Trip report - "Dreams do come true" (video complete - pg 45)

[ck_1]

Fantastic!! Congratulations!! Thank you so much for posting all of those lovely photos. It's great to hear about peoples TRs (trip reports) but even better with pictures! Now I'm rethinking our wedding, the Yacht Club looks great!

 

[Rustyflwr3]

Everything looks great! Congratulations!

 

[Mary626]

Mary, I am enjoying your reports so much!!! We were there at the same time, our wedding was the 25th, we saw you guys many times in the parks (recognized the ears). I keep watching your photos looking for us in the background. I can relate to all you are reporting, especially the ECV experience. Someone hit the switch on the back of my Dads while we were watching Illuminations, we all panicked when we thought it was dead. Thank goodness he remembered seeing the switch and we were on our way. What a way to skip a heartbeat We can't wait to keep reading, Thank You.

How funny that you saw us there!! I hope we weren't doing anything embarassing LOL. I was surprised that I didn't see more people wearing the ears - we only saw 3 other couples wearing them the entire 10 days we were there! Glad you could fix your father's ECV, those things were hard to push!

I am so glad everyone is enjoying the TR, I will try to post more later today

 

[ktink]

Mary, I'm loving your trip report. But I just have one question for you...
Why didn't you just push the ECV into the BC to begin with?

 

[nkkilala]

Mary your report keeps getting better and better!

 

[calanniebu]

You're report is awesome! It's helping me remember that this planning stuff is all worth it in the end!!!!

 

[Mary626]

Here is Part 1 of Day 3:


SATURDAY 4-22
I woke up before the wake-up call went off again, around 7 am or so. 6 hours of sleep, not that bad. I went over to my mother’s room to make sure she didn’t need me to help her when the gownsteamer came by. She said she’d handle it and not to worry and asked if I wanted any breakfast room service. I was hungry but decided that since the dessert party was that night I wasn’t going to eat much, just a light lunch or something.

I head back to the room and shower. When I get out the phone rings with the wake up call, I pick it up and know I should hang it up before it wakes anyone else, but I love listening to stitch so I listened to it and then hung up the phone. It did wake up Jo’s Jim though, and he seemed to think the wake up call was pretty funny too. I apologized for waking him and went back to getting dressed.

A misty morning at the yacht club

I guess Jo & Jim were already awake but not out of bed yet while I got dressed. Then I hear my jim, um, make an embarrassing sound, that woke him up, he says “excuse me” and jo and jim start laughing. As I’m getting dressed, Chris calls and asks if he can come to the room to get the Groomsmen t-shirt we had given to him (he had forgotten to take it with him), I said sure, thinking he would just grab it and go, I didn’t mention that jo and jim were in the room with us. He comes to the room having just woken up, in his pajama pants and not wearing any shirt, comes into the room, sees Jo & Jim and says “wassup”. My jim is like “chris noone wants to see that ****” lol. He grabs the shirt and leaves, we all start laughing.

As Jo got dressed I went to my mother’s room to check on how the gown steaming was going. Seeing my dress and bridesmaids dresses all hanging up, I was like “awww they’re so pretty!”, it got me really happy.

The bridesmaid dresses

my adorable mother

my dad falling asleep on the chair. I guess he doesn’t think steaming gowns at 8 am is very exciting

I went back to the room and got my suitcase full of stuff to give to the coordinator, and Jo said goodbye to her jim (who obviously didn’t need to go to the rehearsal for any reason), and the three of us head to the lobby.

Jo says goodbye to jim, awww

I see Jenny & Kevin sitting in the chairs in the lobby and go over to them. Jenny is wearing a shirt that says “precious cargo” – too cute! I am really tired and think caffeine sounds like a good idea. I don’t like coffee very much but love iced coffees and frappacino’s. I go over to the coffee cart by Ale’s Compass and ask if they can make any iced coffees or anything. The guy seemed really confused about the whole thing, so I politely say nevermind and go back to the lobby. Who hasn’t heard of iced coffee? Matt and Chris arrive and they are both wearing their groomsmen t-shirts. I think that is so sweet, we didn’t even ask them to wear them, they just decided to on their own, it was so cute! As we were sitting there my aunt pat and aunt dolly come into the hotel to check in, it was nice to be able to say hello to them before the dessert party.

