Malaea's PJ&TR: Randy Chapman Pics/Video Blog Online; Disney Videography

[malaea3]

Day 1: Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Yea!!! Today I leave for my wedding! I woke up this morning having slept only 1.5 hours. I was up until 5am at my parent’s house finishing up those last minute details. At 4:45 my dad comes into his office and gives me a funny look then says, “What are you doing?” I respond, “Wedding stuff.” He then says “You do realize that I am getting up to go to work, right?” Hahahaaa…

After that I went home slept until 6:30 am than got up to go to a work event that I had to attend before leaving. Let’s, just say that the event is somewhat of a blurr. When I get home we begin packing the car. Little did I know that this feat would take us 10 hours. There were little things to do still such as finishing frames some pictures for the tables and pack my father. Not to mention that we had WAY too much stuff to fit in our Element. We packed and unpack the car 5 times before we got It right. I think my neighbors enjoyed us looking like crazy people. We finally got everything in the car around 4pm. So we then go to my parent’s house to get the items for Matthew’s 30th Surprise party and my mom’s luggage. Finally at around 8:30pm we are good to go. We get in the car and hit up Starbucks. Matthew of course is worried that we are leaving late and that I am driving on 1.5 hours of sleep. (He also thought we left at 4pm when we left my house. When he found out we didn’t leave until after 8pm he was really worried.) So, he used his hotel discount (he works for a hotel company) and get us a room in Valdosta, GA at the new Holiday, which I must say was super nice. The drive actually wasn’t too painful. We got to Valdosta a little after midnight and slept for a few hours. I wanted to leave early since we were already a day behind.

 

[malaea3]

Day 2: Thursday, May 22, 2008

Our alarm went off at 5:30am so we could hit the road early. We grab some super healthy McDonald’s on the way out since it was the only open place. Ick….I never eat fast food. Anywho. The drive down was uneventful. Mom kept asking if I was 100% ready for this step and other ridiculous questions. My response was “Of course, I have no doubts whatsoever; and even if I did, a divorce would be cheaper than cancelling the wedding this late in the game. “

We arrive at WDW around 10am, 30 minutes before I was suppossed to pick Matthew up from the Orlando airport. We headed to Port Orleans-French Quarter and checked in. Thankfully they had a room ready for us so we didn’t have to wait around. The room was nice as always; we had room 5110. We threw our stuff in the room as Matthew kept calling, wondering if we were ever going to get him. Eventually he decided to go to Disney’s Magical Express desk at the airport to see if he could catch a bus. They said “no problem” and he was dropped off at the hotel before noon. We frantically hide his surprise party stuff before he arrived.

After Matthew arrived it was time for us to drop the favors and other ceremony items off at Franc’s Studio. We leave mom to fend with the remainder of the hotel bags and off we went. There were no ceremony’s going on so it was easy to drop everything off. Our favors of Georgia peanuts, jam, and Coca-Cola pads were quite heavy. We had 2 large Tupperware and 2 large boxes to drop off. The person we left everything with then gave of directions to Disney’s Floral Shop were we had to pick up the Mouse Ears for the kids and bridal party. The directions were not so great. We got to the right area of the park, but could not find the right building. Thankfully, the there was a mail person delivering mail who was able to point us in the right direction. The floral shop trip turned out to be pretty cool.

The small building greets you with a big blue Mickey. We were directed to Rose’s office (my floral person) and she gave us the mouse ears. One of the ears was not correct so she went to the back to have it redone, and I got to go with her. Super Cool! The warehouse is filled with all sorts of things they were working on. I got to see the green centerpieces for a Saturday wedding that were similar to mine and see some floral for my wedding in the gigantic flower refrigerator, as well as see how they set everything up when working an event. The embroidery person was very nice and apparently they are very specialized. There are very few cast members that are allowed to work the embroidery machines. It was a great time at the floral shop. We found our way out of that area of property much more quickly than our way in. From there we headed to Kissimmee to get our marriage license. We got turned around but eventually found the courthouse. We had no trouble getting the marriage license. The whole trip from WDW and back again took about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

