Bewitch324 and FR's November 2014 Wishes Wedding

[Bewitch324]

I can't believe it's finally time ... after all the daydreams, and the waiting and the anticipating...we're going to have a Disney wedding and I'm going to be a Disney Bride!!!

I have been reading planning journals on the Disboards for the last couple of years and have enjoyed them so much! I think its a great way to bounce your ideas off of others and to keep from drowning all your non-Disney, non-bride friends with wedding talk! I've learned so much from all the journals I've read and while I don't expect my journal to be quite as educational as I'm not really doing anything new or creative...hopefully my journey will be helpful or at least mildly entertaining to someone out there.

WARNING: I tend to talk a LOT and I tend to write like I talk. Short and sweet is not me. So read on at your own risk !

He's Frank and I'm Brooke. He's 59 and I'm 45. This will be my first marriage, his second. He's never had a wedding though, he did the courthouse thing the first time.

We've been together a little over 8 years, and we FINALLY got engaged on January 14, 2013. He proposed at Magic Kingdom in front of the partners statue, just after wishes with a gorgeous custom designed ring with hidden mickeys. More on the proposal story later, but here's a sneak peak at the ring:



Our Plans so far:
Contract is signed and the deposit is paid, so I guess we're official now! We are getting married on Sunday, November 16, 2014.

Type of Wedding: Wishes

10 am Ceremony: Wedding Pavilion

11 am 3 pm Brunch Reception: Ariel's at the Beach Club

8 pm 9:30 pm Dessert Party: UK Lochside at Epcot

Guests: 30 to 40 (I'm guessing we'll come in closer to 30 than 40 but you never know! I was originally planning around 20 25 but you know how those guest lists grow!)

Color Scheme: Teals/blues
Here is an inspiration picture I use for my colors:




Thanks for reading so far, lots more to come!!

Brooke

 

[Bewitch324]

Here's what we've accomplished so far:

Photography:
Weve booked David and Vicki Arndt for photography (I actually did that way back in July&I wanted to make sure we got them because I really like their work!). Were taking engagement pictures with them in January when we are down for marathon weekend, Im super excited for those although Im NOT happy with where I am physically right now and I have NO IDEA what were going to wear&

I am really hoping to do a Bridal Portrait Session at MK and either AK or HS--and I know that by choosing David and Vicki instead of Disney, I won't be able to book our session until 45 days before...but I just felt that photography was WAY too important to not be able to choose my photographer and KNOW that I was going to have quality photos for my wedding day. I also know there is a chance that our wedding week may be blocked out for MK sessions but hopefully it will work out and we'll be able to do it a day or two after the wedding.


Hair and Makeup:
I booked a hair and makeup trial with Beaute Speciale for the engagement pics in January so I can start to get an idea of what I want and confirm that I like working with them. Some of the reviews lately have not been great, so I'm very interested to see how this goes.

Officiant:
Weve chosen our officiant, Renee Silverman. We did a couple Skype calls with her and really like her and feel like she fits us. It wont be a very religious ceremony, but Im hoping to make it intimate and special and very US. She specializes in customized ceremonies, so Im optimistic that well be able to put together something special.

Music:
Reserved our harpist, Christine MacPhail. We decided not to have a DJ; hardly any of our people are likely to dance, and with it being a brunch reception, we decided to keep it low key and relaxed. Christine was recommended by our officiant, and when we checked out her website, we loved the variety of songs she can play. Im waiting to confirm her until I get my wedding planner as I want to make sure its ok to book her outside of DFTW. Shes a Disney cast member, so Im hoping so as its significantly more economical to book her directly than through Disney.

I have no idea yet on specific songs...but I definitely want the theme from Peter Gunn for Frank at some point and Wishes is VERY special to us, so I expect we'll have that somewhere...

Videography:
Weve chosen Cinemedia for videography. I dont see a lot about them on the boards, but I really like their work and Ive had a number of phone calls with Steve and I really like him and feel very comfortable with him. Hopefully, my instincts are right! Having a video was very important to me. I'm a very visual person, and I have waited a long time for this day. I'm so afraid it will go by in a blur, I want to have all those moments captured so I can remember them and hopefully help keep some of the magic from our wedding day to see year after year.

Printed Matter:
Weve chosen to work with DBY Invitations for our printed Save the Dates, Invitations, Door Hangers, Escort cards and Welcome Bag Tags. Originally, Id hoped to do a lot of DIY but realistically, with the hours we work, it just really wasnt practical. I love her work when I saw it at a few local bridal shows, so I went to meet her and we really clicked. I love the plan weve come up with and think I will be really happy with the end results. Heres the Save the Date first proof. Shes making a few minor changes to this, Ill have the final one next week. Planning to send out around Christmas. The castle picture we used is one I took in 2009. I'm really excited to have it part of our STD's.



