asked if we still wanted to brave the weather and see the sites. Of course! We travelled 2,000km, what's a little rain! She drove us backstage to Epcot, and dropped us off at the sidewalk behind France while she parked her car in the mud and then picked her way back to us through foot deep puddles in high heels. Oh boy, did I feel so guilty. But she did it all with a smile. DF said after watching this he was totally alleviated of any worry about the wedding, he could see they were willing to provide good service no matter what. Our consultant most certainly was!
It was still before 11:00am so World Showcase was empty except for a couple CMs walking around and getting ready. She gave DF and I each our own DFTW umbrella, which was awesome, so we didn't need to put the ponchos on again. Although with the heavy rain and winds, DF's huge DFTW umbrella still was turned inside out and there was a little scramble as he, our consultant and I did our best to turn it right again before he got totally soaked.
First thing we went to see Bistro de Paris. To be honest, I was pretty shocked that we were able to see it at all. I knew it was closed for a total refurbishment and to be honest I'm still pretty ambivalent about this. For example, should I even write "Bistro de Paris" in my invitation, because they're going to rename it and it won't ever be called "Bistro de Paris" again.
We went in and were able to see the space for the first time. I love the space, it was mostly still the same as the photos I've seen of it, except the tables were stacked by the windows and a couple things were starting to be pulled apart. Our consultant never said I couldn't take pictures, but I didn't bother because it's going to look completely different anyway. The actual space and windows and layout was really lovely though, and I think I've accepted no matter what Disney does to it, it's still going to be beautiful and perfect. It was worth the trip to allay that fear (although to be fair, we made the trip plans before I knew I'd have fears that needed calming).
Next we headed to France Lower/Eau de France to check out the DP view. It really is fantastic. There are the trees in the view, but I think it's still perfect. I may need to ask someone who has used Eau de France, but I do find it a little interesting (by which I mean strange) that people will be looking down at us during our DP. I hope there's no one obnoxious up there... I guess Disney would take care of it, if it came to that.
Lastly we went to have a look around Morocco. The option to have the ceremony in the little temple area would be nice, but looks like it will be too small for our numbers, and our consultant pointed out, probably much hotter in July than out in the open air. We also looked at the back alley area near the restaurant Marrakesh, but it's just not as dramatic as standing out front with the fountain and the big archway.
On the drive out our consultant gave us a mini "tour" of things going on. It really was amazing. She didn't have to say anything, but there she was giving like, a free backstage tour. I can't say enough good things about our consultant, she was absolutely lovely to meet and work with (even though I was a little too shy to contribute much, I hope she understood that) and we couldn't have been more happy.
On the way back she dropped us off at the Poly, where we grabbed a quick bite at Capt. Cook's and DF and I discussed the experience and how we'd spend the rest of the day.
LittleKittyMarie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2011
Day Seven - Part Two
Now wouldn't you know it, while we were eating lunch at Capt. Cook's the rain cleared up and didn't really start back up for the rest of the day. We'd been thinking we were going to go back to CBR after the site visit to drop off the stuff our consultant gave us, but with the rain stopped and both of us really happy and excited from the very successful site visit, we decided to forget about the plans and go to MK for the rest of the day.
We did the Hall of Presidents. Before we left my dad asked me if it was still there, because the last time he'd gone on it was in the '80s and he has a bunch of pictures from it for some reason. So I decided we should go watch it and get a couple new photos for my dad. I'm not an American, but it's a quite good show, very stirring. Then we rode the Liberty Belle, another thing we'd never done before. It was quite a nice ride, relaxing and fun to see more of Disney that I'd never seen before. Also waving to people on Big Thunder Mountain and seeing how many people wave back! Quite a few, I was surprised!
From the Liberty Belle we saw there were no people in line in the graveyard of Haunted Mansion, so we decided we should head over there quickly and check that out for the first time.
We rode Haunted Mansion a lot on this trip. I'm pretty sure it's DF's favourite ride and obviously I love it too. We were probably on there a good six times. Next we did Philharmagic, which is another fave and the carousel again. When we exited the carousel they were having the Sword in the Stone ceremony. Apparently I was looking potentially queenly
rotfl:!)...
But, alas, the sword didn't agree.
After I rode the tea cups by myself. This ride really isn't great on your own. Hopefully during the wedding trip I can drag some BMs on with me. Then DF and I tried the Speedway for the first time, and it was so fun we tried it again right after! DF is obviously the more reckless driver.
We wandered Tomorrowland a bit doing a few more rides and found ourselves in front of the castle in time for the show. So we grabbed a spot and watched that for the first time too. I can never say no to dancing princesses, seriously.
