My wedding day recap - 9-16-11...so magical

We had so many fun, playful pictures with Mickey and everyone got in on the fun.

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This Mickey was awesome. Truly interacted with our guests. Made jokes and funny gestures. Fun and playful and perfect for our group.

I know I already said it but it bears repeating....if it works in your budget, Mickey was worth every penny. When you stare at a price list and see the generic pricing that says 1 character $600, you have to wonder. Really? Our answer was a resounding YES!

Here's another of our favorite pictures..the one that actually closes our wedding album...it's one of Sarah and I and Mickey walking down the hallway. Regina was behind us and she asked us to turn around and wave. It looks like something out of a movie where we are saying goodbye!! It is such a great shot.

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Aw, love the Mickey pictures! The kids look thrilled! :goodvibes

Thanks...they were soooooooo thrilled. It was a secret from every single person and it was so hard for us to contain the excitement.

Every person came up and told us how great it was to see Mickey. Many who had never been to Disney said they never had the opportunity to 'meet' Mickey in person and they felt special that he spent so much time talking and having fun with everyone. It was the right thing for our group and everyone loved it.

Thanks for continuing to read along!!!
 
(no pictures in this update!)

After dinner and Mickey, it was time for our gift to our guests...the kid party!!!!

We set up with Kids Nite Out a party in one of the conference rooms for the kiddos. They could play games, do crafts, whatever they wanted...and it gave their parents time to enjoy the night with us. The kids loved it...and so did their parents.

And it looked like fun. We checked in on our sweet kiddos a couple of times and all seemed to be going well!

Then that was the best part. Our awesome play list was playing and we were dancing and talking and visiting and laughing. We were sharing the Disney Magic with so many people who were so close to us.

I felt on top of the world and I remember thinking that I wish I could stay there forever. In that spot. With that feeling. I remember one time being opposite the room from Sarah as we were making our rounds and I would look up and catch her eye and smile, and I knew that she was thinking the same thing I was...wow...we're here...we did it...I love you.

And then back to the stories, the laughter, the fun.

One of our wait staff became legendary...Mario.

To a guest, they told me he was the most genuinely nice person they had ever met. And it was true. When I was done eating and the tray to collect dishes was right behind me...literally a step away, I got up to put my plate there.

Mario stopped me and told me that that night, I was a guest at HIS house and to please let him. It wasn't said with the jaded words of a trained server.

It was said with the genuine feeling of a man who feels that way...that this spot was his house and he was making us feel welcome.

He was like that with every single person he helped. Our guests took pictures with him and his favorite phrase was 'Thank You'. Even 2 months later, when we had our home reception for those who couldn't make it, our guests were shouting "Thank You" in homage to Mario.
 


We had a wonderful server at our wedding as well.

Great Mickey photos.
 
I usually don't read any of the wedding TR and i definitely never comment but I found yours today and have read it all and it is wonderful to read a man's account and see how very much you realize how blessed you are to have found 'it' and I just wanted to say 'thank you' for sharing your story with us. It warms my heart to see a groom who doesn't take the simplest (YET BEST) things in life for granted. Not sure how else to say that 'it's wonderful to see someone find happiness- who you know isn't going to take it for granted.'

cheers and congratulations to your whole beautiful family. Great job all the way around.
 


I usually don't read any of the wedding TR and i definitely never comment but I found yours today and have read it all and it is wonderful to read a man's account and see how very much you realize how blessed you are to have found 'it' and I just wanted to say 'thank you' for sharing your story with us. It warms my heart to see a groom who doesn't take the simplest (YET BEST) things in life for granted. Not sure how else to say that 'it's wonderful to see someone find happiness- who you know isn't going to take it for granted.'

cheers and congratulations to your whole beautiful family. Great job all the way around.

Wow...thank you very much for such a nice thoughtful comment. After having a marriage not work out for a variety of reasons..there's rarely just one, I promised I would never take it for granted again. This family is indeed a blessing.

Thank you for the congratulations and again, I appreciate your thoughtful words.
 
Then it was time for fireworks pictures....and the best yet..Halloween Wishes!

We grabbed our sweet kiddos from the Kid Party..there was a moment of resistance since they were having so much fun. But they came and we got some UNBELIEVABLE pictures.

