Hello I'm new to these boards and wanted to post my own thread about our incredible Disney Wedding. I'm not at home right now so i cant post pictures at this time But I will once I have a chance. BUt for now you will have to use your imagination.....I hope you enjoy this unique wedding story:
Our Magical Wedding
I thought it would be easier to write down what a magical week we had for our special wedding. Although words or even picture and video will never quite capture all of the magic I hope I can give you some feeling for what transpired leading up to, during and after our wedding.
Andrea & I have been truly blessed in so many ways and our wedding was just one more way that showed the blessings that God has bestowed upon us.
Many now ask how and when did we come up with the idea for a Surprise Wedding. Well there was no single moment that we can pick out. We always knew that one of our families would have to travel if we got married as they live in several areas, mostly New York and the Washington D.C. area. We had always held two special places in our heart where we would love to have our “Dream” wedding. New York City at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and reception at the Tavern on the Green or at Walt Disney World (WDW). Our first thoughts as to a date were originally in July as this is the anniversary time of both of our parents (The best examples of Love we know).
The thoughts of a hot July day in Florida or New York were a bit more than we thought we could handle. So on one of our many visits to Walt Disney World we started to think how much there was to offer in our favorite place in the world. Family is so important to us and we wanted to make this not only our special day but a way for our families to be together, get to know one another and have a great time.
A visit to Orlando in January for the International Builders Show really started our first ideas of pulling off a Surprise Wedding. We thought what better cover will we ever have than my 40th birthday in December. It would be close to Christmas (such a beautiful time in Disney) and an opportunity to get our families together. We played with the idea of an outside wedding at WDW but my wife was smart enough to talk me out of that because of the stress of weather related problems not to mention Disney has the most beautiful Wedding Pavilion right on Bay Lake looking toward Cinderella’s castle. About six months out we put the plans into action. We reserved a spot at the Wedding Pavilion for December 16th @ 7:30 pm, just 2 days before my actual birthday. We spoke on the phone and had several email correspondences with some Disney wedding coordinators and then set a meeting up with them in early September.
Our visit in September was a chance to meet a wedding coordinator in person, select a reception location, choose flowers, a cake (with samples to test ) decorations and all the other magic that only Disney could offer. We also met Reverend Jack Day for the first time, who would perform our ceremony. He was highly recommended from all and has done weddings on Regis & Kathy Lee as well as Lifetime Weddings.
Incredibly in one visit, although a ½ a days worth, we decided on probably about 80% of the wedding details. Of course after getting home we made some small changes but with the help of the Disney experts everything was coming together.
Now we had to convince our families to come to WDW a week before Christmas to attend a surprise black-tie 40th birthday party and still not lead them on too much as to spoil the surprise. We made our own tuxedo style invitations and told our families that accommodations had been arranged and that we only needed to know how many days they planned to stay. This actually was not too much of a stretch since we are Disney Vacation Club Members and have invited family to Disney before. But little did they know to what extent we were actually going to, to pull off this surprise.
As RSVP’s began to roll in only a few family members were holding out and we started to contemplate having to tell some to get them to come. But my wonderful bride to-be did a great job convincing those that were leaning the other way. And some of them were not easy including both fathers!. We waited until the final days to finally have to tell a couple of family members but swore them to complete secrecy.
We worked closing with our WDW wedding coordinator to make sure that everything would say birthday celebration and that there was no mention of wedding as not to have anyone slip up. One of the additional surprises for our families was we made all the resort reservations and chose the theme of the resort based on the likes, hobbies, personalities of our family members. As examples one sister and her family love the islands and beaches so they were to stay at the Caribbean Beach Resort and a brother and his family that love the outdoors etc, were to stay at the Wilderness Lodge. We sent out packages to everyone the week they were leaving that had lanyards with a pin from the resort where they were staying and brochure information. They were told not to open them until they were in flight to Orlando. And it seems that they followed the rules and were very excited when they found out all the different places they were staying.
Andrea and I had checked in Thursday December 14th. I had surprised Andrea where we were going to stay. We stayed in a once in a lifetime suite at the Contemporary. We both had always wanted to stay there since we were kids and took that first ride on the monorail through the hotel. But for our first experience what more could we have asked for, we were in the Vice Presidential Suite. It was almost as large as our townhomes! It had 4 bathrooms, a living room with a flat screen TV (4 TV’s total) a full size dining room with a bar, 2 bedrooms and even its own Christmas tree.
