A magical RCG and SBP Disneyland wedding: Wedding Day posts: Castle Shoot and Video!!

[Mindyjoy]

Congrats on finding dresses! You're both so lucky to find your gowns on the first try.

I can recommend a great seamstress in Woodland Hills if you're willing to travel ... In Stitches. She did amazing things with my secondhand gown!

 

[Serendipityblah]

That is so fantastic! I look forward to seeing your two dresses together! Mine is a mermaid style as well which I never thought I would do either. Isn't it great how wedding dresses make you look and feel so much better than you ever imagined you could?

 

[LadyD]

Many of the wedding dresses I tried on did not look completely awful on me, which I found really surprising. While I'm excited to wear a pretty dress, I never grew up imagining the dress I would wear. I think not having a clear idea of how I see myself as a bride made it harder in some ways for me to find a dress since I had the reaction of oh this looks nice for many dresses I tried on. These three were the most liked dresses by either my mom, Diana, myself, or Diana's mom.



(Please ignore the face in this picture. There was another bride basically smacking me around with the train of her dress). This dress was the very first one I tried on and very liked by both my mom and Diana. I was not completely sold on it, though it did look better in person and fit great.



We all liked this dress a lot. I'm fond of a dress with straps and I liked the beading, however, it did not match the dress Diana picked out at all.



The winning dress!! I do love this dress and every time I look at it, I love it a little more.



We found our dresses!! The irony of the situation is I wanted an A-line gown and Diana wanted the mermaid. Guess we both ended with what we wanted in a way haha!

 

[Aschenputtel]

Wow, you two look great! Congrats on finding your dresses!!!

 

[elphie101]

You both look amazing and it's so great that your dresses compliment each other so well! I'm really glad you were able to get Diana's mom out to the west coast to be a part of the experience. What a relief to have one huge thing taken off your list!

 

[EleishebaNacht]

It's fantastic that you got Diana's Mom out for the search. I'm really impressed with that charity, what a great idea, giving proceeds from wedding dresses to benefit people dealing with breast cancer and how fitting that it's a cause near and dear to both of you! I'm sorry you were so nervous at first and had to deal with the unpleasantness of having to explain over and again about your wedding but very glad that everything ended up so well! Your dresses are beautiful and do look so well together. I hope Disney continues to excel for you!

 

[LadyD]

Thanks for the compliments all Mindy, I may need to take you up on that offer. We're at a complete loss on how to find someone who is going to do a good job and not charge us a crazy amount of money since we have two dresses that need alterations!

Both of us have been hard at work with all the little wedding details over the past couple of weeks. We have our photographer (and videographer) booked, meeting with a DJ this weekend (really hoping he is a good fit since his price is so reasonable), and meeting with our hopeful hair and make up person on Tuesday. We've been texting back and forth with our hair and make up person and we already seem to have a good connection with her, so we're crossing our fingers.

We've also been hard at work on our invitations. Diana is of the opinion that invitations just get chucked in the trash with barely a second glance, so why waste the money on them? This was basically at complete odds with my opinion that the invitation helps give the guests an idea of what the expect out of your wedding (especially since we didn't send save the dates), so a reasonably small portion of your budget should go to them. Ultimately, I decided that there are more important items associated with the wedding I would like to fight for than the invitations, so I let it go. We bought basic DIY print at home invitations from Michael's, and I have been working to get those completed. I'm glad we went with the just print and stuff in the envelope route, because I am not very crafty at all. We also bought some sealing wax and a stamp for the invitations. I am not allowed to do those apparently because I keep lighting the sealing wax on fire . Despite not being crafty, I am doing all the calligraphy on the envelopes to address them since my mother threw a mini fit when she heard I was just going to run them through the printer. Once upon a time, I learned how to do calligraphy as a kid (because I was a weird child like that), so it is just taking some time to brush up on some super rusty skills thankfully. I'm hoping to get those out within the next week or so since we have a large number of out of town guests.

To accompany our invitations, I also set up a wedding website so our guests have a large, direct information resource other than a packet of papers mailed with the invitations. Diana's mom is already sharing the website with all her family members in Colombia. I have no idea who they are. I hope Diana can remember to remind her mom to get their information so we can send them wedding invitations since they're being directed to our wedding website....

After seeing so many wonderful brooch bouquets here and elsewhere, Diana and I have decided that we are going to *attempt* to make one for each of us for the wedding. We both like the idea of having something more permanent than a bouquet of flowers, especially when the cost difference between the two can be minimal from what I have seen. Thus, we are now collecting the supplies! Remember how I said I wasn't very crafty? Yeah.... This should be an interesting experiment.

We are also working with our wedding planner to try and set up our planning session, and collecting all the images/resources we need for that! We're both so nervous and so excited for this. Everything is getting so real. I just realized the other day, we're four and a half months out from our wedding day. That is nuts! It's all flying by so fast! I know I'm diligently chipping away at our to-do list, but it is a struggle to not feel overwhelmed when I think of everything else that needs to get done before our wedding (preferably several days to weeks before the big day so I'm not an even bigger hot mess leading up to the day). How are some of you other ladies (and gents) handling the intensity/demands/stress of trying to pull together such a big event? Any good tips on how to relax (and not obsess all the time...)?

