Doing WDW on my own again, a February 2012 PTR

[aprilisis]

That's great that you got free dining!!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Glad you got to take advantage of free dining!

That's great that you got free dining!!

Thanks guys! I was so excited when I saw that most of my dates were added!

 

[Missyrose]

Joining in! I'm so glad your sister is okay, what a horrible journey she had to take!

Back to the Disney planning, I can't even imagine what the call center was like after the Free Dining was announced... But I'm happy your were able to take advantage of it.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Joining in! I'm so glad your sister is okay, what a horrible journey she had to take!

Back to the Disney planning, I can't even imagine what the call center was like after the Free Dining was announced... But I'm happy your were able to take advantage of it.

It was a nightmare, and still is! I've been trying all day today too to get ahold of them to change something, but was not able to get through. I could only stay on hold for so long today at a time, so I had to hang up after 15-20 minutes of being on hold each time. And I'm glad I get to take advantage of it too!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

So, a non-Dis update today! As I said before, my sister Heather is getting married on September 24th, and I am her maid of honor. Our other sister, Lisa, and I are throwing her bridal shower this Saturday. It's going to be about 30-40 people there, and I am mostly organizing it.

We actually got really lucky, as the local church is letting us use their kitchen and hall for free. They usually charge $200, but since they know us they were going to let us use it for only $25. It was just a charge for having someone come out to unlock and then later re-lock the building for us. Well, they called yesterday and said they would waive that fee too, since our uncle has keys and said he would unlock and re-lock it for us! That is great, since we are paying enough for the food and everything else!

We are doing lunch meat and veggie trays, Italian meatballs, potato salad, fruit salad and a cake. I know I am forgetting something, but oh well, I know I have it already or it is on my list to pick up Friday! We have little favors for the tables, all the drinks, utensils, plates, table covers, etc already. The only things left to get are the vegetables, meats and cake, which we are not getting until Friday so they are fresh. Oh, and a tip for anyone trying not to spend a ton of money, get the vegetables and meats separately and assemble the trays yourself! It is not difficult at all, and I worked at a deli for 2 years so I also already have experience doing them. Costs the cost WAY down!

The only thing I still need is the games to play. Still trying to decide which ones, as there will be young girls (as young as 3!) there, so they have to be appropriate. And I need the prizes for the games too. I'm sure I will probably do a Bingo type game, but wedding themed, but probably do one more game too. And for prizes I'm thinking gift cards, like maybe Bath & Body Works, Target, Starbucks, etc. I'm going to go out tonight for that stuff. I know Michaels and Party City near me both have games, so that is where I will start.

Not really much new on the Disney trip for now. I am still working on my Disney Binder, and will take pictures and get that up hopefully by this weekend so you can all see it. I'm pretty proud of it and I know it will come in handy!

 

[PittypatBR]

I am enjoying your pre-TR. I am making a solo trip to DL in October, since I am nearby for a conference and have never been. I loved the pictures of your pets. I am down to one part-Maine Coon cat now, but have had a variety in the past, and my kids have enough to make up for my lack! The accident was horrible, and I can't imagine what everyone went through, especially Heather. Thank goodness she has proved the doctors wrong! And what a sweet story, that her fiance was so strong and true. Hope the shower goes really well.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I am enjoying your pre-TR. I am making a solo trip to DL in October, since I am nearby for a conference and have never been. I loved the pictures of your pets. I am down to one part-Maine Coon cat now, but have had a variety in the past, and my kids have enough to make up for my lack! The accident was horrible, and I can't imagine what everyone went through, especially Heather. Thank goodness she has proved the doctors wrong! And what a sweet story, that her fiance was so strong and true. Hope the shower goes really well.

and ! I have never been to DL, only WDW, but definitely want to go someday. I've been thinking of maybe going late next year, or early 2013, but nothing for sure yet! I think Jag may be Maine Coon and Ragdoll, but I am not sure. He came from the shelter and is the most laid back cat I've ever seen.

The shower went very well, mostly at least! I'm going to try to do an update on that later this afternoon!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

So, Heather's bridal shower was yesterday, and besides the weather, everything went great! I'll start at the beginning though.

