Wedding in Paradise Fall 2017 - complete 5/30 - Wedding TR linked!

[amalone1013]

Just a random detail...
Toasting Glasses​

On the day we were engaged, Zack had made reservations for the Fantasmic dining package at River Bell Terrace. The cast members were all super sweet to us. They brought us a special dessert in addition to the one that came with the meal, and a Disney parks bag with a present all wrapped up in it... Inside were two of these:

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I guess they made a trip to the shop next door Zack's mom mentioned using them for toasting, and I have been set on that since. We probably will let people toast with whatever they're drinking, but maybe we'll buy something for the head table? Not sure yet, but I'm excited about the glasses, even if they don't really go with Beauty and the Beast.

 

[DisneyFirefly]

I really like the idea of letting the bridesmaids pick their own dresses. We're doing it, too. The only direction I gave them was "black, and you're comfortable in it and with the price". I really don't know why people get so up in arms about others doing their weddings a little differently. We're currently planning to do the set up ourselves, but we might end up hiring a day-of coordinator (specifically for set up purposes). We haven't decided yet.

Anyway!

The blue dresses will be gorgeous! If you guys do take your DW honeymoon in the fall, definitely check out Food & Wine! It starts up in mid-September or so and is a really nice time.

 

[epcotcenter1982]

From now on, I'm just going to smile and nod, say 'we'll think about that,' and do what I want - which is advice my aunt gave me way back when. It'll just be easier now not worrying about if money comes with strings.

That's my husband's advice for dealing with his mother
I'm not sure his mother and I have ever really spoken other than hello, how's the weather etc because we only have visited them very occasionally.

He loves his parents and when his Nan was ill we raced straight over but he refuses to buy into their ridiculous dramas and stupid carry on about petty things. They fell squarely into the "won't travel" when it came to our wedding which made it much easier to plan our Escape wedding. So we just did what we wanted. No bridesmaids or groomsmen as my sister in law and family were unable to make the trip (for valid reasons) and it was absolutely amazing.

Just go for what you want and nod and smile at all the opinions coming your way.
Have fun!

 

[amalone1013]

I'm in...following along. Love your engagement story.

Thanks!

Love everything about your story! Love the blue (it's my favorite color)! I'll definitely be following along your journey. Also, give me a shout out when you're visiting Disneyland in July, I'm only about 20 minutes away!

Thank you! I've been enjoying your PJ too! And I'm so excited for Disneyland again - last year things were down to get ready for the 60th, and the castle was covered up! That was probably the most disappointing part of the whole trip - first time to Disney and I didn't get to see the castle I ended up getting to go to DLP in November and see their castle though, so that helped haha.

I really like the idea of letting the bridesmaids pick their own dresses. We're doing it, too. The only direction I gave them was "black, and you're comfortable in it and with the price". I really don't know why people get so up in arms about others doing their weddings a little differently. We're currently planning to do the set up ourselves, but we might end up hiring a day-of coordinator (specifically for set up purposes). We haven't decided yet.

Anyway!

The blue dresses will be gorgeous! If you guys do take your DW honeymoon in the fall, definitely check out Food & Wine! It starts up in mid-September or so and is a really nice time.

Food & Wine sounds amazing from what I've read! I think that will influence our honeymoon time And I like your dress directions. I think I'll steal them, and then add a color idea (found a cheap and cute keychain idea yesterday) just to try and keep them from straying into turquoise - but if they do, whatever. My stepmom told us she was going to do different dresses and I thought, yay! Really she just picked one out for each of us. She came with me and my younger sister and we only tried on the ones she had chosen for us online... so now I have a $150 dress that fits badly and I'll never wear, but don't feel like I can get rid of because it hasn't been 2 years yet. I don't want to do that to anyone.

And people get so silly about weddings. We're going to do set up too, most likely, for decorations and such. We're also looking at bringing in food from places that don't cater, and hiring a coordinator/servers to take care of that. I'm hoping that we can pay them to pack up decorations at the end of the night... it would be a nice perk to just worry about unlocking a car for them to load things into. I'm sure some drama surrounding these ideas will rear it's ugly head down the line...

That's my husband's advice for dealing with his mother
I'm not sure his mother and I have ever really spoken other than hello, how's the weather etc because we only have visited them very occasionally.

...

Just go for what you want and nod and smile at all the opinions coming your way.
Have fun!

That is great advice for many aspects in life. I find it easier to get caught up in the petty things when it comes to family, but I'm working on it. Not putting up with that stuff doesn't mean I love them any less. Actually, it probably makes them easier to love some days...

