Renewing the magic: Andrea and Franco's 10th anniversary VR--Just Marry blog entry

[quandrea]

Finally starting my PJ. Haven't learned how to post pics yet, but we'll get to that later. For now, a little bit about us. I'm Andrea, 38 and my dh is Franco, 46. We have three children: dd 7 and twins 2 (boy and girl). We met 11 years ago at a bookstore and were married 16 months later. We are very blessed, but have been through quite a bit in our years together. Thus we thought a VR was in order. Something to reaffirm that we are stronger than ever ten years in.

We dealt with infertility for 5 and a half years. We struggled to conceive our dd, but were blessed after 14 months of trying. When she was born, we started trying again right away, fearing we'd have a hard time again. Second time around was tougher with two failed IVF attempts and four miscarriages. We came to terms with the fact that our family of three was complete and moved on. Imagine our surprise when we conceived twins in Jan 2009! They were born big and healthy Sept 2009.

During my pregnancy, dh nearly died due to a congenital heart abnormality. He'd suffered with a racing heart for many years, but in March 2009 it nearly turned deadly. Thankfully, the abnormality was repaired with cardiac ablation surgery and he is fine today.

Things have calmed down and we have settled in to a wonderful life, watching our three miracles grow. We are DVC members who vacation at WDW for about four weeks per year. We just added on and our time at WDW will soon increase (can hardly wait).

Our vow renewal is scheduled for Dec at the Swan in the West Courtyard. I'm having an Up theme. My parents and siblings will be joining us, as will Mickey Mouse!

In the coming posts, I'll let you in on the ins and outs of my theme and all the little details I'm doing myself to make the weekend special for my husband and I as well as our guests.

More to come. Hope you'll join me.

 

[pixie921]

Yay -- another VR, and one at the Swan to boot!

I love the title of your PJ, and you all have definitely got a lot to celebrate! Congratulations!!

 

[Sccrmnky2005]

Congraulations on everything that you have gotten in your life, definitly your three little miracles. Can't wait to hear more about your VR plans!

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Another Swan VR bride to make friends with!!!!!
Congratulations and welcome!!

 

[KristiLyn]

Yay! Swan brides!!!
Congrats and welcome!!

 

[quandrea]

So, where to begin? As I said our VR will be in the West Courtyard of the Swan. I am using an Up theme so the children will carry balloon bouquets in assorted colours. We'll be having grape soda boutoneires and I will wear Minnie ears along with my girls. Karen of Just Marry is my planner and she has been great so far. We are about to sign the contract; just hammering out the final details for the cake. Following our reception, we'll be having afternoon tea in the west courtyard. This is our menu:

Assorted finger sandwiches--turkey with brie and cranberry
--hame and cheese with arugula
--smoked salmon with cream cheese and dill
Scones with Devonshire cream and jam
Assorted Pastries--this hasn't been pinned down yet
Pommegranate iced tea and assorted black teas
Wedding Cake (Vanilla with chocolate filling and vanilla buttercream)

We had planned on going to the Grand Floridian Cafe for dinner, but thought the private reception would be nicer and it won't cost any more. Anyway, dh loves high tea--we often go out for it when we have a date.

If someone gives me a tutorial on posting pics, I can show you pictures of my dress, welcome packs, favours, bouquet, boutoneires, etc.

 

[quandrea]

Well our deposit is in! I guess there is no turning back now. DH said yesterday that it has taken longer to plan the VR than our original wedding. He's right. I planned our wedding in two weeks. This has been at least a month and I have lots of little projects I want to do to make the trip special for my family.

On that note; I do have a little anxiety about travelling with my family. We are all staying in our own spaces, but I hope we don't get on each other's nerves. My sister yesterday was complaining that my mum doesn't want to go to the parks much. I think that is fine; she'll do as she pleases and we'll meet for dinner. She just wants to see us renew our vows and spend time with the children--riding a million rides isn't her thing. My parents are staying at the Beach Club so mum is within walking distance of the WS--I think she'll enjoy that. My two sisters are at OKW in a studio. We are also at OKW. The plan is for them to drive to the parks with us in the morning and we'll meet my dad there. Mum will be on her own and she's happy with that.

