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

[disneybarbie]

Looked like a great start to the trip! Hair and makeup are lovely .... I had my hair in a very similar style for our wedding, the curls stayed in all day and I liked having it part up/part down fun night on the Boardwalk too.. Minus the Bruins not playing well and the snake! hehe


Emma x

 

[Bewitch324]

Sounds (and looks!) like your hair and makeup trial with Patricia was wonderful!! I'm so happy that you liked her so much. You look terrific and I'm sure your hair will be even more beautiful the day of the wedding, with your layers more grown out and "fixed"...

Sound like you had a fun night at ESPN with both sets of parents, a good relaxing way to kick of the trip.

Can't wait for the next installment!!

Brooke

 

[eandesmom]

stressful day with the travel and the Randy call but sounds like it all smoothed out well and you got everything done. Hair looks lovely and how nice you'll be working with someone you really trust.

Too funny about the snake.

 

[alyaki]

Didn't I see on FB you just bought plane tickets? Hooray for that!

I blame the plane tickets on you. Pretty much right after reading your last entry, I decided to check out prices since I remembered how much I hated driving last time. Haha.

Also, sounds like you had a great first day! Love what you had done with your hair, and it's good to hear that you really liked Patricia, even if the communication aspect with Randy was lacking. Sorry the game didn't go well, but at least you had a good dinner.

And yay for the fact that you'll be staying in the Boardwalk area in 5 months! It's such a pretty and relaxing area.

 

[Aschenputtel]

You looked so beautiful - what a wonder that your DF could even watch the game ;-) - you really see that Patricia does a wonderful job (not that you need make-up, as your before pics perfectly show), it's really sad that communication is lacking. I planned to book her myself for my special day, but with me being from another country and not even a native speaker, communication is very important…

 

[elphie101]

Looked like a great start to the trip! Hair and makeup are lovely .... I had my hair in a very similar style for our wedding, the curls stayed in all day and I liked having it part up/part down fun night on the Boardwalk too.. Minus the Bruins not playing well and the snake! hehe


Emma x

I adore the hair. I needed to have it out of my face, but I feel most like myself when my hair is down, so it's the perfect style for me

Sounds (and looks!) like your hair and makeup trial with Patricia was wonderful!! I'm so happy that you liked her so much. You look terrific and I'm sure your hair will be even more beautiful the day of the wedding, with your layers more grown out and "fixed"...

Sound like you had a fun night at ESPN with both sets of parents, a good relaxing way to kick of the trip.

Can't wait for the next installment!!

Brooke

ESPN was a blast!! Even if the Bruins did lose. I can't wait to see what my hair will be like (and how LONG it'll be) in 5 months.

stressful day with the travel and the Randy call but sounds like it all smoothed out well and you got everything done. Hair looks lovely and how nice you'll be working with someone you really trust.

Too funny about the snake.

We told our planner the next day about the snake incident and she just said "When you live in Florida, you have lots of natural neighbors!" Too true.

I blame the plane tickets on you. Pretty much right after reading your last entry, I decided to check out prices since I remembered how much I hated driving last time. Haha.

Also, sounds like you had a great first day! Love what you had done with your hair, and it's good to hear that you really liked Patricia, even if the communication aspect with Randy was lacking. Sorry the game didn't go well, but at least you had a good dinner.

And yay for the fact that you'll be staying in the Boardwalk area in 5 months! It's such a pretty and relaxing area.

Haha well then sorry/you're welcome! Hope you enjoy the flight more.

You looked so beautiful - what a wonder that your DF could even watch the game ;-) - you really see that Patricia does a wonderful job (not that you need make-up, as your before pics perfectly show), it's really sad that communication is lacking. I planned to book her myself for my special day, but with me being from another country and not even a native speaker, communication is very important…

I definitely think her work is worth it, but I could understand given the time zone & language difference how prompt and clear e-mail communication is even more important for you. I think they (Randy) definitely prefer to communicate by phone (I did get an unprompted phone call back in December from him to see if I had any questions and to make sure I was ok with everything in the contract at that point, which was very appreciated) but obviously that won't work as well for you.

