Meryll83's SBP/Citrico's/Morocco PJ - Update: Trip Report now underway!!

[meryll83]

Well we have now been assigned our planner, Kathleen, who has emailed us over the planning pack and we are going to try and schedule a quick phone call with her this week just to have a quick chat and ask a few questions - the actual completed pack doesn't need to go back until August though!!

 

[disneygal922]

Meryll, I have NO idea how I've missed your PJ all this time. Soooo, I've spent my free time this morning catching up!

Your dress is GORGEOUS! All of your plans sound so wonderful! Glad to hear you finally got a planner! I can understand the waiting though. DF and I will have been engaged 2 years also! I also bought my dress waaaay early at the 19 month mark! Hope you get in touch with Kathleen and she answers all your questions! can't wait to read more!

 

[Chilly]

I'm glad eveything is coming together.

 

[linzwylie]

Its really exciting when you get to this stage and things start happening for real !! Enjoy it

Linz xxx

 

[meryll83]

Meryll, I have NO idea how I've missed your PJ all this time. Soooo, I've spent my free time this morning catching up!

Your dress is GORGEOUS! All of your plans sound so wonderful! Glad to hear you finally got a planner! I can understand the waiting though. DF and I will have been engaged 2 years also! I also bought my dress waaaay early at the 19 month mark! Hope you get in touch with Kathleen and she answers all your questions! can't wait to read more!

I keep pitying you girls who have found my PJ so late, it's just so looooooong! Thanks for taking the time to read through it all though and hopefully you've picked up some hints or ideas along the way
It's also great to know I'm not the only compulsive planner out there!!

I'm glad eveything is coming together.

Not long for you to go now Claire til you're at this stage

Its really exciting when you get to this stage and things start happening for real !! Enjoy it

Linz xxx

You're right, it is starting to get exciting now!!

I had my phonecall with Kathleen last night to go through any initial questions I might have - I had a fair few scribbled all over the planning pack so this was really useful!!

She already got back to me in an email as well about the things she wasn't sure on, which is fab!!

So, the main things I learnt that might be of interest to the rest of you:

• We are subbing our Disney photography included in the Escape package for a honeymoon shoot, which is in one of the parks. As we are doing both the MK and Epcot Bridal Portraits, I asked if having the honeymoon shoot at a resort was an option, which was one of the things Kathleen went away to check for us, and it's agreed that we can have it at the Poly instead
• I asked about having 2 different flavours of cake for the 2 layers, and 2 fillings which aren't on the standard list. This was something Kathleen had to check with the Boardwalk Bakery and the good news is we can have the flavours I've been drooling over for the last year (top layer chocolate cake with peanut butter filling and bottom layer almond cake with amaretto filling) at no extra charge! I didn't know it was possible to be so excited about cake!!!
• I double checked if us UK Escape brides still get the DPS CD included with all their photos on which we do, however I think we get less actual prints, will have to read that again coz I can't remember exactly what prints are included now, but having the CD means we have the rights to the piccies anyway, bonus!
• For those of us staying at BWV we walk from the lobby there to SBP, the limo is of no use there, as it would have dropped us at the BW lobby anyway if we were coming from another resort. We're still making use of it to pick up everyone from Pop and to take us all to our reception meal afterwards though
• We've only been offered Morocco as a dessert party location, apparently UK Upper and the French Island Arm have a 20 person minimum, so that makes the selection process easier for us - thank goodness I left it as Morocco on our STD's - I must have known!
• Kathleen mentioned on the phone about the outside photography rule, so no Randy at the dessert party, but I'd anticipated this anyway, just was hoping to get away with it I believe DPS charge $300 for the dessert party coverage, so we'll have a think about this and see if we want to go for it, I 've been wondering since whether we should have someone in at Citrico's from DPS to cover the meal as well, but is it weird that they won't be eating and would be snapping away instead? Has anyone else done this without serving them a meal? And that they'd be there for like an hour, I mean how many photos of people eating do you really need?!! But it'd be nice to get photos of the food itself and the atmosphere. We'd initially thought Randy could do this and eat with us, but there isn't space at the table unfortunately, so I figure it'd be best to let him finish before the meal and then get DPS to do this if we decide to do it, then continue over to the dessert party. Need your thoughts on this one!!
• Rosie from Disney Floral is due to be emailing us in a couple of weeks, and it's her I need to speak to regarding upgrading our floral to silk and any customisation etc, Kathleen said she thought it was about $100 to upgrade to silk, but I'll let you all know how I get on with this....

