"No, We're Not Getting Married at Disney!" a 2018 tripS report - update 10/25 AKL food + DHS Day

[MeghanEmily]

Agreed... I have been quasi-vocal about my opinions because I know that human trafficking is devastating for those involved, and even those who witness it. As an advocate for human rights it is hard for me to argue that theme park history is more important than not perpetuating/glorifying/depicting such a horrific crime. I totally get why people were attached to the old redhead scene. I loved her too! And I am among the privileged who've never been impacted personally by human trafficking, so I had the privilege of not noticing or being offended by the wench auction scene. I have a button that says "We Wants the Redhead" and even have a trading pin of "We Wants the Redhead" as THE MOST prominent pin on my lanyard (okay that was so dorky). Still, I think that the new redhead is just as good. And those who never saw the old one are going to be like "oh another cheesy stereotypical pirate scene" rather than critiquing why this woman would be auctioning rum, among the other criticisms I've heard of it. And, ultimately, it frustrates me that those who are criticizing the change are often people who enjoy the same privilege I do of not having been personally affected by human trafficking and also not recognizing that this is a privilege. End rant!

 

[pepperandchips]

Warning: totally off topic posts regarding my wedding!



However, maybe you had a little tip-off that this was coming based on the report title.

I'm really into Carrie Hayward's Disney Wedding Podcast during my commutes right now so I am writing this like I am pretending @lurkyloo is interviewing me I'm sure this is obnoxious in the middle of this trip report, but I really like having my reports to reflect on, so I'm doing it for me. If you like all the gory wedding details like I do, read on, friends! Otherwise, just skip this and I will start the April report soon.

How did you decide on the venue? Did you consider a Disney wedding?

We had an at home wedding, not a Disney wedding. We never considered a Disney wedding. For one, the groom would have died. He's become a Disney fan, but only at my repeated insistence in bringing him there for every vacation I can To read about our engagement (which happened while we were staying at Aulani) you can view that here: Engagement Story There's also no way we could have afforded our dream wedding if we'd done it at Disney.



Once we got engaged, we spent a good bit of our remaining vacation time discussing what we would do for the wedding. We initially discussed eloping, but eloping quickly turned to talk of a destination wedding as R really wanted his siblings there and I couldn't imagine doing a destination wedding as I wanted my 93 year old grandfather to be able to attend. So we pretty immediately decided we wanted to be married in Atlanta, where we live.

Also nearly immediately, a great friend of mine recommended we look at a local restaurant as a potential venue, which I totally blew off. I'd only eaten there once, back in probably 2010? And while the food was good and I'd have been happy to return, I ate there on the patio at night in the full dark and didn't have a chance to see how gorgeous the restaurant was.

We knew we wanted a nature-focused, outdoor ceremony. Casual and non-religious, maybe a little funky, like us. We found a couple of options but immediately were concerned that everything we liked was either way out of our budget or way out of our geographic comfort zone. A lot of the venue options in Atlanta proper are either astronomically expensive or extremely restrictive with vendors. The more reasonable options were all farther from the actual city, which we weren't really keen on. Many of our friends live in the north Atlanta suburbs (or even farther, calling some of them a suburb of Atlanta is a stretch) but I was born and raised in the south Atlanta suburbs where a lot of my family still lives, so a central location was important to us.

Finally I looked up wedding photos at the restaurant my friend had recommended, Wahoo Grill. My mind was blown! I couldn't believe that a little neighborhood restaurant 10 minutes from our home could look so verdant like a secret garden. I immediately started getting excited, but my fiance wasn't sold. We actually had requested a contract from another venue before coming back to the idea of Wahoo. I found out we could make their minimum work through a little checking and then immediately made a reservation at Wahoo for us, plus my mom, and R's mom and stepdad for a weekend they'd be in town "just to see". We were all sold with that dinner experience! The food was amazing and we were seated on the patio near where we ultimately said our vows. It was a done deal.


(our plates that the event coordinator made for us and put on the sweetheart table. The food was amazing!)

The great thing about Wahoo is that they handle nearly all the details - beyond the gorgeous setting, this is what sold me. I didn't have to pick linens, chairs, place settings, or vendors. They had a few menu choices and a few bar options and we were free to bring as much or as little decor as we wanted, use a DJ or use their iPod hookup, bring an officiant and they'd take care of the rest. Due to my career and a change in my responsibilities just after getting engaged, this was perfect news to me.



In order to have a lower minimum food and beverage spend, we chose to be married on a Sunday. In fact, we were married on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend 2018, having gotten engaged on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend the year prior.

Did you have a theme? Did you incorporate Disney in any way?

