Andreah and Brian - Dec 8th, 2009 (Reception Photos Posted)

[acwinsett]

I wanted to have lunch at EPCOT, so after a quick rest we wandered over there:

We ate lunch at my favorite World Showcase counter service - the Cantina de San Angel in Mexico:

I had the nachos and Brian ate the kids' chesse quesadilla - and a churro. It looked like they had changed things up a little. The kids' meals are now being served with carrot sticks and chips with cheese sauce. The nachos are now served in a nice black bowl instead of a white styrofoam box.

After we finished lunch, guess where Brian went? You guessed it . . .

So we decided to start along the OTHER side of World Showcase. Didn't do much in Canada. But we made it to the UK just in time to catch a performance by The British Invasion. I just love these guys!

Really bad holding-the-camera-backwards photos:

We skipped past France because we had dinner reservations at Chefs. I wanted a beverage so I picked up a Bellini in Italy. Cheers!

Next order of business . . . souvenirs for Gavin from Mitsukoshi and visiting in Japan:

We decided to start making our way back toward France for our dinner ressie, but Brian INSISTED on doing a lame attraction. No offense to anyone who really likes these attractions, but I was not at all interested in seeing the American Adventure nor Maelstrom. They're both well done - just very educational. I eventually agreed on seeing the American Adventure because I'd never seen it before and I thought it would be nice to sit down for a bit. On the way there, we saw the Supremes tribute band:

What an interesting combination!

 

[acwinsett]

After the American Adventure, we stopped at the restrooms and when we came out, it started raining. Not a monsoon, but significantly more than a sprinkle. That's okay, it was about time for dinner, so we scooted over to France as quickly as possible and had a lovely dinner:

Dinner was really good. Brian and I selected the 3 course prix fixe menu. For appetizers he had the Bisque de Homard (Lobster Bisque) and I had the Salade au Bleu (A salad with romaine hearts, blue cheese dressing, bacon, croutons, walnuts). For our entrees Brian selected the Filet de Saumon, ratatouille sauce Choron (Broiled Salmon with Ratatouille) and I selected the Gratin de macaroni (Mac 'n Cheese!). And for dessert we both selected the Creme Brulee. I ordered first. If Brian had ordered dessert first, I would have selected the Profiteroles au chocolat (Creme Puff with Chocolate) and split them. Instead we ate a bunch of Creme Brulee. It was really good in my opinion, especially for the price ($37 per person less the Tables in Wonderland discount and plus a couple of cocktails and glasses of wine). And the restaurant was less intimidating than I might have expected from a French place. Nothing really weird on the menu here!

We couldn't have timed our dinner any better. We were monitoring the rainstorm on our iPhones and it left the area right as we were finishing our dinner. By the time we left the restaurant the rain was gone . . . woo hoo!

At this point, we decided to try to catch at least one of the great attractions in Future World. So, we did Nemo, which I absolutely LOVE. Then, even though there was a 40 minute wait posted, Brian wanted to do Soarin'. We got in line and Brian kept saying "There's NO way this will be a 40 minute wait! Everyone's going over to IllumiNations." About that time, we saw the line. Not awful, but definitely a bit of a wait. Then someone came up to us and said "Excuse me, I have some Fastpasses for this ride . . . would you like them?" We were like "Yeah, thanks!" So in the end, we waited for little more than 10 minutes to ride the coolest ride at EPCOT. Super-cool!

Time to say goodnight to EPCOT:

As we were walking out, the post-IllumiNations crowds were pouring out already, so we had no choice but to follow the herd. Then we started hearing really loud "crowd noises". At first we were afraid that something bad had happened that the crowd was reacting to. But then we realized that it was a bunch of international tour groups (you know the ones that go around with the same shirts on?) that were having a sing-off competition - for lack of a better description. They were having a GREAT time and it made for a very festive ending to the evening.

That's all for Day 2!

Next up . . . Day 3 - Planning Session, Hair and Makeup Trial and Engagement Photos!

