Our Wedding on the Wonder 2016

Oh wowie what an update! This is all so great :) I have comments and questions:

Directory: I love that idea! you are so creative. For the room numbers, do all of the phone numbers start with a 7? I am putting a directory in our "welcome letter" for everyone, and if i can add numbers, that'd be great. It looks like it's 7-stateroom number? I'm on the dream, if that means it might be different.

Dress: What an ordeal!! And that is terrible that you still didn't get your sushi. I can't wait to see pics of what it looks like :)

Boutonnieres: GREAT IDEA! They look so cool. Also, you just inspired me to get a bottle cap pin to give to my hubby on our wedding day! I had no idea what to get him and this will be a really endearing gift...thanks :)

BUBBLES ARE THE WAY TO GO!! I love it. Also, her shoes are the best! She's adorable.

Postcards: I am doing a similar idea! Great minds...
 
Oh wowie what an update! This is all so great :) I have comments and questions:

Directory: I love that idea! you are so creative. For the room numbers, do all of the phone numbers start with a 7? I am putting a directory in our "welcome letter" for everyone, and if i can add numbers, that'd be great. It looks like it's 7-stateroom number? I'm on the dream, if that means it might be different. I believe all the ships are the same. Stephanie checked for me, and the wave phones are 7-ROOM-1 or 2.

Dress: What an ordeal!! And that is terrible that you still didn't get your sushi. I can't wait to see pics of what it looks like :) LOL we keep eating sushi every chance. ;)

Boutonnieres: GREAT IDEA! They look so cool. Also, you just inspired me to get a bottle cap pin to give to my hubby on our wedding day! I had no idea what to get him and this will be a really endearing gift...thanks :)

BUBBLES ARE THE WAY TO GO!! I love it. Also, her shoes are the best! She's adorable.

Postcards: I am doing a similar idea! Great minds... OH tell me more!
 
Mother Daughter Differences

My mother and I definitely don’t have the same taste. She is what I call flashy and I am simple. I will happily wear flip-flops, jeans, and a tee every day of the week and she wears make-up, dresses and heels. I don’t really know why. Today for example I actually left the house and am wearing flats (because my flip-flops would rub on my tattoo and it is still healing), a “nice shirt” which means it gets washed in the delicate cycle, a sweater and a braid. That is basically what I have been wearing since middle school.

So when my wedding came up I wanted a simple affair. But once it got into the suits I guess I changed that. But that didn’t change much. I mean my MOH and my mother were both allowed to wear long dresses. That’s about it. For my mom I guess it was a green light to shine, and I mean SHINE.

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I mean she can pull it off and she loves the dress, however when she was removing it I turned to my MOH and asked her if it was too much? I mean that was the same day my dress came in and what is nice about my dress is how well made it is. I mean it really isn’t shiny or flashy or whatever. At most it is understated. I like understated and I LOVE my dress. I shine in my dress, and isn’t that the point? That you look passed all that is on the dress and you look at me? At all the love on my face and the joy of sharing this meaningful moment the moment were I get married?

The color of the dress she picked out is lovely but put it next to mine and are you going to look at a simple white dress or that dress? I don’t need another reason to tell her no, but I actually have one. My XV was controversial enough; my wedding doesn’t have to be. I can’t bring up my XV without my mom saying she messed it up. I mean a full on fight and tears. You see, in my XV all I got to pick was my dress. It is the party that won’t be matched, but again I am not showy. I don’t need that. I would be happy with a few friends and a nice dress. In fact that was what I wanted. So half way through the night I got fed up and took off. Asked me who noticed the celebrated girl was missing. NO ONE. The party wasn’t for me or about me. It was for everyone else. My mom’s sisters took advantage of the opportunity to push me further from my mom. What kind of a sister does that? Well the kind of sisters that are missing my wedding. The kind that will look back at the pictures and say it was just another opportunity for my mom to show off. I will have you know that I have paid the mass majority of the wedding. My mom put in about $600 for invitations and save the dates and my husband is in charge of paying for incidentals and pictures. I don’t want to have to hide wedding pictures because my mom will recall how her sisters see the pictures.

To top it off, the moment I said the dress was a little much she asked if that was my opinion or my MOH’s. My MOH has been there through almost every decision. She’s gone with me to the seamstress, to pick out the dress, to pick the suits, and so much more. All those events my mother hasn’t go to. It’s her only daughter’s wedding, but her interest is minimal and evolves around her. My DH is getting feed up too, and he is done keeping his mouth shut. Tomorrow marks the month until we take off. In fact a month from today we will all be in Galveston. I have enough to worry about, like how my unemployed self is going to pay the alterations for the dress and the other things I want to do. Instead I am playing monkey in the middle avoiding my mother at all costs, and to be honest, she hasn’t been looking for me.
 
