Vanessa- figmentfan814 ~ Happily Ever Wedding & 10th Anniversary VR Brunch #1 Added 8-10

[BaBeeCee14]

Absolutely beautiful pictures Vanessa!!

 

[joleen76]

Your photo shoots were just beautiful!!! Congrats!

 

[Goldeelox9]

I already have Paul on request, I requested him when I made my reservations. I have seen a few other brides pictures that looked amaziing and Paul was their photographer. His shots are amazing! I was actually hoping yours was another photographer that way I could say I wanted Paul or whoever you had. Also did you tip him?

 

[orangetiggs]

oh is that paul looper?? i have him on request as well after summers pics

 

[Goldeelox9]

Summers were great, now seeing these! WOW if we get him we will be sooo lucky!

 

[orangetiggs]

i know!! i have 5 months to wait! its listed on my beo so i'm hoping!!

 

[Lisella]

Your pictures are beautiful. And I love your bouquet. I hope you have some pictures of it when you get to that part of your TR.

Very much enjoying your report so far. And I agree with the others - awesome job on the welcome bags, you were absolutley an amazing host. Looking forward to reading the rest

 

[pink_tink8i8]

WOW! your portraits are GORGEOUS! Seriously, I haven't seen that kind of variety of shots at the castle before. Just fantastic! I can already tell from your TR that your wedding was just magical. You have such great attention to detail!

 

[Malefi_Stitch]

After everyone raving about Paul, I have a pretty good idea who I'm going to request as our photographer when we meet our sales consultant...
Thanks!!!

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Your MK and MGM pictures are beautiful! I love the BTMR pictures and you had so many great castle shots. Love the Hollywood Blvd and New York street shots, too! So unique!

 

[camara381]

your pictures are so beautiful!!!!

 

[figmentfan814]

WOW!! Those Magic Kingdom shots are AMAZING!!!!!!!!

your pictures are so beautiful!!!!

Absolutely beautiful pictures Vanessa!!

Your photo shoots were just beautiful!!! Congrats!

Thank you

OMG. Those were simply beautiful, that first one with your bodice and bouquet is mesmerizing.
If I may say, it also looked grueling (not your dress, the entire shoot!)
How long did it take? I see where you started it was not light yet, and then it was full day light. You did not look it at all, but I would have been exhausted!
Thank you for sharing!

The one with my bouquet was a last minute add-on as we were leaving the park to head back to the hotel. I mentioned how the flowers didn’t arrive early, so Randy wasn’t able to get a lot of shots of them so Paul offered to take a couple and it was awesome! We met Paul at 6:00 a.m. and didn’t get back to our hotel until a little after 9:00 a.m. We had to take a nap before we headed to the parks that day!

I already have Paul on request, I requested him when I made my reservations. I have seen a few other brides pictures that looked amaziing and Paul was their photographer. His shots are amazing! I was actually hoping yours was another photographer that way I could say I wanted Paul or whoever you had. Also did you tip him?

To be honest, I didn’t think about it, so no. Maybe we should have We did get Marion and her assistant gift cards, but I didn’t tip any of the Disney staff.

oh is that paul looper?? i have him on request as well after summers pics i know!! i have 5 months to wait! its listed on my beo so i'm hoping!!

I’m not sure what his last name is, but I know when I called to request Paul they knew exactly who I wanted. I requested directly through Disney Photography too, so I knew that they had it on file.

Your pictures are beautiful. And I love your bouquet. I hope you have some pictures of it when you get to that part of your TR.

Very much enjoying your report so far. And I agree with the others - awesome job on the welcome bags, you were absolutley an amazing host. Looking forward to reading the rest

I was really pleased with the bouquet. I have some more detailed shots of it for the TR, so don’t worry. I am also having it preserved by Keepsake and I can’t wait to see it again! I was so excited to see the bags come together after I had the stuff hanging around the house for months and months

WOW! your portraits are GORGEOUS! Seriously, I haven't seen that kind of variety of shots at the castle before. Just fantastic! I can already tell from your TR that your wedding was just magical. You have such great attention to detail!

Thank you!

After everyone raving about Paul, I have a pretty good idea who I'm going to request as our photographer when we meet our sales consultant...
Thanks!!!

I definitely agree and make sure to touch base with Disney Photography too.

Your MK and MGM pictures are beautiful! I love the BTMR pictures and you had so many great castle shots. Love the Hollywood Blvd and New York street shots, too! So unique!

