How to Get Married In Epcot... and Survive a 12-Day Honeymoon @ WDW!

[misstheworld]

Lurkyloo...come back!! We need another post!!!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Sure I came here to get ideas & tips but this place is like a labrynth and before you know it you've gone from what to pack to reading wedding trip reports! I've already wandered over to check out Becx & Gav's & now I'm going to have to track down MistressofallEvil's..damn you!

When are you going in Sept.? We're going then too! Yeah, watch out for the DIS - I've lost years of my life reading all these addictive trip reports....

I'll join rottiemom in saying thanks alot for luring me over to the wedding boards! Like I needed another part of the DIS to explore! But seriously, I'm really enjoying it. And who knows, not married yet so maybe I can put it to good use someday!

So can we expect trip reports from both of your September voyages??

 

[lurkyloo]

Lurkyloo...come back!! We need another post!!!

Sorry! I had to go see "Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" twice and watch all of the other Indy movies in between...

I'll join rottiemom in saying thanks alot for luring me over to the wedding boards! Like I needed another part of the DIS to explore! But seriously, I'm really enjoying it. And who knows, not married yet so maybe I can put it to good use someday! So can we expect trip reports from both of your September voyages??

I know - the DIS is like a labyrinth - you can totally get lost in it. ...Gee, do you really think a regular trip report of our September vacation would be that interesting? No fabulous clothes? No wedding drama? No cake?!!

 

[lurkyloo]

Our reception ended at 2pm, and we didn’t have to be back at Epcot for the dessert party until 8pm. When we first started planning, I was worried about the festivities losing momentum because of this break, and we couldn’t fix it because Epcot locations require 9am ceremonies. However, I am now so glad to have had this time in the middle of our day – it gave me and DH a chance to compare notes about the wedding and share our excitement, and it meant we had more wedding festivities to look forward to later that night. I think if we’d followed up a spectacular ceremony and spectacular reception directly with a spectacular dessert party, the impact would have been diminished (kind of the way the guests didn’t bat an eye when we got on a boat because they’d been riding them all weekend!).

DH and I spent more than two hours just going over the events of the day and sharing the parts the other one missed. We were like a couple of giddy school girls! Then we took a nap, which we totally needed if we were going to make it through the DP. (Everyone always asks if I took my dress off between the reception and dessert party. The answer is “Heck yes!”). When we woke up, it occurred to us that all these delicious cookies and brownies we were having at our DP would taste even better with a big glass of milk. I figured anything was possible with Disney (that’s right, even milk – dream big, ladies!), so I started looking for phone numbers.

I didn’t have my WP’s cell, but I remembered it was Monday and DFTW’s offices were actually open! I called my WP’s assistant and asked if it was too late to add milk to our DP menu. She said she’d see what she could do. As it turned out, not only did we get milk, but our server saw the milk and assumed kids were coming to the party, so he brought glow cubes – cool!! At about 6pm we ordered room service and had a quiet dinner while I touched up and re-accessorized my outfit like Day-to-Night Barbie.

What $30 worth of rubber chicken looks like

I had accumulated so many accessories during my search for The Perfect Look that I thought it’d be nice to get some use out of them. My eBay treasure trove:

Swarovski necklace that my buddies on the Boards all liked

Earrings that arrived the day before I left, so I wore them even though they turned out to be the wrong style

Alternative fascinator

Customized bolero

(I turned out not to need the bolero – the weather was perfect that night – but I wore it anyway cuz everyone loved it.) DH and I walked from the Beach Club to International Gateway, where a guide met us to escort us into Epcot and UK Lochside, as they call it now. I was so excited to be wearing my dress inside the park! The DP location turned out to be perfect – it was down a meandering garden path that shielded it from the main walkway, and we were right on the water.

DH and I arrived so early that we had about 20 minutes to kill before the bus brought our guests. I was really impressed by the setup – sometimes, in pictures, the dessert parties look kind of... how do I describe it? Under the glare of the flash, the black chairs and the plain tables (unless somebody splurges for floral) make it look kinda like a convention event. But in person, it’s gorgeous! The standard candles and white tablecloths looked perfect in the twilight, and even the black plastic chairs didn’t bother me.

