October Bride - Planning Journal

[October Bride]

Hi Everyone,

Not to sure how all of this works but i thought i would try putting a planning journal together.

Gav and I,
We met about 15 years ago (when i would of been about 13-14) as Gav was seeing a friend of mine. I was not a fan of his to be honest
A couple of years later we met up again through a different group of friends. As time went on we got to know each other and i realised i had things very wrong and he was actually a lovely sweet guy. We celebrated our 13th year together last sunday so all in all a happy ending!!!

We have lived together for over 11 years now and have always known we would be married but have never really worried about getting things sorted until my 30th birthday started hurtling towards me at a great pace. I have always thought i would like us to be married by the time i was 30 (some silly milestone i set when i was about 21 and thought 30 was a lifetime away!!) so we are getting married on 1st October 2008, my 30th birthday is 5th October 2008.

Gav and i have visited Disney at least 8 or 9 times together and i visited yearly with my parents when i was a child so the place holds a lot of wonderful memories for us both.

We started planning our wedding last summer. Since i was a child i have said that i would one day get married at the WP and i have again stuck to my guns.
Gav and I designed my engagement ring last year so that it was something special to us. It is a beautiful Marquie cut diamond with a full diamond band.

Our wedding plans are:
We are coming over to Florida on 25th Sept 2008 with 40 odd of our friends and family. We are all staying at the Port Orleans French Quarter.
We are having a Hen and Stag do on Sat 27th Sept. Us ladies will be having a night out at Epcot and Downtown Disney. The boys are still undecided!!

We will all be going for dinner the night before the wedding fingers crossed to the living seas (can not book till next month).
The wedding will be at 5pm on 1st October 2008 at the WP. Then onto the whitehall room for our reception. We are also holding a party next door for the children with Kids Nites Out.

Our photographer is Gary Fox. We chose him as we really liked the photos on his website.

My mother is a florist so she is doing all of my flowers for me which is saving me loads of money (thank god!). Its also nice as it seems more personal

I have my dress all sorted and am having my fitting in two weeks which i am looking forward to.
Most important we are flying out to Orlando on 8th March for our Planning Session which we are really excited about.

I think that is it for now.....hope this is ok
Shian
xxx

 

[orangetiggs]

Nice to see another uk bride on here!!

we get married on sep 2nd

look forward to more details and pictures

 

[shezfrombermuda]

Yah, Another October bride! Your plans sound very good so far.

Could you tell me more about the children's party you are having? Will it be close to the White hall room and what kind of entertainment or activities will there be? I am not sure how many children I will have but I am considering something like this. Thanks for your help!

 

[Ticky Toria 78]

Congratulations!

 

[Lynn5700]

Welcome and Congrats!!!

It's great that your mom is a florist!!! Save's you a lot!! Your planning session is coming soon Yay!!! Have fun!!!

Oh my best friend's Bday is October 5th too!!

 

[October Bride]

Yah, Another October bride! Your plans sound very good so far.

Could you tell me more about the children's party you are having? Will it be close to the White hall room and what kind of entertainment or activities will there be? I am not sure how many children I will have but I am considering something like this. Thanks for your help!

Yes sure, The party will be held in a room next door to the whitehall room. The room is then secure as only adults with matching wrist bands to that of the children can come in the room.
There will be plenty of activities such as arts and crafts, games etc which are incuded in the price. My party is for 8 children and is $508 including tax etc. This cost would stand for up to 11 children.
On top of this you can add on extra's such as magicians, face painting, disco etc etc for about $250. The website is kidsniteout.com The company is the only one that disney deal with.

We feel its a great idea as children get very fed up during your wedding meal and speeches. You do still have to pay for their meals on top of the $508

 

[Chilly]

Congratulations!

My DBF promised me that we would get married by the time I was 30 as well (we've been together 7.5 years and living together for most of that) which is at the end of 2010. I decided I wanted a Christmas wedding at the end of last year so that meant it had to be 2009 for the wedding so I've been researching Disney weddings since then and at some point this year DBF is going to surprise me with a proposal.

Good luck with all your planning.

 

[October Bride]

Congratulations!

