Angela & Matthew - Home Wedding 4/25/2009 & Disneymoon - I'm MARRIED!!!!

[Angela0917]

Hello all!

I've been hanging around here for a while, and have finally decided to start my PJ!

I'm Angela, 26, and my DF is Matthew, 25. We live in Pennsylvania, in a small city outside of Pittsburgh. We met 2 1/2 years ago... I met one of my good friends out at a local bar, earlier that day she had been at a wedding, and after the wedding was over a bunch of people headed to the nearest bar... she intruduced me to Matt, who was a friend of her date, and the rest is history...

We are getting married on April 25, 2009, and then we're off to our DISNEYMOON!

We got engaged in December 2007, a week before Christmas, while we were in NYC! DF popped the question on a carriage ride through Central Park! Very sweet! We love NYC!

I never really dreamed of being a Disney Bride, however I did look into an Escape Wedding not long after our engagment, and I loved everything about it. I loved that it was small, I loved that it was inexpensive, and I love how it was hastle free. However, DF did not LOVE the idea, but he was going to go along with it anyways. After discussing it with our familys, we found that neither of our familys were too happy with the idea either, sooo I decided to just make everyone happy and do a home wedding, and a Disney Honeymoon! Which looking back now, I know I made the right decision!!

I have not been to Disney in many, many years... I'm thinking like 1995? When I was little, we lived in Florida, so we frequently visited Disney, and I have sooo many happy memories of being there!! My dad always tells DF to be prepared to ride It's a Small World over and over... he says I used to cry when it was over and we'd have to get right back in line to ride it again. DF has NEVER been there, so I can't wait for him to experience it for the first time, because he doesn't get what all the Disney hype is about... he says it's JUST an amusement park! He just has no idea...

Anyways, we're a little over 1/2 way through our engagement, so we've got a lot done already:

-booked church (Catholic Ceremony)
-booked reception site
-ordered cake
-booked photographer (same photographer who did our engagment pics)
-booked limo
-booked DJ
-ordered dress (it's already hanging in my mom's closet)
-ordered bridesmaids dresses
-booked HONEYMOON!

The only MAJOR thing I need to do is book a florist. I've been holding off on that because I couldn't decide if I wanted real or silk flowers, and I think I've totally decided on silk. So hopefully I get that taken care of in the next few weeks!

For our wedding party, we have 6 on each side. My sister is my MOH, and my other bridesmaids include 2 cousins, 2 great friends from highschool, and DF's sister. On the grooms side, his BM is his cousin-in-law. Other groomsmen are my 2 brothers, and 3 of his friends. We also have 2 little ones in the wedding... our flower girl and ring bearer, both my cousins! They're so cute, I'm totally prepared for them to steal the show!

I will go into much more detail later (with lots of pics, of course), so stay tuned! But, it's 1:00 in the morning, and I'm beat... so goodnight!

 

[MegKate]

Hey Angela - Great start to your PJ - can't wait to read more! I keep going back and forth between real and silk flowers - are you going to do your own flowers? If you get someone to do them, (silk I mean) will you pass the name along? Thanks!

 

[trudy88]

Can't wait to hear all about your plans.
trudy <><

 

[Angela0917]

Hey Angela - Great start to your PJ - can't wait to read more! I keep going back and forth between real and silk flowers - are you going to do your own flowers? If you get someone to do them, (silk I mean) will you pass the name along? Thanks!

Thanks! I definately can't do the flowers myself, I'm soo uncreative! There's a craft store in my area called Pat Catans (not sure if it's a national chain or if it's just here in Pittsburgh) and they do really good work so I'm thinking about going there, OR I found this lady on ebay http://www.affordableelegancesilkflorals.com/ ... she has very high seller feedback, and her bouquets look beautiful from the pictures. I've been e-mailing back and forth with her, and I think she quoted me around $300 for ALL my flowers, which is excellent! However, I'm still nervous to order my flowers on the internet, so I may just go through Pat Catans. I'm so indecisive when it comes to flowers! This really has been the hardest thing for me to decide!!!

Can't wait to hear all about your plans.
trudy <><

Thank you, Trudy!

 

[arbolita]

Subscribing - I'm happy that more of the home-wedding people are setting up planning journals...maybe it'll encourage me to get one up too!

