"You and me, we're in a club now!" - a DFTW/Disneymoon/Vacay August 2017 PTR

[ariane37]

Don't tell my other princess friends, but I think she may be my new favourite <3

Adorable!

When they first decided to come to the wedding they wanted it to be a short trip, not a Disney vacation. But the closer it got, and the more they heard about how we were doing Disney things with my family on the 18th, the more they wished they've made more of a vacation out of it, and the more they were expecting us to tour with them.

The only day they'd be at Disney that they could tour the parks was the day before our wedding. So originally I told them to do Magic Kingdom, to go at rope drop, that I'd book us all an ADR at Crystal Palace (to see characters without having to wait in line, since I know they'll have zero patience for long lines) where N and I would join them, eat with them, make sure they were on the right track, hit a few rides with them, and then go about the rest of our pre-wedding plans.

They shot it all down

I think I remember hearing about this, or at least to some degree. You can only do so much! And the Epcot plan you now have is certainly enough. I can't believe they'd think you'd be spending the majority of the day with them on the day before your wedding

2:30pm: Manicure at Mandara Spa at the Swolphin!

This will take away any stress from the morning!

So "boys" may include N and his best man, and "girls" may just be my family and bridesmaids. We're going to have fun with it no matter who shows up.

Yes you will It won't be fun if people go who don't want to be there anyway! Speaking of people who want to be there, I'd LOVE to go lol

 

[Raeven]

but a week ago on Monday I was in a nasty little car accident. Fortunately, I walked away with a few bruises and a very sore neck, and nobody was seriously hurt. My car, however, wasn't as lucky.

Oh no about your car! I'm glad you weren't badly hurt, and I hope you feel better!

With some guidance from me, they ended up deciding to do Epcot that day, and they bought tickets. But apparently N's mother was under the impression that no matter what they chose to go or where they went, he and I would just be tagging along with them all day long as their Disney-guardian-angels, to help them with anything they might encounter. On the day before our wedding.

Really?! That's crazy!

 

[fallonkendra]

I had so much to catch up on! I'm up to date now though

all this led me to a mepiphany (an epiphany you have out of love for yourself: me + epiphany): I'm not spending time on people who won't spend time on me. Not anymore! I have a bad habit of picking up friends who don't have the time or energy to contribute to friendships, and it usually makes me feel like I'm doing all the work. Ain't nobody got time for that!

Good for you for realizing this! I have very few female friends out here in Alberta, I've dealt with way too many flakey girls throughout my life and I just can't be bothered with drama in my life these days. Hanging out with my fiance and pets is enough to keep me happy!

Fortunately, my bridesmaids aren't friends like that at all. They're both busy people, but they always can make time.

I haven't even seen one of my bridesmaids since 2013, and we go months at a time without even talking - but then we'll start texting and it's like we haven't missed a beat. By the time I see her at Disney for the wedding, it'll be almost 5 years since we've hung out in person - she lives in Toronto, I live in Alberta, her boyfriend is in Halifax and her family is on PEI so naturally she uses her vacation days to go east to see them. Our trips east never seem to overlap either. One of my other bridesmaids, I haven't seen since the fall of 2015, she lives in a small town in Nova Scotia and had to work everyday on my trip home last month.

The first SPLURGE for us comes in the form of two very special guests...

We've opted to have Mickey and Minnie attend our day!! As someone who, even as an adult, really enjoys character M&G experiences, this was something I didn't want to pass up! We waited until now to make sure it would be in the budget. When you plan a DFTW, you can have almost any character (except certain licensed character like Winnie the Pooh and the gang) attend your special day for a price. To have one character from the fab five, you'll pay $1200, but to have two the increase is only to $1700, so if Mickey was going to be there we figured we might as well also have Minnie! They will attend for a half hour during our cake-cutting/toasts/mingling period to take photos and hang out with us. And they are supposed to be attending in their gold formalwear outfits...

I'd love to have Mickey and Minnie, but I just can't justify the cost, and my fiance is not interested in having them at all. But it seems to fit you perfectly! I can't wait to see your pictures!

Some people who have a wedding at Disney don't want it to be Disney-fied and want it to be just as normal and classy as a wedding anywhere else, but we wanted to make sure those special Disney touches were included.

Same girl! I need to have the Disney showing in my wedding!

Speaking of special touches, our other big SPLURGE is pretty magical to us as well: We're doing a Magic Kingdom Bridal Portrait Session the morning of our wedding! For a hefty price, you can have your photos taken in your wedding attire in the Magic Kingdom (or other parks) first thing in the morning before they open. Our session cost $2125, but my grandmother offered to pay for half of it as a wedding gift. There are three routes you can choose for photos, all of which include the castle, and ours will also include Enchanted Tales with Belle, the exterior of Be Our Guest, and Journey of the Little Mermaid. We were torn about which route to take as there's also one that offers Pirates, the Tangled bathroom area, and Haunted Mansion...but I've seen some really beautiful photos online from our locations, so that's where we picked.

Yay! This is amazing, I can not wait to see these pictures too! All of the parkshoots I've seen are incredible!

I'm justifying the costs (not that I really need to since it's our wedding and we're paying for almost all of it by ourselves) by reminding myself of some of the other things that other brides put money into that we haven't done. For instance, a lot of DFTW couples add a dessert party, and we'd considered doing this, but we didn't think it would be a good fit for our group or our schedules. Another thing many people do is pay for outside photography rather than using the included photography from Disney in the package. We didn't do that, so we're considering our portrait session an extra gift to ourselves instead.

