Amber and Wes 11/16/13 Swan/Fantasmic!DP Update 12/18 -Disbride ideas!

[celerystalker]

Amber and Wes 11/??/13 Swan

Hi! I’m Amber and my DBF is Wes. He’s still my DBF until I have a ring on my finger.

<This space reserved for finalized plans>
So far, the location and date are finalized - Crescent Terrace at the Swan on 11/16/13 at 11 AM!!!!

Let's meet the couple!
Me – 36 year old Disney addict! My mom says I saw Mickey for the first time before I was a year old and went immediately to him – and haven’t let go since! I've been to Disney waaaaay too many times over the years - but it's so hard for me to justify spending my hard earned money on a vacation somewhere else - when I know I'll have so much fun at Disney!
I love kids, crafts, volunteering, learning, my dogs, and being busy every second! I'm from just south of Nashville, TN.

Wes - 28 (I'm robbing the cradle, I know! ) year old football addict. He's from Boston originally, but moved to Maryville, TN when he was about 11. I still don't understand why his family picked Maryville, but there ya go. It's a tiny town just outside of Knoxville. He played football in High School and is super laid back. He loves to game and loves dogs and kids as much as I do. He also likes cats.

They meet each other!
I’ve been searching for “The One” for so many years now (I've tried every dating site known to man!) – when it finally happened, it happened fast! Wes and I met on Facebook through a mutual friend who plays World of Warcraft (WoW). He saw me post on her page and responded with “I didn’t know so many hot women played Wow!”
I was smitten. We started talking in the beginning of April 2012, met and tried to do the long distance thing for a bit (only 3.5 hours – but it seems like a million miles when you’re falling for someone), but he’d moved in by the beginning of June.

We’ve adjusted to each other very well – he puts up with my busy schedule (I volunteer a lot) and ton of hobbies (I love crafty stuff!) and I’ve accepted that from late August until the end of January football will be on the tv pretty much 24-7.

My friends and family really like him – and his friends and family really like me.

We started talking about “Forever” about a month ago. I let him know from the beginning that if he wanted to be with me long term, he had to go through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace university with me. I’ve made some bad financial decisions in the past and want to get rid of all my debt as fast as possible. We enrolled and are more than halfway through the class – marriage discussions coincided with the class.

He’s ALSO known from the beginning that I really want a Disney Wedding. He’s let me know from the beginning that he wants to get married on the 50 yard line at a Dolphins game.
I actually tried to research that for him – I was married back in 96 for a year – I’ve already had a wedding – maybe it’d be possible to give him his wish….
Not so much. The only thing I could even find close to a football wedding were some people who got married in the stands. Ick.
Anyway, I can’t imagine the price you’d have to pay to get married on the field!

 

[LyndsayJ]

Love your story so far.

My fiance is from the TN/VA border (has family in both states) kinda near Knoxville...I think it's a few hours away?

Dave Ramsey is awesome! We're actually working on some of his worksheets / budgets right now during pre-marital counseling. Thomas' former youth pastor who is doing our ceremony and our pre-marital counseling is sending us a package full of Dave Ramsey's stuff...I think it's a kit for one of the courses he does?

 

[celerystalker]

Dave's definitely awesome - if the course you got is the updated financial peace university, I was in the audience for the taping of that whole series!
It's much easier to work his program when you're with someone - as a single person for years, I had a hard time sticking to my budget because I had no one I was letting down if I moved things around a little for a shopping trip - or a Disney trip!

 

[celerystalker]

The planning starts!

To be honest, the planning started many moons ago! I love Disney vacations and the next best thing to being ON vacation is PLANNING vacation! I'm so well known for it that my coworkers come to me to plan their Disney itineraries - I'll even provide laminated business cards for each day with their ADRs and general park plan on them. All for free. I'm weird.

So of COURSE I knew all about Disney's Fairytale Weddings - I knew what came with each collection and the upgrades available – I’d been reading Wedding PJs for years (Yes, I was a lurker on lurkyloo’s journey – I can’t believe she’s coming up on her 5 year anniversary! I still drool over the colors in her ceremony! That necklace! Those petals! I know she didn’t like the colors of her cake, but I think they were stunning!)
I’d planned my imaginary wedding so many times – with interchangeable grooms, of course.

When Wes and I started talking about marriage, I decided it was time to start planning again. I discovered pretty quickly that lurkyloo had written a book all about Disney weddings – so I bought it! It is definitely an invaluable tool. I’ve looked at it so many times in the past few weeks! And I’m sure I’ll reference it many more times.

