Avery&Todd
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 20, 2010
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- 2,524
OOH I LOVE IT ALL!!! Can't wait for more!
Ben and Libby's Happily Ever After - A Fairytale Wishes Wedding *Updated 14/3/18 + Wedding Video!
- Thread starter Libby_Darling
- Start date
Libby_Darling
Flippin' Her Fins
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2010
- Messages
- 385
Thank you so much!
Hi lovely! So glad you're all caught up! I haven't had a chance to update in a while but i'm back now! Christmas trip was amazing, not too crowded at all! Can't wait to share my PS recaps!!
Hope you're really well! xxxAhhhh brilliant! we met Rev Tim during our Christmas trip and I had my trial with BS - really pleased with both! We're in safe hands! Hope all your planning is going well!
xxxHi! Ahhh December, exciting! Thank you so much, we had the best trip ever! About to post our PS recaps now!
xxxHehe I'm so glad you're enjoying it!!
xxxxx
Libby_Darling
Flippin' Her Fins
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2010
- Messages
- 385
Arghhhh! We’re back from our amazing Christmas trip, and thus back from our Planning Session!! I can’t believe I’m writing our PS recaps this is just so exciting! I’m so sorry I didn’t have time to do any more updates before we go away but hopefully i’ll make up for it now!!
So, here we go!!
Monday 28th December
So we’d been at Disney just over a week already but I’m going to start with the day of the planning session or else we’ll never get there haha! The previous week was incredible though, including Christmas Day!! We stayed at the Clarion Inn as it was a budget trip, and we thought the hotel was great!! So so cheap, and just great service and a great location. We missed being in the Disney bubble though!!
Here are some random snapshots of the 1st week just to give you a feel!
Meeting Richard! Best day ever!!!
The beautiful GF DVC building we’ll be staying at!!
Osborne lights funs!!
Amazing Wishes cruise on Christmas Eve!!
Christmas Day in MK!!!!
Christmas morning brunch at Chef Mickey’s!
Amazing steak at YS on Christmas Day
Okay I only got to the 25th and got slightly carried away with photos as I couldn’t choose between them! So let’s just carry on, back to the 28th!!
We woke up at about 7.30 which was pretty good time for us. I lay in bed for half an hour all excited, reading planning session recaps on Disneymooners on my phone hahah! I eventually got up at 8am, did my hair all nice and then put it up in a bun for pool time! We had a quick breakfast of Cinnabon cereal and almond milk (DREAM combination) and left the room about 9.30am for a quick dip in the pool. The pool was really nice and relaxing, it was already so hot at 9am!! And we both said we’d spend more time in there over the coming days! We were only really in there for half an hour though as we needed to get back and get ready so as not to be late for our PS. Back at the room I pretty much had to restraighten my hair as the combination of putting it in a bun, and the heat, had made it all kinky haha. Oh well! I then selected my most ‘bridal’ of holiday outfits haha, a white cami and jeans I’d been living in short shorts and Disney tops the rest of the week so it felt good to put on something a bit smarter! I obviously wore my silver Mickey necklace too though - couldn’t be at Disney without wearing something Disney!! I’d been wearing my Minnie ears pretty much non-stop up until this day so it felt weird without them haha!
In my bag I packed my notebook, a spare wedding STD, a pen, and my iPad, and Ben bought a rucksack with our usual park bits in (water etc.) MagicBands on, and we were ready to go!! We got the hotel shuttle to Epcot at 11.15.
Standing outside waiting for the shuttle!
Once we got to Epcot, we then got the monorail to the TTC, and then the monorail to the GF. It was a pretty long journey but we got there in plenty of time so I was happy
I popped to the loo in the GF and Ben was waiting for me outside. When I came out we both noticed a large sign by the check in bit and we saw this!!!
We were so so excited and waited for it to come round twice more so we could get photos and pretty much just stare at it haha! So so cool, we felt like celebrities!! I just love all the little touches Disney do
As we were there so early (12.15) we decided to go to the GF pool bar for a cocktail before our PS! We’d actually tried to get drinks there the day before (we spent sooooooo much time at the GF this trip it was crazy!!) but we didn’t have our passports! The lady at the bar felt soooo bad and then said she loved us because I told her not to worry, it wasn’t her fault! She was like, “Thank you so much! No-ones ever said that before!!” bless. So we went back with our passports and she was there, and she said she was so happy to be able to serve us haha!
It was so so relaxing and chilled out, sipping our cocktails and staring out over the water. I was getting so excited!! I’m not sure if it’s good etiquette to have a cocktail before your planning session but hey, we were on holiday!!
We finished our drinks and walked down to Francks about 12.50. Annnnnd in those famous doors we went!!!
There was a lovely friendly receptionist who asked us if we were just looking around, and I was so excited to say we had an appointment with Lisa! She told us to have a look around and she’d go and get Lisa, and she got us 2 diet cokes.
So many pretties!!
We barely had a chance to look at the beautiful decor in Francks before Lisa appeared! She is so so lovely!! Really down to earth and quite business like, but also really interested in us and our relationship and our plans I think she’s a brilliant match for us!
I didn’t make a note of the room but I believe it was the Merriweather room, it was really lovely with a big glass table and plenty of chairs. We started off with a quick friendly chat about our stay so far and what we’d been up to, and I made sure to thank her and say how pleased we were that we were able to do our PS so far out. It was something I’d been so worried about as we had to book our flights and accommodation way before we even knew if we’d be able to do a PS over Christmas. They do say 6 months so I really appreciated them us accommodating us. Lisa said we were coming from so far that they would have done everything they could, and as we were there for 2 weeks it wasn’t an issue. Phew! After that, it was down to business!!
First of all we went through timelines. She handed us printed sheets which has the exact dates we need to pay for everything, and the last dates we can make changes to food, guest count etc. I found this so helpful and will definitely be referring to it a lot this year! I got a new Erin Condren 2016 Life Planner so I’ll probably copy the dates onto there as well so I’m organised! As we’re still over 9 months out though, we’ve got lots of time The BEO is normally sent 4-6 weeks after the PS but again, as we’re so far out, it could be longer which I fully expected. If we haven’t heard by like 2 months I’ll probably start getting angsty! She also said prices wouldn’t be finalised til 6 months which again is fine.
The first thing we discussed was the day before the wedding. We said we would ideally like the rehearsal at the WP. We’re hoping to get a group reservation for ‘Ohana at around 5pm that evening, so Lisa has pencilled in a 3/3.30 rehearsal to give us time to get to ‘Ohana. She started talking about the rehearsal and Rev Tim and we said we weren’t having him for the rehearsal which she seemed surprised about. She suggested we did because it’s something she can’t really do. However, we told her we had met him, and he said he wouldn’t give couples the option not to have him at the rehearsal if it was essential he be there! So we were confused! It’s only $100 but all these little things are going to add up...we’re going to see how the budget is looking closer to the time. Once she realised we’d already met him, and that we have such a small bridal party, she seemed to relent a bit. So we’ll see nearer the time! Our back-up for the rehearsal will be possibly the Grand Floridian Cafe, but she said fingers crossed we should be okay getting ‘Ohana as it’s normally brides who are planning last minute who can’t get in. I’ll be ready to call the second the clock strikes 11, 6 months before!!!
So just to recap!
Rehearsal: Hopefully Wedding Pavilion at 3.30pm, 18/10/16
Rehearsal dinner: ‘Ohana 5pm
Then it was onto the big day, the Wedding Day!! We talked about every single detail of the timeline and it was so good to really get stuck in and discuss all the different aspects!! She kind of started off by working backwards from the time of the wedding which was cool! Just to keep things simple for me though haha, I’ll start from the morning
So! First thing will be Carolynn Allen’s arriving about 8.00 to steam my dress. I need to check with Beaute Speciale what time they’ll get there to do my hair and makeup, my Mum’s hair and make-up, and my maid of honours hair and make-up. Lisa said I need to be completely done hair and make-up wise by 11.30am. So I’m thinking like 8.30am? Let’s go with that for the time being!
8.00am - Carolynn Allen arrive to steam my dress
8.30am - Beaute Speciale arrive
11.30am - My hair and make-up finished!
We’ll then have a good 45 minutes of chilling time where I can compose myself, until Trinity and Ashley Jane arrive at 12.15. Now this has been a stressful thing to decide on as I’d like Ashley there longer but we’ve already paid for 10 hours and it’s an extra £330 to add on another hour, and we’d also get a credit for an album or print or something but this isn’t something we really needed. As Wishes isn’t on til 10pm, I’d like her to be there 12.15 - 10.15 so she can shoot Wishes too. As we get nearer the date and I feel like this isn’t enough time for her to do getting ready photos, I may just pay for the extra hour. 11 hours just feels like so much, and £330 is a lot!! Anyway lets stick with these timings for now. So photog and videog will arrive at 12.15, I’ll get into my dress, Ashley will take details shots.
12.15 - Photography and videography arrive
12.45 - Floral delivered to room (I’m not sure if this is right, I may ask for it to be earlier actually so Ashley can get her photos with my bouquet etc)
1.00 - First look with Dad (just added this in but Ashley said we’ll have time so fingers crossed! I’d like everyone to leave the room except me/Dad/photog and videog)
1.15 - Leave room to walk to GF lobby (I just added this in as Lisa said my photos will be from 1.30, so wanted to add in time to walk down there!)
1.30 - Photos in GF lobby with family and bridal party (Mum, Dad, Maid of Honour, brother, his girlfriend, and 2 nieces)
So that’s how my morning will roll! And Benji’s will go like this...
12.30 - Ben and family/best man etc meet in GF lobby for photos (Best man, Dad and wife, Mum and husband, and little brother)
12.45 - Boutonnieres delivered
1.00 - Photos with family etc in GF lobby
1.30 - Leave for WP before I get there haha!