Haha, I'm the DFTW bride who is doing a dessert party and bringing outside photography hahaha...

we can be sure to enjoy our totally free night at...

...the Grand Floridian!!

Yay!! I'm sure this will be amazing!

First of all, this morning I'm about to leave for some kind of bachelorette-type day with my two bridesmaids. It's supposed to rain all day long, and I know some of the things they wanted to do were outside

I was in Fredericton this same day, it was nice and rainy there too...

We're doing a tiny 4" cake in red velvet with vanilla frosting, and then we're doing a display of 2 dozen cupcakes under it, half red velvet and vanilla, half chocolate and cinnamon frosting.

What?! This is an option! Awesome!

We're having our top cake decorated like this:

I'll have to stalk this report until you get your pictures fixed, I want to see!

We're doing a bouquet like this (with N's boutonniere to match.):

Again, I can't see this picture either Which bouquet is it? I still haven't decided which one I want, but I have it narrowed down to 3 or 4 from the list...

Rather than paying to add bridesmaid floral (since flowers are so expensive and just die anyway) I decided I'd prefer to get my bridesmaids to carry clutches down the aisle. That way they can be a gift to them that they get to keep, and it'll be a place for them to put their phones, magic bands, makeup, accessories, etc., that will look stylish with their outfits. Their clutches look like this style, but they're ivory with gold trim:

What a fantastic idea! I'm also with you on the cost of floral - why spend hundreds on dollars on something that's going to die in a few days?!

I also got an unexpected package in the mail from DFTW this week containing a gift of all kinds of little "mementos." This was super sweet! It felt a little silly and disappointing when you also happen to know that they used to give out annual passes as gifts, and then they decided to downsize and gave out fancy engraved watches instead, and then they downsized again and gave out special limited edition magic bands, and now they do this... but since I wasn't expecting anything at all, it was really nice! There were collar stays, a little prince charming token, a charm for my bouquet, shoe bag, pocket square/handkerchief, etc.

How exciting!

As much as Disney is AMAZING, when we do Disney we go hard...it's not exactly a relaxing vacation the way we do it.

Same! I've been trying to explain this to our friends/family that are joining us for our wedding trip, I don't think they fully understand yet...

In other news, I promised photos of our wedding rings! My engagement ring was rose gold, and I like jewelry that looks unique, soft, nature-inspired, vintage, etc. So I'm really loving our simple and sweet wedding bands.

So pretty! I love vintage-y rings, and rings that are a little different. I love Nathan's band too, that is gorgeous!

this means that we will technically stay at 5 different WDW resorts during this trip. Five!!! And that's not even taking into account that we're also staying at the timeshare, and that we'll likely be spending a night in Daytona on our way home. Woah.

Whoa! That's a lot of resort hopping - luckily Disney makes it so easy to do with their bell services.

there is still a spreadsheet (there's always a spreadsheet)

Of course! Is a Disney trip even a Disney trip if it doesn't include a spreadsheet?

I won't go into details about what happened, but a week ago on Monday I was in a nasty little car accident. Fortunately, I walked away with a few bruises and a very sore neck, and nobody was seriously hurt. My car, however, wasn't as lucky. With the holiday weekend this weekend, everything is moving slower than normal, so I won't get official word until sometime this week, but it looks like my car will be a total write-off.

Of course. Things like this always happen when you're in the midst of paying for something major.

Also - add that to the creepy list of things we have in common - I had an accident and insurance wrote my car off just a few months ago, leading to me buying new and now having a car payment...

You may remember me mentioning issues with Nathan's family's MDE accounts...what happened was that there were multiple family members planning for different people, and we ended up with a few different versions of a couple of his sisters (i.e. both his mom and his sister made plans for his other sister, which caused her hotel reservation and her park tickets not to be associated with the same version of herself.) So when I went to make FP+ for his family (since they refuse to take my advice and plan much in advance...they've never been before and don't know what to expect...but I know for a fact that when they arrive and see the crowds and length of lines, they'll be wanting FP+ and/or ADRs, etc.) Anyway! When I went to make them FP, nothing was linked properly and their dates weren't available. After some troubleshooting, I got them sorted out, and now everybody only has one version of themselves with everything linked properly on the website. Such a headache. I wish the first time they went to Disney had been a time when I wasn't also planning a wedding so I'd have the time to just plan everything for their trip, but it just wasn't meant to be this time.

Ugh, I was checking something the other day and somehow my dad has two MDE accounts, which doesn't make sense since I'm the one who set it up in the first place. Was it difficult to get everything sorted?

2:30pm: Manicure at Mandara Spa at the Swolphin!

I had been searching for somewhere where I could get a shellac manicure, but that wasn't quite as pricey as the GF salon since I'd heard some lukewarm reviews about it. This was what I came up with, and I'm looking forward to pampering my hands! I was open to going off-site since we'll have a car, but this seemed to be a good choice regardless of location. My pedicure will be done before I leave Canada since it'll last longer, but I didn't want my manicure to get destroyed in the many days of travelling before the wedding.

I'll have to check this place out, I have no idea what I'm doing for my manicure since we'll be in Florida a week and half before our wedding day...

 

[KathyM2]

In other news, I promised photos of our wedding rings!

OMG your rings are so beautiful!! I love them!! The two tone look is really nice and different!