Kevin, jim, and jenny in the lobby

Chris proudly wearing his t-shirt

aunt pat and aunt dolly stop by

Josh, Janiece, their baby Gracie, and Sue all arrive. Everyone but jim’s groomsmen corey is there, almost ready to go! Baby Gracie sees jenny’s pal mickey and is immediately transfixed by it, she is so cute. Sue asks if I wanted her to record some of the rehearsal on my video camera, I was so happy she asked! I’m that type of person that wants to get everything on tape or on camera. So one less thing for me to worry about doing!

My mom had picked up some hats that said “bridesmaid” for a dollar each at a clearance sale at targets , so I handed those out to everyone, and told them they didn’t have to wear them if they didn’t want to , I didn’t care. But everyone put them on, awwww!

I look like I’m doing the hokey-pokey here

Where’s Janiece?

There she is! There were always three people taking the same picture at the same time, like the papparazi, and we always ended up looking at a different camera, so we were never all facing the same direction!

It was getting close to rehearsal time so I ask someone at the front desk what the quickest way to get there would be. They must have thought I was retarded, because once I went outside, it was immediately to the right of us, there’s no way we possibly could have missed it! Oh well, it might have been a far walk, I didn’t know, the yacht and beach club can be a little confusing to navigate sometimes.

It’s about 9:52 and our rehearsal’s at 10, I decide to walk ahead and get to the convention center even though Corey isn’t there yet. I tell jim what room in the convention center to go to and say we’ll meet him there. Corey had taken a bus to MGM and was going to walk from MGM to the yacht club. He hadn’t realized how long of a walk it was.

Me, jenny, Kevin, lisa and lynn, mom and dad, and jo all head to convention center and get there in 2 minutes. Right after we left, Corey got to the yacht club. Jim gave Josh & Corey their groomsmen shirts, since neither were at ohana and they both put them on.. everyone had their shirts on, yay!!!

 

[Mary626]

We walk through the convention center – it is a beautiful place!! If I ever own a big business or something I will have to have a convention here! We get to room “Cape Cod D” and we see “Adams/Corbin” on the door, ooo that was us! How exciting!! The room is beautiful but kind of reminds us all of a funeral home, especially since there was nobody around and it was really quiet. We made it there before our coordinator so we all helped ourselves to some water and breathmints that they were kind enough to put out for us. I call Jim to remind him what room we’re in, he laughs and is like “yes Mary I know”.

Jenny, me, and Jo in the convention center

Kevin taking a picture of me taking a picture of lisa

me taking a picture of Kevin taking a picture of me taking a picture of lisa

It kind of looked like a funeral parlor

water & breathmints

Jim & the groomsmen arrive shortly after we do. I say hello to Corey and thank him for coming. Jim’s friend Jeff had come along with Corey, it was nice to see him there! He’s about the most laid back person I’ve ever met, he’s a really nice guy and I was so glad that he was coming to the wedding. I give Janiece my bridesmaids gift – the engraved photoalbum with a “thank you” note to her as a 4X6 as the first photo, and she pretends to like it lol. She then went through the photo album to the blank pages and says “here’s a picture of mary and jim going at it in the dark, here’s me and josh going at it with the lights off”.

Corey & Jeff arrive. I think Jeff is cold here

bridesmaid gift

The coordinator arrives and we get in our positions for the wedding. She introduces herself to everyone and explains that the officiant couldn’t make it but she would go over everything with us. She first shows me and my father how we’re going to walk and what side to be on, and how to hand me off to jim, etc. Then she goes through our prompts at the ceremony, filling in the non-important parts by saying “happy talk, happy talk, happy talk… now jim do you take mary as your wife?” etc, everyone seemed to get a kick out of that. Almost all of us were in a really silly/giddy mood so of course we’re making jokes the entire time, especially the groomsmen.

She gets to the part in the ceremony where they ask “Jim do you take mary as your wife?”,
Jim: “I guess”.
Coordinator: “Mary, do you take jim as your husband?”
Me: “Sure whatever”
Hey, it’s like our wedding proposal all over again!

