Avery & Jesse's SBP Escape Wedding 11-14-14

[ASailorsPrincess]

Hi everyone! I have been a long-time lurker of the forum and since we're having our wedding at Sea Breeze Point in just 5 months I figured it's a perfect time to start our own planning thread!

Jesse and I will be getting married 11-14-14 at Sea Breeze Point at 230 followed by dinner at the Grand Floridian and ending the night with a dessert party at Canada Overlook in Epcot (pretty perfect seeing as I'm actually Canadian worked out nicely and ironically)

We still have to sort out the smaller details which has proven difficult as Jesse is currently deployed but hoping to get some things nailed down in the next couple of weeks!

Looking forward to sharing with you all

UPDATE

The details
Wedding Date: November 14, 2014
Ceremony: 230pm at Sea Breeze Point
Reception location: Whitehall Room and Patio
Dessert Party: Canada Overlook at Epcot
Hair and Makeup: Beaute Speciale
Photography: Emily Gilbert Photography
DFTW Planner: Nicole Rainear
Resort: Garden Cottages at Boardwalk Inn

 

[ASailorsPrincess]

So a little bit about us

Jesse and I met last May while I was living in MD and he had just been stationed in Norfolk, VA. We met on Tumblr of all places, I know it's strange but we started talking and we found out we only lived three hours apart and decided to meet up and we've been together since. We actually started talking because he posted asking if 6'7" was too tall and being 5'11" myself, I told him it was the perfect height and then we bonded over our love of Harry Potter and pizza.

That August I made the move down to Norfolk to live with him in a small one bedroom apartment and he got me our first fur baby as a gift that October and we had our little family and it's been amazing. That November, Jesse was about two hours away for schooling and so I went up one weekend to visit and he had planned an entire evening for us in historic Fredericksburg which included a carriage ride that evening and dinner. Little did I know he had my engagement ring ready to be presented with dessert (he knows I can't resist chocolate cake ) He was telling me that he could never ask for anything more from me....then the cake was brought out and he got on one knee....and said except to ask you to be my wife. He's just the sweetest and just thinking about it makes me blush and such.


That January we went down to Florida to visit his family as well as take him to Disney for his first time ever! I was in shock he had never been but it was so fun to be there for his first time at Disney. We had an amazing time of course and seeing as I'm such a Disney nut (and he already calls me his princess ) that it only made sense to have a Disney Fairy Tale Wedding.

This past March Jesse left for his first deployment and will be gone until the end of September and silly me thought it would be easy planning an escape wedding on my own unfortunately, I second guess everything and he tends to be the one to help me weigh my options so it's been a little trickier than I had imagined but we're getting there and now we have just five months to go! And only three until he's home! Things are good

 

[Deannacooper93]

Such a romantic story!!! My friend and his wife are stationed up there. Im sorry you have to plan this alone, although you have all of us!!! I always second guess myself on the planning questions and ask my fiance the same questions all the time for reassurance. I can't wait to hear more about your planning.

 

[edeneye]

Congratulations! Five months is a very exciting wait to have remaining, plenty of time to work out those pesky details but it'll also be here before you know it. Or at least I hope so, we're getting married only a few days after you! You've come to the right place too, you'll find a lot of support here and collectively this board probably knows everything there is to know about Disney Weddings so you'll never need to feel too lost. All the best with your planning!

 

[FrozenOne16]

Aww! Your story sounds amazing! I can't wait to hear more details about your wedding!

 

[Saradactyl]

This past March Jesse left for his first deployment and will be gone until the end of September and silly me thought it would be easy planning an escape wedding on my own unfortunately, I second guess everything and he tends to be the one to help me weigh my options so it's been a little trickier than I had imagined but we're getting there and now we have just five months to go! And only three until he's home! Things are good

I think some of us would be willing to weigh in if you need help

 

[omgitsdaniellie]

cute story

 

[elphie101]

So cute! I love your story and can't wait to hear more!

 

[Bewitch324]

Congratulations! I love your story!

Don't worry if you any help planning, lots of us on here LOVE to help with planning!

Good luck!

Brooke

 

[ASailorsPrincess]

Thank you all for reaching out and the support, it makes my heart smile

So a few updates are in order! We just finalized our dessert party menu, we're having PB chocolate chip squares, red velvet whoopie pies, and the donuts flambé with ice cream. Also assorted coffee, tea, water and milk. Jesse really wanted the donuts flambé so I got the other two for me, but not gonna lie, pretty excited for the donuts

Also! We just decided to do a private dinner and we're going to be having it at the Whitehall Room and Patio! I am so excited! I didn't know it was a possibility and now we're doing it. I had fallen in love with the location after seeing another brides reception there and so excited we were able to book it.