We did a few more rides in Tomorrowland and then Adventureland (sang A Whole New World on the flying carpets a little bit) afterwards, then headed back to Main Street for our res at Tony's Town Square. Oh my goodness, the place was packed and there was a line to check in and there was nowhere to stand while waiting for our name to be called. Luckily we didn't have to wait long.
I had spaghetti with sausage and DF had the seafood pasta. But we had to get this out of the way, because where else would you do it?
I have to say, I unfortunately agree with everything I've ever heard about Tony's Town Square. The food is not great, the service is rushed and it's clear they are doing everything in their power to turn over tables as fast as possible. (DF's take: "Calling it boilerplate Italian food is insulting to Italians, food and boilerplates.") Also the dessert was terrible. I don't really think that I was eating in the restaurant from Lady and the Tramp either. I felt like I was eating in a shrine to Lady and the Tramp. I was quite disappointed. Lady and the Tramp is my dad's favourite movie - the first (and probably only) Disney movie he saw with his mom before she passed away when he was nine - and I reeeeally wanted to recommend this place to my parents. I'm not so sure I can do that without a lot of disclaimers. I wanted to like it, but I didn't. I doubt we'll go back unless they do some kind of overhaul, but why should they bother really.
Anyway, we wanted to end our last night at Disney with Wishes so we headed towards Crystal Palace to grab a spot in that area. Not a fabulous view for the parade, but the fireworks are what I really cared about. We had enough time to take about 400 photos of the castle. Some like this...
And like this...
And this...
And while I was doing that DF was attacked by a duck. Seriously. And not Donald, either, so it wasn't fun and cool, but scary and still sort of cool. Anyhoozle... once the lights dimmed, I put away my camera. Wishes started and I just enjoyed the show. It was the perfect way to end a really amazing day!
All in all, it was an amazing trip, we tried a bunch of new things for the first time, we had a great first experience with DFTW and we have bunch of new information to share with our friends and families who are planning on joining us at our wedding!
And thank you to anyone who read through that report. There was a lot of stuff in there that was not really wedding related, but I really wanted to actually try writing a report before I got to something more important, like the wedding TR.
So to anyone who skimmed or skipped, it's all good. 
We now return you to our regularly-scheduled wedding planning journal!
Now wouldn't you know it, while we were eating lunch at Capt. Cook's the rain cleared up and didn't really start back up for the rest of the day. We'd been thinking we were going to go back to CBR after the site visit to drop off the stuff our consultant gave us, but with the rain stopped and both of us really happy and excited from the very successful site visit, we decided to forget about the plans and go to MK for the rest of the day.
We did the Hall of Presidents. Before we left my dad asked me if it was still there, because the last time he'd gone on it was in the '80s and he has a bunch of pictures from it for some reason. So I decided we should go watch it and get a couple new photos for my dad. I'm not an American, but it's a quite good show, very stirring. Then we rode the Liberty Belle, another thing we'd never done before. It was quite a nice ride, relaxing and fun to see more of Disney that I'd never seen before. Also waving to people on Big Thunder Mountain and seeing how many people wave back! Quite a few, I was surprised!
From the Liberty Belle we saw there were no people in line in the graveyard of Haunted Mansion, so we decided we should head over there quickly and check that out for the first time.
We rode Haunted Mansion a lot on this trip. I'm pretty sure it's DF's favourite ride and obviously I love it too. We were probably on there a good six times. Next we did Philharmagic, which is another fave and the carousel again. When we exited the carousel they were having the Sword in the Stone ceremony. Apparently I was looking potentially queenly
rotfl:!)...
But, alas, the sword didn't agree.
After I rode the tea cups by myself. This ride really isn't great on your own. Hopefully during the wedding trip I can drag some BMs on with me. Then DF and I tried the Speedway for the first time, and it was so fun we tried it again right after! DF is obviously the more reckless driver.
We wandered Tomorrowland a bit doing a few more rides and found ourselves in front of the castle in time for the show. So we grabbed a spot and watched that for the first time too. I can never say no to dancing princesses, seriously.
We did a few more rides in Tomorrowland and then Adventureland (sang A Whole New World on the flying carpets a little bit) afterwards, then headed back to Main Street for our res at Tony's Town Square. Oh my goodness, the place was packed and there was a line to check in and there was nowhere to stand while waiting for our name to be called. Luckily we didn't have to wait long.
I had spaghetti with sausage and DF had the seafood pasta. But we had to get this out of the way, because where else would you do it?
