Skipping Ahead

So at this point in time it's almost been two months since the wedding! Can you believe it?  I sure can't.  And as  time is going by I'm slowly losing the details of everything that happened so I'm going to skip ahead to the most important days the dress rehearsal and the wedding day.  Let's see how much I remember!

Wednesday March 21st- Today was the day for the dress rehearsal.  To say I didn't spend the day before the wedding a nervous ball of energy would be a lie.  Everything reminded me that I was getting married the next day and it just made me nervous.  Was everything going to go alright?  Were people going to enjoy themselves?  A thousand different worries occupied my head all day, but on we went because the busier I kept the better I was.  Bryan and I headed off to Hollywood Studios to meet up with my brother, Meghan, and Dave.  We immediately got fastpasses to go on Aerosmith and headed straight to Star Tours (Bryan's...and everyone else's favorite ride).  We got lunch rode Star Tours two more times and Aerosmith, and then we parted ways with the others to go back to our resort and meet Nate and Jensey aka Root Photography aka the greatest photographers you will ever meet :)  We met them at the pizza window and enjoyed a drink together and got a chance to talk and get to know each other.  It was wonderful to get the chance to meet before the wedding day and talk.  One it was nice to finally meet in person after phone calls, emails, and tweets, and it was very reassuring knowing that we were in such good hands for the wedding day.  We talked and laughed and when we parted ways and said our goodbyes until tomorrow I felt as though I had known them for years :)  We ran off to our hotel room to quickly get dressed and meet my parents who were giving us a ride over to the Grand Floridian since we had so much stuff.  Turns out I was so paranoid about being late to the dress rehearsal (if anyone is more than 10 minutes late they said they would cancel your dress rehearsal) I told everyone to be there at least 15 minutes early and they all took me seriously and showed up 30 minutes early!! We seriously had the best bridal party ever!! I tried to do some introductions but I'm really quite bad at it so I'm sure by the time I was done everyone still had no idea who anyone was, but oh well at least I tried!  We walked into the wedding pavilion and let everyone walk around and take pictures since most everyone there was seeing it for the first time.  Rev. Kev. and Diane came along and said hi and introduced themselves, and then we got down to business.  Diane spent the most time explaining to me what would happen the next day and the schedule of events.  She told me that we would arrive last so that I would stay hidden and no one would see me before I walked down the aisle.  The boys would stay in the Grooms Room and hang out with the dads until the ceremony.  After the guys walked down the aisle and they closed the doors the girls would move to the hallway outside and I would wait in the Grooms Room with my dad until it was my turn.  We practiced lining up and Diane explained that everyone would wait for her cue to start and then how to space themselves out.  She showed them where to line up at the altar and then they said for my dad and I to walk down the aisle.  I'm not sure what did it but the minute I had to practice walking down the aisle I burst into tears.  I must have looked sooo ridiculous.

And here come the waterworks

Seriously what was wrong with me?  

 We ran through the ceremony flow and Rev. Kev asked us about some last minute preferences for the ceremony.  Diane announced the schedule one more time so people would know when to be ready and where they should be, she gave us directions on how to get to the Whitehall room and told us she'd meet us there.  We all walked down to the Whitehall Room with the exception of my parents who drove over with all our stuff and Bryan's grandparents (it was quite the walk).  I don't have a lot to say about dinner.  Everything went really well, the food was good, the bartenders were wonderful, and the surprise grooms cake I order for Bryan was adorable.

Edible chocolate images of Bryan and his favorite character

Turned out very nice considering I had no idea what I wanted it to look like ;)

We gave the groomsmen and the girls their gifts.  The guys got pocket watches, which were a hit, and the girls got an assortment of stuff including a custom made necklace for the wedding, a tote bag, a custom made hanger for their dresses, and a bunch of other stuff, and the flower girls got personalized guardian angel necklaces.  After dinner we parted ways, Bryan went with the boys to the French Quarter for the night and the girls came back to my room for the night.  The bartenders were really nice and gave us drinks up until the last possible minute and even gave me a full glass of wine to go ;)  The girls and I had a quiet night since we had to be up at the butt crack of dawn the next day.  From what I hear the guys had a very "fun" night.  My uncle Gregg was buying rounds of drink at the hotel bar, and I heard that the boys decided to have a late night swim at the pool after it was closed and the security guard told them to tone it down.  But, I didn't expect anything less from them ;)  

