Our Magical Fairy Tale Wedding Trip! (Finally!)

[Nee Nee and Biddy]

Cast of Characters:

Me: 26, Bride-to-Be, a Disney Fanatic!
Billy: 26, First time to WDW, Real life Prince Charming!

This is us two days before we left!

Some Background:
We got engaged January 24, 2004 and instantly decided that we would get married January 1, 2005. (A good way to start the year, right?) We could not decide how to get married though. Should we have a big wedding in my home town? Should we run away to Vegas? We realized that we wanted a small wedding, but couldn't decide where to do it. My sister jokingly suggested Disney World one day, and I actually looked into it. One call to Fairy Tale Weddings, and I was sold! Would Billy be just as excited? Well, since he will do anything to make me happy, he thought it was a great idea. I spent the rest of the year trying to plan the perfect WDW vacation. So basically I spent the rest of the year on these boards! We decided on arriving at WDW 12-30-04 and staying through 01-06-05 at POFQ. Our wedding was planned for 01-01-05 at the Wilderness Lodge. We were going to have an intimate wedding with 10 guests. I had been to WDW two times before, once when I was six and once when I was 19. Both times we stayed off property and I was so excited to be staying at WDW. We decided to drive since we had so much stuff to bring (wedding dress, slip, stuff for gift bags). Since we left on 12-27-04, we were still at Billy's parents house for Christmas, so we left from Tulsa instead of from Missouri, where we live.

The Drive: 12-27-04
I, of course, woke up at 2:30 am ready to leave. Billy was not so keen on this idea, so I waited patiently for the alarm to go off at 5:00am. By 7:00, we were out the door and on our way to Disney World! We were staying the night in Marietta, GA, so this was a very long day of driving through Arkansas and Tennessee. I won't bore you with the details. We made it to our hotel fine and we were exhusted.

12-28-04:
Still driving. Since we were in Georgia and didn't have too far to go, we decided we would start the day at World of Coke in Atlanta. I am a total Coke addict and this was my mecca. We actually got to try Beverly before WDW, which was fun. After World of Coke, we hit the road. That night we were staying in Sanford, FL. We got there safely.

12-29-04:
We are in Florida and one day closer to WDW! This was our day to run errands, most importantly, getting our marriage license. We slept late, got ready and went to the courthouse. We got our license in no time at all and then we were ready to drive to Disney World to go shopping at Downtown Disney. I was so excited!

Stay tuned...Earl of Sandwich, checking into POFQ and the Animal Kingdom!

 

[pumba]

WEDDING BELLS .......I love it already.........thanks for including us by posting about it....

 

[Nee Nee and Biddy]

12-29-04 Continued...

As we made our way to Downtown Disney, I got more and more excited. I could not believe that we were actually there! As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, I called my sister and told her where we were. (She wasn't going to be able to come to the wedding since she was about 26 months pregnant!)
Billy was also getting excited, or maybe he was scared of how much my personality had changed just being at Disney World. I was hopping out of my seat. Suddenly, I had a great idea. "Why don't we eat at Earl of Sandwich?" I had read so many great things about it on the boards. Suddenly all of my carefully laid plans were thrown out the window. We headed to Earl of Sandwich. (Sorry if you have seen these pictures in my dining reviews)

See...I'm so excited my eyes won't even open! ha


Billy Ordered the Original and I had the best meatball sandwich of my life. (As you can see)

Billy was very happy with my dining choice.

After our huge meal, we went shopping. I was on cloud nine.

My other boyfriend and I

After all of this excitement, we headed back to Sanford for our last non-Disney night. At 7:00am the next morning, we were planning on checking into POFQ! Stay tuned!

 

[pumba]

we ALMOST ate there in December but could not get into the doors........I mean the line was a mile long........smelt great in there .......next trip in 77 days......tahnks for posting

 

[Nee Nee and Biddy]

12-30-04: Our First Disney Day!!!