I have to say, I unfortunately agree with everything I've ever heard about Tony's Town Square. The food is not great, the service is rushed and it's clear they are doing everything in their power to turn over tables as fast as possible. (DF's take: "Calling it boilerplate Italian food is insulting to Italians, food and boilerplates.") Also the dessert was terrible. I don't really think that I was eating in the restaurant from Lady and the Tramp either. I felt like I was eating in a shrine to Lady and the Tramp. I was quite disappointed. Lady and the Tramp is my dad's favourite movie - the first (and probably only) Disney movie he saw with his mom before she passed away when he was nine - and I reeeeally wanted to recommend this place to my parents. I'm not so sure I can do that without a lot of disclaimers. I wanted to like it, but I didn't. I doubt we'll go back unless they do some kind of overhaul, but why should they bother really.
Anyway, we wanted to end our last night at Disney with Wishes so we headed towards Crystal Palace to grab a spot in that area. Not a fabulous view for the parade, but the fireworks are what I really cared about. We had enough time to take about 400 photos of the castle. Some like this...
And like this...
And this...
And while I was doing that DF was attacked by a duck. Seriously. And not Donald, either, so it wasn't fun and cool, but scary and still sort of cool. Anyhoozle... once the lights dimmed, I put away my camera. Wishes started and I just enjoyed the show. It was the perfect way to end a really amazing day!
All in all, it was an amazing trip, we tried a bunch of new things for the first time, we had a great first experience with DFTW and we have bunch of new information to share with our friends and families who are planning on joining us at our wedding!
And thank you to anyone who read through that report. There was a lot of stuff in there that was not really wedding related, but I really wanted to actually try writing a report before I got to something more important, like the wedding TR.
So to anyone who skimmed or skipped, it's all good. We now return you to our regularly-scheduled wedding planning journal!
NoOrdinaryPrincess
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2011
Aww I loooovvee you TR!
longwaybycarriage
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2009
Just joining in...I love your ring! And your super-cute cake toppers! But, most of all, I love your theme...so romantic...and what better place to have it? I would never have thought of the WS Morocco/France connection. It's perfect. Oh and Df and I went to Bistro de Paris on our last trip and it was definitely one of our best experiences.
So excited to see it all come together.
So excited to see it all come together.
LittleKittyMarie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2011
Thank you!
Thank you so much for all your lovely compliments. I'm so glad to hear positive reviews of Bistro de Paris. Neither DF nor I have ever been and now that it's closed for renovations, our next chance to eat there will be our wedding day!Just joining in...I love your ring! And your super-cute cake toppers! But, most of all, I love your theme...so romantic...and what better place to have it? I would never have thought of the WS Morocco/France connection. It's perfect. Oh and Df and I went to Bistro de Paris on our last trip and it was definitely one of our best experiences.
So excited to see it all come together.
LittleKittyMarie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2011
So now that the trip report is out of the way I can get back to the wedding planning.
As I mentioned as some point we were assigned our planner, which was very exciting, and we've already scheduled our planning session. I was a little worried we might not get the time/date we wanted (DF is a teacher so there are only about four days that fall within the 4-6 months before the wedding that we could actually make a trip). But, we asked our planner and we got exactly the date we wanted! Yay! We are officially going back to Disney in March. I am so thrilled I cannot tell you, because I never thought I would ever get to go to Disney anytime other than the summer, and here we are!
Here are our plans so far:
Sunday March 10, 2013:
-Arrive in Orlando and check into Old Key West
-Dinner ADR at Garden Grill
Monday March 11, 2013:
-My birthday (not going to lie I was very excited we could go to WDW for the PS and my birthday)
-Breakfast ADR at Crystal Palace
-Dinner ADR at Mama Melrose (not really my choice... to be honest. But not sure where else to go...)
Tuesday March 12, 2013:
-9:00am Planning Session at Franck's! Yay, yay, yay!
-2:30pm Menu Tasting (Not sure what's going to happen here, because I thought I read Bistro de Paris didn't do menu tastings, but I guess we'll clear that up with our planner soon enough)
-Dinner ADR at Artist Point
Wednesday March 13, 2013:
-Dinner ADR at Be Our Guest (I am SO! excited for this)
-Wishes at 10:00pm
Thursday March 14, 2013:
-Check out
-Head to DTD until it's time for Magical Express
-8:00pm Fly home. Aww.
For our accommodations we decided to try renting DVC points, and boy oh boy is it going to save us a lot: over $1000!!!!! Especially because this trip is going to be during Spring Break, so the resorts rates are insane.
And speaking of DVC we've also booked DVC rooms for the first part of our wedding trip. We are planning on arriving on July 18, which is the Thursday before our Monday wedding.