Up next will be the start of the wedding! and the start of the professional pictures for those who haven't seen them :)

Day 2- Magic Kingdom

March 19th- Bryan and I woke up pretty early this morning since we had breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table.  I was very excited about this meal since it was my first time ever eating in the castle and I had heard such wonderful things about it.  We head off to the Magic Kingdom hopping on a fairly deserted bus.  When we arrived we walked to the special entrance for breakfast reservations where it seemed the majority of people were going to the Crystal Palace (a character meal with Winnie the Pooh and all his friends that I highly recommend).  As we walked down the deserted Main Street it was nice to be able to see the castle in all it's beauty without a thousand other people standing in front of you blocking your shot.  So since we were very early we stopped and took a couple pictures.

What the castle looks like when no one is there

Isn't she beautiful? :)

We walked up to the podium and even though we were more than a half hour early the hostess told us to step right inside and wait for our turn to meet Cinderella.  We said hi to Cindy and she congratulated us on our upcoming wedding and said that she knew it would be wonderful because Fairy Godmother always helps out, and we were on our way upstairs.  We sat down at our table and met our waiter who was less than friendly and he took our order.  I thought the food was delicious (I got a traditional breakfast plate that had eggs, bacon, and potatoes, and Bryan got a french toast casserole) and while the food was good the princesses were more than a little snobby.  I realize that when you are royalty you get to act like a snob, and that when you see a table of two adults it may not be as fun as the table right next to us of 3 kids, but you should still pretend to put on your happy face for us.  Evidently we caught Jasmine, Ariel, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty during their time of the month because none of them would give us the time of day.  Most of them would at least stop long enough to take a picture, but Jasmine was in a hurry and walked right on past us without so much as a hello.  So overall at Cinderella's Royal Table the food is good and the princesses are moody.  Maybe if we borrow a child next time it won't be so bad....
After breakfast the park was just getting ready to open and we were meeting Meghan and Dave at Space Mountain.  We grabbed fast passes for the ride and hopped in line so we could ride it twice.  Then we made the usual rounds through Tomorrowland, riding only the good rides (so in my opinion Space Mountain and the Peoplemover).  Fun fact: one of my all time favorite rides at the Magic Kingdom is the PeopleMover (also known as the Tomorrowland Transit Authority).  It takes you on around Tomorrowland and shows you the attractions that you can visit and you ride through Space Mountain.  Most people think it's really lame, but I could ride it all day.  I know, I have strange taste in rides but whatever.  Now you'll have to forgive me because I can not quite remember exactly what else we did during the day.  I know we rode the Haunted Mansion and some guy in the pre-show thought I was hilarious because I know the entire thing by heart (which is funny if you know me because up until recently I HATED the haunted mansion and would never ride it but somehow still knew the show...).  At some point in the day we decided to call it a quits and we went to Meghan and Dave's hotel to drop off some stuff and catch the bus to Downtown Disney.  Now as nice as the Contemporary is I can say I was not too impressed with their bus system because we waited for-ev-er for a bus to DTD.  We went to all the stores on the Marketplace side and I have to say Disney is doing a good job destroying my favorite stores.  First they took away Villains and Vogue at Hollywood Studios.  It's still called Villains and Vogue but instead of being filled with you know Villain stuff as the name would imply it is nothing but Nightmare Before Christmas and Vinylmation.  And now my favorite collectibles store in Downtown Disney holds mostly artwork that I cannot afford and more vinylmations.  It is very depressing :(  It used to have a wonderful selection of Disney collectible figurines and on each vacation I would allow myself to buy one, but now there's artwork I can't afford, dolls that creep me out, and vinylmations that I can buy at any store.  Very sad.  Anyways, we moved on to the World of Disney (World of Disney is the largest Disney store in the world).  We ran into Maranda, Michael, and Caroline who had all arrived today :) and we walked around and shopped the afternoon away until it was time to part ways.  Bryan and Dave were having a bro date with half of the groomsmen who were arriving today, and Meghan and I were on our way back to the Magic Kingdom to have dinner at the Crystal Palace.  We parted ways, went back to the Magic Kingdom and on our way back down Main Street stopped for some pictures of just the two of us.

Best Friends

Isn't the crane lovely?

