Our plan after the ceremony was to go to the other side of the "Shipwreck" to take pictures for the 10 minute rule- us and our photographers only. DH and I were both so hot we just wanted to get some shade!! We did start heading there, but got stopped again by family (one of DHs cousins has a 6 mo old baby and they were on the benches in the shade) so she took our picture:
Our photographer was right behind us but told us we didn't need to go that far, so we stopped there and I lifted up my dress- from my knees down and let myself get some air in there, man was it hottttttttttt!
I think we took some pictures there as Vita and her assistant for the day (didn't catch her name) scurried our guests off to cocktail hour. We wanted to take pictures with our parents first so we could send them to cocktail hour, then the bridal party and send them and then take more by ourselves. We obviously wanted to take pictures on the beach but there was absolutely no shade at all there, so I asked if we could just do them on the lawn instead, which worked! Unfortunately, my shoes sunk in (I didn't care about it at the time).
We took pictures with my parents, his parents, added siblings, etc etc. Then we try to take a picture with my family and my brother is nowhere to be found- he went to cocktail hour- my mom told him to. UGH! So, she had to call him back, she says "he's not going to be happy he has to come back" Hellooooooo he's here for MY wedding?! He is my brother and is supposed to stay for pictures, what are you thinking?!!?!
Finally he and his GF come walking back, leisurely, with no urgency about it. We take pictures with my full family and all our siblings and then send our parents, Josh's gram and my brother off for cocktails. I don't have any of these pics yet but per our photographers we should be getting them soon so I will come back and add them!
Then we obviously took pictures with the bridal party, I have one of my girls and I that the BM took:
Don't my girls just look so gorgeous?!
I am very excited to see more of these!! When we were finished on the lawn, I asked J&M if we could take a few on the beach, the sun was starting to go down and it wasn't as hot (plus now we'd all been standing in the shade for about 30 minutes). So my girls grabbed their parasols and off we went to the beach! We kicked off our shoes and had some fun- I can't wait to see these pics too!! When we were done, we sent the BP off to cocktail hour and planned to have time for our own pictures. Unfortunately, Vita started telling Mary we needed to start walking to the reception already, ugh.. so apparently the ceremony not starting at 5, then waiting for my brother to come back for pictures etc really took some time. So foiled! We had ordered balloons to take pictures with since we had used balloons for our e-pics too, so they were there waiting for us. We took some pictures walking with them and then started walking toward the BW. Once we got over the bridge from SBP to Epcot, we let them go. I left my dress down this whole time for pictures which I also didn't think anything of but affected me later-- oopsy!
We walked by our cocktail hour obviously, and everyone cheered for us. Josh was loving it, it was so fun!! It was also really crazy Disney people were all on the stealth "escorting us" to the BW. We had one person walk us to SBP, then they handed us off to someone new, all talking to each other in their microphones like Secret Service. haha
For cocktail hour, we served the antipasto display and started our open bar. We had a signature drink, "Goonie" which was a chocolate martini, named after our chocolate lab! I also ordered pink and grey striped paper straws and had our Mad Libs put out. I've only seen less than 10 pictures total of cocktail hour, the ones Jennifer took from afar, the ones the photographers blogged and a few from my girls. I really want to see the food!
Here is the sign Jennifer snapped
One of my girls and her husband:
and a group of my girlfriends:
We walked up the stairs from the Boardwalk and back down to the convention center, once we walked into the CC the A/C felt amazingggg. While we were walking in, the last escort asked what we'd like to drink. When we walked in, they handed us our drinks and let us see everything. We had fastpasses made as our escort cards (directing people which table to sit at), and I had put them inside silver envelopes. The envelopes said the family name and then inside was a pass for each family member, along with the share site card.
Several of our guests have posted pics of their fastpasses:
Then they let us into the ballroom. As soon as one door opened and I got a peek inside, my jaw dropped. I didn't even look at Josh to see his reaction. I was stunned. It was drop dead gorgeous. The room was dark with light pink lighting everywhere, it was glowing. The tables looked great, the candlelight, the colors. It was soo romantic and perfect. I knew our guests would be just as wow-ed as I was!! I'm so looking forward to the professional pictures of the room! We also had a GOBO on the dance floor (included with the DJ package)
I laid my bouqet down on our table (I decided since I paid $325 for my bouquet I was going to get my money's worth and not spend more on an arrangement for our table)
Then we met our DJ. He played our song for us to make sure it was the right version. He asked us how to say our name and then Vita rushed us out of the room because our guests were coming in. We went into a smaller Marvin Gardens room to wait for the bridal party to meet us to be introduced. I needed to be bustled so I was waiting and waiting for my sister. Finally she came and had forgotten she needed to bustle me!