DF rented a studio at Boardwalk Villas for himself and his Best Man to share, and I think that saved a couple hundred dollars, about $300. Not too shabby.
I convinced my parents to rent a two bedroom villa at Boardwalk Villas. I presented a whole pitch and everything, which my dad thought was pretty entertaining. I was all nervous they were going to shoot me down and say it was crazy, but in the end they agreed that this made sense and went right for it. So we will be using the villa for me, my parents and my two Maids of Honour (and possibly another cousin, but we shall see about that....) to stay in before the wedding. And we will also be using it to host a meet and greet on the Sunday before the wedding. DF (or my dad, we'll see) will probably go somewhere off Disney property and grab some light food and drinks and it'll be a come as you please sort of get together. I hope this plan works. It already has a few little kinks, such as how we will make sure everyone gets room number of this get-together if we won't find out until we arrive in Disney a few days before. I'm hoping this will work itself out.
As I mentioned as some point we were assigned our planner, which was very exciting, and we've already scheduled our planning session. I was a little worried we might not get the time/date we wanted (DF is a teacher so there are only about four days that fall within the 4-6 months before the wedding that we could actually make a trip). But, we asked our planner and we got exactly the date we wanted! Yay! We are officially going back to Disney in March. I am so thrilled I cannot tell you, because I never thought I would ever get to go to Disney anytime other than the summer, and here we are!
Here are our plans so far:
Sunday March 10, 2013:
-Arrive in Orlando and check into Old Key West
-Dinner ADR at Garden Grill
Monday March 11, 2013:
-My birthday (not going to lie I was very excited we could go to WDW for the PS and my birthday)
-Breakfast ADR at Crystal Palace
-Dinner ADR at Mama Melrose (not really my choice... to be honest. But not sure where else to go...)
Tuesday March 12, 2013:
-9:00am Planning Session at Franck's! Yay, yay, yay!
-2:30pm Menu Tasting (Not sure what's going to happen here, because I thought I read Bistro de Paris didn't do menu tastings, but I guess we'll clear that up with our planner soon enough)
-Dinner ADR at Artist Point
Wednesday March 13, 2013:
-Dinner ADR at Be Our Guest (I am SO! excited for this)
-Wishes at 10:00pm
Thursday March 14, 2013:
-Check out
-Head to DTD until it's time for Magical Express
-8:00pm Fly home. Aww.
For our accommodations we decided to try renting DVC points, and boy oh boy is it going to save us a lot: over $1000!!!!! Especially because this trip is going to be during Spring Break, so the resorts rates are insane.
And speaking of DVC we've also booked DVC rooms for the first part of our wedding trip. We are planning on arriving on July 18, which is the Thursday before our Monday wedding.
DF rented a studio at Boardwalk Villas for himself and his Best Man to share, and I think that saved a couple hundred dollars, about $300. Not too shabby.
I convinced my parents to rent a two bedroom villa at Boardwalk Villas. I presented a whole pitch and everything, which my dad thought was pretty entertaining. I was all nervous they were going to shoot me down and say it was crazy, but in the end they agreed that this made sense and went right for it. So we will be using the villa for me, my parents and my two Maids of Honour (and possibly another cousin, but we shall see about that....) to stay in before the wedding. And we will also be using it to host a meet and greet on the Sunday before the wedding. DF (or my dad, we'll see) will probably go somewhere off Disney property and grab some light food and drinks and it'll be a come as you please sort of get together. I hope this plan works. It already has a few little kinks, such as how we will make sure everyone gets room number of this get-together if we won't find out until we arrive in Disney a few days before. I'm hoping this will work itself out.
Freckledginger
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2011
Hi Nicole,
Just catching up with all your great updates!
Loved reading your TR! Your photos were fantastic, and it made me wish I was in WDW at the moment! You're a Sunshine Food Fair Strawberry Shortcake lover as well?! It's one of my absolute favorite Disney things! That, Dole Whips, and Grapefruit cake... Haha, guess I have a dessert for almost each park 
Adore your Marie umbrella!!!!
Your site visit sounded like it went really well! World showcase will be such a fantastic backdrop to stage your wedding, reception, and dessert party! France and Morroco fit in so perfectly with your theme as well. Can't wait to hear further details once you have your planning session in March. Speaking of which, sounds like you have fantastic itinerary--especially with your dinning reservations! Be Your Guest Restaurant will be so neat to experience!!
Just catching up with all your great updates!
Loved reading your TR!
