not_joanna_eggs' PJ - 1/24/2010 WP/CG: TR: MK/Epcot Photo shoot link posted

[Carye]

The chocolate favors sound really interesting, but just make sure they won't be too much work. Is there any way you could have the packaging and explanations done way in advance so that all you would have to do is put the chocolates in? Maybe you could buy them, pack them in some sort of foam cooler to keep them fresh and ship them down so they would be there when you get there and you wouldn't have to worry about the plane, just buy a few extras in case some don't make the trip so well. You might also want to consider doing less different ones, maybe just do the 3 for you and DF...remember it is all about you Just trying to help

 

[Carye]

BTW...I just realized we will still be there on our honeymoon when you guys get there for the wedding...we should try to meet up sometime

 

[padisneyfour]

Joanna, hi! just stopping in to catch up. Good luck at your planning session!!!

 

[spacerangerqueen]

yumm chocolate.. ::drool:: if guests leave any behind you can just gather them up and drop them off at my place...

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

The chocolate favors sound really interesting, but just make sure they won't be too much work. Is there any way you could have the packaging and explanations done way in advance so that all you would have to do is put the chocolates in? Maybe you could buy them, pack them in some sort of foam cooler to keep them fresh and ship them down so they would be there when you get there and you wouldn't have to worry about the plane, just buy a few extras in case some don't make the trip so well. You might also want to consider doing less different ones, maybe just do the 3 for you and DF...remember it is all about you Just trying to help

Foam cooler - genius!! I'm looking at different packaging, I'm worried that if I pre-assemble it will be so cumbersome to ship down there.

I was thinking about that.... But I those red cake bites like nobody's business

BTW...I just realized we will still be there on our honeymoon when you guys get there for the wedding...we should try to meet up sometime

Ohh you will? We should definitely meet up! We'll be at BLT too!

Joanna, hi! just stopping in to catch up. Good luck at your planning session!!!

Hi Tammy! Thanks for stopping by!

We leave in 3 days! Getting excited!!

yumm chocolate.. ::drool:: if guests leave any behind you can just gather them up and drop them off at my place...

Deal... I'll drop by what I don't eat myself

 

[princess22]

I realized I never replied to you on how I liked the Monarch. We had a good time. Half the girls I was with had never cruised before and they had a blast. I however kept constantly comparing it to Disney and it sooo didn't meet my standards! Dinner was horrible, every night. Our servers couldn't care less about us it seamed. The food was eh, and I just couldn't get over the fact that I had to pay to have a soda if I wanted it.
However our stateroom host was really awesome and the rooms were better than I remember the Sovereign being. One of our rooms showers went crazy though which was not cool.
Really I just need to get on one of RCCL's big ships because the two little ones have not lived up to my Disney standards at all.

Oh and with the way the weather is here now, I really don't think they are launching tomorrow, so chances are good it is scrubbed

Sounds like all of my RCCL cruises, big or small ship!

So I've been thinking about favors....

I'm not a big fan of favors in general, but know that with our guest list, I need to have them. So I've been in search of a favor that really represents "us"

We're both big chocolate fans, and we used to live next door to a chocolate shop, so this seemed like a natural choice.

So I came up with this idea of a box with 5 chocolates: 1 that represents my family, 1 that represents Chris's family, 1 that represents me, 1 that represents him, and one that represents both of us.

My Family: a tradition in my family is Red Velvet Cake, my grandma's is legendary. and there's a bakery by my work that makes red cake bites - basically truffle sized bites of cake dipped in chocolate - Awesome

DF's Family: DF's grandpa always makes Black Forrest cake at every holiday, so the same bakery makes a similar cake bite with Black Forrest.

Me: My parents now live in a resort town called Kolher, and they have their own chocolate company, and I love traveling to the Caribbean like 2-5 times year, so this will be a Kohler chocolate with passion fruit filling.

Chris: Chris is an adventurous eater, and a few years ago discovered Voges chocolates, and they make exoctic truffles with things like wasabi, olives, bacon, and more, so we'd do something like that.

Us: This would be one of our favorites from the chocolate shop we used to live by, a mango chipolte truffle.

So these would be together in a box, with little explanations of each chocolate, any why they're important to us.

Now I have 3 concerns: 1) Is this going to be too much of a PITA? Too complicated to put together at the last minute. 2) is it crazy to travel with so much fussy chocolate? Since it will be freezing here (WI in January = COLD) and warmer in FL, the temperature change + the pressure change on the plane could be bad. 3) We love these kind of haut chocolates... will they be wasted on our less-adventurous guests? What would you do if you received these as a favor? Try or toss?

I LOVE the idea of your favors. If you can figure out a way to make it work I think it's awesome!!!! I want to come to your wedding just for the favors!!!!

 

[Pirate's Princess]

Those chocolates sounds delicious! I totally want some.