 

[elphie101]

Hahaha I have to say I agree with Diana on the whole "why-spend-money-on-stuff-that's-going-in-the-garbage" front - although that whole mentality makes me want to save every invite we ever get just because!

So exciting that you've locked down some vendors, and hopefully soon your planning session! If I can give you any tips on the brooch bouquet, it's START EARLY - wire at least 3 flowers a night. The twisting and making the stems on the brooches is hands down the most time consuming part, so if you dedicate 20 mins a night to making at least 3 flowers (or less if you want!) it's less likely to blindside you with the amount of work left to do. If my aunt hadn't taken over my bouquet I probably would have thrown in the towel at 2 1/2 months out.

Try as I might it's hard to not be overwhelmed by everything there is to be done with the wedding. What's worked best for me has been assigning months to get wedding tasks done - like saying "July was men's suit month" so that way I couldn't freak out over not doing it since I knew I would get to it in July. Now that we're closer, I've broken it down into weeks - this week was buying the ring box and writing our ceremony, next week is parents' gifts, etc. When the stress inevitably gets too much, my favorite way of relaxing is grabbing DF and going out to dinner where no wedding talk is allowed. We only ever go out to eat on special occasions, so to us it's really a special treat (even if it's a dinky chain place!) and lets me refocus on why we're doing this whole thing in the first place

 

[Aschenputtel]

I'm also not a fan of doing super expensive invitations, although I might do a little booklet invite for the Disney part (but just because there aren't going to be a lot of people and we're traveling from overseas so it's more like a travel guide for the guests).
Great to hear about your vendors! I'm really excited how the brooch bouquets will turn out! They will be great for your theme!

 

[Mindyjoy]

In Stitches isn't exactly on the budget side but she's AMAZING. I had a vision for my dress and she executed perfectly, doing all my revisions without (much) complaining. But seriously she is worth every penny but I know she is very popular so contact her right away to even see if she's available for your deadline. She doesn't have a site but you can find her on Yelp - In Stitches in Woodland Hills. If you talk to her you can say I referred you - Mindy with the tea length dress with the sparkly pink tulle from a couple years ago.

My best advice for not getting consumed with wedding stuff is to make time to talk about wedding stuff and also make time to NOT talk about wedding stuff. Like go out to dinner and have a couple wedding-free hours. Also a friend gave me this advice - go on walks together to chat about wedding stuff, without the distractions of phone, TV etc. Bonus, you are also getting exercise!

I did a lot of DIY and my best advice for that is to know your limits. Discuss with Diana what you want to do together or delegate jobs, Make sure you communicate so you don't get in fights over who wasn't supposed to stuff the invite envelopes and by when (not that I know from personal experience ) Remember it's supposed to be fun so if it's not fun anymore, you may want to stop the project.

Your dresses are beautiful!

 

[LadyD]

Those were great tips for establishing life-wedding planning balance! Thank you for the advice. It definitely helps that we're getting items checked off the to-do list, so it is making this whole process seem a lot less overwhelming. For the record, planning a Wishes wedding with a decent sized guest list in less than six months is a bit of crazy endeavor and not one I recommend if you can avoid it . What is done is done and we will make it through! Onward!

I finally got some of the invitations done and out! Yay! Hand addressing all the invitations was definitely challenging. I quickly figured out that trying to address the invitations after work was a bad idea. Not only was I making a ton of mistakes and wasting envelopes (seriously I couldn't even get my address right), the strain of using calligraphy skills for hours at a time after spending 8 hours a computer was contributing to the onset of carpal tunnel symptoms. I was bummed I had to save addressing invitations for a weekend activity, but I refuse to have my general well being significantly impacted as a result of this wedding haha.

Though it is taking longer than anticipated, I was able to finish all the invitations for all our non-local guests and get them out this past week (which is about half our guest list) and I should be done with the rest of the invitations by tomorrow! A little side note. I am so incredibly thankful to have such a supportive partner. Diana has been immensely helpful with the invitation process. While she didn't feel comfortable addressing them herself, she was happy and willing to sit down and help me stuff all the envelopes, seal them, and get stamps on them. We wax sealed ours with a cute rose stamp. We thought it fit nicely with the Beauty and the Beast inspiration for the wedding .

Now we just sit and wait for the R.S.V.P.s to come in! It will definitely be interesting to see who can make it. A lot of friends and family have given us grief for having a wedding on such short notice. We knew that by having a wedding in less than 6 months, we are very likely going to not have some people we really want there able to make it, but we are crossing our fingers and hoping for the best!