As I said before, we decided to do the lunch meat and vegetable trays, and all the food actually (except the cake and 2 of the salads) on our own versus paying triple for it to be done "professionally". My parents are going to Disney next month, I'm going on 2 vacations in the next 6 months, and Lisa (my other sister) just got back from vacation at the end of July, so we were all for saving money! Heather spends the days at my parents house so my Mom can help her with whatever she can't do completely on her own while Jimmy is working, and then spends the night at their house. So, after Jimmy picked her up Friday evening Mom drove to the store and got the lunch meats and vegetables.

Saturday morning Heather got to the house around 7:30am, and we needed her out of the house by 9-9:30am so Dad, Lisa and I could get the trays made and food cooked before we had to leave at 12:30pm for the church. So, Mom took her shopping for clothes for their honeymoon and a couple of other places to get her out! As soon as she left Lisa and I made the 2 vegetable trays, a cheese tray, condiments tray, and Dad arrived in time to help with the 2 lunch meat trays. We also made cucumber salad and Italian meatballs. The meatballs were already done, they just needed to be heated up. So they went in the oven at 11:15am, and all the trays were already done by then! We then loaded everything up that wasn't cold or hot food (chips, utensils, plates, sodas, presents, etc) into Lisa's car, and my Dad's car. Lisa left at 12:15pm and went to the store to pick up the cake, potato salad and cole slaw. Here is the cake:

Isn't it adorable? Their wedding has a beach/water theme, hence the cake. We actually kinda know the baker who made it, so she just had us tell her the theme and she designed it herself. Their wedding colors are two shades of blue, hence the background color and writing. She was going to do blue flowers too, but it became TOO much blue, so we went with Heather's second favorite color. The "sand" is brown sugar, and the beach toys are candy. The trees and flowers are plastic though!

So, while Lisa picked those things up, Dad and I loaded my car with most of the trays, while he took the rest and the meatballs, and went to the church. Lisa arrived about 2-3 minutes after us, and my uncle arrived maybe 5 minutes at most after we did to unlock the church. My aunt and cousin arrived as we were taking the first load in and helped unload the cars. Soon after another aunt, 2 cousins and grandmother arrived to help organize, followed by another cousin and her 5 year old. My father had to run back to the house since he accidentally left 1/2 the rolls there, but otherwise everything got set up by 1:45pm. We told everyone to be there by 2, as Heather and Mom were arriving at 2:10pm, under the pretense of needing to get something from my aunt who was there for a "church event".


Unfortunately, it started pouring about 1:30pm and some people got delayed, and another had to cancel due to being stuck at work. Then, my Mom text me at 1:55pm and said they were leaving! They live only 5 minutes from the church, and at least a dozen guests weren't there yet!

*To Be Continued: I'm having issues with Photobucket, so I'm going to post this and restart my computer so I can hopefully post the rest of this and all the pictures!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Okay, that seemed to work, at least for now!

So, as I said my Mom wasn't supposed to arrive with Heather until 2:10pm, but texted me at 1:55pm and said they were on their way, only 5 minutes away, with a dozen people not there. Just then my cousin called me and said there was a group of them on the other side of the church, in the rain, trying to get in a locked door. Two of my cousins ran around to show them where to come in at, as my Mom was pulling up! Lisa called her and told her to stall while we got everyone in the room, so Mom pretended to have lost something under her seat for about 2-3 minutes. While that was going on, another guest showed up. Thankfully she is also a member of that church, so Heather said later she just thought she was showing up for the event our Aunt was at.

Finally, we got everyone in and hiding, and Heather and my Mom came in.

Heather was very surprised and so happy! She had not suspected anything at all. She made her way around the room and said hi to everyone. One last cousin with her two kids showed up about 5 minutes later. She had gotten stuck in traffic due to the weather. Heather posed for a pic wearing her lovely "Bride-To-Be" pin for us.

Then, we all started eating. I cannot believe I have no pictures of the food at all. We had everything we had made or picked up, plus fruit salad one of my Aunt's had made, and macaroni salad another Aunt made. After we got done eating we played Bridal Bingo. I was the caller, and here I am calling out a tile to mark.

The prizes for the first 4 winners were all $10 gift cards. We had 2 for Bath & Body Works, 1 for Starbucks and 1 for Target. The winners were one of Heather's friends, a cousin, a friend's mother and another cousin's girlfriend. They all got to pick their prize as they won, and everyone was happy with the ones they got.

After we finished eating and playing Bingo, it was time to tackle these:

I was Heather's assistant, keeping record of the gifts and also helping her as needed, since her left arm doesn't cooperate and makes opening some gifts difficult. Here we are opening one of the gifts.

