happylalagirl
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 24, 2005
- Messages
- 855
Well, I have been on these boards for over a year now and I cant believe how time has flown by. I have seen the other girls put their planning info on here and thought I might as well do the same. 
First, I want to thank, yet again, all the people on this board for the past year + for all your help, insight and advice. I dont know what I would have done without all of you. For those of you just joining the boards, you have hit the jackpot!!!
Not only can you find out any info about your Disney wedding, but all the people on this board are compassionate brides and husbands who know what you have gone through and many who are going through similar things at the same time as you.
We started planning our wedding last summer. We have been together for 13 years (on Nov. 22).
We have a beautiful 10 ½ year old daughter. We finally decided it was time for us to get married. I was searching for info on Disney weddings and came across a link for these boards on Google. What did we ever do without that search engine??? 
Anyway, it was like a light from heaven was shining down on me that day. 
I couldnt believe the wealth of information I found on there. I was instantly smitten with these boards and have used them the entire time we were planning. I plan on staying on them forever. 
You have become my second family. 
We started out, like everyone else, by calling the Disney weddings phone number. We were then set up with a sales Manager, Kristi Davis. I cant say enough wonderful things about Kristi.
We were originally supposed to get married on Sept. 23, 2006 but then decided the min. was too high and switched to Dec.11, 2006. Kristi has been with us every step of the way. We met with her over the Christmas holidays last year, while we were visiting my DFs folks in Kissimmee. 
She showed us Ariels and the Living Seas. 
The moment we walked into the LS, we knew it was the place for us. We had her hold it right then and there. We had also looked at the ceremony sites of the wedding pavilion and the Yacht Club gazebo. The gazebo was actually set up for a wedding that was starting shortly after we saw it, so it was great to see what it would actually look like on that day. We eventually walked over and looked at Sea Breeze Pointe on our own and decided thats where we would like to get married. It was really a matter of location. We just didnt like the idea of people standing out on their balcony staring down at our ceremony. The privacy of SBP is just what we were looking for.
Once the 8 month mark came along, we received our contract in the mail. We signed it and sent it back with our deposit. We were on our way!!! Woooooohoooooooo!!!!
Now, we did hit a few snags along the way. Most of which were financial. We are paying for everything ourselves. My parents arent in a financial situation where they can pay for it and his parents never offered. We decided it was better this way because we wouldnt have to do anything we didnt want to do.
We did, however, ask my folks to pay for the photographer. After looking at the Disney photography packages and comparing them to outside vendors, we decided to go with Randy Chapman. We saw so many brides pics from him and just fell in love with his work. Not only did we love his work, after speaking with him, we knew he was the right photographer for us. Hes a fun loving, laid back sort of guy.
After choosing the photographer, we had talked about the videographer. We looked at Disney videography pkgs and were amazed at the high prices. So, we again began looking outside of Disney and after hearing about all the wonderful things about Stan (STVS), we asked for a sample DVD and we loved it!!! My DF said he didnt need a video, but if I wanted it, we would get it. I have talked to many brides and most of them say the entire day went by so quickly, they didnt even see half of what was happening. I love watching videos and thats how I want to remember our day. Pictures only tell part of the story. So, we decided to go with STVS. As a sidenote we had sent our contract and deposit to them. After not having the check cashed for over 3 weeks, I e-mailed them and Stans wife called me back. She said they had received the contract but not the check. I immediately began to panic, thinking someone had stolen the $500 check. Since it hadnt been cashed yet, I still had time to put a stop payment on it with my bank. Stans wife called back a little while later and told me it was stuck to the wedding before ours. She apologized profusely and told us to make up for it, they were giving us the raw unedited footage at no cost. I wasnt about to turn that down!!!
We went along our merry way for the next couple of months. I went on ebay and found our place card holders. They are little glass slippers. Perfect!! And they only cost $20 for 100 of them. We also ordered our welcome bags. We spent more than I had expected, but when we received the finished product, they were well worth the money!!! I cant wait to hand them out!!! We also sent out the newsletters to let everyone know what the wedding plans were. We received a tentative response of 75 people who said they would be celebrating with us in Disney. WOW!!!
That was more than we expected. I just want to say, the average response rate for a Disney wedding is higher than any other destination wedding. So, expect more than half of your guest list to say yes.
After our contract was signed, sealed and delivered, we were assigned our Event Manager. Marion Stewart is our EM and we are happy.
I havent heard anything bad about her. Ive only spoken with her twice. However, her assistant is the best!!!! Linda has been soooooooooooooooo helpful over the past several months. I have bombarded her with question after question and she answers all of them without hesitation and boy, does she respond quickly.
First, I want to thank, yet again, all the people on this board for the past year + for all your help, insight and advice. I dont know what I would have done without all of you. For those of you just joining the boards, you have hit the jackpot!!!
Not only can you find out any info about your Disney wedding, but all the people on this board are compassionate brides and husbands who know what you have gone through and many who are going through similar things at the same time as you. We started planning our wedding last summer. We have been together for 13 years (on Nov. 22).
We have a beautiful 10 ½ year old daughter. We finally decided it was time for us to get married. I was searching for info on Disney weddings and came across a link for these boards on Google. What did we ever do without that search engine??? Anyway, it was like a light from heaven was shining down on me that day. I couldnt believe the wealth of information I found on there. I was instantly smitten with these boards and have used them the entire time we were planning. I plan on staying on them forever. You have become my second family. We started out, like everyone else, by calling the Disney weddings phone number. We were then set up with a sales Manager, Kristi Davis. I cant say enough wonderful things about Kristi.
