A Disney Wedding: a Pre-Trip Report

[34Angels]

Okay, so I'm going to do a quick pre-trip report for you guys, okay so maybe not so quick! LOL First of all, the cast: Bride- Me, Danette Groom- Jake (the bestest man ever!) Tanessa and Crew- my sister Tanessa, her hubby Nick, and their 5 kidds (I'll use initials to respect my sister's privacy of her kiddos) G - girl, age 9, H - girl age 6, GA - boy, age 4, L - girl age 2 (she turns 3 2 days after we leave the world), and finally T - girl, just 6 months old (and adorable as can be!). G is my jr. bridesmaid, she will be carrying my train, be in charge of my bouquet during the ceremony, as well as giving the toast. H & L are my flower girls and GA is my ring bearer. I will also refer to the kids as the "kiddos". My Dad - well, Daddy, or Dad (he'll be the dashing man in uniform) My Mom - Mom (this is usually said drawn out and a heavy sigh while I fiddle with whatever it is she can't figure out, lol) Jake's Parents - Michael and Rhonda (Both Jake's parents and my parents will participate in the Sand Ceremony) Jake's sisters and brother-in-laws and family - Kendra & Brett & GR - boy, age 1 and Kaylan & Josh Jake's grandparents - Grandma and Grandpa "N" Our friends that are coming to hang out for a day and a half as our wedding present (which is the best!) - Wil and his fiance Elizabeth (Wil is a friend of ours from the navy, he was going to be our best man, before we switched to a Disney wedding) Okay, now ya'll have the cast so I'll get started (in a new post) the pre-trip reports. I'm going to break it up into 2 posts, on for the wedding day and one for the rest of the trip, I'll start with the wedding day first.....

[34Angels]

Okay, so I had a whole thing written up, but then my internet timed out and I lost it all! AAHHHHH! So here goes, a shortened version, sorry! So we leave that Friday, as soon as Jake gets off work. I have that day off so I'll be taking the fur babies to the kennel, packing the car and making sure we have the tickets (no repeats of last year!). We'll drive down and meet up with Jake's parents in either Tifton, GA or Gainesville, FL, it depends on if his dad has to work in Gainesville on Thursday or not. Sat we're up early and on the road. We're hoping to get to WDW in time to see Leanne, Andy, and Alex, get a picture or two with them. Since we'll have done the online check-in we'll just swing by the hotel and pick up our room keys, hopefully our room will be ready then and we can unload some stuff. We'll hang out there for a bit, maybe swim for an hour or so, go get our annual passes, and then head to the airport to pick up my mom. After we get her, most everyone else will be there so we'll probably hang out at their hotel visiting and stuff. After awhile, Jake and I plan to ditch everyone (dropping my mom off in our room, she's staying with me that night, Jake is staying with his parents) run over to Magic Kingdom and take a pic in front of the Castle, our last one as a non-married couple, awwww! After that and maybe a couple of rides, we'll part ways. I do plan on getting up early and running (I figure I won't be sleeping much anyways, and we can only do my nails for so long) and then getting ready for the wedding. My, my daddy and my mom will be riding in the limo to the ceremony at 930, Jake gets picked up at a quarter till 9. As we arrive separately Amy, our coordinator, will go over the ceremony with us. And at 10 am, we start! The kiddos will walk down to "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" and I will follow (with my handsome daddy escorting me) and my song will be "Baby Mine" from Dumbo (my absolute favorite Disney song). For the Sand Ceremony we'll have "Colors of the Wind". For the recessional we're using "You Can Fly, You Can Fly, You Can Fly!" And then it's on to the toast and cake cutting! My niece is giving the toast and from my understanding it's going to be short and sweet, which is fine by us. After cake, champagne, and pictures we head over to Downtown Disney for lunch at Fulton's Crab Shack. After lunch we plan on hitting up the Winter Summerland mini-golf course, Jake and I have a tie to settle from last year! lol After that we plan on heading back to our families hotel for the cake (as we won't be serving it after lunch at Fulton's, they wanted to charge $2 plus tax per person so I said, um we'll store it at the hotel and serve it ourself for free) and some hanging out. After awhile I think Jake and I will be heading back to Magic Kingdom for some Extra Magic Hours and then off to bed for the beginning of the honeymoon!

[Esmerelda]

Sounds like a good plan! Will you be in your wedding dress for lunch and miniature golf?? What a sight! I would do it!!! :) It just all sounds wonderful!!!!

[34Angels]

Oh yeah, we're staying in our wedding clothes until probably after cake and stuff. I'm paying a total of $850 (once you add in alterations) for the dress, you better believe I'm going to wear it! lol I'll be on later to finish up the rest of the week. I just popped on real quick before starting dinner to catch up.

[34Angels]