Lisa then asked how our families would be getting to the Grand Floridian for photos and we said we’ve suggested they get taxis, and Ben’s Mum and her family will drive as they’re staying in a villa. She then suggested something we thought was a great idea. We can arrange towncars for $30ish each to go and pick them up from their resorts and drop them at the GF! Bargain, and a lovely gesture we think. So, we’ll have one towncar at Saratoga Springs which will pick up Ben’s Dad, his wife and little brother, and my Dad. (My Mum will probably be staying the night with me at the GF.) We’ll also send one to Coronado Springs to pick up my brother, his girlfriend, and my two little nieces. Ben’s Mum and her family will probably drive and park their car at the WP overnight, with a taxi back. These will arrive about 12 - 12.15 to pick them all up.
Next we discussed the ceremony itself! We will make programs for everyone, which we’ll give to Lisa at the rehearsal along with our other bits and bobs, and she’ll put them in a basket at the WP for us. Parents will have theirs waiting for them on their chairs.
The ceremony will be at 2.30pm. We haven’t really nailed down music yet but we have some ideas! We were lucky enough to meet with Bill the organist a couple of days before our PS and he was just the coolest guy ever! When we met him he said he’d been thinking about our choices as he drove to the WP which we thought was so sweet! We wanted to hear the organ as we weren’t sure how it would sound. It was beautiful though! And he raised such a good point!! Ben had the idea of him and his best man walking in to ‘Ooh de lally’ from Robin Hood, but Bill pointed out it kinda gets lost when the words aren’t heard! So although it sounded lovely on the organ, we’ve decided to use a CD or iPod recording of it, whichever Lisa tells us. We’d also like “There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow” for our recessional as it’s one of my favourite attractions at WDW and we think it’s extremely fitting for a recessional!! Again, this works much better with the lyrics so we’ll also play this on a cd. We need to decide on the other songs which I think will be a fun task
We’ll either be doing a sand ceremony or a wine box, which is something Rev Tim suggested to us when we met him and is an idea we both like. Need to look into this and decide! We’ll also be having a couple of friends do a reading, so we need to decide on these and ask them if they will!
We then moved onto transport. I’d always wanted a ‘59 Cadillac on my wedding day, and I thought I’d seen that Coles do a ‘59 Cadillac Coupe Deville in cream. Perfect! However Lisa was scrolling through a slideshow with the different cars and it wasn’t on there
She then said whichever classic car we did get, it wouldn’t really be a shuttle. It would literally take Benj and Jason (Best Man), and then come back for me and my Dad. So my Mum and the rest of our families would have to walk from the GF to the WP. Not the worst thing, but not ideal either if it’s warm or raining. She then suggested a limousine and I was a bit meh. Nothing against limos, they just don’t really go with my vision for the wedding! However!! She said they hold 8, and it will shuttle everyone back and forth until everyone is at the WP! AND! It can then take our guests from the WP to the Whitehall Room, which we just thought was the best thing ever! No-one will be expecting this, they’ll probably just think it’s for me and Benj, and how cool to be able to say right everyone in, and we’ll meet you there! Lisa then told us the price….$107 an hour for a minimum of 3 hours, and a classic car could be anything from $600-1200!! Woahhhh! So we were totally on board with this idea. We both feel really happy about this decision - giving our guests the best experience is our priority and you don’t get many weddings in the UK where everyone piles into a limo to get to the reception!
So after the ceremony, we’ll have group photos with all our guests in the wedding pavilion. We’ll then do the staged petal toss goodbye, and then most of our guests will go in the limo to the Whitehall Room, and immediate family will stay for more photos. After these photos they’ll also go in the limo to the WHR, and me and Benj will do photos on our own
We’ll then aim to arrive at the reception area about 15 minutes before the end of cocktail hour. Lisa said we’ll get a plate of food (which is essential!!!) and we’ll be able to see the reception space before anyone else. However, I’m not really sure how this will work as surely our guests will have to walk through the room before they go onto the patio for cocktail hour? Not sure about that!
We then had a long chat about the bar. Me and Benj had discussed this at length, and we’d pretty much decided on the packaged bar. Again, we want to give our guests the best experience, and offering them a free bar will go down a storm haha! We’re all pretty big drinkers, both in our families and our friends! Lisa explained it all really well for us. We’d decided to enquire on prices for 2 or 3 hours, and ask if we could maybe have a cash bar in the middle for an hour or two, where guests could buy their own drinks and we could keep costs down. Lisa said this might get confusing and we’d have to let them know when it was a free bar, and when it was cash etc. Fair enough. But then she said why don’t we do the 4 hour, but make it last 5 hours by closing it for 30 minutes during the speeches, and then 30 minutes during dinner. Which slightly confused me because I thought that would be just as confusing, but Ben and Lisa seemed to be on the same page and it was just me confused haha so I just kind of followed along! I was just really pleased Disney would let us split the 5 hours up into 4 as I didn’t think they would! So we’ve gone for the 4 hour call beer and wine, the cheapest beer and wine package. We aren’t at all wine people haha so the cheaper the better! The beer was all brands we’d heard of and like anyway so we were really impressed! It’s so cheap, it’s like £30 a person for 4 hours once tax etc is added. Considering one glass of wine is like $9 if they were buying it cash, I really think it’s a good deal. We’re prepared to cut back on the food if we go over, to make the package bar happen.
We then discussed the cocktail! We were excited to discover the package bar includes the cocktail, and that it will be available for the full 4 hours
Awesome! We thought it was just cocktail hour! So that made me feel even happier because if anyone did fancy a vodka or rum based drink, they could get the cocktail! I asked if people could go up and buy say a rum and coke if they wanted to and pay cash, but Lisa said they’d only bring beer and wine. Which makes sense. And Ben said he doubted anyone would pay for liquor if there was a free bar - we wouldn’t haha! We need to decide which cocktail we’re going to go for, but we’re leaning towards getting a blue one and calling it something to do with our cat! She’s a Birman and she has these gorgeous blue eyes, so it’ll be a cute nod to her as obviously she can’t be there. I need to think of a name and make a little card for it
We then moved onto music and entertainment! Phew, we’d covered so much already! We chatted at length about a DJ. Initially Lisa said she would really recommend a DJ. We’ve talk about this quite a lot, and we were both leaning towards the iPod set up. I knew the price difference was considerable, and with the other entertainment we want it just doesn’t seem feasible, or even that necessary! So, other entertainment! If budget allows we’d like the Dapper Dans and a caricature artist. Unfortunately both have recently gone up a LOT in price so we’ll have to see nearer the time if we can have both! So once she knew we were hoping to have both of those, she seemed to kind of relent a bit and say an iPod would be fine. The thing is we’re trying to stick to the minimum as much as possible and if it came down to it, the DD’s and a caricaturist would both beat a DJ. An iPod set up is like $300 or something, we can make our own music and playlists which is really good because a DJ might not play our kind of music! I mean I know they would, but if we make the playlists we can have full creative control! Ben is massively into music, it’s his job haha, so I know he’s really keen to have great music. Plus it’s a small group and it’s a fairly early reception (we’ll be leaving at 8.30 for the DP) so it’s not like UK receptions where we’re all dancing and drinking til midnight. That’s exactly why we’re having our UK reception! That will be a big party!! Lisa then started saying that DJ’s can be good as they get people up and dancing, which is true, but then she said like they’ll do games to get the crowd going, like boys vs girls singing Frozen and Mulan…..errrr no thank you! Haha I had to laugh but that’s pretty much exactly what we don’t want! Don’t get me wrong I love cheesy music, and there will be a lot on any playlists I get a say in hahah, but cheesy sing-offs? Eek! So I think that pretty much made our minds up! I’m going to carry on doing research on iPod set-ups and what other brides have to say about them, but at the moment I think we’re really leaning that way. We’ve got a fun group and I know people will be up dancing once the drinks are flowing, regardless of a DJ encouraging them! Ooh I do need to clarify if we get a dance floor, or if we’ll just dance on the carpet haha!
Lisa then asked if we had anyone in mind to do announcements, organise the music and generally keep the party going, and we said our friend Ian He’ll be the MC and he’s super organised and has been to Disney loads of times, so we’ll just fill him in on everything before we go
So, the rough run down of the wedding day, post-ceremony!
3.30 - 4.30 - Cocktail hour
4.30 - Reception starts, Dapper Dan’s 1st set
4.45 - Dinner
5.30 - Caricature artist arrives for 3 hours
5.30 - DD’s second set
5.45 - Speeches until 6.15
6.30 - 8.30 - Dancing, cake
8.30 - Group walk down to Sago Cay
9.00 - Dessert party with drinks and food
10.00 - Wishes (not confirmed but likely time)
10.30 - Fin!
Depending on how tired we are, we may invite any guests who fancy it to Mizner’s Lounge with us for a couple of drinks But if we’re too tired we’ll just go to bed haha!
I’ll leave it there for now! Hope everyones enjoying! Next up...menu tasting!!
So, here we go!!
Monday 28th December
So we’d been at Disney just over a week already but I’m going to start with the day of the planning session or else we’ll never get there haha! The previous week was incredible though, including Christmas Day!! We stayed at the Clarion Inn as it was a budget trip, and we thought the hotel was great!! So so cheap, and just great service and a great location. We missed being in the Disney bubble though!!
Here are some random snapshots of the 1st week just to give you a feel!
Meeting Richard! Best day ever!!!
The beautiful GF DVC building we’ll be staying at!!
Osborne lights funs!!
Amazing Wishes cruise on Christmas Eve!!
Christmas Day in MK!!!!
Christmas morning brunch at Chef Mickey’s!
Amazing steak at YS on Christmas Day
Okay I only got to the 25th and got slightly carried away with photos as I couldn’t choose between them! So let’s just carry on, back to the 28th!!
