Well, we've been back almost a week now. The wedding was magical. And the honeymoon at Disney was great. I finally decided to post a little something here, because I know me. I never managed to post a long PJ like a lot of people here, and the big trip report probably isn't happening either, though there were a lot of good things to tell about during the trip. But I wanted to post about at least one really cool thing that happened during the wedding, so I figured I would do that now. The best chance anyone has of reading a sort-of trip report is eventually, I am planning on trying to blog the whole trip on my website, and once I do that, I will post the website URL on here, and everyone can just go there to read it.
Also, none of the professional pictures are back yet. I wish they were.... because it goes with what I wanted to tell you all about.
So, it rained most of the week of our wedding. Our wedding day - rain, on and off. But that's ok. Misty (yes, we went with Misty for photography) said that overcast is actually better for pictures, that when it's sunny, it can actually interfere with getting good shots a lot of times. And the rain was mostly cooperative, and even ended up helping.
We started the day with the MKPS, and the rain held off all through that. The ground was a little damp here and there, but no big puddles or anything to get my dress all messed up for the ceremony later, so no problem.
We were having a 10:00 a.m. ceremony at the wedding pavillion. After having the MKPS the same day, there was no way we were waiting any later than the first possible slot for our ceremony!
We had decided to try and do as much of the family photos as possible before the ceremony, and so we headed to the pavillion almost immediately after the MKPS. The weather still cooperated, and so did both families for the most part. Mine was only a little late, but nothing that held us up (and since it was only for the pictures and not for the ceremony, that was good. Knowing how my family is perennially late, another good plan on my part! 
)
During the ceremony, it poured! But, since we were all inside, no problem. It didn't start until after the ceremony started. And it let up just before the ceremony ended. We went back outside for a few more pictures, and everything was kind of wet, but it wasn't really a problem or anything. Then we all headed to the Grand Floridian to go the the Commander's Terrace for the cake and champagne reception.
That's where the rain really decided to help out, though this is going to sound a little strange at first. Just after almost all the guests and wedding party (with the exception of DH and I, the minister and his wife, and two guests - oh, and of course, Misty and her husband!) had headed over and were under cover, it started to sprinkle. DH and I were taking the limo over, and Misty and her husband were taking their van to move equipment. The wedding coordinator gave the rest a ride in a covered golf cart. Just as we got over there, it started to come down a little more, and that's when we found out (because I didn't know this before) that the Commander's Terrace is an outside venue, and because of that, we had been moved.
Well, I've never seen the Commander's Terrace before anyway, so I didn't really know what we weren't getting, so when they told us we were being moved, it didn't matter to me. If they hadn't told us we were being moved, I probably wouldn't have known the difference! The rest of the guests would have, because they had been directed to one location, then turned and marched to a new one, but we were taken directly to our final destination.
And that turned out to be... a sectioned off room of Citricos. Now I have never been to Citricos when it is opened before either. We went to a lot of different restaurants while we were there, but we didn't make it to Citricos. So I can't tell you for sure exactly where we were. But if I had to guess, I believe what they had done is just section off the very front of the restaurant, because there was a hexagonal stand in the middle of the room we were in that I would guess is the reservation/host desk for the restaurant. At any rate, there were windows all around 2 sides of the room, and the view was beautiful. The tables and chairs were also beautiful, and everything was laid out very nicely, especially considering they had to move it all very quickly. And the setting was perfect for having a roaming violinist playing - it all just fit.
We did our cake cutting (though we didn't actually serve the cake, as we were having a lunch reception shortly after, and were serving the cake after the lunch), and fed each other cake. No, we didn't smash it either. We then did our first dance to "Unchained Melody".
We had provided music for both the father/daughter and mother/son dance, and we did those next. I danced with my dad to "Peg 'O My Heart", which is an old Irish love song. I had trouble figuring out a song to do. The first one that came to mind was "Daddy's Little Girl", because when my mom was pregnant with me, my aunt was sure I was going to be a girl, and bought my dad a copy of that song on a record. And when I was little, he used to play it and sing it to me a lot. But with "Peg 'O My Heart"... well, dad's part Irish, and the Irish part of the family isn't that far back. He really likes Irish music, and he loves that song. He used to play it for us on the harmonica when I was young, and I ended up learning it on the piano for him, and would play it for him sometimes. While we were dancing, I told him I had trouble deciding what song to do for our dance, but decided it had to be "Peg", because I knew he loved it, and because I had learned to play it for him on the piano, and he said yeah, and I played it on the harmonica for you. Then he said, well, you could have done that one that your aunt bought that record of for me....