Update on the brooch bouquets

It does not look like we will be doing brooch bouquets after all, and not exactly by choice. We ordered some brooches off ebay a couple of weeks back and received tracking information for the package. We followed the tracking information and it said the package was delivered over a week ago by USPS, but we never received it. We did receive a different (non-wedding related) package the same day from UPS, so we're not quite sure what happened there. This is not the first incident we have had with USPS at this address. We have not received other USPS mailed items, had items destroyed, and have had items we mailed never reach their destination. We've talked to the post office about it and they basically told us "Gee whiz that is unfortunate. Not much we can do about our processing facility. Try contacting the police about missing stuff."

We've contacted large chunks of our guest list at this point and told them to let us know if they don't receive the invitations in a few days. I'm very tempted to just take stuff we need mailed to Orange County with me in a couple of days and send it out there to see if it will go through a different processing facility.

Planning session is coming!!

Wednesday is our planning session up at Disneyland with our planner, Michiel. We are both so excited! Michiel has been absolutely wonderful to us thus far, and we like her very much. She is incredibly responsive and has been such a huge help to us. Michiel told us yesterday that we were approved for our in park photo shoot the day after our wedding!! Diana and I are so pumped!

From the sounds of it, the Disneyland planning sessions are a little different from the Disney World planning sessions. Our food tasting is going to be a separate session, and that is pretty standard. They usually do the food tasting 2 or 3 months before the wedding, or so we were told. Since our wedding date is so close due to us planning the wedding in less than six months, Michiel wanted to try to get us down for a single session rather than the normal planning session and separate menu tasting (at least that is how it normally works it sounds like), but we could not find a date before early September that worked for Diana and myself as well as Disney, so two sessions it is!

Diana and I are basically completely clueless as to what exactly we want our wedding to look like outside of a couple of specific details. It is kind of horrifying, actually. Based on the ideas and images we have found thus far, our wedding is going to look like someone collected all the nice wedding reject ideas and decided to use them all for one wedding, our wedding . I want the chandelier in the gazebo while Diana wants the paper lanterns overhead and we both want the twinkly lights wrapped in the draping around the front arch of the gazebo haha. We are so unfocused. Good thing my mom is coming to help us collect our thoughts and kindly shoot down anything that will add to the chaos.

We are slowly ticking off all the things we need to get done for the wedding. Every weekend there is a little less left to work on. Our wedding is 120 days out!! That is crazy! It is coming so fast. We're so excited .

 

[LadyD]

The Planning Session

A few weeks ago Diana and I had our planning session at Disneyland. We were able to meet our planner, Michiel for the first time and went over ALL the details of our ceremony, pre-reception, and reception. It was a whirlwind two hours!!

We brought my mom with us since Diana and I were struggling so much on a vision, and my mom is brilliant at things like this. She was a huge help for us, especially for floral. Our planner Michiel, is absolutely amazing. We adore her completely. She was able to help us really narrow down what we want and make some decisions on what we want our big day to look like.

The Disneyland planning sessions take place in a building right next to the Disneyland Hotel that also houses their DVC sales facilities. Michiel met us in the lobby and brought us into a small conference room decked out with all kinds of DFTW paraphernalia, including plates for the reception, bouquets, possible favors/escort cards, chairs, and a variety of pictures of previous weddings. It was wonderful and overwhelming at the same time. At that point I was a little nervous because there were clearly SO MANY OPTIONS, I had no idea how we were going to make some major decisions over the next two hours.

Michiel made us feel right at home and comfortable immediately. She is so friendly and approachable, it eased some of my anxiety quickly. We dove right into our planning session. First, Michiel presented us with our initial BEO she had prepared and went over every aspect of it to us and made it very clear that this was just a first proposal and we were welcome to change anything after the planning session up until the final payment, and at that point we can only make additions, not take things away.

I can barely remember all the decisions we made, but we made them. I know Michiel has them all written down and has sent a lot of them over to us. Most of the items pertaining to the ceremony plan she took down and I assume she has it ready to go for the day of the wedding. Just as we were finishing up the initial BEO, Kelly the florist came in. Kelly is just as wonderful and amazing as Michiel, and dear god the things her team puts together are absolutely stunning. We are quite excited now for the decor on our wedding day.

Floral was probably what we were most clueless on. Not only did Diana and I have relatively no idea for what we wanted for decor and floral, neither of us really knows flowers so we couldn't even really give Kelly an idea on that. Both Kelly and my mom were such a huge help with that. First, Kelly went over a bunch of different varieties of flowers with us that she can source in December to try and get an idea of what flowers we like and don't like. My mom made some great suggestions and was able to help translate types of flowers I like based on my very, very vague and relatively unhelpful descriptions for anyone who does not know me .

