Musings of a Stressed-Out Bride: A June WDW Honeymoon PTR (UPDATED 5/28)

[PirateFish989]

Heeellloooooo everyone!

I’m Erin and I’m addicted to Disney.

Hello Erin.

I’m also one stressed out bride who is planning a honeymoon to Walt Disney World!

I figured I’d add one more thing to my plate and write a pre-trip report of our honeymoon adventure in June. Because why not? It’s not like I’m busy these days or anything.



So I guess some introductions are in order. So…drum roll please!!

TaaaaDaaaa!!!



So this is us. Erin and Jordan. A bride and her groom. And we’re getting married in June! And then spending 10 glorious days at Disney World. Hallelujah! We are from Central California, in a not-so-small-anymore town about 45 minutes south of Fresno (if you know where the heck that is!).

I am a full-time teacher, part-time student, dog-mom, runner, reader, and worrier extraordinaire. I got tired just typing all that.

(Be an adult, they said. It will be fun, they said.

Well, they lied! Being an adult is HARD WORK and I’m over it!)

However, I have a pretty awesome life. I teach high school biology in a charter independent study program where I get to talk about my favorite nerdy subject 5 days a week. I’m currently taking night classes to finish my teaching credential. I’m a dog-mom to our 3-year old lab-boxer mix, Izzy. I also read a LOT and run a LOT. And worry. A LOT. And I’m planning a wedding. Which is more exhausting that I ever could have imagined.

My darling fiancé, Jordan, is the other person in that picture. He currently works for Starbucks and is going to school, working on his bachelor’s degree. He’s a big nerd. Like, a BIG nerd. He loves all things tech. Computers and video games and phones and drones. He is not a worrier, thank god (I worry enough for the both of us). He makes me laugh and loves me when my crazy shows. So I guess I’ll keep him.

Here is our sweet Izzy.



So after we get though the wedding, we are heading straight for Disney World. Our (my) happy place. And I hope to tell you all about our plans and then, eventually, our trip.

I hope you’ll come along for the ride with me!

 

[windcriesamy]

I’m here for it! We loved our WDW honeymoon and I still enjoy reading about others starting their happily ever afters at Disney!

 

[PirateFish989]

Thanks @windcriesamy! I’m excited to have you joining me!

 

[PirateFish989]

Today marks a big milestone in our wedding adventure.

Today we entered into double digits until the big day!

l [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/152905069@N04/]
Yes, I did just use a lettuce pun. Fun fact: I LOVE puns.

And so to celebrate, I figured I would write an update and share some of our wedding and honeymoon plans!

So we are getting married on June 9 at a beautiful outdoor location on the outskirts of town. The restaurant where Jordan and I had our first date leases out this beautiful property and caters and hosts weddings.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/23HX8Pf] [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/152905069@N04/]
We had our photographer come out and photograph the venue for our wedding website and this is one of her pictures! Isn't our venue beautiful?!?!? Squeeeeeee!

When I found out that this restaurant does weddings, I tucked that tidbit of information in the back of my mind. And so, when Jordan proposed last August and we saw a bunch of different venues, we both knew the moment we walked onto the property that this was the place.

Huge grassy areas shaded by old, beautiful oak trees, surrounded by flowers and greenery. There is a gorgeous 100+ year old Victorian house on the property and a river that runs near the ceremony site.

It is just perfect.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/24JYtTL][url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/152905069@N04/]
This is not a picture by our photographer. I couldn't figure out how to download more of the picture our photographer took so had to find one online! Sorry whoever took this picture!

The restaurant caters the event (appetizers, dinner, desserts, and late-night snacks!) and also provides all of the tables, chairs, linens, dishes, bar hosts and mixers, among a lot of other things that would totally add up if we had to get it all separately. We basically just have to find a photographer, DJ, dance floor, and florist.

Which, I can happily say, we have found all but the dance floor! And that is a work in progress! Because I have so much extra time to search for a dance floor…(I did end up handing that task off to Jordan, but considering it too him almost 2 months to contact a DJ…we will see)

Planning a wedding is stressful.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/23HX8QY] [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/152905069@N04/]

We (meaning me) have also been planning our honeymoon! Which, honestly, is WAY more fun than planning a wedding!

So, here are our honeymoon details!