Lastly, just got off the phone with the bowling alley and looks like we'll be going bowling in our wedding attire after the dessert party, we just don't want the night to end and thought it would be fun plus make for some awesome pictures in my ball gown

It's still not easy planning without talking to Jesse but he was in port for about a week so we luckily got a lot of details squared away and he was able to put his input in and help out.

Now just need to choose our dinner menu does anyone have any suggestions for doing an escape dinner 'reception.' I'm a big steak eater and Jess and I LOVE the char-grilled steak at the Grand Floridian Cafe so anything along those lines or comparable if anyone has experience with the catering menus would be much appreciated!

 

[ASailorsPrincess]

One of our lifelong family friends will be attending the wedding with her four year old daughter whom we have asked to be our flower girl. We decided to have her wear a Cinderella costume so she'll be like a mini me walking down before me! I am so excited and her mom hasn't told her yet to try and contain the excitement until we're closer to the date and she's going to make a video of them letting her know that she'll be going to Disney for the first time and being the flower girl! I can't wait to see it!

 

[ASailorsPrincess]

As you Escape brides out there know, we get a solo violinist included with the package for the ceremony and cake cutting/champagne toast at the ceremony location. Jesse and I are a fun, upbeat, sometimes kinda cooky couple and we want that to be reflected in our wedding. What I'm wondering is if people have had the solo violinist felt like it was enough for everything or if you'd recommend having an audio set-up to play songs.

My thought was to have the violinist for when I walk down the aisle to 'Wish Upon a Star' and for our recessional we were thinking of doing the audio setup. Jesse likes 'You're So Square' remix by Cee Lo Green (it's from the trailer from the new BoxTrolls movie and just fun and upbeat) and I am torn between that and I'm a Believer or Walking on Sunshine. I just want something fun and happy and feel like a violin won't quite get that feeling across.


Any thoughts?

 

[Giniapup]

We are getting married on the same day! I love all your plans. Whitehall is so pretty its a great choice for your reception. Cant wait to hear more.

 

[ASailorsPrincess]

We are getting married on the same day! I love all your plans. Whitehall is so pretty its a great choice for your reception. Cant wait to hear more.

It's a great day for a wedding

Just got word from our coordinator that we can get the char-grilled NY Strip steak from the Grand Floridian Cafe as our plated meal! I am honestly more excited about this than I probably should be I absolutely love that steak and I'm sure other choices on the plated menu are delicious as well but honestly none sounded all that appealing to me so I am just so excited they were able to accommodate our request!

Sidenote: Since Jesse is in the Navy and currently deployed I found out about this great program put on by Brides Across America called Operation Wedding Gown where salons host events for military brides (either in the military themselves or marrying someone in the military) where they give away free wedding gowns! I honestly cannot believe the generosity of people and am so grateful to have this opportunity to perhaps find my dream gown and no cost. Especially since Jesse is insisting I have my dream Disney wedding and as I'm sure all of you Disney brides know, the costs can add up quickly. I head out of the city tomorrow to go to CT to see what I can find...wish me luck!

Earlier this week I got all of my invites mailed out and hopefully will start to receive RSVPs soon. I'm waiting to reach my ten-post mark so I can start posting pictures! Can't wait to share more with everyone!!

That's all for now folks!

 

[edeneye]

As you Escape brides out there know, we get a solo violinist included with the package for the ceremony and cake cutting/champagne toast at the ceremony location. Jesse and I are a fun, upbeat, sometimes kinda cooky couple and we want that to be reflected in our wedding. What I'm wondering is if people have had the solo violinist felt like it was enough for everything or if you'd recommend having an audio set-up to play songs.

My thought was to have the violinist for when I walk down the aisle to 'Wish Upon a Star' and for our recessional we were thinking of doing the audio setup. Jesse likes 'You're So Square' remix by Cee Lo Green (it's from the trailer from the new BoxTrolls movie and just fun and upbeat) and I am torn between that and I'm a Believer or Walking on Sunshine. I just want something fun and happy and feel like a violin won't quite get that feeling across.


Any thoughts?

