Amanda & Jeff 12/7/15 - YCG/Marina/Ariel's/France - Update 10/25: Napa Rose Chefs Counter!

[elphie101]

Your save the dates are so cute!! Very stylish and even better that they were affordable.

As someone who had her DP in France (lower, not upper) I do think the UK's have a better view overall, so yay for you!! I think it's the perfect way to end the day and you and your guests will love it!

 

[Amanda132]

I had my parents 40th anniversary at UK upper! I think the view of illuminations is better than terrace de fleurs!! Plus the existing seating is really great! The thing that was the worst for me was we were shoved in a rain location- in INNOVENTIONS. Which was basically a misery- and two of my desserts were HORRIFICALLY bad. Like, an EMBARRASSMENT bad. But you can't fault the location, which was brilliant!

Yay, I'm glad the view is good at UK Upper! I'm so sorry about your rain location. Although knowing my Disney nerd fiance, he'd probably be thrilled to be put in Innoventions. Which desserts did you have that were bad, so I can try to stay away from them?

Ooooh those are really cute save the dates, and yay for getting a bargain on them! I think it's wise to send them out early. Like you said it gives the guests time to save and plan for the trip. Also of course it lets you spread out your work and not pile it on with the stress of moving. I've had to move six times and know it's exhausting and drains you from wanting to do extra work.

And yay for your Dessert party! I've not seen many UK Upper parties, and will be excited to see how your location ends up looking.

Thank you! I know technically you're only supposed to send out the Save the Dates something like 6-8 months before the wedding, but I figure some people need to save up or request time off work in advance. And I know, I haven't seen many UK Upper parties either. I'm excited to see how it will look too! I don't think we're going to spend a lot (if anything) on decor there. I figure everyone will be looking at the desserts or the fireworks. Plus the existing tables and chairs are kind of like built-in decor.

Your save the dates are so cute!! Very stylish and even better that they were affordable.

As someone who had her DP in France (lower, not upper) I do think the UK's have a better view overall, so yay for you!! I think it's the perfect way to end the day and you and your guests will love it!

Thank you! We were between UK and France, since we wanted to be close to the International Gateway, and UK Upper was what had availability. I think UK might have a little bit of a better view, but the actual locations at France are prettier. I'm a little sad that we were too small for Terrace de Fleurs because I loooove the flower beds and such there.

 

[Seia]

Following along now! I absolutely love your STDs. My dream wedding would have been in December with a Christmas theme, so I can't wait to see more of your plans.

 

[andeesings]

I asked for them to make us sticky toffee pudding and basically got little vanilla loaf cakes with a few chopped dates at the bottom and a drizzle of something on top that I assume they thought was toffee sauce?! They were disgusting and NO ONE ate them, and I'm fairly certain I paid almost $10 extra a person for them. Then my mom's favorite dessert is pie- so I asked for mini- pies. They said, "Tarts?" I said, "Absolutely NOT tarts, we don't like tart shells, it must be PIE, with a pastry crust." What I GOT was, of course, the stupid round tart shells that they used for something at the Frozen dessert party that I didn't like THEN. And to add insult to injury, I also had apple crumble with warm vanilla sauce. They never brought the vanilla sauce until five minutes before the dessert party ending and they dumped the apple crumble into the stupid tart shells as one of the three flavors- so it was essentially the same dessert!!

Choose things on menu, or things you're SURE they can re-create (the Disney food blog has a dessert party and know what is recreated successfully), OR, if you're going off-menu, see if you can add it to your tasting. I don't know how that works but what i asked for off menu was clearly too complicated for them. :-( I wish they had told me no, I wouldn't loved a flambé station for churros and donuts instead of what I got.

 

[bigr3ddog]

We didn't decorate at all and it looked fine. Well, we bought glow bracelets, but that was it. Disney supplied black table cloths so it looked very classy.

 

[bigr3ddog]

Whoops I forgot to add that we sent our save the date ten months before. With Disney weddings, the timeline is stretched a bit because you have to tell Disney a guest count by thirty days, I think, so invitations have to go out earlier too.

 

[Amanda132]

Following along now! I absolutely love your STDs. My dream wedding would have been in December with a Christmas theme, so I can't wait to see more of your plans.