We decided to take a walk back to Morocco for old time’s sake, and lemme tell you, I felt like SUCH a rebel wandering around Epcot in my dress unescorted! (This is a big deal for Disney brides, since you aren't allowed to wear wedding clothes inside any of the parks unless you're getting married there.) When we got back to UK Lower, er Lochside, our guests still hadn’t arrived, so we just enjoyed our moment together in this beautiful place... and loaded up a plate full of desserts to eat before we had to start posing for pictures! I’d heard too many horror stories of brides not getting to enjoy the food at their own parties, so I was sure to scarf down one of everything – and two and-a-half Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow Squares! Please tell me someone has the recipe for those...!

When the first guests started arriving, DH and I positioned ourselves under a lamp on the pathway and greeted everyone as they walked in. They all made it but one, who didn’t wake up from his nap til 9pm – d’oh! We had 30 minutes before IllumiNations to mingle with our guests, which felt like a nice amount of time. I was really pleased to get to speak in depth with my two friends who’d originally said they weren’t into theme parks. As it turned out, they spent a really nice day in Epcot and went to Celebration twice! They were just beaming – it was so nice...

Nathan & Jensey arrived about the same time as the guests and began taking practice shots so they knew the best way to capture the low-light setting. They also took a couple of fun ones where they’d shoot us and then wiggle the camera around to make a light effect.

Before the show started, my MIL came over and showed me all the bags she’d brought to smuggle out leftover desserts – we’re talking grocery bags, here. It was hilarious!

Thanks to other brides’ trip reports, I knew that in order to get the best pictures, we wouldn’t really be able to watch the show, so I warned DH. (It was a little hard to resist turning around to gawk because neither of us had seen IllumiNations before, but we went back the next night to see it in its entirety.) We also used the standard Magic Kingdom photo shoot directions as our guide: “Look at the camera, look at each other, kiss, repeat!” I have to admit, I am disappointed by how much smoke was blowing toward us that night – I didn’t get as many clear fireworks shots as I’d hoped, but DH disagrees and says the smoke adds to the effect.

 

[lurkyloo]

After the fireworks, we sat around chatting with our guests until the guide fetched them to get back on the bus. I never felt rushed or like the evening was too short. And even though I didn’t get quite as many fireworks pictures as I’d hoped for, I would do it all again in an instant just for the experience. It felt so special being in that secluded area by the lake.

Don’t bother bringing your bouquet.... this is my only pic with it!

Before she left, my MIL brought us all the leftover desserts she’d bagged. She had even asked the server if he had more behind the table and he said, “Sure – take ’em. That way I don’t have to throw them out!” That was justification enough for me.... My MIL wanted to send all the loot back with us, but we insisted that she take some home too. I made sure to keep all the Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow Squares though...

Just a few of the Dessert Party leftovers...

DH and I were the last to leave – I really didn’t want to! But even the walk out through the International Gateway was magical, with so many people wishing us well and little girls all agog. I’m getting kind of teary just writing about it. It truly was the perfect ending to a perfect day!

Up next: 12-Day Honeymoon Recap, or “How Many Free Desserts Is Too Many?”

 

[KatGarcia]

What a great way to end your day! Those pictures are just amazing, worth missing the fireworks for, for sure!

I was talking to my DH about how you guys had your reception at BW and we think we saw you coming in! We left the resort that day around the time you were coming in for the reception! He remembers seeing a Bride!

 

[stagemomx3]

Your dessert reception looks wonderful. I'm really in awe of your wedding, and seriously hoping my daughter takes notes. She's 12 by the way.

 

[jcc0621]

What beautiful day. The pictures are amazing!

 

[SandraVB79]

You are such a wonderful couple, such a great wedding, all I can say is WAAW!

May I ask how old both of you are?

 

[Sleeping*Beauty]

Yum! Those desserts look delicious!!

 

[lurkyloo]

Yum! Those desserts look delicious!!

And how! This is what you would look like if you ate all of them at once:

You are such a wonderful couple, such a great wedding, all I can say is WAAW! May I ask how old both of you are?