DF, in all his glory, took his sweet time saying anything. When we finally prompted him to make a comment, his reply was "You look this beautiful every day to me". Smooth try.

 

[LC102310]

Hi!

Just read through the entire PJ and saw the picture of your at home reception venue. I had my daughters Christening in that same room, they were unable to get us a smaller room, so we used half of it. My baby shower was also there, I cannot say enough nice things about that venue. They were great and the food is really good.

Good Luck!

Lisa

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Awesome update! Can't wait for more.

 

[elphie101]

Friday, May 2nd

After months of planning and years of dreaming, the day was finally here. The most exciting day I'll ever have at Walt Disney World (until the wedding of course) - planning session day!

Thanks to our dang internal clocks being on work time, we both were up by 7:30, well before our alarm. No Soarin music this morning! Kevin took the early wake-up to be a sign that it was time to start getting ready, while I decided that we were on vacation, so I wasn't getting out of bed a minute earlier than I had to. After a quick shower, Kevin decided to run to Everything Pop to get his morning caffeine (soda), and returned much later reporting that the food court was utterly MOBBED. Thankfully, since our menu tasting was first in the day, we didn't need to get breakfast, so I decided to just wait till we got to the Boardwalk for my coffee, and texted the parents to let them know my plan. A few minutes later, we were both off together for the lobby to meet up and catch our cab to the Boardwalk.

You remember how Kevin said the food court was mobbed? He wasn't kidding.



We were QUITE glad we weren't waiting in that line today.

As soon as we met up with all four parents, it became quite clear that I was the only one without any caffeine yet. Oops! We waited a few minutes for a cab to pull up at Pop Century, and before long we were on our way. If anything, the trip to the Boardwalk this morning was just slightly faster then coming home the night before.

We tumbled out of the van with around 15 minutes to spare, and set off on two very important missions - Kevin and his parents to browse the Screen Door Store, and my parents with me on my quest for coffee.





Good morning Boardwalk!


Tut tut, looks like rain.....

I hopped in line for the bakery - and clearly, I didn't know what I was thinking when I devised this plan:


This photo was taken AFTER I was standing in line for a few minutes - when I got in line it was out the door!

After listening to the CM behind the counter explain what could be purchased for a snack credit for the 3rd time, I knew there was no way I was grabbing my coffee without being late for the tasting, so mission aborted. My dad, the kind soul he is, decided he was done with his coffee and offered me the rest, which I gratefully accepted. We met up with Kevin's family, and Kevin sprinted off to find a restroom, while the rest of us took our time making our way back up to the lobby.

I double checked the location of the tasting in my e-mail, and saw we were to be heading to the Convention Center lobby - oops again. Not to worry, said Kevin's father, it's just a short walk away. Awesome, said I. We made our way through the lobby when something caught my eye - the announcement board. With our menu tasting on it! I whipped out my phone to get a picture and - it went away.

Picture if you will five adults pointing cameras and cell phones at an otherwise nondescript plasma screen for five minutes. That's how long we waited for our names to come back so we could photograph them - there were a LOT of conferences that day. I did spy a few names I recognized (a fellow DisBride menu tasting, and another's rehearsal) and finally, we came back on the screen.



At this point, it was 9:15, right at the time we were supposed to meet our planner. Oops part 3. We hustled down the covered path to the convention center, to find Kevin standing in the lobby, wondering where the heck we had all been. We told him about the screen with our names on it, and how we had to wait for them to reappear.

"Oh, like this screen?" The one right next to him flashing the same announcements. Oops to the 4th power.

At least now there were more photo oppurtunities!





Just then we met our planner, Kristie, who insisted on greeting me with a huge hug. Things were going great already. She ushered us into a conference room, where we met Redgie, our chef, and Glenn, our server, who immediately asked who needed coffee. If only I had known! There was also iced water and unsweetened ice tea (with sugar on the side) at every place setting.

The conference room was gorgeous. Kristie explained the food setup (buffet style so as to reflect what our actual wedding day would be like) and pointed out the array of napkins folds at the end of the table."The first thing you plan for your wedding will be your napkin!" she declared. Jumping right into things, we selected our fold (flat fold) and after Redgie explained the offerings, dove right in.