 

[acwinsett]

I am loving your mini trip report, it is getting me so excited for my trip! I have to say all the creations you have made for your wedding are incredible! I'm so jealous of your creativity!

Awww . . . thanks! I've got some other fun "creations" to post just as soon as I can finish up my trip report

 

[GoonieBride]

sounds like loads of fun!!! waiting for your PS report!

 

[Chilly]

Must check France out, haven't really explored that area.

 

[acwinsett]

I just wanted to pop in and apologize for the delay in finishing my trip report . . . just when I was about to get to the good stuff!

I have been super-slammed this week playing "travel agent" for my guests. A couple of different things are happening at the same time. First, as you all probably know, Disney released some AMAZING discounts for the general public this week that are better in most cases than our wedding room block rates. So, I've been on the phone with each guest that I know had booked rooms and had them change their reservations.

Our "Honorary Bridesmaid" had 6 nights booked at Caribbean Beach with Deluxe Dining. With the new promo code, her remaining balanced decreased by $400+!

Brian's Mom & Dad had 4 nights booked at Port Orleans French Quarter. With the new promo code, they now have free dining at no extra charge! (They also saved $200 by decreasing the number of days on their park tickets. They originally had 4 day Park Hoppers and we changed them to 1 day 1 park tickets. They'll also get MVMCP tickets - so that's two park days . . . about all they can handle!)

We booked my mom a room at Pop Century for $59 per night!

Now, if we can only get our OWN ressies straightened out (more about that later . . .)

The second thing that happened was that the airfare sales that we've been preaching to our guests about came to an end last night, and I received an email about it just in the nick of time!

Most everyone in our family had listened to our good advice and booked their airfare already. But, while I had emailed my brother and talked to my dad about theirs, I never received a confirmation that they'd booked. So when Fare Compare sent me an alert last night that airfares were changing, I called Dad. I said "Please tell me you've booked your flights!" And he said, "No, we didn't book them yet . . . but I'm at a computer now." Travelocity and Expedia were already showing a fare of $325 for the flight he wanted, but LUCKILY Orbitz and nwa.com (which is powered by Orbitz) were still showing $205 for the flight. So he booked the two tickets. YAY! When I woke up this morning all sites were showing $325 for the flights. He was calling my brother next and I said, "Tell Richard to get his flight!" No word yet on whether he got his on time . . .

So now all we have to do is to figure out our own resort reservations . . . aaahhhgggh!

Waaay back we had made a room-only ressie for a Garden Wing room at the Contemporary for 12/5 to 12/12. We left a deposit of $315 (one room night).

When we switched over to from Escape to Wishes, we decided that we'd extend our honeymoon for a day with our free room night. And when we were setting up our room block we essentially had two options (1) Get our room rates reduced for Garden Wing or (2) Get an upgrade to a Tower Room with Magic Kingdom view for the price we had originally planned to pay. So, we thought "Hey, it's our honeymoon . . . let's stay in a nice room" So we had them put the tower room on our room block.

So, Group Reservations booked our comp night for the first night we're there (12/5) in a Tower Room MK View.

And then in the frenzy on Monday, I called to inquire about free dining. And somehow to the reservation agent talked us into making a new reservation. So now we have a new reservation for a Tower Room MK View with free dining for 12/6 to 12/13. New ressie #, $200 deposit.

Well, after analyzing the true expenses from our Planning Session trip, we realized there was no real advantage (but really no disadvantage, either) to free dining since we have Annual Passes, Tables in Wonderland and a Wedding Room Discount at our disposal. So, the best thing to do would be to cancel the package and take care of everything separately.

BUT . . . we realized there would be SIGNIFICANT savings by switching back to a Garden Wing room. In hindsight, $800 seems an awful lot extra to pay for a location and a view. That's money that could be better spent on dinners, Cirque de Soliel and/or pixie dust for our guests.