She got a lot of the things off their registry that they needed, gift cards and cash they are putting toward their honeymoon. She loved it all. Well, except for holding up the few pieces of lingerie she got. She got some custom made pillowcases from our Aunt that were great. The one for Jimmy said "Mr. Right", and her's said, well, look:

Here are a few of the other cute things she got.

The cake knife and server were actually from me. The statue was from our cousin and daughter (who is Heather's god-daughter), and the picture frame was from her friend Jessica who she is known since they were both a year and a half. My Mom used to run a home daycare, and Jessica was her first client. So we have known Jess and her mom Kathy forever. Here is Heather with them yesterday.

So, after we got done the presents we decided it was time to have some cake!

That's one of our Aunts holding the cake up. While everyone ate their cake we started another "game", How Well do You Know the Bride? While they ate everyone filled out a card with 15 identical questions about Heather, and the 3 that got the highest number right won a candle. No one got more than 1/2 right, except one cousin who exempt herself as she personally introduced Heather and Jimmy, and several of the questions were about how they met, first date, etc, so she didn't think it was fair. We also had a couple of cheaters who got on Facebook on their phones to try to find some of the answers. In the end the winners were a friend/neighbor, the same cousin who won at Bingo (and one of the "cheaters"!) and another cousin.

Once that was done it was time to start cleaning up. As I said previously, we got the hall for free, but we only had it for a limited time before my uncle would be there to lock back up. And he was leaving work to come lock it, so we had to be ready when he got there so he could get back! Thankfully everyone stayed and helped out with the clean-up, so it only took about 15 minutes to get the food packed up (and distributed!), the dishes done, the trash taken out and the floor and tables cleaned. Heather even had time to pose with our grandmother while we cleaned up.

My Dad showed back up after we finished loading up my Mom's, Lisa's and my cars to see if we needed help. Men. He also let us know though that he had looked at the weather before he left, and it was going to start pouring again any minute. So, we all quickly said our last goodbyes and everyone left. We went back to my parents house to unpack everything, and it started raining again just as we arrived. We unloaded the 3 cars in record time!

Heather and Jimmy went thru everything this morning and took most of it to their house. Some of it is staying at our parents house for now, as they rent for now and only have so much space since they have roommates with things too. And their roommates have a tendency to not keep their hands off of other people's things and would open and use their gifts without permission.

So, one more step toward Heather and Jimmy's wedding. It's now less than 6 weeks away! The next big step is the Bachelorette party, and that is not until 2 days before the wedding, which I will explain in a future post!

Hope everyone had had a great weekend so far!

 

[aprilisis]

That cake was so cute! It sounds like the shower went very well! I love all of the photos, but the last one with Heather & your Grandmother is the best.

 

[mickeystoontown]

The surprise shower seemed to be a huge success! Not only did you pull off the surprise but it also looks like she got some really nice gifts.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

That cake was so cute! It sounds like the shower went very well! I love all of the photos, but the last one with Heather & your Grandmother is the best.

Wasn't it cute?! We thought it was better than we hoped for, and Heather loved it too. Heather loved the shower, and that was what really mattered, so we think it was a success.

And I love the pic of her and our Grandmother too!

The surprise shower seemed to be a huge success! Not only did you pull off the surprise but it also looks like she got some really nice gifts.

I was shocked we were able to keep it a surprise! Heather is sneaky about trying to figure things out, so I thought she would get it before. That, and the church called the day before and left a voicemail confirming everything, and my mother started to play it on speakerphone in front of Heather not realizing who called, but thankfully hit the mute button before Heather heard enough to put 2 and 2 together!

Only 5 more days for Lacey and Jesse! I'm sure you are all so excited.

 

[teekathepony]

Jumping in! Your sister is getting married on my first day at Disney! That's a good day for sure
Love your animals, I have two SPCA dogs and two SPCA cats, shelter animals are just the best!
I also love the Pop Century pics, I love it there!
Can't wait to read more!

 

[ZFamily5]

The cake was so cute! And I too love the picture of Heather and your grandmother! You'll have to be sure to include some of their wedding pictures on here! She's going to be a beautiful bride!!

 

[newmommy_2010]

i'm here! Loved the cake for the shower so cute! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Jumping in! Your sister is getting married on my first day at Disney! That's a good day for sure
Love your animals, I have two SPCA dogs and two SPCA cats, shelter animals are just the best!
I also love the Pop Century pics, I love it there!
Can't wait to read more!

