Cakes and Napoleons and F&W, oh my! Planning our Disney wedding!! UPDATED 9/15!!!

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

That CM sounds so sweet! I just love CMs like that.

The food at Sanaa always looks so delicious, but I'm so nervous to try that place! Being picky is tough.

YAY for more wedding planning!

He was great, I'm so glad we met him!!

I'm pretty picky too, but I always enjoy my meal there! They'll explain the menu so it isn't daunting at all if need be!

Your meal at Sanaa looks fabulous! I can't wait to go there in a month.

Can't wait to see more wedding plans...

Enjoy Sanaa!!! Such a fantastic meal!!

C- Sanaa is so amazing in atmosphere and food. The bread service is simply amazing. Oh - and they have wine flights. What's not to like?

I'm so glad you guys went to Sanaa. It's one of my favorite places. I had an awesome meal there in June and I see that you guys did too. Your mom's cocktail looks really interesting. Note to self: try the painted lemur (Is that what is was called? )

It really is amazing!!! We love it there too!

Yes! It is Amarula and Van der Hum Tangerine Liqueur in a Chocolate-striped glass.

Just wanna jump right into this one!
It would be so nice to be sitting there watching the animals, relaxing....just hanging out and talking on a beautiful sunny day.

Oh I wish I could go right back there now!!! Such a great place to relax!

We LOVE Sanaa!!! That painted Lemur looked good, I missed that on the drink menu! I thought it was funny that you guys didn't have dessert, we didn't either...too stuffed from everything else!

Sanaa is a VERY filling meal!! I think it's all of the spices, you don't think you're eating THAT much (okay, maybe we did... ), but you get full very fast!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

How fun to chat with the CM about working at Disney!

I am adding Sanaa to my wish list of restaurants so I can try that Painted Lemur and the spicy Durban shrimp. YUM!

He was so interesting to chat with!

Yay!!! It is definitely wish list-worthy!!

Sanaa sounds like one that should go on the "someday" list. Thanks for another great review!

It's a great restaurant, definitely worth a visit someday!!

Sanaa looks delicious! Their menu is so far from what you can usually find in our area. And it looks so relaxing in all of the pictures.

The cuisine there is great - we do have a lot of Indian restaurants in our area, but not with the African twist that Sanaa has (and none look onto a gorgeous savannah either!)

Can't wait to read more.

Thanks!!!

We've tried Boma and Jiko but not Sanaa yet. Your review makes me want to make an ADR next trip! I've read so many great things about the bread service alone!

You definitely should!! And the bread is GREAT!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Kidani looks gorgeous, I really would like to check it out sometime, I've only been to Jambo House!

Sanaa looks interesting! My sister is thinking of making us an ADR there in Feb. and at first I said I didn't want to go, but I think I'm going to be brave and try it if she decides to make the ADR! I mean, I don't like weird things, but I'm sure there is something on the menu I'd like!

You should definitely visit Kidani Village as well - it's similar to Jambo House, but different too!

Do it!!!!! There are "safer" options on the menu as well! (But I REALLY recommend the short ribs from the slow cooked in gravy )

Sanaa is a restaurant I really want to eat at eventually, but I'm not sure we'd ever actually make it there unless we were staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge (or had a car)

It is a little out of the way for us too, but we think it's worth it! Just take a bus from any of the parks or DTD!

Congrats on the engagement! I enjoyed your previous TR and am looking forward to the all the wedding magic

Thank you!!!

I love AKL! It is so beautiful. And I agree with you about the CM's. We spoke to a really nice and knowledgeable one about the animals during our stay there. I'm glad that you enjoyed Sanaa! Those drinks look delicious!

AKL is such a gorgeous resort!! We had a great time talking with that CM!!

Mmmm your meal at Sanaa looks really delicious. I'm so picky, I would like to go there with a more adventurous eater and just pick off their plate to see if I like things or not!

It was really good!!! Hahaha you should give it a try, the food there is wonderful!

 

[SoNotAPrincess]

I'm caught up!

I really want to try Sanaa, but for some reason it keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the list. I've made a couple of ADRs but canceled both times. Maybe next time...you make it look and sound SO good!!

 

[annmarieda]

You are right, the cowboy vs. gangster version doesn't make a difference to the plot on the great movie ride...but I do so love the fire in the building that makes it just a bit different.

