"I brushed my teeth, and I don't have cooties." An August DFTW and Disneymoon TR

[pooh'smate]

Joining in

 

[Lauren1027]

Yay, I'm in! Can't wait to follow along on and especially to see all your (what I'm sure will be) amazing wedding pictures!

 

[KathyM2]

I'm here and can't wait to hear more! Though I did really enjoy following some of your adventures on FB

If you've read my past threads you'll also know that we're planning to return to WDW this winter to run the 5K at Marathon Weekend.

This is so awesome. I hope to do a RunDisney event one day too. Who knows when, but I can dream lol. So much fun.

Looking forward to hearing more detail about your whole trip.

 

[Fia]

im in! Cant wait to read all about it!!

 

[HumblePie]

I have been following your plans and can't wait to read all about how everything tuned out! Congratulations!

 

[Tracy161]

Oh my goodness, school. Kidding! Obviously we're the cool kids! It's going to be a challenge. I took two years off working between my undergrad and my [current] masters degree. But hopefully it'll be more than worth it in the end!!

We are most definitely the cool kids But there's also some of this going on too You're in good company, though it's been almost a decade since I've been in school! I'm almost two years into my grad program... with about as much left, too But we'll get through it - and yes, it'll be worth it in the end

 

[Dentam]

Joining in! Looks like an amazing wedding and honeymoon!

 

[Smilelea]

I'm here and oh so excited!!!

 

[xlsm]

Here! Will catch up later, but saving my spot. Super excited to read all about it

 

[Terra Nova guy]

Super busy at work these days, so my Dis time at lunch/coffee break is much less these days. But I hope to keep up even if I'm not able to comment much.

 

[MeghanEmily]

I'm here and can't wait to follow along!

Joining In

Joining in

im in! Cant wait to read all about it!!

Joining in! Looks like an amazing wedding and honeymoon!

I'm here and oh so excited!!!

So glad you're here!!

Jumping in! I'm so excited to see and read all about your magical wedding. Congratulations and happy one month-iversary!

Welcome, and thank you!! Very excited to share with you!

Yay so glad you've started! Your intro alone has me so excited to read about what this trip had in store for you!!

Welcome!! Thanks so much for following me over here. I tried to put together a good teaser in the intro!

Can't wait to read all about! Your list of "what you'll read about..." has me intrigued!

Welcome! There are lots of fun little stories to tell!

Five? Thousand?

Yes. In two weeks.

I mean I know it is hot in Florida in August...

Looking forward to reading about the wedding and the rest of the trip!

The heat was actually a huge factor in the decision. But not, I'd intended to do it anyway, the timing was just good.

Thanks for following along!

Yay, can't wait to read about it all!!!!

Welcome over here! Thanks for coming!

ME, TOO! ME, TOO!

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about this!! Maybe we'll cross paths! Remind me as we get closer and we both start pinning down our plans!

Joining in sounds like a wonderful trip with life changing events! So awesome, our trips overlap a little, we arrived 8/26/17!

Welcome! Thanks so much for joining! I've added your August TR to my list of threads to catch up on! I wonder if we were every in the same place at the same time...soon to find out!

Yay, I'm in! Can't wait to follow along on and especially to see all your (what I'm sure will be) amazing wedding pictures!

Lauren!! Your wedding was so wonderful to read about, and your pictures were gorgeous! Hopefully I can deliver a TR that's half as exciting

I'm here and can't wait to hear more! Though I did really enjoy following some of your adventures on FB



This is so awesome. I hope to do a RunDisney event one day too. Who knows when, but I can dream lol. So much fun.

Looking forward to hearing more detail about your whole trip.

Welcome, Kathy!! Thanks for following along on the PTR and on FB to this point. Hopefully I should have lots more to share.

I hope you get to do a runDisney event someday! This one will be our first, but I'm really looking forward to it!

I have been following your plans and can't wait to read all about how everything tuned out! Congratulations!

Welcome over to this thread!! Can't wait to share!

