Justine & Adam 4-21-12 SBP/LSS/SCP--Updated 9/30

[April Elizabeth]

Justine,

I love your story! You and Adam are so cute together.
Gabby is cute too! She seems to like the snow.
I can't wait to read more. Everything looks great so far.

 

[sw33t_angel]

Next, I sat down since I had extra time, and played around with Windows Movie Maker and did a photo slideshow for each of them with my favorite photos of each of them. I was really happy with the way they turned out. I burned each one onto a DVD and I mailed them today. I know they will love them, and I am glad I have a copy to keep too! In case you’re looking for some inspiration, here’s a link to each one:
Jana:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu6dSNz-oe8

Dwayne:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_asaF8xGMU

OMG I wish I would have thought of this!!! What an incredibly cute idea!!

I loved all the pictures and the music and commentary! I seriously was cracking up with the "Which ***** skipped out on the queso," comment!

Haha.. those snow pictures of your dogs are hilarious!

 

[KristiLyn]

hahahahaha
I was laughing way too hard and that one picture of your dog covered in snow

 

[donald&daisy]

We have been gloriously snow free for over a week now! We have actually been having really nice weather (60s and 70s!). I always find that I am in such a better mood when the weather is warm. I work for the City so we have off today—thank you Presidents past, present, and future!

We got a few designs back from Branchville Studios. Although they were all nice, one really captured what we are going fun (fun, tropical, and bright). We made a few tweaks to make them a bit more sedate (my mom mentioned they looked like tickets to a Mardi Gras party, lol). We will get a hardcopy sample in the mail later this week and I will post it as soon as we do! We decided to go ahead and have her to wrap-around labels, but we decided to wait and have envelope liners for the actual invitations. It is so hard to pace yourself!!! But my MOH pointed out that I should save a little extra pizazz for the formal invitation.

I also had what I thought was a really cute idea. So, we are having a wedding AT Disney; not a DISNEY wedding. That said, I would like a few discreet Disney touches here and there. As soon as I get the sample STD and see the exact color of the envelope I am going to order a custom stamp in the Disney font that says “See Ya Real Soon!” I thought it would look cute to stamp that on the flap of the envelopes for our STDs. I found a great Etsy seller who was super fast to work with—I just need to know what color ink I want. What Disney touches are you incorporating??? We might do Disney table names too…although I also like the idea of using boat drink names or Jimmy Buffett song titles—we are huge Parrotheads.

Other than that, we are planning a trip to Dallas at the end of March. Adam is running a half marathon and I am meeting up with my MOH to run around shopping! Although I have a ceremony dress, I still want a lighter dress with little or no train for the reception and dessert party. I have my eye on a couple of Maggie Sottero designs—Asha and pretty much anything from their Destinations line…since I got such a great deal on my big ceremony dress, I can afford to spend a little more on my reception dress. I will probably spend more time in it anyways.

Asha

Similar Destinations Dress

Which dress do you like better? I was thinking if time/money allows that it would be fun to a MK session in my ceremony dress and an EPCOT session in my reception dress. Then part of me thinks that is way too many photos of us, lol. What do you think??

 

[*Pixiedust1438*]

Both dresses are beautiful! I think I like the first one a little better, but they are both great choices!

 

[Sccrmnky2005]

I love dress number 2!! The one sholder strap on that dress is sooooo pretty! I love it!

Can't wait to see more!

 

[donald&daisy]

I’ve been so busy with normal life lately that I haven’t done a very good job keeping up with the wedding stuff. We went to Dallas this weekend so Adam could run a half marathon. Since Dallas is a much bigger city than Fayetteville I called around to the 10 “premiere” Maggie Sottero dealers in the area and NONE of them had the Asha dress that I wanted to try on so badly. Boo hiss!! I did go ahead and make an appointment at a salon (I just picked the one that was the nicest on the phone). I showed up and signed in and a nice gentleman helped me. I told him I was looking for a reception dress so he immediately starting picking short dresses for me. The thing is most “short” bridal gowns are actually more like tea length which really isn’t flattering on my 5’2” body. I tried on this number, which had a lot going on and while it wasn’t the most hideous thing I have ever put on, it wasn’t really doing much for me either:

Sorry no pic of me in it…forgot I had the camera until later…
I tried on Ireland by Maggie Sottero and loved it!

