Melissa and Michael's Swan Wedding 01/27/2012

[elfbo]

I am a 32 year old computer nerd. Working for the district library system as the head tech person. I have 2 sisters, both younger, a 3 year old nephew and my mom. Also have a dog named pixel (or pixie stix), and we acquired a puppy who we call dumdum(like the candy). I grew up in Kansas, and moved to the east cost (D.C.) after college, and worked and lived there for 8 years. My first marriage lasted less long than that, at 7 years. I ended up moving back to Kansas when the economy crashed and stayed with my mom for a year. Luckily before i moved back, i managed to meet a fellow computer nerd, just before i left.

He is a 25 year old gamer. Grew up in Atlanta. Attended Georgia Tech and has a degree in chemistry. He has an older sister (My age, lol), and left 2 adorable bugs (Bull terriers/Pug) when he moved to Kansas to be with me.

We started talking in 2008, while playing World of Warcraft. We were friends from the start, but being that he was so much younger than I, i wasn't interested in anything more. Well 2009 rolls around, and I have a personal crisis. He comes up from ATL and stays with me for 2 weeks until things were okay (He would have stayed longer but his last semester of classes were starting). At that point, i decided to give us a chance. Good choice in retrospect as its now 2 years later and we are getting married. He proposed back in May, to my surprise (Not that he was gonna propose, but that he did so after we had been fighting most of the day). Well, that cleared up all arguments from me.

We celebrated at a local amusement park (Go go Worlds of Fun). After we got back it was time to start planning. Well his family is mostly east coast, and would appreciate if we had it somewhere that way rather than the midwest. Imagine my surprise when he suggested that we do it in Orlando, at Disney.

My family pushed us past the attendance for the memories collection, and an escape wedding would be severely pushing our budget for the time frame we wanted. But in the research process we discovered the Swan & Dolphin weddings. Now I love Disney, not for the characters, but for the atmosphere, so S&D was more than fine for me. I mean across the lagoon from my favorite park? Oh yeah!

We booked the Cresent Terrace for Jan 27th 2012 (1PM) in August, and then all the planning began in earnest.

 

[elfbo]

I found my dress back in July, which meant the hard part is over. Except for the fittings. Im getting the back of it changed to a corset style with the lacing because i like how that looks. I do not yet have shoes, but I ordered my veil. Ivory with rose trim, two layer, fingertip length. I have red crystal butterflies for my hair, and my necklace and earrings.

The Dress~

He has his tux ordered, 3 button diamond lapel, from men's warehouse and we will have it delivered to the resort. I am debating on getting him the mickey cufflinks as i think they are so cute, but dont know as nobody will see them (unless i make him keep pulling up his sleeves, lol).

I still am unsure about how I will be getting my dress down there. Right now im leaning toward scrunching it into a carry on suitcase, and having it steamed when we arrive. Ive seen how baggage handlers handle suitcases and it will NOT be checked. And im terrified, that since its winter, my dress may get trapped in a snowstorm, somewhere thats not Orlando.

I need to send a message to one of the companies that steam dresses so i can get a spot reserved.

 

[elfbo]

Thanks to print 123, and Tinkerbell_766 we were able to get invitations that were cute and special to us. We used the swan Mickey and Minnie logo that she created and put it on the invitations, reply cards and save the date magnets.

We got the invites sent out last week. A bit later than we had hoped to, but the annual city festival was the week before, and we spent the preceding two weeks building a parade float.

We ordered our wedding bands this past weekend

My Ring

His Ring

We were both going to get the greek key design shown on his ring, but i have tiny fingers and an 8mm ring plus my engagement ring ...just doesn't fit right. So I got one like his, but without the design, which is 4mm, much more comfortable on my little hand.

I will post a picture of my engagment ring later as I do not have any photos of it yet. But i can tell you its a marquis solitaire on a non traditional band, and its very sparkly, and you can blind someone with it if you hit it with the sun just right

 

[hrhamanda]

This is awesome. I can't wait to hear more about it. I too am just starting planning a Swan and Dolphin wedding for May. How many people are you planning to have? What are you doing for the reception?

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Hi sweetie - Great that you have started a PJ. It's always lovely to welcome another S/D bride to our small, exclusive group!!! You have one avid reader here!!! Have fun planning, and I would love to see a photo of the invites etc when you get around to it!!!

