Linda & Dave's Wedding 6/21/11: WP/Off Property/Morocco;Wedding day:pre-ceremony pics

[geek+nerd]

Here are pics of my other t-shirts for honeymoon time!

Our favors also came in today. We wanted to do something that people would actually keep instead of trashing, so we decided on Christmas ornaments (a little expensive per each one, but since we have so few people, we thought why not?) even though we are a summer wedding. They are of great quality; we got them from the Disney Store online. They did take about a month to get here, but the web site did say about 3-4 weeks because of the personalization. Here they are (pardon my man hands ) There are some little flecks of styrofoam peanut dust in the one picture, too.

 

[Sccrmnky2005]

Love the shirts!! Super cute! I'm going to def make me some cute Honeymoon shirts too!

I love love the favors! I would love to do christmas ornaments as it is such a good idea! But we will have too many people! I really think your guests will love them!!

 

[sw33t_angel]

Those ornaments are awesome! What a creative idea! I am sure your guests will love them for years to come!!

 

[geek+nerd]

Those ornaments are awesome! What a creative idea! I am sure your guests will love them for years to come!!

Love the shirts!! Super cute! I'm going to def make me some cute Honeymoon shirts too!

I love love the favors! I would love to do christmas ornaments as it is such a good idea! But we will have too many people! I really think your guests will love them!!

Thanks! We were debating about even doing favors. I really wanted to do something, but couldn't justify spending $ on something that would get thrown away. We aren't doing welcome bags, so that helped justify the expense of the ornaments.

 

[geek+nerd]

We had our second snow day in as many weeks here today, so I am off work. And, as usual, instead of grading quizzes and journals for 3 of my 6 classes, I have been doing wedding stuff all day.

I have my wedding shower invitation list done. I did everything in an Excel doc with cells for Last name, First name, Address, Invitation sent, RSVP, Gift, Thank you sent. I'm a fan of lists

While I was at it, I addressed our whopping 8 wedding invitations! None of this will go out for weeks yet, but it will be nice that's it done when things get closer and get more hectic.

As I was addressing our invitations, I got an email on my phone from Jennifer with Disney Floral asking to schedule our floral consult with Rosie!

I'm a little excited! So, we are scheduled for Tuesday, Jan 25th at 5 pm. I guess that means I actually have to decide what I want now. I joke that I used up all my decisiveness on the guy and the dress. I've been going back and forth on what I want for flowers. Oh well, two more weeks to vacillate.

On another note, DF and I are going to New York to see Mary Poppins on Sunday. He got a buy one/get one offer with his Disney Rewards Visa, so we jumped on it. We drive to Hoboken from PA (about 3 hours) and hop a PATH train in to 33rd street, right by the Empire State Building. We are taking my four year old niece who told her mother that she needs a new sparkly outfit to wear to see Mary Poppins and my mom as a very early Mothers Day present. I will post some pics if I can next week

 

[geek+nerd]

Since we have my niece this weekend because of Mary Poppins, my mom, DF and I took her flower girl dress shopping. Originally, we were going to have her dress as Cinderella for the wedding, but now we've decided that she gets a wardrobe change. So, she wears a flower girl dress for the ceremony and she can wear a Cinderella outfit to the dessert party. Since she is the girliest girl to ever have walked the planet, she is fine with the idea of multiple outfits, which was actually my sister's idea.

Her dress was not my first pick; in fact, it is NOT my style at all (in fact, it's fancier than my dress ). However, it screams Kate and she is absolutely in love with it. She tried on about 7 dresses (she LOVES clothes shopping, especially for pretty, sparkly clothing) and kept coming back to this one. It is very much her style. She did not want to take it off. You could just tell on her face that this was the dress she wanted, so I'm fine with it. She also insisted on twirling in it for DF multiple times

We got a different headpiece than what's in the picture.

I can't wait until she gets married and we get to go shopping for her wedding dress!

 

[geek+nerd]

My floral consultation is one week away, and I may have actually made some decisions. I have gone back and forth on flowers so much it's not even funny. I must have used up all my decisiveness on the guy and the dress.

Here's what I have now.