We were originally supposed to get married on Sept. 23, 2006 but then decided the min. was too high and switched to Dec.11, 2006. Kristi has been with us every step of the way. We met with her over the Christmas holidays last year, while we were visiting my DFs folks in Kissimmee. She showed us Ariels and the Living Seas. The moment we walked into the LS, we knew it was the place for us. We had her hold it right then and there. We had also looked at the ceremony sites of the wedding pavilion and the Yacht Club gazebo. The gazebo was actually set up for a wedding that was starting shortly after we saw it, so it was great to see what it would actually look like on that day. We eventually walked over and looked at Sea Breeze Pointe on our own and decided thats where we would like to get married. It was really a matter of location. We just didnt like the idea of people standing out on their balcony staring down at our ceremony. The privacy of SBP is just what we were looking for.Once the 8 month mark came along, we received our contract in the mail. We signed it and sent it back with our deposit. We were on our way!!! Woooooohoooooooo!!!!
Now, we did hit a few snags along the way. Most of which were financial. We are paying for everything ourselves. My parents arent in a financial situation where they can pay for it and his parents never offered. We decided it was better this way because we wouldnt have to do anything we didnt want to do.
We did, however, ask my folks to pay for the photographer. After looking at the Disney photography packages and comparing them to outside vendors, we decided to go with Randy Chapman. We saw so many brides pics from him and just fell in love with his work. Not only did we love his work, after speaking with him, we knew he was the right photographer for us. Hes a fun loving, laid back sort of guy. After choosing the photographer, we had talked about the videographer. We looked at Disney videography pkgs and were amazed at the high prices. So, we again began looking outside of Disney and after hearing about all the wonderful things about Stan (STVS), we asked for a sample DVD and we loved it!!! My DF said he didnt need a video, but if I wanted it, we would get it. I have talked to many brides and most of them say the entire day went by so quickly, they didnt even see half of what was happening. I love watching videos and thats how I want to remember our day. Pictures only tell part of the story. So, we decided to go with STVS. As a sidenote we had sent our contract and deposit to them. After not having the check cashed for over 3 weeks, I e-mailed them and Stans wife called me back. She said they had received the contract but not the check. I immediately began to panic, thinking someone had stolen the $500 check. Since it hadnt been cashed yet, I still had time to put a stop payment on it with my bank. Stans wife called back a little while later and told me it was stuck to the wedding before ours. She apologized profusely and told us to make up for it, they were giving us the raw unedited footage at no cost. I wasnt about to turn that down!!!
We went along our merry way for the next couple of months. I went on ebay and found our place card holders. They are little glass slippers. Perfect!! And they only cost $20 for 100 of them. We also ordered our welcome bags. We spent more than I had expected, but when we received the finished product, they were well worth the money!!! I cant wait to hand them out!!! We also sent out the newsletters to let everyone know what the wedding plans were. We received a tentative response of 75 people who said they would be celebrating with us in Disney. WOW!!!
That was more than we expected. I just want to say, the average response rate for a Disney wedding is higher than any other destination wedding. So, expect more than half of your guest list to say yes. After our contract was signed, sealed and delivered, we were assigned our Event Manager. Marion Stewart is our EM and we are happy.
I havent heard anything bad about her. Ive only spoken with her twice. However, her assistant is the best!!!! Linda has been soooooooooooooooo helpful over the past several months. I have bombarded her with question after question and she answers all of them without hesitation and boy, does she respond quickly.
We drove down with our daughter and my mother and grandmother flew down the following day. We had our planning session set up for the morning and our tasting session set up for the afternoon. My DF and I were going to the planning session ourselves. After all, we are paying for this and every decision is ours to make. 
but Chuck Rodriguez would be filling in for her. We were a little nervous at first, but after sitting down for a few mins. with Chuck, we knew we were in good hands. 
One word of advice: Im not sure if this is the norm, but we ended up doing our cake tasting during our actual planning session. We went over the entire ceremony line-up and bus transportation and then we had to choose our cake. After we had chosen our cake and the colors and additions, Chuck brought in a platter with the 4 types of cakes we had selected to try and 8 fillings. Oh my goodness!!!! I was in heaven!!! 
My DF doesnt like cake, but he started trying a couple because he knew had to eat at least one bite for the cake cutting. We decided on one and he absolutely LOVED it!!! We have chocolate cake with amaretto mousse and fresh strawberries for our bottom layer. The middle layer is lemon cake with raspberry mousse and fresh raspberries and the top layer is chocolate cake with raspberry mousse. I felt bad because I knew my mom wanted to taste the cake with us, but too bad. Shell just have to wait till the actual wedding. 
So, we split a sandwich and soup. Perfect size. 
We tried several appetizers and they were ALL amazing!!! Our favorites were the Beef Empanadas and the bacon wrapped scallops. Now, these are no ordinary scallops
no no no
they sear the scallops and then wrap them in the bacon, BUT!!! The bacon is crispy. Then they put this wonderful orange glaze on them with a little bit of spice. I have NEVER tasted such marvelous scallops!!! I must recommend them!! 
There are going to be 4 stations of food. Each will be from a different background. One station is Asian, one is European, one is Mediterranean, and one is Latin. It is going to be absolutely wonderful!!!
He got to know us a little bit and he really captured us in our pics. We are not the most serious of couples. Were pretty goofy. 
So, we had a lot of fun taking our pics!!! I highly recommend Randy!!!
LOL!!! 
We did some major cutting out of things and after making some tough decisions and many people not being able to come, we are now $2000 below our budget!!! I am so excited because that extra money now pays for STVS!! Woooohooooooo!!!!!! 
I am glad to hear all you budget issues were worked out! I cannot believe you are actually under. You have given me hope that I can keep my wedding within my budget too! You must be so excited, only a little more than a month to go 
However, she was able to take out an inch and now breathing is back to normal. 
But hey, if you've got the money, might as well spend it!!!
