Eva And Angie's Oct 2014 Wishes Wedding! Germany, Italy and California Grill and Chip & Dale!

Skip3key

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Oct 9, 2012
So, we had a very sparse planning journal on here, but I am definitely not a good diary keeper.... Eva is much better, but for some reason, just won't help me out with this! I really want to make our wedding trip report as it was great help to read everyone else.... and I think I can provide some interesting pointers and tips for anyone who is thinking of similar venues, time of year and such! So here goes.... and I will TRY to get this done in a timely fashion!
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First off... We are Angie and Eva... and although at the time of this writing, we have been married a mere 7 months officially... we have been together 24 years as of yesterday (she forgot, but I remembered!). Only in the past couple years has it become a reality that we could get married and have it really mean something... at least on a federal level as we live in Texas (until we move to Orlando someday). As it turns out, our Disney Wishes wedding was a few months too early to be legal in Florida, so we actually flew out to California 2 weeks before our wishes wedding and were married in the parking lot of the LAX airport, and flew back home.... we were on the ground less then an hour and home within 6 hours! (I wanted to visit Disneyland, but Eva said that would be cheating on Disney World and wouldn't let us.:love1:)

Heres the specifics of the Wedding so you can decide if you want to read along...

Date of Ceremony: Friday Oct 10, 2014 at the Germany Pavilion in EPCOT 9am
Reception: Brunch at the California Grill immediately following until 1:30pm
Welcome Party: Thursday Oct 9, 2014 6:30 pm on the Italy Isola at EPCOT

Bridal Party: Just the 2 of us! We have been together for so long at this point, we decided to forgo any bridal parties and instead just focus on our families as a whole... I think it turned out great!

Number of Guests: 54 plus us (only 6 kids)

Wedding Resorts: Animal Kingdom Lodge, Port Orleans Riverside, Pop Century

Flowers: Used Disney Floral, but we really didn't do too much!


Hair and Make-up: We did our own... we are Ok with what we
look like, and our families don't mind... that much

Music: iPod setup and my Uncle Pete (he did awesome!)

Overall Budget Goal: Under $25,000 (and we met it!)

Dates we were in Florida at WDW:
Monday Oct 6- Sunday Oct 12, 2014 and we stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge- no honeymoon (yet)...gotta get back to our pups...miss them so much!

So.... Here we go!

Pre-Trip plans and arrangements and why we are doing the things we are doing!
Day 1- travel to Disney
Day 2- My immediate family arrives
Day 3- Trouble at the MK
Day 4- Morning at AK and Welcome Dinner
Day 5- The Big Day!
Day 6- Hanging out

Day 7- Sad Day...heading home

 
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Pre-Trip Plans:
So we started planning this wedding in August of 2013. Our Christmas trip in December 2012 was our 3rd Disney trip together (one in 1998, one in 2008), and I dunno...it just clicked and the magic just took us over and we were hooked. It was on this trip we bought into the Disney Vacation Club, and it was life changing. We had a second home... a place to go to forget real life and just feel safe and warm and fuzzy, and just live. Our family had been through a lot between 2007 and 2012... we lost 4 close family members in that time, and though 3 were older and not too unexpected, one was my 30 year old perfectly healthy brother Matt, who's heart just stopped one morning without warning... and even an autopsy did not give us an explanation... and something just changes in you when you get such a loss. Suddenly, you don't want to wait anymore for anything. Life is short and brief and fleeting... and to quote a bright 80's teenager, "if you don't stop to look around once in a while, you might miss it. " No more.

We made the call in August 2013 just to be postponed until October from making any real plans (must be within 12 months!)... and weathered the wedding date lottery ... we actually changed our venues and dates and ideas multiple times before settling in on what eventually happened, and our wedding planners changed along with us. We actually ended up with 3 different wedding planners as Disney kept changing on us. To be honest, we are pretty low maintenance people, so we didn't push or ask a lot of the planners, and pretty much got minimal attention from them. We did most of the leg work.. and they did their jobs, but not much more. Nothing bad to say, just nothing outstanding or extraordinary as we have heard from other couples.

I am Italian and Eva is German and we love EPCOT, so we knew that we wanted to include both countries pavilions in our plans... we both wanted the ceremony to be in our countries of choice, but Eva won out as there is no place to see the fireworks as a private party from Germany- so thats why we did the ceremony there. We wanted to just have a dessert party in Italy on the Isola West initially, however during the Food and Wine, the Isola West is off limits, and to book the larger Isola for a dessert party, the minimum is 100 people. However, the minimum for the Isola for dinner is 50...so dinner it is!

We also initially wanted the Living Seas for the Reception, however after seeing the pictures of how dark it is, (and we actually got to peek in there during our planning trip in May during an actual reception), we decided we wanted a brighter location since our reception was brunch and not night time. So the California grill came into play (and we love it there!).

The focus of our wedding became family. When tragedy strikes, there is nothing more precious then family- you realize that money and possessions don't really matter... you can't take them with you, but Im really hoping you do get to take your family with you! Most people in both of our families have no attachment or interest in anything Disney (I know,....its shocking! Only my cousin Paul and his family get it!)... so when we made the decision to have our wedding in Florida, we had no idea who would come. We were so pleasantly shocked and amazed when almost everyone we invited told us that they would be there. I was hoping for 10-15 people, and we got over 50... it was super awesome. I knew this meant that the cost would go up, but really, we just had to plan well and it would all be ok..... now the task came to be an ambassador for Disney to our families, to show them the magic and why we love it so.