Sooooo . . . I sent an email to our reservations coordinator to see if it's too late to change the room block to a Garden Wing room. She referred my back to our wedding coordinator since it would involve a change to our contract. I emailed Karen, our wedding coordinator to see if we could make the change, but she was at a wedding and not able to respond yesterday. We have already fulfilled our 25 guaranteed room nights (in ADDITION to our 7), so it really shouldn't matter which room we select. So now we are looking at:

PLAN A - If they can change the room category on our room block . . . Book everything separately. Garden Wing room at our wedding discount rate, use Tables in Wonderland for dining. We already have our theme park tickets.

PLAN B - Let our room block expire. Book Garden Wing + free dining using the general public promotions. End up with two extra 1-day MYW base tickets for a future trip.

I'd just really like to get it settled today if possible. Then I can cancel the unnecessary ressies and apply all deposits to the one we're planning to use.

So, once the dust settles, I'll pick right back up with the trip report . . . I promise! Have a great day!

 

[Chilly]

Hope you get the hotel sorted quickly.

 

[acwinsett]

Spoke to Kim and Karen yesterday and they have the hotel room thing sorted out for us. They were fine with switching our room block to a less expensive type of room, and I emailed Kim the info for our deposit. Just waiting for a confirmation number from Kim so I get cancel the other ressies we have and transfer the additional $515 in deposits to our new reservation

Before I get back to the planning journal, I wanted to take a moment to share something new I've been doing lately. I started poking around at a way to send out really nice email newsletters, and found a cool new service called MailChimp. It's an online service where you go in and set up your mailing list, then create your really great professional-looking email messages, called "campaigns". The service will send your messages and track how many people read them, who read them, which links they clicked, etc. Best of all, you can set up a free account that allows you to store up to 100 email addresses. With the free account you get 600 "sends" per month. So, for example, I started out with 600 sends, sent a message to 30 addresses, and now I have 570 sends left for the month. So, for something like a wedding, it would be unlikely you would need to exceed the limit for the free account.

Here's a preview of what it looks like in an email inbox:

Click Here to view the whole message.

It doesn't take a whole lot of programming or technical know-how to get this going. (But if you know enough about HTML to do a MySpace page, then it certainly doesn't hurt!) There are pre-designed templates to help you get started.

Also, there are pre-built tools to clean up bad our out-of-date email addresses and, if any user wishes to not receive these types of messages, then they can unsubscribe.

I hope some other brides might find this service helpful!

 

[acwinsett]

Okay, I'm going to crank out as much of this trip report as I can in the next half hour before I have to go to work!

On Monday, July 20th, we had a meeting with our planner, Karen.

For no other reason than to test out the new online dining reservations system, I had made a breakfast reservation for Brian and me for breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe before we met with our planner. Since it was sort of a "fancy" occasion, I thought it would be nice to do something other than a Pop Century food court breakfast.

Our reservation at the GF Cafe was at 7:50 AM so we caught a cab from Pop Century over to Grand Floridian (about $20 with tip, in case anyone is interested).

Brian took a moment to get some photos by the vintage car:

Our breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe was awesome! I loved our waiter . . . he was so great! I ate the Mickey Waffle . . . YUM!

I liked the Grand Floridian Cafe so much that I decided that I would like to host a brunch there on the morning of our wedding for the ladies . . . wedding party and moms, before we start getting ready. So, we'll have brunch around 10:30 or so, and head back to the room around noon to start getting ready. (Our "ready time" is around 3:15 or 3:30)

So, after breakfast we headed over to the Grand Floridian convention center. (Franks is undergoing a renovation, from what we were told. Just Franks, not the Wedding Pavilion, and it's nothing more than a fresh coat of paint.)

We found our way to the building and before just as we were saying "I wonder if were in the right place . . .", we saw THIS!

It didn't take long for us to find our room . . .

Me and Karen Heyn:

So, basically we started out with "show and tell", where I showed Karen samples and photos of stuff we've been working on at home (menu cards, invitations and things like that). Then, we went through our planning packet step by step, discussing every detail.