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

Well, I'm back. Before I start my TR, let me just say that I was really diligent about taking pictures.... then I gave my camera to my sister's DBF and I'm not sure what happened, but all my pictures are now gone. I know he didn't do anything on purpose, and I will be purchasing a new camera soon... So I apologize for the lack of photos. I tried I really did.


Day 1

Our apartment is like 3 minutes away from the airport, so my parents picked us up at 2:30 for a 3:30 flight and we made our way to the airport, and had an uneventful flight. Our seats were next to the engine, and it was so loud my ipod cranked up all the way couldn't even help, but other than that... It was fine. We touched down at 7:10

We made it to the ME desk - I had rented points, and teh ME packet never came, so I was a bit worried, but this was no problem at all. There was no line and the CM was quite helpful. We explained that DS and her DBF were coming later, and we waited about 3 minutes and were loaded onto the SSR bus with one other family. We pulled into SSR and were checking in by 8:15. I couldn't believe how fast that went. I'm thinking that a Wednesday night check-in is the way to go!! We were assigned to the Carousel building, which is right at the entrance (i.e. REALLY far from the main building) So we decide to drop our bags off at bell services and grab dinner at the Turf Club. I quickly order my magical star, and DF ordered his Antioxident cocktail, and we were home!

(sorry - I did have pictures.... I promise!)

I ordered the tuna, DF had the Spicy Salmon salad and my parents both had Crab Cakes. The meal was quite good. I'm not sure I would go out of my way to go to the Turf Club if we weren't staying there, but it was good.

We stopped at Artist's Palette to pick up some frozen pizza for DS and her DBF, and some wine, and ended up deciding to cancel our ADRs at GFC the next morning, and got eggs, pancakes and bacon instead. This ended up being a genius idea because we would not have been awake to make our 7:10 ADRs.

We pulled out our "welcome packet" to see where our room was, and realized that the CM didn't write down our room number. So I went back to her, and got our room number. We headed to bell services - and it started to POUR. Sheets of rain were coming down, it was crazy. We piled into a golf cart, and were sealed in with plastic, and headed off to our room. I knew SSR was big but holy moley.... It's ginormous!

So once we were loaded in and got our room (and realized that we had an ajoining 1 brm and studio instead of a 2 brm) we opened a bottle of wine and waited for the last two of our group to arrive. Once they arrived, the pizza was cooked and 2nd bottle of wine was consumed. We headed to bed around 12:30 am.

 

[Carye]

Yay!!! You started you TR...sorry to hear the pics went missing, but it should still be a good story. I think all the 2bdrms at SSR are a 1bdrm and a studio connected...but hey, it works. Glad to hear the ME worked, I was a little worried, but the packet never came, so I just kept my fingers crossed for you

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

Yay!!! You started you TR...sorry to hear the pics went missing, but it should still be a good story. I think all the 2bdrms at SSR are a 1bdrm and a studio connected...but hey, it works. Glad to hear the ME worked, I was a little worried, but the packet never came, so I just kept my fingers crossed for you

My sister's DBF sent me some pictures off his camera last night, so the next installment will have a couple pictures. I was just so mad.... I even remembered food porn and everything

The studio + 1 br worked really well for us 6 adults, but when we first came in, it was into the studio and the bell hop looked at us really strangely. I'm sure he was trying to figure out how we thought we would all fit.

Actually the ME worked out better than last time when we did have the packet, so it was all good. Thanks again for all your help!!

 

[MainStMandy]

YAY! Another PS TR to read Can't wait to read more (and see pics, lol)

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

Before we begin - Thank you to my sister's DBF for supplying pictures.

So we woke up around 7:30, and got ready and made breakfast in the kitchen. We were all so glad that we decided to forgo our ADRs at GFC and sleep in. I know the breakfast would have been more delicious, but the sleep was so worth it!

I wanted to have breakfast on the balcony, to enjoy the view....

but even by 7:30, it was so muggy and hot outside, that I opted for the air conditioning!

So we headed out, and grabbed the bus to the MK, and once there, my mom decided she wanted to take the boat to the GF. We watched about 4 monorails go by while waiting for the boat, but we waited for the boat...

The boat finally came, and we were on our way to the GF (Franck's and the WP were closed for referb while we were there.)

At this point, I was getting worried, because we were ALL there. And I my family, but we can be... um let's say... weird, intense, crazy - pick one. Plus I was pretty sure my mom and I would have at least one of our patented "moments." So, I was seriously worried that our WP would be like "you people should be committed and run away screaming" But I needen't have worried. We were on our best (okay.. pretty good) behavior, and we totally hit it off with Maxine.