Most of our planning focused on making sure our families had the BEST TIME EVER!! Ok, enough talk... time for the trip and pictures and everything else!
 
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Day 1 - Travel:

Just for background info, my mom lives with Eva and me in our small guest house. She is disabled in the fact that she has chronic back pain and knee pain. This would be our first experience at Disney with someone with some physical limitation and using a motorized scooter. Overall it was a very positive experience, and I learned a lot about how the busses and monorail and resorts handle it all. We called ahead and had a motorized scooter reserved for the week and it would be delivered to the resort along with a stroller for my sisters 4 year old. My mom had never used a scooter before and although she was very against using it at first, by the end of the week she was loving it!

We had to board our 4- 4 legged and my moms 2 -4 legged children since we would all leave the homestead for this trip....that was probably one of the most stressful (and expensive) parts!

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Here we are goofing around at the airportIMG_2947.jpg

And once in Florida, Eva with my mom on the Mini- Monorail at the Airport... she in the wheel chair as I didn't want her to wear out too fast- she can walk Ok short distances, but she is way slow, and I don't slow down at Disney, Its full paced commando all the way!
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We rented a Mini van as I wasn't sure what to expect we would need for the wedding.... and found a full sized 7 passenger minivan for about $400 for the whole week... I thought it would give us all the options we would need, especially staying at the remote Animal Kingdom Lodge... we stopped at a Publix grocery store on the way to the parks to get our food for the night- we also had a Garden grocer delivery coming tomorrow as our original plan had us coming on Tuesday... but in the last month or so we panicked that we wouldn't have enough time and added a day. Unfortunately, there were no more rooms at Kidani village, so we had to stay the first night at Jambo house, then move over. My mom was crazy in the store and it took us an hour to drag her out of there! She loves browsing in unfamiliar grocery stores!
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We finally arrived at our 1 bedroom in Jambo house at about 5pm- it was actually a "budget" 1 bedroom, and I thought it was super nice! We used our DVC points for our room as well as rooms for our immediate family for the trip (I actually purchased more points off the DVC transfer board and got a great deal so the immediate family could all be together) .

Here is the "Budget kitchen and dining... nice!"

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We left mom in the room- she was wiped out with the travel, and her scooter wouldn't be here until tomorrow, and Eva and I headed to EPCOT by bus! Once the family arrives, and wedding stuff started, we knew we wouldn't have much opportunity to ourselves, so we needed to have our one night alone to enjoy the parks, and boy are we glad we did it! I was shocked how hard it was to keep so many people on task and together! And no matter how many times you tell people and warn them and instruct them about how to do things, they will not listen! It was truly like "herding cats"!!

We arrived at EPCOT and headed straight back to the food and wine....

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we first got a hash with hollandaise and a chicken dish from the Florida fresh booth that we had read about... the chicken was OK, the hash was really good... then we walked to Germany as I MUST have a bratwurst in pretzel roll with my German wine flight and Eva MUST have her Grapefruit Beer! Delicious!
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We peeked briefly into Italy to see the Isola
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Then HAD to stop by Mexico in La Cava de Tequila as we always have to get a tequila shot at least once each trip here... is AWESOME!

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We then ran back to the front of the park before Illuminations started (we want to save it for our dinner party... but little did we know we wouldn't get to see any of it as we were too busy posing for pictures with the fireworks in the background)... got a few shots at the front of the park, then jumped on the monorail to the Magic Kingdom!

Yeah! We are Back at The Magic Kingdom! We went down Mainstreet and the took a left... into Adventureland... We went on the Jungle Cruise and then on Pirates around and though frontier land, went on Haunted Mansion and then waited an hour to get on the 7DMT as we just could not get a fast pass! It was cute, but not for an hour wait... at about midnight, we left the MK on the bus back to AKL... and felt satisfied that we got a lot done in about 6 hours... and tomorrow would be a busy day!


Next Post!
 
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Congratulations! Those are some lovely photos already, especially the puppies! Very much looking forward to the rest of this.

I really dig your mom getting excited about new grocery stores; I'm the exact same way!
 


Day 2:
Today would be a busy day...many of our family will arrive about 1 pm (they have never been to Disney before), we need to pick up the packages we had delivered to the Animal Kingdom lodge with wedding stuff in them and take some over to Franks to be stored so the wedding planners can have them at events, and we need to move from Jambo house over to our room at Kidani Village for the week. So first things first, we went down to the front desk to pick up the packages we had delivered last week... 2 boxes of wedding favors, our wedding bubbles, our wedding fans, glowsticks, sand ceremony props, leaf signing stuff (will see later), cake cutters, mickey and minnie ears for the welcome dinner, and other things like our shoes that wouldn't fit in our suitcases...we drove them over to Franks with each box clearly labeled for what event each box was to be at, and dropped them off. Easy as could be. I believe the earliest we could drop these things off was around 9 am... so as soon as we were done, we went over to the Poly for something to eat at Kona Cafe... this place has the BEST coffee and BEST chicken wings around... I was very sad that we were too early for lunch and they wouldn't serve us the wings...

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I love food porn pictures- so here is what we shared instead... its the Samoan... its poached eggs with hollandaise over pulled pork hash, and it was delicious!

