Lindsay & Larry's Sept. 20 Wishes Wedding

[LindsayHD]

Hey, I'm new here so I'm just catching up! Really enjoying the story so far, it seems like fate keeps stepping in to make sure the right things happen for you guys!

Regarding the pom pom balls, my fuzzy understanding of that is that you can't use non-biodegradable materials for outdoor staged exits. That's about all the relevant policy that I'm aware of! As my own ceremony location is entirely outdoors, we're restricted from artificial petals etc but as yours is the Pavilion maybe you're okay as long as it's kept indoors? But from there I guess it's a matter of if you can bring in your own toss materials for the exit! We've been told the only floral we can personally supply that which is worn or carried so I'm stuck in a grey area there. There's so much policy to try and get a grasp of! Every time we have a question about policy, our poor wedding consultant gets another two emails in her inbox.

Oh & your magazine looks great. You mentioned borrowing a little from other brides for that, I bet there'll be a lot who borrow parts of that from you!

Thanks for reading along. I actually have been stalking your pj Disney Groom and just have not commented yet, I don't think?

Anyways, now that you say that I totally remember that thing about tossing items being biodegradable. Ah no worries, I wasn't totally sold on the idea anyways or maybe we'll keep it indoors.

I agree with the policy thing. I live in Florida and work in hospitality with events a lot so I know a lot of outside vendors so I often have to look stuff up to see if I can even use them or not.

Thanks for the compliment on the magazine. I have had so many good responses about it; however, so many people think Disney made it
People keep saying how nice of Disney to make such a magazine for the guests. Haha.

 

[LindsayHD]

Let the Planning Begin...

I finally feel like a Bride

Having been engaged for 3 years now I have never truly felt like a bride. My wedding has just always been in the back of my mind. But I have been doing so much wedding planning stuff now, I finally get what everyone is talking about. I have always heard that friends of Brides can't stand it when their Bride is constantly talking about their wedding and that never made any sense to me. I always thought "how could someone just talk about their wedding THAT MUCH?" Well, now I get it - All I want to do is think, talk and act on my wedding. I am totally obsessed
So I guess now is as good a time as ever to start writing in my pj. I don't want to bore my friends to death nor ruin any of the surprises so I guess this is where I have to go to talk, talk, talk about my wedding, or bore Larry to tears

Here comes the ranting...
I have told myself and others since we got engaged that I would never be a bridezilla. I am just not that emotionally attached to anything to go crazy. Well, I already jumped on the crazy train and went ninja bridezilla

My family owns DVC and their home resort is Old Key West. For those of you not familiar with DVC: You are allowed to book your home resort 11 months before your arrival date and any other non-home resorts you are permitted to make at 7 months out, which happened to be last Sunday. Let's first start the story by explaining my state of mind going in. Last Sunday I had not had a day off in 3 weeks and had been working 12-14 hour days up until that point thus basically being in a coma. I was so excited that I was able to book my DVC on my day off and then do copious amounts of wedding planning. I woke up that morning at 8:30 bc DVC opened at 9 and called at 8:59 on the dot.

I wanted to switch my Grand Villa and honeymoon Studio from Old Key West to the Boardwalk. Most of my guests will be staying at the Boardwalk so I wanted to make sure we would be able to stay there too and have the Grand Villa room for all my girls to get ready in before the wedding. I asked for the switch and they said that had a Boardwalk Grand Villa available for my stay. She then went through the initial booking and then realized she would have to cancel my original Grand Villa at Old Key West. It took her about 2 minutes to cancel the OKW room and when she came back to book the Boardwalk, the room was gone. Someone else had booked it while she was cancelling the initial reservation.

I didn't know what to do. Anger kicked in first so I demanded to speak to a supervisor. She calmed me down from anger to uncontrollable tears. I was a basket case. I thought everything was ruined. Of course, I didn't believe anything they said so I was checking online the entire time for a room, alas nothing available.
I explained my situation that my entire family was staying in this Grand Villa and that all my bridesmaids need to get ready the morning of the wedding. She then went digging to see what she could find. Since I was on the phone, I had to e-mail my mom the entire time freaking out. I couldn't believe I had had the room and then lost it. The supervisor eventually came back and explained that the Grand Villa was gone and my options were to take the OKW Grand Villa or 2-2 bedrooms at the Boardwalk that she would guarantee would be next to each other and be #1 on the waitlist if someone were to cancel.

