Bianca and Sean wishes WP/Whitehall room and Patio/Italy Isola 9/8/19

[GardenDesigner]

Oh, my goodness, I am so very sorry to hear about your MIL; you are all in my prayers. I don't know if you will see this, or if it will mean anything to your daughter, but I second lorimay--I am a grandmother and I wouldn't want anything--not ANYTHING--not even my illness or death--to impact my granddaughter's wedding. She has worked so hard, and I truly hope she is able to set aside her understandable pain and experience the joy of her wedding. My own mother always said that life was for the living, and grief is normal but to never allow it to steal the joy of our moments. She would say, during the illness that took her from us, to always remember that when she is "dead" she will be more alive than she ever was, and not to grief like those without hope, but with our eyes on the horizon of new beginnings.

Losing my mom was still terribly difficult, but I mostly managed to remember to keep my eyes on the horizon. My heart goes out to all of you in this time. Stay strong!

And the puppy--I had a border collie that ate an entire loves seat while I was at the grocery store. Okay, maybe not the wood part, or ALL of the stuffing, or ALL the fabric, but she put a good dent in it. She was fine, eventually, but gee WHIZ, really, dog? I love my dogs so I understand. All will be well, though. This too shall pass. Not to say "pass", considering, haha.

And the storm, yes, that's the fun of Florida in hurricane season, but I really feel like you will be okay. Disney is amazing in how smoothly they handle situations like hurricanes. They really are.

Breathe! You got this!

 

[Barbara Smith]

We’ve weathered a few storms this week, literally. We arrived in Orlando Friday and spent a great weekend with the kids. My husband stayed in Kansas City with his mom. The weather was beautiful and the crowds were none existent. We were headed to the airport to leave and got a call that they had closed the airport already for Monday. We decided to go ahead and go and take our chances on getting back. We figured if nothing else we would rent a car and drive home.
We rescheduled our flights home for Tuesday morning hoping hurricane Dorian would have passed us by then and the airport would be reopened by then. Dorian stalled over the Bahamas and the timeline was moved back. Then on Sunday they cancelled our Tuesday flight but reopened the airport for Monday so we were able to get on one of the last flights out Monday night before they closed in preparation of Dorian. We got home at 330 AM Tuesday morning. Some friends of ours flew in early so they could be with Bianca on Tuesday to support her.

Tuesday morning we went to the hospital. We had our last consultation with doctors and began saying our goodbyes. My mother in law passed peacefully about 715 Tuesday evening. She put up a good fight but sepsis is an ugly horrible monster that took my mother 14 years ago at the age of 60 and now my mother in law at the age of 68. Both were way to young to be leaving us. We will have a memorial service after we get back on the 14th of September. Bianca and Sean will be back by then too.

Most of the bridal party and guest were supposed to be arriving on Wednesday. Tuesday afternoon they started getting messages their flights were cancelled. Thankful Dorian took a little bit of a more eastern turn and Orlando got a little bit of wind and rain Tuesday evening and overnight. They reopened the airport Wednesday afternoon and everyone was able to rebook on later flights. We are taking care of things here at home and will fly out in the morning.

Puppy update-he is playful and awry as ever. His incision is looking so good the vet said we could go ahead and get his staples removed today.

I can’t believe we are 3 days away. It seemed like such a long time away when we booked but it has flown by. I hoping that turn that Dorian took is symbolic of things taking a turn for the better for us. I known Bianca is going to be a beautiful bride and that both of her grandmothers will be right there with us enjoying such a wonderful occasion. I can’t wait to update on how things went and share pictures with everyone.

 

[Barbara Smith]

I'm so sorry about your MIL! That must be really difficult for your daughter. My husbands grandmother was bad the winter before our wedding and we really thought she wouldn't make it (she even told me she thought that), but she did. She past away this winter and I can't imagine if it had been the week before the wedding!
What are they going to do with the funeral? Are you daughter and Son in Law not going to be there?

My mother in law was cremated and we’ll have a memorial service after we get back.

 

[olafLover]

.

 

[lorimay]

God Bless you all!
This storm has caused so problems, it just won't go away!
Enjoy!
Can't wait to see the pictures!

 

[Barbara Smith]

I promise to update everyone really soon. Life has just been so crazy busy lately but we got this the other day and I wanted to share with everyone.

