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

[Bewitch324]

Congratulations! I love that Roots pictures, what a great sneak peak!

you were a beautiful bride and I'm glad to hear you are enjoying married life so far

Enjoy your cruise!!!

Brooke

 

[twinkybel81]

Don't know that you will see this in time, but if you get a chance to go see the "Disney's Behind the Scenes" talk by Bill Roper, I highly recommend it! He happens to be a personal friend of mine and he has worked on things like Disney Infinity and Diablo (among many many other things).

Hope you are having a wonderful time!

 

[eandesmom]

Gorgeous sneak peek!!!!

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Lovely sneak peek.

 

[elphie101]

Well guys......I'm back! And for good. I must say that I am really loving the married life so far (Day 16 here!) and the past two weeks were like something out of a dream. Now there's only one thing left to do, and that's to start the wedding TR! (Well, and thank you notes. And the at-home reception in January. But shhhhhhh......)

Like any good wedding TR, I'll start off with the all important and always helpful Glad I Had/Wish I Had

Glad I...

**Became an active participant in the online Disney Bride community - This is a huge one for me and deserves to be on the top of my list, for I cannot imagine what my wedding would have been like without the DIS, Carrie's Passporter book, and the various Facebook groups I've come into in the past 13 months. We had a pair of friends who were married about a month and a half before us but until their wedding, I hadn't been to one since I was 12, and thus I basically planned my wedding blind to what a wedding was supposed to be (other than what I've seen on TLC of course). The only community of Disney brides & grooms were invaluable with providing me with ideas, suggestions, tips and support, especially for a wedding that as we all know is so different from those that happen outside the pixie dust bubble.

**Had a first look - After the ceremony when we collapsed into our room Kevin and I both agreed, hands down that the greatest and best part of the day was our first look. It was so intimate, so special, so emotional and so perfect. It completely obliterated any nerves and anxiousness either of us felt, and allowed us to get so many portraits done pre-ceremony before the sun (and the humidity!) rose any higher and made being outside more miserable. More than any other moment from our day, I have relived our first look again and again and I wouldn't change a thing.

**Had a DFTW in the first place - and a dessert party - This might be a no-brainer here but I'm so thankful we followed our hearts and went with the wedding we truly wanted, and never even considered a wedding at home. Similarly I am so glad I fought for (in the beginning) and insisted on our desert party - had the wedding ended at 3:00pm we would have felt the day was over far too quickly and it was the perfect conclusion to our day and our guests' experience.

**Hired The Roots (well, all vendors we chose to work with really, but most especially The Roots) - More than any other vendor, The Roots were like a secondary assistant from DFTW, directing so much of the day and making sure we knew what was going on when our planner and her assistants needed to be elsewhere. Not only that, but they bonded and clicked with so much of our guests and wedding party - by the end of the dessert party Nate was passing out his e-mail to our Best Man and his roommate (who are amateur photographers) and telling them to contact him at any time with camera questions or for advice. Our Best Man also commented to us that out of all the weddings he's been involved in (something like 5 now including ours) the Roots were the only photographers he's met who filled the day with a calming and relaxed atmosphere instead of making everything feel stressed and rushed. We've only seen about 6 or 7 images so far but every one fills me with joy and glee, and I am eagerly waiting for any reason to book a shoot with them again. They cost a very pretty penny I know, especially compared to a lot of other area photographers and ones that tend to pop up frequently within the Disney Bride circles, but I can say wholeheartedly they are worth every cent. Honestly I have no complaints with the vendors we used - but I'll save all that for my vendor reviews at the end.

**Had a catered welcome party (aka rehearsal dinner) - For our group size, it was absolutely the way to go and I loved the privacy of being in Ariel's and having a chance to mingle with all our guests before the wedding, especially since so many of them left on Monday morning following the wedding.