(there's always a spreadsheet)

This made me laugh because..only Disers would get this and anyone else laughs that a spreadsheet is needed for planning a vacay lol

but just in case we want them I've booked evening FPs at MK:

This will be a tough call. I'm sure you will be tired but so excited and want to get doing things.

I love all your plans so far. That's kind of annoying about the family members who want you to tag along with whatever you are doing...and don't seem to really want to take your expert advice on the planning...ugh. I'm sure that will be frustrating but you will have to just let it go!!

 

[amalone1013]

I'm glad you're okay from the accident! Hopefully the car stuff can be sorted out as painlessly as possible... but you never know with insurance, I guess.

I understand your pain on the family stuff. We told everyone they were welcome to spend the beginning of our trip with us. We're going to Universal, and then we've got a day at each park. That makes up most of a week so no one is staying longer than that anyways. We told everyone please have hotels/tickets booked and MDE set up by this date if you want to tour with us, and we handle FPs. We told them we were making ADRs at 180 days for everyone but they could decide later if they wanted to go to those restaurants or not. So our date was June 20th... one of Zack's brothers booked the 24th (ok, we'll take it), the other is "still deciding where to stay". And I don't know what my grandpa is doing, I need to call him tomorrow (though I'm less worried about his touring because I think he'll be less into it, but he and my uncle want to see Epcot). FP date is 7/19.

I have this DLR TR from last year that I'm so behind on, but we had family there that would not make their own plans and they were really... uh... frustrating... on the trip. They aren't coming, and I'm less worried with this group overall once we're at the parks. I thought this would happen with booking... but once it's done I think we'll be okay. Everyone should be pretty go with the flow, and adult enough to split up for a ride or two if they want. Next step is to rein Zack in the day before the wedding. He's like, no rope drop to park close? And I'm just thinking, I don't want to be a tomato in my wedding pictures (I burn really easy). Balance! I may abandon people too, because I don't know what I'm doing with my nails. And my wake up call should be slightly less early than yours... but still early!

I almost forgot - all of your princess friends are so stinkin' cute!

 

[vamassey1]

I'm sorry I got behind, but I'm caught up. You've been very busy with your wedding planning. It's really close now. I love the extras you added. You should only be concerned with what you want. It's your special day. I hope thing go well with your accident claim. I hope your pain goes away too. It's a good thing you'll have some extra time before the wedding to help work through all of this.

 

[Whit64130]

Again, this has been the wildest week, and I feel like I'm only just surfacing this weekend. I won't go into details about what happened, but a week ago on Monday I was in a nasty little car accident. Fortunately, I walked away with a few bruises and a very sore neck, and nobody was seriously hurt.

Glad you are ok!

This weekend, I also made a brand new friend! Ariel made her first party appearance as one of my buddies! Don't tell my other princess friends, but I think she may be my new favourite <3

Love this!!!!

With some guidance from me, they ended up deciding to do Epcot that day, and they bought tickets. But apparently N's mother was under the impression that no matter what they chose to go or where they went, he and I would just be tagging along with them all day long as their Disney-guardian-angels, to help them with anything they might encounter. On the day before our wedding.

I mean it's not like it's the day before the wedding or anything?!?!?!

Then at 7pm that evening we're meeting all our wedding guests in Disney Springs for a meet & greet event. Then the girls will be heading to Ghirardelli with me (and I'll be bringing treats from Erin McKenna's for myself) and the boys will be going to Jock Lindsay's (and/or whichever other drinking establishments they so choose) with N!

I already anticipate that N's religious non-drinking father will choose not to attend, as will my uncle who still can't decide whether or not to even let his family come to the wedding. N's family (mostly women) don't quite know how they feel about me without N as a buffer, so they may not attend either. So "boys" may include N and his best man, and "girls" may just be my family and bridesmaids. We're going to have fun with it no matter who shows up.

Sounds like a good plan! Regardless of who shows up where enjoy your time! It's all about you and N this week!

 

[afwdwfan]

Again, this has been the wildest week, and I feel like I'm only just surfacing this weekend. I won't go into details about what happened, but a week ago on Monday I was in a nasty little car accident.

Oh, wow! I'm glad you're ok, but the whole insurance deal always sucks. I hope everything works out well for you.

This weekend, I also made a brand new friend! Ariel made her first party appearance as one of my buddies! Don't tell my other princess friends, but I think she may be my new favourite <3

Awesome!

You may remember me mentioning issues with Nathan's family's MDE accounts...what happened was that there were multiple family members planning for different people, and we ended up with a few different versions of a couple of his sisters (i.e. both his mom and his sister made plans for his other sister, which caused her hotel reservation and her park tickets not to be associated with the same version of herself.) So when I went to make FP+ for his family (since they refuse to take my advice and plan much in advance...they've never been before and don't know what to expect...but I know for a fact that when they arrive and see the crowds and length of lines, they'll be wanting FP+ and/or ADRs, etc.) Anyway! When I went to make them FP, nothing was linked properly and their dates weren't available. After some troubleshooting, I got them sorted out, and now everybody only has one version of themselves with everything linked properly on the website. Such a headache. I wish the first time they went to Disney had been a time when I wasn't also planning a wedding so I'd have the time to just plan everything for their trip, but it just wasn't meant to be this time.

I can relate... we had to do this with probably 4 or 5 accounts while planning our trip. We all had MDE accounts, had been before and somehow, when our reservations were made we ended up with a few duplicates.

