Sam & Paul - A Disney Fairytale Wedding - Week 2

[Fantasia Sam]

Woo-hoo Wedding Week was upon us

Monday 10th, 3 days to go until the BIG day, Carol and I awoke and the realization set in that I had to move hotels today and get myself to Typhoon Lagoon and make sure I was checked in and the room was ready for when Paul arrived, not too much to ask from me is it? This is why I need a car at WDW I’m always changing resorts during the trip and having a car really makes it easier, I once used Disney to move my luggage from one hotel to another but I hated not having that control of when the luggage would be with me, never again ! Once we got up we just got cracking with the packing (LOL that rhymes ), I did keep looking at it all thinking “OMG I’m never gonna get this all packed!” Carol was a great motivator and told me that I could so do it as I was "super-organised", bless her - deep down I knew I could do it but I just didn't want to be bothered !!! But I really did want to be at Typhoon Lagoon after all I had put it on the itinerary and I was sure that some of our wedding guests were expecting me to be there. So I really rushed around and of course I managed to get everything packed up and then it was time to enroll the help of my nephews to pack up the car. All my stuff filled the “trunk” and the whole back seat but sure enough Carol was right we did it, I love it when others have faith in me . Now here's a tip for those that may be moving resorts whilst there for your wedding - what does help is that I have a lot of my clothes on my own hangers that way I just take them out of the room and lay them on the cases in the trunk. Then when I get to the next resort the valet/bell just hang them and deliver them to my room. I decided to go straight to Typhoon Lagoon with the packed car and then from there go and check-in at The Yacht Club. Carol had her car packed too as she was moving over to Old Key West with some of the girls. I managed to fit Cameron in with me and Carol took the rest of my family and we drove over to Typhoon Lagoon.

Once parked we went to see if any of the other wedding guests had arrived. This was going to be the first time my family had met my other wedding guests and I was just hoping that everyone was gonna get on. We got a heads up that the others were on the bus and had just pulled up so we waited for them inside the entrance and then we headed to find a suitable location for nearly 20 people to lay out, not too much to ask is it ? We managed to find a load of free sunbeds right by the Lagoon near the Shark Reef. No sooner had we put our stuff down when Ashley was “off” on his exploring – we didn’t see him for some time after that but we knew he’d be back when he was hungry I was already lotioned up so I sat for a while but it wasn't long before I wanted to get in the water and hit the Lazy River. Cameron decided to join me and off we went with some of the others. We had such fun in the tubes just lolling around that we went around twice. Back at the beds I had another sit down as I had some calls to make I kept missing my DJ so I decided to call my EM and ask if he could try and get a hold of him – there wasn’t a problem I just wanted to make sure that he knew all the music and that we were singing from the same hymn sheet. Bridal duties done next it was time to hit the slides – so a group of us went over to the Kowabunga whatever they are called speed slides – yeah like I was gonna do them!! Astrid is afraid of heights but she was really good and went down I was very impressed but there was no way I wanted a wedgey so I declined. I managed some of the other slides then we hit the wave pool it and more fun. By now I was getting rather peckish it has to be said so Cameron and I decided we would have hot dogs with cheese and sodas. In the meantime everyone was getting paranoid that I may be burning so I was having so much cream slapped on me I was nearly white with sun block LOL – but I really appreciated everyone looking out for me. I think I then just sat and chatted for a while and then I went and changed – I came back and said farewell to everyone it was nearly two in the afternoon and I wanted to make sure that I got checked in.

I got to the Yacht Club and one of my favourite valet/CM's was working his name is “Lo” and he is a cutie. I gave him my name and he said "hey weren't you here just like at Xmas?" I loved that he remembered me because of my name but I don’t think he loved how much luggage I had in my car LOL. I got to the desk to be told that our room wasn’t quite ready but that I could go and wait in the Concierge lounge. Paul and I decided that we didn’t want to be "chopping and changing" rooms just for the one night so we decided to cash in our free wedding room night from Disney. Basically we booked a Concierge Water View Room with King Bed for the Monday thru to Saturday morning after the wedding and in return FTW would arrange for one night’s standard room accommodation to be taken off our final bill. Our room was finally ready and concierge arranged for all my luggage to be delivered. Luckily the YC rooms are quite big and so I had plenty of room to get everything in. I had to rush around unpacking and making everything as nice as I could as time was ticking away and Paul was due at the hotel around five! I’d just stepped out of the shower when Paul rang me to let me know he was just leaving the airport for the resort – OMG rush rush rush. I managed to get down to the entrance just as his car was pulling up. I took him up to the room and he got unpacked. It was sooooooooo good to see him , we were both so happy to be with each other and had missed each other terribly. Then before we knew it, it was time for me to go pick up my family and for Paul to meet up with his, still we'd get alone time later.