I told him I'd thought about that one too, but I knew how much he loved this one.
My sister said I made our mom cry.
DF ended up dancing with his mom to "I Hope You Dance". Unfortunately, no story there. Just that his mom loves country music, and we wanted to find a song that would be appropriate (even if the words weren't going to be sung while they were dancing) that she would know. He really liked that one, and I assured him that since she listens to country, even though she prefers the older stuff, she would know that song.
And then came what I really came on here to tell you all about. See, we didn't opt for having any of the characters come to our reception. It just wasn't in our budget. It seemed way too expensive for way too short a time, especially since we really only had one young child in the whole group, and while pictures in our wedding clothes with the characters would be kind of neat, it wasn't worth the extra money to us.
But Surprise!
I'm guessing where we were is also used during that time of day as a way for the characters from whatever character dining experience is going on (1900 Park Faire?) to exit and go back stage. Because the next thing you know, Sleeping Beauty came strolling through. At first, she and the person with her seemed just as surprised to find us there as we were to see her. But they stopped and congratulated us, asked if we wanted pictures and the whole bit. She stayed for about 10 minutes or so, I would say. 
So, you won't find ME complaining about rain on my wedding day! I'd say we DEFINITELY got a bit of Disney magic there. Especially since I know they really didn't have to stop - I'm sure she was just getting done with her shift in costume after making the rounds at a character meal. So stopping at our reception was especially nice of her and the staff helping her.
Whew! Well, there's a lot more I could tell about the day, but that was the biggest news. I really should get going for now. I'll try later to add a little bit about trekking round the world for photos - all this before we've had ANYTHING to eat for the day (well, with the exception of about 3 bites of cake apiece for DF and myself.) We had planned in food....but our MKPS took longer than it was supposed to, and by the time we got back to our room at Shades of Green, we only had time to get the last of our stuff together (fortunately, DH had already packed up and gotten his stuff out, we had only taken in what we needed for 2 nights, and my mom, sis, and niece had gathered and packed almost everything for me while we were at the MKPS), get the bellman to take it out to the truck (which my sis was moving for us), grab the stuff going to the wedding pavillion, and go! We took the food to the wedding pavillion with us, ever hopeful, but alas, we STILL never got a chance to get a bite of it.
At least it did help feed my mom, sis, and niece while we were at the MKPS though.
Also, none of the professional pictures are back yet. I wish they were.... because it goes with what I wanted to tell you all about.
So, it rained most of the week of our wedding. Our wedding day - rain, on and off. But that's ok. Misty (yes, we went with Misty for photography) said that overcast is actually better for pictures, that when it's sunny, it can actually interfere with getting good shots a lot of times. And the rain was mostly cooperative, and even ended up helping.
We started the day with the MKPS, and the rain held off all through that. The ground was a little damp here and there, but no big puddles or anything to get my dress all messed up for the ceremony later, so no problem.
We were having a 10:00 a.m. ceremony at the wedding pavillion. After having the MKPS the same day, there was no way we were waiting any later than the first possible slot for our ceremony!
We had decided to try and do as much of the family photos as possible before the ceremony, and so we headed to the pavillion almost immediately after the MKPS. The weather still cooperated, and so did both families for the most part. Mine was only a little late, but nothing that held us up (and since it was only for the pictures and not for the ceremony, that was good. Knowing how my family is perennially late, another good plan on my part! )During the ceremony, it poured! But, since we were all inside, no problem. It didn't start until after the ceremony started. And it let up just before the ceremony ended. We went back outside for a few more pictures, and everything was kind of wet, but it wasn't really a problem or anything. Then we all headed to the Grand Floridian to go the the Commander's Terrace for the cake and champagne reception.
That's where the rain really decided to help out, though this is going to sound a little strange at first. Just after almost all the guests and wedding party (with the exception of DH and I, the minister and his wife, and two guests - oh, and of course, Misty and her husband!) had headed over and were under cover, it started to sprinkle. DH and I were taking the limo over, and Misty and her husband were taking their van to move equipment. The wedding coordinator gave the rest a ride in a covered golf cart. Just as we got over there, it started to come down a little more, and that's when we found out (because I didn't know this before) that the Commander's Terrace is an outside venue, and because of that, we had been moved.
Well, I've never seen the Commander's Terrace before anyway, so I didn't really know what we weren't getting, so when they told us we were being moved, it didn't matter to me. If they hadn't told us we were being moved, I probably wouldn't have known the difference! The rest of the guests would have, because they had been directed to one location, then turned and marched to a new one, but we were taken directly to our final destination.