With some guidance from me, they ended up deciding to do Epcot that day, and they bought tickets. But apparently N's mother was under the impression that no matter what they chose to go or where they went, he and I would just be tagging along with them all day long as their Disney-guardian-angels, to help them with anything they might encounter. On the day before our wedding.

Good luck.

(his family does whatever they please! I told them to arrive a bit before opening and rope drop the park for lowest crowds/temperatures. This is unlikely to actually happen.)

My family knows Disney... and I'm concerned about being able to get us to the parks early enough. I'm already catching resistance to making Rope Drop and I know how critical it is now with FP+ and the fact that it will be busy.

the boys will be going to Jock Lindsay's (and/or whichever other drinking establishments they so choose) with N!

I love that place!

N stays with his best man that night, and my mom comes over to stay with me, and it'll be an early night for me since I'll have a 3am wake-up call!

 

[MeghanEmily]

I think I remember hearing about this, or at least to some degree. You can only do so much! And the Epcot plan you now have is certainly enough. I can't believe they'd think you'd be spending the majority of the day with them on the day before your wedding

Yeah, I think what we've offered for a plan will be just fine for them! In a perfect world, their first trip to Disney would be in February, and we'd be able to do everything with them and do all the planning, they could see all four parks, and we could steer them in the right direction to avoid lines, etc. That's just not the way it worked. So we're doing the best we can, without getting in the way of our own plans too much. People are funny.

Yes you will It won't be fun if people go who don't want to be there anyway! Speaking of people who want to be there, I'd LOVE to go lol

You should just stay late after your August trip! Send the boys home and hang out with us!

Oh no about your car! I'm glad you weren't badly hurt, and I hope you feel better!

Thanks! It's not ideal, and I loved my car, but cars are just things. And I'm feeling a lot better now. Almost back to normal I think.

Really?! That's crazy!

I know! People are nuts.

 

[MeghanEmily]

Good for you for realizing this! I have very few female friends out here in Alberta, I've dealt with way too many flakey girls throughout my life and I just can't be bothered with drama in my life these days. Hanging out with my fiance and pets is enough to keep me happy!

Yeah, girls can sometimes be really silly and tiresome! I'm feeling pretty good about the decision. Much better to have a few good friends/family, rather than lots of flaky friends.

I haven't even seen one of my bridesmaids since 2013, and we go months at a time without even talking - but then we'll start texting and it's like we haven't missed a beat. By the time I see her at Disney for the wedding, it'll be almost 5 years since we've hung out in person - she lives in Toronto, I live in Alberta, her boyfriend is in Halifax and her family is on PEI so naturally she uses her vacation days to go east to see them. Our trips east never seem to overlap either. One of my other bridesmaids, I haven't seen since the fall of 2015, she lives in a small town in Nova Scotia and had to work everyday on my trip home last month.

It's so good that you can still have that kind of relationship, despite the distance! But I'm sure the wedding will also be an awesome reunion for you and them!

Yay! This is amazing, I can not wait to see these pictures too! All of the parkshoots I've seen are incredible!

Crossing my fingers! We're really looking forward to it, both for the experience and the pictures.

Haha, I'm the DFTW bride who is doing a dessert party and bringing outside photography hahaha...

I would have loved to do a dessert party, but with such an early start to the day I didn't think it would work well for us. But I'm sure you'll have an amazing time! I'm already regretting not hiring an outside photographer. I'm sure we'll be glad to have our pictures, but I didn't fall in love with any of the Disney photographers' styles. And I don't like that we can't guarantee we'll get the photographer we request. But now I'm just using it as an excuse to go back to Disney and get awesome anniversary pictures in a few years!

What?! This is an option! Awesome!

I was surprised, too! I think it probably only ended up being an option because we had to sub our cake for an allergy-friendly one, and it was a suggestion we got from Erin McKenna's. But I'm sure with a little prodding Disney would probably offer a cupcake-combo like that too, I'm just not sure whether there would be an up-charge for it. Our coordinator warned us that we might get charged extra for cupcakes depending on what the bakery quoted them as the cost, but it ended up being inexpensive enough that we didn't pay any extra.

I'll have to stalk this report until you get your pictures fixed, I want to see!

Hopefully soon!

Again, I can't see this picture either Which bouquet is it? I still haven't decided which one I want, but I have it narrowed down to 3 or 4 from the list...

I chose the azure bouquet in medium (whites and blues) so it'll go with our bridesmaid dresses! There are some really pretty choices. I liked a couple of the others, including a couple of the seasonal ones, but sadly not the summer one! haha

What a fantastic idea! I'm also with you on the cost of floral - why spend hundreds on dollars on something that's going to die in a few days?!

Floral is stupid expensive for something that won't last. I love flowers as much as the next person, but since we're having such a short ceremony and not even having a true reception, it didn't seem to make sense to buy extra. My bridesmaids are pretty as flowers on their own! <3

Of course. Things like this always happen when you're in the midst of paying for something major.

Also - add that to the creepy list of things we have in common - I had an accident and insurance wrote my car off just a few months ago, leading to me buying new and now having a car payment...

Somehow this kind of stuff always happens when you're least prepared for it and least equipped to deal with it. According to the insurance company, my car is worth almost exactly what I still owe on it, so at least that is a blessing in the midst of all this!

Ugh, I was checking something the other day and somehow my dad has two MDE accounts, which doesn't make sense since I'm the one who set it up in the first place. Was it difficult to get everything sorted?