I’d always thought I wanted a Wedding Pavilion ceremony – I love that the castle is in the background – I think the Grand Floridian is sooooo romantic – I get goosebumps everytime I see the WP from the monorail…
But as I was showing my friend Bridget some of the pics – she asked what Sea Breeze Point was – I’d honestly never really looked at it because it didn’t sound interesting to me. I looked at some pics – and fell in LOVE!!!! It’s so simple, yet so festive at the same time – you can see the hustle and bustle of Disney, but you’re isolated – Kouzzina is RIGHT There – and a dinner at Kouzzina is so my style. Plus it’s CHEAPER than the Wedding Pavillion – I was sold!

The Dress
I had gastric bypass in 2007. I’ve lost 130 pounds, but I still have a lot of flab here and there – particularly my arms.

Have you ever looked for a wedding dress with sleeves? They pretty much don’t exist. I knew this since finding a formal dress period with sleeves is next to impossible. I think I probably have 15 shrugs in my wardrobe – and hate pretty much all of them! I find a dress, but then can’t find a shrug I like with it – it seems like it’s a never ending saga!

I wore this to an event several years ago – I love this style of dress (plus it was $6!!!!), but I was not happy with the sweater I’m wearing with it – you can still see part of my arm flab and it doesn’t match exactly.

This dress has WAY too much skin showing – plus I was fidgety and worrying about the wrap falling the whole time.

I’d LOVE to have a dress similar to this – probably not black and white. If only I could be as graceful as Grace Kelly!

So a day or so after I bought Lurkyloo’s book, I told my friend Bridget that we needed to go shopping on lunch break to Ross. I’m not sure if you have them where you are, but it’s like an even cheaper TJ Maxx! I love that place! Sometimes I’ll give myself a goal – for instance, I can buy up to 6 shirts, but each one has to be under $8 bucks. I’m weird.
So anyway – Bridget asked what we were shopping for – since the wedding wasn’t official yet (in my head it won’t be official until I’ve got my ring and we’ve penciled in a date with Disney), I told Bridget that we were shopping for a “party” dress. We had a lot of fun with it – we kept doing air quotes in the store and it led to some gems like “Yes, you don’t want traditional because you’ve already had a “party,” but Wes has never had a “party,” so he might want you in the big white dress!"

Anyway, I had no intention of buying anything - especially at Ross – I just wanted to see what styles they had so I could get an idea on what length, style, etc I wanted. I tried on about 6 dresses – and finally tried on one that Bridget picked out. I didn’t think it would work – and then I put it on, looked in the mirror, and got a goofy grin on my face.

Be gentle, peeps – I’m showing you my arm flab!
It was only $30 – so I just had to buy it!

See the goofy grin? That's how I knew it was the one!

Now I just have to figure out how to put sleeves on the thing!
The other day at work, I decided to try a sleeve.
Here’s the result:

I’m not sure what the split sleeves are called, but I like the look.

 

[celerystalker]

The Announcement/Save the Date/Invitation
While I was browsing planning journals, I stumbled across Jilian’s PJ (JBeanBunny).

I’d never thought about a cruise wedding, but reading about hers had me actually checking one out. I eventually decided it would be too expensive for our guests, but it was fun to dream!
Here’s her link! http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2846692
I think Jilian is even more crafty than me! She made soooo many awesome favors for her welcome bags.

And her invitations are each a work of art!
Here’s a few shots of it (if you are a Dr. Who fan, you should recognize some things!):

I’m pretty sure she hand cut out the dancers for each invitation – I do not have the patience for that! Instead, I’m going to use a cricut to get a similar effect – only more Disney!
If you are a crafter, you’ve probably heard of the cricut – if not, it’s an overpriced tedious machine for crazy crafters! Ha. I refuse to buy one – or to let my mother buy one – but several of my friends own one and are nice enough to share.
The effects you get are awesome – but like I said, tedious!
For instance, the Cinderella and Prince has (I think) 8 layers each. Yuck!
I’m thinking of one of these images – but I’ll do the faces more like Jilian did hers. Princess eyes never look right to me in pins or other detailed work. I think blank faces will be better – and I can pretend it’s me and Wes!

The Guest List
I do NOT want to pay an extra $7000 for going over 18 guests! An escape wedding has everything I want – it’s just hard to figure out WHICH 18 people are going to come. What I think we’re going to do is send out invitations and if people decline, send out additional invitations.
If I had my way, I’d only invite people who are true Disney addicts like me – I know they’ll enjoy the wedding way more.
I’m really nervous about people coming out of obligation and then regretting it – and making me regret inviting them in the first place!
I’m pretty blunt and say what I mean, so I think (with the approval of Wes) I’ll compose a letter explaining that we’d love for them to be there, but not to feel obligated to come. Not sure of the wording yet, but we’ll figure it out.
If people think it’s rude, oh well. Don’t come.

