Jilian & BT's VR 3/24/12 Crescent Terr/Il Mulino - Last of the Randy Chapman pics up!

[2dogmom]

I like your bouquet. Very pretty. I would probably go a little bigger, but the colors are great. I would go with the blue shoes. Hot pick may be too bright and flashy. I can't comment on the sash. Dresses aren't my thing.

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Jilian sweetie - I love the bouquet. It probably could take being a little bigger, but then I love big bouquets (you saw mine!!!). It is really natural looking and very pretty. Glad you are sticking with the blue shoes. I love them!!!

 

[Jilian]

Tonight I finished up the centerpieces. I felt like they needed something more so I bought a floating candle to put on top. Best. idea. ever. It lights up the whole cyllinder and flowers inside. I've decided to go with 2 cyllinders too. So here they are, all light up:

It was hard to get a good picture showing how the floating candle light them up because my camera phone flash kept wanting to go on every time I dimmed the lights. I haz the technology stupid so I wasn't about to try to figure out how to change it.

On a personal note, my sister is having surgery Monday to remove a suspicious mass on her ovary. I'm very nervous for her, uterine and ovarian cancer run in my family. She could use some pixie dust, prayers and positive thoughts if you don't mind. She's my younger sister, she's only 27 and she has 2 kids.

 

[roxysmum123]

Centrepieces look awesome!

Good thoughts being sent for your sister

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Jilian sweetie - Love the centrepieces, they are very elegant and the candles really make them!!! Well done you!!
Sending all my love and pixiedust to your sister and all your family
I will keep you all in my prayers and hope for the most positive of outcomes!!! Let us know how she is doing, sweetie.

 

[Jilian]

Thanks for the centerpiece love and wishes for my sister. My sister's surgery was a success and the mass came back as being benign so we are all relieved. She's almost feeling back to normal already too. So yay!

The H and I are headed up to WDW Saturday (without the kids!) for a menu tasting @ Il Mulino. I've also managed to squeeze in a hair/makeup trial for Sunday morning. I have loads of hairstyles that I like and I tried my dress on again for inspiration. Here is my dress with the complete setup:

For hair I'm thinking something like this (I like her makeup too!):

Do you think that would go with my dress? My hair is pretty long so I may ask to see what half up looks like too.

I'm still having a shoe dilemma. I'm not feeling the blue shoes too much, because I don't have anything else blue in my outfit or flowers. I'm thinking of trying pale pink shoes to match my flowers. I really liked these black ones too

I wish it wasn't so hard to find shoes! Maybe I'll post on the main page for shoe help.

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Jilian sweetie - So glad all is well with you sister. What a relief for you all!!!
Wow, you look stunning in your dress - every inch the princess!!
Shame about the blue shoes as I loved them, but I hear your concerns about them not matching anything else. Do they have to though? Don't you have blue in the guys vests and ties or something? I think it would all tie in rather nicely.
Have a great menu-tasting trip!!!

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

You look great! How long are you staying??? We have dinner at Shula's Sunday night I hope Il Mulino is great for you!!

 

[Jilian]

Joanne, my H still loves the blue shoes so they aren't totally ruled out yet. They are his favorite color and he just loves them. Thanks for the kind words, my daughter came in when I was trying my dress on (she's 2 years old) and she said "mommy princess" LOL!

Luv, we're only staying there for the night Saturday and heading back Sunday afternoon. I hear really good things about Shula's and I can't wait to hear what you think of it when you get back. Your ticker says 3 days!!!!! Yay for you, your wedding is going to be magical!

 

[virtuous girl]

Ur dress is beautiful especially the bling around the waist Im a sucker 4 bling Have a blast at ur taste testing trip with NO KIDS!! they know u love them but 2 eat a nice meal & get ur hair done is a nice treat 4 urself... I think ur inspiration hair pics will go perfect with ur dress..