When we got back to the hotel, we helped mom finishing stuffing the hotel bags and organized them as well as we could. We then delivered them to Port Orleans-FQ. We had dinner reservations at Boma that night so we packed the car with the remaining hotel bags and headed to Animal Kingdome Lodge. I had never been to the Lodge and when I saw it all I could say is “WOW!” The lobby is amazing. It really is a beautiful hotel. Dinner at Boma was phenomenal. My mom is one picky lady, but she had no complaints about this restaurant. After dinner, we headed to All-Star Movies to drop off the hotel bags there. We had no problems dropping off the hotel bags at either hotel, nor did we have to tip bellhops at either hotel. At All-Star Movies we hung out with a couple of the bridesmaid’s for a bit over by the Mighty Ducks section. And met up with my little sister and her boyfriend who had arrived late that evening. Finally we called it a night around midnight and headed back to Port Orleans-FQ to get some sleep.
I should point out that I still had only 5.5 hours of sleep over the past few days. I must have had some serious adrenaline going.

Room at Port Orleans French Quarter-Just a Standard Room

At the Floral Shop

Dinner at Boma then Checking out the Lodge

My DF being Silly-The first thing he did when he arrived was buy Mickey Gloves

 

[accountingbabe08]

Can't wait to read all about your wedding and your trip. I'm on so happy for you and your new husband.

 

[malaea3]

Day 3: Friday, May 23, 2008

Yeaaaa, it’s Friday and I actually got some sleep. We took our time that morning. Matthew and mom went to get breakfast and check into Matthew’s room at Port Orleans-FQ while I took a long shower. Yes, Matthew stayed in the same room as my mom and I that first night. He ended up coming a day earlier than planned and I thought it would be silly to pay an additional $150 for him to sleep in a separate room. He was fine with it. A little weird sleeping in the same room as mom but whatever. Moving on, we enjoyed our cafeteria breakfast while mom watched Telemundo…sheesh. Around noon, dad called saying that he had arrived and already taking Disney’s Magical Express to Saratoga and had checked us into the suite without any problems. Matthew then went to Saratoga to pick up dad and then over to All-Star Movies to get my sister and her friend. At that point we were able to get into our room at Saratoga. We dropped Matthew off at Port Orleans-FQ and headed to Saratoga. The room was fabulous and everyone felt we made the perfect decision getting a suite. We threw our stuff in the room and mom, dad and I headed over to the BoardWalk Inn to give my boss his hotel bag. He was the only person staying at the BoardWalk. He was not there, but his wife was…she is very cool…and she showed me the room. Very nice indeed. We grabbed salads and a sandwich at the bakery on the boardwalk and chilled for a bit. Finally we headed back to Saratoga to drop dad off. Mom and I then went to pick up Kathleen, a bridesmaid over at All-Star Movies, an headed off property to get our nails done at Magic Nails.

MAGIC NAILS…ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS!!!
The Magic Nail’s facility was really nice, but the moment I walked in I knew this was not going to be a great experience. This guy walks up to me and stares at us for a second then says “What do you want?”. We tell him then he stares some more then proceeds to say to me ”Well…..go sit down then.” The whole time he is doing my nails he is talking to other people, singing to the music, and talking on his phone. He did and TERRIBLE job on my nails, so much so that I ended up having to redo them all. During my pedicure, he kept complaining about my feet. He kept saying, “your nails need to be longer”, “you need to have more pedicure’s” and he kept signing and rolling his eyes. My feet are just fine he was just being an A__HOLE. I almost cried. When I say my toes in the light, the lighting in the nail place is terrible, I saw that he didn’t even remove my old nail polish completely. I had fuscia showing through 5 toes nails. It was the most horrendous nail experience of my life and mom and Kat had a terrible time as well. I DO NOT RECOMMEND MAGIC NAIL AT ALL!!! WORST PLACE FOR NAILS; DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY.

