Trip Recap: Our First Day in the World

The best sight ever.  The tears well up every single time.

After not sleeping very well on the floor of the hotel inside the Orlando airport, I was the first one up on Monday morning. I know that's shocking given the relative comfort of hotel room floors and all, right? We all showered and dressed and ate a selection of pop tarts and granola bars I'd brought along with us. We checked out of the Hyatt and were off to the Magical Express area.

It was lucky that there was no wait for us.  We navigated the rope lines (good practice for the parks!) and  we got right on a bus and then sat for 15 minutes before we were taken to the Art of Animation Resort. We were the only people on the bus so my gown had her own seat!

Hey Hey, it's the Lobby!

We were so excited to stay at AoA. Our travel agent, Wendy, noted that this was a family-wedding-moon trip and we knew we were going to be assigned to a great room in a great location.  And we were!


We decided to poke around and take some pictures with the sketches on the wall and be silly touristy people, just like all the other touristy people there. And then we walked around the resort and took even more silly pictures.

Trip Recap: Leaving PA

And it's time to do the recap!


Day 1: October 28th

Things all started to go crazy early in the week before the wedding when there were some rumblings about a storm named Sandy. I kept watching the news and posting about it on Facebook in between doing the last minute wedding projects and packing.



There was some talk she'd hit Florida and then do some wacky S-curve thing and hit the northeast where all of my family lives. Combined with it was the full moon and another storm coming in from the northwest that would make this the weather event of the century. Just my luck, right? And it was. New Jersey is utterly destroyed along the coast.  It's so incredibly sad.

Mrs. Charming... that's me!

We are back from Florida and arrived to find no storm damage to our house or neighborhood, just cold, Autumn weather.  But the chill couldn't eliminate our smiles.  We had an amazing vacation with our posse of four and the fairy tale wedding of our dreams. 

And just a little teaser from the ceremony...

All of our vendors were fantastic.  Maxine, our planner from Disney Fairy Tale Weddings and all of her assistants, the cast members, everyone made us feel like royalty for the day.  I can't wait to see more photos.

The Last Thing to Stress Over: Updated!

The first I heard about her was on Tuesday, just a small storm somewhere in the islands off the coast.  There was potential, some said, that she could hit Florida and then a few days later loop back west as it moved northward up the coast.  One scenario, at that point, had her headed straight for the NY metropolitan area, potentially affecting my travel plans and those of my family.  Just one.

Today, they're all fairly certain Sandy is headed back east, that combined with a full moon and a low pressure system coming from the northwest, this *itch has the potential to be a historic storm causing mass destruction and knocking out power for millions of people.  They just don't know where exactly she's going to loop back east and hit land.  It's a one-in-a-million combination of atmospheric circumstances that has never been seen before!

Just my luck.  Just FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!

Our flight is scheduled to leave at 6:50 on Monday morning, out of Philadelphia.  It looks like our flight should be okay, depending on how the storm moves over the weekend.

My family, on the other hand, my parents, my sister, her husband and kids, all of them are scheduled to leave on a flight early Tuesday morning.

So we're all talking about heading out earlier than planned in cars and just driving down.  My sister has already reserved a minivan from a rental company.  I own a minivan but it's got like 110,000 miles on it.  I don't know if it would make it.  Plus there's the expense of the plane tickets.  Will the airlines refund the cost?

It would take, at least, seventeen hours to get to Florida in the car, not counting numerous potty breaks and food.  I don't know that either Wayne or myself has the stamina to do this drive straight through but it could be an incredible family adventure, right?  According to Google Maps, we're skirt around DC and potentially see some monuments and stuff.  We'd pass close to Raleigh, where we have a good friend.  We'd drive through Savannah, somewhere I've always wanted to go.

It could be a good thing, right?  Right?  RIGHT?!?!??!?!?

Okay, so USAirways is now allowing people to change their flights without a fee so I was able to switch our flight to Sunday night instead of Monday morning.  Now I just need to sort out a hotel room.

By this time in two weeks...

... we will be in Orlando, probably standing in line waiting for our Disney's Magical Express bus to take us to the Art of Animation Resort.

It's coming down to the wire here!