We woke up at about 7.30 which was pretty good time for us. I lay in bed for half an hour all excited, reading planning session recaps on Disneymooners on my phone hahah! I eventually got up at 8am, did my hair all nice and then put it up in a bun for pool time! We had a quick breakfast of Cinnabon cereal and almond milk (DREAM combination) and left the room about 9.30am for a quick dip in the pool. The pool was really nice and relaxing, it was already so hot at 9am!! And we both said we’d spend more time in there over the coming days! We were only really in there for half an hour though as we needed to get back and get ready so as not to be late for our PS. Back at the room I pretty much had to restraighten my hair as the combination of putting it in a bun, and the heat, had made it all kinky haha. Oh well! I then selected my most ‘bridal’ of holiday outfits haha, a white cami and jeans
I’d been living in short shorts and Disney tops the rest of the week so it felt good to put on something a bit smarter! I obviously wore my silver Mickey necklace too though - couldn’t be at Disney without wearing something Disney!! I’d been wearing my Minnie ears pretty much non-stop up until this day so it felt weird without them haha!In my bag I packed my notebook, a spare wedding STD, a pen, and my iPad, and Ben bought a rucksack with our usual park bits in (water etc.) MagicBands on, and we were ready to go!! We got the hotel shuttle to Epcot at 11.15.
Standing outside waiting for the shuttle!
Once we got to Epcot, we then got the monorail to the TTC, and then the monorail to the GF. It was a pretty long journey but we got there in plenty of time so I was happy
I popped to the loo in the GF and Ben was waiting for me outside. When I came out we both noticed a large sign by the check in bit and we saw this!!!
We were so so excited and waited for it to come round twice more so we could get photos and pretty much just stare at it haha! So so cool, we felt like celebrities!! I just love all the little touches Disney do
As we were there so early (12.15) we decided to go to the GF pool bar for a cocktail before our PS! We’d actually tried to get drinks there the day before (we spent sooooooo much time at the GF this trip it was crazy!!) but we didn’t have our passports! The lady at the bar felt soooo bad and then said she loved us because I told her not to worry, it wasn’t her fault! She was like, “Thank you so much! No-ones ever said that before!!” bless. So we went back with our passports and she was there, and she said she was so happy to be able to serve us haha!
It was so so relaxing and chilled out, sipping our cocktails and staring out over the water. I was getting so excited!! I’m not sure if it’s good etiquette to have a cocktail before your planning session but hey, we were on holiday!!
We finished our drinks and walked down to Francks about 12.50. Annnnnd in those famous doors we went!!!
There was a lovely friendly receptionist who asked us if we were just looking around, and I was so excited to say we had an appointment with Lisa! She told us to have a look around and she’d go and get Lisa, and she got us 2 diet cokes.
So many pretties!!
We barely had a chance to look at the beautiful decor in Francks before Lisa appeared! She is so so lovely!! Really down to earth and quite business like, but also really interested in us and our relationship and our plans
I think she’s a brilliant match for us!I didn’t make a note of the room but I believe it was the Merriweather room, it was really lovely with a big glass table and plenty of chairs. We started off with a quick friendly chat about our stay so far and what we’d been up to, and I made sure to thank her and say how pleased we were that we were able to do our PS so far out. It was something I’d been so worried about as we had to book our flights and accommodation way before we even knew if we’d be able to do a PS over Christmas. They do say 6 months so I really appreciated them us accommodating us. Lisa said we were coming from so far that they would have done everything they could, and as we were there for 2 weeks it wasn’t an issue. Phew! After that, it was down to business!!
First of all we went through timelines. She handed us printed sheets which has the exact dates we need to pay for everything, and the last dates we can make changes to food, guest count etc. I found this so helpful and will definitely be referring to it a lot this year! I got a new Erin Condren 2016 Life Planner so I’ll probably copy the dates onto there as well so I’m organised! As we’re still over 9 months out though, we’ve got lots of time
The BEO is normally sent 4-6 weeks after the PS but again, as we’re so far out, it could be longer which I fully expected. If we haven’t heard by like 2 months I’ll probably start getting angsty! She also said prices wouldn’t be finalised til 6 months which again is fine.The first thing we discussed was the day before the wedding. We said we would ideally like the rehearsal at the WP. We’re hoping to get a group reservation for ‘Ohana at around 5pm that evening, so Lisa has pencilled in a 3/3.30 rehearsal to give us time to get to ‘Ohana. She started talking about the rehearsal and Rev Tim and we said we weren’t having him for the rehearsal which she seemed surprised about. She suggested we did because it’s something she can’t really do. However, we told her we had met him, and he said he wouldn’t give couples the option not to have him at the rehearsal if it was essential he be there! So we were confused! It’s only $100 but all these little things are going to add up...we’re going to see how the budget is looking closer to the time. Once she realised we’d already met him, and that we have such a small bridal party, she seemed to relent a bit. So we’ll see nearer the time! Our back-up for the rehearsal will be possibly the Grand Floridian Cafe, but she said fingers crossed we should be okay getting ‘Ohana as it’s normally brides who are planning last minute who can’t get in. I’ll be ready to call the second the clock strikes 11, 6 months before!!!
So just to recap!
Rehearsal: Hopefully Wedding Pavilion at 3.30pm, 18/10/16
Rehearsal dinner: ‘Ohana 5pm
Then it was onto the big day, the Wedding Day!! We talked about every single detail of the timeline and it was so good to really get stuck in and discuss all the different aspects!! She kind of started off by working backwards from the time of the wedding which was cool! Just to keep things simple for me though haha, I’ll start from the morning
So! First thing will be Carolynn Allen’s arriving about 8.00 to steam my dress. I need to check with Beaute Speciale what time they’ll get there to do my hair and makeup, my Mum’s hair and make-up, and my maid of honours hair and make-up. Lisa said I need to be completely done hair and make-up wise by 11.30am. So I’m thinking like 8.30am? Let’s go with that for the time being!
8.00am - Carolynn Allen arrive to steam my dress
8.30am - Beaute Speciale arrive
11.30am - My hair and make-up finished!
We’ll then have a good 45 minutes of chilling time where I can compose myself, until Trinity and Ashley Jane arrive at 12.15. Now this has been a stressful thing to decide on as I’d like Ashley there longer but we’ve already paid for 10 hours and it’s an extra £330 to add on another hour, and we’d also get a credit for an album or print or something but this isn’t something we really needed. As Wishes isn’t on til 10pm, I’d like her to be there 12.15 - 10.15 so she can shoot Wishes too. As we get nearer the date and I feel like this isn’t enough time for her to do getting ready photos, I may just pay for the extra hour. 11 hours just feels like so much, and £330 is a lot!! Anyway lets stick with these timings for now. So photog and videog will arrive at 12.15, I’ll get into my dress, Ashley will take details shots.
12.15 - Photography and videography arrive
12.45 - Floral delivered to room (I’m not sure if this is right, I may ask for it to be earlier actually so Ashley can get her photos with my bouquet etc)
1.00 - First look with Dad (just added this in but Ashley said we’ll have time so fingers crossed! I’d like everyone to leave the room except me/Dad/photog and videog)
1.15 - Leave room to walk to GF lobby (I just added this in as Lisa said my photos will be from 1.30, so wanted to add in time to walk down there!)
1.30 - Photos in GF lobby with family and bridal party (Mum, Dad, Maid of Honour, brother, his girlfriend, and 2 nieces)
So that’s how my morning will roll! And Benji’s will go like this...
12.30 - Ben and family/best man etc meet in GF lobby for photos (Best man, Dad and wife, Mum and husband, and little brother)
12.45 - Boutonnieres delivered
1.00 - Photos with family etc in GF lobby
1.30 - Leave for WP before I get there haha!
Lisa then asked how our families would be getting to the Grand Floridian for photos and we said we’ve suggested they get taxis, and Ben’s Mum and her family will drive as they’re staying in a villa. She then suggested something we thought was a great idea. We can arrange towncars for $30ish each to go and pick them up from their resorts and drop them at the GF! Bargain, and a lovely gesture we think. So, we’ll have one towncar at Saratoga Springs which will pick up Ben’s Dad, his wife and little brother, and my Dad. (My Mum will probably be staying the night with me at the GF.) We’ll also send one to Coronado Springs to pick up my brother, his girlfriend, and my two little nieces. Ben’s Mum and her family will probably drive and park their car at the WP overnight, with a taxi back. These will arrive about 12 - 12.15 to pick them all up.
Next we discussed the ceremony itself! We will make programs for everyone, which we’ll give to Lisa at the rehearsal along with our other bits and bobs, and she’ll put them in a basket at the WP for us. Parents will have theirs waiting for them on their chairs.
The ceremony will be at 2.30pm. We haven’t really nailed down music yet but we have some ideas! We were lucky enough to meet with Bill the organist a couple of days before our PS and he was just the coolest guy ever! When we met him he said he’d been thinking about our choices as he drove to the WP which we thought was so sweet! We wanted to hear the organ as we weren’t sure how it would sound. It was beautiful though! And he raised such a good point!! Ben had the idea of him and his best man walking in to ‘Ooh de lally’ from Robin Hood, but Bill pointed out it kinda gets lost when the words aren’t heard! So although it sounded lovely on the organ, we’ve decided to use a CD or iPod recording of it, whichever Lisa tells us. We’d also like “There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow” for our recessional as it’s one of my favourite attractions at WDW and we think it’s extremely fitting for a recessional!! Again, this works much better with the lyrics so we’ll also play this on a cd. We need to decide on the other songs which I think will be a fun task
We’ll either be doing a sand ceremony or a wine box, which is something Rev Tim suggested to us when we met him and is an idea we both like. Need to look into this and decide! We’ll also be having a couple of friends do a reading, so we need to decide on these and ask them if they will!