 

[amalone1013]

The Venue
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Our new venue we have about 99.9% decided on is a community room in a city rec center. This may sound snobby, but when I think of these types of places I think of the little ones that we used to have family reunions in growing up, and they were old, dated, dirty with bad lighting… so I didn't think to look into them until Zack's mom heard about it through a co-worker.

I was skeptical, but it's actually very nice. Here are a few pictures of the inside, set for an event:

The hotel you can see in the left of this picture is the only tall building out that way.

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It includes tables and nice chairs (no tan metal folding chairs - yay!), and the setup and breakdown of them in a custom layout. You can get in to decorate at 9am, have any 6 hours for your event, and 1 hour to clean up, and must be out by 1am. It's got floor to ceiling windows that look out towards the mountains. A great thing too is it sets on the eastern edge of a park, which slopes down away from the building, so there's nothing to obstruct the view. It also has the window shades to block light, but you can still see through, so we shouldn't have to worry about the setting sun blasting in and baking us (though I think it's at enough of an angle we won't have to worry, but if so-see previous comments about shades). There's also a patio space that is included.

Here is the floor plan, if anyone cares (I'm a dork and love floor plans):

We can have our ceremony on the brick plaza adjacent to the community room, which has a fountain, brick arches, and also looks out towards the mountains.

In this photo to the left, it looks like they set the chairs up facing the edge of the plaza, so it would be straight out towards the mountains. No arch photos are to be found online, but they would be just behind where you stand to take the top photo.​

Linens and decorations will be up to us. Unfortunately, no ceiling draping included lol. But it's about ⅙th the price of the original place, which included upgraded linens and sure, a fancier reception room and ceremony area. But I have lots of ideas for this place already… mostly DIY, of course! So stay tuned on that!

Also, I think the park will be quite pretty for pictures (this was a concern of mine). I'm not sure if we'll do a first look; it will probably depend on the timeline of the day. I think it will be easier, and then we wouldn't have wedding guests trying to watch us take pictures (I'm shy and I think I'll be too much the center of attention as it is!). Zack is kind of against a first look, but I think that it being just before the ceremony, and if it helps the timeline, he can be persuaded.

City Park Pond, down below the plaza

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I think this will be a good place, because it's a nice blank slate for all of my crazy ideas Also friendlier to the wallet.

Stay tuned for venue decor ideas, ceremony decor ideas, invitation mock ups, and centerpieces!

 

[SoccerDogWithEars]

I love your venue!!! It's gorgeous with the water and mountains.

And what? You're not going to pay the extra $5 a chair for Chivari?? Haha

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Your venue is gorgeous!

 

[amalone1013]

I love your venue!!! It's gorgeous with the water and mountains.

And what? You're not going to pay the extra $5 a chair for Chivari?? Haha

Right? "My butt would be much more comfortable if you rented my chair!"

Thanks! I get more excited about it as time goes on. I think it'll just work out perfectly.

Your venue is gorgeous!

Thanks!


Plus with this place, I have lots of times I can drag Zack over there to look at things, like what the sunlight will be like during the ceremony, how bright it is before/during sunset... (I've done it once already).

 

[amalone1013]

Paper Mock-ups! STDs and Invitations
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I'm really excited to share the invitations. No joke. I get excited to show my first mock-up to lots of people - at work, family, friends... lol.

First, the less exciting part. I want to send Save the Dates since the majority of the guest list is coming from out of state. I designed these on Vistaprint long ago, so that's why the back still has our old date. For the front, imagine a less pixelated picture, minus the Disney engaged banner, and add names/date/location underneath Yes. Darn Vistaprint deleted my file because I hadn't ordered it yet.

*** I lost this original picture, but it's not what I ended up going with ***
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I was hoping to hand as many out in person as possible, so hopefully I'll get back to Nebraska for some big family get-together. Even at post card stamp prices, it's about $30 to mail them all. I'll save mailing costs on these - my family often hands out Christmas cards at our get-together for that reason. Vistaprint does cheap envelopes I can order with them, mostly so I can put people's names on the front to keep track of who got them. I 'splurged' on these little labels at Hobby Lobby to seal the envelopes; I decided $2 + about $5 for envelopes is still way cheaper than stamps.

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I'm also considering sending an email STD, especially if I can't get to a family reunion for my dad's side to hand them out in person. I would probably send the email with just the front image, and then mail the postcards with the wedding website address. This is mostly because my dad's side is about 75 people/25 invites, etc (made up of aunts, uncles, cousins, and now spouses and kids of my cousins), and the majority of them seem to be between the ages of 4 and 10*. I'm really not sure how that is possible. If some people get news (or say, a wedding date) before others, they get all upset about it. And it is likely that they will make a comment about it. Right now I know it doesn't matter, but I'm trying to avoid it as much as possible, just in case I'm not in the right frame of mind to brush it off when STDs go out.

