Jay and Tracie's Wishes Wedding PJ 01/06/12...3-12..TR, Disney Day 2, pt 2

[mickin]

Hey Everyone. We just passed our 6 month mark and I thought that would be a good time to start making a journal for our wedding. One thing you will probably find interesting about this journal is that I am a DISgroom, not a bride, so some things may be missing(dess,hair,etc.), but I will add those after the ceremony because I will not be seeing her dress prior to the ceremony.

So lets get started.....

My name is Jay and I am 25. My fiance is Tracie and she is 24. I currently work in retail. I have a BAE from FAU in music ed and am currently looking for a teaching job. Trace is a full time graduate student at The George Washington University in Washington DC studying Rehabilitation Counseling with an emphasis in TBI.

We have been together since middle school, which would be about 9 years at the moment. We ended up being in band class together from middle school through college and thats where our relationship started and grew. Being from south Fl I always visited the parks often, and once trace and I got more serious she ended up coming along on many trips. We ended up going at least once a month during 2009/10 and thats thanks to our seasonal passes and our recent new love...vinylmation.

 

[KristiLyn]

Congrats and welcome!!! Yay for another groom here!! You guys make an adorable couple!!

P.S. - I'm ABSOLUTELY addicted to vinylmations too! We are in the process of creating a vinylmation cake, I have vinyls in our guestbags, and our guestbook will be vinyls too! I just love those little guys!!!

 

[mickin]

Congrats and welcome!!! Yay for another groom here!! You guys make an adorable couple!!

P.S. - I'm ABSOLUTELY addicted to vinylmations too! We are in the process of creating a vinylmation cake, I have vinyls in our guestbags, and our guestbook will be vinyls too! I just love those little guys!!!

Thanks...I'm prolly gonna post a pic of our vinyl collection on here cause were incorporating them into the wedding(more on that later). We have over 150 of them at the moment

 

[KristiLyn]

Yay post it!!
I have about 80 now. I can't wait until our honeymoon. I'm going to go crazy with them!!!
Do you collect all the series?

 

[mickin]

ok so ill post some of our "dolls"...lol its our nickname for the vinyls...

We have a few more now..we live in DC so the only way we can get/trade them is to go our local disney store. I have all of the urban 3 inch from urban 2-6 missing the super mouse from urban 4 though.

 

[KristiLyn]

Man your collection makes me super jealous! I went to the Disney Store today (I live in Louisiana so like you, that's the only way I can get them locally) and bought 30 of them Well, I had to take advantage of the buy one get one free sale!

 

[mickin]

alright..on to the theatre!!

The Proposal:

Trace and I were engaged on July 23rd 2009. It was the day after her 22nd birthday. I had planned a surprise dinner at Olive Garden(one of our fav places) for about 15 of our friends. The funny thing is that morning even I had no idea it was going to turn into an engagement dinner!
The Summer of 2009 was a great one for us. I graduated college in May. We then took our first cruise together as a graduation present from my parents in June. Got engaged in July, Trace graduated in August, and we took a trip to washington DC from her parents(which is kinda how we ended up living here at the moment..lol). So there was a lot going on, but i knew the time was right for us to take our relationship further. We had been dating for almost 7 years at the point, and Ive known she was the one for a while.
The funny thing is that day seems like a blur to me. I remember taking my parents to the airport in the morning(they were goin on a trip to Boston), going to get some hookah supplies for the then birthday party that night, makin a stop at total wine, and then going to look at some rings. I shopped around the local mall and ended up at zales. I knew I wanted to get a ring with diamonds on the side, and I ended up getting a bridal set that came with a matching wedding band as well. Heres the picture from the website.

When we pulled up to the restaurant, Trace kinda knew somethin was up because I drove a different direction through the parking lot then we normally do to avoid her seeing some of our friends cars. They took us to a back room where aour friends and her sister were sitting. Minus them all yelling out "surprise", it was one because trace thought it was just going to to be the two of us.
I was so nervous the entire dinner. I think I ordered some pasta and maybe took one bite of it. No one at that table besides me knew what I was about to do. I kept it a secret from everybody(except her mom whom I told before we left for the restaraunt). After dinner was over I told her I had to go out to the car to get her "gift". Once I got back I asked her to join me at the front of the table. I gave her a card to read out loud and stood behind her. My friend(who is my best man) claims that I almost dropped to one knee too early because to this day he still says I did it twice. Once she was done reading the card, she knew something was up based on the reaction of our friends. Behind her I was down on one knee and asked her to be my wife.
Note: picture was taken after I actually proposed due to the fact that nobody had a camera out because they didnt know what I was doing

