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

[Jilian]

So I've been working on invitations for a few days now and here is what I've come up with:

Outside:

Inside:

Response & Reception cards:

What do you think? I've only printed one sample up so far so I still have time to make changes. I'd love some honest opinions

 

[KristiLyn]

I really LOVE them!!! They look simple and elegant!!!

 

[Nichole33]

Very nice invites!!

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Jilian sweetie - loving the invites!!! Particularly love the M&M graphic, but I may be biased as it is the same graphic that I used as the basis for my logo. You obviously have impeccable taste!!!

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

they're great!! i love them!!

 

[pixie921]

Jilian, I really like what you came up with for your invitations. They're so simple and elegant!

 

[Jilian]

Thank you all!! I'm really excited to even be at the point where it is time to do invites! I'm probably not going to mail them out for a few more months but I wanted to give myself time in case they came out awful so I could start over.

My mom emailed me today asking if her and my dad could drive up to Disney for the day with me and stay overnight so we could try out the restaurant and look around @ where everything will be held. I'm really excited! I've been wanting to go back and try il mulino to make sure we've chosen the right menu choices. I'm happy that my mom and dad want to join us. Yay!!

 

[Jilian]

There is a 7 in front on my ticker! Wooohooo, the VR is getting closer and I'm so, so excited. I'm starting to think more about the ceremony now and how we should decorate crescent terrace. I think I might try to find some pedestals for our urns and see if I can color match and make that work. I had my heart set on a pretty canopy but the stupid canopy place won't get back to me. I might try once more before throwing in the towel, but I get really nervous going with vendors who have poor communication.

After seeing the pictures of Joanne's champagne/cake after her ceremony I'm wondering if maybe we shold do that? I feel weird having cake before dinner but we're paying to have crescent terrace and the violininst for the full hour and the ceremony will only take 20 mins tops. I'd like to find some way to keep us there so we can mingle and enjoy the music before dinner. I wonder if we could cut the cake and then have it brought in for dessert after dinner, is that weird to cut the cake and not serve it right after? Decisions decisions.

 

[Jilian]

Ha! The canopy rental company just got back to me, I guess they were on vacation. I was really surprised to hear that it is $465 for rental and delivery. Ugh, I don't know if we should still go with it. We'd still need flowers for it so it will probably cost about $1,000 and we'll only use it for 20 mins.

 

[tinkerbell 766]

There is a 7 in front on my ticker! Wooohooo, the VR is getting closer and I'm so, so excited. I'm starting to think more about the ceremony now and how we should decorate crescent terrace. I think I might try to find some pedestals for our urns and see if I can color match and make that work. I had my heart set on a pretty canopy but the stupid canopy place won't get back to me. I might try once more before throwing in the towel, but I get really nervous going with vendors who have poor communication.

After seeing the pictures of Joanne's champagne/cake after her ceremony I'm wondering if maybe we shold do that? I feel weird having cake before dinner but we're paying to have crescent terrace and the violininst for the full hour and the ceremony will only take 20 mins tops. I'd like to find some way to keep us there so we can mingle and enjoy the music before dinner. I wonder if we could cut the cake and then have it brought in for dessert after dinner, is that weird to cut the cake and not serve it right after? Decisions decisions.

Jilian sweetie - Could you have hors d'ourves (sp) served with champagne after the ceremony? I am sure that the S/D catering department could come up with something. I am sure Karen could help. The only issue with that, is there may be a minimum spend.
Another thought was to have a two tier cake made with the two tiers being two completely different flavours ( one chocolate and one vanilla, for example) and serve small fingers of one tier at the champagne reception and then the other tier as dessert with ice cream. Just a thought!!!
I must say that we are so glad that we had our small reception at the courtyard. It gave us the opportunity to listen to Christine's wonderful music and chill and mingle with our guests. Once we got to the restaurant, it was more difficult to chat to guests, as we were all seated a bit more formally and so we were a little too far away from some. It also gave us the chance to make short speeches and toasts - this would have been difficult in the non-private restaurant. We adored our Citrico's reception meal, but we are so glad we had that little private champagne and cake reception as well. We paid a little extra (about $3.00 per guest I think), to hire the two servers to cut and serve the cake, and pour and serve the bubbly. It was well worth the extra expense to have the professionals do this, and to not have to worry about it.
As for the canopy, well, it does seem rather expensive, especially when you factor in the floral for it too (and I suspect it wouldn't look good without the floral). It depends how important to you it is. My floral was extremely important to me, and I know how it is when you get a vision in your head!!! It's hard to let it go!!

