Engaged in the Castle, Now Back for the Honeymoon! Sep '11 - 1/25 Upd! 3 Videos!

[BadgerGirl84]

Hi! Hola! My name is Elizabeth and welcome to my magical, exciting and fun-filled honeymoon trip report. My husband David and I got married on September 3rd, 2011 and honeymooned at Walt Disney World and Universal Studios from September 4th - 12th.

We did a split stay between the Wilderness Lodge and the Fairfield Inn near Universal Studios and we ate at a variety of WDW Counter Service, Table Service and Off-Site restaurants--all to be reviewed in this report!

I'm starting this trip report much later than planned, but newlywed life is busier than I was planning on! I spent so many evenings this past summer planning the honeymoon and wedding that I thought I would have boatloads of idle hours once we were back. Between writing thank-you cards, going to the gym, staring dog classes and staying on top of the cooking and cleaning, life gets busy.

However, I have really been bitten by the Disney bug again so I thought that writing my trip report would be the best thing to tide me over until my husband and I visit Disneyland Paris this May.

I introduced myself and my husband, David, on my last TR, the one I wrote for my surprise trip to Disney where David proposed to me during dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table! He proposed on September 2nd, 2010 and we got married on September 3rd, 2011, and we arrived at WDW for our honeymoon on September 4th. What a great year!

Here's me:

And here's David:

David and I currently both work as project managers for an insurance company. (We didn't meet at work...David joined the company I was already working for right after the wedding...and the new job has been a great blessing to our family). We actually are an online dating success story! We live in Madison, Wisconsin with our two French Bulldog/Boston Terrier dogs, Minnie and Eve. (Pronounced Eva just like in Wall-E, of course!)

Here is Minnie, our dog that we got about a year ago. I don't have a photo of our new furbaby Eve uploaded yet because we just rescued her after Christmas from an animal shelter.

NEXT: Proposal in CRT Recap

 

[BadgerGirl84]

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pre-Honeymoon

Proposal in CRT Recap
How Did We Wind Up Going To WDW On Our Honeymoon?
Wedding Recap-Part I
Wedding Recap-Part II

Honeymoon

Day 1
From Milwaukee to Orlando (aka my husband goes to our gift-opening shoeless)
Just the Deets (aka Details), Please! Hotel reservations, ADRs, Parks, and Special Events Planned
The Prettiest Electrical Boxes in all the Wilderness! (Arrival at WL and Room Photos)
Champagne? Yes Please! Dinner at the WCC

Day 2
Did You Know Donuts at the MK are Calorie Free? Breakfast at the Crystal Palace
Morning at the MK: I married a Star Cadet!
Afternoon in the MK: Identity Theft in the Most Magical Place on Earth
Resort Hopping and Dinner at the Wave: Oh, and Pardon my Feet!

 

[mommytominnie]

Subbbing!! I am definitely in. I am such a sucker for romantic stories. Congratulations on your new marriage and may your days always be special as your wedding day!!

 

[portobello_rd]

ill join in too! fellow Wisconsiniter here, but im a little up north!
my DH and i were just in WDW in september for our 5th anniversary- its so fun going when your celebrating something isnt it?

 

[BadgerGirl84]

You can read my full proposal story here (warning: the TR is not finished, but the entire proposal story is in there. That's the best part, right? Wedding planning got the best of me before I finished the last day of the report).

But because this is a honeymoon trip report, and a honeymoon can't happen without a proposal, and a Disney honeymoon preceded by a Disney proposal is just magic upon magic...let me share a slimmed-down version of the story with you!

David e-mailed me out of the blue the week before Labor Day when I was on a business trip in Kentucky asking me if I could take the day after Labor Day off. Ten minutes after I agreed, he e-mailed me a flight itinerary to Orlando! A surprise, last minute trip to visit the Mouse! Dave and I had never been to Disney before...my last visit had been the January prior with my family when Dave and I had just started dating.

I was gleeful for 10 seconds, then terrified, because my flight getting back home to Madison wasn't scheduled to land until 10pm Friday night and our flight to Orlando was scheduled for 6am Saturday morning. Long, long story short...I was able to sweet talk my employer and Delta airlines into letting me leave my business trip several hours sooner and I got home on time.