We then had to get back to the AKL to get my mom and move pout of Jambo and into Kidani... was really hoping our room would be ready so we could just get right in there in one swift move.... and we got a little pixie dust, as our room was ready and we went right up! We had reserved a 1 bedroom for the 2 of us as we wanted the extra space, and my mom would now bunk with my sister and her family in the larger side of a 2 bedroom with my Dad and his wife in the smaller side of the 2 bedroom (yeah... little close for my folks, but we paid for it, so they just had to deal- but we even got them a Savannah view!) I was VERY specific with my dad and my sister on how to use the Magical Express, and told them specifically "there are 2 stops at Animal Kingdom... Jamba and Kidani...MAKE SURE you get off at Kidani!".... Guess what happened.... they called and said "we are here"... and I was standing in the driveway of Kidani waiting... and no they were not here !!!.... They had, of course, got off at Jambo, and actually let the front desk store their bags at Bell services (why??) and were walking around the lobby! Now luckily we had the van and were able to retrieve their bags and them and drive back to Kidani... but their room was not ready, so we put all their bags in our room.

Also against my express advice, I had told them to grab something to eat at the airport before getting on the magical express as I knew that it would take a little time for them to arrive at the resort, and we still had to go by Shades of Green to have my Dad pick up his military park tickets before we could go to our "surprise dinner" that we had set up at the first show of the Hoop Dee Doo Review at 4pm... (It was all going to be very tight time wise. My Father has no sense of urgency for anything I would come to find this trip... this led to many frustrations!). They of course did not eat at the airport, and had not eaten since the early morning, and they were all of course starving as we arrived at the room. Luckily (for them) our Garden Grocer delivery had already come... so the herd tore through our supplies as I tried to hold them back as I knew an all you can eat dinner was fast approaching.... again, no one listened (meeeeeow!- the herd of cats).

At this point we are at AKL and its about 1:30pm... we still have to go by Shades of Green (Ive never been there) and get to the Ft Wilderness Campgrounds by 4pm for dinner... was gonna be tight.... I herded them to the van...drove to SOG... and off loaded as we all tried to figure out where to go. We met my Uncle Pete and family there too as he is prior service as well. Turns out it was a great deal for the tickets- was 6 tickets max per service member, for a 4 day park hopper for $189 each.. in addition, the lady there had a bunch of 1 day, 1 park tickets that were expiring in 5 days and gave my dad and my uncle at least 6 each! This came in handy as a few family members had no intention of going in the parks, and now could! I quickly tried to get everyone back to the van, when I discovered my dad and his wife as well as my niece were MIA... I had to go all the way back inside the resort just to find them in a gift shop buying shirts, backpacks and other items! at this point it is about 3pm... and my idea was to park at the Wilderness Lodge and take the boat over to the campground as I LOVE the Wilderness Lodge and wanted to show off the boats.... getting nervous....

Here is my 4 year old niece Mia inside Shades of Green:
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We arrive at WL finally with me still stressing about the time... Its like pulling teeth to get everyone (we are a group of about 13 now...) out of the van and walking in the same direction... just when I get everyone to the doors of the Wilderness Lodge, about to walk through the doors and show them the marvelous wonder of the grand lobby, my dad spins around and heads back to the van... his wife right behind... and the rest go inside... I run back to see why he turned around.... oh, he can't find his lens cap to his camera! Must find it now! Don't worry about the boat or the reservations..... and I can't just let him go back on his own.... he will never make his way to the boat on time... he is super easily distracted... so I have to push and nag him all the way back to the van,.... then make our way to the boat.... argh.... 322455_365937_1413323080502.JPG
Well... after all my worry and fretting, we actually arrive about 10 minutes early and are able to get our picture taken before the Hoop Dee Doo... boy do we love the Hoop Dee Doo! It is a great show... as long as you don't try to take it seriously! We do it almost every trip, and it was really great to share it this time with the family.... the foods not bad, and it all you can eat , but Eva loves the endless wine most of all... and I love the strawberry shortcake. My niece Alyssa turned 15 for this trip and she was actually picked out a couple times during the show and embarrassed, which was great fun! 322455_365937_1413323052551.JPGHoopdeedoo1.jpg
And we got great Seats! We were able to use our Tables in Wonderland card for a 20% discount if we went to the first showing! For all these people, for all you can eat and drink , I think it was about $600!

After dinner, we dropped off the old folks who were tired back at the AKL and took my sister, her boyfriend and the birthday girl to Downtown Disney. My sister really wanted to eat at Bongos... but alas, it was not to be. We decided to take the bus instead of the van due to the parking issues at DD... but our bus got log jammed in traffic just trying to get into the parking lot and we sat waiting for almost 30 minutes staring at DD from the bus window... We then strolled through some of the shops and it was surprisingly busy there... people just everywhere! When we arrived at Bongos at about 945 pm it was already closed. We did get some drinks and appetizers on the late night menu at Ragland Road and it was ok, but the dancing was done for the night already. Oh well.... need to get up early tomorrow anyway!
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Day 3 ... Up early and heading to the Magic Kingdom! Eva and I are early birds for the parks... we know the drill.. get there early... ride the rides as fast as you can until the lines build up... then about noon... head back to the resort and relax. After 2-3 hours, when the parks are now over the hump and families are heading out... head back in! Well, my family has no concept of doing this... I tried to prime and warn them... but they just didn't believe me....