This is not us.  :) 

I made the tutu for Munchkin #2's Halloween costume and was covered in glitter in the process.  We're all dressing as the cast of Up.  She's going to be Kevin the Snipe.  So I bought six different colors of tulle and made a poufy tutu that's longer in the back than in the front to give her a birdy shape.  It's adorable.  I need to make ears and tails for #3 and #4 to be dogs.  Dug and Alpha.  Hee hee.  Their costumes will be fairly minimalist-- tee shirts and shorts in the appropriate colors with ears, tails and a little face paint.  I have almost all of my Ellie gear together and I need suspenders for Prince Charming.  Where does one even buy suspenders?  I need to make the sash and badges for #1 to be Russell.

Oh, I also canceled the expensive bouquet through Disney for Munchkin #2.  I bought a red silk rose ball for her at Hobby Lobby and I added ivory roses and little yellow flowers to it, making it really full and she can keep it forever if she wants.  My flower ball was about $30 versus $50 from Disney and mine is sturdier and will last.

I spent yesterday at the mall with three little boys trying to find their outfits for the wedding.  I think I deserve a medal for surviving the experience.  If you happen to be looking for dress clothes for little boys in navy blue or black, you will have no trouble at all. I was looking for tan/taupe and we went to three different department stores.

I bought these shoes times six. 

In the first, I found red, clip-on, dotted ties for kids, so I snapped those up.  In the second, they had pants that would fit two of the three boys and all of their dress shirts looked dirty to me.  In the third I found flat-fronted tan pants that I guess are intended as uniforms.  They were dressy enough.  I'm glad though, that I went through the hassle of having them try the pants on because they each ended up in pants a couple of sizes bigger than what they ordinarily wear.  That said, I have three small pairs of pants that all need several inches cut off and hemmed.  So I guess I know what I'll be doing this week!

I also bought the last two pairs of the red Chuck Taylor sneakers we needed.

My to do list still has far too many things on it. I still haven't painted to cake toppers.  I need to hem the boys' pants.  I need to start packing.  Finish the costumes.  Finish the welcome bags.

Two weeks!  Two weeks until we're in Florida!!!!  I can't wait!!!!

Tips for Disney Wedding Guests

Disney Wedding celebrity (author of the most awesome Disney wedding planning guide available)  Carrie Hayward did a podcast this week for guests of Disney weddings, both Florida and California   with tons of info on planning a Disney vacation and being a guest at a DFTW.  Because Carrie is another Disney fan and not an employee of DFTW or the Disney company, she can share her real thoughts and opinions.

Her guest on this podcast is Hope.  You know Hope!  Hope is the one person who consistently comments on this blog!  She's positive and upbeat and awesome.

Here it is for you guys, one click away:  Tips for Disney Wedding Guests, part 1

and released later Tips for Disney Wedding Guests, part 2

You should click on that link and listen!  I will come back and add part 2 when Carrie posts it!

Kids bags: Complete

Here 's the completed and stuffed kid bags: 

Here's the inspiration bags from Pinterest:

One more check mark off the list!

Feelings...nothing more than feelings

Today is 24 days to until the wedding.  There are still a lot of loose ends for me to tie up but as we get closer and closer I find that I'm not worried about the wedding at all.  We have an amazing wedding planner who has held our hands throughout this whole crazy process.  We're getting married in the beautiful place that we dreamed about and our kids and family will be with us.

 And the marriage itself?  Not a doubt in my mind.  These feet are toasty.  We've been living together for five years, including seven months of double unemployment and rather than wanting to kill each other, we came out the other side closer than ever.

For the wedding and the week of vacation itself, our family will be with us.  I think that's the source of most of my stress and tension.  We've never gone on vacation with all four of the kids before.  We've taken them to Disney two at a time and both of those trips had their issues.  Now we're taking them where they outnumber us and there's more pressure for the trip to be magical and happy.  The logistics of trying to work out spending our wedding night alone has been difficult but I think we have it all worked out except how we're getting the kids back to us from the family members we have watching them that night.

I am a little worried that despite shelling out for a DJ that it will be me and my sister dancing and no one else.  I want people to dance.  Can I force them?  Is that legit?  ;)  I worry that people won't like the food.  I'm fairly sure my dad will complain.  At this point though, all of that is out of my hands.

And there's the blog.  I had intended to use it to monitor my weight loss but that didn't really happen.  So what if I didn't lose 50 pounds leading up to this event?  You know what? This is who I am and while I'm not giving up, I am okay.  Happy even.  No matter how much I weigh, I get to marry my Prince Charming and live happily ever after.