We got to the GF, and found our room:

So we started at the begining... The Rehearsal and Welcome Dinner.
We're going to have the rehearsal early in the afternoon, and then have 6:00 Big River Brewing Works. We were informed that we would have to make our own arrangements with them because they are not Disney owned. So, I will get to that part later in the day.


here my mom and I are discussing something really important

Originally, I wanted to rent a friendship boat to take our guests from the boardwalk to Epcot. Because I know our guests, and it's like herding squirrels... but I was convinced that that wasn't necessary, so I will be chief squirrel herder and and get my guests from BRBW to the International gateway, where we will be escorted to the French Arm and have a custom assortment of mini French pastries.

It was about this time that my dad became really excited about all the planning, and we had to restrain him.

So we moved onto the wedding day, and started talking about transportation. We decided that we'd have a limo to shuttle the guests, and the Model A for the wedding party. We're getting ready at the Contemporary, getting taken to the Poly, where we'll meet Maxine and have photos taken.

Then we started discussing the ceremony details....

It was about this time, that Chris got out of control with excitement, and started jumping on the tables.

Now it was time to have cake, but because of the outbursts of excitement by Chris and my dad (and the fact that they forgot to make the "regular" cake for us to test - they just made my special requests) we moved onto more exciting things, like colors and food choices.

We basically went over all the stuff on the worksheet, and the nitty gritty of how to get it done.

My mom was really fascinated about the details.

Then, when we couldn't hold consciousness much longer, the blessed cake...

In addition to the "regulars" (chocolate, yellow, marble, and almond) we requested lemon and red velvet, as well as blackberry mousse and cream cheese mousse.

We discussed a 2 teir Mad hatter cake, with geometric decorations, and We tasted every imaginable combination, and settled on Red Velvet and Cream Cheese (I thought I would choose buttercream, but I greatly disliked the buttercream) for the bigger layer, and lemon cake with blackberry mousse for the smaller layer.

Dang...this post is really long, and we haven't even gotten to floral yet....

 

[pezaddict231]

can't wait to hear more about the PS. I loved your commentary on your DD and DF jumping up and down with excitement! Lol. Mmmm, the cake looks good, I love red velvet!

 

[ghoulish delight]

Yay!! Can't wait to read more! BTW, how tasty was the red velvet?! My tasting is still 6 months away, but we've tentatively chosen red velvet with cream cheese mousse for our second tier. Hopefully the DL bakers bake similarly too! Lol.

 

[tiggersam00]

love the update, and I am not sure how you managed to contain your dad and DF... they looked so overwhelmed with excitment lol! Love it! I am very excited to read this since I leave for mine in 3 days! So the WP was closed when you went? Thats a bummer, I wanted to take Dave in to see it... oh well!

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

YAY! Another PS TR to read Can't wait to read more (and see pics, lol)

Thanks for reading. I'm having to do a lot of editing of the pictures, because he took tons of my DSis, and not so many of the rest of us... it's kind of funny seeing the trip from someone else's eyes

can't wait to hear more about the PS. I loved your commentary on your DD and DF jumping up and down with excitement! Lol. Mmmm, the cake looks good, I love red velvet!

Really, they were out of control, it was kind of embarasing. At least neither of them were audibally snoring

Red Velvet is my favorite too!

Yay!! Can't wait to read more! BTW, how tasty was the red velvet?! My tasting is still 6 months away, but we've tentatively chosen red velvet with cream cheese mousse for our second tier. Hopefully the DL bakers bake similarly too! Lol.

Thanks! I'm sort of a red velvet snob. It's my mostest favoritest ever. On a scale of 1 - 10 I'd give it about a 6. It wasn't dry as I've read, and it definately had flavor. But it had more of a tangy flavor than I'm used to. It went much better with the cream cheese rather than butter cream, which I usually prefer. It was okay, I've had better and I've had worse.

I would think that DL and WDW would use the same recepie, but who knows... they're not always the most logical

love the update, and I am not sure how you managed to contain your dad and DF... they looked so overwhelmed with excitment lol! Love it! I am very excited to read this since I leave for mine in 3 days! So the WP was closed when you went? Thats a bummer, I wanted to take Dave in to see it... oh well!

It was tough to contain their excitement, but somehow we made it through.
YAY for your PS!! Yes, the WP was closed, but we visited in March, so I wasn't too concerned.... I know Tammy left for her SV this week, and she was told it would be open, so you might be in luck...

 

[MainStMandy]

Great update!!

 

[DISNEY*lover]

Great update and your enthusiasm(sp?) kills me! Looking forward to the next update of a fellow CG bride!

 

[Carye]

your TRs always make me laugh...I just love the warped sense of humor you put into your storytelling...lol

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

Great update!!

Great update and your enthusiasm(sp?) kills me! Looking forward to the next update of a fellow CG bride!

your TRs always make me laugh...I just love the warped sense of humor you put into your storytelling...lol

Thanks for reading.... trust me the excitement gets out of control in the next segment.