That night we took our brother’s and their families to Cape May Café – sadly we couldn’t get a table for the 9 of us so we had to split up onto 2 tables but they were next to each other. I think my brother thought he had died and gone to heaven when he saw the buffet. Bug, Paul’s nephew, was the same, these guys can eat. I feasted on salad, clam chowder, prime rib, mussels, shrimp, clams, mashed potatoes, corn etc etc etc. I was stuffed afterwards. Again I love to recommend this place to eat – it has such “easy” food and I think it’s good value for money. We finished dinner in time to head outside and walk towards the bridge and see the end of Illuminations, the family were suitably impressed and that was just from the beach at the Beach Club I couldn’t imagine what they would think on our wedding day!! Then we went and took them to see the Yacht Club Gazebo, we walked up the path and even though it was dark there were lots of little bunnies on the lawn. The Gazebo is so pretty at night with all the lights I’m pretty sure in my head I was already thinking “Vow Renewal” at dusk. We finally took everyone back to the lobby made plans for the next day and then said goodnight.

At last the future Bride and Groom were alone...

Next morning, gosh we’re at Tuesday just 2 days before the wedding, we had to go and get our marriage license. I decided to drive and go to the Osceola County Court House rather than face Orlando. So after breakfasting in the Concierge lounge we headed up the "US 192". On the way we started having a discussion about where everyone should get ready – Paul wasn’t keen on hiking it over to the CBR to get ready in my brother’s rooms and then have to come back over to the Yacht Club. So once we parked up I had to get on the phone to my EM’s assistant to see if she could get us a convention room for the men to get ready. This would also mean that we only needed to book one town car as Paul’s family were getting a cab over from their resort in DTD the morning of the wedding so we’d be saving money as well.

It took us about 20 minutes to drive to the Courthouse and we parked in the long stay car park as we weren’t sure how long the process would take. When you get in there you have to sign a list then take a seat and wait to be called. About 5-10 minutes passed and we were called, we were given a form to complete, which was pretty straight forward. Then we waited to be called again, during this time Randy, our photographer, called me to check that everything was OK – we’d been missing each other for the past few days – he just wanted to know that all was OK and that we would both be getting ready at the Yacht Club as I didn’t really want to have a public conversation with him I said I’d call him back. We were then called back up to the desk to give the completed form and pay, then we had to sit and wait whilst the license was prepared. Finally we were called up again and had to “swear” against the information given and then we were handed the license with instructions... phew job well done

Well then we had rush time – I drove us back to the YC it was about 11am I then got a call from Dayna who said that they were running out of time and didn’t have anyone available to come and pick me up for my shower so "could I handle knowing where it was to be held?" …LMAO of course I could handle it I’d been dying to know since the beginning of 2004, they’d kept it a surprise from me for that long !!! So she asked me to guess, well to say that I’d been thrown a lot of curve balls over the previous few days on where it may be, would be an understatement, the last thing I heard was that we had to be out of the “place” before 4.00pm so I kinda thought it had to be a resort restaurant that was only open for dinner…….. so I went and guessed California Grill which I would have been happy with but I was kinda hoping for a different location, so she then let me know and I whooped with joy !!! Next thing our EM turned up he wanted to say hi to Paul and to show me the favours that had been fed-exed him for the Shower - I pretty much knew that Dayna and Carol would probably arrange favours themselves but I wanted to get everyone something as a thank-you. It was good to see our EM and have a little chat he wanted to check that we were OK and to say “hi” to Paul as he hadn’t spoken to him since he’d arrived. We told him that we had just picked up the license and he told Paul “there was no going back now”, Paul replied with “it’s OK I kept the receipt”, yeah thanks a lot Buster !!! I gave Tracy the box and told him that I had been told where the shower was, I thanked him loads as I knew it had been a suggestion of his and said I’d see him there. Then I had to get my butt into gear and go play taxi service – I picked up Steve and the kids first from the Royal Plaza dropped them off and then went to get my gang from the CBR. When I got into the lobby of the YC with my family there were a few of the men congregating. Today we had decided to wear our Bride and Groom pins and we also gave out to all our guests their special pins (thanks to my friend Rachael), leaving the men I took Liane and Ariane up to our room so that I could get ready for the shower. It was a rush job but I managed to slap on a bit of make-up, twist my hair up and step into my outfit – pink of course.