We then moved onto transport. I’d always wanted a ‘59 Cadillac on my wedding day, and I thought I’d seen that Coles do a ‘59 Cadillac Coupe Deville in cream. Perfect! However Lisa was scrolling through a slideshow with the different cars and it wasn’t on there
She then said whichever classic car we did get, it wouldn’t really be a shuttle. It would literally take Benj and Jason (Best Man), and then come back for me and my Dad. So my Mum and the rest of our families would have to walk from the GF to the WP. Not the worst thing, but not ideal either if it’s warm or raining. She then suggested a limousine and I was a bit meh. Nothing against limos, they just don’t really go with my vision for the wedding! However!! She said they hold 8, and it will shuttle everyone back and forth until everyone is at the WP! AND! It can then take our guests from the WP to the Whitehall Room, which we just thought was the best thing ever! No-one will be expecting this, they’ll probably just think it’s for me and Benj, and how cool to be able to say right everyone in, and we’ll meet you there! Lisa then told us the price….$107 an hour for a minimum of 3 hours, and a classic car could be anything from $600-1200!! Woahhhh! So we were totally on board with this idea. We both feel really happy about this decision - giving our guests the best experience is our priority and you don’t get many weddings in the UK where everyone piles into a limo to get to the reception!So after the ceremony, we’ll have group photos with all our guests in the wedding pavilion. We’ll then do the staged petal toss goodbye, and then most of our guests will go in the limo to the Whitehall Room, and immediate family will stay for more photos. After these photos they’ll also go in the limo to the WHR, and me and Benj will do photos on our own
We’ll then aim to arrive at the reception area about 15 minutes before the end of cocktail hour. Lisa said we’ll get a plate of food (which is essential!!!) and we’ll be able to see the reception space before anyone else. However, I’m not really sure how this will work as surely our guests will have to walk through the room before they go onto the patio for cocktail hour? Not sure about that!
We then had a long chat about the bar. Me and Benj had discussed this at length, and we’d pretty much decided on the packaged bar. Again, we want to give our guests the best experience, and offering them a free bar will go down a storm haha! We’re all pretty big drinkers, both in our families and our friends! Lisa explained it all really well for us. We’d decided to enquire on prices for 2 or 3 hours, and ask if we could maybe have a cash bar in the middle for an hour or two, where guests could buy their own drinks and we could keep costs down. Lisa said this might get confusing and we’d have to let them know when it was a free bar, and when it was cash etc. Fair enough. But then she said why don’t we do the 4 hour, but make it last 5 hours by closing it for 30 minutes during the speeches, and then 30 minutes during dinner. Which slightly confused me because I thought that would be just as confusing, but Ben and Lisa seemed to be on the same page and it was just me confused haha so I just kind of followed along! I was just really pleased Disney would let us split the 5 hours up into 4 as I didn’t think they would! So we’ve gone for the 4 hour call beer and wine, the cheapest beer and wine package. We aren’t at all wine people haha so the cheaper the better! The beer was all brands we’d heard of and like anyway so we were really impressed! It’s so cheap, it’s like £30 a person for 4 hours once tax etc is added. Considering one glass of wine is like $9 if they were buying it cash, I really think it’s a good deal. We’re prepared to cut back on the food if we go over, to make the package bar happen.
We then discussed the cocktail! We were excited to discover the package bar includes the cocktail, and that it will be available for the full 4 hours
Awesome! We thought it was just cocktail hour! So that made me feel even happier because if anyone did fancy a vodka or rum based drink, they could get the cocktail! I asked if people could go up and buy say a rum and coke if they wanted to and pay cash, but Lisa said they’d only bring beer and wine. Which makes sense. And Ben said he doubted anyone would pay for liquor if there was a free bar - we wouldn’t haha! We need to decide which cocktail we’re going to go for, but we’re leaning towards getting a blue one and calling it something to do with our cat! She’s a Birman and she has these gorgeous blue eyes, so it’ll be a cute nod to her as obviously she can’t be there. I need to think of a name and make a little card for it We then moved onto music and entertainment! Phew, we’d covered so much already! We chatted at length about a DJ. Initially Lisa said she would really recommend a DJ. We’ve talk about this quite a lot, and we were both leaning towards the iPod set up. I knew the price difference was considerable, and with the other entertainment we want it just doesn’t seem feasible, or even that necessary! So, other entertainment! If budget allows we’d like the Dapper Dans and a caricature artist. Unfortunately both have recently gone up a LOT in price so we’ll have to see nearer the time if we can have both! So once she knew we were hoping to have both of those, she seemed to kind of relent a bit and say an iPod would be fine. The thing is we’re trying to stick to the minimum as much as possible and if it came down to it, the DD’s and a caricaturist would both beat a DJ. An iPod set up is like $300 or something, we can make our own music and playlists which is really good because a DJ might not play our kind of music! I mean I know they would, but if we make the playlists we can have full creative control! Ben is massively into music, it’s his job haha, so I know he’s really keen to have great music. Plus it’s a small group and it’s a fairly early reception (we’ll be leaving at 8.30 for the DP) so it’s not like UK receptions where we’re all dancing and drinking til midnight. That’s exactly why we’re having our UK reception! That will be a big party!! Lisa then started saying that DJ’s can be good as they get people up and dancing, which is true, but then she said like they’ll do games to get the crowd going, like boys vs girls singing Frozen and Mulan…..errrr no thank you! Haha I had to laugh but that’s pretty much exactly what we don’t want! Don’t get me wrong I love cheesy music, and there will be a lot on any playlists I get a say in hahah, but cheesy sing-offs? Eek! So I think that pretty much made our minds up! I’m going to carry on doing research on iPod set-ups and what other brides have to say about them, but at the moment I think we’re really leaning that way. We’ve got a fun group and I know people will be up dancing once the drinks are flowing, regardless of a DJ encouraging them! Ooh I do need to clarify if we get a dance floor, or if we’ll just dance on the carpet haha!
Lisa then asked if we had anyone in mind to do announcements, organise the music and generally keep the party going, and we said our friend Ian
He’ll be the MC and he’s super organised and has been to Disney loads of times, so we’ll just fill him in on everything before we go So, the rough run down of the wedding day, post-ceremony!
3.30 - 4.30 - Cocktail hour
4.30 - Reception starts, Dapper Dan’s 1st set
4.45 - Dinner
5.30 - Caricature artist arrives for 3 hours
5.30 - DD’s second set
5.45 - Speeches until 6.15
6.30 - 8.30 - Dancing, cake
8.30 - Group walk down to Sago Cay
9.00 - Dessert party with drinks and food
10.00 - Wishes (not confirmed but likely time)
10.30 - Fin!
Depending on how tired we are, we may invite any guests who fancy it to Mizner’s Lounge with us for a couple of drinks
But if we’re too tired we’ll just go to bed haha! I’ll leave it there for now! Hope everyones enjoying! Next up...menu tasting!!
rachel09985
DIS Veteran
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- Jun 6, 2009
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- 3,534
So glad you are back to tell us all about it!
1.) We did not have Reverand Tim come to the rehearsal. It is totally not necessary. I don't know what your planner is talking about! The only thing it might be good for is to be a little bit more personal on the wedding day, but I am totally with you to save $100!
2.) Regarding Ashley, I would definitely add an hour. It is one of my biggest regrets that I didn't add more time to both ends so she could photograph more getting ready pictures and Soarin.
3.) I have to agree with your wedding planner about the DJ. Our DJ(Charles Miles) was incredible and he made the party. He was awesome. However, I laughed soo hard about that sing off. That does sound horrible -- I am totally with you. We expressed to our DJ that we didn't want a lot of disney at all. He was perfect about that.
I am so looking forward to the rest. And you are absolutely gorgeous in all your photos! Your hair is amazing.
1.) We did not have Reverand Tim come to the rehearsal. It is totally not necessary. I don't know what your planner is talking about! The only thing it might be good for is to be a little bit more personal on the wedding day, but I am totally with you to save $100!
2.) Regarding Ashley, I would definitely add an hour. It is one of my biggest regrets that I didn't add more time to both ends so she could photograph more getting ready pictures and Soarin.
3.) I have to agree with your wedding planner about the DJ. Our DJ(Charles Miles) was incredible and he made the party. He was awesome. However, I laughed soo hard about that sing off. That does sound horrible -- I am totally with you. We expressed to our DJ that we didn't want a lot of disney at all. He was perfect about that.
I am so looking forward to the rest. And you are absolutely gorgeous in all your photos! Your hair is amazing.
rachel09985
DIS Veteran
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- Jun 6, 2009
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- 3,534
I forgot two more things!
Our plan was to try to book Ohana too but it wasn't available at all even at 6am on the 180 day mark. Is your wedding early in your trip or late? Ours was early , so maybe that is why. How many people also? I think you can only book 19 on one reservation.
Also, maybe I will suggest having the cocktail party outside. Ours was supposed to be in the outside area of our ballroom so they would have to pass the main room. Luckily, something happened and it had to be moved outside to Seabreeze Point. Maybe they can have your cocktail hour outside somewhere so they dont' have to pass through your main room.
Our plan was to try to book Ohana too but it wasn't available at all even at 6am on the 180 day mark. Is your wedding early in your trip or late? Ours was early , so maybe that is why. How many people also? I think you can only book 19 on one reservation.
Also, maybe I will suggest having the cocktail party outside. Ours was supposed to be in the outside area of our ballroom so they would have to pass the main room. Luckily, something happened and it had to be moved outside to Seabreeze Point. Maybe they can have your cocktail hour outside somewhere so they dont' have to pass through your main room.
Amanda132
Mouseketeer
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- Jun 8, 2009
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- 450
Are you having your cocktail hour on the Whitehall Patio? I'm like 90% sure that there's a door that leads from the hallway to the patio, so the guests don't have to walk through the room.
Also, we did a similar thing with our bar. We had it for the cocktail hour, then it closed for a half hour during the intros/first dance/speeches, and then it reopened for the whole reception. We had it for a total of 4.5 hours. It worked really well! No one was trying to get a drink during that time anyway.
Also, we did a similar thing with our bar. We had it for the cocktail hour, then it closed for a half hour during the intros/first dance/speeches, and then it reopened for the whole reception. We had it for a total of 4.5 hours. It worked really well! No one was trying to get a drink during that time anyway.
Sarah28
DIS Veteran
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- Mar 29, 2011
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- 1,547
Love your update Libby! 
I wish we had had the budget to have done a planning trip, but it will be well spent on the wedding instead I guess!