 

[Jilian]

Thanks! I'm trying to talk H into leaving Friday so we can spend 2 days @ WDW but he's being a Debbie downer. Boo! I'm really excited for the hair trial, I hope it comes out nice. We're using Beaute Speciale so I'm sure it will, those ladies are miracle workers!

 

[Jilian]

H wasn't a fan of leaving tonight Boo! He's such a party pooper sometimes. I'm still packing for tomorrow. It is freezing here in Florida today! I hope all of the 11/11/11 brides stayed warm today. I'm trying to work on a to do list since this should probably be our last trip up until the VR in March. I know I've said that a bunch of times but I think this time is really it. So here goes:

Get "We're celebrating" pins for welcome bags

Try to get "Just married" pins

Buy ears for H and I for pics...I'm still undecided on if I should get the regular black ears or the wedding ears. I'm leaning towards regular black ears

Buy some form of jewelery for my daughter to wear for the VR. Either a bracelet or tiara.

Take Dis transportation from the CBR to the Swan so I can explain it on paper to my guests

Menu tasting Sat night, then decide and finalize the menu

Stop in some time at Epcot to drink heavily since we're without kids...lol

Pop in over @ MK because they are open late and we can stay late without kids!

Hair/makeup trial Sunday morning before checkout

Think I can squeeze all of this into 24 hours? I'm feeling ambitious, maybe I should cut out the "Drink heavily" part?

 

[roxysmum123]

Think I can squeeze all of this into 24 hours? I'm feeling ambitious, maybe I should cut out the "Drink heavily" part?

With all you want to get done, I think the drink heavily part is the last thing you should cut, lol

 

[pixie921]

Jilian, I think that hairstyle will look beautiful on you with your gorgeous dress! I hope you guys have a fun weekend at WDW -- I'm jealous!

And I know you Floridians don't like the cold, but maybe you can take some comfort in the fact that at least it's not snowing like it did here yesterday!

 

[Jilian]

With all you want to get done, I think the drink heavily part is the last thing you should cut, lol

Yeah, you're probably right. It should make things interesting too

Thanks Pixie! I'm going to be one of those annoying people now that say that I miss the snow. I was born and raised just outside of Boston and I really miss it up there this time of year. Now I'll duck so you don't pelt me with a snowball Are you still secretly planning something for you and your H?

 

[Jilian]

Well we're back from the most amazing 24 hour trip to Disney ever. I don't even know where to start. It was so much fun! We were able to get everything done we needed to get done too. I guess I'll start at the beginning.

So we left our house around 9:45 am and arrived @ Caribbean beach resort around 11:45. We checked in and the cast member who checked us in was nice enough to give us 15 "We're Celebrating" pins for our welcome bags. I asked for 50 but she misunderstood me and brought 15 and I didn't say anything. She also gave us "Happily Ever After Pins" and told us that they still have "Just Married" pins @ MK. So we dropped our stuff at our room and went down to Old Port Royal for lunch. I got the Turkey BLT @ their deli with potato salad. It was seriously one of the best sandwitches I've ever had. It was almost a religious experience. Seriously, this sandwitch is freakin awesome. DH got a grilled chicken sandwitch and it wasn't so good.

After lunch we hopped on a bus to MK. First we went over to get our Mickey ear hats, and because we're dorks we wore them around for the rest of the trip. We didn't want to get our first names, so we used nicknames

At first H didn't want to wear his, so I carried them. Then a CM stopped us and said "What, he doesn't want to put his ears on? Put them on!" It was hilarious. So DH put them on and pretended to be mad.

But then embraced his inner child and wore them for the rest of the day.

So after we got our hats we headed over to guest services to try to get 30 more "We're Celebrating" pins. We nicely explained to the guy that we were renewing our vows at Crescent terrace and wanted 30 pins for our guest's welcome bags. He said "come with me!" and we followed and he took us inside and asked us to wait. Then he came back with a bag with 40 of the pins inside and he also gave us the anniversary pins and the "Happily ever after" pins and wished us well. He was so, so nice. I didn't bother asking for the "Just married" pins like I had initially planned. We're already married and even though they had them, they are in short supply so we figured we'd save them for someone who really was just married.