 

[Barbara Smith]

The wedding was everything we wanted and then more. Everything was beautiful and went off without a hitch. We flew back to Florida on Friday before the wedding on Sunday. We went to the Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom and had a blast. I had t-shirts made for everyone. They turned out really cute. Saturday we had the rehearsal first thing in the morning so everyone could have the rest of the day to enjoy their self. The rehearsal was at the Wedding Pavilion, they didn’t have anything scheduled that morning there otherwise we would have been in a ballroom at The Grand Floridian. You don’t find out until 30 days before the wedding where your rehearsal will be. We had the officiant come to the rehearsal. I guess it’s an option to not have them at rehearsal. We were running so late getting over to the pavilion that we ended up having to order cars to get everyone there. Hind sight we should have just ordered them from the get go. It was so much easier. The wedding planner met us there. She was amazing. She ran us through everything and put everyone at ease about everything.
Not sure why the pictures are sideways and upside down.
We had the rehearsal dinner at Maria and Enzo’s in Disney Springs. I worked out great for us.

 

[Barbara Smith]

Wedding Day
The wedding party all had rooms at the Grand Floridian Saturday and Sunday. It was so much easier to already be there. Hair and makeup got there at 930 in the morning to start in on everyone. We used On Site Beauty. Janet and her team were fabulous. They did hair and makeup for 10 of us and had everyone done in time for pictures at 2. We had the flower girls go to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at the Grand Floridian. It entertained them and filled up their time. The flowers were delivered to the room around 1. Everything looked perfect. They added bouquet charms for Bianca’s grandmothers. I had emailed them the week before and told them about them so they brought ribbon to attach them. The photographers and videographers arrived at 2 and took staged getting ready pictures. Then they took pictures with the groom, groomsmen and grooms family. Bianca and Sean chose not to do first look instead they did first touch. After the guys were finished they came and got all of the girls and did their pictures. While we were doing a lot of pictures before the wedding, the guest were being picked up from the resort on a charter bus.

 

[Barbara Smith]

The Wedding Pavilion was so beautiful. We didn’t do a lot of decorating. We thought it was pretty enough on its own.

 

[Barbara Smith]

We had the pre reception/ cocktail hour at the Whitehall Patio at the Grand Floridian. This is where they had their first dance, father daughter, mother son dance. And this is where Mickey and Minnie joined the party. The only hiccup we had is one of the groomsman’s wife had a food allergy that we weren’t aware of. My husband said something to the planner about it and within a matter of minutes they had food for her that she could eat. The chef then personally came out and asked her what she wanted for dinner and called ahead to the chefs at Epcot so they could have dinner ready and waiting for her for dinner. We were very impressed by how quickly they handled everything.

 

[Barbara Smith]

The reception was at Epcot. Since we had the hurricane that cleaned the atmosphere there was a 0% chance of rain on the wedding day. It was really warm but wasn’t unbearable. They upgraded the chairs at the reception for us not sure why but not complaining. Illuminations was great and so happy we got to see it again before it ended.

 

[Barbara Smith]

The morning after the wedding they had their photo session in Magic Kingdom. My daughter said the only thing that she would have done differently about the entire wedding was the photo session. The left for a cruise the day after the wedding and came back a week later. They got back to the hotel from the reception at 12:30 AM from the reception. The hair and makeup girls got to their room at 3 AM for get ready for the photo session. Made for a very short night. She said she wished they would have scheduled it for when they got back from their cruise because she was so exhausted she felt she would have enjoyed it more. She said it was a blast and made her feel like a princess. She said she highly recommended all brides do it.

 

[Barbara Smith]

To sum it all up I would highly recommend a Disney wedding. They truly took care of everything. I didn’t have to worry about anything. Our planner Kristie and her team were fabulous. Even got a stain from the flowers out of Bianca’s dress before pictures. Everyone that attended the wedding said it was the best and most beautiful wedding they had ever been too, very “magical.” People are constantly asking me if it was all worth it and I wholeheartedly say ABSOLUTELY. Was it expensive, yes but not ridiculously expensive. You can make it as affordable as you want. We did a Disney wedding because we just wanted to just show up and enjoy it, little did we know with everything that happened right before the wedding that that was the hardest part. We had a wedding reception here at home last weekend for our friends and family that weren’t able to make the trip. We were able to show the wedding ceremony video. It was a great time but not Disney. Here are some pictures from our reception at home.

 

[MermaidFantasia]

Gorgeous! What a beautiful bride, and I love your dress- elegant and flattering, and not at all MOB dowdy.

 

[Barbara Smith]

Gorgeous! What a beautiful bride, and I love your dress- elegant and flattering, and not at all MOB dowdy.

Thank you.