I didn't think it was too hard to sort it out, and everything seemed fine...and then I went on the other day and there was a glitch in the system so that something still didn't link right, so now I'll have to call tech support. Just further evidence that I should have planned everything for everyone by myself! lol

 

[MeghanEmily]

OMG your rings are so beautiful!! I love them!! The two tone look is really nice and different!

Thank you! We loved that about Nate's band!

This made me laugh because..only Disers would get this and anyone else laughs that a spreadsheet is needed for planning a vacay lol

Right?? I can't manage a Disney trip without one!

We've also got Marathon Weekend in the works for January, and it's supposed to be a very laid-back trip...I started booking a couple ADRs the other day when our 180-day window opened up, and I felt so lost without a spreadsheet and a plan! That may have to change...

This will be a tough call. I'm sure you will be tired but so excited and want to get doing things.

My thoughts exactly! I'm going to try my best to put that energy into exploring the Grand since I know we're not likely to ever stay there again...but with MK so close on our first night...hard to say what will happen!

I love all your plans so far. That's kind of annoying about the family members who want you to tag along with whatever you are doing...and don't seem to really want to take your expert advice on the planning...ugh. I'm sure that will be frustrating but you will have to just let it go!!

Thanks! Yeah, traveling with family members and lots of different personalities is definitely a challenge. I've been lucky to this point that when I've done Disney it's been with Nathan or my mom, and we all have really good traveling chemistry. We'll see how it goes with more cooks in the kitchen!

I'm glad you're okay from the accident! Hopefully the car stuff can be sorted out as painlessly as possible... but you never know with insurance, I guess.

Thanks! It looks like insurance will be paying almost exactly what I owe on the car, so that's a huge weight off our shoulders! But the delays and hoops to jump through are driving me a little batty.

I understand your pain on the family stuff. We told everyone they were welcome to spend the beginning of our trip with us. We're going to Universal, and then we've got a day at each park. That makes up most of a week so no one is staying longer than that anyways. We told everyone please have hotels/tickets booked and MDE set up by this date if you want to tour with us, and we handle FPs. We told them we were making ADRs at 180 days for everyone but they could decide later if they wanted to go to those restaurants or not. So our date was June 20th... one of Zack's brothers booked the 24th (ok, we'll take it), the other is "still deciding where to stay". And I don't know what my grandpa is doing, I need to call him tomorrow (though I'm less worried about his touring because I think he'll be less into it, but he and my uncle want to see Epcot). FP date is 7/19.

That sounds so frustrating!! I would be the same way. I gave my bridal party and guests an RSVP date far earlier than I needed to know for planning, and most of the are still dragging their feet long after that date. Not my style, so it's hard to deal with it when other people are more...laid back. haha

Next step is to rein Zack in the day before the wedding. He's like, no rope drop to park close? And I'm just thinking, I don't want to be a tomato in my wedding pictures (I burn really easy). Balance!

I burn super easily, too! I feel your pain! I'll be in t-shirts and big sunhats for the week before the wedding! I can burn afterwards if I need to. What's your wedding date again? I've got your PTR on my to-read list, so I'm hoping to get over to it very soon!

I almost forgot - all of your princess friends are so stinkin' cute!

Thank you! We have quite a bit of fun, I have to say

 

[MeghanEmily]

I'm sorry I got behind, but I'm caught up. You've been very busy with your wedding planning. It's really close now. I love the extras you added. You should only be concerned with what you want. It's your special day. I hope thing go well with your accident claim. I hope your pain goes away too. It's a good thing you'll have some extra time before the wedding to help work through all of this.

Thanks for sticking around and catching up! And thanks for the well-wishes. I'm already feeling a lot better than I was, and I'm really grateful for the few weeks of downtime to get everything sorted before the trip!

Glad you are ok!

Thank you! Me too. It could have been much worse.

I mean it's not like it's the day before the wedding or anything?!?!?!

Right?? People are funny sometimes.

Oh, wow! I'm glad you're ok, but the whole insurance deal always sucks. I hope everything works out well for you.

It absolutely sucks. But things could have been much worse, for sure! Thanks!

I can relate... we had to do this with probably 4 or 5 accounts while planning our trip. We all had MDE accounts, had been before and somehow, when our reservations were made we ended up with a few duplicates.

This is so frustrating! And it's SO easy to do, even if you're well-versed in Disney, so I don't really blame N's family. I thought I had it all sorted, but then there was some kind of glitch in the site where a ticket is actually kind of linked to two accounts. I'll be calling tech support later this week. And calling tech support is one of my favourite pastimes, so definitely looking forward to that...

My family knows Disney... and I'm concerned about being able to get us to the parks early enough. I'm already catching resistance to making Rope Drop and I know how critical it is now with FP+ and the fact that it will be busy.

I hate getting out of bed, and I love rope drop. The struggle is real. I can't imagine how much more challenging it would be with kids, especially with Ryder's routines and everything, and all the stuff you'll have to gather up to take the parks, etc. Sometimes it's just not possible to do rope drop...but I'll be darned if I'm not gonna try pretty much every day in August!

I love that place!

We've never been inside, but I think that N and his Indy-loving, drink-swigging best man will LOVE it.

 

[missangelalexis]

Your pre-wedding day sounds very busy! So inconsiderate of N's family to expect you guys to spend the whole day with them. Glad you were able to work out a compromise!