I didn't realize that my Dads military tickets now had to be activated at guest services before they could be used... so when we arrived at the park, we immediately had to get in a line and just wait... took about 45 minutes to get it done, and it was super warm that morning... finally he got the tickets, and we made our way to the Ferry platform- it was loading, and as I tried to herd the cats onto the Ferry, my Dad was, of course, missing... only to be found getting coffee as we pulled away on the Ferry... and he was left on the shore... ARGHH!

So we had to wait on the other side.. get through the bag check and scan our magic bands (holy moly they actually worked as planned).. and finally we are on Main Street! Yippee!! it was great to see their faces the first time there! Full of amazement, wonder and awe... we walked up Main Street and got a little separated as it took so long to get there that it was quite busy now... so much busier then when we were here in October 2013 ... so full of people! I turned to locate my sister, just to lose my Dad diving into the Main Street Bakery going to get yet another coffee and danish (we did eat in the room- I promise you I am not starving them!)... Argh... am never gonna get them to a ride at this pace! Because they didn't have tickets until just now, I couldn't get any fast passes set up, and I was furiously trying to get them set up on my phone... finally we were able to start walking again and got the coveted castle picture...


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I can't quite remember what happened next... but it was hot, and I remember Eva being frustrated with all the standing around and waiting, and I really didn't want to ruin my families first trip to Disney...and I didn't want Eva to be upset- this was our wedding trip after all, and I could tell that my "Dumbo or Die in a Day" style of doing Disney want NOT going to work for them... so I did what I thought might help... I told them to go explore and have fun... that we needed to do some wedding stuff and would see them later... I feel so bad about doing that now... my sister looked so sad as we walked away.... we got back on the Ferry and headed back to the TTC, I've never seen a Ferry that empty before...

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As soon as we reached the other side, we looked at each other and knew we couldn't just leave. So we got right back on and went right back to the MK! We actually had made BOG lunch reservations for that day for the 2 of us and I was hoping to be able to somehow get my sister in too (couldn't get her in ahead of time as no openings)... and now the next thing I am a bit ashamed of... before we found them again, we just went and ate lunch, just the 2 of us... and it was quite good!

Carved prime roast beef sandwich with fries for me, and French Onion Soup for Eva and a strawberry cream cheese cupcake to share- all delicious

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After we ate we found the family and walked with them a while and they had actually figured out the park a bit and got some fast passes set up and were quite happy there. It was miserably hot for us and much more crowded then we like to be, so we offered to have them leave with us to go back to the resort, refresh, and then hit another park, but they wanted to stay at MK... this is what Mia looked like shortly thereafter... Mia passed out.jpg

Well- we went back with my Dad and his wife to the resort, and a few more of my relatives had arrived during the day, so we made plans to meet them out at EPCOT that night and we had a great time! My Dad went with us and we met up with my Uncle Tony and Cousin Kate who are vegetarians, and I thought it would be easy to find vegetarian dishes at the food and wine... NOT ! We walked right past future world and into the world showcase as they were really hungry and by now it was around 8-ish.. we started in Mexico and went from kiosk to kiosk and almost every dish had something not vegetarian with it! I was really surprised! Since we are not vegetarians, I am usually not attuned to looking for such options...
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We finally ended up at, where else would Italians go? Italy! We first tried the restaurant, but it was closing, so we went next door to Tutto Gusto! My Uncle had a great time speaking italian with our waiter, and the food and wine were fantastic... we sat and laughed and talked and caught up with them...IMG_3107.JPG

That night was EMH at EPCOT and when we left Tutto Gusto it was about 15 minutes to park closing... as we walked back the front, Test Track was still running with NO WAIT! We got on and it became my dad and uncles favorite memory of the trip!
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It was late, and sleep is in short supply on any disney trip... this one was no exception..... so tomorrow is another early day, and the first wedding day!
 
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Yay! I wondered how your day turned out. We were in Epcot on the 10th during our wedding trip and I thought of you in Germany (we may have been drinking around the world ;) ). Can't wait to see the very first wedding events!

You're a saint for trying to organize your family like that. Herding cats indeed!
 


Day 4!
Today is the Welcome part at the Italy Isola at 6:30pm!
We also have an appointment to meet Lisa the wedding coordinator at Germany pavilion at 5

Time for the wedding events! But not before a few hours at Animal Kingdom!

Being silly with the family...
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We rode over with my family at opening and stayed with them until about 1pm- then we left as we wanted to grab some lunch at Sanaa. We also had last minute chores to attend to such as we had to get our clothes ready for the ceremony tomorrow still, had to change into clothes for our welcome party in a few hours, and meet the town car that would pick us up and take us to backstage EPCOT so we can meet with our coordinator Lisa and run through tomorrows events.

Our lunch at Sanaa was Awesome! They knew we were there to be married and brought us out complimentary champagne with tinker bell lights! Super cute! We had the bread service with all the flavors, and cannot say enough good things about the naan break and accompaniments... delicious! We also split the salad trio. Didn't want to eat so much as we had dinner coming up!
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We wrestled with sending our clothes out to be dry-cleaned and pressed at the resort... but in the end didn't want something else to stress about. Eva pressed and packed everything very carefully before we left home, and so when we got there, we just used the in room iron to further smooth everything else and it worked great. I think weddings are way less stressful when you have already been together for 23 years and come to the realization that as long as you feel good, no one really cares what you are wearing! Your family loves you and they just want you to be comfortable and happy!