When Dave and I were in the airport the next morning, waiting in the security line, he told me that he wanted to eat somewhere really good during the trip so he had booked a dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table at MK the next day. Swoon. I started crying in the security line. I had never done a TS meal at Disney, let alone a character meal...let alone IN THE CASTLE! Plus, I was shocked my boyfriend knew how to make an ADR?

We had a relaxing first day swimming at the hotel pool (we stayed off-site at the Marriott Fairfield Inn in the Marriott Village), eating at EPSN on the Boardwalk for lunch and eating at Hooter's for dinner (hey, they have awesome wings and beer!).

Our Magic Kingdom day the next day was great. We got there about 30 minutes after rope drop and hit all the rides in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland before lunch. We did Pecos Bill's for lunch (our now favorite!)

(eating a burger...lovely!)

We saw everything in Adventureland, Frontierland and Liberty Square after lunch. I wasn't sure what to expect crowd-wise, as it was the day before Labor Day, but the park was dead and it was walk-on for almost everything.

It started pouring as dinner time approached and we headed to the castle in beautiful plastic ponchos. When we got to the castle, we got our picture taken with her Majesty, Cinderella and waited to be seated.

When we were seated, we were brought to a table for two in front of a window overlooking Fantasyland. The room was breathtaking and I had no idea how Dave had scored an ADR at a prime table during dinner time! We enjoyed our dinner chatting about our day and our favorite rides and shows in the park. I was really surprised with how much Dave seemed to like being there!

We had a great meal and enjoyed meeting the princesses and getting our pictures taken with them. When dessert time came, instead of bringing me my dessert on a simple dish like everyone else was getting, the waiter brought out a platter with a white domed lid. He set it down and said, "A special dessert for the princess" and when he lifted the lid, I immediately starting bawling.

The plate was covered in rose petals and in the middle was a glass slipper with an engagement ring resting inside of it. The glass slipper was engraved with our names and the date of the engagement (I saw this later, because like I said, I was bawling!)

Dave got down on one knee (and by this time, had drawn the attention of the entire restaurant) and asked me to marry him.

When he stood up to hug and kiss me, he whispered "Remember when we saw that shooting star on the way to the airport? Dreams do come true." SWOON.

The restaurant applauded.


I spent the rest of the evening floating on air while enjoying wearing my new ring and wearing the Just Engaged pin they gave us.

After calling our parents, we enjoyed the Main Street Electrical Parade and watched Wishes from the train station in the front of the park. It was my first time watching it, despite having been to the MK many times before and I started crying during the show because the show was all about wishing on a star and dreams coming true!

Getting engaged at the Magic Kingdom was the best day of my life and it will be a memory that I will always cherish. I know that sounds cheesy and sappy, but it's really true. When I think about being an old lady one day and stuck in a nursing home, I know I will smile when I think about that day.

NEXT: How did we wind up going to Disney on our honeymoon?

 

[BadgerGirl84]

Subbbing!! I am definitely in. I am such a sucker for romantic stories. Congratulations on your new marriage and may your days always be special as your wedding day!!

Thank you and thanks for joining my trip report!

ill join in too! fellow Wisconsiniter here, but im a little up north!
my DH and i were just in WDW in september for our 5th anniversary- its so fun going when your celebrating something isnt it?

Hello fellow Badger! I can't think of a better place to celebrate than WDW--congrats on your anniversary. We got so many special extras on our honeymoon and so many "Congratulations" from CMs. September is such a great time to visit WDW! (Although I was on hurricane watch in the weeks before the wedding!)

 

[Goldeelox9]

I am sitting at work crying!!! What an awesome proposal!!

 

[ChattaAlley]

Oh my maybe I shouldn't read these things at work. Made me tear up. You are living the fantasy. What a special guy you have!!

