There I sat in the middle of the living room floor surrounded by shredded paper, bubble wrap, and every manner of craft supply known to man. My job for the day? Finish the seemingly endless list of wedding projects Fred and I had chosen to do ourselves. In what can only be described as an incredible lapse in judgment, I had assumed we were in pretty good shape as over the past few months we had been constantly completing projects. In reality, I had only one day to complete an ever growing list of last minute wedding projects.
I had to finish wrapping gifts, finish the small insignificant details on the paper goods we were providing (Im stricken with the must embellish everything illness), send out the final newsletter, and organize everything into neat little boxes to hand off to our planner.
To make matters worse, I was still coming up with additional things Id like to do! I just kept thinking, If you dont do it now, when will you do it? By the fifth trip to Michaels to pick up just a few things, Fred had had enough! There would be no more new projects. Well, at least not until tomorrow!
We worked all though the day and late into the night when disaster hit. It was about 2am and I noticed, while putting the programs together, that there was an error in the program. Now, this program had been proofed by no less than five people, and no one noticed Our Father, which art on heaven? Had the error been a misspelled name or mistake in the ceremony order, I might have been content to have an incorrect program. But no! The error was in the Lords Prayer and it simply had to be fixed. So, after throwing a respectable temper tantrum
, we reprinted the entire program insert. That error was a major setback to my unrealistic schedule and by 5am there were still more items on the list to be completed. Nevertheless, after incorrectly cutting several menu cards, I decided I should at least take a short nap.
As soon as my head hit the pillow the alarm went off. (Not literally, but thats how it felt.) The plan was originally to leave sometime before lunch, drop off my car and our four legged children with my mother, and arrive in Orlando around nightfall. Well, when noon came and went, that plan had to be revised! Fred called central reservations and attempted to modify our arrival date. For some reason the reservation could not be modified to just remove one night, but the CM said he could cancel the entire reservation. Since I had already expressed some concern about having to transport all our welcome box supplies to our room and then transporting the completed welcome boxes right back out again, we decided to cancel the remaining night. We then booked a hotel for the next night at a hotel on I-drive and requested a room on the bottom floor facing the parking lot.
After a few more crying spells followed by a few more tantrums, I decided I could do the rest in the car on the way down. It was 10:00 by that time and I knew there was no way I wanted to make the 2 hour detour necessary to physically go to my mothers house to drop off the car. In a last ditch effort to save as much time as possible, I called my mother and begged her to meet us along the way. (I live in central Georgia on the interstate. My mother lives in southern Georgia, an hour from the interstate. Hence the two hour detour.) I suppose it was the desperation in my voice or perhaps the fact that we were actually suppose to be in WDW already, but she happily agreed. (This was a rather big deal for them. They go to bed at nine!) We manage to get everything packed into two cars and we were off!
I love driving at night! (Wait, I hate driving ... but if I have to, I wanna do it at night!) Fred not so much. In his defense, he is essentially blind without his glasses in the daytime and at night the glare from the headlights just makes it worse. So, I quickly loose him. (Not to mention the fact that Im in a hurry ... come on ... do you not know that we are seriously behind schedule!!!!) After a lengthy cell phone conversation consisting of nothing but Im at Exit 54, where are you?, he finally catches up with me and we decide on a cruising speed of 79mph. Why not 80 you ask? Well that would be 10 mph over the speed limit, of course. (We have to go 9mph over the speed limit because SOMEONE thinks policemen wont stop someone going only 9mph over the speed limit.) At 11:47 we arrive at the Valdosta McDonalds where my mom and stepfather are patiently sleeping ... um waiting for our arrival.
Quick hugs all around, we transfer the puppies to my car, transfer the dress to Freds car, and I try to explain to my mother what she has to complete before arriving in Orlando. She assures me everything is under control (HA! Got her fooled, huh?) and that we should just relax the next few days. Um ... does she not know I have 24 more hours of stress first??? Anyway, everything is in the proper car so we say goodbye and they leave. We need to get some gas before getting back on the interstate, so we pull into the shell station next door.
