twojo21 wedding trip report

[twojo21]

alright i have been married for 5 months now & moved cross county 3 months ago i think its finally time for me to do my wedding trip report. our wedding was the most amazing day of our lives it was beautiful, fun & full of love and our families are still raving about it. a disney wedding takes alot of time from the planning visit we did, to the emails & phone calls to our coordinator, vendors & reverend, the vacation planning, newsletters for our guests, paying the bill, etc. but in the end it was all worth it disney did a great job & i wouldnt change a thing about my wedding day it was perfect.

the characters:
tasha = the bride
my husband greg = the groom
v & b = my parents (who were also celebrating their 30th anniversary)
m & j = gregs mom & stepdad/usher
d = gregs dad
jenny = matron of honor
aunt joyce & linda = readers
great great aunt lilly = vip
and all our other great family & friends

well the planning began back in 2004 after we got engaged christmas eve. we debated a wedding in illinois but decided we wanted something different & intimate. we did a site visit at dftw on our november vacation & instantly decided that was our dream wedding. since we knew who we wanted there, we knew to book a custom wedding (guests more than 20). at first we looked at seabreeze pointe but my husband liked the yacht club gazebo since it was more private & away from the sidewalks. i liked all the rose bushes. we wanted an under sea theme for our reception & looked at the yacht club ballroom, living seas & ariels. we loved the light bright airyness of ariels & the aquarium near the dance floor. living seas is also very pretty but we wanted an afternoon/evening reception followed by fireworks so LS didnt work. we also booked marthas vineyard for our prereception since we wanted time to take photos the day of.

we knew we wanted fireworks to end the evening & kristi our sales manager told us about private firework dessert parties we were sold. we originally had france booked but got bumped to uk lower for our dessert party. uk lower has an awesome view on the water though so in the end it worked out for the best.

in the beginning/planning stages i was addicted to, got so much help & ideas here on the DIS theknot.com, disneywedding.com, yourfairytale.com & allearsnet.com which are all great sites to check out why youre planning.

then we had to decide on a date. 21 is a special number to us so we knew we wanted to be married on the 21st. we looked at november with the food & wine festival, january for its low cost & march since greg would be on break from college. in the end we decided on march 21st for our wedding & our major events march 18-22. my parents, gregs mom & us paid for pieces of our wedding. my parents paid for our guests accomodations, gregs mom our guests 1 day tickets & our rehearsal dinner & us for the wedding & extras. since we had that all decided, we sent out save the date cards to the family & friends we were inviting. we made our own stds with gold stock paper, white paper, personalized ribbon & rose patterened magnets. we included our website address, dates & a photo at the yacht club.

 

[Skylarr29]

Great trip report so far. I can't wait to read more!!

 

[twojo21]

some photos from our site visit:

the yacht club

the yacht club wedding gazebo

marthas vineyard (prereception location)

ariels at the beach club, aquarium

dining area

france area for dessert party. however we ended up having uk lower as our dessert party location which i highly recommend since its right on the water & private, it was more than enough room for us 50 plus the tables we had set up.

 

[twojo21]

at this time i also booked my girls group spa treatment at the grand floridian spa with the manager for 2 days before the wedding. we had decided we wanted to do seperate events with our wedding party & parents to say thanks & just relax. us girls me, my mom, mil, jenny, aunt joyce, linda & great great aunt lilly would go the spa for massages & nails and the guys would go fishing. we also arranged lunch for afterwords which i booked at the 180 day out at cinderellas royal table for us girls & the biergarten at epcot for the guys.

to help our guests/family plan their trips we created a website & sent our 2 newsletters. this was such a good idea as they answered pretty much every question someone had. the first newsletter was about the wedding & our planned events. the second newsletter was an faq with questions like which airline should i fly to florida with phone numbers & pricing, magic express info & park guide.

first newsletter

second newsletter

in august 2005 i began shopping for my wedding dress. i had looked online & through catalogs but when faced with all the beautiful gowns in the salons it was hard to make a choice. on my third outing with my mom & fmil i found the dress at house of brides. it was on a mannequin & it caught my eye, it was light, with lace & gems on the bodice/stomach area. i tried it on & i just knew this was it, i told my mom this is my wedding dress.