 

[BadgerGirl84]

Think of all the romantic destinations around the globe that a newlywed couple could visit on their honeymoon...Hawaii, an all-inclusive adults-only resort on a beach, an Alaskan cruise…

How did my husband and I wind up going to Walt Disney World? A land of theme parks filled with children and chaos? (And magic, and wonder, and great food, and all my character friends...but most non-Disney people just think of the other things!)

As soon as Dave and I began planning our wedding, Dave said that he wanted to plan the honeymoon. And that it would be a surprise. I was okay with this, because as evident by the proposal Dave planned, he is GREAT with surprises! However, I hated not knowing where we were going! The last-minute Disney trip for our engagement didn't throw me for a loop because I knew WDW like the back of my hand...but other places? Not so much. I am a Type-A planner when it comes to planning trips, so I worried about not being able to pack as much awesome-ness into a trip without any planning by yours truly in advance! Plus, how would I know what to pack?


Months went by without any hints from Dave on what he was planning, other than him saying maybe he would tell me the day before the wedding where we were going.
On a lazy Saturday in March, Dave went off to run some errands. When he came back, Dave asked me to meet him in the office where he had a surprise for me. Sitting on the desk was a big Toy Story gift bag. "Cute!" I thought, "Dave got me a Disney present from the store." Inside the bag was the Toy Story 3 Blu Ray (saddest movie EVAH!!) and the Disney version of Apples-to-Apples (my favorite party game). Cool! What a great guy!

Then Dave asked me if I saw the envelope that came with it. It was addressed from "Magical Drive" and was decorated with Disney stickers. (I just love the idea of Dave putting stickers on anything…) It was addressed to my name, and my current last name was crossed out and underneath it was my soon-to-be new last name.

Inside the envelope was a card and a book. The card had Disney stickers on the front and said "To the Newlyweds." The inside of the card had more stickers and said, "All of your friends miss you! See you in September!"

WE WERE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD FOR THE HONEYMOON!

Obviously, I started crying, then I got really excited, then I called my mother (another Disney nut).

(The above picture was taken right after Dave move into my house...just want to clarify that we don't live in a Hoarders house!)

The book was a small Disney travel book. I had fun reading it and after I read it I decided that I could have read it because after years of reading the Disboards, you know more than a Disney travel book.


The best part of the surprise that Dave just booked the flight to Orlando: September 4th (the day after our wedding) through September 12th. All the planning was up to me because Dave knows how much I love planning Disney trips. Yippee!

Up Next: Wedding Recap

 

[BadgerGirl84]

I am sitting at work crying!!! What an awesome proposal!!

That happens a lot to me when I read trip reports! Especially proposals, weddings and WISH trips!

Oh my maybe I shouldn't read these things at work. Made me tear up. You are living the fantasy. What a special guy you have!!

Dave scored some major points with that proposal!

 

[BadgerGirl84]

So, before Dave and I could rush off to Disney World to enjoy our week of fun, we had one small task to cross of our list the day before we left: GET MARRIED!

Our wedding day was Saturday, September 3rd, 2011 in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

Five days before the wedding I woke up congested. I had been taking my multi-vitamin, Vitamin D supplement and Vitamin-C religiously for the two weeks before the wedding to ward off any germs that would be bent on making me feel cruddy for my wedding or Disney Trip. Given that my system was chock-full of vitamins and germ-fighters, I thought the congestion was just temporary.

But...the stuffy nose did not go away and later in the day I started to develop a sore throat. When I didn't feel any better the next morning, I called the doctor. My doctor was awesome! He saw me right away that morning and gave me a prescription for antibiotics. No, antibiotics do not cure a cold, but I had some symptoms of a sinus infection (as well as a history of them), so I was relieved to know that I'd starting fighting the infection that day if that's what it was.

On the wedding day, I felt pretty gosh darn good, thank goodness. My bridesmaids and I had spent the night at a hotel. I was a little jittery, but in a good way. I did not have any worries about getting married, but I had planned my wedding almost singlehandedly (I work as a project manager, so that came very naturally to me) and I felt it was up to me to make sure the day went off without a hitch! (I must say that my family and friends were great and I was able to delegate many tasks that day).