We stopped in one more store and bought a bracelet for DD

and pins for all 3 kids. We plan on incorporating these into the ceremony to show our love and commitment to them.

Then we were torn between heading to Epcot for the F&W festival or going to Hollywood Studios to do a ride or two before the menu tasting. Because we were so full we chose Hollywood Studios. So we hopped onto the monarail and off we went!

 

[Jilian]

So we got to Hollywood Studios around 3 and that gave us about an hour before we wanted to head over to the Swan for our menu tasting. We decided to go on the Tower of Terror. I love that ride! It never gets old! By the time we got off it was 3:45 so we grabbed iced mochas (also delicious!) and headed over to catch a bus to the Swan. Only when we got to the bus area we realized there was no Swan bus. Then we noticed the water taxi (I think they are also called Friendship boats?) so we hopped in line. It was such a beautiful ride! I don't know how we've managed to miss them all this time.

We talked a little bit about chartering transportation for the VR since Disney transportation wasn't really easy to figure out. Most of our guests haven't been to Disney and trying to explain how you have to take a bus from 2 of the locations and a boat from 2 other locations could get hairy. They'd probably end up lost. So we were considering it.

We got to the Swan around 4:15 and our menu tasting wasn't until 5 so we walked around a bit. We visited Crescent Terrace again and then I stopped at the conceirge desk to ask about Camp Dolphin. It turns out that if you are having dinner at any of the Signature restaurants in the Swan/Dolphin you can get up to 2 hours of free childcare through camp dolphin. So since our VR is @ Il Mulino we qualify. She told me to talk to Karen @ Just Marry first and if I couldn't book through her then to call the hotel back. This is awesome! My kids are gonna be so excited! It doesn't start till 5:30 and that is perfect because the kids will get to come to the ceremony and then go to camp dolphin and have fun (and dinner is included) while we have some adult time. I'm so happy about this!

So anyway, the Swan is so much more beautiful than I remembered. We walked around a bit and took some pictures. Then we headed over to the Il Mulino for our menu tasting...

We arrived at Il Mulino and it was beautiful. They had a lot of amber candles buring in the lounge and a live band was setting up. The candle light was beautiful and we were so happy to see how beautiful the restaurant looked at night. We met Brain, the manager, in the lounge. We all sat down together and talked about wines for a bit. Then he brought over 3 bottles for us to try. They were great and he offered us other selections but we were happy with the first 3 so we stuck with them (they were antinori wines). Then he brought out the 2 salads on the menu we chose for our VR. The cesar was so good but we didn't care for the house salad. He came back with a caprese salad (buffalo cheese, tomatoe, roasted red pepper and basil) and it was amazing. He kept pouring us more wine so we could try each salad with wine. We chose to go with that instead of the house salad.

Then he brought us each the 3 entrees we had on our menu! Holy food! First we tried the tortellini and I was pleasantly surprised. It is in a cream sauce with peas but it had a nice taste to it. We decided to keep it on the menu. Then we tried the Salmon, it is served medium-well (which keeps it from drying out like all of the other salmon we've had on Disney property) and it comes with sauteed mushrooms and it is on a bed of broccolirab. It is a bit spicy but when you squeeze the lemon over it, it has a nice flavor. We decided to keep it on the menu. Finally we tried the chicken picatta. It was mine and H's favorite. The sauce is just really, really good and the capers are a nice touch. By the end we were really full but he came back once more with a dessert platter. It had ricotta cheesecake, tiramisu, and flourless chocolate cake. All 3 were good but the tiramisu was awesome. You could taste the espresso and it was just so good. During dinner we had lots of wine and Brian kept coming over and chatting with us about all of the selections. He is really great to work with; he's also the manager who gave us our tour last March. When we were done, he asked if we'd like to stay but we said we had to get going. It was an amazing dinner and it makes me so happy to have chosen Il Mulino. The service was excellent and the food was amazing. We visited the function room and then headed out for the Magic Kingdom...