We are also going for an iPod set up instead of a DJ - it's actually gone up in price a bit too, so inc. tax it's now around $600 so worth bearing in mind for your budget. Still cheaper than a DJ though!
We are also having a party back in the UK for the same reasons as you - don't really feel we can 'party' with only 26 people!! Look forward to reading more
I wish we had had the budget to have done a planning trip, but it will be well spent on the wedding instead I guess!We are also going for an iPod set up instead of a DJ - it's actually gone up in price a bit too, so inc. tax it's now around $600 so worth bearing in mind for your budget. Still cheaper than a DJ though!
We are also having a party back in the UK for the same reasons as you - don't really feel we can 'party' with only 26 people!! Look forward to reading more
Libby_Darling
Flippin' Her Fins
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- Jul 4, 2010
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Hi my lovely! Thank you so much for your help and sweet comments! That's really good to hear your thoughts on Rev Tim! We did think it would be cool especially as he said himself it wasn't neccessary
So I think we'll just leave it! Definately have better things we can spend that money on and there won't be any spare haha! Yeah I would like to add the hour with Ashley
It's just so much extra it sucks. I can't remember why it's £300, I might email her and double check. I really want lots of getting ready photos and we're spending so much already it's silly to worry I think! Yeah we've given the DJ a lot of thought and I realised I was never that keen on the idea from the start, so I think we'll definately stick with the iPod. I'm glad yours was good though! Heard great things about him!
Thank you for the lovely compliments!!
xxxxOh no you've panicked me re: Ohana. The wedding is early in the trip, well we get in on the 15th and the rehearsal dinner will be the 18th. It would probably be for everyone, so 28! May have to rethink this then if you can only have 19!!
I think the cocktail hour is definately outside on the patio and as Amanda has mentioned, you can totally get to it through the hallway! So I was being silly haha!
xxxxxxxYes yes thank you! I was being silly, you def can get to it from the hallway I took photos there haha!! Awesome
Oh I'm glad you felt the bar worked! That's really good! Thank you so much for your helpful comments!!
xxxxxxxLove your update Libby!
We are also going for an iPod set up instead of a DJ - it's actually gone up in price a bit too, so inc. tax it's now around $600 so worth bearing in mind for your budget. Still cheaper than a DJ though!
We are also having a party back in the UK for the same reasons as you - don't really feel we can 'party' with only 26 people!! Look forward to reading more
Hi lovely! Ahhh of course it's gone up, everything has haha! Doh!!! Never mind, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!!
Yeah a UK party is def the way forward, we're having it as we thought it would be nice for those that can't come, and I won't be all stressed and wedding-y so can just party! Can't wait!!
xxxxxx
Libby_Darling
Flippin' Her Fins
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- Jul 4, 2010
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Menu Tasting
Okay! Where were we!? So, after we’d finished talking about the reception it was time for the menu tasting, YAY!!! Lisa was really apologetic that we had to walk to the convention centre - she said there were just no free cars and she hadn’t realised, and she seemed so grateful that we were totally fine with it! Didn’t bother us at all, it really isn’t far! We both nipped to the toilets at Francks before setting off to the CC. As we walked we chatted to Lisa about her history, and how long she’s worked for Disney. She’s worked for DFTW for 5 years, and Disney for 25! Amazing! She used to work for events at Epcot, orgniasing all the F&W events etc! How amazing! So she said she knows all the chefs because she used to organise a lot of food events and work on the marketing, so she was then asked to join DFTW! She said she really loves it as every wedding is so different It was really nice to get that chance to chat with her and find out a bit more about her. When we got to the CC, Lisa was nice enough to let us poke our heads into the Whitehall Room! It was being set up for a wedding that afternoon so it wasn’t all done up or anything, but it was so beautiful and perfect!! Yay!! It had the trees in and I told Lisa how much I wanted them haha, I know they aren’t guaranteed but later on Heather (floral lady) said they hardly ever move them out of the WH room anymore due to them being quite fragile, so chances out they’ll be there. I asked Benj if he liked the room and he said he loved it We also got to see the patio through the doors in the hallway so that was really good too. I was so happy with our choice!
I took some photos!
Lisa also invited us to poke our heads into one of the ballrooms as it was all set up for a wedding! I didn’t take photos but it looked absolutely beautiful and the colours were pale pink, just like ours! We really appreciated her showing us that
I couldn’t resist taking photos of the hallway as we were walking towards the kitchen! I just think it’s so beautiful!!
It’s just crazy to think of our guests in the WH room, mingling in the hallway, nipping back and forth to the loo’s...it’s just crazy! IT’S SO EXCITING!!!
So then it was time to enter the kitchen! WOW this was the most incredible experience ever!! We were honestly treated like royalty!! It was insane. Our server Terry introduced himself and he was all dressed up, he looked so smart! Our chef was called Orlando (naturally!!) and he was a total babe. He also had a team of chefs working for him! We were invited to sit down and we got offered tea or coffee but we declined and just had ice water. We aren’t really hot drinks fans and we didn’t want to fill up haha! First up was choosing the napkin! Ben liked the rising bird so we liked that as I really wasn’t fussed! We also chose a folded pleat one if we went with a coloured napkin as I liked that design. Then it was time for FOOD!!
So we’re going with the buffet, 3 salads, 3 sides and 2 entrees. We decided to only taste things we didn’t know what they’d taste like.
First up was the roasted beet carpaccio salad. Yum! I only eat salad when I have to so we weren’t super excited about this but it was amazing! We chose to try this rather than a caesar etc as we know what that will taste like. For our cocktail hour we’re having the “International and Domestic Cheese Display with Flatbreads and Dried Fruits” as it’s a lot cheaper, and we’d rather spend the money on an open bar for our guests So there was no need to try this - Lisa’s assistent sent some photos of it over though and we thought it looked amazing! So that’s good!
Photos:
So back to the roasted beet salad!
It was incredible. I’m gonna stop here and say that all the food was incredible. So my descriptions are going to be really boring. Hahah! We love food and we love most food, so it was pretty much a given that we’d love it all! But oh my goodness it was all so delicious. Amazing quality, beautifully presented, and just so so special. This salad was perfect and we thought it would add a really nice addition to our other 2 salads. Although I have just realised I’m not sure if Lisa realised we wanted the 3 salads and 2 sides as I don’t remember her mentioning it, or us mentioning it? I might have to check that with her actually!
Next we were bought this! The oven roasted baked chicken stuffed with prosciutto, spinach and fontina cheese, along with a feta cheese herb polenta cake and some veggies.
Benj had 2 feta cakes and no chicken! This was delicious! I absolutely loved the chicken, and the polenta cakes were so good! Ben immediately said ‘these are going on the menu’ hahah! So that was decided!! I was trying to decide between the 2 meat options, beef or chicken, and I remember thinking the beef needed to be pretty amazing to beat the chicken!!
Next up, the grilled flat iron steak with merlot and black pepper reduction, balsamic cremini mushrooms and roasted shallots. This was served with another one of our carb-y side choices,wild mushroom risotto with asiago and romano cheeses.
And Benji’s plate
Incredible! I think the steak was a teeny bit chewy but it was amazing. But the risotto, OH MY GOODNESS. So creamy and such an amazing flavour. We had to have these!!
I should mention that the whole time we were eating Orlando was doing like a running commentary of it all which was so cool! I’m a massive foodie so it was just such an incredible experience! He does have a very strong accent though so it was a tiny bit hard to understand him, there was definately a lot of nodding and smiling from me haha! Lisa didn’t eat and I said please feel free to try some haha but she said she has to say no sometimes as she does it so frequently! Makes sense! Terry was also constantly removing our plates, wiping crumbs off and replenishing our water glasses. We felt like VIPs, it was just incredible.
So next up was a bit of a wildcard! Ben is vegetarian, and we also have 3 vegetarian guests, so it was important for us to cater properly for them. We weren’t that in love with any of the veggie options on the menus DFTW sent us, they all sounded lovely but they were just like ravioli and tomato pasta, not very exciting! Or well suited to a buffet when we already have so many carbs haha! I’d read online that the Disney chefs like trying out new dishes, so we decided to request a version of Ben’s favourite veggie meal at Olive Garden, eggplant parmigiana!
And this is what we got! It was phenomenal, it was better than the OG one!!! As soon as I tried I knew we had to have it!
This was so good. Orlando said we could have 2 meat entrees and just have separate veggie choices for our veggie guests, but I decided I wanted the eggplant parm hahaha!! It was served with our final side option, cheese grits! These were really really good and I obviously ate them all, but I knew we’d have to cut something as we had too many carbs haha! We decided to cross that bridge when we came to it! Orlando said he will serve the egg plant parm with the sauce separately so it doesn’t go soggy which I thought was a fantastic plan
The final tasting was our mashed potato bar. Holy guacamole, this was life-changing. And I forgot photos! Booo, pretty devastated when I realised this!! They were served in martini glasses and we had sweet potato, purple peruvian potato, and yukon gold. The toppings for the sweet potato were brown sugar and pecans. These were amazing but so sweet and not something we’re used to! The other potatoes had so many toppings! Cheese, chives, sour cream, bacon, mushrooms, broccoli...and more I probably can’t remember! So so delicious. I literally ate every single bite haha!
So once we’d finished eating, Lisa helped us narrow our menu down. SHe pointed out we had a lot of starches….haha! Yep, carb-heavy menu! This is another moment where I’m confused about if she knew we wanted 3 salads and 3 sides...as in my notes it says Lisa suggested we have 2 starch, and choose a vegetable dish as well, as we have the mashed potato bar. She suggested we could move the truffle risotto to the martin action station! Amazing!! So we cut the cheese grits as they were lovely but not essential, and we cut the sweet potato from the action station and replaced it with the truffle risotto. Best of both worlds! I am going to check with her if we can actually swap out the purple peruvian potatoes for the mac and cheese and those accompaniments if it isn’t too much more! So need to check that with her.