Despite how type-A and anal I was about planning the wedding (everyone involved had a wedding schedule that I gave them the day before that had times down to the minute!), I was surprisingly calm most of the day. I knew that I wanted to enjoy every moment of my wedding day and despite all my planning, something could potentially go wrong. It's not my nature to "roll with the punches" as much as it is to "plan for the punches" but my motto on the wedding day was "However it is, it is." If my bouquet didn't come out great, oh well. If they cake was lopsided, oh well. (Neither of these things happened, thank goodness!)

The girls and I got our makeup and hair done and were at the church by about 12:30 to get ready. On the way from the salon to the church it started POURING. Thank goodness our church had one of those drive-through overhangs that cars could pull up under.

When we got to the church there was a card, a small package, and two big black garbage bags waiting for me in the room where we were getting ready--gifts from Dave! The card was very sweet--he wrote it that morning and it said something like, "Today we are tying the knot. It is raining today, but water just makes the knot stronger!" In the small package were some beautiful diamond stud earrings. I had warned Dave and my family not got get me a gift they planed on having me wear that day because I had already planned my jewelry and accessories. But I was able to slip the earrings into my second-upper earring piercing and they were beautiful! As for the garbage bags? Inside each was a GIANT Mickey Mouse and a GIANT Minnie Mouse! (Pictures of these two will follow!) I laughed and laughed and I was so happy that my husband-to-be knew me perfectly.

We got into our dresses at about 1:30 and luckily it only took fifteen minutes to get into my dress! My dress was a zip-back but it had lots of these little hook and loop closures that had to go over the zipper that were tough to close. I chose a tulle ballgown because I wanted a princess dress and a dress that would stand the test of time.

Beading on my dress

Dave and his best man, Mike, getting ready.

The girls pushing on the front of my dress so we can get the clasps hooked!

Sucking it in!!!!

Whew! It's on! Thanks, Mom!

The ceremony started on time, and before I knew it, it was time to walk down the aisle with my dad.

David and I did not do a "first look" (which is where some couples see each other before the wedding to give them time to do pictures before the ceremony) because we wanted the wedding ceremony to be that much more special.

I had a serious fear in the weeks leading up to the wedding that I would be crying my eyes out down the aisle. I cried during Finding Nemo and I used up three tissues during Toy Story 3. I bawled during the proposal and cried when Dave told me about the honeymoon. Naturally, I was picturing that no matter what I did, I'd be walking down the aisle with my face bunched up and tears dripping down my face (and out of my nose)--not exactly the beautiful bride I was picturing.

My sister, the Maid of Honor, walking down the aisle. Not the best picture of her, but we called her Pippa that day because she was beautiful! P.S. I loved how our bouquets came out. I ordered them from the local grocery store!

My second-cousin, my flower girl.

Dave, just before I walked down the aisle.

Me and my Dad
​

Would I have a breakdown? Stay Tuned!

 

[khertz]

Joining in! Your wedding gown is GORGEOUS!! And your engagement sounds so amazing, not only in MK, but at CRT! Your DH did a great job planning & executing that. I can't wait to see how the honeymoon went, although how could a Disneymoon go wrong?

 

[BadgerGirl84]

Despite my worry that I'd get to the end of the aisle with my makeup running and needing a Kleenex, I made it down the aisle tear free! The night before, Dave and I were both teary during the rehearsal. Glad we got it out of our system then! The moment Canon In D started playing and the guests stood up, I was running on pure adrenaline. It was a very happy moment and I had the biggest smile on my face seeing all my friends and family, and especially my groom at the end of the aisle.

The ceremony was perfect--short, sweet, and Christ-centered. Our pastor gave a short sermon on this verse in Ecclesiastes: "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." She then brought out a white and silver cord and tied it in a knot and instructed us to tie a knot in the cord on each of our wedding anniversaries as our bond grows stronger.

Instead of doing a receiving line, Dave and I did each walked back up to the front of the church after the recessional and "released" our guests from each row instead of having the ushers do it. This worked out great! It allowed us to give a personal greeting to each of our guests, but not require everyone to stand in a long receiving line. My family served some refreshments in the church kitchen (I loved this because the reception site was 40 minutes away and I didn't want anyone to drive on an empty stomach!).