It was at this moment-- about 14 hours before we had to meed our photographers David and Vicki Arndt in the lobby of the Animal Kingdom Lodge to take pictures, and about 2 hours before our welcome party, that I discovered..... I didn't pack my pants. Really. I didn't pack my pants. I had a pair of jeans... but no pants for the ceremony. We had really tried to color coordinate, and my pants were the same camel color as Evas vest... but I had NOTHING! And no time! Had I noticed yesterday, I could have venture off property to search out a suitable replacement... but then I would have missed the fantastic evening I had with my family....

As luck would have it, Eva had for some unknown reason, thrown a pair of black knitted pants into her pile as we packed. She doesn't recall doing this, and had no outfit to wear them with. They fit me well enough, and although they didn't exactly match our vision, they would have to do. Now... it is very lucky this mistake happened to me and not Eva. I am a very low maintenance and go with the flow kind of person. I firmly believe in the old phrase "change the things you can and accept the things you can't"... and in this case... I had to just accept it. No one knew what I was supposed to wear except us, and no one really would care. (If this had happened to Eva it would have been a whole other story and we likely would have missed the Welcome Party!) Worst case scenario, if I hated the pictures, I could always photoshop my camel colored pants in! I don't even think you would be the wiser if I didn't tell you... so when you see the untouched picture, you be the judge!

While we were in the town car being silly...( he was right on time and right outside in the breezeway waiting for us with an iPad with our name on it)... our family was picked up in this bus at the resorts we picked... The Animal kingdom Lodge (both Kidani and Jambo house), the Pop Century and the Port Orleans French Quarter...
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Now, I cannot tell you how many phone calls, emails, text messages I sent out reminding everyone to NOT MISS THE BUS... this was the last text, sent to everyone the morning of the welcome party. ..
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And we still had 2 families MISS the BUS! The same family actually missed the bus for both the Welcome Party and the ceremony... but as there is buffer time built in, the bus driver actually went back and picked them up both times at Animal Kingdom Lodge and they got to ride an empty bus back to the festivities. Not something I would count on.... but Disney was great about getting everyone there!


Backstage EPCOT is pretty neat to see... you can't take pictures, but its interesting to see that the backside of the pavilions are just buildings and cars! You would never guess what is on the other side!

Again, since we have been together for 23 years already, and we don't have any wedding parties or others standing up, we just met with Lisa and discussed the logistics of music, were we would stand, chairs, and we gave her the iPod with the music preloaded. Took about 20-30 minutes...then we walked over to Isola, feeling like Rock Stars....

Next post will be the Welcome Party!
 

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Day 4... The Welcome Party!

I know most of you are interested in the detail and the money involved with doing this type of party. As I said before, we really wanted a dessert party, but the Italy Isola requires a minimum of 100 for a dessert party, and the Isola West is not available during the Food and Wine which has a much lower minimum. The Isola has a 50 person minimum for a dinner party, so we decided to go this direction as we really wanted Italy and Illuminations to be a part of our celebration. So dinner on the Isola it is.

Here is the Isola as we arrived... empty and beautiful....


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We used the "free" table and chairs that were included (black), and they were absolutely fine. We upgraded to the checkered tablecloths and pasta in vase centerpieces to give that "Lady and the Tramp" feel. We brought with us Glow stick bracelets that we had gotten on eBay for super cheap (bendable to no connectors required) and everyone absolutely LOVED them.

For the food we used the "Lady and the Tramp" Buffet and made a few tweaks to our taste, and we used the Bill on Consumption Bar which I cannot stress enough was a GREAT idea. Saved a ton of money... As far as the food, I think I had about 3 bites... everything was so amazing and so exciting, that we really spent most of our time meeting and greeting and taking pictures, and less time eating! The entire family gave super reviews and everyone seemed to love everything. We have 2 vegetarian and 2 diabetics in our group and Disney was great about making sure there was something for everyone.

We asked our photographers to come to the Welcome dinner instead of doing engagement photos with us, so we got them for a bonus 2 hours! So as a result they arrived about an hour after the party started (about 730), but this allowed us to just enjoy the first hour.

Food ended up being $60 per adult and $30 per child (didn't do separate kids plates) with us tweaking the menu to our liking...


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Romaine, Radicchio and Spinach Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

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Watermelon, Smoked Blackberry and Purple Haze Goat Cheese and Citrus Vinaigrette (Delicious!! Amazing !)


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Freshly prepared Root Vegetables to include Rutabaga (recommended by Chef Tony at our site visit... and he was right! was great!)

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Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast with Asiago Cheese Cream Sauce and cheddar cheese grits (below)

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And we were supposed to have penne pasta with cognac cream sauce, and another pasta with just olive oil and arugula and feta cheese, but to our delight, they actually upgraded us to a pasta action station AT NO CHARGE! Everyone got their pasta fresh to order with all the ingredients they wanted! Everyone loved it!

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Dang it ... ran out of photo room... to the next post!!
 

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Welcome party Part 2 on the Italy Isola...
Also had ciabatta and focaccia bread with herb infused Olive oil and butter, as well as a dessert table with Italian Citrus cake, chocolate cannoli, and coffee and tea station. Was more then I imagined and well worth the cost. Nobody wanted for anything!


