Ashleigh & Ally's 2014 Escape PJ - UPDATED *PIC HEAVY!*

[HisJasmine]

Hi! I'll be following along . I love what you have planned so far. The colors you've chosen are going to look so nice at SBP, and besides I love anything pink

*~The BBQ invites are SO cool. Me and the hubby love BBQ food so I had to show him what you came up with he loved them too.

*~I hope you get the photographer you hope for, it such an important part of a wedding. I hope to get my engagement photos done with the Arndt's if we make it to disney in May.

 

[Cmdbuddy]

Hey there! Love everything so far!

Just putting a shout out for the Arndt's.. their prices are so reasonable (way below your budget), and you get 2 photographers! They made us feel so comfortable in our engagement photos. They also spend a lot of time beforehand getting to know you, asking what pictures you want, etc. That's one thing I loved! As soon as we paid our deposit, they sent us a survey and told us to fill it up with as many things we wanted. They also include in the package either an engagement session (if you are making it down for a planning session), or a bridal portrait session that you can do after the wedding. Plus if you are ever back in the future and want family photography or anything done, they offer their former brides huge discounts!

Just can't say enough great things about them!

 

[laurenvic1312959]

Found this from the other thread I commented on Subscribed and following along

 

[ariel_]

Update coming soon!

I have been such a bad bride I have totally neglected my PJ in the last few months. To be fair, there hasn't been that much action on the wedding front as we are counting down the days until we can finally book!

We moved to another part of the country last month so have been mostly busy with moving and finding a new job, but we are finally settled in with an internet connection. I should be able to pencil in our wedding at the beginning of May so that's when the fun really begins!

But super exciting news is that I chose my dress yesterday So excited but nervous too in case I see something else - will have to stop looking obsessively on Pinterest now!

Looking forward to getting back in planning mode

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

Joining in!

I love your invites (I spent a good couple minutes looking it over and could not see the mistake, haha!), I love the colours, the bridesmaid dresses idea and your rings and everything!

Congrats on finding your dress! I hope you'll post a picture!

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[ariel_]

Thanks for joining in! I am super excited but super nervous as well!

They are waiting a bit to order it in for me as when they took my measurements my hips were two sizes bigger than the rest of me So I've begged them to give me a bit of time to work on my hips so that there aren't as many alterations necessary!

DF is also on Disboards so I'm wary of posting pictures of my dress - but if you want to see it you can google Ronald Joyce 67017 (DF if you are reading this I am trusting you not to look )

I looooove my dress and I think it will really fit in with the Boardwalk theme

It was such a lovely experience choosing it. I've just moved to a new part of the country so I did a few days of looking on my own, and then last weekend my mum, DF's mum and two sisters came from Scotland to visit for the weekend and we went to choose the dress! Afterwards we went to a sweet place called Betty's Tearoom for a champagne brunch to celebrate! Such a magical day!

I've also found this dress for a rehearsal dinner/honeymoon...

http://www.hobbs.co.uk/product/disp...3-5607-3786L00-IVORY-8&refpage=search/results

I actually saw it ages ago before it went on sale but didn't have anything to wear it to! I'm hoping it might get reduced even further reduced but don't want to wait too long incase I miss it!


Only a few more days and I will be able to call DFTWs - SO EXCITED!

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

Your dress is gorgeous! I don't think I've ever seen anything like that! Beautiful.

And I love that rehearsal dress. Very elegant!

 

[KitKat5]

Joining in!

 

[kari4ksu]

Hi Ashleigh,
I started reading your PJ today, and I am loving your plans! I am planning a January 2014 Escape wedding at Sea Breeze Point, so I will definitely be keeping up with your PJ!

 

[ariel_]

Your dress is gorgeous! I don't think I've ever seen anything like that! Beautiful.

And I love that rehearsal dress. Very elegant!

Thanks so much! I still haven't ordered the rehearsal dress - I need to get a move on before they take it off the website!

Joining in!

 

[ariel_]

A long overdue update today! I never was good at keeping a diary when I was younger, I guess this is kind of the same

So last we I finally got to call DFTW and spoke to a lovely lady called Stacey who took my details and my 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice of dates/times for our wedding She had a look and said that our preferred week is looking pretty quiet so we should be good to get our choices no problem

We went ahead and booked our flights as we will be there for just over a week before we (hopefully) have our honeymoon cruise, so even if we don't get our 1st/2nd/3rd choice we are pretty flexible within that week. We've been saving airmiles for a couple of years now and used them to book our flights - we had enough to go first class I am beyond excited about this, we get to use some awesome lounges and we get PAJAMAS to wear! Haha that's the bit I'm most excited about.

As we used airmiles, we had to be pretty flexible on dates/routes so we are actually flying into Atlanta, staying overnight and then driving down to Disney the following day. When we return from the cruise we will have 3 days and we are thinking of doing a bit of exploring in Atlanta, although we may stay in Orlando, not decided yet!