we also did a planning session in november 2005 to finalize details, taste test, do our epics with randy & have some fun. i felt the trip was very worthwhile not just for some relaxtion but to finalize details & meet our coordinator. we had some custom items on our menu which chef steve at the yacht club did a great job with like our pierogis.

terrace at rainforest cafe, this is where we would have our welcome dinner in march. i worked with laurie through rfc online to book this private, group menu dinner.

some of our epics at the polynesian.

tasting at ariels

while at wdw i also bought everyones christmas gift which was a mickey ornament to represent their upcoming trips.

at this time i also ordered & mailed out our wedding invitations. i bought them through alltheinvitations.com & found the most awesome gazebo, rose & dove themed invite

we mailed them out mid november & made our own rsvp's on blank cards i ordered with birchcraft with 3 nights accomodation, 1 night accomodation options & sorry but we cant attend... & a blank line for any note or special request. we made the rsvp deadline the first week in february so our guests had time to secure vacation time in the new year.

 

[Cinderella16]

Great trip report so far. I love all the pictures.

 

[lpizzuro123]

I just love your trip report so far - can't wait till more gets added. The pictures are great also. They really add to the report.

Linda

 

[twojo21]

we made/put together alot of our own items for the wedding. we made personalized tote bags for our guests welcome bags. i had accumulated numerous items for our guests to welcome them including water bottles, snack bags like pretzels, mini muffins, wedding candle, palm tree journal, sunscreen, disney postcard book (i gave 1 prestamped postcard to each family/couple), itiniary & welcome card, toys for the kids including mickey playing cards, water goggles/floaties & disney books.

we also made our own centerpieces & placecards. which included 2 glass bowls for each table filled with shells, water & floating candles. in the middle we had a silver tray that held each tables theme & name sake. ie a lighthouse, stones & boat in a bottle for the lighthouse table. for the placecards i bought small silver frames in bulk & printed a picture on each with the tables theme & the persons name.

i also put together our own dessert party decor just some simple fish cylinders with floating candles inside. we also ended up buying glow sticks for everyone to use at our dessert party at epcot after our reception.

for our unity candle we bought a large antique candle holder from a local antiques mall. we then bought 2 family candles with small roses in each. for our unity candle we bought a white candle & made our own.

i loved making everything personalized so i made our own reception menus using an invite kit on clearance and since we also had some prewedding events i bought some plain paper & made personalized invites for our rehearsal dinner, ladies & guys events.

our reception menu

prewedding event invites

in january i booked the guys fishing excursion for the seven seas lagoon through wdw-play at the 90 day mark. at this time i also booked towncars for the rehearsal & dinner which we had scheduled for 3/18, the girls & guys events sunday morning 3/19 & a towncar for our parents & wedding party on the wedding day so they could be at the yacht club early to get dressed. i booked the towncars through mears in orlando & from the alstar movies to the yacht club & other resorts on property its $15 each way. which was a bargain in comparison to other quotes i had gotten.

we also had my bridal shower in february in our hometown in illinois, which was so nice. we had it at a french bistro cafe with soup & sandwiches, my mil got this awesome white fluffy cake & all our female family & a few friends came. my mom & mil did a great job with the shower (my moh lived in CA) so they handled everything, im very lucky. we played bridal bingo & a couples trivia game & we got so many nice items from the shower for our home.

 

[DisneyFairy19]

Great trip report and I love the pics

 

[twojo21]

in the last 2 months i also ordered our marriage license via mail through a wedding for you inc. out of florida, this saved us time & was so convinient. we filled out the application & sent our check, they mailed it back to us for notary signatures & we sent it back for the final certifications & it was then mailed to our reverend.

during this time we also paid the balance off our wedding which was such a relief, thats the only thing about our experience with disney that was stressful getting the total bill. but every dime was worth it for our magical day. as some may have noticed we provided accomodations for our guests at the allstar movies, this made it possible for everyone we loved to come. this portion was covered by my generous parents which i in turned treated to the wilderness lodge for their 8 day stay as an extra thank you, which my dad loved he's very woodsy.

