Joanne and Paul's VR - 4th May 2011

As a reward for reading my ramblings, here is another one!!

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Kristi sweetie - Thank you so much!! We had so much fun at the TTD!!! Are you doing one?

We may or may not. Our wedding is at 6:30, with dinner at 8:30 after. It'll be pretty dark by then, so I'm not sure. If we do, we would probably have to do it the next day. But it does seem like so much fun!

And look how sweet that pic you just posted is. You two are so darn cute! :goodvibes
 

Nice TTD photos! We weren't planning on doing one but now I'm wondering if we should add one. I love the second picture, you both look so happy :) I can't wait to hear about Karen and the Swan/Dolphin!
 
We may or may not. Our wedding is at 6:30, with dinner at 8:30 after. It'll be pretty dark by then, so I'm not sure. If we do, we would probably have to do it the next day. But it does seem like so much fun!

And look how sweet that pic you just posted is. You two are so darn cute! :goodvibes

Nice TTD photos! We weren't planning on doing one but now I'm wondering if we should add one. I love the second picture, you both look so happy :) I can't wait to hear about Karen and the Swan/Dolphin!

Kristi sweetie - We did our TTD session on the Monday after our ceremony (five days later)!! It was lovely to put on my dress again and to wear different jewellery with it (I was afraid my heavy earrings and bracelet may get lost in the water!!). I say go for it!!
Thanks for saying we are cute. My gorgeous hubby certainly is!!

Jilian sweetie - You should definately do one!! Thanks we were happy - ecstatic in fact!!
 
here are the reviews you girls have been waiting for!!

Venue - Swan West Courtyard

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From the minute I first saw the West Courtyard I knew we had made the right choice!!!
The West Courtyard is far prettier and far more intimate than I expected!!! We were thrilled with our choice of venue!!!
The beautiful fountain stayed on during our ceremony and it was gorgeous. I was a little worried that our guests wouldn't be able to hear what was being said, but it was not a problem at all!!! Only my Mum said that she didn't catch everything that was said, but she never does, bless her!!! Both my DD and DS are used to throwing their voices as both have theatrical experience, and Rev Tim manages to project his voice brilliantly. I also had only a few guests and so they were able to sit really close. I think that if you have a larger number of guests who are more spread out, or speakers who are less likely to be heard, it would be better to have the fountains turned off. Shame though, as they certainly are a beautiful backdrop for the proceedings!!
I know that some girls have been concerned about the West Courtyard being overlooked by rooms and balconies. This is, of course, true. I can honestly say though, that this was not a problem for us!! There were very few people watching from their balconies, as I suspect that on such a lovely day they were all out and about. Waving to the few we did spot, after the ceremony, added to the experience and made me feel even more special!!
The water station set up for the guests in the Courtyard was a real blessing as it was a very hot day!!
We hired two servers from the Swan's team to serve both the champagne and cake after the ceremony. I am ashamed to admit that I don't remember their names, but they were two sweet men who did their job perfectly and then boxed up the cake for us to take away. We also had some champagne and sparkling cider left over and they saw to it that these were given to my Mum so as we could enjoy it later!!
The interior of the Swan is beautiful and so cool with all the marble. It is a lovely place for the guests to wait. Some of our guests had the opportunity to see something of the hotel lobby, because we only had one limo which had to do two journeys from BLT, and all the guests loved the Swan and were very impressed with it's cool and relaxing atmosphere. The indoor fountain is beautiful too!!

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To sum up, I loved the West Courtyard so much. I was lucky enough to be invited to James and Jeffery's beautiful ceremony at SBP a few days after our VR and I was prepared that I may prefer SBP to the Courtyard. I didn't!!! SBP is gorgeous too, but for the amount of guests we had, I was really pleased we chose the Courtyard!!!

