Gosh Janet - looking at your photos from your DP at GF Marina makes me so excited for that part of my event!
Lisacope, I'm glad my marina fireworks photos helped. And I'm glad they're adding to your excitement about your own event.
When I can find the time, I'll do the same thing with the other events that I have held at the marina -- that is, create separate photo albums for the fireworks shots (
the MNSSHP fireworks photos are the most dramatic). I'm not sure when that will be, though. Just this evening I FINALLY got around to finishing my Summerhouse album:
click here. That album now has higher-resolution photos in it.
YAHOO! But I am amazed at how long it took me to complete.
Yikes, but it was a lot of work.
The thing I wondered when I looked at the pix from your fabulous event - how much of it was the wonderfully creative mind of Janet and how much was Disney?
It was all my incredibly talented Event Manager. I honestly believe that Disney assigned to me one of their best. He simply presented his ideas and let me pick & choose what I thought was best for my event. And for my guests.
Your choice of food and beverage, the displays, the costumes on the servers - were you surprised by all of that or were you the one that made all of those choices?
I discussed the menu with my Event Manager over the telephone. I told him that I was allergic to seafood and thus if it was served at my event, it would have to be kept away from my food while it was being prepared. He understood completely and made a note of it in my file.
The final dinner menu is shown below:
It had
"Grilled Spicy Peeled Shrimp" listed on it because my husband is a seafood lover (
and an avid fisherman). That was my concession to my husband. (
Boy, he's lucky that I love him so much!)
The private chef who worked my event was alerted to my seafood allergy via the detailed notes that my Event Manager had taken. When I introduced myself to him at the party, he told me that my steak would be cooked on a separate part of the grill than the shrimp would be cooked on. In the following photo, you can see the shrimp cooking on the left and the steak cooking on the right:
The chef also made sure to keep the cooking utensils separate. It worked out well because I didn't taste any seafood in my food (
you'd be surprised how often I taste seafood remnants in my food in the real world -- yikes!). I was definitely a happy camper. Disney had taken my food allergy
very seriously.
When it came to the dessert menu, that was run by me, too. However, I did have one request --
the Cinderella's Slipper Dessert:
The
Mickey Mousse Bombe Dessert was a suggestion by my Event Manager. They were adorable little Mouse Ears hats:
As to the attire of the wait-staff, I'm pretty sure my Event Manager ran that by me. What they wore wasn't a big deal but my Event Manager wanted to give my event a
"Summer BBQ Beachy" type of feel. The attire that was chosen for them definitely fit into the beach vibe:
At the marina dessert party, our bartender kept his "beach" attire on. However, we had a new server and he was dressed in the more formal attire that is usually found on the Grand Floridian's Private Dining staff. That was okay by me, but it did catch my eye.
As to the decorations that were used in both of my venues, my Event Manager ran that by me, too. I honestly loved how the bright red-gingham check stood in stark contrast to the green of the trees and the blue of the lagoon:
And also in contrast to the blackness of the night:
The decorations that were chosen for the buffet tables in both venues were themed beautifully. I didn't choose them, of course, but they did fit into the BBQ theme quite nicely.
Summerhouse venue:
Marina venue:
With Disney, you sometimes get choices when it comes to the small details, but sometimes you don't. When a choice has been presented to me, I have either gone with my gut feeling or gone with what my Event Manager thinks will work out the best. Whatever route I've taken, I've always been pleased. And for those times when I've found myself completely mired in the minutiae, I'm awfully glad I left the details to the professionals -- my Event Managers!