Funny story is that immediately after it was over the waiter was on his way over with a birthday cake for us singing happy birthday, not relizing what just happened. And thats how her surprise birthday dinner/party turned into a night to remember

 

[VinylMickin]

YAY JAY

Babe, what a great job describing our engagement story! That entire day was so much fun because of your unique and romantic ideas! LOVE LOVE LOVE <3

KristiLyn- We went back down to FL for wedding gown/tux shopping and we did the same thing at the stores during the BOGO free sale...stocked up on more vinyls! We did not have a car so we couldn't take a trip to Orlando that week, but in October we should be going down for out planning session so we can go vinyl shopping/hunting then. Also, since we are moving to Virginia next month we will not be buying more shelving for our "dolls" until next then so we have the new ones hanging out on our stereo until we start packing.

Something to update: I love the Vinyl Jr's and pins a little more. But, Jay loves the 3" figures. I am planning on using any doubles of the 3" figures we like and making them into christmas ornaments - last year we used the vinyl jrs as ornaments by clipping them onto ribbon - will post pics later. This may be something for us to do in the wedding as well - we are still working out the details for the reception decor.

We will be incorporating the Vinyls by using them as favors at the Reception. Everyone will have a "create their own vinyl" to decorate and take home after the weekend and they will double as part of the place-card settings since they have them in our wedding colors. We originally were going to put them in the guest bags (for the guests staying at the resorts) but wanted to do something a little nontraditional with our favors by incorporating vinyls.

I'll try and post more as well...Jay is a little bit more seasoned that I am on the DisBoards. But, I will still try and be involved throughout our planning process.

 

[DoomBuggy0922]

Yay! So glad you guys have a PJ--- I *love* your wedding date, after all! Looking forward to reading more!

 

[KristiLyn]

YAY JAY

Babe, what a great job describing our engagement story! That entire day was so much fun because of your unique and romantic ideas! LOVE LOVE LOVE <3

KristiLyn- We went back down to FL for wedding gown/tux shopping and we did the same thing at the stores during the BOGO free sale...stocked up on more vinyls! We did not have a car so we couldn't take a trip to Orlando that week, but in October we should be going down for out planning session so we can go vinyl shopping/hunting then. Also, since we are moving to Virginia next month we will not be buying more shelving for our "dolls" until next then so we have the new ones hanging out on our stereo until we start packing.

Something to update: I love the Vinyl Jr's and pins a little more. But, Jay loves the 3" figures. I am planning on using any doubles of the 3" figures we like and making them into christmas ornaments - last year we used the vinyl jrs as ornaments by clipping them onto ribbon - will post pics later. This may be something for us to do in the wedding as well - we are still working out the details for the reception decor.

We will be incorporating the Vinyls by using them as favors at the Reception. Everyone will have a "create their own vinyl" to decorate and take home after the weekend and they will double as part of the place-card settings since they have them in our wedding colors. We originally were going to put them in the guest bags (for the guests staying at the resorts) but wanted to do something a little nontraditional with our favors by incorporating vinyls.

I'll try and post more as well...Jay is a little bit more seasoned that I am on the DisBoards. But, I will still try and be involved throughout our planning process.

I can't wait to go back to Florida! I told my fiance, Brian that I sure hope we have lots of money during the honeymoon, because I plan on buying TONS of vinyls! Just a little over 2 months now!!
Wonderful ideas!!! I love them!!! I love the Christmas ornament idea! And the create your own vinyls idea!! Can't wait to see how it all turns out and all of your ideas!!
You two make an adorable couple!

 

[mickin]

We have been gettin ideas and items for our welcome bags. Dont have any complete at the moment, probably be making them a couple days before we go up to Orlando. We originally wanted to do canvas bags with our emblem on them...which the emblem is the basic mickey-minnie kissing design ive seen on numerous PJs with our names and dates...simple yet neat. The canvas bags would get a little to pricey though. Ive only found them at michaels for about $4 for one or $10 for 3. Right now were plannin on 20 rooms.Prolly end up doin regular gift bags.

Also made some cards that were gonna laminate and hang on the outside of the bags. I got the idea from another persons PJ though I forgot whos, but thank them for it. Thell go on the bags that represnt the resort the guest is staying at.

Also doing the Pocketbacs from Bath and Body Works on the outside of the bags too.

 

[disneycrazycatlady]

this is so cool! looking foward to reading more.

