not_joanna_eggs' PJ - 1/24/2010 WP/CG: TR: MK/Epcot Photo shoot link posted

[aduck126]

totally unrelated but, how horrible has the weather been around here for the past couple days??? totally depressing.

 

[princess22]

Great update! Sorry about the cake coloring... It doesn't look too bad in the pictures, to be honest with you, I didn't notice how different the layers were until you described it I do think the flowers on it are gorgeous, can't wait to read more!

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

totally unrelated but, how horrible has the weather been around here for the past couple days??? totally depressing.

Ugh, I know! 2 inches of snow tonight?? Yick It's April for goodness sake It was 80 last week! Gotta love Wisconsin

Great update! Sorry about the cake coloring... It doesn't look too bad in the pictures, to be honest with you, I didn't notice how different the layers were until you described it I do think the flowers on it are gorgeous, can't wait to read more!

I was really mad about the cake at first, but even now just 3 months later, it's like oh who cares, does anyone really remember the color of the cake besides me... Totally not worth throwing a fit over, it was quite good. So what if it could have doubled as a safety cone

 

[pink_tink8i8]

oh wow. Your reception looked lovely. Love the CP!

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

oh wow. Your reception looked lovely. Love the CP!

Thanks Sabrina! We were really pleased with how everything came out!

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

So after the sorbet, it was time to go outside to take pictures. Randy took us to this super secret location to snap pictures, and the rest of our group watched from the far terrace. It was kind of nice, they were pretty much the only people on that catwalk.

At this point I went to grab my bouquet and couldn’t find it. I was informed that floral had taken it to be refreshed. Even though I canceled that months ago. Oh well, none of the fireworks pictures have me with my bouquet.

I apologize in advance, we were super hot and tired by this point, and it really shows in the pictures...

Everyone really enjoyed the fireworks and then we went back into the room.

They brought out the entrees, which were family –style platters, out one by one.

This was salmon with mushroom gnocci

We also had chicken with a small-grain pasta and steak with broccoli and potatoes. Though we didn't get pictures of the other two entrees.

I wish they’d brought out all 3 at once, because like at our table the salmon was completely gone by the time the beef came out, and people hardly touched the beef because they were full.

I only ate the salmon because meat can be an irritant of my digestive issues, and the gnocchi with the salmon was AMAZING. Everyone raved about the beef too. I guess chicken is just chicken. It was good, but it's hard to make chicken outstanding...

 

[padisneyfour]

you may have been hot and tired but I really love your firework shots!So pretty! I think I like the 8th the best- so natural but the ones with the heart fireworks is pretty too!

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

Meanwhile, we were all checking our smart phones to keep up with the score of the NFC Championship Game. The weeks leading up to the wedding I was worried that the Packers would be in the game. Unfortunately/Fortunately, that didn’t happen but… the Vikings and he who shall not be named were in it. We were all rooting so hard for the Saints, everyone was asking us if we were saints fans… we simply sated that we were from Wisconsin and people would just look at us and nod knowingly. The enemy of my enemy is my friend It was funny, and it kept us occupied since there wasn’t any dancing or anything.

These are my two aunts (can you tell what side of the family I take after!)
Anyway the one on the right is my godmother - hence her corsage. Well my other aunt forgot that fact and asked her why she had a corsage, so she said "well I'm her favorite aunt" It was kind of hilarious...

So then my godmother said something and I said - that's it you're not my favorite aunt anymore, so the other one got the corsage

I'm not exactly sure what was going on here, but it's hilarious

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

Then we realized it had been a really long time, and it was probably time for cake... but I couldn't find my planner. Well, I didn’t know there was a secret little room that she was in, so I couldn’t find them. I really wish she would have just told me where she was and to just knock if I needed her. It would have helped a lot.

So, Randy located her and we did the cake cutting...

So anyway, we finally did cut the cake and do that whole thing. When they went to go cut it, I saw them taking the top layer away, and I told them we didn’t want to save it – but they still wouldn’t cut it. That kind of pissed me off, so we ended up schlepping that stupid top layer all over. People were really eating the cake, so I believe that we would have eaten at least some of it…

Then we bid farewell to Randy, and continued to check on the football scores.

