Planning The Super Secret Renewal of Vows - 18th February 2012

[librarygeek]

The necklace is gorgeous!

I think Welcome Bags are a cute idea and fun to do. We were going to do them but ran out of time and money.

 

[belle2211]

I had decided not to do welcome bags...until 2 days before the guests were supposed to show up!! Yikes! I bought plain bags a party store and printed our monogram on labels and put them on the bag. Then I got these labels you print out that goes on water bottles. I also got snacks, tissues, baby wipes, headache medicine and then for the families with kids, I got a couple of activity books/toys. And the guests all loved them! So I think they're definitely worth doing (just don't wait til last minute like I did!)

 

[MrRomance]

BEO for our Dinner/Dessert Party is here!!!!

Even though we've told them that all of our guests will have park tickets, they've included the $12.95 viewing fee on the estimate... seems a little silly because they'll either not charge it or they'll have to pay it back?? They've estimated 20 soft drinks (@$4.25 a pop!) and we won't drink anywhere close to that...so overall the BEO is about $200 more than we'll end up paying!

I was about $30 off in my own estimate so I'm happy with it!

I think for what we're getting, it's a good price. It's not "cheap" but it's not a bad deal, especially considering it's a custom dinner menu, dessert party at Fantasmic! Perhaps I'm just blinded by the fact it's Fantasmic, but it's worth it for us.

So for the wedding and the reception/dessert party, the total was $3800!

I've asked them to quote me for a photographer for the reception. With the memories collection being a max of 6 guests, we really want some pictures with all of our family and friends who are travelling to Florida to share in our day. I've been told by other DIS'ers that it's about $350.

Not much else going on really... we have everything in place now. Still have no idea if Amanda's cousin is going to show up but not my problem now...if she attends, I'm not going to be paying for her flight & hotel so whatever!

 

[MrsDuck]

for the DP BEO! Glad you'll shave a few dollars off at the end.

Looks like that'll be a fun night!

 

[MrRomance]

for the DP BEO! Glad you'll shave a few dollars off at the end.

Looks like that'll be a fun night!

Considering we started out at $135 pp ++ I'm happy with the price. I don't think we could get a 3 course custom menu for 10 that includes the entertainment and drinks for less than that!

 

[MrRomance]

Shhhh... MrR has booked his new surprise! As MrsR is now aware of this PJ, I am loathed to say exactly what it is here, but it's awesome!

 

[MrRomance]

Ok, so MrsR has been banished from this PJ so I can reveal all about my latest surprise...more on that later!

Before I get to that, I'm just going to go for a minute and update you all on Katie's progress on her sponsored run in the Disney Kids Race. I know a few of you have sponsored her, so I feel like the least I can do is to update you all on how she's doing! When she decided to take on the challenge, she wanted to raise £200 ($300), she set her target at £250 (375). As I've said before, she hit that after about 5 days and raised it to £350 ($525). I'm delighted (and very grateful) to report that she has now raised a fantastic £470 ($710) for her children's hospital! It's still climbing and we'd love to get a few more sponsors to get her over the £500 mark by the time she runs the race in Feb. Thank you again everyone who has supported her with this, it means so much to her and to me!

So, Amanda's best friend and Godmother to our kids has now booked her trip down for the wedding. We knew she was definitely going to come down from Michigan but she was waiting to book everything until she could get a better deal. It is such a relief to know she's all booked in now and she will be there with us on the day! We have never met her partner, as they haven't been together too long and we're 4000 miles away! Looking forward to seeing Carolyn and meeting Joe and we're both so excited that everyone (other than the pain in the butt, cousin) has confirmed and booked their flights and accomodation at WDW!

I'm a little put out over the whole room block thing though. We never got any information about this (I guess because we have the Memories package) but our guests have exceeded the 25 nights between them. They're all staying on-site, all have 5 day hopper tickets and all have the DDP and they all bought their packages direct with Disney. It would be nice if we could get the same perks as other wedding couples!

Anyway, back to the surprise...

So all of our guests are leaving WDW on the 19th Feb and we're booked to go to Discovery Cove on the 20th. This was a deliberate choice because it's President's Day and we know WDW will be packed so we figured we'd head to DC where they limit the admissions.

