Heidi & Jon PJ ~ 10/12/2013 ~ DCL Castaway Cay ~ I'm BACK To finish this FINALLY!!

[Thecrow51]

So, I wasn’t going to do a planning journal originally but with the lack of Cruise Line planning journals I figured maybe someone else would find this useful as I have found the PJ I have been able to read from past brides very useful and also the deciding factor in my decision to have a Cruise wedding.

Bit of an introduction: My name is Heidi and I’m 31. DF is Jonathan and is 28. We met on OK Cupid in 2009 and started officially dating after the 2nd date. I’m from NY. He’s from TX. We met in NY when he lived there briefly. We tried the whole Long Distance thing for a bit when he moved back to TX but couldn’t do it. I ended up moving to TX to be with him. Even though all my family and friends are in NY, I am doing a lot better in TX. Not only do I have DF by my side but its way cheaper to live here so I don’t find myself struggling as much as I did in NY.

In Feb we went shopping for a ring. I had made a few adjustments to it (swapping out the 2 side diamonds for sapphires). I knew he had picked it up end of Feb, so now it was just a waiting game for me. I’m not very good at waiting when it comes to presets so by the end of March I was getting very antsy. Finally on April Fool’s day I broke down and kind of blew up at him saying stuff like what are you waiting for, you’ve had the ring over a month now, what’s the deal, do you even want to marry me, you know all the typical crazy girl things. He looked and me and sighed and was like please just wait a little bit more. I started crying. He then fine and left the room, came back 5 mins later and started telling me what his original plans where. He was going to wait till the evening and draw a bath with bubbles, he had gotten bride and groom rubber duckies he was going to have floating in the tub, and was going to call me into the bathroom saying there was something urgent he needed to show me and then when I saw the tub he would be there behind me on one knee. At that moment he got on one knee and said a bunch of sweet things I can’t remember now, pulled the box from his pocket and opened it asking me to marry him, however inside the box was NOT my ring, but a RING POP!

I almost kicked him but definitely gave him THE look, like are you serious?? I’m going to kill you! He started laughing and pulled my real ring and re-asked, of course I said yes.

Oh I forgot to mention that about an hour after the proposal I walked into the living room to find DF EATING the ring pop he proposed with! I was like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" He was like "oh did you want this?" "yes I was going to save it!" "oh... sorry..."
BOYS!!!

Next up: The planning begins!

 

[Thecrow51]

So for the month of March I knew that the proposal would be coming soon and we had already picked out a date (October 12th 2013) and already decided we wanted to do the Disney Cruise. I wasted no time in starting my Save the dates and told Jon that my goal was to have them done and in the mail the day after he proposed.

I decided that I wanted to do luggage tags as my STD. I am pretty decent in photoshop and figured “I can do this myself” So I did. First set about designing the tags:

Front:

Back:

I found a good price on a laminator at Walmart, $25 and laminator sheets. I found the brightest level, best quality white printer paper I could find and some royal blue ribbon. I also used a scrapbooking corner punch to make even rounded corners. I also had an idea to get thin magnet sheets and place them in the middle so people can put them on their fridge… Unfortunately the thickness of the paper and plastic laminating sheet made the magnets really weak, they will sort of stick but if you slam your fridge to hard it will fall right off… whomp whomp!

I didn’t want to put too much information on the tags and wanted them simple but I knew I needed to include more information for my guest so I got postcards and made little information cards.

Front: The light blue area was my template on where to put a royal blue glitter stripe. I found the already made glitter tape to be very expensive so I opted to make my own instead using some double-sided tape and fine royal blue glitter. I placed the tape on the card, then turned the card over and pressed into a pile of glitter. It worked out pretty well. I also got some black flat backed rhinestones and glued them in the lower corner to create a “hidden” tactical Mickey.

Back:

Finally I wanted to assure my invited guest (mostly adults) that a Disney cruises wasn’t just for kids. That it was good for Adults too so I found in another brides planning journal, I forget who’s but I think it was in the PJ of my TA Lisa:Goldeelox9, a letter they sent out stating how a Disney cruise is not just for kids. It was written for one of the other boats so I edited to work for the Dream. I’m sorry I forgot who I “borrowed” the letter from.
I made Mickey return labels and address labels and sent them off!

Next up: Dress Shopping!

