janine
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2005
- Messages
- 747
Janine & Damian's wedding day - March 1st 2006 at Disney's Yacht Club Gazebo
Well as some of you may well know Damian and I had a few little hurdles to get through whilst planning our wedding, what with Damian having major Kidney surgery 3 days before Christmas and also my pet dog dying just 2 weeks before our big day, along with all the 'little' things thrown at us whilst trying to plan a day a magical day that our guest and ourselves would never forget.
Well the day finally arrived for us to fly out to sunny Florida, Friday 17th February. We live in England which meant a gruelling 9 and half hour flight was ahead of us. I hate flying, but it was the only way to have the fairytale wedding I had always dreamed of.
I had been to DisneyWorld just once before, but had also been to Disneyland Paris twice before. I knew there was no place I would rather have my wedding than the most magical place on earth!
The flight went rather well, and as we had missed our take off slot due to a technical problem (loss of communication for an hour- which thrilled me no end!!), the pilot informed us that the flight time would only be 8 and half hours and we would still arrive on time.
Touch down.....Yippee....the weather was lovely, unlike back at home which is currently freezing with ice & snow.
We spent our first week staying around international drive area as we had not seen any of that area last time we went to Disney World. In fact we stayed at the CBR for 2 whole weeks and did not come out of Disney once.
We had a great time there doing Universal, Sea World and Discovery Cove.
On the Friday we were heading to Disney World.
I was up at the crack of dawn that day ensuring our bags were packed.
I never enjoy packing suitcases, but today I couldn't wait!
First of all we had to go to Downtown Orlando to pick up our marriage license. An hour later, marriage license in hand off we went to Disney.
Our hotel was the Yacht Club for 7 nights.
Our taxi pulled up at the door and I knew I was just going to love staying here. It is such a beautiful hotel. Very elegant.
We headed to reception and checked in.
The lovely gentleman we spoke with gave us lots of info and made my children Laura who's 13 and Ellie who is 8, very welcome. He gave them the childrens Disney book to have a doodle in whilst waiting.
I mentioned to him that we were also holding our wedding there that same week and he congratulated us. As I had forgotten to bring my EM's number we asked him if he wouldnt mind letting her know that we had checked in. He said it was no problem.
With that he gave us a choice of 2 rooms. He told us the best room was 3161 right overlooking the boardwalk, the other room was very nice but a little further away from the lobby. Our room was just beautiful. I assume we were upgraded as we had only booked a standard room. Not a lagoon view. Which was very nice of him.
We threw our bags in and headed to Epcot which is less than 5 minutes walk away. We eagerly awaited 4pm when all our other guests from England were arriving.
They arrived and although very sleepy at 8pm due to the time difference of 5 hours, we had a few drinks around the Boardwalk. They did well.
Next day after a few hours at the Magic Kingdom we headed back to our room as we had a fitting through Carolyn Allens for the groom, and 2 other guests. When I got back into the room I was met with 4 big balloons tied to a happy hooneymoon card along with a beautiful signed photo of Minnie & Mickey. Also there was a telephone message waiting for us, again from Minnie & Mickey wishing us a wonderful wedding day.
I was like a kid again....I was very touched.
Tuesday 28th February - The day before the wedding & also my birthday!! How lucky can a girl get?
I had my honeymoon shoot this day...the day before my wedding!
Mad I know, but I would have struggled for time after the wedding.
We met the Disney photographer at the Main street station and was taken to the castle for some pictures. My Daughters and MUm & Dad all came with us. The photographer included them in our shoot, which was nice.
He gave us a lovely leather album with 20 pictures of Damian and myself, along with the disc with lots of other pictures of my Parents and children.
I was then treated to a lovely Character breakfast with Winnie the pooh & friends at the Crystal Palace.
That evening we enjoyed a beautiful dinner at O'hana's. What a fantastic place. Unfortunately as our seating was at 9pm we missed the dancing & games. It ended around 9. The food was very good though, and I was surprised with a birthday cake with 3 candles. (I think I should have had a few more, but I wasn't going to say anything!).