We'd already booked and paid, but I figured I'd look into any "celebration" type packages they might have. It will be the first day that we'll be alone as a family and I wanted to do something for Amanda that was just us. So they tell me they have all these different packages which I knew nothing about including the "Elite Package"

For those of you that don't know it includes:

• Personalized buoy delivered by dolphin during the interaction

• Gift bag

• One (1) 6x8 photo of choice print

• One (1) Photo frame or plush toy

• T-shirt

• 25% discount on Ultimate Photo Package purchase

• Private reserved cabana includes: table and chairs, rolled towels, stocked refrigerator and personal locker

• One (1) underwater camera

• Champagne or sparkling non alcoholic champagne

• Souvenir toasting flutes

• Chocolate truffles

• Private small mammal meet and greet in private cabana

• One dozen roses


So I decided that would be a perfect little surprise! She can enjoy some champagne, chocolates and roses all in our own little space! The dolphin will give her a buoy with my private message on it and it will all snapped by the photographers! I think our Discovery Cove day will be almost as expensive as the wedding now, but it'll be SO worth it!

I've decided to pay the wedding and reception off next week. It's not actually due until the end of January but I will definitely be relieved when it's done. My only other worry now is the weather! I know February can be a little unpredictable and with both the wedding and the reception venues being completely reliant on the weather, I'm just a little stressed that everything will end up being moved

In other news, Amanda is back on the welcome boxes. We've bought a bunch of stuff for them now so there is no going back! I made little labels for our chocolate bars but for the most part I'm leaving it to Amanda. We managed to get beautiful Royal Worcester Champagne Flutes CHEAP so Amanda has ordered swarovski crystals and plans to decorate them in our wedding colours as gifts.

I think that's it for now... more soon when I have something to report!

 

[Chilly]

That is a fab surprise!

They only do wedding room blocks for Wishes weddings now not even Escape (who never got the free night, except a few of us on the DIS who managed to get it) BUT apprantly anyone can set up a room block direct with Disney.

 

[librarygeek]

Wow, that Discovery Cove package sounds awesome! That will really be some great pictures from that day. I will keep my fingers crossed for you that you will have gorgeous weather on that day!

 

[MrRomance]

So Amanda and I started our hidden Mickey Royal Worcester Glass crystalization today. We did one each and I think they've come out pretty well considering we're first timers!

We'll be making one for each of our guests for our toast and then they can take them home as gifts!

What do you think?

 

[MrRomance]

VENT WARNING...

Ok, so we wanted to hire Randy Chapman for our photography. Amanda and I really like his pictures and his imaginative style so we contacted DFTW. We were told quite clearly IN WRITING that we could have Randy but... he would count as a guest! So, because we're already over the guest count and have already had to say some people can't be at the ceremony, we had to nix the idea. When we told Randy why, he said that was rubbish and that we could have him, he wouldn't be a guest, but we'd forfeit Disney Photography. No big loss from what we've heard, so we go back to DFTW and we get "oh sorry we misunderstood, yes Randy is right". It's great that we can now have Randy, but why did it have to be 3 months of drama!

Another thing we really wanted was for Amanda to be able to wear her wedding dress at the reception meal. Again, we were told IN WRITING that you can not wear wedding attire in the parks. OK fair enough... but how come we keep seeing wedding attire at other people's dessert parties? Again, we talk to Randy who says that she can wear the dress in the parks as long as it is a Disney dessert party. I email DFTW again and I'm told, yes she can as long as we are taken backstage! So, now I've emailed Disney Catered Events who told us know, copying them in on DFTW's email and asking them to clarify!

Seriously, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing? I've noticed it in other people's PJ's too, everything is so inconsistent.

In other news...

We've had a really crappy week so we're really feel down at the moment. We're trying to just focus on making the glasses which is going well and to forget about the people who seem hell bent on wrecking our Christmas and giving us a headache!

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

Vent away!! I know how you feel!! Hopefully you get it all worked out and she can wear her dress!!

I love the glasses, they look great!!

The Discovery Cove package looks amazing!!! I would love to do that someday!! I bet she would love it!!

I hope the week gets better!!

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Aw, sorry for the frustrations! I've found that Disney in general is somewhat notorious for giving different answers depending who you talk to. In terms of wearing her wedding dress to dinner, I could be wrong here but maybe it's because you arranged your DHS event yourself not through DFTW since it's Memories. Hope it all works itself out!

 

[MrRomance]

We finally have answers!!

Photography, we can have Randy, he doesn't need to be added as a guest and DTFW have now updated our BEO.

Dress, so the tune changed to "she can wear her dress if she is transported into the park" it's $80 round trip so I've booked that and DCE have updated that BEO too!

The only outstanding irritation I have now is this nonsense with the flowers. They offer blue and white, they offer green and white, I want blue, green and white, can't see the issue??? So I've decided that as we arrive a week before the wedding, I'm going to go make a pest of myself with the flower people when I get there and get that resolved too. I don't want extra flowers, I don't want anything they don't already offer, so I am going to act like a mosquito buzzing around their heads until they change it!