We also just realised that the Disney Princess Half Marathon is the weekend that we arrive. Ally is planning on going to Daytona with all the guys to watch some NASCAR on the Sunday, so us girls (Ally's two sisters and I) have decided to sign up for the Half if we can get spaces! What better way to get wedding day fit?! I've never really run more than about 7k before so I've got a lot of work to do, but I really enjoy running and I can't imagine a better place to do it!

Have also been looking at Bridesmaids dresses and trying to get some ideas together. Orginally I had thought I would like mint green dresses, but the more I think about it (and look obsessively on Pinterest!) I would really love to have multicoloured bridesmaids. I love the movie UP and would love to incorporate coloured balloons or lanterns in the wedding - but rather than bright colours have light, pastel colours, which wuld still match the vintage style of the boardwalk.

I love Weddington Way for putting together lots of styles and colours of dresses to see how they look - I've got the following in my showroom...

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I wish I had 20 bridesmaids so that we could get loads of the dresses and I could borrow them all afterwards!

So that's my update so far... now that the ball is rolling with DFTW I hope to keep up more regularly

 

[Summer Daydream]

Your dress is so unique, I love it! Yay for selecting your dates. I hope you get your first choice. Wedding Way is going to be the death of me! I feel like I spend hours looking at wedding related stuff. I hope the move went smoothly and you guys are all settled in

 

[ariel_]

Your dress is so unique, I love it! Yay for selecting your dates. I hope you get your first choice. Wedding Way is going to be the death of me! I feel like I spend hours looking at wedding related stuff. I hope the move went smoothly and you guys are all settled in

Haha I got through phases of being totally obsessed and then periods of normality, before getting obsessed again!

Weddington Way is awesome, I love how many styles and colours there are, and my bridesmaids live in Scotland and London so we can't get out to look that easily. This way they can all tell me which ones they love/hate. I am very tempted to go ahead and order from them as they have the best I've seen, but I'm a bit concerned about ordering without having everyone try on or at least see them, and if they turn out a disaster it won't be that easy to return them! The postage will also be about $150-200 so will have to weigh up and decide if it will be worth it!

The move went really well - easier than we had expected! I started my new job in April - it was originally for 1 term only until the summer holidays but yesterday the head teacher asked me to stay on for another year until summer 2014 so I don't have to worry about looking for another job any time soon The great part is they have agreed to let me have unpaid leave to get married which I don't think I'd have gotten easily in another school. I'm a bit concered that they hadn't really asked me how long I'll be away... it's almost 3 weeks I hope they don't change their mind when I give them the dates on Monday!

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

Those are gorgeous bridesmaid dresses! I love them all. So classic! And the colours. I love the idea of a pastel colour Up theme! Definitely goes well with the vintage feel of the Boardwalk.

 

[tinydancr06]

Hi, there! Just joining in your dress is so elegant and I love all your ideas so far! I really liked your color palette, blush is a part of mine, too. That's awesome that you'll be running the princess! You will LOVE it! I ran it this past year and it was just the best experience! I'll be doing it again this year, too! Excited to follow your planning

 

[ariel_]

Thanks guys! I honestly loved all the colours so much I could never chose one and I decided just to have them all!

My best friend just found out she might be able to come to the wedding when she originally thought she wouldn't - best news ever! I had asked her to be a bridesmaid too so it looks like I might get to choose 4 of the pretty dresses wooo!

Not a lot new happening with the wedding right now, although now that I am pencilled in I feel that I can share my photographer now (didn't want to jinx anything by mentioning it too soon!)
I am beyond thrilled with her, and the way we found each other definitely involved some pixie dust! The lovely Mandy Henry had been reading my PJ and got in touch with me to say that she really wanted to do a Disney wedding, and invited me to look at her page... It was love at first sight! Her style is exactly what I had pictured in my head and all of her photos are beyond beautiful. Also, she's been following my PJ and my Pinterest boards so she really understands what I like and how I imagine my pictures to turn out. Plus she's just a super nice person! You should all check out her blog as her recent photo shoots are fab!

http://www.mandyhenry.com/blog2/

As she's not based in Florida I'd have never found her without the DIS

One small purchase I made recently was a little white dress for wearing on our honeymoon - I saw another PJ where the bride had a different white dress for each night of the honeymoon, which I thought was too cute! I might not have one for each night but i'll start collecting now and see what I end up with!

The best thing was this one was only £16 - bargain!

I'm glad to see others have run the Princess and lived to tell the tale!

I've dabbled with running over the past couple of years, but never really run more than a 5k. I used to run alone and although I really enjoyed it, I'm not great at pushing myself on so I pretty much plateaued at 5k. Since moving to this part of England I've been running again as I'm taking party in a charity 5k next month, with the added benefit of hopefully slimming a bit for my dress!

