Cam & Howard's Vow Renewal PJ -1/12/09 - WP&WH--p.98: TRIP REPORT BEGINS

:boat: :sail: Have a wonderful time on the cruise! Enjoy your planning session too; it is always so exciting to go into Franck's! ::MinnieMo ::MickeyMo
 
Oh Cam, I am going to miss you!!!!!! Have a great time!!!
 
have a great time! Can't wait to hear about everything when you get back!!
 

Hello there my friend!!!! I miss you sooooo. Waiting patiently to see those pics and hear all about your PS and your cruise! See you tomorrow! :goodvibes
 
Hi, everyone! I missed you all very much while we were gone and I kept making mental notes to share my fellow DISBrides boardmates! :grouphug: Yesterday was spent getting through hundreds of work emails and 384 person emails (OUCH!!) -- at some point I'll read all those sparkpeople articles and the recipes that came in in volumes while I was gone! ;) Today was the gym, then work, then a barbecue at our friends' house in NJ.

Finally, tonight, I had time to sit down and write my TS/PS trip report. Good thing I did it in word since I've had so many computer glitches tonight. :confused3

So, on to the report on our tasting and planning session on June 26:

Our tasting and planning sessions were wonderful, especially considering how little sleep we’d had and how exhausted we were. We were up at 4 am to get to the airport in time for our 7 am flight. Once we landed, Howard and I headed to the rental cars while our friends & kids headed to Magical Express. By the time we’d rented the car and driven to POP to check everyone in, the rest of our party arrived within moments! Once we checked in, we headed to Franck’s where we thought we were supposed to meet Meri, our planner.

We went into Franck’s around 10:45 and looked around a bit until it occurred to us that Meri should have been there by then, so we asked, and it turned out we were supposed to be at the GF Convention Center. The receptionist called Meri and told her we’d meet her there.

It was so great to finally meet Meri. She was adorable and had the best smile and easy-going manner.
Here is the marquee sign that announced our appointment:
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Funny enough, neither of us noticed that our last name was spelled wrong! My vision is so bad that I could hardly see the writing, much less ascertain its accuracy. I finally noticed the misspelling yesterday as I uploaded pix.

Meri led us back to the convention center kitchen, where we met Melanie, the Chef and Rob, our server. Here is the flashing marquee in that kitchen:
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It was very awkward for me to get in the high director chair kind of stool, since I am so short, but we managed to get ourselves situated at the table, where we became acquainted with some plate and napkin fold choices. It was fun to start thinking about what the table is going to look like. We had seen a napkin fold in a magazine that was not a choice on the table, but which we later saw at Franck’s, and we’ve chosen that fold.

On to the food!
We started with a veggie samosa (lower left) and spanokopita (upper right), with an olive tepanade (IIRC) and a mango yogurt sauce (upper left). All of it was delicious!
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We even had the choice of butter having the GF logo or Mickey:
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Then, on to cheddar soup which was not quite as we’d expected. It was very thick and rich, rather than the less rich variety served at LeCellier. After discussing some choices, and in deference to our vegetarian and Kosher guests, we are going with the variety served by Melanie, but rather than a baguette, it will be served with pretzel bread.
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Next was the delicious Caesar salad.
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The intermezzo of raspberry champagne sorbet was gorgeous and delicious!
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The tasting of entrees was a bit strange. There was so much food and I literally took a bite or two of each item, other than my absolute favorite (more on that later).

First was an air-line chicken with pinot grigio sauce. Melanie explained why it is called air-line, and I am hoping that I remember correctly that the name is because part of the wing and breast bone is in place, as is the skin, allowing a juicier piece of breast meat. The chicken was very good but not necessarily a “WOW” for us.

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Next was the duo plate of parmesan chicken (served with a mushroom sauce) and the beef. We asked to have both the blackberry demi and the red wine demi served on the side so that we could try both on the beef.
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We both liked the red wine demi but not the blackberry, so the beef will be served WITH the red wine demi glace on top of it. And we both LOVED the parmesan chicken. I think I ate nearly every bite of it.