I hadn't even realised that was included until we got our planning session questionnaire! Totally slipped my mind! One thought I had about an audio setup vs a live musician is that the live musician will sound more coherent than recordings of various songs. We've enquired about having the Dapper Dans because we're also quite whimsical and we were having such a hard time coming up with a list of songs and once we had they all seemed so eclectic that it could take away from the natural beauty of the surrounds having music clearly changing styles, artists, tempo, sound etc. I was in a wedding recently that had a Cellist perform and it seemed so nice but perhaps a little too in the background. She played a suite of Disney songs and my Fiancee - who was much closer to the cellist than I was - didn't even notice!

So that's basically where my thinking is. A musician can take a wide variety and make it sound unique to your event and potentially fit in with your theme or location but the tradeoff is they may fit in so well you might not notice them at all. An audio setup can be quite noticeable, up to you if that's a good thing or not!

 

[ASailorsPrincess]

I hadn't even realised that was included until we got our planning session questionnaire! Totally slipped my mind! One thought I had about an audio setup vs a live musician is that the live musician will sound more coherent than recordings of various songs. We've enquired about having the Dapper Dans because we're also quite whimsical and we were having such a hard time coming up with a list of songs and once we had they all seemed so eclectic that it could take away from the natural beauty of the surrounds having music clearly changing styles, artists, tempo, sound etc. I was in a wedding recently that had a Cellist perform and it seemed so nice but perhaps a little too in the background. She played a suite of Disney songs and my Fiancee - who was much closer to the cellist than I was - didn't even notice!

So that's basically where my thinking is. A musician can take a wide variety and make it sound unique to your event and potentially fit in with your theme or location but the tradeoff is they may fit in so well you might not notice them at all. An audio setup can be quite noticeable, up to you if that's a good thing or not!

Thanks for the thoughts! That's my thought too with the audio setup is that the songs we'd want are all over the place and I didn't want people to feel like it was so scattered...I mean, it fits for Jesse and I lol but not sure if it would be good for the ceremony.

Thank you again for your opinion! I try and talk to Jesse about stuff like this while he's deployed and it's just hard with little communication to have in-depth conversations about wedding stuff. I think we'll stick to just the violinist...now to decide which songs....

 

[ASailorsPrincess]

So a bit of an update on everything!

Since Jesse isn't really able to get big chunks of time off easily we've decided to kind of spread out our honeymoon and take advantage of our annual passes by participating in different runDisney races!!! We're starting off with the WDW marathon weekend in January and running the Goofy challenge! For those of you that don't know, that's the half marathon on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday, yes, we're crazy people We're running for the charity group Homes For Our Troops, it's a great cause that helps build homes for disabled veterans around the country. We wanted to do the races and also thought it would be great to support a great cause.

We've also already signed up for the Glass Slipper Challenge in February and we're going to be fundraising for TAPS with that one, it's a charity that provides support to the families left behind by service members who were killed while serving. Another great cause that Jesse and I also feel strongly about.
I'm so excited and can't wait to start making my running tutus!

Now for the wedding planning! Not much else has been planned...we did decide on ceremony decor of having paper lanterns hanging over the archway at SBP and rose petals down the aisle. We're sticking with the standard chairs because I like the white. I found a super cute sailor Mickey getting a kiss from Minnie in a pink sparkly dress figurine and thought it was so fitting for my sailor and his princess and I think we'll use that for our cake topper, just to personalize things a bit.

Any brides out there that did a dress change? I've found myself with two dresses with VERY different looks and my mom thinks I just have to wear both but I'm concerned about timing....thoughts?

That's all for now!

 

[ASailorsPrincess]

Completely forgot!! The military discount pricing for the Disney resorts around the time of our wedding opened a couple of weeks ago so we were able to get a discount on the Garden Cottages at the Boardwalk Resort and I didn't even know these places existed and I fell in love!

It'll be perfect to get ready in with the close proximity to Sea Breeze Point and I am so excited for the pictures! It'll be absolutely adorable with the staircase in the room and the private garden and little fence with the gate...I'm just so excited for all of it! It was a bit of a splurge but I think it'll really be worth it.

 

[ASailorsPrincess]

I CAN FINALLY POST PICTURES! That was the problem with me being a long-time lurker but never actually posting anything...oh well.

So here is Jesse and I! Just a few random pictures to share with y'all.

At his ship's holiday party last year


About a month after our engagement, just goofing around


From our first trip to Disney, just HAD to get bride ears and our faces painted


More to come!

 

[ASailorsPrincess]

So here's the goodies we've received so far from Disney for the wedding. I love these little extras, they always make my day.



This one had a little token for 'Prince Charming' and a shoe bag for the big day!