My bouquet (still debating about the white lilies, might want to make them pink and all the roses lavender)

Smaller than a regular bridal bouquet
Tied ¾ of way with white ribbon; Ellie badge on ribbon
2 hidden Mickeys and 3 crystals in whatever color florist thinks works best
No greenery!

DF's bout

Mini calla lily to match bridal bouquet
1 dark amethyst hidden Mickey
No greenery!

Matron of Honor bouquet

Bright pink, light pink and lavender rose bouquet (smaller than one pictured)
Tied ¾ of way with lilac ribbon
3 crystals in whatever color florist thinks works best
No greenery

Flower Girl
Single lavender rose wand with white ribbon
1 dark amethyst crystal


Father and Mother of the Bride
Pink rose boutonneire
Pink presentation rose

Godmother of the Bride
Pink presentation rose

Mother of the Groom
Single pink rose corsage

Best Man’s Boutonniere
Lavender rose

Officiant Boutonniere
Lavender rose

Altar Decorations
Pink and lavender rose petals

Cake Table Decorations
Pink and lavender rose petals

Any thoughts? I'm still waiting to hear my mom's and sister's opinions. DF has dubbed them "the committee."

 

[librarygeek]

I love what you have planned so far! Your invitations are beautiful, and the rhinestone t-shirts are great. I'm going to try and get some of those.

Your niece is adorable! I wish I was having a flower girl for my wedding, but unfortunately there are no young girls in my family But my twin 5-year old cousins are both going to be ring bearers. Or as they say, "ring bears"

 

[geek+nerd]

I love what you have planned so far! Your invitations are beautiful, and the rhinestone t-shirts are great. I'm going to try and get some of those.

Your niece is adorable! I wish I was having a flower girl for my wedding, but unfortunately there are no young girls in my family But my twin 5-year old cousins are both going to be ring bearers. Or as they say, "ring bears"

Thanks so much! I'm glad somebody's reading

 

[pixie921]

I'm reading, too! Your niece is adorable! One of my nieces (she's 6) is a true girly-girl, too. Her favorite part of every day is choosing which outfit to wear to school! How fun that your niece gets to wear two dresses.

Your flower plans sound good, and I know what you mean about feeling indecisive. It's like there are so many beautiful options out there it's hard to narrow them down!

 

[KristiLyn]

Really pretty flowers! I completely understand what youre going through with the indecisiveness. I feel like I've lost the ability to make any decision lately!

 

[geek+nerd]

Just a little venting. . .

When we picked our date, we looked at the school calendar. Our last day was scheduled for June 8th. Leaving June 17th and getting married on June 21st looked fine, even with a few snow days.

Yeah. Little problem. We are only in January and have already had four snow days, with a possibility of a fifth on Thursday. And on top of that, we didn't have school today because of a water main break.

My sister jokingly said that we can Skype me to my own wedding from my classroom.

More seriously though, I am giving it two more snow days then it is time to talk to the Superintendent about possibly taking some days off without pay at the end of the year.

On a positive note, I totally took advantage of the day off and did some work for one of my grad classes, got a haircut, eyebrow wax and manicure. And, we have our phone floral consultation with Rosie at 5 pm!

 

[librarygeek]

Just a little venting. . .

When we picked our date, we looked at the school calendar. Our last day was scheduled for June 8th. Leaving June 17th and getting married on June 21st looked fine, even with a few snow days.

Yeah. Little problem. We are only in January and have already had four snow days, with a possibility of a fifth on Thursday. And on top of that, we didn't have school today because of a water main break.

My sister jokingly said that we can Skype me to my own wedding from my classroom.

More seriously though, I am giving it two more snow days then it is time to talk to the Superintendent about possibly taking some days off without pay at the end of the year.

On a positive note, I totally took advantage of the day off and did some work for one of my grad classes, got a haircut, eyebrow wax and manicure. And, we have our phone floral consultation with Rosie at 5 pm!

We can join together in keeping our fingers crossed that the snow will STOP! I'm sick of snow days too. I'm a substitute teacher so if it snows I don't get paid. I am sure you can work something out if it does intrude though, I'm sure they'll be understanding

 

[geek+nerd]

I need to get this out there in the hopes that actually writing it will help me get over it.

