Rachel & Chauncey-SBP/Morocco 12/08/09 Updated 6/10 TR IS DONE!!!!

[beatlesblonde]

Yeah, I can finally start my planning journal! For those who don't know me I'm Rachel and my DF is Chauncey. We both live in Indiana and are current graduates of IU. We met in college and since our first date we have been inseparable. We knew fairly early into our relationship that we were soulmates and soon we were talking about marriage and the topic of Disney came up. I am a HUGE Disney fan, and Chauncey had never even been to Florida After hearing me talk about WDW and how wonderful it was, we agreed that we'd go for his first trip after we graduated college, which was this past December. That trip not only was Chauncey's first visit to WDW, but turned into our engagement trip as well!

The Proposal (I've copied and pasted this from my TR)

We had spent that afternoon visiting some of the WDW resorts looking at the holiday decorations, and had eventually made it to the Boardwalk to look at the gingerbread gazebo.

After looking at the gazebo we wandered out onto the Boardwalk area. Now this particular venture was to serve two purposes (well, it turned into 3 but we'll get to that ) One to go check out the ESPN Club because we were planning on eating there later that week, I'm a HUGE sports fanatic (especially NASCAR and football) and wanted to eat there on Thursday so we could watch the Colts-Jags game. I love all the sports memorabilia they have there (some of it would look great on my walls )

The second reason we were out on the Boardwalk was to check out Sea Breeze Point. When we were planning our trip to WDW we knew we'd have to stop and look at the location, and this was our opportunity. So we walked from the ESPN Club over to the location, which I loved even more after seeing it in person.

As we stood there enjoying the view (it was about 5 o'clock so the sun was starting to go down) Chauncey reaches into his bag and pulls out this book. It turns out to be this scrapbook that he's been working on since we started dating. Every page showed a different thing we had done together (movies, band competitions, a fondue party at his place, etc.) After we had looked through the entire book (and my mom was snapping pictures the entire time) Chauncey said that he had something else he wanted to give me. So he got down on one knee and pulled a ring box out of his pocket, opened it up and asked me to marry him! I had an idea that he might propose, I was still surprised and amazed. Of course I said yes and then after mom took more pictures we called/texted everyone we knew to tell them the wonderful news!

The view

Us looking through the scrapbook

 

[beatlesblonde]

What's Planned So Far

So what do I have planned at this point? Well I purchased my dress back in September (yes, September!) because I knew it would take a while for it to come in (they said 4-6 months so it should be soon ). Here's the designer's picture, it's from Forever Yours and I'll be wearing it in ivory:

I didn't want a princess style dress and after looking at different non-ball gown dresses I fell in love with the mermaid/trumpet style gown. I went to Bridal & Formal Inc. in Cincinnati and tried on a ton of dresses and I fell in love with that one. I want to have this old-Hollywood glamour going, so I'm going with soft curls (my hair is right above my shoulders):

and then a birdcage veil

My colors are inspired by the colors in a peacock feather, so I'm going with a sapphire/royal blue (which also goes with my ring) and a jeweled teal/tourquise color. I'm not sure how many bridesmaids I'm having yet, so I'm just going to tell them the two colors and then they can pick the dress they like. But I like these styles:

I'll try and get pictures of my e-ring, but I have to figure out how to how to make my camera cooperate with taking such a close up photo. But here's my wedding band:

And here's his ring:

That's about all I have planned right now. We're having our engagement pictures taken here once the weather gets warmer (we won a free session at a bridal show). I promise to post once I have more to share!

 

[malibustacey]

Hello!

You have lots planned already! It was such a sweet proposal.. (i am going to get married at SBP! Its such a lovely place). I love the mermaid style dress and it would really go with a hollywood glamour hair style- especially the first hair pic! its very glam!!!

oh and your wedding band is lovely- its so different and unique!

I hope to read more of your plans soon!! Good luck with everything!!

 

[princess22]

Congratulations! I followed your link from your post about being penciled in for your date! You two are such a cute couple. I like your dress! Can't wait to hear more, I'm already hooked!

 

[MegKate]

Congrats on getting the date!!! Looking forward to reading more

 

[beatlesblonde]

Hello!

You have lots planned already! It was such a sweet proposal.. (i am going to get married at SBP! Its such a lovely place). I love the mermaid style dress and it would really go with a hollywood glamour hair style- especially the first hair pic! its very glam!!!

oh and your wedding band is lovely- its so different and unique!

I hope to read more of your plans soon!! Good luck with everything!!

