Jessi and Aaron- December 18, 2010 At Home Wedding followed by Disneymoon

[Eeyores Butterfly]

It's been awhile since I updated. We're kind of in a holding pattern right now. Our Worlds of Fun season has started and school is winding down, so it's very busy right now. I showed him the photos of the contemporary and he liked it. It's still all so tentative at this point.

We did get the ring when we went to the show. It turns out the diamond is actually 3/4 ct. not 1/3 like my father thought! I had gone to it thinking of something along the lines of a three stone ring, but they were all so expensive! I don't wear a lot of jewelry and just could not justify asking Aaron to spend over $1,000 on a ring. They showed me some beautiful handcrafted rings with some filligree. The one we chose is a little wider band than I would normally wear, but it has some filligree work on the sides. There is a cross on each side, which I love because it speaks of our faith. He still has it. He wants to do a formal proposal which is fine by me. I just can't wait until I have it for real. When I do, I will post the pictures.

 

[hrarcham]

Can't wait to see the ring! And, of course, hear about the formal engagement request!
I think you look lovely in the dresses. I actually like the one with the black sash!
Can't wait to hear more !

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

We are officially engaged! Now we're really going to hit the wedding planning hard.

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Congratulations on your official engagement!! Glad to hear that the ring shopping turned out well.

 

[helloirishkitty]

Congratulations on being officially engaged! Now the real fun starts

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

OMG- Four days into the actual engagement and my father is already driving me crazy! He doesn't seem to grasp the concept of Disney pricing, I don't know how many times I've explained how the minimums work. He's already asking me about maids of honor and other stuff. I love him, but he tends to stress me out because he can be slightly OCD at times.

At this point it's looking like a Disney wedding will probably not happen. I'll admit, I'm a little disappointed that I might not get to see Mickey and Minnie at my wedding after doing it so many times myself, but we could have a lot of fun here as well. One thing we are kicking around is the idea of having the reception at Worlds of Fun. We are in leadership (I am a lead, so I am in charge of a ride and he is a supervisor, so he is in charge of an area) as are most of our WoF friends. That makes it hard for people to get away because if you are not there your partner has to be. If we had the reception there, people could pop in when they are on break. That would be nice since we will have to have it during the season.

If we did it here, there's a chance we could move up the date to December, and then we wouldn't have to do it during the season and our Worlds of Fun friends would be able to come. But that gives us so little time! At this point I'm just thinking out loud. We still plan on doing a Disneymoon.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Aaron and I were talking about engagement photos, and I think we are going to try to schedule with his cousin who is a wedding photographer. I like his style for the most part. I'm not a huge fan of the blurry pics, but I like the rest of them.

http://blog.lemonlimephoto.com/

I had already asked him about wedding photography. He doesn't do his own family's weddings, but I'm wondering if his other photographers would. At the very least I'm sure they would be able to recommend somebody.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

We talked with Aaron's parents tonight. Between the size of the guest list, how soon the wedding will be, and the fact that most of his family will not be able to make it, Disney is not going to be a viable option. Instead we will have the ceremony at my church and then we will have a Disneymoon.

I hope it's okay if I incorporate the wedding planning stuff into the honeymoon PJ. If not, please let me know.

At this point I'm kind of in whirlwind planning/freakout mode. Our to-do list to date:

-Engagement pictures (calling tomorrow)
-Wedding planner (have e-mailed and called several, none have gotten back to me)
-Book the Church
-Find a reception site
-Find a dress (MOH and I are doing this next week)
-Find groom's wear. We're a bit concerned because of how tall he and the groomsmen are
-Book honeymoon before Disney sells out!

I'm going to be making lots of phone calls on my break tomorrow!

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Well, we are very much on our way. We hired our wedding consultant, Elegant Design which is a newer company based in my current town. I did buy the lace dress from David's Bridal.

We are still looking for a photographer, but we are thinking of using Steller Photography because we like their style.

We have decided to do a blue and a purple color, we are using Regency and Pool out of the David's Bridal catalogue. The girls will have floor length dresses in Regency and will be able to choose whatever they want. We are going with a literature theme, which means I will be able to work in Disney to some extent. I have a snowglobe that is Bell and the Beast in the library that I would like to use. Any other ways to work in Disney would be appreciated.

As for the honeymoon: The wedding is December 18, we will probably start driving for Florida on the 19th. I know that he has always wanted to stay at the Contemporary, so that is where we will stay. He also wants to do a cruise, I am trying to find a way, but it doesn't seem like what they have really matches our dates. There is one 7 night cruise that might work, but I'm not sure. I on the Disney Honeymoons website, they had an option for a Land and Sea which is what we want, but when you click it, there are no choices in months from the drop down menu. It was rather odd.

Is there any benefit in booking from the Disney Honeymoons site vs. the regular WDW or DCL site?