Debra & Brian's Fairytale Trip Report 12/03/10*Completed Wedding Day Report W/PICS*

[Deb loves Disney]

wow! love the pics! brian and i are actually friends on fb, so i've seen a few pics he's been tagged in. congrats to you both!

Amber you should look me up on FB and friend request me! Brian is such a sweet guy and I know we were just destined to meet, and were else but at Disney!!!! Thank you for the compliments!!! Oh and Amber happens to be my daughters name!!! Good name!

(Brian told me I use to many exclamation points!!! LOL, I so do but it's totally me.)

I LOVE THE PICS!!! Also the video is so nice!! I'm sure you can't wait until you can see the entire thing and see all the wedding day pictures!!

OMG, the sneak peeks make me want to see everything now. There are so many pictures and video that I can remember being taken that I am just dying to see. At the end of the fireworks, since it was a night of the Christmas Party, it ended with a 360 blast of fireworks. Stan showed us on his camera after. I can't wait to see the whole thing!!!!!

Deb, oh my goodness, the pictures you have so far are beautiful! What a gorgeous wedding! And, as embarrassing as it is to admit, your video made me cry. Beautifully shot by Stan. And, the music, the disney medley which includes my favorite, music from spectro magic.....how can one not tear up when they watch it!?

I'm so happy for you. Congratulations!!!!!!!


(I'm gonna go watch it again!!)

OMG, you are so sweet. Thank you!!! I cried so much and keep crying every time I watch it. He did such a great job, I can't even believe that was us. I was watching it with DH this morning and kept saying, "I don't remember saying all of that at the end, how did I ever come up so much to say without planning it?" LOL
I was so happily surprised to hear the Spectro music!!! It really gave it a nice touch and brought back good memories of watching the parade.

 

[Sccrmnky2005]

I looked at your pictures again I LOVE THEM! And I noticed your daughters face in your staged exit. She looks so Happy for you and so giddy!!! What a priceless reaction!

 

[Deb loves Disney]

I looked at your pictures again I LOVE THEM! And I noticed your daughters face in your staged exit. She looks so Happy for you and so giddy!!! What a priceless reaction!

I said the same thing, lol, and I totally agree. She was almost as giddy as I was throughout the day.

 

[Sccrmnky2005]

Yes that one! I LOVE her expression! Looks like she's jumping for joy!!!

 

[Deb loves Disney]

Yes that one! I LOVE her expression! Looks like she's jumping for joy!!!

She really was, I wish that rose petal was in a different spot though, lol, it's blocking her eyes.

 

[Deb loves Disney]

So just like Sccrmnky2005 just posted......

I was picked to welcome the new Dream into port on January 4th tooo!!!!!

They sometimes have special opportunities for Cast Members and you have to apply for it and then are randomly selected. Well I apply for ALL of them and never win anything, so I am over joyed to be one of the ones selected to do this.
It also doesn't hurt that I will be going on one of the short preview cruises just a few weeks later.

 

[Deb loves Disney]

I knew that I wanted to get a mani/pedi done before the wedding since I didn't want to pay the high prices at the GF or worry about finding a place while there. We are signed up for Groupon which is an awesome site that sends out specials for around your area. One we got a week before leaving was for a mani/pedi, haircut, and facial all for like $25. It was an awesome deal not to pass up so I made DH buy it.

I went to get everything done the day before Thanksgiving and opted to pay a little bit more for the Shellac on both my nails and toes. It stayed on even through cooking Thanksgiving dinner, in fact, it is still on my nails and toes even now!!! This stuff just does not come off!

BTW, I loved the facial so much. I had never had one before and now I am a believer.

I also wanted something professional done with my eyebrows and have always wanted to try threading since I saw it on Oprah a few years back. Well, our local mall just happens to have a few booths that do Threading. I think I went the day before the salon appointment. My brows looked great but OMG it hurts!!!!! There are signs all over that say how much better and less painful it is than waxing. They are so wrong, lol. My eyebrow area was bright red the rest of the day. I kept getting funny looks from people in the mall. I just said, beauty sometimes hurts, lol I have to say that even though it hurt like **** it was worth it because my eyebrows are still smooth.