I still have outstanding crafts to complete- including our cake topper.  I don't know why I am so nervous about it but I keep putting it off.  Now time is running out.  I have to finish our welcome bags and the kids goodie bags.  I have to pack all of our wedding stuff into a box to be dropped off at Franck's 3 days before the wedding.  I have to figure out how I'm getting the welcome bags to the various resorts.

Epcot's 30th Birthday!

Walt's vision of a futuristic city opened in 1982 to much fanfare.  EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tommorrow!) Center was amazing in the early days with the CommuniCore hub, World Showcaser and a bunch of amazing pavilions and rides that were educational, as well as amazingly fun.

I read something this morning in last week's issue of the All Ears Net newsletter- my favorite email once a week- about the fountain that sits just beyond Spaceship Earth (the actual name of the giant golf ball thing, in case you didn't know).  

Before the park opened on October 1, 1982, representatives from 23 countries and regions collected water from their lakes, streams, rivers and seas.  These were not just the countries that are represented in the World Showcase!  Each country kept their vessel of water and then during the opening ceremonies, in what was called the "International Ceremony of the Waters", one by one, they poured their water into the fountain to symbolize the international understanding and cooperation for which EPCOT Center stood.

What I've been doing...what's left to do?

Escort cards/favors:  done

Names smeared to protect the innocent!  

Cake topper DIY

Guess what came in the mail yesterday and I hurriedly sketched all over them. Our little wooden peg dolls that are going atop the cake!!!

I had planned to order a set of these little figures, custom painted to look like us-- plus one for each of the munchkins.  I trolled Etsy like mad and favorited my favorite artistes.  Then I realized how much it would cost to buy these, plus shipping and not knowing what they would actually look like when completes.  I decided that I have enough crafting and art mojo to attempt these myself.

So I went to every craft store in my surrounding area and couldn't find the larger sized dolls.  I easily acquired the smaller ones for the kids but I ended up ordering the 3.5" dolls from a cool woodcrafting website. Even with the shipping, I still feel like I got a deal.

If you look really close you can see my sketch.  I'll be painting some day soon!

Wish me luck! 

Tip o' the Hat(s)

There have been a couple incarnations of Disney's bridal mouse ears over the years.  One set features a sparkly sequined headband with attached veil and a top hat with mouse ears and the other has the traditional beanie caps decorated for a wedding with a mini top hat and a tiara/veil combo.



Disney wedding couples seem to not like the newer set very much.  I like the bride one but the groom one is kind of cheesy.  The tiny top hat and the mock tux? Weird.  Either set provides the annoying combination of squished hair and no shade for the eyes. You can still generally find the older style bridal ears around but the top hat is nearly impossible to find, unless you want to spend $100, which is insane.  So I had a new set (that my wonderful sister gave me) and the old bride ears that I got on ebay. Still, we wanted a better option.

When we first started considering a Disney Wedding we became aware of one couple that is sort of the rock star couple of Disney Weddings.  I've mentioned Carrie Hayward before.  She literally wrote the book on Disney Weddings.  She was married in Epcot in February of 2008.  When I was looking at pictures of weddings, hers were among the first I saw and were certainly among the most memorable.  If you're a total Disney nut, like us, you'd love her trip reports on her blog.  Anyways, Carrie's husband, Patrick, got all crafty with his bad self and revamped the standard mouse ears by removing the ears and attaching them to Bride and Groom baseball caps.

Keeping the Kids Busy

I'm starting to tie up all of the little loose ends!

Today my munchkins had the day off from school (why?!?!?!?) so I was limited in what I could do with my day.  So I sat down at the computer to put together a little activity book for all of the kids who will be at the wedding.  While I am dreaming of dancing like a crazy person with all of our munchkins, doing every silly participation dance out there, I know that they will likely want some time at their table too.  So here's what I did.

I created this little beauty in PowerPoint, figuring that of the programs I have at home, it would be the easiest in which to manipulate images. There are a slew of Disney coloring pages out there on the web.  I was looking specifically for wedding images but I also included some that are just couples.  I also threw in some wedding themed games and puzzles.

The cover is in a font that Disney used to use in the 80s.  It's free and available to download.  It's called Florida Project.  On the back, I put the date and location of the wedding. The finished book will be a folded, stapled 4.5 x 8.5 booklet.  You know, half of a standard sheet of paper.  I was thinking I'd have the cover printed on red cardstock, but then the kids couldn't color the castle.


Click for a sneak preview (black and white line drawings!  Such exciting graphics!)