I don't remember when I decided on this, but we thought it would be super fun and set the casual tone if we decided to have a tiki party for our wedding! Obviously we weren't having a real luau, but we wanted to set the vibe of a casual barbecue party (though not literally, the food was very nice and upscale). I had lots of Hawaiian/Aloha touches as a way to honor our engagement and trip of a lifetime to Hawaii. We invited guests to wear Aloha shirts and decorated with pineapples and tropical flowers. R had a fun play on an Aloha shirt for his attire and I went with a retro glamour vibe. Our favors were cookies we had shipped from the Honolulu Cookie Company.

We actually had several Disney touches, but they were mainly music. Our recessional was "Lava" from the Pixar short of the same name, and we asked our DJ to play a number of Dave Brubeck jazz covers of Disney favorites during the dinner hour as well as "Married Life" from Up. During the cocktail hour, we incorporated Disney by playing "Hawaiian War Chant" (which is featured in Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room) and we served Mai Tais as our signature cocktail during the cocktail hour. We also had Tsum Tsums as gifts for our littlest guests, which were a hit!

[Above photo courtesy of my cousin, not our photographers]


(tsum tsums and coloring supplies for the littles)

We are still planning a bigger blowout Honeymoon trip for Christmas break 2018, but we did a 6 night "mini-moon" immediately after the wedding. We visited Clearwater Beach for 5 nights and then spent the final night at the Polynesian, splurging on club level for the first time. We even booked a honeymoon photo shoot with a local photographer so that I could get some Disney photos.

How many guests did you invite to the wedding and how many came?

For our budget and also for the casual and intimate tone we wanted, we limited our invited guests to about 100. We had about 85 total adult guests including us attend.



How did you customize the venue's offerings and the space?

We actually liked the offerings on Wahoo's mid-tier menu the best, which worked great for our budget. We were able to substitute one of the entrees for Shrimp & Grits, which we loved trying on their regular dinner menu and our guests loved it. Actually, our guests raved about all of the food.



For drinks, we had a 30 minute pre-ceremony cocktail hour with mai tais, a signature drink Wahoo created just for us. For the reception, we went with a call bar, but added extra time to the standard bar offering. Wahoo doesn't offer a bill-on-consumption bar, but I still feel like we probably did okay on budget. We had a lot of fun!





I did all of my own flowers with the help of my mom, aunt, and sister. I had a consultation through a company called Flower Moxie, and Amy helped me choose what types of flowers I should order and the quantities I'd need while observing the budget I gave her. I ultimately ordered a few extra things through Fifty Flowers online. The flowers that Amy ordered for me through a local wholesaler were overall much nicer and much fresher than what I ordered on my own, so if I had it all to do over again I would just order everything through Flower Moxie. We had so much fun designing all the centerpieces and I also did personal floral for me, R, a bouquet for my sister, and about 10 boutonierres and corsages. We had tons of bud vases, 10 larger centerpieces, and then used fresh, uncut pineapples on the tables as well.







Did you have any entertainment?

Other than our DJ we did not have any entertainment. I went with the DJ my friend will be using for her wedding in the fall. He only charged us $500! He was fantastic and we danced our hearts out. I did send a rather detailed song list.


(I call this photo "R leads a boy band, with special appearance by Gin C" )

Tell me about the timeline!

We rented an AirBnB to get ready in since our apartment is so tiny. We stayed there the night before the wedding and got up pretty early as we had a few last minute errands. We invited about 10 friends to come hang out with us during the day as we got ready, so R headed off to pick up donuts and publix subs for the crew while I finished up corsages and boutonnieres. Our friends started arriving at 12:00, which is when I started getting ready. Our photographers came to the AirBnB at 4:00 to start getting portraits and we got to Wahoo around 5:00 and took more couple photos as well as some with our family. Our guests arrived at 6:00 and the ceremony was at 6:30. We didn't have a lot of the traditional elements like toasts or a first dance, so we had dinner and danced until 11:30 when the wedding ended! The next day we headed to Clearwater.

What were the three most important things where you focused your attention and your budget?

The ceremony script, flowers, and a good food and beverage experience.

We asked my college friend, who is an Episcopal priest, to marry us, and she helped us create a totally custom ceremony. We wrote a lot of the wording within each part of the outline she provided. It was amazing and perfect and a true reflection of us.



We wanted to throw a great party our friends would remember having fun at, so we didn't want to skimp on the food or bar. We had an open call bar and appetizers, entrees, and desserts. The food was fantastic! I always envisioned a night of drinks and dancing so it was important to me to have a real party. Having an open bar helped, I think.



The flowers were really important to me and that's why my crazy obsessive self DIY-ed them. I knew what I wanted would have been out of the budget with a florist. I spent about $1500 to buy all of the flowers and all the supplies, including vases and other floral supplies. They were exactly what I wanted and my family got to enjoy them after the wedding was over.