At one point my sister Lisa asks which groomsmen she’s going to pair up with, I tell her that everyone’s going single-file. She says in a snotty voice “well THAT’S interesting!” I’m like “and you ask why you’re not the maid-of-honor?”. Sheesh.

Then we practice putting the rings on our pinkies instead of ring fingers, you know, just out of superstition. We go over it once or twice more and we’re done by 10:30! I wonder if the coordinator was amused at all or if they’re used to everyone being really goofy at the rehearsal. I don’t remember much about what happened or what was said during the rehearsal I just remember it being fun and short, and I was glad that everyone seemed to be in a good mood!

 

[Mary626]

The bridesmaids and the groomsmen get into position

I practice walking down the aisle with my dad and the art of holding invisible bouquets

meanwhile Gracie plays with Pal Mickey

Matt practices taking care of the rings

Jim looks like he’s about to slap me here

Us being silly as she fake pronounces us husband and wife

Let’s do it again!

wow Kevin takes some great candid shots..

Practicing the kiss, or is jim biting my ear?

Before I leave I give the coordinator all of our things for the reception – guestbook, picture frame, some favors, etc, and go over more details with her. She says she’ll just take the suitcase with everything in it. I stupidly ask if she’ll give it back, I knew she’d give it back, I meant to ask when or if I should come get it from her or something, so she laughs and says she thought she would keep it for herself. Hey I wasn’t working on a lot of sleep there. I ask her about fantasmic and she said she still didn’t know but promised to call me as soon as she heard anything – either way. Then I think, I won’t be seeing her again until our wedding day, weird!!

Everyone had gone back to the hotel except Jim and the groomsmen. They were all being really funny and said they decided to go to pleasure island together while wearing their groomsmen shirt and form a superhero team. They take turns and say “I’m Josh” “I’m Chris” “and I’m Corey”……. “and we’re… the groomsmen!” Since Jim’s face is on the top of the shirt, Jeff decides that with their powers combined they would form the head of Jim (just like the old voltron toys). Then they all get in position and do the faces that they have on the t-shirt. It was hilarious I was cracking up. Of course that’s the one thing I didn’t get on tape or pictures of!! We all go back to the lobby and head in different directions, we’ll see them later at the dessert party.

 

[Mary626]

Jim and me head back to our room where Jo and her Jim are waiting for us. We thought we would grab a bite to eat together, we decide to head to beaches n’ cream. Right as we’re about to step out the door, Jenny, Lisa, and Lynne arrive. Lisa had brought a gift for me, she thought that maybe they would throw me a surprise bachelorette party but then figured there was too many other things going on. It was a nice thought but I was glad they had decided against it. But Lisa had brought me some embarrassing bachelorette gifts and told me to open it there in front of everyone as she explained what it was for and how to use it. Now I don’t consider myself prudish or anything, but lisa knows how to say things that can make me blush! Of course she loves grand-standing and really puts on a show whenever people are around her, so I knew she was trying to embarrass me on purpose. It worked! Jim seemed highly amused by the gifts and I told him not to get any ideas lol.

After about a half an hour with them visiting, I tell them we’re starving and want to head to lunch before Jo & Jim have to leave, so they head out. We get ready to leave again and then Jim’s mother knocks on the door to give me something and to pick up her dress that had been gownsteamed. She visits for a while talking about the day, but finally I am starving and I know Jo and jim really do have to get going so I tell her we are actually going to lunch and we would talk to her later. I knew I was being a little forceful about it and felt bad, so I kept saying sorry, but I was really hungry and in a hurry!


Finally we head to Beaches n’ Cream. I had been so excited about going here as I planned our trip! Since I had been dieting so long, me and my sister Jenny would always talk about going to Beaches n’ Cream and getting the Kitchen Sink when we got to WDW. Of course I was waiting until after the wedding to do that – I wanted to make sure I could still fit into my wedding dress on Monday!! I order a hamburger and some fruit, nothing too big. Jim orders some chili, that wouldn’t’ have been my first choice. It was a pleasant lunch and we got to talk to Jo and Jim a little bit more before they left for their hotel. My lack of sleep was really catching up with me though and I think I kept dazing out through half of the meal. They say goodbye and we will see them at the dessert party!