The Other Dress

On Saturday, I finally did something I'd been putting off for awhile.  I took Munchkin #2 shopping for a dress for the wedding and a day of hanging out together.  I'd wanted to hold off as long as possible so that we didn't have an issue where we bought a dress and by the time of the wedding, it didn't fit her.  I knew that finding a dress that fit, was flattering, age appropriate and also not too expensive was going to be an issue.

We woke up bright and early and drove to a large David's Bridal store just outside Philly.  I had a list of dresses that I wanted her to try on and asked the saleswoman for assistance with any dresses she thought would work. Ignore the Teva sandals, she'll be wearing Chucks for the actual wedding. She was a little confused when our sales associate brought over dresses in a rainbow of colors because I'd already told her that her dress was going to be red and no, she couldn't have the iridescent purple, ruffled, sparkly, short cocktail dress that was displayed at the front of the store.

Table Name Signs!

I spent most of yesterday in my basement craft room working on these four little signs for the dining tables at the wedding.  I always feel kinda bad when I go to a wedding and the tables are numbered and I'm at like Table 17.  The head table is usually table 1 and the parents of the couple are at 2 and 3... and then there's me, the cousin or the friend or whatever and I'm like the way afterthought.  I didn't want anyone to feel that way so instead of numbering our tables (we only have four so far!) so I'm naming them after Disney characters.

Prince Charming, the munchkins and I will be sitting at Mickey.  Duh.

There's also Minnie, Donald and Goofy.  I have Pluto and Daisy on reserve if we need them!

I made these using my Cricut and the Mickey & Friends and the Accent Essentials cartridges. The frames were easy once I worked out the sizes.  All of my time investment came from piecing together the tiny components of the characters after getting them to cut out properly.  I think I need to replace the blade on my machine.

Anyway, here they are:

For the record, Goofy, was the hardest.  His pieces were the most complicated to cut and the smallest to handle.  My fingertips were covered with glue when I was done!

Ribbon Wand Tutorial

No idea who this couple is! I copied this off the web years ago!

 I finally got around to some of the wedding crafts on my to-do list. Today, I put together most of my ribbon wands (before I ran out of ribbon)! These are for the "staged exit" as we leave the Wedding Pavilion after the ceremony, like that random couple above. They make for a prettier photo than bubbles, which can be hard to see and don't show up well in photos.  The ribbon wands also give the photographer a longer opportunity to shoot than rose petals, which are thrown and then fall to the ground really quickly. I love the photo above so I knew we were going to do this! Here's how I did it.

 

Happy Anniversary to the Disney's!

Eighty seven years ago today, Walt and Lillian Disney said I do. They were married at Lewiston's Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Idaho, where Lillian grew up. Lillian made her wedding dress herself and is reported to have giggled through the ceremony.

The Ever-Growing To-Do list...

Note:  I am not Patrick the Starfish.

I've been going through my notes for the wedding as we get closer and closer to the big day and my to-do list seems to be growing instead of shrinking!

Let's see, I've contacted and made deposits to the cosmetologist, the officiant, and the photographer.

Just in case you're interested, we're using
Beaute Speciale
Sensational Ceremonies
Jason Angelini Photography

I've contacted Kids' Nite Out for childcare assistance the day of the wedding. Kids' Nite Out is an AMAZING company that provides childcare services either in your resort room or as a mother's/father's helper.  Don't get me wrong, it's not a cheap service, but if you're on vacation and your little ones are going to conk out at 7 pm after a long day at the parks and you want to experience some of the possibilities of Disney night life, it's TOTALLY worth the price.  I recommend them to everyone planning a Disney trip with little kids.

Honest RSVP

I am still obsessively checking the mail every day for little black envelopes.  There are so many outstanding that I just can't stand it.  So in light of my growing RSVP insanity I wanted to share this honest and comprehensive RSVP form found online.

I bought a DRESS!!!!

This is the David's flagship store, not the one I went to.
Just sayin'.

I was nervous about dress shopping.  I haven't lost all the weight I want to yet.  I've been feeling pretty down on myself.  For some reason my skin is breaking out like I'm still a 15-year-old oil factory.  I needed a good sized dose of feeling like a princess.

So my sister and my friend and I went to a local David's Bridal.  Our big budget buster is having the wedding at Disney so spending lots of dollars on a fancy dress was never going to happen.  It just happened to be the weekend of the David's clearance sale and I was hoping to snatch up one of the dresses I'd posted about last year.  

Music! For the Ceremony! We picked some!

Time is running out and there are lots of little decisions being made every day it seems.  Today it was music.

