leelee9878
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2007
Love your story!
Kristin & Geoff's Wishes PJ - 4/6/2014 - WP/ADH/Isola - Final details, part 1!
- Thread starter asunnysideup
- Start date
tinydancr06
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 19, 2011
Hi, there! Just joining in! I've really enjoyed reading your pj so far. Good for you not doing alcohol if you don't want to. I listened to the podcast and couldn't believe the David Tuttera story! When will people start to understand that someone inviting you to their wedding is an honor in itself and stop feeling like the bride and groom owe them things like alcohol?! I understand the point of etiquette to an extent but come on. ANYWAY, we're from Florida and having a wedding around the same size as yours so I'm excited to see your plans! We'll also be honeymooning on the Fantasy, too 
Following along!
Following along!
tinydancr06
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 19, 2011
Oh, and I don't know if you still need advice on Riverside vs French Quarter but I would definitely go Riverside. We've stayed there twice, haven't actually stayed at FQ but we took a few of our engagement photos there and while it was fun I just think the grounds and rooms of POR are so beautiful. It's in our room block and I think our guests will be really impressed. We even took my parents there and they really loved it, too. Just my 2 cents
Summer Daydream
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2011
I have heard great things about Lisa. Shutter life does amazing work (I had to check them out when you posted on FB about them!). I love their style! Can't wait to see what dress you pick 
asunnysideup
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2011
Oh my goodness guys, it's been awhile haha. Not too much has happened, but some updates!
* I mentioned before we were considering a first look...I think we're going to go for it! Has anyone else done it/not done it and regretted/not regretted it? I'm 99% sure we're going to do it but I love hearing feedback from people.
* Officially decided to nix bouquet and garter tossing. We have nothing against 'em - my MOH's wedding had it, and I caught the bouquet! Good times.
But for me personally, I'm not comfortable with the garter toss, and I'd only be doing the bouquet toss because it's a tradition...and Geoff and I agreed that we aren't gonna do traditions for the sake of doing traditions, it has to actually be something we WANT. So, none! Hey it'll save money on a toss garter/bouquet at least. 
* As I mentioned before, we officially have our photographer and videographer down. Forgot to mention that we added on a Partybooth to our Studio 222 package. They're so much fun! Like an photobooth turned up to 11.
* Our planning session is officially booked! We're going on October 11th from 2-4:30. I'm so psyched, I had heard you need to ask your planner about a menu tasting...ours just booked one without even being asked! Love!!!
* We finished up our marriage prep class through our church and booked our officiant, who was the guy leading the class. He's really nice, we requested him (our church has multiple ministers) so we're glad we got the one we connected with!
* Dress shopping coming soon...I'm going to Alfred Angelo/David's Bridal since they're the most budget friendly for me - DB said their new Fall 2013 collection comes out end of June, so I'm waiting for that announcement, then I'll make appointments for July. My MOH and mom are coming with me.
* We booked Patricia LeJeune! SO excited, since I've heard great things about them from Lurkyloo and other PJs...all of the BMs opted to get their own hair/makeup done, and we're gonna treat my Mom and Geoff's Mom to it! It's my Mom's first time getting her hair/makeup done EVER, so I'm quite excited.
Other than that, really not much new...once the dress comes and the planning session hits I feel like the ball will really start moving. I did start work on the DIY bouquets, so I'll post pics once those are further along!
* I mentioned before we were considering a first look...I think we're going to go for it! Has anyone else done it/not done it and regretted/not regretted it?
I'm 99% sure we're going to do it but I love hearing feedback from people.* Officially decided to nix bouquet and garter tossing. We have nothing against 'em - my MOH's wedding had it, and I caught the bouquet! Good times.
But for me personally, I'm not comfortable with the garter toss, and I'd only be doing the bouquet toss because it's a tradition...and Geoff and I agreed that we aren't gonna do traditions for the sake of doing traditions, it has to actually be something we WANT. So, none! Hey it'll save money on a toss garter/bouquet at least. * As I mentioned before, we officially have our photographer and videographer down. Forgot to mention that we added on a Partybooth to our Studio 222 package. They're so much fun! Like an photobooth turned up to 11.
* Our planning session is officially booked! We're going on October 11th from 2-4:30. I'm so psyched, I had heard you need to ask your planner about a menu tasting...ours just booked one without even being asked! Love!!!
* We finished up our marriage prep class through our church and booked our officiant, who was the guy leading the class. He's really nice, we requested him (our church has multiple ministers) so we're glad we got the one we connected with!
* Dress shopping coming soon...I'm going to Alfred Angelo/David's Bridal since they're the most budget friendly for me - DB said their new Fall 2013 collection comes out end of June, so I'm waiting for that announcement, then I'll make appointments for July. My MOH and mom are coming with me.