No big surprises, we were pretty well prepared.

Before too long it was time for SUGAR!!!!

The cakes were sooo good! They brought four of the most popular cake flavors and 8 of the most popular fillings. My first reaction was "Oooo . . . Almond Cake and Amaretto Mousse!" Brian's reaction to my reaction was "Bleccchhhh!". So we first tried the yellow cake with buttercream frosting (we wanted something sort of traditional for our biggest layer). Then we started trying other combos. And I made myself a piece of almond cake with amaretto mouse. Oh. My. God. It was soooooo GOOD!!! After seeing my reaction, Brian reluctantly agreed to try a piece, and guess what?! He loved it too! So, our cake flavors will be (drumroll please . . . . )

Bottom Layer: Almond Cake with Amaretto Mouse
Middle Layer: Marble Cake with Dark Chocolate Mousse
Top Layer: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (with instructions to cut the layer and serve to guests. We have no desire to eat year-old cake on our anniversary!)

Then Rose came over from floral to discuss floral and decor:

And I'm outta time for this morning so I'll do another post this afternoon to elaborate on some details. Have a great day!

 

[Chilly]

Great update

 

[pezaddict231]

Yay, the Planning session starts! I really like the GF Cafe, and I think it will be perfect for a brunch. I love how bright and airy it is.

Those cakes look sooooo good! I think I mainly want to go to the Planning Session for the food and cake tasting!

 

[twenty3curls]

Andreah, I've been a fan of your newsletters and save-the-dates for quite some time after seeing them on the Newsletters thread....and I FINALLY had a chance to read your PJ the last couple of days. Great stuff! I love all your ideas and may be planning to use some as inspiration for my own stuff

My big project for this weekend is newsletters and I loved the info on that MailChimp service....thanks!!

Can't wait to read more!!

 

[GoonieBride]

mmm the cakes tasting looks sooo yummy! your not helping my diet any Andreah. lol

 

[acwinsett]

mmm the cakes tasting looks sooo yummy! your not helping my diet any Andreah. lol

Girl, you don't need my diet help. I saw your PJ . . . you ROCK that wedding gown!

Besides, you know what kind of static I'd get from the DISbrides if I didn't have at least a little food porn. Just wait 'til you see the dessert we got at Citricos Monday night.

 

[acwinsett]

Andreah, I've been a fan of your newsletters and save-the-dates for quite some time after seeing them on the Newsletters thread....and I FINALLY had a chance to read your PJ the last couple of days. Great stuff! I love all your ideas and may be planning to use some as inspiration for my own stuff

My big project for this weekend is newsletters and I loved the info on that MailChimp service....thanks!!

Can't wait to read more!!

Awww . . . blushing! Thanks for the kudos! So nice to meet another California Grill bride!

Feel free to be inspired . . . I think that the menu cards and place cards I'm using would look great on black cardstock instead of silver. Give Minnie a red bow instead of a pink one and you're all set! They'd go great with your invitations.

 

[acwinsett]

I wanted to share a little more details about our planning session but ran out of time when I was doing my last post. So, here's a little more info:

Once Rose got there, we started to discuss all of our floral and decor. First, we talked about personal floral. We're using all roses for our floral in three colors: ivory, fuschia and "Rossini" (which is ivory with fuschia tips). She had printed out the presentation that I sent her and was very very well prepared. She had lots of ideas that fit in with our style.

Brides Bouquet: Rossini Roses
I can't remember what color we're wrapping the stems . . . guess I'll remember when the BEO comes in! There will be a crystal Mickey on the handle.

Bridesmaids' Bouquets: Fuschia Roses
I asked for 6 inch bouquets since both the maid and matron of honor are slender gals. I hope that this will save us a little $$$ as well. Call me cheap, but I just think $125 for bridesmaids bouquets is a little too expensive. We're going to wrap 3/4 in silver with one crystal Mickey on the handle of each.