I took the picture with my phone so the colors aren't showing up great; I'll take a better picture once I get the final version.

Wedding website:
I decided I wanted to use appycouple for our wedding website. Ours is brookefrank.appycouple.com (code is 21074) if you want to check it out. Im pretty happy with it so farit was pretty user friendly, and I like the look and feel of it. Now to see if our guests like it!

Other plans:
We have decided we want to have a caricaturist (or two?) at the reception, we thought that would be fun, but we havent done anything on that yet. Waiting for our planner to find out more about that.

Im planning some sort of welcome dinner for either Saturday night or Friday night. Frank is turning 60 the week after the wedding and my brother is turning 40 the week before the wedding, so I want the welcome dinner to also include a celebration of their birthdays. Not sure yet what the plan is&I guess it will depend on budget and how much everything costs. In a perfect world, Id like to do a dinner at Animal Kingdom with a ride mix in beforehand on the Safari. I want to do some kind of Haunted Mansion cake for Frank as we both love that attraction, and I thought it would be a fun grooms/birthday cake&

Farewell Breakfast on Monday: Im thinking of something like Chef Mickeys or Park Fare for a late breakfast for those that want to join usbut again, well see how the planning process goes and how much money we have left&

Seems like there are a million other plans that are floating around in my head, but I think this post is already WAY too long so I'd better stop!

Thanks for reading!
Brooke

 

[TiffinyKaye]

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope it's beautiful! You have to promise me that you'll share your pictures of your UK Lochside dessert party. We're doing that too--but December 8th, 2014!

So happy for you, and your invitations are ADORABLE!!!!!

Tiffiny

 

[Bewitch324]

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope it's beautiful! You have to promise me that you'll share your pictures of your UK Lochside dessert party. We're doing that too--but December 8th, 2014!

So happy for you, and your invitations are ADORABLE!!!!!

Tiffiny

Thanks, Tiffiny! I will definitely share pictures although by the time I get my pictures, you'll probably already be having your event!!!

We got assigned our wedding planner yesterday: Michelle Wenzler. The assistant is Lacee Utt. Has anyone worked with them? Hopefully, we will have a good chemistry. I sent an email right away with a bunch of questions but I haven't heard back yet--hopefully later today or tomorrow.

The wonderful Marion over on the Creative DISsigns board did a couple of logos for us, what do you think?







I'm not sure yet how we'll use them, but I think they are super cute.

I decided to go ahead and order stamps from zazzle for the save the dates since they (the STDs) won't be ready until next week. Here are the four I considered:









I really liked all four, but I was torn between the mickey/minnie and the teal ones with our names and the date...so I asked Frank and he voted for Mickey/Minnie so that's the direction I went. I think they'll be cute and people will get a kick out of them.

Brooke

 

[Summer Daydream]

Congrats on finally starting your PJ. I love the designs you have for your save the dates. I have read a lot of good things about your planner and assistant so I think you are in great hands.

 

[Bewitch324]

Thanks, Summer.

I've heard back from Lacee now a couple of times, so think she will take good care of us.

Brooke

 

[Bewitch324]

Things are moving right along: our planning session got scheduled today. I requested Friday, May 23rd. The planning session is from 9 - 11:30 at Franck's and then we're doing a food tasting in the afternoon over at the yacht club.

So, I'm thinking we'll fly in Thursday night after work and either fly home Monday night or early Tuesday morning. Monday is Memorial Day, so we'll only miss one day of work; hopefully that will work out ok. (I'm not sure if I've explained yet, but Frank and I work for a small family trucking company and when we are both gone, basically half the company is missing so it's a little tough to take time off). It will just be Frank and I at the planning session/food tasting. We're paying for most of the wedding ourselves, although my mom is helping.

Frank's worried the parks will be super crowded due to the holiday, but I'm liking the idea of a four day weekend. It doesn't sound like Memorial Day weekend is as bad as most of the summer...but I don't know.

Now to be practical: My mom thinks we should 86 the planning session/food tasting and save the money towards the wedding...which would be the SMART thing to do. BUT...I've been waiting for this wedding FOREVER. And I hate to pass up any chance for a Disney weekend. And the recaps I've read of brides that have done the planning session sound really fun...
Also...we're DVC members and I booked us a few days at Animal Kingdom Lodge where we've never stayed before, so I'm thinking that will be really fun...AND we'll have already activated our wedding annual passes in January, so using them in May only increases the value we're getting from them, right Gee, can you tell I'm trying to justify this trip? I think we'll be able to use miles for our airline tickets too... So then it's mainly the car and food for the weekend...and if we have to, we can forego the car (we always rent a car, we like the freedom...).