As we approached MuppetVision 3D (Hi, I'm Dorothy, I'm Dinah, and I'm Max...), I noticed the little cart right by the entrance had, oh, around EIGHT MILLION OF THE MUPPETS HATS ON IT.

yes... of course!!!

Ok, so add me to the "haven't had a mickey bar" club.

The mickey and minnie bride and groom set are too cute!

Yummm... bread service at Sanaa!!! I really enjoyed our meal there...but honestly was a tad surprised by how spicy it was.

 

[emmysmommy]

I've really, really wanted to try Sanaa... the shrimp dishes look awesome! Our first AKL meal will be Jiko so I'll see how we like that. Good to know that the bus runs between Jambo and Kidani - we've only been to Jambo.

Ok, silly question here but it looks like you are ON the savannah for your photos... is there a viewing area or something?? Looks amazing!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

I'm caught up!

I really want to try Sanaa, but for some reason it keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the list. I've made a couple of ADRs but canceled both times. Maybe next time...you make it look and sound SO good!!

Awww you definitely should! We love it there!

You are right, the cowboy vs. gangster version doesn't make a difference to the plot on the great movie ride...but I do so love the fire in the building that makes it just a bit different.

yes... of course!!!

Ok, so add me to the "haven't had a mickey bar" club.

The mickey and minnie bride and groom set are too cute!

Yummm... bread service at Sanaa!!! I really enjoyed our meal there...but honestly was a tad surprised by how spicy it was.

Hahaha yeah, not a huge difference, but it does mix it up a bit!

A Mickey Bar is definitely worth a try! Nice and refreshing! (And Mickey-shaped! )

It depends on what you order, how spicy the food is. My dishes weren't spicy at all!

I've really, really wanted to try Sanaa... the shrimp dishes look awesome! Our first AKL meal will be Jiko so I'll see how we like that. Good to know that the bus runs between Jambo and Kidani - we've only been to Jambo.

Ok, silly question here but it looks like you are ON the savannah for your photos... is there a viewing area or something?? Looks amazing!

Oooh we LOVE Jiko! If you like duck, DF constantly goes on about the duck there, so I'd say that's a good choice!

Hahaha yes, there is a viewing area! But you do feel really close to the animals!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

The next morning, at our usual pre-dawn hour, we were up and ready to go. We were very excited for this day, as it was our planning session and menu tasting.

(I am a person that loves to plan. And eat.)

I left another towel animal bait for Mousekeeping. I was going for a rose, but it kind of looks more like ET.



I have no pictures of our journey to the Grand Floridian, but we heading out to the taxi area of Port Orleans to just take a taxi over to the GF. (We were worried about having the same monorail issues as the day before, and this was an even earlier ADR – around 7:30.) But as we were about to ask for a taxi, a Magic Kingdom bus pulled around. I asked DF if we should go for it, he said it was up to me, and having the sense of adventure that I do, we raced over to the bus and hopped aboard.

This journey was a lot more straightforward than the day prior’s, bus to MK, monorail to GF, Stringbean and Wingnut downstairs to the Grand Floridian Café.

We had figured another breakfast in the vicinity of Franck’s (Disney’s wedding office – yes, named after the character from Father of the Bride!) would be a good plan, and the Grand Floridian Café was the clear choice for us.

We were seated quickly, and it was just starting to get light out (told you it was early!).



The tables here are very elegant with their roses (remember this for later).



Wingnut, of course, had to get his favorite frozen coffee (yes, it was still pretty chilly outside, but I’m pretty sure he would order this if it was offered in Antarctica as well.)



My parents got coffee and cranberry juices.





And I had my usual orange juice.



I had noted on our reservation that we were celebrating planning our Disney wedding, and the staff and managers were all coming by and congratulating us and chatting about all of the upcoming excitement. One of the managers came by with roses for me and my mom, which we thought was very sweet of them.



Our server then came by again, putting four drink napkins on the table. “Don’t touch these!” she “sternly” ordered.

We didn’t…

…and she soon came back with these!



Complementary mimosas with gorgeous strawberries for the four of us!



We thanked her, and the manager came back around, commenting that it was very important to get “your vitamin C and your vitamin alcohol in the mornings”

We reveled in all of these festivities, even before the food had arrived! But it soon did…

My parents both had the American, my mom's with scrambled eggs, and my dad's with fried eggs.