I also was bummed I never got any of our middle layer. I wanted to at least try it, but one of the step-cousin’s girlfriends was bet 3 dollars to eat the reminder of the layer in like 5 minutes or something goofy – and she did. So it was just wasted. Grrr.

So, people who were staying at POR started leaving and I had to arrange for the cars to come earlier for them.

So at this point we realized that the Vikings Saints game was going into overtime, and so we all decided to head back to the villa to watch the end of the game. And I must say it's very gratifying to see the last second interception screw a different team for once!

Anyway, DH and I were the last ones out of the room and somehow ended up carrying all the stuff - left over cake and our bad o'goodies. I don't know why, but I felt crazy self-conscious walking through the contemporary lobby. I think earlier in the day I was so focused on everything, I was just oblivious.

So we enter the villa on the top floor - LOVED that dual entrance! I got into my room and had my sister take my dress and bra off. AHHHH relief!

Meanwhile, people had changed and started arriving...

So when we were having issues getting my veil in, Patricia told me she could get it in, but it would be hard to get our. She wasn't lying. DH, Monica and Greg were all kneeling next to me trying to get the bobby pins out to release the veil. There were over 100 of them in there!

Finally free, and definitely exhausted...

We headed downstairs to mingle and have a drink.

Once the Saints one and we saw he whom shall not be named look all dejected.... people started to call it a night.

Once the room cleared out, we were just exhausted...

so we called it a night and so finally ended our wedding day.

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

you may have been hot and tired but I really love your firework shots!So pretty! I think I like the 8th the best- so natural but the ones with the heart fireworks is pretty too!

Thanks Tammy! We asked him to get the frown-y face firework and he looked at us like we were nuts

The 8th one is one of my favorites too

 

[Brit_Jude]

What a lovely day (even though a few things made you grrr) thank you so much for sharing, everything looked great.

Really loved your fireworks shots especially the heart!

 

[pezaddict231]

just catching up. I love your wedding recap. I am dreading the "help" in the bathroom, it just seems so odd...

The cake looked beautiful in pictures and I really like how it's different from the regular mad hatter cakes.

I love the fireworks pics. I haven't seen pics from Cali Grill before and those are amazing! Lol, I must be nuts too because I think the frowny face pic would have been awesome!

 

[bjgrazi]

I loved your cake, I know you said you weren't happy with it, but, I think it's beautiful. I love the color, style and the flowers on it are beautiful.

 

[sambycat]

congrats! and i must say you have the best planning session trip report EVER!!!! so funny! thanks for sharing!

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

What a lovely day (even though a few things made you grrr) thank you so much for sharing, everything looked great.

Really loved your fireworks shots especially the heart!

Thanks Overall we had an amazing experience and the few things that did make me crazy really were just little drops in the bucket that were insignificant to everyone except crazy 'lil me

We were really lucky to get the heart firework - much more wedding appropriate than the frowny face

just catching up. I love your wedding recap. I am dreading the "help" in the bathroom, it just seems so odd...

The cake looked beautiful in pictures and I really like how it's different from the regular mad hatter cakes.

I love the fireworks pics. I haven't seen pics from Cali Grill before and those are amazing! Lol, I must be nuts too because I think the frowny face pic would have been awesome!

Thanks Sara! The bathroom was an 'experience' my sister is already plotting to get me back And I didn't have a train or bustle or anything!

We really liked the design of the cake, in that respect they really caught the "funky elegant" vibe we were going for. And I even have the flowers from the top layer on display.

Our guests really liked the fireworks. The view from the Cali Grill is great! I really wanted to get firework pictures it was one of the reasons we chose the CG for our reception!

I didn't think the frowny face was an odd request, I thought it would be funny and ironic. Unfortunately, you can't see the frowny face firework from the CG - you can from BLT, but the angle is off from CG. I was devastated

I loved your cake, I know you said you weren't happy with it, but, I think it's beautiful. I love the color, style and the flowers on it are beautiful.

Thanks I actually really liked the design of the cake and the flowers on it. The color just wasn't us or right for the rest of the decor. But I'm glad you liked it - honestly a lot of my guests had the exact same feedback you did

congrats! and i must say you have the best planning session trip report EVER!!!! so funny! thanks for sharing!

