Its been a little while since I updated this. A few more things have fallen into place since then.
The photographer has now been in touch and has confirmed that she is available on the day of our vow renewal. She quoted me $250 for two hours photography and that includes all images on a high resolution DVD. I thought that is a fantastic deal. She will take photos during the actual ceremony, which will last about 30 minutes and then for 90 minutes around the campus of Crystal Cathedral. I am so pleased that this has all worked out. She is going to come and meet us at our hotel in the morning of October 2nd. This is the day we are getting on the Wonder, but we have booked
DCL transfers and we will not be picked up until after midday. So this works out really well, too. She will also bring examples of photo albums at that appointment, but I think we just go with the DVD. I then have the option to do my own photo book for the whole trip if I feel this way inclined.
I have decided to go with the second option for the bouquet and change my colour scheme to ivory and blue. I just totally fell in love with this bouquet. I literally looked at hundreth of others, but nothing even came close. Now I have to keep my fingers crossed. I found this on Ebay. The first time it was listed it had Buy It Now option, but when it was relisted, it just gave the option for an auction. The auction finishes in the early morning hours tomorrow, so it is a question of keeping my fingers crossed until then.
We did manage to get our wedding bands in Dubai. We actually managed to get them on our first day in Dubai at the Dubai Mall. They have a Gold Soukh area there. This is a lot less trouble than the real Gold Soukh, which is overrun by people trying to sell fake designer goods. There is a huge number of shops at the Gold Soukh and the choice and quality of the jewellery there is fantastic, but is like running the gauntlet getting to the shops. I discovered the Gold Soukh area at the Dubai Mall at Christmas 2009 and decided to have a look there first. I was a little disappointed that there are a lot of empty shops in this area now. I suppose people to not have as much money for jewellery.
Jewellery in Dubai is on the whole quite fancy and flashy with big stones. This is tnot really my style. However, some shops had plain wedding bands in their windows. In the first of those shops, I saw a ring that I really loved, a plain white gold ring with yellow gold edges. Unfortunately the rings that they had in stock were either to big or to small and they did not offer to see if another branch had them in stock or offer to alter the ring. They did not even give me the price. So I decided to give up and went to another shop.
There they had another ring I liked. This one was yellow gold in the middle with white gold edges. It was a perfect fit for me, but they did not have one in Grahams size. They did phone around their other branches. They showed us some other rings. They were nice in a contemporary style with white gold in the middle and gold edges. They were to big and heavy for me and they also had diamonds in, which I really did not want. They offered to make a lighter version without the stones, but I rather would try on something like a ring that I will wear every day before commiting myself to buy it. I took the card and decided that I would have a look elsewhere, but if I did not find anything to my liking, I would go back and order the custom rings.
It turned out to be a case of third time lucky. There was another area of shops that we had not even seen last time round. I just casually looked in one of the windows and knew straightaway that I had found the rings that I really wanted. Again they were white gold in the middle with yellow gold edges, but the white gold was not plain, but slightly textured. I decided to go inside. To my delight, the rings that they had were a perfect fit for both of us. They are also very light and extremely comfortable. I could not believe how good value they were either. Here are a couple of photos:
Unfortunately the photos dont do the ring justice as jewellery is so difficult to take photos of. I so want to wear this ring now, but I will resist until the day of our vow renewal.
I have most things covered now. By August 9th, I have to make up my mind where we will have dinner on the evening after the vow renewal. I want to have dinner at one of the hotel restaurants. At
Disneyland you can only make reservations two months in advance. I am kind of torn between Nappa Rose, which I have heard is the best of the hotel restaurants and is also located at the hotel where we are staying; and the steak house at the Disneyland hotel. I am a little worried that Nappa Rose might be a little bit too fancy for my tastes. However, I think I will probably make a reservation for this as soon as I can and then have a look at the menu when I get there. I was told that reservations for Nappa Rose go quickly, but that I would probably get a reservation for Steakhouse 55 with even only a couple of days advance notice.
The cake is also something I will organize through Disney. I have seen some beautiful traditional cakes with flowers, but also some gorgeous cakes with a Little Mermaid theme. Considering the new colour scheme and the Ocean/ Mermaid theme of my jewellery, this might work better. Here are links to both styles:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=21289150&postcount=90
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40323797&postcount=5
The last thing I need to get is a brooch or pin for the wedding dress. I dont really like the brooch that came with it, but I think that it needs a brooch or pin. I am leaning towards something related to the ocean and maybe something with a blue accent, but so far I have not found anything that caught my eye. I thought I had found something earlier on, but this is just a bit to big for my liking.
Corinna