What was less important to you, where you saved money or time?

We went really simple and casual so we saved money on a lot of things. Honestly, my dress was not that important. I ended up finding the perfect dress at the mall and ordered it from Macy's at a cost of less than $300. Because of the style, the only alteration I needed was hemming. I'm sure I'll never wear it again so I couldn't bring myself to spend thousands of dollars.

Our menu came with desserts, so instead of ordering a big fancy wedding cake, we had family members make desserts that were family recipes or some of our favorite treats. We still had a cake for cutting (R's family's recipe pound cake, with a topper from Etsy and floral I put together).



We also went simple with favors, just making custom stickers for the cookies we ordered (from Honolulu Cookie Company). We saved a lot by just ordering a couple of their large assorted box of cookies and our guests enjoyed looking through the flavors (again, we made custom labels for them so people would know what flavors each were) and picking some out. Our DJ was also right at the budget I'd set.



Photography was super important to me but all of the photographers I initially looked at were more than twice my budget. I eventually was able to do a lot of research and found some up-and-coming photographers so we were able to stay on budget there by going with a less experienced (but still amazingly talented) photography team and limiting our photography to six hours. I think that was just the right amount of coverage for us. I didn't get any "getting ready" photos and our photographers left at 10:00, but there are just so many ways that the budget can get out of control that I think we made the right decision.



What was your favorite memory of the day?

There are so many, it is hard to pick one moment. Looking into R's eyes while we committed ourselves to one another has to top the list!



I also loved getting ready while just chit chatting with my best friends and listening to old school jams.


(above, the airbnb we rented to get ready in)

My cousins' littles tearing up the dance floor was fantastic, they had so much fun and I had so much fun with them! And Wahoo did this great thing where they set up appetizers just for us in the bridal suite - our officiant came in to sign the marriage license and when she left we just had some alone time.

Afterward, we went out onto the entry area to get a few more photos and I heard "Blue Hawaii" come on and nearly lost it, just thinking about all the planning I'd done and it had come off like I wanted. It was just perfect.



Did anything go wrong or just not as you expected?

Apparently the previous event hadn't vacated when my DJ and my "floral helpers" (mom, aunt, sister) showed up to set up so that made my mom mad. They did get everything set up way before I arrived, however, so it didn't affect me. R had also planned to give a "thank you" type speech and we totally forgot and no one prompted us, so whoops! And I bought loose orchids to use as drink garnishes, which I found unopened in my box of decor two weeks later. Oh well. None of the things that "went wrong" affected me at all.

Oh and the biggest one! It was supposed to rain, and I was so nervous since I really really really didn't want to have to use the rain plan, and the rain did come... but not until after dinner when everyone had moved into the tented part of our space for dancing anyway. It was great.

And sort of my funny moment of "wow this is not what I expected" was that our menu included a "seasonal vegetable". When we went for our tasting I think we were given some kind of broccoli and spring veggie medley that was fine, but let's be honest, I wasn't there for the veggies. When we were served our meals at the wedding the seasonal vegetable was... PINTO BEANS Later when we were visiting with our guests I mentioned to a few of my friends that the beans were kind of a "what the heck" moment for me, they were all like "Oh they were so good!" Whatever!


(there they are, on the buffet, in all their glory)

Did anything seem like a big deal before the wedding but turn out not to be on the day of?

The weather was probably the biggest thing, I stressed so much before finally realizing that I just needed to be zen as I had no control over the weather. I also planned and worried and planned about the flowers, but the planning paid off and the space looked amazing. I don't know that I would say it didn't turn out to be a big deal but I was way calmer about what flowers were on what table than I thought I would be. And the bar selection - I was pleasantly surprised by the brands that were included on the lowest bar tier at any rate, but I honestly do not think one single person cared whether their preferred brand of alcohol was served.





Would you change anything knowing what you know now?

I wish I had communicated more with my photographers just before the wedding. I felt so frazzled taking our photos, especially the family photos, and I didn't provide a shot list because I figured that they would have sort of a suggested shot list after having done dozens of weddings. We did get all the most important photos, but I didn't get a lot of the individual photos I thought I would.



We found and booked our photographers really early on in the planning process, sending our first email to them back in June 2017. Their post-processing/editing style seems to have evolved quite a bit since we looked at their portfolio last summer. The photos are beautiful but more processed/edited than I thought they would be.



I also got... ONE portrait of me without R. ONE. There are three or so different shots, but the photographer told me not to look at the camera for all but one frame, and I hate those. So, this is my only solo portrait of my entire wedding day.