Thank you

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

6:30 came way too early and we started cooking breakfast for our guests who were (almost) all leaving this day. We made eggs and pancakes and had an assortment of pastries and other things available too.

While those things were cooking, we did our "Monday Morning Quarterback Review" of the welcome dinner and wedding.

And no, this isn't exactly how the discussion went, but it's much easier to read this way than the random sleep-deprived stream of consciousness that was actually going on…

Touchdowns
(The big scores that made the crowd cheer)

• The Dessert Party. My mom tried talking me out of it, but it was a crowd favorite. And the glow stuff was a huge hit too. My sister was one of the youngest people there (23) and everyone was into the glow things! And this isn't Disney related, but the blankets were a huge hit as well.
  
• California Grill. The food was delicious, and when my goofy step-cousins didn't tell me they were vegetarians, they whipped something up for them without skipping a beat or letting on that it was a surprise to them. They also accommodated my friend Oma who has a gluten allergy no problem (though, I let them know ahead of time about that one). The fireworks were a huge hit too. We were worried that it would be firework overkill since we watched Illuminations the night before, but everyone really enjoyed it.
  
• Floral. All of our flowers and centerpieces were great. Even after a week, both my and my sister's bouquet were still going strong. The centerpieces and the alter arrangements were also above my expectations.
  
• BLT/Grand Villa. The room was AMAZING. It was huge, and 7 of us slept there quite comfortably. We easily had over 30 people in there several times, and had no space issues what so ever. Plus the convenience of the Contemporary can't be beat. We got the villa by renting points, and I'm sure we saved thousands of dollars by having the gathering space vs. taking people out. My only complaint is that the furniture was "pretty" not comfortable - but it could have been worse.

Field Goals
(the little things that helped contribute to the victory)

• The Vintage Car. Silly I know, and my mom would disagree (she got stuck in the car!) but I love the pictures we got with it, and it made my DH very happy - so what could be better? The things that made it difficult were that it was a 2 door, and that it was raining - so we didn't get to ride with the top down. It also didn't really contribute to the guest experience which is why it's a field goal instead of a touchdown. But it was kind of a fun selfish indulgence.
  
• The harpist. This was something my dad requested. He had pretty much no say in anything (having a wife and 2 daughters will do that to you) and he was the one signing the check, so I went with it. The harp music was really nice and really added something to the organ music at the WP and was great for the pre-reception too. Several of my guests have commented what a nice touch it was. I'm just sad I missed most of her playing.
  
• Sunday. I know that it is a day of the week and not a part of my wedding, but the choice to have the wedding on Sunday was perfect. Most of our guests came either Friday night or Saturday morning. Everyone was in Orlando by 12 on Saturday and then we did the welcome party, the wedding and the brunch. It was a perfect long weekend. People only had to take 1 or 2 days off work and were able to experience everything. For us, it worked out swimmingly.
  
• The Cake. First and foremost, it was delicious. And kept for a long time - even after we got home. And seriously, the design of the cake was beautiful and we're even using some of the sugar flowers in a display at our house right now. My issue was with the color. It just was too bright for the rest of our décor. But, all in all it was a success and our guests to comment about how cool and delicious the cake was. This one just squeaked by the uprights in my book.

Punts
(places where it didn't go according to plan…but they weren't game changers)

• Linens at CG. This is stupid. My mom rolls her eyes every time I bring it up, and no one besides me noticed, but it bothered me just the tiniest bit. I had requested the black resort linens to be under the tables and on the cake table because I really didn't like the "California Grill" branded linens. We had white ones. And everything went on, the world kept turning and so on. It just wasn’t exactly how I pictured it, which was a bit disappointing. However the only place in the pictures you can see it is on the cake table and it's really no big deal.
  
• Toasting Flutes. I lamented about TSA breaking my flutes in depth already, so I'm not going to do that here. We considered buying replacement flutes at arrabis brothers, and decided not to. Looking at our pictures now, I kind of wish we had. Our flutes were just the same ones everyone had. Oh well.
  