Drama Drama Drama

Did you know that I have a sibling? Just one, a brother. He told me the day before yesterday that he couldn’t make it to the wedding. Want his reason? Because he doesn’t get along with my parents. I literally started sobbing. I handed the phone to my husband and walked away. Then ten minutes later I called him back. We reviewed the issues and I offered solutions. But even after an hour he unlimitedly decided no. Thirty-two days before we ship off, he decided he couldn’t make it.

It isn’t a total shock. My dad was sure he wouldn’t go. But still I checked with him before a year out, when we could still cancel without consequences. I constantly checked with him. He always said yes. My DH isn’t upset, more disappointed at my brother’s disregard for everyone by waiting until the last minute. His ticket was paid for by my parents, everything was already put into place. That’s the hard part. All the effort was made for him, all he had to do was show up.

I guess that’s that. Our relationship boils down to nothing. I could tell you where this ******* is, however I just don’t want to. I don’t want to write about it or think about it. I will say, my crime is sharing the same parents with him. It isn’t a crime against him, but against his lover. Because if I could be a sane individual that doesn’t blame my parents for my own problems, so could he, and his lover doesn’t want him to see that. One day he will look back and realized all he’s missed. Or better yet he never gets to feel the pain of walking away from the ones that love you and knowing what it is to be too late. I will say my parents are amazing and supportive, and all my issues with my mom stem from the differences between my mom and I. It truly is his loss.

In the end the solution was simple. I called my brother form another mother, James, and asked him if he could wing it. He didn’t even ask his wife before saying yes. He’s been covering for my brother since I was ten, and I am extremely grateful for it. Now, he will go for a reduce rate, the fifty dollar name change and I will get to have a tall Koran there. It all works out I guess. I’ve ran out of tears and excuses for the man my bother has become but I am grateful that he brought James into my life because James and I are closer than he and James ever were.
 
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The Fathers

So instead of paying to rent a tux our fathers have asked to purchase their own suits. The rentals are with Men’s Warehouse and I am just going to say the whole process could have been easier. To cancel a rental you can’t put a down payment, so now to cancel them from the rental they have to go to Men’s Warehouse in person to get a refund. I’m just not a fan of the process.

Anyway, for the same price as the rental the Fathers could get a full Calvin Klein suit, and since my dad needed a suit anyway, FOG agreed to get a new suit. I have the easiest to please in laws; they will do whatever we want just to make it easy on us. On one of my FIL days off (yesterday) we meet up at Burlington Coat Factory and struggled to find a suit. The fathers are different sizes in everything but the vest and there was only one vest in their size. But once we found out that we could reserve a vest on the other side of town, we were golden. Well mostly. So the Fathers are almost done, they just need the ties, and the ties depend on the Mothers. Let’s hope the mothers realize they are running out of time.
 
The Program

Every time I think of your regular 1950s gentleman out and about, I picture a guy in a suit, a hat, a hand in his pocket (where he has a handkerchief), and most importantly a folded newspaper under his arm. Not really sure why. I guess I could blame the hanky on my grandpa because until recently he kept one, but maybe not. Somehow it all formed into newspapers as programs. Lucky for us we only need a few and we can get them printed and sent quickly. We’ve chosen MakeMyNewsPaper.com. Since I want to keep the Zombie things in the things I can control a before and after idea come to me. Before the apocalypse aka her side, and after the apocalypse aka his side this way we can tell two different stories. So far the “her side” is further along than the “his side,” but he will have more pictures and I am playing the waiting game.

I would like to have a letters to the newlyweds section like a letters to the editor. This isn’t proving easy because our parents aren’t cooperating. I guess I will have to change that column. The couple section is done, a section on the beginning of the apocalypse is done, and a recipe is done. For his side we still need the wedding party, an in memory of section, and a cocky article about the apocalypse. Maybe even a recipe using things that don’t really go bad. This was going to be on two separate papers, but due to budget and time we are putting it in one paper; less pictures on my section, and more pictures on his.

I don’t have images yet, but once I get a pdf of the completed paper I will add and update.

To pass out the papers, we are doing a newspaper boy. Hopefully our newspaper boy doesn’t get too shy. He says as long as he doesn’t have to talk to people he will be find but I’m still keeping a plan B which is putting the papers on the chairs.
 
