Luvmyfam3
I love DVC!
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2000
- Messages
- 700
Hi! My name is Kim and this is probably the most last-minute planning journal known to man! Haha! But, I have been lurking on this forum for the past 4 - 5 months (before I was engaged) and I cannot tell you how valuable a resource these planning journals have been. I have no doubt that if it hadn't been for all of you sharing your planning processes and experiences there's no way that I would be able to put together this whirlwind fantasy I'm living right now. So, here it goes
..
Love Story
Mark and I met, of all places, on eHarmony. And I suppose that our relationship at that point went like most we were intrigued by each other's profile, we started communicating and eventually met. I could tell immediately that Mark wasn't your average guy extremely intellegent, funny, thoughtful, interesting. He was definitely goofy, but not in a weird way. Haha. But, it wasn't until our third date that I started taking this guy seriously. Sure, I thought he was interesting to talk to, but no "heart-fluttering" attraction. Then, during our 3rd date, at Starbucks, while we were both relaxed and talking not trying to entertain each other or say things we think the other person wants to hear .I started to feel this pull towards him and at that point started to really hope he'd kiss me (for me, that would be the telling sign!). Sure enough, while walking me to my car, he did. My knees were jelly while getting in my car! While driving home I kept saying "Wow" and had a silly grin on my face... I could feel it. The rest is a magical history .well, not exactly, but you get the point. We had both been married before and have children, which totally brings a new element of complexity to our relationship. But, a fun one too! That meeting was almost exactly 2 years ago from our scheduled wedding date .we met June 19, 2007 and we're going to be married June 15, 2009. Here is a picture of us:
And here is a picture of us with our gang .
Left to right (Me, Caitie (17), Pluto, Mark, Allie (17), Mia (4) and AnnaGrace (15) The 3 teenagers are mine and the little one is Mark's. I cannot tell you how blessed we feel to have this family of ours.
Engagement Story
Mark and I discussed marriage quite a bit after about a year or so of dating. With our situation, it was critical to make sure that our expectations were in line. Anyway, towards the end of March things were started to fall in place. One Friday evening while we were all out to dinner, Mark said that he needed to talk to my girls. So, while Mia and I went picking flowers (actually flowering weeds in other people yards) Mark talked to the girls on the front porch. Then, later that week, come to find out, Mark took my parents to lunch. So, I had a feeling something was coming .
March 27th, Friday morning, was the beginning of "our" weekend a weekend when neither of us has our kids. I kind of had a feeling that he might propose during this weekend. Little did I know . Around 8:30 that morning, the receptionist calls me to say that I have a "special package" downstairs in our lobby. I go down to find a huge bouquet of gorgeous red roses. The card stated, "A reason is NEVER needed for a gift from someone who cares. However, in this case there IS one, and to learn it you will have to meet me downstairs. Love, Mark" Wow. A flood of thoughts and emotions overwhelmed me. In a daze, I go down to our building lobby. Incredibly, it's completely empty except for Mark standing there. And it was there that he asked me to be his bride. Unbelievable! Then .we went back to work! Haha!! We met (with my parents) for lunch at the restaurant where we first met. Here are a few pictures from that day
Here's my ring (isn't it GORGEOUS?!?):
Here are my roses:
And here we are that evening celebrating:
We proceeded to be in a joyful daze all weekend. Everyone we told asked if we had set a date. We had already decided that we wanted a simple destination wedding. We really felt that coupling it with a vacation would help to bond our family and involve our girls more. After considering many beach destinations, we had most seriously discussed Disney. I have a timeshare there and my girls consider Disney as the "happiest place on earth". So, my first order of business: go to my favorite Disney resource! The DIS ..well, actually, I had already been on this forum for a few months pouring over Planning Journals and Trip Reports to see how everything worked. Before our engagement, I felt kind of guilty going on this forum like I didn't belong. But now, I'm really glad I did!! I had told Mark I couldn't get married next summer because my twins would be graduating from high school I didn't want to take that special time away from them and it would be too stressful to plan everything surrounding them and a wedding! So, we started looking at this summer. We already had a Disney trip planned this coming June and thought, "Why not?" So, that's what we're doing! And I couldn't be happier
Wedding Plans
We decided on Monday, June 15th it's closest to a weekend without being the weekend. We did that just in case we needed to bump it up to a Wishes. We didn't want that higher minimum!! Thankfully, I think we're going to be able to keep it an Escape. We are planning to be married at Sea Breeze Point at 10:00am. I told Mark, "You do realize that the girls are going to want to be in the parks by 2:00 that afternoon." His reply, "Are you kidding?!?! I'll want to be in the parks by 2:00!!" Haha! I really had my heart set on the Attic, but we just couldn't justify the minimum which is triple the amount of a Boardwalk ballroom. But, I think that with our small group, the ballroom will be best. That way we can have one long table instead of separate tables scattered. I'm still really attached to the Attic, but Im trying to look at the bright side!