Thank you! I've always dreamed of a winter/Christmas themed wedding. I just hope we can make it work with the totally non-Christmas themed venue of Ariel's.

I asked for them to make us sticky toffee pudding and basically got little vanilla loaf cakes with a few chopped dates at the bottom and a drizzle of something on top that I assume they thought was toffee sauce?! They were disgusting and NO ONE ate them, and I'm fairly certain I paid almost $10 extra a person for them. Then my mom's favorite dessert is pie- so I asked for mini- pies. They said, "Tarts?" I said, "Absolutely NOT tarts, we don't like tart shells, it must be PIE, with a pastry crust." What I GOT was, of course, the stupid round tart shells that they used for something at the Frozen dessert party that I didn't like THEN. And to add insult to injury, I also had apple crumble with warm vanilla sauce. They never brought the vanilla sauce until five minutes before the dessert party ending and they dumped the apple crumble into the stupid tart shells as one of the three flavors- so it was essentially the same dessert!!

Choose things on menu, or things you're SURE they can re-create (the Disney food blog has a dessert party and know what is recreated successfully), OR, if you're going off-menu, see if you can add it to your tasting. I don't know how that works but what i asked for off menu was clearly too complicated for them. :-( I wish they had told me no, I wouldn't loved a flambé station for churros and donuts instead of what I got.

Oh no! I don't think we plan on going off-menu. If we do, we'll definitely try to add it to our tasting. Thanks for the tip!

Whoops I forgot to add that we sent our save the date ten months before. With Disney weddings, the timeline is stretched a bit because you have to tell Disney a guest count by thirty days, I think, so invitations have to go out earlier too.

We figured as much. I basically was thinking that even though we're local, our out-of-state guests would basically be treating this like a destination wedding.

 

[Amanda132]

Since my last update, I've been thinking a lot about the actual ceremony part of the wedding. I looked into a bunch of different officiants (I basically looked at every non-denominational officiant on Disney's preferred vendors list), but I was really undecided. How do you decide who's going to take part in one of the most important moments of your life from a website? After talking it over with Jeff a bunch, he suggested having one of our good friends officiate. I thought it over for a while before actually asking her, because I was nervous about her having never officiated a wedding before. But I've heard about great weddings officiated by friends or relatives of the bride and groom, and it seems so personal. So we asked her, and she said yes!

So the next part is actually putting a ceremony together. Any brides reading that have written their own ceremonies, if you have any templates to share, that would be amazing. I've seen a few templates, but I haven't actually gotten down to figuring out what we want in the ceremony. I'll probably nail that down once we get a little closer to the date. I don't affiliate myself with any religion, and while Jeff is Catholic, he's not super religious. So we're looking at a non-denominational ceremony.

I've been researching different unity ceremonies as well. The unity candle and the sand ceremony seem to be the big two, but I didn't feel any particular desire to do either of those (just not my thing). In fact, I had been sort of indifferent on unity ceremonies in general, but I was intent on finding one I liked. The wine box ceremony sounded interesting, but I wasn't 100% on board. I had also heard of things like handfasting and ring warming, but I couldn't find anything that stuck out to me. Finally, last week, I came across two different unity ceremonies that I was really interested in: the Lovelocks Tree of Life ceremony and Unity in Glass.

The Tree of Life is made from a company called Lovelocks that makes those tiny padlocks that you put on stuff, like in Paris. I like the picture frame looking one on top, but I included the bottom photo because it shows the locks. The basic idea is that you start with an empty tree, and then each set of parents adds a lock on either side, at the bottom. This represents your "roots." (Get it?) Then the bride and groom attach their lock in the center. Since the lock has no key, it represents your separate lives coming together as one forever. I think depending on your wedding size, you can also purchase additional locks and have your guests add locks on the branches, but we aren't doing that. Also, I suppose if you have kids in the future, you can add locks for them on the branches.

I really like the unique-ness of the Tree of Life, and I like that you have it forever to display. I also like that it gets the parents involved. I think that the moms especially would enjoy that. On the other hand, it's sort of cheesy, which we're not. But if you can't be cheesy on your wedding day, when can you?