OK, but first you have to say how old you *think* we are!

What beautiful day. The pictures are amazing!

It's all the Roots! From here on out, you just get my crummy pix...

Your dessert reception looks wonderful. I'm really in awe of your wedding, and seriously hoping my daughter takes notes. She's 12 by the way.

Well, as soon as she turns 13 everything's gonna be the opposite of what you want, so you need to start practicing lines like, "Boy, would it be terrible if you got married at WDW!" and "Sheesh, I sure hope you don't ever have a dessert party!"

I was talking to my DH about how you guys had your reception at BW and we think we saw you coming in! We left the resort that day around the time you were coming in for the reception! He remembers seeing a Bride!

Awesome!! I played Spot the Bride for the rest of our trip - it's so much fun!

 

[betsywdw]

I just found your report and could not stop reading What a wonderful wedding and of course the perfect location You looked so beautiful on your wedding day! I can't wait to hear more!!!!

 

[lurkyloo]

Hey, thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the report, cuz writing it helps me gloss over the post-trip letdown...

 

[tinkspark]

Subscribing

 

[DisneyVeteran]

Love the dessert reception! Congratulations again!

 

[SandraVB79]

You really think a regular trip report of our September vacation would be that interesting? No fabulous clothes? No wedding drama? No cake?!!

What do you mean, no cake?? You do know you can order wonderful specialty cakes, right? At about every restaurant, in about every flavour and theme, right?
We had a "Aloha Sandra en mom" cake, tropical theme at Poly, and I'm already dreaming about my next one! (you don't need a groom nor the quince-thing to have cake, you silly woman! It's Disney, as long as you pay for it, you can have everything you want, duh! )

And no one says you can't wear fabulous clothes. Or have some drama. About people smoking or kids on heelies or whatever. Drama enough on the DIS!

OK, but first you have to say how old you *think* we are!

I think you must be about my age (I will be 29 in July), and I think your DH a year or two older? I don't know, i'm not good in guessing ages.
But, you are good for my "morale" about the difference in height, and I hope you'll be that too for the fact i'm still not married (and there is still hope for me, lol!)

Can't wait to read the rest. Just wondering: are the installments here the same as in your TR on the wedding boards, or is it different?

 

[Cory's Gal]

The dessert party looked great and the food looked really yummy! What a nice way to end your wedding night, with Illuminations! The pics are wonderful! The firework pictures turned out lovely!

 

[rottiemom]

Gee, do you really think a regular trip report of our September vacation would be that interesting? No fabulous clothes? No wedding drama? No cake?!!

Speak for yourself! I certainly plan on lots of drama, over the top clothing, big hair & cake galore.

Wait, we're talking about Florida in September. I'll be lucky if I can manage a ponytail & board shorts in between naps .

We invade the World from Sept 17-22. I don't think that any trip report of mine could even come close to the fun that I've been having reading this one. But, seriously, this is the first trip that we've ever taken that didn't revolve around motorcycles in some way, shape or form. The last time we flew we did so in full riding leathers, bringing our helmets as carry on (imagine being on line behind us going through security ). On the plus side all of those years of travelling on two wheels means that I can fit a week's worth of essentials into a bag the size of 12 cup coffee maker. And bungee it onto a gas tank, if need be (hey, a girl's gotta be prepared).

But, back to the trip report at hand...

I think that the dessert reception later in the day is a fantastic idea! You had a chance for a lengthy break, a nap, time to de-stress and then an opportunity to get dressed up all over again with a clear head & no frantic sense of urgency. Really, really smart and a great way to enjoy your wedding for both you & your guests. Plus I just love the nighttime pictures...your photographer was amazing.

Laughing about the bags of goodies, too. Did you know that that's a time honored Italian tradition? Bringing a bag along to a wedding so that you can take some dessert home? I always forget to do that and I'd just hate to mess up the lining of my purse with crumbs.

Are we ever going to get to the honeymoon?!

 

[lurkyloo]

The dessert party looked great and the food looked really yummy! What a nice way to end your wedding night, with Illuminations! The pics are wonderful! The firework pictures turned out lovely!