Jim and I head back to our room for a desperately needed nap. As we’re preparing to sleep, Jim asks if I’m mad at his mother. Argh!!! I ask him “what reason would I POSSIBLY have to be mad at your mother? I was HUNGRY and Jo and Jim needed to leave soon!!”. We dropped it and fell asleep.

I fall asleep around 12:20, dead tired. A mere 20 minutes later I wake up to the sounds of a violin in the courtyard by the gazebo. I look out the window and they are preparing for a wedding, awww how romantic. I was hoping I would catch one in progress while at the yacht club! Looks like they are just setting up and tuning the violin though, so I try to continue my nap but then Jim’s mother calls. Jim had left a message earlier telling her not to call because we’d be taking a nap, and she called back after she saw that he had called but didn’t listen to the message lol. So I stay up and watch the wedding. It was really beautiful and the music was making me choke up! In just 2 days time I would be married too, wow.

so pretty!

The ceremony over, I try again to continue my nap. Just as I’m about to fall asleep, my coordinator calls with details about the dessert party.

She sounds very stressed out and in a hurry and tells me that MGM wants to put my dessert party in an indoor location. In case it rains they didn’t want the food to get wet, and if the show is still going on they’ll walk us all over to the balcony in the amphitheatre for the show. She says it’s the best room they have and that the MGM team is great – they are her favorite people to work with she says. They want to give us a whole hour with the food though, so instead of going in at 7:30 she wants everyone to go in at 7. Sounds great to me but I have no idea how I’m going to communicate this to our 47 or so guests. I ask her a lot of questions and details to make sure I understand it. She says if I can’t get a hold of everyone they can come in later, that they would have a guide on hand to wait for them. Sounds good but I’m not sure if it’s the best thing to do since I told my guests to look for me and jim, I didn’t want to just abandon my guests and hope for the best, so I kind of ask how they would know to go to the guide since I told them to look for me, and she kind of snaps a little and says “didn’t you tell them to go to the far right turnstyles?” Ouch, I was like “yes I told them that but I also told them to look for me”. I hear her on a walky-talky communicating with someone, and then she explains to me that she’s in the middle of someone elses wedding and would call me back in about 15 minutes. Geesh. I appreciate she called me but I wouldn’t have asked so many questions had I known she was in the middle of a wedding, no wonder she sounded so stressed.

I go through the list I have of our wedding guests and how I can get ahold of them. I call Sue – who LUCKILY is with about half of the guests at the sci-fi dine in theatre at that time and explain the situation. That was incredibly fortunate as she was with people who’s cell phone numbers I didn’t have. That took care of 20 people, and she says she will try to reach Donna, Bob, and Erica who’s cell phone number I didn’t have.


I call my family, who it turned out were ALSO at the sci-fi dine in theatre, in a different part of the restaurant, (not planned at all, they just felt like having lunch there, had no idea everyone else was there – kind of funny). I tell them the situation, and that takes care of mom dad, jenny Kevin, lisa and lynne. I call Jo and get ahold of her right away. Okay, so far so good.

Jim sends out a “general alert” text message saying “Fantasmic is now at 7” to everyone in his phone book – everyone in his phone book got the message, including people in California that had no idea what he was talking about lol. He also calls Corey who says he will pass it on to Jeff and Stevie, okay still going good.

My aunt pat and aunt dolly didn’t have cell phones but were staying at the yacht club, I call and ask for their room, leave a message, and try to slowly and simply explain the change of schedule and ask them to call me when they got the message. I will try calling them again if they don’t call me back in a while.

Jim calls Aris, who was with his girlfriend sarah and their friend/jim’s friend autumn. He leaves a voice mail and another text message, hopefully they will call us back soon.

That leaves uncle jane and james, who noone has any way of getting hold of, will just have to hope they come in time,.

Oh no, Clare and David!! They were barely going to make it to the party in time as it was, since their flight landed around 5 or so, they were flying in from London! I have her international cell phone and I know she was staying at one of the budget hotels – can’t remember if it was an all star or pop. I think it was all star, not sure which one, but which one made most sense? Okay the movies. I call all star movies and speak to an incredibly helpful and friendly lady. I try clare’s current last name, then try her maiden name, whoo it was there! Okay I was right, all star movies, I leave a long detailed message to the poor lady, she repeats it back, and they say they will give her the message when she checks in.