Finally, was the Cinderella slipper dessert plate:
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We loved this, but are still very hesitant about serving a dessert when there will be plenty of wedding cake.

2 BIG disappointments regarding the entrée tasting.

1. We’d asked to try the parma rosa sauce on the chicken because we know several of our guests don’t eat mushroom anything. Instead they served the parmesan chicken with mushroom sauce on top, which we both liked, but was not something we feel we can serve ON the chicken. Since we didn’t get to try the parma rosa sauce, we are going to go with the mushroom sauce on the side.

2. We are very concerned about choosing a fabulous entrée for our vegetarian & Kosher friends and asked to sample a pasta dish with the artichoke cream sauce. Apparently, that item somehow got obscured on the list that Meri prepared and was not available for our tasting. We were both disappointed though we didn’t make a big deal about it. I’m unhappy about serving something that we haven’t tried.
When we were done, Melanie gave us a very nice gift of a special kind of salt and salt block:
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Meri took a picture of us with Melanie and Rob (I realized later we have no picture of Meri. So sad!):
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When we left the kitchen, we peeked into the Whitehall Room at a reception in progress. The theming of the reception was an Asian flair, with gorgeous red sashes on chiavari chairs with sprigs of yellow flowers tucked into the tie on the back of the chair. Everyone seemed to be having a fabulous time and the room was just as gorgeous as we remembered!

At that point, we separated from Meri, so that she could head back to Franck’s to get things ready for our planning session. We looked around the convention center a bit and then headed over to Franck’s.

The sky was looking ominous, so we paused for a few pix in case it was raining later.
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The planning session was absolutely incredible. We met our floral planner, Laura Kidd, and I was SOOO excited to know she’ll do our flowers and décor! She had all sorts of fabulous ideas and was so excited to share them with us. I absolutely adored her and I really feel like we are in great hands. She really seemed to “get” what I like and she was fun and enthusiastic. I had pictures for her of Jenn’s gown, the same gown in the pale yellow that we want for our second color, pictures of bouquet sizes, shapes, colors; pictures of centerpiece inspiration and the inspiration for our altar piece/sweetheart table. I also gave her pix of my gown and the skirt detailing and she had some really sweet ideas about how to bring some of that detailing into our floral. She also understood very well what we want for our memorial table. We talked a lot about varieties of flowers and the colors each comes in, and what is in season. She also had some great ideas for how to decorate the pre-reception tables and loved our ideas for the dessert party. I had brought a BUNCH of pictures with me and ended up leaving almost all of them with her. She was so cute when she said “Oh, it feels like Christmas!”

Poor Meri was trying to get all sorts of other ideas on the table and help us with various decisions to be made, but I think we were all having such a great time gabbing! I cannot believe all the things Meri brought up that we hadn’t thought about considering, and she was very candid with some ideas on how to make things affordable that we might not have otherwise done. I enjoyed absolutely every moment we spent in the planning session, with both Laura and Meri.

Once Laura left, Meri went through LOTS of other details with us, and THEN it was time for CAKE!!!!
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We tasted:
Chocolate
Yellow
Almond
Carrot
Marble

As for fillings, we had:
Cream cheese
Bavarian cream
Buttercream
Dark chocolate mousse
White chocolate mousse
Tropical mousse
Raspberry
German chocolate
Bailey’s
Amaretto
Fresh strawberries
Fresh raspberries

Oh, my goodness!! I cannot believe HOW MUCH cake I ate!! I was feeling so sick by the end that it was hard to even THINK about cake, much less choose flavors. Frankly, we were so blown away by the carrot cake and cream cheese filling that it was nearly impossible NOT to pick that. But, for a lot of reasons, we decided to forgo that and chose:
Top layer – almond cake w/amaretto filling w/fresh strawberries
Bottom layer – chocolate cake w/white chocolate mousse & fresh raspberries