The original plan was to do all pictures (bride and groom, bridal party, and family) at the reception site--the West Bend Country Club. They have beautiful grounds and I love outdoor pictures. Problem was, it was still pouring rain! Going along with my motto of "however it is, it is," we went with Plan B. We snapped some bride and groom and family shots in the church (and I'm so happy we did because they turned out beautiful. Someone had the great idea to call the country club and see what the weather was like out there. Turned out it wasn't raining yet and according to the radar, rain wasn't expected for 2 hours!

The families and bridal party hopped in the cars and somehow my uncle and fiancé stuffed me and my puffy dress in the front seat of our Rav 4. I don't remember a whole lot of what we talked about other than how perfect the ceremony was and how we couldn't (well...I) wait to go to Disney.

We got to the club and immediately started taking pictures. We didn't have as much picture time as I would have liked before it started raining, but I'm grateful for the time we had. On the upside, I got to enjoy all of cocktail hour with my guest!

​

I was amazed at how beautiful the club was decorated. The great thing about having the reception at the club was that it is very elegant and beautiful on its own, but my place cards, wedding cake, flower arrangements and centerpieces all made the room SHINE!

During cocktail hour our guests enjoyed the craft beers we selected for the event--a brown ale and a local honey blonde (we are beer freaks!). I was surprised with how many people watched the slideshow that Dave put together (baby and growing up pictures of both of us, then pictures from our dating days and engagement) that was playing on the plasma TVs in the lounge area. That was a hit!

Before dinner, we cut the cake, as the serving staff was going to cut it and serve it for dessert. I was lucky enough to have two wedding cakes. My "official" wedding cake was my only tribute to Disney. As inspiration, I gave my baker an image of a WDW wedding cake and I purchased a castle cake topper online. The cake had written on it, "And They Lived Happily Ever After." It turned out beautiful. It's a family tradition to have an almond pound cake at weddings and my aunt made a wonderful, layered, heart shaped almond pound cake and also had a framed picture of my grandmother (who has passed) and a story about the tradition of the cake.

​

When it was time for dinner, we did our grand march to "Marry You" by Bruno Mars. (After seeing it on Glee, I had to have it in the wedding!). We had a lot of speeches and prayers at the beginning of dinner, and that was one of the most special parts of the whole day. Dave's dad gave a great toast, then my dad did a speech that had the whole audience uproaring in laughter and then in tears. My dad does GREAT speeches. My sister's speech and the best man speech went off without a hitch and were heartfelt. (Not embarrassing, thank goodness!) The pastor said a prayer, then Dave said a prayer. Dave had written a really excellent prayer for the rehearsal dinner (that...guess what...had me in tears…) and it was so good that we all asked him to say it again at the wedding.

Finally, it was time to eat! I was STARVING. We served pork in merlot sauce and walnut chicken and I got the pork. Dave ordered a special steak and we both loved our food. It was hot, tasty and a big portion. Even better, the guests all thought the same. We heard rave reviews of the food all night.

After that, we danced the night away!

​

I loved our DJ and I was on the dance floor most of the night. We planned a couple of fun, unique things with our DJ. I had seen a thing called "the shoe game" on YouTube where the couple sits back to back and each couple holds one bride shoe and one groom shoe. The DJ then asks questions like, "Who controls the remote TV? Or Who is most romantic?" and if I thought it was me, I'd raise my shoe and if I thought it was Dave, I'd raise his shoe. It was hilarious. Dave also planned a really funny garter toss. He had me sit on a chair he had rigged. Underneath it were Twinkies, a funny DVD, bags of chips, etc and when he was reaching under my dress to get the garter, he started throwing that stuff out of it. Hilarious! The guests thought it was the funniest thing ever.

For the guests that didn't want to dance, or wanted a break, we also had a candy buffet and a photo booth. They were huge hits! I wasn't sure if the photo booth was worth the expense, but it was worth every penny because the guests had such a fun time with it. Oh--another guest favorite! Late night pizza. At 10 pm they brought out tons of hot, homemade pizzas.