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And as a bonus, we decided to have Mickey Bars as a surprise! These are a bill on consumption item and made great pictures! Everyone went nuts for them!

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You might notice our hats... we wanted white caps with Mickey ears, but really couldn't find anything.... so Eva made them! We got white caps from cafe press that say "hitched chicks", and Eva made the ears out of felt and batting and put the ears on! Was awesome!

We also bought sets of Minnie and Mickey ears on eBay for like $48 for everyone to wear and we had them all wear them for a group picture at the base of the stairs!


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I
can't say enough great about David and Vickie Arndt who did our pictures- they were fantastic... pictures are wonderful, and during the fireworks they new absolutely everything about when each and every firework would go off and when to take the picture! If I hadn't been there, I would think the pictures look fake!

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It was a wonderful night and we met another awesome Disney Couple at the end... it went so super fast... I
can't tell you how great it was to stand on the bridge and look over the Isola and see my wonderful family, most of which who have never been to Disney, staring in awe at Illuminations.. all sitting and stretched out, enjoying the night... (and then to look at the enormous amount of people packed in like sardines on the Isola West to watch... almost made me feel guilty...)

Now for the details/price... 53 adults and 3 kids (including us)

Bill on consumption Bar total: $ 857 alcohol, $323 nonalcoholic (soda/water)= $1180
Food for 53 adults @$60 and 3 children at $30= $3270
Mickey Bars 32 @ $5.50 each= $176.00
Venue Rental = $500.00 (Italy Isola)
Illuminations viewing fee (those who didn't have park tickets that day) 41 @ $12.95= $530. 95
Media Guide Fee (to escort from bus to Isola and back after the event) 2 @ $90= $180
Floral for event (table clothes, center pieces) $ 592.50
Towncar to event for us (we went back on the bus) $32.00
Motorcoach Bus for evening $525.00

Total for welcome dinner with taxes, service charges: $ 8411.53

Next Up... the Big Day!


 
Day 5... The Big Day Part 1!

So up at 5... we actually did our own hair and make up (my mom got us an air brushing kit!)... so no getting ready pictures... but it did allow us a nice leisurely time to get ready before meeting Vicki and David in the Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House lobby for pre-ceremony pictures... this lobby is so beautiful, and I think the pictures came out just great! Here are a few...

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Here we are by and in the limo

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Still with last minute calls from family confused about stuff... We actually ended up having 3 groups who did not stay at one of our designated resorts, and after the limo dropped us off at the Germany Pavilion, we were able to send the limo to pick up the 3 groups (8 people total) who didn't stay at a designated resort!

Here is Evas Bouquet and my
boutenierre done by Disney Floral complete with hidden Mickey's... we also had matching ones done from my dad and the mothers. Total for the personal floral, $658.70.

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Here is the set up at the Germany Courtyard... we used the
standard chairs (no upgrades), we brought program type hand fans that we bought on Amazon and printed ourselves at home ($50) and we also brought bubbles in the shape of a wedding cake (also found on Amazon). We purchased the sand ceremony from Disney Floral, but ended up changing it a bit.

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We had the standard AV setup in EPCOT which came with technicians to run the music for the ceremony from our
iPod. We wore wireless microphones, and it worked great. (cost $905.00)

Ran out of room for pictures... see next post!
 
We arrived in EPCOT about 7:45am, and the ceremony was at 9 am with our guests arriving about 830am, so we walked around Germany first for pictures, and then once the guests arrived in Germany, we moved to Italy for pictures before they saw us. The setting for pictures was fantastic...

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I call this one our "Sound of Music" picture- because it reminds me of the scene with the kids singing good night on the stairs to the crowd at the ball ("Cuckoo....Cuckoo!")
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Here is our Officiant Eddie Wilder... he is actually a Disney Castmember actor who works at the Living Seas as the voice of Crush in Turtle Talk with Crush! Eddie did a really fantastic job, he absolutely
was able to nail the ceremony and delivered on our unique sand ceremony! He also worked us in at our insistence as he had another ceremony at Sea Breeze Point at 10! We never felt rushed, and he made it over there on time.

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A few of our favorite Italy pics

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After about 200 pictures (literally)... we then headed back to Germany as the guests had arrived and it was time! We hid around the corner, and held our breath to see what would happen with the cuckoo clock... We had specifically asked that the cuckoo clock be turned on so that our ceremony would be kicked off with the clock at 9 (the cuckoo is off when the park is closed normally). And it worked! We peeked around and watched it... though it seemed to go on forever, I'm sure it was just a couple minutes...

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And here we go.....


 
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The ceremony

We walked in with each other to the song "Once upon a Time...Story book Love" from The Princess Bride movie. We used the acoustic guitar version you can find on iTunes by Matthew Lister... was super pretty...
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During the ceremony my sister read a passage from Dr. Seuss "Oh, the places you will go" just because neither of us is particularly religious, and we thought it was nice and whimsical... and it made Eva cry

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Next were the vows, which we ended up exchanging promises instead... for example... I promise to always keep the Wi-Fi and all electronics up to date and working and not critisize how many shoes or purses Eva buys, in turn she will always keep Sundays free for football with me and agrees to never be an Eagles, Giants, or Redskins fan.... (As you can guess I am a die hard Dallas Cowboys fan). Funniest part came when Eva agreed to let her past judgements and grudges go (she has a hard time with things not being as she sees they should be).. and belted out that she will agree to "LET IT GO!!"... and it brought down the house!