We then walked back down to the lobby where I have to say I was tempted to get a cab but we ran into some of my friends who were also headed to the Shower so we all decided to walk……………….. where were we walking to well to The Boardwalk and to …

<img width=250 src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v126/SamByrne/Shower/Shower_005.jpg"><img width=250 src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v126/SamByrne/Shower/Shower_003a.jpg">

<img width=300 src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v126/SamByrne/Shower/Picture_229a.jpg">

I was completely psyched about the Shower – I had no idea about what I would be faced with, after all the only Showers I had seen had been on the TV programme “Friends” and I was praying that my friends Dayna and Carol would not be pandering to my normal playful nature and booking Danny Devito for me !! The guys had already left for their Groom’s Bath (this is a phrase that my friend Bob made up for the event) which was just gonna be lunch at Tony Roma’s (this equals rib-heaven to Paul). I felt really nervous just walking the LONG corridor to The Attic and then we were there !! The one thing I had requested from Dayna and Carol was alcohol and OMG there was plenty of that we had our own hosted bar and the bartender was able to mix any cocktail you wanted I decided to hit the Margaritas for the afternoon but lots of the girls were drinking Daiquiris and Pina Coladas.

This was the first time I had seen some of my wedding guests and to be honest I felt almost overwhelmed just seeing everyone there. No sooner had I arrived then the games commenced.

The first game meant we were given three pegs each and had to wear them, then throughout the rest of the day no-one was allowed to say these words “Paul”, “wedding”, “cruise” and “honeymoon” I think LOL I can’t quite remember after all I was on the Margaritas. Anyway if anyone heard you say any of these words you had to give them one of your pegs. The person with the most pegs by the end of the shower was the winner……… OMG the pressure was on how was I gonna get through 3 hours without mentioning any of those ?

We then started Dayna’s icebreaker game, a version of the Name Game – a sticker with “celebrity” names were put on our back and the first three ladies to guess who they were by asking “yes/no” questions got prizes. Well needless to say it took me a while to get mine – I was getting sooooooo frustrated, I knew that I was female and I’d been in a band, I was British, I liked to act……………. I then asked someone for clarification and when I said “I’m a singer”, my friend Penny shouted, “she likes to think she is” – LMAO I then knew that I was indeed trying to guess my own bloomin’ name !!!!!!!!!

It was then time for Group photos before we got into food. Here we all are:

<img width=350 src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v126/SamByrne/Shower/Picture_042a.jpg">

Food was then served – it was a help yourself buffet of salads, pasta, chicken and salmon and it was yum-scrum then we had desserts as well – The food was so well done and there was plenty of it. I just couldn’t believe that Dayna and Carol had gone to all this trouble but was so pleased that they had.

Then we were back to playing more games – the next game everyone had to draw me with their eyes closed and I had to judge which drawing was the best – I got to keep them all !! Then we played the game where everyone had to look at all the objects on the tray for 30 seconds then I took the tray away and they would have to remember everything that was on the tray……… or so they thought………… I subtlety left the room and then Dayna announced that actually they had to describe me to the finest detail, from make-up to underwear. OK so I think I had probably had too many Margaritas at this point because someone guessed my bra was pink and of course I had to flash it – don’t worry no piccies !!

Then I was told that it was pressie time, I was sat down and then Ariane was given the task of bringing the pressies to me. I got some lovely gifts

<img width=450 src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v126/SamByrne/Shower/Shower_040.jpg">
and I was so touched by everyone’s generosity.

During opening all these wonderfully generous gifts the men arrived – Dayna and I had agreed with Paul in advance that the men would come back to The Attic after their ribs and partake in the hosted bar. Paul and I had been so surprised by the generosity of our wedding guests in the run up to the wedding and it took a while for us to be comfortable with it and enjoy it but I wasn’t surprised when my friend Patrick from MN came up to me to ask if it was tradition in the UK for the Groom to pay for his Bachelor/Stag Party – I laughed coz I knew then that Paul had obviously picked up the tab for the lunch ………….. suckers !!!!!!