The banquet room


Our napkin fold of choice

Now let's be honest with each other here - this post is about one thing: ULTIMATE DISNEY FOOD PORN. Behold, ladies & gents, the most delicious wedding food you will ever see.


Martini Action Station, from left to right: Creamy Parmesan and Champagne Risotto (no crab gremolata), Grown-up Truffle Macaroni and Cheese (no lobster meat salad), Yukon Gold Potatoes topped with aged cheddar, chive sour cream, crisp prosciutto and scallions (toppings behind the station)


Whipped cream and berries


Brioche French Toast with Carmelized Bananas Foster


Pasta with Wild Mushrooms, Roasted Tomatoes Confit, Spinach, and Asiago Cream Sauce


Maple ginger-lacquered Roasted and Pressed Pork Loin with Fig Compote & seasonal vegetables


Grilled Chicken with Wild Mushroom Ragout and Pinot Reduction


Parmesan-crusted Chicken Marsala

Everything was outstanding. All of us (and Kristie) made little plates of everything, and went up various times to get seconds. I wish I took a picture of the martini glass with all the toppings - the presentation was beautiful, and the crisp prosciutto was like the best piece of bacon I had ever had. While we ate, we got to get to know Kristie and Redgie better (Redgie said barring any illness or vacation, he would be our day-of chef, as he said he worked the Boardwalk kitchen in the mornings) and Redgie and Kevin bonded over their later-in-life sudden shellfish allergy. Glenn would also dart around the room so sneakily we hardly ever noticed him - we only realized he had been there when we sat down from getting seconds and our coffee cups were mysterious filled.

Onto the food reviews. The main question mark going into the tasting was our protein. Out of the three we tried, the Parmesan-crusted Chicken Marsala was the hands down favorite. To me, the grilled chicken was literally the only 'meh' item we tried, and while the pork was good (and Redgie's favorite), not all of us loved it. I did notice that when I left my second piece of the parmesan chicken on my plate and got distracted enough to let the sauce absorb that it wasn't as good (it lost it's crunch), so I made a mental note to either eat this first or keep the sauce on the side, and dip.

We all agreed the champagne risotto wasn't anything special, and I wasn't exactly wowed by the truffle mac & cheese (everyone else was though), but Kristie said it wouldn't be much in the way of savings to cut the risotto so we decided to keep everything. We also added the lobster salad on the side, for those looking to mix things up while still allowing Kevin to be allergy free.

The point of having the french toast was to see if I could live without it. It was so hard, because the sauce was so good, but we knew we were having the Mickey waffle station. So Kristie came up with the brilliant solution: have the banana foster sauce as a side topping for the Mickey waffles, and nix the french toast. BOOM! Done.

And the pasta. Oh the pasta. Hands down, the best pasta I have ever eaten. My mom (who is responsible for my genetic attachment to carbs) agreed. But between the mac & cheese, the risotto, the potatoes and the waffles, our buffet was suffering from a carb-overload. Definitely the hardest decision so far, we cut the pasta

And so, I present to you, our wedding day menu:

Pre-reception: (aka our cocktail-free cocktail hour)

*Cinnamon Rolls, Danish, and Croissants with Whipped Butter, Jams, and Preserves (already included with the buffet price - we were able to move them no questions asked!)
*Coffee and Iced Water

Reception: (based on the Briar Rose buffet)

*Tomatoes, Mozzarella, and Basil with Balsamic Drizzle
*Parmesan-crusted Chicken Marsala
*Seasonal Vegetables tossed with Citrus Olive Oil and Sea Salt
*Hardwood Smoked Bacon
*Egg Cookery Station, Made-to-Order Omelets: Choice of Smoked Salmon, Ham, Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, Onions, Mushrooms, Peppers, Asparagus, and Egg Substitute (we asked for salsa to be included as well)
*Mickey Waffle Bar with Seasonal Berries, Warm Fruit Compote, Warm Maple Syrup, and Whipped Cream (plus banana foster sauce)
*Martini Action Station: Yukon Gold Potatoes, Creamy Parmesan and Champagne Risotto, Grown-up Truffe Macaroni and Cheese, all with Lobster Meat Salad, Aged Cheddar, Chive Sour Cream, and Crisp Prosciutto on the side
*Assorted Juices, Coffee, Decaffeinated Coffee, Iced Tea, and a Selection of Hot Teas

Hooray for decisions!