I decide to also try to leave a message on her voice mail. It was an international cell phone, so my cell phone won’t call it. I have no idea how expensive it is, so I call front desk and ask how much a phone call to a UK cell phone would be. They don’t know either, but say if it’s short it shouldn’t be too bad. Gee thanks. So I call from the hotel and get a voice mail, but it doesn’t say who’s voice mail I reached, so I’m not even sure if it’s hers. I try to speak quickly but clearly, and explain the change in schedule and where to go, etc, and end the message with “if this isn’t clare’s voice mail then you probably have no idea what I’m talking about, have a good day!”. When we got the bill at check-out, this phone call cost $24.00 for a one minute message!! Glad we left it though since they heard the message right as they landed and went straight from the airport to MGM!

My aunt pat calls me back and says they got the message, and jim gets a hold of aris and everyone. Whoooh!!!

That was amazing! I was very proud of our combined efforts! The only people left in the dark were uncle james/aunt jane, and I wasn’t sure yet if Sue got ahold of donna/bob/and Erica. And I was nervous we might have let someone slip through the cracks.

Our coordinator calls back and apologized for rushing through the last conversation, but I was glad she called me when I did, since it worked out so perfectly with sue being with half the guests. She explains that the MGM guides were really good at spotting guests that looked confused or that might be part of our group, I explained that I had managed to get ahold of almost everyone except for maybe 5 guests, so it might work out after all. Now if it just wouldn’t rain out on fantasmic, it might actually work out better and give us one half hour more at the party!


I knew I had no chance of falling back asleep with all the adrenaline coursing through my system, so I try to wake up fully. I’m thinking caffeine might be a great idea. I’m at a point where I’m so tired it’s actually starting to physically hurt. My eyes are bloodshot and keep blurring up as I get dressed. Just great! I get dressed and keep trying to clear my contacts but my eyes keep blurring up, which happens when I don’t get enough sleep and try to put my contacts in. I try refresh tears, saline, and putting in a new pair, nothing works, so I just tell myself to deal with it, even though I couldn’t’ see that well.

We both get dressed and head to my mom’s room. She had bought me the mickey/Minnie wedding plushes, too cute!! I put them in my wheely suitcase and we all head to the lobby.

The coordinator had contacted me a week or two prior and asked if I wanted to add water and soda to the dessert party. I knew they would have coffee’s there for the guests and just kind of assumed they might have tap water, but I guess not. When I calculated the price of the beverage service, I opted against it. I did kind of ask “if we bring a few water bottles in would that be okay?” and she had told us that it would be fine, so I was going to go with that ! I go to the gift shop and pick out 10 huge things of dasani bottled water (the ones that are like half a liter or something). Luckily I had thought to bring a wheely-suitcase to the giftshop and packed them all in to that, it just fit!! I figured guests could pour the water from the dasani into the coffee cups. I told the cashier I was really thirsty, she laughed. Total for the dasani was about 30 dollars, much better then the 150 or whatever it might have been for the beverage service!

I go back to the lobby where Jim is waiting. Jenny walks down and sits by us. I notice she has a new Disney t-shirt on, but with my blurred eyes I couldn’t read what it said. But I thought it looked cute so I say “nice shirt”.

About ten minutes later my Aunt Pat and Aunt Dolly walk by and say hello. They’re both wearing a Disney t-shirt too, how cute, so I say “I like your shirt!” and I don’t even realize it’s the same one Jenny is wearing. My Aunt Pat says something like “yeah I wonder who gave them to us”, I then realize they’re both wearing the same shirt, so I look at it more closely and realize it says “Mary & Jim’s Wedding at Walt Disney World, April 24th, 2006”. Awwwww how sweet, it was a complete surprise!! I guess my mother had contacted Jim’s mother about the idea and they worked together and ordered these shirts for everyone to wear. It was so sweet!!

Mom, Dad, and Kevin all come to the lobby and they’re all wearing the same shirt too. It made me feel so special that everyone was wearing a shirt with our names on it, and it was so adorable!!