We are taking a red-eye flight out of Los Angeles on June 10. Unfortunately, our closest airport is Fresno, which is pretty small and therefore flights are always expensive. It actually saves us money to drive down to LAX, pay to park our car and fly from there.

We also chose to take a red-eye flight because, coming from California and accounting for the time change, even if we take the first flight out of the day, we don’t land in Orlando until almost 5:00pm. If we take a red-eye, it feels like we get an entire extra day!

We will arrive in Orlando on Monday, June 10 around 8:00am and will be taking Magical Express from the airport to our resort.

We are staying at Port Orleans French Quarter from June 11-20 staying, right now, in a standard view room. We have 7-day base tickets and I’ll update with our specific park plans and ADR’s in another update soon.

So until my next update…think of a wonderful thought! Aaaaaaaannnny merry little thought![/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url]

 

[PirateFish989]

During this last week, we had two important (and exciting!) wedding-related things happen:

1. We had our dinner tasting for our wedding menu!
2. We paid off our honeymoon!

I’m not sure which one I’m more excited about!

I figured I would do this (and most future) update in two parts – one for the actual wedding updates and some other details and the other part for honeymoon details!

So let’s go!

Wedding

We made a lot of progress with little wedding details this week, which is something that was totally stressing me out!

First, I ordered this awesome custom wedding dress hangar off of Etsy and I cannot wait to hang my beautiful dress on this beautiful hanger!!



Second, I contacted a friend of my mom’s who makes custom jewelry (she also sells on Etsy) for my own wedding day jewelry and for bridesmaids gifts.

Now, our colors are light pink, navy blue, and gold (and white). I picked out my shoes ages ago and got a great deal on them from Nordstrom during their semi-annual sale!



My bridesmaids are all wearing light pink dresses from an online retailer, Azazie (which I chose because my bridesmaids are scattered across the country and after much contemplation, I figured it would just be easier for everyone to order them online). What I liked about Azazie compared to other online retailers was that first, there were a ton of different styles and colors to choose from. Second, I like that each bridesmaid could order a dress to try on at home for a minimal (like $10) fee and then could send it back for free. This way, each bridesmaid could pick a dress they liked and that would work for them. This was important because Jordan’s brother and his wife are VERY conservative and she follows some pretty strict (by my standards) dress guidelines and needed her shoulders and upper arms covered. This website had dresses that would fit everyone’s preferences. So I let all my bridesmaids pick their own style (among a selection I pre-approved of) and they were able to order them (either a standard size or custom made – no price difference between the two, btw).

All that being said, the name of the shade of pink I chose for them is called “candy pink” and it is VERY pink. Just how I like it! My mom, on the other hand, was not impressed by my choice.

Then again, she and my dad got married in 1987 and, well, let’s just say she doesn’t get to criticize my style choices…

Each bridesmaid will be wearing gold shoes of their choice and then my bridesmaids gifts will be custom made pink crystal earrings and a coordinating bracelet. My mom’s friend is making the earrings (I’m getting a matching pair!) and I’m ordering the bracelets from another Etsy seller.

The crystals for the earrings look like…

[url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/152905069@N04/]

You should have seen the number of text messages it took to get all this figured out!

Then on Thursday evening, we (Jordan and me, plus my parents and brother) had our dinner tasting and met with the venue’s wedding coordinator (who nailed down some other day-of details!).

[url=https://flic.kr/p/241RnqJ]
I don't have ANY pictures of the actual food!!! Shame on me!

Oh. My. Gosh. I’m so excited about the food choices we picked!!

We have four appetizers, two main course options, 5 mini desserts, and late-night tacos.

I’m drooling.

AND, we ordered our wedding cake from another of my mom’s friends who makes cakes as a side business. (Thank goodness for family friends!). Our cake will mainly be for cutting purposes since the caterer provides desserts, but also for us!

It will be two layers, the bottom layer will be banana scared and the top will be strawberry. Both with cream cheese frosting. Can you tell who picked what layer?!?

And out last detail we nailed down – groomsmen’s attire. Simple navy blue suits, brown shoes, and pink ties. Jordan will have a white tie, instead.

Honeymoon

As I said in my last update, we are staying at POFQ, arriving (after a red-eye flight from California) on Monday, June 11 and leaving Wednesday, June 20. Ten glorious days.