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Next was the sand ceremony, however, for us this wasn't just about us joining officially, but about the families joining as well... and we wanted everyone to see what they meant to us... so we blended the Sand Ceremony with the "Golf ball and Jar" story (if you do not know it, just search online or on you tube and you will find the general story. We did have my dad taking video, so as soon as I figure out how to crop videos, I plan to post it on you tube at many persons requests and will post the url here). (FYI, our music during the sand ceremony was an acoustical guitar version of "I wanna grow old with you" by Adam Sandler)

First the jar is filled with Golf Balls- these represent the most important things in life, your family, health, friends, and feeling of well being...

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Then the jar is filled with pebbles- these are other things that matter- your job, your house, your accomplishments

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And then lastly the jar is filled with the sand- the sand is everything else... the "small stuff"

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The moral of the story is, if you put the sand in the jar first, there will be no room for the golf balls or the pebbles. The same holds true for life... if you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are really important to you. (The are also variations where the end is that you also then pour either a beer or a cup of coffee into the jar to show that no matter what life brings, there is always room to have a drink with a good friend... but we didn't want it to get messy!).

See next post!
 
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The ceremony part 2!

Next we recited our traditional vows , and exchanged rings (Eva actually allowed me to get rings I found on the web site "custom made" that are in the style of R2-D2 from Star Wars!) and when we turned to the crowd at the end after the kiss, we started the music of "The Throne Room/End Title" from the original Star Wars movie (at the end when they get their medals... I know... geeky but super awesome !) It kind of sounds like the traditional wedding music finale.... but then transitions into the Star Wars theme... and gave me chills!

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Before we went down the aisle, we actually asked everyone to remain seated and had the photographers jump up on the fountain to capture this great picture!
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And then the bubble pictures- was super fun to walk through!


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We then took a bunch of family pictures, and then the families got on the bus to go to the reception... and we drank so much water waiting for the ceremony to start and it was super warm by now (I thought it would be a little more cool in October...wrong!), that they let us into the empty Biergarten restaurant to use the bathroom (super cool to be the only ones in there!). When we came out I left my jacket off for the next series of pictures as I just could not put it back on yet... super hot, even at not quite 10am... and we were getting a bit silly...

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Time for the Brunch reception at the California Grill!

For those keeping score- here is the cost breakdown for the ceremony :


Venue Fee: $2300
2 Media Guide Escorts: $180
Floral $618.70 (just personal floral and sand and jars for sand ceremony. Rest was the standard chairs, ect- hey, you are in EPCOT! You don't need more decor!)
Limousine (3 hours- we rode on the bus after the reception)- $308.16
Charter Motorcoach (7 Hours)- $735.00
EPCOT presentation Sound System with technician: $905

Total For Ceremony (including transportation for the day) with taxes and fees: $5236.36
 
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The Brunch Reception at the California Grill!

So, I doubt if you are reading this that you
don't already know this, but the California grill is the most awesome restaurant at the top of the Contemporary
resort. We dine at it every trip, and it has become a special place for us, even before the reception! The food here is fantastic, and the view is spectacular. If you are in the main dining room you face the Seven Seas Lagoon and can see the Magic Kingdom, the Polynesian, the Grand Floridian and all the boat and ferry traffic below as well and the monorail entering the hotel underneath! There are 2 roof top patios you can access from the restaurant to stand outside as well as the floor to ceiling windows inside. If you can time your dinner reservations just right, and be there during the fireworks, they pump the music throughout the restaurant and the outside viewing areas and it is simply magical. This was the perfect place for a brunch! (Initially we were going to do the Living Seas for our brunch, but decided it was a bit dark for our brunch and are thrilled we changed our minds!)

We ended up using the main dining room of the restaurant and not the Napa room since our party went over 50 persons- and I am super glad as the view was just amazing, and the Napa room is on the other side of the restaurant and you
don't get the theme park view unless you go out to the roof top walkway. The California grill provides at no charge all the centerpieces, tables cloths and napkins!

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We felt like rock stars arriving at the Contemporary in the white limo, and everyone was so amazingly nice and friendly and treated us so well... we were taken to the express elevator up to the restaurant (only accessible from the 2nd floor- so if you go for dinner the monorail arrives on the 4th floor- so you have to go down to 2, check in at the desk, and then you will be escorted up)

As soon as we came out of the elevator, we had bloody mary's placed in our hands and proceeded into the dining room to a round of applause...
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We next had the speeches and toasts- we had decided that we would do a champagne or
sparkling cider toast for any one who wanted it, and we also asked to have a bloody Mary and Mimosa Bar available - all on a "Bill on
consumption" basis- we really had no idea what people would drink, so again, it ended up working well for us as our bar total ended up being 6 mimosas, 15 bloody Mary's, 3 bottles of Prosecco and 5 bottles of Sparkling Cider for a bar total of $305!

For our toast, we actually found this traditional German custom that we incorporated the "Nuremberg Wedding Cup"... It was devised as a vessel that 2 people could drink out of simultaneously.. legend has it, who ever finishes first gets to rule the marriage! Guess who lost!

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Like that view behind us? This next picture shows how well you see the Magic Kingdom- the castle, Space Mountain...
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and the Grand Flo...
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Next Up... The Food!
 