We woke up at 5:00 (or should I say I woke up at 5:00). The plan was, get up at 5:00, leave by 6:00, drive to WDW, check into POFQ and be at the Animal Kingdom by 8:00 for opening. Well, to put it mildly, this did not happen. First of all, loading the car with all of our stuff took longer than expected and we didn't leave until 6:30. Secondly, driving from Sanford took longer than I thought it would. We didn't get to POFQ until 7:30. Well, after freaking out in the car and having to be talked down by my wonderful fiance, I realized that we probably wouldn't be able to stick to my very strict schedule and that I needed to go with the flow. I calmed down, decided that the best thing to do would be to have some breakfast at POFQ food court, and get to the AK when we got to it. (Let it be said that I do not do well without eating).

We arrived at POFQ and I was so excited! Our check-in was very smooth, but of course at that time of the day our room wasn't ready. We got our park hoppers and were ready to roll. We went to the food court to buy our refillable mugs and have some breakfast. This is where I got my very first Mickey waffle.

Breakfast was great. We then hopped in our car to go to the AK. Just being on Disney property was enough for me, but we decided that we needed to go to a park! Walking into the Animal Kingdom I was overwhelmed and again, the carefully laid plans went out the window. Everything at the animal kingdom is so beautiful and lush. We passed by It's Tough to be a Bug, saw that the wait time was 5 minutes, and forgot all about the safari. So, our first Disney experience was ITTBAB!

I enjoyed this, but the part where you get stung in the back really hurt! I think that these are the kind of things that Disney does best.
On to the Safari. The wait time was 15 minutes, so we decided not to use fast pass. Our safari was great; our guide could have tried to be more convincing, but I know how I would feel if I said those lines day after day. We saw a lot of animals.
After the Safari we went on Dinosaur. Maybe I'm a chicken, but this is one of the scariest rides I have ever been on! Our picture was so funny that we had to buy it. I'm covering my ears and screaming and Billy is smiling. Go Figure.
At this point I'm feeling very proud of myself for getting the three big attractions out of the way (good planning, right?). Now we were able to spend the rest of the day exploring and seeing shows. We saw Flights of Wonder next. I loved this! I especially liked the huge owl with the orange eyes. By this time we were feeling peckish, so it was time for lunch. On to Tusker House where we both got the fried chicken sandwiches, fries and huge cokes. This was excellent.

Flattering shot, huh?

After this we did a few trails and went to Rafiki's Planet Watch. This was not great and I'm not sure if we would do it again. However, when we ordered an Ice cream sandwich there before getting back on the train, the CM gave us a free Mickey Bar and said "congratulations". I loved this!

Oink!

 

[Credit Man]

Great start! Looking forward to the rest.

 

[lisatx04]

Can't wait to hear more!!

 

[Nee Nee and Biddy]

12-30-04 Continued...

After our Ice Cream pig out, we saw Festival of the Lion King and went on some trails. We had to be back at POFQ by 4:30 for Billy's tuxedo fitting, so we decided to leave a little early to maybe get a quick nap in. We called POFQ, they told us we had room 1332 in building one. When we arrived I couldn't believe it. This was truly a great room. It was on the corner, so we had two windows with a wonderful view of the river. The king size bed was very soft and comfortable. I instantly took out my contacts and was ready for a nap. Billy called Carolyn Allen's (the tuxedo people) to let them know our room number and went outside to get more stuff out of the car. At this point it was 3:15 and I snuggled in for a nap. Someone knocked on the door! What? I jumped up, looked out the peephole, and saw a woman with a tuxedo. They were more than an hour early and I had no pants on. I put some pants on and opened the door. The main office had called Carolyn on her cell phone and told her where we were; she promptly came over. Billy got back, tried on his tux, (which was a perfect fit) and Carolyn left. At this point I'm starting to feel a little stress about the wedding because everyone was due to start showing up in a few hours. My mom, grandma and 2 year old nephew first that night, then everyone else the next day. We spent the rest of the night dropping off gift bags at hotels, helping my mom and crew check into Pop Century, and basically running around. The next day, New Year's Eve, was bound to be exciting!

 

[Nee Nee and Biddy]

12-31-04: New Year's Eve or more importantly..The Day Before the Wedding!!