On our first trip to WDW in March 2014, we used a AAA travel agent to book our trip. It worked out fine, but it was such a hassle to make payments or changes to additions to our reservation. We had to go in to AAA to do anything. About 4 months before that trip, I got a discount code that I wanted to apply to our reservation and even to do that I had to go in. Such a pain.

So this time I was adamant that I wasn’t going to use a travel agent and just do everything myself.

And then I discovered the Dis Unplugged podcast and Dreams Unlimited Travel.

Dreams Unlimited Travel has been a life saver! Our travel Agent, Krystin, is amazing and she has taken all the hassle out of planning. She reminds me of all our upcoming due dates and little things we (me) forgot to include.

Again, all that being said, we paid off our trip this week! Hallelujah!!! What a huge relief!

Our FP+ day hasn’t come yet (sometime in mid-April) but we (I) did make our ADR’s at the 180 day mark. Because we live in California, making those reservations at 6:00am EST was really 3:00am PST. But I did it and while I’ve made a few changes since I initially made them, I’m excited about what we have:

Monday, 6/11 – Dinner at Raglan Road
Tuesday, 6/12 – Dinner at Crystal Palace
Wednesday, 6/13 – Dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse
Thursday, 6/14 – no ADR’s (we will be at AK that day and will have counter service)
Friday, 6/15 – Lunch at 50’s Prime Time Café
Saturday, 6/16 – Dinner at Trail’s End Restaurant
Sunday, 6/17 – Breakfast at Boma
Monday, 6/18 – Dinner at Rose & Crown Pub
Tuesday, 6/19 – Dinner at Kona Café
Wednesday, 6/20 – Lunch at Beaches and Cream before our flight home

We are wanting to splurge a bit on this trip so we are working to save up as much spending money as we can! Drinks and dessert and treats – here we come![/url][/url]

 

[emilyhuff]

Love this! Following along with you! I am excited to hear more about your wedding plans and honeymoon plans of course!

 

[SuperNEMOfan]

Following!!! We got married in June, its a great month!! We went to Disneyland for our honeymoon.

 

[johnaalexis]

Joining up! I’m currently planning my wedding as well! We are getting married January 26th of 2019. I don’t want to wait this long but.... I’ll be finished with my student teaching & graduated for college, so it’ll be a worry free wedding & honeymoon! We are doing a Gatsby theme! The Future Hubs is ok with a Disney H-Moon, (He’s NEVER BEEN!!!!) & it’s always been my dream! So we are being to plan as well! I haven’t decided on a TA yet but I like your review of D.U.T. They are in the running with my boss, she a certified Disney TA so just decision!

 

[PirateFish989]

Love this! Following along with you! I am excited to hear more about your wedding plans and honeymoon plans of course!

Welcome!! I can't wait to share!

Following!!! We got married in June, its a great month!! We went to Disneyland for our honeymoon.

I'm so excited! We are down to 88 days!

Joining up! I’m currently planning my wedding as well! We are getting married January 26th of 2019. I don’t want to wait this long but.... I’ll be finished with my student teaching & graduated for college, so it’ll be a worry free wedding & honeymoon! We are doing a Gatsby theme! The Future Hubs is ok with a Disney H-Moon, (He’s NEVER BEEN!!!!) & it’s always been my dream! So we are being to plan as well! I haven’t decided on a TA yet but I like your review of D.U.T. They are in the running with my boss, she a certified Disney TA so just decision!

All the waiting will be worth it! I highly recommend Dreams Unlimited Travel - such a time saver in the midst of wedding planning/school/work!

 

[VandVsmama]

Your trip sounds like so much fun!!

 

[PirateFish989]

Your trip sounds like so much fun!!

@VandVsmama I think I saw you're considering booking a dessert party? Have you decided? I'm seriously considering it for one of our MK days - I think the $100 is worth it to not have to wait in crowds to see fireworks (my fiance gets grouchy in crowds sometimes, which is what I'm trying to avoid!)

 

[VandVsmama]

@VandVsmama I think I saw you're considering booking a dessert party? Have you decided? I'm seriously considering it for one of our MK days - I think the $100 is worth it to not have to wait in crowds to see fireworks (my fiance gets grouchy in crowds sometimes, which is what I'm trying to avoid!)