* We booked Patricia LeJeune! SO excited, since I've heard great things about them from Lurkyloo and other PJs...all of the BMs opted to get their own hair/makeup done, and we're gonna treat my Mom and Geoff's Mom to it! It's my Mom's first time getting her hair/makeup done EVER, so I'm quite excited.
Other than that, really not much new...once the dress comes and the planning session hits I feel like the ball will really start moving. I did start work on the DIY bouquets, so I'll post pics once those are further along!
asunnysideup
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2011
Thank you!
Hi, there! Just joining in! I've really enjoyed reading your pj so far. Good for you not doing alcohol if you don't want to. I listened to the podcast and couldn't believe the David Tuttera story! When will people start to understand that someone inviting you to their wedding is an honor in itself and stop feeling like the bride and groom owe them things like alcohol?! I understand the point of etiquette to an extent but come on. ANYWAY, we're from Florida and having a wedding around the same size as yours so I'm excited to see your plans! We'll also be honeymooning on the Fantasy, too
Thank you!!
I know, I figure we're feeding them and giving them a desser party...ack! Hahaha. And that's so exciting! When is your wedding?!Oh, and I don't know if you still need advice on Riverside vs French Quarter but I would definitely go Riverside. We've stayed there twice, haven't actually stayed at FQ but we took a few of our engagement photos there and while it was fun I just think the grounds and rooms of POR are so beautiful. It's in our room block and I think our guests will be really impressed. We even took my parents there and they really loved it, too. Just my 2 cents
Thank you!! We ended up going with French Quarter but it was a HARD decision. They're both lovely in different ways!! We ended up going with the shorter walk to the bus area so there's less chance of people getting confused when it comes time to get on the wedding shuttle.
I have heard great things about Lisa. Shutter life does amazing work (I had to check them out when you posted on FB about them!). I love their style! Can't wait to see what dress you pick
Yes, she's amazing!! And I LOVE Shutter Life's work!! So excited to see what they do on our day.
asunnysideup
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2011
Hey everyone! Long time no update - after being interviewed on Carrie's podcast about first looks (I recommend everyone check it out!) I realized I hadn't updated this in FAR too long!!
Nothing too much is new with the wedding - like I mentioned prior, we got our planner. We have a new assistant now, so I'm excited to work with them!
We did our room block pretty quickly. We ended up having rooms at Grand Floridian (we have a few relatives who ONLY stay there, so we added it for them so they get a discount, and it's right by the ceremony), Boardwalk (perfect for after reception/DP), Port Orleans French Quarter, and Pop Century. It's a wide variety of pricing so hopefully everyone finds something they like.
We set up our wedding website! Feel free to take a look. It's located at http://shollerwedding.appycouple.com and is part of Appy Couple, which is a combo website/smartphone app. It's been really useful for us so far! I posted all of the room block info on there and other information, so hopefully our guests find it easy to use. I've gotten several compliments on the app version - if anyone is considering using it and wants to see the app, let me know and I can provide the wedding code.
On the wedding itself front, not much else is new. However, I DID get my dress! Unfortunately, since this is a public forum I don't want to post it here in case Geoff or other enterprising guests find the thread. But I can at least give a rundown of the day!
I went with just my Mom and my MOH/best friend, Rachel (I was MOH in her wedding too!). I didn't want TOO many opinions because I worry a lot about what others think (as you'll see later in this story...) so I didn't want too many opinions. Mom and Rach know me well enough to know what works for me, and both of them are horrible at lying, so I knew they were good to take along.
We started off having breakfast at Starbucks (Mom's first time eating breakfast there!) and then went to Alfred Angelo. I LOVED IT THERE. Any Orlando brides...the Altamonte Springs AA is amazinggggg. My consultant's name was Dani, and her and the assistant manager (whose name escapes me unfortunately) were so incredibly sweet.
I had brought two pages of favorites (it was pictures, so only a few favorites per page haha - not as many as it sounds!). The first page ended up being a bit of a dud - none of the dresses were ugly! They were all goooorgeous. But some flattered me amazingly (such as the Rapunzel dress) but didn't fit my personality, or just didn't flatter my body. There was one standout from the first page, the original Snow White dress, but that one just didn't really fit the wedding. However, if I have a more flowy nature-y vow renewal, I may have to grab that one (perhaps a used version by that time).
Once we went to the second page of favorites, Dani had some bad news - two of my favorites were not in stock. I was worried, because the dress that I thought may be ~the dress~ was on page 2...thankfully that was in stock! In fact, had JUST come in stock earlier that week. Phew! The two non in stock ones weren't even top picks so it was no worries.