 

[tinkerbell 766]

This is awesome. I can't wait to hear more about it. I too am just starting planning a Swan and Dolphin wedding for May. How many people are you planning to have? What are you doing for the reception?

Hi hrhamanda!!!
Welcome to the boards and, more importantly to our friendly little band of S/D brides and VR brides. You will find that the girls on here will be delighted to answer any queries or questions you may have. Don't hesitate to ask!!! Feel free to PM me if you have anything specific which you do not wish to post on the public forum.
It's nice to have you along, sweetie and do feel free to start a PJ - we all just love to hear of each other's plans!!!

 

[elfbo]

I will post more details later, but hrhamanda, we are planning on about 20 people for the wedding. My family (4), His family (2), The pastor and his family (4). Then we have our gaming buddies, Family of 4, and about 5 singles, oh and my best friend and neighbor from grade school. Alot of them live nearish orlando, so we are having an impromptu meet and greet. At this point, the gamer nerds out number the normal people, so this should be rather entertaining. With that in mind, having a formal reception would be not suiting, so we are having cake and going to serve punch while we finish up with the pictures. After that we will likely head off to some restaurant to chat and eat ... or if the inner nerd really comes out, back to the hotel to discuss strategy.

Im still up in the air about whether or not to get alcoholic drinks as well, since 90% of the guests don't partake, but for the few that does...hrm

Also, there may be more attending than that, since we sent out invites to several extended family that "probably" wont come, but..you never know. Keeping plans a bit fluid until we get the rsvps back.

 

[virtuous girl]

Welcome pretty dress, i think the red butterfly crystals would go great with the dress bcuz i love everything bedazzled!

 

[elfbo]

When I started looking at flowers, i decided i wanted them to mainly be calla lilies. I like the shape of the flower, and its something different than just the traditional rose. I looked online for natural touch callas because I really want the flowers to be ready ahead of time and not have to worry about getting them delivered. I also wanted flowers that i can use again for the reception back home we are having.

I was looking at some bouquets from wedideas.com and I found a design i really liked. Then i started looking at their facebook comments. There were quite a few people who weren't getting their orders on time, weren't getting any response from the company about questions, and had to contact them several times to get things resolved. I decided to contact them anyway to get pricing information from them. I filled out their order form with what i wanted with a request for pricing. After sending that twice (yah, no response the first time), i got a reply that said, submit your order and we will figure out the price for you. No thank you, im on a budget, and price means the difference between getting extra center pieces and accent flowers and not getting them.

My sister, who is rather crafty, looked at the bouquet that I liked and said "I can make something like that no problem". So, wish me luck all, because we are designing our own floral decorations.

My bouquet will be a round calla bunch with a couple of accent roses. The corsages will be a calla lily with 2 accent roses. The boutineers will be a rosebud with a single mini calla. Once we get some made i will post pictures so you can see how the experiment went!

I also saw something i absolutely loved on ebay. It was a mickey head outline that framed (and was a bit above) the roses on the boutineer. I think i will try and make something like that also, to give it an extra bit of disney flair. And if that goes well, may put it on the corsages as well.

Ive ordered my flowers through afloral.com and i must say, they look and feel amazing. I opted for the magnet pins, so my guests wont have to worry about pin holes in clothes, and dont have to worry about stabbing themselves (my mom). I will also be adding some flowers to the ring bearer pillow.

PS. just went back to the wedideas facebook page, and all the negative comments are gone. In fact, there are no posts between June 1st and mid September....

 

[elfbo]

I got the prices back from Karen today on the drink options I can add to my package. Im now deciding between punch or lemonade, or i may go with sparking cider and a bottle of champagne. The DF is being far too agreeable and is forcing me to decide

I think im leaning slightly more toward punch than lemonade as there is such a huge flavor difference possibility from tart to sweet, pulpy or non pulpy. I think punch would be less offensive overall. But sparking cider would be fun to get that bubbly feeling....

 

[elfbo]

In excellent news, my dress can fit into a carryon sized suitcase if i cant get them to put it in the coat closet. I intend to get a cheap plastic box of the right side and bring it with. If its needed, im prepared, if not, well im not out much money.

