Happily Ever After Begins Here -- An Oct. 2012 TR Updated! 11/17!

[abbybeth]

You totally win Best Space Mountain Picture EVER. That is AWESOME You are just radiating the happy - a nice burst of sunshine on a grey, cloudy Monday for me today

 

[khertz]

Love all of the ring pictures, but the Space Mountain is by far the BEST one! How cute!!!!

Great updates. I'm sure you were just on cloud 9 the rest of the day!

 

[Pixel Dust]

Thank you everyone for sending love our way!

I had set everything up through CRT. Apparently, they have their own dedicated events coordinator. Since Missy made the reservation and was in her name. I kept mentioning to them that all further contact were to come to me, and not the contact on the reservation. I was trying to keep this a surprise after all. The package included the photopass photographer, specialty slipper desserts, champagne flutes and personalized glass slipper with our ring inside. But how would I get the ring to them without Missy knowing? They said that I could excuse myself to the bathroom and meet up with the events coordinator in the back.

Okay, so everything is set. My last email with them was about a week before we left. And the date is 8 days into the trip. The day finally comes and as we are walking up to the check-in desk, I start to get a little panicked. Thoughts start racing through my head; "is this still a go" "how do I know if it's still on" "are they going to blow it and congratulate us on our engagement early?" It seemed like they were taking a bit longer than usual, while checking us in. There was some whispering back and forth, but that could have been everyday chatter. I was watching the CMs to see if they were going to give it away, or if I was going to get some secret head nod that everything was good to go. I got nothing. We were finally led in to meet with Cinderella, then upstairs to our table. Seated and situated, I'm like, okay, this is when I go to the bathroom, right? Then Missy gets up and says she's off to the bathroom. That works too. When she was out of sight, I got up. I started walking, but didn't know where I should be walking to. It was only a second or two, then the event coordinator came towards me. Ah, what a relief. Finally, someone who knew what was going on. She quickly when over everything. I gave her the ring and I went back to my seat. Missy came back, and the rest... we'll you guys know the rest of the story.

​

 

[fabulousfive]

I LOVE hearing the behind the scenes stuff. Awesome story! Thanks for sharing your secret of how it all came together. What an amazing moment & memory & it's just the beginning! We are celebrating our 15 year anniversary at Disney this year & I've been trying to get creative with a special gift for my DH. You've inspired me!!!

 

[tb1972]

What a perfect manicure for a Disney proposal! Love the Minnie polka dots. Congrats Missy and Franklin.

 

[tb1972]

What a perfect manicure for a Disney proposal! Love the Minnie polka dots. Congrats Missy and Franklin.

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

Wow... just catching up and to think I was all excited about your EMH evening at MK, and your F&W Beer/Food Lunch pairings in Italy (which did look awesome btw and I'm not a huge beer drinker) and your great costumes for the Halloween Party...

but nothing could have prepared me for the complete Awesomeness of your Breakfast at Cindy's Castle and that incredibly lovely and well thought proposal of Franklins...

Wow just wow... that was completely awesome...

 

[MrsJ Henry]

LOVE reading your trip reports! You two are adorable. And the PICTURES... ohhhh the picturessssss... LOVE!!!
Speaking of love... you have a great guy there to give you such a special proposal in such a magical place!!! Congrats!!

 

[Missyrose]

Love the updates!!!!! We got engaged in Epcot in 2003 and I was not a Disney expert then, and have NO pics!!!

Now I'm dying to know, where in Epcot did you get engaged?

Your ring is absolutely stunning I love your ring so much I want to propose to your ring! I think we could be very happy together
You guys got some excellent pics on Pirates. Some of the best I've ever seen from that ride!

Haha, I'm sure you and my ring would make a lovely couple!

Just joining in little late, but here I am. First off let me say CONGRATULATIONS on your engagement!!! I shared your engagement story with my DD. her reply was, "thats exactly how I want my proposal to be." LOL, hope her boyfriend starts planning now. The pictures that Franklin took are beautiful. You TR is great! I feel like we went with you.

Thanks for joining in! That's so funny about your daughter, I think Franklin got the idea for the proposal years ago when I was going on and on about a proposal I read about in a TR. So the cycle continues!

I love all of the ring pics. You just look so happy and glowing!!!

We were happy and glowing, and we still are 10 months later!

I love that you're showing off the bling in every picture! So cute! I definitely would too.
That's so fun that you got to meet up with some friends! Looks like you all had a great time, especially you and Franklin riding your cloud!!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

I definitely wanted to capture as many photos of that day as possible. And I think we pretty well accomplished that goal. We were riding on a cloud that day, weren't we?

Every time I see a ring picture I think of how nice your manicure looks and how cute the red with white polka dots look in a WDW setting. I bet you are really glad you got your nails done before your trip.