After that we headed to Publix to grab some food for dad and for the girl’s on Sunday. It became somewhat of a mad dash since we had to be at downtown Disney at 8:15pm for dinner at the Irish Restaurant,Raglan Road. We made it there only 15 minutes late and it was totally worth the rush. The food was great. Very authentic (dad is Irish). I highly recommend it. There was an Irish band and dancing. It is noisy but it you like an upbeat environment, it’s a great place. The rib appetizer is super yummy. After dinner, I played chauffeur and took everyone to their appropriate hotels. Mom and I then headed to Port Orleans-FQ to grab the remained of our stuff from Matthew’s room. Matthew was in a pissy mood and proceeded to be a jerk to me in front of my mom. Mom of course was super mad after that even though I went off on Matt. Nothing a mom should see. She got over it the next day. Finally we got some sleep.

Getting the bridal party gifts done.

Mom & Dad being silly

Dinner at the Irish Restaurant: Raglan Road

 

[malaea3]

Saratoga Springs Two Bedroom Suite

 

[IndyBride]

Everything's looking like a fabulous time! Can't wait to hear about your big day.

 

[29apr00]

Wow, love the pics of Saratoga Springs!! Look at that bathtub!! I didn't know they had washer/dryer's in there too! Great so far!


jennifer

 

[malaea3]

Day 4: Saturday, May 24, 2008

It’s the day of our rehearsal!!! So we got up and ate a small breakfast then headed over to Port Orleans-FQ to meet everyone and caravan to the rehearsal at the wedding pavilion. We ended up only being about 10 minutes late, which for my family is pretty good. The rehearsal went smoothly and it was great meeting Rev. Jack finally. He did an excellent job. The flower girls were tired and cranky but I wasn’t worried. After the rehearsal, we headed over to Narcoossee’s at the Grand Floridian for our rehearsal brunch.

Rose did a great job with the simple centerpieces and the brunch buffet set up was amazing. All the food was delicious and everyone stuffed themselves. About an hour into it Matthew and I gave our gifts to the bridal party and Matthew did a great job telling funny stories while I just said “love you” and gave the girls gifts. I’m not so great at emotional stuff. Everyone loved their gifts. The guys got chocolate brown Adidas Gazelles in Adidas bags and some shaving cream from The Art of Shaving), Matthew loves that place. The usher and ringer bearer got white Adidas Gazelles in an Adidas bag, a Star War’s toy and mouse ears. The little flower girls got an LL Bean bag with their initial’s, some toys, and of course, mouse ears. The bridesmaids has already received some hot pink shoes for their bridesmaid’s dresses but they also got a LL Bean initialed bags with a Disney towel with their name on it and some random stuff (chocolate, nail file, tissues). Readers got a bag with a towel as well, and a gift card to their favorite store.

My only complaint about the brunch has nothing to do with Disney. Tell me if I am wrong, but I thought that the groom’s parent’s, being the host’s of the event, would say something. They didn’t and when I asked if they would like to say anything they strongly refused. I was insulted. I thought they would at least say thanks for coming and welcome me into the family. Lordy, they are really weird people.

After brunch, the guests headed out to the parks and their hotels. Matthew went to hang out with the guys and my family went back to Saratoga to prep his surprise party. Of course it ended up being a stormy day. Celeste said that the party may be moved from Shipwreck beach to an indoor facility and about 3 hours before the party, she called confirming this. The party was moved to The Yacht Club Convention Center in the Cape Cod Lobby. I was really disappointed since it had become a luau themed party and the beach reinforced that. Celeste said she would call floral to see if they could throw some last minute decorations together at no charge. After that I spent over an hour calling, texting and emailing everyone on the list letting them know the new venue. About 45 minutes before I had to be there, we headed out to Downtown Disney to get candy for the piñata’s. Matthew had never had a piñata and always wanted one. We got 2. One was a giant 3 and the other a 0. The candy was expensive and I regretted forgetting to buy it at Publix the day before. Finally we made it to the Yacht Club and Celeste and floral had done a great job. The Lobby was well decorated and mom and I just added some noisemakers and the piñata’s to the room. I should note that we had also brought down tiki torches. Matthew thought they mom’s crazy friend Paige had purchased them in Orlando because they were such a great deal here. He actually believed that we were just storing them for her.