On the other hand, somewhat more popular, is Unity in Glass. Unity in Glass works basically like a sand ceremony, but instead of sand, you use tiny bits of glass that you later send off to get blown into a sculpture or bowl. I really like the end result, and Jeff thought of the cool idea of using our birthstone colors. The downside to this is that during the actual wedding, it functions like a sand ceremony, which I don't love. However, the sculpture you end up getting is super cool.

Jeff likes both ceremonies and won't decide either way. So those are the two we're stuck between right now.

Other than that, there's not a whole bunch to report. We sent our save the dates two days ago, so I'm hoping that soon our guests will start to let me know that they've received them! I'm glad we got that out of the way, since we're going on vacation to Disneyland at the end of next week, and then we're moving apartments shortly after that. We're also going to the DFTW Bridal Showcase here in Florida on the 28th, so I'll try to take pictures and report on that after we go. In the meantime, I'm not sure if anyone's interested in following our Disneyland shenanigans, but if anyone wants to follow me on Twitter or Instagram, I'm amandaenchanted on both!

 

[elphie101]

Totally going to follow you now, since you offered

I've never heard of the Tree of Life ceremony - that's definitely unique! I like the idea of displaying it in your home and continuing to add to it as your family grows and changes. I can definitely understand not liking the unity in glass because of it's similarities to the sand ceremony, so I hear you there (we did a wine box ourselves so I can't help you there!)

We wrote our ceremony from scratch, because my 22 year-old brother officiated, so I copy/pasted stuff I found on the internet that I liked, if you want I can PM you what I have (or it's in my PJ). I was raised Catholic (but don't practice) and Kevin's non religious so I definitely understand where you're coming from. I LOVED having my brother officiate, you can't beat the look on his face during our vows and I think it really made the ceremony more special than I ever could have dreamed.

 

[Amanda132]

Totally going to follow you now, since you offered

I've never heard of the Tree of Life ceremony - that's definitely unique! I like the idea of displaying it in your home and continuing to add to it as your family grows and changes. I can definitely understand not liking the unity in glass because of it's similarities to the sand ceremony, so I hear you there (we did a wine box ourselves so I can't help you there!)

We wrote our ceremony from scratch, because my 22 year-old brother officiated, so I copy/pasted stuff I found on the internet that I liked, if you want I can PM you what I have (or it's in my PJ). I was raised Catholic (but don't practice) and Kevin's non religious so I definitely understand where you're coming from. I LOVED having my brother officiate, you can't beat the look on his face during our vows and I think it really made the ceremony more special than I ever could have dreamed.

Haha, I was already following you from when you posted your usernames on your PJ. And I'll definitely check out your ceremony wording. Thanks! I'm really excited to have someone we know personally officiate. I was getting overwhelmed trying to get a feel of the different recommended officiants through photos and reviews alone.

 

[Seia]

Since my last update, I've been thinking a lot about the actual ceremony part of the wedding. I looked into a bunch of different officiants (I basically looked at every non-denominational officiant on Disney's preferred vendors list), but I was really undecided. How do you decide who's going to take part in one of the most important moments of your life from a website? After talking it over with Jeff a bunch, he suggested having one of our good friends officiate. I thought it over for a while before actually asking her, because I was nervous about her having never officiated a wedding before. But I've heard about great weddings officiated by friends or relatives of the bride and groom, and it seems so personal. So we asked her, and she said yes!

So the next part is actually putting a ceremony together. Any brides reading that have written their own ceremonies, if you have any templates to share, that would be amazing. I've seen a few templates, but I haven't actually gotten down to figuring out what we want in the ceremony. I'll probably nail that down once we get a little closer to the date. I don't affiliate myself with any religion, and while Jeff is Catholic, he's not super religious. So we're looking at a non-denominational ceremony.

I've been researching different unity ceremonies as well. The unity candle and the sand ceremony seem to be the big two, but I didn't feel any particular desire to do either of those (just not my thing). In fact, I had been sort of indifferent on unity ceremonies in general, but I was intent on finding one I liked. The wine box ceremony sounded interesting, but I wasn't 100% on board. I had also heard of things like handfasting and ring warming, but I couldn't find anything that stuck out to me. Finally, last week, I came across two different unity ceremonies that I was really interested in: the Lovelocks Tree of Life ceremony and Unity in Glass.