Originally this was to also be our wedding day, but due to reasons beyond our control we had to cancel it and re-arrange it all for the following day. As a few of you already know that Disney cancelled my original plan of dining outside at the Grand Floridian marina as it was against Disney policy to allow intimate couples that kind of reception. Lord knows why, as I only required 2 tables for our party of 17, nothing too fancy. We had booked the menu's, entertainment & floral too. The thing that stung the most was that Private dining blamed my EM for cancelling us, making me very upset with my EM as I thought she was playing a cruel game by allowing us to book entertainment and such whilst knowing it wasn't going to happen. This was not the case, in fact it was private dining that cancelled it, but passed the buck! Not a nice thing to do.
But things went from bad to worse and I almost cancelled our Disney wedding due to the way Disney was treating us.
There was just so many downsides I wished I had never booked it.
Eventually after speaking with the head of the wedding department on a few occasions we were given a choice of venue. One of which was the American Adventure VIP room at Epcot's world showcase.
I was told I was going to love this place, and they weren't wrong.
I was happy that things had finally come together, but it would also mean rearranging Jack Day, our officiant and Randy Chapman, our photographer as the AA room was only available after 1 March.
This wasnt a problem for them, phew, one stroke of good luck for once!
After our lovely meal we headed back to the hotel for a round of drinks at Martha's Vineyard and entertainment from Patrick the lovely man that works there, who I have to say is a fantastic balloon artist. If ever you go in there and see him ask him to make you a Mickey Mouse balloon, you will be amazed!! He's also a great magician too!
I hit the sack just before midnight. Not good I know for the night before your wedding, but hey....not a moment to waste!
Next part...Wedding Day... coming soon......I am still jet lagged.
This is (from L-R - My Dad, My SIL Julie, TIGGER, Damian my HTB, and myself) enjoying a birthday breakfast at the Crystal Palace.
My pet dog Bertie who sadly died just before our wedding.
He loved EEyore too! I shall miss him forever.
Well as some of you may well know Damian and I had a few little hurdles to get through whilst planning our wedding, what with Damian having major Kidney surgery 3 days before Christmas and also my pet dog dying just 2 weeks before our big day, along with all the 'little' things thrown at us whilst trying to plan a day a magical day that our guest and ourselves would never forget.
Well the day finally arrived for us to fly out to sunny Florida, Friday 17th February. We live in England which meant a gruelling 9 and half hour flight was ahead of us. I hate flying, but it was the only way to have the fairytale wedding I had always dreamed of.
I had been to DisneyWorld just once before, but had also been to Disneyland Paris twice before. I knew there was no place I would rather have my wedding than the most magical place on earth!
The flight went rather well, and as we had missed our take off slot due to a technical problem (loss of communication for an hour- which thrilled me no end!!), the pilot informed us that the flight time would only be 8 and half hours and we would still arrive on time.
Touch down.....Yippee....the weather was lovely, unlike back at home which is currently freezing with ice & snow.
We spent our first week staying around international drive area as we had not seen any of that area last time we went to Disney World. In fact we stayed at the CBR for 2 whole weeks and did not come out of Disney once.
We had a great time there doing Universal, Sea World and Discovery Cove.
On the Friday we were heading to Disney World.
I was up at the crack of dawn that day ensuring our bags were packed.
I never enjoy packing suitcases, but today I couldn't wait!
First of all we had to go to Downtown Orlando to pick up our marriage license. An hour later, marriage license in hand off we went to Disney.
Our hotel was the Yacht Club for 7 nights.
Our taxi pulled up at the door and I knew I was just going to love staying here. It is such a beautiful hotel. Very elegant.
We headed to reception and checked in.
The lovely gentleman we spoke with gave us lots of info and made my children Laura who's 13 and Ellie who is 8, very welcome. He gave them the childrens Disney book to have a doodle in whilst waiting.