So the next day was Thanksgiving and I was in charge of cooking for everybody. I have always cooked around a 14lb bird. Well this year my new MIL decided to give us a huge 23lb bird, which I was so appreciative of, but also very scared to over cook. I almost decided to cook it upside down to try and keep it moist but opted to do it traditionally and it actually turned out pretty moist. It probably helped that I slathered it in butter, lolol but hey, it's Thanksgiving right? BTW, we still have leftover turkey that I froze just to make sure it didn't spoil while we were away.

DH and I decided to leave on the Saturday right after Thanksgiving because we were able to book a longer stay at our DVC resort Old Key West in order to have a week on property and more time to relax and get things done before the wedding.

So DH and I decided a few months back that we just had too much stuff to bring with us to fly. We opted for driving down so that we could bring everything we wanted plus have a car with us and not have to rely on Disney transportation or spend the money on a rental car. I also decided to bring my cat down and leave her with my mom who so graciously agreed to have her stay at her house for the week.

We loaded up the car with everybody's suitcases, all the wedding stuff which included speakers our personalized M&M's, programs, some plush we were using for decorations at our dessert party, glow necklaces and bracelets for said dessert party, 3 boxes with shoes, my veil and undergarments, my steamer (more details about that later), and all on top of that was 3 garment bags with MOH dress, tuxes and of course my dress. I wish I had taken pics of the hatchback will all of this loaded in...there was absolutely no room between the roof and all of this stuff!!! Oh, did I mention that we also had a litter box, litter, food and food bowls for the cat? we had 3 laptop computers because everybody insisted on bringing their own...I was fine with just my smartphone. we were literally packed in this car with no way of escaping.

My cat is a very good traveler. She doesn't even need to stay in her carrier. She spent most of the trip either on my lap or sitting between the kids, or rather on top of a few of their bags that we stuffed in-between them, lol.

DH is a pretty good long distance driver and believe it or not we made it all the way to Macon GA from Kansas City, KS in one day!!!!
We slept as much as we could and got up early the next day to make the rest of the trek and ended up in Orlando at around 3 or 4pm. We dropped the cat off with my mom, said our hurried hello's and goodbyes and we were off to Old Key West and finally back on Disney property.

The kids and I had lived only 20 mins from Disney's doorsteps for many years and had just moved away in late July so being back was like being home. It was very cool to finally be back at Disney and feel sort of like a tourist. When you live so close it is rare to actually be able to make a vacation out of it and stay on property. This was a real treat for me and the kids.

 

[KitKat5]

I cant wait to read more! I get so excited about my wedding trip when I read about everyone elses!! I wish I could take my cat with me but Im not sure he'd like the long flight from the UK!!

 

[Deb loves Disney]

I cant wait to read more! I get so excited about my wedding trip when I read about everyone elses!! I wish I could take my cat with me but Im not sure he'd like the long flight from the UK!!

I am adding more right now.

I wish you could bring your cat with you too!! I'm so glad we brought her because I didn't really have anybody up here to watch her and I didn't want to be worried for the wedding. I have to admit though my mom said she hid the entire time and only came out to eat when nobody was around.

 

[Sccrmnky2005]

Love the first report!!

I know how you feel about not really being able to take a vacation and make if feel like one when you live so close to the mouse! I try to get DF to let us stay longer the 2-3 days and it NEVER works! He's like we live 30 minutes away so a 2-3 night vacation is enough! But I couldn't imagine living further away after all the times we visit and sometimes just go to DTD to walk around!

 

[Deb loves Disney]

Love the first report!!

I know how you feel about not really being able to take a vacation and make if feel like one when you live so close to the mouse! I try to get DF to let us stay longer the 2-3 days and it NEVER works! He's like we live 30 minutes away so a 2-3 night vacation is enough! But I couldn't imagine living further away after all the times we visit and sometimes just go to DTD to walk around!

Me tooooo......that is what I miss most about living close. I used to just go to the park to buy something, lol, or go to DTD to see a movie or just go for a boat ride from one side to the other and explore. I miss that the most.

But luckily, my new DH is from that area of Florida and wants to move back soon. Right now his job is keeping him here but maybe in the near future we can move back. I really miss the magic.

But since I am still a seasonal CM, I am forced to go back, lol, and work every now and then, LOLOL....I'm saying this so sarcastically because I will take any excuse to come back. Between the wedding, coming back for Christmas to work and welcome the Dream into port on the 4th and now the Benefit Preview Cruise...I will be at Disney 3 times in 2 months. So, I can't complain too much!