We also had 4 sliding doors that lead to 2 huge balconies. Since we were on the 14th floor what views we had of bay lake! This suite was part of the concierge level with its own concierge lounge where they served food and drinks throughout the day. With a big concierge balcony that had every ones dream view right into the Magic Kingdom toward Cinderella’s castle and Space Mountain. The concierge outside our door was there to get your every need.
The excitement and nervousness was building as we approached Friday and Saturday (wedding day). Our first guests were to arrive Friday late afternoon and evening and the rest early Saturday morning.
Our only possible big slip up came right when the first guest arrived for check in at their resort. But God in his wisdom helped us avoid a huge mistake in spoiling the surprise that we worked so hard to keep. We had not planned to pick up the father of the bride and his wife from the airport but something made Andrea decide to go pick them up and take them to the Grand Floridian for concierge check in. Luckily when she helped them check in they were distracted by all the happenings in the resort so they didn’t hear when the concierge said “So you’re here for the wedding!” At that point Andrea nearly died and said no it’s for a birthday! She then called me once they were checked in and told me what happened. We had a true emergency on our hands as we had everyone else checking in later that evening and the next morning but in 7 different resorts! I hopped in our rental car and went to each resort to speak with a manager to make sure they deleted from their computers any mention of wedding and to put a warning that they were not to tell the guest anything! Once I had relayed the full story to each manager they all apologized and things were taken care of. Now we just prayed that there would be no other slip-ups prior to the big event.
Saturday December 16th, 2006 a day that will always be Magical!
Again another night of very little sleep as the anticipation was building. I had to go to the airport to pick up one of my nieces, Michelle and her husband Rich from Oregon. They were one of the few who knew the real story. No one else in the family knew they were coming for “The Birthday” We had to get them before their parents and the rest of my family arrived at the airport and spoiled another surprise. Once I got them check into their resort it was off to get nails done and last minute things. Since our suite at the Contemporary was so large I was able to take one wing and bedroom and my lovely bride to-be the other to get ready that afternoon. She had always dreamt of having her favorite movies like While You Were Sleeping and When Harry met Sally playing while she got ready for her wedding day. And with 4 flat screen TV’s with DVD players in our suite her dream came true. At 2:00 that afternoon she decided to tell her sister the real story. She invited her sister over to help get ready and decorate for my surprise birthday party. When she arrived Andrea took her out on the concierge balcony overlooking the Magic Kingdom and the Wedding Pavilion. I was hiding on the other side of the glass sliding doors taking pictures as she told her sister we had just become engaged the night before, showing her the ring and then after a ton of hugs and
tears telling her that its was not going to be a birthday party that night it was a wedding over at the wedding pavilion. More hugs, more tears and then she told her sister to turn around where she saw me snapping pictures. If this was the reaction we were going to get from everyone, boy where we in for an unbelievable night.
A hair and makeup person came to the room to get my bride ready and I relaxed (Not really) and had a couple of beers and watched movies before I had to get ready.
I left for the wedding pavilion around 6pm to meet our officiant Reverend Jack Day and our wedding coordinator. I watched as they finished another wedding, took down their flowers, etc and got the pavilion ready for our wedding. What an operation to watch. All the cast members with Disney weddings were so nice. They had their walkie talkies and ear pieces in place to help pull off our big night.
The Start of the Big Surprise!
We had a chartered Disney Cruise line bus start picking up guest at the Grand Floridian where our parents were first to board. We also had 2 friends John, Vickie and their kids Robbie & Brittany on board who knew about the surprise and were there to also help make sure everyone was aboard. The videographer and our English Butler (Winthrop) were also on board to greet our guest and ask them to give a birthday wish on camera. Our friends also handed out buttons that were made with pictures of me growing up. The bus then began its journey around Disney picking up our other guest at each of the resorts we had selected for them. On the third stop my brother Paul and his wife Claudine boarded, the first of many surprises that night. My parents did not know they were coming, so the tears had begun. Several stops later my niece and her husband from Oregon got on and she was s surprise to everyone. The final stop before the pavilion was to pick up my brother Jim his wife Darlene and daughter Danielle. When they got on and saw their daughter from Oregon, of course the tears were doubled.
Then Winthrop got everyone’s attention and began to read a poem that my lovely bride had written…with some smiles, giggles and laughs to begin little did they know what they were in for. Here is the poem (Read in your best “Butler Voice”)…….