we originally booked rev. jack day but he called a week before the wedding stating he had a personal issue & had rescheduled reverend tim herring to perform our ceremony. this spazzed me out at first but we had written our own ceremony & vows incorporating the beliefs we have, our family & love for eachother in all the words so i knew what we wanted word for word. i received a call from reverend tim & we went over our ceremony with him which i also emailed to him. in the end reverend tim did a great job with our ceremony & was very personable, i defintely recommend reverend tim herring.

in the last 2 weeks before our wedding i was so excited, i couldnt concentrate on anything at work or school. i finalized all our arrangements with disney ie floral, times of events, everyones reservations, welcome bag delivary note, etc. made sure everyone was booked on the magic express, confirmed the guys rental car, my moms & i flight, talked to randy & emailed him my must take photo list, talked to stan at stvs, emailed rainforest cafe on our welcome dinner, booked our custom cakes for the rehearsal dinner & an anniversary cake for my parents at dinner with them 1 night, confirmed our adrs, tours, confirmed our honeymoon details, etc. etc. etc. it was finally time to get married at disney!

 

[DIP626]

in the last 2 months i also ordered our marriage license via mail through a wedding for you inc. out of florida, this saved us time & was so convinient. we filled out the application & sent our check, they mailed it back to us for notary signatures & we sent it back for the final certifications & it was then mailed to our reverend.

This is a great idea! Do you have a website for this or a contact number?

 

[twojo21]

here's the link: http://www.aweddingforyou.com/forminst.htm

 

[Laurafoster]

Great report so far! Cant wait to see more pics! Im getting married at the YCG and having lower UK for my illuminations for my wedding!

 

[twojo21]

it was wednesday march 15th and me, greg & my parents were headed to florida. it was so excited, i almost forget to pack my veil which i had set out in the hall. thats defintely a tip remember to review your luggage & make sure you packed everything, i also brought print outs of everything, our reservations, guest reservations, dftw & vendors contact numbers, our ceremony, etc. we had decided we wanted to arrive in advance & have some fun vacationing before everyone else arrived & the wedding festivities began. greg & my dad drove a rented van down to florida with our welcome bags, our centerpieces, rd gifts, my dress & most of our luggage. this was something we disagreed on at first, i thought it would be easier to ship everything & greg thought it would be easier to transport our items & more cost effective to do it himself. he won & they had started their drive the night before, i gave him a hundred kisses & i love you's and told them to drive safe. my mom & i went out for soup that night & then watched romantic girly movies at home, it was alot of fun. my mom & i flew down to orlando via southwest airlines who were so sweet & sang "another one bites the dust" as we exited the plane over the speakers. then we had the task of taking magic express & checking in. the bus took about 40 minutes & we arrived at the wilderness lodge first where my mom checked in & was upgraded to a concierge honeymoon suite for their 30th anniversary. which was so nice of disney! my mom was tickled pink with the news & we brought her luggage up, it was a nice big room on the 6th floor with a king bed, a huge 2 person tub & a balcony with views of cinderella's castle in the distance. she was tired from the trip so i took a taxi with my carry on to the yacht club to check in. we had booked a concierge room & requested a gazebo view & disney delivered. we were on the 4th floor on the right side of the U surrounding the garden & gazebo, it was a beautiful room & i loved the view, we also had a nice small bouquet of flowers welcoming us.

our room at the yacht club

and to my surprise at check in greg had beat me there. my dad & him had taken a short break on their drive but still managed to get to the yacht club before me. they had ran into traffic that morning in georgia, had dropped off the centerpieces to rosie at the floral dept for our reception & had dropped of the welcome bags to the manager chris at the allstar movies to be handed out to guests later that week on the 18th & 19th. in the months previous i had a note put on everyones reservation that they had a welcome bag to be given at check in. on each bag i put that guests name, reservation # & check in date. definetly do this if youre dropping off & doing welcome bags. that night we were all kind of tired from travelling so we went back to the wilderness lodge to meet my mom & the 4 of us had dinner at whispering canyon cafe before greg & i headed back to the yacht club to relax in the hot tub.

