Meredith & Chad, April 28 2018 Wishes, WP/GM Lounge/UK Lochside- WEDDING VIDEO

A Quick Update

I'm hopefully going to get to my reception decor/inspiration this weekend.. it's just going to take me a while to upload all of the pictures so I've sort of been procrastinating :P Although this weekend is the first Clemson football game, so I'm not making any promises :scared:

I realized it's been a while (or at least it feels like it) since I've posted my last update, so I wanted to give a quick summary of what I've done since the last update!

Most importantly I had my first dress fitting!!! My family and I made a quick weekend trip to Charleston out of it. We had beautiful weather.. low 80's with a nice breeze, which is almost unheard of in Charleston in late August! The biggest mistake I probably made was scheduling the dress fitting at the end of the trip.. which meant I had to control myself from eating ALL of the delicious food in Charleston :sad:
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Pastries at High Cotton Sunday Brunch

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French Toast at High Cotton Sunday Brunch.. this thing was two layers tall! :worship:

Luckily my dress fit perfectly and looked even better than I remembered! The alterations lady just has to hem the dress (a lot since my shoes aren't that high) and hem the sleeves a lot (apparently the dress was made for Gumby???) I go back January 22nd to try it on again and hopefully take it home!

Second, I made our Fastpasses for our planning session trip! I don't know if I mentioned it.. but it's just going to be myself, my parents, and my sister at my planning session. My fiancé can't take any more time off from work since we went to Disney in May and are going on a Disney cruise with his family over Christmas :woohoo:

So we are turning the planning session into an 8 day trip that includes our first time at Food and Wine after 25+ trips and our first time at the Halloween Party!

I was able to get all the Fastpasses we wanted except Flight of Passage on our arrival day (which I didn't expect to be able to get). We did get FoP for our 5th day.

Lastly, I finally went through the ceremony packet Reverend Knox sent via email and put together our ceremony. On a related side note.. I originally thought I didn't want to do a unity candle, but the reading to go along with it is so beautiful and it really is a simple, beautiful way to represent a the marriage of two people.

Other than that I've been looking through Pinterest trying to organize my boards for the planning session and picking out the music for the ceremony.

Hopefully I'll have another update this weekend!​
 
Love all your plans. We also used Reverend Knox and did the Unity Candle. Glad you are at an inside location. We had a morning ceremony in Italy and could not get the candle to light. Oh well, we all had a little laugh and a great memory.
 
Love all your plans. We also used Reverend Knox and did the Unity Candle. Glad you are at an inside location. We had a morning ceremony in Italy and could not get the candle to light. Oh well, we all had a little laugh and a great memory.

LOL that would be my luck. Hopefully we won't have any problems being inside.. although I imagine I'll have pretty shaky hands from being nervous so we will see how that turns out :rotfl:
 
Reception Floral and Decor - The Wedding Cake

I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since my last update! :scared: Time is flying! I spent quite a bit of time tracking Hurricane Irma and dealing with her impact since my last update. For a while there it was looking like a scary situation for my wedding dress which is still in Charleston, SC. And then it was looking like a scary situation for us in the Upstate when the track was coming straight through our hometown as a Category 1 Hurricane :sad2:

I finally stopped worrying when the forecast changed to the eye tracking through the GA/AL border. Our local weathermen still warned us of gusty winds and power outages, but with the eye being so far away I didn't think we would be impacted much at all... well we lost power on Monday as expected and we FINALLY have power again after over 3 days in the dark. After seeing the utter devastation in the Caribbean and FL I avoided complaining during the power outage and just enjoyed the time spent with family without interference of technology.

I have actually been thinking about those affected by Irma every day.. I can't imagine going through what the residents of southern FL, the Keys, and especially the Caribbean have been through. St. Martin/Marteen is actually one of my family's favorite vacation spots and it breaks my heart to see "The Friendly Island" destroyed. To all those affected by Hurricane Irma, you are in my thoughts and prayers :groom:

I think talking wedding cake would be a good way to start this update! First, here are the flavors I am tasting at my planning session (which is around 45 days away!!)