 

[Thecrow51]

So at this point I’ve read many many PJ and came across Alfred Angelo’s Cinderella #205 and I fell in love, I knew I HAD to have it as my dress. Before, I originally wanted to get a tea length dress but not anymore.
I found out that #205 is from the 2011 line and the 2012 Cindy dress I did not like at all. I called AA to find out if it would get discontinued anytime soon and the girl said maybe… that freaked me out! I made an apt for that weekend.
I tried her on as well as 2 other dresses, I liked the 3rd dress I tried on but for some reason my mind was stuck on Cidy #205. I loved the dress… but was not too impressed with how I looked in it but I chalked it up to it being because it didn’t fit correctly as the largest sample size is a 20 and I’m a 26/28, so I bought her anyway, I kind of regret it now. I ordered her 2 sizes too small because I really wanted a lace up back and have these grand visions of loosing at least 50lbs. 3 months later she came in and she still does not fit as I have lost a total of -2 lbs (yes I have gained weight instead) but I keep telling myself in my head that once it has a lace up back and straps (I want to ad 1-2inch straps to her as well) and will fit properly I’m going to love being in it. But for right now I feel that I may have gotten a dress that the torso is too short for me as I have a long torso… You won’t hear me say any of this to my mom (who bought the dress) or my DF… I will FORCE myself to love me in this dress.

I haven’t looked into getting any of the alterations done; I figured it’s better to wait till next spring as I still have time to lose the weight I want. So now she just sits in my closet looking like a body bag..lol

Next: Wedding Favors/Bags

 

[ericamcl]

Love your STDs - and I love that Lisa is your TA!

 

[Thecrow51]

I originally made this post in the Cruise Brides thread so im just going to copy and paste it here since its already pretty detailed.

OK here we go

Currently for my Favor bags im doing the following:

Bag (One per Cabin): $1.99 Disneystore.com

Embroidered 30x60 Beach Towels (One per person): $10.73 (thats including custom embroidery) towels4less.com
Something along these lines, im still unsure about the wording, Definitely changing the stitching from the grey color to white so it pops better. Towel will be Royal Blue. Another idea I got from the fabulous Lisa:Goldeelox9.

Custom Water Bottles (One per person): $3.73 discountmugs.com
With the similar logo the towel will have

Custom Playing Cards (One deck per Cabin): $9.99 artscow.com
The Kings will have photos of DF alone, The queens will have photos of me alone, The jacks will be our bridal party, The Aces will be his parents, my mom and step dad, my dad and step mom and us together, and the rest of the deck will have pics of each of our gusts (one couple per card).

Back side of the card:

Comic Strip Book we found and like (One per Cabin): $6.77 bulkbookstore.com
We are personally inscribing each book.

Bath and Body Works PocketBac Hand Sanitizer with rubber holder thing(One per Cabin): $1.50 (this came out to be less because I had a coupon but I didn't feel like calculating it right now)

Disney Mickey Pen (One per Cabin): 5 for $1.00 Dollar Store

Post It Notes (One pad per Cabin): Haven t priced this out yet.

Tylenol (4 individual packets per cabin): 50 pkts for $14.95 Staples.com

Bonine (4 pills per room): Still looking for a good price.

Magnetic ears for the cabin doors, Maybe some personalized "Im here for" Magnets also for the doors.

and a ring pop in each bag... lol

and that's about it...

Alot of our items are costly but will be usefull so we arent putting in alot of filler like candy or snacks... there will be pleanty of food on the ships to justify not including snacks.

NONE of my guest know about the playing cards... not even my parents. Thats gonna be the big surprise.

Next: Shoes and invitation ideas.

 

[Thecrow51]

Love your STDs - and I love that Lisa is your TA!

Thanks so much! Lisa has been absolutely amazing so far.

Right now we have a total of 9 cabins booked including me and DF's cabin.

 

[Thecrow51]

So I have been very undecided on what I want as far as shoes.

I usually hate flip flops but will wear them occasionally so I thought maybe royal Blue flip flops? (my wedding colors are royal blue, grey and white)

Then I thought that royal blue converse would look adorable but only if DF agrees to wear converse too. He didn’t. He hates converse… I hate them too but would deal with it for my wedding day.

June 15th was out 3 year anniversary and for this anniversary we went to the mall mainly to buy the hand sanitizer for the wedding bags but while we were there I came upon the crocs kiosk and found the cutest pair of croc flats that don’t really look like crocs. I fell in love immediately after putting them on and now I want to live in my crocs forever. I went to the website and saw that they also came in white! I knew I found my wedding shoe!!

http://www.crocs.com/crocs-kadee/11215,default,pd.html?cid=48J&cgid=women-footwear-dress

A while back I found these:
http://www.aliexpress.com/product-f...sin-rhinestone-Free-shipping-wholesalers.html
Mickey rhinestones that come in many colors. $21.88 for 1000! I have already made to decision to order them in white/clear and royal blue.

Then I found these hair swirls, 5 for $12.99:

and ordered them right away. When I got them I realized that they are the same exact rhinestones from that other website with a piece of wire hot glued to the back! I can make these!!

