Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust! Jenn & Kevin 10/12/14 Italy/ADH/France - The End (7/2016 New TR Link!)

[Aschenputtel]

I love Belle too! She's always had a special place in my heart as the brunette princess hahaha

I guess that's my reason, too! Disney definitely has too few brunette princesses!

 

[NeeNeeBell25]

i love your invite totally want to steal! hope the next tie comes out better

 

[elphie101]

Hey howdy hey deputies. T-78 days till the big day!! I think we have around 40 formal RSVPs (closer to 60 informally) and no more than 90 possible, but I can't open my spreadsheet to check. Roughly 1 month to the RSVP deadline! Here's hoping I won't have to chase too many people down.

Firstly the new tie came - and I think it's a perfect match!



I'll be comparing it to my cousin's dress tomorrow but I think we have a winner. Now all that's left is to decide on the striped tie - Kevin likes it (as do I), but they don't match. I need to think on it for sure.

Also got the bags for my bridesmaids, and they're HUGE!! They're technically beach totes, so the lining inside is all vinyl and waterproof, which it cool if you ask me.





It wasn't till I got the bags that I realized how much I'm going to have to schlep to Florida - I guess I should think of it as making more room for souvenirs!

Today we finally went and picked up our wedding bands, and I was so happy. Kevin's was a lot nicer than I remembered it, which really put my mind at ease, and I definitely still love mine! The only sucky part was my fingers were all swelled up from running this morning that I had to practically rip my knuckle off to get my engagement ring off of my finger. The wedding band (which is .25 bigger) went on much easier, though got a little stuck on the fact that now my finger was angry swollen from getting tugged around. I'll be getting my E-ring sized up and polished before we go to Florida for sure. It just sucks that our winters are so cold but our summers so humid up here. Makes life difficult.


My poor finger!


For some reason Kevin's is photographing super dark, but it's the same shade as mine, white gold.

Finally I went to Sephora and picked out my wedding day perfume. I was torn between two, Midnight Romance by Ralph Lauren and Marchesa Parfume d'Extase.

I toiled away sitting on both of them until I finally sprayed them inside my elbows and got Kevin's opinion. He liked both, but prefered the Midnight Romance - he said the Marchesa smelled like flowers and pollen

So Midnight Romance! Now that I'm still here at home though, I'm defnitely having doubts and wondering if I should have gone with the Marchesa - sigh. I'll probably visit a Sephora again to think about it, maybe grab some samples to take home.

And that's that! Can't believe it's nearly August already - shortest summer of my life.

 

[Seia]

The new tie looks great, and your wedding set is absolutely lovely!

I laughed at Kevin's description of the Marchesa smelling like pollen. DF is the same way anytime I ask for his opinion on scents! LOL.

 

[alyaki]

The new tie looks great - definitely a much better match! Hope it turns out that way when you check it against the dress. And those totes are ginormous. They'll be really nice for people to have, but holy crud, those are big!

With the ring thing, not sure if this would help, but if you're in that situation again, put your hand under running cold water for a few minutes - it'll take down the swelling. I had to do that when we went to pick up my ring after we got it resized, since when we went to pick it up, it was way too big, but I was scared of my hands swelling since the resize was done when my hand was cold, as it were (which it is about 70% of the time, even summer).

 

[elphie101]

The new tie looks great, and your wedding set is absolutely lovely!

I laughed at Kevin's description of the Marchesa smelling like pollen. DF is the same way anytime I ask for his opinion on scents! LOL.

Boys! When he said that I had to reply with "Well it's perfume, what did you think it would smell like?" I couldn't help it!

The new tie looks great - definitely a much better match! Hope it turns out that way when you check it against the dress. And those totes are ginormous. They'll be really nice for people to have, but holy crud, those are big!

With the ring thing, not sure if this would help, but if you're in that situation again, put your hand under running cold water for a few minutes - it'll take down the swelling. I had to do that when we went to pick up my ring after we got it resized, since when we went to pick it up, it was way too big, but I was scared of my hands swelling since the resize was done when my hand was cold, as it were (which it is about 70% of the time, even summer).