Location

As the Wonder is being reimagined I’ve been going crazy. I knew that Disney said it was going to keep the Cadillac Lounge, but I didn’t know what “new chrome” meant. As you know I picked the ship because of the location, but would it all be for not? So as the day has gotten closer I have been in constant communication with Stephanie. (For those of you that don’t know, Val’s last day was June 3, 2016.) Stephanie has been wonderful! She had the measure the room for me in case it was still available and kept me posted on meetings in case they took away Cadillac as a wedding option. I’ve been kept in mind through the whole process.

When I was about 35 days away, Stephanie sent me the contract. Looks like I will be able to get the Lounge! We will be having our ceremony on November 13th at 3:30 pm in the Cadillac Lounge. I’m ecstatic! After the stress of not knowing, we get to keep the Lounge. Also Stephanie was able to push our dinner at Palos to a brunch (think because she pitied my situation.) Now I’ve paid the extra $320 and the only thing that is still up in the air is Shudders. It appears they are changing the packages so Stephanie wants to get me more details before we commit.
 


Flower Girl Dress II

As cute as the dress is, I felt it still needed something. I picked up a flower embellished ribbon in two different colors, white and pink. The pink is kind of similar to the pink on the shoes. So I wanted to tie in the pink in the shoes to the dress and the white headband so I added it. Here are the finished products:

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I also added some buttons I found at Hobby Lobby which I found perfect for a flower girl.
 
Stockings

It’s a little early for Christmas, but our wedding cruise is in a Very Merry Christmas Cruise, so I thought I would embrace it. Now, this doesn’t mean I am adding to my theme, it only means I am giving stocking instead of tote bags as part of the welcome gifts. Again I stopped by Hobby Lobby and purchased a few 4 packs of 16 inch stockings, one per room excluding ours. For ours we purchased a different stocking per person. Not very Disney, but fun none the less. I’ll talk more about that later. As much as I want to customize each stocking per room, I don’t think I will be able to. I have a few ideas, like 1950s silhouettes per person staying the stateroom, or maybe embroider something small and easy on each stocking, or even Mickeys and Minnies, however 25 days doesn’t seem like enough time. Therefore, I think I might just add the name.

Well, here is what I have so far:

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The Thank You Cards

The DH and I had a lot of people who wanted to help us with the wedding. With a cruise wedding and picking A, B, or C from a package, there wasn’t much to be done. One of the ways to address that I requested that someone who wanted to help out crotchet some really cute hearts that I could add on the some thank you cards. I’m still not sure where the cards will go; they might go on the chairs with some handkerchiefs stuck in for happy tears or on the tables like a menu. I’m really leaning towards putting them on the chairs. Here is what they look like. Although I need to find more ribbon.

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Bubbles Part II

The “love wands” came in today. So I am prepping bubbles for the guest and working on the frame for the “bubble table.” At Hobby Lobby the DH and I found some little tags that read “bubbles and wishes for the Mr. and Mrs.” It was 24 tags per pack so we bought 36 bubbles to have some extra juice for the flower girl and just in case and now I am just attaching them to the each other with a ribbon. To save on the budget I’ve been using ribbon I have around the house and hopefully I don’t run out (like I did with the Thank you cards.)

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Found glass vase to put them in and a frame for simple instructions.

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I might add a ribbon and a heart to the vase of bubbles.
 
Update I

Years later, here is the final update. Which due to images will be broken down into many updates.

Over the years, my DH and I have talked about our wedding and we concluded that we wouldn't have changed it. There were a few mishaps I will cover. But going on the cruise was the right choice for us. Now, we are planning to do it all over again with our DS next year. Which has us looking back.

Issues:

My shoes got left behind, along with my shoes, my belt was left behind. So the day of the wedding my MOH and I were working on creating something to replace it. The wedding planner on the ship was amazing. She brought us options to help us create something for the day of.
My shoes went form the amazing glow in the dark zombie shoes to an extra pair I had brought.

The shoes I ended up wearing:

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The belt we made on the cruise:

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No one wanted to rush the bride, although I gave strict instructions to inform me at what time I had to get ready. So I should have been getting ready instead of watching a movie in the bathtub. I was late to my own wedding. :oops: If I could do it over I would have changed that, set an alarm or something, depended on myself.