So our menu currently stands as:
Cocktail Hour:
International and Domestic Cheese Display with Flatbreads and Dried Fruits
Salads:
Mixed greens, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, croutons and olives with smokey blue cheese, herbed viniagrette and low fat ranch dressings
Roasted beet carpaccio, orange segments, and chevre quenelles with red ribbon sorrell
Entrees:
Panko crusted eggplant parmigiana with marinara sauce and mozarella
More than likely will be the grilled flat iron steak with merlot and black pepper reduction, balsamic cremini mushrooms and roasted shallots.
Sides:
Feta cheese herb polenta cakes
Olive oil and grilled vegetables (Orlando asked us which veggies we’d like, I think we said zuccini, asparagus, portobello mushrooms and eggplant)
Martini Action Station:
Yukon gold mashed potato
Wild mushroom risotto with asiago and romano cheese
(hopefully) Mac and cheese
Okay...so looking at all of that, I don’t think we need 3 x sides and 3 x salad! I think 2 of each will be enough because we have the martini action station! Any fellow brides have any thoughts/advice?
Phew, what an amazing menu! And that’s only the 1st part of the food we’ll have on the day haha! So exciting!
Once we’d finished up eating we thanked Orlando and the team, and Terry, profusely. We took photos! Yay!!
Orlando then gave us the cutest gifts, a little heart shaped whisk and a pink himalayan salt block which I can’t wait to use!!!
And then it was back to Francks for the rest of our session!! It was about 4.30 by this point, so we headed back into our room with fresh diet cokes. We chatted a bit more about the reception, and then moved onto dessert party. Our DP will be at Sago Cay and the minimums are quite high for the amount of guests we’ve got, so I thought we’d have to get quite a lot of food. However Lisa said it probably wasn’t that much per guest, and I’m really confused because in my notes it says ‘cake will be about $10-13 a head probably no more leaving us about $40’. This has confused me because doesn’t the cake come out of the $175 minimum at the reception? Not the DP? I have no idea why I’ve written it like that!! Anyway, I believe we have around $40 per person to work with. We’ll probably do a cash bar, and Lisa is going to check if they'll move the bar down from the WH room and patio, as they can have a break in between and that meets their requirements. We talked about food choices for ages and I felt really unprepared because I hadn’t really researched this a lot and she didn’t give us menus, she was just asking us what we like. We’ve asked to get prices for a nacho bar, beefburger sliders with a vegetarian portobello mushroom option, fries, and an ice cream sundae bar. However the more we think about this the more we’d like to change it. As we’re trying to stick to the minimum for the reception, we’ve gone for the cheese display rather than canapes. However I absolutely love canapes, so I’m looking at the DP as a great opportunity for us to have little bite sized food that people can just pop in their mouths and won’t have to carry around, as they would with a nacho bar. I’m going to do some research of previous brides menus and pick out things I like the sound of
Once we’d discussed this it was time for floral! Heather Spago came in and she was absolutely lovely, I loved her! She told me how nice my hair was We had some trouble getting my Pinterest up as there was no WiFi for my iPad, but we eventually got it up on their computer Benj then left the room as we needed to discuss my dress! I showed them a photo and they loved it As it’s champagne and not ivory, they said how nicely it would go with all our themeing/decor yay!! First up for discussion was floral. I basically said I’d like roses for everything, with the roses more open than closed if that made sense. Heather said it did. Yay! So I’m having a blush and ivory rose bouquet with the stem wrapped all the way down in a blush colour, and some crystal hidden Mickey’s on the stem (mainly for photos as they won’t be seen!) Benj then came back in as we’d finished talking about my dress My maid of honour Victoria will have a smaller bouquet with just ivory roses. Then we talked about guys! We’ve decided to get boutineeres for Ben, his best man Jason, my Dad, Ben’s Dad, our MC/general organiser Ian, my brother, and Ben’s brother. So 7. We may remove the brothers but they’re on there for now. Ben’s will be blush, everyone elses will be ivory. We’ve got buttonholes for my Mum and Ben’s Mum which will be ivory. We’re also getting some kind of fairy wand for our 2 flowergirls (my two little twin nieces who will be just over one at the wedding! So they won’t really be actual flowergirls, but we really wanted to involve them )
Next we talked about general decor which I was looking forward to. I think we’ve opted to have some floral at the top of the WP which we’ll then move to the reception. We’ve also put a light sprinkling of petals down but I think that will be one of the first things to go if we need to cut something!
So, our tables at the reception. We’re having the standard ivory tablecloths, and we’ve chosen a lovely blush coloured napkin.
Here's the napkin we chose!
Unfortunately this means Benj couldn’t have his ‘rising bird’ but he was okay with that haha and we’re having the pleat fold I think I showed Heather my Pinterest board with lots and lots of different centerpiece options. We want something fairly small, and Heather suggested a gold candlestick about 13 inches high, with blush roses in the top which we thought sounded lovely! I also really wanted candlelight and I wasn’t sure if we were allowed real candles but we are, yay! So around the candlesticks there will be 4 votive candles in gold.
This was the inspiration I showed her:
And I’m expecting something a bit like this…
Or this
With different coloured flowers obviously.
We’ve also added a sparkly blush tablecloth for the sweetheart table, which again we may cut! Then we started talking about chairs. I knew I wanted chiavari chairs, but I forgot about the GF convention chairs that would be outside for our cocktail hour, so we’ve added chiavari chairs out there as well (I think 41 in total) Again, these may be cut later on (but I really do not like those GF chairs haha!!) We’ve gone for gold chiavari chairs with ivory cushions. I absolutely love the way these look and I can’t wait to see them!)
For our cocktail hour, we really weren’t too fussed on decor. Heather suggested some small glass globes with water and a blush rose floating in. Perfect! These look beautiful but are inexpensive. Yay! I imagine it’ll be something like this…
But just with one rose.
And with that, we were done with floral! There were probably other things mentioned but I can’t remember! We said goodbye to Heather and she gave us her card and said she’d be in touch
Okay! Where were we!? So, after we’d finished talking about the reception it was time for the menu tasting, YAY!!! Lisa was really apologetic that we had to walk to the convention centre - she said there were just no free cars and she hadn’t realised, and she seemed so grateful that we were totally fine with it! Didn’t bother us at all, it really isn’t far! We both nipped to the toilets at Francks before setting off to the CC. As we walked we chatted to Lisa about her history, and how long she’s worked for Disney. She’s worked for DFTW for 5 years, and Disney for 25! Amazing! She used to work for events at Epcot, orgniasing all the F&W events etc! How amazing! So she said she knows all the chefs because she used to organise a lot of food events and work on the marketing, so she was then asked to join DFTW! She said she really loves it as every wedding is so different
It was really nice to get that chance to chat with her and find out a bit more about her. When we got to the CC, Lisa was nice enough to let us poke our heads into the Whitehall Room! It was being set up for a wedding that afternoon so it wasn’t all done up or anything, but it was so beautiful and perfect!! Yay!! It had the trees in and I told Lisa how much I wanted them haha, I know they aren’t guaranteed but later on Heather (floral lady) said they hardly ever move them out of the WH room anymore due to them being quite fragile, so chances out they’ll be there. I asked Benj if he liked the room and he said he loved it We also got to see the patio through the doors in the hallway so that was really good too. I was so happy with our choice!I took some photos!
Lisa also invited us to poke our heads into one of the ballrooms as it was all set up for a wedding! I didn’t take photos but it looked absolutely beautiful and the colours were pale pink, just like ours! We really appreciated her showing us that
I couldn’t resist taking photos of the hallway as we were walking towards the kitchen! I just think it’s so beautiful!!
It’s just crazy to think of our guests in the WH room, mingling in the hallway, nipping back and forth to the loo’s...it’s just crazy! IT’S SO EXCITING!!!
So then it was time to enter the kitchen! WOW this was the most incredible experience ever!! We were honestly treated like royalty!! It was insane. Our server Terry introduced himself and he was all dressed up, he looked so smart! Our chef was called Orlando (naturally!!) and he was a total babe. He also had a team of chefs working for him! We were invited to sit down and we got offered tea or coffee but we declined and just had ice water. We aren’t really hot drinks fans and we didn’t want to fill up haha! First up was choosing the napkin! Ben liked the rising bird so we liked that as I really wasn’t fussed! We also chose a folded pleat one if we went with a coloured napkin as I liked that design. Then it was time for FOOD!!
So we’re going with the buffet, 3 salads, 3 sides and 2 entrees. We decided to only taste things we didn’t know what they’d taste like.
First up was the roasted beet carpaccio salad. Yum! I only eat salad when I have to so we weren’t super excited about this but it was amazing! We chose to try this rather than a caesar etc as we know what that will taste like. For our cocktail hour we’re having the “International and Domestic Cheese Display with Flatbreads and Dried Fruits” as it’s a lot cheaper, and we’d rather spend the money on an open bar for our guests
So there was no need to try this - Lisa’s assistent sent some photos of it over though and we thought it looked amazing! So that’s good!Photos:
So back to the roasted beet salad!
It was incredible. I’m gonna stop here and say that all the food was incredible. So my descriptions are going to be really boring. Hahah! We love food and we love most food, so it was pretty much a given that we’d love it all! But oh my goodness it was all so delicious. Amazing quality, beautifully presented, and just so so special. This salad was perfect and we thought it would add a really nice addition to our other 2 salads. Although I have just realised I’m not sure if Lisa realised we wanted the 3 salads and 2 sides as I don’t remember her mentioning it, or us mentioning it? I might have to check that with her actually!
Next we were bought this! The oven roasted baked chicken stuffed with prosciutto, spinach and fontina cheese, along with a feta cheese herb polenta cake and some veggies.
Benj had 2 feta cakes and no chicken! This was delicious! I absolutely loved the chicken, and the polenta cakes were so good! Ben immediately said ‘these are going on the menu’ hahah! So that was decided!! I was trying to decide between the 2 meat options, beef or chicken, and I remember thinking the beef needed to be pretty amazing to beat the chicken!!