Almond Cake + Amaretto Mousse
Lemon Cake + Raspberry Mousse
Chocolate Cake + Peanut Butter Cup Mouse
Yellow Cake + Milk Chocolate Mousse

A couple of questions about these flavors.. is Amaretto Mousse or Amaretto Crunch the more popular choice? I've read many reviews on the Almond + Amaretto combo.. but I wasn't sure if it was the crunch version or not. Also, I'm not crazy about the yellow cake + milk chocolate combo.. I wanted to try yellow cake with Bavarian Cream with Fresh Strawberries, but this wasn't a choice on the cake tasting checklist.. anyone know if I can write it in on the sheet?

And now for the wedding cake design! My fiance wants a white chocolate Cinderella castle cake topper (which is surprising coming from a non-Disney fan) with the turrets painted gold like this (slightly blurry picture):

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For the actual cake I'm torn between fresh flowers and fresh berries or a combination of both:

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I love how the fresh flowers look in between these cake layers

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But I also LOVE how these fresh berries look in between layers

I wish I was Photoshop inclined so I could combine all these pieces into one cake to see how they would all look together.. I'm tempted to just go with one style because I'm nervous about what the bakery will put together from my pictures. Price is a factor too.. I'm not sure if the berries or floral will be more expensive. Any opinions are welcome! Right now I'm still flip-flopping between floral and berries every time I get on Pinterest :rotfl:

I should have time for another update tomorrow with reception floral and decor:cool1:
 


We ended up trying the amaretto crunch, since it would be exactly the same flavor as the regular amaretto but with the added almond slivers. I would suggest going that route if you want to try it just for the flavor and then go for the crunch if you like the extra texture, or go with the regular if you don't. We personally loved having the crunch and that's what we chose for BOTH layers of our cake because it was that good!
 
Your reception location!!! Your dress!! They are to-die for! Absolutely stunning! Cannot wait to see more! I would go for the flowers on the cake. I was at a wedding recently and they had fruit on the cake and the fruit started to 'bleed' by the end of the night and wasn't too pretty anymore. Just my two cents on that!
 
We ended up trying the amaretto crunch, since it would be exactly the same flavor as the regular amaretto but with the added almond slivers. I would suggest going that route if you want to try it just for the flavor and then go for the crunch if you like the extra texture, or go with the regular if you don't. We personally loved having the crunch and that's what we chose for BOTH layers of our cake because it was that good!

That's a good idea! I'm soo excited to try this almond/amaretto cake everyone keeps raving about. I think the cake tasting is the thing I'm most excited about :rotfl:We are basically one month away from our planning session!!! :woohoo:

Your reception location!!! Your dress!! They are to-die for! Absolutely stunning! Cannot wait to see more! I would go for the flowers on the cake. I was at a wedding recently and they had fruit on the cake and the fruit started to 'bleed' by the end of the night and wasn't too pretty anymore. Just my two cents on that!

Thank you so much! :flower1:
OMG I did not even think about the fruit bleeding o_O That could make for an ugly cake by the end of the morning :sad2: Well at least that makes my decision easier LOL​
 


Congrats on your up coming wedding! So we are like kindred spirits. I'm on here looking for ideas for my own wedding...and I'm not engaged yet. I know my boyfriend is planning to propose to me sometime before the end of the year. I've been trying to figure things out and plan things without officially being engaged.
 
Congrats on your up coming wedding! So we are like kindred spirits. I'm on here looking for ideas for my own wedding...and I'm not engaged yet. I know my boyfriend is planning to propose to me sometime before the end of the year. I've been trying to figure things out and plan things without officially being engaged.

I just commented on your other thread about this. I admit I felt weird about starting to plan our wedding before we were engaged, but I wouldn't have done it any other way. It gave me plenty of time to make decisions about our ceremony and reception venue before the one year mark, and then we were able to make our engagement and Disney wedding announcement at the same time. We actually received the confirmation for our date/time/venues while we were in Disney at the beginning of May taking our engagaement pictures.