DF and I both had the Steak and Eggs (of course!), his with scrambled eggs, and mine with over medium.





We all enjoyed our breakfasts, and were very happy with our choice to go to the Grand Floridian Café. We gathered our things, and headed out of the restaurant, my mom and I carrying our roses.

As we walked out, literally every. single. table. gave us these horrible looks, clearly thinking that we had stolen the roses out of the centerpieces of tables (I know, right??). We picked up our pace, and all I wanted to do was announce “WE WERE GIVEN THESE. BECAUSE WE’RE CELEBRATING WEDDING PLANNING HERE, PEOPLE.”

But I didn’t. Because I am far too elegant for that.

We had a few minutes before we needed to head over to the Weddings Office, so we poked around the shops upstairs and called our friends and family to see how they were faring back home with the hurricane (No power and lots of down trees, but okay.) because we were all starting to drive ourselves nuts watching the news.

Sun’s up now!



Hey, a whole other shelf of wedding merchandise that I can probably make sing!



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[Stringbean&Wingnut]

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Soon enough, we were on our way back over to Franck’s, again commenting on the new DVC construction.





The planning session is a very appropriately-named event, it is essentially where you plan all of the aspects of the wedding day, from linens to floral to transportation. It sounds daunting, but honestly, we were never overwhelmed, and had a great time with our Wedding Planner.

Oh, and they gave us cake!!



My posse.



(Yes, everyone made fun of my giant orange wedding planning binder. But it came in handy!)

DF and I.



Soon enough (the planning session lasted around 4 hours, but it felt a lot faster!) we were back out in the Floridian sunshine, with plans to meet our planner again that afternoon for our menu tasting at the Boardwalk Convention Center. We decided the best route would be monorail to MK – bus to Boardwalk, and were soon at our destination.

I made a quick stop in the sweet shop (for the bathroom, we had had a lot of treats already that day during the cake tasting!), and found these cute princess cookies.



And some other fun treats.



I really don’t see a valid reason why I can’t live here.



Awww…ducks!



Awww…DF!



A few shots around the Boardwalk before we went over to the Convention center for the first time.







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[Stringbean&Wingnut]

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We walked into the Convention Center, and weren't quite sure where to go (it is basically a large building with various conference rooms in it.) We walked over to a man behind a podium and were about to ask him, when we noticed something come up on a screen right beside him.



THATS US!!!!!

We reveled at making the rotating screen of events for the day, and even lingered around there to take another picture when it popped up again. (Thus adding the CM at the podium to the list of people that probably think Im nuts and WAY too overenthusiastic about minutia.)

Hey, my mom captured the moment for posterity too.



We soon figured out where we needed to be, and headed over to the small conference room, which had a table in the middle of it, and a cooking station off to the side. We were greeted by the head chef at the Boardwalk, his assistant for the day, who was a student at Le Cordon Bleu, our waiter, and our wedding planner. We were already super-impressed by the experience, and hadn't even tasted anything yet (but the room already smelled AMAZING.)

Our waiter was kind enough to take a few pictures of us, even climbing on a chair to get a better angle.



The table had a bunch of napkins in various folds on it for us to choose from.

The Chefs Coat.



The&um&Triangle?



I dont remember the name of this one.



Bird of Paradise.



Candlestick.



Fan.



(Okay, so on my Napkin Fold Names test, I think I probably failed&)

(Edited to add: we ended up choosing a "smoother" napkin fabric than the "starchier" one demonstrated above, so it isn't able to hold those gravity-defying napkin folds - it'll be more of a flat folded napkin. But that's okay by us )

Thankfully there was not a test there that day, just a whole bunch of food for us to taste! Before we had left for Disney, we were told to peruse the various Disney catering menus, and choose some items that we thought were interesting (and of course, would fit the scheme of our event, i.e.: probably no Mickey Waffles at a dinner reception.)

(Doesnt Mickey Waffles at a dinner reception sound like it would be awesome?? Someone HAS to have done the breakfast for dinner theme before, right?)

Our reception is going to be brunch, so we essentially had practically anything to choose from, from breakfast to the other menus as well. From what we chose, we were each given a full portion of each selection (we were warned ahead of time that this would be a LOT of food but we knew we were up to the task!) to taste.

(What we tasted does not encompass everything that will be at our event, and I dont think that everything we did taste will be there, but I will say that everything we had was honestly amazing.)