 

[amalone1013]

That sounds so frustrating!! I would be the same way. I gave my bridal party and guests an RSVP date far earlier than I needed to know for planning, and most of the are still dragging their feet long after that date. Not my style, so it's hard to deal with it when other people are more...laid back. haha

Not my style either lol

 

[Elandon]

Hi! I followed you over from someone else's trip report bc they commented on my trip report.... it's like six degrees of @MeghanEmily separation! Anyway, I love your PTR. I never look at the wedding boards because that's just not a part of my life right now but I am loving your wedding planning! I am extra excited bc we are going to be at Disney during your wedding trip. maybe I will see you from across a park and if so, I will shout "congratulations!"

Now I'm going to go read your may trip report because I didn't know about this new animal kingdom tour....

 

[chunkymonkey]

I am playing catch up too on the DIS but I am now all caught up with your PTR!

In other life news, I've had what feels to me like a major development. It involves my job. Originally I'd been planning to leave (quit!) my job immediately before the wedding, go to Disney, and then come home and go straight into my masters degree. I'd already given my extended notice at work that I was leaving August 10th. But I've been unhappy in my job for quite some time now, and the closer it got to the wedding, the more stressed and unhappy I became. I'd gotten quite depressed and had a few meltdowns. So I talked it over with N and my family, and then my boss (the former were more supportive than the latter was!) and have decided to leave my job mid-July, four weeks earlier than planned. This means that I only have three weeks of work left, and I'm on top of the world! It will make our financial planning more of a struggle, but my mental health is already much better. And I'm looking forward to having a few weeks to get everything in order for the wedding and my return to school without having to be in too many places at once. Feels good!

Good for you. I wasn't working as well right before my wedding. But not by choice. I was laid off from my job about 5 months before. But it was a blessing in disguise. I got to spend a lot of time finally taking a breather and doing some DIY stuff which I would never have had the time to do if I worked. Hope you get plenty of ME time and some rest before the festivities!

In other news, I promised photos of our wedding rings! My engagement ring was rose gold, and I like jewelry that looks unique, soft, nature-inspired, vintage, etc. So I'm really loving our simple and sweet wedding bands.

Beautiful! I love the idea of rose gold!
Your band matches your ring perfectly!

To cap off the day, we went to a place where you paint your own pottery and they fire it and glaze it for you. This is the work-in-progress, and soon I'll be going back to pick up the finished bowl!

I love this idea! Paint your own pottery is so much fun!

I'm crazy, and I know I'll totally regret so much resort hopping...but I'm also excited about it. It's going to be so neat to use our honeymoon as a chance to see so many WDW hotels and cross them off our Disney List! Fortunately, we'll have the trunk of my car to store things, which will make all the moving easier. But still. I'm nuts. I'm already tired just thinking about it. Never ever again.

5 resorts is a lot but you do what you gotta do to make things work. I too like the idea what you'll be able to see so many different resorts in a short amount of time. I personally think that is fun, and if you're a quick packer then I don't see any issues with this plan!

Again, this has been the wildest week, and I feel like I'm only just surfacing this weekend. I won't go into details about what happened, but a week ago on Monday I was in a nasty little car accident. Fortunately, I walked away with a few bruises and a very sore neck, and nobody was seriously hurt. My car, however, wasn't as lucky. With the holiday weekend this weekend, everything is moving slower than normal, so I won't get official word until sometime this week, but it looks like my car will be a total write-off. Hopefully the insurance company will decide it's worth at least as much as I have left owing on my car loan, and then I'll be starting over and needing to find a new replacement vehicle before we drive down to Florida. It also doesn't help that my mother is on vacation in Europe right now, so while I would want her here to talk to about these things anyway, the bigger issue is that her name is also on the insurance (I bought the car when I was younger and still needed her to cosign on the loan) and she will need to be back to sign some things before everything is said and done. Dealing with these things and alternating between different pain killers has been the extent of most of my week.

OH NO! I'm sorry about your car, and thank goodness you are ok! I hope it all gets worked out soon so you have a car to drive down in! Must. Have. Car. To. Get. Married!

I LOVE IT! I was thinking of doing Ariel and Eric for MNSSHP this year. It will be on our anniversary, so I figure we should go as an actual couple. Otherwise DH would only want to go as Gaston and then I'd have to be LeFou.

You may remember me mentioning issues with Nathan's family's MDE accounts...what happened was that there were multiple family members planning for different people, and we ended up with a few different versions of a couple of his sisters (i.e. both his mom and his sister made plans for his other sister, which caused her hotel reservation and her park tickets not to be associated with the same version of herself.) So when I went to make FP+ for his family (since they refuse to take my advice and plan much in advance...they've never been before and don't know what to expect...but I know for a fact that when they arrive and see the crowds and length of lines, they'll be wanting FP+ and/or ADRs, etc.) Anyway! When I went to make them FP, nothing was linked properly and their dates weren't available. After some troubleshooting, I got them sorted out, and now everybody only has one version of themselves with everything linked properly on the website. Such a headache. I wish the first time they went to Disney had been a time when I wasn't also planning a wedding so I'd have the time to just plan everything for their trip, but it just wasn't meant to be this time.

That's why everyone needs to defer to you as the master Disney planner especially with such large groups! I told everyone for August, not to book anything without me (they wouldn't' anyways) because I don't want our accounts messed up etc. So I made all the dining and FPs too and only when I specifically instructed some people to do so, they made ADRs on their own in those cases where I couldn't fit our entire party into one ADR.

With some guidance from me, they ended up deciding to do Epcot that day, and they bought tickets. But apparently N's mother was under the impression that no matter what they chose to go or where they went, he and I would just be tagging along with them all day long as their Disney-guardian-angels, to help them with anything they might encounter. On the day before our wedding.