Listen folks, cause I have a tale
Not about a mouse, A Chip or a Dale
But about the reason you’re here today
About a boy named Phillip and his big Birthday!
(Pause)
Once upon a time
On a cold December morn,
Deep in the heart of Washington
A little boy was born
Hailing from the name of Nixon,
His parents Ramona & James
Living in the state of Maryland
Enjoying his portion of fortune and fame.
Phillip’s journey’s been a happy one
Full of family and friends galore,
A love of God and His creations
Including the Redskins, ..when they win more
Along life’s journey,
Phillip met a girl,
With deep brown eyes
And sun kissed curls.
Fast friends, the two,
They did become
Sharing follies, adventures
And most importantly, fun!
Life’s hardships they weathered
Life’s battles they fought
Together finding comfort
Nothing needed, nothing sought.
As different as night and day the two,
Pieces of the puzzle
Fitting together,
Needing glue.
The meaning of this poem is
Love always finds a way
In every life, in every heart
And even on Birthdays
Here in this world of magical wishes
Where dreams really do come true
My friends this is not so much
A surprise for Phillip
As it is a surprise for you!
At this point the gasps had begun! The poem continued……..
On behalf of the Walt Disney World Resorts,
Andrea Veronica Mench
And
Phillip Clayton Nixon
I would like to cordially invite you
To their wedding!
That was it..screaming, crying, hugs and laughter had begun…having seen the video it was something to behold. The bus then arrived at the Wedding Pavilion.
All this time I had been in the grooms waiting room by myself going crazy wondering what was happening, Finally our wedding coordinator Michelle Wenzler came in and told me the bus had exploded with joy and they were on the way. My bride and her sister had been listening in on a phone that was on an open line from our friends on the bus, so they were able to join in on the excitement.
When our families arrived, my 2 brothers, my sister and my mother and father were lead into my room to see me. The tears and laughter started, I asked them to be my best men and our matron of honor. At the same time my bride’s family had gone to see her in the bride’s vestibule and the same reaction was happening over there. After a few minutes to decompress and gain our composure we still had a wedding to do!
Even though we had planned a small elegant wedding our families were abuzz with excitement and they cheered as I entered to walk my parents down the aisle and continued when my bride and her father entered as well. With all the excitement it was more like an elegant tailgate party, but we couldn’t have been happier.
Reverend Jack Day was just perfect, the music was beautiful as well as the flowers and pavilion. What more could we have asked for. With the ceremony over we were ushered out and our guest lined up on the bridge leading to the wedding pavilion, we walked halfway across the bridge and stopped and turned back toward the pavilion and began a LOOONG kiss. Fireworks then exploded for several minutes as we held
that pose and our families were mesmerized. Luckily it’s all on video because we missed half the fireworks while posing!
Then we exited through a cascade of rose petals thrown by our families and entered Cinderella’s carriage for a farewell ride to our reception at the Whitehall room and patio at the Grand Floridian. We were also lucky enough to have timed our ride to the Grand Floridian with the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom in the background. As our little white ponies slowly moved along, people came out of the resort to take pictures and little girls chased our carriage to get a look at the princess…we were our own little parade as we waved. The Whitehall room and patio is wonderful for a small gathering, we had about 40 people. It’s a small octagon shaped room on the end of the
convention area at the Grand Floridian. It also has an outdoor patio that looks toward the Magic Kingdom and castle, with the monorail passing overhead. The pre-reception was held outside on the patio.
The Whitehall room was beautiful at night. We had done everything in whites, silver, white flowers with greenery and lots of candles and twinkling lights (The lights were dimmed and the room was beautiful). The ceiling had tulle draped from the center with lights and ficus trees with lights around the room. We had a sweetheart table at one end, the dance floor in the center and 2, 10 seat tables on each side of the dance floor. The DJ was at the other end of the room from us and our beautiful white and silver 3 level “Mickey wave” cake topped with a white and silver chocolate castle was off to the side surrounded by candles. All of it was truly breathtaking and everything we had dreamed about.
We had a wonderful appetizer followed by a salad, then they turned down the lights even more and several waiters all at once brought out ice sculptured glass slippers lit from underneath with green and red lights and topped with a raspberry sorbet. (To the music of the electrical light parade). Then the main course of surf and turf! Wow what a meal. We then smashed a little cake in each others faces and the party began.
Our DJ was great; we had crazy hats, crazy dances and the best time of all…all only to end too quickly. We did go over a little till about quarter to 1am. Then most of our families (minus the parents) came back to our “rock-star” suite at the Contemporary to finish the party till 2:30am!
