Lisa and Rick's PJ/TR: Peace, Love, Mickey Mouse DFTVR! - DAY THREE! =)

[WithDisneySpirit]

What will the cake look like?

We had picked various designs and weren’t wedded, lol, to any one cake. Some of those cakes were:

Now don’t laugh too hard at this cake!! It is not a wedding cake but a very funny birthday cake that was obviously for a tree-hugger! Michelle laughed hardest at this cake and wanted to know what that was on the cake, IYKWIM, lol. And it is, in fact, a tree-hugger raisin man something!! I just really wanted to share the tie-dye fondant so I did =)

We really liked our Peace, Love, and Mickey Mouse theme idea and wanted to incorporate that in with our cake. We also loved the tie-die fondant idea because we are just hippies at heart!! Another email between Michelle and I discusses our theme:

Hi Michelle!

I came home and took the picture of Rick's shirt and then I promptly forgot all about it!! Something my mom said tonight reminded me that you needed the peace, love, and mickey mouse shirt. Rick and I really enjoyed our visit with you and we liked Laura very much too =) Rick actually said the planning session was fun, lol! I knew he was a keeper ten years ago. If only he liked to shop...

Anyway, we know we are in very good hands and I am looking forward to the next step!

Have a great week!
Lisa


Hi Lisa and Rick!
Thank you very much for sending me the Peace, Love, and Mickey Mouse logo. I will pass it along to the Pastry Chef for your cake design.

I had a great time meeting and spending time with you both at the Planning Session. I am very excited for your Vow Renewal!

If there is anything else I can assist you with, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Have a MAGICAL day!
Michelle

So, here is the picture I sent Michelle to illustrate our theme. We bought these shirts on our honeymoon in 1998 and my husband still wears his. I would too except the sleeves on a short sleeve shirt really don’t work for me anymore. We just loved having a special theme for our wedding!!

Michelle forwarded this picture and the cake picures to the pastry chef and he had fun (Michelle said) coming up with a cake design for us! He drew it out and sent it to Michelle and she forwarded it to us. Here is the drawing and our eventual cake was very similar to this!

I asked for the paisley swirl to be removed from the side and the three symbols to just be scattered all over the cake. The colors were obviously off but we loved the design. We had requested in the planning session for the flowers to include gerbera daisies and he did an admirable job with that too!

 

[lov2b@disney]

Love the invitation and the cake is soo cool!

 

[29apr00]

The cake design is so cute! I can't wait to see the finished product!

 

[micandminforever]

Can't wait to see the finish product of the cake.

 

[pink_tink8i8]

I love your invitations! and your cake is going to be amazing!
I wanted those same shimmery mickey mouse cards from hallmark and when I went back to get them, they were all gone

 

[WithDisneySpirit]

Love the invitation and the cake is soo cool!

Thanks!

The cake design is so cute! I can't wait to see the finished product!

It really did turn out pretty cool

Can't wait to see the finish product of the cake.

It won't be too long, I hope! Thanks for reading along.

I love your invitations! and your cake is going to be amazing!
I wanted those same shimmery mickey mouse cards from hallmark and when I went back to get them, they were all gone

Is it too late? We have so many Hallmark stores here - did you call around for them? I am sorry you did not get them

Thanks for the compliments though

 

[WithDisneySpirit]

Original Banquet Event Order

I decided to post my original event order and then I will post my final event order that came after the wedding and gave me the final figures on my bill including ‘billed on consumption’ beverages. From the beginning, I was wanting (like Carrie ) to hit the minimums ($10,000 for a Tuesday) for a Wishes wedding. I had too many guests to do an Escape wedding and besides, I wanted my VR to be in Italy

Bridal Portrait Session $1,000.00

Wedding Ceremony:
Venue - Italy Plaza $1065.00
Guitarist $525.00
Floral Wedding Package $493.10
incl. bouquet
3 wrist corsages
6 boutennierres
10 bowls w/daisies
peach and green napkins
Limousine $256.80
Motorcoach $714.00
_______
Event total $3,053.90

Wedding Pre-reception:
Boardwalk Inn: 47 guests, est.
Av and tech service:
1 CD player $88.55
1 Audio Mixer $56.93
1 Powered Speaker $101.20
47 Soft drinks $225.25
1 Coffee, regular $74.12
1 Coffee, decaf $74.12
1 Bartender $106.50
_______
Event total $726.67

Wedding Reception:
Boardwalk Inn: 47 guests, est.
141 Soft drinks $675.74
42 Tinker Bell brunch buffets $2,791.15
4 Tinker Bell buffets –child $132.91
1 Chef’s Choice vendors meal $17.83
1 Saute Chef/Carver $79.88
1 Formal Mickey & Minnie Mouse $1,200.00
_______
Event Total $4,897.08
Est. Program total $9,678.08

Since this total included service charges, I actually had a shortfall of $1,348.25. I had, thus far, spent $8,651.75 of my minimums. But, I still had a pending charge because my cake price was still not reported yet. Even so, I knew I would not have the number of guests estimated on the BEO above. Yay, I still had some money to spend

We did have a special non-alcoholic signature drink as well that was billed on consumption too. We picked the yummy Lillikoi juice from the Polynesian resort. It was great and well received by our guests. This drink was not mentioned in the BEO and I was concerned that it would take a lot of my shortfall (which did not happen, thankfully).