O.m.g. it's Tinkerbell

Dinner at Crystal Palace was nice.  Of course, we got there to a character meal and realized that neither of us had remembered our cameras...So we improvised and used our cell phones instead.  We had a nice quiet dinner and talked about how fast time was going by, how we couldn't believe the wedding was almost here, and how we did not want our picture taken with Pooh.  No offense to Pooh he's just not one of our favorites.  After dinner we walked around for a little bit and then went our separate ways.  I got back to the Boardwalk to find Bryan with Tim and Nick.  We walked around and showed them our hotel, got a couple drinks and found out where we were supposed to eat breakfast the next day, and that was all she wrote!

Me with Piglet at Crystal Palace

And Me with Tigger

Blast from the Past- Day 1

I can't believe it's been a month since Bryan and I got married.  It seems like only just yesterday we were arriving down in Disney.  Since it's been a whole month I thought it might be about time to talk a walk down memory lane and tell the tales of the wedding and honeymoon.  So here goes nothing!

March 18th- left at the butt-crack of dawn to go to the airport.  Once we boarded our plane we talked to the flight attendants a little and the next thing we know they made an announcement asking for Bryan and I to raise our hands.  The steward informed everyone on board that we were off to get married and asked everyone to give us a round of applause (and of course a smarty pants in the back shouts don't do it) and gave us a complimentary bottle of champagne!  It was so nice of them and they were so accommodating, I don't know why  I've gone so long without flying Southwest.  The prices for the flights are usually pretty good if you book in advance, and the flight crew is so awesome (from the two experiences that I've had so far, more on the second great experience later).  I highly recommend Southwest to anyone at least considering flying to Orlando, they're one of the only airlines that have direct flights and they still allow each passenger to have 2 free checked bags, not a bad deal!  Anyways, the rest of the day was pretty uneventful.  We got to Orlando and walked to the magical express and made our way to the Boardwalk Villas.  The Boardwalk Inn and Villas, by the way, are extremely beautiful to stay in and the property is so wonderful.  We stayed in a studio room and had a great location that was right off of the main pool and pretty close to the boardwalk itself (the room was a little far from the lobby but we really didn't mind).  After checking into our room we hopped over to the Magic Kingdom for a little bit before coming back to the room to get ready for dinner.  We had dinner reservations at 'Ohana at the Polynesian.  It was my first time back here in a while and I have to say I thought it was excellent! We had a picture perfect view from our table of the castle! The food was excellent it's a family style (which means they bring it to your table) all you care to enjoy and has pineapple coconut bread, salad with a mango-poppy seed dressing, honey coriander chicken wings, pork fried dumplings, and huge skewers of oak grilled chicken, asian bbq pork loin, marinated sirloin steak, and spicy peel-n-eat shrimp, along with asian egg noodles, stir fried vegetables, and of course bananas and caramel bread pudding for dessert.  I told you....lots of food.  There was way more food than Bryan and I could even hope to try.  I think between the two of us we managed to try one of everything.  But, guaranteed the with all this you will not walk away hungry (and if you do something is wrong!!).  The meal overall was just wonderful, for anyone looking for restaurant recommendations for their next trip I would highly recommend giving 'Ohana a try, after all they are family....haha get it?!  'Ohana means family...anyone?  Bueller?  Oh well.  After dinner we made our way back to the Boardwalk where we met Meghan and Dave for drinks in the Belle Vue Lounge.  It was a pretty quiet evening and we had fun just sitting out and enjoying the fact that after almost 2 years of counting down we were finally in Disney and Bryan and I were getting married in 4 days.

View of our table from 'Ohana!

Vanity Area outside the bathroom in our studio room

view from the entry way

view of the closet complete with wedding dress

view of the bed and sleeper sofa

table area

view of the overall room

allll the luggage for the wedding and cruise!

I'm back!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm back and I'm married now!!

It seems like it's been forever since I last blogged to you (because it has been), but I'm back and ready to share with you the whole story days leading up to the wedding, girls night, the rehearsal dinner, wedding, and stories from our honeymoon!

I would like to start off for thanking everyone for all the love and support.  Bryan and I are so appreciative of our friends and family for being there with us every step of the way and encouraging us wholeheartedly.  I would also like to thank Disney FairyTale Weddings, our wonderful wedding planner Diane, Seth-our videographer, and Nate & Jensey Root for helping to make our wedding so incredibly perfect.  Our wedding was everything we could have imagined and more.  

I promise I will be back soon with fun stories and pictures to share, but for now...

TTFN!