Yay for you that you will be at Disney in less than 6 weeks! And yay for adopting shelter pets. All mine are shelter pets, and we foster cats/kittens as well.

Pop Century is great! I admit that it is the only resort I've stayed at onsite, but I liked it, so why change! Plus, I am at Rope Drop every day and stay until close, so I really just use the resort to sleep and shower, so I don't think it makes sense to pay more.

The cake was so cute! And I too love the picture of Heather and your grandmother! You'll have to be sure to include some of their wedding pictures on here! She's going to be a beautiful bride!!

Thanks! I do love that picture. That is my Mom's mother, and are last blood grandparent still alive. We have a man we call our Grandfather who is still alive, but he is not techinically blood related. He is our Dad's sister's husband's father. But they have been married almost 20 years and he has always treated us the same as his blood grandkids.

I will definitely be posting wedding pictures after it happens! I know we will have a ton of them.

i'm here! Loved the cake for the shower so cute! Can't wait to hear more!

As I said, we kinda knew the woman making the cake and knew she would do a good job, but she is like a friend of a friend, so we don't know her very well and were a bit concerned. But we all loved the way it turned out!

I'm going to post some more about the wedding plans very shortly, and then hopefully a Disney update later today or tomorrow

 

[PhoenixStrength]

So, I'm going to do an update on the wedding plans, and then one later today or tomorrow that is actually Disney related, but first I wanted to post a quick, and very cute, update on something in my life.

I alluded to it earlier, but I am big on animal rescue. My pets are shelter pets, and I regularly foster homeless cats and kittens. Unfortunately there are many of them. There is a feral cat colony not far from my work where I have gotten kittens from and found homes, my Aunt knows a lot of people that live out in the country and find them, my sister has a friend who is a vet tech who calls whenever someone dumps their pet at the vet, and many people in the neighborhood know that I foster too. There have been many cats and kittens dumped on the front door step.

So was the case last Wednesday, the 10th. Came home to a box, fulled taped up, no air holes , with 3 kittens inside sitting on the front step. They are probably about 7 weeks old, 2 females and 1 male. Here is a picture of them in the crate a few hours after they "appeared".

The buff and white one is the male, and the all gray and gray/peach one are females. Thankfully they are all very healthy and friendly, and love to play! The interesting thing is that they are definitely at least part Manx. The reason I know this is because the buff male and all gray female are completely tail-less! Thankfully they do not have what is called in the rescue world Manx-syndrome, which basically is where they are partially to fully paralyzed in their hind end, and incontinent. That is because the tail is an extension of their spine, so without their tail they are missing part of their spine. If they are missing too much of it they are fully or partially paralyzed in their hind end. They do not have this problem though, but they do run in kind of a bunny hop with their back feet versus their sister who runs like a "normal" kitten does. But it does not cause them any pain, and is really quite adorable!

They are fearless too. Since they have been deemed healthy, I occasionally let them out, while I am around, to interact with my cats. All my cats are used to kittens, since I have them so often. In fact, Turk LOVES them! They are not scared of the big cats at all, or my dog Phoenix! He loves them too, thankfully. But they won't be around much longer, as they have homes already! A couple of people at my Dad's work have been looking for cats/kittens to adopt, so when he heard about them he talked to the co-workers and they are taking them on Wednesday. The girls are going together, and the male is going to a woman who loves orange/buff males. I will miss them, but I'm glad they will have great homes, and my Dad will make sure to get me updates on them.

To Be Continued in the next post: Heather's Wedding Plans!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Anyway, now onto the wedding plans. Heather's wedding is now less than 6 weeks away, and it will be a busy 6 weeks! This Saturday I have my fitting for my dress. I have lost about 20 lbs since I bought the dress 4 months ago, so I know it has to be taken in a lot, which I'm not looking forward too since it is EXPENSIVE!! But, oh well. Better than having the dress fall off me during the wedding Then, we have our cousin's wedding on September 2nd. Which reminds me, I still need to get a dress to wear to it!

Oh, here is what my dress for the wedding looks like. Not me, as it is from the David's Bridal website, but this is the dress and color.

And here is what the Bridesmaid dresses look like, The color is actually Cornflower blue, which is a light blue with a hint of lavendar to it. Unfortunately David's Bridal no longer offers it in that color, so it won't let me choose it on the website, but I put a square of what the Cornflower blue looks like in the top left corner of this pic, so you get the idea!