**Planned a cruise in addition to time at WDW - We love WDW, obviously we do. But in so many ways the cruise felt like our "real" honeymoon - I mostly attribute that to our parents staying around the parks until we left on the ship. Being unplugged from life and being able to enjoy just the two of us for a week was amazing and I'm absolutely still riding that high.

**Bought reception flip flops instead of assuming I'd be ok - By the time we got to ADH I had blistered the size of my thumb on both feet - I didn't put non-sneakers back on for another 5 days. So much for all that time breaking in my wedding shoes! Having reception flip flops literally saved my feet.

**Had a family member officiate - My brother did such a fantastic job and it's amazing to watch him be so moved during our ceremony. It made the ceremony so personal and memorable and he got rave reviews! On the same note....

**Wrote our own vows - They made the ceremony us. They weren't perfect, in fact they were downright messy, but they were personal and meaningful and so in the spirit of each of us and I never could have had it any other way. So many people came up to us or our parents and told them the ceremony was the best part of the day, and I take that as the highest compliment of all.

**Added overlays to the reception tables - Did we need these? Nope. They were squarely in my category of "Useless Things to Spend Your Wedding Budget On". Did I love them? Abso-freaking-lutely yes. They made the whole room look amazing and I'm so glad I decided to add them on.

Wish I...

**Had been able to stay healthy for the month of October - Ugh. Not like this is something I could have controlled at all, but it definitely impacted our wedding. A week before we left for Florida I came down with some virus resembling Hand Foot & Mouth disease, which took me out of commission for nearly a week and caused me to lose so many days I had planned of packing, last minute planning, and preparing to be out of work. Then after finally getting better (though the blisters on my hands and feet are STILL healing nearly a month later), I caught some chest cold from hell early in the trip, presumably on the flight down. I nearly lost my voice and the day before and after the wedding were exhausting because of it (I don't remember feeling sick on the day of at all - thanks adrenaline!), and it made the first few days of our cruise pretty stressful as I didn't want to cough in public and be quarantined on our honeymoon. Anywho, not like anything could have been done there - just pure dumb luck.

**Insisted on more hairspray for my hair - One of the only real bummers of the day is the curls of my hair almost completely falling out by the time we got to the reception. I 100% blame myself on this, as Patricia's assistant Andrea asked me if I wanted lots of hairspray and I turned it down, knowing my hair can hold a curl, but it was something like 80% humidity that day or some other ungodly number, and the curls became waves quicker than you could blink. That being said, I AM glad I asked a friend to recurl my hair before the dessert party, as I know I wouldn't be nearly as happy with those photos without that.

**Had a maybe ONE more day at WDW post-cruise - With the pre-wedding shenanigans eating up our first 3 days at WDW, there were a few things we didn't quite get to, ride-speaking. Not the end of the world, not like we'll never go again, but we could have benefited from one more night at the World, had I not needed to go back to work the day after we got off the boat.

And with that....let's get this TR a rollin'!! I'll leave you with a parting gift - our sneak peek from Trinity Wedding Cinema. Just click on the link below!

https://mediazilla.com/Fne5rh6P0

 

[Seia]

Yesssss TR time!

Your sneak peek from Trinity is so beautiful. I love it! Your sneak peeks from the Roots are gorgeous, too. I just can't wait to see the rest!

 

[Aschenputtel]

Oh my gosh, you looked so beautiful! I really wanna thank you for sharing this (whole) experience with us, it is amazing watching your video and recognizing stuff you were writing about. It seemed like a perfect day (and yes, your vows and your brother's loving look in his eyes made me totally believe that you wouldn't change the way you planned your ceremony).
I'm waiting for your TR!

 

[TiffinyKaye]

Oh my gosh! SOOO PRETTY!!! Thanks for sharing the wedding video especially!

I'm so glad you had such a magical wedding. And to have so few regrets--that's amazing!

I'm getting overlays on my tables too....not "needed," but, like you, I think they will contribute to my overall memory of the event and make me happy.

I am so happy for you! Congrats again!!!!