Regina knows the cadence of the fireworks like the back of her hand...which made for some great timing of photos. She was a master at making them work.

Daryn, the second photographer, was so great with the kids. Keeping them entertained and getting them in shots.

This was a special request from us for our wedding photos and Regina made it work...perfectly.

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I love love love how the light from the fireworks reflects on the water...hard to appreciate until you scroll through and see how the light is so much brighter with the relfection of the water.

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Not only were these great shots, but they required long exposures so I really have to hand it to some amazing kids for staying still during the long shutter times.
 
After fireworks pictures, our time with Regina and Daryn was up.

They got one last picture of us dancing before they left.

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The photographers leaving was a weird moment. Literally..they had been with us forever...from the first part of getting ready through everything and to see them leave was stunning.

It also marked the end of Disney's documentation of our event. Regina felt like a friend at that point so it was weird to see her leave.

After that, we just had more time to enjoy friends and family and marvel at what a day it had been.

We all talked and laughed at something or another. We recounted the people, the places, the funny things.

It was a blast and all too short. I want to do it again and again and again.

I remember near the end of the night, looking at Sarah and meeting her eye to eye..and saying to her that a 10 year vow renewal is too far off...it has to be 5 years....if we could even make it that long.

This was seriously such a fun and amazing day.
 
It ended too quickly.

Almost like the clock striking midnight for Cinderella, people gathered their kids, gave their hugs and said their goodbyes.

Our kiddos were going with grandparents for the night so we just kind of looked at each other.

It was over. The memories would last forever but the event was over.

She still looked amazing...as much as she did at the beginning of our night. As much as she did when I first saw her face. As much as she did every day since.

The person who had been by my side for the better part of a 2 years, was now officially, my wife. It didn't take a ceremony for our love to be bound together forever, but something about this seemed to seal it tight. Not sure what or if that was part of the pixie dust.

But it was there..confirmed and true.

We gave the bellhop our room number to take all our stuff back to our room and we weren't done.

There is a little bar at the top of the Grand, behind the band, next to Citricos..called Commander Porters.

It is the place that after the kids go to sleep, one of us runs over and gets 4 Blue Moons to take back to our room and sit and enjoy

We went...our first destination as husband and wife. We plodded from the convention center, past the marina and inside the main building. Up the stairs and sat in the bar....people congratulated us, and we had a beer...only time for one..they were closing...but it was nice.

It was simple. It was us. It became a special memory for us, something we will repeat whenever we can.
 
We got back to our room and there was a special arrangement from one of the people we worked with so closely at DFTW, welcoming us as husband and wife.

Such a nice sweet gesture. A simple square short vase of roses. So classy. So elegant. So sweet. We carried it on the plane home. They lasted for a lot longer than we thought they would.

More Disney Magic.

The night would be short. Janet, the amazing hair lady, was going to be back at 4:00 am to get Sarah ready for our MK Shoot.

We were dreading the short night and knew that after MK and EPCOT pictures and the change of clothes, we wouldn't see the kiddos for awhile the next day.

When we woke up, we had no idea how fun that day was going to turn out to be.

Plus, the pictures, were way better than advertised.

In case I haven't mentioned it, Regina was amazing.
 
In a way, the phone call that Janet was here seemed like a dream. How did we get to this point??

She showed up with coffee and donuts...above and beyond the call of duty.

Her energy was addictive and she really got us going. Shower and shave for me and Sarah was getting a different hairdo for the Bridal Portrait.

Janet did another incredible job on hair and makeup. We got Sarah into her dress and headed down to meed Regina who was picking us up at 6:00am.

It was surreal to walk around the Grand so early in the morning. We were again all decked out in our wedding attire and I was imagining the families, asleep, dreaming of the day to come.

We stopped at Gasparillas and got some more caffeine and sat in the lobby waiting for Regina.

She was right on time and had someone new with her. She was less warm than Daryn was, but we attributed that to the early day.

Regina was bright eyed and ready to go. her night was just as short as ours and she was the very definition of positivity.

She made our whole day by bringing us some pictures she quickly printed that morning of some of the key shots of the day. We were floored.

They were amazing. We couldn't wait for more.
 