I was so excited to get shots in all the different places. We literally walked through the park stopping where we wanted to take shots at MGM. I guess they don’t allow vehicles on the streets there as late, so Paul had us walk in order to maximize our time there

 

[figmentfan814]

Here are the invitations that we used for the bridal tea. I know that the Wonderland Tea is something completely different, but I used the image anyway. None of my guests knew the difference and when I found it on the Creative Board I couldn't resist using it! We bought the tea bag favors on eBay and attached the Alice invite to the back, they looked like they were one thing with a front and back because I printed them to fit the squares.

I'll write more about the tea tomorrow, so stay tuned

 

[newyearsbride]

Those are so cute! "Plean-tea of love" so adorable!

 

[figmentfan814]

Those are so cute! "Plean-tea of love" so adorable!

I couldn't resist them when I saw them on eBay. I was originally going to hand them out at the tea, but I know when you book it they tell you that you're not allowed to hand out any gifts while you're in the restaurant. Why, I'm not sure though

 

[figmentfan814]

Before I get into the tea, I thought I should tell a side story about the adventures that the guys had when they went to see the Detroit Tigers play a spring training game against the Cleveland Indians that afternoon in Lakeland (about 35 minutes away from Disney.)

Kris had ordered 10 tickets through group reservations back in January. I actually was sitting next to him on the sofa when he did this and I was the one that gave him the group reservations number. They gave us a confirmation number and the tickets were supposed to be available at the box office once we got down there. We were paying the cost for all the guys involved with the wedding and then other guests that had decided to join were suppose to reimburse Kris once they got there. Besides the two groomsmen (that had already arrived), two of the bridesmaids husbands went, along with 4 of my cousins, my dad, and one of our hostesses (she is 12 and is not into getting dressed up fancy and would prefer to be with the guys.)

When they got to the stadium Kris called me (right before we were leaving POR) and asks for the confirmation number again. I give it to him and then he calls back a little while later when we’re leaving to say that they messed up our order and that they only held 1 ticket. The absurd thing is that why would group reservations allow you to buy only one ticket? They have a separate line for groups (which we called) and he had reserved 10 seats (because I overheard the entire conversation!)

There were still seats available, but they were only on the lawn. Kris and the guys were okay with that, but my family wasn’t going for it. Kris had offered the one seat to my cousin who had knee surgery the week before, but my dad and some of the other relatives were not willing to sit on the lawn, so they decided to head back to Disney. My other cousin and her husband and kids had met up with all of them down there (they live in the Villages, a retirement community between Ocala and Orlando). She even offered one of their seats, but they still didn’t want to stay.

So, my dad and cousins loaded back into their SUV and headed back towards Disney. Along the way they stopped for lunch and went shopping at the Outlets. Kris and the guys still had a great time at the game despite the confusion. I felt bad for him when he called because I know everyone gave him a hard time about it and it honestly wasn’t his fault!

Now back to the tea… when our bus arrived at the Magic Kingdom my mom and I had to run to go through security for the park because I needed to exchange my annual pass voucher, so I could purchase our Disney Dining Experience card. I would love to have seen my mom and I running from the bus up to the security check My mom took off her shoes and hat while we were running. It was about 20 minutes before the scheduled time for the tea.

We got through security within a few minutes and didn’t have to wait in line at Guest Services. I got everything taken care of and then we rushed out of the exit. Everyone else was just passing that area by the boat docks since they had to wait for my grandma’s scooter to get unloaded from the bus, so we had perfect timing. I wanted to get the DDE card because it would save us 20% at the tea and on a bill of over $250 that is a lot of money!

We then jumped on the resort monorail and headed to the Grand Floridian. Repeat pictures, sorry it just goes better with the flow of the story.

As we were getting off the monorail my maid of honor called because she was already there with her mom. I told her we were upstairs and she went to check us in at the lounge. Thankfully, by the time we all got downstairs with the scooter, etc. we were only about 5 minutes late. The tea room was almost deserted which was nice because we had a large area to ourselves. They had us divided at 3 separate tables.

My mom and I (I know someone else got a better shot of this picture, I just haven’t gotten it yet!)

Right to left: Bridesmaid- Amanda, Matron of Honor- Marquitta, Maid of Honor- Judi:

My grandma and I, she looks really little and frail in this picture, which is not like her at all!

