~*~ Mindyjoy's May 19 2012 Disneyland Wedding TR ~*~ Trip Report Has Begun!

[Mindyjoy]

DF and I discussed wedding things last night and we really think the Escape package is not an option for us anymore, for several reasons. First and least important is the 6 month booking aspect. Second, we can't have the ceremony at the rose garden. I've been trying to downplay that but DF sees right through me, since I've been saying I want to get married there for, well, all my life! His opinion is, why even spend $5,000 if I can't get the location I want? We may as well go to the courthouse and save the money. I suppose he has a point. Third and the kicker for us, is having to wait until mid-2011 to find out if the Escape packages will even be offered for 2012. It just seems too uncertain. I am a major planner and I want to get a venue booked ASAP!!!!!

DF's parents are willing to give us a little money but in turn we have to now invite his family. And if we invite his family, we have to invite my family. So now that we've settled on a Wishes wedding, we have to figure out how to get our guest list of 75 (which is ALL family plus some close friends) down to closer to 40 so it's affordable. We are trying to figure out how we can invite some family members and not invite others without hurting any feelings or causing a family feud. Ugh.

Another idea we had is wondering if we can only do a pre-reception, and skip the reception all together. That would save us money on a DJ, linens, centerpieces, and a plated meal. None of those things are very important to us. I will have to run that by Traci and see if it's even an option.

So there goes the small intimate wedding we both wanted

 

[Mindyjoy]

I just want to wish a happy new year to all my DIS friends!

 

[Mindyjoy]

I think we have officially decided on a Wishes wedding. I e-mailed Traci and asked what we do next!

Now I just need to figure out how to come up with an extra $10k this year ...

 

[Mindyjoy]

I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this, lol.

I have a venue tour set up with Traci next Thursday! So excited!

 

[sw33t_angel]

I am still in!

Congrats on the decision of the Wishes Wedding!

Lemme know when you find out how to make $10,000 extra a year

 

[lilsqueakrr]

Congrats on everything! I will say I'm usually not a fan of pink.. but I loove your ring! I can't wait to see more of your planning!

 

[Mindyjoy]

I am still in!

Congrats on the decision of the Wishes Wedding!

Lemme know when you find out how to make $10,000 extra a year

Thank you! Still working on the money thing, lol

Congrats on everything! I will say I'm usually not a fan of pink.. but I loove your ring! I can't wait to see more of your planning!

Thank you! I knew I had to have some pink in my ring and this one is perfect for me.

 

[lilsqueakrr]

Yay! Well you deserve nothing but the best! It's a once in a lifetime thing! hehe. ;D I wanted black diamonds in mine orignally.. but they didn't have enough of sparkle. =[ hehe.

 

[Mindyjoy]

Yay! Well you deserve nothing but the best! It's a once in a lifetime thing! hehe. ;D I wanted black diamonds in mine orignally.. but they didn't have enough of sparkle. =[ hehe.

I like black diamonds! Or basically anything that is non-conventional. But yeah, you gotta have the BLING factor!!

 

[Mindyjoy]

I had a wedding-related nightmare last night, haha. I drempt I was late for my appointment on Thursday, and I was running all around Downtown Disney and the hotels trying to find the DFTW offices.

So dumb, hahaha

 

[KitKat5]

Got to love the wedding related nightmares eh?!

 

[Mindyjoy]

I have my first meeting with DFTW tomorrow and I'm SO EXCITED. My good friend is coming with me since DF can't get off work. DFTW said I can take pictures of all the locations to show DF.

 

[geek+nerd]

Enjoy it!

 

[Mindyjoy]

There were moments I didn't think it would happen, but today I met with Traci at DFTW and had the venues tour! The office closes at 5pm but Traci agreed to make a 4:30pm appointment and stay an extra half hour for me. So my plan was to leave work at 3pm so I could get there between 4-4:30. WELL, major drama at my office and I couldn’t leave until closer to 3:30! I was stuck in major traffic and was freaking out! My friend Valerie, who lives much closer to the park than I do and agreed to take the tour with me, was there at 4:00. At 4:25 I called Valerie to tell her I was still in bumper-to-bumper and I was going to be late and to relay the message to Traci. Valerie called back a few minutes later and told me Traci proposed two options: 1) we could reschedule or 2) Traci could take Valerie on the tour and then Valerie could take me on the tour once I got there. With a heavy heart I told Valerie to go ahead and start the tour without me.

Well, about 2 minutes after that, traffic cleared up! I called Valerie and said my ETA was about 10 minutes. They said they would wait for me to get there. All in all, I ended up only being about 10 minutes late. Haha, all that stress for nothing!!!

After introductions, Traci handed me a folder that includes most of the same information I already got through email (food menus, package details) but also included the preferred vendor list. In my mad dash to from the car I forgot my notebook and pen in the car, so after locating me a Disneyland Hotel pen wizard, she asked me my estimated guest number (40-70 at this point) and began showing me pictures of the venues via a large monitor on the wall. There were several pictures of the RCG with various décor. She also showed me all the Escape locations, the “old” Wonder tower ballroom (now being remodeled), the Brisa Courtyard, and the GCH ballrooms. I asked about the Wonder ballroom and she said she did not know what it was going to look like at this point. She said the Wonder tower was being renamed the Frontier tower, and she didn’t know if the room would be western themed, or what. But she said we can put our deposit down and if we like the room once it’s revealed and it’s available for our date/time, we can book it.