Taken by Glenn - you can see Redgie and Kristie on the left, and all the possible napkin folds at the bottom of the photo

Our tasting was a phenomenal experience, and makes me THAT MUCH MORE excited to eat on our wedding day. And eat we will - Kristie told us she has a reputation in DFTW for doing whatever necessary to make sure her couples get to eat the food they picked out. She said she just recently ran into a CM who's wedding she did 10 years ago who said "I'll never forget how you chased my mother-in-law away from us so we could eat!"

 

[Aschenputtel]

This looks sooooo delicious! What would you need breakfast for? (Although I understand the need for morning coffee and l know how hard it is not to only add carbs to a menu. ;-))
It's a real shame that only Wishes coupled get to have a in-person-tasting/planning session!

 

[Seia]

Hi! I just came across your PJ and am now following along. Your engagement pictures are adorable! I love your tasting pictures, too. It makes me even more excited for our planning trip. The pasta looks delicious... I'm sure it was tough to cut!

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Your food looks so amazing! I can't wait for my turn next week!

 

[KristiLyn]

I'm starving now!!! But everything sounds delicious!
And I love all of your "oops"

 

[elphie101]

This looks sooooo delicious! What would you need breakfast for? (Although I understand the need for morning coffee and l know how hard it is not to only add carbs to a menu. ;-))
It's a real shame that only Wishes coupled get to have a in-person-tasting/planning session!

I looooooooove breakfast food - I would honestly be ok with just the breakfast part of lunch! We did think it was funny that our breakfast consisted mostly of lunch foods that day though.

I wish every couple could have a PS & menu tasting - it was a truly amazing day!

Hi! I just came across your PJ and am now following along. Your engagement pictures are adorable! I love your tasting pictures, too. It makes me even more excited for our planning trip. The pasta looks delicious... I'm sure it was tough to cut!

Hi there, good to see you! Did you plan your PS yet?

Your food looks so amazing! I can't wait for my turn next week!

Are you trying any of the same things? You must be so excited!!

I'm starving now!!! But everything sounds delicious!
And I love all of your "oops"

Every time I look at these pictures I get hungry. I only wish we could take our leftovers home from the reception - I wouldn't eat anything else all week.

And I have a habit of making plenty of oops-es when I'm trying to control everything

 

[KristiLyn]

Oh I completely understand!!! I've made plenty of oop-ses with this wedding because I've been such a control freak! I guess it comes with wanting everything to be perfect!

 

[alyaki]

Mmmmm, food. I'm drooling over here over the potatoes and parmesan crusted chicken, they look so good! The menu you ended up with sounds awesome, especially to someone who pretty much hates breakfast food (the exact opposite of you). I'm surprised you guys ended up with so much lunch food on the menu!

 

[Seia]

Hi there, good to see you! Did you plan your PS yet?

Not yet! We're currently waiting to find out who our planner will be, and then hopefully we can schedule our PS. One thing that seems to be consistent with having a Disney wedding is me having to wait! LOL!

 

[elphie101]

**Before I continue with the TR, I can't believe I missed posting yesterday - 5 months to the day till the wedding! Grrr, I was doing so well too. Welp, now we're 4 months, 4 weeks & 1 day till the wedding! This summer is just going to FLY by**

After our menu tasting and selections, we finally had to accept that we were done eating (even though I doubt I could have taken another bite!) and said goodbye to Redgie and Glenn. Glenn had gone out and found three awesome Boardwalk umbrellas for us, because it looked like the sky was about to open up (dun dun dun) and offered them to the moms and me - we would be quite glad we had them later.

