Bridal Registry

We decided to register at Target, one of our favorite stores, and also at Disney (of course!)

The initial sign up was easy- we started the registry for Target online, and they sent us a gift pack in the mail. It included a coupon pouch with tabbed dividers (that I already use all the time), a booklet of coupons, and a package of post-it sized sheets to include in the wedding shower invites, to let guests know you've registered at Target. I think I'll give them to my Mom, but I'm not sure if I really want her to use them, it seems tacky. Maybe I'm wrong?

After starting the registry online, we walked into our local Target and went to customer service. They handed over a fun toy- a UPC code scanner. Then we started our major mission.

Registering for your Wedding gifts is a humbling experience. I had a hard time scanning anything at first. I'd approach something I liked, like a pretty glass bowl. Then I'd do the same thing I do whenever I'm shopping- I'd think "but do I really NEED this?" and then I'd pass it by. After a half hour of only choosing like three things, Ryan reminded me that this was for things we wouldn't normally buy ourselves, and that our friends and family need to have an idea of what we like.

Finally, I relented and we added a good number of items to our registry. I still felt oddly guilty about it, almost like I had just bought things that I shouldn't. But in the long run, I hope it helps our loved ones to have fun shopping for our big day.

Registering with Disney was even easier. We had a lot of fun adding all of the things we've dreamed of doing on a Disney trip, like the "Behind the Scenes tour of the Disney Railroad".

It's all done online, through their Honeymoon site:
honeymoonregistry.disney.go.com


They sent me a great bag after registering- it now holds all of my wedding planning tools and my super-big binder of everything wedding idea/picture/article I've ever seen that I liked!

To Coach or not to Coach

Everyone who hears "Disney" when you mention a wedding, pictures the classic Cinderella Carriage. Even I do. So, although it took months of cajoling, I am "Doing It Up"- yes, I'm going to be the princess-y bride rolling up to her wedding in a fanciful Carriage, drawn by 6 white ponies and assisted by two footmen. (No, Ryan, not two-foot men;)

It's a classic fantasy, and I can't pass up the opportunity to roll off into the sunset with my Prince Charming.

I've had a difficult time finding a clear picture of the actual carriage we will have for the wedding- the Disney Wedding promotional materials, both online and in print, do not have many details describing the carriage, and there are few pictures, none very clear or close up.

I am looking forward to being surprised by the details I will find once I am actually up close to the carriage. I think I'll bug the photographers to take a ton of closeups of the carriage itself, it looks so pretty from afar!!

Custom Tee Shirts Bring out the Geek in Me

I've finished my first custom tee- ever.

First, I ordered tee shirt transfers (for light colored tees) from Amazon.com.

Then, I designed a graphic. This first one is for Ryan to wear on our honeymoon. I knew he'd be hesitant to wear a Disney themed tee shirt (although a big Disney fan, he's not into character tees, ok, fine...). So I decided to make a play off of one of his favorite tee shirts- it says "GAME ON". Yes, very geeky. What do you expect from a guy who worked at Apple. ;D I digress...so I used Illustrator to spell out "GAME OVER" in a pixellated font, and then pixellated a bride and groom outline, to make the retro-video game feel. (Yes we are both retro-gaming geeks too.)

After designing the graphic, you need to reverse the image. This is easily done if you have graphic design software. If not, reverse image or flip inage is often an option in your advanced print setting.

Once the image is reversed, it's time to print. I used my cheapy color photo printer, and it looks pretty darn good!

Now, the last part was the scariest for me- the ironing. I enlisted my Mom's help on this one. We ironed the tee shirt flat first, then carefully lined up the transfer in the center of the tee. Mom ironed away for like 3 or 4 minutes. Then, we peeled it back..

Flower Girls and fancy dresses

I have started seriously looking for flower girl dresses for our two nieces. With only 4 months to go, I can't put it off any longer. The problem is I just don't know what I want for them. I keep thinking I'll know it when I see it, like with my wedding dress. But I found my dress on my first trip shopping- the flower girls dresses, not so much.

I do love this pink one, by Watters and Watters.

This is a wedding in a magical, dreamy place. I don't want the girls to look too cutsey or boring- they should fit in with the setting and the magic. And they should coordinate with my gown if possible too.

Some other potential candidates:

Guest Book (from the help-with-the-memories dept...)

I like the idea of a guest book. But I really really like the idea of having our guests answer some fun questions about us and our wedding, and making that into a guest book.