We can’t say enough about how blessed we are to have had such a perfect wedding; the entire staff of Disney World was perfect and not only did a wonderful job but really joined in on the excitement and fun. We had so many of them come over to us and tell us it was the best wedding they had ever done from start to finish.
The next day we had most of our guest still in town so we had planned a day at Epcot with a late lunch in Japan (Teppanyaki Dinning room) and then the Candlelight Processional at 5:30pm(with Kirk Cameron as the reader of the Christmas story). We also hopped over to MGM to see the Osbourne Lights and finished off the night at the Magic Kingdom as it was open until 1am!
Another magical day and night!
With a large group of people it is sometimes easier to break up into smaller groups and then meet up later in the day or evening for a meal. On Monday Dec. 18th my actual birthday we did just that. Family and friends that were still in town went out and did there own thing. My bride and I checked out of the Contemporary and also had her family check out of their resorts and we all moved in together into a 2 story Grand Villa at Saratoga Springs. My parents came and spent the afternoon with us and then the rest of the family met up that evening to go out for a birthday meal. I had selected Buco Di Peppo, a family style Italian restaurant outside of but close to Disney. Andrea and I had discovered this on a previous visit and had such a great time and had such good food that we thought this would be fun place for our families to get together.
They have a special room called the Pope room. Its walls are decorated with pictures and everything else associated with the Pope. It is a round room that can hold about 20 people around a large round table. It has a huge lazy susan on the table centered with a bust of John Paul II (a little spooky but funny when he is staring at you while your eating-but then again you can spin him around to someone else as your trying to reach the lasagna) We had a great time and a great meal and our families had the opportunity to talk and get to know one another. We then headed back to our Grand Villa to open some birthday gifts and reminisce about the real surprise, our wedding!
On Tuesday Dec. 19th most of our families started to head home. We were able to spend the late afternoon with the father of the bride, Woody and his wife Marion. We went to the Animal Kingdom and enjoyed another beautiful afternoon and evening. After being on the go non-stop since we had arrived we decided to just head back to our villa and eat in for the night and look at pictures that had been taken and a video that was filmed during the bus ride, when the big surprise was revealed. A few tears of joy were shed while watching the video which capped off another great day.
Wednesday Dec. 20th we said goodbye to our last guest (Woody & Marion) as we dropped them off at the airport. While we thought we were going to go gung-ho and do some park hopping on our own, we went back to our villa to relax for a bit…where we fell asleep for several hours. I guess that’s what happens when you go an entire week and not sleep more than five hours a night. We then decided that we needed to get all our things organized and boxed up to ship home as we were heading out for a Disney cruise the next day. The theme parks would have to wait for another visit.
On Thursday Dec. 21st we returned our rental car and took a Disney charter bus to Port Canaveral Fl. Here we boarded the beautiful Disney Wonder cruise ship. As all things Disney it was perfect. When we got to our cabin it was decorated with congratulations on our wedding. We had a nice balcony for 2 to sit out and take in the beautiful ocean as we headed for Nassau, Bahamas and then Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island). The weather continued to be unusually warm. We decided to stay on the ship our first stop at Nassau as we had been there before. Plus we wanted to take advantage of the beautiful ship. There are designated adult only areas and the adult
only pool and bar area was great to relax and unwind. Disney had so many activities going on all day and night. Not only incredible kids programs but also fun adult activities and parties. There were trivia contest in the nightclub/pub areas, 70’s and 80’s parties at night. A Pirates IN the Caribbean party and great food and drinks all day and night. Andrea was also able to take advantage of the spa services and we enjoyed a different Broadway caliber show each night onboard in the Walt Disney Theater. They also had a huge movie theater showing first run movies that are still in the theaters. One of the highlights of the cruise was our day at Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island) from the moment we pulled up looking from our balcony we could see the
Flying Dutchman, Davey Jones’ ship from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie beached on a sand bar just off the island. We found our place on the beach and enjoyed a perfect day relaxing, tanning, swimming and eating and drinking. A near perfect way to end our perfect wedding week.
Although we were sad to get back to Orlando International Airport on Christmas Eve we were excited to get home to see our kittens Salem & Savannah and spend our first Christmas together at home as husband and wife.
We thank God for all his blessing and the truly magical wedding he gave us. It will be something that we will cherish for a lifetime. But most of all we thank him for the greatest gift, his son, our savior, Jesus Christ.