We are most definitely the cool kids But there's also some of this going on too You're in good company, though it's been almost a decade since I've been in school! I'm almost two years into my grad program... with about as much left, too But we'll get through it - and yes, it'll be worth it in the end

I hope you're right!! Wednesday I have class from 8:30am-8pm...here we go!!

Here! Will catch up later, but saving my spot. Super excited to read all about it

Welcome, Samantha!! Lots to tell you about!

Super busy at work these days, so my Dis time at lunch/coffee break is much less these days. But I hope to keep up even if I'm not able to comment much.

Thanks so much for coming over here despite your busy schedule! No problem - you're welcome here whenever you have time.

 

[rmw1313]

Joining in! Your wedding looks amazing! So excited to hear the details!

 

[MamaCoop]

Yayyy Meghan!!!!! So excited to be joining in again!

 

[shannie102]

Excited for the recap and photos, its been fun following you on the engagement TR and the PTR with the little added updates!

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

I'm here!! I've been so looking forward to this TR!

 

[krysenchips]

I've lurked along on your past couple of reports, and am here this time! Congratulations! I can't wait to see how the big trip went.

 

[Steppesister]

I'm here! Subbing in and will read in a bit...

 

[fallonkendra]

I'm here!

 

[MeghanEmily]

Joining in! Your wedding looks amazing! So excited to hear the details!

We had the most amazing time—can't wait to share!

Yayyy Meghan!!!!! So excited to be joining in again!

Yay! back!! Excited to have you!

Excited for the recap and photos, its been fun following you on the engagement TR and the PTR with the little added updates!

I've got lots to share! And I'm crossing my fingers on having real-live wedding photos by the time I get to that part of the TR soon...I got an email just over four weeks ago that said I should have photos in 4-5 weeks, so keeping my fingers crossed that it'll be soon...!!!

I'm here!! I've been so looking forward to this TR!

I'm looking forward to sharing it with you!!

I've lurked along on your past couple of reports, and am here this time! Congratulations! I can't wait to see how the big trip went.

Thanks so much for coming back for another report!! Any degree of lurking/participating is always welcome!

I'm here! Subbing in and will read in a bit...

Your Majesty, Queen Steppe! Great to have you here, Liesa!

I'm here!

Hi, Fallon!

 

[MeghanEmily]

Oh my goodness, guys! So great to have so many of you here already!

Many of you know who we are already, but for those who don't...

The Who, The What, and the Why

If you have any other "W" questions, feel free to ask them and I'll do my best! For now, I'll start with these ones. For those of you who don't know us, we are...

Meghan and Nathan
(and Stacey J. Aswad, not pictured.)

We're trouble-makers. Obviously.

We have been partners in crime for nearly a decade now, we share a love of geekery (Harry Potter, British television, Disney films, reading, etc.), and we're not quite as short and stout in real life as we look through a fisheye lens in front of Spaceship Earth!! About 1.5 years ago, I introduced Nathan ("N") to WDW when we went together as a celebration of the end of my 2-year neurosurgery recovery period (#brainniversary), and he fell in love. Every time we return, he gets more addicted to the World, and he tries to plan trip to go back sooner and sooner! Our second trip together was in December when we got engaged at the Animal Kingdom Lodge—details in the Dec. TR linked in my signature—and immediately started toying with the idea of a Disney Fairytale Wedding (DFTW). I shared a ton of our planning in my PTR, and it was mostly a fabulous process, with a bit of expected stress and some unwelcome family drama. #weddingsthough

About ME:

I'm a 24-year-old masters student in Speech-Language Pathology, a music-making, giraffe-obsessed, hub-grass-romping Disney lover. I work part-time singing at a 50s diner, and also with a company that gives princess birthday parties (where I get to be friends with a lot of my favourite princesses!) I've been visiting my second home at WDW every few years since the age of 4, took a break for a few years before and after my neuro issues, and since returning have been 4 times in the last 17 months, with three trips being on annual passes. I also love to hashtag ironically. #hashtag