My DBF promised me that we would get married by the time I was 30 as well (we've been together 7.5 years and living together for most of that) which is at the end of 2010. I decided I wanted a Christmas wedding at the end of last year so that meant it had to be 2009 for the wedding so I've been researching Disney weddings since then and at some point this year DBF is going to surprise me with a proposal.

Good luck with all your planning.

Thank you.
I suppose you get all the questions every time you go to a wedding "when will your be?", "It must be you two next?"!!!

We are so pleased we are getting married and are really enjoying the experience. We could not tell you why it has taken us so long other than we just kept putting the saving off!!

We did look at a Cyprus wedding but are now over the moon that we have stuck to our guns. The disney wedding will just be magical but not just for us but for our guests as well.

I hope the ring appears soon for you
xxx

 

[Chilly]

Thank you.
I suppose you get all the questions every time you go to a wedding "when will your be?", "It must be you two next?"!!!

We are so pleased we are getting married and are really enjoying the experience. We could not tell you why it has taken us so long other than we just kept putting the saving off!!

We did look at a Cyprus wedding but are now over the moon that we have stuck to our guns. The disney wedding will just be magical but not just for us but for our guests as well.

I hope the ring appears soon for you
xxx

Yeah we do get asked a lot and I'd have been happy to get married sooner but DBF is your typical man so i've just waited patiently and it hasn't bothered me till now but that 7 year itch has got me motivated to get things settled.

We had planned a big church wedding with all the works but I suddenly went off the idea and thought it might end up being a nightmare and then we visited Sunset Pointe last year and I just knew that is where I wanted us to get married. DBF took a bit of persuading but he wasn't keen on a church wedding anyway so it has worked out ok. I've told my Mum and she is happy but I've not told my Dad yet or the future in-laws and I don't think they'll be pleased, my Dad especially. Ours will just be a small wedding with our parents and best friends but i'm very excited about it and really want to get planning properly but I want to wait for the proposal first.

 

[October Bride]

Yeah we do get asked a lot and I'd have been happy to get married sooner but DBF is your typical man so i've just waited patiently and it hasn't bothered me till now but that 7 year itch has got me motivated to get things settled.

We had planned a big church wedding with all the works but I suddenly went off the idea and thought it might end up being a nightmare and then we visited Sunset Pointe last year and I just knew that is where I wanted us to get married. DBF took a bit of persuading but he wasn't keen on a church wedding anyway so it has worked out ok. I've told my Mum and she is happy but I've not told my Dad yet or the future in-laws and I don't think they'll be pleased, my Dad especially. Ours will just be a small wedding with our parents and best friends but i'm very excited about it and really want to get planning properly but I want to wait for the proposal first.

To be honest with you we did not wait for the proposal. We actually started planning and had set the date with disney before we had got the ring!!
You may think we are mad but after 12 years together Gav had ran out of proposal ideas. Also i am a little picky so he did not want to get the ring on his own.
Don't get me wrong when we got home with the ring he did go down on one knee but we just had a giggle.
My parents, well both our families are over the moon that we are getting married in Disney. I was not keen to get married here in Uk as the costs are so high. For the price of a nice wedding here we are having what we want at Disney, a two week holiday plus a massive and slightly extravagent party when we get back and still some change left over (i hope )

We did keep our plans from Gav's parents for a couple of months as Gav's brother got married last July and i did not want to rain on anyones parade or steal anyones thunder so we waited to tell everyone till after the wedding...It nearly killed me

 

[Chilly]

Well I've picked out my ring already, DBF asked me to last month, but he wants to do a proper proposal.

We've set the date as 30th Dec 2009 so still got ages yet till we can book with Disney.

 

[mla1977]

Hi ladies! I too wanted to get married before I turned 30, but that didn't happen. I've been with DBF since I was 25 and I just turned 31 last month. Since I was 25, there has been only one remaining cousin who was older than me, but not married. Well, that is changing now! He's getting married next month! I was at the shower on Sunday and the questions just wouldn't end!!! "when are you getting married?" "you've been together for how long?" "why hasn't he proposed yet?" "do you have a date in mind so I can reserve my room now?" Ugh! That was only from the other people at my table (aunts and cousins).

