What's better than a honeymoon? TWO Honeymoons! 8/30 57 hours/13 months to go!

[Joyciemc]

PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES!!!! Please share! That's not asking either. haha

okay, then:

Remember those board games for centerpieces? It was a success!

 

[Joyciemc]

And more:

We had a deck of cards at our table.

Instead of a guest book, we had a box with paper for people to leave notes.

This is the box for the notes

Our favors were personalized Sharpies and Post-it Notes

 

[Joyciemc]

Ohmygoodness you look gorgeous and that dress is just too beautiful.

Thanx for sharing your pics, looks like a you had an amazing wedding

Awww, thanks Stefy! The wedding was a lot of fun!

 

[klacey1]

You looked beautiful!! My fav is the one of him kissing your cheek--adorable! The light blue accents were just lovely. Glad jaimaca was so fun-- please share as many pics as you have!! Love seeing them!

 

[Stefy]

Oh wow look at you guys Love the personalised sharpie and post it note favours and looks like everyone had a blast with the board game centerpieces, such a great idea

So how is married life?

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Joyce, you were such a beautiful bride! It looks like the wedding was just wonderful! Congrats on your marriage!

 

[Joyciemc]

You looked beautiful!! My fav is the one of him kissing your cheek--adorable! The light blue accents were just lovely. Glad jaimaca was so fun-- please share as many pics as you have!! Love seeing them!

That's one of my favorite pictures, too! We were both getting so ansty during the picture taking because we felt like it was taking forever! I'm glad now that the photographer made us keep going!

Oh wow look at you guys Love the personalised sharpie and post it note favours and looks like everyone had a blast with the board game centerpieces, such a great idea

So how is married life?

I was so happy that people played with the board games. And they actually did some pretty funny things with the post-its and sharpies, too!
Married life is much the same as engaged life, which is a good thing for us, and I'm sure will be for you, too!

Joyce, you were such a beautiful bride! It looks like the wedding was just wonderful! Congrats on your marriage!

Aww, thank you!
Have you set a date for a wedding?

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Aww, thank you!
Have you set a date for a wedding?

Yes, finally! It will be June 18, 2011. It still seems so far away, but I know I'll be plenty busy with the planning between now and then.

 

[DisneyCrafter]

Your pictures are beautiful, it looked like an amazing day! I love the color blue you chose!

 

[redlight]

Congratulations! Thanks for all the pictures! You look beautiful. I liked the contrast between your gown and the dresses of your BMs - they go together well.

 

[Joyciemc]

Yes, finally! It will be June 18, 2011. It still seems so far away, but I know I'll be plenty busy with the planning between now and then.

YAY! That is super exciting! The next year is going to fly by, it'll be here before you know it.

Your pictures are beautiful, it looked like an amazing day! I love the color blue you chose!

Thank you!

Congratulations! Thanks for all the pictures! You look beautiful. I liked the contrast between your gown and the dresses of your BMs - they go together well.

Thank you! I was worried that it was too much blue, but their sashes helped break it up, I think.

 

[Stefy]

I was so happy that people played with the board games. And they actually did some pretty funny things with the post-its and sharpies, too!
Married life is much the same as engaged life, which is a good thing for us, and I'm sure will be for you, too!

I am glad that everything went well for you

I hope married life is better than the planning. Not having the best of times planning right now, the dreaded guest list is holding things up at the mo

So tell us more, do you have more pictures to share?

 

[Joyciemc]

I am glad that everything went well for you

I hope married life is better than the planning. Not having the best of times planning right now, the dreaded guest list is holding things up at the mo

So tell us more, do you have more pictures to share?

Ok, So married life is like engaged life but without the wedding planning.
I can't say I miss that! Sorry to hear that you're running into trouble with the guest list. I think that is one thing that almost every couple has some issue with- I know we did!

So you want to know more? Do you know what you're getting into... I can ramble quite a bit!
We actually had a few wedding crashers. More than one guest brought a guest, despite sending and RSVP for just themselves. No harm was done, we had plenty of room and the dinner was served buffet. I just thought it was a bit strange. And I felt bad that there were no favors for them, as I had personalized the favors to act as escort cards.