I have much more that I'll share shortly! I'm truly excited about all this and would love ANY input on coordinating a small wedding with children, conservative Christians and loud fun-loving Italians! It's going to be quite an adventure!!
Love Story
Mark and I met, of all places, on eHarmony. And I suppose that our relationship at that point went like most we were intrigued by each other's profile, we started communicating and eventually met. I could tell immediately that Mark wasn't your average guy extremely intellegent, funny, thoughtful, interesting. He was definitely goofy, but not in a weird way. Haha. But, it wasn't until our third date that I started taking this guy seriously. Sure, I thought he was interesting to talk to, but no "heart-fluttering" attraction. Then, during our 3rd date, at Starbucks, while we were both relaxed and talking not trying to entertain each other or say things we think the other person wants to hear .I started to feel this pull towards him and at that point started to really hope he'd kiss me (for me, that would be the telling sign!). Sure enough, while walking me to my car, he did. My knees were jelly while getting in my car! While driving home I kept saying "Wow" and had a silly grin on my face... I could feel it. The rest is a magical history .well, not exactly, but you get the point. We had both been married before and have children, which totally brings a new element of complexity to our relationship. But, a fun one too! That meeting was almost exactly 2 years ago from our scheduled wedding date .we met June 19, 2007 and we're going to be married June 15, 2009. Here is a picture of us:
And here is a picture of us with our gang .
Left to right (Me, Caitie (17), Pluto, Mark, Allie (17), Mia (4) and AnnaGrace (15) The 3 teenagers are mine and the little one is Mark's. I cannot tell you how blessed we feel to have this family of ours.
Engagement Story
Mark and I discussed marriage quite a bit after about a year or so of dating. With our situation, it was critical to make sure that our expectations were in line. Anyway, towards the end of March things were started to fall in place. One Friday evening while we were all out to dinner, Mark said that he needed to talk to my girls. So, while Mia and I went picking flowers (actually flowering weeds in other people yards) Mark talked to the girls on the front porch. Then, later that week, come to find out, Mark took my parents to lunch. So, I had a feeling something was coming .