So we were nearing the end and Dayna made a really beautiful speech and I really thought I would lose it then and perhaps if the men hadn’t been there I may have done but I held it together nicely…….. yup you guessed it I took a couple of sips (read swigs) of my Margarita. But wait we still hadn’t found a winner for the peg competition – there was currently a tie between Sandra and Ariane – but then suddenly Sandra said one of the words and Ariane became the eventual winner.

Here's Ariane with all her pegs

<img width=450 src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v126/SamByrne/Shower/Picture_047a.jpg">

I thought then I could have the last word and handed out my little gift to everyone

These were the favours that my supplier/friend Minda made for my shower-on the back of the tag she had printed in WDW font "Thank you for my Magical Bridal Shower! Love Samantha" (For those that don't already know our Wedding Theme was "Under The Sea" with a heavy Little Mermaid bias as we were going to have our reception in the old Disney restaurant Ariel's at Walt Disney World


<img width=300 src="http://img41.photobucket.com/albums/v126/SamByrne/Favours/5fcb2555.jpg"><img width=300 src="http://img41.photobucket.com/albums/v126/SamByrne/Favours/254769a4.jpg">

LOL then Carol surprised me with her own little Shower gift bag for everyone – it was so cute with pink chocolate sea shells in and real sea shells that Jody’s mom had picked off the beach and a little photograph album that had been covered in Little Mermaid print material – too too cute.

We then picked up drinks to go from the bar tender and a load of us headed back to Dayna and Pinky’s 2-bed villa, conveniently also situated at The Boardwalk, to continue the party. We chatted and had a laugh back at Dayna’s room and then we all had to go and relax a little as some of us were off to Pleasure Island later on. Carol came back with Paul and I to our room at The Yacht Club to change for PI, we left Paul to have a nap and hit the Concierge Lounge where we chatted a little while with a couple of obnoxious male guests who were staying at the YC c/o their company as they were attending a convention but it was entertaining none the less to hear their drivel.

We then got ready for PI – I’m pretty sure we just got a taxi or maybe we got the bus LOL I have no idea – I also don’t remember eating anything either hmmmm too many gaps here for my liking. I do remember that we met everyone outside the Adventurers Club some were already in there – we saw a show and had some laughs then we hit 8-Trax and boogied I think Paul and I left around midnight but I can’t be sure I know we were “cream-crackered” and looking forward to our bed but we’d had an “ace day” !!!!!!

Reheasal and Wedding Day to Follow.... HERE

 

[scarlett873]

geesh...i'm exhausted just reading these...


off to the next one!

 

[KayleeUK]

What a wonderful shower Sam

Great reports.

 

[MsPennieLane]

Sounds like it was a wonderful shower Sam, it sounds so wonderful. Can't wait to read the rest.

Anz

 

[squitty]

Sam the shower sounds as though it was heavenly.

Brilliant report.

 

[Astrid]

Another lovely read thanks sweetie. It must have been so wildy romantic for you and Paul to see each other again after being apart for so long

Your Bridal Shower was fantastic, we were spoilt rotten, Dayna and Carol did the most wonderful job, the location was wonderful and the endless food and drink - yum yum! All the goodies we were given were so lovely - huge thanks (and, belated huge thanks for the fab welcome bag - full of all sorts of great goodies!)

We loved Pleasure Island and had such fun with David & Liane, really good company.

Hmmm, not sure I'll be doing the vertical flume in Typhoon Lagoon again in a hurry - you were certainly right deciding to avoid a wedgie - ouch!!

Really interesting to read about all you had to do at the Courthouse too - can't believe you fitted so much in that morning!!

Thanks off to read your next report!

Astrid xx

 

[MazdaUK]

Wow, how exhausting is it to be a Disney bride? I'm so impressed by all you've packed in, and having the shower as well must have made it extra exciting! (Beats walking round some seaside town in a force 9 gale wearing a bit of net curtain and L-plates )

 

[wicket2005]

Lovely wedding report.

Lovely photos Mazda, nice to be able to put names to faces.

 

[MazdaUK]

I'm on a roll now - will try to add some more!!