Phillip & Andrea Nixon
Our Magical Wedding
I thought it would be easier to write down what a magical week we had for our special wedding. Although words or even picture and video will never quite capture all of the magic I hope I can give you some feeling for what transpired leading up to, during and after our wedding.
Andrea & I have been truly blessed in so many ways and our wedding was just one more way that showed the blessings that God has bestowed upon us.
Many now ask how and when did we come up with the idea for a Surprise Wedding. Well there was no single moment that we can pick out. We always knew that one of our families would have to travel if we got married as they live in several areas, mostly New York and the Washington D.C. area. We had always held two special places in our heart where we would love to have our “Dream” wedding. New York City at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and reception at the Tavern on the Green or at Walt Disney World (WDW). Our first thoughts as to a date were originally in July as this is the anniversary time of both of our parents (The best examples of Love we know).
The thoughts of a hot July day in Florida or New York were a bit more than we thought we could handle. So on one of our many visits to Walt Disney World we started to think how much there was to offer in our favorite place in the world. Family is so important to us and we wanted to make this not only our special day but a way for our families to be together, get to know one another and have a great time.
A visit to Orlando in January for the International Builders Show really started our first ideas of pulling off a Surprise Wedding. We thought what better cover will we ever have than my 40th birthday in December. It would be close to Christmas (such a beautiful time in Disney) and an opportunity to get our families together. We played with the idea of an outside wedding at WDW but my wife was smart enough to talk me out of that because of the stress of weather related problems not to mention Disney has the most beautiful Wedding Pavilion right on Bay Lake looking toward Cinderella’s castle. About six months out we put the plans into action. We reserved a spot at the Wedding Pavilion for December 16th @ 7:30 pm, just 2 days before my actual birthday. We spoke on the phone and had several email correspondences with some Disney wedding coordinators and then set a meeting up with them in early September.
Our visit in September was a chance to meet a wedding coordinator in person, select a reception location, choose flowers, a cake (with samples to test ) decorations and all the other magic that only Disney could offer. We also met Reverend Jack Day for the first time, who would perform our ceremony. He was highly recommended from all and has done weddings on Regis & Kathy Lee as well as Lifetime Weddings.
Incredibly in one visit, although a ½ a days worth, we decided on probably about 80% of the wedding details. Of course after getting home we made some small changes but with the help of the Disney experts everything was coming together.
Now we had to convince our families to come to WDW a week before Christmas to attend a surprise black-tie 40th birthday party and still not lead them on too much as to spoil the surprise. We made our own tuxedo style invitations and told our families that accommodations had been arranged and that we only needed to know how many days they planned to stay. This actually was not too much of a stretch since we are Disney Vacation Club Members and have invited family to Disney before. But little did they know to what extent we were actually going to, to pull off this surprise.
As RSVP’s began to roll in only a few family members were holding out and we started to contemplate having to tell some to get them to come. But my wonderful bride to-be did a great job convincing those that were leaning the other way. And some of them were not easy including both fathers!. We waited until the final days to finally have to tell a couple of family members but swore them to complete secrecy.
We worked closing with our WDW wedding coordinator to make sure that everything would say birthday celebration and that there was no mention of wedding as not to have anyone slip up. One of the additional surprises for our families was we made all the resort reservations and chose the theme of the resort based on the likes, hobbies, personalities of our family members. As examples one sister and her family love the islands and beaches so they were to stay at the Caribbean Beach Resort and a brother and his family that love the outdoors etc, were to stay at the Wilderness Lodge. We sent out packages to everyone the week they were leaving that had lanyards with a pin from the resort where they were staying and brochure information. They were told not to open them until they were in flight to Orlando. And it seems that they followed the rules and were very excited when they found out all the different places they were staying.
Andrea and I had checked in Thursday December 14th. I had surprised Andrea where we were going to stay. We stayed in a once in a lifetime suite at the Contemporary. We both had always wanted to stay there since we were kids and took that first ride on the monorail through the hotel. But for our first experience what more could we have asked for, we were in the Vice Presidential Suite. It was almost as large as our townhomes! It had 4 bathrooms, a living room with a flat screen TV (4 TV’s total) a full size dining room with a bar, 2 bedrooms and even its own Christmas tree.
We also had 4 sliding doors that lead to 2 huge balconies. Since we were on the 14th floor what views we had of bay lake! This suite was part of the concierge level with its own concierge lounge where they served food and drinks throughout the day. With a big concierge balcony that had every ones dream view right into the Magic Kingdom toward Cinderella’s castle and Space Mountain. The concierge outside our door was there to get your every need.
