Jennifer & Troy's DFTW * 3-9-13 * WP/GF

[jenifner21]

After being told about the DISBoards at Disney’s Bridal Showcase in March, I signed up right away and started perusing other PJ’s. I am not really good at “blogging” so I was extremely hesitant to write my own but after much thought (because reading all of yours got me excited, happy and inspired) I decided I would start my own …

Who We Are:
Jennifer (me) – I am 28 years old from Brooklyn, NY (born, raised and never want to leave). I am a marketing associate for a publishing company in NYC. I have been working there for about 7 years. I was one of the lucky ones out of college; I was able to secure a job that I had a degree in. Love what I do and the company I work for (seriously, I do!)

Troy (fiancé) - He is 28 years old, born in Brooklyn, NY but like a typical Brooklynite, moved to Staten Island during H.S. (he also moved to NJ, which is another BK thing to do after you move to SI but that was short lived…). He is a sales manager for a PR software company based in NYC. Sales comes extremely natural to him and has been doing it for over 8 years (I joke and say he could sell ice to an eskimo).

How We Met:
We met through a mutual friend, Camille, in college. Said friend told me that a new kid just moved onto her block and that he would be joining us at next year and would have a few classes with us (Troy is 6 months younger than me; when he was starting his 1st year in college, I was already going into my 2nd). I honestly don’t remember actually meeting him at first because I was late for the class we all had together (I was somewhat embarrassed and rushed to the first open seat). Right after class I had to rush to the other side of the campus for my next class but somewhere in-between we were introduced. Later on when we all had a break, we started to talk and became friends. We didn’t click right away, lets just say if he said the sky was blue I would tell him it was red, but one day while at his house watching Smallville something did click and I realized how much I really truly liked him and couldn’t see myself with anyone else, so I kissed him (this took him by surprise but he didn’t complain and told me he felt the same way). And here we are almost 10 years later

After our graduation in 2005:

 

[jenifner21]

First I have to set it up: About 4 years ago, a bunch of us were hanging out in a friend’s backyard having a BBQ. The boys were talking sports while the girls were talking about everything but when we hear the guys talking about engagements. This stopped our convo and we were now intently listening to theirs. They were talking about different proposals their friends have done and what they would or wouldn’t do when one of my girlfriends said, “So Troy, you must know how you are going to propose… you have been with Jen for YEARS now!” to which he responded, “Yes, I do but why should I say ESPECIALLY with her here…”. Well that didn’t stop my girlfriend from asking again but this time he did have a response… “It will involve a monkey wrench and a screwdriver,” he told her. Well that got all of them thinking and all I was thinking was “What the… and how the…”. I asked him 2x since if he was serious and one time it was no and another was yes so I figured whatever he’s probably just throwing me off…

Now lets fast-forward to December 2010: We were celebrating our 9-year anniversary at our restaurant (everyone has one of those) and to be honest I thought something was up because he was so anxious to celebrate our anniversary at our place when that’s usually my job to do, but I digress. When I got there we sat, ordered appetizers and dinner and ate appetizers and dinner and I thought, “Nah it was all in my head”. I figured if he was going to propose it would have been in the beginning because of his nerves. Now it was time for dessert, I knew what I wanted, Crème Brulee (it’s my favorite dessert and they make it the best). A little later the waiter comes out with a plate with a present on it, funny thing is I had no clue who gave it to me so I start looking around the restaurant wondering who it was from not at all thinking it was from Troy. I started to open it neatly (OCD thing), which was driving Troy nuts because suddenly he told me just to rip it open so I did. When I opened the gift I was looking at a bracelet box and a monkey wrench. I start hysterical laughing because there is a monkey wrench and no screwdriver and started to think “he is trying to tell me that this is not how he’s going to propose” when all of a sudden I see he's getting up from his chair to approach my side. Next thing I know he is on one knee with a box in his hand speaking to me and all I can make out is "puzzle piece" (what we call each other) and "marry me" (somewhat import part…). Between laughing—because I still was—and fully understanding what was going on I didn’t make out much, he had to tell me later on what he fully said. I said yes I think even before he could finish the “…Marry Me?” part. When he got back to his seat he asked me if I was going to open up the screwdriver and when I asked him what he meant he told me to open the box. Low and behold there was the screwdriver… So in the end he actually did propose with a monkey wrench and a screwdriver (even though he admitted it really wasn’t planned that way)

The Monkey Wrench & Screwdriver:

Right after the Proposal:

The Ring:

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Congratulations and welcome!! Looking forward to hearing all about it!!