I found just what I wanted at Guest Book Store, www.guestbookstore.com

They will create a custom guest book for you, with question sheets for your guests to fill in. It's a wonderful idea- not just a signature, but a memory of the day in each guest's words!

I chose the sheet above (it's two-sided) and ordered a pretty bright binder to hold the sheets in after the wedding. I also ordered a custom title page with our full names and the wedding date, and special pages for the bride and groom to fill out after the wedding.

I love the "Predictions" section, asking how many kids we'll have and their names. I think that will be a blast to read the next day!

:D
I can't wait for this wedding!

Engagement Photos

There are many fine choices for photography in the Orlando area for a Disney bride. I searched wedding boards and checked out a bunch of photographer's websites, and found hands down, the Roots have my aesthetic, and just seemed like fun! We did a test-run of sorts, in August, when we flew down to Florida for our planning session. We met the Roots at the Port Orleans Resort (where we were engaged), for an engagement photo session.

I've never been the subject of a photo session. It is STRANGE. I don't like posing, and having all of that attention. It took a while for us to relax, and I think by halfway through the hour long session we were feeling better about the attention. The hardest part of the shoot was the heat- it was a humid, sticky hot day, and we climbed into all sorts of nature for cool shots. It was messy and uncomfortable, but totally worth it!



The pics are awesome! I'm so happy with the Roots. They were super nice and quite talented.

Check out more by the Roots at http://www.rootography.com/

Tiara or not Tiara

I did a test run with Lisa (lisasmagicalweddings.com) this August. She did a great job with my thin, lifeless hair, and much reassured me that all would go smoothly on my wedding day.

I was hesitant about one thing on her visit though- do I actually use this tiara thing I bought in a flurry of weddingness (the trip to purchase my dress turned into a tiara-buying, fancy expensive veil-buying trip very, very quickly).

As soon as she put the tiara on- I couldn't believe it! I didn't feel like a dorky princess-wannabe. I felt like I had a beautiful jeweled addition to my fancy, curly wedding hair. And I LIKED it!

Having Dad with me...

I've been racking my brain to find a tasteful and personal way to include my father in our wedding ceremony. In the 4 years since he's passed away, I've pictured him walking me down the aisle about a million times. It's really important to me to feel like my father is not forgotten on this very special day.

I looked at all of the traditional memorial wedding items online and in stores- a memorial candle with inscription, a vase, or photo frame with inscription. (there are a few nice ones on NowandForever.com) Nothing I found was quite how I wanted to be reminded of my Dad.

Then I found these cute charms, they are made by an outside vendor for exclusivelyweddings.com It arrived wrapped inside a nice soft black pouch. It's attached to a ribbon, to be tied to the handle of your bouquet. This charm is not fancy, but I think the plain silver base is very nice and appropriate- just what I wanted. Bonus- the charm was also very affordable - only $36!

How it's done: I scanned a picture of my Dad holding me as a baby, one that I love.

Then I placed the order for the locket. When the order confirmation email arrived, I responded to it with the .jpg image (Photo should be no larger than 3" in size or 900 pixels, with a resolution of 300 dpi, saved as a .jpg file.)

This is exactly what I wanted to look at for strength and support before walking down the aisle.

I'd like to find additional ways to include my Dad, if possible...any ideas out there?

Favor Project! AKA I love Photoshop...

I've been working all week on designing the wraps for our favors. I decided we would give out Hershey's miniatures candy bars, wrapped with custom labels, served up in pretty little gift bags.

Keeping with the Disney theme of our big day, I scoured the internet for various pieces of clip art that best represented us (a little sweet, a little romantic, and quite a bit geeky). Thankfully, I found a few great images of Wall-E and Eve, which are by far my favorite characters. I also found a great Cinderella and Prince Charming, which I converted into pink colors to match our wedding colors. After all my searching, I had way too many lovey-dovey disney images to use. So I pared them down to my dozen favorite or so, and ran a test plot...

The picture above is my test batch. I'm really happy with them. The downside- now I need to print a few hundred more, and cut each one out by hand with an x-acto knife. I don't want to wait until too close to the wedding, as there will be lots more projects. (design tee shirts, wedding programs, gift bags for guests when they arrive to Disney and more)

Its a Family Affair

There are lots of great reasons to get married at Walt Disney World. The setting is beautiful, the people are wonderfully friendly and accommodating, and every day is beautiful and different from the last. Disney magic is real, and it means walking through clean, manicured parks, eating great food and riding amazing, creative, fun rides. Yes, I like Disney.