Planner and co-ordinator - Karen Gingerich (JustMarry)

Those of you who have been following my ramblings know that I have always described Karen as an angel, and following our day, her halo is shining brighter than ever!!!
Throughout the planning process, Karen never once let me down. I was planning this event from thousands of miles away and it was essential to me that I have somebody who I could trust completely!!! She was the perfect planner for me!! She let me 'do my own thing' with the things I was confident about reserching and planning for myself, and jumped in with advice and help when I needed it. For example, by recommending a florist when I became disillutioned with the one I originally chose!! Karen chose the limo company for me and they were brilliant!!! She certainly knows her vendors!!
Kareen was ALWAYS quick to respond to my e-mails and always answered questions and quietened my fears with understanding and professionalism!!!
Karen and I struck up a really good relationship right fom our first e-mail on and I feel she really 'got' the vision I had for our day.
On the day itself, everything ran really smoothly and that is testament to the hard work of Karen and her team. I found out after our day was over (from Randy via my husband), that when Karen first saw my floral, she was not satisfied and sent it back to have adjustments made. She was so in tune with what my vision of my floral was, that she knew exactly what I was hoping for. That is one dedicated planner, who is not afraid to do her job!!!
I must point out too, that the floral that I got in the end was breathtaking and more beautiful than I could have dreamed!!! Karen said it was amongst the most beautiful floral she had ever seen!!!
I cannot say enough good things about Karen, and any girl who has her as their planner will not be disappointed, I am sure!!
I told Karen that as far as I was concerned, she was a deliverer of dreams - as to me that is exactly what she is!!

In this photo, the gorgeous Karen is in pink and the other lady is her assistant (who was fantastic but whose name I have rudely forgotten!!). I cannot remember what Rev Tim is saying, but it is obviously very funny!!! I think maybe he was telling me that I had clearly forgotten the 'flat arms = fat arms' rule!!! :rotfl2:

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Next up - Rev Tim and Christine our harpist
 
Officiant - Rev Tim Herring (see photo above)

http://www.orlandoweddinglocations.com/rev_tim.htm

Rev Tim is just the sweetest of men. He compiled and delivered a beautiful service for us and really made a point of including the children.
I have to admit that Rev Tim's e-mail messages are short and to the point, but I think he is not all that comfortable with computers and communicating via them. Face to face he is completely different and is very articulate and obviously really enjoys his work.
Rev Tim was a little late arriving for our ceremony - not much (about five or ten minutes), but this didn't matter as Karen had built enough flexibility into our schedule to allow for a few hic-ups!! Rev Tim apologised profusley when he arrived and I already knew that there were some traffic hold-ups that day (Randy had said he had a bit of trouble too!!), so it really wasn't a problem and in fact, I was grateful for the short gap between finishing our photos with Randy and starting the ceremony. It gave me the chance to have some water, gather myself and have a chat to the lovely Crissy (smileycrissy) who had arrived to be part of our day!! Poor Rev Tim had a very busy day that day, and I think had a wedding before ours. He certainly had the wedding of Mary (Disneemama)'s daughter at the WP at 5.00pm. I have to admit to being concerned beforehand that he may rush through our ceremony in order to prepare for the bigger wedding following our's. This was not the case at all!!! After our beautiful ceremony, Rev Tim stuck around for some time and joined us in a glass if something (I think he had the cider). He spoke to most if not all of our guests, and made a point of telling Paul and I that he prefers vow renewals to weddings. He said that weddings were easy and it is the marriages which are hard and he is always so proud of couples who come to him after working at their marriages for a number of years, and say they want to re-commit to each other. He gave us a pretty renewal certificate which he had the children sign. A lovely touch!!
I loved Rev Tim and so did my guests!! He has a very lovely Southern accent and speaks very beautifully. He sent me a sweet e-mail a few days later saying how much he enjoyed our ceremony and complimenting us on our family. A really lovely man!!