They're much much bigger than I was planning, but I think all the girls will get use out of them - my MOH & FL BM make a lot of out of state trips home, my one cousin dances (and has a lot of dance crap to carry around with her) and my other cousin practically lives at the beach!

I've had to use cold water a few times to get my ring off, though thankfully not too much - there just wasn't any cold water available in the jewelry store at the time

 

[alyaki]

I've had to use cold water a few times to get my ring off, though thankfully not too much - there just wasn't any cold water available in the jewelry store at the time

Haha, well boo on them then. Mine's a larger store, so luckily, they have a bathroom right there. I sometimes forget that so many don't!

 

[elphie101]

Hey heyo everyone. Less than 70 days to go!! (69 to be precise). On Friday (aka August 1st) we both woke up and said "we're getting married the month after next". Eeeep! So far for RSVPs we have 59 coming (including us!) with no more than 83 possible. The maybes are pretty evenly split between random cousins of our parents and friends of ours we assume are just waiting out on their finances, so I honestly could see us very easily stopping at 59, though I doubt it'll happen.

My other cousin got her BM dress this weekend - now that's just 3 down, 1 to go!



(Pardon my cousin - this is the only pic I took!) This makes me so happy seeing all of them together. I'm a tiny bit sad I won't get to see them all in person till the wedding morning, but I'm still so excited!! I know they've started shoe shopping and hairstyle browsing. Also, the bridesmaid robes came in and they seem perfect (I only opened mine, but now I wish I didn't - I don't want to have to iron it in FL!) Another gift down.

We also ordered a ring box from Etsy:

We asked for the Mr & Mrs stamp to be in silver, not gold, and since the clasp can't be changed out we'll be painting it metallic silver once we get it. It was only $14 with shipping and we already have the painting stuff at home; we just didn't want to spend any more for something that will just be displayed on a mantle for all time, and this was almost exactly what we wanted at the perfect price.

We also nailed down (mostly) a basic version of what our ceremony will be - we just spent one day googling "secular wedding ceremonies" and stole all the bits and pieces we liked. We plan on giving it to my brother and asking him to twist and edit the wording to make it his own. It was pretty simple - we aren't doing any readings and we plan to write our own vows. It's not 100% done, but my favorite part was finding some text during the ring ceremony for putting the engagement ring back on my left finger. I've pasted it below because I hadn't heard of it before and it makes me SO happy:

"Officiant: The engagement ring is a symbol of a promise and intention. Now today, the intention is realized and the promise is fulfilled. So Kevin, would you please place the engagement ring back on Jennifer’s finger over her wedding band, symbolizing that the love that brought you together will protect and sustain you."

I just love it!!

I also purchased Kevin's gift - well, partly. Sort of. It's the one thing I actually feel needs to remain a total surprise, so you guys will have to wait till post wedding to find out. I will say it's going to be a bit - well, a LOT more than I budgeted for, but I think it's 100% worth it and I'm sure Kevin will agree.

Finally, this morning I leaped right out of bed, since it's 75 days before our Fantasy cruise. And you know what means - CRUISE CHECK IN DAY!! Being new cruisers, we were at the bottom of the barrel in terms of picks, so I didn't get a Palo brunch reservation I'm not too concerned, since I know they hold back half the reservations for bookings on board, it'll just be one more thing for us to do the day we get on the ship. We also picked our excursions for our island days - St John's Eco Hike through Disney for St John's, and Bernard's Tours on our own for St Martin. As I think I've said before Kevin is not a beachy kind of person (and taking him to the Caribbean makes me convinced I'm going to give him skin cancer) so anything that involved spending a day on the beach was a no-go. The Eco Hike is a hike around St. John (including stopping at an old sugar plantation) but also includes 30 minutes of beach swimming, which was my only request (at least a little bit of beach time). I didn't care so much about the St Martin day, since I've been there before, and there are rave reviews about Bernard's Tours on both the Disboards and Trip Adviser. It was pretty affordable too, for all that we get to do, plus we'll still have a few extra hours on the island after (we'll be in port for nearly 11 hours that day).