Even though I was there as a real tourist this time, it has still been so recent that I moved away that I still couldn't get myself into that vibe. I think I was just missing everything so much. Although, being at a resort for a week was awesome!!!! We are also new DVC members so now we really have lots of excuses to keep coming back, and back and back.

 

[Deb loves Disney]

I don't know what is wrong with me because I usually take tons of pics during our trips. I hardly took any pics leading up to the wedding . I have no idea why because this was supposed to be my main focus.....I think the wedding haze had already started, lol.

So I did find a pic of our cat lounging inside the car. This was on our return trip home and she found a good spot in the back on top of some our our Disney souvenirs.....

These are all from my cell phone so the quality isn't that great.

We finally checked into Old Key West Resort. This was our first stay in a DVC resort and we were so impressed at all of the space and home necessities they provide. I actually did take some pics with my phone because I wanted to post them to Facebook, lolol.

Our door...I always see people taking pics of their door and had never done it

We were staying in a 1 bedroom which includes a full sized washer and dryer. A bedroom with a king sized bed. Two bathroom areas, one with a whirlpool tub and one with the shower and toilet...these two getting ready areas came in handy many times.
There is also a living area with a pull out chair/bed, a pull out sofa, and a loveseat. There is also a table with four chairs (which we used on the wedding day for our hair and make-up), and a kitchen with refrigerator, flat-topped full size oven, dish-washer, sink and island which contained a flat screen TV inside. There is also a balcony with a table and 4 chairs. All of the cabinets are full of kitchen items like cups, flatware, cooking utensils, blender, toaster, bowls, plates....etc, etc, etc....

The nicest place my children had ever stayed was Animal Kingdom lodge and this room beat that out by far!!! I AKL though for the beautiful scenery and decorations, especially around Christmas-time.

Here are a few pics that I took before we totally messed it up with all of our belongings ~
Again, these are from my cell phone so the quality is just so~so

The entryway

Looking into the living area from the front door

The kitchen

The table and you can see the TV

The laundry room

The bathroom with the shower

The bathroom with the whirlpool tub

The bedroom

And what was waiting for us on our bed Swans...I was so touched by this

I thought that I had taken a pic of the living room but I can't find it. You can kind of see it from the pic taken from the front door. Everytime I took the camera out the kids scattered, lol.

We then went out to DTD to have dinner since we were starving. We hadn't eaten since breakfast!

All of us just love the Holiday sandwich they have at Earl of Sandwich. So we stopped in there first and ate up the yummy sandwiches. It did not disappoint either!!!

We then headed over to the pin area since DH loves pins. We were also on a mission to find a Vinylmation to use as our guestbook. Since we were only having 20 guests we wanted something less traditional so the Vinylmation was our top choice. We looked everywhere for a white one. Nobody had one...they were completely out!!! They had pink ones, purple ones, black ones, blow in the dark greenish ones, blue ones...but no white. We were told that D Street on the completely other side of DTD was the best place to find a white one. We were all just so tired that we decided to go the next morning and pink one up before heading over to Franck's to unload all of our wedding "stuff".

 

[Sccrmnky2005]

AHHH!! I love earl of sandwich!! We went to DTD on sunday and ate there!!! YUMMY!!

 

[amberg@eastlink.ca]

Amber you should look me up on FB and friend request me! Brian is such a sweet guy and I know we were just destined to meet, and were else but at Disney!!!! Thank you for the compliments!!! Oh and Amber happens to be my daughters name!!! Good name!

(Brian told me I use to many exclamation points!!! LOL, I so do but it's totally me.)

you're very welcome...i will if farmville ever behaves and stops crashing fb on me! ugh! another connection...brian and my daughter share a bday, altho she's only five. lol i saw that- small world! i never liked my name growing up, but now i feel it suits me.

 

[Deb loves Disney]

you're very welcome...i will if farmville ever behaves and stops crashing fb on me! ugh! another connection...brian and my daughter share a bday, altho she's only five. lol i saw that- small world! i never liked my name growing up, but now i feel it suits me.