Next up, the grilled flat iron steak with merlot and black pepper reduction, balsamic cremini mushrooms and roasted shallots. This was served with another one of our carb-y side choices,wild mushroom risotto with asiago and romano cheeses.
And Benji’s plate
Incredible! I think the steak was a teeny bit chewy but it was amazing. But the risotto, OH MY GOODNESS. So creamy and such an amazing flavour. We had to have these!!
I should mention that the whole time we were eating Orlando was doing like a running commentary of it all which was so cool! I’m a massive foodie so it was just such an incredible experience! He does have a very strong accent though so it was a tiny bit hard to understand him, there was definately a lot of nodding and smiling from me haha! Lisa didn’t eat and I said please feel free to try some haha but she said she has to say no sometimes as she does it so frequently! Makes sense! Terry was also constantly removing our plates, wiping crumbs off and replenishing our water glasses. We felt like VIPs, it was just incredible.
So next up was a bit of a wildcard! Ben is vegetarian, and we also have 3 vegetarian guests, so it was important for us to cater properly for them. We weren’t that in love with any of the veggie options on the menus DFTW sent us, they all sounded lovely but they were just like ravioli and tomato pasta, not very exciting! Or well suited to a buffet when we already have so many carbs haha! I’d read online that the Disney chefs like trying out new dishes, so we decided to request a version of Ben’s favourite veggie meal at Olive Garden, eggplant parmigiana!
And this is what we got! It was phenomenal, it was better than the OG one!!! As soon as I tried I knew we had to have it!
This was so good. Orlando said we could have 2 meat entrees and just have separate veggie choices for our veggie guests, but I decided I wanted the eggplant parm hahaha!! It was served with our final side option, cheese grits! These were really really good and I obviously ate them all, but I knew we’d have to cut something as we had too many carbs haha! We decided to cross that bridge when we came to it! Orlando said he will serve the egg plant parm with the sauce separately so it doesn’t go soggy which I thought was a fantastic plan
The final tasting was our mashed potato bar. Holy guacamole, this was life-changing. And I forgot photos! Booo, pretty devastated when I realised this!!
They were served in martini glasses and we had sweet potato, purple peruvian potato, and yukon gold. The toppings for the sweet potato were brown sugar and pecans. These were amazing but so sweet and not something we’re used to! The other potatoes had so many toppings! Cheese, chives, sour cream, bacon, mushrooms, broccoli...and more I probably can’t remember! So so delicious. I literally ate every single bite haha!So once we’d finished eating, Lisa helped us narrow our menu down. SHe pointed out we had a lot of starches….haha! Yep, carb-heavy menu! This is another moment where I’m confused about if she knew we wanted 3 salads and 3 sides...as in my notes it says Lisa suggested we have 2 starch, and choose a vegetable dish as well, as we have the mashed potato bar. She suggested we could move the truffle risotto to the martin action station! Amazing!! So we cut the cheese grits as they were lovely but not essential, and we cut the sweet potato from the action station and replaced it with the truffle risotto. Best of both worlds! I am going to check with her if we can actually swap out the purple peruvian potatoes for the mac and cheese and those accompaniments if it isn’t too much more! So need to check that with her.
So our menu currently stands as:
Cocktail Hour:
International and Domestic Cheese Display with Flatbreads and Dried Fruits
Salads:
Mixed greens, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, croutons and olives with smokey blue cheese, herbed viniagrette and low fat ranch dressings
Roasted beet carpaccio, orange segments, and chevre quenelles with red ribbon sorrell
Entrees:
Panko crusted eggplant parmigiana with marinara sauce and mozarella
More than likely will be the grilled flat iron steak with merlot and black pepper reduction, balsamic cremini mushrooms and roasted shallots.
Sides:
Feta cheese herb polenta cakes
Olive oil and grilled vegetables (Orlando asked us which veggies we’d like, I think we said zuccini, asparagus, portobello mushrooms and eggplant)
Martini Action Station:
Yukon gold mashed potato
Wild mushroom risotto with asiago and romano cheese
(hopefully) Mac and cheese
Okay...so looking at all of that, I don’t think we need 3 x sides and 3 x salad! I think 2 of each will be enough because we have the martini action station! Any fellow brides have any thoughts/advice?
Phew, what an amazing menu! And that’s only the 1st part of the food we’ll have on the day haha! So exciting!
Once we’d finished up eating we thanked Orlando and the team, and Terry, profusely. We took photos! Yay!!
Orlando then gave us the cutest gifts, a little heart shaped whisk and a pink himalayan salt block which I can’t wait to use!!!
And then it was back to Francks for the rest of our session!! It was about 4.30 by this point, so we headed back into our room with fresh diet cokes. We chatted a bit more about the reception, and then moved onto dessert party. Our DP will be at Sago Cay and the minimums are quite high for the amount of guests we’ve got, so I thought we’d have to get quite a lot of food. However Lisa said it probably wasn’t that much per guest, and I’m really confused because in my notes it says ‘cake will be about $10-13 a head probably no more leaving us about $40’. This has confused me because doesn’t the cake come out of the $175 minimum at the reception? Not the DP? I have no idea why I’ve written it like that!! Anyway, I believe we have around $40 per person to work with. We’ll probably do a cash bar, and Lisa is going to check if they'll move the bar down from the WH room and patio, as they can have a break in between and that meets their requirements. We talked about food choices for ages and I felt really unprepared because I hadn’t really researched this a lot and she didn’t give us menus, she was just asking us what we like. We’ve asked to get prices for a nacho bar, beefburger sliders with a vegetarian portobello mushroom option, fries, and an ice cream sundae bar. However the more we think about this the more we’d like to change it. As we’re trying to stick to the minimum for the reception, we’ve gone for the cheese display rather than canapes. However I absolutely love canapes, so I’m looking at the DP as a great opportunity for us to have little bite sized food that people can just pop in their mouths and won’t have to carry around, as they would with a nacho bar. I’m going to do some research of previous brides menus and pick out things I like the sound of
Once we’d discussed this it was time for floral! Heather Spago came in and she was absolutely lovely, I loved her! She told me how nice my hair was
We had some trouble getting my Pinterest up as there was no WiFi for my iPad, but we eventually got it up on their computer Benj then left the room as we needed to discuss my dress! I showed them a photo and they loved it As it’s champagne and not ivory, they said how nicely it would go with all our themeing/decor yay!! First up for discussion was floral. I basically said I’d like roses for everything, with the roses more open than closed if that made sense. Heather said it did. Yay! So I’m having a blush and ivory rose bouquet with the stem wrapped all the way down in a blush colour, and some crystal hidden Mickey’s on the stem (mainly for photos as they won’t be seen!) Benj then came back in as we’d finished talking about my dress My maid of honour Victoria will have a smaller bouquet with just ivory roses. Then we talked about guys! We’ve decided to get boutineeres for Ben, his best man Jason, my Dad, Ben’s Dad, our MC/general organiser Ian, my brother, and Ben’s brother. So 7. We may remove the brothers but they’re on there for now. Ben’s will be blush, everyone elses will be ivory. We’ve got buttonholes for my Mum and Ben’s Mum which will be ivory. We’re also getting some kind of fairy wand for our 2 flowergirls (my two little twin nieces who will be just over one at the wedding! So they won’t really be actual flowergirls, but we really wanted to involve them )Next we talked about general decor which I was looking forward to. I think we’ve opted to have some floral at the top of the WP which we’ll then move to the reception. We’ve also put a light sprinkling of petals down but I think that will be one of the first things to go if we need to cut something!
So, our tables at the reception. We’re having the standard ivory tablecloths, and we’ve chosen a lovely blush coloured napkin.
Here's the napkin we chose!
Unfortunately this means Benj couldn’t have his ‘rising bird’ but he was okay with that haha and we’re having the pleat fold I think
I showed Heather my Pinterest board with lots and lots of different centerpiece options. We want something fairly small, and Heather suggested a gold candlestick about 13 inches high, with blush roses in the top which we thought sounded lovely! I also really wanted candlelight and I wasn’t sure if we were allowed real candles but we are, yay! So around the candlesticks there will be 4 votive candles in gold.This was the inspiration I showed her:
And I’m expecting something a bit like this…
Or this
With different coloured flowers obviously.
We’ve also added a sparkly blush tablecloth for the sweetheart table, which again we may cut! Then we started talking about chairs. I knew I wanted chiavari chairs, but I forgot about the GF convention chairs that would be outside for our cocktail hour, so we’ve added chiavari chairs out there as well (I think 41 in total) Again, these may be cut later on (but I really do not like those GF chairs haha!!) We’ve gone for gold chiavari chairs with ivory cushions. I absolutely love the way these look and I can’t wait to see them!)
For our cocktail hour, we really weren’t too fussed on decor. Heather suggested some small glass globes with water and a blush rose floating in. Perfect! These look beautiful but are inexpensive. Yay! I imagine it’ll be something like this…
But just with one rose.
And with that, we were done with floral! There were probably other things mentioned but I can’t remember! We said goodbye to Heather and she gave us her card and said she’d be in touch
Last edited:
Libby_Darling
Flippin' Her Fins
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2010
- Messages
- 385
The final part of our planning session day was cake tasting! Woooo the thing we’d been so excited for!!
I took some photos while we were waiting for cake
Random...but lovely curtains!
And then we were bought this amazing tray of goodness!!!
Cute napkin!!