Another great update! Can't wait to see those pictures. Sounds like you had such a fairytale wedding.
 
We were all talking and catching up about the night...explaning to the assistant Alecia our story and the kiddos and all that.

All of a sudden, I looked up and were were driving down Main Street...in complete blackness except for the beautiful castle that was lit up.

Regina told us that even though she had done that a million times, she still gets goosebumps being behind the scenes of the most magical place on Earth.

And then it began.....and the results were stunning.

I could post 100 MK pictures...but I won't...I won't even call these my favorites because they all are...so here are just some of the many great ones.

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Wow...there were so many more...these were hard to choose.

Up next, EPCOT
 
So, we headed to EPCOT, where we would have our 2nd park shoot and also a videography session.

After seeing it available, we opted to get a videography session during on of our park shoots. We picked MK, of course, but we were informed that due to construction, no video could currently be taken for bridal spotlights in the MK.

We soon realized...that it was for the best as the EPCOT shoot and corresponding video was amazing.

Before we definitively booked this, we called Regina to ask her thoughts on it.

Between the two, photography was our #1 priority with videography being a 'nice to have' but not critical.

We wanted to understand if, having video there, would compromise Regina's shooting availability.

Because of her schedule, we never got to talk to Regina directly about this but Dara assured us it happened all the time and they are a team...yadda, yadda.

So, still unsure, we booked it.

On the way to EPCOT, we talked to Regina about it. She couldn't have been more ok with it. In fact, the 2 videographers that were assigned to our shoot were friends of hers and she said they work so great in synch with each other.

Often, a shot from the videographers for a video sequence would spur something for Regina and vice versa.

It went exactly that way and was so easy.

Not only easy but fun...we didn't mind the different 'takes' and imagining how it would all come out was exciting.

We still haven't seen the video as we also had a ceremony montage and they edit at the same time. So, while we quickly picked out our song for the EPCOT shoot, the ceremony song was a challenge. We recently (last week) picked it so our editing process is beginning.

Michelle and Kyle from videography were a blast. You could tell they were good at what they did and that the friendship between them and Regina made this process easy, fun and spectacular.

I am glad it all workd out that way..

So...here are some of our (many many) EPCOT favorites:...again, hard to use the word favorite.
 
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So, remember the iphone vows? Since they were a part of our wedding, we decided to have a very creative picture taken..Regina did it perfectly...

Our most common response to this picture...of course, you guys would have that taken!

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And that was it...we said goodbye to the videographers and Regina drove us back to the hotel.

We hugged her goodbye in the drive up section of the Grand and promised to keep in touch.

We couldn't believe it was over....it was now time to catch up with our family.

We endured a little drama since we forgot to give the grandparents the kids tickets and we hasd asked everyone to meet us at Teppan Edo for a celebration lunch.

Thanks to amazing Disney Customer Service, it was all taken care of and we met our families for an amazing lunch.

Hugging the kids felt so wonderful. There was no doubt we had fun without them at the shoot...it was a once in a lifetime experience, but we missed them incredibly so.
 
I think that wraps up my documentation of the day.

I appreciate the few of you who commented and everyone who read along.

It was so happy and so wonderful and so amazing.

As i sit here, almost 3 months later, I remember it like it was yesterday.

Every moment, every step.

I am beyond blessed to have the happy healthy family that I have today. And that we could share and experience that the way we did.

We have already planned our 2012 family trip in September. It looks like the last day of the trip will be our anniversary.

It may call for a special cake order...our cake was delicious!!!!

This wedding was truly a fairytale. In all the ways it should be.

From planning on day 1 to the end of it. And it continues. Every day I fall more in love with Sarah and the family that we combined.

Every morning, when I sit there and head off to work, and kiss my family goodbye, I remember how happy they make me. How lucky I am to have a spectacular woman kiss me good bye.

To have a beautiful, well rounded, grounded daughter hug my so tight and tell me that she can't wait to see me at the end of the day.

To have a smart, funny, well rounded, grounded step son who seems to have adjusted so well to a new city and a new family and have him give me a big hug and tell me to have a good day.

Thank you to all who have listened to me recount that day and my feelings and my thoughts.

The fairytale began they day I met Sarah.

It continues today.
 

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