Yeah for another SBP bride! I love the location, even just the way it is. I'm such a simple bride and I love the rustic charm of it. I love my band. It's not intended to be a wedding band, it's really more of a ring hand ring but it goes so well with my e-ring I couldn't say no. I hope to get pics of my e-ring up soon so ya'll can see what I mean.

Congratulations! I followed your link from your post about being penciled in for your date! You two are such a cute couple. I like your dress! Can't wait to hear more, I'm already hooked!

Thanks! Glad you decided to come on over!

Congrats on getting the date!!! Looking forward to reading more

Thanks!

 

[beatlesblonde]

Okay what else? Well we've already booked our 4 night minimum so that we can get our contract. Right now we're staying at Pop Century from the 5th to the 9th. Then we're switching over to Port Orleans French Quarter from the 10th through the 15th (we haven't booked that yet, I'm waiting to hear from my travel agent), so in all we get 10 wonderful days in WDW! I've only stayed on property once before and it was at Pop so I know what to expect from that particular resort (I'm totally into retro stuff so it's totally up my alley). But Chauncey's never stayed on property before and I've never stayed at POFQ so we're both excited about that.

I have a question for you ladies though. Right now with our guest list we have 17 people with 3 (possibly 4) people who are on the fence about going (all for different reasons, money, health being able to travel, etc. which I totally understand). However we have other people who are for the lack of a better term "alternate invites". Don't get me wrong, we'd love to invite everyone but since this is an Escape we can only have 18 so our main list are those who are must be invited people (parents, grandparents, siblings, etc.) And the alternates who are people who we would invite normally if guest number wasn't an issue but if they weren't there no one's feelings would really be hurt (cousins, good friends but not like best friends, etc.) Chauncey and I have agreed that for those people who are on the fence we should give them a deadline for giving us a definite "yes I'm going" or "no I'm not going". What do you think would be a good time frame so that if we do end up with open slots we can give those alternates time to decide if they want to go and make travel plans? A month from now? 2 months? I'm sure some of you other Escape brides have probably come across this same issue. How did you handle it? TIA!

 

[Beep]

Hiya, I'm along for your PJ ride with you!

It's a tricky one with the 'alternate' guests isn't it? We decided to invite the ones we really wanted (which unfortunately meant one we didn't too) but our guest list was only 11. When 2 people dropped out last year we considered asking other people but then decided not to.

We figured if we had really wanted them to be there we would have asked them in the first place!

i thik we've got another 2 people that will drop out because he could be under the threat of redundancy but won't know until August. That would be way too late to ask anyone else so we'll leave it at that.

 

[beatlesblonde]

Update time:

Brianna our current contact at DFTW called me today and she now has us booked for the EPCOT portrait session at 9am before our wedding! I'm so excited, I've been dreaming about the EPCOT session since the moment I read about it. We got our copy of the contract and will be mailing it out with our deposit by the end of the week, so things are starting to come together. So a few things on the to-do list:

-When do I need to contact an officiant?

-When do I need to book hair & makeup?

Is there some sort of confirmation I need to wait for first after sending in the contract and deposit before booking these things?

I should be getting the quote for our room at POFQ by next week from my travel agent so then we'll get that booked.

I'm planning on making our invites and I'm gonna try and do a trial run once I get ink the printer Once I get that done I'll post a picture to see what you guys think.

That's it for now!

 

[Mandabella]

Yeah Rachel! You've given me a reason to finally log back into and post on the DIS.

I love your gown. It's beautiful and I think will look flattering on you with your figure and with your hair in those soft girls.

Totally envious about your wedding ring, it's lovely and will go well with your engagement ring. DH likes Chauncey's ring.

I can't wait to read more.

 

[princessarielle]

Hey Rachel! What a beautiful dress!! It's great reading about your journey to the "alter". Let me know if you need help with anything.

Lori aka lorilovestigger

 

[malibustacey]

the wedding invites are hard, i have what you call 'an extended family'.. with a step mum and step father. I have 3 sisters and 1 brother, and ya know, thats not even the start of my family. DF doesnt plan on having many guests for his side, just his mum, brother, 2 x aunties and 1 uncle and 1 best man. (his dad is invited but DF doesnt think he will go due to the travelling).

It like, DF told me we should try and go for an escape but theres just too many people that have already said they want to go, so we have decided that we will send out invites for about 30 people first, maybe a bit more so some family members dont get offended even though we dont think they can come, and then when we get the numbers back, then we can decide what to do.

You have to have a time limit for guests to respond. We are going to send out our own little save the date, and ask for a reply by Oct 20th this year, even though the wedding is not until next Nov- but we NEED to know how many people are going because of money.