The dessert party was such a great experience – and I love that you don’t have to get married there to have one. I highly recommend it!

Love the dessert reception! Congratulations again!

Thanks!!

I just found your report and could not stop reading What a wonderful wedding and of course the perfect location You looked so beautiful on your wedding day! I can't wait to hear more!!!!

That is really sweet of you to say! More coming right up...

What do you mean, no cake?? You do know you can order wonderful specialty cakes, right? At about every restaurant, in about every flavour and theme, right? (you don't need a groom nor the quince-thing to have cake, you silly woman! It's Disney, as long as you pay for it, you can have everything you want, duh!

Yes! I’m planning to order a mini version of our wedding cake when we go back for our anniversary (gotta maximize those free Annual Passes they gave us!). I just can’t decide whether to do red velvet with cream cheese or chocolate cake and peanut butter cup mousse. Guess I have about 8 months to figure it out!

I think you must be about my age (I will be 29 in July), and I think your DH a year or two older? But, you are good for my "morale" about the difference in height, and I hope you'll be that too for the fact i'm still not married (and there is still hope for me, lol!)

You’re good at guessing ages! (d’oh – I was hoping I still looked 21!). Last fall I turned 29 for the third time. Technically I’m 6 months older than DH, but we don’t like to talk about that. He’s sensitive about our age difference. And of course there’s “hope” for you, silly lady. Frankly, I’m glad I didn’t get married when I was in my twenties. I’m a different person now with totally different interests. (And you shoulda seen the guys I dated! ) Plus, being older meant that we could plan the wedding our way and pay for it ourselves so we didn’t have to give in to pressure from others about the way it should be. You prolly don’t want a pep talk on dating from someone who just got married, but I will say that in my case it was definitely true – the moment you stop looking for/needing to find somebody is the moment you do. But first I had to stop pretending I didn’t need somebody and then peeking to see if he’d turned up!

Can't wait to read the rest. Just wondering: are the installments here the same as in your TR on the wedding boards, or is it different?

I edited out a lot of the wedding-planning jargon for this report. I figured no one here cared about the contents of my Reception and Ceremony accessories boxes or a rant on the vagaries of tux fitting... Also, this trippie will be in order - the one on the weddings board skips Honeymoon days 1 & 2 and has them at the end...

Speak for yourself! I certainly plan on lots of drama, over the top clothing, big hair & cake galore.

On the plus side all of those years of travelling on two wheels means that I can fit a week's worth of essentials into a bag the size of 12 cup coffee maker. And bungee it onto a gas tank, if need be (hey, a girl's gotta be prepared).

FABulous! I wish I could travel so light!

Did you know that that's a time honored Italian tradition? Bringing a bag along to a wedding so that you can take some dessert home? I always forget to do that and I'd just hate to mess up the lining of my purse with crumbs. Are we ever going to get to the honeymoon?!

This is great to know. Disney says they won’t box up leftovers at the DP and you’re not allowed to take them. (Hence the covert operation with the Ziplocs.) We will have to let them know that this policy discriminates against Italians! And yes, the first day of the honeymoon is coming at ya!

 

[lurkyloo]

The Best First Day of a Honeymoon EVER!

The day after the wedding, this is all we did:

Slept in. Spent the morning splashing around at Stormalong Bay. Ate lunch at Beaches & Cream. Spent the afternoon napping by the pool. Walked over to the BoardWalk for dinner at Flying Fish. Activated our APs to watch IllumiNations at Epcot.

The End.

The Long Version:

Much as I didn’t want to leave WDW property on the first real day of our vacation, we had to go out to Walgreen’s to stock up on stuff for our studio, like milk for our wedding cake and hand soap. On the way out of the Beach Club, we mailed a huge stack of etiquette-flouting wedding announcements/at-home reception invites, and of course two postcard entries to Disney’s [Two] Year of a Million Dreams Sweepstakes.

Can you believe I actually found a picture of the I-Drive Walgreen’s online?!

After we got back to the Beach Club with our hand soap, milk, swim goggles and about 16 other things that weren’t on our list, we changed and headed down to Stormalong Bay.