The excitement and nervousness was building as we approached Friday and Saturday (wedding day). Our first guests were to arrive Friday late afternoon and evening and the rest early Saturday morning.
Our only possible big slip up came right when the first guest arrived for check in at their resort. But God in his wisdom helped us avoid a huge mistake in spoiling the surprise that we worked so hard to keep. We had not planned to pick up the father of the bride and his wife from the airport but something made Andrea decide to go pick them up and take them to the Grand Floridian for concierge check in. Luckily when she helped them check in they were distracted by all the happenings in the resort so they didn’t hear when the concierge said “So you’re here for the wedding!” At that point Andrea nearly died and said no it’s for a birthday! She then called me once they were checked in and told me what happened. We had a true emergency on our hands as we had everyone else checking in later that evening and the next morning but in 7 different resorts! I hopped in our rental car and went to each resort to speak with a manager to make sure they deleted from their computers any mention of wedding and to put a warning that they were not to tell the guest anything! Once I had relayed the full story to each manager they all apologized and things were taken care of. Now we just prayed that there would be no other slip-ups prior to the big event.
Saturday December 16th, 2006 a day that will always be Magical!
Again another night of very little sleep as the anticipation was building. I had to go to the airport to pick up one of my nieces, Michelle and her husband Rich from Oregon. They were one of the few who knew the real story. No one else in the family knew they were coming for “The Birthday” We had to get them before their parents and the rest of my family arrived at the airport and spoiled another surprise. Once I got them check into their resort it was off to get nails done and last minute things. Since our suite at the Contemporary was so large I was able to take one wing and bedroom and my lovely bride to-be the other to get ready that afternoon. She had always dreamt of having her favorite movies like While You Were Sleeping and When Harry met Sally playing while she got ready for her wedding day. And with 4 flat screen TV’s with DVD players in our suite her dream came true. At 2:00 that afternoon she decided to tell her sister the real story. She invited her sister over to help get ready and decorate for my surprise birthday party. When she arrived Andrea took her out on the concierge balcony overlooking the Magic Kingdom and the Wedding Pavilion. I was hiding on the other side of the glass sliding doors taking pictures as she told her sister we had just become engaged the night before, showing her the ring and then after a ton of hugs and
tears telling her that its was not going to be a birthday party that night it was a wedding over at the wedding pavilion. More hugs, more tears and then she told her sister to turn around where she saw me snapping pictures. If this was the reaction we were going to get from everyone, boy where we in for an unbelievable night.
A hair and makeup person came to the room to get my bride ready and I relaxed (Not really) and had a couple of beers and watched movies before I had to get ready.
I left for the wedding pavilion around 6pm to meet our officiant Reverend Jack Day and our wedding coordinator. I watched as they finished another wedding, took down their flowers, etc and got the pavilion ready for our wedding. What an operation to watch. All the cast members with Disney weddings were so nice. They had their walkie talkies and ear pieces in place to help pull off our big night.
The Start of the Big Surprise!
We had a chartered Disney Cruise line bus start picking up guest at the Grand Floridian where our parents were first to board. We also had 2 friends John, Vickie and their kids Robbie & Brittany on board who knew about the surprise and were there to also help make sure everyone was aboard. The videographer and our English Butler (Winthrop) were also on board to greet our guest and ask them to give a birthday wish on camera. Our friends also handed out buttons that were made with pictures of me growing up. The bus then began its journey around Disney picking up our other guest at each of the resorts we had selected for them. On the third stop my brother Paul and his wife Claudine boarded, the first of many surprises that night. My parents did not know they were coming, so the tears had begun. Several stops later my niece and her husband from Oregon got on and she was s surprise to everyone. The final stop before the pavilion was to pick up my brother Jim his wife Darlene and daughter Danielle. When they got on and saw their daughter from Oregon, of course the tears were doubled.
Then Winthrop got everyone’s attention and began to read a poem that my lovely bride had written…with some smiles, giggles and laughs to begin little did they know what they were in for. Here is the poem (Read in your best “Butler Voice”)…….
Listen folks, cause I have a tale
Not about a mouse, A Chip or a Dale
But about the reason you’re here today
About a boy named Phillip and his big Birthday!