 

[mickin]

Inivites!!!

We did our invites through rsvp.com. originaly we were looking at disney and non-disney invites. We looked around at a bunch of sites online and at stores like Michaels, Target, and Papyrus. We decided that our colors would be teal as the main/darkest color, then lavender/lilac, light pink, and off white/light ivory as the last color. We are having an early January wedding so we thought those colors still belonged to a winter look. Couldnt find our colors or designs we liked at any of the stores so we went online.
Same went for the non-disney invites at all the sites we found online as well. So Disney it is/was(which I was always hoping for in the first place) Trace didnt want to do character heavy or tacky disney invites which I was fine with as well. A lot of the invites we found had mickey and minnie or cinderella,(which traces fav princess is Aurora and they had no sleeping beauty invites)then we stumbled upon the invite that we fell in love with. Its got a castle up top surrounded by a midnight sky and stars. The boarder is a floral weaving that is very formal looking. Its true Disney without being tacky disney. Note: the invites are white, I didnt use flash so they look darker

We ordered 100 of them( they came in 25 increments) because we had about 71 we were sending out and 100 invites would give us plenty of extras in case we needed them. They came with outer and inner envelopes. We also ordered response cards and reception cards.

One good thing about these invites..im guessing all of disney invites...is that you have the option to select pre-arranged wording or customize your own. we realized..after ordering...that the response cards just have the number of people coming/not coming and not the name(s) of them so we wrote on the back of each a number to correspond to the guests names incase they didnt write on it themselves. We got light pink translucent scrapbook paper from michaels and cut it in half to place over the invite as a protectant/decorative element.

We did a DIY project with the room and ticket info to send out as well. We bought card stock paper and wrote out the resort and ticket info to include with the invites. we did this so that guests who are not on facebook can have the information to make reservations and purchase tickets. We cut the boarders using craft scissors from target. We cut so many pieces of paper that the last 20 or so made the scissors dull and it was tough using them. oh well.

here is the group together with the natural color of the invitations.

We love our invites and couldnt be happier with them.

 

[mickin]

Started getting back some reply cards....so far all yes...including bridal party(parents, Bridesmaids, groomsman) we have 38 attending. Although we originally planned for 50..so uh I think we may have more..lolWe sent out 71 invitations, so I guess well have to upgrade some decor items.

 

[mickin]

now were at 40
havent gotten any "nos" yet...is that good or bad???

 

[mickin]

Hi yall...back with some more updates

Just lead the way Henry!!!!!(10 hypothetical points to the person who guesses what attraction thats from)...

So I got an email from our rooms coordinator the other day. Her name is Jessica Levee and she is great. Always responds with quick emails and will answer any question she can. The email said that we have 34 room nights booked!!!!!!! Im ammazed at that...the good thing is that we still have so many people that I know are coming that havent even booked a room yet....so I know that number is just goin to go up!!!

Im continuing to work on things for our welcome bags. Its a little hard cause I really dont know much about graphic design or anything so Im basically using paint and powerpoint combined with pictures from the internet and my library.

Were doing a hidden mickey card set thats going to include the resorts that our guests are staying at,DTD, and the Magic Kingdom since thats probably going to be the park that we are all going to go to the day after the wedding. I only chose about 3 or 4 of them especially because I dont know if were going to be going on every ride at MK. There in a set of 4, but were going to cut them into individual squares and tie them together with special ribbon we bought from theknot.com that has our names and wedding date on it.

 

[mickin]

Made some ADR's for the wedding last night. Dont know if well use em, but its always good to have them.

1-4-12 at Ragland Road(welcome dinner)
1-5-12 at Boma(rehearsal dinner)
1-5-12 at O'hanas(rehearsal dinner)
1-8-12 at 1900 Park fare(farewell brunch)

Ive heard many things about ohanas for rehearsal dinners. I made it for 10 people but I think we may have more. Do you think if we call with the exact numer a day or 2 before they still will accomodate for us. I made it for 8ish so hopefully well be able to see some fireworks

Havent been to 1900 in forever but I thought it would be good for a brunch.

 

[mickin]

We just booked David and Vicki Arndt as our photographers!!!!!!
please share you experiences with them if you have any. So far all I have heard is good things.

 

[mickin]

got some new dolls over the past couple weeks...

 

[Deesknee]

congratulations!!
So far I am enjoying your pj. Seems I always log into pj's at the end, or after it has actually happened. I am thrilled to be reading along as you plan.
I love your invitations/hotel/pass info.