I am a planner for everything, so the more time I have to plan, the better I feel.. so keep planning and who cares what anyone else thinks :)
 
A Long Awaited Update and Planning Session Trip LIVE

I can't believe how long it has been since my last update! Time flies when you're planning a wedding.. and renovating a house!! Yep we bought our first house about 3 weeks ago :woohoo:

It's a real fixer upper - it hasn't been updated whatsoever since it was built in 1973 :scared1: but it's been a great project to keep us busy and it's been nice to take a break from the stress of wedding planning

Anyway.. I'm currently at Disney with my family (my fiancé couldn't get off from work) for my PLANNING SESSION this Monday!! I'm honestly the most excited about the cake tasting - I hope it lives up to the hype I've created in my mind
:rotfl2:

So here is the first LIVE update of our trip

Saturday Oct 28th

We arrived earlier than expected around 11:00 AM without many traffic issues. We did manage to somehow get lost trying to get to the BC once we took exit 67 off I-4.. it's not like it's our 20th time driving to the BC or anything :confused3

We got the text that our room wasn't ready around 10:30 AM, so we dropped our bags off and headed to AK via Minnie Van because we were STARVING. Our van arrived in 2 minutes and we were at AK in about 10 minutes.. and that's when we decided we LOVE the Minnie Vans :thumbsup2

We had lunch at Yak and Yeti and it was AMAZING! I signed up for the Landry's Select Club, so we got priority seating even though they were running about 30 minutes behind reservation times. I like their lettuce cups a lot better than PF Chang's (I know it's not the same cuisine, but it still tastes better LOL) and my Teriyaki chicken was delicious.

We used our FP+s at the Safari and Everest, then spent a while looking at all of the new gift shop merchandise, putting back a couple of drinks and coffees (I was still trying to wake up) and just enjoying the cool weather

Around 6:00 we enjoyed another great meal at Tiffins.. I had the cheese plate which had a really good Parmesan cheese and the chicken dish for my entree. The sweet potato pap with the chicken is SO good (they are like cheese grits, but made with goat cheese and sweet potatoes). We split a couple of desserts.. the chocolate ganache and the lime cheesecake. I don't particularly like limes, but this cheesecake is yummy!

We left the restaurant right as our FP+ window for FoP opened, so we headed straight to the ride while enjoying seeing Pandora at night for the first time. It's even more beautiful at night, in my opinion. I was really surprised that it took us 45 minutes to get through the FP+ line and ride the ride, but it was definitely worth it.

We beelined out of the park because it was raining, we had been up since 5:30 AM and hadn't even been to our room yet. The bus stop was packed so we hailed a Minnie Van.. this time it took about 10 minutes to get connected with a driver, but it was better than being crammed on a bus full of wet ponchos

I'll try to add a few pictures tomorrow, but it's an early MK morning tomorrow followed by our VERY FIRST HALLOWEEN PARTY!!!!
:cool1:

More to come soon!!!​
 
Planning Session Trip Day 2 - Oct 29th

So we spent all day Sunday taking in the beautiful Fall decorations in the Magic Kingdom and enjoying the great weather. Okay... it wasn't THAT great considering it was in the low 50's with 10-20 mph winds that morning, but I still think I'd rather be cold than hot in Disney

Obligatory Fall photos:

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We had a late breakfast at the Crystal Palace, which was delicious as usual, but a little more chaotic than when we do a PPO breakfast. I don't know why some people treat a character buffet like a daycare and just let their kids run wild. We even saw a table of adults get up and walk over to Pooh when he was visiting another table. That's not how character buffets work people!!! Anyway, we used a couple of FP+'s and then headed back to BC to get ready for our first Halloween Party!