Tiffiny

 

[MiniMosca]

Thank you for posting that preview video. Everything looked beautiful. My internet froze it at the spot where you had your first look, and it made me smile seeing your faces in that moment.

It looked like it was a wonderful wedding and all the vendors did a good job!
Glad to see everyone had fun dancing at the reception.

 

[alyaki]

Yay! I'm so happy you started this. It's good to hear that the only real things on the "Wish I" list were things that either you couldn't control, or that seem fairly minor in the grand theme of things.

I can't wait to hear about your actual trip and see some pictures from your reception!

 

[elphie101]

Yesssss TR time!

Your sneak peek from Trinity is so beautiful. I love it! Your sneak peeks from the Roots are gorgeous, too. I just can't wait to see the rest!

Oh my gosh, you looked so beautiful! I really wanna thank you for sharing this (whole) experience with us, it is amazing watching your video and recognizing stuff you were writing about. It seemed like a perfect day (and yes, your vows and your brother's loving look in his eyes made me totally believe that you wouldn't change the way you planned your ceremony).
I'm waiting for your TR!

Oh my gosh! SOOO PRETTY!!! Thanks for sharing the wedding video especially!

I'm so glad you had such a magical wedding. And to have so few regrets--that's amazing!

I'm getting overlays on my tables too....not "needed," but, like you, I think they will contribute to my overall memory of the event and make me happy.

I am so happy for you! Congrats again!!!!

Tiffiny

Thank you for posting that preview video. Everything looked beautiful. My internet froze it at the spot where you had your first look, and it made me smile seeing your faces in that moment.

It looked like it was a wonderful wedding and all the vendors did a good job!
Glad to see everyone had fun dancing at the reception.

Yay! I'm so happy you started this. It's good to hear that the only real things on the "Wish I" list were things that either you couldn't control, or that seem fairly minor in the grand theme of things.

I can't wait to hear about your actual trip and see some pictures from your reception!

Thank you all so much!! Your words gave me the biggest smile, seriously. And yes, I've watched the sneak peek no less than 10 times a day in the past two days

You know, now I'm realizing why some people wait awhile to start their wedding recap - the professional pictures! I have no idea how long it'll take to get the images back and I feel like I'll almost definitely beat my images to the wedding day! Ah well, we'll see!

I've got to wrangle Kevin's pictures from him (and eventually my parents as well) and then we'll be good to go!

 

[Disneyducks12]

Your wedding sneak peek is seriously one of the most beautiful and emotional wedding videos I have ever seen! I just loved how your brother was chocked when you were saying your vows Trinity did such an amazing job and everything looked amazing can't wait for more updates

-Melissa

 

[elphie101]

Your wedding sneak peek is seriously one of the most beautiful and emotional wedding videos I have ever seen! I just loved how your brother was chocked when you were saying your vows Trinity did such an amazing job and everything looked amazing can't wait for more updates

-Melissa

You are too stinking sweet. I couldn't believe how he looked when I saw the video - it makes me want the full one/the pictures even more!

 

[elphie101]

So in the interest of stalling for professional pics (fingers crossed I'll have them by Thanksgiving, though hopefully sooner - they said our wedding week was the busiest they've been in 8 years!) I'll start my recaps with Day 0, or beautification day as I've been calling it!

Day 0 - Wednesday October 8th

After a stressful two days of completing errands and getting the office ready to take care of my desk for 2 1/2 weeks (which they did an awful job on.....) I was finally on vacation! Well nearly. We had quite the agenda that morning, with barely a minute to spare. Luckily everything ran like clockwork.