Other decisions that had to be made:
Height & number of tables for dessert party
Décor for DP tables
Audio package for DP
Height & number of tables for pre-reception
Décor for pre-reception
Menu for pre-reception
Uniform for wait staff
Attire for my main mouse
Timing for reception – for dances, toasts, cake cutting, mouse appearance

I’m sure there is SOOO much more I am forgetting, but those are the highlights!
Our tasting session started at 11 a.m. and we walked out of our planning/cake tasting session about 5:30pm. We accomplished a LOT in less than 6.5 hours. I am sure that in a non-destination wedding planning situation, there’d be many multi-hour sessions to handle all the details, but the Disney folks have everything down to a science and I feel like we were incredibly efficient and accomplished.
 
Hey Cam! How awesome....sounds like a great day!
 
Hi Cam! Glad you are back with us finally :goodvibes Great TR for your planning session! :thumbsup2 I am sorry you did not get to try the pasta. This won't make you feel better about that but let me say that our vegetarian pasta dish was penne pasta with artichoke cream and julienne vegetables and it was my very favorite thing I ate at our reception buffet. :lovestruc I am not vegetarian either but If I could have a plate right now, I'd welcome it!!

I had Laura Kidd also and she was so helpful to me and did a great job on our floral :love:

Are you on Sparkpeople too? I am Withspirit there!
 
Cam!!!!! That was the day of our VR!!!! I wish I had known you were there - I was at the convention center from about 3:00pm - 6:00pm getting ready - I would have loved to have met you - we had our ceremony at 8:00pm - I am sure you were long gone by then - I am glad you had fun at your tasting session!
 
:cool1: I was so excited to see the start of your report! It sounds like your planning session went great. Laura is the best, I was really pleased with everything that she did for us too. The carrot cake was a tough call for us too; we ended up just making it our top layer since we were able to pick 3 flavors for our cake. I love the food pictures; did you decide on the Mickey or GF butter?
 
Hey Cam! How awesome....sounds like a great day!


Glad you had a wonderful planning session:cloud9:

Thank you! I was so glad that I'd read so many TRs about PS/TS's beforehand so that I had some idea of what to expect. But it really can be overwhelming when you have to make all those decisions in such a short period of time. I was so glad that Meri said any of the decisions could be re-visited.

Hi Cam! Glad you are back with us finally :goodvibes Great TR for your planning session! :thumbsup2 I am sorry you did not get to try the pasta. This won't make you feel better about that but let me say that our vegetarian pasta dish was penne pasta with artichoke cream and julienne vegetables and it was my very favorite thing I ate at our reception buffet. :lovestruc I am not vegetarian either but If I could have a plate right now, I'd welcome it!!

I had Laura Kidd also and she was so helpful to me and did a great job on our floral :love:

Are you on Sparkpeople too? I am Withspirit there!

Wow! Lisa, all that good news in one post. Thank you! :hug: I am so relieved to hear that you loved that vegetarian dish. I am going to just have to resign myself to feeding guests something we can't personally vouch for, but they are all so very accommodating and sweet that they will be easy to please. Fortunately, the appetizer and the soup and the salad and the veggie sides are all vegetarian, too, so if they aren't crazy about the pasta dish, we won't have to worry that they will go hungry! :goodvibes:

YEA!!!!! So good to have you back!!!!

Patty-- I missed you!! I must confess I ate a lot of food that was not "DRESS FRIENDLY" so I'm glad to have you motivate me to get back to the gym and back in gear! :cool1: :yay: :woohoo: :banana: Let's see....any other ways to burn calories? Oh, yeah -- :dance3: :hyper: :laundy: :cheer2: LOL!!!

Cam!!!!! That was the day of our VR!!!! I wish I had known you were there - I was at the convention center from about 3:00pm - 6:00pm getting ready - I would have loved to have met you - we had our ceremony at 8:00pm - I am sure you were long gone by then - I am glad you had fun at your tasting session!

