Danielle & Adam-9/21/13-Tale as Old as Time-Our at Home Disney Wedding(Updated 9/18)

[Dreamer7787]

Greetings all! Ive been holding off making one of these since our wedding is still rather far away, but we decided on our venue today and I just cant wait anymore!! While we wont be getting married at Disney, were still going to be having a lot of Disney touches. ​

Table of Contents:

About Us
The Proposal

Planning and Ideas
Ceremony Site
Reception Hall
Its all in the details
It's all the Details Part II
Aisle Runner

Completed DIY
Aisle Runner
Flowers
Will you be my BM/MOH? Cards

Wedding Clothing, Decorations, and Other Things
The Dress
Wedding Shoes
Music
Engagement Pictures
Save the Dates
Bridal Shower

Honeymoon
Disneymoon Plans
Honeymoon Schedule

 

[Dreamer7787]

About Us

FI and I met our junior year of high school. He was dating someone at the time and I was hung up on another guy. Our paths crossed again during our senior year and the rest is history. He asked me to be his GF on January 21, 2005 while we were sitting in his car after having just gotten back from seeing Phantom of the Opera (the movie, not the actual musical lol).

Us way back when during our high school production of Beauty and the Beast:

I was one of the silly girls that follow Gaston around and he was Monsieur Darque. This is where the title of my PJ comes into play. Since we started dating thanks to our paths crossing in this musical I’m drawing a lot of inspiration from Beauty and the Beast for our wedding.

About me

My name is Danielle. I’m 24 at the moment. I’ll be 26 when FI and I finally tie the knot after nine years together! I was raised in a completely Disney obsessed family. There is no family gathering where Disney isn’t mentioned at least... 20 times. I’ve been to Disney World ~12 times and to Disneyland two or three times when I was under five years old. I feel extremely lucky that my parents have always managed to make the bi-annual trip to Disney happen. It’s the one thing that really makes me feel like a part of my family.

I’m a recent graduate with a degree in Library and Information Science. Local libraries are currently suffering a lot so I work part time as a library clerk and part time as a cashier at a local grocery store. I hope to be a librarian before our wedding rolls around.

I love reading, writing, dancing, and performing. It was a dream of mine for a long while to work at Disney and a perform, but I ended up taking a different path. FI says well move to FL when we’re old and wrinkly and work at Disney World and that we’ll be the cute old CM that everyone loves. lol

About Him

FI is the same age as I am, just a few months older. He was pulled into the Disney insanity kicking and screaming in 2007 when we took our first vacation together to Disney World. Just kidding. He loves Disney. Not quite as obsessed as I am. He believes that there should be other conversation topics discussed in the three months prior to us leaving for a trip!

He’s an Apple junkie to the point that he even went and got a job there. He works ridiculously hard so that we can afford our lovely home and never complains.

I often call him Beast, which is fitting seeing as the Beast was supposed to have been named Adam.

We’re just too crazy high school sweet hearts who have decided to tie the knot. ​

 

[Dreamer7787]

One day at the mall, FI off handily asked me if I still wanted a Disney proposal. I said of course I did. He asked even if that meant waiting another whole year to get engaged and I said yes. Turned out at this point, he had already bought a ring. Over a year out from when our next Disney trip with my family would be!!

Between the purchasing of the ring and the Disney trip, drama ensued with the ring that he had originally bought and he let me in on it. I knew about ten months before he proposed that he had a ring. There we times when I wanted him to just ask already because I felt like I was ready to bust wondering if he was really going to wait for our Disney trip or not. Turns out that he tried to arrange a surprise Disney trip. He planned to just tell me to pack a bag and then drive me to the airport. He didn’t think I would believe him until we actually landed in Orlando that we were actually going to Disney. Sadly, it turned out to be just too expensive for him to manage (and of course then there was ring drama). But I swoon at the thought of it. Best almost proposal ever.

In the month before we left for what would be our third trip to Disney World together, we started taking evening walks to get in shape for Disney World. There is no sleeping while on a Disney trip with my family. It’s always go go go. On those walks he would tease me about plans that were in the work. He told me he made a lady at work cry telling her what he had planned. I wouldn’t trade those nights for anything. It’s like my proposal was drawn out for an entire month! I had no idea what he had up his sleeve.