After Kelly got a sense of what we like and don't like, she started showing us pictures. Oh my pictures. Pictures, pictures, pictures. They have a tv screen hooked up to a computer just filled with all kinds of pictures. Diana and I were both able to make decisions on personal floral since we decided against the brooch bouquets (thank you very much terrible, terrible USPS delivery service). We agreed on ceremony decor relatively quickly as well. Kelly is designing this beautiful garland twined with tulle and lights and filled with burgundy and white flowers for us to wrap around the arch and rails of the gazebo. It is going to look something like this:

We are also going to have fabric draped on every other chair with a rose floral cluster down the aisle. For the initial floral proposal, we also requested a glittering silver aisle runner and 30 rose petal cones for a petal toss after the ceremony. I don't believe we're doing much for the pre-reception in terms of decor. We did elect to have our string quarter extended from the ceremony through the pre-reception, so that will be nice.

Our reception decor is going to be interesting. Kelly showed us these beautiful votives they had just designed in their workshop with suspended stacked roses that we're going to use as centerpieces at the reception along with four mercury votives at each table. Since our wedding is inspired by Beauty and the Beast (favorite of both Diana and mine from childhood), we are going to incorporate books into our centerpieces. Specifically, I am on the hunt for antique looking books that contain the illustrated versions of many of the fairy tales Disney stories are based on. We are also having a burgundy overlay on the ivory linens for the tables. I'm so excited to see the final result. It all sounds so pretty and I know Kelly and the DFTW team are going to do an amazing job!!

To try and keep costs down, we are going with a bill on consumption style bar since there are only a handful of heavy drinkers coming to the wedding and many of the local individuals have work the next day. Once our whirlwind planning session was concluded, Diana and I decided to make good use of our passes and take a stroll in Disneyland. I love that park so much .

The Wine

This past weekend we took a little journey up north a bit to San Luis Obispo. It is excellent wine country up there. We had a little birthday celebration for Diana and visited a couple of tasting rooms. I'm not a huge wine person (or I didn't think I was), so I was just expecting to have a lovely time, drinking some wine, and enjoying the beautiful, very warm weather. HOLY MOLY. My notion of wine has been completely challenged. We visited one tasting room and oh. my. gosh. My life is changed. I love wine. The wine from this particular winery. Heaven. Clearly, I was very pleasantly shocked. After trying wine from this wine maker, Diana and I decided we HAD to bring the wine to our wedding. Now we have a sparkling, white, and red wine that we will be serving at our wedding and we are quite excited about it. We really want our guests to have a great time from start to finish, and we hope a delicious glass of wine will contribute to that overall wonderful experience for everyone.

Next up: Menu tasting in October! Will the vegan, gluten free cake hold up to the deliciousness of a traditional cake?!

We are just over 3 months away from the big day. 99 days to be exact. HOLY MOLY TIME IS FLYING!!!

 

[MrsK14]

Subscribing! Can't wait to see how things come together.

 

[LadyD]

While we're waiting for our menu tasting session, Diana and I have been pulling together a few odds and ends.

Cake:

Deciding on our cake design was a struggle for us since Disney does so many amazing cakes. At our planning session we finally decided on doing a cake that has film strips spiraling down the cake with stills of Disney movies in the panes. Something similar to this in terms of the film strips:



Even more difficult for us than the cake design was deciding on a cake topper. Nothing we found fit us or the cake design. Finally, this past weekend I found our cake topper!! It is an old school style movie marquee.



We think we're going to have the marquee portion say Happily Ever After.

R.S.V.P.s:

We're starting to get our response cards back!! It is super exciting, though we're a little worried. Most of the responses we've received thus far have been from people who are more local. We haven't heard much from people who are traveling in from the east coast which is about 2/3 of our guest list and with it being two and a half months out, we're concerned most of them aren't coming since we haven't heard a peep from them. Hopefully some are coming and are just taking their sweet time getting the cards back. Our deadline for the RSVPs is about a month out still.

Music:

We're staring to put together our music for the ceremony and reception. Other than the processional/recessional, first dance, and father daughter dance, we're not really sure what specific moments we want music for during the evening.

For our ceremony and pre-reception, we're having the string quartet play. A couple of years ago we bought a CD while at Disney (not sure if it was Disneyland or Disney World) that is the string quartet version of a bunch of songs and we absolutely fell in love with that arrangement of kiss the girl, so we plan on using that as our song coming down the aisle. On that same CD is also a version of the Carousel of Progress song. Beyond loving the Carousel of Progress as a ride, we love that song and think it makes a fun song to go back up the aisle to. For general music, we are asking the quartet to play Disney songs. We may end up picking a few specific songs we'd like to hear.

For the reception, our first dance is going to be to Jimmy Durante's version of the glory of love. We'd like for dinner to have a similar style of music playing. We're doing our father daughter dance with our dads together. It is going to be to Taken by Trees version of Sweet Child of Mine. Our dad's were very amused by that version of the song and it's not too sappy for us (I can't do anything too serious/emotional because I will end up laughing the entire time). Other than that we're just going to have a lot of cumbia, merengue, and salsa playing at the reception for Diana's family and then other danceable things. We are having a sit down with our DJ in November to go over some more specifics.