Then I decided to use the royal blue Mickey heads and make my own jibbits (the little charm things people stick into crocs) and fill all the hole in the front of the shoe with Mickey heads.

I tested what it might look like on the black shoes I currently own (imagine it with the white shoe and all holes filled, I had given 2 of the swirls away)

Now for invitations.
We came up with the idea to have a comic book made of a real conversation me and DF had one day. With the last few pages being the cruise information.

This was my inspiration:

http://www.comicbooked.com/ryder-comic-book-wedding-invitations/

We contracted the girlfriend of my tattoo artist, we first asked him but he said he couldn’t do it because of time issues but his girlfriend had the time. We looked over her work and were pleased enough so we booked her. For 5 custom pages with the cover being full color she only wanted to charge me $100!! I told her I would feel bad making her do all that work for such a low amount and offered her $200. Obviously she agreed.

I found a website online that will print the comics to look like a real comic book for only $2.50 each with no minimum or maximum.

I sent over the comic script and a bunch of reference photos on May 15th and gave her a Sept 1st deadline. I haven’t seen anything yet but can’t wait to see what she does.


Right now we have 9 cabins booked. That’s including me and Jon. It’s mostly just my bridal party since we are paying for each of their cabins and my mom and dad and step grandma and one really good friend. DF’s parents haven’t booked yet, I really don’t know why or what they are waiting for.

We also decided to do a B2B since we came to the realization that a 3 day cruise is just too short and we have the second cruise booked as well. After that we will spend 4 days in Disney. I’m leaning toward Corondo Springs or Port Orleans Riverside and am defiantly setting up a MK Photo Shoot.


I forgot to mention our Bridal party!

I don’t have any Bridesmaids but I have One Maid of Honor, My bestest friend Missy. And one Matron of honor, My little sister Amanda. On DF’s side he has his best man/friend, Steve and his Little sister the Best Woman Shelley. I think I want all the girls to have the same dress except have my girls in royal blue with a grey sash and have Shelley in grey with a royal blue sash. My flower girl will be my niece Aliyah; she’s 5 but will be 7 for the wedding (her birthday is October 11th so the cruise will be her birthday celebration as well). My ring bearer will be Missy’s son Trent; he’s 2 but will be 3 for the wedding.

For Steve and Trent I found these shirts:

and for Jon, the same shirt but in a silver/grey color:

I’m letting Missy and Amanda pick out the dress with the only requirements is that it be Royal Blue and not long. Shelley said she doesn’t care what the dress looks like as long as it’s not strapless.

I’m leaning towards either:

or a convertible dress in blue like:

But whatever they pick is fine with me. They are going dress shopping later this month because my sister is moving to Germany in August but only to pick out the style not to actually buy it, they will wait to buy it till next year.


OK this has gotten way too long and will stop here.
Thanks for reading!!

 

[Freckledginger]

Hi Heidi!!

So glad to see you've started a PJ! You're plans look fantastic thus far! I absolutely love the comic book idea. It's so unique and will be a fun and creative way to give your guests all the info they need for the cruise. Your save the dates and favor bags are also fabulous! Wish I had your talents in photoshop!

The crocs are perfect. Cute and comfortable! I think they'll look nice with your dress. I'm sorry that the dress experience has been a bit disappointing, but it is a gorgeous dress and looks lovely on you. I have no doubt that when you put it on for your wedding day, you'll know it was the dress for you.

Looking forward to following along and reading more of your plans!

 

[omayra96]

Wow! you already have the dress!! I haven't even started looking!!

 

[Goldeelox9]

So for the month of March I knew that the proposal would be coming soon and we had already picked out a date (October 12th 2013) and already decided we wanted to do the Disney Cruise. I wasted no time in starting my Save the dates and told Jon that my goal was to have them done and in the mail the day after he proposed.

I decided that I wanted to do luggage tags as my STD. I am pretty decent in photoshop and figured “I can do this myself” So I did. First set about designing the tags:

Front:

Back:

I found a good price on a laminator at Walmart, $25 and laminator sheets. I found the brightest level, best quality white printer paper I could find and some royal blue ribbon. I also used a scrapbooking corner punch to make even rounded corners. I also had an idea to get thin magnet sheets and place them in the middle so people can put them on their fridge… Unfortunately the thickness of the paper and plastic laminating sheet made the magnets really weak, they will sort of stick but if you slam your fridge to hard it will fall right off… whomp whomp!

I didn’t want to put too much information on the tags and wanted them simple but I knew I needed to include more information for my guest so I got postcards and made little information cards.