Slowly everyone began to arrive. Meanwhile, Matthew’s friends are trying to get him to the party. He was apparently really pissed that they had to pick up some friends at the Yacht Club before heading to ESPN Zone…the cover story. He was getting really mad. When he turned the corner into the Lobby he was blown away. We all screamed surprise and sang Happy Birthday. He was overwhelmed and so happy. He said it was the best birthday he ever had. I’m not surprise since his parents basically suck. They were event 40 minutes late to the party and missed the surprise.

Anyway, the food was great as always and everyone ate a lot and enjoyed cupcakes, danced a bit and just had fun hanging out. Matthew was so happy the whole time. He even teared up whispering to me that no one had ever done anything for him like this. I wanted to cry. The piñata was hilarious. We didn’t had rigging for it, so we had 2 groomsmen hold either of a stick holding up the piñata. It all was going well until the junior bridesmaid got dizzy and hit one of the groomsmen in the stomach and then the next kids threw the stick at the other groomsmen. Absolutely hilarious. Finally one of the adults finished the piñata off and the kids enjoyed collecting the candy with their buckets. I had made them buckets to play in the sand with since the party was supposed to be on the beach. The whole event was great. All his friends signed a big poster for him and some brought gifts. The funniest being his college friends making him some mouse ear’s that said Mr. Thacker on the back….my last name. Overall, everything worked out well and all were happy.

Some people then headed downtown for a while. I headed back to Saratoga to clean up the suite a bit before the next morning when the girls would arrive for hair and makeup. Mom tucked me into my sofa that night (btw I got the sofa bed while at the suite…actually quite comfortable) and cried about how happy she was and that she loved me, etc. Super sweet; she is a fabulous mom.

I got them all to wear ears:

Food

We decided to take home the centerpiece flowers and enjoy them.

 

[malaea3]

Day 5: Sunday, May 25, 2008

My Wedding Day. Oh My Gosh…it’s finally here. I woke up at 7:30am and welcomed the first 2 bridesmaids at 7:50am. At 8am Patricia LeJeune and her team arrived. We spent the next 4 hours doing hair and makeup, having brunch, and just plain having fun. Patricia’s team did and amazing job. My mom was even happy. Carolyn Allen’s came by around 10:30am to steam my gown and the girl’s dresses. Thankfully I was able to squeeze in a bubble bath that morning while the other girls were getting made up. We kind of got rushed for time at the end though. I should have listened to Patricia when she said we needed to start at 7am. Oh well all worked out in the end. The limo was supposed to pick me up at 1pm but thankfully it was about 20 minutes late because apparently the boys were not on time either. The best part was, my hair was not done until 1pm so I was just in my dress when the limos arrived. I barely remember anything until after the ceremony. We were late so I was rushed to the limo, rushed through pictures, and rushed over to the ceremony. I had about 5 minute of quiet time and the next thing I knew the flower girls were headed down the aisle. I started crying and my dad was like “what is wrong, this is a happy day…don’t cry.” Needless to say I cried more. I finally got it together before we went down the aisle. Dad looked so handsome in his uniform. I even took some pictures with his naval hat. At this point I should note that Randy Chapman has done a fabulous job so far. Well I am finally headed down the aisle and I must say I barely remember any of the ceremony. As a bride you miss everyone going down the aisle and the whole event is so overwhelming that you blink and it’s over. I somewhat remember saying our vows, we wrote our own, and I remember the lasso ceremony but that is about it. This was my personal experience, but I have spoken to many brides and very few remember their ceremony. That being said I am SO happy I decided to have videography; I know I can experience the day without being overwhelmed with emotion.