Menswear:

We don't really have a bridal party for our wedding. We are having my 13 year old cousin act as our "shared best man" since he is too old to be our ring bearer, so we have someone to wrangle rings and bouquets during the ceremony. We bought him a bow tie that is a more red shade of burgundy (I've been driving Diana nuts with this) and have been trying to similarly color match different patterned ties for our dads and my step dad. We didn't want them all looking he same, so that has been a little challenge. The other day I felt like I remembered seeing some ties up at Disneyland, and we're going up there several times in the next few weeks, so I plan on looking into that.

I also ordered some custom converse for my cousin. It is so hard to evaluate color on a computer screen. The pair I ordered for him is maroon, but I'm hoping they're not too purple. They should be here in a few weeks, and hopefully they match well.

Centerpieces:

Diana and I are doing books for our centerpieces since I'm a reading nut (slight obsession) and Beauty and the Beast was our wedding "inspiration." Thus, we are trying to find books that Disney movies and rides are based off of. I think I have like 22 right now, and I'm aiming for about 40. We're trying to get antique hardcover books with at least a one inch binding if we can. I'll have to take a picture of the pile we have when I get home to share . The goal is to acquire this collection and share the fairytales and stories with our future children.

Other than that we are trying to collect ourselves and best prepare for the wedding insanity. I really hope we get almost everything done before thanksgiving. It would be nice to enjoy the holiday season up until the wedding.

 

[elphie101]

I read your PS update ages ago but it looks like I never actually commented Bad PJ follower I am!!

I'm glad you had your mother around to offer ideas where you felt you didn't quite have them, and that sounds like some AMAZING wine! I'm not a wine drinker either so the fact that you both fell in love with that wine totally makes me want to try it (even though that probably won't happen - being on the East Coast and all...)

That cake design sounds amazing and I love the cake topper idea!! So cute I loved getting RSVP cards back, makes opening the mail so exciting. I hope you hear from more of your guests sooner before later, and don't have too many stragglers of course. I also adore the sound of your centerpieces, I love the stacked books look at weddings and I can't wait to see how you do it.

Your music choices sound utterly perfect. Good on getting that taken care of, such a big step too!

 

[LadyD]

I read your PS update ages ago but it looks like I never actually commented Bad PJ follower I am!! I'm glad you had your mother around to offer ideas where you felt you didn't quite have them, and that sounds like some AMAZING wine! I'm not a wine drinker either so the fact that you both fell in love with that wine totally makes me want to try it (even though that probably won't happen - being on the East Coast and all...) That cake design sounds amazing and I love the cake topper idea!! So cute I loved getting RSVP cards back, makes opening the mail so exciting. I hope you hear from more of your guests sooner before later, and don't have too many stragglers of course. I also adore the sound of your centerpieces, I love the stacked books look at weddings and I can't wait to see how you do it. Your music choices sound utterly perfect. Good on getting that taken care of, such a big step too!

You're wedding is coming up soon!! I can't believe that you're able to still follow PJs so close!

Yeah our wine. So. Good. You know, I think you can order wine from this maker online... . I do have an inner battle of stockpile for my own drinking pleasure and share with others. I'm pretty sure I'll end up sharing it. Most nights I tell myself this haha.

Yeah our RSVPs are half excitement half dread. We know there are people who do not approve of our "lifestyle choice" (because you have 100% control over who you're attracted to and who you love) and thus will be declining the invite, but we're not entirely sure which way some people will fall. I kind of just want them all back so I can process and deal and move on haha.

I think the waiting game between tasks to accomplish is the hardest part of this whole wedding planning process, though it is kind of interesting I'm finding so much time at this point that is just brain storming, thinking, debating, etc and not actual complete wedding tasks. I was expecting doing this wedding in less than 6 months to feel extremely rushed and overwhelmed, but based on every list we've seen, we're ahead of schedule O.O. Disney really does help take a huge load off of wedding planning/wrangling.

 

[TiffinyKaye]

Disney really does help take a huge load off of wedding planning/wrangling.

Don't they?! DF and I are getting married at WDW in December as well (the 8th). I've been so busy with homework and all sorts of other life stuff. I can't IMAGINE trying to put together any kind of wedding by myself (I'm okay at planning--coordinating is hard). I am so grateful to my planners. I get frustrated with things like how much it all costs (and the fact that I haven't gotten my BEO yet...), but it's certainly something I don't think I could have pulled off on my own (especially to the extent that we're having the ceremony).

I don't see Disneyland brides that often--so that's exciting!

I don't now why it took me so long to stumble on to your planning journal...but I honestly have been so busy with homework that I mainly lurk in the main wedding board for the short questions, rather than in the longer PJs (because, honestly, it takes so long to read them and make sure you get every awesome detail!). While I still have two major assignments left before the end of my semester October 31st...I am now allowing myself some time to come in here a bit and develop that "community" I've wanted with Disney brides (and the one groom I've seen here!) this whole time. Seriously--we have friends who are like, "Why are you getting married at Disney?" What do you mean why are we getting married at Disney?! IT'S DISNEY!