Well, mom knows something's up though. She's cool with the idea of a Disney wedding too. She seems to be leaning more towards an Escape, but I just can't narrow it down to 18 people. I have considered having something at Hershey too though. But I'm still waiting on a ring!

 

[Chilly]

But I'm still waiting on a ring!

We can be the "sometime soon" Disney Brides!

 

[shezfrombermuda]

Yes sure, The party will be held in a room next door to the whitehall room. The room is then secure as only adults with matching wrist bands to that of the children can come in the room.
There will be plenty of activities such as arts and crafts, games etc which are incuded in the price. My party is for 8 children and is $508 including tax etc. This cost would stand for up to 11 children.
On top of this you can add on extra's such as magicians, face painting, disco etc etc for about $250. The website is kidsniteout.com The company is the only one that disney deal with.

We feel its a great idea as children get very fed up during your wedding meal and speeches. You do still have to pay for their meals on top of the $508

I looked at the website and it looks really good. Thanks!

 

[lov2b@disney]

congratulations Looking forward to hearing all your plans!

Wishing I had a florist in the family right now-got my floral beo yesterday

 

[October Bride]

Hi Everyone

Well we are back from our planning session so i thought i had better update my PJ.


Ok the plans are all below:


Where to start.....the bridal
Shian - Bride
Gav - Groom
Adrian - Best Man
Jamie Best Man
Lee - Usher (groomsman)
Kevin - Usher
Katie - MOH (sister)
Amy - BM
Holly - BM
Michelle - BM
Lewis - Ring Bearer
Daisy - FG
Louis - FG
Chelsea - FG
Ellie - FG
Wow what a list!!!

So the plan is 5pm wedding at the wedding pavillion with reception at the whitehall room and patio till midnight.
Gary fox is doing our Photo's we met him last week and he is lovely. He will be with us from 3pm till the end of the reception.
STVS are doing a 2hr video package for us. We only want the ceremony to be recorded.
The lovely Diane Bowen is our wedding planner and Rose will be our florist.

 

[October Bride]

The planning Session:
We arrived on sat 8th March into Sanford airport. Our car was late to collect us which i was not happy about after a ten hour flight. I have since spoken to the company and they have given us $100 back towards our cars from the airport in September.

In september there will be 30 of us coming into Sanford on the same flight. The travel company here in the Uk wanted £34 ($65) each for a tranfer (regardless if child or adult) on a bus dropping off at other hotels........i was not up for that so i did some investigating and i have booked us a return trip in two hummer limo's (with luggage van) for $56 per adult and $22 per child....what a saving and what a difference in style!!!! Our guests are super excited about being picked up in Hummer Limo's.

Any way on with the planning session.
Once arriving at our hotel (best western on hotel blvd at DTD) we walked down to DTD and had some dinner at Planet Hollywood. The food was not great but we were also tired!!

On the Sunday we set off on a mission. We were going to spend the day looking at the disney hotels. First plan was to go to Port Orleans French quater as that is where we are all staying for the wedding. We were over the moon with the place. It was so quiet and relaxing and such a pretty setting. After a couple of beers at the pool bar we walked to the riverside and had a look round the got the boat to DTD. After some lunch we made our way to the GF so we knew where we were going the next day for out meeting with Kristi Davis and how long it would take us to get there. We had a good look round but the WP was closed. We did though have a sneeky look at the whitehall room and were very pleased with it.

Monday we met up with Kristi in the morning. She really is such a lovely sweet person. She let us know that were being given free annual disney passes. We were really touched by this as we did not realise that we would get these free for booking a disney wedding. Its s a bit of a pain as we already have our tickets for september but Kristi said not to worry that we could activate them anytime so will save them maybe for our 1st anniversary.

Some pictures we took:

me starting to feel a little worried

 

[October Bride]

Tuesday 11th March

We had our formal planning session with Diane. My parents had flown in the night before so they came with us.

Diane is so lovely. Just what i wanted, someone like me who is honest and to the point. I am now totally chilled about things.