(Pause)
Once upon a time
On a cold December morn,
Deep in the heart of Washington
A little boy was born
Hailing from the name of Nixon,
His parents Ramona & James
Living in the state of Maryland
Enjoying his portion of fortune and fame.
Phillip’s journey’s been a happy one
Full of family and friends galore,
A love of God and His creations
Including the Redskins, ..when they win more
Along life’s journey,
Phillip met a girl,
With deep brown eyes
And sun kissed curls.
Fast friends, the two,
They did become
Sharing follies, adventures
And most importantly, fun!
Life’s hardships they weathered
Life’s battles they fought
Together finding comfort
Nothing needed, nothing sought.
As different as night and day the two,
Pieces of the puzzle
Fitting together,
Needing glue.
The meaning of this poem is
Love always finds a way
In every life, in every heart
And even on Birthdays
Here in this world of magical wishes
Where dreams really do come true
My friends this is not so much
A surprise for Phillip
As it is a surprise for you!
At this point the gasps had begun! The poem continued……..
On behalf of the Walt Disney World Resorts,
Andrea Veronica Mench
And
Phillip Clayton Nixon
I would like to cordially invite you
To their wedding!
That was it..screaming, crying, hugs and laughter had begun…having seen the video it was something to behold. The bus then arrived at the Wedding Pavilion.
All this time I had been in the grooms waiting room by myself going crazy wondering what was happening, Finally our wedding coordinator Michelle Wenzler came in and told me the bus had exploded with joy and they were on the way. My bride and her sister had been listening in on a phone that was on an open line from our friends on the bus, so they were able to join in on the excitement.
When our families arrived, my 2 brothers, my sister and my mother and father were lead into my room to see me. The tears and laughter started, I asked them to be my best men and our matron of honor. At the same time my bride’s family had gone to see her in the bride’s vestibule and the same reaction was happening over there. After a few minutes to decompress and gain our composure we still had a wedding to do!
Even though we had planned a small elegant wedding our families were abuzz with excitement and they cheered as I entered to walk my parents down the aisle and continued when my bride and her father entered as well. With all the excitement it was more like an elegant tailgate party, but we couldn’t have been happier.
Reverend Jack Day was just perfect, the music was beautiful as well as the flowers and pavilion. What more could we have asked for. With the ceremony over we were ushered out and our guest lined up on the bridge leading to the wedding pavilion, we walked halfway across the bridge and stopped and turned back toward the pavilion and began a LOOONG kiss. Fireworks then exploded for several minutes as we held
that pose and our families were mesmerized. Luckily it’s all on video because we missed half the fireworks while posing!
Then we exited through a cascade of rose petals thrown by our families and entered Cinderella’s carriage for a farewell ride to our reception at the Whitehall room and patio at the Grand Floridian. We were also lucky enough to have timed our ride to the Grand Floridian with the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom in the background. As our little white ponies slowly moved along, people came out of the resort to take pictures and little girls chased our carriage to get a look at the princess…we were our own little parade as we waved. The Whitehall room and patio is wonderful for a small gathering, we had about 40 people. It’s a small octagon shaped room on the end of the
convention area at the Grand Floridian. It also has an outdoor patio that looks toward the Magic Kingdom and castle, with the monorail passing overhead. The pre-reception was held outside on the patio.
The Whitehall room was beautiful at night. We had done everything in whites, silver, white flowers with greenery and lots of candles and twinkling lights (The lights were dimmed and the room was beautiful). The ceiling had tulle draped from the center with lights and ficus trees with lights around the room. We had a sweetheart table at one end, the dance floor in the center and 2, 10 seat tables on each side of the dance floor. The DJ was at the other end of the room from us and our beautiful white and silver 3 level “Mickey wave” cake topped with a white and silver chocolate castle was off to the side surrounded by candles. All of it was truly breathtaking and everything we had dreamed about.
We had a wonderful appetizer followed by a salad, then they turned down the lights even more and several waiters all at once brought out ice sculptured glass slippers lit from underneath with green and red lights and topped with a raspberry sorbet. (To the music of the electrical light parade). Then the main course of surf and turf! Wow what a meal. We then smashed a little cake in each others faces and the party began.
Our DJ was great; we had crazy hats, crazy dances and the best time of all…all only to end too quickly. We did go over a little till about quarter to 1am. Then most of our families (minus the parents) came back to our “rock-star” suite at the Contemporary to finish the party till 2:30am!
