THURSDAY – PART 2 – SHOPPING, STORING & SCHLEPPING
(this will be kind of long and boring – sorry! Necessary background info!
)
So, after shopping in 3 different stores, we had lots of refrigerator groceries and a studio-sized fridge, so we met our friend, Craig at the Hess station, had him climb into the van, and headed over to the Boardwalk, where he and Howard schlepped our fridge groceries to Craig’s villa for storage until Friday.
Next, we headed over to the marathon expo. Yes, before we could get to the Vow Renewal or any wedding-related activities, there was the small matter of a 5k, half-marathon, full-marathon, and 6.5 hours of volunteering to get through. So, we drove to Disney’s Wide World of Sports. Howard went off to Runner Relations to try to get his corral assignments changed, and I took Jenn, Ade & Andrew to handle all the other registration issues. Here is what we accomplished:
checked Andrew in for 5k
checked Ade & Jenn & Cam in for half-marathon
checked my aunt in for the half-marathon (she couldn’t run, but I wanted her to get her race bag and all the goodies)
checked my uncle in for the half-marathon (same story)
tested Cam’s and Howard’s champion chip (the device that tracks your start, finish, and intermittent splits during an endurance event – we own our own and have to test them at each event to make sure they are correctly read by the timing mats)
checked my friend Jessica in for the Goofy (she was arriving late Friday night)
took all the registrations and went to the tee-shirt/goodie bag pickup, where we picked up tee shirts/bags for me, Jenn, Ade, Andrew, my aunt, my uncle, and my friend
Then, we were walking to another building to register me for my volunteer position for the full marathon and we almost walked right past our friend, Kathy. There were hugs and some tears, and then we all traipsed off to volunteer registration
Somewhere in there, we also went through the Expo, but my feet hurt so badly and the crowds were insane, so we bought me a pair of
crocs flip-flops and got out of there as quickly as possible. I told Jenn and Ade that when they finished the half-marathon, I’d treat them to “I DID IT” tee shirts (this is important for later).
We eventually abandoned Kathy and headed to BCV to check-in, knowing she was coming over soon to help us put together welcome bags.
The CMs at the front desk of the Beach Club were darlings and very eager to help us get to a ready villa as soon as possible. I left the front desk with a gorgeous pink rose to match my ears.
After arriving in our villa, our bags arrived pretty quickly, as did our 2 Owners’ Lockers (JUST WAIT until I tell you how awesome these were!!!).
Side story: there is a business in the Orlando area called Owners Locker that I think originally catered primarily to timeshare owners. Essentially, you pay a membership fee and are given a huge purple storage container. You manage your membership on-line, you input your arrival date and resort and when you arrive, your locker is there. You also input your departure date and resort, and when you are ready to leave, you seal the box (with serial numbered cables they give you) and leave your locker with Bell Services; the guys from OL pick up your locker from Bell Services and return it to their storage facility until your next trip. In between, it is stored in a temperature controlled storage facility.
Before I went to Orlando in May for a girls’ weekend, Howard and I joined Owners’ Locker. I took a suitcase full of wedding supplies (mostly welcome bag gifts/favors) and stored them in the Owners’ Locker. When I went down again in September, I realized I could take another load of wedding stuff down and put it in a second locker. I think OL is the most amazing resource for Disney Brides – I figure almost everyone goes down for a planning session, and it would be a great opportunity to put into storage anything you KNOW you’ll need for the wedding, but not in-between -- just do like I did and take pix of everything you are putting in. I also kept one sample of every item for the welcome bags that I stored, so that I could visualize and create a sample of what our welcome bags would look like, even while the stuff was in storage and I didn’t have to cart it all to Orlando or ship it when we travelled down for the wedding.
So, once the Owners' Lockers were delivered and all the non-refrigerator groceries were schlepped to our villa, the kids immediately put the pre-prepared personalized labels on water bottles, Howard put the Do Not Disturb signs in the welcome folders, and we set up an assembly line for the Welcome Bags (we made 20, one of which I’ll send to my Aunt and Uncle who couldn’t make it to Orlando).
(Warning -- I’m doing a LOT of detail and pictures here about the welcome bags in case it helps any future Disney Brides)
The guests’ welcome bags were gym sacks and they included:
Folder with:
marked up Grand Floridian map (I used a heart to mark the WP, a tinkerbell to mark our WISHES dessert party location, and a star to mark the Whitehall patio and ballroom)
Maps for MK, EPCOT, DHS, DAK and DTD
Pre-addressed, stamped postcard to me & Howard w/a note asking our guests to fill out the postcard with their happiest memory and to mail it to us
A thank-you notecard with a heart made of plantable wildflower paper
A personalized do not disturb sign
A welcome letter with our itinerary & all cell phone numbers, wedding itinerary & WDW transportation instructions & driving directions for those with cars.
One other really smart thing we were able to do because of the generosity of a bunch of friends, was to include cell numbers of our “on-site help desk” – that is, two friends who are Disney experts who people could call with questions if they couldn’t reach us, or if our guests didn’t want to bother us – many friends offered up their cell numbers to help our guests this way, which I thought was absolutely AWESOME!!!
Each folder was decorated with a welcome sticker on the front and personalized with guest-specific Disney/Pixar stickers, too. Andrew had a GREAT time helping me decorate each folder from the PILE of stickers I gave him (along with instructions as to who got which themes of stickers.)
2 nutri-grain bars
1 or 2 personalized bottles of water
1 bag of mickey pretzels
Plastic heart filled with hugs & kisses & other chocolates
Vellum bag of chocolates & a cell phone charm
Mickey pens, a notepad, and crystal light packets
Puff box filled with Disney sweettarts
Bear necessities bag with bandaids, motrin, dental floss, Disney emery board, personalized sewing kit, lip balm with sunscreen, travel-size sunscreen, pack of gum
2 crystal light packets
Wish upon a star winestopper w/personalized tag
Votive candle with personalized matches in a Chinese takeout box with a tag thanking the recipient for lighting up our lives with their love and friendship:
The gym sacks were tied shut with a tag that suited that person (either based on what marathon weekend race they were doing, or a character they liked)
and the gym sack was then put in a pink shopping bag that was tied shut, and had this on the outside:
Each shopping bag had a Mickey hang tag with the recipient(s)’ name, resort, arrival date and reservation number
So, this is what that process looked like:
And here they are, ready to be delivered!
While the kids worked on the welcome bags, Kathy worked on the vase that was to hold the programs. Kathy helped come up with a great solution when the programs didn’t fit in the vase (I’d originally pictured them as 4.25x5.5 single layer cardstock but ended up making little “booklets” so that I could include our theme verse on the front cover and more information on the inside); we also started configuring the placecard holders.
NEXT UP: DINNER WITH MY FAVORITE MOUSE and DRINKS WITH MY FAVORITE FROG!
Whoo hoo for the trip report! Keep it comin' Cam!
Hee hee. 