Okay, scratch that, Jake is picking up something for dinner (told ya'll he was the bestest!) Okay, so Monday is EPCOT, and our character breakfast for L's birthday (we're just celebrating a week early, no biggie!). We're going to Cape May for breakfast at 9 am. It was seriously the only character breakfast available for the whole week we were there! But it works out pretty good because we just hope on a boat over to EPCOT. We plan on playing Kim Possible while there, hopefully a couple of times. We're going to break away from Tanessa and crew for a bit in the afternoon to hang out with Jake's parents and my mom (as everyone else has left by this point) and the 5 of us (hey, the Fab 5, lol!) are eating dinner at Tokyo Dining. Then it's some meandering around world showcase and finding a spot for Illuminations. After that, it's homeward bound. Tues is Animal Kingdom, well, after we take my mom to the airport first thing in the morning. We probably won't get to AK right at rope drop but that's okay, it'll give Tanessa and crew a little bit of extra time to sleep. Lunch is going to be Flame Tree Bar-B-Que and then we're leaving early for the evening. Jake and I are off to Jiko's for dinner and my sister and the kiddos back to their room for dinner and hopefully a quick nap. While we're at dinner, Wil and Elizabeth will be arriving, yay!!! After dinner, we'll go back to the hotel to collect Wil and Elizabeth and then head over to Magic Kingdom to meet up with Tanessa and Crew for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! Only G knows we're going to it (unless she spills the beans) so I'm hoping to surprise the other 4 kiddos. This is going to be so much fun with them, I can't wait! So far these are the costumes we've discussed for the kiddos (we discussed because my sister wants to pack as light as possible so had to think of easy, cheap and light things): for G, one of her old dance recital outfits, it's like a 1930's flapper outfit with the fringe and the cute little feather headband, for H, a Tinkerbell outfit (because I'm bringing wings for her to wear a the wedding so she'll just use those), for GA, a soccer uniform, for L a replica flight suit (it's identical to her daddy's), and for T, well, we haven't figured hers out yet, Tanessa is going to go through some old costumes and see if there's any that are light. I guess we could always just take a pillow case and make her a sack of flour (oh, that's a good one, I'll have to call Tanessa and pass that idea on! lol). Wed, unfortunately after a long night, we need to get up early for this day, Disney Hollywood Studios. And the only reason, because we want to ride Toy Story Midway Mania twice! We want to grab fast passes and then jump right in the standby line. But since we'll be up late the night before, it might not work out like we want. Today we're eating lunch at 50's Prime Time with Wil and Elizabeth. Our lunch time would be a good time for Tanessa and crew to grab their sandwiches and watch Beauty and the Beast Stage show as unfortunately, we didn't really like it but the kids will enjoy it. There is no Fantasmic! tonight which is fine, we may end up leaving a bit early out of here because the kiddos will be very tired. Wil, Elizabeth, Jake and I may head over to Downtown Disney though and hang out for a bit. Thurs, Wil and Elizbeth are sleeping in and then heading home (Wil is an awesome friend, spending all that money for just a day and a half of hanging out). Tanessa and crew, Jake and I will be heading to Magic Kingdom where I'm making everyone try a dole whip float....well, at least taste one as the kiddos probably shouldn't have that much sugar. I want to try and get there at Rope Drop and hit Fantasyland right away but we'll see what actually happens. Lunch will be in the parks and dinner for Jake and me is at the Wave in the Contemporary. I got us an early seating so we can get back over to Magic Kingdom in time for Spectro Magic (I'm hoping my sister scores us some good seats!) and then after that Wishes, and then back to the hotel. Fri, this is another Magic Kingdom day, the plan is to do whatever we haven't gotten in and then start repeating rides. We'll probably arrive late and the park closes at 7 pm (it's a MNSSHP night) which is good for Tanessa and crew as they'll get to bed at a decent time. Jake and I will head over to the Poly and try and snag a hammock on the beach and watch Hallowishes from there and then eat a very late dinner at Kona Cafe. Sat I think we may be headed over to Sea World with Tanessa and crew (this is still to be determined even though it's like a 99% chance that it's a go) and then back to Downtown Disney to meet up with Mynde, YAY! We actually check out of All Star Sports today and check into an offsite hotel which is fine, but we may try to get one more Extra Magic Hour in as I don't know if we'll be getting many of those in this trip (I haven't even looked at the EMH schedule to be honest). Sun, up and over to EPCOT. Tanessa and crew will be sleeping in and gathering up their stuff to go home. I'm sure they'll hang out by the pool and maybe go walk around Downtown Disney. Jake and I will be meeting back up with Mynde for some rides and then maybe a quick jaunt to a Wine and Food booth. We'll probably say goodbye to Mynde shortly after and finish our journey around the world, maybe get in another Kim Possible game. We'll probably head over to my sister's hotel to relax with them for a bit before heading to our room and getting some sleep. Mon, today is a sad day, we leave. My sister and family fly out first thing in the morning so we'll probably try and do breakfast with them, get the stuff we need to ship back for them (there's no way they're going to have room for L's birthday present from us, it's a Transformer helmet, Bumblebee, her favorite) and then hit the road. We should be home no later than 6 pm, pick up the fur babies and then home to unpack and unwind and get ready for the work week to start.

[Esmerelda]

So you are staying at All Star Sports now? Or Pop Century. Sorry if I missed it in these last two posts....And are you actually getting down there on the 19th or the 20th?

[34Angels]

We're staying at All Star Sports, hopefully the Home Run building. And we're getting there early on the 19th.

[Esmerelda]

Weren't you going to be at Pop? I think I remember you saying that you switched so everyone could stay at one hotel. Or am I loosing my mind! :)
Tick tick tick....the countdown clock is going to start going faster and faster!!!!

[34Angels]

For our original wedding date in Nov we were going to be at Pop, but when we switched dates Pop was booked. Everyone else that's coming in is staying at the Comfort Inn and Suites Lake Buena Vista (they got that sweet deal of something like $10 the first night and $30 each night after) with the exception of Wil and Elizabeth, they're staying at All Star Sports, hopefully close to us.

[kristisomer]

It all sounds so perfect. So did you decide to do the pictures in the park in your wedding gear. I remember you mentioning the package was steep in price. What did you decide?

[34Angels]

No, because we moved the wedding up 2 months, we lost 2 months of saving up so we had to ditch the in park photo session (I think the plan is to work it in on an anniversary one year) and we were going to try and get in an Illuminations cruise but that got canned as well. We lost almost $1500 of saving up in those 2 months. Oh well, the most important thing is that we're getting married!