StephenWolfs' Wishes Wedding Planning Journal!

[Fay]

Congratulations to you both!

Time will fly by!

I loved your BM cards! Like they wouldn't say yes! Every girl wants to be a bridesmaid! Im glad I only have 2 though! lol

Your dress is just beautiful... will look amazing! I initially wanted a very summery kind of flowy wedding dress and have gone for the total opposite! I don't think you really know until you try on different styles! hehe But thats the exciting bit!

Any way, looking forward to hearing more!

XXX

 

[MrsDuck]

LOVE the dress!

Can't wait to hear which venues you're considering!

 

[CinderALLIE]

Just found your PJ.

Love the dress and the proposal story.

Looking forward to hearing about your site visit after it happens.

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

I loved the photos of your engagement party on the Disney Wedding Blog. So cute! Also, so glad you are still writing your PJ, although I can totally understand getting very busy and not having too much to write about, I feel like I'm in the same boat a lot myself.

Which sites will you be going to see on your site visit? I agree with the other response from Sizzle, that maybe your venue can help dictate the level of formality of your wedding. Also maybe if you can find a way to subtly show your dress to your FMIL (and bridesmaids dresses, maybe even your mother's dress, once they're chosen) that could also help get your point across?

 

[goodmorningirl]

Wow! I can’t believe there are so many people following along. You guys sure no how to make a girl feel special! I appreciate all of your comments. They are all so helpful and sweet.

Sizzle: I really like your idea of using the venue as the bad guy. Honestly, that is a genius idea. I will definitely be using that.

Fay: Thanks! I worked really hard on them and I really wanted them to reflect Disney. I’m such a dork that at 22 I still love to color. Lol You’re so sweet about my dress. I feel so great in it. Isn’t crazy how you end up liking the one you think you’ll hate?

LittleKittyMarie: I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed our photos. So much time went into the details and Cory was really helpful with so many of those things. He really is the best. I showed her my dress and I hope she gets some of a hint from that. It definitely isn’t a casual dress.

For colors, I’m thinking a deep blue and deep violet and then maybe a touch of green. I know people usually do a peacock theme with these colors, but I don’t want any peacock involved. Lol I like more of a very understated Tower of Terror/Haunted Mansion theme; deep colors with a romantic and elegant look. I had asked Cory a while ago what colors he liked, and no surprise knowing him, he likes brown and green. I like these colors, but for a wedding, I don’t know.

Here are the venues we are interested in:

Ceremony
China
Japan
Morocco

Brunches
The California Grill
American Adventure Parlor

Reception
American Adventure Rotunda
Living Seas Salon

I say brunches because my Mom would like to have a brunch the day after the wedding and also after the ceremony since it will be in the morning and the reception will be at night. This of course is all dependent on what things end up costing. These thoughts may be completely out of budget. We also want to do a dessert party the night before the wedding as a joint rehearsal “dinner” and welcome party where we would invite everyone.

With the colors I like, I think the Living Seas would work really well with the colors already there that I’ve seen in pictures.

I really LOVE the Tower of Terror courtyard, but I don’t think it would be possible to do anything there as you have to start so late at night. Kind of a bummer.

One of the many questions I have for them is if we do a ceremony outside in Epcot, where are the backup rain locations?

I’m getting so excited for our trip. Only 28 days!!

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

I think LSS and AAR are common rain backups in Epcot, but that's a good question to ask your planner on your site visit.

 

[goodmorningirl]

NoOrdinaryPrincess--I could deal with those locations as back-up as we like them as an option for our reception. I just really don't want a ballroom.

So last night we had a sort of setback in our planning. Cory and I were working on our guest list for the wedding and after combining his family, mine, and our friends, we have a list of 171 guests I never thought we'd have that many people. I know they say expect 50% for a destination wedding. If that were true, we should count on about 85 people coming.

So here is the issue we were having last night, you never know how many guests are coming until you get RSVP's obviously, but we were looking at the DFTW website and the guest limits for the different venues we like for both ceremony and reception and we are discovering we may not get what we want. Our ideal locations as of now are a ceremony in the morning in Epcot and a reception at night at American Adventure Pavilion. Sounds great right? Except that the biggest locations in Epcot are Japan and Italy which are 2-100, but AAP is 100-230! So in order to have our dream wedding venues we would need exactly 100 guests. How will that ever happen?

Cory became really disappointed last night asking me if we couldn't have one of the two, if I still want it as much in say the Wedding Pavilion. I honestly don't even know. I tried to push the subject away for now by telling him once we are at the site visit March 9th we have to ask them.

How ironclad are the guest counts? When do you need to let Disney know your final guest count? I'm getting so discouraged.