After much thought, I decided to go with the black chairs provided in Epcot. Laura Kidd showed me a picture of shepherd’s hooks that they use to dress up the aisles so I went with that as well. My feeling was that they leave all the black chairs set around in the courtyard in Italy anyway and that could kinda clash with the white chairs. I was happy with how it looked in the end Here is a picture of the setting since a post with no pictures is booorring!! Notice the black lighting circling the pedestal area too! The flowers had not been set upon the pedestals yet at this point.

Another perspective to show that there are other black chairs and umbrellas in the background that do not get moved for weddings in this area:

Finally, a final look at the chairs with the shepherd’s hooks to dress them up:

The first things I added to the BEO were floral related: 6 shepherd’s hooks with bows, 2 more wristlet corsages for my sisters, and hidden Mickey’s in the bouquet and bout. Then, I added $250.00 to my Magic Kingdom photo session! That gave me 8 X 10’s to choose myself instead of the smaller photos, which I feel is worth it, especially since I can make smaller prints from the larger prints with better success

The funny thing is that before all was said and done, my floral nearly tripled, lol!!

 

[29apr00]

Wow you did a great job!! Way to go!!

 

[padisneyfour]

Thanks for posting your BEO .... you great!

 

[figmentfan814]

That is so great that you were able to keep so close to your minimum. We weren't much over, really our MK shoot is what was above the $10K. I love the shepherd's hooks, they really are beautiful and the black chairs look great in Italy.

 

[WithDisneySpirit]

Wow you did a great job!! Way to go!!

Well, these are not final numbers but I did do pretty well in the end

Thanks for posting your BEO .... you great!

You know, it dawned on me that some of my family will read this trip report and I hope none of them faint when they read this post!!

That is so great that you were able to keep so close to your minimum. We weren't much over, really our MK shoot is what was above the $10K. I love the shepherd's hooks, they really are beautiful and the black chairs look great in Italy.

Thanks, I think the black chairs can work in Italy although I have seen examples of the white set-up and it was certainly beautiful as well I think Laura Kidd advising me to consider the shepherd's hooks really pulled my look together!

 

[WithDisneySpirit]

Favors:

I spent more time thinking about and web browsing for favors than almost anything I did for the wedding!! It was kind of crazy. Since I was getting married in Italy this time, I did tons of research on Italian wedding favors. That led me to crystal and jordan almond favors like bombonierre and confetti (I know – don’t die laughing, Wendy/Mistress of all Evil ). I thought I wanted the flowers that contain a jordan almond in each petal. I even went so far as to ready an order on the web a couple of times but never finished them because I would change my mind or not completely know what I wanted. I also settled on a crystal figurine; it was a tiny carousel. I actually ordered it and then they couldn’t guarantee delivery before the vow renewal and I had to cancel the order and be reimbursed

I also decided not to do a true welcome bag. I had ordered chocolate labels off of Ebay which I neglected to take a picture of before they were all eaten. I had entrusted DH with the job of settling on wedding music and we decided to do a wedding cd favor for our guests as well. The wedding cd was basically a compilation of some of our favorite love songs and favorite Disney music as well. This song list grew to 120 songs before we forced ourselves to stop adding to it! DH had to copy the songs onto an MP3 disc to fit them on one cd, lol. I wanted to give one cd to each couple and single at the wedding. Since that does not lend itself to easy giving at the reception, I went to Party City and purchased treat bags (like for a birthday party) and handed out the cd’s and chocolates at our Welcome pool party at Old Key West. For the little ones, I bought Disney stickers and tattoos to go in their bags with the chocolates. Here are pictures:

In browsing other Disney brides planning journals, I came across customized M&M’s and thought they were so cute! I definitely wanted to do these. I like to get my husband’s input when possible so I was asking him what he thought I ought to put on the m&m’s and he had the most wonderful idea to further our theme I bought little peach bags (from ebay, lol) and chose the custom colors, green and ivory for the order, to best align with our color scheme. Here is how they turned out:

I ordered two sets of five 7 ounce bags each and in so doing, I paid for four bags in each order and got one free bag! I actually thought I needed to do that to get the mix of m&m’s I wanted but I also liked using the coupon code twice, haha! The first batch came in and I noticed right away that many of the m&m’s looked deficient. I sat down and started making the favors and pulled out the most offensive candies along the way. When my stack of “yucky” candy kept growing , I called the company and the customer service department was swift to tell me that there would be an all new shipment on the way to me immediately!! Whew, I don’t like having to call and complain but it was truly unavoidable. I did not make pictures of the low quality chocolates but they had the words running off the side of the m&m’s and the words were faint and not centered at all.