People on here get how cool that is. ;-)


And I have to say--your story is beautiful. And Disney has been such a huge supporter of same-sex weddings (you're right). They featured two cast members a few months ago in an ADORABLE ceremony. I'm so happy to see that they're very pro-equality.

I love your cake! You'll have to post pictures once you've had your wedding. Seriously, the cake is our BIGGEST thing that I have enjoyed planning. I'm a huge cake person (desserts in general, but ESPECIALLY cake). Wedding cakes are my absolute favorite (I have a whole Pinterest board for them). I cannot wait to see yours, and to see everything else you come up with for your nuptials.

What's your date? I know it's December. I apparently missed it.

Tiffiny

 

[LadyD]

Don't they?! DF and I are getting married at WDW in December as well (the 8th). I've been so busy with homework and all sorts of other life stuff. I can't IMAGINE trying to put together any kind of wedding by myself (I'm okay at planning--coordinating is hard). I am so grateful to my planners. I get frustrated with things like how much it all costs (and the fact that I haven't gotten my BEO yet...), but it's certainly something I don't think I could have pulled off on my own (especially to the extent that we're having the ceremony).

I don't see Disneyland brides that often--so that's exciting!

I don't now why it took me so long to stumble on to your planning journal...but I honestly have been so busy with homework that I mainly lurk in the main wedding board for the short questions, rather than in the longer PJs (because, honestly, it takes so long to read them and make sure you get every awesome detail!). While I still have two major assignments left before the end of my semester October 31st...I am now allowing myself some time to come in here a bit and develop that "community" I've wanted with Disney brides (and the one groom I've seen here!) this whole time. Seriously--we have friends who are like, "Why are you getting married at Disney?" What do you mean why are we getting married at Disney?! IT'S DISNEY!

People on here get how cool that is. ;-)


And I have to say--your story is beautiful. And Disney has been such a huge supporter of same-sex weddings (you're right). They featured two cast members a few months ago in an ADORABLE ceremony. I'm so happy to see that they're very pro-equality.

I love your cake! You'll have to post pictures once you've had your wedding. Seriously, the cake is our BIGGEST thing that I have enjoyed planning. I'm a huge cake person (desserts in general, but ESPECIALLY cfor them). I cannot wait to see yours, and to see everything else you come up with for your nuptials.

What's your date? I know it's December. I apparently missed it.

Tiffiny

The Disney World weddings seem like a complete other beast compared to Disneyland weddings haha. There are a decent number of Disneyland brides, but not nearly as many as Disney World. Almost every time were up at Disneyland there is another wedding going on. For some reason, you just don't see many posting on these boards.

We received our floral proposal within like a week or so of our planning session and our BEO wasn't too far behind it (I think it took right around two weeks), but I don't think we are the norm at all even for a Disneyland wedding for that. Since we signed our contract less than six months out, my understanding is there has been some serious rushing on getting us our stuff and information so we can make our final payment date (and actually know how much that is haha).

I cannot imagine wedding planning and doing school at the same time. I'd go crazy or just not do my school work haha. That is very impressive you're able to balance both!

Yeah I don't understand why people wouldn't want a Disney wedding! I have other friends planning non-Disney weddings right now and they're going crazy trying to book venues, bring in caterers, find chair vendors, etc etc and wrangle everything. They gave me some frosty looks when I said I basically planned out my entire wedding in 2 hours .

We actually have two cakes.... . We have a number of people attending our wedding with dietary issues, including Diana. One cake is going to be a regular cake (flavors TBD on Oct 8th!) and the other cake is going to be vegan, gluten free, nut free (almonds are okay and not an allergen for anyone), and coconut free. For that cake we were given the option of vanilla or chocolate, but Diana wants marble, so we're going to be their guinea pigs for that! They're not sure at this point if it can be done or not. I think our only option for a filling that met all the criteria was a ganache and vegan buttercream as the frosting. Should be interesting to see how this cake tastes!! At this point, we're not sure if we're going to have them decorate that one too or just have it as a sheet cake in the back.

We actually have not explicitly stated our wedding date. Diana is somewhat paranoid that with this being a public forum that we run the risk of some not so friendly attention on the day of our wedding if we put it out there.

Here are some of the books we're using for the centerpieces. I'm still waiting on some more to come in. We have Pinocchio, Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, The Rescuers, Tarzan, Peter Pan, Hunchback, Swiss Family Robinson, Treasure Island, Through the Looking Glass, Winnie the Pooh, Sword in the Stone, Wind in the Willows, Arabian Nights, and a couple others that are escaping me at the moment. I'm waiting for Bambi to arrive and I'm still hunting down The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins, and a few others. I know I'm eventually going to have to cave and just pay a little more for those books. Right now I haven't paid more than like 2 dollars for the books.