Sometimes, this whole wedding process makes me feel like a really bad, selfish person. I have become somewhat overwhelmed with wedding envy lately and have tried to limit my viewing of other people's PJs. I am marrying the only man who has ever made me even think of marriage at Disney World for Pete's sake. We are having a dessert party in Epcot. It is more than I probably could have ever wished for.

So, why do I get upset when I see other people's weddings on here? Why do I want Cinderella's freaking carriage so bad even though the price is insane even if we could afford (think of how many hungry people 20 minutes in that stupid carriage could feed!)? Why do I want the castle shoot? Why do I want Mickey and Minnie at my cake cutting? Why am I not satisfied with what we are doing (which is wonderful and fantastic on its own)?

I can't talk about this with DF because I think it would make him feel bad, like he somehow isn't providing me with enough. He is giving me more than enough with this wedding, and in my head, I understand that.

If anybody actually reads this, thanks. I just needed to get this off my chest in the hopes that I can move on and be happy about planning our wedding.

 

[librarygeek]

I completely know how you feel. I watch some of those weddings hows on TV, and while they're entertaining and make me laugh, they also piss me off that the brides are never satisfied with their giant cake or massive flowers and always want more - when I would be happy to have half of what they have!

I guess it's difficult for me to understand where some of these extravagant weddings get their money from, when my parents are taking out a loan and I'm using my own savings to pay for an extremely low-budget wedding. But people have asked me when I don't wait to get married until we're older and have some money - and I know that of course I would rather get married now and have whatever wedding I have so that I can be with my DF....

But yeah, when I see those gorgeous location photo shoots, and other things that I definitely can't afford, I get that envious feeling too. I get through it by telling myself we'll do amazing things for a vow renewal or a future child's wedding when we're rich someday... even though that may not be likely it helps a little bit.

 

[geek+nerd]

Thanks for responding, Becky. I appreciate it.

I think I'm just in a really negative space regarding the wedding right now for multiple reasons. This sense of greed that I sometimes feel about the wedding makes me feel really bad about myself; that's not the person that I am nor who I want to be. I guess that at least I recognize that I am being irrational and that I feel guilty kind of comfort me in a way.

I'm also really frustrated with DFTW at this point, too. I just feel that communication isn't necessarily their strong point, and it should be, especially for the amount of money people lay down for their weddings. I realize that I'm "only" an Escape bride and that my planner and others can throw my wedding together in a heartbeat, but frankly, I want that outstanding customer service that we are all so used to getting at Disney, and I don't think we are getting it with our wedding.

Two cases in point: I had a phone consultation with floral last Tuesday. The florist told me she would email me some pictures within 2 days. It's been a week and still nothing. I did email her assistant yesterday, but then I feel like a total PITA doing that. It's not that big of a deal, and we have plenty of time, but when you tell me that I will have something in two days, I expect to have it in two days. I don't think that's unreasonable of me.

And then, there is the ever elusive LOA. I had emailed our planner on January 11 asking about our signed copy of the LOA that we signed at the end of October (so a good 3 months ago). Her response was that it comes from our sales consultant and that we should be receiving it "any day now" via certified mail. January 31st mail comes and is delivered and STILL no copy of LOA, so I email planner and CC sales consultant. The response comes back from the sales consultant saying that the LOA and AP vouchers were mailed January 25 (really? That's Disney's definition of any day now from January 11?) via certified mail and giving a tracking number. I went to the USPS site and entered the tracking number (I copied and pasted directly from the email and made sure there were no extra characters in there) and I got a message saying that the number can not be found. Naturally, I emailed my sales consultant again saying this is the message I get from USPS when I enter the number. His response (and I quote directly from his email), "It will be coming certified mail in the US post."
That was it; that was his whole response. Maybe I'm being sensitive, but I thought that was rude. I wonder if it was even actually sent out yet.