We can’t say enough about how blessed we are to have had such a perfect wedding; the entire staff of Disney World was perfect and not only did a wonderful job but really joined in on the excitement and fun. We had so many of them come over to us and tell us it was the best wedding they had ever done from start to finish.
The next day we had most of our guest still in town so we had planned a day at Epcot with a late lunch in Japan (Teppanyaki Dinning room) and then the Candlelight Processional at 5:30pm(with Kirk Cameron as the reader of the Christmas story). We also hopped over to MGM to see the Osbourne Lights and finished off the night at the Magic Kingdom as it was open until 1am!
Another magical day and night!
With a large group of people it is sometimes easier to break up into smaller groups and then meet up later in the day or evening for a meal. On Monday Dec. 18th my actual birthday we did just that. Family and friends that were still in town went out and did there own thing. My bride and I checked out of the Contemporary and also had her family check out of their resorts and we all moved in together into a 2 story Grand Villa at Saratoga Springs. My parents came and spent the afternoon with us and then the rest of the family met up that evening to go out for a birthday meal. I had selected Buco Di Peppo, a family style Italian restaurant outside of but close to Disney. Andrea and I had discovered this on a previous visit and had such a great time and had such good food that we thought this would be fun place for our families to get together.
They have a special room called the Pope room. Its walls are decorated with pictures and everything else associated with the Pope. It is a round room that can hold about 20 people around a large round table. It has a huge lazy susan on the table centered with a bust of John Paul II (a little spooky but funny when he is staring at you while your eating-but then again you can spin him around to someone else as your trying to reach the lasagna) We had a great time and a great meal and our families had the opportunity to talk and get to know one another. We then headed back to our Grand Villa to open some birthday gifts and reminisce about the real surprise, our wedding!
On Tuesday Dec. 19th most of our families started to head home. We were able to spend the late afternoon with the father of the bride, Woody and his wife Marion. We went to the Animal Kingdom and enjoyed another beautiful afternoon and evening. After being on the go non-stop since we had arrived we decided to just head back to our villa and eat in for the night and look at pictures that had been taken and a video that was filmed during the bus ride, when the big surprise was revealed. A few tears of joy were shed while watching the video which capped off another great day.
Wednesday Dec. 20th we said goodbye to our last guest (Woody & Marion) as we dropped them off at the airport. While we thought we were going to go gung-ho and do some park hopping on our own, we went back to our villa to relax for a bit…where we fell asleep for several hours. I guess that’s what happens when you go an entire week and not sleep more than five hours a night. We then decided that we needed to get all our things organized and boxed up to ship home as we were heading out for a Disney cruise the next day. The theme parks would have to wait for another visit.
On Thursday Dec. 21st we returned our rental car and took a Disney charter bus to Port Canaveral Fl. Here we boarded the beautiful Disney Wonder cruise ship. As all things Disney it was perfect. When we got to our cabin it was decorated with congratulations on our wedding. We had a nice balcony for 2 to sit out and take in the beautiful ocean as we headed for Nassau, Bahamas and then Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island). The weather continued to be unusually warm. We decided to stay on the ship our first stop at Nassau as we had been there before. Plus we wanted to take advantage of the beautiful ship. There are designated adult only areas and the adult
only pool and bar area was great to relax and unwind. Disney had so many activities going on all day and night. Not only incredible kids programs but also fun adult activities and parties. There were trivia contest in the nightclub/pub areas, 70’s and 80’s parties at night. A Pirates IN the Caribbean party and great food and drinks all day and night. Andrea was also able to take advantage of the spa services and we enjoyed a different Broadway caliber show each night onboard in the Walt Disney Theater. They also had a huge movie theater showing first run movies that are still in the theaters. One of the highlights of the cruise was our day at Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island) from the moment we pulled up looking from our balcony we could see the
Flying Dutchman, Davey Jones’ ship from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie beached on a sand bar just off the island. We found our place on the beach and enjoyed a perfect day relaxing, tanning, swimming and eating and drinking. A near perfect way to end our perfect wedding week.
Although we were sad to get back to Orlando International Airport on Christmas Eve we were excited to get home to see our kittens Salem & Savannah and spend our first Christmas together at home as husband and wife.
We thank God for all his blessing and the truly magical wedding he gave us. It will be something that we will cherish for a lifetime. But most of all we thank him for the greatest gift, his son, our savior, Jesus Christ.
Phillip & Andrea Nixon
. Your wife's poem was incredible and definitely brought on some tears. Thank you so much for sharing it with us! I can't wait to see the photos 
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