Crystal & Jeff's (AlternateEgo) Planning Journal: Three more days!! 9/6/09

[AlternateEgo]

Hello!

I'm Crystal, 26 and I have three daughters ages 6, 4, & 3.

FH is Jeff, who is 37 and doesn't have any children.

We met on Myspace... kinda. It turned out that he was my cousin's hubby's cousin... lol. We had been aquainted before, but had never really knew each other.

When he asked me to marry him, I knew I wanted to go to Disney for our Honeymoon. I took the girls back in September 07 and have been dreaming of the next time I would get to go.

I would have loved to have had a Disney wedding, but we are really "family" people and want all of our family to join us for the ceremony.

 

[AlternateEgo]

For our Honeymoon...

Animal Kingdom Lodge
Standard King Room with Pool or Flamingo Pond View
Either 3 day Park Hopper or 4 day tickets
Disney Dining Plan
7 days/6 nights

Hopefully flying in on Monday leaving on Sunday
If we fly in then we will get a rental car.

Restaurant Wishlist...
Dinner at California Grill with view of sunset or fireworks
Breakfast at Cinderella's Castle ( I would LOVE to get a picture of us on Mainstreet USA without crowds of people)
Rainforest Cafe

Give me more ideas on your favorite restaurants! We will probably have the regular Disney dining plan which includes 1 table meal and 1 quick service meal and Rainforest Cafe isn't included. If they offer the Free Dining Plan when we go, then we might upgrade to the Deluxe. It just depends what sort of dining experiences we want to include.

 

[tiggersam00]

welcome to the boards, cant wait to see how your plans develop

 

[padisneyfour]

welcome looking forward to hearing more of your plans....great start to your PJ

 

[AlternateEgo]

Well I have been working hard to find great deals for the wedding.

My aunt found a brand new Davids Bridal Flower Girl dress for $15. She even paid for it I still have to find another matching on craigslist or buy one for the other flower girl. She also sent me about 1,000 white Christmas lights, about 10 strands of red beads, and 3 or 4 spools of red "twine" not real sure what it is called.

I bought flower girl baskets at Hobby Lobby yesterday. Also found some flower swag for the archway, bought fabric and ribbon to cover the card box...

I also got 5-12 packs of votive candles and holders the other day.

And I have rented chairs and the archway.

I have designed my cake and have found my baker. She is family of one of my friends and is going to make our cake for $1.60 a serving!!! She usually charges $2.75.

( Ok I am having issues with my program. The background should be white, the cake is white, all the decorations are white, except the black ribbon across the bottom [appears blue] and the roses and carnations are red)

Still no dress...

Total I have spent $165.58

 

[AlternateEgo]

I am open to ideas and opinions

 

[auntpunkin]

Your ideas look great so far! I really like your cake design, I'm looking at something close to that but square with hydrangeas between the layers. And that dress is gorgeous!
A few of our restaurant fav's are LeCelliar, Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace, Kona Cafe and Planet Hollywood. I hear Mama Melrose's is really good too and we are going to try it next time. The Whispering Canyon is also a ton of fun! Have you looked at www.allears.net? The have the restaurants and their menu's, it's great! We have heard some bad reviews on Cinderella's Table, plus it burns up 2 dining credits, so we haven't been there. What we try to do is get one of the 1st table reservations of the day at Crystal Palace, then you get to go past the line of everyone waiting for the park to open and walk down main street nearly all by yourself to the restaurant. The photographers are already there and you can get some great photos with the castle in the background without all the strangers in the shot!
Looking forward to reading more of your plans and maybe running into you this Sept., we'll be there Aug. 30-Sept. 13!

 

[AlternateEgo]

So yesterday I decided to go to David's Bridal. The first day my sister (MOH) has been off a Saturday afternoon. Our nearest DB is a 2 hour drive... but I REALLY wanted to go.

So finally I got the girls dropped off with their Mama, and picked up my sister, Susan and my brothers GF, Pam. We headed to my mom's work to grab her Garmin, .. cause I had no idea where I was going.