Another development is that my brother and his wife may want to come too. I'm a bit worried it's all getting too big. It started as just dh, me our children and my sisters. They were coming whether or not we did the VR. When mum heard we were doing the VR, she said she'd like to come. Now my brother wants to as well. Do you think it's getting crazy? I don't want dh to be overwhelmed by my family.

Mickey is booked! He'll be coming between 3:45 and 4:15 for pictures and tea! My mum and sisters are helping us with that bill. He is $900 now. They felt he had to come if we were doing a VR at Disney. I'm very excited about our special guest.

Now we are just waiting on a finalized F & B proposal and we are all set.

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Andrea sweetie - It all sounds like it is going well. I know you had some anxiety about the non-refundable deposit. Are you a bit more comfortable with that now?
I know how you feel about all the family coming along!!! I am a die-hard parks fan (as are my children) and we are happy to be in the parks all day. I knew my mum and DH's mum would not be happy with this, so every day, I informed them what our plans were and made it clear that they were welcome to join us, but we would not be offended if they declined. Some days they joined us (for at least part of the time) and some days they didn't!!! We just went with the flow!! I was determined that whilst I was not going to insist that people do what we were doing, neither was I going to allow their plans to impact on ours.
It worked fairly well (but, unfortunately, didn't stop DMIL moaning about everything from the weather to the restaurants ). Remember that this is your big trip, not theirs.
Try not to worry about it getting too big. We were a party of 14 and that was perfect!! Small enough to be intimate but large enough to feel like a party!!!
Yay for getting Mickey!!! I wish our budget had been able to stretch that far, but, unfortuately, with trans-atlantic flight to allow for, it would not!!!

 

[quandrea]

Thanks so much Joanne. I am feeling a bit better about the deposit. I looked at it this way: if we needed to cancel, it would be within the 30d, so we'd lose all our money anyway. So the deposit was not really an issue. What I did take issue with was the cake cutting fee. We will be a group of 11, with two toddlers who are free. They wanted to charge me cake cutting fees for 15! I refuse to pay for phantom guests, so we are having a cake back at our villa following the reception. We'll get it at Publix, whose cakes I love. Here's a link:

http://www.publix.com/food/catalog/ProductDetai.do


I will get our in two tiers. The bottom will be vanilla cake with fudge filling and vanilla buttercream. I think for the top I'll do carrot cake with cream cheese filling and cream cheese icing (or vanilla buttercream if it has to match the bottom tier). The cose is $115 which I think is quite reasonable. I have a Mickey and Minnie topper.

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Andrea sweetie - The link you posted doesn't seem to be working. Shame because it would have been nice to see your cake!!
Our cake was about the same price as yours!! We paid the cake cutting fee as I felt that it was a small price to pay to ensure we didn't have to do it ourselves. It came to about $45.00 which I didn't feel was too bad as it included plates and flatware. Also, we were going straight from the cake/champagne reception to dinner, and I didn't want to do the cake cutting at the restaurant. Additionally, I wanted Randy to capture the cake cutting and I knew he wouldn't be at the restaurant. In short, it was easier for me to pay the $45.00 and save myself all the hassle!!!
Since you have the opportunity of having your cake cutting at the villa later, I understand your reasoning. These little additional costs all add up and can get very frustrating. Cake handling fees are standard though, and in defense of the Swan, most hotels etc. charge to handle cakes. I know that DFTW charge a cake handling fee.
Perhaps when you have figured out how to post pictures, we can see your cake. I would like to see it as it sounds delicious!!!

 

[quandrea]

Sorry the link to the cake doesn't work. Try doing this: go to www.Publix.com and click on decorated cakes. You will see a cake locator on the right hand side. My cake is called Sweethearts Forever. I can't seem to figure out the picture either. I got my pics uploaded to Photobucket, but I'm stuck after that. Argh!!!!