The weather forecast said Orlando was going to experience the coldest temperatures since April, so I added Cuddle Duds under my Wendy Darling costume:

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You can really see how strong the wind was in the last photo

We ate an early dinner at the Skipper Canteen. I initially wasn't sure about this restaurant, but the chicken and the sauce was awesome and it's definitely brings more unique options to the MK.

Lotso Hugging Bear was one of my character priorities for the party since he doesn't have a regular meet and greet. We lined up for him early and were one of the first in line. It was a great character interaction - here he is holding my bear

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Then we joined the line to meet the ducks in their Halloween costumes.. they were so cute!! The characters were taking breaks every 30 minutes and we just missed seeing them before their first break at 7:30, so we waited a little longer

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We wanted a spot on Main Street for the parade, so we staked out a spot and enjoyed the lights and music on Main Street. Seeing the headless horseman was probably my favorite experience of the night. The parade was good, but I think I like the Christmas parade better.. then again I'm more of a Christmas than Halloween lover

Up next... my PLANNING SESSION!!!​
 
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Planning Session Day! Part I Menu Tasting

I woke up SO tired Monday morning- anxiety and excitement about my planning session got the best of me and kept me awake most of the night. Even a couple of cups of coffee couldn't fully wake me up :sad:

We called a Minnie Van to get to Franck's, which was SUPER convenient considering with Disney transportation we would've had to take a bus to MK then boat or monorail to GF and then walk to Franck's. It only took us 15 minutes via Minnie Van :car:

We met my planner at 9:00 AM and she drove us backstage Epcot for the menu tasting. It was cool getting to see Epcot from behind the scenes and even cooler getting to do the menu tasting in the middle of the kitchen.

Me in deep thought about the food:

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The entrees I tried were the Parmesan Crusted Chicken Marsala, the Maple Lacquered Pork, and the Penne Pasta with mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach and Asiago cream sauce. This is where I became a little disappointed in the tasting.. none of the entrees were amazing to me. The chicken was pretty good, the pasta was just meh, and the pork was not what I was expecting at all. I nixed the park immediately and it's being replaced by the chef's suggestion of braised beef with tomatoes and carrots. I decided to cut the pasta and do a Mac and Cheese bar because I liked the Mac and Cheese better and we don't need two pastas. The Chef tried to talk me into putting shrimp on the Mac and cheese bar, but I had to keep telling him that I hate the smell of seafood.

The sides I tasted were the Potato Gratin, the Yukon Gold Potatoes, the Manchengo Cheese Grits, and the Brioche French Toast (not really a side, but not an entree either).

I cut the Yukon Gold potatoes and decided to go with the Potato Gratin in individual servings like below and adding Smoked bacon as suggested by the Chef:

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The cheese grits were AMAZING and my fiancé LOVES cheese grits, so we are keeping those too even though the Chef seemed like he wanted to suggest something different. The Brioche French Toast was really good too and the Chef is adding a Caramelized peach sauce along with the bananas foster for no charge (I'm not really sure why, but I love peaches so I'm not complaining). We are also having seasonal vegetables and a Mickey Waffle Bar.

The Chef brought out cheeseburger rolls and suggested we add those to the cocktail hour since we don't have a hot item. They were okay, but just tasted like a McDonalds hamburger to me and I am not a burger fan. I started to feel like he was being a little pushy so I just agreed to them, but later I told my planner to remove them. Then he brought out the liquid nitrogen chocolate mousse display where he freezed scoops of chocolate mousse and served with caramel sauce. Again, they were good and the display was cool I guess, but I had already decided against it for my dessert party because of the price. I started to get a little irritated because even though he was providing more things to taste, I started to feel like he was trying to upsell things instead of focusing on the details of the food I knew I wanted

Overall, the Chef was nice, but it just didn't seem like we clicked. It didn't help that the 5 of us were sitting at a 6 top rectangular table and he stood at the complete opposite end from me where I could barely hear anything he was saying about the food. Plus he made weird comments whenever I said I didn't like one of the menu items. When I said I didn't like the pork at all he said that usually only men like the pork and even asked me what percentage of my guest count will be men. Maybe I'm the only one that thinks that's weird?? He said the same thing about the cheeseburger rolls. It really just irked me and gave the whole tasting a weird vibe.