As well as I can remember the ceremony went perfectly. The staged exit was perfect and Matthew and I got 5 minutes of quiet which was nice. We then went back to the Pavilion for more pictures and then headed to the Grand for the reception. At the Grand we took more pictures while the pre-reception was going on. I must say that the champagne punch that we had the pre-reception was really yummy. Finally Celeste took us to the reception room. I was so excited to see the room. She opened the door and Rose was there standing in the most beautiful room I had ever seen. It was absolutely perfect down to the napkins ties. I started crying I was so happy. It was exactly what I had envisioned for the last 10 months. We wandered around the room checking everything out then were moved next door to door some interviews for the videographer and to eat some of the reception food which was as always….perfect. Celeste then helped me pin my bustle up some more because it was too long to dance in still. She then left us alone for a few. We ate and relaxed some and practiced the end of the dance a couple of times. Then it was time to enter the reception hall. This was Matthew’s time. I let him choose the music. The girls and guys wore their Mouse Ears and the guys carried their light sabers as they entered the reception to the Star War’s Theme. Then we entered to the Imperial March (Darth Vader’s song.) It was fun and funny. Once we entered we went straight into the first dance; a foxtrot to “Always Together” by Jack Johnson. The dance went really well. We had been taking lessons for the past few months. After that we went up to the sweetheart table and are our yummy dinner. During dinner my dad gave a brief speech, his dad did a blessing, and later my sister and his brother gave speeches. Closing the dinner my college friends gave a little tribute as well. In between courses Matthew and I went and said hello to each table. After that we all started to party!!!

The party was fabulous. DJ Chuck was amazing and everyone had a blast. Matthew even got carried around in a chair. My friend Elyce caught the bouquet and Matthew’s cousin Wes caught the garter. Following the bouquet and garter toss Mickey and Goofy stopped by and we had a dance party with them. After that Matthew and I took some private pictures with them. We got some really cute/silly ones. After that we danced for about 30 more minutes and then the party came to an end. We stayed around to say goodbye to everyone and I got to see them breakdown the room. Kind of depressing.

From the reception, we were picked up via golf cart and taken to our room at the Grand Floridian in the Sago Cay building. We had a signed Mickey & Minnie picture waiting with champagne. The room was nice and we had an amazing view of Cinderella’s Castle. We went for a walk around the Grand because I was not ready to take my dress off. After that we came back to the room got cleaned up and finally went to bed.

I will say that the Grand was not so impressive. The rooms are certainly not worth $400/night. It was nice to experience it once but I doubt I will stay there again. The shower head in the bathroom was painful and the bathrooms are definitely lacking. Of course the service was stellar though.

ILL POST PICS SHORTLY!!!

 

[malaea3]

Everyone Waiting Quietly

Totally Shocked!!!

My Crazy Sister

Me and my older DF

Yummy

Pinata Time

His guy friends made some Mouse Ears for him with my last name...HAHAHAHAHAA

 

[malaea3]

Getting Ready

Me & Patricia LeJeune-She Rocks!

In limo with Junior BM

Ceremony

 

[accountingbabe08]

Looks like your magical day was wonderful, and I'm so happy for you and your new husband.

 

[hope1826]

YAY, you're TR is great! It sounds like you had a blast!

I can't wait to see what Patricia did for you and your ladies. I LOVED her!

 

[29apr00]

Such beautiful pictures!!

 

[sunsh1ne]

your wedding looks wounderful. i cant wait to hear more.
and i also was suppose to have an event on shipwreck beack and mine was rained out. it is nice inside though! yours looked like fun. and those girls shoes and your flowers were awesome

 

[Keira1387]

You looked so beautiful! I LOVE the hot pink shoes!

 

[Lisacope]

Great TR! You were a beautiful bride!

 

[Raspberry Bubbles]

Fantastic TR ~ I can't wait to see the pictures!!!

 

[malaea3]

All,
I havent messaged in forever but I figured I would close everything up with a last note reviewing my Disney video and letting you know my pics are online at Chapman Photography.

Pics: http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=3924555

Video Montage/Blog: http://chapmanphotography.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/07/maria-and-matt.html

I received my video from Disney videography and I am happy to say it is absolutely perfect! Mom and I cried and it was great watching everything. Lord knows I don't remember a lot. I highly recommend their videography. They did a great video montage; and then the video of the whole event was really well edited.

That is it! We are headed to Disney World again in a few months and cannot wait for a mini vacation and break from work.

 

[MyMelody]

Beautiful Pictures! You are very pretty and you looked stunning on your special day! Wish you lots of happiness in your marriage