 

[jenifner21]

Congratulations and welcome!! Looking forward to hearing all about it!!

Thanks!! I'm really excited to share it with everyone!!

 

[iixheartxyouxox]

Your engagement story is so cute and funny! congrats! i can't wait to read more about your plans for the wedding!

 

[jenifner21]

Your engagement story is so cute and funny! congrats! i can't wait to read more about your plans for the wedding!

THANKS!!! Yea, I still laugh at the monkey wrench and screwdriver part whenever I tell the story (I just posted pics from the engagement night too)... I am actually going to frame them in a shadow box and I really want to try and incorporate them into our engagement photos (whenever we get around to doing them).

 

[jenifner21]

There is so much more I need to post on here but I am really anal about order and I want to post everything in order as how it happened so bare with me (I don't have that much time in my day and/or weekends but I promise I will try and keep updating every chance I get ...)

BUT the next post I am going to be talking about is our Disney history... just a quick insight to it... I sat with FMIL last night and went through all of DF's Disney pictures (he has been going since he was 7) and there are really cute ones. So as we were going through them I realized that I have already started to collect photos for our montage

This is all I have been thinking about all day and wanted to share with all of you

 

[DisneyShamrock]

I totally 'ed at the proposal. That is just awesome!

 

[NicknNancy]

Welcome to the PJ world and congrats!!! I loved your screwdriver and monkey wrench story!! lol so cute! Can't wait to read some more!

 

[sw33t_angel]

Love your proposal story!!! It is too cute!!

Can't wait to hear all about your plans!!

 

[jenifner21]

I totally 'ed at the proposal. That is just awesome!

Welcome to the PJ world and congrats!!! I loved your screwdriver and monkey wrench story!! lol so cute! Can't wait to read some more!

Love your proposal story!!! It is too cute!!

Can't wait to hear all about your plans!!

Thanks girls!!!! I have to say I have never been so excited to show off a monkey wrench and screwdriver

 

[jenifner21]

Troy and I have been going to Disney (separately and together) since forever!

My mother’s family has been going since the inception of Disney World and my mom made sure it continued with her children (as I will with my own). My parents started bringing me since I was 2, and we would go just about every year till my brother and sister were born. My very first memories are of Figment (to this day he is my favorite character) and the Tomorrowland Speedway. When we got older our parents would bring us to Disney once every 3-5 years (it was starting to get expensive for a family of 5). My family knew I loved Disney but didn’t know how much till I graduated High School. My parents made a deal with us: When we graduated H.S., our gift from them was a vacation ANYWHERE (I stress anywhere cause I could have said Australia and that’s where we would have gone). So when my parents asked me where I wanted to go, my immediate response without any hesitation was DISNEY WORLD (duh!). They kept on asking me are you sure? And I responded each time with 100%, absolutely, no if ands or buts! My mom and I have been going down every year since 2008 to celebrate Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party . We both love Christmas & Disney and Christmas + Disney = the best thing since sliced bread

Troy has been going to Disney with his mother since he was 7. I don’t know much back history but they started to go every year from age 7-16. His very first Disney purchase was a Goofy hat that he wore each day they were there (I laugh at this cause he tells me Pluto is the better dog). He always looked forward to these trips with his mom just as much as she did. His mom even did a surprise trip there; she was driving with him one day and said that they were on their way to the airport and going to Disney World (how awesome is that??)

It truly is the happiest place on earth. Troy loves to watch me walk down Main Street towards the castle; he says I have this smile on my face that turns me into a 5 year old. He has told me going to Disney with me is like experiencing it with a child who has been there for their first time. Disney World is my favorite place EVER! (period, end of story, no arguments).


I have a few pictures to post too, hopefully will have them up by the weekend.

