Forever Could Even Start Today, Wedding & Disneymoon Sept 17 update 10/1: Last Day, Budget recap

Behind the Scenes

So this photo show off the lovely underside of my bouquet :rotfl: but I also thought it was a good one with the stems... which are straws covered in floral tape. :thumbsup2
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Out of all of the photos, this is the only one where you can see Aly with the balloons.
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Here I look super awkward against the wall... for posterity's sake.

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Oh did you want a posed photo of me with the balloons?

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And now, it is time to say goodbye to the dress... :sad1:
 
LOVE LOVE LOVE the photos. Especially the outtakes. Our photographers tried to make us "walk like we were drunk" and a bunch of other stuff during the engagement session that totally failed, which reminds me of your directions to run. It must work for some people but I was like... uh... I'm gonna fall down this big hill and get all dirty...

Here I look super awkward against the wall... for posterity's sake
You look so emo! It's like high school angst, leaning against your locker

And now, it is time to say goodbye to the dress... :sad1:
Noooo :sad:

At least you got to wear it again!!!
 
Sounds like you two have been very busy. Glad to hear your reception went well and you all had a good time!

Loving all of your photos. Though poor Aly, at least you let her out from behind your dress to get in a few pictures :-)
 


All of the photos look great. I am just tired looking at all the different shots you got! Man alive! Were you tired of smiling yet? Probably not, it was your wedding day!

I love this one! Amazing post-photo shoot pic!

That and it was crazy that you didn't get any of your friend in the ones with her crouching! Pretty amazing.
 

I love this photo! Your rings make an adorable hidden Mickey :)

Something Blue: Flowers, Shoes, Other things ;)

Teehehe

So then we added in the balloons... but the problem was, if you set them on the ground, they were too low! So Aly, being the trooper that she was, crawled behind us and hid behind my dress holding the balloons at just the right height.

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No way!! That's so funny! But the pictures came out awesome, so definitely worth it!
 


All your photos are amazing. I don’t know how you can pick favourites.
Aw thanks! I'm trying not to bore you all, but it's hard :)

Eileen's Cookies are awesome. (I live in NE) I like the sign your family had made for you. I like HOB pictures and what a great friend to hold the balloons for you.
Thanks! I am really quite lucky to have her as a friend.

I love Eileens! It had been so long since I'd had them. I tried to explain to Zack and his parents beforehand, but they didn't understand until they tried it. And since you live in NE, you won't ask me silly questions about "coming to the big city" which is really 1/3 the size of Lincoln, which is where I grew up... I heard that so often in college, I was ready to start telling people that we don't have electricity in NE and we ride cows everywhere. :sad2:

Sounds like it turned out NOT to be a bust!!! I wish I had a day at DL!
I know! And I was soooo close to staying out there the whole time with him anyways and getting a one or two day ticket myself anyways, but... work :sad2: The disappointing part was it wasn't even lack of vacation time, it was my new manager - we have lots of changes going on right now, not sure how that will work out.
Love it. :love: Glad he got his ring situation sorted out! It looks really nice!
Yes! He was so happy with it. Though he also loved one at Na'Hoku, and a watch they had... turns out they have a store 30 mins from us here!

THAT is a true friend! Amazing that you can't see her at all!
Such a great friend! I was shocked there's absolutely nothing to give her away, even when I was really searching since I know.

LOVE LOVE LOVE the photos. Especially the outtakes. Our photographers tried to make us "walk like we were drunk" and a bunch of other stuff during the engagement session that totally failed, which reminds me of your directions to run. It must work for some people but I was like... uh... I'm gonna fall down this big hill and get all dirty...
:rotfl: I don't think I could fake drunk walking... I would totally fall down. I'm sure some people get great pictures, and maybe you even saw some in your photographers' portfolio, but... it's not like they show you a nice picture and say, We told them to act drunk here! :rotfl:

You look so emo! It's like high school angst, leaning against your locker
:laughing: oh, high school...

Noooo :sad:

At least you got to wear it again!!!
I'm so glad I wore it again! But now it's time for an outfit change :(

Sounds like you two have been very busy. Glad to hear your reception went well and you all had a good time!

Loving all of your photos. Though poor Aly, at least you let her out from behind your dress to get in a few pictures :-)
:laughing: She should be very grateful I let her out.