Think that's the highlights there for you!

 

[orangetiggs]

we only had 18 and we had uk lower but again we were a wishes wedding so it may be different

 

[disneygal922]

Hey Meryll! That's so nice Kathleen got back to you so quickly! Your cake sound delicious! Sorry to hear you can't sneak Randy in to the dessert party. It was definitely worth asking though! Did Kathleen mention if the $300 includes any prints? if so, DPS might be worth it at the dessert party! Those pics always turn out so fantastic! As for pics of the food at the reception, i'm not sure you really need it. I would skip on that and maybe have a bridesmaid or someone just takes a few snapshots. Thanks for sharing all the info!

 

[Summer-Caitlin]

Hi Meryll

So glad everything is coming together for you.

Oooh you are having the exact same cake that we had, you will not be disappointed, it was the best cake I ever tasted! I so wish we could have taken some back to the UK with us, it was so big that we ended up leaving the majority of it at POFQ!

We got 12 printed pics for the MK Bridal Shoot (I think it has changed now) and we of course got the CD to go with it, which had all our MK Bridal Shoot pics on it. I think it's really unfair that we international brides get that and US brides don't (well not immediately anyway)

Sounds like you are very organised. Can't wait to hear more of the finer details closer to the time!

 

[meryll83]

we only had 18 and we had uk lower but again we were a wishes wedding so it may be different

Hmm perhaps... I don't really mind having Morocco too much, just didn't want to have any trees blocking our view. Will see what the state of affairs is again when we get to 8 months out...

Hey Meryll! That's so nice Kathleen got back to you so quickly! Your cake sound delicious! Sorry to hear you can't sneak Randy in to the dessert party. It was definitely worth asking though! Did Kathleen mention if the $300 includes any prints? if so, DPS might be worth it at the dessert party! Those pics always turn out so fantastic! As for pics of the food at the reception, i'm not sure you really need it. I would skip on that and maybe have a bridesmaid or someone just takes a few snapshots. Thanks for sharing all the info!

I agree, I was really impressed with Kathleen's speedy response. I just found my old email last night, and it was actually $350 for DPS to cover the dessert party, forgot to check if prints were included though, I'll try again!! I think for us UK Escape brides, they don't give you any sort of portfolio and limited prints and you get the master CD instead as it's easier on the postage, but I'll let you know what I find out....
We did decide earlier that we could just have friends and family take piccies at the meal, thanks for reminding me that this was a sound idea, as I was getting all carried away again!

Hi Meryll

So glad everything is coming together for you.

Oooh you are having the exact same cake that we had, you will not be disappointed, it was the best cake I ever tasted! I so wish we could have taken some back to the UK with us, it was so big that we ended up leaving the majority of it at POFQ!

We got 12 printed pics for the MK Bridal Shoot (I think it has changed now) and we of course got the CD to go with it, which had all our MK Bridal Shoot pics on it. I think it's really unfair that we international brides get that and US brides don't (well not immediately anyway)

Sounds like you are very organised. Can't wait to hear more of the finer details closer to the time!

Hey chick,
hope you're well?
I think it might be your very cake that gave me the unhealthy obsession with having these flavours actually! I told Julie we got the flavours we wanted, and she was like "what if someone's allergic to nuts?" I didn't think of that before but hey it's tough now, more cake for me!!

It does seem unfair that US brides have to pay such a huge amount for their master CD. Just as a comparison, I had some professional photos done a year or so ago, and they just wrote to me to say as they are now retired and wanting to delete their photos, would I like the master CD of them all for £50, which I thought was a bargain so my mum's getting me that for Christmas. Isn't it something ridiculous like $1000 if you want your DPS master CD? Yikes!


On a COMPLETELY off-topic note, I just had to share with you my excitement at getting John Barrowman tickets booked for next year on the 3rd row from the front!! (he's another unhealthy obsession of mine ) - so chuffed as last time we were up in the circle and about half way back there too...

 

[meryll83]

Yesterday we were 11 months out from the wedding, and we've successfully managed to get a reservation for 2 nights at the Boardwalk Villas by renting DVC points from a very helpful fellow DISer
We've used extra points to ensure we have a Boardwalk view and have the room booked for the night of and the night before the wedding - love that view

I've also received an email from Rosie in floral already, and we're currently trying to set up a time for a call to discuss upgrades to the floral etc.