Your photos were fantastic, and it made me wish I was in WDW at the moment! You're a Sunshine Food Fair Strawberry Shortcake lover as well?! It's one of my absolute favorite Disney things! That, Dole Whips, and Grapefruit cake... Haha, guess I have a dessert for almost each park Adore your Marie umbrella!!!!
Your site visit sounded like it went really well! World showcase will be such a fantastic backdrop to stage your wedding, reception, and dessert party! France and Morroco fit in so perfectly with your theme as well. Can't wait to hear further details once you have your planning session in March. Speaking of which, sounds like you have fantastic itinerary--especially with your dinning reservations! Be Your Guest Restaurant will be so neat to experience!!
charliegirl76
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2012
I adore your theme! I just got DF to watch Casablanca a few months ago and he liked it.
I can't wait to see how everything comes together.
I can't wait to see how everything comes together.
LittleKittyMarie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2011
Huge strawberry shortcake lover! Also Dole Whips, love them. I've never tried the Grapefruit cake though, going to have to make time for that one a future trip!Hi Nicole,
Just catching up with all your great updates!
Loved reading your TR!
Adore your Marie umbrella!!!!
Your site visit sounded like it went really well! World showcase will be such a fantastic backdrop to stage your wedding, reception, and dessert party! France and Morroco fit in so perfectly with your theme as well. Can't wait to hear further details once you have your planning session in March. Speaking of which, sounds like you have fantastic itinerary--especially with your dinning reservations! Be Your Guest Restaurant will be so neat to experience!!
When I suggested Be Our Guest to DF as a dining choice, he was like "Can we do that?" Haha. We're both very excited to try it out.
Thank you!I adore your theme! I just got DF to watch Casablanca a few months ago and he liked it.
I can't wait to see how everything comes together.
LittleKittyMarie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2011
Next up: Invitation Construction.
DF and I have been working on this for a couple weeks now and we are finally starting to see results. My goal was to construct enough invites to give out to my family at Thanksgiving (which was last weekend in Canada). It was a bit of a push, but we finally have a lot of the work done and now we are just constructing the rest of the invitations as fast as possible. For example, I need one ready for a friend I'm meeting up with on Saturday and DF needs three for his parents to take to relatives in Hong Kong on the trip they leave for next week. We aren't really going to bother building them all and then sending them out in one huge mailing frenzy. We decided to hand deliver as many as possible to save on postage. We will still have a few to mail at the end, so, not really looking forward to seeing how much that will cost...
Anyway, here is a little photo walk-through of our wedding invitation construction process:
First step was to print out all the completed pages. We printed 35 copies of each of the three 11"x17" sheets. On each sheet there are 8 pages of the book--two spreads of four pages each. (I'm really struggling with all this lingo).
Next we cut down the 11"x17" papers into the actual size of the pages to put in the books. First the top and bottom margins are cut off...
And then the horizontal margins. Some of these (especially the text only pages) were difficult to get exact and took extra care... slowing the process way down.
After all the sheets were cut they were folded into signatures. Three signatures per book with two spreads per signature.
And meanwhile there was more cutting to be done. Each book has two endsheets. We used a decorative wallpaper as our endsheets. These sheets hold the whole book together.
So next I put together one of each of three signatures, sandwich them between two endsheets, clamp them and sew them together with my industrial sewing machine.
And here we have a stack of the books all sewn together and ready to be put in covers.
As I mentioned the endsheets are wallpaper. We decided to use wallpaper so that we could use the glue already on the sheets to literally glue our books together. I've never wallpapered anything before, but I think after these invites are done I'll be ready to wallpaper a room.
I wet it with a sponge, starting on the back endsheet...
Move into place along one of our covers...
And then clamp the wallpaper and cover together to dry a bit...
We leave them out to dry for a couple hours like this:
Then move them to flatten out and dry out like this:
Meanwhile DF cuts a few of these:
Once the book is completely dry and flattened (and sometimes they still need a little adjusting to get the spine into perfect position), we wrap them up in brown paper and twine and label them with a little mailing label.
And voila!: an enormous amount of time later, we have the book invitations I dreamed about.
Next I'll post a couple photos of the contents of the books. All of the finished ones I have at the moment are still drying under books.
DF and I have been working on this for a couple weeks now and we are finally starting to see results. My goal was to construct enough invites to give out to my family at Thanksgiving (which was last weekend in Canada). It was a bit of a push, but we finally have a lot of the work done and now we are just constructing the rest of the invitations as fast as possible. For example, I need one ready for a friend I'm meeting up with on Saturday and DF needs three for his parents to take to relatives in Hong Kong on the trip they leave for next week. We aren't really going to bother building them all and then sending them out in one huge mailing frenzy. We decided to hand deliver as many as possible to save on postage. We will still have a few to mail at the end, so, not really looking forward to seeing how much that will cost...