Halfway through our Disney trip, I was wondering if he had forgotten the ring or something. The first time we watched Wishes I was sure that it was coming because he kept fiddling with the camera bag, but nothing. He ended up waiting until August 21st to propose (we started dating on January 21). At that point, I had stopped trying to guess when he was going to pop the question. I didn’t even blink when he managed to steer us toward Cinderella’s Wishing Well.

He asked a poor unsuspecting woman to take our picture and what happened was this:

Completely unsuspecting:

Shocked:

Insert woman taking pictures saying: “Oh my goodness, are you serious?!”
And her daughter yelling: “Ma, don’t stop! Keep taking pictures!”

Crying like I had no idea that it was coming lol

I think I said yes right about here:

In one of the pictures FI is fiddling with trying to get something to sit on the edge of the well. He put the ring and a glass slipper exactly like this:

Looking back it’s a very good thing that it didn’t fall in!!

Bling in front of the castle.

It was absolutely perfect. And I’m so very grateful to the woman who captured so many pictures of the moment. These aren’t even half of them!​

 

[Dreamer7787]

Beauty and the Beast touch #1: Get married in a library.


I have always dreamed of getting married in a library. My siblings think its really lame, but I love books. Trying to find a nice looking library that would allow us to have a wedding in it was one of the first things that I started looking for. At first I couldn’t find anything, but then I found this beauty!

I love the ceiling!

In reality its more of a museum. The back of the hall is where all the manuscripts are stored, but it’s as close as we were going to get in our area. ​

 

[Dreamer7787]

Beauty and the Beast touch #2: Must have chandilers.

I was obsessed with wanting a chandelier at where ever we chose to have our reception. Sadly, the places that had the big, huge stunning ones were all out of our price range... But I did find this lovely place that has six smaller ones instead.

It took a little while to fall in love with this. I liked it a lot, but I kept picturing something much different in my head. The more I thought about it though the more I realized it was totally us. It has a ballroom-eqsue feel with the comfort foods that we love. And the price is just too good to pass up! $30 a person for food and drinks. Unheard of!

View from the private balcony for the B&G. It’s just down the hall from the bridal room, which is the picture below.

​

 

[Dreamer7787]

Beauty and the Beast touch #3: Colors and Disney Touches.

It took a long time for me to figure out away to incorporate things from Beauty and the Beast in to the color scheme and other details of the wedding. I wanted more subtle Disney touches that you would have to be a hardcore Disney fan to really make the connection.

Colors
At first I did not want yellow as one of our colors at all. I don’t know what I had against it because it makes the whole thing make sense in regards to B&TB!

Flowers

To save on money, FI and I have decided to do silk flowers. It actually didn’t take much thought at all since neither of us were attached to the idea of having live flowers and I love crafting. I also love the idea of being able to keep my bouquet.

Bridal

Groom

WP

Centerpieces

I loved the idea of using vintage books as centerpieces, but I wanted to dress it up a little more. I had the idea of putting a vase with a single rose in it not long after. I already have a stash of vintage books thanks to people donating them to the library I work at, so its just matter of buying some cheap vases and a few more silk flowers and these are all done! I’m hopping they’ll look something like this, but with vases instead the case:

Cake

We don’t want anything too elaborate. I love this cake.

I find the simplicity of it very beautiful. I’d like to have hidden Mickey’s added to the piping like so:

For the cake topper, I’m really hoping to get this:

It matches the wedding goblets that we’ve already bought!

And it brings a bit of the gothic feel of the Beast’s castle pre-transformation. FI and I are also very into Renaissance Festivals, which is where we bought the goblets from, so it brings a bit of that into the wedding as well!​

 

[belle2211]

Congrats and I love everything about your wedding planning! I am a huge Beauty and the Beast freak. I LOVE everything about the movie. And I am a HUGE book nerd. I even have my own book blog and do a lot of book reviews. We sound like we have a lot in common and I can't wait to read more of your plans!