• The Ceremony. I just let this one up to our officiant, which in retrospect wasn't the best choice. I wish I would have paid more attention and put more personal detail into it. Again - not really a big deal.

Fumbles
(places we really dropped the ball)

• Transportation. This was the big fumble right before the half that knocked the wind out of our sails for a bit. We had 1 limo shuttling people 8 at a time to and from the WP. This probably would have been fine with our original number of 25, but at 40 it was just ridiculous and led to my guests standing around for over 1 1/2 hours with basically nothing to do on both ends of the ceremony. Although a few of my guests commented on how great it was to get picked up with a limo, if I had to do it again, I would definitely had done a mini-bus or at least 2 limos.
  
• Pictures at the Poly. This is something that everyone tells me only bothered me, which might be true but it's my TR so it's listed as a fumble. I never thought of it, but the Poly is directly across from the WP, so as my guests were hanging out for over an hour with nothing to do, they were watching me take pictures. This kind of ruined the "reveal" to my guests. Also, I didn't really think about it - because it's not what we love about the Poly - but the main picture spot was on the beach. In the sand. In my heels. Before the wedding. Not good. I still don't love the GF for pictures, but at least some of the could have been inside there and wouldn't have been all on the beach. I'm not a huge fan of the beach pictures either, because the sky was grey, the sand was beige and I am white and we all kind of blended together into a big blob of blah. Not awful, or even bad… just kind of blah.

So our guests started arriving and we ate breakfast and re-hashed the events of the day before. It was really nice, people kind of came in waves and clumps over the course of 5 hours. We probably had about 30 people for breakfast, but not all at once. The champagne was definitely flowing and my dad and I were the biggest consumers - probably since we hadn't drank much the night before like the others.

My sister and Greg headed out around 12 to go to Epcot. Perhaps some of her GOLD buddies that are reading this can persuade her to come in and tell her portion of the story here and what they did.

People were still coming into the Villa and we were still drinking, so we stayed behind. Finally around 2 the last people headed off to the ME and my parents were finally off duty. They had originally talked about going to a park, but decided to hang back and rest.

We however, were not off duty. We had to go meet DH's dad, grandma and aunt Sally at Epcot. So we slowly trudged to the monorail and then to Epcot.

DH was overcome with excitement and anticipation...

 

[disneygal922]

Hi Joanna! Loved your "Quarterback Review" sorry to hear about your transportation problems. Would you maybe have rathered the guests take the monorail to the Contemporary? I'm glad you didn't let your mom talk you out of the DP. I'm so excited for ours!

I do really wish we could have gotten a grand villa. that would have been amazing! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

All of your pictures and details have been so helpful to see/read. Thank you again for doing a trip report. I've really enjoyed reading along!

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

Hi Joanna! Loved your "Quarterback Review" sorry to hear about your transportation problems. Would you maybe have rathered the guests take the monorail to the Contemporary? I'm glad you didn't let your mom talk you out of the DP. I'm so excited for ours!

I do really wish we could have gotten a grand villa. that would have been amazing! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

All of your pictures and details have been so helpful to see/read. Thank you again for doing a trip report. I've really enjoyed reading along!

Thanks Theresa, I can't wait to read your TR

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

I apologize in advance, the next two instalments are light on pictures, cuz we were just so tired... but I promise We get picture happy after that if you can hang in there with us!

We got into Epcot and called them, and the didn't answer. So Chris suggested that we ride Mission Space. The case of champagne I drank had caught up to me, and I figured that a ride that sported a barf bag was not a good idea… So I suggested Spaceship Earth instead.

DH looked at me like I'd gone mad - it's not usually on our list. I told him they re-did it and I wanted to check it out. I thought it best to avoid mission space as all costs.

So we found out our futures.

Apparently my future is blurry

I don't know why DH always looks creepy in pictures. He's not in real life!
In the future, DH be the boogy man.

at least he'll be a literate one!

So after we emerged from Spaceship earth we headed over to test track to pick up some FPs for later.

Then (DH's aunt) Sally called and told us they were leaving Honey I Shrunk the Audience. So we met them by the fountains.

DH's family is like the polar opposite of me. I plan like crazy and need to know what's available at all times. They had basically just been wandering around with no map or clue what to do. Somehow they managed to get on Soarin' and a few other rides.