I was really glad my nails looked cute on this particular trip. It added the perfect Disney touch to all those photos of my hand that day!

Oh. My. Goodness!!! Most perfect proposal EVER!! And, by far, the best souvenir possible! Where do I get myself one of those?

So, so, so happy for you both! I told myself that I was going to have just 10 min of quick DIS'ing then go do errands and now I am all teary. But in a good way. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Super impressed with all the details of the proposal - the personalized slipper, photographer at the ready, done in your castle. Just

Am at the thoughts that must have been running through Franklin's head between the proposal itself and all the photography details (F stop, ISO, shutter speed, flash or no flash... I have no idea what I'm talking about... can you tell?)

Anyway, just a beautiful story! If your wedding is in 77 days then we may cross paths in WDW as my trip is in 74 days. In other words, if some crazy lady approaches you saying "congratulations," please don't be alarmed.

Thank you so, so much! We'll be in Disney October 20-25, PM me so we can coordinate schedules and see if there's any meet-up opportunities!

to the Boyz II Men super fan. Hate to say it, but if I were that guy's girl I might have sat a few rows behind him. But seriously, we're all super nerds about something so good for him. I hope he was able to get an autograph. And that she didn't break up with him....

Lastly, as always, just amazing, incredible, spectacular, professional quality pictures. If Disney hasn't already selected you, Franklin, as one of the photographers they highlight on whatever feed it is, they surely should. I am going to have to research it and suggest you because your pictures are out of this world!

Thank you for sharing your story with us. Can't wait for more engagement fun!

We're all super nerds about Disney so we totally know what the Boyz II Men super fan feels like. Lots more fun coming up. And a real life update, the wedding invitations go out on Friday! It's getting so close now!

Where did Franklin find the glass slipper to personalize? Through Disney or somewhere else? I loved his proposal!

So did Jean and Lee have a boy or girl? I love baby news also!

Franklin gave you all the yummy details on the proposal. But I wanted to chime in and say Jean and Lee had a boy! Nico is just adorable and we can't wait to meet him for the first time when Jean and Lee come to town for our wedding!

Caught up here now as well. Loved the update. All the photos were awesome. You can just see the excitement and wonder in your eyes from the surprise of the morning.
Pirates was down while we were there but hopefully will be up and running on my return trip. But I really miss Davey Jones being in the mist. Blackbeard doesn't do it justice IMHO.
Our dinner at Ohana this time was better than the fall, but I was still disappointed with the steak. Everything else was wonderful!

I'm so glad your 'Ohana meal was better this time! We've found that there is usually one meat that isn't as good as the other two (but funny enough it rotates among the three).

I hope you get to ride Pirates on your next trip. We learned Peter Pan will be down in October, that's one of Franklin's favorites to photograph!

I love all the celebratory ring and love photos! And CHH looks delish, we'll have to try that on our next visit.... which just so happens that we booked earlier today! We booked ten days in May at AKV, split into two stays. Our plan is to cancel one half and book at BWV or BCV for one half. We're hoping for a boardwalk view to be available at our seven month window in Oct. I'm super excited! This will be our first trip back since 2010! Until then, I'll continue to live vicariously through your TRs and your Fairytale Wedding!

Yay for new trips! When in May are you going? I'm scheduled to be there May 19-26. We've got a BWV/BLT split for right now, but I'm hoping to switch the whole thing to BWV at seven months.

You totally win Best Space Mountain Picture EVER. That is AWESOME You are just radiating the happy - a nice burst of sunshine on a grey, cloudy Monday for me today

Thanks! We loved how that photo turned out.

Love all of the ring pictures, but the Space Mountain is by far the BEST one! How cute!!!!

Great updates. I'm sure you were just on cloud 9 the rest of the day!

Thanks Kristy, I think the SM photos is one of my favorites too!

I LOVE hearing the behind the scenes stuff. Awesome story! Thanks for sharing your secret of how it all came together. What an amazing moment & memory & it's just the beginning! We are celebrating our 15 year anniversary at Disney this year & I've been trying to get creative with a special gift for my DH. You've inspired me!!!

What a wonderful way to spend your 15th anniversary! Early congrats to you.

What a perfect manicure for a Disney proposal! Love the Minnie polka dots. Congrats Missy and Franklin.

Thank you so much!

Wow... just catching up and to think I was all excited about your EMH evening at MK, and your F&W Beer/Food Lunch pairings in Italy (which did look awesome btw and I'm not a huge beer drinker) and your great costumes for the Halloween Party...

but nothing could have prepared me for the complete Awesomeness of your Breakfast at Cindy's Castle and that incredibly lovely and well thought proposal of Franklins...

Wow just wow... that was completely awesome...

Thanks Patricia! This was quite the action-packed TR, that must be why I'm still writing it 10 months later.