At the end of the tasting the Chef gave me a white chocolate wedding Mickey and Minnie, which was nice and unexpected. Then we headed back to Franck's to talk wedding details.

To be continued!!​
 
Planning Session - Part II Cake, Floral, and more!

We were originally supposed to have a break between our 9 AM menu tasting and 1 PM planning session, but my planner asked if we could go straight into planning after the menu tasting which was fine with me.

We jumped into basically going over what I filled in on the Planning Session kit.. transportation, ceremony music, characters, reception timeline, etc. The only things I didn't have a definite answer for was:
  • Who will be riding in Cindy's Coach with me (I kind of like the idea of riding by myself and meeting my dad at the WP, but is that atypical?)
  • Do I want our moms to light the unity candle tapers or have them prelit (I'm leaning towards prelit since it will be simpler, but I do like the symbolism behind the mothers lighting the tapers)
  • Do I even need a Wedding Rehearsal (I'm not having a bridal party, but I think I would still feel better about knowing where I need to stand and say if I have a rehearsal)
I'm also still trying to figure out who is going to be where on the morning of the wedding and how they are getting to the GF. It would be good to have my parents ride with my grandparents from the BC to the GF since my grandparents will have no idea where to go, but then I would just have my sister to help me get ready. I don't really need another person to help, but I don't know if I would regret not having my mom there helping me get ready.. even though sometimes she does make more nervous/anxious LOL

Then it was time for the cake!! Here's what I tasted in picture form:

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I started with the almond cake and amaretto mousse since that's what I was most looking forward to. It was definitely different than any cake I've had and at first I wasn't sure if I liked it, but after a couple of bites I decided it was delicious ::yes::

Then I tried the yellow cake and chocolate mousse. I wasn't a fan.. the chocolate mousse was too "whipped" and not sweet enough.. the chocolate buttercream in the sample slice was a lot better (sweeter :thumbsup2) than the mousse.

Next was the lemon cake and raspberry mousse. I loved the lemon cake, but the raspberry mousse was again too whipped and tasted weird. No one else was a fan of the lemon cake so this one was a no almost immediately.

Finally, I tried the chocolate cake with the peanut butter cup mousse (it was peanut butter and dark chocolate mousse). I LOVED this combo. The dark chocolate mousse was a lot better than the chocolate mousse and I think my fiancé will love the peanut butter.

In the end we went with almond cake and amaretto mousse for the top and bottom layers and then chocolate cake with peanut butter cup mousse for the two middle layers.

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I ended up going with this cake for my inspiration with a painted white chocolate castle cake topper. I'm excited to see what the bakery puts together!

Up next... floral!!!​
 
Planning Session - Part II Floral!

After a short break we met with our florist, Laura (who is amazing by the way)!! We started with the dress, which I was free to talk about since my fiancé wasn't there :thumbsup2 I tried to explain the color of it, which is REALLY hard to do.. Hayley Paige calls it amethyst, but it's more of a blush or dusty rose color depending on the lighting. I gave her a fabric swatch of it even though it's not really representative of the color.. once all ten layers of tulle are on top of each other the color sort of changes. Hopefully she can match the color fairly well, but my colors are shades of pinks and peaches so hopefully it will all come together regardless.

Then we moved to my bouquet and I showed her this picture and said I wanted pretty much this exact arrangement:

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I also showed her a picture of my hairpiece against my dress:

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She suggested replacing the dahlia in my inspiration picture with a pale blush peony in order to tie the bouquet in with the hairpiece. I kind of liked the dahlia because it gave it more of a unique, unstructured look, but dahlias won't be in season in April so I didn't push it. We are doing matching corsages for my sister, our moms, and my grandma and boutonnieres for my fiancé and dad (I think they will be the only ones wearing suit jackets)

Then we moved onto ceremony floral. She had read my planning kit where I mentioned the "glamour" look on the Disney weddings blog and put together a handout with the pricing of the different features. I didn't expect the floral arrangements on the tall candelabras to be soooo expensive (it was $3600 just for the floral arrangements for 6 candelabras), so we decided to do the tall candelabras with greenery and some floral wrapped down the stem of the candelabra to hopefully save some money. We are doing a white aisle runner with "Trust your heart, let fate decide" in gold. We are also doing Aisle petals in shades of pink and peach, floral altar arrangements on both sides of the unity candle, and side altar arrangements.