What do other brides do?
How do you handle who to invite and who not to?
I'd love to invite my disboard friends - there's a group of us that have known each other since 2006 and we've made sure our vacations coincided several times - I'd love for them to be there.
There's a group of work friends I'd love to invite too - we're all Harry Potter nuts, so going to Islands of Adventure for one day with them would definitely be magical!
Then there's a group of 5 friends and their husbands/boyfriends - they need to be there too!
Not to mention my best friend from high school -
plus my two best friends from church and all their kids (and one of their moms lives in Orlando, and I adore her, so I'd have to invite her too!)
oh yeah! family!
Argh.
For immediate family, I'm pretty sure Wes will have about 12 people. Some of those are maybes only - his stepbrother does not have full custody of his 2 kids - his sister has 2 foster kids and they might not be able to leave the state depending on the situation at the time -
plus, Wes and I just started foster parenting classes - WE might have a foster kid by that point.
If we do (and I hope we do), I sure hope we're able to schedule for them to go with us - I will NOT go on vacation (even for my wedding) without my foster child.

So I've already told my mom and sister to start saving their pennies - they both love Disney as much as me and will definitely be there!
My dad is not much of a Disney nut, so we're not sure if he'll come.
My brother probably won't be able to come.
My 96 year old grandmother has never been to WDW - I have no idea if she'll come or not - this is the same woman who went on a motorcycle ride to celebrate her birthday this year - there's no telling what she'll do!
My 85 year old grandfather is a bit of a loner - he went to WDW by himself last year - knowing him, it'll be too soon for him to go back.

So I guess having a list of people ranked and slowly going down it as people decline is the best way? Any opinions?

 

[NAB]

Celery!!

Love that your inviting us to see your plans.

Love the dress design you picked out. Yes don't by a dress with sleeves they are all old lady looking and your not old.

As for your invite list I think your in trouble if you think your only inviting 18 people do you know how many you just listed there....Good luck on that one ,mind you it is a destination wedding so many might decline like you said due to cost.

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Amber,

Checking in for duty! So exciting to be able to see your wedding plans. I remember you complaining about all those frogs, so it's awesome you finally found your Prince!

I think the dress looks great.

My daughter has been talking about getting married, so I am especially curious now about all aspects of wedding planning. Mine was 42 years ago, LOL, and I was 18. I think I lost 10 lbs. with all the stress..

Anyway, I will be along for the ride.

 

[celerystalker]

Would she want a Disney wedding, Marita?
Do you get a discount?
Can I pretend to be your daughter if you do?

I'm hoping you can come to the wedding - we'll have to see how the numbers work. At the very least, I want you to for sure eat dinner with us after. It'll most likely be on a weekday, so you won't have to come in on your day off. Hopefully it's not during a forecast time!

 

[celerystalker]

So much can change with planning in just a few days!!!!
The first time I showed Wes the Fairytale Weddings site, he said he wanted to get married at the Wedding Pavillion – even if it’s $1000 more.
Argh. So I started looking at it again and remembering why I originally loved it….. and slowly came around to his thinking.

So we start working on the guest list. I have a spreadsheet for everything! I asked him about his cousin David – and he tells me that David will be his back up best man in case his best friend can’t be there.
Oh. He wants a best man! Errrr…. Does that mean you want me to have a bridesmaid? Because I wasn’t planning on it….
Yes. He wants me to have a bridesmaid.
Ack! My friend I want to ask has a husband and 5 kids….
Our guest limit is 18…. Which means the family of my bridesmaid would be over 1/3 of our guest list! This is never going to work!
I talked to my friend (Tabitha) and asked her if she’d like to be my bridesmaid – she said she’d love to! I explained about the guest list and she said it’d be no problem – her mom could watch the boys (4 of the total kids)…. But this didn’t feel right to me.
I love kids. I love Disney. I want the kids at the wedding!
Then I stumbled on icecoldpenguin’s planning journal – she started out with a Wishes wedding…but switched to one at the Swan!
All the Swalphins (what the Swan and Dolphin brides call themselves) seem to agree – Just Marry (the company that does the wedding planning at the Swan) is an incredibly easy group to get along with – they are helpful and BEST OF ALL – they have NO guest limits! Plus, you are able to customize your ceremony for a very reasonable price.
So I sent them an email late Friday evening – I knew I wouldn’t hear back from them until a weekday….
And I got an email from Erin on Monday! I read through everything she sent and composed my first round of questions for her - -she answered me just a few hours later!
I think I’m going to be a Swalphin bride!!!

 

[Backstage_Gal]

That's awesome, Swalphin! We need details............

My daughter hasnt said where (or when, they have no money), but I doubt she would want a Disney wedding. I think we would a small discount, but a small discount from a BIG price is still a ton of money.