We wrapped things up at around 11:30 and I was beaming. It was the best day ever. Plus, it was only one more sleep until Disney!

Next up: From Milwaukee to the Wilderness Lodge!

 

[BadgerGirl84]

Joining in! Your wedding gown is GORGEOUS!! And your engagement sounds so amazing, not only in MK, but at CRT! Your DH did a great job planning & executing that. I can't wait to see how the honeymoon went, although how could a Disneymoon go wrong?

Thank you so much for your compliment! I love, love, loved shopping for my dress and I knew right away it was "the one!" Glad to have you along for the ride. I have really enjoyed reading your most recent TR with your DH and little one! I absolutely love the photos of him with the characters!!!

 

[ChattaAlley]

WOW you made a gorgeous bride. Loved the dress. How special it was for all to be the ones who released the guests. I have never seen that done.

The candy buffet sounds wonderful and fun!!!!

The photo booth sounds great. Was it an actual booth?

 

[BadgerGirl84]

WARNING: I don't have any photos until we get to the Wilderness Lodge. My deepest apologies if paragraphs of pre-trip narration without photos bores the pants off you.

On September 4th, I woke up as a married lady!

Dave and I didn't get as much sleep as we would have liked because we had major issues with the hotel where we were staying the night. When we got to the hotel at midnight, we were utterly exhausted. It took us forever just to get our overnight bags out of our car because we had packed all our wedding gifts over and around them. When we finally got to the front desk, the front desk clerk was assisting a guest with a public computer in the lobby. So we stood at the front desk waiting. And waiting. Then scowling. Mind you, I was still wearing MY WEDDING DRESS and Dave was in his TUX. So after five minutes, he finally came over. Guess what? He couldn't find our reservation! I was shocked because I had made the reservation months ago and had called to confirm several weeks before the wedding. Plus, we had a block of rooms reserved under our name as well for our guests. We felt like Mary and Joseph with no room at the inn! He said that he could get us a room, but not at the rate I said I had reserved it at. We were so fed up with the whole experience, we just left and drove to his mom's house. Why should we spend $100 at a hotel with such terrible service when we could just save the money for Disney?

Finally, at 1am, we got to bed. At 7:30, we got up to get ready for our 9am gift opening at the hotel we ditched the night before. As we were getting ready, Dave realized that he didn't have any shoes. Well, no shoes except for tux shoes. Dave had left his car at the church so we could ride together to the reception and he left his Keen sandals in the car. To remedy that situation, shoeless Dave decided to drive to Wal-Mart to pick up a quick pair of sandals. The town we were in had a Boston Store and Kohl's as well...but he thought that Wal-Mart was the most appropriate store to walk into barefoot. (BTW, have you ever seen the website, People of Wal-Mart? No way would he be worse than any of those Wal-Martians!).

On the way to the store, Dave (who is very tech-savvy and a total electronic gadget expert and addict) had the great idea to back up the videos of the wedding that were on our camcorder on to an SD-card(Or friends had volunteered to record the ceremony and various parts of the reception--so sweet!). Not sure what he clicked or pushed, but Dave lost all the videos on the camera. Gone. Well, at least he thought he did. He as so upset about this (I wasn't with him when this happened, but he said he was very worried about having to tell me what happened!) that he turned right around back home--sans shoes.

Thank the good Lord that somehow, someway, the videos were not actually deleted. After sighs of relief all around, shoeless Dave, me (wearing my Bride shirt) and his mom headed to the hotel to meet some of our friends who had stayed overnight at the hotel as well as my parents and Dave's dad and step mom for the gift opening.

When I got to the hotel, I talked to the manager on staff about the incident that happened the night prior. Instead of us all having to pay $7 for breakfast, we all got to eat for free. Okay--I was too excited about the day ahead to care about arguing more.

The gift opening was great--shoeless Dave and I opened the non-card gifts and got to talk about our favorite parts of the wedding with our family and friends. We had a 1:55pm flight, so after the gifts were opened, we got a ride from Dave's mom to pick up Dave's car from the church. Finally Dave was reunited with some footwear and we were on our way to the airport!