We got up right at 5:45am as Kevin got ready to work (we had driven my car down to my MOH's place so we could get home post-honeymoon, as we were flying home to a different airport) and check into our flights on Southwest. After driving Kevin to work, I had visions of crawling back into bed for a bit, but awful traffic coming home saw to the end of that. I ran out the door to the Post Office to stop our mail (this turned out to be entirely unnecessary), to CVS for last minute travel and beauty supplies, and shooting off to pick up Kevin's comic books for the day. Then the time had come for my various waxing appointments. Thank GOD I allocated time between them (one for my legs & armpits and another place for my eyebrows) as my legs are gargantuan and I was at the first place for an hour and a half! The woman at the front desk actually said "I was starting to get worried about you!" when I left. Thankfully the eyebrows took no more than 5 minutes, so I had time to run home for a quick bite to eat before jetting BACK to my hometown for the real highlight of the day: my first mani/pedi with my mom!



I'd never had either done before and man, am I spoiled now. We both got gel fingernails and regular toenails - coral pink on both for her and a solid silver glitter on my toes and a french-ish silver glitter on my fingers. I think I might be addicted to gel manicures now - we're talking about getting one for the holidays later this year. It's been 3 weeks and only one of my nails has broken!



After the pampering I followed her back to her house for one very important and final errand: picking up my completed bouquet.

My mom pulled out the box my aunt had built for it (which was bigger than a desktop computer and completely not going on the plane) and I was in shock. This thing was PERFECT. I know you've all seen some better pictures of it in the video I posted but I can't resist sharing one more - this turned out even better than I could have dreamed and I'm so happy I'll have it forever.



It definitely wasn't light but it certainly wasn't the rock I was imagining it to be - three cheers for overestimation!

It's really funny just how much the day ran like clockwork - exactly when I was finished at one place it was the very minute I had to leave to be somewhere else. Unfortunately the mani/pedi did run a little late, so I was late picking Kevin up from work, but I got him and we ran home to finish some last minute packing. Since the airport we were flying out of was over an hour away, we (the two of us, Kevin's parents and one of our friend couples, henceforth known as Chris and Amanda) were staying at a hotel local to the airport overnight.

We loaded up the car, did one final unplugging of the electronics and apartment sweep, and headed off to pick up friend-Chris who lives nearby. Unfortunately the delays had started to build up in the day and we got the after-work rush hour, so that plus a Paper Store stop (we had NOTHING to write our vows nor our wine box letters on. Talk about stressful.) meant we didn't arrive at the airport hotel until after dark.

As I have no further photos, I'll leave you with this quick wrap up to this nice and boring text post: we went out to dinner as a group and then did our best to try to go to sleep, since the next day was DISNEY DAY!!!

 

[Disneyducks12]

Your welcome I am sure you are so excited to get the rest of your video and pictures I would be biting at the chomp for those!

and your bouquet came out so amazing!!! How many brooches did you use total I am still working on collecting mine and I am not sure how many more to get? and the colors all worked so great together! and gel manis are the best! you are going to be addicted for life!!!

cant wait for more!
-Melissa

 

[Aschenputtel]

Sounds like great beautification day! And yes, I completely forgot before: your bouquet turned out stunning!
Your nails also looked very cute!
And tell me about last minute errands (I'm right in the middle of all of them since tomorrow is DF's 30th birthday - and there are the things he knows about and the things he don't )

 

[alyaki]

Sounds like the first day went fairly well, overall. By the way, I love that shirt you're wearing in the picture - Mickey balloons! Looking forward to reading more!

 

[obxlvr13]

Wow! I've spent a few days going through this whole thread and watched your video and I literally cried! I can't wait to see more pics and here more details! Thanks for sharing your special day!

Karli

 

[Gondingl]

What a sweet video! From being able to see your brother's emotional reaction, to the super sweet reveal between you and Kevin and getting to see all the fun that was had after the wedding - you can tell everyone was having a great time! Can't wait to read all about it!

By the way - from the video - it looks like the men's ties matched the girl's dresses pretty perfectly!

Lauren

 

[kanadar]

Congratulations! I watched your sneak peek video and oh my gosh! It was so sweet! I literally teared up! I had ruled out doing a wedding video, but now I'm really starting to think we should!