That's all for now folks! Won't be getting as much done this week since I'm in a play this weekend but after that we'll be hitting 2 MONTHS!! Oh my lord. It seems like this wedding is coming whether we like it or not.

 

[twinkybel81]

Hey heyo everyone. Less than 70 days to go!! (69 to be precise). On Friday (aka August 1st) we both woke up and said "we're getting married the month after next". Eeeep! So far for RSVPs we have 59 coming (including us!) with no more than 83 possible. The maybes are pretty evenly split between random cousins of our parents and friends of ours we assume are just waiting out on their finances, so I honestly could see us very easily stopping at 59, though I doubt it'll happen.

My other cousin got her BM dress this weekend - now that's just 3 down, 1 to go!



(Pardon my cousin - this is the only pic I took!) This makes me so happy seeing all of them together. I'm a tiny bit sad I won't get to see them all in person till the wedding morning, but I'm still so excited!! I know they've started shoe shopping and hairstyle browsing. Also, the bridesmaid robes came in and they seem perfect (I only opened mine, but now I wish I didn't - I don't want to have to iron it in FL!) Another gift down.

We also ordered a ring box from Etsy:

We asked for the Mr & Mrs stamp to be in silver, not gold, and since the clasp can't be changed out we'll be painting it metallic silver once we get it. It was only $14 with shipping and we already have the painting stuff at home; we just didn't want to spend any more for something that will just be displayed on a mantle for all time, and this was almost exactly what we wanted at the perfect price.

We also nailed down (mostly) a basic version of what our ceremony will be - we just spent one day googling "secular wedding ceremonies" and stole all the bits and pieces we liked. We plan on giving it to my brother and asking him to twist and edit the wording to make it his own. It was pretty simple - we aren't doing any readings and we plan to write our own vows. It's not 100% done, but my favorite part was finding some text during the ring ceremony for putting the engagement ring back on my left finger. I've pasted it below because I hadn't heard of it before and it makes me SO happy:

"Officiant: The engagement ring is a symbol of a promise and intention. Now today, the intention is realized and the promise is fulfilled. So Kevin, would you please place the engagement ring back on Jennifer’s finger over her wedding band, symbolizing that the love that brought you together will protect and sustain you."

I just love it!!

I also purchased Kevin's gift - well, partly. Sort of. It's the one thing I actually feel needs to remain a total surprise, so you guys will have to wait till post wedding to find out. I will say it's going to be a bit - well, a LOT more than I budgeted for, but I think it's 100% worth it and I'm sure Kevin will agree.

Finally, this morning I leaped right out of bed, since it's 75 days before our Fantasy cruise. And you know what means - CRUISE CHECK IN DAY!! Being new cruisers, we were at the bottom of the barrel in terms of picks, so I didn't get a Palo brunch reservation I'm not too concerned, since I know they hold back half the reservations for bookings on board, it'll just be one more thing for us to do the day we get on the ship. We also picked our excursions for our island days - St John's Eco Hike through Disney for St John's, and Bernard's Tours on our own for St Martin. As I think I've said before Kevin is not a beachy kind of person (and taking him to the Caribbean makes me convinced I'm going to give him skin cancer) so anything that involved spending a day on the beach was a no-go. The Eco Hike is a hike around St. John (including stopping at an old sugar plantation) but also includes 30 minutes of beach swimming, which was my only request (at least a little bit of beach time). I didn't care so much about the St Martin day, since I've been there before, and there are rave reviews about Bernard's Tours on both the Disboards and Trip Adviser. It was pretty affordable too, for all that we get to do, plus we'll still have a few extra hours on the island after (we'll be in port for nearly 11 hours that day).

That's all for now folks! Won't be getting as much done this week since I'm in a play this weekend but after that we'll be hitting 2 MONTHS!! Oh my lord. It seems like this wedding is coming whether we like it or not.

So exciting to see everything coming together!

 

[Aschenputtel]

The Ring box is really cute!
I think it will be a nice surprise to see the bridesmaids for the first time in your wedding day!
I never heard of the engagement ring part, too, but it's a really thoughtful adding to the ceremony, thanks for posting!