While Fred is pumping the gas, I start getting ready to cut out the name tags for the bridal breakfast and um ... I cant find the scissors! I kid you not, I packed 3 pair of scissors and I couldnt find a one. I guess this was just the last straw because I literally lost it ... yep right there in the shell station parking lot. (Thankfully it was after midnight at that point so there were not too many lookie loos.) I started jerking boxes out of the car left and right because I knew the darn scissors were in there and by George I was gonna find them. I suppose Fred knew what was coming because he stops pumping the gas, comes around the car, and starts to hug me at the very moment my frustration turns to despair. ( This was the pattern with me. When things started going bad, my instinct was to try as hard as I could to work a miracle. Once I finally figured out that I couldnt prevent the disaster, I would break down in tears. Needless to say, Fred was evidently very familiar with this cycle by then.)
After a few more minutes of crying (a/k/a stress reliever), we remembered that they had opened a new Wal-Mart right around the corner. We needed more Sudafed anyway because our beloved federal government decided we only needed a weeks worth at a time (those darn meth addicts) and well um ... Wal-Mart did have a craft department. So off we went. In usual fashion, despite having intended to purchase two items, we emerge from Wal-Mart with four bags full of .... well junk. Oh yea, and three more pair of cheap (I regretted not getting the slightly more expensive pair with padding a few hours later) scissors.
So with my new scissors in hand, we continued on our never-ending journey. I make quick work of the name tags, move on to cutting ribbon, then to making bows. By the time Ive done all that I can in a moving car we are already in Gainesville. Fred had evidently called Amex on the road and we even had a reservation. (Where the heck was I when this happened? Was I that concentrated on tying bows??) Anyway, its almost 3am when we get everything to the room.
I immediately get everything left to do arranged on the table and plug in the glue gun. Fred goes out to scavenge for Diet Coke and something to eat while I work. I want to be clear here. Fred wasnt deserting me. Lets face it ... men dont care if the ribbon is perfectly centered before plopping it down into a gob of hot glue. And um ... I wasnt in the mood for that! By the time he gets back, everything for the bridal breakfast was finished. I tasked Fred with hot gluing the wooden animals we had purchased for our dinner onto the already completed escort card tents. Not rocket science .... just squirt a blob of glue on the animal and plop it on the card. Well Fred became obsessed with the little glue strings you sometimes get when working with hot glue. He would brush off each card in its entirety before beginning the next. After a while I just sit and stare at him until he stops and looks up at me. Before I could say a word, he blurts out ... IVE TURNED INTO YOU! We both have a good laugh and decide we needed at least a few hours of sleep.
Head hits pillow .... Sleep.
Well, it turns out that my mind didnt exactly want me to sleep. I got no rest. As soon as I dozed off, some random worry went through my head that I had to spend the next five minutes stressing over. About 7:30, I had enough and decided to take a shower. Fred woke up at 8 when the alarm went off and ran down to the lobby to get breakfast. I returned to the escort cards. He returned, and we had breakfast in bed. (Something similar to a hot pocket and tang!) Fred returned to the escort cards and I started organizing everything into boxes. By the time he was finished it was almost 10:30. Oops! We were suppose to meet our planner at noon and we were still two hours from Orlando.
We quickly packed everything up and attempted to load the car so that I could finish organizing the various things we were dropping off. To make a long story short, we had to take everything out of the car to repack. By 11am we were finally on the road to Orlando. Fred called our planner to explain our present predicament. First, she laughed at us
Then she tried to assure Fred that everything was fine and that she was at the WP all day waiting for a wedding rehearsal at 1:30 and rehearsal dinner that night. We agreed to keep her informed of our progress and we would meet up with her some time that afternoon.
The programs were the only thing I had left to do before giving everything to ou planner. There was only one problem. I wasnt happy with any of my current ribbon choices. The cover of the program was our fancy monogram in gold foil. (There is a sneak peek photo of the program should you need a photo.) Like everything else for the wedding, we did these ourselves. Let me just tell you ... do not do this. It isnt worth it. Sometimes it works, other times it looks awful, and well the rest of the time it turns out ok. Oh and um .... it takes a great deal of time.
