Well as some of you may recall I thought I would write a trip report while I was away. That plan backfired--after much family drama and my two nephews getting sick and being hospitilized....things got way too hectic!!
So I will just write a summary about things directly pertaining to the wedding.
Juliana was our planner and was replaced last minute with Karen. She was present on the day of the wedding. Apparently when DH arrived she wasn't there yet, just Rev. Tim. Eventually she arrived but didn't give him a whole lot of info. Once I arrived, it was Rev Tim that brought us our flowers, corsages and boutineers, not Karen. After about 10 minutes when I sent some one to find her she came to see me. Honestly she seemed very disinterested in the whole thing and certainly didn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy!
She popped her head in a couple of minutes before we were starting and asked about our music selections. We had paid $150 to have a sound tech so that we could have a cd played for my walk down the aisle and our unity candle lighting. She was complaining about how long it would play and I was like thats ok we chose the break point.....I wanted time to walk down the aisle, speak to my dh's grandparents (who were on the phone listening to ceremony) and catch my breath before we started....I also wanted it playing softly in the background when Rev Tim was asking my father who gives yadadada.....she thought this was way too long. I said if after all of these things there is still music playing he could fade it out. Well I walk down the aisle, when I reach the alter, off goes the music. I was so annoyed....it played for like 30 secs at most. Also during the unity candle lighting I had a specific spot I wanted it to end...again a little long for karen but I said that is what I want. The two songs were very important to us and I wanted to take time to listen to the lyrics and reflect on what was happening. Again after the candles were lit, off went the music. I figured at $75 a song, if I wanted to stand there and stare into space that was my perogative!!!
The Ceremony
We really weren't that concerned with the details, just wanted to include wording that would incorporate my son into the service as well as have a part where dh presented ds with a pocket watch and said a "vow" to him. It was the hioghlight of the day for me, DH was amazing and DS really got the importance of what was happening. He also very much felt a part of the whole thing. Rev Tim also had the three of us join hands and exchange family vows. He also had DS sign the marriage certificate he gives as a witness.
Rev Tim
There has been much discussion about him of late so I will explain our experience. For what we required he met our needs. But like Karen I felt he was doing a "job" and had nothing personally invested in our day what so ever. He married my sister a couple years back and much of the ceremony was word for word. When we met with Randy a couple of days ago to get our photos he actually joked that he could recite his and Jack Days service verbatim! He could have been reading the phone book for all the enthusiasm he put into the words he was saying. But we were very aware of what we were getting after reading the boards and as I said it was fine for us.
Carolyn Allens
Fantastic....professional, on time for both steaming and tux fittings. Excellent quality tuxes and good value for money paid....can't say enough good things about them!
Anna (makeover majic)
She was perfect for what we needed....my hair was exactly what I wanted (will try to post photos later), my makeup perfect and stayed on all day. She did great for others as well. She was very sweet and i would definitely recommend her.
Randy Chapman
I don't think I could find the right words to express just how great this man is. DH and I both HATE having photos taken, but he made us feel totally at ease. DH had a hard time paying for pics when Disney was including them....til he started looking at his work and reading TR's here. Finally he decided to go with Randy and now admits it was the best money we spent. Randy got the photos done for us and met us at the GF this past Sunday so we could take the photos home instead of paying to ship them to Canada.
The photos are amazing, they are so much for than standard posed photos and he really captured the emotions we were feeling throughout the day. We don't even look like we were sweating in crazy heat and humidity!!! He took random shots that we didn't even know he was shooting. Besides his amazing talent he is so sweet and helpful. He came early to the hotel (not requested by me--and didn't charge me extra) and stayed with us right to the Poly where we were having dinner. When we picked up the photos he stayed with us while we looked through all 486 of them discussing different shots as we looked thru. We couldn't believe how many we got plus we have the 2 discs as well. I can't recommend him enough. When you calculate how much Disney charges for photo reprints it really isn't that much more money and what you get is incredible. We plan on using him next year for family photos at WDW.
Cake/Champagne
Personally I didn't like the taste of the cake but others did. We went with marble cake and raspberry mousse. We had opted for the sparkling cider instead of champagne and on Julianas suggestion added a 3rd bottle that would be credited if not open. When we arrived the server set was out and our engraved glasses but the one I got for my son was not. Karen looked confused when I asked her so I went hunting myself and found it. We got it all figured out in the end. She packed everything up when were all finished and unbeknownst to us gave us the third unopened bottle. Oh well guess we were keeping it! The cake looked beautiful and we enjoyed the violin music and had our first dance. The day was beautiful and the view breathtaking. My son gave us a great toast that had us all laughing!
After photos with Randy we went to Ohanas for dinner. Dinner was great, we enjoyed the entertainment and again had a dance. After dinner we went back to the resort to change and my MIL and BIl had bought us a carriage ride at POR. It was a great end to the day--some quiet time to reflect on the days events.
All in all the day was as magical as i had imagined. Many times throughout I would look around and feel like I was dreaming. It really was like a fairy tale, looking out at the MK during the ceremony....looking off the balcony of the GF at the Poly and the beach and it all was amazing. There really isn't a better way that two disney freaks like us could have started our lives!
Honeymoon shoot
We met our photogapher at 10 at the MK 2 days after the wedding. He was very nice and brought us to some neat places and took what we thought would be great photos. When we got the email saying that they were ready to be viewed we couldn't wait to see them. Well....what a disappointment. The quality was not very good, in most shots the glare on my glasses was so bad you couldn't even see my eyes. I doubt we got more than 2 photos that we would even consider to be of displayable quality.