The dress I thought may be ~the dress~ I tried on last. It was the only dress I tried on all day that got a literal "WOW" moment from both Mom and Rachel. Jaws dropped and everything, they loved it!! And at first, I loooooooved it too. Was crazy about it! Then I just started kinda...not PANIC panicking, but fretting? It was the last dress to try on, so I knew it was Decision Time...but I still had an appointment right after at David's...should I really pick it...was it the dress that people would think I'd pick...was it too different from what people would think I'd pick...etc.
So, I ended up deciding to go to David's. Dani was super sweet and took my measurements just in case I came back. On the way to DB I was positive that dress was NOT my dress. Rach and Mom couldn't figure out why I was so positive of that since they loved it but...what can I say haha.
I was hyped about DB because that's where Rach got HER dress...and it was beautiful...and we had a great experience there. Unfortunately, my consultant there was AWFUL. She left me alone to put on the dresses myself! And the bra! Which was impossible so poor Mom had to try and help me til the consultant finally wandered back in (and the story was empty...literally 2 other brides who had their own consultants). The whole time she spent telling me about her nightmares of being attacked by wedding dresses. Then she left me stuffed in a bra and slip that were not my size. When I was alone with Mom I was like "MOM I AM SO FRUSTRATED RIGHT NOW" haha. Not fun part of the day.
Unfortunately, nothing there worked. Either they were flattering to my bottom half but not my top, were just meh all around, were too big (some of the samples she pulled were size 12s...I'm a 6) or whatever. I did find one dress there I loved that was very similar to the one at AA that I had thought was ~the dress~ til I disowned it. Finally after her pulling the wrong dresses a few times (kjrehwkjrhahdgjagdh frustration) I tried on the dress I loved there again...and looked in the mirror...and alllllllllllllllmost got it........but I couldn't stop comparing it in my head to the one at Alfred Angelo. So I claimed we needed to go to lunch and as soon as we left DB I was like WE ARE GOING TO ALFREDS RIGHT NOW. And Dani and the assistant manager remembered my name (they STILL do when I went to pick up my veils...before I even gave my name/told them what I was there for), even though the store was busy they got me a room and let me retry on the dress...and as I looked down as they were putting it on I already knew it was it. I walked out, saw myself in the mirror and was like "Yup, that's it, this is it" and cried a little haha. I have NO idea why I was so against it!! It's so pretty. I think the dress is a very 'me' dress and may not shock some people, but I am surprised at the veil I got, 'cause I was very convinced I'd get one type of veil and I ended up with something totally different haha.
Unfortunately one person I showed it to totally dissed it, eep...so that sent me into a minor tizzy of being nervous about it actually not looking great, so I've been a bit blah about it lately. Fingers crossed that when it ships (hopefully in November, that's the guesstimation) I'll re-fall in love with it. Eeeeek.
If anyone is interested, let me know and I can PM you photos. Just don't want to show it here. And then afterwards we ended up having a big huge Italian lunch. Good ending to the day! I picked up my veils, the dress is still being made. Super excited!!!
Nothing too much is new with the wedding - like I mentioned prior, we got our planner. We have a new assistant now, so I'm excited to work with them!
We did our room block pretty quickly. We ended up having rooms at Grand Floridian (we have a few relatives who ONLY stay there, so we added it for them so they get a discount, and it's right by the ceremony), Boardwalk (perfect for after reception/DP), Port Orleans French Quarter, and Pop Century. It's a wide variety of pricing so hopefully everyone finds something they like.
We set up our wedding website! Feel free to take a look. It's located at http://shollerwedding.appycouple.com and is part of Appy Couple, which is a combo website/smartphone app. It's been really useful for us so far! I posted all of the room block info on there and other information, so hopefully our guests find it easy to use. I've gotten several compliments on the app version - if anyone is considering using it and wants to see the app, let me know and I can provide the wedding code.
On the wedding itself front, not much else is new. However, I DID get my dress!
Unfortunately, since this is a public forum I don't want to post it here in case Geoff or other enterprising guests find the thread. But I can at least give a rundown of the day!I went with just my Mom and my MOH/best friend, Rachel (I was MOH in her wedding too!). I didn't want TOO many opinions because I worry a lot about what others think (as you'll see later in this story...) so I didn't want too many opinions. Mom and Rach know me well enough to know what works for me, and both of them are horrible at lying, so I knew they were good to take along.
We started off having breakfast at Starbucks (Mom's first time eating breakfast there!) and then went to Alfred Angelo. I LOVED IT THERE. Any Orlando brides...the Altamonte Springs AA is amazinggggg. My consultant's name was Dani, and her and the assistant manager (whose name escapes me unfortunately) were so incredibly sweet.