A couple of weeks back I mentioned running to a lady in the new school I'm working in and it turned out she's the secretary of a local running club. She invited me a long that night and for the first time ever I ran 10k straight! Turns out I can run way longer, I've just never been motivated to do it! So in the past weeks I've been running twice a week, for 10-12k

That's about all in wedding news for now, I've just joined the DISbrides Facebook page so have been reading there and getting loads of useful information! Thanks for following guys, sorry if this post rambles a bit - I'm still half asleep!

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

So much excellent news! Love that your best friend can make it, that is so special. And I love that the DIS helped bring you together with a wonderful photographer for your wedding. That's really excellent!

 

[MrsTigger]

Just found your PJ, love your colour scheme and vintage style. We're thinking about a wdw wedding at SBP and like you I was abit worried there wasn't much room for to make it personalised without paying a lot extra for things.

 

[ariel_]

So much excellent news! Love that your best friend can make it, that is so special. And I love that the DIS helped bring you together with a wonderful photographer for your wedding. That's really excellent!

I know I am thriled she can hopefully come! She is also thinking about taking her daughter which I'd love - fingers crossed!

Just found your PJ, love your colour scheme and vintage style. We're thinking about a wdw wedding at SBP and like you I was abit worried there wasn't much room for to make it personalised without paying a lot extra for things.

I'm still thinking over the personalisation - sometimes I feel like I want to go mad and have loads of extras, and other times I get a moment of sanity and realise that a confetti cannon is NOT a wedding essential! But seriously, how cool would one be?!

I do think SBP is one place that can get away with little or no decor - it's so simple and pretty that it could be left plain and still be beautiful!

Got lots to update about plans but waiting for school to finish as I've got loads to do to get ready for the end of term!

 

[ariel_]

Oh I'm a bad bride - so terrible at updates!

Lots of little updates to give which is great, every little step makes it seem more real!

Firstly, we have signed our LOA and paid our deposit with DFTW I just heard back from Stacey that she received it and that we will be assigned our coordinator within the next few weeks! I am so excited as I have lots of little ideas and I'm not sure how many I will be able to do with us having an Escape wedding. I'm not sure if I mentioned in an earlier post that I got my first choice date and time, so I can officially say I am getting married on the 27th February 2014, at 12pm

Secondly, I have signed my contract with the lovely Mandy Henry for photography and I couldn't be more excited!

Next up - shoes!



I still can't believe I got these awesome shoes - they were a birthday treat from Ally! He took me shopping to pick and I'd never have gone for these but they were having a sale in the store (which I have NEVER seen before!) and it seemed like it was meant to be! They are super high and make me feel really glam! I'm a tiny bit concerned about how my feet will last up all day, but I'm sure I can manage

Now that I am closer to being assigned a coordinator I've been trying to decide on enhancements that I'm hoping for (if DFTW allow it!) I am not sure about which of the Escape cakes to go for yet - probably one of the most simple ones. I saw this cake and fell in love:



Our cake will be 2-tier but I'd love to have the UP topper! And actually the whole style of the cake - I just love! I'm not sure whose it was as I saw it on the DFTW Facebook

I feel a bit torn about flowers at the moment. I'm not mad about any of the Escape bouquets, and I would love to have something like this:



I also love the way this one is at the bottom, with all of the stems sticking out (doesn't sound nice when I describe it! )



Part of me (the bridezilla part) wants to just upgrade my bouquet and have exactly what I want, regardless of cost. The sensible part of my brain is going nuts - to begin with I was happy with all of the Escape options and was set on not incurring any other extra costs - never mind the fact that I can't even bring my bouquet back to the UK! So really I have to decide whether any extra cost is really worth it, for only one day!

I provisionally got in touch with Patricia LeJeune a while back to see if she had our date free for hair and makeup for myself, the bridesmaids and both mums. I'm hoping to book her shortly, but so many other girls on the Facebook page talk about Beaute, and it makes me wonder if I should go for them instead? I loved how Patricia styled Carrie for her wedding and I like the fact that I would know exactly who I am getting - help me make up my mind! Any other Patricia girls out there?!

I have a friend's wedding on Saturday and I'm going to my own hairdresser to have my hair put up for it, as a sort of tester-trial - we are going to take loads of pictures so that whoever I go with I can send them on I'm going to show him the following pics as inspiration - I'm pretty sure I don't have nearly enough hair for any of these styles, but we will see what he can do!




And lastly, I saw this make-up tutorial the other day and I loved how pretty and delicate it was, so I'm thinking of using something like this as my inspiration...



I'm going for the look on the right Although if I looked that good without make-up I'd be tempted haha!

I'll post photos of the real hair, and my own attempt of the make-up, until then

Bah gigantic pictures again - promise I will sort this for next time!