*not really, just in the way they act. it seems the older they truly are, the younger they act...

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And, for the more exciting part! The invitations!

The front, and the envelope with the address stamp I ordered of Vistaprint

Minus the ribbon...

Inside. On the left, the real invitation will be glued in. You may notice, the blue mat is actually the blue background from the front, and the white castle is from the back of the invite. I'm saving trees, ya'll, one invite at a time!
In the pocket on the right there are three inserts right now, just as an example. There will probably be a card with hotel info and a map, reception details, and a rsvp card. I think the rsvp will either be a postcard, or perhaps a card directing the more tech-saavy guests to rsvp via our website.
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I have to tweak them some, such as possibly a slightly less intricate fence. The font may change, depending on the fonts used in the actual invite inside. I designed the image, then loaded it up to have my Cricut cut it out (which I received for Christmas just before the engagement - I think it was planned! ). It's some time and work to do them like this, but because we have the time, they're not too expensive to make, and I enjoy these things, I don't mind doing them.

I think my Cricut will be getting a serious work out for the wedding. Here's a peek at something I did with it last weekend as a trial project:

 

[SoccerDogWithEars]

Oh my goodness!!!!!! Girl I may have to pay you to do ours. Your invitations are GORGEOUS

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Yeah, we've been by our venue a few times at different times of the day We can't go in, since it's usually occupied by something, but we can peek in the windows!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Also, your invitations are lovely! I wanted to do something like that, but I just don't have the time to craft like that (or the money for a Cricut). And your save the date is adorable!

 

[amalone1013]

Oh my goodness!!!!!! Girl I may have to pay you to do ours. Your invitations are GORGEOUS

Thanks! Maybe I will have to start up Alyssa's Awesome Disney Invitations lol

Yeah, we've been by our venue a few times at different times of the day We can't go in, since it's usually occupied by something, but we can peek in the windows!

I love peeking. I'm big on visual.

Also, your invitations are lovely! I wanted to do something like that, but I just don't have the time to craft like that (or the money for a Cricut). And your save the date is adorable!

Thanks! I do a lot of crafting (scrapbook, knit/crochet, lots of misc projects) so I'd wanted a cutting machine since they came out, but couldn't justify the cost to myself for that. Zack got it for me for Christmas just before proposing and I love it! I use it a lot.

Right now I'm using it for some paper flower trials. I'm not a huge flower girl; I enjoy getting the occasional $5 grocery store bouquet from Zack but the prices places want for real flowers? Wow! I'm going to price out a local grocery store to see their prices, and then I've got a line up of paper flowers to try - both fun, less realistic like the pic in my last post, and pretty realistic ones like these:

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I forgot one more invitation picture though! Here's the back:

 

[hollybearsmom]

Jumping in to follow along. I love DIY things and can't wait to see the centerpiece ideas too.

 

[amalone1013]

Jumping in to follow along. I love DIY things and can't wait to see the centerpiece ideas too.

I DIY lol. I even convinced Zack to help me with an Easter bunny bunting last week to hang in the dining room.

 

[elphie101]

Your invites are simply adorable!! I love the cutouts and the colors, they look so good!

 

[amalone1013]

Your invites are simply adorable!! I love the cutouts and the colors, they look so good!

Thanks!

 

[amalone1013]

Flowers and Musings...
warning: lots of pictures, so i apologize...
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I've been in kind of a funk the last week. I found out some more info with the family drama, and what brought it up, and it’s bummed/stressed me out. Last night, I made a comment to Zack about paper for the invites, and said ‘if we do that’ without quite realizing, but he picked up on it. So then I went back to calculating an Escape wedding with the passporter book… the thing is, if a certain few people are the ones messing with my regular wedding, I’m not sure I want to give them one of the special Escape guest spots. Then I daydreamed about doing a Memories wedding with each of our best friends along, not for the first time.

I know I’m just bummed out from the drama, and I didn’t sleep well the last few nights so I’m tired. Hopefully a few good nights of sleep will help this mood. And if my coworkers would clean up after themselves… (we share a workspace, unfortunately).

I’m also stressing about bridesmaids, which is silly. Basically, I didn’t officially ask anyone because I wanted to at least have a state picked out for them. Then right after picking state/date, drama ensued, I never asked. So now I’m preparing to ask people, and I’m torn over the whole MOH thing.

Anyways, on to fun things.

Like my major internal debate about flowers. Which is funny, because I’m not all girly about them - as in, not too set on a certain kind (or I wasn’t when I started), I’m perfectly happy with the $5 grocery store bouquet Zack will occasionally bring home. But of course, as soon as you add wedding, it’s $34168031 for a single daisy.