Anyway, here is a little photo walk-through of our wedding invitation construction process:
First step was to print out all the completed pages. We printed 35 copies of each of the three 11"x17" sheets. On each sheet there are 8 pages of the book--two spreads of four pages each. (I'm really struggling with all this lingo
).
Next we cut down the 11"x17" papers into the actual size of the pages to put in the books. First the top and bottom margins are cut off...
And then the horizontal margins. Some of these (especially the text only pages) were difficult to get exact and took extra care... slowing the process way down.
After all the sheets were cut they were folded into signatures. Three signatures per book with two spreads per signature.
And meanwhile there was more cutting to be done. Each book has two endsheets. We used a decorative wallpaper as our endsheets. These sheets hold the whole book together.
So next I put together one of each of three signatures, sandwich them between two endsheets, clamp them and sew them together with my industrial sewing machine.
And here we have a stack of the books all sewn together and ready to be put in covers.
As I mentioned the endsheets are wallpaper. We decided to use wallpaper so that we could use the glue already on the sheets to literally glue our books together. I've never wallpapered anything before, but I think after these invites are done I'll be ready to wallpaper a room.
I wet it with a sponge, starting on the back endsheet...
Move into place along one of our covers...
And then clamp the wallpaper and cover together to dry a bit...
We leave them out to dry for a couple hours like this:
Then move them to flatten out and dry out like this:
Meanwhile DF cuts a few of these:
Once the book is completely dry and flattened (and sometimes they still need a little adjusting to get the spine into perfect position), we wrap them up in brown paper and twine and label them with a little mailing label.
And voila!: an enormous amount of time later, we have the book invitations I dreamed about.
Next I'll post a couple photos of the contents of the books. All of the finished ones I have at the moment are still drying under books.
charliegirl76
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2012
Wow, those are amazing. You're guests will definitely appreciate the time, effort and creativity you've put into them! I wish I was that creative and crafty, but I only dabble here and there. 
LittleKittyMarie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2011
Thank you so much!Wow, those are amazing. You're guests will definitely appreciate the time, effort and creativity you've put into them! I wish I was that creative and crafty, but I only dabble here and there.
This particular undertaking is really pushing our combined crafty skills. They're aren't perfect, but I'm just happy it's working out!
LittleKittyMarie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2011
So I'm just going to jump in and interrupt my invitation posts for a moment to talk about our officiant and hair/make-up because it's topical.
I got to put two big check marks on the to-do list in the past couple weeks.
When we first got the list of recommended vendors from our consultant, one of the first things we did was go through the list, look up their websites and of course, look for reviews on the DIS. We automatically eliminated anyone without a website because we are a shy couple in Canada and phone calling is 1) Expensive and 2) Scary. (Scary for me anyway. ) We really wanted to be on top of this particular decision because we didn't want to risk losing out because our date/time was already booked up. After a lengthy search we decided we wanted to contact Rev. Jack Day. I'm not going to lie, the clincher was that a past DISbride wrote a review that raved about him and said it was like being married by Friar Tuck. DF turned to me and said, "you can't ignore that." We filled out the information form on his website as soon as we heard our dates and locations were available/set aside for us. And then we waited. And waited. And after about a month and a half we emailed him, in case the form thing didn't work out, which a lot of other DISbrides also said they'd done. To be honest, I was not really that worried, even at this point.
So at the last week of September after I lot of back-and-forthing and indecision I decided to contact Patricia Lejeune for hair and make-up. Annnd after the three day wait that they indicate on their website, it came back to me that they had no availability for our wedding day. This was quite discouraging, and to be honest I was kind of shocked. Our wedding is still nine months away!
Not wanting to waste another second I immediately contacted Beaute Speciale (our second choice, but not second by much) to check their availability. And, phheew, they were free. So hair and make-up is set for myself, my two maids of honour and my mom on the wedding morning. I haven't been told how early we'll need to be up yet, but I'm kind of scared.
With this little incident on my mind, now I started to feel a little panicky about the officiant. It was approaching four months since our first attempt at contact with Rev. Jack Day, and we had no reason to believe he would ever get back to us. So I quietly went back to the drawing board to look at more options. After more searches of the DIS, wedding videos and photos on youtube, DF and I decided to try contacting Rev. Glynn Ferguson from Sensational Ceremonies about officiating.
We sent him an email and he responded a few hours later. And it was a much bigger relief than I had expected. We set up a phone conversation time, where DF talked to him about the wedding. He asked about how we met and he told DF what it's like to live so close to WDW. Let's just say, I'm super jealous. So anyway, we booked Rev. Glynn Ferguson last week and he's been wonderful to work with so far.