I had brought two pages of favorites (it was pictures, so only a few favorites per page haha - not as many as it sounds!). The first page ended up being a bit of a dud - none of the dresses were ugly! They were all goooorgeous. But some flattered me amazingly (such as the Rapunzel dress) but didn't fit my personality, or just didn't flatter my body. There was one standout from the first page, the original Snow White dress, but that one just didn't really fit the wedding. However, if I have a more flowy nature-y vow renewal, I may have to grab that one (perhaps a used version by that time).
Once we went to the second page of favorites, Dani had some bad news - two of my favorites were not in stock. I was worried, because the dress that I thought may be ~the dress~ was on page 2...thankfully that was in stock! In fact, had JUST come in stock earlier that week. Phew! The two non in stock ones weren't even top picks so it was no worries.
The dress I thought may be ~the dress~ I tried on last. It was the only dress I tried on all day that got a literal "WOW" moment from both Mom and Rachel. Jaws dropped and everything, they loved it!! And at first, I loooooooved it too. Was crazy about it! Then I just started kinda...not PANIC panicking, but fretting? It was the last dress to try on, so I knew it was Decision Time...but I still had an appointment right after at David's...should I really pick it...was it the dress that people would think I'd pick...was it too different from what people would think I'd pick...etc.
So, I ended up deciding to go to David's. Dani was super sweet and took my measurements just in case I came back. On the way to DB I was positive that dress was NOT my dress. Rach and Mom couldn't figure out why I was so positive of that since they loved it but...what can I say haha.
I was hyped about DB because that's where Rach got HER dress...and it was beautiful...and we had a great experience there. Unfortunately, my consultant there was AWFUL. She left me alone to put on the dresses myself! And the bra! Which was impossible so poor Mom had to try and help me til the consultant finally wandered back in (and the story was empty...literally 2 other brides who had their own consultants). The whole time she spent telling me about her nightmares of being attacked by wedding dresses. Then she left me stuffed in a bra and slip that were not my size. When I was alone with Mom I was like "MOM I AM SO FRUSTRATED RIGHT NOW" haha. Not fun part of the day.
Unfortunately, nothing there worked. Either they were flattering to my bottom half but not my top, were just meh all around, were too big (some of the samples she pulled were size 12s...I'm a 6) or whatever. I did find one dress there I loved that was very similar to the one at AA that I had thought was ~the dress~ til I disowned it. Finally after her pulling the wrong dresses a few times (kjrehwkjrhahdgjagdh frustration) I tried on the dress I loved there again...and looked in the mirror...and alllllllllllllllmost got it........but I couldn't stop comparing it in my head to the one at Alfred Angelo. So I claimed we needed to go to lunch and as soon as we left DB I was like WE ARE GOING TO ALFREDS RIGHT NOW. And Dani and the assistant manager remembered my name (they STILL do when I went to pick up my veils...before I even gave my name/told them what I was there for), even though the store was busy they got me a room and let me retry on the dress...and as I looked down as they were putting it on I already knew it was it. I walked out, saw myself in the mirror and was like "Yup, that's it, this is it" and cried a little haha. I have NO idea why I was so against it!! It's so pretty. I think the dress is a very 'me' dress and may not shock some people, but I am surprised at the veil I got, 'cause I was very convinced I'd get one type of veil and I ended up with something totally different haha.
Unfortunately one person I showed it to totally dissed it, eep...so that sent me into a minor tizzy of being nervous about it actually not looking great, so I've been a bit blah about it lately. Fingers crossed that when it ships (hopefully in November, that's the guesstimation) I'll re-fall in love with it. Eeeeek.
If anyone is interested, let me know and I can PM you photos. Just don't want to show it here. And then afterwards we ended up having a big huge Italian lunch.
Good ending to the day! I picked up my veils, the dress is still being made. Super excited!!!
lpizzuro123
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2005
Thank you so much! I love your photos, you had a beautiful reception!
Did you guys use open seating, or bring in tables? We're definitely going with the smaller tables, and was wondering if you utilized them at all or not. Thank you!
Ok - I don't think I ever answered you - I am so sorry about that - it got lost in my email somewhere.
Anyway, we had 50 people and brought in 5 large tables that were put on the dance floor, plus a sweetheart table for the two of us. Most everyone stayed on the dance floor during our reception but were able to wander around and use some of the smaller tables for more intimate conversation.
Linda
lpizzuro123
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2005
Also, I know I am late in this also, but as far as choosing POFQ or POF - you made the right choice with POFQ. That was also in my room block, and out of the 50 people that came to our wedding 40 people stayed there, and they all loved it.
We are heading back to WDW in November for our 5 year anniversary with 10 friends and family that were also at our wedding and we are all staying at POFQ for a few nights before our Disney Dream Cruise.
I am sure everyone of your guests that stay there will love it.
I also love your wedding dress story and can't wait to see your pictures after your wedding.
Linda
We are heading back to WDW in November for our 5 year anniversary with 10 friends and family that were also at our wedding and we are all staying at POFQ for a few nights before our Disney Dream Cruise.