We were woken up by Stitch and Mickey around 5:30. We needed to get a move on so we could get to Epcot before the crowds. (Was this even possible?)

This was the view from our room when we left to get some breakfast. Beautiful! After another wonderful POFQ breakfast, we hit the bus and were on our way. Every person coming to our wedding was going to be at Epcot that day, all wearing the matching t-shirts that I had specially made. However, Billy and I were on our own for a couple of hours waiting for everyone to arrive, and we were able to do Test Track and Mission Space without much of a wait. We loved Mission Space! As soon as we were done with these two attractions, I noticed that Epcot was starting to get very busy.
Around 10:30, we found my mom, grandma and nephew, Sam.

Here we were once they arrived...notice the shirts?

The character caravan was in full swing and it was great for Sam to see all of the characters. We followed the bus once it pulled out.

Don't leave, Mickey!

After this, we met up with Billy's Aunt Christine, Uncle Rob, and Cousin Jessica. All eight of us headed to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. Everyone enjoyed this except for Sam; no 3-D goggles for him because we thought it would be too intense for his little 2-year-old mind. At this point, Billy and I had to leave for our 12:00 PS at Rose and Crown. We wanted one last meal alone before the entire crew arrived. We had a great lunch and we met a new friend that was very interested in our food.

After lunch we met up with my mom again. My Grandma and her decided that they wanted the counter service Fish and Chips from England, so Billy and I sat with Sam while they stood in a very long line. Sam was polishing off a bag of cheetos.

We know that he wasn't switched at birth because everyone in my family has an unusual obsession with cheetos. Or cheez-its. Anything "cheeze" flavored. Let's just say he wasn't sharing.

At this point the World Showcase was packed. We decided that we would tour as best we could and not stress the small stuff, like for example, needing to use the bathroom. We stood in line in Germany for I kid you not 25 minutes for a bathroom. After about two hours of looking around and going to the KidCot stations, Mr. Sammie was pooped.

Grandma and Sam

 

[Nee Nee and Biddy]

12-31-04: Epcot continued...
Mom, Billy and I decided to leave the napping Sam and tired grandma on a bench and go do some touring, but we couldn't find the perfect bench. Finally, a little Disney magic hit us and I spotted a bench! I ran over and claimed it as my own.

Victory!

As we sat up camp on this bench, Billy's Aunt, Uncle and Cousin found us by some miracle and we all sat on said bench for a while. I was starting to think that sitting on benches was my favorite WDW attraction. Billy went with his family to Norway to ride the Malstrom, and I continued to sit with Grandma and Sam, as my mom was flying around to all countries and making purchases. Believe it or not, due to the crowds, I spent a good deal of time on this bench. It gave me a lot of time to think, stress and freak out. By the time I met up with Billy and the rest of his extended family (mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, brother, aunt, uncle and cousin) in France, I was about to have a melt down. What was the cause of all of my stress? Well, we were getting married at 11:00 am the next morning and we hadn't heard a word from our wedding coordinator. I had no idea what was going on, when I was being picked up, how everybody was getting from point A to point B, nothing. So, I spilled all of my woes to Billy, who promptly paged our wedding coordinator and got everything straightened out. My hero! Of course it was much more complicated than this but I don't want to bore you completely...after all, you just had to sit through a blow by blow description of my day on the bench.

On to Teppanyaki for our "rehersal dinner"! I made PS for 13, so we were sat at two different tables. This was a great experience and I would recommend it to anyone! Some pictures:

Our Wacky Chef

Me feeding Sam "Japanese Pickles"

Billy and I encouraging the Wacky Chef

After our wildly successful dinner, we said our goodbyes and headed back to POFQ. No late night for us; I needed my beauty sleep! Mom, Grandma and Sam also decided to leave early with us. It was around 9:30. It was very hard to get out of Epcot due to the wall-to-wall people. Finally we were able to get back to the bus stops. It was a very long, but fun day. Now we were ready to prepare for our wedding day!

 

[IloveDMB]

I can't wait to read about the wedding! Great report so far, I love the pictures!

 

[Nee Nee and Biddy]

01-01-05: Our Wedding Day!!!