We head out and this GPS takes you down every backroad... just to get you there faster, .

We finally arrived at DB around 2pm. The parking lot was PACKED! So we quickly made our way into the store and there were people and dresses everywhere. We signed in and were assigned a salesperson.

She asked which dresses I liked and I had explained the look I was going for. And I told her which dress was my favorite dress. So we grabbed a few dresses. The one I really liked online was a size smaller than what I needed but she told me I could try it on to get a "feel".

So we all three squish into a dressing room and they help me get dressed.

1st dress is the one I had my heart set on from online. I LOVED it! It felt light and comfortable. Made me appear smaller. Big poofy skirt... Very small train. Strapless... pickups. I loved everything about it.

2nd dress was something similar to the first but the top felt so heavy.

3rd dress I didn't make it out of the dressing room. The dress was ugly, .

So, I decided there was no sence in trying any other dresses on... I was in love with the first dress and had been since FH picked it out online. ( I haven't told him that is the dress I picked)

So then we looked at Bridesmaid dresses. Then I decided, right there at DB, that I wanted my Brother's GF and my brother in our wedding party. The only reason I hadn't done this before was that I have 2 sisters, but one sister I don't really talk to and I didn't want her to have any "bad feelings" about not picking her for my bridesmaid.

So I chose a few dresses out for them. I had picked out 4 for them to try out. Amazingly enough, we all three loved a black tea length dress with a white sash around the top for $70. The sash cost an extra $15. The best part is these dresses are perfectly rewearable. We also found a Jr. Bridesmaid dress that matched perfectly for $65 and the sash is $10!

Off to look at Flower Girl dresses and I found the one that matches the brand new one my aunt bought at Goodwill for $15, for $70. I couldn't believe my luck finding all these dresses so inexpensive. The sashes for the flower girls dresses are $10.

So I decided to buy my dress, cause it takes 12 weeks to get it made. My dress was on sale that day so the original cost was $449.99 and I got $50 off making it $399.99. Total cost was $441 including a heavy duty garment bag ($10) and taxes.

As we checked out a salesperson from Men's Wearhouse gave us a coupon for $30 off all our tux rentals if we go within 30 days to sign up our party. Lucky for us we saw MW on our way in and knew exactly where to go. We went in an they informed us that if we added my brothers tux, we would need 5 tuxes and that would mean we could get in on the rent 4 tuxes get a FREE rental for the groom. ( Just another reason to have one more BM and GM )

So with our discount and our FREE rental (we split the savings among ALL tux rentals) we got everyones rental down to $74!!!

Total I have spent $606.58

 

[AlternateEgo]

Here are the pictures of the dresses we decided on

This dress will be white with a black cuff across the top.

Here is the back. I was able to show theclack, but this dress is in ivory.

Here is my Maid of Honor & Bridesmaid dresses. I found pictures of these from other reviewers. They will be black dresses. There is a bow on the front that we looked closely at and it is barely sticked there and we can remove it. The girls can put the bow back later if they want. We will have a white sash that wll go right across the grossgrain ribbon and tie in the back. Coincidentally, this picture shows the color scheme I'm going after.

And here is a picture from a review that actually has the same brides dress as me with these bridesmaid dresses

Here is the dress I picked for Jr. Bridesmaid on the left. Again the dress will be black with white sash.

And here is the dress we have for flower girls. The only thing I am considering is hemming the dress a little. I'm not sure what I will do though. All the other dresses are tea length and Im not sure how the long flower girls dresses will look with the other dresses being tea length... Any comments? Oh and these dresses will have a black sash.