Well, not quite. My aunt and uncle live near the airport and they were nice enough to let us park our car at their house and drive to the airport. On the way to the airport David HAD to stop at the famous Kopps frozen custard stand to get a waffle cone and a burger. He loves ice cream and burgers...this will become a trend on the trip. And in his life.

(I didn't take this photo when we got custard at Kopps. We were not lucky enough to have three smiling people all handing us a cone. It's a promotional photo for the restaurant because I felt bad about not having pictures!)

We made it to the airport on time and lucky for us, the flight was empty. As soon as I sat down in my seat on the plane I started crying. Why? The wedding could not have gone any better, our guests had a blast, we made it to the airport, our flight was on time, and we were headed down to Florida for a week in Disney. How could life get any better? I was so grateful for the gifts I had been given in that moment.

We got a row to ourselves and got to spread out. The plane ride down was super fun. We plugged the video card with the wedding videos into Dave's laptop. To my surprise, our friend who filmed the wedding also had pulled aside some of our guests (including all of our parents and wedding party) to film them giving us their wishes! It was so fun to watch their messages to us--I had no idea it was going on.

For those of you who slugged through this with me, here is a surprise video from our engagement trip. Dave took it probably about 30 minutes before the proposal. He asks me what my favorite ride was and I joke and say "the tugboat" (aka the ferry we took from TTC).





Up Next - Honeymoon Day 1: Arrival at WL!

 

[EnchantedPlayroom]

Subbing!

 

[BadgerGirl84]

WOW you made a gorgeous bride. Loved the dress. How special it was for all to be the ones who released the guests. I have never seen that done.

The candy buffet sounds wonderful and fun!!!!

The photo booth sounds great. Was it an actual booth?

Aw, thanks! We wanted to make sure that at the very least we got to personally greet each guest at the wedding. I had heard stories of friends who had planned on finishing eating early and then making the rounds through the tables, but a lot had said that they ran out of time to say hi to everyone. So this plan worked really well for us.

I loved the candy buffet! I bought all the jars at Goodwill and my sister and dad stepped in from there--sister decorated the jars and Dad got the candy. Big hit with the guests (especially kids).

Yes, it was an actual photo booth--they are all the rage with weddings right now. Two people worked the booth and they printed two strips of the photos. The guest got to keep one strip and the other strip went in a memory book they made for me. Hilarious photos. I also got a CD of the pictures and uploaded them to Facebook. A lot of guests turned them into their profile pics!

Subbing!

Glad to have you here!

 

[BadgerGirl84]

While it makes me sort of a spoil-sport to interrupt the big arrival to the Wilderness Lodge, but I wanted to take a moment to share our plans that we had lined up for the honeymoon. Here are the deets:

We had the following hotel stays booked:
9/4-9/6: The Wilderness Lodge
9/7-9/12: The Fairfield Inn on Canada Ave near Universal Studios

I had never stayed on-site before (Dave thinks he stayed at the Poly as a kid), so I knew that I definitely wanted to stay at least a couple nights on-site for our honeymoon. We wanted to stay at a reasonably-priced Deluxe resort (we also used a room-only discount) so we were deciding between the AKL and WL. The ability to take the boat to the MK and the Contemporary sounded incredible, so we went for the WL!

Why did we also stay off-site? The main driver here was that I still had a boat-load of Marriott points from my four years of doing very frequent business travel. My plan was to stay at my favorite Marriott in the area, the Lake Buena Vista Residence Inn, but the Fairfield near Universal had a points-special that was too good to pass up. It would also give us the chance to check out the I-Drive area.

We had plans to visit the following parks:
MK, DHS, AK, Epcot, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure

We had the following ADRs:
Whispering Canyon Café, Sci Fi Dine In Theatre, Crystal Palace and California Grill. (We also ended up eating at the new TS place in Mexico at Epcot and The Wave in the Contemporary).