I need to make sure she is including the clear, floating candles down the aisle (I can't remember if we talked about it) and I like the garland and white fabric curtain at the altar in the picture below (she didn't ask about this, so maybe she assumed I didn't want it?)

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Next we talked about reception floral and decor! We started with the reception tables.. in my planning kit I specified white, rectangular tables, but since then I changed my mind to brown, wood-looking farmhouse tables. I also want upholstered, wood roundback chairs, so she is going to do some research on getting something like these:

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We are doing floral table runners similar to the ones above, but in our wedding colors and with tulle table runners underneath the floral runners. We are also doing medium height, gold candle holders and gold mercury glass small candles on the reception tables.

We are upgrading the normal flatware to gold flatware and placing gold rimmed water goblets on the tables. With us having a buffet, we can't have a place setting, which I'm sad about for picture purposes. We are going to do an ivory napkin with a favor at each place setting. I'm not 100% sure on the napkin fold nor the wedding favor. I want to do Mickey macaroons, but Laura is looking into packaging options because most of the options she knows about are solid boxes and I want the macaroons to be displayed at the place settings. If the macaroons don't work out I'm also looking at the Cinderella Slippers, but I'm not a fan of how those look in the clear, plastic wrapping. If anyone has any suggestions for unique, easy favors, I'm all ears! :-)

We are having a sweetheart table with amethyst and ivory colored tulle tablecloth and we are going to use the altar arrangements for the sweetheart table decor, along with some candles around the bottom and on the top of the table. I kind of wanted to do a floral table runner on the sweetheart table too, so I might add one for the sweetheart table and use the altar arrangements for the cake and guest book tables

We also didn't talk about the buffet table decor even though I put in my planning kit that I was interested in upgraded decor (I want something different than the normal black skirted buffet tables). I noted in my planning session that I wanted a black and white checkered dance floor, but my planner didn't ask me about it. I also noted that I wanted twinkle trees around the dance floor, which my planner did ask me about, but the florist did not. We also didn't talk about chairs versus a bench for the sweetheart table. I also think I'm going to have the candelabras moved to the reception, but my planner and florist want to scope out the location to judge the space and placement of everything

Overall it was a good planning session, but we spent around 5 hours total planning the wedding and I still feel like I didn't get to mention everything I wanted/needed to. I think it's because not all of my questions were answered at the time (the reception chairs, favors, moving the candelabras, etc.)... I know more info will come, but I guess I thought I would have a clearer vision for my floral and decor after my planning session

At least I still have a little under 6 months to mention the dance floor, twinkle trees, sweetheart table decor, and buffet table decor and pick out the exact favors and napkin fold I want

And at least I know our cake will be delicious :rotfl:
 
THIS IS HALLOWEEN - October 31st

Being in Disney on Halloween has definitely been on my bucket list for a while. Usually my Halloweens consist of me handing out candy at my parents' house, so I never really have a reason to dress up

On Halloween we started the day at Epcot with a prepark opening breakfast at Garden Grill. The breakfast food at Garden Grill is kind of comparable to Ohana, but it is fresher in my opinion and you get that delicious cinnamon bun :lovestruc

We met all four characters rather quickly

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We were on Soarin' by 8:45 AM and almost made it on the first ride of the day, but the woman at the podium where the line divides into the different theaters told us to go to the wrong theater o_O so we had to walk back to the podium and to the correct theater and ended up behind about 30 people. We chose to wait for section B, row 1 so we were on the second ride of the day

We looked in MouseGears and at the Food and Wine merchandise and somehow managed to kill an hour before we visited our first F&W booth EVER.....Florida Fresh!