I mentioned to him that we were also holding our wedding there that same week and he congratulated us. As I had forgotten to bring my EM's number we asked him if he wouldnt mind letting her know that we had checked in. He said it was no problem.
With that he gave us a choice of 2 rooms. He told us the best room was 3161 right overlooking the boardwalk, the other room was very nice but a little further away from the lobby. Our room was just beautiful. I assume we were upgraded as we had only booked a standard room. Not a lagoon view. Which was very nice of him.
We threw our bags in and headed to Epcot which is less than 5 minutes walk away. We eagerly awaited 4pm when all our other guests from England were arriving.
They arrived and although very sleepy at 8pm due to the time difference of 5 hours, we had a few drinks around the Boardwalk. They did well.
Next day after a few hours at the Magic Kingdom we headed back to our room as we had a fitting through Carolyn Allens for the groom, and 2 other guests. When I got back into the room I was met with 4 big balloons tied to a happy hooneymoon card along with a beautiful signed photo of Minnie & Mickey. Also there was a telephone message waiting for us, again from Minnie & Mickey wishing us a wonderful wedding day.
I was like a kid again....I was very touched.
Tuesday 28th February - The day before the wedding & also my birthday!! How lucky can a girl get?
I had my honeymoon shoot this day...the day before my wedding!
Mad I know, but I would have struggled for time after the wedding.
We met the Disney photographer at the Main street station and was taken to the castle for some pictures. My Daughters and MUm & Dad all came with us. The photographer included them in our shoot, which was nice.
He gave us a lovely leather album with 20 pictures of Damian and myself, along with the disc with lots of other pictures of my Parents and children.
I was then treated to a lovely Character breakfast with Winnie the pooh & friends at the Crystal Palace.
That evening we enjoyed a beautiful dinner at O'hana's. What a fantastic place. Unfortunately as our seating was at 9pm we missed the dancing & games. It ended around 9. The food was very good though, and I was surprised with a birthday cake with 3 candles. (I think I should have had a few more, but I wasn't going to say anything!).
Originally this was to also be our wedding day, but due to reasons beyond our control we had to cancel it and re-arrange it all for the following day. As a few of you already know that Disney cancelled my original plan of dining outside at the Grand Floridian marina as it was against Disney policy to allow intimate couples that kind of reception. Lord knows why, as I only required 2 tables for our party of 17, nothing too fancy. We had booked the menu's, entertainment & floral too. The thing that stung the most was that Private dining blamed my EM for cancelling us, making me very upset with my EM as I thought she was playing a cruel game by allowing us to book entertainment and such whilst knowing it wasn't going to happen. This was not the case, in fact it was private dining that cancelled it, but passed the buck! Not a nice thing to do.
But things went from bad to worse and I almost cancelled our Disney wedding due to the way Disney was treating us.
There was just so many downsides I wished I had never booked it.
Eventually after speaking with the head of the wedding department on a few occasions we were given a choice of venue. One of which was the American Adventure VIP room at Epcot's world showcase.
I was told I was going to love this place, and they weren't wrong.
I was happy that things had finally come together, but it would also mean rearranging Jack Day, our officiant and Randy Chapman, our photographer as the AA room was only available after 1 March.
This wasnt a problem for them, phew, one stroke of good luck for once!
After our lovely meal we headed back to the hotel for a round of drinks at Martha's Vineyard and entertainment from Patrick the lovely man that works there, who I have to say is a fantastic balloon artist. If ever you go in there and see him ask him to make you a Mickey Mouse balloon, you will be amazed!! He's also a great magician too!
I hit the sack just before midnight. Not good I know for the night before your wedding, but hey....not a moment to waste!
Next part...Wedding Day... coming soon......I am still jet lagged.
This is (from L-R - My Dad, My SIL Julie, TIGGER, Damian my HTB, and myself) enjoying a birthday breakfast at the Crystal Palace.
My pet dog Bertie who sadly died just before our wedding.
He loved EEyore too! I shall miss him forever.
Thank you for sharing!