I'm very tempted to plunk down the $250 or so for it because my DH definitely gets grouchy in crowds AND because it's 1 of my personal "must do's" for the 4 of us to watch the fireworks one time all together in the Magic Kingdom. We haven't purchased our park tickets yet, so I can't buy the dessert party yet. I tried and it said that you have to have park tickets in your My Disney Experience account first.

We're not really doing ADRs at all. We're going to survive on Quick Service, so I'm not feeling too guilty about paying a huge amount of money for a couple of fancy cupcakes. I've seriously considered doing the World of Color dessert party before...I like how they will box up the goodies that you don't eat so you can take it with you when the show is over. However, I don't think that they let you do that at the MK fireworks dessert party.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Following!

We will be at WDW the exact same dates.

You wedding venue looks beautiful.

Looking forward to hearing more of your plans both wedding and WDW!

 

[PirateFish989]

Today marks 60 days until our BIG day!

Today is also my first wedding dress alterations appointment! I'm a little nervous, actually. When I purchased and ordered my dress back in September I had recently run a half marathon (the Disneyland Half Marathon). The weather that weekend was atrocious. 82 degrees at 5:00 am when the race started with about 900% humidity. It was not ideal. And despite drinking plenty of fluids in the days leading up to the race and drinking plenty of fluids during the race, I became dehydrated. And so when I purchased my dress I weight a little less than I do now, so, because I'm a totally worry wart, I have it stuck in my head that my dress won't fit! My rational brain is telling me that is why I'm going to the appointment - to make sure it fits! Anyway...

So exciting!

This last weekend by Matron of Honor (and best friend of 22 years!) hosted a beautiful bridal shower for me at a local restaurant. Oh my gosh, it was totally perfect! Jordan's mom hosted a bridal shower for me in February and the guests were mostly his family. This time, the guests were my family and close friends and it was just wonderful! It was the perfect way to celebrate our upcoming wedding!

We also nailed down some decorations details - centerpieces (still a work in progress) and our ceremony arch. We are keeping things simple for the most part since our venue has so much greenery.

And Thursday is our FP day!! I've been researching and contemplating how I'm going to approach this. Jordan's only request is to ride Expedition Everest as many times as possible and I'm not worried about that working out. I'm actually not worried about making FP at all! This morning, while my students are taking their state tests, I planned our all our FP's and mad a priority list so I feel prepared for Thursday morning. The only downside is that because we live in California, I have to get up at some ungodly hour to make these FPs.

The things we do for our love of Disney.

I'll let you all know how FP day goes!

 

[PirateFish989]

FP+ has been reserved!!

One of the downsides to living in California is the time difference between PST and EST. A reasonable 7:00 am EST FP+ time converts to an ungodly 4:00 am PST FP+ time.

So me, being the good little Disney Nerd that I am, woke up at 3:50 am this morning with my list of FP+, priorities, and schedule/plan of parks and ADR's ready to go. I had set everything I needed out on my nightstand last night so I didn't even have to get out of bed to get it done.

The blinding light from the laptop screen is not fun at 4:00 am. And I felt like an old lady with my glasses on the end of my nose so I could see both the paper and the screen.

But I got it done and I'm happy with our FP+ lineup! FOP was available from at last 60+3, which is our first AK day, however, only late afternoon and evening were available and we plan on leaving AK that day mid-afternoon so I settled for a Navi FP that day in the morning. We will do FOP on our second AK day in the evening. I also didn't have any issues getting 7DMT or FEA on the days and at the times we wanted. 7DMT had plenty of openings at 60+1 and FEA was also wide open at 60+2.

I had read so many negative comments about FP+ recently that I was a little nervous but it all worked out really well this morning.

So this is our plan!