Then I tried on Vanessa by MS and SUPER loved it!!!

If the wedding wasn’t so far out I would’ve ordered it right then and there, but I figured I would wait and see if I could find one online for less. I actually have found an Ireland in my size for $500, but I really did prefer the Vanessa.
Oh and I tried on this Destinations dress too.

It was even lighter than the Vanessa, but I didn’t enjoy the strap like I thought I would.

In other news, we are trying to gather up addresses for STDs. I booked our engagement pics for the end of April. We are doing them here at home because I knew we would have tons of pics around Disney for the wedding and I wanted to visit some special places here at the home for our e pics. One of my sorority sisters actually started doing photography a couple of years ago and takes fabulous pics, so I’m pretty jazzed about that. She photographed my MOH Jana's wedding last May and the pics were featured on Style Me Pretty. I’m trying to think of Disney touches for the photos. I really like the Mickey balloons and I thought about trying to get some floating lanterns a la Tangled…I really want to write our date on one if possible. If anyone has any cool ideas please share!

Oh, and a big change—we switched ceremony sites from the WP to SBP. I just couldn’t handle the unknown factor of the possible construction. I’ve always thought SBP was very pretty too so we decided to go ahead and change. I need to update our website with those changes which will also affect the hotels we choose for the room block. Hmm…when you get married at SBP where does the motorcoach drop off your guests?

Other than that, I don’t have much going on. I guess Joe will email me about setting up our room block soon and then I get the LOA, yay!!! Oh, and I get to go to Disney in May for the Humane Society of the United States annual Expo. They are having it at Coronado Springs this year. I’ve never stayed there before and the best thing is—its free! Of course, I will be attending the Expo the majority of the time, but I’m hoping I can sneak over and explore SBP some more while I’m there.

 

[MaidMeghan]

Just hopping on now, I adore all the dresses you tried on. Maggie Sottero is such an amazing designer and they all looked so pretty on you!

 

[tinkerbell 766]

All the dresses are gorgeous!!
Lucky girl getting to wear two dresses!!!

 

[KristiLyn]

The dresses are beautiful!! They look great on you!!!

 

[princesswendy720]

The dresses look great on you!

The motorcoach for SBP will drop your guests off at the Boardwalk Lobby, and then they'll walk to the ceremony location (they can provide wheelchairs for people who have trouble walking).

 

[donald&daisy]

The dresses look great on you!

The motorcoach for SBP will drop your guests off at the Boardwalk Lobby, and then they'll walk to the ceremony location (they can provide wheelchairs for people who have trouble walking).

Awesome, thanks! I am just now starting to think about the logistics since we changed locations.

and thank you for all the compliments ladies! I have to say, the Maggie Sotterro dresses are much better constructed than the David's Bridal dresses I tried on. The Vanessa has an inner corset. I was AMAZED at what a difference this made! My ceremony gown just zips up so I hadn't really tried on one with any type of corset before. Although, I'm glad we don't still live in the times when I would have to wear one every day

I saw a hit and run accident on the way home and I called 911--it was so scary! I felt so bad for the lady that got hit. The car that ran off left its bumper in the street--smooth move. Unfortunately I couldn't catch the tags, but I at least gave the police a good description and the direct the car was heading. I hope everyone else had a less eventful day!

 

[elle1024]

Hi! Just joining in..
Can't believe I hadn't come across your PJ before.
Love everything. Your inspiration pictures are gorgeous. & the save the dates are adorable. Can't wait to see how they turn up & everything else you come up with!

 

[donald&daisy]

So, not wedding related but I was sitting at my desk Friday afternoon doing some really boring paperwork and my phone rang. I didn't recognie the number but it was a local area code so I answered and this guy asked if this was Justine and I said yes and he said he was going to hang up and call me right back. So, the phone rang again and it was two guys from a local radio station telling me I had won tickets to see Lady Gaga this coming Monday night!!! I was so excited, I vaguely remember signing up to win a couple of months ago online. It totally made my week better. At the end of the conversation they asked me to tell them what radio station hooked me up and for the life of me I could NOT remember which station it was!!! How embarassing! Fortunately they said they could edit that part and just told me what to say, lol. We have two pop stations in town that are really similar. So yay!!