 

[pepperandchips]

and now, because I ran out of space in the previous post, a wedding photo dump! Enjoy!


one of my favorite portraits we took at the airbnb before heading to wahoo


and then at wahoo


I like this one because you can see my floral hair comb in it well


We'd tried to get all of the family portraits done early so we could greet our guests during the pre-ceremony cocktail hour but that didn't go exactly as planned. I think it was one of R's only disappointments as he didn't want to have to go around to each table during dinner and greet people.


a look at the inside tables before the ceremony, you can see some of the "outside" tables in the background that would later be moved out onto the patio


all the tables with tablecloths ended up outside, which is why the room is so packed. but pretty!


ceremony set up


we processed in together, if you can even call it that. one of the things that was giving me heebies in the wedding planning was thinking about walking down the aisle, so we sort of tried to eliminate that stress by just coming in with our priest, one of my friends.






We incorporated a wine ceremony to honor our moms. They were so cute (and weepy)




smooch

this was after the ceremony when we snuck off for a few more photos during appetizer time




You know I couldn't post without some food pics... so, may the dining room proudly present...

Your Dinner:


chicken nam sod cups, one of our appetizers


salad


new york strip with tamarind barbecue sauce


mediterranean tomato basil pasta with goat cheese


parmesan encrusted chicken - my favorite! this was so good




what the outside tables looked like after they flipped the space from the ceremony to the reception


visiting with our guests, and what the "inside" tables looked like


We cut the cake fairly early. The topper says "mutual weirdness forever"


my little heart, my cousin's daughter. she is obsessed with minnie mouse, just like I am!




pretty much par for the course when we dance, we like to sing to each other a lot


Our DJ was so fantastic, we truly had a ball dancing




a dancing action shot. I liked how the lighting effect turned out

thank you for indulging me.

Up next: the bachelorette trip!

 

[MeghanEmily]

I'm really into Carrie Hayward's Disney Wedding Podcast during my commutes right now

Omg Carrie Hayward, my Disney Wedding Queen!

I'm sure this is obnoxious in the middle of this trip report, but I really like having my reports to reflect on, so I'm doing it for me. If you like all the gory wedding details like I do, read on, friends!

Wooh! Bring it on!

Everything looks amazing! The colours, the floral, the food...

I don't remember when I decided on this, but we thought it would be super fun and set the casual tone if we decided to have a tiki party for our wedding! Obviously we weren't having a real luau, but we wanted to set the vibe of a casual barbecue party (though not literally, the food was very nice and upscale).

I love this! So fun for you and your guests, but still a little bit classy.

Our favors were cookies we had shipped from the Honolulu Cookie Company.

How cool!

We actually had several Disney touches, but they were mainly music. Our recessional was "Lava" from the Pixar short of the same name, and we asked our DJ to play a number of Dave Brubeck jazz covers of Disney favorites during the dinner hour as well as "Married Life" from Up.

I love this, too! A perfect way to add a subtle touch of Disney.

We also had Tsum Tsums as gifts for our littlest guests, which were a hit!

So cute! That's a great idea.

For our budget and also for the casual and intimate tone we wanted, we limited our invited guests to about 100. We had about 85 total adult guests including us attend.

That sounds just about perfect. When my mom got married, because it was her second wedding she wanted to keep things small, and she also had her heart set on a venue that could only really comfortably accommodate about 50 people. She had such a hard time narrowing it down to so few guests. But giant weddings of 150-200++ people can be super hard on the budget, and feel really impersonal. I think 85 is just right.

Your flowers are amazing! I was so shocked to find out that...

I did all of my own flowers with the help of my mom, aunt, and sister. I had a consultation through a company called Flower Moxie, and Amy helped me choose what types of flowers I should order and the quantities I'd need while observing the budget I gave her.

...you did them yourself!?!?! You did such a beautiful job! Floral is so stupidly expensive, and you really had the best of both worlds getting exactly what you wanted but not totally breaking the bank. I'm sure it was a ton of work though!

We asked my college friend, who is an Episcopal priest, to marry us, and she helped us create a totally custom ceremony. We wrote a lot of the wording within each part of the outline she provided. It was amazing and perfect and a true reflection of us.

That's fantastic. I love that your officiant was someone who knew you, and you were able to plan for exactly the ceremony that you wanted.

Honestly, my dress was not that important. I ended up finding the perfect dress at the mall and ordered it from Macy's at a cost of less than $300. Because of the style, the only alteration I needed was hemming.

Amazing!! You'd never know that you didn't spend a fortune, because it looks fabulous. But how great that you found a dress that worked for you for such a great price! My dress ended up being one of the priorities, because I'd seen a dress I wanted years before and had already envisioned wearing it for my wedding, so when I was able to find it I knew I had to have it! But since it had been discontinued a few months prior to me starting my shopping, I ended up getting a sample dress that was on sale for about $1000 CAD, plus a few alterations. This still felt very expensive to me for a dress I intended to wear once, but I know there are people out there who pay 5x that much. But had I not found that one, the other two dresses I looked at that I liked the most were $200 and $500, and our budget would have loved it if I'd gone with one of those instead!