So now the one mistake made by Disney. The cake. The flavors were right, but the design was wrong. Although, when all is said and done. I didn't care. We got married on the last day so the majority of the cake was offered to the crew. We did have a slice and it was amazing. Having the cake for dinner is tricky since the wedding day we were running around.

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Here are a few tips:
  • Let Disney handle it. They are amazing at what they do and all the little extra things you do will take up time on your vacation. My MOH and I spent more time getting surprises done for others that we missed out on some fun.
  • Have the cake during the ceremony. It's nice to have it for dinner, but unless you are on top of everything there is the chance your guest will eat dessert before they know about the cake.
  • Take pictures in the morning, otherwise, you might be running around taking pictures instead of enjoying your guest after the ceremony and before dinner.
  • Depend on yourself, you know how long you will need to get ready, set a timer.
  • If you can, get a larger room. I can't express how helpful it was to have all the space in the Roy Suite. People coming in and out, the planner, photographer, wedding party, etc. Also helpful to have the concierge service. They made the trip easier, form helping me find ASL interpreters, to sending so much ginger ale when I was sick.
  • Take a longer cruise. It was amazing but in the end we wanted more time.
  • If you can, take a cruise with the media, they don't use the pools as much so it doesn't get overwhelming.
Here is what the day of our wedding looked like:
  • Early morning breakfast with the DH in the morning, then walking around the ship. We met Kevin Eld, Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Executive, in the concierge lounge.
  • Relaxed in the room. DH and group watched movies and I got in the tub.
  • Photographer and wedding planner arrived, and I got out of the tub. (Can you tell I'm a little sour about that. Mostly because it was super inconsiderate to be late when so many are working so hard to give you an amazing day.)
  • Rushed to get ready.
  • Wedding planner took me to the ceremony where even the Ship Captian was waiting.
  • Had the ceremony, cut the cake, toasts and first dance.
  • Took an extra hour of pictures on the ship with MOH, BM, and DH.
  • Ran to dinner.
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  • First day showing of Frozen. (We were late and I sat on the stairs. Hey, I was wearing a ballroom gown, where else would I fit.) Had I shown up on time I would have had reserved seating held by Rodrigo, our concierge.
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  • Spent time with Frozen Imagineers, after the show. 474227
  • Ran to see the photographer about our pictures. The photographer was amazing. I hate taking pictures, but he had a sense of humor and he went above and beyond.
  • Then we went back to the room and started getting ready to leave the ship for the next day.
Everything and everyone involved get 10 out of 10 points, except the cake, 7 out of 10, simply because it was not what we requested. The flowers were amazing, the wedding planner and captain were understanding. The guests had a spectacular time, and again most of us were adults. The kids loved being catered to. Even the Port Adventure left lasting memories. If like me, you are looking for an unforgettable experience vs one expensive night, this is the way to go. In fact, we inspired my DH cousin to get married on a cruise.

Like planning any wedding, we did have stressors. How many guests would be able to make it? What if we had too many for the venue? What if the ship wasn't ready? But when all was said and done and we got there, we were treated like royalty. I was right, my DH would never agree to the Royal Suite on any other conditions, but now he doesn't want to do any other cruise except a Disney Cruise with the added bonus of concierge. Actually, I don't think he will agree to another ship.

If you are actually considering being a Disney Cruise Bride, DO IT! Disney Brides get it all, but Disney Cruise Brides get a plus in my book. Here are some pictures of Disney perks, some were wedding related, some were concierge related, some are no longer available.
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I think this was due to having the Royal Suite.

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The zombie cake topper is a DIY from our BM, the bottom right is the old cake topper from Disney.

Stay tuned to see our DYIs in action.
 
Update II

So you read about my DIYs and here they are on the day of the wedding.

The flower girl:
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The dress was ordered from Amazon, I added the belt, made the headband, the bubble wand, and the bubble jar.

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Grape soda was for my grandfather and for my bald men we had bald men. Only one of my wedding party had a full head of hair.
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Stay tuned, planning to add more images.
 
Update III

Okay, let's get random. I have a toddler that is craving my attention. But I would like to share some more pictures, because I know that's what I would want to see. Since I am having some issues downloading, resizing and uploading the pictures, the updates might start being less organized.

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Just take a look at the size of cake his is about to give me. It is all fondunt. Meaning I will be chewing for a while.
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Elevator shot!
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Shot out to the on board wedding planner.
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The oldest man on our cruise having some good old fashion fun.
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Beautiful wedding. Beautiful bride in a gorgeous gown.
Flower girl is so cute. Love your finishing touches on her dress!
 

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