Everytime I think, oh we'll have more time now, we stay just as busy. I'm not sure how that keeps happening...

Beautiful pictures!

I don’t know if I commented before but seriously your bouquet is beautiful! You should sell them!
Thank you! That did cross my mind... but between effort and materials, and there being a lot on Etsy already for several hundred dollars and up :faint: It would be fun as a hobby though. Who knows, maybe some day...

All of the photos look great. I am just tired looking at all the different shots you got! Man alive! Were you tired of smiling yet? Probably not, it was your wedding day!

I love this one! Amazing post-photo shoot pic!

That and it was crazy that you didn't get any of your friend in the ones with her crouching! Pretty amazing.
I think we thought we'd be tired of photos when we were planning the day, but for some reason it didn't even cross my mind in the moment :laughing:

I love the photo of my cousin, it's one of my favorites.

I love this photo! Your rings make an adorable hidden Mickey :)
Thanks! I definitely wondered how they would look like that, since they're oddly shaped and neither of mine are flat...

It's been getting a bit mature on the Disboards lately... :rotfl:

Last weekend in Disneyland, I was talking about a more mature topic but trying to phrase it for little ears... It went something like, these things. It helps if the other person knows what you're talking about! :laughing:

No way!! That's so funny! But the pictures came out awesome, so definitely worth it!
I love them! The balloons were totally worth the $50 too ::yes::
 
Epcot
After our photo extravaganza around House of Blues, we headed back to the Dolphin so I could do a wardrobe change. Since we did not have a wedding through Disney, I was not allowed to wear a wedding dress for our dessert party. Before we even decided we were having a dessert party, before we even knew where our wedding would be our how big, I had run across a dress on the JCPenney website and bought it on a whim, figuring it'd come in handy for something. I thought about looking for antoher tea length wedding dress, because I'd learned through FB groups that I could get away with that, but even things at David's Bridal were $100+. Then I remembered this dress I'd ordered, it was pretty, comfy, fit perfectly, and required no extra effort... and I think I paid $20ish for it.

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The plan was to head over to Epcot and meet up with whoever was up to it before the dessert party. Some of our guests only had two day tickets and this was their only chance to see Epcot. Most went back and changed into more casual clothing, I changed into my second dress, and Zack decided he wanted to keep his vest on. We had kind of figured he'd take it off, as it was a lot hotter that afternoon, but Zack has decided he really likes the vest and even now he's always looking for a chance to wear it again :laughing: We walked over to Epcot with Al, Aly, and N and met up with everyone near the fountain behind Spaceship Earth.

I don't have a ton of pictures from our Epcot time before the Dessert Party, as Aly was still manning my phone. We met up with everyne but B and her family and my grandpa. I had made FPs for everyone (but Al and Aly, because if you remember we had just gotten their tickets two days before) for Frozen Ever After, Mission Space, and Spaceship Earth. We had debated the Tier 1 FP, and went with FEA because most had been on Soarin' already in California, and also on Radiator Springs Racers (which I like better than Test Track), plus we got a picture on Frozen. We filled a whole boat :)

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After this we hit Mission Space, where we tried to break Al and N again with motion rides. Everyone split up for a bit after, because we had a bit of time to kill before the Spaceship Earth FP. I had a specific thing in mind... so while Zack and I headed off to do that, the others did their own thing. Like some took super photogenic PP photos. It's just not fair...

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Now, what did I have in mind? Well, there is the Disney Visa Character Meet over by Figment... If you don't know, they rotate the characters through, usually two of the five classic characters are in there. But you don't know who it is until you get to the front of the line. If we had done our wedding through Disney, Mickey and Minnie would have been our big splurge. But since we didn't go that direction, I had this idea for budget friendly character photos :)

We waited maybe 5 minutes or so until we got to the front to see it was...

Mickey and Goofy!

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I'm sure Goofy is offering very good advice here

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Mickey had heard we had just gotten married that day, so he showed off my ring. The cast member told him he better let Minne see that, or she'll want one too! And Mickey made a big show of covering his eyes :laughing:

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Goofy had missed when the cast member managing the line told Mickey about our wedding, so he didn't know until then. Mickey showed him my ring.

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We had a great time here with Mickey and Goofy. I think this meet is a great little benefit for having the Disney Visa. And I would have been really happy if these were the only character photos we got on our wedding day.