I told Brian about the B-Day coincidence and he thought that was very cool. My son and daughter are twins and their very first names were baby A and baby B so I thought it would be appropriate to give them names that began with their letter. I think my daughter is such an Amber, I can't even think of her having another name. It does get confusing with two Brian/Bryan's in the house but we sometimes figure it out. I told them that I wanted to get them custom shirts with Brian 1 and Bryan 2, kind of like Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Universal. For some reason they didn't like that idea .....LOL

 

[Deb loves Disney]

Ok...so I am on a Trip Report kind of kick...I'm trying not to go too fast but I just can't help myself, LOLOL.

Our photographer, Randy Chapman has a shiny, brand new website. If you would like to check it out here is the link:

http://www.chapmanphotography.com/

I like how he has FB, non-Disney, and Disney wedding separated into different links.

Now, on to day 2 of our Wedding Trip.......

I really wanted to relax on this trip because I didn't want to be all tired and frazzled on our wedding day which was fast approaching.

I think I used my cellphone because it's blurry. But, you can see the Epcot Christmas tree which was so beautiful in person.

But.....we had so much to do and see, I mean, we were at Disney, how can you not go out and do everything!!!

We still needed to pick up a Vinylmation after not finding the one we wanted the night before. We needed this today since we promised to drop everything off at Franck's before they closed. So we headed off to D Street on the West Side of DTD to search for a white Vinylmation. Guess what??? You are right, they didn't have one. Apparently they were sold out almost everywhere. We almost went with the black because we had already bought a silver sharpie. But, in the end since Pink was one of our wedding colors, we decided on the pink.

This was actually a really, really good decision. It fit in perfectly with our wedding decor and colors. As soon as we got to the Napa Room, Tanis our wedding planner said your Vinylmation is a hit with all of your guests, good choice..... I was relieved.

Here is a pick of the finished product, with signatures (I have it on our mantel):

A close-up of the funny drawing my son put on it, he always draws these cute little faces with glasses, lol...made me when I saw it

On the mantel along with our sand ceremony jar

After DTD we really needed groceries so we went to the closest grocery store, Goodings, which is in the Crossroads shopping plaza near DTD. Biggest mistake ever, the place is pretty run down, lights not working, etc. Plus, their prices are so ridiculously high. I don't recommend going there. We got the bare minimum of what we needed including some champagne for the wedding day.

We then went back to OKW to check out their sundries shop where we knew was lunch meat, cheese, and drinks. We ended up getting everthing we needed for sandwiches.

We then went back to our room where the kids had been patiently waiting, on their computers , and we all had sandwiches. Then Tanis called asking if we had arrived safely and hoping we would drop our things off at Franck's. We then loaded everybody and the wedding items up into the car and headed over to Franck's. They were so friendly and had been expecting us. They said they have bins with the couples names on them and everything was all set to go for the wedding day.

Feeling very happy with DFTW, we went to a park!!!!!! The kids voted on Epcot so off we went...I think it was around 4pm by now, time flies by so fast when you are at the world.

We get to Epcot and first ride Spaceship Earth, it's a tradition to ride this 1st if the lines are short. I always have a dumb look on my face for the picture part of this ride. I swear no matter how hard I try I always look dumb. Maybe they save my old pics and use them, lolol.

Then the kids wanted to see Captain EO. Brian and I had seen this in Disneyland and really wanted to see if there were any differences in WDW. I have to say that I think i liked the version in WDW better than Disneyland. The main reason being in Disneyland the seats shake you constantly during the dance sequences and it gets old fast, lol. But, I didn't like the things that hit your legs under the seats in the WDW version. It reminds me of It's Tough to be a Bug and I always sit away from the back of the seat because I don't like weird things surprising me, lol.

We then went to ride Mission Space, the less intense side, because this is DS's favorite ride. We all loved it and saved the ship from falling over the edge.

We wanted to see some countries, especially Germany for the new Werther's store.

We walked around and were all really hungry. We decided on the CS counter in China which turned out to be really good. I hadn't been since they revamped the menu.

We headed over to Germany and walked inside Karmel Kutsche (sp) and instantly fell in love with the smell of that store. OMG, it's like caramel heaven. We were too full to buy any perishable food that you had to eat right away but we did pick up a bag of Caramel, chocolate and pecan popcorn. We ate this the next day and it is soooooooooooooo good!!!! I want some right now.