 

[jenifner21]

So I promised DF I wouldn’t talk about wedding stuff for a month after the engagement (let me tell you how hard that was). He felt that we should enjoy the engagement before we start planning. Well, once January came along I was ready to discuss EVERYTHING .

We first discussed where we would have it. He has known since we first started dating that Disney was going to be an option no matter what, so we decided if we would have a wedding it would either be in NY, NJ or Disney. I printed out the 2011, 2012 and 2013 calendars so we could figure out a date. I always felt once you have a date you could start investigating just about everything. We quickly took 2011 out of equation because we felt that we wouldn’t be able to have the money by then to do a wedding anywhere and because of this feeling we quickly took out the first 6 months of 2012. Now we were left with July 2012-Dec 2013. DF is not a huge fan of heat and felt that here or FL the heat would be too much so July and August were ruled out for 2012. And per my dad and DF’s soon to be Best Man, who are hunters, November and December are out (Hunters Main Rule: Marriages, Births and Deaths are not allowed to occur during hunting months—Really??). I started to realize this was becoming more complicated than I thought, so we are now left with September, October for 2012 and all of 2013. Finally I pulled out March 2013 (I didn’t even bother to look at January and February because if there was a snow storm here in NY it could potentially shut down the city, especially after this past winters snow I didnt want to take any chances!). I said to him “Why not March 2013? It will give us enough time to save, if we do it here it wont be terribly cold and if we do it in FL it wouldn’t be terribly hot.” He agreed and we picked March 9, 2013.

YAY!! We have a date and I can start researching stuff, which made me the happiest person ever because I am a HUGE planner.

 

[jenifner21]

About a few weeks after we picked our date, I happened to be on Disney’s Wedding Blog when I noticed they were having a Bridal Showcase in March. Without any hesitation I contacted DF and my mom and told them we HAD to go. DF unfortunately would not have the time to get off because he and I were going down to Florida 2 weeks before the showcase (pout , but I understood). My mom on the other hand said to sign her up and we would both go together, so I booked our flights and signed us up. My mom brought up to me a few days later if I asked my sister (MOH), which I completely forgot to ask her to come. I later on brought it up to her, she said of course she would come but was a little upset I forgot about her , which honestly I don’t blame her, she was only able to come down for 2 days out of the 3.

Our itinerary was:
Day 1 – Ceremony site visit
Day 2 – Alfred Angelo Gown Fitting (!!!!), Q&A with the professionals, Luncheon with David Tutera, Showcase, Dessert Party
Day 3 – DISNEY!

Going to this showcase was probably the best decision ever. I found out A LOT of information, met with Diane Mahoney-Brown (who is now my Consultant), met and actually got advice from David for my ceremony (which I will be using) and got my wedding dress. Yes, that’s right I got my wedding dress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My sister and I with David

So when registering for the showcase you had an option to do an Alfred Angelo gown fitting, I didn’t choose to do this option because I really wasn’t ready to look for a dress (I was only engaged for a little over a month and our date was all the way in 2013) and was afraid that I might have been pressured to purchase something when I didn’t want to. About a month later I received an email from Disney saying there was still time to sign-up for the gown fitting, so I contacted my sister and mother and asked what I should do. They both said I should do it and not to worry about anything and if at any point they thought I was being pressured into something they would make sure to play “bad cops”. Even after they told me this, it still took me a bit to actually register but when I finally did I started to get excited about this and realized that it was possible that I might find my gown !!!

For the fitting, the collection they were using was Disney Fairy Tale Weddings by Alfred Angelo. I am no stranger to Alfred Angelo or to this collection and I knew automatically which dress I was going to try on. On the registration it said the fitting would only be 20 minutes so I figured that would be 1 dress. When I told my mom and sister they said I should have a few other options just in case they allow more. So I went back to the site and studied each dress and narrowed it down to 3.