I am sure everyone of your guests that stay there will love it.
I also love your wedding dress story and can't wait to see your pictures after your wedding.
Linda
Bewitch324
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 12, 2009
I'm so excited you found your dress!! I would love to see pictures of it if you want to PM them. I'm sorry the David's experience was not good---I think the consultant/sales person completely drives the dress shopping experience...a good one can really make the experience amazing, and make sure you feel beautiful in almost anything...but a bad one...WHOOO, can really kill it for you. I understand not wanting to commit to your dress while you still knew you had the other appointment set because what if....but once you knew that David's wasn't the place (because of the rep and the experience) I'm so glad your heart was open to your dress at AA's.
I heard you on the podcast, you did great!
Brooke
I heard you on the podcast, you did great!
Brooke
asunnysideup
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2011
No problem! Thank you!
Did that still allow plenty of room for dancing?Your website is so cute! Love it.
Sounds like you had an exciting dress experience, if a bit frustrating at the second store. The important thing is you found THE ONE! I would love to see a photo if you don't mind
I PM'd you a photo!
Yeah, the second store was a bit stressful at times but it all worked out in the end!
It was a super fun day, even when I was a little frazzled haha.Awesome!! I'm really glad your guests liked POFQ. I've heard good things about it, and the easier bus system sealed the deal for us - it's a little more compact so I'm hoping there's less confusion.
I PM'd you a photo of the dress!
Thanks! I really enjoyed being on the podcast!
Definitely! My MOH loved her experience at David's, but she definitely got a MUCH better consultant. I'm glad I found my dress though!!
I PM'd you some photos!
asunnysideup
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2011
Alright! Planning session update. We went in October - it was me, Geoff, and my parents.
We started off at Franck's where we met with our awesome planner, Lisa. We met there, and first up was the non-photo-taking parts which was just stuff like guest transportation, the timeline of the day, what songs we're using during the ceremony etc.
Then for the tasting session, which is when I finally started taking photos!! We drove from the wedding studio (located at the Grand Floridian) to the Boardwalk, since our reception was there so our food will be cooked in the Boardwalk kitchen.
Our sign!
First up was picking our napkin fold haha. I wish I had taken photos of all of them! There were some standing folds and some flat folds. We ended up choosing a flat, pointed fold, because ADH is art deco themed, so the pointed patterns matched some of the decor. (I never thought I'd be giving that much thought to a freaking NAPKIN hahaha!)
Our menu, by the way, is brunch - we're having a 12 pm ceremony, 1 pm - 6 pm reception, but we love brunch food and it's our wedding, so dangit, BRUNCH IT IS. So be prepared for a really yummy mishmash of breakfast and non-breakfast food hahaha.
So first food we tried...Geoff and I attended the Epcot Food & Wine festival last year, and they had bacon cheddar cheese soup at the Canada pavilion and OH MY GOSH it was amazing. Geoff requested it for our tasting session to see if the Boardwalk kitchen could replicate it perfectly...AND OH THEY DID.
This is it. Those delicious round things turned out to be fried truffle mac and cheese. Geoff almost DIED. While we LOVED them in fried form, we ended up getting (another Geoff request) a mashed potato/truffle mac and cheese martini bar (instead of the fried version). Basically you can put sweet potatoes, yukon mashed potatoes, or truffle mac and cheese in martini glasses and then there's a whole bar of toppings for them. Here's a photo:
Mmmmmm.
Next up was trying the proteins. We picked parmesan crusted chicken, grilled chicken, and maple roasted pork with fig.
First we tried the grilled chicken. It was delicious! But...was grilled chicken. Very safe. So I nixed that. :3
Parmesan crusted chicken. IT WAS SO GOOD. (Also I had already taken a bite out of this one so...ahem. Ignore that.) We changed the mushroom sauce to marinara sauce, but this ended up being our protein for the menu. It's so yummy. O_O
I personally LOVED the maple pork with fig but only Dad and I loved it - it was meh for Mom and Geoff. So we went with the safe-but-not-boring protein option haha. I forgot to get a photo of the pork. -_-
We then tried a spinach artichoke quiche and sausage, with truffle butter sauce. Super good! But we ended up nixing the quiche and we're doing a choose your own omelet bar instead - tons of toppings and lets guests choose a variety so they can go meat, vegetarian, avoid things for allergies, etc.
We then tried a duo plate of bananas foster french toast and cream crepes with berries. We ended up loving the banana foster french toast, though if we need to cut back a menu item we may cut that since we're also doing a Mickey Waffle bar - I'm obsessed with Mickey waffles. OBSESSED.