 

[celerystalker]

Colors for the Wedding

At first, when I thought I'd be having an escape wedding, I picked out this bouquet:

I've always loved the hand tied bouquets, and I figured the soft pinks would look good with my champagne dress. I don't usually pick anything pink, but it just feels right to me. I wasn't planning on having any extra floral because the escape wedding was expensive enough and Disney is picky about which locations you can bring outside floral to.

Then I decided to become a Swalphin - and my options were opened! They are fine with outside floral! Yay!
My favorite colors are blue and green, so I really wanted them to be incorporated in the wedding.
One of the great things about getting married in Florida in November is that it (most likely) won't be cold and bright blue and green won't be out of place!
My future husband (doesn't that sound good? ) is a HUGE Miami Dolphins fan, so since I was planning on picking blue/green/teal, adding a little orange here and there for his benefit seemed like a good idea.
But I don't want to let go of the pink either...

Here's the palate I'm thinking of:

I'm not sure how it will all work together - and I might end up changing my mind.
Especially since I decided to make my own bouquets and found this site:

Their prices are amazing!

I love scrapbooking and other crafts, so I dug out some of my supplies today and started playing around.
Here's several of Stampin Up's colors:

I'm glad I had some of the ink on hand - I thought Pacific Point was a nice royal blue - but it looks more navy when stamped. The marker seems closer to Royal.

Here's an idea for a running motif throughout the wedding - I feel like it incorporates both my likes and Wes' likes and Mickey!

And finally...
THE RING!
We went this weekend to Wes's mom's house to see if she had anything we liked - and I fell in love with this ring.

It turns out, it's the diamond Wes's dad gave his mom... they divorced many moons ago and Wes's dad passed away several years ago - so it's an interesting way to incorporate him into things even though he didn't have a very good relationship with Wes or his mom or sister.
Wes wants to wait and officially propose to me - - so he's carrying the ring around and driving me crazy!!!!
I think we'll probably have it coated with rhodium since I want a white gold band.

 

[LyndsayJ]

I think the pink will work well with champagne...actually, all the colors you're choosing will.

Love the bags! How did you make the cute Mickey on it?

Beautiful ring! I'm a white-gold type of girl as well....you actually just reminded me I need to get mine dipped before the wedding!

 

[ShanaMouse]

just stumbled upon your Pj, fellow swalphin!
All of your plans sound greats so far and i love the ring!

Can't wait to read more!
Happy Planning!

 

[celerystalker]

Lyndsay - I've had that lace doily stamp set for about a year and couldn't think what to do with it and then today I was thinking about how hidden mickeys are just one big circle and 2 small ones and voila!
Yay!
I'm pretty proud of myself for thinking of it - it's feminine without being too girly and Disney without being overwelming.

Shana - Hi! I'm reading your PJ now!

 

[LyndsayJ]

Lyndsay - I've had that lace doily stamp set for about a year and couldn't think what to do with it and then today I was thinking about how hidden mickeys are just one big circle and 2 small ones and voila!
Yay!
I'm pretty proud of myself for thinking of it - it's feminine without being too girly and Disney without being overwelming.

Shana - Hi! I'm reading your PJ now!

That's really creative!

 

[celerystalker]

The Proposal!
So Wes wanted to surprise me with the actual proposal. We picked out the ring from his mom's collection on Saturday and he had fun torturing me Saturday night and all day Sunday.
He said on the way home from Maryville that we'd do a special dinner together Wednesday night - so I was prepared for the proposal then.
I get up pretty early (5:30 AM is pretty early to me - I have a 45 minute commute. Yuck!) and he is not typically an early riser.
A few minutes before my alarm went off this morning, I heard a noise that woke me up - I didn't know what it was, but I noticed that Wes wasn't in bed. When my alarm went off, I got up to find him making breakfast for me.
I told him I got up at 5:45, so he was planning on giving me breakfast in bed. Instead, I had it after my shower.
He was pretty quiet - I had a feeling what he was up to...and I started getting nervous!
Pretty silly since I knew it was coming, we'd already picked out the ring and I've already half planned the wedding!
I started rambling, like I have a tendency to do.
Finally he said:
I've made breakfast, but I need help making something else....will you make me the happiest man on earth?

Awww!
Yes! Of course I will!

I went and got it sized today!

I'm having a hard time because I keep getting distracted by it. It's so shiny!

 

[ShanaMouse]

what a cute proposal!! love it! The ring is beautiful and I agree that I couldnt take my eyes off of it when i first got it due to its sparkly-ness
Now I always get really excited when I get it cleaned at the jewelry store haha

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Aww. what a sweet proposal!

 

[LyndsayJ]

Love the proposal...he did good surprising you (as good as he could do since you were anticipating it ).

 

[NAB]

Cel love the ring! Mine is the same shape. I remember just staring at it all the time, sometimes still do.

Are we ever going to get a picture of the groom? Or are you hiding him until the big day...