Our next item in the agenda was a visit to Atlantic Dance Hall. None of us had ever been inside, so we planned to just peek our heads in to see what it looked like the night before while we were at ESPN. However, about a month before our trip, ADH started enforcing a cover charge at night, and seeing the place that evening didn't feel like such a great idea anymore. I e-mailed Amanda (our assistant) to ask if we could visit after our menu tasting, and thankfully since nothing was booked there that morning we were able to stop by.

Kristie explained the set-up: how our names would be displayed on the event marquee, and the event guide would first meet our guests at the Boardwalk lobby before escorting them down to ADH, and then remain outside the doors for the reception to keep tourists out (I can't remember if she said the doors either can't be locked or can't be closed while our reception is in progress, but it was one of the two). She pointed out where the escort cards would be set up in the foyer, as well as a potential gift table (which we won't be having), and then opened the doors-

And wow. Even in the stormy morning light and completely not set up that place is gorgeous. I was completely taken aback by how intimate it felt - the pictures make it look enormous, and while it certainly has a huge capacity there really was an intimacy I wasn't expecting, but was incredibly grateful for.



We ventured out to the dance floor, where Kristie explained "her" way of setting up the seating plan (sweetheart table in front of the DJ, 6 rounds on the dance floor plus cake table, and a few of the 4-tops closer to the bar). We definitely nixed the idea of being right next to the DJ, and none of us were too crazy about the idea of having 10 or so people away from everyone else seated on the floor, but since our seating plan IS so dependent on who actually comes and who doesn't we decided to just cross that bridge when we got to it.


Where Kristie suggested putting the sweetheart table - we definitely prefer the setup of having it in front of the stage

She also pointed out the corner were the buffet would be set up, and led us upstairs to see the second floor for our cocktail hour, and explained how they would hide us (Kevin and I) when we arrived at the reception before sneaking us upstairs so we could make our big entrance.


The buffet corner on the first floor



And the carpet! She said ADH got new carpet in the past few months, and we could tell, it felt springy under our feet!



Finally, we headed out to the balcony to see the last advantage this venue has - and what a freaking view!












Hello former ceremony venue! I always had SBP pegged as our ceremony location, until outside photographers got let back into the parks, so I always feel the need to say hello to it.





Everyone was head over heels in love with Atlantic Dance Hall. The inside-outsideness of it, the ability to dance, the intimacy of the space, it's personality and character; it really is the perfect venue for us.

We bid Kristie a temporary farewell, and after killing time at the Boardwalk taking bio breaks we decided to make our way to the Grand Floridian, since we only had two hours until our planning session and were going to be taking Disney transit. We headed down to the bus stop just in time to see a Magic Kingdom bus pull away. No matter, we could wait.

And then we met Nico, from Boca Raton.

Nico was the CM working at the Boardwalk bus stop. He was trying to get the kids in the area to sing Frozen songs, and generally keep people entertained and happy, especially since it had just started pouring like Glenn had said it would. The kids, being like kids sometimes are, were too shy and no one would sing Do You Want to Build a Snowman with him. He wandered around trying to get people to sing, and finally I supplied a line of the song, because why not. We were having fun in Disney after all.

Nico wanted me to keep singing with him, and then it just hit me, theater or not, how much I DID NOT want to sing Love Is An Open Door with a cast member in front of 30 strangers with no music to cover any screw-ups and a hoarse voice from screaming at a hockey game. I politely declined, with a literal "No thank you!" and tried to go back to talking to Kevin and our families.

But Nico would not let up. Someone in my family must've said my name, because he was shouting at me now, incessantly.

"Come on Jenn! Your bus isn't going to come Jenn! What do you not like me Jenn? Why aren't you talking to me Jenn! Come on please Jenn! Come on! Come on!"

It was embarrassing. There was about 30 people waiting for buses and all of them were watching him try to get me to sing. I said no, I kept saying no, I tried to give him my best death glare, but he would not shut up. An Animal Kingdom bus pulled up, took a few people and left, and he followed with "It wasn't your bus because you weren't singing with me Jenn!"

He eventually started to move on to the other kids in the area, and even a teenage girl who started singing Let it Go with him, but every now and then he still came back to me with a "How about now Jenn?" By now, we were livid , and even Kevin started telling him that enough was enough.