 

[Jilian]

So we left Il Mulino and headed over to the bus stop to catch a bus for MK so we could see the parade. The bus took forever. Really, it was like 20-30 mins but it felt like forever. Then we had to stop at the boardwalk and beach club on the way so it took us 45 mins on the bus plus the 20-30 mins of waiting for the bus. This made us 100% sure that we needed to charter our own transporation for the VR. We didn't want our guests to have to spend over an hour getting to the swan then another hour to get back. So tomorrow morning I'll be calling Mears to price out one way trips versus a 5 hour rental.

So we got to the MK just in time for the parade. And the castle! OMG the castle! I've never seen it lit for Christmas with the LED lights. It made me well up. You see, I have a thing for the castle, I always have. Any time I go to Disney I need to stop @ MK first to see the castle and it always gives me goosebumps. Seeing the castle makes me feel like I'm actually in Disney and my vacation has begun. So seeing the castle all lit up like that was amazing! I'm totally gonna frame these pictures my took for me. I <3 him

So we watched a bit of the parade and then headed down to Haunted Mansion for a ride. When we got off Wishes was starting so we watched while walking towards the exit, only everyone else in the park had the same idea. A CM told us that there werr 58,000 people in the park that day! So we cut across to go do the Buzz lightyear ride. H and I have a rivalry with these types of rides and last time I hit some target and my score was all 9's so he had something to prove and I had a title to defend. When we were waiting in line some guy came up and gave us 2 fast passes for the ride because he was leaving. Score! So we got right on. H won. Cheater! I'll get him next time! By then it was 11 so we headed back to the hotel before the other parade started and there was a mass exodus. We were exhausted and went right to bed.

The next morning Jackie from Beaute Speciale arrived to do my hair/makeup trial. H left to go get us breakfast. Jackie was great, she was so nice and friendly and really knew her stuff about hair and makeup. I gave her my hair and makeup inspiration pictures and she did a great job. The lady is a miracle worker! Here I am:

I went with the fake lashes and I think they look pretty real!

I'm really happy that I got to do the trial. I felt really comfortable with Jackie and I trust her to do a great job the day of the ceremony. She even gave me 2 lipstick touch ups and a powder touch up to take with me I highly recommend her!

After my hair/makeup was done I had H take a billion pictures then we headed out. We walked the entire resort to scope out a good location to stay for our VR. I hope Grand Gatherings lets us put in a request! Then we checked out the area where we plan on doing our welcome gathering and stopped into Old Port Royal for a coffee. I bought the Minnie wedding ears too. I wasn't going to but then when I tried them on with my hair they looked oh-so-cute that I couldn't resist. And that was it. Our 24 hour trip was done. I always hate leaving Disney but H bribed me with 5 guys burgers on the ride home. I looked like a real winner in there with jeans, sneakers, and my wedding hair/makeup. I got all sorts of odd stares. lol. I left my hair/makeup as it was to see how long it would hold up. After 11 hours I finally washed it off. It held up perfectly and I didn't need to touch up my hair or makeup once. Yay Beaute Speciale!

So there is our story. I'm more excited than ever about this VR because I think we've made some great choices. 4 more months until we're back in the World, I can't wait!!!! Thanks for following my very long winded mini TR!

 

[LyndsayJ]

Just joining in on your wedding planning.

Your dress looks gorgeous on you!! I also really like the centerpieces.

 

[Jilian]

Just joining in on your wedding planning.

Your dress looks gorgeous on you!! I also really like the centerpieces.

Thanks for joining, and thanks for the dress and centerpiece love