Its not rude to ask for a reply by a certain date because after all, you are paying for the wedding and cant have people deciding at the last minute.

You can book your hair and make up whenever you want- i will do it as soon as i can, and mainly its because im in the UK so i need to make sure its booked and i need to have email contact because i will not be able to come out to florida before the wedding to have a trial! eeek!

I am also going to book an officiant as soon as we have our date 'pencilled in'. I want Rev Jack Day, and i think i read somewhere that he doesnt take bookings until pretty near the time, but i am going to ring / email when i can to ask if he can 'pencil us in'.. just to be on the safe side until we can book and pay him.

have you had any hair trials yet? You should totally go for a style like that first pic you posted- its soo nice!!

 

[tiggersam00]

I just found your PJ and have to say Great Guy and Great Dress! The scrapbook is so sweet, he obviously spent a lot of time making it for you! Do you have a saphhire as your E-ring too? The reason I ask is because I do too!

 

[beatlesblonde]

Yeah Rachel! You've given me a reason to finally log back into and post on the DIS.

I love your gown. It's beautiful and I think will look flattering on you with your figure and with your hair in those soft girls.

Totally envious about your wedding ring, it's lovely and will go well with your engagement ring. DH likes Chauncey's ring.

I can't wait to read more.

Hey you glad you came to play with me! Feel free to steal any ideas of you ever decide to do a vow renewal

Hey Rachel! What a beautiful dress!! It's great reading about your journey to the "alter". Let me know if you need help with anything.

Lori aka lorilovestigger

Will do!

I just found your PJ and have to say Great Guy and Great Dress! The scrapbook is so sweet, he obviously spent a lot of time making it for you! Do you have a saphhire as your E-ring too? The reason I ask is because I do too!

Yes my e-ring is a sapphire too, don't you just love the color? Blue is my favorite color.

 

[tiggersam00]

Mine is actually a pink sapphire, I have a few blue sapphire rings from my mum b/c she loves blue though! I think its nice that they are a little different from a traditional diamond too.. go sapphires lol!

 

[beatlesblonde]

Oh pink is nice too. I got on both Beauty Speciale's and Rev. Jack Day's websites and requested information so hopefully I'll hear back from them soon. Chauncey and I have both decided that we're gonna talk to our guests about coming (especially those who are on the fence) and then give them about a month to think about it and give us a definitive yes or no. That way there's plenty of time to make travel arrangements and such.

 

[beatlesblonde]

I got an email back from someone at Beauty Speciale with their pricing and I think as long as they're available on my date I'm gonna go with them. I posted a few questions on the main board that I need answered first. I'm going to head out after lunch and look for wedding craft project stuff. If I find anything good I'll post it later!

 

[beatlesblonde]

I just got an email from Rev. Jack and he's got us pencilled in! He's sending his "Jack Pac" with the different ceremonies he offers and once we get those we can plan our ceremony! I've heard nothing but great things about Rev. Jack and am so excited to have him!

 

[malibustacey]

oh yay!! I have not heard one bad thing about Rev Jack - and thats why i want him. Have you seen him in other DISbrides sneek peeks? He is really good. Im so pleased for you... its all coming together pretty nicely. You should def go for beauty speciale, as again, i have not heard one bad thing about them.

You are not having anything at SBP are you, as in any decorations? I missed your comment about you saying that you love it the way it is? All rustic? I am totally with you on that one. It is so beautiful!

Did you find any crafty things?

 

[beatlesblonde]

oh yay!! I have not heard one bad thing about Rev Jack - and thats why i want him. Have you seen him in other DISbrides sneek peeks? He is really good. Im so pleased for you... its all coming together pretty nicely. You should def go for beauty speciale, as again, i have not heard one bad thing about them.

You are not having anything at SBP are you, as in any decorations? I missed your comment about you saying that you love it the way it is? All rustic? I am totally with you on that one. It is so beautiful!

Did you find any crafty things?

I honestly don't think SBP needs any decorations, it's my mother who thinks it needs decorations but I think I've talked her out of the idea. The only thing we might do are petals on the aisle.

I didn't find anything good craft wise today, I'm at DF's place and the choices to shop around here are pretty limited. I'll may try again tomorrow. I'm still looking for the perfect ribbon to use for the bouquets (I'm making mine and all my BM bouquets) and I just can't seem to find the right color.

I talked to two of my BFFs who I want to be BMs. I filled them in on the wedding date and what details I have, one is 99% sure she'll be able to come and the other wants to come but isn't as sure. I'm giving them time to think about it cause I know it's a commitment.