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 were 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 dont 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 were 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 Jims 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 wouldnt 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 were preparing to sleep, Jim asks if Im 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 Jims mother calls. Jim had left a message earlier telling her not to call because wed be taking a nap, and she called back after she saw that he had called but didnt 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 Im 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 didnt want the food to get wet, and if the show is still going on theyll walk us all over to the balcony in the amphitheatre for the show. She says its 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 Im 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 cant 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 Im not sure if its the best thing to do since I told my guests to look for me and jim, I didnt 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 didnt 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 shes in the middle of someone elses wedding and would call me back in about 15 minutes. Geesh. I appreciate she called me but I wouldnt 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 whos cell phone numbers I didnt have. That took care of 20 people, and she says she will try to reach Donna, Bob, and Erica whos cell phone number I didnt 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 didnt 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 dont call me back in a while.
Jim calls Aris, who was with his girlfriend sarah and their friend/jims 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 cant 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 clares 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 wont 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 dont know either, but say if its short it shouldnt be too bad. Gee thanks. So I call from the hotel and get a voice mail, but it doesnt say whos voice mail I reached, so Im not even sure if its 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 isnt clares voice mail then you probably have no idea what Im 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 wasnt 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 wouldnt 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. Im thinking caffeine might be a great idea. Im at a point where Im so tired its 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 dont 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 couldnt see that well.
We both get dressed and head to my moms 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 coffees 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 couldnt 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. Theyre both wearing a Disney t-shirt too, how cute, so I say I like your shirt! and I dont even realize its the same one Jenny is wearing. My Aunt Pat says something like yeah I wonder who gave them to us, I then realize theyre both wearing the same shirt, so I look at it more closely and realize it says Mary & Jims Wedding at Walt Disney World, April 24th, 2006. Awwwww how sweet, it was a complete surprise!! I guess my mother had contacted Jims 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 theyre 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 were going to head to MGM, the metal clasp holding my sweater together at the top broke. It wasnt 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!!