Everyone we worked with was amazingly kind and gracious to us. The chef sat with us as we would taste each dish, noting our comments, and discussing how things could be served at the reception (since it will be buffet-style).

But that wasn't all! When we were all finished stuffing our faces, the chef and his staff gave us a gift! (Photos taken later that day back at the room.)

Cut out for Love cookie cutters&



A Whisked away whisk&



&and Mickey Rice Crispy treats!



We thanked everyone profusely, and rolled ourselves out of the Convention Center, deciding what we should do next.

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[Stringbean&Wingnut]

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Figuring the best thing to do now was walk off the 80 pounds of food we had just eaten, Epcot seemed like the most logical destination. We headed in the direction of the International Gateway, stopping at Sea Breeze Point for a few pictures first.

I can’t wait to get married here.



And I can’t wait to be married to him.



I LOVE that you can see ADR from SBP (and SBP from ADH!).



We entered Epcot, for once not being tempted by any of the F&W booths, and strolled around the World Showcase until we hit Norway. The wait for the Maelstrom was listed as 15 minutes, but hey, we had nowhere else to be, and up until that point I could not say that I had waited more than 15 seconds for that ride.

“Could the wait REALLY be 15 minutes?” I asked DF. He laughed and shrugged, until the line came to a complete stop right at the entrance to the building.

“Oh. Okay. I guess it is.”



And so we waited.



And waited.



And waited.



15 minutes seems like a really long time when you’re spending it in the queue for the Maelstrom. I'm willing to bet that's one of the first pictures of the ceiling of that queue!

But hey, we got the front row!!



After the ever-thrilling Maelstrom, we meandered around Epcot for a bit, deciding to take another spin on Figment before heading out of the park.

I love the Imagination pavilion.





I took a billion photos on the ride. You are very welcome!













IMAGINATION IS A BLAST!!





Figment merchandise:



After Figment, we made our way out of Epcot.



No re-enacting Say Anything on the busses.



The day was still relatively young, but we had been up since forever, and knew that we had one more super-early day ahead of us...for our engagement photo shoot in Epcot!

 

[jedijill]

You left us hanging on what you chose! A Disney wedding seems so awesome.

Jill in CO

 

[teekathepony]

Reading about all your planning experiences is seriously making me want to go back in time and have a Disney wedding instead! And what a lovely breakfast!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Franck’s (Disney’s wedding office – yes, named after the character from Father of the Bride!)

Seriously? That's kind-of awesome.


I'm glad you had a very productive and tasty day!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

So cool! Thanks for the inside peek at wedding planning at WDW. So much to comment on... in random order:

Mickey waffles don't qualify as a formal dinner entree?

What napkin fold did you select???

I think the manager at the GF gave you the best dietary advice I've ever heard... definitely can't get enough vitamin C or vitamin alcohol.

Love that you leave towel animals for housekeeping. SO cute! And I totally got that it was a rose. ET wouldn't have entered into my head until you said it.

Your wedding is going to be so beautiful!!!

 

[SoNotAPrincess]

What a lovely day of wedding planning...sounds like things are coming together beautifully! The devil is in the details....so, what napkin fold did you guys choose?

 

[marDgreen88]

Hahah your towel creation looks like a lollipop to me!

Vitamin Alcohol. That's hilarious.

"I really don't see a valid reason why I can't live here."
AMEN, SISTER.

Your wedding sounds like it will be incredible, seriously. Amazing!!

 

[MeMom]

Hahah your towel creation looks like a lollipop to me!

First thing that came to my mind, as well.




Looks like an exciting time as you were treated in such a special way at a special time in your life. Your wedding will be beautiful, and you guys seem absolutely perfect for each other!

 

[jash08]

Everything looks great!

Sea Breeze is the most beautiful place.

We had our Honeymoon portraits taken in the Magic Kingdom. I really enjoyed having pictures from the park.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Ooooh, this all looks so fun! Nice perks at the GF breakfast!
Franck's - I LOVE IT!!!

I had to LOL at the napkin fold choices - wow, they DO cover every detail!

I'm curious too as to what you selected - did you have to choose the menu right then or did you have time after?
A brunch could DEFINITELY have Mickey Waffles!

I remember seeing a wedding, or maybe just after the wedding at Sea Breeze Point once. Such a pretty venue.