Honorary Bridesmaid: Toss-style Bouquet in Fuschia Roses

Groom's / Best Man's Bouquet: Ivory Rose with Crystal Mickey

Fathers' Boutonnieres: Ivory Rose

Mothers' Corsages: Ivory Roses with Silver Ribbon

Mothers' Corsages: Ivory Roses

For the Ceremony:

Presentation Roses: Rossini Roses with Silver Ribbon

Unity Candle: Ivory Pillar Candle with Scattered Mickeys, 3 tapers with scattered "single" crystals

Altar Decor: (2) 4 inch tall square vases filled with clear gel, ivory roses arranged in rows and colums, (2) 4 inch tall squre vases filled with clear gel, fuschia roses arranged in rows and columns, (2) 6 inch tall square vases filled with clear gel, rossini roses arranged in rows and columns. A couple of votive candles, a few rose petals sprinkled on the table.

We're not doing any pew or aisle dressings. Super-simple.

For the Reception:

I asked for the altar arrangements to be re-purposed as reception centerpieces. Because we'll want to keep the altar arrangement in place for the formal photos, I said that it would be okay for the centerpieces to be set during the pre-reception / reception. Our guests will see this happening, but that's okay. I didn't see the point in paying for extra flowers. Everything but the centerpieces will be pre-set

Reception Tables:- "Gunmetal Bengaline" tablecloths, standard white plates, scattering of fuschia rose petals, scattering of rhinestone confetti crystals, four real votive candles per table. We'll have white organza napkins with our menu cards folded in them.
- Standard California Grill chairs - I was specific in that I wanted to use the standard California Grill wooden chairs, but if we got to the point to where they had to bring extra chairs in the room, I want them to be covered. I've seen photos where half of the chairs were Cali Grill wooden chairs, and half were standard banquet chairs, which are not attractive. If metal chairs are used, I want them covered. They told me there were enough chairs in the room for all of our guests, so it shouldn't be an issue (unless SOMEBODY keeps inviting more guests . . . )

A note about votive candles in case anyone's interested:
Okay, they just found a way to be flexible on the four lit candle per table limit. They are able to bundle multiple votives in bundles of 2-3 candles tied together by ribbon. You may have up to four of those per table. As long as they're "bundled" they count as one of your four lit candles. This is something they JUST got permission to start doing. However, we opted for the four singles per table.

Bride and groom table:
We'll use 3 of the six centerpieces on our table. (One tall with rossini roses on each side with a short vase with ivory roses in the middle)

The cake table:
We're going to use a different type of tablecloth for the cake table. It's a silver "crinkled" tablecloth. I could tell that Rose REALLY wanted for us to select this tablecloth for our reception tables. (I think they're fairly new). We thought it might just be a little "too much" and were concerned that our placecards wouldn't sit level on the table. But, as a compromise, we're using them for the cake table - very contemporary. It'll be a nice look!

Just waiting on the BEO from floral, but that's what we have planned so far

Up next . . . hair and makeup trial with Patricia LeJeune!

 

[GoonieBride]

Girl, you don't need my diet help. I saw your PJ . . . you ROCK that wedding gown!

Besides, you know what kind of static I'd get from the DISbrides if I didn't have at least a little food porn. Just wait 'til you see the dessert we got at Citricos Monday night.

your too sweet! but now im looking forward to citricos dessert!!

 

[acwinsett]

So after the planning session, we went back to Pop Century and grabbed lunch in the food court. Nothing exciting . . . just chicken nuggets for me and a burger for my sweetie. I so rarely eat "junk food", it was a real treat for me

Then it was scrubby-shower time . . . Patricia LeJeune was scheduled to arrive at 3pm. I put on a pajama top and some shorts. The pajama top was the only thing I had with a button-down front, which, I just figured would be the best thing to wear.

So, here's the "BEFORE" photo:

The "DURING" photos:

And the "AFTER" photos:

Patricia is sooooo AMAZING!!! She's such a sweet and kind lady and she absoultely ROCKS at what she does! I would HIGHLY recommend Patricia to any bride who is considering her.