I was so sad & angry & frustrated. I explained to her how devastating it is that DFTW cannot work better with DVC. I launched into my grand idea that for booking a wedding, you should get priority home resort if your room block is there. She went on to tell me that I got an advantage because I could book my home resort 11 months out and I went on to get super angry because yes, we could book Old Key West 11 months out; however, DFTW does not let Old Key West be a part of the discounted rooms. So not matter what, I could not stay where my guests stayed if I took OKW. I explained all of that to her and she said she understood why I was frustrated but that she couldn't do anything more.
I didn't know what to do so I took the Boardwalk 2-2 bedrooms. As she was reading me the confirmation numbers, I happened to look online and all of a sudden the Grand Villa at Boardwalk became available. I asked her if it was and she jumped on it.
2 hours later, I got exactly the rooms I wanted; however, I went through an emotional rollercoaster to get there. I was also kinda disappointed that I was the one who found the room, not the DVC supervisor, but I was so happy I got all the rooms I wanted that now I am just going to do a happy dance

Later that week, I could have had another bridezilla moment:
When we were booking the wedding, our goal was to get married on September 27 with a Welcome Dessert Party in Epcot on September 26. My Sales Consultant said that we could not have that date because of the Food & Wine Festival. Well, lo and behold this week, Disney announces the date of the Food & Wine Festival and it is a week earlier: September 19 - the Date of my Welcome Dessert Party. I begin to freak out. We want that more than anything and in Epcot of all places. I posted something in the Facebook Group and the responses basically said the check with my planner. So I e-mail her and ask to set up a call and she she calls me within an hour. I flipping LOVE her. She proceeds to tell me that that date was just announced to them as well and if they were going to move any brides, they probably would have reached out to DFTW earlier to pre-warn the brides so she thought I was fine, but she would double check with Epcot to ensure it.
The next day she e-mailed me and told me that Epcot is not taking any new brides; however, any previously booked wedding events for that weekend would still be able to be accommodated.
The only thing I am nervous about now is that our Room Block is at the Boardwalk. We went in shy with our room block assuming that mid-September is dead at Disney so we probably wouldn't have a problem. I have never been to Disney for F & W, but I hear it is slammed, especially at the Boardwalk. I immediately upped our room nights there and my Rooms Block Coordinator said she would call me in a month to let me know if we should up it more. I need 130 rooms guaranteed and I already have 31. I may have to up the whole room block all together, which seems like a big deal because you have to make an addendum to the contract - not sure what to do on that one. We're expecting 150 guests and only have 175ish rooms for the room block - I don't think I have enough We'll see in a month or two though.

Wow, not a single picture in this post, just a lot of ranting. Next one will be picture heavy with all my recent purchases. Let's just say that I made a killing on all of the Valentine's Day sales

 

[lthiesfeld07]

Following along....
Love the Pom Pom idea for a farewell toss!!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[LindsayHD]

Hi All

I am just finishing up the crazy busyness at work and in the thick of it with wedding planning. I have been on the move like crazy but am really happy with the way everything has been turning out.
Constantly I am feeling far behind in the planning process because of my crazy job and I think I am going to have to steal my wedding twin, Jenn's, idea of creating one task to take care of each month. I am less than 6 months out so maybe I will need like three tasks per month instead of just one, but we'll see. That will be for the next post for sure. This post is all about the cool stuff I have been buying lately and how I am just spending mad amounts of wedding money.

My wedding shopping spree starts about a month ago right after Valentine's Day was over. I figured I could go around to a couple of craft stores and get some things that could benefit me for the wedding, you know, hearts, love and all that jazz. Well I definitely hit the jackpot at a couple of stores. I first went to Michael's. There was so much stuff on sale. Here is a random sampling of the goods I was able to get.





I was contemplating making homemade chocolates for when I make the welcome bags and I was able to find little plastic baggies that save LOVE on them for $.30 a pack. Well guess I am committed to making the chocolates now. Guess I should try to find Mickey heads or heart molds.

I also was able to get some scrapbooking and heart crafty items that I will be able to use later. In the clearance section, not with the Valentine's Day items, they had photo coasters. - A 4-pack of them for $2 plus I had a 25% off coupon for sale items so I bought all that they had, which was 9 packs of 4. I have no clue what I am going to do with them, but I know it was such a good deal and even if they are gifts for my family or bridal party, they will definitely come in handy.