I shouldn’t be so harsh, because technically I have gotten one floral quote, and it wasn’t a true quote - it was a package deal with the expensive venue. Basically they priced some elements out and if you agreed to the price, you pay the venue and then just work with the vendor. So you’re definitely not going to underpay, because no vendor would let that happen, but you could overpay and get no refund, so I wasn’t terribly into that idea. But their quotes (there were options) were for bridal party and parent flowers, and then centerpieces - with 12 centerpieces $2000, with 25 $3100. We told her we didn’t want floral centerpieces at all, so that was annoying, and even if we were, I can’t, nor would I personally want to spend that much on flowers. My rough estimate was they wanted $1000 for the bridal party/parents, which is out of our budget. I also heard from my cousin's wife that they spent $750 on their flowers, which is about the same number we'd need, and that they went to a small town in Nebraska because it was cheaper than anywhere in Lincoln. So these things have scared me when it comes to getting any more quotes lol.

I feel like the ideas I've had so far for flowers trend towards simpler, so hopefully less expensive. For the bridesmaids, I thought white, since they will have blue dresses. Something simple, like daisies, or a few hydrangeas...

And a blue one for myself:

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So the options I am looking into include:

Real Flowers, DIY style​

All of the flowers in the bridesmaid bouquet ideas are at our closest grocery store, for $5 a bouquet. I think I could wrap a few together for bridesmaids, and I can even practice at that price. Perhaps I could be crazy and mix them like these!

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The cons would be it's one more thing to do last minute, and what about corsages/bouts? I'd probably cheat and go with these rose ones from Sam's club:

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Not the most exciting. I'd add blue ribbons to them most likely. I'd also check with the grocery store florists and price out all the ideas, including bouquets, with them before doing all DIY. Though I might be able to manage this one DIY:

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All of the other options are DIY non-living flowers, so they could be made ahead of time. They vary in styles. Pros of course are cost and making ahead of time. Cons are... lots of work? Getting the colors right could be a challenge. Zack's not crazy about the last one.

Crafty Paper Flowers, Realistic

You can do amazing things with coffee filters! I've tried these and was super impressed.

Crafty Paper Flowers, Whimsical

Crafty Paper Flowers, Somewhere In-Between

These are napkins, isn't that crazy?


Felt Flowers!

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So that's where I'm at. I've made some coffee filter flowers and was impressed, but I haven't tried coloring them yet. My biggest concern with the realistic paper ones would be the white being too white/fake looking, especially an all white bouquet. It'd be easier if the weather was nice and I could go outside to try different coloring techniques and let them dry in the sun, but nope. Hopefully we shake winter soon!


Also, I'm working on a centerpiece post. Depending on what you guys are interested in, I have 2 options. I'd like to go out on the deck and set all the centerpieces up to see and photograph, but like I said the weather isn't cooperating. Plus I have to work this weekend. So I can do a post with some, not great photos but ok, and then repost when I'm able to do that (also because I've picked up a few more things since I took those photos). Or you can wait until the weather is nice enough for me to do that.

 

[SoccerDogWithEars]

It'll be ok Drama sucks. I'm sorry it put you into a funk. I have faith everything will work out for the best.

Can't offer much advice on the MOH end...I'm on the receiving end of that one. My BF, the one getting married in July, chose her sorority little to be her MOH, and it hurt a lot more than I realized. I understand her reasoning (she didn't want to have to choose between me and our other BF) but I had to have a couple of long talks with my mom and my other non-MOH BF to fully vent and come to term with my feelings. But. Enough about me. I'm okay with it now. Mostly

Seriously, flowers are ridiculous. I don't understand it. I'm half tempted to find a field and pick them all. Another pro for you doing paper/crafty flowers is that then you have a keepsake. I had a friend use silk flowers for her bouquet, and then when they bought a house she re-purposed it into a wreath for the door. We're planning on using fancy keys as boutonnieres (can I take a moment and state my loathing for this word? They couldn't think of anything simpler?), and Pinterest has a TON of non-floral options if that's the direction you want to go.

I vote waiting for the centerpieces. I'm excited to see them in their full glory!

 

[fallonkendra]

Sorry to hear about all of the family drama!

I love your invitations! I've always wanted a Cricut, but I haven't been able to justify the price, especially since I don't have my craft room set up yet... I also love some of those pictures of fake flowers you posted! I'm not a flower person at all, I just don't understand them. "Here is a symbol of my love, it will die in a week". No thanks, especially with the price they charge for them.

Can't wait to see how everything comes together in the end!