Our menu came with desserts, so instead of ordering a big fancy wedding cake, we had family members make desserts that were family recipes or some of our favorite treats. We still had a cake for cutting (R's family's recipe pound cake, with a topper from Etsy and floral I put together).

This is an awesome idea! Love it!

I eventually was able to do a lot of research and found some up-and-coming photographers so we were able to stay on budget there by going with a less experienced (but still amazingly talented) photography team and limiting our photography to six hours.

Your photos are beautiful! Though it's too bad that they aren't exactly the style you had in mind when you booked.

When we were served our meals at the wedding the seasonal vegetable was... PINTO BEANS

I also got... ONE portrait of me without R. ONE. There are three or so different shots, but the photographer told me not to look at the camera for all but one frame, and I hate those. So, this is my only solo portrait of my entire wedding day.

That's so sad and disappointing!

one of the things that was giving me heebies in the wedding planning was thinking about walking down the aisle, so we sort of tried to eliminate that stress by just coming in with our priest, one of my friends.

This is a nice solution.

my little heart, my cousin's daughter. she is obsessed with minnie mouse, just like I am!

Oh my gosh, that's SO cute!

 

[SweetSerenity]

Your pictures of your wedding are beautiful!

Question about Sanaa. If you order the bread service with all the accompaniments do you only get 2 pieces of Naan? My husband could eat his weight in Naan, and I find it would be difficulty to try all the sauces on the half piece I'll likely get, ha!

 

[pepperandchips]

Your pictures of your wedding are beautiful!

Question about Sanaa. If you order the bread service with all the accompaniments do you only get 2 pieces of Naan? My husband could eat his weight in Naan, and I find it would be difficulty to try all the sauces on the half piece I'll likely get, ha!

No you get 5 total breads, three of which are naan and two are similar to naan but slightly different texture. We've never needed more but I bet you could get more for a nominal extra cost. You can also choose between all the breads and mix and match but we usually just get all 5 different ones. But lots of people will just get all plain or all garlic or whatever. sooooooooo gooooooddd

Edited to add: my picture looks like it's 2 pieces of bread but there's a whole yummy pile under there!

And thank you

 

[disneyAndi14]

Very lovely Melinda! Thank you for sharing your wedding day with us!

 

[PPFlight75]

January 13, Part Two:

Our hearts led us over to our favorite Walt Disney World lounge, Geyser Point.

Despite the cool weather, nothing would keep us from a couple of refreshing adult beverages! The full Geyser Point review is available on the Festival of the Arts thread I posted, so I'm just posting photos of our incredibly delicious lunch!

We were very pleased and enjoyed our experience at Geyser Point, as usual. After lunch, we set off to see if they had R's favorite Disney treat on hand, so we made the short and lovely walk to Roaring Forks.

Along with a multitude of other tempting options (I will get you sometime, campfire cupcake!), we found what we came looking for! Behold, the Magic Cookie Bar:

We found a couple of comfy chairs not too far from the fireplace, and settled in to relax for a few minutes and enjoy some of our Magic Cookie Bar.

I love Wilderness Lodge because it has so many great places just to kick back and relax.

After we enjoyed our relaxation time, we summoned an Uber and had a bit of an adventure heading back over to the Swan, where we had a nice rest.

We had evening fastpasses in DHS, with a ToT fastpass and a Rock N Roller Coaster fastpass lined up.

After dropping in at our favorite hotel, we got backstage passes to see Aerosmith, can you believe it?!

The launch on this coaster always freaks me out, but I still love it. The lady in the front looks like one of my favorite former professors so I love this crazy ride photo. After our fastpasses, we grabbed a couple of photopass pictures with a really energetic CM:

We were a little less energetic than he was.

The usual "must do" for us in DHS is a visit to our favorite bar and bartender - if you've been to the Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge walk up bar, you've almost certainly met Ron. He's there every single time we visit without fail. On the Dis Unplugged podcast they recently mentioned this... but I think they called him Steve. Poor Ron! They honor the TIW card here so we always like to visit this bar for our in-park libations, at a discount. Drinks in hand, we decided to take a stroll around Echo Lake to enjoy the evening.

We found another PP photographer in front of Gertie!

She's one of my favorite WDW landmarks.

R let me photograph him again. We haven't done Indiana Jones since I was a child. Adding a mental note to watch it again in case it changes ahead of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge going in. (I just noticed our drinks on that concrete ledge, not quite out of frame )

We found a ledge to sit on (in front of that Jeep where R was pictured, above) and just peoplewatched for a while.