Front: The light blue area was my template on where to put a royal blue glitter stripe. I found the already made glitter tape to be very expensive so I opted to make my own instead using some double-sided tape and fine royal blue glitter. I placed the tape on the card, then turned the card over and pressed into a pile of glitter. It worked out pretty well. I also got some black flat backed rhinestones and glued them in the lower corner to create a “hidden” tactical Mickey.

Back:

Finally I wanted to assure my invited guest (mostly adults) that a Disney cruises wasn’t just for kids. That it was good for Adults too so I found in another brides planning journal, I forget who’s but I think it was in the PJ of my TA Lisa:Goldeelox9, a letter they sent out stating how a Disney cruise is not just for kids. It was written for one of the other boats so I edited to work for the Dream. I’m sorry I forgot who I “borrowed” the letter from.
I made Mickey return labels and address labels and sent them off!

Next up: Dress Shopping!

It was my letter!

 

[Goldeelox9]

How did I not know you had this...you sneaky girl!

As you already know I love your dress! Have you tried it on with a full slip? Once I put my dress on with the slip it made my waist look smaller!

I love all you have done, I am glad I get to follow along!

 

[Thecrow51]

So...

My MOHs picked and ordered thier dresses.

The liked the way it fit and flowed except we ALL HATE the one shouldered flowered strap. We will be replacing it with 2 reg straps instead.

In other news...
My FMIL and FSIL are making me get red shoes. Something to do with some chinese custom of red symbolizing walking on happiness and luck or something. They arent chinese but they lived in China for 5 years. Im still going to buy the Crocs I posted before but now i will be getting them in red.

So far we have 12 cabins booked, not including mine and DF. and thats just imediate family mostly.

Now for the most exciting news... my invitation designs are done!!
As I posted before we are doing a comic book and hired an artist to draw it up. I made the information pages at the end with wording help from Aimee's (stl_figment) invitation (Thanks Aimee!!)

No one except my DF has seen these but my DIS brides get a sneek peek! Shhh keep it a secret!

Front & Back Cover:

Page 1&2:

Page 3&4:

Page 5&6:

Page 7&8:

Page 9&10:

Page 11&12:

Page 13&14:

I already ordered the plastic bags and cardboard backs that real comics come in off amazon.com
I just need to send the files off to the printer, but I have to wait till my monthly wedding money comes in (every month my dad give me wedding money)

My rsvps I made a madlib:

I guess thats all for now..

<3Heidi

 

[Goldeelox9]

Heidi!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!! That is awesome! Your Comic book characters look soo cute!!: lovestruc

 

[celerystalker]

I saw the comic book - maybe on facebook? Love them! But glad I found your planning journal too!

 

[dumbwaiterboy]

Hey Heidi,

You requested my demask design for your cards on the DisBrides board and thought I'd try a complete design as well. PM me if you want it in high res. or if you just want the plain demask (and what color)

 

[wiigirl]

LOVE the comic book! That is super cute!

 

[Thecrow51]

Hey guys!!

Sorry I dropped off the face of the Disboards, I joined the FB group and got really involved over there. A part of me always felt bad that I never came back here to finish this PJ. Soo Over the next few days I will be making a buch of updates including photos and like a trip report too.

So lets see where was I?

First off the invitations where a HUGE hit! Everyone loved them, some of my older recipients where a bit confused by them, lol.

I even made some custom postage stamps for the envelops

Final Look:

I sent out my invites at exactly 1 year before the sail date and I made my RSVP date about 6 months before the sail date.
RSVP:

Now to just skip ahead real quick, One month BEFORE the RSVPs where due I sent out little "reminder" cards that I made 100% by hand, well I got the Image from a friend but i cut them out by hand and glittered each outline by hand(i put glitter or blink on anything and everything I could sneak by the boy... LOL!), took me 2 weeks or so to make 80!

By this point I really had not received many RSVPs back thats why I felt the need for a little "reminder", Did it work you ask?? no not really. I mailed out 80 invitations and got 17 physical RSVPs back, one scanned and emailed to me (really? i provided self addressed stamped envelops and they took the time to fill it out, scan and email instead of dropping it in the mail??) and a bunch of facebook messages totaling about 27 people who I actually heard from.... 80 invites and I only heard from 27 people... That was heartbreaking and it actually even started a mini facebook family fight because my sister posted a really long rant about people not even having the consideration to reply even if the reply was no. In the end we had about 37 who initially said yes, then a family of 4 and 2 couples drop out and at the last min my Aunt and Uncle booked making a total of 29 guest plus me and DH making 31. I really enjoyed the final group we ended up with but im getting ahead of myself now.

OK so I will stop here, next post we will pick up with Flowers!

<3Heidi