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Crispy Chicken with Griddled Cornbread and Gravy and Raspberry Cider

I'd give this a 6/10.. we eat a lot of fried chicken at home so it wasn't amazing to me

Next was Greece:

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Loaded Greek Nachos and flaky spinach and cheese rolled dough pockets (these had a specific name that I can't pronounce or attempt to spell LOL)

This was probably the worst booth out of the ones we tried. It wasn't bad, but just not good compared to everything else. The pockets were a little too greasy, but would've been great otherwise... they get a 4/10. I didn't try the nachos but my family rated them a 4/10 as well

Next was India:
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This was my favorite booth by far. We had the bread service, the Curry Chicken and the Pistachio Cardamom Bundt Cake. I was hesitant about the bundt cake because I don't like pistachios, but I didn't taste any at all. It would've been even better if it was warm, but it gets a 7/10. The bread service was good and a decent portion, but I wish there was some variety with the bread.. it gets a 6/10 mainly because of the mango salsa. The curry chicken was good, but the presentation was sloppy and it was very similar to something I could get at a Tusker House.. it gets a 7/10.

Next was Germany:

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We had the ham and cheese Potato Gratin and the apple strudel. This booth was surprisingly really good. The portions were large and the ham and cheese Potato Gratin was filling. Basically I love ham, cheese, and potatoes separately.. but they were even better together. The apple strudel was fresh and had a lot of apples inside. Both get an 8/10.

Next was Morocco:

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We had the Kefta pocket and spicy hummus fries. I don't eat beef, so I didn't try the kefta pocket but my dad LOVED it.. he said it was like a Moroccan burger. The hummus fries were really good and I liked the addition of the tomatoes and cucumbers (at Spice Road they are just plain). I give them a 8/10 with the addition of the tomatoes and cucumbers. My dad would say the Kefta pocket was the best thing he ate at the festival... LOL.

Next was Belgium:

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Belgian waffle with fruit compote. This was just meh... I guess I like my waffles crunchy and sweet and this one was really fluffy and kind of soggy once all the fruit was added. It definitely needed some syrup. I'd give this a 4/10 (only slightly better than a Mickey Waffle only because of the fruit compote)

Our last booth was Canada, but by that time it was getting crowded so it was too hard to take a picture. We had the filet and the cheese soup. OMG the cheese soup was soooo good!!! I only ate a couple of bites because I'm lactose intolerant and creamy soups can do me in, but it was delicious. The pretzel roll paired really well with it. I actually made a reservation at Le Ceiler for our honeymoon because the soup was so good LOL My parents liked the filet and would give it a 8/10. I'd give the soup a 9/10... just wish I could've ate more of it!

We had a great Halloween at the festival... there were no lines for any of the booths! We hit 11 booths (some were just drinks) in an hour and a half. A far, far cry from the scene at Epcot tonight :sad1:

Our second Halloween party is coming up in the next post!!​
 
HALLOWEEN PART II

We took a short break at the hotel before heading to the Magic Kingdom for dinner at CRT and the Halloween Party. We have AP's, so thankfully we got into the park before the 4 PM party crowd

Our costumes for the night:

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Alice and the Cheshire Cat!

We checked into CRT and were seated pretty quickly. I had the cheese plate, the chicken, and the strawberry dessert. The food was okay, but I wouldn't say it was worth the high price. The princesses came by and had quick conversations, which was fine because we are all adults and the children were of course a lot more excited to meet them :thumbsup2

We rode the Haunted Mansion after dinner, which had about an hour wait. I was hoping they would do something extra for Halloween, but it was like any other day. The CM's weren't even in "spooky" character. We did some people watching and then got in line to meet Alice and the Mad Hatter.