We decided we were hungry and that we'd try to beat the fireworks crowd out of the park. Back in our room, we were debating dinner options when some noise from outside the room caught my attention.... Behold, a garbage quality photo of our cool view!

If you're going to have a roof view, you could at least sweeten it up with some fireworks, yeah? Not too bad.

I thought we might finally try the Yachtsman, or visit one of the new venues at Disney Springs (the Edison or Enzo's Hideaway). After quite a bit of thought, we settled on just going downstairs to Il Mulino to see if we could be seated for dinner without too much of a wait. Travel day woes! We probably only waited about 10 minutes after putting our name in with the hostess. I did take lots of photos of dinner and haven't reviewed it yet, so here it goes. I'm sorry if the photos are a bit garish, it is really really dark in Il Mulino so I had to lighten these up a bit.

As usual, we both started with a drink. R had his usual Maker's Mark and soda, while I tried the Il Mulino Signature Cocktail

Testarossa aka the "Red Head" - Ketel One Vodka, Grand Marnier and Crandberry Juice, muddled with Strawberries and Fresh Basil Leaves topped with Ground Pepper. ($13) This was delicious and very fresh tasting, probably a little sweeter than I usually like my drinks but definitely refreshing and went down easy.

Each meal at Il Mulino starts with a basket of their hot, fresh bread.

It's always light and yeasty, accompanied by an amuse bouche that has not changed in the time we've been going to Il Mulino:

Eggplant caponata served with sliced salami. The eggplant caponata is absolutely to-die-for, despite the fact that I usually really don't care much for eggplant. The salami is salami, but hey, it's free! I was trying not to eat too much bread so it was nice to have these options before our appetizers arrived.

Speaking of which...

Calamari Fritti - Lightly Fried Calamari with a Spicy Marinara Sauce ($15). As you can see, this was also served with fried zucchini mixed in. This was good and light, with a tasty sauce. It's not something I would specifically need to go back for, though.

We also ordered the Polpette Al Forno - Italian Meatballs with Tomato Basil Sauce and Parmesan Cheese ($12). Do you need a reason to go out of your way to try Il Mulino? Well this is it. These are amazing! SO rich and tasty while somehow being impossibly light and tender. They are so so good. We've had these before but I don't think I've ever gotten a photo before we dug in! Definitely a reason to return! Highly recommended.

We knew we were over-ordering when we did it, but we nevertheless each chose an entree to follow our shared appetizers.

For some reason, I was feeling pizza and went with Margherita - Tomato Sauce, Basil, and Buffalo Mozzarella ($16). It hit the pizza spot, but a lot of it came back to the room with us. Recommended only if you're in the mood for pizza and nothing else will suffice.

(Cue angels singing)

THIS is the reason to go to Il Mulino. Even people who don't like mushrooms love this, amirite @ariane37?

Rigatoni con Funghi - Rigatoni with Wild Mushrooms, Spicy Cherry Peppers, Garlic and Truffle Oil. (Normally $25, half order available for $15) We went with the half order which was still enough for us to share and struggle to finish given our appetizers. The sauce, such as it is, is light and flavorful with that signature truffle richness. The peppers add a nice contrasting spice. This is so delicious I can't even describe it!

We ordered dessert to go and settled the tab, which came to $111.46 after our TIW discount was applied (includes 18% gratuity). Not bad for a three course meal and drinks (I had two) for two people.

Back up in our room, we dug into our dessert in bed while watching some mindless tv:

Tiramisu - Layered Espresso and Coffee Liqueur infused Lady Fingers coated with Marscapone Cream ($11). I love Tiramisu and this was a very good one. It wasn't overly sweet but satiated our dessert craving nicely. We hit the hay to prepare for another big day ahead!

Coming up next: we visit an often-overlooked restaurant to satiate a breakfast craving! Where will we go?

Loving your report!

Your Il Mulino dinner is exactly what I just had a few weeks ago. I loved the Red Head drink and the Rigatoni with mushrooms is my favorite thing!! Yum!

I also go the tiramisu to go! I plan to get this exact same thing in October when we go back for our first adult trip without the kiddos!

I guess you like the Swan/Dolphin lol!

We haven't stayed before but I have been checking it out for for a possible future trip. It looks like a great place for an adult only trip.

 

[chunkymonkey]

I love your pink coat during your Jan trip! It looks great in pictures and it matched Seeping Beauty beautifully!
I'm excited to check out the Festival of Arts in Jan of next year (provided they are still doing it) - it seems like another fun new experience in Disney!

OMG your wedding...it's like a magazine! So chic and beautiful! I love all your details, and especially your aloha-tiki theme, the hawaiian shirts, and your flowers were so beautiful and love the pineapples on the tablescape! And you guys look amazing, stunning! Food looks delicious too!