Also Joanne, with the cake cutting fee. It's $5 now and I know that is standard. But does it seem fair that they were going to charge me for 15 people when we are only 9 including the babies? That would have been $75 more. I was going to pay the cake cutting fee when I thought it was just for the nine of us. Being charged for 15 left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm very excited about my cake though the way it's turned out in the end.

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Yay, I can see it and it's beautiful!!!!
I understand where you are coming from about the cake-cutting. It is a bummer that it has gone up to $5.00 per person and a bigger bummer that they will charge you for 15 people when there are only 9 of you. Have you asked Karen why that is? It seems pretty unreasonable.
At what point are you having difficulties with photobucket? Can I help?

 

[BethieTink]

So glad to see another 10 year VR on here!!!

Congrats! Your plans so far look great. Can't wait to hear more.

 

[quandrea]

Thanks for offering to help Joanne. My pictures loaded fine. I put the mouse over the pic and then I go down to the IMG spot you mentioned. From there I am lost. Should I have my post open in another window? How do I copy the pic? How do I paste it? I am a computer disaster!

 

[Jilian]

Yay for another swan VR bride! It sounds like you and your H have made it through a lot, I'm so happy to hear that they caught his heart issue and took care of it in time. My younger son also has a heart defect that he had surgically repaired. Surprise twins? Wow! What a wonderful surprise!

The tea in the courtyard sounds fabulous! Will the swan cater it? What a great location for a tea! I can't wait to follow along with your PJ and hear more about your plans

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Thanks for offering to help Joanne. My pictures loaded fine. I put the mouse over the pic and then I go down to the IMG spot you mentioned. From there I am lost. Should I have my post open in another window? How do I copy the pic? How do I paste it? I am a computer disaster!

When I do it, I just click on the IMG code and it says 'copied'. If not, just click on the picture and it will load in a bigger format. Under it will be the codes again. Try again to click on the IMG code (either on the code itself or the word that says IMG - I 'think' both work). It should say 'copied', then you can paste it into your post by right clicking at the curser in your post and then clicking on 'paste'. HTH

 

[quandrea]

Yay for another swan VR bride! It sounds like you and your H have made it through a lot, I'm so happy to hear that they caught his heart issue and took care of it in time. My younger son also has a heart defect that he had surgically repaired. Surprise twins? Wow! What a wonderful surprise!

The tea in the courtyard sounds fabulous! Will the swan cater it? What a great location for a tea! I can't wait to follow along with your PJ and hear more about your plans

The Swan will cater the tea. We had originally planned to do a DFTW Memories package and then go for tea at the Garden View tea room at the Grand Floridian. When I looked into having the Swan do the VR, I had them quote a private tea reception just on a whim. Imagine my surprise when the quote came back quite reasonable. It will be so nice to sit in that courtyard (weather permitting) and enjoy our tea. sandwiches and pastries all on our own. Can hardly wait. I'm going to take a look at your planning journal now. Thanks for reading along!

 

[quandrea]

Joanne, I did it! This is the logo I had made over on DISigns for our welcome packages, letterhead, itinerary and door hangers. The door hangers will say, "We're here for Andrea and Franco's 10th anniversary Vow Renewal."

This is the logo that we will use at the ceremony and reception. I've made placecards for the tea table, tags for our favours and labels on our bubbles. As I've said, I am doing an Up theme. The children will each carry multi-coloured balloon bouquets, which will double as table centrepieces. My favours are mini picnic baskets that I'll fill with personalized m&ms to echo the picnics Carl and Ellie used to take. Now that I've figured out the picture thing, I will post photos of all these things. Thanks Joanne

 

[KristiLyn]

Love the logo's!
And I love the UP theme! It's going to be adorable!!

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Yay you did it!!!!
I love the logos!!!! The girls over on the 'Creative Disigns' board are so talented and generous aren't they? I used to 'disign' for people over on that board before I started planning our VR, and I hope they will welcome me back to do a bit of a 'dabble' here and there, when I have finished my TR here. I do miss it and loved 'disigning' for people, but it takes a great deal of time, and I can only seem to concentrate on on e thing at a time!!!! (must be my age!!). After I get Randy's photos, I intend to get a 'Blurb' book done, so that will be another project to take up my time!!!!