So when we met up with them, we too them straight to Ellen's. DH's grandma had been talking about this for ever. It was the one ride she remembered from her one and only visit in the 80's. I was really happy it was actually operating while we were down there so she could re-visit it, but I gotta say… man is that ride boring and out of date.

So after Ellen, it was FP time, so I told DH to take his dad since this was his only day in the parks and I knew grandma and Sally wouldn’t be interested. So instead, the 3 of us headed to Mexico.

We had intended on meeting up with the boys and going on the last Behind the Seeds tour of the day, but DH's dad LOVED TT so they went on it again, and then road Mission Space 2 times as well.

So the ladies walked (or rolled in the case of grandma) around the world. It was cute grandma thanked both of us because she didn't even know the world showcase was there or Test Track. They would have missed it without us. We made it to Morocco, and grandma was pooped, so we took the boat back, and met the boys in front of Mission Space. Then we headed towards to exit.

Not sure why DH's obsession with the ball was this day, but here's another one for you...

Well then DH's family said they wanted to have a nice sit down dinner so they were going to the Contemporary. I asked if they had reservations and was I was looked at like I had 2 heads. It was 7:30 and I knew that places would be full, so I quickly called Dining to figure out what our options were.

There was California Grill - but since we'd had the reception there the night before I vetoed that, and I didn't think Wave would appeal to this group, and Chef Mickey's was all booked up. Figuring that there'd be openings at Kona, I asked about anything at the Poly. There was an 8:30 at Ohana. Hmmmm…. We've never been there, but heard raves about it, and DH's dad can eat like a collage boy home for break, so I accepted. I was a bit worried as I knew this wasn't a group that waited gracefully, so I went to the bar and ordered wings to start.

Of course, we were seated waaaaaaaaay early (like before 8) and I didn't need to order them, but oh well.

The food was delicious. It was hilarious, after the wings and the pasta and broccoli grandma asked if we were done…. Um, not even close.

We were seated near the entrance, so we were away from all the hub-bub which was good for us. We saw someone having their rehearsal dinner (I presume by the bride-to-be's sash).

Our cousin was more than a bit slow, but we got all our food, and on top of that he brought out a cupcake for us. Nice gesture, but we were so full we couldn't even think about it. So we sent it back with DH's dad for breakfast the next morning.

We guided them on the monorail to the Contemporary and then walked with grandma and Sally to the boat launch to Fort Wilderness. We solidified our plans to meet them by the Carousel at 2:00 in the MK on Wednesday, and bid them goodnight.

Then we chatted with DH's dad for a while longer, but he had to catch the ME at 5:00am the next day, so we bid him farewell and went on our way.

Our original plan had been to leave them around 5, finish packing our stuff and move over to the Poly since we were meeting our photographers for the MK/Epcot shoot there the next morning. But when we got back to the room at 9:30 our room still looked like this:

So we decided that the Poly would wait and snagged the car keys from my dad and we would just drive over there. Then we went to bed for yet another all too short night. They were really catching up with us (well DH more than insomniac me, but we were both dragging)

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

With visions of oversleeping dancing in my head, I barely slept a wink. I was up at 4:15 trying to make my hair somewhat resemble what it looked like two days prior.

I really should have paid for hair and makeup this day too. I might have done something different with my hair to switch it up a bit… but I didn't, so I had a little fight with my hair which ended when I pointed a flat iron at it and demanded it give me all it's money.

At about 5, I started poking DH to get him out of bed since the alarm had been going off for about 30 minutes now. Eventually, I used the same line on him as I did with my hair - flat iron and all and got him out of bed.

All zipped up and a bright-eyed as we were going to get, I went downstairs and grabbed his boutonniere from the wedding which we had put in the fridge in a glad-ware container. (So glad I did this!) and my flip flops, as I wasn't sure how long my feet would hold out… and we were off to the Poly.

Can you feel the sleep-deprevation?

We got there a few minutes early for our 6:00 rendezvous and waited in the cold. Brrr…..