March 27th, Friday morning, was the beginning of "our" weekend a weekend when neither of us has our kids. I kind of had a feeling that he might propose during this weekend. Little did I know . Around 8:30 that morning, the receptionist calls me to say that I have a "special package" downstairs in our lobby. I go down to find a huge bouquet of gorgeous red roses. The card stated, "A reason is NEVER needed for a gift from someone who cares. However, in this case there IS one, and to learn it you will have to meet me downstairs. Love, Mark" Wow. A flood of thoughts and emotions overwhelmed me. In a daze, I go down to our building lobby. Incredibly, it's completely empty except for Mark standing there. And it was there that he asked me to be his bride. Unbelievable! Then .we went back to work! Haha!! We met (with my parents) for lunch at the restaurant where we first met. Here are a few pictures from that day
Here's my ring (isn't it GORGEOUS?!?):
Here are my roses:
And here we are that evening celebrating:
We proceeded to be in a joyful daze all weekend. Everyone we told asked if we had set a date. We had already decided that we wanted a simple destination wedding. We really felt that coupling it with a vacation would help to bond our family and involve our girls more. After considering many beach destinations, we had most seriously discussed Disney. I have a timeshare there and my girls consider Disney as the "happiest place on earth". So, my first order of business: go to my favorite Disney resource! The DIS ..well, actually, I had already been on this forum for a few months pouring over Planning Journals and Trip Reports to see how everything worked. Before our engagement, I felt kind of guilty going on this forum like I didn't belong. But now, I'm really glad I did!! I had told Mark I couldn't get married next summer because my twins would be graduating from high school I didn't want to take that special time away from them and it would be too stressful to plan everything surrounding them and a wedding! So, we started looking at this summer. We already had a Disney trip planned this coming June and thought, "Why not?" So, that's what we're doing! And I couldn't be happier
Wedding Plans
We decided on Monday, June 15th it's closest to a weekend without being the weekend. We did that just in case we needed to bump it up to a Wishes. We didn't want that higher minimum!! Thankfully, I think we're going to be able to keep it an Escape. We are planning to be married at Sea Breeze Point at 10:00am. I told Mark, "You do realize that the girls are going to want to be in the parks by 2:00 that afternoon." His reply, "Are you kidding?!?! I'll want to be in the parks by 2:00!!" Haha! I really had my heart set on the Attic, but we just couldn't justify the minimum which is triple the amount of a Boardwalk ballroom. But, I think that with our small group, the ballroom will be best. That way we can have one long table instead of separate tables scattered. I'm still really attached to the Attic, but Im trying to look at the bright side!
I have much more that I'll share shortly! I'm truly excited about all this and would love ANY input on coordinating a small wedding with children, conservative Christians and loud fun-loving Italians! It's going to be quite an adventure!!
I do love it...I'm a little concerned about the "trumpet" skirt though. That's never been my favorite style...but, the top and the back won me over. It'll be interesting to see how it looks in my size. I'm still deciding on the petticoat. The petticoat seems to make the skirt more "trumpety" (new word!), but it may look a little funny without one. Suggestions??
)
Mark told me his step-mother said, "I don't think anyone is coming!" It makes me feel really bad because not only are all my family coming (we only invited parents, siblings and their families), but my cousin and her husband are planning their annual vacation around this wedding...and they weren't even invited to attend! (in order to meet the 20-person maximum requirement). We encouraged them to come to the reception though! I guess they can come to the ceremony now, but I just feel bad because that means even more of my family will be there. It looks like only his daughter, father and step-mom will be coming. I'm feeling guilty. Anyone else face this?
My jaw drops and I stomach feels like it's been punched... I say, "It isn't yellow!" We start to analyze it and sure enough, it's yellow! He tells me that he has worked with his diamond guy for over 20 years and he's never seen anything like this! He starts to question me where Mark got the ring and wants to see the diamond certificate. Well, of course I don't have it! I am starting to cry and he keeps assuring me that we're going to get to the bottom of this, but he insists that he wants to see a copy of the certificate. I am imagining telling Mark and asking for the certificate and I just feel so sick to my stomach. So, I leave with my yellow diamond and drive back to work. Thankfully, I happened to have the certificate at work because I was originally going to send my ring back where we got it to have it resized. We didn't because I didn't want to go without it for 1 - 2 weeks. Anyway, in the original box was the certificate. So, I fax and scan and email the certificate immediately. I called the jeweler to make sure he received it and was asked to bring the ring back to the store. They want to try cleaning it really well...but you can tell that it's not something on top of the diamond. So, I leave work again (thankfully, it's close to my work!) to take it to them to clean. While driving, I decide to document this experience and whip out my camera (a picture of my original ring is in my first post of this thread):
What a relief! The jeweler apologized, but I told him it wasn't his fault. I'm just glad it turned out okay! I think I definitely grew a few gray hairs during this experience though! 
At least now I have a story to tell!! 