 

[AlternateEgo]

Your ideas look great so far! I really like your cake design, I'm looking at something close to that but square with hydrangeas between the layers. And that dress is gorgeous!
A few of our restaurant fav's are LeCelliar, Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace, Kona Cafe and Planet Hollywood. I hear Mama Melrose's is really good too and we are going to try it next time. The Whispering Canyon is also a ton of fun! Have you looked at www.allears.net? The have the restaurants and their menu's, it's great! We have heard some bad reviews on Cinderella's Table, plus it burns up 2 dining credits, so we haven't been there. What we try to do is get one of the 1st table reservations of the day at Crystal Palace, then you get to go past the line of everyone waiting for the park to open and walk down main street nearly all by yourself to the restaurant. The photographers are already there and you can get some great photos with the castle in the background without all the strangers in the shot!
Looking forward to reading more of your plans and maybe running into you this Sept., we'll be there Aug. 30-Sept. 13!

Hydrangeas are so beautiful! I wanted to incorporate them somehow in the centerpieces but I found them to be so more expensive. If I can get a good deal on them, I will definately use them! I did decide on square cake too. LOL, I have been so indecisive about what I want. I have never done all this before and have actually been to very few weddings in my life. Most of them I was too young to remember.

I also changed my mind on the dress. The more I looked at it, the less I liked it, lol. But... the dress I ultimately decided on was my favorite from day one! My FH picked it out one day, but I didn't want him to know this is the ONE I actually picked, lol.

Thanks for reminding me about allears. I used them when planning the trip when me and the girls went.

Oh AND I had never thoguht about Crystal Palace having breakfast. I will look at what they have to offer too!

I'm so excited about disney I just want to go right now, hahha.

Can't wait to go! Good luck with your wedding plans too!!

​

 

[camara381]

Love your plans so far. The dress is beautiful!!! I love the cake and that is such a good price!!!

Can't wait to read about the rest.

 

[auntpunkin]

I love that gown!! You made the right choice!

I know what you're saying about wanting to go to Disney right now...I've got the bug too!

 

[AlternateEgo]

I love that gown!! You made the right choice!

I know what you're saying about wanting to go to Disney right now...I've got the bug too!

Thanks!

 

[Nyla]

Okay, I just jumped in here after seeing your comment on the dining watch thread! We're both going to be at Animal Kingdom! How freaking awesome! I can't believe we have the same wedding day and everything! Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials! Your plans look like they're going splendidly! Much smoother than mine are!

 

[pink_tink8i8]

oh I just love color in wedding dresses. Yours sounds really wonderful and I can't wait to see how your cake turns out!

 

[AlternateEgo]

Okay, I just jumped in here after seeing your comment on the dining watch thread! We're both going to be at Animal Kingdom! How freaking awesome! I can't believe we have the same wedding day and everything! Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials! Your plans look like they're going splendidly! Much smoother than mine are!

Well if it makes it any weirder.. I was plannig to fly out of Nashville... but I got a good fare flying out of St. Louis. Its a 2 hour drive and Nashville is 3 hours

 

[AlternateEgo]

Well...

I finally ordered our save the date postcards = $17.00 at vistaprint.com .

And I bought invitations on Target clearance for $7 for a box of 25. They are so perfect! And I bought a box of Thank You cards for $5 for 50.

Hmm... I have all my decorations, except tulle and a final decision on the centerpieces.

My girls still haven't ordered their dresses. I might start choking them soon. It is difficult to get them to the dress shop together.

Oh! I have an appointment with a couple of florist to see what kind of quotes they can give me.

And last... it looks like FH & I have changed our minds and are planning to stay at CSR instead of AKL. At first I was bummed, but then I was checking out the beautiful new rooms and think it will be great!

Total I have spent $669

 

[AlternateEgo]

Oh I forgot we are using a photoshare, so that costs $21.

We have changed our mind about the resort we are staying in. We saw the new pictures of CSR and love the new rooms. They should all be almost complete by the time we get there.

 

[tiggersam00]

Oh good finds Crystal! And CSR looks beautiful! Very tropical feeling, you will have ablast there with your DH

 

[AlternateEgo]

Wowww... its been awhile since I have posted

It never fails that you make a decision... write it down... then things change.

What has changed so far:

My budget
Girls dresses


Ok lets see if I can write something up for you guys so you can see where I am with planning this thing.