Oh, and my mother is making me crazy. When we went shopping for my flower girl's dress two weeks ago, we were looking at purses for my FG and for my aunt. She asked me what I was planning on using, and I told her that I wanted to use my Dooney & Burke Disney wristlet that I bought at DTD when we were there last year (it was my one souvenir purchase for myself). Then, over the weekend, she called me to tell me that my godmother is making me a purse for the wedding. I reminded her that I already decided what I was using and had already told her. Her response, "You can't do that. That's tacky." Um. . .thanks, Mom. DF was mad! He reminds me frequently that this wedding is about us, not my mom, my godmother and my sister. However, I just don't think a purse is worth the fight this could cause. Sigh.

We are on snow day number 5 with number 6 probably coming tomorrow. Today puts us at getting out the day before we are supposed to leave for the wedding. I know that things will work out, whether I have to take a few days without pay or I have to fly down later while everyone else drives down, but it's just added stress.

 

[sw33t_angel]

I think it is quite natural to have "Bride envy," I am happy with everything we have and how everything is coming together- but then I think of just canceling everything and cutting the guest list and getting married in Disney. It has always been my dream to get married in Disney- but I know I wouldn't be as happy if I had to cut so many important people in my life- and as long as I am marrying my DF, I know I will be happy!

But I too dream of the Cinderella Coaches, and Mickey and Minnie at the cake cutting, and feel a little jealous of why I can't have a million dollars to get everything I would love to have! Not that Disney weddings cost millions (well some of them.. haha) but for what I would want and how I would want it, it just isn't rational for me, not that it isn't for other brides! If you can do it, go you!

I agree that any vendor in general, Disney or not, they should have the courtesy to keep their word. I hate when vendors say, you will have it in 2 days, and you get nothing- you would think they just wouldn't even give you a time line if they know they can't meet it. It's like you have to wave your checkbook in their face, "HELLO?? DO you want my Money?!" And now with email/facebook/twitter a response is instant, and takes less than 5 minutes!

Hang in there! Things will look up!

 

[librarygeek]

Yeah, I feel like I am always reading on these boards about how no one has gotten back to brides about their questions in a timely manner. And the response is always, "Don't worry, they'll have everything worked out and it will be great." But even so, I still think it is appropriate to send a response to questions. If I were you I would probably be going completely bonkers - over 3 months to get your contract back is ridiculous. It's too bad you don't get a choice of who you work with or anything. I know when I was looking for vendors their response time was a bit part of the reason why I hired them. For instance, when I was looking for a DJ I got a list from the catering hall and I sent an email out to all of the people on the list. The ones that sent an email back within a few days with detailed information I contacted for a meeting - the ones that didn't respond or send a one line message "from my iPhone" I eliminated. But Disney is Disney, and no one else can provide you with that experience - so even if it sucks sometimes, I guess just remember that's why you're doing it. And even though everyone says it and it's not a satisfying answer - I'm sure it WILL work out in the end!

 

[geek+nerd]

Thanks again for reading and responding! I feel bad treating this like a diary, but sometimes I just need to get things off my chest here.

After some yoga and a nice hot bath on this snowy, icy day, I am putting an end to the negativity and am going to focus on the fun that planning our wedding can be.

DF is a huge Redskins fan, and I found a pair of Redskins socks for him for the wedding. He likes them. We were talking today and decided to order team socks for all the guys in their favorite NFL team. DF really likes the idea, and I think it will make a really cute picture.

 

[sw33t_angel]

Thanks again for reading and responding! I feel bad treating this like a diary, but sometimes I just need to get things off my chest here.

After some yoga and a nice hot bath on this snowy, icy day, I am putting an end to the negativity and am going to focus on the fun that planning our wedding can be.

DF is a huge Redskins fan, and I found a pair of Redskins socks for him for the wedding. He likes them. We were talking today and decided to order team socks for all the guys in their favorite NFL team. DF really likes the idea, and I think it will make a really cute picture.

Yay! That sounds like a wonderful day!

I LOVE that idea for the socks!! My DF is also a fan of the Redskins!
I am not sure about my groomsman's favorite teams... but I am sure I can find socks for them from their colleges... it should be simple since the only two choices are University of SC or Clemson!