So if our guest count is larger than we expect and we need to nix an item, the bananas foster french toast goes 'cause...well...we already have a sweet bread item. But for now it's on because we're kids and love french toast. The crepes were good too but the cream was a little bland - everyone loooved the french toast though.
There's other stuff on our menu but you can only pick x items to try, so we didn't bother trying things we knew the taste of (like my beloved Mickey waffles!).
That about wrapped up that menu tasting. We took a photo with the chef!
Then it was back to Franck's to tackle floral!
I'm SO happy with our floral. We're DIYing the bouquets to save money, but Disney ballrooms are the only place where you can DIY your decorations. There's some exceptions - I'm making bar signs and some other paper items for our reception - but since our ceremony is in the wedding pavilion and our reception is at Atlantic Dance Hall, Disney has to do all the centerpieces, decor, etc.
Thankfully, our venues are pretty darn lovely looking even when plain. But we're still doing some decorations. For the ceremony we're doing rose petals lining the aisle , 75% white, 25% coral with vases and flowers, like this:
Then at the altar we're having an arrangement like this (sorry for how pixelated this is!):
Boom. That's it. Simple, elegant, done.
For cocktail hour we're not doing any decorations - people are there for an hour, it's decorated (it's a functioning 20s themed dance club, I think we're good lol), etc. It has beautiful marble topped cocktail tables and such too, and a beautiful balcony (on both levels!) that overlooks the lake.
At the reception, due to our high guest count (assuming everyone comes) we're using a bit of a combo of seating - we're doing open seating (thank GOD no seating chart) using the pre-existing cocktail tables, as well as adding some tables onto the dance floor (the dance floor is huge since it's a club, so it still leaves tons of room to dance!).
On the big dance floor tables, we're doing white tablecloths with an overlay of this:
And white napkins. Then on the existing cocktail tables we're doing white tablecloths with that blue material as the napkins.
Our centerpieces are SO NEAT!!! I LOVE what she did with them. I told her I wanted vintage coke bottles and inexpensive red flowers. So on each cocktail table we'll have one vintage coke bottle with either a rose, carnation, or gerber daisy in them. I used this as an example (minus the random Jack Daniels bottle lol):
Then the big tables will have two of those vintage coke bottle arrangements, plus one of each of these:
All with red flowers in them. I LOVE IT!!! I'm so excited about it - and, because we kept it simple, our floral budget was actually...well, under budget. Which is lovely.
Our dessert party isn't having any decoration because it's a dessert party in freaking Epcot, that's decoration enough lol.
Then we went onto the cake.
So the cake was the sweet ending to the day. First up we discussed what we wanted looks wise. We ended up going with a round, two tier cake. The bottom tier will have the waves you see here:
Above the waves we're going to have hearts like this, but in red:
And then on the top tier, we'll have stripes like you see in the bottom tier here:
(Both those photos by Shutter Life Productions)
but in the color of our engagement photo (the blue stripes):
So that'll be our cake! ...if that made any sense. Still trying to figure out a cake topper.
Then we got to TASTE the cake. Behold:
SO MUCH CAKE.
We ended up choosing two flavors: lemon cake with raspberry filling (omgggg) for a light, fruity flavor...and chocolate cake with chocolate peanut butter cup filling (OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG).
And that ended our AWESOME marathon planning session haha!! We now have our BEO (banquet event order) and now starts the process of tweaking and changing things until they're perfect.
Sorry for how INSANELY LONG this entry was but...heck, it was an insanely long day! But fun. And delicious.
We went in October - it was me, Geoff, and my parents.We started off at Franck's where we met with our awesome planner, Lisa. We met there, and first up was the non-photo-taking parts which was just stuff like guest transportation, the timeline of the day, what songs we're using during the ceremony etc.
Then for the tasting session, which is when I finally started taking photos!! We drove from the wedding studio (located at the Grand Floridian) to the Boardwalk, since our reception was there so our food will be cooked in the Boardwalk kitchen.
Our sign!
First up was picking our napkin fold haha. I wish I had taken photos of all of them! There were some standing folds and some flat folds. We ended up choosing a flat, pointed fold, because ADH is art deco themed, so the pointed patterns matched some of the decor. (I never thought I'd be giving that much thought to a freaking NAPKIN hahaha!)
Our menu, by the way, is brunch - we're having a 12 pm ceremony, 1 pm - 6 pm reception, but we love brunch food and it's our wedding, so dangit, BRUNCH IT IS. So be prepared for a really yummy mishmash of breakfast and non-breakfast food hahaha.
So first food we tried...Geoff and I attended the Epcot Food & Wine festival last year, and they had bacon cheddar cheese soup at the Canada pavilion and OH MY GOSH it was amazing. Geoff requested it for our tasting session to see if the Boardwalk kitchen could replicate it perfectly...AND OH THEY DID.