Anyway, back to the ribbon. I originally ordered gold firefly ribbon for the programs. Well, the ribbon looked awful with the programs. The monogram was bright shiny gold and the ribbon was more of an antique gold. I realize Im a little wacky, but it really did clash. Needless to say the gold ribbon was a no go. That left me with a choice of the ribbon I had on hand. So I had red personalized ribbon with our names in gold and brown personalized ribbon with our names in silver. I wasnt feeling the red (it was just a little too much with the ivory paper), but the brown had potential! That is ... except for the silver personalization. (Yes, I know
picky picky!) Theres just something deep down inside of me that cant mix gold and silver. So, my solution was to keep the programs, grab some plain brown ribbon on the way to the boat, and tie the ribbons on the way to Orlando from Ft. Lauderdale when we got off of the boat. Fred absolutely hated this idea, but um ... since he was driving and couldnt actually tie ribbons ....
. He was of course determined to complete the programs that night and leave them for our planner the next morning. (HA! What was he smoking?)
We got to the exit for the Western Way at about 1:00 and Fred was determined to meet with our planner before she had to leave for the rehearsal. (Granted the Western Way cuts a significant chunk of time off the trip, but we were at least 15 minutes for the WP!!! How could he not realize we had much more than 15 minutes worth of stuff to talk about????) I guess he was still thinking that we could get ourselves back on track. (Id given up by that time!) Anyway, our planner and I overruled him and we agreed to meet at 3:30. Um ... time ... what shall we do ..... oh, Marriage License! So, after driving under the welcome sign
we promptly left again!
Now, the directions to the Osceola Courthouse that I printed off of the internet do not tell me how to get from WDW to the courthouse; they tell me how to get from 1-4 to the courthouse. So, we get on I-4 in an attempt to correctly follow the directions I had printed. It said to get off at the 2nd Kissimmie exit onto 192, drive 8-10 miles, and turn onto John Young Parkway. Well, thats what we did ... only we went the wrong way coming off of the interstate. After about 8 miles, we were getting into some pretty rural country and finally we see a sign that tells us we are going to Tampa!!!!!! Needless to say we promptly turn around and head back in the other direction.
We finally get back to WDW and go under I-4. We are now going in the right direction!!! Then we see ... well um ... the traffic on 192. (Although we did not know this, you are evidently not suppose to go to the courthouse via 192. Your suppose to use some other parkway to avoid the traffic.) By the time we stop at 37 red lights, we finally make it to the courthouse at .... 3:00! We gather the necessary paperwork and start walking to the courthouse. Security was uneventful. We make it to the marriage and passport office, open the door, and low and behold there is no line. We proceed to the first available window and hand the completed form to her along with a money order for the fee. She looks up at me with eyes the size of saucers and says Wow, your really prepared huh? All I can think is that she was new and had not yet had the opportunity to meet a Disney Bride. She enters the information, goes back to retrieve her printout, and presents us with a draft copy of the license to proof. Its good that they do that because she had Florida as our home state. So, we tell her it should be Georgia and she goes back to retrieve another printout. As luck would have it, that one is wrong too. She only changed my home state to Georgia (not Freds), so she leaves to retrieve one more printout. That one is correct, we take the little oath, take the obligatory photos, and leave legally able to marry!
Its 3:15 at this point and there is no way we are going to make it back through all that traffic to the WP by 3:30. Fred calls our planner again (She laughs at us again) and explains that she has the afternoon free. Oh and she is the first one to tell us we were on the wrong, traffic laden, road. By that time its too late to get on the correct road, so we just deal with the traffic. She and Fred gab about this and that for a while and I suddenly notice (well, I was re-organizing the boxes because it wasnt quite right yet) that the dinner escort cards are not bundled in alphabetical order, but by table. (i.e., all the elephants are together.) So, I scramble to alphabetize.
As we are literally going under the Magic Kingdom sign . . . Wait I have to take a photo! I place the last rubber band around the last stack and everything is done! WooHoo!