Monday, June 11
Arrive in Orlando around 8:00 am
Take DME to Port Orleans French Quarter
Relax at POFQ (hopefully get our room early-ish in the day so we can nap!)
Dinner: Raglan Road 6:30 pm
Wander around Disney Springs

Tuesday, June 12 (MK)
Arrive at MK at Rope Drop (currently scheduled for 9:00 am)
BTMRR FP+ 11:40 am
Pirates of the Caribbean FP+ 12:50 pm
Afternoon break at hotel - rest/pool
7DMT FP+ 5:35 pm
Dinner: Crystal Palace at 6:35 pm

Wednesday, June 13 (Epcot)
Arrive at Epcot around rope drop (9:00 am)
Test Track FP+ 10:55 am
LwtL FP+ 12:15 pm (I know we probably won't need this, but I figured I'd schedule something anyway)
Afternoon break at hotel - rest/pool
Spaceship Earth FP+ 5:00 pm
Dinner: Yachtsman Steakhouse 7:00 pm

Thursday, June 14 (AK)
Arrive at AK at rope drop
Nav'i FP+ 9:25 am
Safari FP+ 10:55 am
EE FP+ 11:55 am (we plan on riding multiple times using standby, 4th+ FP, or single rider)
Lunch at AK
Back to hotel - rest/pool
YeeHaa Bob at POR

Friday, June 15 (DHS)
Arrive around rope drop
Star Tours FP+ 9:30 am
RNR FP+ 10:45 am
Lunch: 50's Prime Time 12:45 pm
Frozen Sing Along FP+ 2:15 pm
Back to hotel - rest/pool
Dinner at hotel

Saturday, June 16 (rest day)
Sleep in
Laundry
Pool Time
Head over to WL to explore
Dinner: Trail's End 6:00 pm

Sunday, June 17 (AK)
Breakfast: Boma 9:30 am
Head back to hotel for pool time
Arrive at AK early afternoon
FOP FP+ 3:30 pm
FotLK FP+ 4:30 pm
EE FP+ 5:30 pm
Dinner at AK Counter Service

Monday, June 18 (Epcot)
Arrive around rope drop
Spaceship Earth FP+ 9:55 am
FEA FP+ 11:15 am
Lunch at Epcot counter service
Afternoon break at hotel - rest/pool
Journey Into Imagination FP+ 5:00 pm (we won't need it but I can always cancel later)
Dinner: Rose & Crown Pub 6:35 pm

Tuesday, June 19 (MK)
Arrive at rope drop
Peter Pan FP+ 10:30 am
HM FP+ 11:55 am
Afternoon break at hotel - rest/pool
Dinner: Kona 5:15 pm
ETwB FP+ 6:00 pm
Possible HEA Dessert Party? (still undecided)

Wednesday, June 20 (departure day)
Pack up
Head to Beach Club or Boardwalk (probably via Uber/Lyft)
Lunch: BEaches and Cream 12:30 pm
Explore Boardwalk area
DME pick up around 3:00pm
Flight back to LAX 6:00 pm

EEEEEEE!!! I'm so excited!!

 

[VandVsmama]

You're going to have such a wonderful time!!

 

[PirateFish989]

Joining up! I’m currently planning my wedding as well! We are getting married January 26th of 2019. I don’t want to wait this long but.... I’ll be finished with my student teaching & graduated for college, so it’ll be a worry free wedding & honeymoon! We are doing a Gatsby theme! The Future Hubs is ok with a Disney H-Moon, (He’s NEVER BEEN!!!!) & it’s always been my dream! So we are being to plan as well! I haven’t decided on a TA yet but I like your review of D.U.T. They are in the running with my boss, she a certified Disney TA so just decision!

Congratulations!! We are currently 48 days out and the planning is really stressful at this point but it will all be worth it! I love the idea of a Gatsby theme! I'm sure it will be a beautiful wedding!

I'm very tempted to plunk down the $250 or so for it because my DH definitely gets grouchy in crowds AND because it's 1 of my personal "must do's" for the 4 of us to watch the fireworks one time all together in the Magic Kingdom. We haven't purchased our park tickets yet, so I can't buy the dessert party yet. I tried and it said that you have to have park tickets in your My Disney Experience account first.

We're not really doing ADRs at all. We're going to survive on Quick Service, so I'm not feeling too guilty about paying a huge amount of money for a couple of fancy cupcakes. I've seriously considered doing the World of Color dessert party before...I like how they will box up the goodies that you don't eat so you can take it with you when the show is over. However, I don't think that they let you do that at the MK fireworks dessert party.

I've decided not to do the dessert party, but rather splurge for Memory Maker instead!

Following!