Thanks for the support ladies (and gents)

 

[DoomBuggy0922]

YAY! Good for you, sticking up for yourself and being persistent. I am proud! You FIGHT the DFTW machine!!!

No, seriously, I am SO happy that you get to have Randy AND that your lovely wife gets to wear her wedding dress in the parks!

 

[Chilly]

Glad you are winning each battle one at a time.

 

[MrsDuck]

Congrats on the Randy and Dress progress!!

I hope things work out with the floral!

 

[librarygeek]

Sorry you had to deal with those issues, but I'm glad you got them straightened out! I have to say, from everything I read on here it really sounds like DFTW can be a disorganized mess sometimes. I know that would frustrate me to no end. I'm really glad you were persistent and got what you wanted! And good luck with the flowers!

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Jay sweetie - Just catching up!!! Glad you have got a few things straightened out. These inconsistencies with information from DFTW is one of the reasons I switched to S/D!!!

 

[MrRomance]

So, there are 41 short days until we leave for FL and 48 days until our big day! I can't believe how quickly it's come around. The last few weeks haven't been good at all, hence I haven't updated, but I'm hoping that 2012 starts off a lot better than 2011 is ending!

Last week I went to court for the ridiculous "speeding offence" I was accused of. I have no idea how they managed to justify it but I was found guilty and no longer have the clean drivers licence I was proud of. I know it's not a huge deal and I should just forget about it, but it's hard to do that when you know it's wrong. I couldn't have been where they say I was when this "speeding" took place. The police got my car wrong, the road wrong, and my name wrong, but somehow they nailed me.

To add insult to injury, I then had a minor car accident, then to cap it off, some mindless thug decided to damage 5 cars along our street, mine included! So all in all not a good time on the whole car front!

Christmas was a really trying time. Our eldest daughter came home from residential school for the holidays and her behaviour was horrendous. We spent the whole holiday chasing all over the place because the kids can't sleep under the same roof and it was just a stressful time. I've never liked Christmas but this one was the worst ever!

Our little one is worrying about her sponsored run because she thinks she hasn't raised enough. I keep reassuring her that she beat her target by quite a lot and she should be proud but anyone who has a child with Aspergers Syndrome will know that sometimes there is just no getting through to them when there is something set in their head! I think it's because initially she was getting sponsors left and right (including lots of wonderful DIS'ers!) but obviously it slows and she just doesn't understand. She decided that if she ran further it would help

So on to wedding stuff... We have to take Amanda's dress into the seamstress this coming week to get it altered. I also need to send back the final payment authorizations in.

We got an email today saying our planner, Janna, is moving to a new role in a new department so we now have Karen as our planner. Not what I wanted to hear this close because how do I know that all the information is going to be handed over properly! I guess we'll have to just wait and hope that everything goes to plan.

I'm starting to stress about the weather now. We are so dependant on the weather being on our side and I know it's out of my control. I don't like the feeling of having to "hope" everything is OK. I'm really hoping from some from the weather Gods! Everything else seems to be under control, Just slightly worried about money too, it should all be fine, but with the second trip to FL in July, I'm going to have to be a bit more careful than I have been on the cash front!

I still haven't decided if I should wear a jacket or not for the big day. I really can't do morning coats which would work best, but on account that I'm really disproportionate, I'll look stupid. I'm 5'10ish, but if my torso was in proportion to my limbs, I'm be 6'4 like my dad! So long jackets kinda look stupid on me because I have a stumpy top half and extraordinarily long arms and legs.

So the plan for the next week is to authorize the final payments, get Amanda's dress fixed and decide on a jacket. After that I need to figure out the tips for service providers. I'm not really good at that stuff. I'm not really sure WHO I should tip and who I shouldn't and I'm told all the time that I tip WAY too much. So I'd really appreciate it if people could tell me what they gave in the way of tips.

I'm particularly about our reception meal because they are charging an automatic 21% gratuity because we're a party of 10 (even though we're not a party of 10 but to get the venue we have to pay for 10). I would usually tip more than that, but I kinda feel like if they're forcing gratuity on me for guests I don't actually have and because they are charging it in advance, then why should I tip them twice?? What do you think?

TIPPING ADVICE NEEDED!!

To end on a really lovely note... my MIL has booked and paid for the Wishes Dessert Party at Tomorrowland Terrace for all of us, as a pre-wedding treat. It's a lovely gesture and along with our plan to have a "welcome dinner" at Spirit of Aloha, it should make for a few days of celebration and wedding fun!

.....Just remembered, I need to buy some suitcases!