WOW how thoughtful to think that you'd LOVE to spend the day before your wedding as a Disney babysitter. I'm sure that is what you planned all along, I mean the day before the wedding, how stressful could it be?

For reals though, I'd probably hand over a park map with the FPs circled and do this:

Following breakfast: we go over to Epcot and meet his family, check on how they're doing, take them on a few rides, including FP for Soarin' and Seas with Nemo. Then N and I have FP for Character Spot, while N's family (who apparently hate Mickey Mouse?? That's fine!) have a FP which I booked for them for Spaceship Earth. They wander World Showcase, and N is welcome to stay and help them do so while I go finish up wedding stuff like welcome bags, etc., and then I head to...

Hmm "Hate Mickey Mouse" - that may pose a small issue being in WDW and all. But I guess Epcot seems to be the most fitting park! Better not tell them about hidden Mickey's lest you scare them for good!

I had been searching for somewhere where I could get a shellac manicure, but that wasn't quite as pricey as the GF salon since I'd heard some lukewarm reviews about it. This was what I came up with, and I'm looking forward to pampering my hands! I was open to going off-site since we'll have a car, but this seemed to be a good choice regardless of location. My pedicure will be done before I leave Canada since it'll last longer, but I didn't want my manicure to get destroyed in the many days of travelling before the wedding.

Good choice. Pampering before a big day is always a nice stress-reliever!

I already anticipate that N's religious non-drinking father will choose not to attend, as will my uncle who still can't decide whether or not to even let his family come to the wedding. N's family (mostly women) don't quite know how they feel about me without N as a buffer, so they may not attend either. So "boys" may include N and his best man, and "girls" may just be my family and bridesmaids. We're going to have fun with it no matter who shows up.

Yes, that is key, have fun no matter who shows up! Hell, I would've crashed at Ghiradelli's if I weren't at the SW Dessert Party that night!
BTW, what are the nights you are at the Poly again? I wanted to say hi and congratulate you guys in person!

 

[amalone1013]

In other life news, I've had what feels to me like a major development. It involves my job. Originally I'd been planning to leave (quit!) my job immediately before the wedding, go to Disney, and then come home and go straight into my masters degree. I'd already given my extended notice at work that I was leaving August 10th. But I've been unhappy in my job for quite some time now, and the closer it got to the wedding, the more stressed and unhappy I became. I'd gotten quite depressed and had a few meltdowns. So I talked it over with N and my family, and then my boss (the former were more supportive than the latter was!) and have decided to leave my job mid-July, four weeks earlier than planned. This means that I only have three weeks of work left, and I'm on top of the world! It will make our financial planning more of a struggle, but my mental health is already much better. And I'm looking forward to having a few weeks to get everything in order for the wedding and my return to school without having to be in too many places at once. Feels good!

Good for you. I wasn't working as well right before my wedding. But not by choice. I was laid off from my job about 5 months before. But it was a blessing in disguise. I got to spend a lot of time finally taking a breather and doing some DIY stuff which I would never have had the time to do if I worked. Hope you get plenty of ME time and some rest before the festivities!

I had to come back and chime in on how great this is lol. My lovely place of employment... first, my best coworker decided to take all summer off to go see family in Africa (understandable, but disappointing for me lol). So I'm picking up the slack from our new person (which isn't all her fault, she's doing well) and my other coworker, who is just plain awful. Well, plain awful coworker goes and gets himself suspended for a week (for the second time). My bosses were totally trying to get rid of him, but HR gave him the choice to come back. He came back for 3 days... and gave his notice. And at my lovely place of employment, if you give your two weeks notice, you don't have to actually work it, but they still pay you. So that was his last day. And to top it off, we were then told that at this time we are officially working every other weekend until the end of the year

So this is me:

But seriously, tomorrow they are getting a list of days I won't stay late and weekends I'm not working.

 

[xlsm]

Your rings are pretty! I have two rose gold diamond bands similar to yours on either side of my white gold engagement ring, so I obviously love the two tone as well. Rose gold everything, I say!!

We decided that we'd have too much trouble trying to pick a flavour, so Disney, being awesome, said we didn't have to! We're doing a tiny 4" cake in red velvet with vanilla frosting, and then we're doing a display of 2 dozen cupcakes under it, half red velvet and vanilla, half chocolate and cinnamon frosting. Everybody wins!

This is great!! I"m so glad you won't be tied down to one flavor...variety is the spice of life and all that, haha!

I won't go into details about what happened, but a week ago on Monday I was in a nasty little car accident.

Ugh. I'm so glad you are ok, but sorry you had to/have to deal with all of that. On the plus side, hooray for the early exit from work so you will have a little time to breathe before the wedding.

On the day before our wedding.

OMG. No.

you have so many exciting things planned for your wedding week so far!! There's a lot packed in there, but wedding adrenaline will carry you through. Just don't forget to look around and enjoy your big day...it goes by in such a rush that it seems very surreal. I would go back through pictures and say, "I don't remember that!"

Excited to hear more of course!!

 

[thumper*]

Hi Meghan

I got caught up on your recent TR so had to head over here to see what big plans you have for the wedding. I'm only on page 5 but had to post all my quotes before the @#*&^$ computer freezes up on me again.

I checked out N's FB page and man does he have serious talent.

You are so cute. I adore your Snow White.