But the number one reason I wanted to celebrate our nuptials at Disney World, is the opportunity to share the magic with my family and friends. It is amazing to me that in a little over 4 months, I will be one Main Street in the Magic Kingdom, with all of my favorite people. I have never had a big family vacation. I get excited just imagining waiting in line for the Safari Ride in Animal Kingdom and seeing my Aunt and Uncle! Or eating ice cream at Beaches and Cream with my Mom, Mother in Law, and Nieces! This list goes on...sharing the wonderful fun and memories of Disney with our family is a unique and special opportunity. I am SO thankful that we can do this, and that we can share it with those we love.

The Dress

4 1/2 months to go!

With the wedding speeding up on us now, I realize that the dress that's been hanging hidden in my brother's basement for the last 5 months will need to be tried on and... altered.

I don't know why I'm so afraid to have the dress altered. The seamstress is a professional! She does this every day! And yet, I image my dream dress, worn on my dream day, with a strange seam down the back, or crooked stitching, or maybe it just won't fit any more at all.

Does anyone else feel this way about taking their dress in to be fitted? I know I tend to be weird about things, but maybe I'm not the only one afraid to have her dress go "under the knife".

Let me know if you have any horror stories, or maybe some good news about altering your dress.

The Cake

The best best best part, by far, of the Disney Wedding Planning Session we had with our wedding planner at Franck's (located next to the Wedding Pavilion, if you ever want to take a peek), was the cake tasting! Yes! Free Cake! We were so happy when the time came for the cake. It makes no sense- we're talking to this woman about spending thousands of dollars for one day's celebrations (albeit an important one...) and here we are thrilled about the free cake. And not only was it free, it was GOOD. I enjoyed all of the flavors. (the Bailey's Irish Cream icing was amazing!) Ryan had a few he really like too.

Our decision:

Top Layer (anniversary layer): Almond Cake with Amaretto Mousse Filling
Middle Layer: Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Mousse Filling
Bottom Layer: Almond Cake with Amaretto Mousse Filling

We obviously loved the almond cake with the amaretto filling. Super yummy!



This picture is the inspiration for our cake. They are decorating the cake to our custom requests:

Top Layer: Pink dots to form Mickey heads, white fondant.
Middle Layer: Mickey shaped swirls, in pink, white fondant.
Bottom Layer: Fabric/quilted pattern, single pink dots and Mickey head dots.

Pink ribbon around each layer, with a bit of green ribbon over top.

The minimum cake size is based on 50 people. We are expecting approximately 45 people, so it should be just right (leftovers please!). We are paying $12.50 per person for the cake made at the Grand Floridian, for a total of $665.63, plus the handling charge at the California Grill of $139, including taxes.

Invitations the easy way

I started looking right away for our invites. I looked briefly into having them printed professionally, at a really nice print shop. But in the end, I really felt for the money saved, I would be just as happy with something ordered online.



First, I sent away to two different online invitation sites, and received samples of the invitations I liked the most. (all Disney themed- there are many Disney styles out there, try: now-and-forever.com and invitationsbydawn.com)

After seeing them in person, I had no hesitations. We ordered our final choice from invitationsbydawn.com, using a custom mash-up of the wording from several of my favorite invitations.

The invitation:
In the spirit of the magic
that brought us together,
we, Stacy - -
daughter of
Maryann - and the late Robert - -
and
Ryan - -
son of
Gary - - and Roberta --
invite you to join us for a fairy tale wedding -
the beginning of our "happily-ever-after"
on Sunday March 1, 2009
at 5:00pm
The Wedding Pavilion
Walt Disney World, Florida


I love them - they came out even better than expected. The card pattern is called "Dreams Come True". It's Cinderella-themed:


Cool note to all brides out there...
I'm sending one to Mickey and Minnie:

The Magic Kingdom
C/O Mickey & Minnie Mouse
1675 N Buena Vista Dr
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830

I've heard from other Disney brides that you might get a surprise in the mail from Mickey!

Please, Please don't eat the Daisies...

Flower time!

Today I'm all about flowers. Our Disney florist, Laura, is great. She had an amazing number of images to share and a lot of good ideas to build upon my sample images I brought along. I used our colors of pink and green for the main palate. (Ryan didn't really have an opinion on colors, or flowers for that matter...)

Disney floral provides all of your flower needs, as well as decorating for the wedding and reception.


I love roses. It was a no-brainer that I would want lots of pretty roses, in Pink. I also love hydrangea, and asked for light green hydrangea mixed in. I chose a smaller rose bouquet for my jr. bridesmaid, and pink and white rose petals for the flower girls.

The guys will get a pink rose boutonniere.