Of course, yesterday Rev. Jack Day finally emailed DF back. Funnily enough, DF was reluctant to tell me about it. And now that I think about it, he didn't tell me what the email said...
Oh well. It wasn't meant to be.
I got to put two big check marks on the to-do list in the past couple weeks.
When we first got the list of recommended vendors from our consultant, one of the first things we did was go through the list, look up their websites and of course, look for reviews on the DIS.
We automatically eliminated anyone without a website because we are a shy couple in Canada and phone calling is 1) Expensive and 2) Scary. (Scary for me anyway. ) We really wanted to be on top of this particular decision because we didn't want to risk losing out because our date/time was already booked up. After a lengthy search we decided we wanted to contact Rev. Jack Day. I'm not going to lie, the clincher was that a past DISbride wrote a review that raved about him and said it was like being married by Friar Tuck. DF turned to me and said, "you can't ignore that." We filled out the information form on his website as soon as we heard our dates and locations were available/set aside for us. And then we waited. And waited. And after about a month and a half we emailed him, in case the form thing didn't work out, which a lot of other DISbrides also said they'd done. To be honest, I was not really that worried, even at this point.So at the last week of September after I lot of back-and-forthing and indecision I decided to contact Patricia Lejeune for hair and make-up. Annnd after the three day wait that they indicate on their website, it came back to me that they had no availability for our wedding day. This was quite discouraging, and to be honest I was kind of shocked. Our wedding is still nine months away!
Not wanting to waste another second I immediately contacted Beaute Speciale (our second choice, but not second by much) to check their availability. And, phheew, they were free. So hair and make-up is set for myself, my two maids of honour and my mom on the wedding morning. I haven't been told how early we'll need to be up yet, but I'm kind of scared.
With this little incident on my mind, now I started to feel a little panicky about the officiant. It was approaching four months since our first attempt at contact with Rev. Jack Day, and we had no reason to believe he would ever get back to us. So I quietly went back to the drawing board to look at more options. After more searches of the DIS, wedding videos and photos on youtube, DF and I decided to try contacting Rev. Glynn Ferguson from Sensational Ceremonies about officiating.
We sent him an email and he responded a few hours later. And it was a much bigger relief than I had expected. We set up a phone conversation time, where DF talked to him about the wedding. He asked about how we met and he told DF what it's like to live so close to WDW. Let's just say, I'm super jealous. So anyway, we booked Rev. Glynn Ferguson last week and he's been wonderful to work with so far.
Of course, yesterday Rev. Jack Day finally emailed DF back. Funnily enough, DF was reluctant to tell me about it. And now that I think about it, he didn't tell me what the email said...
Oh well. It wasn't meant to be.longwaybycarriage
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2009
Congrats on those two big check marks. I share your no website no deal philosophy! I can't imagine planning a wedding pre-internet. 
I'm marvelling at your crazy crafting skills! Df wants storybook style invites. Keyword there is style. You've MADE books. Wow.
I'm marvelling at your crazy crafting skills! Df wants storybook style invites. Keyword there is style. You've MADE books. Wow.
librarygeek
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2011
Wow, your invites look amazing! Everything I've seen from you has been absolutely incredible, I know you'll have a spectacular wedding!
LittleKittyMarie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2011
Thank you! I always thought I wasn't very crafty... until this wedding. Now, if there's a will, there's a way!Congrats on those two big check marks. I share your no website no deal philosophy! I can't imagine planning a wedding pre-internet.
I'm marvelling at your crazy crafting skills! Df wants storybook style invites. Keyword there is style. You've MADE books. Wow.
Thank you so much for your very sweet comment! I'm blushing all over!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Just a belated Happy Halloween to everyone before I carry on with the PJ. I dream of the day when I can spend Halloween in Disney and attend Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, but until then, I like to add a little (or a lot) of Disney to my celebrations at home!
Managed to pull together my Merida costume, which my parents really seemed to love even though neither of them have seen Brave yet. They're looking forward to it now. Haha.
DF as Dr. Doof from Phineas and Ferb. Unsurprisingly, when the kids were coming around for candy Perry the Platypus was the most recognized character.
One particular little girl told us a very long (and incomprehensible, though cute) story about how much she loved the show (I think...) and when DF agreed and said he loved the show, her dad asked if he was some kind of promoter. 
Um... can't adults just be fans too? 
And a cameo from one of the Brave bears and our Expedition Everest Yeti kitten dressed as R2D2 (aka the popcorn bucket we got at DHS this past summer).