 

[goodmorningirl]

Quick Update:

Wow!! I cannot believe our engagement party was nominated for an award of the Disney Wedding Blog! I am completely blown away!! We put so much time and effort into planning our Alice in Wonderland party. If any of you would be so kind as to vote for us once each day until Feb. 27th, we would be so honored and grateful.

http://www.disneyweddingblog.com/2012/02/vote-for-2011-disney-wedding-awards.html

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

I voted!

 

[goodmorningirl]

Thanks NoOrdinaryPrincess!! We really appreciate it!

 

[Fay]

How on earth do we vote!!! lol post a link!

XXX

 

[Allyourwishes]

So last night we had a sort of setback in our planning. Cory and I were working on our guest list for the wedding and after combining his family, mine, and our friends, we have a list of 171 guests I never thought we'd have that many people. I know they say expect 50% for a destination wedding. If that were true, we should count on about 85 people coming.

Just wanted to drop in on this point, in one of the inside disney weddings podcasts it says that attendance for Disney destination weddings is much higher than the averages I think it said about 80%

 

[CDsSleepingBeauty]

Congrats on your nomination! I voted for you!

 

[goodmorningirl]

You guys are so sweet to vote for us! Thank you!

You go to this link: http://www.disneyweddingblog.com/2012/02/vote-for-2011-disney-wedding-awards.html and then scroll toward the middle for best Disney Party. We are the first of the three and if you click our names below the picture you can see our full feature. You can vote once a day from each computer until Feb. 26th.


Allyourwishes: Thank you so much for commenting on that. Wow! We had no clue! We're going to have to look at the guest list again and reevaluate what we think. This is so hard to figure out!

We made a few changes to our dining plans for the week of our site visit. I'm going to post it later and I'd love to hear your opinions.

 

[Fay]

Just voted!!! Xx

 

[goodmorningirl]

Thanks again to anyone that has been voting for us in the Disney Wedding Awards! (That means you, Fay! )

So we leave for Disney in 14 days!!! I can't believe it is finally so close!

We changed some dining ressies and some of the plans so here is our new plan.

Thursday: March, 8th
Arrive in Orlando at 10am.
Check in to Port Orleans Riverside.
Magic Kingdom—8am-8pm
Lunch: Quick Snack
Dinner: California Grill

Friday: March, 9th
Breakfast: Quick Snack
Go to Site Visit at Franck’s at 9am. End by 11am.
Epcot—9am-12am
Lunch: Hollywood Brown Derby
Dinner: Narcoossee’s

Saturday: March, 10th
Breakfast: Kona Café 7:30am
Animal Kingdom—9am-7pm
Lunch: Yak & Yeti
Dinner: Jiko

Sunday: March, 11th
Breakfast: Quick Snack
Magic Kingdom—9am-3am
Lunch: Raglan Road
Dinner: Artist Point

Monday: March, 12th
Breakfast: Quick Snack
Hollywood Studios—9am-12am
Lunch: Le Cellier Steakhouse
Dinner: La Hacienda de San Angel

Tuesday: March, 13th
Breakfast: Kona Café
Epcot—8am-9pm
Lunch: Coral Reef
Dinner: Marrakesh

Wednesday: March, 14th
Breakfast: Quick Snack
Leave hotel for flight.

Besides that, I don't have much to update right now. We are starting to look at honeymoons, but Cory isn't too keen on the idea. He says it is a lot of money to spend on a vacation when we are just starting our lives. I know he's right, but how can we not have a honeymoon? I'm hoping he comes around and we can find something fun and inexpensive. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Why not just do a Disneymoon? You will already be there, and have APs so it shouldn't be too pricey for a few extra days.

 

[goodmorningirl]

NoOrdinaryPrincess: That is a good idea. Thanks.

If we are using our wedding discount and then our APs, can we get the dining plan? We love the dining plan so much I don't think we'd want to do without it. If we could work that out, that would be a def. top option.

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Yes, you can add DP to an AP; though, many find the TiW card to be ultimately cheaper because it takes 20% off of everything (including alcohol) and doesn't require you to buy things you don't want.

 

[tinydancr06]

Hi! I'm just now joining in and am excited because we have a few things in common! First of all, I am a far-off planner, too. As in, my wedding isn't until October 2013 but I need to plan now! We're having our site visit a few days after yours on March 16th and will be staying at POR too! Sorry, can you tell I get weirdly excited when I have things in common with people? Oh, and I'm also having 7 bridesmaids (including a Kate and a Rachel!). The cards and gifts you sent yours were super cute! I love your dress (it's along the lines of the type of dress I want) and I can't wait to see the rest of your plans