We find our planner in the little office outside and unload. I have everything boxed separately by venue, a list of everything we are providing for each venue in each box, and copies of all the lists as well as our seating charts in a packet for our planner Turns out Fred was actually right; we were through in 15 minutes. We ran into 1/2 of our photography team
on her way to the Grand and we all chatted for a bit about the Queen Mary and how to get in touch with us in case of thermo-nuclear war. After the 192 fiasco, our planner even called her husband to make sure the way we were planning to go to Port Everglades was the best route.
Before we left, our planner gave us instructions on how to get our welcome boxes to the correct people at each hotel and told us to do it that night because the marathon would have the roads clogged the next day. You would think that having been at WDW each year at that time for the last seven years we would have remembered that. Um ... nope. So we had to rearrange our schedule. There would be no relaxing night for me!
After stopping at the Hess station for gas and a make it yourself milkshake, we were off to I-drive. Surprisingly, we found our hotel in short order and they gave us an outside room facing the parking lot. We backed the car up to the door and began unloading the puzzle of boxes I had managed to load into that trunk. Finally everything was in and we started on our welcome boxes. Fred folded all the boxes, placed them in a line around the room and bed, and started stuffing them with shred. I finished the information booklets and helped him finish chunking all the pre-made goodies in the boxes. It was really kinda fun ... that is until we realized it was 11pm. Where the heck had the time gone? So I hurriedly affixed the tags to the boxes, tied them up, snapped a few photos, and off we went.
We hit All-Star Movies first. I put on the bride ears to ease the process and it worked! We only had one family with a child staying there, so there were only two boxes. We asked for a manager as directed by and he was super nice! He asked us when the wedding was to take place and what venues we had chosen. So, we told him. He smiled and said Oh, you mean the Wedding Pavilion, right? Fred told him no and that we were in fact getting married at the Castle. He just looked at us funny, and went about his business. (This would become a common occurrence.) He went into their reservation and noted that there were two boxes for in room delivery. We thanked him for his help and made our way to Port Orleans. Upon arriving at the Port Orleans-Riverside guard shack, I thought we were going to be strip searched. It was abnormally difficult to get into the resort! HELLO! Just trying to drop off a few boxes and get some sleep! After convincing the guard that we were not Universal Studio spies and that we were in fact getting married the following Thursday, he finally let us through. Anyway, we finally managed to park, gathered the five boxes, and deliver them to a manager.
In stark contrast to our experience at Port Orleans, the guard at the Wilderness Lodge wanted to know everything about our wedding. He told us it was very nice of us to give gifts to our guests and wished us a magical wedding. It was rather refreshing to hear this because by this time it was well past midnight and I was seriously cursing the whole welcome box idea. (I wanted sleep!) We thanked him for his compliments and help and made our way up to the lodge.
We turned the curve and saw three tractor trailers and a small army of workers milling around the lodge. We knew this sight all too well ... they were taking down the tree! You see, we always go to WDW the first week of January and we had been luck enough to see the holiday services crew take down the Wilderness Lodge tree twice before. It was so fitting that we had stumbled upon it by accident on our wedding trip. So we manage to weave our way through the boxes and crates of holiday decoration and park the car on the side of the porte cochere. Now, we didnt have a huge guest count, but by golly we were taking over the Wilderness Lodge for at least four days. With the exception of three families, everyone was staying at the Wilderness Lodge. Needless to say, this time we couldnt carry all of the boxes in; we needed a cart!
So, we loaded up a luggage cart with neatly stacked boxes and made our way into the lobby. We spoke to a manager who took our list and assured us that she would personally place a note on each guests reservation. We thanked her for her help and, after stopping to stare at the deconstruction once more, started back to the car.
It was a little after 1am when we got off the interstate. After making a short stop at the local Wal-Mart to grab a few supplies (ribbon) and some much needed nutrients we ventured home and made it back to the room a little after 2am.
show some love, and show some respect. 
I didn't get to see the original photos. 
and saw that Sarah&Fred was signed on...and I hope that she hasn't been scared away. I'd love to see, and read all about your wedding. 
