Our 2012 Vow Renewal/Family Reunion

[connorlevismom]

Hi all! I know I started one of these a long time ago, but I am starting a new one because so much has changed and it is better to just start fresh.

We are having our vow renewal/family reunion in Oct. 2012 and I can't wait. We have about 35 people that will be coming from Minnesota and the parties will be spread over 4 days, Wednesday-Saturday.

We have rented 4 homes in Windsor Hills for everyone to stay in and I have to say, it was way harder than I thought it would be. There are SO many homes in WH, but getting 4 that are close together and had owners that actually would respond to requests for rates took about 6 weeks. I am happy with the end result and everyone seems very happy with the homes they are getting.

So we have been talking with Stacey at Franks for about a year now and she had done two site visits with us to help us decide what we really wanted to do. She has been amazing! We are not 100% positive on everything just yet, but here is what our plans are.

Wed. night - we have planning on having our welcome party and AK, after park close. We will be arranging for everyone to take the last safari tour of the day and hopefully get in an animal experience before we sit down for dinner. Dinner will be at Tamu Tamu courtyard and we are planning on having a DJ so that we can dance into the night.

Thursday - we are purchasing tickets for everyone to attend Mickey's Not So Scarey Halloween party. Halloween is huge in my family so we thought this would be a fun thing for everyone to do. I can't wait to see the kids all dressed up!

Friday - we don't have anything planned on this day, we will proabably all just hang out at the homes and swim.

Saturday(the ceremony) - our vow renewal is at 9am (I think?) at Epcot, in Canada. We thought it was beautiful when we went on our site visit an it seemed just perfect for the ceremony. I am not really sure what we are doing yet for the ceremony. I would love to try and incorporate the whole family into it somehow, but I do know that it will be fairly short as I hate to stand up in front of people. The ceremony is at the bottom of my priorty list.

Saturday(the brunch) - We are renting out a friendship boat to get us from boardwalk to Epcot and back after the ceremony. We are then going to have a brunch at the attic. We plan on having characters come to the brunch for the kids (and adults) so they can get some pictures. We are not sure which ones yet. It started with just Mickey and Minnie, then we wanted to add Goofy because he is my favorite, then we wanted Donald because we felt like we could not leave him out, but you can't have Donald and not Daisy, so then why not just add pluto too?! My daughter is huge into Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so we will probably have most of the characters from that. But then there will be several little girls who love princesses.....it is just never ending! So we will see what we end up with.

Saturday night - we are having dinner and a dessert party at Italy Isloa West to finish out the trip. We are flirting with the idea of renting out the space above the American Adventure and setting up a kids party in there, so that the parents can enjoy dinner and the fireworks, but we are not sure about that. Part of me wants to do it and part of me feel like it would be mean to leave the kids out of the fireworks. We are also going to arrange for everyone to ride Soarin and Test Track, if they want to.

Anyway - that is what we have planned in a nutshell. I know it will change probably a million times in the next year, but I would love to get any input from people who have had events at these places.

My goal for this whole thing is to make sure that everyone is having fun and has a fantastic experience and anything that I can do to make it better for everyone, I would love to hear ideas!

Kristine

 

[connorlevismom]

I suppose I should introduce myself!

I am Kristine and my DH is Tim. We are both 37 and we have two wonderful kids. A 7 year old boy, and a 2 year old little girl.

We met at work, where I was the receptionist and he was an engineer starting his first day at my company. About a month later, we had our company picnic and it was the first time that we really talked. That Monday I got these flowers delievered to me at work and all the card had was a smiley face on it. I had no idea who they could be from, but I eventually found out they were from him when he called me that night. I had a boyfriend at the time but I could not get him out of my mind. About 3 weeks later, I broke up with my boyfriend and asked Tim to a movie, 2 months later we were looking at wedding rings and the rest is history! We were engaged for 1 1/2 years before we actually got married and will be celebrating 10 years next week. He truly is my soulmate and we both knew right away that we would get married.

So why a WDW vow renewal? Well, our first trip we took after dating for just a couple of months was a week to WDW. He had never been there and I had gone several times and it was a magical place for me. He was hooked after that and after we got married we bought DVC and have been going every year for at least a week. It only seems fitting to have a celebration in a place that is so close to our hearts......

 

[virtuous girl]

Welcome Did u start shopping 4 ur dress yet?? I hear october is a busy month... did u book a date yet?? I dont want u 2 miss out on the date u want...

 

[connorlevismom]

Welcome Did u start shopping 4 ur dress yet?? I hear october is a busy month... did u book a date yet?? I dont want u 2 miss out on the date u want...

I won't be wearing a wedding dress, probably just a sundress. So I have not started shopping for that yet.

We do have our date booked and our locations as well. We should be getting our contract early next week.