I'm already eager to hear about your excursions, my DF is also not a very "beachy" person, so good to hear there are alternatives!

 

[elphie101]

So exciting to see everything coming together!

You're telling me! Everything's starting to happen!

The Ring box is really cute!
I think it will be a nice surprise to see the bridesmaids for the first time in your wedding day!
I never heard of the engagement ring part, too, but it's a really thoughtful adding to the ceremony, thanks for posting!

I'm already eager to hear about your excursions, my DF is also not a very "beachy" person, so good to hear there are alternatives!

The e-ring part might be my favorite bit of the ceremony (other than the vows of course!) I just love it to bits.

Here's what our excursions are, based on the websites (though of course I'll do my own write-up when we come back!

Bernard's Tours - St Maarten

SXM Island Tour I
9:00 am - 1:30 pm

All tours depart from the Cruise Information Center

* Pickup at the cruise pier
* Iguana Farm( currently under construction until further notice)
* Stop at the French and Dutch border [2 mins]
* Brief stop at Oyster Pond over looking the island of St Barths [5-10 mins]
* Photo opportunity at Orient hilltop
* Marigot - open market (French Capital) [60 mins]
* Maho Beach - see low flying planes[45 mins]
* Drive through Simpson Bay marina
* Harold Jack Hill (View of Simpson Marina,Airport & Anguilla)
* Return to Philipsburg depends on tour departure time; all guests will be returned in time to meet their ship's sail time.

Upon return to Philipsburg, transfer back to the ship will be provided free of charge, or you may choose to remain in Philipsburg to shop or sightsee at your own leisure.

St Johns Eco Hike - via Disney Cruise Line

Duration: 4 to 4.5 Hours

On this tour you will:

* Enjoy an approximate 45-minute scenic boat ride, from St. Thomas to Cruz Bay, in the magnificent St. John.
* Participate on a 2-hour, 1.5-mile guided hike through the National Park forest. Learn about the history of the islands back to the Taino Indians, including famous Pirates as well as the fauna and flora of the region.
* Stop at scenic Lind Point Lookout and Honeymoon Beach, where you may dive in for a refreshing swim before continuing your tour to the historic Caneel Bay Plantation, once owned by Laurence Rockefeller.
* Conclude your tour at the beach, where you'll take a short transfer to Cruz Bay. Re-board the boat for the scenic ride back to St. Thomas and your ship.

We really wanted to go to St John vs St Thomas on our port day, and since Kevin did not want to sit on a beach we didn't want to chance the ferry on our own, since we won't have a ton of time in port that day (8 hours compared to St Maarten's 11).

 

[Aschenputtel]

Thank you for posting, they sound really great!

 

[twinkybel81]

Saw this on Etsy today and it made me think of you:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/151281123/peter-pan-inspired-faith-trust-and-pixie?ref=favs_view_16&atr_uid=19089765

Hope you don't mind me sharing.

 

[twinkybel81]

So I just read your comment in another PJ that you'll be arriving on OCtober 9th, I'm going to just miss you! We are going to be out from 9/29-10/6.

 

[edeneye]

Time is really moving now, huh?! The month after next and it's ON. Everything seems to be coming along so nicely, that ring box is amazing and I can't believe it was only $14! Speaking of the rings, I love the reading about putting the engagement ring back on, they look fantastic together and it's great to see you're keeping them as a set.

Oh & it's exciting to see you're booking excursions for the cruise! Firstly cause that means it's so close now and also cause we're doing the same. We're staying concierge level on ours so we get to book early and it's fun to see what people are booking.

There's been so much to catch up on while I've been away, I keep seeing things you mention and thinking oh no, we haven't even thought about that! I think you seem to be in great shape in terms of preparation and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all comes together.

 

[lthiesfeld07]

Following your PJ here and on Disneymooner!

Thanks for sharing your BEO! It's super helpful for the rest of us Disney Brides.

I love the Vera pattern with the dark and light blue, and lime green Mickey heads. I bought myself the wristlet!