These are not my pictures – borrowed them from the Internets

We got our guest-access wrist bands, looked for the shadiest table to leave our stuff on, and spent 10 minutes poking ourselves in the eyeballs trying to get our new goggles to fit right...

Our first priority was to try out every area of Stormalong Bay: the whirlpool, the lazy river, the beach, the slide and both hot tubs.

I started with the baby waterslide.

That went OK, so I moved up to the big pirate ship water slide. It was OK, but the seams in the pipe bump your back when you go down it.

At lunchtime we had fabulous burgers and fries and milkshakes at Beaches & Cream, which wasn’t as crowded as everyone always warns you it will be. I was really impressed with how good the burgers were – I hadn’t trusted the reviews.

Then it was back to Stormalong Bay to lie in 2 feet of water on the sandy beach (little did I know this was not an experience to be replicated at an actual water park like Typhoon Lagoon... Details on Day 10!).

Then we fell asleep on some of these chaises by the pool for a couple of hours (they were in the shade then).

When we woke up, we shuffled back to our room and cleaned up for our first married date, a walk to dinner at Flying Fish on the BoardWalk.

We had a while before our reservation, so along the walk from Beach Club to the BoardWalk we stopped at Sea Breeze Point.

Sorry I don’t have any good pix yet – DH is supposed to stitch a bunch of them into a panorama...

We met this guy....

...and spent the rest of the trip trying to find out why he was standing around flapping his wings like crazy. (The best sounding explanation came from an Animal Kingdom CM who said birds do that to dry their wings).

We killed time wandering around BoardWalk Inn...

And visiting the Disney Vacation Club model home...

We talked to one of the reps there and learned that one of our wedding guests had stopped by a few hours earlier and taken a tour! We’re crossing our fingers he gets suckered- er, I mean hooked and buys points so we can rent from him!

We walked all the way to the Swolphin and caught a Friendship boat back to the BoardWalk in time for our reservation at...

It was a fun place to eat, and the food was good, but neither of us would order what we got again.

Some sorta cioppino (if I can find the menu we took, I'll update this)

Oak-grilled Maine Diver Scallops

After dinner, on the spur of the moment, we decided to activate our Annual Passes and go see IllumiNations in Epcot properly, for the first time (having your picture taken in front of the show doesn’t really count as seeing it...).

Here’s us not watching IllumiNations properly

This was not a very clever thing to do because we’d lose an entire day from our APs just to spend an hour in Epcot, but it sounded like fun (we were waiting as long as possible to activate the APs so we can return to WDW for our anniversary next year and use them).

The show was fantastic! DH got a little choked up; I was fine until I thought of all the fabulous desserts we weren’t eating this time, and then I got choked up too...

Fabulous desserts

After the show we walked back to the Beach Club and had bell services bring up our leftover wedding cake. They had been keeping it in their fridge b/c they didn’t think it would fit in ours, but we resolved to make it fit or get fat trying! I mentioned this next bit in another, later installment of the trippie, but what the heck:

So there we were, sitting on our balcony at the Beach Club eating leftover wedding cake, when all of a sudden we see fireworks in the distance. Nobody told us we'd be able to see the Pirate & Princess fireworks over the Magic Kingdom from our room! Eating cake while watching fireworks – I don’t think it gets any better than that....

Oh – also today we busted out these babies:

Free-Dessert Magnets

How ironic that I refused to wear a veil for my wedding but then spent the next 12 days wearing one everywhere we went! But it was worth it – you wouldn’t believe how many “Congratulations!” we got... or how many free desserts. Toward the end of the trip we felt like celebrities who get recognized when they’re trying to go incognito. We had to be "on" all the time to smile and wave at everyone who said Hi to us, which meant no newlywed spats! But you can bet we were bummed when we stopped wearing them and nobody said anything anymore....

DH made them out of regular Mickey ears, the bride headband and two hats we got on eBay for 10 bucks. We wanted to have hats with brims for shade, and I’m not crazy about headbands. You wouldn’t believe how many people A) asked where we got them, and then B) suggested we sell the idea to Disney when we described how we made them! Watch for them on eBay in the near future....