We've been wanting to pay our balance with Randy, but I've been having real problems getting hold of him now for about the past 3 weeks or so. We had been emailing back and forth, but now I've sent our last message 3 times and still no reply, very odd

I've booked our dress steamings with Carolyn Allen's now and also discovered that Beaute Speciale do nail extensions, so I'm getting those done on the morning of the wedding.

It's all go at the moment!!

 

[meryll83]

I've now had my phone consultation with Rosie - she is so sweet!! - and she went through all the pricing with me, and will send a proper breakdown once she has the next couple of month's weddings sorted out first!

Too much detail to go into here and now, I'm tired and have just got back from London, but everything we wanted was do-able

Feel free to ask the pricing on any of the elements I've mentioned we were wanting earlier in the PJ!!

 

[polynesianbride]

I've now had my phone consultation with Rosie - she is so sweet!! - and she went through all the pricing with me, and will send a proper breakdown once she has the next couple of month's weddings sorted out first!Too much detail to go into here and now, I'm tired and have just got back from London, but everything we wanted was do-able Feel free to ask the pricing on any of the elements I've mentioned we were wanting earlier in the PJ!!

Hey Meryll!* Sounds like everything is really coming together !* I'm so jealous that you get to "really plan" now... I think this next year of planning without being able to book will drive me nuts! Just wondering the exact price they quoted you for the MK photo shoot and then how much it was to add Epcot... I've heard the wish book pricing can be a little off.* Can't wait to read more!

 

[Chilly]

How much are the BM wands?

 

[meryll83]

Hey Meryll!* Sounds like everything is really coming together !* I'm so jealous that you get to "really plan" now... I think this next year of planning without being able to book will drive me nuts! Just wondering the exact price they quoted you for the MK photo shoot and then how much it was to add Epcot... I've heard the wish book pricing can be a little off.* Can't wait to read more!

It does seem like it'll take forever, but now I'm wondering where the time went!!
I believe it was $1000 for the MK shoot, and $300 to add Epcot, there's tax to go on top of that as well. I'm at work at the moment, so I'll double check those figures when I get home, but I think that was it.

How much are the BM wands?

For 3 roses, 2 colours of ribbon and pixie dust, it was somewhere between $55-65, again I'll check my spreadsheet at home as I can't remember the definite figure now. I presume tax still needs to go on to this too...

Sorry, I'm a bit useless aren't I, but I will find out!

 

[orangetiggs]

i paid $30 f each for my silk rose wands with 2 colours of ribbon and 1 large rose

 

[Chilly]

For 3 roses, 2 colours of ribbon and pixie dust, it was somewhere between $55-65, again I'll check my spreadsheet at home as I can't remember the definite figure now. I presume tax still needs to go on to this too...

i paid $30 f each for my silk rose wands with 2 colours of ribbon and 1 large rose

Thanks guys!

 

[meryll83]

Just a wee update - been mega busy at the moment as I'm performing in a Christmas show at our local theatre which starts tonight (wish me luck!!) but it's only a short run, so by next week I'll have my evenings to myself again until the next one - anyway, just wanted to mention that our AP vouchers came the other day with our contract!
That means we can go back to WDW now, and they'll let us in!

We also reserved our flight seats with Virgin too, so we'll all be sat together if we get the ones we've selected.

PS. I will check out those prices and send out the STD template to those of you asking, just might be another few days!! Thanks for being patient!!

 

[Chilly]

Good luck with the show

 

[Beep]

MERYLL!!! HELLOOO!!!

Thanks for posting all the details chick, very very useful. I'm calling Disney tomorrow to book so it was great to get some info so close to calling.

I love the sound of the cake - might have to do that one I think.

Doesn't it seem weird that after all this planning you get to finally book it?!

 

[meryll83]

Good luck with the show

Thanks Claire, all went well I think, it's just a shame it's all over now, all that rehearsing for just one weekend!

MERYLL!!! HELLOOO!!!

Thanks for posting all the details chick, very very useful. I'm calling Disney tomorrow to book so it was great to get some info so close to calling.

I love the sound of the cake - might have to do that one I think.

Doesn't it seem weird that after all this planning you get to finally book it?!

Fantastic, let me know how you get on! The real fun starts soon!

Sorry I never came back with the definitive figures did I? - useless! I have my evenings back to myself to be at home now though, so I might get chance to reappear a bit more, I feel like I've not been around much lately...