We have a few months to decide and if money is really tight come February or March, we probably will cancel it...but I really want to go.

So...what do you guys think? Should we go for the experience and just enjoy the heck out of it and worry about the cost later...or should we be smart and practical and not spend the time or money?

Brooke

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

Congratulations! What a gorgeous ring -- those hidden mickeys! Too cute!

I love your colour scheme. I think it's a really great choice for Ariel's too! Love the save the dates and stamps too!

Well... This is a biased opinion, because it's what we did, but I say go for the planning session. Having a disney wedding is once in a lifetime, and that includes your planning session. Obviously don't ruin yourself financially over it, but the whole thing goes so fast you'll never regret every single memory you make. Also, I think a lot of people find it helps to ease their minds over the decisions (i.e. the lack of control you can feel you have in the process). Again, totally biased opinion, but just my two cents worth.

 

[Bewitch324]

Congratulations! What a gorgeous ring -- those hidden mickeys! Too cute!

I love your colour scheme. I think it's a really great choice for Ariel's too! Love the save the dates and stamps too!

Well... This is a biased opinion, because it's what we did, but I say go for the planning session. Having a disney wedding is once in a lifetime, and that includes your planning session. Obviously don't ruin yourself financially over it, but the whole thing goes so fast you'll never regret every single memory you make. Also, I think a lot of people find it helps to ease their minds over the decisions (i.e. the lack of control you can feel you have in the process). Again, totally biased opinion, but just my two cents worth.

Thanks Nicole. I'm with you, I really want the experience, and I think we'll be able to swing it financially, knock wood. I'm only going to be a "bride" this once, I really want to soak in every moment of it that I can!

Brooke

 

[Bewitch324]

Hello everyone! Things have been moving along. I was able to get pricing Lacee on a few things we're planning.

We are planning to have a caricature artist for the pre-reception and reception. If our guest count goes to 35 or 40, we may need two, but for now I'm just planning for one. It's $650 for 3 hours, and $195 for each additional hour.

Way back in September, I had contacted Christine MacPhail to play the harp at our events. I held off on contracting her until I could confirm whether it was ok with Disney to book her directly...well I asked Michelle and Lacee several times and kept getting indirect answers...and then yesterday, I got an email from Christine that DFTW had booked her for our event and that I would work through my planner going forward...so I'm guessing the answer is that I needed to book her through Disney, haha. I'm a little bummed as it's more expensive to book her through Disney, BUT I'm planning to stay really close to the minimum, so it's probably smart to have her count towards the minimum anyways. She is $800 for 3 hours directly through Disney; she had quoted me $650 for 4 hours previously. So that's a bit of a bummer.

I think one area that is going to get really expensive is transportation. We have three hotels in our room block: Pop Century, Port Orleans Riverside and Beach Club. I suspect most of our guests will choose Port Orleans Riverside BUT we also have a couple military families--they are talking about staying at Shades of Green. And my mom and brother are planning to rent points to stay at a 2 bedroom villa at Old Key West or Saratoga Springs. (Beach Club is just way too many points, and pretty hard to get). And then Frank and I are DVC owners at Bay Lake Tower, so that's where we are booked for now. (We can book our home resort at 11 months out, we can't book anywhere else until 7 months out). Hoping to move our reservation to Beach Club (which probably WON'T work as they're usually booked up by then) or maybe Boardwalk...or wherever my mom ends up. I want Frank to stay somewhere else the night before the wedding, not sure where yet... Thinking about booking one or two nights at the Grand Floridian but it's so pricey... At any rate, it looks like we could theoretically have guests at 5 different resorts. And I know that we don't HAVE to provide transportation from all, only from the places where we told them to stay...BUT I want to make sure everyone gets there on time, and I don't want anyone to be aggravated or frustrated...so maybe sending vans to each resort will be the smart thing to do...but the pricing they gave me on the vans was much higher than I'd expected: 11 guest vans are $181 one way, $242.55 round trip or $74.97 per hour with a 3 hour minimum.

So, I'm not sure what to do. Basically, we have to get everyone to the Wedding Pavilion and then from the WP to the Beach Club for our reception at Ariel's and then back to their resorts and then later, to Epcot for the dessert party.

What do you guys think?