This is it. Those delicious round things turned out to be fried truffle mac and cheese. Geoff almost DIED. While we LOVED them in fried form, we ended up getting (another Geoff request
) a mashed potato/truffle mac and cheese martini bar (instead of the fried version). Basically you can put sweet potatoes, yukon mashed potatoes, or truffle mac and cheese in martini glasses and then there's a whole bar of toppings for them. Here's a photo:
Mmmmmm.
Next up was trying the proteins. We picked parmesan crusted chicken, grilled chicken, and maple roasted pork with fig.
First we tried the grilled chicken. It was delicious! But...was grilled chicken. Very safe. So I nixed that. :3
Parmesan crusted chicken. IT WAS SO GOOD. (Also I had already taken a bite out of this one so...ahem. Ignore that.) We changed the mushroom sauce to marinara sauce, but this ended up being our protein for the menu. It's so yummy. O_O
I personally LOVED the maple pork with fig but only Dad and I loved it - it was meh for Mom and Geoff. So we went with the safe-but-not-boring protein option haha. I forgot to get a photo of the pork. -_-
We then tried a spinach artichoke quiche and sausage, with truffle butter sauce. Super good! But we ended up nixing the quiche and we're doing a choose your own omelet bar instead - tons of toppings and lets guests choose a variety so they can go meat, vegetarian, avoid things for allergies, etc.
We then tried a duo plate of bananas foster french toast and cream crepes with berries. We ended up loving the banana foster french toast, though if we need to cut back a menu item we may cut that since we're also doing a Mickey Waffle bar - I'm obsessed with Mickey waffles. OBSESSED.
So if our guest count is larger than we expect and we need to nix an item, the bananas foster french toast goes 'cause...well...we already have a sweet bread item. But for now it's on because we're kids and love french toast.
The crepes were good too but the cream was a little bland - everyone loooved the french toast though.There's other stuff on our menu but you can only pick x items to try, so we didn't bother trying things we knew the taste of (like my beloved Mickey waffles!
).That about wrapped up that menu tasting. We took a photo with the chef!
Then it was back to Franck's to tackle floral!
I'm SO happy with our floral. We're DIYing the bouquets to save money, but Disney ballrooms are the only place where you can DIY your decorations. There's some exceptions - I'm making bar signs and some other paper items for our reception - but since our ceremony is in the wedding pavilion and our reception is at Atlantic Dance Hall, Disney has to do all the centerpieces, decor, etc.
Thankfully, our venues are pretty darn lovely looking even when plain. But we're still doing some decorations. For the ceremony we're doing rose petals lining the aisle , 75% white, 25% coral with vases and flowers, like this:
Then at the altar we're having an arrangement like this (sorry for how pixelated this is!):
Boom. That's it. Simple, elegant, done.
For cocktail hour we're not doing any decorations - people are there for an hour, it's decorated (it's a functioning 20s themed dance club, I think we're good lol), etc. It has beautiful marble topped cocktail tables and such too, and a beautiful balcony (on both levels!) that overlooks the lake.
At the reception, due to our high guest count (assuming everyone comes) we're using a bit of a combo of seating - we're doing open seating (thank GOD no seating chart) using the pre-existing cocktail tables, as well as adding some tables onto the dance floor (the dance floor is huge since it's a club, so it still leaves tons of room to dance!).
On the big dance floor tables, we're doing white tablecloths with an overlay of this:
And white napkins. Then on the existing cocktail tables we're doing white tablecloths with that blue material as the napkins.
Our centerpieces are SO NEAT!!! I LOVE what she did with them. I told her I wanted vintage coke bottles and inexpensive red flowers. So on each cocktail table we'll have one vintage coke bottle with either a rose, carnation, or gerber daisy in them. I used this as an example (minus the random Jack Daniels bottle lol):
Then the big tables will have two of those vintage coke bottle arrangements, plus one of each of these:
All with red flowers in them. I LOVE IT!!! I'm so excited about it - and, because we kept it simple, our floral budget was actually...well, under budget. Which is lovely.
Our dessert party isn't having any decoration because it's a dessert party in freaking Epcot, that's decoration enough lol.
Then we went onto the cake.
So the cake was the sweet ending to the day. First up we discussed what we wanted looks wise. We ended up going with a round, two tier cake. The bottom tier will have the waves you see here:
Above the waves we're going to have hearts like this, but in red:
And then on the top tier, we'll have stripes like you see in the bottom tier here:
(Both those photos by Shutter Life Productions
)but in the color of our engagement photo (the blue stripes):
So that'll be our cake! ...if that made any sense. Still trying to figure out a cake topper.
Then we got to TASTE the cake. Behold:
SO MUCH CAKE.
We ended up choosing two flavors: lemon cake with raspberry filling (omgggg) for a light, fruity flavor...and chocolate cake with chocolate peanut butter cup filling (OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG).