 

[LyndsayJ]

I love ALL of your plans so far! The venue is very fitting for Beauty and the Beast.

I had a pretty good almost proposal too...lol. The day my fiance proposed, he had a vision in his head of dropping down to one knee in front of the castle in Magic Kingdom...it seemed like every time we were in front of the castle though, something happened! Either a large tour group decided to walk right through of shouting, we were asked to take a picture of someone, and apparently when he saw the moment...all of a sudden a parade started so he didn't do it! LoL! He ended up carrying the ring around in his pocket all day disappointed that he missed the moment...but we had a wonderful proposal at Shades of Green later that night.

 

[mebbradley]

I LOVE your venue!

Everything looks amazing! I love the "anniversary" day.... That's how we chose our day.

 

[librarygeek]

Congratulations!

Okay, so I have to start by saying I'm definitely a bit jealous of your wedding plans! I was hoping to get married in a library but that venue idea just didn't work out. I also wanted a Beauty and the Beast themed wedding but my then DF was not too thrilled with the idea of being portrayed as a beast. So we went with a more generic fairy tale themed wedding, also an at home wedding.

And it sounds like we have a ton in common! When you listed your interests it's pretty much an exact reflection of my own. And I'm currently in grad school for library science! Where did you get your degree from? I'll graduate in a year from now with my certification to be a school library media specialist. Fingers crossed there's actually a few jobs out there by then.

Your centerpiece ideas sound a bit similar to what we did, though we had a different fairy tale for every table. Here's a pic of a Beauty and the Beast table mock-up we had:

Anyhow, I am really excited to follow along with your plans!

 

[2dogmom]

I love your plans so far! Really love the centerpieces,

 

[Dreamer7787]

Congratulations!

Okay, so I have to start by saying I'm definitely a bit jealous of your wedding plans! I was hoping to get married in a library but that venue idea just didn't work out. I also wanted a Beauty and the Beast themed wedding but my then DF was not too thrilled with the idea of being portrayed as a beast. So we went with a more generic fairy tale themed wedding, also an at home wedding.

And it sounds like we have a ton in common! When you listed your interests it's pretty much an exact reflection of my own. And I'm currently in grad school for library science! Where did you get your degree from? I'll graduate in a year from now with my certification to be a school library media specialist. Fingers crossed there's actually a few jobs out there by then.

Your centerpiece ideas sound a bit similar to what we did, though we had a different fairy tale for every table. Here's a pic of a Beauty and the Beast table mock-up we had:

Anyhow, I am really excited to follow along with your plans!

Wow! We do have a lot in common! I love your centerpieces!!

I got my degree from University at Buffalo. You’ll definitely have a lot more luck going the school library route. I was already almost done with my degree when the public libraries took another funding hit and it was too late to change my specialization. I hope that you’re able to find a job right after you graduate.

 

[Dreamer7787]

Disneymoon

Plans for this keep changing. Originally FI and I were planning on buying in DVC. We sat in on one of their spiels and it made a lot of sense for us. We’re young, we go to Disney every two years (I’d love to be able to go every year!), and we foresee ourselves always vacationing at Disney. We figured we could pay for our cruise with the points and stay at the Poly before. Then I started reading up here about resale and that made even more sense. And quite a few people said that spending points on the cruise just wasn’t getting your money’s worth... So we could get BLT for the same price as we could be paying for AK if we went directly through Disney, which meant giving up the Poly, but I was okay with that to be in walking distance to the MK. So we started, looking into financing it and realized it just isn’t going to happen right now... Not with paying for a wedding at the same time.

So now the plan is:

7 nights at the Poly followed by a 4 night Bahamian Cruise on the Disney Dream. It will be the most all out Disney trip we’ve ever taken. I can’t wait!!

The cruise is the only 100% official part. We booked it three days after the itineraries for 2013 came out. lol If the rumor about the Poly construction proves true I’ll have to find another resort to fall in love with. Fingers crossed that it doesn’t.

I’m almost more excited for this than the actual wedding!​

 

[yourgypsy]

Oh, my goodness, I'm so glad I clicked on your PJ! Books, Beauty and the Beast, libraries - you could be my twin!