Heather's Bachelorette party is the 22nd of September, which is a Thursday evening, and only 2 days before the wedding. But, we wanted all of the bridal party to be able to come, and her friend is coming up from Georgia and won't be in MD until the 21st. A weird side effect of Heather's accident is that she cannot really have any alcohol, as it will mess up her brain (even worse than it does to the average person) due to the damage that was caused by the bleeding into the brain after the accident. Now, I'm not really a drinker anyway, and neither is Lisa, so it doesn't bother me at all. But, that limited the options to some degree on what we could do. Heather used to drink (socially, not heavy at all) and wanted to do something where she doesn't really have to see a lot of drinking since she does miss being able to do it, mostly just because she knows she can't now.

So, we thought and I asked her for some ideas, and we came up with Dave & Busters. She doesn't know that is what I picked, or the date, though she has an idea since she knows her friend Samantha is coming to it and knows when she is coming up from GA. For anyone who doesn't know what Dave & Busters is, it is an entertainment complex. If you've seen the idea for what Disney is building in DTD, Strikers, it is a lot like that. It has a bowling alley, restaurant, bar (which we will avoid), and a large, nice arcade-like area with games and prizes. We are going to do dinner and play some games for a couple of hours afterward. It's what she wants, so it is what we will do. And I think it will be far more fun than just drinking anyway!


Then, we have the rehearsal at the location of the wedding Friday the 23rd in the evening. They are getting married in our town, at a Banquet hall on the water, in a gazebo. Hence the beach/water theme! The reception is there too, inside the actually Banquet Hall. Saturday morning all us girls are going to get our hair done for the wedding. We already have the style picked out, half up and then curled, which we all love! Thankfully Heather is not a bridezilla at all and let us pretty much pick what we all wanted, as long as she agreed to it. And she has loved all of our ideas.

We got lucky with the photographer, as we know a fantastic one, and she gave us a huge discount on the package since she knows us. She is (ready for this?), my cousin's husband's cousin's wife! Anyway, she is fantastic and does tons of high-profile events in our state, and will probably take 2000-3000 pictures easily. She is coming over Saturday morning to get pictures of all of us girls getting ready at my parent's house, before the wedding. She is going to get the guys first actually, then us. We also got lucky with the limo, as that same cousin's husband, his Dad's friend owns a limo company and we are getting it for the driver fee only! The limo will take us to the Banquet Hall and Heather will get ready there, then the wedding!

Heather and Jimmy are leaving the next morning (their flight leaves at 11am) for their honeymoon. There was a lot of luck involved in this wedding, as over a year ago they won a trip that they are using for their honeymoon! They won a 5 day cruise to the Bahamas! They have to fly down to Ft Lauderdale, FL, but then everything else was included in the prize. They get a free hotel stay Sunday night (the cruise leaves Monday), free rental car, free cruise, free hotel in the Bahamas and free hotel stay Friday night, then fly back on Saturday October 1st. The cruise leaves Monday, they get to the Bahamas on Tuesday, stay there for 3 days, leave Thursday night on the cruise ship, and get back to Ft Lauderdale Friday evening. They are paying extra to upgrade their cruise ship room to an outside cabin with a window, and for any activities they want to do in the Bahamas, but that is it. I know they are doing a swimming with the dolphins excursion, which has been Heather's biggest dream for years! She LOVES dolphins and has wanted to do it forever. Beyond that, I don't know what they are doing.

And, while they are on their honeymoon my parents are going on vacation to WDW! Since my Mom has to help Heather during the day they haven't taken a vacation in over 2 years. Since Heather will be on her honeymoon, they can go away! They are leaving and coming back the same days as Heather and Jimmy. They are taking their RV though and staying at Ft. Wilderness, which they did 3 years ago and loved.

So, I think that is all the plans for the wedding, so far at least. My next update will be Disney related, as it will be about my Disney planning binder

 

[newmommy_2010]

Those kittens are so adorable! I love the dress also. My friends wedding colors were cornflower blue from Davids Bridal and I loved it!

 

[aprilisis]

OMG- those kittens are SOOOO cute!!!!
I really like the dresses & the colors. I can't believe you lost 20 pounds! Congratulations!
I love Dave & Buster's! You guys will have so much fun there.
Sounds like the whole weekend leading up to & including the wedding will be awesome. That is fantastic that they won their Honeymoon vacation!! I hope they have a wonderful time.