The Tree of Life is made from a company called Lovelocks that makes those tiny padlocks that you put on stuff, like in Paris. I like the picture frame looking one on top, but I included the bottom photo because it shows the locks. The basic idea is that you start with an empty tree, and then each set of parents adds a lock on either side, at the bottom. This represents your "roots." (Get it?) Then the bride and groom attach their lock in the center. Since the lock has no key, it represents your separate lives coming together as one forever. I think depending on your wedding size, you can also purchase additional locks and have your guests add locks on the branches, but we aren't doing that. Also, I suppose if you have kids in the future, you can add locks for them on the branches.

I really like the unique-ness of the Tree of Life, and I like that you have it forever to display. I also like that it gets the parents involved. I think that the moms especially would enjoy that. On the other hand, it's sort of cheesy, which we're not. But if you can't be cheesy on your wedding day, when can you?

On the other hand, somewhat more popular, is Unity in Glass. Unity in Glass works basically like a sand ceremony, but instead of sand, you use tiny bits of glass that you later send off to get blown into a sculpture or bowl. I really like the end result, and Jeff thought of the cool idea of using our birthstone colors. The downside to this is that during the actual wedding, it functions like a sand ceremony, which I don't love. However, the sculpture you end up getting is super cool.

Jeff likes both ceremonies and won't decide either way. So those are the two we're stuck between right now.

Other than that, there's not a whole bunch to report. We sent our save the dates two days ago, so I'm hoping that soon our guests will start to let me know that they've received them! I'm glad we got that out of the way, since we're going on vacation to Disneyland at the end of next week, and then we're moving apartments shortly after that. We're also going to the DFTW Bridal Showcase here in Florida on the 28th, so I'll try to take pictures and report on that after we go. In the meantime, I'm not sure if anyone's interested in following our Disneyland shenanigans, but if anyone wants to follow me on Twitter or Instagram, I'm amandaenchanted on both!

We are also having a close friend perform our ceremony. At first, I was a little apprehensive about it since he's never done that before... but at least it will be personal to us! Our families are religious, but neither of us are, so it has made writing the ceremony a little difficult. We are going to stick to a non-denominational script, but will probably throw in a single prayer so that it makes our families happier. We are adding our own touches and also taking bits and pieces we like from traditional ceremonies we found online.

We're doing the sand ceremony, but I think both alternatives you mentioned look great! The unity glass is especially beautiful, I think. I'm also jealous you are going to the DFTW showcase! Take tons of pictures to share with all of us. Haha.

 

[DisneyFirefly]

I actually saw a book at Barnes and Noble called "The Wedding Officiant's Guide". It's here on Amazon if you want to check it out. It's written by a ULC ordained minister and looked like a pretty good purchase. I plan on getting it for my best friend, since he's going to be marrying us. I've also seen a good piece on ceremony writing over on Offbeat Bride, linked here.

I love that glass piece! The tree sounds really cool as well I'm not sure what we'll wind up doing. I saw this neat unity salt cellar on Etsy, which I liked because it's also useful. The idea behind it is based on salt covenants that allegedly occurred in ancient times. Two people making a deal or promise would each place a pinch of salt into the other's vessel. The only way to break a salt covenant was to separate the salt so that you had your own grains back, which is, of course, impossible. Coming from a cooking standpoint, I also like the symbolism behind the fact that salt not only preserves, but adds flavor.

 

[Amanda132]

We are also having a close friend perform our ceremony. At first, I was a little apprehensive about it since he's never done that before... but at least it will be personal to us! Our families are religious, but neither of us are, so it has made writing the ceremony a little difficult. We are going to stick to a non-denominational script, but will probably throw in a single prayer so that it makes our families happier. We are adding our own touches and also taking bits and pieces we like from traditional ceremonies we found online.

We're doing the sand ceremony, but I think both alternatives you mentioned look great! The unity glass is especially beautiful, I think. I'm also jealous you are going to the DFTW showcase! Take tons of pictures to share with all of us. Haha.