 

[TiffinyKaye]

The Disney World weddings seem like a complete other beast compared to Disneyland weddings haha. There are a decent number of Disneyland brides, but not nearly as many as Disney World. Almost every time were up at Disneyland there is another wedding going on. For some reason, you just don't see many posting on these boards.

We received our floral proposal within like a week or so of our planning session and our BEO wasn't too far behind it (I think it took right around two weeks), but I don't think we are the norm at all even for a Disneyland wedding for that. Since we signed our contract less than six months out, my understanding is there has been some serious rushing on getting us our stuff and information so we can make our final payment date (and actually know how much that is haha).

I cannot imagine wedding planning and doing school at the same time. I'd go crazy or just not do my school work haha. That is very impressive you're able to balance both!

Yeah I don't understand why people wouldn't want a Disney wedding! I have other friends planning non-Disney weddings right now and they're going crazy trying to book venues, bring in caterers, find chair vendors, etc etc and wrangle everything. They gave me some frosty looks when I said I basically planned out my entire wedding in 2 hours .

We actually have two cakes.... . We have a number of people attending our wedding with dietary issues, including Diana. One cake is going to be a regular cake (flavors TBD on Oct 8th!) and the other cake is going to be vegan, gluten free, nut free (almonds are okay and not an allergen for anyone), and coconut free. For that cake we were given the option of vanilla or chocolate, but Diana wants marble, so we're going to be their guinea pigs for that! They're not sure at this point if it can be done or not. I think our only option for a filling that met all the criteria was a ganache and vegan buttercream as the frosting. Should be interesting to see how this cake tastes!! At this point, we're not sure if we're going to have them decorate that one too or just have it as a sheet cake in the back.

We actually have not explicitly stated our wedding date. Diana is somewhat paranoid that with this being a public forum that we run the risk of some not so friendly attention on the day of our wedding if we put it out there.

Here are some of the books we're using for the centerpieces. I'm still waiting on some more to come in. We have Pinocchio, Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, The Rescuers, Tarzan, Peter Pan, Hunchback, Swiss Family Robinson, Treasure Island, Through the Looking Glass, Winnie the Pooh, Sword in the Stone, Wind in the Willows, Arabian Nights, and a couple others that are escaping me at the moment. I'm waiting for Bambi to arrive and I'm still hunting down The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins, and a few others. I know I'm eventually going to have to cave and just pay a little more for those books. Right now I haven't paid more than like 2 dollars for the books.

Well, your wedding sounds truly gorgeous. I do hope that you guys post some pictures.

I know! A whole wedding in two hours! HAH! We're actually still sort of planning our home reception in Utah for everyone who won't be going to Florida (it's about a month after the Disney wedding). That's not entirely finished yet. It'll be nice though. It's sort of low key, which is why I'm not too worried. Our biggest concern on that one for the moment is food. We've gone back and forth with some incredibly flaky caterers to where I've decided that I'm not even using caterers anymore because they HAVE been so flaky in just communicating with me (I'm sorry--but if you can't send me an email with a quote when I ask, how do I know you'll show up with the food on time?). So, honestly, we're probably going to go the cheap, tacky way in Utah and order pizza. It's a two hour reception...so I imagine if we have pizza coming every half hour and try to display it nicely, it should be fine. Plus, we're having an ice cream bar and cake...so I'm not too concerned.

I understand the reason for not stating your date. It's sad, but I totally get it. It's completely not cool that you and your fiancee should have concerns like that. I hate people, sometimes. :/

I love the books centerpiece idea. And I honestly had no idea that "The Rescuers" was based on a book! (What kind of Disney fan am I?!) These are all older versions of the books, you said? $2 is pretty cool. Cheap centerpieces! YAY!

Tiffiny

 

[LadyD]

We had our menu tasting yesterday!! I quite literally ate myself sick it was so good I could not stop. Both Diana and I are vegetarian, so we were quite curious to see what Disney could offer us. I cannot eat citrus, and Diana needs to avoid dairy and gluten. Disney has been absolutely phenomenal working with us and all our dietary restrictions (including our guests) so that everyone will have something delicious to eat.

We were very fortunate and able to have our menu tasting in the Sleeping Beauty Pavilion, where our reception will be. It was very nice to get to spend some time in that room.


(Sorry that the picture is crooked :/)

Pre-reception

For our pre-reception hour, we are doing 3 passed trays and a cheese display. The cheese display includes brie, which I am very excited about. Typically, you do not get to sample any of your pre-reception dishes at the menu tasting, but we were able to try one since they had not done it before. The other two passed options are a 5 spice chicken drumette and a poached artichoke with tomato relish and micro basil.

Disneyland does these out of this world cheese monte cristo sandwiches that I LOVE. Early on I inquired whether or not it would be possible to do mini monte cristo sandwiches as a passed option. Unfortunately, we were informed that they did not have the capacity to make those for us, however, the chef was willing to try and do potato fritters with a gruyere cheese sauce. Since they had not done these before, we were given the option to sample them at our tasting session. These quickly became the first thing I was extremely excited to get to eat.