Brooke

 

[Bewitch324]

Hello everyone. Hope you've all had a wonderful holiday week. Lots of excitement for us this week!

Most important: My brother Jason and his wife Maria had their baby last night...she wasn't due until January 21st, so it was quite the Christmas surprise. We were all together Christmas Day and talking about the baby coming and them getting ready but we had NO idea that just a few hours later she'd be on her way to the hospital!! Her water broke around Midnight Christmas night and she finally delivered my new niece, Kaitlyn Grace, at 11:30 pm 12/27. They tried for a LONG time to have a baby so we are all super excited to welcome Kaitlyn to the family. Thankfully, momma and baby are doing fine, despite Kaitlyn's early arrival. I'm hoping to be able to go see them tonight after work.

Here's a picture of Jason and Maria from earlier in the day:



In wedding related news, the save the dates were finished late last week. I added two little crystals to them and then got them ready to send out. They went in the mail on Christmas Eve. People have started receiving them and so far, everyone seems to like them. I'm pretty excited. Here's the final version and a picture of the pile just before I mailed them:





Trying to get ready for our Disney trip for marathon weekend. I have not really walked since Thanksgiving weekend; I ended up with a bad upper respiratory infection that next week and I just haven't been able to get myself back in gear. We're walking in the 10K on Friday and the half marathon on Saturday and I wasn't at all worried about finishing before I got sick...I knew we'd be slow and probably take every minute allowed, but I wasn't worried about finishing...but now, I'm really worrying about it. I'm going to walk a couple long walks this weekend, hopefully, they'll go well and I'll feel more confident... Work is so crazy, we really can't afford to be gone so I'm stressing about that too. Haven't begun to pack or figure out what we will wear for engagement pictures. I have GOT to get my act together!!!

I'm so excited to be going back to Disney though. We always have so much fun together at Disney and we really need a little quality US time. Plus, this trip LAST YEAR was when we got engaged, so it holds an extra special place in our hearts.

I hope everyone is having a great week!!!

Brooke

 

[TiffinyKaye]

Oh my gosh, I love your "Save the Dates." I love your stamps too. Ordering stamps through Zazzle was something I thought about, but we decided against it because we're going to be sending out a lot more invitations than 30-40. We're having a Disney wedding and then a reception in our home state of Utah for the family and friends who we're dissing for the wedding....so, we're thinking anywhere from 150-200 invitations are going to be sent out, and the people coming to the wedding will simply have little insert cards in their invitation that specifically invites them to the ceremony. With that many invites...I couldn't justify the money on personalized postage. So...$0.46 cent "Forever' stamps with wedding roses it is!

I am still super jealous of your save the dates. I love the glitter. So cute!

I am with Nicole on the planning session thing. My fiance and I toyed with the idea of not doing a planning session...but Nicole's "the experience" factor ultimately drove us to decide that we NEED the planning session. That, and like you, we're DVC members. We joined in 2012, and we need to use our points this year, otherwise they'll expire (have to use them before like November of 2014). So...we thought it'd be an excellent idea to just use the points as an excuse to go to Disney for the planning session. We're heading out to Disney in September of this year for the planning session and HOPEFULLY the MK/Epcot shoot. Hopefully. I'm sure their scheduling will be crap. So, let's just hope it works out.

Totally subscribed to this thread. I want to watch it play out and be gorgeous!

Tiffiny

 

[Bewitch324]

Got back Tuesday night from our trip down to Disney for Marathon Weekend. We had a great time, as usual. Completed both the new Minnie Mouse 10K race on Friday and the Half Marathon on Saturday, so feeling pretty good about that.

Finally got to see the Wedding Pavilion in person...wow. So beautiful! Definitely confirmed our plans to get married there! Will post some pictures as soon as I have time.

Sunday, Beaute Speciale (Jenny) came for my hair and makeup trial, and then Frank and I met up with David and Vicki Arndt for our engagement pictures session. I will post pictures as soon as I have some, but boy was that a lot of fun!! They have this amazing chemistry between them, and they play off each other and give each other ideas...it's really fun to watch! I can't wait to see how our pictures turn out!

Lots more to share, but just wanted to pop in for a quick update, I'll post more when I have a little more time...

Brooke

 

[MinnieMOH]

Congrats on the engagement and the half-marathon!

How did you like your hair/make-up?

 

[1EvilQueenfan]

Hi Brooke,

I just found your PJ! Oh we just missed each other. We just arrived today at WDW! That's awesome about the marathon we are thinking about doing it next year. It will be our first one!

I love your plans and your color scheme very pretty! Subscribing. I hope your engagement session went well!