About twenty minutes before we’re going to head to MGM, the metal clasp holding my sweater together at the top broke. It wasn’t that bad, but I felt more comfortable with it closed so I asked Sue to bring some safety pins. She brought a few, but it looked really ugly. I went to the gift shop and looked for something like a broach or a pin to wear. It looked a little weird but it would do.

We all head to the Friendship boat to go to MGM. Everyone was wearing their t-shirts and it was just so cute! I was so excited to be on our way to our dessert party!!


Me right as the clasp breaks on my green sweater

Jim sitting back and watching me do all the work

Jenny & Kevin wearing their shirts, too cute!

Coming up: the long awaited Fantasmic Dessert Party!!

 

[Mommy Poppins]

Another great installment!!!! Love it!!

PS - I had the same problem with my contacts while I was in Florida. One night at MGM I absolutely couldn't read anything!

 

[Luvndisney]

forst of all congratulations on your wedding and i am loving your recaps. It really looks like you had a fun time and thats all tha matters.

I do have one question for ya...maybe I missed it, but did your coordinator say how long the construction on Italy Isola was going to last?

 

[Mary626]

Another great installment!!!! Love it!!

PS - I had the same problem with my contacts while I was in Florida. One night at MGM I absolutely couldn't read anything!

Thank you! Sorry to hear that you had problems with your contacts too!

It's kind of ironic that I had problems seeing and Jim didn't. He had gotten laser eye surgery about 2 months ago, and I was thinking about getting it done but I "didn't want any problems seeing while in Florida". Jim's eyes were perfectly fine the whole time!

 

[Mary626]

forst of all congratulations on your wedding and i am loving your recaps. It really looks like you had a fun time and thats all tha matters.

I do have one question for ya...maybe I missed it, but did your coordinator say how long the construction on Italy Isola was going to last?

Thank you I am glad you are enjoying the TR!

I'm not sure how long the construction was going to last for. She had told me the construction was scheduled to be done on April 19th or something, but the bridge to the right "didn't pass inspection", so they had to put a wall around it to block it off until they could fix it. I'm guessing the wall is probably down by now, but am not sure.

 

[kellyf2626]

Another great installment! I love reading about your trip...especially with the pics!

I laughed out loud when I read that the guy didn't understand ice coffee!! My family and I were down in St. Augustine, FL recently and they looked at us like we were crazy when we tried to order it! I am from NH...so I didn't know if ice coffee was just a northeast thing? But, now I have to assume it is just Florida that doesn't get it?! You would think, with it being so hot down there, they would be more familiar with it!

 

[princessblueeyzes]

great installments of your tr- i absolutely love them and of course the pictures. You sound like a fun couple!

 

[JJClemson]

Mary, I am loving reading your TR! I have been stressing & worrying (like every other bride) about whether or not my family and friends would have a good time. Your detailed report and wonderful pictures have definitely put me at ease. Congrats to both of you I cannot wait to read more!

Jen

 

[Philadisney]

just wanted to say how much i'm loving your report! i come home each evening, make some tea, put on a disney CD and read your latest installment - it's helping me get through the next week before we leave for our trip (the last few days are sooo hard)! thanks for the great writing and pictures!

 

[JonetteA]

I am so glad I caught up! I can't wait to hear more!!

 

[Mary626]

Kellyf2626 - that is so funny! I feel validated lol! I felt kind of dumb because he was looking at me like I was crazy to want ice in my coffee!

Princessblueeyez - thank you so much that is so sweet!

JJclemson - thank you so much! I'm sure your friends and family are going to have an amazing time!! Everyone who came keeps raving about our wedding and the people that didn't come seem to be regretting it! Your wedding will be wonderful!

Philadisney - I am so glad you are enjoying the report! That is so funny i was doing almost the exact same thing a week before my wedding I know what you mean about the last few days being the hardest - it's like time just STOPS! I can't wait to hear about your wedding, I am sure it will be perfect!

Thank you to everyone who is reading this report, it felt kind of silly at first to be writing about myself so much, but as long as people seem to be enjoying it I will continue It's fun for me to go through and relive it all as I type it up, I keep remembering all these details that I had almost forgotten about!

I just finished the rest of Day 2 and will post it in a few minutes.

Thanks again everyone!