 

[roxysmum123]

Love your story and am now subscribing to your PJ. The invites are super cute, contemporary yet fun which is my style so if it were up to me I'd say don't change a thing! And as for the cake question, it's not weird to cut the cake right away. I've been to plenty of weddings where they did their first dance and cut the cake before anyone even sat down because they only had the photographer for a certain amount of time and wanted photos of those moments. I might cut it, do the first slice for you and your husband and then have them cut and plate the rest for dessert.

 

[DoomBuggy0922]

I think having cake before dinner is absolutely fine! And kind of fun too--- it's a treat, right? (And we're all adults! )

 

[Jilian]

Joanne, I love that the swan staff members will cut and serve the cake for you. I'm so thankful for your PJ, I've gotten so much valuable info from you! You are such a gem

roxy'smum, welcome! Thanks for joining us! Now that you've mentioned it I have been to many weddings where they cut the cake early for pictures.

Doom, Cake before dinner is fun, after all it is a celebration! My only worry is that there will be quite a few kids present and cake tends to make them jam-packed with energy (my kids especially). Maybe if we just have a little...lol

 

[Jilian]

Sorry I've neglected my poor PJ, I've been lazy with the planning. I need to get my butt back in gear. Disney offered free dining for the day of our VR and the 5 days after! I emailed my Boston peeps and let them know and we went ahead and booked 8 rooms today. We did a grand gathering so we could all be close by each other. After much going back and forth about whether or not to go fancy and get a villa we decided on just a regular room @ the Carribean Beach Resort. I really like it there and my kids LOVE the pool. Also, we get to stay for a full 8 days. I'm so happy to have booked!

Now that we're at the 6 month mark it is starting to feel really close.

 

[pixie921]

Jilian, that's great that you were able to get the free dining for your VR trip! I love CBR ... it's such a pretty resort (we've always called it "Poly-lite" ), and their pool is amazing! I think you made a great choice.

 

[Jilian]

Jilian, that's great that you were able to get the free dining for your VR trip! I love CBR ... it's such a pretty resort (we've always called it "Poly-lite" ), and their pool is amazing! I think you made a great choice.

Thanks We're really happy about the free dining, I hope it encourages everyone to book soon. I'm getting nervous about rooms filling up and people not getting to stay @ CBR with us.

 

[Jilian]

Woohoo, I can't believe I'm at the 6 month mark! I've had a very long VR planning break and I think it is time to get back to work. I went ahead and sent sent out an email letting everyone know about the free dining and how to book and become part of our grand gathering and pretty much all of my family members have booked. It looks like my H's family is leaning towards staying off property. Oh well, at least we let them know. We've found out that at least 2 couples cannot make it so that helps with the guest count.

I contacted Il Mulino to firm up a few things and asked if they'd allow a tasting session and to my surprise they said yes! I'm really excited because I've never eaten there and want to be sure of our menu choices. I think we'll probably go up sometime in November and I'm going to try to book my hair/makeup trial then too.

I've finished all of the wording for the invites, now I just need to start the printing and assembling. Who knew that wording was so tricky? Luckily my aunt is a wedding planner in Boston for a really high end place and I have her to ask my hundreds of questions. I'm aiming to send them out around the 4 month mark, so sometime around thanksgiving.

I'm hopeful that we'll get my H's suit within the next month or 2 and then we can find matching suits for our sons. I'm considering vests & no jackets for our sons...thoughts? I know that even if we get the jackets they will probably not wear them for very long. We're buying instead of renting and JC Penny has some great deals on suits without jackets for kids.

That is about it for now. I can't believe how much more is left to be done, it makes me feel a bit panicky when I think about it!

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Jilian sweetie - Just checking in. It all seems to be going really well!!! Well done for getting the tasting session organized!!

 

[Jilian]

Thanks Joanne, I'm so happy to have a swan/dolphin pro following along

 

[Jilian]

Today is the official 6 month mark which means it is time to make dining reservations. I'm lost and have no clue what to book. We'll have our 3 little ones with us so we'll mostly do kid type places (hellooo Crystal Palace!) but we do want to do one really nice sit down dinner alone. We're thinking Citricos maybe? Does anyone have any suggestions? We haven't had the chance to do dinner alone much in Disney and have no idea where to choose.