We then walked, and walked and walked around WS and were all very tired. Our original plan was to head over to MK for the EMH. But everybody was just worn out and we then decided to go back to OKW and try and get some rest.

Here is the only pic I took that night,

 

[Sccrmnky2005]

I love your guest book, what a great alternative and a perfect way to display it!!!! And it looks great on your mantel!

 

[Deb loves Disney]

AHHH!! I love earl of sandwich!! We went to DTD on sunday and ate there!!! YUMMY!!

I love your guest book, what a great alternative and a perfect way to display it!!!! And it looks great on your mantel!

I love the Earl of Sandwich too!! It is a must do for me, and I have been looking forward to that holiday sandwich since last year. When my daughter found out we were going there she said "do they have the holiday sandwich???"

I love the guest book too. I got the idea from other disbrides on here who have used it in the past. I am really happy now that we went with the pink because it just looks so cute!! I thought DH would hate the idea of having a pink one but he was the one that encouraged me to go for it!

 

[Deb loves Disney]

I really need to finish this trip report, at least up until the ceremony (waiting for professional pics), because I am going to Florida for a few weeks to work at Disney!!!! I know, tough job right? I will be so glad to at least get out of the snow and bitter cold weather for a short reprieve. I know it's cold in Fl right now but not nearly as cold as it is up here. Since moving here in July, we have had to buy winter coats, winter clothing, scarfs, boots, gloves, hats, etc. Floridians do not need these items. I told DH that it is so expensive to buy clothing when not living in Florida. I was living in Flip Flops before! I even had to buy house slippers! I had never owned a pair before.

Now on to day 3 of our trip report. This day will be short since we only did 1 thing......DisneyQuest!!!!

DH had never been and the kids just love going there. I had some passes that needed to be used so we all went for the day. The kids brought along an old friend from when we lived in Florida. If you have never been to DQ it is definitely a different Disney experience. If you love playing games you will love this place. It gets a little overwhelming for me sometimes but fortunately there are a few quiet places to hide out while the others play. We literally spent all day here. We got there around noon (it opens at 11:30am) and we left at closing. They had to kick us out, lol. My absolute favorite thing to do is the virtual pirates game. I finally was able to do the character animation class. I have been to DQ many times but never make it into one of these classes because they are always full. Well going during the week really made a difference and DQ was not packed at all. We could really do just about anything with no wait. It was a nice, fun thing to do and have some family bonding before the wedding.

 

[Deb loves Disney]

It is now Wednesday, December 1st, the 4th day of our wedding trip.

We had lots of things to do today like meet Brian's mom at the airport. She was flying in from MO. We also had to try and talk my mom through driving directions to get to our resort. For those not intimately familiar with Disney driving, getting to OKW can be confusing and then getting to our actual building is almost downright impossible. My Mom graciously volunteered to take the kids until Sunday (the day we were leaving for home). I was kind of not feeling like this was our wedding trip because I was in "MOM" mode and I really just needed to relax and spent time with my future DH. We also had the dinner package for Candlelight Processional tonight, eating at the Rose and Crown, a first for me.

I spent the morning doing laundry and trying to pack the kids up to go to Grandma's. They weren't to thrilled with this idea because they just wanted to stay at the resort. I had booked my mom into one of the All Star Resorts for Thursday and Friday night so they were only going to have to spend the night at her house for 2 nights. They would also be making our cat very happy as she was just hiding under a bed at my mom's house. Later my mom told me that the cat was so happy to see the kids. It made me feel better.

Brian went to go get his mom at around noon. I stayed in case my mom got lost and needed help getting to our room. Of course she got lost a few times and I helped her navigate to the resort and then eventually to our building. Brian returned with his mom and I had him drive me up to the check-in area where we met my mom and she followed us back to our room.

My mom then took the kids and were off to stay with her. I finally felt like I could relax just a little, but still feeling guilty for wanting to take a break from them. They are actually really, really great, well behaved kids. People are always complimenting me on them and how good they are. But, I am still MOM to them and they have no problem asking me to for everything and anything they can, and having me do everything and everything they can think of for them. Just what kids do to their moms.

Brian and I then took his mom over to her resort. She was staying at AS Movies. We got her all settled in and checked in and then were off to Epcot to see Candlelight. At this point our dinner reservation at Rose & Crown was in 15 mins!!! We were hoping they would still have room for us and we would still have time to eat.