About 5 minutes before they came out the CM let us know that Alice was "down the rabbit hole" and would be late :sad:
So we met the Mad Hatter by himself:
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Then we waited almost 40 minutes to meet Pooh and Friends in their costumes.. they were so cute!!

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We had the Terrace dessert party booked so we got in line to check in to make sure we got a good table. They let us in around 8:30 PM, so we had a lot of time to fill up on desserts. My sister and I left the party around 9:15 to try to meet Talking Mickey and it was absolute chaos trying to get down Main Street. We decided to go back because we didn't want to get stranded once the parade started.

The fireworks were really good and we had a great view out of the crowd... but Happily Ever After is a lot better in my opinion :)

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My sister was really sick (we think it was the salmon and seafood risotto at the Castle), so we beelined out of the park and hailed a Minnie Van and we were back at the hotel shortly after 11 :car:

We didn't get everything done at the party... it was very crowded and the lines for candy were CRAZY long, so we didn't do any trick or treating. It was still cool being in Disney on Halloween

Next up... from Halloween to the most wonderful time of the year :santa:
 
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!

We spent the morning of November 1st at Animal Kingdom and then Hollywood Studios for the evening. We thought we would avoid the FoP rope drop rush by lining up on the bridge to Africa to do the Safari... but a good bit of people had the same idea. We were off the Safari by 9:20 and wandered around AK taking pictures and enjoying the fairly low crowds. By 10 AM we were hungry and our TH reservation was at 10:20.. we checked in early and were seated right away :woohoo:

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I ate lots of yummy food.. the jalapeño cornbread and sweet potatoe casserole were so good :flower1:

We hit Dinosaur after we ate.. I hate the dinosaurs in this ride (yes they still scare me at almost 23), but it's still fun. The Dino in the souvenir shop was decked out for Christmas

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Then it was finally time for our FoP FP+!! We took some pictures around Pandora

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The ride was great as usual.. but we sat for a long time once the restraints were engaged because they were loading someone in a wheelchair. I forgot to "push back" against the back restraint, so I barely had room to breath and I started to get a little claustrophobic :scared:

We took a Minnie Van back to the BC and rested before heading out to Hollywood Studios around 3 PM. We didn't have any FP+ since we used our 3 at AK, but I was able to get a Toy Story FP after our dinner at Mama Melrose. Mama Melrose was really good, by the way.. one of the best meals of our trip!

The best part was Hollywood Studios was decked out for Christmas!!! It was beautiful.. especially at night when the lights came on. I really wish we were there to see Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam and the new projection show on the ToT :sad:

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I think my next trip after my wedding will definitely be at Christmas. The decorations were so pretty I was like a kid in a candy store running around looking at everything :rotfl:

Up next... Hair and Makeup Trial and wayyyy too much wine and beer at the Italian Food Pairing!​
 
Hair and Makeup Trial and Too Much Wine and Beer

Thursday was a pretty "chill" day by Disney standards. We had an early breakfast at Cape May, which is usually really good but the food was very salty this time :sad2: They did have pumpkin spice pancakes which were a nice change from the usual Mickey Waffle :thumbsup2

Then we all rested for about an hour before Stacie from Fairytale Hair and Makeup arrived for my trial session! I really had no idea what I exactly wanted with my hair or makeup. I always wear my hair down, but it does not do well at all in the Florida humidity, so I've been going back and forth between down and an updo. Stacie suggested up because she thinks wearing my hair down would kind of "bring me down" with my dress being long sleeved- and I definitely see that. So she did a braided updo (My hair stylist at home suggested a braid because of the way my hair is colored)

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I think it turned out beautifully!!

Here's pictures with my veil and floral hairpiece:

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I usually wear full coverage foundation, so she used that instead of airbrushing my makeup. Then for my blush, eyes, and lip color she picked colors that will look good with the color of my dress and to make my blue eyes pop...

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It definitely worked!!

More pictures:

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She said to email her and let her know if I want to change anything... but I really think it's perfect!

I've reached my picture limit, so the Italian Food and Wine vs Beer review is coming up next!​
 

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