 

[Angela0917]

Subscribing - I'm happy that more of the home-wedding people are setting up planning journals...maybe it'll encourage me to get one up too!

You definately should!! I love reading the home wedding PJs!!

 

[Angela0917]

Ok, so once we were engaged, I could not wait to go dress shopping!!! I basically had an idea of what I wanted, and wouldn't even try on anything else. I wanted a pick-up skirt, something similar to Belle, from Beauty and the Beast. One day I called in work sick so that I could go dress shopping with my mom. We went to David's Bridal first, where I tried on like 5-6 different dresses...

The lady in the pic below is not my mom, is was my dress consultant at David's Bridal

2 of which I REALLY liked...

Then we went to Alfred Angelo, and I tried on a couple there...

One was GREEN Do people really buy green wedding dresses??

So, I went home that night, looked at the pics my mom took over and over again, made a decision, and went back the next day and bought my dress!! I bought it in white, not the gold color that it is shown in.

<PIC REMOVED>

It was as easy as that! I can't wait to wear it!!

I also got my veil, tiera, and slip (which I'm dying pink... hopefully this weekend). I don't have pics of the veil or tiera though, they're at my mom's house!

Oh! And so a few days later, I was showing my 3 little cousins a picture of my dress in the David's Bridal catelog, and the one said "Hey, that dress looks like Belle's!"

That was the response I was hoping for...

 

[tnkr mom]

Angela - Congrats to you! I really enjoy reading the wedding PJ's on the DIS and I'm married w/ kids and a a former florist! Just wondering your decision as to why silk flowers?? I did check out your ebay link's site and they do look very pretty but IMHO there is nothing like real flowers on your wedding day. Not to overwhelm you or confuse things even more...consider having your flowers real; something about the textures, smells and site just adds to the day and if your into feng shui at all, it matters! Best of luck and I will be watching for future updates to your PJ!!

 

[tnkr mom]

Oh so glad to hit enter and see your dress! So funny I choose the same one for you out of the pics you posted and not even "knowing" you!! How exciting, it is beautiful and you had a confidence that came through in the picture that said this is THE dress! You are really checking off your list quick so you'll have time to relax and enjoy your engagement time!!!!

 

[trudy88]

It looks beautiful on you.
trudy <><

 

[Angela0917]

Angela - Congrats to you! I really enjoy reading the wedding PJ's on the DIS and I'm married w/ kids and a a former florist! Just wondering your decision as to why silk flowers?? I did check out your ebay link's site and they do look very pretty but IMHO there is nothing like real flowers on your wedding day. Not to overwhelm you or confuse things even more...consider having your flowers real; something about the textures, smells and site just adds to the day and if your into feng shui at all, it matters! Best of luck and I will be watching for future updates to your PJ!!

Thank you!

Ok, I know you're going to think I'm weird for this, but I just have issues with flowers dieing!! Seriously, as I type this I'm sitting in my office at work... the date is 10/20. My birthday was 9/17. My fiance sent me flowers at work on my birthday, and of course, they died... I'd say 4-5 days later they were completely dead. Well, over a month later they're still sitting on my credenza, because I can't bring myself to throw them away. One of the other girls I work with said she was going to come in early one day and throw them away before I got here. I don't know why, I've always been like that! When I lived at home in highschool, I would save all my prom flowers! My senior year, I had 4 very old dead bouquets sitting on a shelf in my bedroom. They smelled! Finally my dad got sick of smelling them, and he went in my room when I wasn't home and threw them away! I cried when I realized they were gone!!!

I've gone back and forth with the real v. silk thing... pretty much since I got engaged in December! Real flowers are so beautiful, and I am terrified of having fake flowers that look FAKE! But I just know I'll have a seperation issue when my wedding flowers are dead 3 days later! I can't help it! Where as, if I have silk flowers, I can put them in a vase, and keep them forever and ever!

 

[Angela0917]

Oh so glad to hit enter and see your dress! So funny I choose the same one for you out of the pics you posted and not even "knowing" you!! How exciting, it is beautiful and you had a confidence that came through in the picture that said this is THE dress! You are really checking off your list quick so you'll have time to relax and enjoy your engagement time!!!!

Thanks tnkr mom! My mom was trying to to pursuade me one way or the other when we were dress shopping (unless one looked awful of course, she would definately tell me), but when I told her the following day that was the one I wanted, she was so excited, because it was her favorite too!!