Aug. 16-19: Coronado Springs

I just read Joshes write up over at Easy WDW about his stay here last week. Hopefully the reno's will be complete and you'll have an updated room.

Lunches:

• Beaches and Cream (new!)

How far out did you make these ressy's? I've been trying to reserve this since our 180 mark and still unable to get an opening. Ever since I described the No Way Jose sundae to DH he won't feel fulfilled until he tries one. LOL.

Great job on the hats their a adorbs.

Your Aug trip plans sounds awesome so excited for you.
I have family that live in New Symrna Beach by Daytona we've stayed there a few times. Will you be making a day trip there or are you needing a hotel? I have economical recommendations for you if staying. Now back to read more of your PTR. Chow

 

[MeghanEmily]

Hi! I followed you over from someone else's trip report bc they commented on my trip report.... it's like six degrees of @MeghanEmily separation! Anyway, I love your PTR. I never look at the wedding boards because that's just not a part of my life right now but I am loving your wedding planning! I am extra excited bc we are going to be at Disney during your wedding trip. maybe I will see you from across a park and if so, I will shout "congratulations!"

Now I'm going to go read your may trip report because I didn't know about this new animal kingdom tour....

Hello, and !! Thanks so much for coming over! I'm doing a miserable job of keeping up on the TRs I'm already following, but I've added yours to my list to read! Hoping to get over there soon!

I'm working on getting all my photos fixed soon, including on the May TR, so hopefully that reading experience will be much better soon...

Good for you. I wasn't working as well right before my wedding. But not by choice. I was laid off from my job about 5 months before. But it was a blessing in disguise. I got to spend a lot of time finally taking a breather and doing some DIY stuff which I would never have had the time to do if I worked. Hope you get plenty of ME time and some rest before the festivities!

I think it will work well for me! I'm done starting tomorrow! I'm sorry to hear about you getting laid off, but it sounds like it absolutely was a blessing in disguise!

5 resorts is a lot but you do what you gotta do to make things work. I too like the idea what you'll be able to see so many different resorts in a short amount of time. I personally think that is fun, and if you're a quick packer then I don't see any issues with this plan!

I hope you're right! We're up for the challenge For me, sometimes the resort is half the fun...well maybe not half, but a good percentage!...so I'm looking forward to it!

OH NO! I'm sorry about your car, and thank goodness you are ok! I hope it all gets worked out soon so you have a car to drive down in! Must. Have. Car. To. Get. Married!

Thanks! We've started browsing this week. My mom gets home next week and we can sort out all the insurance stuff once and for all! And then I can buy something...the problem is that I'm picky! And indecisive! It's such a large purchase that I want it to be right. But as long as I have it a little before we leave to get used to driving it, I'll be good to go

I LOVE IT! I was thinking of doing Ariel and Eric for MNSSHP this year. It will be on our anniversary, so I figure we should go as an actual couple. Otherwise DH would only want to go as Gaston and then I'd have to be LeFou.

Thank you!! You absolutely should go as them! Though I have to say, I'd love to see you as LeFou. You'd totally pull it off.

That's why everyone needs to defer to you as the master Disney planner especially with such large groups! I told everyone for August, not to book anything without me (they wouldn't' anyways) because I don't want our accounts messed up etc. So I made all the dining and FPs too and only when I specifically instructed some people to do so, they made ADRs on their own in those cases where I couldn't fit our entire party into one ADR.

This is completely what I should have done! And then right after that was all sorted, I ended up having a similar problem with someone on my side of the family, too...what a nightmare. I still need to call tech services this week to fix one issue I wasn't able to do myself. NEVER AGAIN. Haha

WOW how thoughtful to think that you'd LOVE to spend the day before your wedding as a Disney babysitter. I'm sure that is what you planned all along, I mean the day before the wedding, how stressful could it be?

For reals though, I'd probably hand over a park map with the FPs circled and do this:

Oh yeah, that was totally my plan for the day before the wedding! Haha

I love this GIF. It's exactly what I should do!

Hmm "Hate Mickey Mouse" - that may pose a small issue being in WDW and all. But I guess Epcot seems to be the most fitting park! Better not tell them about hidden Mickey's lest you scare them for good!

Hating Mickey Mouse may be an exaggeration. More like indifferent? Which I take personal offense to on Mickey's behalf. They just don't see the appeal of characters, or having things be Mickey-themed, etc. I don't think they'll have much interest in searching for obscure hidden Mickeys, no. Haha

Yes, that is key, have fun no matter who shows up! Hell, I would've crashed at Ghiradelli's if I weren't at the SW Dessert Party that night!
BTW, what are the nights you are at the Poly again? I wanted to say hi and congratulate you guys in person!

Gosh, I would have told you to come crash in a heartbeat if you were going to be around! But your SW dessert party will be awesome, so I can't complain! If we end up at DS early and if you end up breaking there before your party we might catch you, but otherwise probably not.

We check in to Poly the 19th, but we'll be at Discovery Cove most of that day. So we'll probably go straight to Discovery Cove in the morning, then go check in after we're done there. I have FP for AK that night, but not sure yet if I'll use them or not, and then AK has late EMH. But it's questionable if we'll have the energy to do anything at all after Discovery Cove...

We could catch you at Poly on your departure day though when you come back for the oh-so-Tragical Express. We've left most of that day open to enjoy the resort or do something spontaneous like a water park, etc. We don't have to be anywhere till mid-afternoon when we go to Epcot.

We could possibly also catch you quickly before or after your CRT ADR on the 18th.