So finally I gave up and went inside and warmed up. When I went back, our photographers Rick and Stephanie were there. They were nice and we did our introductions. I took a nap while DH was fascinated by the back-stage MK tour we got.

We arrived and they gave me my refreshed flowers and commented that they held up really well and I didn't need a refresh. Hmm… maybe that's why I canceled it? Oh well. So in the box with my flowers are two boutonnieres. I grab the first one… and it seems really big - weird. So I grab the 2nd one and it's even bigger. I try to pin the smaller of the 2 on DH and it looks like the giant flower is trying to eat him. So I asked Stephanie if the boutonniere was supposed to be larger for the pictures and I held up the new one to the old one. She looked really puzzled and said "no" so we used the old one. It was really strange.

Seriously...I took a picture of the 3 boutonnieres in order. The smallest one is the "normal sized" one that DH had for the wedding.

Here's the largest one compared to a pen. It's a full sized normal Disney Resorts pen.

Boutonniere situation figured out, we headed into the cold to get our pictures taken…

There were workers scurrying around re-planting flowers that had been killed by the frost the week before and washing down the castle. Rick was happy that the crane wasn't there - apparently it had been the day before - and just the moat was drained. That smell really helped wake me up! MMM… nothing like rotten in the morning.

We took some pictures outside the castle, then we moved inside and finally to the carousel.

Then we moved on to Epcot, to France and Italy.

I haven't bought the CD yet - though I plan to (that's what tax refunds are for!)- so I can't post the pictures here… So to see for yourself how they turned out, you can go here.

Overall we really liked our photos. I had extremely low expectations based on reviews I'd read here, but I was genuinely impressed. Now, yes some look like I'm sleep walking, but that's pretty much what I was doing…

In the end I'm glad DH insisted on this.

So we made our way back to the Poly, then back to BLT. We posed for a few pictures in the room, since none of us had remembered to take pictures on the actual wedding day - and we knew it would be a while until we got the pro ones back…

Ahhh this is the last time I have to wear this dress…and more importantly… these heels…

So we changed into normal clothes and my mom made us a "use the crap in the fridge up" omelet. Mine was salmon and cheese. Pretty good.

Then we bid farewell to Greg who left to catch the ME and we finished packing up all of our crap and packed it into the van. Can I just say getting a mini-van was the best decision ever. It was chock-full several times!

So then we finished up and checked out and bid my sister farewell. When she left it was like it was really over.

How sad.

So then we finished loading everything in the van and we headed to the Poly with my parents.

So we unloaded all of our junk at the poly - seriously Look at all the left over food (okay, I mean booze)!

(see my poor lonely toasting flute in the backgroud!)

We checked out the view from the room:

and then decided to head to DDD for lunch. Because none of us were hungry.

My mom really wanted to try Paradiso 37 in DDD, so we headed there. It was just okay. It was all fried and bland. And REALLY loud. We were the only people in there and we could barely hear ourselves think. Does the music have to be that loud? Our waitress was seriously anti-disney and kept complaining about them. We looked at our AP book and noticed that there was a discount offered so we brought it up. She claimed to never have heard that before, so we showed her the book which sent her on another tirade. Yeesh. All in all, I don't have to go back there again.

Then we headed to the Christmas store to buy ornaments. I got a cute "just married" one that says 2010. (Sorry I thought I had a picture, must not have loaded it into photobucket - I'll try to remember to when I get home...) And my mom got one that said 2010 too.

Meanwhile, my dad and DH went to Guest Relations to buy our TIW card. We met up and it was time for my parents to head to the airport, so we walked them back to their car and said our goodbyes.

Saying goodby to my parents was really the end of the wedding weekend. We didn't really have to be "on" anymore and the wedding stuff had ended. Let the honeymoon begin!

It was about 3:30 at this time, and our original plans were ADRs at 7:00 at Bluezoo. As we sat there, we knew that wasn't going to happen. We talked about walking around DDD a bit, but in the end decided we knew what we had to do....

So I reluctantly called and cancelled our ADRs at Bluezoo and rescheduled it for later in the week...and we went back to the Poly, and we....

SLEPT

and we (well okay, he... insonomiac me hung around the room and chilled but didn't sleep the whole time) didn't wake up until morning!