 

[amalone1013]

I loved the above version of the Small World poster. That mid-century style is just my thing!

I like seeing all the attraction posters. Zack's brother went to a mid century convention out in Palm Springs back in... March? And they brought us home a MCM Incredibles 2 poster

I couldn't justify the price tag and resigned myself to continue living with just my one Disney dooney

Same. I love the Mary Poppins print, but I got the Dogs print and am resigned to carry it forever

They honor the TIW card here so we always like to visit this bar for our in-park libations, at a discount. Drinks in hand, we decided to take a stroll around Echo Lake to enjoy the evening.

Hmm, another point for getting APs and a TIW card again...

After quite a bit of thought, we settled on just going downstairs to Il Mulino to see if we could be seated for dinner without too much of a wait.

I want to go here but haven't made it yet. That pasta looks delicious!!

We ordered drinks and then our server disappeared for a long time.

Always frustrating...

The vanilla bean butter! I am not even a big vanilla person, I would never get a vanilla milkshake or vanilla ice cream, but this is so delicious. I guess I am a butter person... I never knew people could dislike butter until I was catching up on @Lesley Wake's TR this morning!

Flavored Butter? Now I am craving flavored butter... Maybe when I'm off next weekend we will go to a local breakfast spot that has housemade butters and syrups I like to get their pancake flight option which comes with mini pancakes and then you get to choose so many butters and syrups!

Again with the composition issues... this is me, posing with someone else's ECV...

And a trash can...

Hey, you saw my examples of Zack's photography skills, right? At least you look cute even if your background is not ideal!

Mr. Kamal's Seasoned Fries - topped with tzatziki sauce and sriracha ketchup $5.49. These are fantastic - the toppings worried me a bit as they didn't sound like they went together, but they somehow work making this a great savory treat. R picked this out but I got to help enjoy them! Yummy!

These don't sound like they'd go together, but after reading so many good reviews I think we need to get them!

To catch a set from Burudika, of course! They are my FAVORITE! I must have hundreds of photos of Burudika at this point, I really should have posted a better one, but oh well, this one is from this January evening. I always enjoy stopping to take in the ambiance and listen to this incredibly talented band!

I'm adding their show schedule to my planning spreadsheet, we haven't had a chance to stop and watch the AK entertainment

We had the tiramisu in our room again. Dessert in bed while watching Stacey is a pretty fantastic end to a vacation day, if you ask me!

Noted for our trip, since we're at the Dolphin...

Despite that little bit of pixie dust, our Swan stay this time was not the best. We were not given shower gel, the phone in our room did not work, it was an extremely loud room location near the elevator, and when our supplies were refreshed the housekeeper left us ONE coffee. I would definitely still return, it was just an off stay for us.

We love the Dolphin, but on our wedding trip it took them two days to get the tray/ice bucket from the hallway. We also got a new coffee cup but no actual coffee and they never did take the mimosa glasses... They were empty, and I moved them to different places around the room, but they still didn't pick them up. That seemed odd to me.

Massive cinnamon roll time! This was R's pick, while I was bound and determined to get my old favorite, the pepperjack pretzel, which I'd heard was back at The Lunching Pad, so we hoofed it across the park to Tomorrowland

Sending this idea to Zack, though I'll have to get him to branch out past the Nutella waffle at Sleepy Hollow! He did bring up sharing snacks/QS meals last night, I was super proud because I've been encouraging that so we could eat more things!

The great thing about Wahoo is that they handle nearly all the details - beyond the gorgeous setting, this is what sold me. I didn't have to pick linens, chairs, place settings, or vendors. They had a few menu choices and a few bar options and we were free to bring as much or as little decor as we wanted, use a DJ or use their iPod hookup, bring an officiant and they'd take care of the rest. Due to my career and a change in my responsibilities just after getting engaged, this was perfect news to me.

Such a gorgeous wedding! What a great venue to find too! All of your photos are just Your floral is AMAZING! So great you were able to get exactly what you wanted that way. Floral can be pretty outrageous, I got a quote around Denver that was something like $3000+ before they even asked what kind of flowers I was thinking! I feel your regret on the photo list. We didn't have one either and should have. Luckily I did have Aly to direct some photos for me She was a lifesaver, but there's some I thought of after the fact or when looking through our photos when we got them back. Zack just says, oh well we'll have to have a vow renewal!


PS. we also sing to each other when we dance

 

[WDWFL2013]

looking forward to following along. Love your wedding pictures Especially the informal ones.

 

[paradesintherain]

OMG I love your wedding so much and you are the most beautiful bride! If I ever get married, I want you to plan mine, k thanks!

