Luna99's Wedding Report!!

[luna99]

Hey everyone!! I'm actually typing to you from Aruba.. my husband (wow!) and I have been here since last monday and are leaving this coming Monday.. I'll probably do a proper trip report on Tuesday and over the coming weekend.. but I wanted to tell everyone that our Disney Wedding could not have been more perfect!! Everyone had a great time, everyone said it was beautiful and classy, and we wouldn't have done it any other way....

I think I've even converted my hubby into a Disney freak! I get giddy inside when he says things to me like "how much is it to stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge? I'm not promising anything.. just asking"... haha! (We ate at Boma one night while there and he LOVED the AKL lobby and the food of course!).

We had Randy Chapman as our photographer and he couldn't have been nicer and made me feel instantly comfortable... he joked around with my family a lot and everyone had so much fun.. it felt like he was part of the family almost... My uncle had to take a picture of Randy even! Thanks Maggie for your high recommendation of him.

We stayed at the Port Orleans French Quarter and on the morning of my wedding I felt so beautiful walking around the grounds to our limo... one of the housekeepers was up on the second floor and had to lean over the railing to yell at me and tell me how beautiful I was! It was so amazing and people kept saying "congratulations!" and "you look beautiful" all morning!

OK, so this post is much longer than I wanted to make it.. but I'll do a better, more detailed one in a few days with pictures and everything and once I get my Randy pictures I'll post those as well....

yay! I'm a married woman!!!

 

[Iluffyou]

Congrats! I can't wait for the TR!

 

[mcarthur205]

CONGRATULATIONS !!!
Glad to hear everything went well for you. Looking forward to your trip report and photos!

 

[Maggimus]

YAY!! Im so glad you had a good time!! We all cant wait to hear how it went Im so glad to hear everything went well with Randy We will be waiting for your safe return-- enjoy the honeymoon!!

 

[jodeeluvsdisney]

So excited for your full TR!! I'm so glad everything went great. Enjoy your honeymoon Mrs.!!

 

[hmgolden]

I'm glad everything went well! Congratulations.

I hope you are enjoying Aruba. Its our favorite island!

 

[KimAshton]

Congrats.

 

[BrcsDisneyPrncs]

CONGRATULATIONS married lady! I'm glad to hear that everything went so wonderfully for you! Enjoy the rest of your honeymoon and I can't wait to hear ALL about it!

 

[jasonandlisa]

Congratulations!! I'm so happy for you and glad your wedding was everything you dreamed of

 

[disneyeeyorefan]

Congrats

 

[calla28]

Congrats to you.

 

[luna99]

here's a small preview of the pics to come:

 

[Belle1981]

Congrats! You looked so beautiful!!!! I can't wait to hear more

 

[shasess]

Congrats!!!! Cait wait for your TR!!!

 

[D&R love Disney]

Congratulations and I'm looking forward to reading your trip report.

 

[luna99]

Sorry this has taken me so long.... no excuses really... I'm listening to mouse radio on www.live365.com and I'm totally in a Disney mood so let's start the show:

DAY ONE! TODAY IS THE DAY! THURSDAY AUGUST 30TH

Tim and I wake up to the alarm clock at about 3:45 am... the cab driver told me to give him a call at 4:00 am to make sure he was coming I guess? Or to wake him up? I never really was too sure why *I* was calling the cab driver .. but I did anyway. Tim and I had everything pretty much packed except for small things like toothpaste and makeup.. (yes, I put on a little make up before leaving at 4 in the morning).. so we took from 4 until 4:30 to get dressed, throw our things in the bags, do one last check, and run downstairs to grab our cab... I had everything that I needed... or so I thought! I had a dvd made of pictures of my family growing up over the years set to music and was going to present my family with it as a gift but I left it at home!! I still need to mail it out to them as I type this! haha.. they have no idea.