I'll try to take as many pictures as I can! Though I'm always the type who intends to take lots of pictures and then doesn't.

I actually saw a book at Barnes and Noble called "The Wedding Officiant's Guide". It's here on Amazon if you want to check it out. It's written by a ULC ordained minister and looked like a pretty good purchase. I plan on getting it for my best friend, since he's going to be marrying us. I've also seen a good piece on ceremony writing over on Offbeat Bride, linked here.

I love that glass piece! The tree sounds really cool as well I'm not sure what we'll wind up doing. I saw this neat unity salt cellar on Etsy, which I liked because it's also useful. The idea behind it is based on salt covenants that allegedly occurred in ancient times. Two people making a deal or promise would each place a pinch of salt into the other's vessel. The only way to break a salt covenant was to separate the salt so that you had your own grains back, which is, of course, impossible. Coming from a cooking standpoint, I also like the symbolism behind the fact that salt not only preserves, but adds flavor.

Oooh, I'll definitely look into that book! And I had actually seen that same post on Offbeat Bride! That salt ceremony sounds really cool too. I love the symbolism!

 

[Amanda132]

I'm back after basically a month of life being crazy and wedding planning going basically nowhere. Last month, we went to Disneyland on a semi-spontaneous trip (thank you, Southwest Rewards Visa!), which was amazing of course. We very briefly considered the idea of a Disneyland wedding when we first got engaged, but we didn't really want to travel several thousands of miles for a Disneyland wedding when Walt Disney World is basically in our backyard. That said, I was obsessed with the Sleeping Beauty Pavilion at the Disneyland Hotel when we were looking at Disneyland locations online. When we were in California, Jeff asked me if I wanted to try to find the pavilion to look inside, but I said no! I didn't want to "Say Yes to the Dress myself," as I call it. (That's when you look at something you know you can't have and fall in love with it, like basically every episode of Say Yes to the Dress.) But seriously, if you haven't heard of the Sleeping Beauty Pavilion, Google it. And then start planning the vow renewal that you'll need to have after seeing it.

After we got back from California, Jeff's mom came into town and took us to the Disney Fairy Tale Weddings Bridal Showcase! The showcase was really cool to get a chance to go to. They had lots of different food samples (Nitrogen fried chocolate balls!), cake displays and samples, and table setting displays. Our wedding planner Kristie was there and lovingly reminded us that we haven't picked a date for our planning session yet. (My days off at work might change soon, so I'm waiting until that happens to schedule anything.) But we got to meet her, as did our parents, which was nice! Also at the showcase, Jeff and I basically fell in love with the French onion soup in cappuccino glasses, so we're going to try to add that to our reception if we can. I also fell in super love with one of the cakes on display. It was elegant and beautiful and matched with the wintery theme without being over the top.



This is the Instagram-ed version of this photo, but the topper is all crystals. Jeff thinks the cake doesn't have enough color, so we might try to do this cake with the sash bit in the same purple as our wedding colors. There were also bakers (pastry chefs? cake masters? the word "bakers" doesn't seem to cover everything they do) on hand to answer questions, so I asked one about getting a 3-tier cake when you only need 2. I was thinking that we could save money by having a fake third tier on the cake, but the baker clarified that the cake inside costs about the same as Styrofoam, and that we're actually paying for the decoration and labor, primarily. He suggested that if I liked the look of a 3-tier cake, I might as well have all three tiers be cake and then bring bunch of Tupperware to take home the extras. He even suggested the idea of getting fancy little cake boxes and sending guests home with extra cake as favors. So when we have our planning session, if we do settle on that cake I loved, I might ask them to price it as a 3-tier at first, knowing that we can cut it down to 2 if the BEO comes back high.