My mom and I couldn’t stop talking about it on the way down and I put the dresses in order on how I wanted to try then on, just in case they kept to the 20-minute rule. On day 2 @ 9am my fitting was scheduled, it was one of 1st appointments of the day. When I checked-in I was paired up with Marissa, she asked me if I knew which dresses I wanted to try on, when I told her which ones she asked if there was one in particular I wanted to try on first and I said “OF COURSE!” and told her. When she brought out my first option I think I started to glow… I put on the dress and walked out to the mirrored wall where my mom and sister were, the minute my mom saw me she started to cry and my sister ALMOST shed a tear (she’s not much of a crier). I looked in the mirror and a huge smile came across my face and then a feeling came over me (all of us DB’s know that feeling) but at first I couldn’t figure it out if it was because it was the first time I saw myself in a wedding dress or that I just found THE dress. I was able to try on the other 2 dresses on my list (1 of them was OK but didn’t feel like a wedding dress and the other was completely bottom heavy even though I was in love with the top) and an additional one that my sister insisted I try on (completely didn’t like this one at all, it looked like my friends wedding dress and I just wasn’t feeling the top, bottom or back). When I was done trying on the last dress I asked Marissa if I could try on the first one again and she said absolutely.

At this point my fitting had lasted over the 20-minute rule and I think it was because they knew I was going to purchase. When she brought the first dress back in, that smile I first had came back as well as that feeling. I walked out again and this time not only did my mom tear but so did my sister. I looked in the mirror and was absolutely in love and knew I just found my dress. I even met the actually designer, Michael Shettel, he fixed the dress to how it was suppose to fit and the veil to match. Right after all this happened he looked at me and must have seen in my face that this was the dress cause he said to me “This is why I love what I do!” and then my mom asked “So are we saying yes to the dress?” to which I responded “I am saying yes to the dress!”

So I went from not wanting to register to the gown fitting, to finding my dress and veil!!!

I do want to mention that my gown consultant was absolutely great. She was extremely attentive, listened to everything I had to say and was very honest. She told me later on she knew that when I put on the first dress the first time she knew then that was going to be the dress but didn’t want to say anything firmly because she didn’t want to sway my decision.

Don’t mean to keep which dress I chose a secret but DF and FMIL check these forums and don’t want to ruin the surprise but I will show you which ones I tried on in no particular order:

When my dress arrived back in May, it completely felt real that I was getting married. I had to store it at my grandpa’s house for numerous of reasons but the main one was if I had a hold of it, I probably would be looking at it every chance I get… Even when I picked up the dress I asked to try it on just to make sure everything was right and asked my mom if I could walk out of the store in it…

 

[NicknNancy]

Awww I'm so excited that you got your dress!!! I was like that too...we got engaged on a Sunday and I went dress "browsing" with my mom and MOH on the Friday...and needless to say...mine turned out to be the first one I tried on! lol All those dresses are beautiful! So it's okay that you won't tell us ....even though you should! lol

 

[iixheartxyouxox]

aw what a great dress story! I can only hope to have that moment when you know its the one. Seems like it was meant to be that you found your dress in disney!

 

[jenifner21]

Awww I'm so excited that you got your dress!!! I was like that too...we got engaged on a Sunday and I went dress "browsing" with my mom and MOH on the Friday...and needless to say...mine turned out to be the first one I tried on! lol All those dresses are beautiful! So it's okay that you won't tell us ....even though you should! lol

Thanks!! I couldn't believe I got it so early but I fell in love and new I would constantly compare to THE ONE. I wish I could tell you guys which dress it is and show you the actually pictures of me in them but my face tells it all to which is the one lol

aw what a great dress story! I can only hope to have that moment when you know its the one. Seems like it was meant to be that you found your dress in disney!

Aww thanks!! You definitely will have "that moment"!! ... Yea if finding my dress at Disney wasn't fate, I don't know what is lol

 

[FairytaleBride73]

Just joining in! Gorgeous dresses!! I'm so curious as to which one you picked!! I haven't started my dress shopping yet but I'm so anxious!

 

[mmmbop]

Amaaaazing. Can't wait to read more!!

 

[jenifner21]

Just joining in! Gorgeous dresses!! I'm so curious as to which one you picked!! I haven't started my dress shopping yet but I'm so anxious!

Hi... Thanks!!! I have a feeling I'm gonna break and let everyone know soon
When I was doing my fitting I was nervous (hands shaking nervous) b/c I couldn't believe it was happening but once I put on that first dress it became so much fun!! Do you know when you are going to start shopping??

Amaaaazing. Can't wait to read more!!

Thanks for joining in!!!!