And that turned out to be... a sectioned off room of Citricos. Now I have never been to Citricos when it is opened before either. We went to a lot of different restaurants while we were there, but we didn't make it to Citricos. So I can't tell you for sure exactly where we were. But if I had to guess, I believe what they had done is just section off the very front of the restaurant, because there was a hexagonal stand in the middle of the room we were in that I would guess is the reservation/host desk for the restaurant. At any rate, there were windows all around 2 sides of the room, and the view was beautiful. The tables and chairs were also beautiful, and everything was laid out very nicely, especially considering they had to move it all very quickly. And the setting was perfect for having a roaming violinist playing - it all just fit.
We did our cake cutting (though we didn't actually serve the cake, as we were having a lunch reception shortly after, and were serving the cake after the lunch), and fed each other cake. No, we didn't smash it either. We then did our first dance to "Unchained Melody".
We had provided music for both the father/daughter and mother/son dance, and we did those next. I danced with my dad to "Peg 'O My Heart", which is an old Irish love song. I had trouble figuring out a song to do. The first one that came to mind was "Daddy's Little Girl", because when my mom was pregnant with me, my aunt was sure I was going to be a girl, and bought my dad a copy of that song on a record. And when I was little, he used to play it and sing it to me a lot. But with "Peg 'O My Heart"... well, dad's part Irish, and the Irish part of the family isn't that far back. He really likes Irish music, and he loves that song. He used to play it for us on the harmonica when I was young, and I ended up learning it on the piano for him, and would play it for him sometimes. While we were dancing, I told him I had trouble deciding what song to do for our dance, but decided it had to be "Peg", because I knew he loved it, and because I had learned to play it for him on the piano, and he said yeah, and I played it on the harmonica for you. Then he said, well, you could have done that one that your aunt bought that record of for me....
I told him I'd thought about that one too, but I knew how much he loved this one.My sister said I made our mom cry.
DF ended up dancing with his mom to "I Hope You Dance". Unfortunately, no story there. Just that his mom loves country music, and we wanted to find a song that would be appropriate (even if the words weren't going to be sung while they were dancing) that she would know. He really liked that one, and I assured him that since she listens to country, even though she prefers the older stuff, she would know that song.
And then came what I really came on here to tell you all about. See, we didn't opt for having any of the characters come to our reception. It just wasn't in our budget. It seemed way too expensive for way too short a time, especially since we really only had one young child in the whole group, and while pictures in our wedding clothes with the characters would be kind of neat, it wasn't worth the extra money to us.
But Surprise!
I'm guessing where we were is also used during that time of day as a way for the characters from whatever character dining experience is going on (1900 Park Faire?) to exit and go back stage. Because the next thing you know, Sleeping Beauty came strolling through. At first, she and the person with her seemed just as surprised to find us there as we were to see her. But they stopped and congratulated us, asked if we wanted pictures and the whole bit. She stayed for about 10 minutes or so, I would say. So, you won't find ME complaining about rain on my wedding day! I'd say we DEFINITELY got a bit of Disney magic there. Especially since I know they really didn't have to stop - I'm sure she was just getting done with her shift in costume after making the rounds at a character meal. So stopping at our reception was especially nice of her and the staff helping her.
Whew! Well, there's a lot more I could tell about the day, but that was the biggest news. I really should get going for now. I'll try later to add a little bit about trekking round the world for photos - all this before we've had ANYTHING to eat for the day (well, with the exception of about 3 bites of cake apiece for DF and myself.) We had planned in food....but our MKPS took longer than it was supposed to, and by the time we got back to our room at Shades of Green, we only had time to get the last of our stuff together (fortunately, DH had already packed up and gotten his stuff out, we had only taken in what we needed for 2 nights, and my mom, sis, and niece had gathered and packed almost everything for me while we were at the MKPS), get the bellman to take it out to the truck (which my sis was moving for us), grab the stuff going to the wedding pavillion, and go! We took the food to the wedding pavillion with us, ever hopeful, but alas, we STILL never got a chance to get a bite of it.
At least it did help feed my mom, sis, and niece while we were at the MKPS though.
He was still kind of confrontational about it, though, and kept wanting to know why we didn't feel the Disney package worked for us. We were honest with him - we told him that originally we had every intention of going with Disney, but that they weren't flexible enough with us about doing what we wanted. That the main thing we were interested in was getting everything digitally so we had the flexibility to do whatever we wanted with whatever pictures we wanted, and because I do web page stuff, and that we felt the price for the cd was too high on top of everything else, and that we had no interest in the album and prints that came with our package, and that photography wasn't willing to swap things around.