LOVE reading your trip reports! You two are adorable. And the PICTURES... ohhhh the picturessssss... LOVE!!!
Speaking of love... you have a great guy there to give you such a special proposal in such a magical place!!! Congrats!!

Thank you, I'm so glad you're enjoying the TRs (I love writing them!). And I am one very lucky girl to have such a wonderful guy.
​

 

[Missyrose]

We last left off with a magical Disney nap. We’d spent the morning at MK getting engaged and then taking about a billion pictures as an engaged couple . And apparently, that had taken a lot out of me. While I was snoozing, Franklin and Jean’s husband Lee took the shuttle to the Car Care Center to pick up our rental car, we had plans to go where Disney transportation wouldn’t take us the next day. But before a trip to the dark side, we had a big dinner and evening at MK to enjoy.

Where was dinner? Only at one of our most favorite Disney restaurants... California Grill! This would be our last meal here before the year-long refurb and I’m STILL waiting for them to open ADRs for October this year. I talked to a manager at the Contemporary in May and they said the refurb was running a bit behind, so the end date was moved from late July to late August. I’m crossing my fingers they open ADRs soon because it’s driving me nuts!

Back to the meal...This was the first time we’d eaten at Cali Grill before the sun had set and it was simply beautiful!

There was a gorgeous pink glow cast over everything around the Seven Seas Lagoon.

Now we weren’t just here for the pretty view, it was time to chow down! I started with the bacon cheeseburger flatbread. So good!

The boys took a “let’s order most of the sushi menu” approach to dinner.

Being a meat and potatoes girl, well I had meat and potatoes.

It was another smashing success of a meal at California Grill. It’s now been two trips since we ate there and we’re soooooo ready to go back. Now all we need is for them to start taking ADRs for the reopening and we’ll be all set!

We didn’t linger long at dinner, we had some nighttime fun planned at Magic Kingdom! We got there a little closer to fireworks time than we usually do, but luckily, Franklin managed to get set up in his favorite Wishes spot!

I’m not even going to bother with any preamble, because we all know you’re here for the fireworks pictures. So away we go!

​

 

[Missyrose]

Sigh, watching Wishes in front of the castle (the very same castle where we had gotten engaged 12 hours before) was the perfect end to what might be the most perfect Disney day I’ve ever experienced. We never rush out with the crowds after fireworks, so we all took some photos in front of the castle.

And what would a perfect Disney evening be without one last tasty treat? We stopped and grabbed some buttery delicious popcorn (which was so fresh it was still warm!) to munch on as we strolled up Main Street.

We strolled back over to CR to get the car, it was so handy having a rental car to go wherever you wanted, whenever you wanted! We arrived back at AKL completely exhausted but stunningly happy, it was such a good day! We’ve still got a few days left of this trip and we’re venturing outside our Disney bubble the next morning, so stay tuned!​

 

[natebenma]

Just caught up on the last couple of chapters.

What a great story about how everything came together for the big moment.

I love all of the pictures and excitement following the engagement! Too funny that notifying everyone competed with getting your rides on.

Amazing pictures from Pirates and Haunted! And one special Space picture!

How fun that you got to spend some time with friends.

Knockout pictures from California Grill- both the food and the sunset. Beautiful!

And once again, as always, stunning fireworks pictures.

I am really excited about your next agenda item! Hard to top "today's" magic, but I have a feeling you will be encountering some additional magic and we will be enjoying some out-of-this-world pictures!

 

[annie170]

Without a doubt, Franklin is the best photographer on the Disboards!

I've also been checking adr's for California Grill in October, also. I'm getting discouraged.

 

[fabulousfive]

Wow! Your special day just kept on going! So magical! I wasn't thinking you still had a whole day ahead of you since CRT! Sounds like that day will ever be tough to ever top. Love the photos & hearing the whole experience.

 

[MrsJ Henry]

I cant get enough of Franklin's fireworks pictures... breathtaking!!!! and I love the picture of you holding your popcorn with your RING finger showing!!!

 

[wiigirl]

Awesome update!

 

[abbybeth]

Perfect end to a completely perfect day is right! As per usual, spectacular fireworks photos Franklin!

Cali Grill is one of my favorites - even if ressies open up for our trip, it won't fit. Guess that means I have to schedule another one!

 

[PrincessAmongPrinces]

Looks like a yummy dinner! It sounds like you guys had a perfect Disney day! Looking forward to hearing about the trip to the "other" park

 

[khertz]

I’m not even going to bother with any preamble, because we all know you’re here for the fireworks pictures. So away we go!

​

This sentence was SO spot on! You know we just can't get enough of Franklin's fireworks photos!! But they are made more wonderful by your commentary.

Love how you snuck in another ring photo with that popcorn pic.

 

[teekathepony]

That's a great ending to a great day, yummy dinner and Wishes!