After that, we left for the tour. I was bummed I was late which meant I couldn’t linger around the offices and look at all the displays. But I managed to take this picture of a table display in my color scheme.

Here’s me and Valerie riding in our Disney golf cart chariot with the sun setting behind us. Awwww (I’m on the left and I didn’t have time to reapply my makeup after being in traffic for two hours)

First stop: RCG. So pretty at night. Here’s me doing my best “I’m cute” pose.

We discussed the Dreams Lawn but I’m not too thrilled about it. From there were went across the street to GCH and looked at the Brisa Courtyard. There was an event happening so I didn’t take my own pictures, but here’s a picture I found on flickr:

I am very familiar with this location but I TOTALLY FORGOT the monorail goes directly over it! This is definitely where I want the cocktail hour.

Then we saw the Sorrel ballroom. I didn’t love it.

I did, however, LOVE the Wisteria room!!!!! The ceilings and the windows, I die!!!!

And I love that there’s a terrace and the monorail goes by.

I’m in love with the Wisteria room. BUT, it only seats 40 and although that’s our ideal guest count, we still aren’t sure how we can whittle down our current list of 75. Sigh.

After that, Traci dropped us off at our cars and asked if we had any other questions. I had a few floating around my mind but we were already about 15 minutes late and I didn't want to keep Traci any longer (even though she was totally cool the whole time and I never felt rushed). So we said good-bye and all went our separate ways. The best news of the night was it only took me about an hour to get home!! Haha!

So I learned a couple new things at today’s meeting:

- I knew the RCG was $2200, but I thought there would be a separate fee for the cocktail/reception sites too. I was pleasantly surprised it’s just the one fee.
- I also didn’t realize that there was no charge for the day of coordinator and any other cast member assistance. I just assumed any CM we needed would come at a price.
- The original brochure I received indicated that a reception before 2pm had an $85/pp minimum for food and drink. That’s been raised now to $100/pp. I didn’t write down the dinner amount now but I think it is $135/pp (totally not positive on that, though).

Overall, it was nice to meet Traci and it was a very short but informative meeting. We will need to plan something on a weekend so I can go back and look at all the displays and inspiration books.

When I got home, I showed DF all the pics and we discussed a few things. He doesn’t think there’s a chance in heck we can get the guest list to 40. But we have a while to go before we have to decide. I really want to book so I hope we can decide on something soon. Right now I guess the main thing is deciding if we want a weekday or weekend ceremony.

 

[elleinad16]

So glad you could make it to your tour!
I LOVE the snapshot of the table in your colors--that table cloth is SO neat!

I also love the photos of the Wisteria room--that looks pretty amazing! Hopefully you can figure out your guest list and it will all work out!

Thanks for sharing--can't wait to read more!!!

 

[DoomBuggy0922]

Love your PJ so far! I'm very unfamiliar with Disneyland, so it's great!

 

[Mindyjoy]

So glad you could make it to your tour!
I LOVE the snapshot of the table in your colors--that table cloth is SO neat!

I also love the photos of the Wisteria room--that looks pretty amazing! Hopefully you can figure out your guest list and it will all work out!

Thanks for sharing--can't wait to read more!!!

Yeah! I also love the name ... Wisteria .... it sounds Disney Princess-y. I know you're not supposed to choose a ballroom based on the name, but ....

Love your PJ so far! I'm very unfamiliar with Disneyland, so it's great!

Cool! Now that I know people are reading I will post more DLR pics. I am going back tomorrow.

 

[Mindyjoy]

Nothing new on the wedding front, but I went to Disneyland yesterday and thought I would post a couple pics. I didn't take many pictures; I just got a new camera and I keep forgetting to use it.

Chip and Dale were out next to It's Tough To Be A Bug. Me and two of my girlfriends took individual pictures with them, and each time we went up, Dale got a little "handsy" and was hugging us and making the kissy sound, and basically wouldn't let us go! And then Chip would act embarrassed. They did it all three times, for each of us! It was really cute!

And here's our whole group in front of the castle (they told us to put our arms like that).

Disneyland was CROWDED which I thought was strange but then I remembered it's MLK weekend. I don't have the day off work so I didn't realize it was a holiday. Still, it was a really fun day.

I didn't meet up with my friends at Disneyland until the afternoon because I was at my friends' baby's one year birthday party, and I can't resist posting a picture of my "niece" digging in to her cake. She's so cute!!

 

[Mindyjoy]

I was playing around with wedding websites last night and here's my favorite one.

www.weddingwire.com/timandmindy

What does everyone think? I love it because it has our colors.

 

[elleinad16]

I like it! They are really great colors and those flowers are cute!