And that ended our AWESOME marathon planning session haha!! We now have our BEO (banquet event order) and now starts the process of tweaking and changing things until they're perfect.
Sorry for how INSANELY LONG this entry was but...heck, it was an insanely long day! But fun. And delicious.
elphie101
Left my heart in Tomorrowland
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2008
Looks good!! We're using ADH as well, which I'm so excited about for the same reasons, that it really kind of decorates itself. I would LOVE to be under budget with our floral (so we could afford more FOOD!! It's all about priorities....)
I'm glad someone else is doing a potato bar at a brunch ceremony - my mom thinks it's a little weird that early but it's POTATOES.
I feel like we're food twins! I'm loving everything you have!
I'm glad someone else is doing a potato bar at a brunch ceremony - my mom thinks it's a little weird that early but it's POTATOES.
I feel like we're food twins! I'm loving everything you have!
Mel*Pie
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 5, 2011
Oh my gosh, I'm hungry now! lol. Everything looks beautiful. I am totally "seeing" the idea of your cake. I love it. I get your vision! Okay now I NEED to eat bacon cheddar soup, fried mac and cheese, and parmesan crusted chicken! Oh, and mickey waffles! lol.
asunnysideup
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2011
Yes! Technically our reception is lunch time (starts at 1) but we're doing brunch food because IT'S SO GOOD. And mashed potatoes are good ANY time of day!
Thank you! I'm excited to see the cake in person!!
And yes you do!!
Summer Daydream
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2011
I really like the idea of coke bottles. And your cake looks like it will turn about great! I love unique cakes
asunnysideup
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2011
Geoff and I are finishing assembling the invitations, they'll be going out in just a few days! While WDW is local for us, 99.9% of our family will be traveling a good distance for the wedding; we're going by the 'destination wedding' timeline suggested online of sending out invites 4 months in advance, and requesting RSVPs in 2 months in advance (especially since we'll be getting a phone call from Lisa around the 45 day mark to start finalizing things, so this will give us some leeway to hunt down any late reply-ers and get a true guest count!).
We did our Save the Dates through Minted. We got magnets, and on the magnet was a photo taken by one of my awesome bridesmaids, Lyss. I need to do a post of some of our engagement photos - they're fantastic! She's also the one who photographed the actual proposal. She's a professional photographer and graphic designer, so when the time came for invitations, we hired her to make them. And she did an AMAZING job!!
The front of the invitations.
The back of the invitations (we love the birds - a cute retro shoutout).
Our reception information card.
And on the flip side, dessert party information!
This is the front of our RSVP card (and will be the first thing guests see when they open the envelope). Lyss asked how Disney we wanted our invites to be, and we said just a small touch - so here's our Disney touch! We LOVED the little birds, and my MOH Rachel and I are going to attempt to sew similar birds for a cake topper. We'll see if that works out haha!
And here is the back of the RSVP card. We have enough local people coming (and enough people having to travel back north on Sunday evening) that we're not sure how many will make it to the dessert party, so now we'll have an idea if they'll be there the whole day or only part.
And finally, we got a custom stamp that I'm using on the back flaps of the main envelope and the RSVP envelope. So cute! It's a nice finishing touch (sorry the photo is slightly blurry).
And then the whole thing will be tied with mint and white striped baker's twine! So excited to get them all sent out.
I'll post again soon with some engagement photos! I can't believe I forgot to post them before. Soon!
We did our Save the Dates through Minted. We got magnets, and on the magnet was a photo taken by one of my awesome bridesmaids, Lyss. I need to do a post of some of our engagement photos - they're fantastic! She's also the one who photographed the actual proposal. She's a professional photographer and graphic designer, so when the time came for invitations, we hired her to make them. And she did an AMAZING job!!
The front of the invitations.
The back of the invitations (we love the birds - a cute retro shoutout).
Our reception information card.
And on the flip side, dessert party information!
This is the front of our RSVP card (and will be the first thing guests see when they open the envelope). Lyss asked how Disney we wanted our invites to be, and we said just a small touch - so here's our Disney touch! We LOVED the little birds, and my MOH Rachel and I are going to attempt to sew similar birds for a cake topper. We'll see if that works out haha!
And here is the back of the RSVP card. We have enough local people coming (and enough people having to travel back north on Sunday evening) that we're not sure how many will make it to the dessert party, so now we'll have an idea if they'll be there the whole day or only part.
And finally, we got a custom stamp that I'm using on the back flaps of the main envelope and the RSVP envelope. So cute! It's a nice finishing touch (sorry the photo is slightly blurry).
And then the whole thing will be tied with mint and white striped baker's twine! So excited to get them all sent out.
I'll post again soon with some engagement photos! I can't believe I forgot to post them before. Soon!
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