This is kind of an overall summary but I would be happy to answer more specific questions.
So I will just write a summary about things directly pertaining to the wedding.
Juliana was our planner and was replaced last minute with Karen. She was present on the day of the wedding. Apparently when DH arrived she wasn't there yet, just Rev. Tim. Eventually she arrived but didn't give him a whole lot of info. Once I arrived, it was Rev Tim that brought us our flowers, corsages and boutineers, not Karen. After about 10 minutes when I sent some one to find her she came to see me. Honestly she seemed very disinterested in the whole thing and certainly didn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy!
She popped her head in a couple of minutes before we were starting and asked about our music selections. We had paid $150 to have a sound tech so that we could have a cd played for my walk down the aisle and our unity candle lighting. She was complaining about how long it would play and I was like thats ok we chose the break point.....I wanted time to walk down the aisle, speak to my dh's grandparents (who were on the phone listening to ceremony) and catch my breath before we started....I also wanted it playing softly in the background when Rev Tim was asking my father who gives yadadada.....she thought this was way too long. I said if after all of these things there is still music playing he could fade it out. Well I walk down the aisle, when I reach the alter, off goes the music. I was so annoyed....it played for like 30 secs at most. Also during the unity candle lighting I had a specific spot I wanted it to end...again a little long for karen but I said that is what I want. The two songs were very important to us and I wanted to take time to listen to the lyrics and reflect on what was happening. Again after the candles were lit, off went the music. I figured at $75 a song, if I wanted to stand there and stare into space that was my perogative!!!
The Ceremony
We really weren't that concerned with the details, just wanted to include wording that would incorporate my son into the service as well as have a part where dh presented ds with a pocket watch and said a "vow" to him. It was the hioghlight of the day for me, DH was amazing and DS really got the importance of what was happening. He also very much felt a part of the whole thing. Rev Tim also had the three of us join hands and exchange family vows. He also had DS sign the marriage certificate he gives as a witness.
Rev Tim
There has been much discussion about him of late so I will explain our experience. For what we required he met our needs. But like Karen I felt he was doing a "job" and had nothing personally invested in our day what so ever. He married my sister a couple years back and much of the ceremony was word for word. When we met with Randy a couple of days ago to get our photos he actually joked that he could recite his and Jack Days service verbatim! He could have been reading the phone book for all the enthusiasm he put into the words he was saying. But we were very aware of what we were getting after reading the boards and as I said it was fine for us.
Carolyn Allens
Fantastic....professional, on time for both steaming and tux fittings. Excellent quality tuxes and good value for money paid....can't say enough good things about them!
Anna (makeover majic)
She was perfect for what we needed....my hair was exactly what I wanted (will try to post photos later), my makeup perfect and stayed on all day. She did great for others as well. She was very sweet and i would definitely recommend her.
Randy Chapman
I don't think I could find the right words to express just how great this man is. DH and I both HATE having photos taken, but he made us feel totally at ease. DH had a hard time paying for pics when Disney was including them....til he started looking at his work and reading TR's here. Finally he decided to go with Randy and now admits it was the best money we spent. Randy got the photos done for us and met us at the GF this past Sunday so we could take the photos home instead of paying to ship them to Canada.
The photos are amazing, they are so much for than standard posed photos and he really captured the emotions we were feeling throughout the day. We don't even look like we were sweating in crazy heat and humidity!!! He took random shots that we didn't even know he was shooting. Besides his amazing talent he is so sweet and helpful. He came early to the hotel (not requested by me--and didn't charge me extra) and stayed with us right to the Poly where we were having dinner. When we picked up the photos he stayed with us while we looked through all 486 of them discussing different shots as we looked thru. We couldn't believe how many we got plus we have the 2 discs as well. I can't recommend him enough. When you calculate how much Disney charges for photo reprints it really isn't that much more money and what you get is incredible. We plan on using him next year for family photos at WDW.
Cake/Champagne
Personally I didn't like the taste of the cake but others did. We went with marble cake and raspberry mousse. We had opted for the sparkling cider instead of champagne and on Julianas suggestion added a 3rd bottle that would be credited if not open. When we arrived the server set was out and our engraved glasses but the one I got for my son was not. Karen looked confused when I asked her so I went hunting myself and found it. We got it all figured out in the end. She packed everything up when were all finished and unbeknownst to us gave us the third unopened bottle. Oh well guess we were keeping it! The cake looked beautiful and we enjoyed the violin music and had our first dance. The day was beautiful and the view breathtaking. My son gave us a great toast that had us all laughing!
After photos with Randy we went to Ohanas for dinner. Dinner was great, we enjoyed the entertainment and again had a dance. After dinner we went back to the resort to change and my MIL and BIl had bought us a carriage ride at POR. It was a great end to the day--some quiet time to reflect on the days events.
All in all the day was as magical as i had imagined. Many times throughout I would look around and feel like I was dreaming. It really was like a fairy tale, looking out at the MK during the ceremony....looking off the balcony of the GF at the Poly and the beach and it all was amazing. There really isn't a better way that two disney freaks like us could have started our lives!
Honeymoon shoot
We met our photogapher at 10 at the MK 2 days after the wedding. He was very nice and brought us to some neat places and took what we thought would be great photos. When we got the email saying that they were ready to be viewed we couldn't wait to see them. Well....what a disappointment. The quality was not very good, in most shots the glare on my glasses was so bad you couldn't even see my eyes. I doubt we got more than 2 photos that we would even consider to be of displayable quality.
This is kind of an overall summary but I would be happy to answer more specific questions.