Since we are DVC members we decided to try and use the International Gateway and we went to Beach Club to park and walk over. We asked at the Gate and they gladly let us in. We parked and tried to hurry as quickly as we could through the Gateway and over to Rose & Crown, which is fortunately very close to the Gateway entrance. We ended up being about 20 mins late for our reservation time and they were VERY busy that night. It was also getting cold and windy and I only had on a light sweater over my shirt. It was freezing. They told us that they could not give us an exact wait time but we could wait on the benches or look in the shops to stay warm. We ended up doing both but still remaining very cold.

It had to be about 45 mins later that we finally had a table. We went inside to sit down and had a wonderful meal. I had heard mixed reviews lately for Rose & Crown but our meal was very good. I don't remember what DH had but I had Bangers and Mash, it's always my go to meal at English restaurants. I am a sucker for mashed potatoes and I have always loved this dish. It was wonderful! When you book the Candlelight dinner package you get an appetizer and dessert. I don't remember what my appetizer was but it was good, for dessert we were just too full so we got it to go. We both got the Chocolate Scotch Cake...... I ate it the next day for breakfast, , it was soooo good!

We were then off to see Candlelight with only about 15 mins before the show started. We got in the package line which was ending around Japan at this point. The line went very quickly, thank goodness, and we ended up sitting in the front row. I don't think people realized they could sit in the front row and it only had two other people. Others quickly followed.

Here is a pic of our view before the show started

It looks like all we could see was the orchestra but we really did have a great view of the performance.

A little back story about me and Candlelight. This was the first time that I had the opportunity to see the show from the audience. Last year I was lucky enough to be chosen to sing in the Cast Member choir, the green tree that stand behind the narrator. I was able to sing in something like 14 shows and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I was able to stand within touching distance to celebrities like Whoopie, Edward James Olmos, Abigail Breslin, Andy Garcia as well as many others. Edward James Olmos is one of the nicest celebrities ever. He took the time to personally kissed the cheek of the women and shook the guys hands as well as congratulate us all right before we walked out to perform. He did this for every performance. I sang on Christmas day in all 3 shows and he did this each time!!

So this was a very special experience for me to sit in the audience and watch the show as a guest. I told DH that I would probably be singing throughout the whole show. I tried not to but couldn't help it, , I tried to sing quietly .

John O'hurley was the Narrator and we both thought he did a great job. Here are a few pics of the performance

The amazing sign language interpreter...she is awesome to watch

I took a year of sign language classes in college so I may be partial

The very cool orchestra

It was fun to sit by them because they talked to us before and a little bit during the show (secretly, lol)

They show was finally over and it did not dissapoint. I loved it so much and it brought back such good memories. I admittedly was a little bit sad to know that I couldn't be in the show this year but seeing it first hand made up for it a little bit.

We then stayed to watch the Holiday Illuminations. I love hearing Walter Cronkite's voice during the show. The ending is just spectacular (sorry no pics ).

I was just feeling like an icecube at this point since I had no coat. I also didn't mention that I had left all my coats in Kansas!!!! DH and I decided to go to the shop at the International gateway and I bought a cute Epcot jacket, to add to my collection of a million disney jackets. A Disney fan just cannot have too many of these!!

We then decided on taking the boat over to the Beach Club. The boat here was the very first place that DH and I had ever held hands when we first started seeing each other. I had just been thinking of that as we were sitting in the dark when he leaned over to me and asked me if I remembered what special thing had happened on this boat in the past. I took his hand and said of course I do . It was very sweet.

We got off at the stop, I think it is Yacht Club, and we walked to each of the 3 resorts and looked at the cute Gingerbread sculptures. I took some pics of ones at Beach Club and Boardwalk. We spent quite a bit of time here looking for those pesky hidden mickeys. Here are some pictures ~

The carousel at the Beach Club...they have cute little mickey shaped chocolate pieces hidden around the carousel. There are 11 but we only found a few

We then went over to the Boardwalk and spent much longer looking at the Gazebo for hidden gingerbread mickey's, we only found 13 of 14

If you look very closely, try squinting, lol, you can see one of the hidden mickey's attached to the bottom of Donald's foot.

By this time it was very late and we had the MK with our Mom's planned for the next morning. We found our car and headed back to OKW and fell into bed.