Another sweet sale, that I also posted on the Facebook group, was my welcome bags. For Christmas, my aunt gave me a Barnes and Noble gift card so I went in there to go look at wedding books and the new passporter book. I found these super cute Valentine's Day Bags. They are meant to hold books so they are vinyl and extremely durable. I saw that there were 16 and I figured I could use them for gifts at my rehearsal luncheon. They were 75% plus an extra 10% off of $5. They ended up being like $1.15 a bag and for a bag that could be reused, I thought that was awesome. When I went to check out the bookseller(I used to work for B & N so I know what their title is - Haha) and I chatted about my use for that many bags and she told me that if I was interested they had about 20 more in the back. Spontaneously, I had no idea what I would do with them, but I said sure. At that point I had about 36 bags. I then called my mom in Cleveland and asked her if she would go to the B & N there and see if they had them. Score! 45 bags!!!! I am obviously now committed to these being my welcome bags. Between myself and my brother each going to one more store the next day, him in Ohio, me in Florida, I now am the prime holder of 218 Love bags.
That is more rooms than I am definitely planning on having and more guests than I hope will be attending. I am not even sure what I am going to do with all of them, but they're awesome. Here's a pic:




I went on a crazy spree in the jewelry section in Michael's buying bling for my brooch bouquet. Sidenote: In case I have not mentioned it before. My reasoning for a brooch bouquet, I am not into flowers. Some of them can be really pretty yes, but I know nothing about them. All I know: Roses are nice.
I have never ever liked them. The thought of a guy giving me something that dies 3 days later seems so crazy to me. Hahaha. Also, I come from a huge family or at least I used to. Growing up I had so many great aunts and uncles and then most of them passed away. Being from a large Italian family, funerals are almost as important as weddings. I have been to at least 30 funerals in my life because of this. Everytime I smell a flower, I immediately think Funeral, which I believe is not a good thing to be reminded of on my wedding day
I will still have some flowers, but I don't want to smell them, thus brooch bouquet, plus an added bonus is that they're gorgeous.










I only want silver or ivory, which is not very difficult to find; however, everything I am reading online makes it seem like you need about 200 brooches for a bouquet, so I definitely have work to do. This is my first spree:





Also, I have been telling a few people about it and for my birthday some ladies from work got me a few brooches, which was so nice of them.











I am so excited to start getting some more brooches so I can eventually start building the bouquet. It is going to be stunning.

I bought a few other things from Etsy and am still waiting on them to arrive. As soon as they get in, I will take pictures and make sure I post them here. I am loving how things are coming together. I feel like the wedding is a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and each day or task is a different piece. In the beginning you're not really sure what it's going to look like but as it starts getting closer to the big day you can start seeing the image and everything it's supposed to be in the end.

Yay!!! 4 days ago, it was 6 months!!!!

 

[elphie101]

Steal away!!! Especially for time management purposes; anything to make planning easier!

You're lucky you only want silver & ivory, that makes things so much easier. I fell in love with blue/sapphire and it's a POTA right now to hunt down brooches. I have about 30 so far, but most of them are more solid, matte blue then jewel blue, so the hunt continues

Under 6 months already!!! So close!

 

[LindsayHD]

Steal away!!! Especially for time management purposes; anything to make planning easier!

You're lucky you only want silver & ivory, that makes things so much easier. I fell in love with blue/sapphire and it's a POTA right now to hunt down brooches. I have about 30 so far, but most of them are more solid, matte blue then jewel blue, so the hunt continues

Under 6 months already!!! So close!

I can only imagine how hard it is. I feel like it's a struggle sometimes to find decent silver and ivory ones. To have to find blue ones would be so difficult. If I ever see any on my hunt, I'll let you know.

And thanks for letting me steal the timeline idea

 

[LindsayHD]

Since I started wedding planning ages ago - The movie "The 5 Year Engagement" is the literal story of my life , bridesmaid dresses were always a sticky situation. My original colors were black, lime green and white. I was going to have all my girls wear black short dresses of their choice. Somehow, we decided to switch black to navy blue and I cannot remember the reason why. A few people had told me that black was too safe but I am not sure if that was the be-all reason.
Sidenote: I love black, not in a goth way, but in a rich way. It just is such a strong dominant color and those are the type of colors I like, bold and forceful. Anyways, when I switched to navy, lime green and white, I didn't want them choose their own hue of blue. See below the wedding I was in a few years ago where we got to choose what dress we wanted as long as it was "blue"








Not only were they all different shades of blue, some of them were borderline inappropriate. This made me very nervous for letting my bridesmaids choose their own dresses; therefore, we had to go shopping.