Oh, Lisa, I thought of you so many times that day! I knew you weren't at the WP, though, so I was sending pixiedust: and :goodvibes from afar!

:cool1: I was so excited to see the start of your report! It sounds like your planning session went great. Laura is the best, I was really pleased with everything that she did for us too. The carrot cake was a tough call for us too; we ended up just making it our top layer since we were able to pick 3 flavors for our cake. I love the food pictures; did you decide on the Mickey or GF butter?

So, Vanessa, is that your anniversary layer? We are only doing 2 layers, with the top layer being large enough to hold the castle topper and feed 40 and the bottom layer being just enough larger to look right proportionately. I am thinking maybe for marathon weekend 2010, we'll have to do an anniversary celebration and order a carrot cake from the GF bakery. :)
 
Yeah Cam, welcome back!!

Your PS sounds so wonderful!! Your menu sounds delicious! Can't wait to hear the rest!!
 
Cam Welcome back and everything looks so wonderful. Sorry about the pasta dish but at least WithDisneySpirit tried it so that's a plus. I would have loved to have a carrot cake when we got married (almost 12 years ago) because DH loves carrot cake but we didn't think of just getting one layer. I don't think the woman we had would have done that. Maybe for our VR.
 
Oh Cam!! It has been to long. I have just read through your entire thread and can't count the number of times you have made me cry (on a day where I am covering for the receptionist no less!!) You and Howard deserve this so much and I am so happy to read all about your planning. Everything is absolutely gorgeous!! Congratulations!
 
Well, Cam, you KNOW I had to look. ;)

I'm sorry but you get no sympathy from me, having to eat all that cake. :lmao:

You guys look so adorable! :cloud9:

Please don't worry too much about the vegetarian meals. Disney has never disappointed me! I'm sure there will be plenty to eat but geez, I'll be too busy having fun anyway! :yay:

And how cool is it that you got to pick out what Mickey will be wearing! :cool2:
 
Thank you so much, everyone! We are really, really excited about all the special stuff we have planned for our guests, not the least of which is the fabulous food!! Oh, and the CAKE!!!! :yay: (I think we need a "yummy" smiley! ;) ).

Okay, I forgot to post on our trip to Carolyn Allen's. Let me just tell you that the staff there was absolutely wonderful! We got to meet Sue, whom I've seen in so many brides' pictures. She did all the measurements for DS and helped us make decisions about the accessories. Everything went so well and Andrew and Howard are both going to look so debonair! I just LOVE the white on white Mickey accessories and am really glad that Andrew wants to wear that. Very cool! ::MickeyMo
One thing I did that I think will be very helpful :idea: is that we took Andrew's measurements at home and then put them on the same sheet with the measurements that Sue took. We'll measure him again about a week before we head to Orlando and alert Sue to any changes in the measurements we took at home in June, so that she can consider his growth when she brings his tux and accessories to the fitting. :goodvibes

Sue also helped me figure out how and when to ship my gown to her (I just cannot imagine how it is going to feel to do that -- I'm having flashes of panic already! :eek: ) and reassured me about getting everything scheduled efficiently. Currently the plan is as follows:
Thursday 3:00 -- fitting at BCV for DS and for DH's accessories
Sunday (late afternoon) -- dress steaming at GF (and she'll drop off any replacement pieces based on the fitting)
Tuesday -- Sue will pick everything up at GF bell services (including my gown if I want them to ship it back)
How awesome are they? :woohoo: :thumbsup2

I cannot say enough how positve and reassuring that experience was. Sue was just amazing AND her staff were delightful, and I really know that the tuxedo and dress steaming issues will be less stressful in January because of our positive experience there this trip.
 
cam everyhting sounds like it was wonderful and successful! all the little details and planning, even with your guys at CA. It will be here before you know it!:goodvibes
 





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