Everyone is there and goes out in the hall to line up, and we're trying to get me bustled. Remember how I said I left my train down on the walk over? Yeah... so the ribbons (only a few, not all) to bustle me had frayed from scraping against the cement and boardwalk apparently, and I couldn't be bustled right. Vita was trying to help too and finally decided we were just going to pin it up. Vita got a safety pin and pinned it and we were good to go. The bustle wasn't completely right, it was still hanging a little bit, so I just had to be careful. It was time to get the party started!!! DH and I were so excited!!
Everybody was lined up and ready to go. Since I had 8 bridesmaids and he only had 4, I asked a few of my girls if their husbands would walk in with them, to which they agreed. I phonetically spelt everyone's names and specifically wrote down what I wanted him to announce them as, ie "Bridesmaid Stacey escorted by her husband Cameron", then of course the normal roles, Best Man, etc etc. When we came out to get in line, the DJ was out there again talking to our bridal party and making sure he had everyones names correct with my phonetic spellings. So now this is 3x he has been told.
He goes inside and the music starts. Josh picked "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins for the parents. His parents were first... It should have been "Groom's parents, Mr & Mrs Giles Foell (guy-ls foal)... he omits groom's parents and then calls them FOUL. Josh FLIPS his lid and starts swearing. Then it's my parents, Mr & Mrs Joseph Rokicki.... nope, Mr & Mrs Josh Rokicki... really?! Josh is so mad at this point... For the bridal party, I picked just the beat from Missy Elliot's pass that dutch- think the entrance of "Mean Girls" haha So as the bridesmaids start, he doesnt announce any of their roles, that the guys walking in with them are their husbands, etc. I thought Josh was going to lose his lid. He doesnt announce the best man is the best man, etc. Josh is seriously swearing and I'm trying to calm him down. Once we are the only ones left, I yell at Vita to SHUT THE DOORS! Clearly our guests are going to hear him...
He flips to her and tells her the DJ got his parents last name wrong and he better get us right .. she uses her little walkie talkie who knows, now it's our turn. He starts playing black eyed peas "The Time- Dirty Bit" and I'm trying to just forget what happened, this is our wedding reception and we're about to be announced for the first time!! We can hear everyone cheering and getting excited. I grab Josh's hand, the doors fly open and he says "Mr. & Mrs. JASON Foell"..........................................................................................
The whole room GASPS. completely stops cheering and gasps. Josh sucked it up since all eyes were on us but at this point even I was pissed. We walk in and take our spot on the dance floor. I was really looking forward to our first dance so I took in that moment. I have no idea what Josh was thinking at that moment but I hope he was thinking about having just been married and not about the DJ royally messing up our introductions. We danced to the acoustic version of "She is Love" by Parachute. Josh chose the song and I was completely blown away when he did (I had never heard it before).
"I've been beaten down, I've been kicked around, but she takes it all for me. And I lost my faith, in my darkest days. But she makes me want to believe. They call her love, love, love, love love. They call her love, love, love, love love. She is love, and she is all I need.
Well I had my ways, they were all in vain, but she waited patiently (I heard a lot of our guests say "yeah she did" during this part- since we've been together so long and he was so stubborn about getting married already) It was all the same, all my pride and shame. And she put me on my feet. They call her love, love, love, love love. They call her love, love, love, love love. She is love, and she is all I need."
We definitely had a moment, I cried a bit, and I was ready to get this party going, so happy to be married to my best friend.
We went and sat down at our table, and found our watches:
We were served our caesar salad. We had already discussed with the photographers we were going to have our salad then before dinner came we were going to sneak out and take pictures during "golden hour" down on the boardwalk. Once we got our salads and sat down, people started coming up to say hi, congrats, take our picture, etc etc. Then the DJ came over to try and apologize. Josh said to him, "Honestly, I don't want to look at you. Walk away." He said okay, I understand, and did. I have never seen or heard Josh speak to someone that way, so I knew he was livid.
For the rest of the night, he and Vita would only come talk to me on my side of our table. They would not talk to Josh because they knew how mad he was. We ate our salads, gave the nod to the photographers and off we went! We grabbed my parasol and my bouquet and headed down to the Boardwalk