There are 4 ladies in my bridal party – My moh Melissa has been my bf since birth – literally birth – She was 1 and a half and came to the hospital to visit me when I was born. Melissa currently lives in Cleveland, but will pop down every once in a while to visit me in Naples. Joining Melissa are my df’s 2 sisters Brittany and Natalie who are in New Mexico. Neither of them have ever been in a wedding before, let alone been to a wedding so this is a whole new experience for them. I was planning on having cocktail length dresses for the wedding because they were a little more casual, but Brittany and Natalie asked for long dresses so I said yes – whatever makes them more comfortable in my opinion. Last but not least is Emily, my bf down here in Florida. I just met her 2 years ago but we instantly clicked and have been inseparable ever since.
Since the girls are all over the U.S. and I cannot really miss work to be able to fly to go shopping with them, so we had to do it a little randomly.


In December, I went to pick up my wedding dress at Alfred Angelo with my parents, who were in town for Christmas. While we were there, both my mom and I tried on dresses – her mother of the bride and me – bridesmaid dresses – Weird, I know. I found a dress I liked that was taffeta with a strapless, sweetheart neckline that for the life of me I cannot find a picture of. I added it to my account and was told that the girls would have to just go to the store to get measured to order.

2 weeks ago, aka 2 and a half months later my mom decided to take my moh to Alfred Angelo up north and skype me in. When they got there, they asked to try on the dress I had originally picked in December and were told that it had been discontinued The lady that worked there actually told them that all taffeta dresses had been discontinued at Alfred Angelo because girls were complaining when they were walking down the aisle how noisy they were. That cannot be serious?? Let’s entertain the possibility that this is the reason they discontinued taffeta, which seems crazy, but we’ll go with it; Why on earth would Alfred Angelo tell their consultants to tell their brides that? Absolutely insane. There is one conclusion that can be drawn from this: the girl that helped my mom and moh is crazy or just bad at her job. Since there was no taffeta, here are the few dresses my moh tried on.











All of these were nice, but I’m not really digging the fabric. I am going for more of a contemporary look and these dresses were more romantic. Ignore the giant stickers over top of the consultant's head, since I called her crazy I didn’t want to put her face on the internet.

Here is a dress similar to the one I had liked in December but it was in satin.




Satin just shows EVERYTHING that's why I was so nervous of it.
When they were through with trying dresses on, my mom and moh had decided they liked the last one, the satin best. My mom was planning on coming down to visit a week later so we made an appointment at AA here to see if I liked it.

One Week Later...

We made the appointment at AA here in Florida for my mom, my bridesmaid Emily and me. My mom’s friend Theresa tagged along as well for something to do, plus another opinion. Upon arrival, I immediately sought out my consultant Amanda whom I purchased my dress with because she’s AMAZING – I had to confirm about taffeta being discontinued. Amanda informed me that the girl up north had been mistkaken and that yes, they discontinued the dress I had picked out, but not all of taffeta. She grabbed the satin gown my mom and moh liked for Emily to try on along with a taffeta dress that was similar to the one I had originally liked, pictured below





This was the dress. I loved it so much I tried it on. Also, Emily loved it and my other girls did not care what we got. Taffeta is super light (Hello September Heat ) and flattering to a lot of different body types. Sold on the Dress!!!!
Both my mother and myself wanted the girls to have straps – easier said than done. Like no bridesmaids dresses come with straps, so we are going to add straps. Here is Emily with the straps and the strap book with Amanda crouching behind her, just to get an idea – in Royal Blue of course.





AA gave me a few different options for the straps. When the girls would have the dresses altered, if there was extra fabric left over at the bottom from the hem, they could use that to make the straps. Or I could order the fabric at $20/yard and have them make the straps. After some careful thought, we decided to order a yard of fabric from AA and then I would have the AA in Florida make all 4 straps and then I would mail them to each girl. It scared me to think how each strap could end up looking different so I would just pay to make sure they all look the same. Once the girls go to get their dresses altered, they will bring the straps with them and have them sewn in. Hopefully it all turns out well. We are going to have them crisscross in the back to add a little pizzazz to the dress and hopefully dress it down a little – make it funky.


On another note, Larry’s sister and also BM Brittany had a daughter a year and a half ago and we were named her Godparents, so Azaylee will be our Flower Girl. She will be almost 2 at the time of the wedding and oh so stinking cute. I have yet to meet her because of absurd costs and time to fly from Naples to Albuquerque but I will get to hang out with her the week of the wedding. We are not sure what we want her to hold while walking down the aisle if she will be old enough to throw petals or not or just carry something but we will make that decision later. I was planning on buying a cheap white dress and bling it out for her by adding a boa or something i.e. a craft I saw on pinterest until Alfred Angelo released their new collection and I was in awe at one of their new dresses.