None of us knew quite what to expect for these potato fritters, so we were surprised when they came out looking like crispy, breaded little balls. We were each given two fritters. One contained chorizo and the other was vegetarian friendly. While I cannot speak to the deliciousness of the chorizo filled fritters, the vegetarian ones were simply amazing. Nice and crispy on the outside and potato-y goodness on the inside slathered in cheesy deliciousness.



I forgot to take the picture before I devoured my little potato fritter. The remaining one is the chorizo one. These fritters are definitely being served and we already discussed arranging for a plate with them on it to be set aside for us haha!

The entrée

We are doing a plated service for our reception. Somewhere between 10% to 20% of our guest list has some kind of dietary issue (including us), so we decided that losing potential options was worth reducing the chances for a cross-contamination issue. The last thing we want is to send one of our guests to the hospital.

We elected to sub in a caesar salad for the starter rather than soup that was included with the meal option we selected. We were also served a field of greens style salad with this amazing roasted garlic balsamic dressing of some sort (I say it was tomato and Diana says it was just garlic ). The caesar salad comes with a crouton cracker that has a pesto and a parmesan crisp. Unfortunately, those items will not work for a lot of our guests, so we're not sure if we're going to have two salads or just the greens salad. Disney did offer to make the caesar dressing vegetarian friendly though, which was extremely kind of them and I'm debating doing just because it is so hard to find a fantastic vegetarian caesar dressing.



All our main entrées are GF. Our meat option is a duet meal with filet mignon and salmon that has a sauvignon blanc cream sauce with mashed potatoes, haricots vert, and carrots on the side. My mom tried that and said it was excellent. We took her word for it.

Initially, Diana and I had asked if it was possible at all for the chefs at Disneyland to make something like the mango tofu that used to be served at the SciFi drive in theatre at Disney World (it's been three years and we still talk about that dish), but unfortunately they couldn't. Instead, they suggested a grilled portobello mushroom entrée, which sounded enticing so we went for it.

It. Is. So. Good. They created this grilled portobello mushroom stack with squash, zucchini, and red pepper topped with pesto and onion over roasted potatoes and a pomodoro sauce. We are quite pleased with this option. It is very hearty.



Dessert

We initially declined the dessert option as part of our menu since we feel people will be too full for cake if they eat dessert first. However, the desserts they made are simply incredible, particularly the milk chocolate cube with the passion fruit sauce and salted caramel macaroon. I mean, not only is that dessert one of the best desserts I have ever had, they even put a hidden mickey on it. The chocolate cube is so light, yet incredibly rich and does not leave that milk chocolate after taste in your mouth like some milk chocolates. The macaroon that accompanies it is a little slice of heaven. I do not like caramel and I like salted desserts even less. I would eat a box of these. I will find some way to get this dessert on our menu for the evening. Options we have discussed thus far:

a) Dessert buffet at the end of the evening so people can get some more sugar before they leave. Unfortunately, it is not possible to do that with this particular dessert since it is too delicate.

b) Serving it as a plated option sometime around 9:30 after people have had a chance to get up and do some dancing. I'm not convinced that everyone would be ready for such a rich dessert at that point.

We also tried the flourless chocolate dome. It was definitely good, but it was hard to evaluate how good because the other dessert was just so outstanding.


The cube and macaroon are on the front left while the dome is the back right.

The cake

Cake is very important to Diana and me. Since we have so many people coming with dietary restrictions, we're trying to accommodate all of them in one tier of the cake. For their dietary restrictions, they typically offer either a vanilla or chocolate cake. Diana likes marble cake, so they offered to try to make a marble for us to try. The only option for filling that met the requirement of GF, dairy free, nut free, and coconut free is the non-dairy whip. Thankfully, their vegan buttercream meets that requirement too. Diana was able to try all three types of cakes, and she tried the vanilla cake with fresh strawberries in the filling.

For the other two tiers, I tried a mozart cake with a bavarian cream filling (IT'S VEGETARIAN!!!!!) and a chocolate (I think fudge) cake with a mint and chip filling. I loved both of them, so we're doing mozart cake as the bottom and the chocolate as the top tier. Diana liked the vanilla cake with the non-dairy whip and fresh strawberries, so we're doing that as the middle tier.


GF, vegan, nut free, coconut free cake.


Mozart cake and chocolate cake.

After the dessert tasting, Diana and I went to Mickey's Halloween party out here. Shortly after we got into Disneyland for the event, Diana realized she lost her phone The last time she knows she had it was when we were at the tasting in the Sleeping Beauty Pavilion, so she lost it somewhere between the Disneyland Hotel and Tomorrowland in Disneyland. It is currently off (goes straight to voicemail when we call) and we know it had plenty of battery, so we're crossing our fingers a cast member found it. We were told it can take a few days for things to trickle in to the lost and found. Hopefully it turns up....


Us as Mickey and Minnie for the party