Favourite Disney…
(these are ever-changing for us both...)
(includes Pixar...)​

• Movie: Zootopia, Finding Nemo, Beauty and the Beast
• Character: Belle, Merida, Eeyore, Judy Hopps, Sadness
• Park: AK. But if I could only visit one park in a trip it would be MK.
• Ride: Splash Mountain, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Soarin'
• Resort: WL, AKL, POFQ
• Restaurant: Boma, Columbia Harbour House, Whispering Canyon Cafe, Skipper Canteen
• Snack: Maple popcorn
• Memory: soo many. Today it's watching a tower of giraffes drunkenly run across the savannah while at the boma during our amazing Wild Africa Trek. Also, trekking around an empty dark Magic Kingdom for our morning MK bridal shoot. And, of course, our entire wedding and engagement!

About N:

N is newly WDW-obsessed, and now gets even more excited about our trips than I do. We've been home three weeks since the honeymoon and he already wants to go back...like...NOW. He is tender, protective, argumentative, fidgety, easy to please, and an encyclopedia of fandom knowledge due to both his personal interests and his job as a performance artist who travels doing spray paint art. In some ways he's incredibly similar to me, and in others he's as opposite as I could imagine. Also, he's my husband.
​

Favourite Disney…
​

• Movie: Lion King, Moana, Beauty and the Beast
• Ride: Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain
• Resort: AKL, + new fascination for the GF, Pop Century
• Restaurant: Boma, Ohana, Rose and Crown, Teppan Edo
• Snack: Premium Mickey bar, dole whip
• Memory: First thing he said was the wedding and the engagement. But also getting on Haunted Mansion in the pouring rain one evening, and then being allowed to ride over again without going through the line until the rain stopped.

Other characters to be aware of in this TR are...

Our wedding party! My bridesmaids, Ashley, and Erin, and N's best man, Brad:

N's family (his mom, dad, and three sisters):

My family (my mom, step-father, grandmother, 2 aunts, uncle, and cousin):

Also invited to the wedding were Ashley's mom, Lisa (not pictured.) I spent a lot of time at their house growing up. And we also invited Ashley's and my beloved dance teacher and her husband who moved to Florida years ago:

Here we are! A pretty great group, I have to say!

(Spoiler alert here on the "special guests" at the wedding. Oops. Good thing I don't do those TR contests. I'd be giving away all the answers!)

The WHAT...

Our wedding!

To break it down:
We drove three days. Those of you who read my PTR know that N was already working in Boston, and I drove down with his parents to meet him in Mass, and then they took his truck and drove it back across the border, and N and I continued south together.

We arrived at WDW Aug. 15th around supper time. Aug. 16th we did some park touring with N's family, had our wedding day prep, and did a meet & greet with our guests at Disney Springs that evening.

Aug. 17th was wedding day!

Aug. 18th we spent at MK touring with my family.

Aug. 19 onward, everyone was going home...except US! We even ended up adding extra time to our trip, and we honeymooned until Aug. 29, mostly at Disney, with a few off-property excursions and a visit to Daytona...ish.

Driving home...three days-ish...but we don't like to talk about going home.

And the WHY:

Because...Disney?! DUH!

In all seriousness, we had talked about a Disney wedding before we'd even gotten engaged. (If that doesn't sound crazy enough, I also had already bought my dress before we got engaged. ) Originally it seemed like something that was totally out of reach for lots of reasons...budget, getting guests to travel, etc. But once we started looking into it, pricing, feeling out our family members, etc., things came together easily and we were surprised to see how very possible it became! Even with a very short engagement! I loved the idea of a smaller and more intimate wedding—I'm the kind of person who doesn't really "get" big elaborate weddings. They're great, just not my style—and N was flexible and just wanted to be married and to do whatever was exciting for me. A DFTW with the Escape package (a middle-of-the-road package with 20 guests and no formal reception) was the perfect way for us to have a remarkably special day that felt like "us," without worrying about a lot of "traditional" wedding components that weren't meaningful to us.

Now...are you READY?? Next up I promise to get into the actual trip reporting!!​