Then, a few days later, I received another brightly colored M&M box and rightly assumed it was my second order finally come. The tape along the top was riffled a bit and jaded me wondered if someone had tampered with it!! To test this, I tried to tamper with it instead of just pulling it open as I would normally. Sure enough, I was able to get one side of the box open and push my hand down inside and feel the bags of candy… Then, I opened the box all the way and looked inside to find only four bags, arggghhhh!! Can you believe it?? Someone enjoyed a whole bag of Peace, Love and Mickey Mouse candies! Are they gonna have bad karma, or what??! These chocolates, by the way, looked amazing and perfect. Me, the girl who hates to complain (but will when I have to ) was forced to call the M&M company back and again and tell them that someone swiped my free bag of candy, LOL! The representative, believe it or not, was not surprised. She said that once their stock of brightly emblazoned custom M&M boxes are used, they have plain (brown wrapper, LOL) boxes to take their place!! She offered to credit my account for the one bag and I agreed. The replacement batch came in and all was good So, ends the candy favor saga!!

Toward the end of my vow renewal plans when it became clear that I had more money to spend per my BEO, I decided to spend more money on my guests. I thought I wanted bride and groom strawberries either on a platter as an extra dessert (which I still would have liked) or as a favor, which my planner and floral manager promptly talked me out of doing. They said that the strawberries don’t have a long enough shelf like to be a favor so it would be a bad idea. Laura Kidd suggested other favors and in the sharing, I picked bride and groom oreos – YUM! Here is a picture of some leftovers that some silly guests left behind. These were a pretty big hit and I am an oreo freak from childhood anyway!!

Lastly, in the favor department, DH and I decided to spend a good bit of our extra minimum money on a caricature artist. I read about the possibility in a TR of a Disney bride ages ago and thought it would be great for my dance free reception party. So, we did this and it was a definite thrill for all my guests. More on this later as the pictures I have, I want to save for the reception section of my TR =)

 

[micandminforever]

The M&M idea was great and I loved the colors. I am also a fan of oreoes, in fact your report inspired me to open a pack of oreoes(bad for the diet).

I continue to enjoy your report, and look forward the the next installment.

 

[Lynn5700]

OMG how did I not see this sooner!!! You and your DH are adorable..what a beautiful couple you are inside and out!!!!

Everything truley was amazing!!!

 

[29apr00]

The favors are great! WOW I love the Oreo's! I'll have to rememeber those for our trip!!

 

[kingLouiethe1]

I so dig your trippy hippie cake. I could get into a whole 60's themed wedding, seeming as I sometimes feel like a bit of a hippy myself. The Beatles are still one of my favorite bands for pete's sake.

Your character breakfast invitations are great. I wouldn't have minded having those as wedding invitations! However the DF wasn't too thrilled with any of the Mickey invites I showed him, in fact no one was. I do love our DIY invites, but the really bad reception anything Disney received from everyone surprised me, after all we are getting married at Disneyland.

 

[WithDisneySpirit]

The M&M idea was great and I loved the colors. I am also a fan of oreoes, in fact your report inspired me to open a pack of oreoes(bad for the diet).

I continue to enjoy your report, and look forward the the next installment.

Oh, I can't even keep oreos around the house at all because I will eat them right away! You can be sure those leftover favors did not last long Sorry to contribute to diet sabotage!!

OMG how did I not see this sooner!!! You and your DH are adorable..what a beautiful couple you are inside and out!!!!

Everything truley was amazing!!!

Thank you, Lynn, for your very kind words

The favors are great! WOW I love the Oreo's! I'll have to rememeber those for our trip!!

They were quite yummy treats! Funny thing is that I liked the bride oreos best and Rick liked the groom ones

I so dig your trippy hippie cake. I could get into a whole 60's themed wedding, seeming as I sometimes feel like a bit of a hippy myself. The Beatles are still one of my favorite bands for pete's sake.

Your character breakfast invitations are great. I wouldn't have minded having those as wedding invitations! However the DF wasn't too thrilled with any of the Mickey invites I showed him, in fact no one was. I do love our DIY invites, but the really bad reception anything Disney received from everyone surprised me, after all we are getting married at Disneyland.

Now what is up with that?? I know some couples prefer the Cinderella/prince Charming theme rather than Mickey and Minnie. What are you and your partner having as a theme? Is it Disney related? Maybe you should spring some hidden Mickey here and there for your own peace of mind, lol! Thanks for checking out my TR too!


***Alert: I will be on a short second honeymoon trip Thursday through Tuesday and won't be here to update for a bit! I promise to get to work on my TR even more diligently when I get back! I get to meet Randy in person while we are there too and I will tack this trip onto the end of my report as it is definitely the honeymoon to my vow renewal

 

[DisneyBrideToni]

Ahh I love your PJ/TR. Everything looks great so far. I love the black chairs in Italy. I think it really sets off the space well. I can't wait to see more pictures especially the ones from the Attic!

 

[WithDisneySpirit]

Ahh I love your PJ/TR. Everything looks great so far. I love the black chairs in Italy. I think it really sets off the space well. I can't wait to see more pictures especially the ones from the Attic!

Thank you, Toni! I really loved the look of my vow renewal setting too I will be back too soon to pick up my posting

 

[figmentfan814]

The oreos were so cute, are those a part of their normal favor offerings. I love the Mickey and friends treat bag too.

I can't wait to read more and to see shots with the caricature artist!