Harpist - Christine McPhail

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http://www.orlandoharpist.com/

Even when I was looking at having our VR through DFTW, I knew that I wanted to have a harpist play at our ceremony. The price that DFTW were charging for providing this service, however, seemed to mean I was not going to get one!!! When I switched to the Swan, I started reserching harpists in the Orlando area and found Christine. We immediately struck up an excellent relationship via e-mail, and when Karen confirmed how talented she is, she was booked!! When I booked, Christine sent me a CD of her music along with suggestions of suitable music to use for every part of the ceremony.
Christine is incredibly talented and her skills on her instument unsurpassed!! I am only sorry that I didn't hear all her offerings on the day, but my guests who did, thought she was amazing!!! Christine's beautiful music was an important part of the day for me, and it is one of the things which will live in my memory forever!!
Christine is a lovely person and when she found out that my friend's daughter had a birthday two days after our VR, played 'Happy Birthday' to her whilst we were eating cake and drinking champagne!!
If you are looking for a harpist for your wedding or VR, look no further than Christine. You will love her and her music!!

Next up - cake, floral and limo hire
 
Joanne, I'm so glad you've started your reviews and with such great detail! :thumbsup2

The courtyard was so lovely and it's great that the fountain stayed on -- it's so pretty! And your floral arrangements were *gorgeous*!!

Karen sounds like she was a dream to have with you on the day, everything one would hope a planner would be! :goodvibes And you've made me even more excited to have Christine play at our VR!

I'll be waiting anxiously for more! :goodvibes
 
Not sure if it's been answerd yet but how did you do the Mickey welcome design with the resort in the background....love it
 
Hi Mickin
I assume you are talking about the little logo I designed which appears (left) in my avatar. If so, I kind of cobbled it together using three different bits of clipart. The Mickey and Minnis was one bit of clipart, the swirly canopy thing over the top of them was another and the swan was yet another. I just played around with the three images until I was happy with it. I went on everything to do with our VR from newletters to invitations and welcome bags to favour boxes!!! I am so glad you like it!!!

Okay I just realized that you are probably talking about the design for the welcome letter envelopes!!! Oops sorry!!! I designed that myself too and just layered a picture of Mickey onto a resort picture. I would be happy to do some for you too, but unfortuately my computer is having a funny five minutes at the moment and it seems to have wiped a lot of my files and the programmes I use for designing. It is going in to the repair shop at the back end of this week, and if my files can be recovered, I will PM you and see if you want some designed.
 
Oh you look so lovely in your teaser TTD photos!! And Paul does look hot there too! :goodvibes

Stop - you were beautiful both on your wedding day and on the day of James' ceremony.

I love your reviews. Thank you for posting the links because I will be saving them for my later date, whenever that will be. And it reminded me that I wanted to email Karen. :rotfl: By the way, perhaps I missed it but I didn't see a review on the cake. It was super yummy!!

I didn't know Emily did her own make-up, she did a wonderful job. She looked so beautiful. :)
 
Oh you look so lovely in your teaser TTD photos!! And Paul does look hot there too! :goodvibes

Stop - you were beautiful both on your wedding day and on the day of James' ceremony.

I love your reviews. Thank you for posting the links because I will be saving them for my later date, whenever that will be. And it reminded me that I wanted to email Karen. :rotfl: By the way, perhaps I missed it but I didn't see a review on the cake. It was super yummy!!

I didn't know Emily did her own make-up, she did a wonderful job. She looked so beautiful. :)

Yay gorgeous girl!!!
I have missed you!!
I am glad you like the reviews as I was beginning to wonder whether I was going in to too much detail and boring everybody, because I don't seem to have many people following along!! Maybe they are reading but not posting!!
E-mailing Karen eh - does that mean we have a venue sorted?
Stay tuned for cake review along with floral and limo!!
Thanks for your lovely comments about Emily!!! She did look beautiful and she is so talented with her make-up!!
Love you and kisses to Andre!!
 
I have been reading your reviews with interest, but of course we will be on the other coast for our vow renewal.