And we set about tasting the cakes and fillings!! Hopefully you can see in the photo what we tried The full slice of cake was I believe yellow cake with orange mousse, and buttercream. I think it goes without saying that all the cake was awesome!!! Before going into this tasting we both thought we were pretty set on the flavours we’d choose. We were having a 2 tier, and because our tastes are so different, we’d choose one flavour each. Perfect! Having seen the choices i was most excited to try, and pretty certain I’d choose, the chocolate cake with peanut butter cup mousse. I love anything chocolate peanut butter!! Benj was pretty sure he’d choose the lemon cake with key lime mousse as that’s pretty much his favourite combination of flavours. Well, we 100% changed tact haha! I did like the choc cake with pb mousse but it was just super, super rich and kind of...claggy! That’s a weird word haha but it fits! Ben agreed, but then he doesn’t really like peanut butter things to begin with! Slightly confused by my lack of love for the peanut butter, we carried on. We tried Ben’s combination, and I liked it, but didn’t love it (but again it isn’t to my taste) and Ben loved it! So I thought for sure he’d stick with that! We tried a few other combinations, the white chocolate mousse didn’t really taste of anything, and the marble cake was a tiny bit dry and just tasted of plain cake really. We then tried the chocolate cake with raspberry mousse...OMG this was life-changing!! I’m not normally a fan off fruit mixed with chocolate (why would you ruin chocolate!?) but the raspberry mousse was so sharp and tangy it totally went with the rich, indulgent chocolate! I started to think no other combination was going to beat that and I was so surprised at myself! Then we both tried the red velvet cake with the cream cheese frosting as I thought that was a pretty classic combination….again, life-changing! So so rich and creamy, it was amazing!! We then half-heartedly tried a few more combinations, the hazelnut cream was lovely but not incredible, and we tried the white chocolate again with the chocolate cake. But then Ben said…’So I’m just going to throw it out there….I loved the chocolate cake with raspberry mousse, and the red velvet with cream cheese!’ Well I could have KISSED HIM (I may actually have done!!) because that was exactly what I had thought!!!! I felt like the cat that got the (butter) cream because it felt like I was getting both of my top picks when I thought he was going to pick the key lime mousse! But it was decided! We both tried the last bits of cakes with our chosen fillings and buttercream on top just to make sure…
By now I was feeling pretttyyy sick haah!! We told Lisa our choices and she wrote them down
And that was our planning session! By now it was like 6pm and I think Francks was closing haha! We hugged Lisa and thanked her for a wonderful, productive day. We also thanked her assistant for bringing us drinks and cake haha and generally being lovely!
And with that, we were off! Our planning session was done and dusted, arghhhh! It was all starting to feel very real!!!
On our way back to the main building of the GF we stopped by the WP so I could took take a YAY planning session! photo
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was our planning session! We had an absolutely incredible day and we were so so glad we were able to go over to do all the planning It was so much fun! I left with a notepad full of notes and a head full of ideas, and so much excitement for the next 10 months!
I took some photos while we were waiting for cake
Random...but lovely curtains!
And then we were bought this amazing tray of goodness!!!
Cute napkin!!
And we set about tasting the cakes and fillings!! Hopefully you can see in the photo what we tried
The full slice of cake was I believe yellow cake with orange mousse, and buttercream. I think it goes without saying that all the cake was awesome!!! Before going into this tasting we both thought we were pretty set on the flavours we’d choose. We were having a 2 tier, and because our tastes are so different, we’d choose one flavour each. Perfect! Having seen the choices i was most excited to try, and pretty certain I’d choose, the chocolate cake with peanut butter cup mousse. I love anything chocolate peanut butter!! Benj was pretty sure he’d choose the lemon cake with key lime mousse as that’s pretty much his favourite combination of flavours. Well, we 100% changed tact haha! I did like the choc cake with pb mousse but it was just super, super rich and kind of...claggy! That’s a weird word haha but it fits! Ben agreed, but then he doesn’t really like peanut butter things to begin with! Slightly confused by my lack of love for the peanut butter, we carried on. We tried Ben’s combination, and I liked it, but didn’t love it (but again it isn’t to my taste) and Ben loved it! So I thought for sure he’d stick with that! We tried a few other combinations, the white chocolate mousse didn’t really taste of anything, and the marble cake was a tiny bit dry and just tasted of plain cake really. We then tried the chocolate cake with raspberry mousse...OMG this was life-changing!! I’m not normally a fan off fruit mixed with chocolate (why would you ruin chocolate!?) but the raspberry mousse was so sharp and tangy it totally went with the rich, indulgent chocolate! I started to think no other combination was going to beat that and I was so surprised at myself! Then we both tried the red velvet cake with the cream cheese frosting as I thought that was a pretty classic combination….again, life-changing! So so rich and creamy, it was amazing!! We then half-heartedly tried a few more combinations, the hazelnut cream was lovely but not incredible, and we tried the white chocolate again with the chocolate cake. But then Ben said…’So I’m just going to throw it out there….I loved the chocolate cake with raspberry mousse, and the red velvet with cream cheese!’ Well I could have KISSED HIM (I may actually have done!!) because that was exactly what I had thought!!!! I felt like the cat that got the (butter) cream because it felt like I was getting both of my top picks when I thought he was going to pick the key lime mousse! But it was decided! We both tried the last bits of cakes with our chosen fillings and buttercream on top just to make sure…
By now I was feeling pretttyyy sick haah!! We told Lisa our choices and she wrote them down
And that was our planning session! By now it was like 6pm and I think Francks was closing haha! We hugged Lisa and thanked her for a wonderful, productive day. We also thanked her assistant for bringing us drinks and cake haha and generally being lovely!
And with that, we were off! Our planning session was done and dusted, arghhhh! It was all starting to feel very real!!!
On our way back to the main building of the GF we stopped by the WP so I could took take a YAY planning session! photo
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was our planning session! We had an absolutely incredible day and we were so so glad we were able to go over to do all the planning
It was so much fun! I left with a notepad full of notes and a head full of ideas, and so much excitement for the next 10 months! 
3smithboys
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2008
- Messages
- 1,938
Sounds like you had a wonderful time! I love hearing about all of your plans!! So exciting!
rachel09985
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2009
- Messages
- 3,534
Your wedding sounds so lovely!
One tip that I did since we are both in ballrooms so you are allowed to use outside floral. I used an outside company to bring in chairs They were $4.50 each compared to Disney's quote of about $9. Something to consider They also brought in uplighting and charger plates!
One tip that I did since we are both in ballrooms so you are allowed to use outside floral. I used an outside company to bring in chairs
They were $4.50 each compared to Disney's quote of about $9. Something to consider They also brought in uplighting and charger plates!
Amanda132
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2009
- Messages
- 450
Your planning session sounds so much like mine! We had a sparkly linen on our sweetheart table (and our cake table), and we loved the chocolate cake with raspberry mousse too!
Our menu was similar to yours too. We only had one salad, a mashed potato/mac and cheese bar, vegetables, and two proteins. This was our menu:
Build your own Cobb salad with choice of vinaigrette, ranch, or blue cheese dressing
Martini bar with garlic Peruvian potatoes, sweet potatoes, and white truffle mac and cheese (plus toppings)
Grilled vegetables (asparagus, cauliflower, zucchini, squash, and onions)
Angus beef filet with drunken cherry sauce and horseradish on the side
Parmesan crusted chicken with marinara and Alfredo sauce on the side
It doesn't sound like a lot, but it was plenty. People ate so much of the mashed potatoes/mac and cheese that it made up for not having any other sides or salads. Especially because people could keep going back up and getting different types of potatoes/toppings/etc.
Our menu was similar to yours too. We only had one salad, a mashed potato/mac and cheese bar, vegetables, and two proteins. This was our menu:
Build your own Cobb salad with choice of vinaigrette, ranch, or blue cheese dressing
Martini bar with garlic Peruvian potatoes, sweet potatoes, and white truffle mac and cheese (plus toppings)
Grilled vegetables (asparagus, cauliflower, zucchini, squash, and onions)
Angus beef filet with drunken cherry sauce and horseradish on the side
Parmesan crusted chicken with marinara and Alfredo sauce on the side
It doesn't sound like a lot, but it was plenty. People ate so much of the mashed potatoes/mac and cheese that it made up for not having any other sides or salads. Especially because people could keep going back up and getting different types of potatoes/toppings/etc.
Lauren1027
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2013
- Messages
- 301
Thanks so much for the detailed Planning Session report! Mine isn't until June, but I'm already having trouble trying to narrow down what we want to try! That chicken and the strip steak both look fantastic and I might need to try both of those. And that mushroom risotto! OMG looks so good.
I also never would have thought to try chocolate and raspberry together for the cake choices since I don't usually ever choose chocolate cake, but that sounds wonderful and might have to try that as well.
I also never would have thought to try chocolate and raspberry together for the cake choices since I don't usually ever choose chocolate cake, but that sounds wonderful and might have to try that as well.
Ritchielace
CutieBear
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2015
- Messages
- 84
Been reading your food reviews and just found your wedding one! So excited to continue reading and seeing how everything turns out. I love your dress and design style. Can't wait to see how everything turns out. Keep us updated.
P.s. Did a destination wedding myself. Best thing idea ever. So relaxing to have someone else take care of everything!
P.s. Did a destination wedding myself. Best thing idea ever. So relaxing to have someone else take care of everything!
twinkybel81
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2014
- Messages
- 456
I can absolutely feel you joy and excitement from reading your posts! Love your planning session recap!
mickeyheart
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2011
- Messages
- 93
Absolutely love all your ideas. I'm so jealous that you're having a DFTW.
Following all of your posts. Your UK wedding party is the date we set off to Disney world this year!
Looking forward to more wedding & food posts x
Following all of your posts. Your UK wedding party is the date we set off to Disney world this year!
Looking forward to more wedding & food posts x
Sarah28
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2011
- Messages
- 1,547
Libby, I loved every second reading that! You sounded like you had so much fun. I love what you said about the CC hallways imagining your guests walking through, sounds like something I woulda thought too haha. And we have Heather as well, love her so much!
You sounded like you had so much fun. I love what you said about the CC hallways imagining your guests walking through, sounds like something I woulda thought too haha. And we have Heather as well, love her so much!
Hydra
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2015
- Messages
- 116
I may be stealing your nail art idea, how cute! Chef Orlando was a hoot when we went for our planning trip in December, he was so excited about the food! Also I agree about the marble cake, it's usually my favorite, but I thought it was completely tasteless. :/
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