Agreed... I have been quasi-vocal about my opinions because I know that human trafficking is devastating for those involved, and even those who witness it. As an advocate for human rights it is hard for me to argue that theme park history is more important than not perpetuating/glorifying/depicting such a horrific crime. I totally get why people were attached to the old redhead scene. I loved her too! And I am among the privileged who've never been impacted personally by human trafficking, so I had the privilege of not noticing or being offended by the wench auction scene. I have a button that says "We Wants the Redhead" and even have a trading pin of "We Wants the Redhead" as THE MOST prominent pin on my lanyard (okay that was so dorky). Still, I think that the new redhead is just as good. And those who never saw the old one are going to be like "oh another cheesy stereotypical pirate scene" rather than critiquing why this woman would be auctioning rum, among the other criticisms I've heard of it. And, ultimately, it frustrates me that those who are criticizing the change are often people who enjoy the same privilege I do of not having been personally affected by human trafficking and also not recognizing that this is a privilege. End rant!

YES, all of this!

He's become a Disney fan, but only at my repeated insistence in bringing him there for every vacation I can

Psh, he loves it now, there's no denying!

Casual and non-religious, maybe a little funky, like us.

I didn't have to pick linens, chairs, place settings, or vendors.

That sounds perfect! All those little details would get overwhelming!

Our recessional was "Lava" from the Pixar short of the same name,

Why did this make me tear up? WHY?

We also had Tsum Tsums as gifts for our littlest guests, which were a hit!

That's a fantastic idea!

OMG you're so beautiful! Absolutely love your dress and hair and bouquet and ALL OF IT!

Perfect centerpieces!

I spent about $1500 to buy all of the flowers and all the supplies, including vases and other floral supplies. They were exactly what I wanted and my family got to enjoy them after the wedding was over.

And you did amazing with it! Seriously some of the best looking arrangements I've seen!

We still had a cake for cutting (R's family's recipe pound cake, with a topper from Etsy and floral I put together).

I love the idea of having a family recipe cake so much.

When we were served our meals at the wedding the seasonal vegetable was... PINTO BEANS

Such a gorgeous and intimate wedding space! Your friend really steered you in a fantastic direction!

Ahhhh so pretty! Stinks that's the only solo shot you got but it's amazing!

My heart! There's so much love in this photo

Awww!

Mutual weirdness forever!

 

[iivye]

Your wedding portrait is gorgeous and the wedding looks amazing!

 

[Lesley Wake]

And sort of my funny moment of "wow this is not what I expected" was that our menu included a "seasonal vegetable". When we went for our tasting I think we were given some kind of broccoli and spring veggie medley that was fine, but let's be honest, I wasn't there for the veggies. When we were served our meals at the wedding the seasonal vegetable was... PINTO BEANS Later when we were visiting with our guests I mentioned to a few of my friends that the beans were kind of a "what the heck" moment for me, they were all like "Oh they were so good!" Whatever!

Yeah, that's a bit weird!

But I love the tiki theme of your wedding! Definitely seemed to give a casual, fun atmosphere!

 

[Texans_loyal]

I'm super late but I'm in! OMG your wedding was absolutely beautiful. Y'all did an amazing job, congrats!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Hi Melinda! Joining in on another one of your fab reports...First off, let me say that you are one of the gals I am looking most forward to meeting in May (EPIC Girl's Trip)...You seem so fun!!!!
Second, your wedding looks absolutely beautiful, especially your dress and the flowers...Finally, the french toast at the GFC is totally on my list in October. We have breakfast ressies there on the 8th. I am also dying to try the magic bars at WL in May. I remember @ariane37 telling me about them, and they do look delicious!!!!

 

[Daisy1940]

Melinda, I love your dining reports and am excited to read more about your 2018 Disney trips! I also really appreciate all your advice on the We Love Bonnet Creek thread as that is where we stay (and love it!). You had such a beautiful wedding, it looks like everyone was having a blast.

 

[cocofifi]

I had to come out of my lurkdome to tell you how wonderful your wedding photos Are. You were an absolutely beautiful bride! The flowers and venue looked lovely. Everything looked well thought out and perfect. Congratulations and thanks so much for sharing.

 

[alohamom]

Our favors were cookies we had shipped from the Honolulu Cookie Company.

Oh I just LOVE this idea!!! They are just soooo goood!!!

Melinda, your wedding was incredible, thank you so much for sharing-it has totally inspired me!

I really like the picture of you two cutting the cake (oh that topper is the best too) and the picture of you guys laughing at the Air bnb. The Aloha shirt for you hubby under the suit jacket is perfect and you made a gorgeous bride!

Congratulations!!!!

 

[jessi1375]

Congrats! It looks like you had a beautiful day!