The breakout sessions at the showcase were really informative as well. I especially enjoyed the one on menu planning, and I took lots of notes about menu ideas during that one. The preparing for your planning session one was also informative, but I already knew a lot of the information from the boards here and Carrie's book. One thing I did take away from it is that I really need to nail down who is staying where the night before the wedding, and who is going where to get ready. As of right now, we have one room booked for Jeff and I at the Beach Club from the night before the wedding until the night after. We also have one room for Jeff's parents at the Beach Club, and my parents are also probably booking there (though they might choose the Beach Club Villas). My current idea is that Jeff and I will sleep in our room the night before the wedding, and then split up between our parents' rooms to get ready. Then we can meet with our bridesmaids/groomsmen there. I know it's "bad luck" for a bride and groom to see each other, blah blah blah, but we're already doing a first look, and that not seeing each other thing is pretty much outdated and sexist anyway. Plus I can't imagine being able to sleep the night before our wedding without Jeff there to keep me calm.

So next, I have to figure out what we're doing about makeup and hair. (I know I've gotten off topic from the bridal showcase. That's mainly because I don't want to admit that we spent four hours there, and I only took one picture.) I think I want Patricia LeJeune, but I believe she has a minimum of six services to travel onsite. Which means I can either:

a) Leave the Beach Club and drive all the way into Orlando to get my hair and makeup done. Either I'll be by myself, which is kinda sad to me, or I'll drag my wedding party to a salon to basically watch me get my hair and makeup done. Then drive all the way back to the Beach Club, so everyone else can get ready.
b) Book hair and makeup services for my maid of honor and my bridesmaid. But I don't think they'd be willing to pay for this (we're all young and relatively broke, and as far as I know, they were planning on doing their own hair and makeup), so I'd feel obligated to pay for it. Which could be quite expensive, but maybe I can add that in and then do much smaller bridesmaid gifts.

I also haven't even contacted Patricia LeJeune, and she might not even have our date available, which would make this whole thing pointless to speculate about anyway. I should probably get on that, huh?

I can't believe we get married in less than nine months, and we've already been engaged for more than six! Where did the time go? I feel like there's so much to do, and yet also that it's still too soon to do a lot of things. Hopefully the next time I post, I'll have more definite details!

 

[Sleepybeauty]

Patricia Lejeune requires a minimum of 3 services

 

[Seia]

I'm including the cost of hair and makeup into the bridesmaid gifts. It may cost a little more, but I definitely wanted someone to travel to my room to do my hair and makeup on the wedding day morning. (Since my ceremony is 10 a.m., that was also kind of a requirement!) That is a beautiful cake, too. The idea of having cake boxes for guests is really cute!

 

[majix]

Not sure if you are still looking, but I have booked with Emily Lynn Hair Design (http://emilylynnhairdesign.com) She came recommended by my florist. Her prices are good, she has an 'on location' fee of $25, only needs one service and her style looks wonderful. I've not used her yet, but just a suggestion.

 

[elphie101]

I totally read this update and forgot to comment! I'm notorious for this lately

Patricia has a minimum of 6 services, unless this has changed since 10/2014. For what it's worth, I did not include hair & makeup for my girls and one of them couldn't afford it. At the time, I didn't mind, but looking at my pictures now I wish I had gifted MUAH to her. Just my .02. What about mothers or other family women? Even if all of my bridal party hadn't gotten their MUAH done, we would have reached Patricia's minimum just by myself, my mother and MIL getting our hair and makeup done.

I love the sparkly castle topper and LOVE the idea of making the sash colored to give your cake a pop of color - the more color the better IMO!

 

[Amanda132]

Patricia Lejeune requires a minimum of 3 services

They just contacted me back and said they require 3 makeups and 3 hairs. Sigh, decisions decisions.

I'm including the cost of hair and makeup into the bridesmaid gifts. It may cost a little more, but I definitely wanted someone to travel to my room to do my hair and makeup on the wedding day morning. (Since my ceremony is 10 a.m., that was also kind of a requirement!) That is a beautiful cake, too. The idea of having cake boxes for guests is really cute!

Our ceremony is at 2:30, so we have a little bit of flexibility. But having them come to my room just seems so much easier!

Not sure if you are still looking, but I have booked with Emily Lynn Hair Design (http://emilylynnhairdesign.com) She came recommended by my florist. Her prices are good, she has an 'on location' fee of $25, only needs one service and her style looks wonderful. I've not used her yet, but just a suggestion.

I just contacted Patricia LeJeune, but if it doesn't work out with her, I'll definitely check out Emily Lynn! Thanks!