Anyhow things went really well we chose our cake, well DF did he chose the round monogram of love cake without the flowers, since we have come home it has now been changed to the all white sparkling wishes cake as he decided he was not happy with his choice (i have chosen cake for party at home).
The botton tier is chocolate sponge with milk choc filling, the second is lemon sponge with lemon filling and the third is plain sponge with baileys filling (yum yum)
We will be using our own cake topper :

Later in the moring Rose from Floral came to see us. She was really nice, helpful and patient. I must admit i am very laid back about these things and just knew i wanted white lines and chair covers with a green bow, simple right???
Oh no DF and my dad could not decide what shade of green to have and in what fabric...i found it all so funny and they are both men's men if you know what i mean and here they are discussing at great length BOWS!!
We also chose white and green petals in cones for when we leave the GF. To be honest this is all we are having from rose oh except for her covering the mirror in the Whitehall room with fabric for us as we are not big fans

While in with Diane we let her know that we no longer wanted cinderella carraige but the landau coach. She said that was no problem. We were also amazed that we could say what horse we wanted (we are a horsey family). Gav wanted a grey (white) horse and i decided on a quater horse rather than a shire horse. I thought this attention to details was fab

Other things were confirmed such as how the ipod speakers work, that we could have a dancefloor free of charge, that we would extend the reception by one hr ($400) and that we would have a pre paid bar (free beer,wine and soft drinks) at just $39.50 per guest.....everything was great. DF also asked if they could provide us with some kind of Disco/party lights as other options are not recommended for whitehall room. Diane got straight back to us that afternoon and let us know that it would be cheeper to buy some ourselves which was very kind and honest of her so that is what we are going to do!

During the session we discussed my flowers etc. My mum is doing everything for me which i am so pleased about
We are having white organza (is that how you spell it?) bows with swarovski crystals sprinkled on them on every other pew in WP, Diane says it is fine for friends to arrive a little early to put them in place for us as well as a floral arragement on the table at the top of the altar.

We also need to decorate the whitehall roon. Again Diane says its no problem for us to do this earlier in the afternoon.

I don't have pictures of flowers yet but will post once mum has some ready.
For now though here are a few pictures for you

my ring pillow, the heart is made of pearls with a layer of diamonte each side of it. There are our initials on the top then the wedding date at the bottom.

This is the back view

This is our place cards. A mini photoframe with crytal in three corners and then a gold butterfly in the other corner.

This is the T lights i have made. Just clear glass with crystals stuck on. There are 10 per table (there will be big candle in flowers in middle of table)

Oh one other thing to mention we have decided not to have the kids party now. After seeing the patio we have decided that it is totally child friendly so we are having one big table on the patio (in the shade) with lots of arts and crafts, toys etc to keep the kids happy.

 

[orangetiggs]

love all you ideas, glad your planning session was good, mine seems so long ago now!

 

[October Bride]

Tuesday 11th 2.30pm FOOD TASTING

We met Diane later in the afternoon for food tasting. A word of warining for anyone who has not yet done their food tasting. DO NOT EAT BEFORE.

We had a light snack before but did not need to. We thought disney would provide one plate of everything for us to share but no we had a four course meal all to ourselves

The food was amazing. We started with the two starters we had chosen, shrimp salad and Mushroon Filled pasta. The shrimp salad was nice but as i don't really eat fish it was a no for me. I also don't eat mushroms but the pasta was to die for. Its in a chicken broth and oh my it is so tasty so we have gone for that.

Next was the Caesar salad. We were not sure if we wanted a salad (not really done in the UK) but after tasting it oh my word its in

Next was the main couse. We chose one of the cheaper chicken options thyme chicken i thing with cream sauce (bottom left hand corner of picture) and seared beef fillet with chicken breast and Blackberry Dem on Forest mushroon Risotto with veg.

The meal was just WOW. We decided to not have the cheaper chicken, it was nice but not as nice as the other meal.

Next came dessert

well what can i say we were all blown away. Everything on the plate is edible and tasted soooooo good.

All in all the food tasting was a great idea, even my dad who runs kitchens was impressed and i don't think i have every heard him say that before