We will be at WDW the exact same dates.

You wedding venue looks beautiful.

Looking forward to hearing more of your plans both wedding and WDW!

Thank you! Maybe we will run into you during the trip!

 

[PirateFish989]

This last week was an emotional one.

The wedding/school/work stress finally got to me and I had total meltdown. There is so much going on and planning a wedding while working full time and going to school is HARD WORK.

So I decided to take the weekend off from wedding planning and just relax and run and read. I'm not sure any bride can totally take time off from wedding planning, there are always thoughts going through my head, plus we are starting to get RSVP's back (so exciting! We officially have 39 people attending so far!) so there really is no complete escape from wedding planning.

To console myself, I ended up bingeing on doughnuts. But I justified it.



Actually, I bought doughnuts for one of my classes on Friday because they recently had a test and every single student passed with a 78% or higher (13 of the 15 got 90% or higher!) and so I rewarded them with doughnuts. The doughnut shop where I went to get the doughnuts gave me a free dozen doughnut holes and what kind of person would I be to let a dozen doughnut holes go to waste? Not a good one, so I had to eat them. (And to be fair, I gave some away to a coworker's 3-year-old son. Okay, so I only gave 2 away. I have a doughnut problem!!)

I'm also having some strange wedding dreams. A couple weeks ago I had a dream that I never confirmed with my hair person, makeup person, OR photographer so when wedding day came, nobody showed up! Since then, I have confirmed with all and we are good to go!

I'm also starting to freak out over the guest list (a little late now!). We are already over budget so my initial thought was hopefully not everybody comes! But then I started thinking what if nobody comes!

The things that go through my stressed-out head

On a positive note, this last week Jordan started his own freelance web design business. He's worked so hard recently to get things up and running and I'm so proud of him!

We (meaning me) also totally nailed down the backdrop/arch for our ceremony and finalized the centerpieces. It will look something along these lines...



It will be made of PVC pipe and painted gold. Jordan's aunts are going to decorate it with white flowers and other greenery and I think it will look really great!

My bridesmaids all got their dresses delivered and they are AMAZING. I am SO please with the company I chose! (If anyone is looking for bridesmaids dresses, I highly recommend Azazie.com!)

And I decided to purchase Memory Maker for our trip! We didn't get it on our trip in 2014 - funds were tight that trip and I couldn't justify the cost. But funds are not as tight this trip and I thought it would be a fun and useful splurge. I'll have to definitely look up where all the magic shots are and where PhotoPass photographers are located so we can get the most out of it. I'm excited to use all the pictures in a photobook of our trip once we get back.

So that is all for now. This stressed-out bride is going to veg on the couch for the rest of the day!

 

[PirateFish989]

I thought I might share some pictures from the last few weeks since my last couple updates didn't have ANY.

I wrote the last couple updates either on Jordan's MacBook (which I didn't even think about pictures) or at work (shhhh, don't tell my boss!) and because I'm a teacher, the school district considers Flickr an inappropriate website, apparently, and denied me access to my pictures

First, we got a sweet package from our photographer with some awesome photography-related goodies to help prepare for our wedding day! The package included a magazine where our photographer outlined EVERYTHING for wedding day, from a general timeline to the exact pictures she would take to recommendations for what to have prepared to pictures. It. also included little his and hers vow notebooks (while we aren't writing out own vows, these were a cute idea).



Untitled by Erin Lobb, on Flickr[/IMG]
Next, my bridal shower!

My matron of honor and her mom hosted a beautiful bridal shower for me a couple weeks ago.


The brunch menu and the cutest wedding dress cookies I've ever seen (which were also delicious and I had more than my fair share!)


My mom and me


Our good family friends, Julie and her mom Patty. My bridesmaids and I are actually getting ready on wedding day at Julie's house! Julie and her mom have gone on several Disneyland adventures with me and my mom (mostly runDisney related trips, but Julie went on a girl's only trip with us back in 2011).


My Matron of Honor, Jessica


All the guests who attended my bridal party - such a wonderful day!

 

[VandVsmama]

I totally understand about getting stressed out! Don't worry. Everything will work out. On your wedding day, nobody will care much about the decorations or the centerpieces or anything like that. They'll be there to support you and your marriage. It's going to be just fine!