the next day we woke up & had breakfast from the concierge lounge. then my parents came over & the guys had their tux fitting with carolyn allens. everything fit perfect & greg & my dad looked so sharp & handsome. i definetly recommend carolyn allens for tux rentals, the tuxes were nice, comfortable per the guys & it was so convinient. after this we walked around the yacht club & showed my dad where we would be getting married & the reception location. we also walked over to the boardwalk explored & just enjoyed the breeze from crescent lake. then the 4 of us headed to epcot to for lunch we ate at chefs de france which was really good. i had the quiche & champagne, greg & my dad both got the lunch special with the oh so yummy french onion soup & the fancy grilled ham & cheese sandwich along with dessert and sampled some french beer and my mom got crepes. the theming is nice & we watched the performers through the glass window in france ws.

after lunch we explored world showcase & went on all the rides. fyi if you have a sensitive stomach dont go on mission space.

that evening we went to ohana's to celebrate my parents 30th wedding anniversary. they had honeymooned in hawaii so i thought ohana would be a fun place to celebrate. i ordered them a special cake for the occasion too. the food here was good too but not many vegan options for my mom like i had expected she ate tons of pineapple though. our reservation was at 8:20 & we were able to catch the mk fireworks while at dinner through the windows & the piped in music which was neat. after dinner my parents went back to the wilderness lodge & greg & i headed to the extra magic hours at mk to hit some rides.

 

[BrideToBe82]

Love the trip report...everything looks amazing!

 

[Eeyore's Tailfinder]

I have to say, I love reading your trip report

I love the fact that you've done all the little welcome bags, and personalized everything... I'm very much like that, so envision me and mine and DBF's wedding to be much of the same

Keep em coming! I love the photos!

 

[twojo21]

on saturday we went to mgm & fit in almost every ride/attraction before taking the boat back to the yacht club for our rehearsal.

we had arranged towncars for our parents & wedding party to get them to the yc. we had a quick bite at the concierge & got changed for the evening. disney had set out some plastic garden chairs at the gazebo & some water for our rehearsal my coordinator couldnt make it since she had a wedding but her assistant amanda was there to walk us through everything. the order of us walking, my aunts got to practice their readings & we went over the ceremony with reverend tim & the music with amanda. this all took about 20-30 minutes.

after this we headed to whispering canyon at the wilderness lodge for our rehearsal dinner. we choose whispering canyon because the foods good, the atmosphere is fun & it was casual in comparison to the wedding day. we also liked having it at the wilderness lodge since we love the outdoors, anyways i had booked the dinner with group reservations for 15 & had ordered a specialty cake. i arranged it with my coordinator for the rehearsal dinner to be under our master account so my mils check could be used to pay for the meal in advance.

greg & i with his mom & stepdad

dinner at whispering canyon was great! this is an awesome location for a fun rehearsal dinner, they made such a big deal out of us getting married.

we had salad & nachos as an appetizer. everyone ordered different things but it was all so good, i had the garlic pasta dish, greg had steak, my parents had the chicken, my aunt had the meatloaf, etc. we also handed out gifts at our rehearsal dinner to our parents & wedding party to say thanks. we gave our parents framed family crests, personalized hankies & a personal gift each, along with wedding albums after the wedding, personalized pillows for my aunts & hankies, a gold jewelry set for my moh, golf stuff for our usher, etc.

my mom & linda with their gifts.

everyone raved about the good food & everyone was stuffed after we had our chocolate rehearsal dinner cake. at the end of our meal our announcer rang the bell & had us come up to the front of the restaurant to announce our wedding tuesday, had everyone spin their napkins & show everyone our wedding kiss, the whole evening was a blast!

 

[Maggimus]

Aww so sweet... dont you just love whispering canyon cafe, and the wilderness lodge in general! We will be eating there before our wedding as well- cant wait!

I cant wait to read more-- and i love the photos!

 

[Gradar1]

I am absolutely loving your trip report--the pictures are great, and I can't wait to read more!!!

 

[kimnkel]

I am love, love, loving this! And do you know what the absolute best part of your report is? The absolute BEST part of your report is hearing how excited you were, how APPRECIATIVE you were of everything ("I had a shower, my mom and MIL did a great job, I got lots of nice gifts") and how thoughtful you were in adding all those little touches to the entire trip

You, sweet , not only had the wedding of your dreams, you gave other people memories they can keep forever, as well!

God bless!

 

[scottsbride]

great trip report! love the pics!!!