Corinna
 
Okay so I just typed a long review of cake, floral and limo and when I came to post it, I had been logged off and the whole blooming thing disappeared!!!:badpc:
I am too tired to begin again tonight so will have to re-type it all again tomorrow!!! :furious:
 
Thanks for the venue and planner review! I'm so glad everything went wonderfully. It makes me so excited for our wedding when I read your review :)
 
Thanks for the reviews so far! They are very helpful. I love Karen too, she is just so good at what she does. The west courtyard looked beautiful, lovely floral!
 
I never get bored with your post Joanne, love reading all the details. You are a brave girl with the TTD as I would be afraid to ruin the dress. Don't know why since its a one day affair. lol Your pics are gorgeous, you both are obviously are so in love.:lovestruc I just looked at my Daughters and the bottom is so filthy, but she had so much fun dancing all night. Don't worry you have many "friends" who love to read your updates, keep them coming.
 
Thanks for the venue and planner review! I'm so glad everything went wonderfully. It makes me so excited for our wedding when I read your review :)

Thanks for the reviews so far! They are very helpful. I love Karen too, she is just so good at what she does. The west courtyard looked beautiful, lovely floral!

I never get bored with your post Joanne, love reading all the details. You are a brave girl with the TTD as I would be afraid to ruin the dress. Don't know why since its a one day affair. lol Your pics are gorgeous, you both are obviously are so in love.:lovestruc I just looked at my Daughters and the bottom is so filthy, but she had so much fun dancing all night. Don't worry you have many "friends" who love to read your updates, keep them coming.

Thank you all so much!! I am glad I still have some friends willing to read along!!

Cake - Heather at It'sTastyToo

http://www.tastytoo.com/raine32817/Welcome.html

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This photo doesn't really do our cake justice at all, but it gives you some idea!! I am sure Randy will provide us with a better one!!

I loved our cake!! Heather was fantastic to work with and was very patient when I changed my mind numerous times!!! The one thing I wanted from the outset, however was the swan topper. I saw apicture of it on the internet and knew it would be perfect for our cake. Not only was our ceremony at the Swan, but swans are birds which mate for life, so I thought it was very appropriate!!
I sent Heather the picture and she reproduced the topper in fondant perfectly.
The cake was delicious and very moreish!! It kept fresh for many days and we were able to enjoy it for some time after the big day. The top tier was coconut cake with pineapple filling and the bottom tier was carrot cake with cream cheese filling. Both wer absolutely yummy!!
Heather also made a birthday cake for my friend's daughter who had a birthday during our trip. It was chocolate cake with boston cream filling and was eaqually lushious!!
Heather is very talented, good to work with and her prices are very reasonable!!
 
Thank you all so much!! I am glad I still have some friends willing to read along!!

Cake - Heather at It'sTastyToo

http://www.tastytoo.com/raine32817/Welcome.html

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This photo doesn't really do our cake justice at all, but it gives you some idea!! I am sure Randy will provide us with a better one!!

I loved our cake!! Heather was fantastic to work with and was very patient when I changed my mind numerous times!!! The one thing I wanted from the outset, however was the swan topper. I saw apicture of it on the internet and knew it would be perfect for our cake. Not only was our ceremony at the Swan, but swans are birds which mate for life, so I thought it was very appropriate!!
I sent Heather the picture and she reproduced the topper in fondant perfectly.
The cake was delicious and very moreish!! It kept fresh for many days and we were able to enjoy it for some time after the big day. The top tier was coconut cake with pineapple filling and the bottom tier was carrot cake with cream cheese filling. Both wer absolutely yummy!!
Heather also made a birthday cake for my friend's daughter who had a birthday during our trip. It was chocolate cake with boston cream filling and was eaqually lushious!!
Heather is very talented, good to work with and her prices are very reasonable!!

That cake is absolutely amazing.

Corinna
 












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