Your ring is gorgeous, as are those goblets! I'm thinking Doug would love those. Where did you get them, if you don't mind me asking? And those centerpieces! Oh, the book geek in me is swooning

 

[Fay]

Congratulations to you both! What a cute proposal! I love the fact the random lady kept shooting the pictures while he was asking you to marry him! Bless!

You ring is very beautiful too!

I love your theme and and the beauty and the beast idea! Especially your table centre pieces, the book idea is cool - Im sure I saw it on a UK version of 'Don't tell the Bride' which is an amazing show! (Basically the groom plans the whole wedding with 12,000 pounds - and in only 3 weeks) ANYWAY, when one of the grooms did it it looked brilliant! And he used her favourite books too!

Your cake and colour choices are beautiful and will look really lovely in your venue! Good idea on the silk flowers! This way you get to keep them too!

Any way, so far so good... looking forward to seeing more!

Happy Planning!

Faye

 

[librarygeek]

Wow! We do have a lot in common! I love your centerpieces!!

I got my degree from University at Buffalo. You’ll definitely have a lot more luck going the school library route. I was already almost done with my degree when the public libraries took another funding hit and it was too late to change my specialization. I hope that you’re able to find a job right after you graduate.

Thanks, my fingers are crossed that I will be able to find a job once I graduate! Though I graduate in December and since most schools do hiring in May-August, I'll still have to wait almost a year before I actually start working. But we'll see!

One of my best friends has her degree in public libraries and has been having trouble finding a job too. I hope you get a full time job soon!

Disneymoon

Plans for this keep changing. Originally FI and I were planning on buying in DVC. We sat in on one of their spiels and it made a lot of sense for us. We’re young, we go to Disney every two years (I’d love to be able to go every year!), and we foresee ourselves always vacationing at Disney. We figured we could pay for our cruise with the points and stay at the Poly before. Then I started reading up here about resale and that made even more sense. And quite a few people said that spending points on the cruise just wasn’t getting your money’s worth... So we could get BLT for the same price as we could be paying for AK if we went directly through Disney, which meant giving up the Poly, but I was okay with that to be in walking distance to the MK. So we started, looking into financing it and realized it just isn’t going to happen right now... Not with paying for a wedding at the same time.

So now the plan is:

7 nights at the Poly followed by a 4 night Bahamian Cruise on the Disney Dream. It will be the most all out Disney drip we’ve ever taken. I can’t wait!!

The cruise is the only 100% official part. We booked it three days after the itineraries for 2013 came out. lol If the rumor about the Poly construction proves true I’ll have to find another resort to fall in love with. Fingers crossed that it doesn’t.

I’m almost more excited for this than the actual wedding!

I love your honeymoon plans! I've never done a Disney cruise but they sound amazing. We talked about DVC too, but as of right now I don't think we could afford it - we just can't afford to go to Disney every year. Even with DVC paid for ticket prices keep increasing and flights are getting super high, so it's not really in our future right now. It makes me sad too Hopefully someday!

 

[Dreamer7787]

Your ring is gorgeous, as are those goblets! I'm thinking Doug would love those. Where did you get them, if you don't mind me asking?

I missed this while reading through comments before. Sorry!! Hopefully you’ll see this. We bought them from a company called Ballena Bay Pewter. They always have a stand at our local-ish renaissance festival. They used to have a website, but the one that comes up on google doesn’t have any of their products listed.

 

[Dreamer7787]

I did not expect to find the dress over 1.5 years out from my wedding, but I guess that’s a risk one takes when one decides to play dress up. But I fell head over heels in love with this dress and said yes to it today!

And I figure hey, if I can stay committed to the same guy for over seven years already, I can stay committed to a dress for 19 months. lol

And in case anyone is interested the style is Casablanca 1802. I bought the sample, so I got 30% off. I’m so excited! I can’t wait to walk down the aisle in it. ​

 

[Fay]

Your dress is a beaut!

XXX

 

[2dogmom]

I love your dress. You look beautiful.