My cousin and her daughter – Kylie (our flowergirl). When they found out that my mom and I were wearing hats earlier that week they decided to bring theirs with them and ended up carrying them on the plane:

Kylie’s sisters:

A couple of my aunts:

 

[figmentfan814]

You have to pre-select a menu for everyone at the tea and I had chosen the following:
Buckingham Palace - traditional tea sandwiches, scones and jam tarts complemented by fresh strawberries and cream, or a selection of freshly baked pastries, along with choice of tea. $19.50 per guest

Kylie had Mrs. Potts Tea - variety of tea sandwiches, tuna salad, ham and cheese, peanut butter and jelly on white bread. Mad Hatter tea (chocolate milk), followed by a choice of two pastries $10.50 per guest (after seeing that that my MOH didn’t eat anything from her tea except the pastries I wish I would have asked if she could have had this selection too because I think she would have enjoyed it more ; she’s a pretty picky eater.)

They come around at first and allow you to select the type of tea that you want to have served. I have been here one other time and fell in love with their Gardenview Blend which is exclusive to the tea room, so I had to have that again!

The first course was the tea sandwiches. These included a chicken salad mixture, egg salad, some form of pear, and a cucumber with water chestnut. There was also an onion quiche that was amazing!

They were all pretty yummy! Judi ended up passing around her plate and we all took seconds of our favorites.

The next course was a white grape scone with a jam tart.

Marquitta eating a second jam tart from Judi:

Then the final course- pastries!!!!

You also had a choice of strawberries and cream, only Marquitta at our table picked these. They looked great too, but who can resist chocolate?

My selections~ chocolate éclair and strawberry:

Swan creampuff:

Amaretto cheesecake and éclair:

Afterwards, everything had to be put on one bill in order to get the DDE discount. I had been saving cash and Disney dollars to pay for the ladies in the bridal party and immediate family.

Everyone else gave us some cash, here is Marquitta as the moneykeeper.

After we left the restaurant, I ran into the gift shop in the lobby to look for bridal ears since POR had not had any in the store there. I knew there are usually lots of wedding things there and I struck gold! The funny thing is that when I walked out I got chastised by my MOH because she was planning to buy them for me to wear at the Pirate and Princess party that night.

Our group ended up splitting up at this point, some people were going back to the hotel and five of us decided to head off to Epcot. We had brought our clothes with us and headed out to change. Here is where I need to add a side note, Kris’ luggage had not completely arrived yet after the fiasco with the Magical Express from the previous day. One of his bags (with his clothes) had finally arrived that morning, but a second that had wedding stuff in it had not (we thought this is where our wedding favors were the entire time.) I was originally suppose to bring the favors over to Franck’s after the tea and I was suppose to pick up the Mickey purse that Laura had dropped off for me. Since we didn’t have his bag yet, we just went to pick up the purse. Marquitta followed us over to Franck’s where we decided to change so she could take all of our bags back to the resort for us. On our way over to Franck’s and inside while we were picking up the purse:

Marquitta was going back to meet Patriece (the last bridesmaid) who had arrived and was going to check to see if our room was ready since I had checked in earlier that morning and it wasn’t cleaned yet. I had a room for the next two nights that Marquitta, Patriece, and I would be sharing. Marquitta’s husband was also sending her to pick up a new car at the airport (another bit of drama which will come into play later). Anyway, here are some pictures at Franck’s after we changed. Marquitta and her husband had been staying off property up until Saturday then he moved into a room with the guys and Marquitta moved into my room.

After I was changed sporting my new ears and my Disney bride shirt :

Marquitta then headed back to the Grand to meet some of my cousins that were waiting to go to the resort with her and then we headed towards the Polynesian to take the monorail to Epcot. In the meantime, Judi called because she had come over to Franck’s to find us and missed us because there was a wedding getting out at the same time. She ended up taking heading over to Epcot on her own and met us by the gates since she had her scooter with her and was already back on the monorail before we reached the Polynesian. When we got to the monorail station, I asked the attendant if we could ride in the front since this was Amanda and my cousin’s first trip to Disney:

My mom and cousin Sharon:

Still more to come that day… Epcot, Welcome Party Hay Ride, and Pirate and Princess Party!

 

[Goldeelox9]

What a fun day! Where did you get your Disney Bride shirt! I want one!!!!!!!

 

[baby_becky716]

Love the hats! I can't wait to hear more

 

[figmentfan814]

What a fun day! Where did you get your Disney Bride shirt! I want one!!!!!!!

I actually got the image from the Design board and we ironed it on to a plain shirt. My mom and dad did the iron on the night before in our hotel room because we all ran out of time back home If you want the image I can email it to you.