I spent yesterday at the Shelter helping an Eagle Scout troop re-do the landscaping in front of the building and now I am super sore. Digging holes is hard work! But it looks so awesome, I'm excited! When I was watering the new plants I heard a group of people leaving the Shelter and they were talking about how nice it was and how it wasn't depressing like a lot of other Shelters they had been too. That made me so happy!! We've done a lot of work over the past few months to make it more happy and professional looking. Anyways, I just wanted to share my winning moment, lol.

We are STILL trying to collect all the addresses for the guests--this is taking way longer than I thought it would. At least we only have to do it once.

 

[*Pixiedust1438*]

Yay for dress shopping, you look great in all the dresses. Your a lucky lady winning Lady Gaga tickets, she just came here a few weeks ago and it would have been great to go. Looking forward to hearing more plans!

 

[GreenDisneyBride]

All of the dresses look beautiful! I am working on my address's too, I have been told its the hardest part, but we only need 11 now (out of 111).

Also we got our LOA yesterday so you should get your room block info any day now

 

[donald&daisy]

All of the dresses look beautiful! I am working on my address's too, I have been told its the hardest part, but we only need 11 now (out of 111).

Also we got our LOA yesterday so you should get your room block info any day now

Oh, yay for your LOA!!! Finally! I really feel like they should just say that you won't do your contract until about 1 year out instead of making it seem like you can do it earlier. Then we wouldn't worry about. Oh well....

We did our room block and submitted last week. At first I blocked a whole bunch of nights thinking I could release the majority at 90 days out ( I swear I read that somewhere), but then I was told I could only release 25 nights. Anyways, we cut it back a lot so now I think we will only ultimately be responsible for 30 nights or so which is totally doable. We aren't getting married in high season so I'm sure there will be availability at one of the three resorts we blocked. We ended up picking Boardwalk Inn, Beach Club, and Port Orleans Riverside!!!

 

[donald&daisy]

Ok, so I never in a million years thought it would be so freaking difficult to find an appropriate dress for engagement pictures!!! I tried on a million (or at least that’s what it felt like)!! I bought at least 5 that I can think of…I have returned two and plan to return another one. One I really like, but I found a better alternative yesterday. And I have completely given up trying to find something solid colored…I will be wearing a floral print and the photographer can just deal with it!!!

*sigh* I feel better now. I actually ended up getting a dress at the Dress Barn of all places! They make cute stuff, if you like to dress like a slightly older professional woman, lol. Here’s the dress I finally ended up with:

Oh, and somewhere along the way I bought these super cute Gianni Bini wedges at Dillards, except mine are plain white leather, not shiny:

This was the runner up dress:

I also bought this one, but it seemed too stuffy since we are shooting at a barn, lol:

So, as you can see it has been a bit stressful. On a lighter note I bought these cute signs from Etsy:

Also, I bought a pack of 12 colored sky lanterns from Amazon. You know how on Tangled they look like they are about maybe 12 inches tall? Well, in real life they are more like 2.5 FEET tall! The wind finally layed down enough for us to launch one this morning and they are super awesome! It traveled pretty fast and went so far we couldn’t see it anymore. In case anyone is wondering they are 100% biodegradable.

I really want to put our names on a lantern and launch it during our e pics. I was having a hard time figuring out how to do this since the paper is so thin…I have really awful handwriting btw. Another disbride used rub on transfer letters for a project so this seems like the perfect solution. I bought the biggest set of transfer letter they had at Hobby Lobby yesterday. I will let you know how it turns out, I’m excited!

So, we take our pics on May 1st and then I guess I will wait to get those back and use them to update our website, then we can mail out our STDs!!! I can’t believe I am *almost* at the one year mark!!!!

 

[*Pixiedust1438*]

I love the e-pic dress, I think it will look great! Can't wait to see how they turn out!

 

[donald&daisy]

I love the e-pic dress, I think it will look great! Can't wait to see how they turn out!

Glad you like it! It feels good not to worry about it anyomore, now I just don't want it to rain, lol.


And tomorrow it my one year mark!! YAY!!!