So the cab driver picked us up and the airport is about a 15 minute ride away... I personally LOVE being up at four am and on the highway in a car... it just feels so... freeing to me or something... like you're hitting the road and you're never returning.. on to a new adventure. Maybe it has something to do with all those early morning road trips my family took when I was a kid. So we got to the airport fine and our first flight from syracuse to NYC was great.. We flew JetBlue which we both really like because of the individual tv's and they give you pretty decent snacks too. The flight from NYC to Orlando was awesome as well and I didn't sleep on either flights like I thought I would. I guess I was just too excited! When we landed at the Orlando airport we rode that shuttle thing to the main terminal (I love doing that.. it feels like my vacation has officially started when I ride it) and found Tim's sister, her husband, and their two kids... two boys, one is eight (Henry) the other is five. (Harrison). They flew in right before us and were waiting.. it was about noon and I stood in line for our Magical Express registration. After we were all checked in all six of us got in the line for the Port Orleans French Quarter... How exciting! We talked about our flights and how tim's sister didn't tell their kids they were going to Disney World until that very morning. I wish I could have seen their faces!

They finally wave us through to our bus and we take a seat.. us adults talk about the parks and things while the kids were literally mesmerized by the tv ... after stopping at a few other resorts .. we finally get to ours and go in the lobby to check in. Now, I've never stayed at the Port Orleans French Quarter before and it was really, really nice.

Here's tim walking into the back entrance of the lobby:

I knew it was a small resort but I didn't realize HOW small... but that was great for us because Tim's mom can't walk all that far and either can my dad. We checked in and before we were done with that and making sure all our dinner reservations were ok my mom, dad, and sister showed up... I was so happy to see them! I had a gift basket set up in their room when they checked in and they loved it.. it was just a few small trinkets but I wanted to do something to make their stay extra nice. I also had a basket that was supposed to be delivered to our room for Tim but it wasn't there when we checked in and by the end of the day it never showed up. I ended up telling Tim about it because I figured it just wasn't going to show up.. well, it did... later in the week.. but I'll get to that later! So my parents and sister also picked up Tim's mom and brother from the train station so when they arrived pretty much our whole party (or the ones that would be there that day) made it safely! We all went to our rooms, got settled in a bit, then met up again at the food court to get a bite to eat. Tim and I had a room on the back side near the river.. it had a king bed and was pretty big.. I loved looking out onto the river from the balcony.. it was a pretty romantic spot. At lunch one of tim's nephews, Harrison the five year old, got a couple of begniets(SP) and made a HUGE mess with them... with powdered sugar all over his face and the table. I wish I had taken a picture of that! Tim and I split a chicken quesadilla because we knew we had a big dinner ahead of us, but he also got a piece of chocolate cake for himself... as you'll see in this trip report, my husband likes him some dessert and especially chocolate or rice crispie treats!

after lunch my parents and sister went back to their hotel (the shades of green) and everyone went back to their rooms to relax.. tim and I took a nap while the boys went swimming with their parents and tim's mom and brother showered and napped too. We woke up around five or so and everyone met in the lobby to head over to the Hoop De Doo Review. I think the show was at 7:15 but we got to Fort Wilderness really early and just stood around in the heat waiting to get in with all the other people... my aunt gloria and uncle bill from texas came too and when we finally were allowed in we were on the top floor on the right hand side. The chairs face away from the stage area when you want to eat and then when you want to watch the show you have to swivvel your chair around and look down... even though it was a little bit of a pain like that it was ok and the show was sooo fun! Because Tim and I were getting married on Saturday (this was a Thursday) my dad made a big hullabaloo and one of the dancers came up and talked to us and they put the spotlight on us.. tim kissed me in the spotlight and they asked us where we were from etc...etc. The food at the Hoop De Doo was really great too.. I loved the cornbread and the beans.... and the dessert was strawberry shortcake and they even had a little song and dance number to present the dessert.. here's a pic from the show:

here's tim's brother on the far left, my sister, and my dad at the Hoop De Doo:

and here's Henry, Harrison, and tim's sister Mary Ellen:

The Hoop De Doo was a lot of fun and I can totally see why it's a tradition for a lot of families. After the show my mom and dad dropped us back off at the French Quarter and they headed back to the Shades of Green. Tim and I ended up going swimming in the pool with the boys .. I should have gotten pics of the pool area but I didn't. It was really, really nice swimming in the evenings after we got home from things... we did that a lot which was funny to me because Tim was the one who thought I had crammed too much stuff to do in the four days at Disney but he was the one who would often say "want to go swimming?" when we'd get back from things. The pool at the French Quarter is awesome if you didn't know and it has a giant dragon slide and you go down his tongue! After swimming we went back to our room, showered, and went to bed .....

Ok, I'll do Day 2, friday, later on.. hope you enjoyed this installment!

 

[karentan]

great start, cant wait to hear more!

 

[luna99]

We woke up early because the lady who was going to be streaming my dress and my sisters dress was coming to our room at seven am. I thought Tim would be angry that she was coming so early and looking forward to sleeping in but I have to give him credit, he was a lot more agreeable and cheerful during this trip than I thought he would be. The steaming company was Carolyn Allen and I can't remember the woman's name for the life of me.. Anna maybe? but she was sooo nice and sweet and even steamed tim's suit for an extra 15 dollars even though we didn't request it! She was talking to us about the different hotel rooms and how they look inside (she knows from doing different steamings all over disney) and just different weddings and themes of weddings she's experienced..it was a really cool conversation!

After she left we all took the bus over the Magic Kingdom.. now Tim's mother is in her 70's and can't walk all that well... she was nervous about getting one of those electric scooters and wanted a wheelchair instead.. I think she was afraid she would drive over people or something.. but after a few minutes of playing with it she got the hang of it. That morning it was me, Tim, Tim's 70 year old mom, Tim's brother, Tim's sister, her husband, their two kids, and then eventually my mom, dad, and sister showed up too.. you can imagine how crazy it was trying to keep everyone together and happy in the park!!! So at first.. tim and I kinda separated from everyone because we had to go to the hat shop and buy our bride and groom ears!! No one wanted to wait for us and that was just fine with us anyway.. we got the ears and headed over to Adventureland where we were supposed to meet the rest of the group at POTC. When we got there no one was there and the line was so short that tim and I decided to ride POTC by ourselves.. we literally walked onto the boats and he loved it!! I was so happy cause it's my favorite ride there and here I was.. riding it with my fiance! I always dreamed of going to DisneyWorld with my boyfriend/fiance/husband someday and here I was doing it!!! When we got off the ride my mom, dad, and sister were there and soon after the rest of the gang showed up too. We all decided to ride it again and this time I rode next to Henry, the 8 year old. He said he wasn't scared but I know he got a little scared during the drop and because of the dark.. he was grabbing on to me for dear life!!

When we got off POTC, we headed over to the Jungle Cruise.. now I haven't ridden this since I was 10 because we usually skip it.. and while it was kinda fun, I can see why we skip it each year. haha! Our tourguide though was really cute and making these funny sarcastic jokes and I hammed it up and laughed and just was being super dramatic about things just for the fun of it...

after that a few of us did the Aladdin's magic carpet ride... mostly the little kids wanted to ride that and I got to ride it with Harrison, the 5 year old, who liked making it go up and down. When it was over he said "let's ride it again!"....

about this time we realized we needed to split up.. the kids were getting overheated and wanted to rest so me, Tim, my mom, my dad, and my sister took off on our own over to Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain.... my dad can't ride those because he has a bad back and also had one of the electric motorcar scooter things so poor dad.. he had to wait for us while we had all the fun..

Tim had never been on a rollercoaster before ever.. so we decided first thing first.. he had to ride splash mountain!!!

Ok everyone.. I have to take off.. I'll be back with more and more pictures!!

 

[jasonandlisa]

Seems like you guys did a really good job of touring the park, even with a big group!! Sounds like a fun day so far