I can't wait to see it in white! I actually haven't even looked at it since I picked it up! It's been in a bag, hanging at my mom's house. I told her to hide it somewhere so I wouldn't go over and look at it all the time... I had a whole year to go, so I didn't want to get sick of it!

It looks beautiful on you.
trudy <><

Thank you so much, Trudy!

 

[tnkr mom]

I agree with you and I still have a rose from Valentines Day stuck in a vase upstairs! But you can have your bouquet preserved - a do it at home kit or some florists also do it. They sells those glass boxes at Michael's/AC Moore Craft places and that will keep the dust off either real or silk flowers

 

[arbolita]

hahahaha oh man, your dress shopping pictures remind me of when I went too - nearly all of my pictures have me making some crazy faces to express what I thought of the dress, heh.

I'm probably doing mostly silk flowers also, since I'm really allergic to real ones - the last thing I need is to be a literally snotty bride on my wedding day!

 

[Angela0917]

hahahaha oh man, your dress shopping pictures remind me of when I went too - nearly all of my pictures have me making some crazy faces to express what I thought of the dress, heh.

I'm probably doing mostly silk flowers also, since I'm really allergic to real ones - the last thing I need is to be a literally snotty bride on my wedding day!

LOL! I know, I am making a weird face in like every picture! I was embarassed, my mom was snapping pictures all over the place!!

DF is allergic to flowers too, but I don't know how much they would affect them because when I have flowers in the house, it doesn't usually bother him much... that's a good excuse though, maybe I'll use that instead of telling people I get sad throwing away dead flowers!

 

[Angela0917]

I agree with you and I still have a rose from Valentines Day stuck in a vase upstairs! But you can have your bouquet preserved - a do it at home kit or some florists also do it. They sells those glass boxes at Michael's/AC Moore Craft places and that will keep the dust off either real or silk flowers

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one keeping dead flowers!

I've never really looked into having them preserved... I've heard of it, but I don't actually know what it means? Do they just like put them in a glass box to hang on the wall?

 

[PrincessPirate28]

I agree with you and I still have a rose from Valentines Day stuck in a vase upstairs! But you can have your bouquet preserved - a do it at home kit or some florists also do it. They sells those glass boxes at Michael's/AC Moore Craft places and that will keep the dust off either real or silk flowers

Love your pj so far can't wait to read more.

Glad I'm not the only one either, I just yesturday had to throw out all the flowers my DF had given me over the years, I was very sad. That's a little part of the reason I'm going with silk for the wedding.

 

[Angela0917]

Love your pj so far can't wait to read more.

Glad I'm not the only one either, I just yesturday had to throw out all the flowers my DF had given me over the years, I was very sad. That's a little part of the reason I'm going with silk for the wedding.

Thank you!

I love to hear that I'm not the only person who gets sad throwing away dead flowers... I was beginning to think I was crazy!

 

[Angela0917]

Ok, while we're on the subject of FLOWERS...

Here are pics that I've saved that I like (I just posted them the other day on the Brides to Be POTD, so you may have already seen them)...

And for my adorable flower girl (in the same color as mine, of course, and without those weird berry things)...

I know, they're all pretty much exactly the same!! I want a simple bouquet of pink gerbera daisys... except I don't know if I what hot pink and light pink; or hot pink and white; or hot pink, light pink, and white; or if I want some roses or something else mixed in there with it? The one above with the gerbera daisys and roses was stolen from disbride Bouncy Bounce!

Should the bridesmaids bouquets be the same color?

And most of all, do you think this will look ok with silk flowers?? Or should I just go with REAL???

 

[MegKate]

OMG - Your dress is beautiful! You do look like Belle in it!!

And on the note of floral, I think there's nothing wrong with silk, especially where you have attachment issues! lol . I'm El Cheapo Meg, and I'm having a hard time thinking of spending over 1000 for flowers for one hour. And then on top of that, if I want it preserved, I have to dole out another few hundred?! I just don't think it's worth it - I would rather spend the money elsewhere in the wedding. But I am going to go with real flowers for the reception - that's my compromise. (Sorry about the soapbox! hehe)

And I think the daisies that you want will look beautiful in silk! I would just go with daisies themselves - they are so big and pretty by themselves in bunches.

Thanks for the link - I'm going to try and contact the woman to see what she can do for my wedding.