Yesterday I had a phone conference with our wedding planner (the AMAZING Maxine!) to discuss our BEO- the Banquet Event Order- basically the entire script of the day from transportation pick-ups, to the ceremony order and music, to the meal, to everyone leaving and someone packing all the remnants up.  It's an intricate document that also spells out the prices we're going to pay for the elements of the wedding.

The BEO is a daunting, scary thing.

There was a big hole on our BEO: I still owed Maxine our chosen ceremony music.  Our ceremony is going to be very simple and very personal  to us. We've chosen to use all Disney music for our ceremony and it will all be played by the organist who comes with the Wedding Pavilion.

So while I won't reveal what song is being used for what, here's what we chose:

Candle on the Water from Pete's Dragon

Weigh-In Wednesday #11

It's been a long time since I did one of these because I was so embarrassed that I fell off the wagon.  Not only did I fall off, it took off without me at 90 m.p.h.  I let myself fall into the old habit of eating my feelings and that canceled out all of the progress I'd made.

I am happy to report that I stepped on the scale this morning and the number was better than the last time I posted.  Not by much but hey, we celebrate the small successes just like the big ones!

Today's weigh in was 284.  One pound less than the last time I weighed in FOUR MONTHS AGO but in that time I've started a new job, had lots of child-related stress and I just spent three days in Walt Disney World where one day was focused on food. 

Our Disney Wedding Planning Session, part 2: floral and cake

After returning to Franck's from our trip over to the Grand Floridian kitchen, we returned to Merriweather and met with Elizabeth from Disney Floral & Gifts, who handle all of the floral arrangements and decor elements of the wedding.  I sent her the link to my wedding board on Pinterest and partially filled out the floral planning form indicating what we were want ahead of our meeting.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  I've seen other Disney brides' floral bills and I think it's insane what Disney charges for flowers but, if you use outside floral, you get stuck with fees. So we plunged in...

For myself, I wasn't really sure if I wanted all of the floral elements to be matchy matchy or if we were going to go with personal floral that was different from the decor floral.  We decided not to do matchy-matchy. 

For myself, I requested a hand-tied, red rose bouquet in the bridesmaid size.  The stems will be wrapped with a black ribbon with white polka dots.  The ribbon will cover the entire stem.  No green sticking out the bottom. 

Our princess will carry a red rose wand.  I think that's three roses and a big bow of black ribbon with white polka dots.  She will totally love it. 

More pictures from the Tasting at the Grand Floridian



The sign... and a really clean, well-organized kitchen

 


Our Disney Wedding Planning Session, part 1: menu tasting

I can't believe that it's over and I had to come back to real life today.  We had a whirlwind weekend at Disney and I have the blisters on my feet to prove it!

We flew out of Philadelphia to Orlando on Thursday evening.  After the flight, the trek through Orlando's airport, waiting for the Magical Express bus and the trip to the property, we didn't get to the check in desk at Coronado Springs until midnight.  Still, we set up a wake-up call for 6 am, we set the alarm on my Kindle for 6:30 and the room's alarm clock for 6:45.  I figured if we were up by seven for our nine o'clock appointment, we'd be in good shape.  And we were.

We took a taxi to the Wedding Pavilion so that the trip over would take 15 minutes instead of an hour plus.  When we got to the Pavilion, there were security guards parked in the driveway, blocking the way.  Our driver tried to explain with his thick Haititan (I think!) accent that we had an appointment.  The security guard kept saying "Planner?  Planner?"  After a couple minutes of this I yelled from the backseat, "Yes, we have an appointment with a planner!"  And they finally let us through.

The construction at the Grand Floridian is still ugly.



Those aren't the types of cranes I'm used to seeing at Disney.

 We were actually quite early for our appointment so we got to hang around Franck's and look around before being ushered into the Merriwether room to discuss stuff with our Wedding Planner, Maxine.  It seemed like five minutes went by before her Blackberry beeped that it was time to head over to the Grand Floridian for our menu tasting!!! We were both totally giddy with excitement.

Food photos are after the jump!

Inviting the people

Here's what the finals look like...

Pile of pieces in a box on my crafting table.

One year ago...

I just noticed that my little blog turned one year old last week.  I thought I'd be so much lighter by now.

Coming Soon: DFTW Planning Session!