But otherwise the day went off great. Though I learned that even the most laid back bride (me, of course ) will have moments of irrational crabbyness. My first happened at the hair salon when the stylist let me know that she had a man's haircut booked at 1. My appointment was booked for 1. And I booked it 2 months in advance. I sat in the waiting area with my bridesmaids fuming. But in the end, all the girls got done. But we did have to rush quite a bit to get dressed once we got back to my house.
My second grouchy moment happened before we went into the reception. We were about to be announced when I realized that I never got to see the room set up before the guests went in. I was so sad, and never really did get a good sense of what the place looked like. At least the photographer got some nice pictures.

One of the only things to go wrong was when the Justice of the Peace (who is our neighbor and knows us well) pronounced our last name wrong.
But I can't be upset because she kindly let me keep my dress in her funeral home for a few days. (there was a reason, I swear!)

We had a pretty crazy group, and there was a LOT of dancing and sillyness. I do remember at the time thinking that people were leaving early, but it turned out that it was actually pretty late and the time had just gone by very fast!

By the end of the night, 18 months of planning and a bunch of money was reduced to this:

That's us in the limo on the way to the hotel after the wedding. Exhausted doesn't even begin to cover it.

I didn't get to eat any cake at the reception, but Ben's parents met us in the lobby and gave me this. AMAZING. I was melty and messy and I had no fork, but it was a wonderful snack. And I could eat it now because wedding diet was OVER.

So eat I did. Though I forgot that stuff (like melty frosting) gets stuck in long nails. I never did get all that chocolate out of those french tips.

This is my dress the next day. So sad. It was fun to wear, but felt soooooo good to get out of it. The boning was restrictive and that thing was HEAVY!

And because I just found this picture and I think it is cute:

That's us at the rehearsal.

I do have pictures of our honeymoon in Jamaica, which I'll probably share over the next few months that I still have to get through before Disney World!

 

[Joyciemc]

So I know I was kinda out of the Disney loop for a while, with last minute wedding stuff and wedding and honeymoon.
But I can't believe I missed the announcement of free dining! I was ready for it and already knew that we were not going to use it (our room discount is a better deal and we can't use both) and had already added the dining plan to our stay. But I can't help getting those familiar ants in my pants (metaphorically, of course) when I see the offer. My past 3 trips have all been booked on a whim when I saw that oh-so-enticing banner ad. Old habits die hard, and I feel like I should be booking a trip. But I already did, so now I have nothing to do!
I also missed the announcement of MNSSHP dates. Which is kind of a sore subject for me. I have been to WDW in early September a couple of times, and never had a party scheduled for my trip. But the last one was in '07, and it seemed that party dates were creeping up earlier in September every year. And I read on several threads that I had every reason to expect a party the first week in Sept. There was even a day with an early MK closing time that looked promising. So I thought we were finally invited to the party. We were going to be cool kids for a change. But then I came home from Jamaica and immediately hopped on the DIS. And saw the 1st party is 9/14. We leave 9/12. No party the first week, they start the second week. And Ben and I are still the losers who no one wants at the Halloween party. Sigh.

 

[klacey1]

I would have been so upset about my last name being pronounced wrong!! However, laid back is probably the absolute last word anyone would use to describe me So that upsetness would be no surprise!
I love that rehearsal picture-- your dress is adorable!! Just beautiful!

 

[Stefy]

Aww bless you, there is always next time and the dates give you an idea of when it usually starts so maybe you can work around that next time But I get how you feel, I would be disappointed too.

Apart from the minor mishaps it sounds like you were a calm and serene bride Might have to take some tips from you as I can feel myself turning into a real bridezilla when all the proper planning comes in to play Everything you said above would have had my rage going

Love the rehersal dinner pic, you guys look cute

Would love to see your honeymoon pics, always love seeing pics of the Caribbean

 

[Joyciemc]

I would have been so upset about my last name being pronounced wrong!! However, laid back is probably the absolute last word anyone would use to describe me So that upsetness would be no surprise!
I love that rehearsal picture-- your dress is adorable!! Just beautiful!