After twenty agonizing minutes of this the Magic Kingdom bus finally came, and we got on board. Nico finally seemed to get the hint and tried to apologize but I was just so mortified I didn't want to hear it, especially when he was shouting "Awwww, I'm sorry Jenn", which was STILL drawing attention to me and the fact that he was embarrassing me. Especially being a former CM myself, I've never ever wanted to go to guest services before, because I know so much of what can go wrong on a day in Disney is out of a CM's control and even if I get someone with a bad attitude, everyone has bad days. I know I didn't spend every day of my college program at my perkiest and my best. But Nico's lack of ability to pay attention to the fact that he was embarrassing me and making me uncomfortable really disgusted me. He was being oblivious to his guest's reaction and not putting his guests comfort and experience before his own blind need to "entertain" and frankly, that needs to be addressed. I feel like it sounds like I'm making a huge mess out of the tiniest situation, but the whole experience really put a damper on my one wedding planning day.

I stewed the whole ride to the Magic Kingdom gates, but pushed the whole disaster mentally aside once we got to MK, as the rain had seriously started to come down now, and we sprinted with our umbrellas across the entrance in hopes of getting on the resort monorail before it was inevitably shut down. We just missed one yet again, but another monorail followed a few minutes later and we were off.











We made it to the Grand Floridian with about 30 minutes to spare, so we took the time for another bio break and poking around Basin. Especially with the wedding, it was really important to me to have the mindset of only spending money on the most important things, and not having a day where I pretended to be a princess - but the Grand really speaks to that side of me. It's just so elegant, and so beautiful, and my mom and I decided right then and there that someday we would come back here for a girls trip (maybe once we add a third generation )



Thanks to the Villas at the Grand Floridian, we were able to walk most of the way to Franck's under cover, which was good, as the weather turned downright atrocious.


I know rain doesn't photograph with my crappy camera, but just believe me - it was a Florida monsoon!

We took a brief pause to appreciate the cute lobby of the villas (Kevin's mother adores Mary Poppins) before we headed out again to the valet drop off. There was Franck's, no more than 400 feet away. Of course, this was the one part of our walk without any cover - and it looked like we should be building an ark it was raining so hard. Even the CM at the valet stand said "Are you sure you want to go over there?" That's how you know the weather is bad - when the Flordians are warning you to stay inside. Nevertheless, we were late, for an incredibly important date.

We sprinted over to Franck's with our umbrellas, and everyone got soaked from the hips down. Mercifully, two planners were waiting for us with the doors open, and quickly took our umbrellas and ushered us inside.

It was FREEZING in there, and incredibly crowded. We couldn't have sat anywhere even if we wanted to, because every sofa was occupied with a couple and a planner having a session, covered with a little fabric drapery of a tent to mimic privacy. The receptionist and the other planners didn't quite know what to do with us at first, until Kristie popped up and ushered us off to the recently vacated Merryweather room. Bringing 6 people definitely had it's perks!

And with that, it was time to formally, officially, in all ways that were not food or napkins, start planning our wedding.

 

[alyaki]

Ugh, I probably would have been pretty angry in the situation Nico put you in, but where I would just try to push it aside like you did, Raist probably wouldn't. Sorry you had to deal with that. The pictures you got from ADH were really pretty, and definitely look a lot less overwhelming than some of the others I've seen of the space, which is actually one of the reasons Raist and I didn't feel like it'd fit our personalities, which is sad because it does look like a pretty space from pictures. As for the rain...that reminds me of the drive down last time - we had no clue that that could happen. So much rain there!

Grand Floridian is so pretty...love their lobby area.

 

[Aschenputtel]

You poor thing! Why wouldn't the CM 'let it go'? And then the monsoon… I'm really impressed that you still stayed so positive! But it sure is a once in a lifetime experience!
ADH looks so beautiful - I wish I had enough guests for this venue, but with an Escape wedding it would be too big (and I doubt Disney would even allow it).

I agree that The Grand Floridian has a more girly feel to it… it's a great location for mother/daughter (or grandmother/mother/daughter