The flower arrangements for the reception will also be used to decorate the Wedding Pavilion alter. We're going to have pink and light green hydrangeas in square glass vases.

Disney makes an assortment of cool confetti for on your reception tables- mickey heads, carriages, Cindy slippers, lots of cool shapes in an array of colors. I chose to have silver mickeys and carriages on our tables.

We also chose square glass votive holders for on each reception table- 4 on each, 24 total.

They also offer chocolate place holders which can double as your favors. I decided to make my own favors (look for that post next week!), so we aren't ordering chocolate from Disney. The Disney favors range in price, most are about $6 each.

Disney Wedding Planning Timeline

Here's a basic time line for planning a Disney Wedding:

1. Contact Disney and request your date (at least one year out if possible) .

2. Fill out your online Wish List! You need to make your guest list, choose your room blocks, and select your ceremony location and reception location(s).

3. Sign those contracts! We were required to provide a $1000 deposit with the contract. After receiving the deposit, Disney will send out Save-the-dates on your behalf, including information about rooms for your guests.

4. Plan Plan Plan. Once the main reservations were confirmed, I started looking for my dress, chose my wedding party, and designed our invitations.

5. Meet with your wedding planner. We visited with Michelle in August, to finalize most of our plans, and sample the cake! Yum!

6. Meet with the Disney florist. I Met with Laura on the same day I met Michelle.

7. Hair and makeup trial! I planned for a trial during our short visit to FL, after the meeting with our wedding planner...

8. Meet your photographer. We had an engagement photo session during this same August trip as well. Well worth it!

Warning! The WishBook (and Guest List Drama)

The wishbook is a great online planning tool for Disney Wedding brides and grooms. We used our book to set our budget, choose basic and special additions for the wedding, and to track and list our guests. We had great fun adding thing we liked to the wishbook (the Carriage, confetti cannons, a violinist..) Maybe too much fun. As we added all of the friends and family we hoped to share our big day with, the guest list grew quite large. Although we have a budget, we were skirting the upper echelons of our available cash. But money aside, there turned out to be a much bigger issue lurking: space for everyone.

Disney pulls your guestlist from the wishbook, all online and so easy for you, then sends out save-the-dates to all of your guests. All of them. Even when Disney knows your venue choice is the Napa room at the California Grill. Which apparently only has a max occupancy of 50, but really only seats 40 people. 40. People. So, a few months after our mammoth list of all of our favorite people in the world went out, we discovered from our Wedding Planner, Michelle, that we were limited on the number of guest that could attend our reception. Yikes!

We have since had to un-invite many people. The email went out with a bit of apology and a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor, and most of our friends were understanding and gracious. (It's an expensive trip for all involved, no matter how you spin it, so it may have been a relief to some.) As rude as that was, it was the only way we could avoid starting all over- picking a new wedding date and choosing a new reception location. Since we had already booked our rooms, as have a number of our family members, along with plane reservations, (EDIT: plus the booking the officiant and photographers)...that was really not an option.

Sorry Miss Manners!

EDIT: I must add, to clarify- I don't blame Disney for our mistake. I think in the frenzy and excitement of the start of our wedding planning, we weren't prudent about obvious issues like space and availability of reception locations. I do recommend, after living through such an embarrassing mistake, that you find out all pertinent information up front, and make sure you think clearly when making the guest list and picture your reception. I hope my rudeness can at least help other brides avoid the same fate.

Newsletter - first edition!

I love all of the fun projects I get to do for this wedding. In August, for the 7 months-to-go-mark, I sent all of our guests a newsletter to kind of remind them about the wedding. I included information on travel discounts, how and where to book room reservations, and a bit of general information. I've just started on the next issue, which will include more specific information (like how to book a dining reservation, and recommendations on where to go for a great meal) and also some hints and tricks on how to best do the parks (when is it most crowded, which rides to get a fastpass for, etc.)

Here's the first newsletter:
(sorry about the random black spaces- personal information has been erased to protect the shy!)

The Basics: Stacy and Ryan's Wedding Overview

Before I go hog wild describing all of the minutia and random projects of planning a wedding, I realized I need to give everyone an overview of our day. Here goes:

Theme: Magical/Classic (yes, I can have both, it's my wedding ;)
Colors: light pink and light mossy green
Wedding Location: Disney's Wedding Pavilion, 5pm ceremony
Officiant: Reverend Jack Day
Reception Location: Contemporary Resort, California Grill, 6PM cocktail hour, 7-11PM reception

The Wedding Party:
Bride: Stacy
Groom: Ryan
Jr. Groomsman: Zachary, 12 (Stacy's nephew)
Jr. Bridesmaid: Krystin, 9 (Stacy's niece)
Flower Girls: Maggie Sue,7 (Ryan's niece), Katie,7 (Stacy's niece)

We decided to have four of our favorite people in the world, each of our brother's kids, as our wedding party.