We also had tickets to the first Night of Joy concert at the MK on September 9, 2011. If you aren’t familiar, Night of Joy is a ticketed Christian music concert at the MK (has been at DHS in years past).

 

[BadgerGirl84]

Our plane landed right on time and we hopped off the plane and got our first good whiff of Florida air. AHHH….Lovely. We breezed through the airport to the car rental booth. There was no line and we got our paperwork and got to pick out any of the vehicles in the "Full-Size" row. I just love it when we get to pick out our car for the week! It's like anything could be out there...a Porsche, a Beamer, a Hummer...anything! This time it was mostly Ford Fusions, Nissan Altimas and Chevy Malibus and Impalas. I let DH pick since he was driving and I have zero interest in cars. He picked a Ford Fusion that had XM Radio (we enjoyed listening to that during the week).

We set up the GPS, plugged in Wilderness Lodge's address, and we were on our way! On the downside, it was lightly sprinkling, but on the bright side, we were headed to Disney World!

My excitement grew and grew...I had never driven directly from the airport to the WDW gate...to a WDW resort before!

I missed the shot of the big arches that you drive under as you enter the Walt Disney World gates, but here's a road sign for the Wilderness Lodge. (You can see how much it was raining.)

We had to drive through the Magic Kingdom gates to get to the resort...so cool!

We are finally arriving!

And a bit closer…

Dave parked the car in the temporary parking area while we checked in. Had to snap a shot of the Let the Memories Begin sign...I love that slogan this year. "Don't Mind if I Do!" I thought when I saw the sign. We have such great memories of our honeymoon...barely a day goes by when I don't mention a memory from it.

Dave tried to get my picture taken under the sign but we didn't have the right lens on the camera to properly take it. So...here's just me smiling outside of the WL.

Ah...our first glimpse of the lobby I had heard so much about. Simply beautiful. The place was buzzing! WCC was packed and there were lots of people milling about in the lobby.

We did regular check-in and our room was ready. We were congratulated on our honeymoon and given the "Happily Ever After" pins. Nice! I had heard on the Disneymoon and Weddings board that the "Just Married" pins were now only given to Disney brides, so I had purchased some of the Just Married pins on Ebay, as "Happily Ever After" could be any romantic occasion and I definitely wanted a special pin for our honeymoon!

I was secretly hoping for an upgrade to a honeymoon suite or club level (we just book standard view) but we were given just a standard view. Didn't bother me one bit, as I knew we would be perfectly happy with a standard view. I honestly don't remember our room number but we were on the 6th floor.

View of the lobby on the way to the room. Standing with my beloved pink roll-aboard suitcase that has been with me through thick and thin. It used to be all bright bubblegum pink, and now it's grey, black and shades of muted-pink.

At the room...doing what any good DISer does first...check out the view!

That ceiling fan you see in the middle of the room will come in very handy later. (Oooo….foreshadowing!)

Here was the view when you looked strait ahead. Beautiful, lush Florida forest!

Here was the view when you looked down to the right.

And down to the left.

Hahaha. Standard view, for sure! Wish I would have taken a more panned-out shot because there was also a Smoke House, a crane, and some other construction-type equipment. Nothing says Wilderness more than that! There would be a perk with this view, however, that I will have to mention later. I really liked having that balcony. There were a couple of chairs and we enjoyed sitting out there to catch up on the phone with our family later in the trip.

Aw, Mickey head towel. Don't see those in Marriotts.

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Bathroom was fine. Always like having the sink outside of the shower/toilet area.

I was a little surprised with how outdated the tub/toilet room was. Nothing was broken...the whole room just looked worn and outdated. As I said, I had been a very frequent business traveler and most of the hotels I had stayed at just seemed more updated. Nothing to complain about, though.

Overall, I was very happy with the room! I liked the rustic-touches. The room was a bit smaller than I was used to, but it was just perfect for me and DH.

Headboard

Enough room shots, we were starved. Time to get pretty and get some grub! I had made a 7:50p ADR at WCC, that in retrospect, I should have made much earlier, as it was just a little past six and we were starving.

Up next: Exploring the Lobby and Dinner