They were part of my Halloween dinner table centerpiece.
Happy Disney Halloween!
LittleKittyMarie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2011
Finally I have a spare moment to post the invitations contents images. I started these pages pretty much as soon as the Save the Dates were out of the way back in December 2011. I spent a lot of my weekends (when I was away at school) writing the text and thinking of ideas and then making the initial layouts. DF also started work on the images around... February or so. Once I got back from school we really started pushing to get it all done. Anyway, without any more exposition here are the contents.
* * *
Here is the front cover. I tried my best to take a picture that actually shows the pearl on white design, hopefully it's visible in the image.
The inside cover. Each one has a little "book label" with the guests' names on handwritten on them. I can thank the Martha Stewart collection for these little details.
This is an addition made after we printed our first mock-up/test of the invitation. I think it's was DF's mom who suggested we add something to the page. It's from the lyrics of "As Time Goes By".
Our little attempt at a "how we met" story. I wanted to make something kind of fun to read and interesting to look at. I wrote the text (with some ideas from DF) and laid out the first couple frames, and then he took over once he knew what I was going for.
The formal invitation part of our invitation. I wrote the text, DF drew the picture and laid it all out.
Our wedding day schedule, as far as we know at this point. Mostly this is so guests can get an idea of the plans and the hint that they'll need to be waking up early. The design for this page took probably the longest of all, and we went through a bunch of rejected ideas before finally settling on this one.
Other events. Text and design were done by me.
RSVP. The envelope and RSVP card are held in place by the black photo corners and underneath it reads "Merci". My idea, I designed the RSVP based on some wording I found on the internet, hand labeled the envelopes and these were assembled by me. DF did the image and layout in the actual book.
Transportation information. Text by me (with help from the DIS). I laid out the text and DF added the images.
Some Disney World information for those guests who have never been. Text by me (with help from the DIS and various other sources). I'm pretty sure I did the layout on this, but by the end DF had messed around with all the layouts so it's hard to keep it straight.
Park Tickets, lest anyone think we're giving those away for free. DF did the design for this one, and I think it's probably my favourite of all the pages.
We suspect there may be a few people who are uninterested in buying park tickets (...crazy people...) so this was for them.
Last of the content pages was our resources. Planning resources, our favourite websites, and our own wedding email and website.
And that is our invitation! I think you'll all believe me when I say it was a labour of love.
* * *
Here is the front cover. I tried my best to take a picture that actually shows the pearl on white design, hopefully it's visible in the image.
The inside cover. Each one has a little "book label" with the guests' names on handwritten on them. I can thank the Martha Stewart collection for these little details.
This is an addition made after we printed our first mock-up/test of the invitation. I think it's was DF's mom who suggested we add something to the page. It's from the lyrics of "As Time Goes By".
Our little attempt at a "how we met" story. I wanted to make something kind of fun to read and interesting to look at. I wrote the text (with some ideas from DF) and laid out the first couple frames, and then he took over once he knew what I was going for.
The formal invitation part of our invitation. I wrote the text, DF drew the picture and laid it all out.
Our wedding day schedule, as far as we know at this point. Mostly this is so guests can get an idea of the plans and the hint that they'll need to be waking up early. The design for this page took probably the longest of all, and we went through a bunch of rejected ideas before finally settling on this one.
Other events. Text and design were done by me.
RSVP. The envelope and RSVP card are held in place by the black photo corners and underneath it reads "Merci". My idea, I designed the RSVP based on some wording I found on the internet, hand labeled the envelopes and these were assembled by me. DF did the image and layout in the actual book.
Transportation information. Text by me (with help from the DIS). I laid out the text and DF added the images.
Some Disney World information for those guests who have never been. Text by me (with help from the DIS and various other sources). I'm pretty sure I did the layout on this, but by the end DF had messed around with all the layouts so it's hard to keep it straight.
Park Tickets, lest anyone think we're giving those away for free.
DF did the design for this one, and I think it's probably my favourite of all the pages.
We suspect there may be a few people who are uninterested in buying park tickets (...crazy people...) so this was for them.
Last of the content pages was our resources. Planning resources, our favourite websites, and our own wedding email and website.
And that is our invitation! I think you'll all believe me when I say it was a labour of love.
them!! OMG! They really are beautiful; your guests will be stunned.
librarygeek
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2011
Your costumes are so cute! You make a great Merida
Also love the invites up close. It's clear you really put a lot of work and love into them! Your guests are very lucky!
Also love the invites up close. It's clear you really put a lot of work and love into them! Your guests are very lucky!
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