We have yet to see it in person, but if it’s half as good as the picture I’m sold. It’s one of the new Disney Flower Girl dresses modeled after Ariel. I cannot wait to see little Azaylee walk down the aisle in it.

 

[LindsayHD]

Hi!!!!

So a few posts ago, I promised jewelry and shoes, well I still haven't shown you what I have picked out yet, mostly because the shoes are kind of up in the air. I am 5'7 and Larry is 5'10 so if I purchase heels, I am either just as tall as him or taller and I don't really want that to happen so I am considering a flat option. I love all the ideas: Flip Flops, Sneakers, Toms, I just haven’t fallen in love with anything yet. I think if I am seen coming down the aisle in flip flops, it may look too casual, but if it’s bedazzled sneakers, it may look intentional.

Possible Sneakers:




I found a picture of these shoes and I love them. The heal isn’t too high and they’re the right colors, but of course it leads to a dead link so now I am on a mission to find them.




I did already buy these shoes but I think I am only going to use them for pictures that involve just my feet because they are 4 ½ inch heels which makes me drastically taller than Larry, but they are so uber fierce.
Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so tall.






In other news, I designed our “We’re Celebrating” buttons. I love the way they turned out. This is just the prototype piece of paper, let me know what you all think or if I should change anything. We will put all of these in the Welcome Bags for if our guests want to wear them when they go to the parks – I really hope some people will wear them.





Sorry for the poor quality of photo – between the iphone and my poor office lighting, it does not make for an enhanced picture. Now all I have to do is wait for a sale with the Button Making Company.


Disney Trip

We are finalizing the arrangements for the trip and I am so so so excited. We will be taking 2 ½ weeks off for work and that entire time, we will be doing Disney Wedding/Trip Jazz. I am shocked that our jobs are letting us take that much time off, but we will deserve it at that point.

Here are the details that we have confirmed so far…

Tuesday September 16: Leave Naples & Head to Orlando to check in with my mom and moh into a 3-Bedroom Grand Villa at the Boardwalk

Wednesday September 17: My Dad & Brother arrive from Cleveland and do all the labor intensive work with Larry

Thursday September 18: Anyone of age is invited to Drink & Eat around the World. Debauchery & Food Comas likely to occur.
**After reading blogs, this is the day before the Food & Wine Festival is to begin and they usually do soft openings of all the stands for the castmembers but the public is still allowed to participate. I really hope that is the case, because my friends would die for that. We all work in hospitality and huge food and wine snobs.

Friday September 19: Morning rehearsal hopefully followed by only people participating in the ceremony having lunch at the Kona Café in the Polynesian.
-Welcome Dessert Party booked for all guests at Italy Isola that night.
-Larry checks out of Grand Villa and checks into our studio at the Boardwalk to stay with my brother and his best friend

Saturday September 20: The BIG DAY!
-Ceremony at 5:00 at the Wedding Pavilion. Cocktail Hour in the Whitehall Room & Patio followed by Reception in the Grand Floridian Ballrooms
-I join Larry in the BW studio

Sunday September 21: Recovery & Goodbye Brunch or Breakfast somewhere tbd

Tuesday September 23: Check out of BWV, Larry & I check into the Contemporary for 2 nights

Thursday September 25: Leave for our Disney Cruise on the Dream for 3 nights!!!!!!
**We have never cruised before so I am super stoked for this, but we only did 3 nights because Larry can get bad vertigo and I am nervous about him being on a ship

Sunday September 28: Return to land and go back to Disney and to the Boardwalk for Food & Wine Festival Madness
**We chose to stay at BW again, which is so cliché, but we are most obsessed with F & W so we should definitely be within walking distance to it, so we’re back there.

Friday October 2: Check out of Disney & head back Home.

I cannot believe we will be in Disney or doing Disney related activities for 16 days. It is going to be so incredible and I cannot wait to decorate my rooms and do all the fun things people do when they are in Disney for such long periods of time.

Ironic much? I posted this in the Facebook group, but thought I would share here to because it was so crazy, it’s scary. Last week I booked the cruise after I got home early from work one night and when I was done on the phone with Disney, I turned on the television and Titanic was playing. Crazy I know!!!! I am not a huge believer in fate, but I am really hoping that wasn’t some kind of sick omen. I do know one thing though is that after that happening I will ensure I know all safety procedures for the ship and the islands.

More to come soon!

 

[andeesings]

Hey I know those green ones! I own a whole bunch of pairs of Poetic License shoes--- they're a British company SO amazing and the shoes are so funky... I hope you find those shoes, they're totally epic.