Random specifics:
Hairdresser: Lisa (lisasmagicalweddings.com)
Photographers: The Roots (www.rootography.com)

When Can We Sign Up?

After so many amazing trips, favorite meals and rides decided upon, I was feeling like a Disney veteran. We knew we wanted to get married at Disney. So, now that he gave me a ring and I said yes, what do we do?

We started by picking a date. We wanted to get married in the Spring. Note, Disney's busiest Wedding time is the Fall. (Not really the best time for us based on our jobs, and I didn't want to run into 50 other brides on my "big day".) We also wanted to pick a time that avoids the crowds as much as possible, and also avoid melting in the Florida heat with a summer wedding.

We picked our actual date randomly. We wanted a Sunday, and were thinking March or April, so we ended up on March 1st as our first choice. We contacted Disney and were assigned a Wedding Coordinator, Heidi. She submitted our request for our date. At Disney World, you cannot hold your date prior to 1 year from the date you choose (at least that's the official rule- I've heard of brides planning a big wedding with dates confirmed as much at 16 months out).

We requested our date in January of 2008, and then waited impatiently to hear if we would get our requested date and time- Sunday March 1st, 5PM ceremony. Two days after March 1st, we heard back from Heidi (Ok, I admit it- I called her on the 1st but she couldn't confirm for sure yet) and we had our date and time, and also our reception location choice was held- the Napa room in the California Grill! Now it was time to sign our initial contract.

The Engagement (aka- is he REALLY doing this?!)

There it is, the ring that started this crazy wedding planning ride...

So by this time, we had been together for over two years, and had taken three Disney vacations. I most look forward to our time in Disney- with family or alone. So we decided to take a road trip to Florida for our vacation last Fall. We'd drive down to Florida from PA, visit fun sites on the way, and stay at Disney for 5 days too. (yay!)

We stayed at the Port Orleans resort, and we LOVED it. It was so romantic, very different than the All-Star resorts and Pop Century, where we had stayed in the past. The huge old magnolia trees, the water view from our room, all of the little hideaway places to sit and talk and relax. It was the best vacation I'd ever had.



Oct 3rd (Ryan's Birthday!) we had dinner reservations at the California Grill. I had called and ordered a birthday cake for Ryan as a surprise. But, before we left for dinner, Ryan wanted to take a walk. Strolling along the Sassagoula River, we stopped at a pier to look at the water. He sat us down on a bench, and started talking about our future, and before I knew it, he was on his knee in front of me. (will I what?!!!) I started to shake and grabbed him. We hugged for a bit as the sweet words he had just said sunk in...and then I said yes!

I always feel weird describing the ring, it's just a piece of jewelry (and a very expensive one), so talking about it makes me shy. Before we made this commitment, I didn't think I wanted a traditional diamond engagement ring, but now I can't imagine having anything else. I know some people want to know "the specs", so here goes:

Most importantly, it's a Canadian diamond, guaranteed fair trade (a living wage paid across the board to all who touched it), the size is one carat, princess cut, set in 3mm Platinum. I really love it, Ryan surprised me with this ring, and he did an amazing job. It really is beautiful, and it makes me feel all warm and giddy whenever I look at it.

First Post! Oh, wait, this isn't Digg....

Ok, so this is my very own blog. And instead of talking about all the geeky things I love, (Like Apple computers, Photoshop, photography, and my Wii...) I'm going to share with the world the many adventures of planning a wedding at- Walt Disney World!

I guess I should start at the beginning...and explain why a Disney wedding is so important to us. I was a Disney virgin when Ryan and I met. The first time I met his Mom, she asked, "do you like Disney?!" Umm...I said "I don't know, I've never been there." She almost shouted "Never been to Disney!" I learned very quickly that I was entering into a Disney family.

Ryan and I made our first trip to the Mouse about a year after we started dating- a long weekend, just long enough for me to visit each park and get the lay of the land...and absolutely fall in love with Disney World. It was an amazing, romantic, fun trip. The first time we rode the monorail and the announcer described the Wedding Pavilion...it looked so pretty, out on the water...and I knew I wanted to go there to marry this wonderful guy.

Coming up next...deciding on when, where and how...