I thought about shipping it, but being the wedding is Jan, and what weather is like that time of year, im terrified that the dress will be stranded in some location that is NOT Orlando. Id rather have it with me so we are both stranded, or neither.

Im interested in shipping it back home afterwards, but i dont know if i need a service like carol allens to do it, or if i get a box, can i just ship it back through Disney.

 

[elfbo]

Since my non family guest consists almost entirely of people the DF and I will be playing Star Wars: The Old Republic with i got this killer idea!

I emailed Karen today to see if she could find out if the violinist could play some of the music from the star wars sound track before and after the ceremony.

I have this insane desire for the recessional to be the Imperial March (Darth Vader) theme, but im not sure if i like the implication that we just completed an evil union

Plus, EVERYONE at the wedding has seen star wars at least once, so they will recognize the music.

 

[elfbo]

Whelp, I found out the musician can play the music i want. So now i just need to decide what songs i want to go where. I also need to figure out a Disney or game song that i can march up the aisle too. Im sort of clumsy so it has to be something slow.

I haven't picked out shoes yet because i need something on a platform with WIDE heel. Those narrow heels just give me way too much sway, and you couldn't even see my sexy sway anyway with all the skirt im going to have that day.

I want something happy and bubbly for the seating of the mothers. Id like that one to be a Disney song, but i dont know what would fit.

And is there a good disney piece for the bride to proceed to? I know how i will be spending this weekend, listening to music.

 

[elfbo]

I didnt want to go through the hassle of a unity candle lighting. But now im strongly considering a sand ceremony. The sand looks so pretty combined together like that. Now must do more research on how it actually works and wait for the DF to wake up so i can ask him if hed like to.

http://sandceremonyset.com/SandCeremonySets.htm is a place where i found several ceremony sets. I like the double heart ones, but i dont know what colors of sand to use.

 

[Jilian]

Yay, another swan bride! We're having our vow renewal @ crescent terrace at the swan

I had the exact same experience with wedideas. I emailed them and after a long time with no response I friended them on FB and saw the same negative feedback all over the place. That is when I decided to make my own. All you really need is some nice slowers, some floral wire, some wire cutters to trim the stems, pretty ribbon to cover the stems and a glue gun to glue the ribbon. I mae my own bouquet and 3 bouttonieres (with mickey jewel heads).

I had a good experience with Afloral.com too, I bought the cutest pomander balls there. Hey...now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure you posted on my thread in the main wedding forum.

As for songs to walk down the aisle to, there are tons. Cinderella's "once upon a dream", Aladdins "Whole new world", "can you feel the love tonight" Lion King, I think? Those are just a few off the top of my head.

For drinks, I'd go with the sparkling cider if you want to do a toast. I think it is a bit fancier and I'm pretty sure they serve it in champagne glasses.

Your plans sound great so far, I can't wait to read more!

 

[elfbo]

I have most of what i need for making the flowers, but where did you get the mickey jeweled heads for yours? Jilian?

 

[elfbo]

Good news is that we have the ceremony part paid off early. Yay! Bad news, we have to find a new officiant, as my preferred one wont be able to attend.

 

[DoomBuggy0922]

Just hopping in--- another January bride like me! I love everything so far; your dress is SO pretty!!! And the Mickey bouts sound adorable!

Although, now you're starting to make ME worry about snow--- gahhhh!

 

[Jilian]

I have most of what i need for making the flowers, but where did you get the mickey jeweled heads for yours? Jilian?

Sorry I'm responding late, The mickey heads I used for the stems are just stick-on round jewels from Michael's. They were maybe $1.99 per pack? I bought the multi size pack and just used the bigger one for the head and smaller ones for the ears

 

[2dogmom]

Since my non family guest consists almost entirely of people the DF and I will be playing Star Wars: The Old Republic with i got this killer idea!

I emailed Karen today to see if she could find out if the violinist could play some of the music from the star wars sound track before and after the ceremony.

I have this insane desire for the recessional to be the Imperial March (Darth Vader) theme, but im not sure if i like the implication that we just completed an evil union

Plus, EVERYONE at the wedding has seen star wars at least once, so they will recognize the music.

Another Swan bride here. My DF would love to have Star Wars music or characters, especially Darth Vadar.