I asked her about my maid of honor, who would like to have her makeup done, but is allergic to soooo many types of foundation. She's never tried MAC before, though, and I was asking Patricia about it. She offered to come over whenever we get into town, a few days before the wedding, to test some of her makeup on Sonja in a place that wouldn't be too visible, just to see if there's a reaction. I think we're actually going to see if we can get a MAC sample at the mall before we go to Florida. (If there's going to be an issue we'd like to know waaaaayyy in advance). But I just thought it was so sweet for Patricia to offer the test. She said "Just call me, I'll be in the area, I'm sure".

Next, it was time to meet Misty Miotto and Nelio over at the Grand Floridian for our engagement photos. No pictures yet, but I'll post some of them whenever they come in.

Misty and Nelio are really great too! We had a blast at the Grand Floridian and Polynesian taking pictures. We told Misty that we're "risk takers" and would like to do some creative stuff, even if it meant we didn't get as many photos. I think she liked that. Oh my gosh, some of our shots involved ladders, climbing, jumping in sand in heels, stuff like that. I haven't seen ANYTHING yet, not even a sneak peek, but I think we'll get some really great shots.

Misty is such a NICE person. While we were there, I thought it was really sweet. A couple of times during our shoot, she'd see families taking photos with their cameras. She'd offer to take the photos with their cameras (so everyone could be in the picture). Then she'd take photos with her professional camera, as well. Then she'd give them her business card and say "Just send me an email and I'll send you the photos from my camera". And she was very genuine. She wasn't looking for a "sales opportunity" or anything like that . . . she just really enjoys what she does. The way she works is very similar to the way Brian works when he's shooting video. So, we all just "hit it off" right away. I can't wait to work with her again. As a matter of fact, we're going to try to budget for an upgrade to our package with Misty so we're not rushed to get all the shots we would like.

As we neared the end of our photo session, I knew that we had a dinner scheduled at Jiko - clear across Disney property, but I was thinking the reservation was for around 9:30. When I looked at my TripIt iPhone app, I saw that the reservation was for 8:50 . . . and it was already 8:25! So, I decided just to not say anything to anyone. We were having so much fun and Misty had a few more shots she wanted to get before we wrapped.

So, after we said our goodbyes and exchanged hugs, I looked at Brian and said, "How important is it to you to have dinner at Jiko tonight?" He was like "Not all that important." And I said "Good, because our reservation was 5 minutes ago!"

 

[acwinsett]

At that point, we started looking for places to eat. Ohana had openings, but not for a small party. There was going to be like an hour's wait at Kona Cafe. So, Brian decided to get on the phone and call the dining reservations line. He told the lady what had happened and asked if there was any way for her to tell us where there might be openings. She was happy to help. He told her that we were at the monorail stop at the Polynesian so we could get just about anywhere on the monorail line pretty quickly. She couldn't make a reservation on such short notice, but told us there would probably be a table available at Citricos. So, we hopped one monorail-stop over and, sure enough, Citricos got us a table immediately. It was WONDERFUL!!! I'm so glad we ate there.

To be honest, I can't remember what Brian ate, but I started out with a Bellini . . . YUM! Then I ate something called "Bershire Pork Two Ways". Delish! The polenta was divine! But the best part by far was dessert. It was a chocolate banana something, but, even better than my description are the photos:

So we took our stuffed bellies back to Pop Century for our final night!

And I'm SUCH a dork . . . I google'd the phone number on the giant cell phone staircase. Do you know who you get when you call this number? The front desk of Pop Century!

That's all for Day 3! Next up . . . saying goodbye to the DIZ for now!

 

[GoonieBride]

your right, that dessert made my jaw job. im jealous. you looked really nice for your trail, and wow you got L O N G hair! im hoping to get mine that long. cant wait to see some of Misty's shots... hoping it will help me decide. lol