You're getting so close!

 

[elphie101]

Happy 2 MONTHS TILL THE WEDDING!! Eeep it's happening so quickly! We got a few more no's today, so we're down to a maximum of 83 guests possible.

Moving on....

I completely forgot to mention that ages ago our floral planner sent us cobalt and lime fabric samples, because I've been thinking of adding something to the table. I can't decide if I want colored napkins (I read somewhere that another bride's planner mentioned they don't stay on the tables and just end up crumpled or on chairs, which is an excellent point), a runner, or overlay. Here's what I was sent:





And the two we chose - Royal Blue Taffeta and Lime Crushed Romance (whatever that means!!)



I'm going to alternate my tables between all-blue and all-green, I just have to decide what I actually want first. Well, just 45 days to go before Floral & Decor get locked down (now THAT is scary).

The ring box came, and it's so cute and tiny! I left my hair elastic in the photo for comparison.





It really is small enough to fit in the Best Man's pocket, just as advertised. Now that we have it, I can't decide if I want to paint the hinges/clasp silver. Thoughts?

Also purchased this week were my bridesmaid plastic cups, and these for MOH to wear with her regular earrings (her ears are gauged):

I'm quite impatiently waiting for both to arrive, even though it'll be a little while.

We also picked a wine box for our wine box ceremony! As soon as I saw this on Etsy I fell in love with the simplicity of it - but the seller said she wasn't accepting any weddings that happened before October 15th 2014. I was quite sad, but messaged her anyway and she said so long as I was fine with it coming in by late September/early October she could do it, so I agreed. I may just have her ship it to my BM's place in Florida, so it's one less thing to worry about, but hopefully the timing will work out that I won't have to be concerned with that.

Here it is!

Though we are, of course, not Emily and Taylor

 

[elphie101]

So I just read your comment in another PJ that you'll be arriving on OCtober 9th, I'm going to just miss you! We are going to be out from 9/29-10/6.

Bummer! I know I'm missing a lot of DisBrides by just a week, which stinks hardcore. I want some stalkers for my wedding! (Well, stalkers that I kind of know).

Time is really moving now, huh?! The month after next and it's ON. Everything seems to be coming along so nicely, that ring box is amazing and I can't believe it was only $14! Speaking of the rings, I love the reading about putting the engagement ring back on, they look fantastic together and it's great to see you're keeping them as a set.

Oh & it's exciting to see you're booking excursions for the cruise! Firstly cause that means it's so close now and also cause we're doing the same. We're staying concierge level on ours so we get to book early and it's fun to see what people are booking.

There's been so much to catch up on while I've been away, I keep seeing things you mention and thinking oh no, we haven't even thought about that! I think you seem to be in great shape in terms of preparation and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all comes together.

Oh how fun! Have you picked/booked any excursions yet?

Seeing as we're roughly a month before you and Jess it's perfectly fine if you haven't thought of things we have yet, in my opinion anyway

Following your PJ here and on Disneymooner!

Thanks for sharing your BEO! It's super helpful for the rest of us Disney Brides.

I love the Vera pattern with the dark and light blue, and lime green Mickey heads. I bought myself the wristlet!

You're getting so close!

Thanks for joining in over here! Sometimes it feels silly to have more than one PJ but I like to share the wealth.

I almost bought something in that pattern too, but I passed knowing that when we come back I'll have an AP discount. Of course, now the cosmetic bag is gone from the Disney Store website so my fingers are triple crossed it's still in the parks. If not, I'll have to find a backup plan!

 

[eandesmom]

Love that wine box! And the ring box too, how simple and lovely.

I really like your colors. I agree about the napkins (having coordinated a LOT of special events). They look fabulous, till the first person sits down. Runners are overlays are better.

 

[Seia]

Bummer! I know I'm missing a lot of DisBrides by just a week, which stinks hardcore. I want some stalkers for my wedding! (Well, stalkers that I kind of know).

Ahh, you're getting so close!! I could totally stalk your wedding if you want. Haha.

I absolutely love your wine and ring boxes! I think the ring box is perfect as is.