It's almost time for us to actually do some planning for the wedding.  At this point, the invitations are out.  (We've actually gotten THREE RSVPs already!) We've planned our trip and purchased our Halloween night tickets for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.  Some of our guests are booked and confirmed as well.  We've already met our guaranteed room night requirement and will get our free night at the Disney Resort of our choice.  We chose The Polynesian because we're dorky like that! SQUEEEEE!  So that's the overview update of what's going on!


It's just like Mexico!  Only it's Florida!

Our appointment for the wedding planning session with DFTW is Friday, June 1.  (They only do these on weekdays...) You know what that means?  Wayne and I get a weekend getaway to the World!!!!  We're staying at Coronado Springs- our first moderate resort together!  We were able to get a great rate and decided to splurge just a little on a romantic, wedding-focused weekend just for us.  We are going to activate our annual passes and be all mushy and goofy in the parks and have dinner at one of our favorite places and hold hands through Wishes on Saturday night.

They're on their way...

First round went out in the mail yesterday!  I need to photograph them and show them off here, but I won't do that until I know they're delivered.

Invitations from a Kit

I must have saved 100 images of gorgeous invitations that I spotted on the DIS boards and elsewhere around the net.  Incredible letterpress creations that evoked carnivals from years gone by, Disney Attractions and just incredible formality and gorgeousness.

When it became time for me to start thinking about OUR invitations it sort of hit me:  most of these are going to end up in the trash.  Some family and close friends might save theirs but really, most will end up in a landfill.  So I wanted to figure out how to do it cheaply.

In the meantime, here's some of the invites I really liked from the web:

That last one could totally have been ours!  

I knew that custom printing and letterpress were going to cost more than I wanted to spend and if I stuck to budget, I'd never get the look I wanted.

Then one day I was in Target and they had a kit.  It wasn't perfect, but I think I can work with it.  I've been working with it.  Our invitations are coming soon!

Awesome Disneyland Flash Mob Proposal

We're in kind of a quiet period of wedding planning so to keep the blog alive and stuff, I wanted to share a video I stumbled across on YouTube that makes me cry like a little girl every time I watch it.  And I've watched it a lot.

The song, is Bruno Mars' 'Marry You.'  So sweet!

I'm still around...

...life's just gotten a little busy.

But here's a hint to what's been going on. (It's a big fear and one of the reasons I'm using a relatively inexpensive invitation kit from Target!)

Picking an Officiant!

This is one of those wedding planning tasks that I've put off for awhile. I know that I want to customize a ceremony for us and that I want it to have a vague Christian-y flavor.  That's pretty much where I was stuck.  In our packet of planning materials DFTW provided us a list of officiants they've worked with and that was my starting point.

The list has 12 names on it.  I immediately crossed out the ones who don't have websites.  Do they think I'm actually going to call people and talk to them?  Euuh!  I will seriously avoid making an actual phone call and having to talk to someone for as long as I possibly can.

Weigh-In Wednesday #10

Ugh... I want to go back to Weight Watchers but I can't really squeeze it into my budget.  So I have to go it on my own and that means building up my willpower, not eating when I'm bored and eating better food choices.

I've been pretty good about that but when I don't, it seems like I go waaaaaay overboard. 

I weighed in today at 285.  Same as I was in November.  I should be down 24 pounds by now and that would be 262. 

I need to go back to Jillian and Just Dance. 

Bella's Hair Thingee

My sister rocks.  Remember that post I made waaaay back in June about the new Twilight movie and Edward and Bella's wedding?  I said that I liked the comb that Bella wears with her veil. 

For Christmas, guess what my sister gave me? 

The replica hair comb thingee.  It's kinda heavy but sparkly and cute.  Am I going to wear it for the wedding?  That would be pretty amusing.  My friend, Carly, would get a kick out of it.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Booked at the Art of Animation Resort!

Happy New Year!

Wedding stuff was totally on hold until the holidays were over and the first munchkin's birthday.  Now that's done and I am in hardcore bridal insanity mode.

The first step was to book our wedding trip.  Kind of an essential element, right? Can't get married in Florida if we're in Pennsylvania.

I knew that our particular circumstances were going to make this one of the more difficult issues of wedding planning because of our family size and what we wanted. There are six of us so we either needed two adjoining rooms or a suite.  We want to use the Disney Dining plan.  Then there's the issue of park tickets which just throws everything off.

See, one of the perks of being a Disney bride is that you get a pair of Disney Parks annual passes.  So Prince Charming and I do not need park tickets; however, in order to get the Disney Dining Plan, you have to buy park tickets.  Then factor in the need to get the best price possible and it's all a mess.