Reception Part 2- The Food!

We really wanted to do the Champagne Brunch, but at $110 per person, it was a bit out of our budget, so what we decided to do, was take the California Grill Brunch Buffet and just add the Mickey Waffle Bar to it and have the bill on consumption drinks we mentioned already, and came out way ahead! It ended up being $63 an adult and $31.50 per child- then add the about $6 each for the bar, and at $69, we had way more then enough and everyone was blown away by the food.

The Brunch buffet came with an assortment of bagels with Smoked Salmon and accompaniments (chopped red onion, capers, egg whites, egg yolks, plain and flavored cream cheese) as well as an array of pastries, sodas, juice and coffee. We asked that these be made available to our guests as soon as they arrived at the venue while we had continued to take pictures in EPCOT. We knew everyone would be hungry, and wanted to allow them to snack a little.
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Then later, we brought out the rest of the delicious menu!

First Up was the California Grill Benedict- a 141 degree organic egg, oven roasted tomatoes, charred red onion, avocado, and Yuzu hollandaise... MMMMMMM-MMMM!!! Delicious!
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Mascarpone Cheese Blintz served with Seasonal Fruit Compote

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Mickey Waffle Station served with a Strawberry Basil Compote, Bananas Foster Sauce, Maple Syrup and Whipped Cream
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Rest on next post... and yes, there is more...

 
Reception Brunch- the food continues...

Next we have Fingerling Potato "Home Fries" with peppers, onions and herb and apple wood smoked bacon.... now I know it all looks good, but let me tell you, the bacon stole the show. People were RAVING about the bacon and still speak of it to this day...

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I guess now is as good a time as any to discuss the cake... and although the cake did turn out pretty cute, its not exactly what we had envisioned. We take part blame as we drew and wrote out our vision and had it sent to the cake makers who said they could do it... and then we never looked back. I guess we kind of wanted one thing to be a surprise for us too. What we asked for was a cake based on the "Tree of Life" at Animal Kingdom. We have an affinity for dogs and have had 9 dogs between us during our relationship, most of them Schipperkes. We wanted animals "carved" in the trunk, and pictures of people and pets in our lives who had passed away, and Chip and Dale eating into the cake in the back. I guess because we had asked for the cake to be like a tree, we both thought the cake would be brown and green (Eva had sent pretty specific drawings), so thought the cake was nice, it was not quite what we envisioned.

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Chip and dale are made of chocolate and came home with us!

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And yes- the cake knife was actually made by me. I bought a mini lightsaber, and a cake knife set, then cut the knife in half and epoxied it on to the light saber... it worked perfect!

To round out the food... here are our party favors.. We had a bag of assorted German and Italian treats including Nutella, Baci, and Toblerone bars, and a take home plastic personalized tumbler we had made and shipped to Disney ahead of time
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And just when everyone thought they had seen it all.....We still have one more surprise....
 
California Grill Brunch Reception- the fun and Dancing!

We went around the corner and found our favorite Wedding crashers! Chip and Dale!
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When we came out with them, the room went absolutely crazy... and they were the absolute life of the party! They strode right out to the designated dance floor area, and jumped right in and got the party rolling! My Uncle Pete was running the iPod which I had put the music we wanted, but uncle Pete also brought music himself. He is actually a DJ and does private parties and weddings in Indiana. Let me just say that my iPod did not have the YMCA or the Chicken dance loaded as I had no interest in them, but as soon as Uncle Pete started them, the entire room joined in...never thought I would do the chicken dance with chipmunks.... and of course the kids loved them.

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Then it was time for cake cutting...

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Cant get past those views... we still had about 15 more minutes with the chipmunks, so we went outside! Go to next post!

 
Just Hanging out on the roof with Chip and Dale!

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Love these as in the second one it looks like we are just hanging out talking... but I can assure you that we did all the talking- they never once broke character.. they were awesome and their handlers were great too (they were always very close by)... in fact, I borrowed one of the handlers sunglasses for the shot below (super sunny up there- was so hard to get pics with our eyes open!)
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This is my favorite picture...
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and this is the last one before they had to go (the time with them just flew by!)

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We
went back in and did a little more dancing until our time was up around 1:30... Lisa (the wedding coordinator) got everything packed up (including the cake top) and had it taken down to the bus for us... we never felt rushed... best part... the day is just getting started! Time to go back to the room, change, and then spend the evening in the parks with the family! I will continue our "trip report" in the next post!

For those curious about the cost, here is the Brunch Reception Breakdown:
Brunch for 53 adults @$63= $3339.00
Brunch for 3 kids@ $31.5= $94.50 (forgot we also had 3 infants under 3 years old - they are free)
Bar fee: $305
Vendors Meal x 2 = $55.00
Wedding Cake= $1100.00
Wedding Cake Service Charge for Cali Grill = $231.00
AV iPod setup: $350
Bell Services (delivery of the stuff from the reception to the room)- $10.00
Chip and Dale: $1425.00
Total for Reception: $6899.50

Total Paid to Disney for entire Event: $21,835.89 (remember, only events the day of the ceremony count to the minimum... the welcome dinner didn't count!) This is for 53 adults, 3 kids, 3 infants with 2 full meals, open bars, plus the ceremony and entertainment. And to this day they all say it was the best wedding ever. Its the best memory of my life, and worth every penny.
 

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