We couldn't believe she said it wrong- we've known her since we bought our house and the last thing I thought would happen would be her mispronouncing the name. But, it gave people something to talk about during the cocktail hour

I loved my rehearsal dress. It had POCKETS! Which I didn't even know until I had already bought it and was showing it to a friend. I bought it at H&M and it was such a good deal (can't remember exactly how much, but it wasn't more than $50)

Aww bless you, there is always next time and the dates give you an idea of when it usually starts so maybe you can work around that next time But I get how you feel, I would be disappointed too.

Apart from the minor mishaps it sounds like you were a calm and serene bride Might have to take some tips from you as I can feel myself turning into a real bridezilla when all the proper planning comes in to play Everything you said above would have had my rage going

Love the rehersal dinner pic, you guys look cute

Would love to see your honeymoon pics, always love seeing pics of the Caribbean

I wouldn't mind about the MNSSHP except that I had started to think about costumes and was excited about more late park time (I love the MK at night!) But you're right, next year we will plan accordingly and make sure we are invited to that dang party!

If you need any calm vibes during bridezilla moments, let me know and I'll try to send them your way.

 

[Joyciemc]

Okie doke... now it's time to share a little about part one of the honeymoon- Jamaica! I know this is still not Disney, but I hope you'll find it mildly interesting and stick with me for the real fun- our September Polynesian adventure!

Ben woke up at 6am the morning after the wedding to go home (about 5 minutes away) and let our dog, Penny, out. My new brother-in-law, John, had run to our house to let her out during the reception the night before. Unfortunately, he didn't have a key. Though we did learn that our house is pretty easy to break into, and John was able to get in without the key. Good thing: Penny got to go out to potty. Bad thing: um, yikes that our house is so not secure!
We spent the morning after the wedding hanging out in the hotel lobby so we could catch people as they left to say good bye. We didn't plan anything formal like a brunch, but thought this would be a nice compromise.

While chatting with Ben's family while they finished breakfast, my first day as an official aunt was marked by my new 5 year old nephew throwing up on my foot. Awesome. At the time I was more concerned about him being sick, but as soon as he left to be cleaned up the reality of a puke-soaked foot really put a damper on my morning.

We eventually saw everyone off and ran into one of my bridesmaids and her boyfriend on their way out. They were feeling the effects of the open bar from the night before (I hadn't managed to take more than a few sips of wine the whole night, thank goodness!) but we decided to head to a favorite breakfast place before bringing them back to our house to pick up Sarah's car. It was nice to spend a little normal time with a couple of friends after being 'on' for so much time the last couple of days. As a pretty shy person, all that smiling and small talk really took a toll on me!

When Ben and I got home, we ate MORE cake and opened gifts. Then it was time to bring Penny to the in-laws (it is still so hard to think of Ben's parents as in-laws!) where she would be spending the week.
Getting back home, we had to finish packing- we had mostly packed before the wedding, but managed to think of a few more things to cram into my bag. It was extra difficult because Ben has a thing about not checking bags. Though a not-so-nice gate agent helped relieve him of that particular belief on our way to Jamaica the next day. We finally went to bed around midnight with the alarm set for 3:50AM as the taxi was coming to get us at 4:00AM. This is a whole lot of sleep deprivation all in a row... But it only takes about 15 minutes to get to Logan Airport from our house at that time of day, so we were just feeling lucky that we didn't need to leave even earlier for our super early flight. And who's complaining, we'd be relaxing on a beach by noon the next day!

 

[klacey1]

Nice that you got to have some downtime with friends after the wedding/pre-honeymoon! Must have been almost weird to have that normalcy, though!
Ooo I hope Jamaica was fun! Absolutely cannot imagine trying to pack for a trip like that with only a carry on, though!

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Ok, so I'm dying to know why you kept your wedding dress at the funeral home!