I totally read this update and forgot to comment! I'm notorious for this lately

Patricia has a minimum of 6 services, unless this has changed since 10/2014. For what it's worth, I did not include hair & makeup for my girls and one of them couldn't afford it. At the time, I didn't mind, but looking at my pictures now I wish I had gifted MUAH to her. Just my .02. What about mothers or other family women? Even if all of my bridal party hadn't gotten their MUAH done, we would have reached Patricia's minimum just by myself, my mother and MIL getting our hair and makeup done.

I love the sparkly castle topper and LOVE the idea of making the sash colored to give your cake a pop of color - the more color the better IMO!

My mom is on the fence about MUAH, and Jeff's mom has pretty short hair and probably wouldn't need it done (maybe she would want makeup though, I'll have to ask). I also feel awkward asking my bridesmaids if they want MUAH and then later being like nope never mind pretend I never said that. Maybe my mom will pay for my sister's, and then I'll only be on the hook for myself and one bridesmaid.

 

[Amanda132]

As time goes by, it seems like there's so much and so little getting done at the same time. A little more than seven months until the wedding! We finally scheduled our planning session for the end of June, since we were waiting on figuring out our days off before scheduling. I'm super excited! We've been super busy, but hopefully soon we'll have some time to fill out the planning kit and make our menu tasting selections. The only kind of odd thing is that our tasting for our dinner reception is in the morning. So it'll probably be a little bit strange to be eating dinner food at breakfast time during the tasting. But it'll be worth it to try all the delicious food! I already know I want to taste the macaroni and cheese bar AND the mashed potato bar.

In dress news, my wedding dress arrived, and I picked it up! Although I have quite a while until it's time for alterations, so it's just sitting in my closet. I also went shopping for bridesmaids dresses with my sister and friend. All I knew is that I wanted them to wear purple chiffon dresses (the exact color is Alfred Angelo's viola), but I wanted them to choose the dress. It was really important to me that they purchased something that they felt comfortable in. And I know all brides say this, but I really wanted them to be able to wear the dresses again, since they were spending so much on them.

So they decided on these dresses:



In this color:



It was fun being on the opposite side of the dressing room, being the one who got shown the dresses instead of the one trying on dresses. So hooray! One dress is ordered, and the other will be ordered soon. One more thing to cross off the list! I also got a swatch of the fabric from the consultant, so I can give it to our planner if needed during our planning session. And I figured I could use the swatch to color match ties for the guys.

Speaking of bridesmaids, I finally came to a decision on the hair and makeup thing. I knew I wanted Patricia LeJeune, and I knew I needed six services for her to travel to our resort room. So I decided that I would pay for my bridesmaids' hair, and I would give them the option to pay for their own makeup if they wanted to. Well they both decided that they do want their makeup done as well, so I actually have eight services between my two girls, my mom, and I. Jeff's mom is still on the fence about hair and makeup, but Randy LeJeune said we can add her later. I'll press her for a final answer closer to the wedding. I'm also going to ask our officiant (our good friend) if she wants hair and makeup as well. If she does, I'm going to do the same as my bridesmaids and offer to pay for her hair.

One more big thing is that we ordered an invitation design from Etsy! Thanks to some great ladies on Facebook mentioning SomethingPrintable on Etsy, I found a perfect invitation design that I loved.

The sample design on Etsy:



I love that it's elegant but also has hidden Mickeys on it. Our invitation will have purple text instead of pink, and we are using slightly different wording, in that we're having the host line state "together with their parents" instead of "Mr. and Mrs. request..." We also have a line on the bottom stating "dinner, dancing, and fireworks to follow." We're getting the invitation card, reply card (with different wording), and a business card sized insert that will have information about our wedding website. We didn't want to spend a ton on invitations, so I thought that buying the design and then having it printed by VistaPrint (especially when they have a really great sale like 50% off) would be a lot less expensive. Plus I love this invitation more than any of the other invitations I've found. And Victoria, the Etsy seller, has been so great to work with so far!

So much going on! I'm glad we're getting a lot done now, though, so we won't have as much to worry about as the date gets closer. I'm already having nightmares about forgetting things, so hopefully getting things done early calms me a little bit!