After a fairly early night (I think we went to bed around 11:00), I woke up at 3:30 and was not able to go back to sleep. Billy was knocked out (how can guys sleep through any kind of stressful situation?) so I gave up trying to sleep at 4:00 and hopped in the shower. My hair and make-up artist from Disney was coming at 7:30 and my hair needed to be dry. I have lots of hair and I don't use a hair dryer so I thought I would be right on track. I was feeling nervous and excited. Billy got up around 5:15 and got in the shower. He was going to his parents hotel room before the make-up lady came. Once he was ready, he headed down to the food court and picked me up a bagel. We sat around for a while; he was dressed and I stayed in my pajamas because they had a button up shirt and that's what I was instructed to wear. This will enter the story in a minute. Around 7:15, we said good-bye to each other and promised to meet at the Wilderness Lodge at 11:00.

Shortly after Billy Left, the hair and make-up lady came ( I feel terrible that I can't remember her name!) and she was wonderful. She talked the whole time about non-wedding related things and really calmed me down. She took about 2 hours to complete everything and then it was time for my family to show up and help me into my dress. We also were getting my nephew dressed in his tux, since he was walking me down the aisle. When my mom, Grandma and nephew showed up, we all decided to go to the food court and get Sam a Mickey Waffle since he hadn't eaten breakfast. I stayed in my PJ's and we hit the road.

I'm the red lady in the veil

My grandma was a little embarrassed at my wardrobe choice

So, we got a few looks at the food court but Sam had his Mickey waffle so all was right in the world.

This picture was taken at 10:05, 25 minutes before the limo was picking us up! I'm starting to get a little nervous that I won't be on time for my own wedding!

We ran back to the room, got dressed in record time and ran down to the limo. Coming Next... my arrival at the Wilderness Lodge and the wedding!

 

[Krispe]

Can't wait to read the rest of your report! Thanks for sharing the photos! We love photos!

oh and CONGRATULATIONS on your wedding!!!!! May you have many years of magical married bliss!!

 

[caribear]

Looking forward to the rest of your report! Love the pictures!!

 

[JFrey4240]

Love the pictures and your report. Can't wait to read more!

 

[Peggy Sue]

More, More!! love your report and the great pictures! Loved that you went to the foot court in your jammies .. way to go!! Can't wait to read/see about your wedding .. so come on, get those fingers typing!

Thanks for taking the time to post your trip report .. and fantastic photos!!

Looking forward to your next installment!

Peggy Sue

 

[ericamanda01]

YES, we need more. So far it is wonderful! And you looked beautiful in your PJ's !

 

[Nee Nee and Biddy]

01-01-05 Continued...

It took a few minutes to get in the limo with my big dress, but we did it. When I sat down I noticed that Billy had left me a card in the limo. I read it as we sped to the Wilderness Lodge and tried not to cry at the really sappy and sweet card. What a cheap trick! Trying to make me cry before the wedding! In what seemed like 30 seconds, we were there.

This is our coordinator Maxine trying to get me out of the car! You can also see Stan from STVS(our video guy) in this picture.

My escort and I (sans his bow tie which has just fallen off onto the ground!)

Fixing the problem

As I walked into the Wilderness Lodge all I can say is that I was totally overwhelmed. It was so beautiful and big and I was about to get MARRIED! I'm sure all of you past brides out there understand my feelings. I walked to the side of the room where the Rev. Jack Day was waiting for me. He got down on one knee and said "My Cinderella has arrived!" So sweet. Then Maxine handed me my flowers.

These weighed so much and I was shaking which didn't help. We headed upstairs to the sunrise terrace to get MARRIED!

 

[Nee Nee and Biddy]

Some more pictures that were taken when I wasn't around....

Billy, his grandma Lil, his brother Jason, and his Mom and Dad waiting for the limo to pick them up at Pop Century

Billy and Rev. Jack

Billy waiting for me to arrive

The view from the sunrise terrace. The weather was perfect!

 

[Eeyore4me]

CONGRATULATIONS!!! I'm loving your trip report!
I can't wait to hear more...and your pictures are GREAT! I love your jammies in the food court!

Lauren