 

[Bewitch324]

Congrats on the engagement and the half-marathon!

How did you like your hair/make-up?

I was pretty happy with the way my hair and makeup turned out, especially considering that I reallly didn't know what I wanted. I was able to tell her a lot of what I DIDN'T want...but I wasn't too helpful with what I wanted. I haven't got my dress yet, so I'm not really sure what I want to do with my hair on the day, so she gave me kind of a standard half up/half down look, but I think it turned out really pretty. I had Jenny and she was really sweet and definitely wanting to make sure I liked what she did. She asked lots of questions and had me look at it along the way. When I didn't like the lipstick color she used, she immediately changed it, and made sure I was happy with the new look. She also took pictures with her phone so that she'll be able to re-create the look in November (assuming I want to go with the same look).

Frank thought I looked pretty and he told me a number of times how good I looked (which is kind of unusual for him...he's not a real verbal guy, haha) but he also said at the end of the night that he felt the makeup was too heavy. He's used to my more natural look (I wear makeup daily but not a lot) and I think it threw him a bit to see me so made up...but I think for pictures, it needs to be heavier--especially to last all day. I'm going to see how the engagement pictures turn out before I decide if I think the makeup looks too heavy. I thought it looked pretty the day of--me...only better, haha. We didn't do anything dramatic or anything, although I did have her do the individual eyelashes to add some length and volume to my lashes...I really liked the way they looked but they felt weird.

I'll post some pictures once I have some to show...


Brooke

 

[Bewitch324]

Hi Brooke,

I just found your PJ! Oh we just missed each other. We just arrived today at WDW! That's awesome about the marathon we are thinking about doing it next year. It will be our first one!

I love your plans and your color scheme very pretty! Subscribing. I hope your engagement session went well!

I HIGHLY recommend the Disney race experience. It's so friendly to racers of all speeds, sizes and shapes, and it's fun to see all the costumes and nobody beats Disney for on-course support. I think they rent every porta-potty in the state of Florida! They have good water stops and med tents spaced out really well. The only other race I've done was the Rock N Roll half marathon in Chicago last summer and it was a lot of fun too, they had bands set up every mile or so...but the logistics weren't as good, especially for the back of the pack people like me...they ran out of gatorade way before we got there and there were two water stops that had run out of water before we got there. It was a really hot day so that sucked BAD. Fortunately, I'm paranoid about that happening so I carry my own water always...

Disney races are pricey, but the medals, shirts and bibs are always beautiful and where else can you get fireworks with every wave of runners starting?

The engagement session was a BLAST. We had a lot of fun with David and Vicki...if the pictures turn out half as good as I think they will, I will be very happy. She showed me a few in the camera and those looked good, so I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm not real happy with my size and shape right now, so I have a hard time being happy with any pictures of me but I think I looked pretty good that day and Frank as always was VERY handsome so I'm hoping there will be some good ones in there. We took a few with our medals, too, so that was fun!

Have a great time on your cruise, I can't wait to hear all about your wedding!!!

Brooke

 

[Giniapup]

Hi Brooke

Not only are we getting married the same weekend, we used the same stamps for our save the date! You know what they say great minds think alike. Your save the dates are amazing I love them. Even the envelops are pretty!

I was thinking of booking Beaute Speciale for my hair and make up, please let me know how your picture come!!


Kathleen

 

[lcataldimay]

Congratulations on your engagement!

My father told me the following when I got married: "I am only paying for one wedding, so have whatever you want." You should absolutely splurge for anything you want - including the trip for your planning session.

I look forward to following along

 

[edeneye]

Congrats on everything so far! I'm just catching up now! Do you think you'll get to WDW early enough to do the Wine & Dine Half Marathon weekend?! My fiancee and I are getting married a few days after you and we're spreading out our visit with that in mind!

Oh & transport is so tricky. WDW is so massively huge that if you have people in several resorts it's really hard to come up with something that isn't gonna be an inconvenience or be really, excessively expensive! There just doesn't seem to be a good option unless you can rent a few vans cheaper than Disney will charter them for you and charge a handful of your guests with being mini-tour-directors, wrangling and transporting groups! I've actually considered that but will probably end up doing a hybrid, we'll have people who are coordinating the group but we'll use a Disney (Mears) minibus. It's times like this I'm glad my guests are all staying in one resort but I definitely wish the locations were near each other! It all seems like such a good idea at the time but later on you have to deal with all this practicality! Best of luck with that, I'm sure your guests will understand the predicament and no matter what you decide, it won't detract from the magic.