But guys, I've saved the best for last!

When we got to the front of the line originally and saw it was Mickey and Goofy, I'll admit I was just a teeny bit disappointed. I knew we'd have to be beyond lucky for it to happen, but I'd secretly been hoping for Mickey and Minnie.

When the cast member managing the line asked about our Happily Ever After buttons, we told her we'd just gotten married. Oh, when? This morning! She was very excited for us, and went to the character handler and whispered something to them... When she came back she quietly told us that Mickey and Minnie were the next set, and that we should come back to the exit doors just before 7pm and they would let us back in for photos since it was our wedding day :lovestruc

We booked it over to Spaceship Earth for our FP with everyone, and I was just all excited about our Pixie Dust :tink:

Time should not have been an issue, but because it's us, SE stopped on us... ok, that happens right, sometimes with loading/unloading. But this was about 5-8 minutes, so I started completely stressing out that these cast members had done something nice for us and now we probably wouldn't make it in time and it would look like we bailed, and I was so upset at the thought of missing our chance with Mickey and Minnie... and then the ride moved again. Thank goodness! We booked it over there, though we were still a few minutes late. Oh, and the photos weren't working on SE, which was a slight bummer, because I wanted to be cheesy and ride it on our wedding day and have it tell us about our future :laughing:

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Zack apparently is distracted by the camera... I was just super jazzed about this!

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Minnie showed Mickey my ring and he covered his eyes again :rotfl:

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This was super sweet of the cast members and made for a great memory of the day! The last time we'd had pictures with Mickey and Minnie
together (or even apart, really, because we don't always stop) was the night we got engaged, on our way out of Disneyland, when on a fluke they were out meeting together on Main Street.

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Afterwards, we met back up with everyone and headed towards Italy for our Dessert Party!
 
We filled a whole boat :)

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I love this as one of your wedding party photos!


I love this! Mickey checking out your ring and Goofy giving some advice...

No.... this one is even better!

she came back she quietly told us that Mickey and Minnie were the next set, and that we should come back to the exit doors just before 7pm and they would let us back in for photos since it was our wedding day :lovestruc
Amazing!!!

So cute!

Even Cutier!!!

2 very lovely ladies!


Ok, I apparently like ALL of your photos since I quoted so many of them! What are you doing with all of these photos! You have so many great photos!

This was super sweet of the cast members and made for a great memory of the day! The last time we'd had pictures with Mickey and Minnie together (or even apart, really, because we don't always stop) was the night we got engaged, on our way out of Disneyland, when on a fluke they were out meeting together on Main Street.
That makes it even more perfect!

You dress is perfect! It def still looks like a wedding dress. You were probably more comfortable that way anyway!
 
I love all the pictures! The 20 dollar dress is awesome! It looks way more expensive than that and I think it's the perfect 2nd dress.
Love the pictures at the Disney Visa meet n greet, they are perfect! That is awesome the CM told you to come back when Mickey and Minnie were meeting...I've actually never seen them together at the Visa Meet n Greet so that is so extra special!!!
 
Y'all looked so happy the entire day-- and how sweet that they let you come back and get Mickey and Minnie together! That is an awesome bit of pixie dust!
 
What a great evening! I can only fathom what it costs to have Mickey and Minnie at a Disney wedding so your idea was truly amazing. Love all your pictures and your dress!!!! As someone who got married in Vegas for $99 in a dress that cost about $30 I totally get our vibe!
 
After our photo extravaganza around House of Blues, we headed back to the Dolphin so I could do a wardrobe change. Since we did not have a wedding through Disney, I was not allowed to wear a wedding dress for our dessert party. Before we even decided we were having a dessert party, before we even knew where our wedding would be our how big, I had run across a dress on the JCPenney website and bought it on a whim, figuring it'd come in handy for something. I thought about looking for antoher tea length wedding dress, because I'd learned through FB groups that I could get away with that, but even things at David's Bridal were $100+. Then I remembered this dress I'd ordered, it was pretty, comfy, fit perfectly, and required no extra effort... and I think I paid $20ish for it.
That dress is super cute and looks so comfy!

I love the photos with Mickey and Minnie!

The last time we'd had pictures with Mickey and Minnie together (or even apart, really, because we don't always stop) was the night we got engaged, on our way out of Disneyland, when on a fluke they were out meeting together on Main Street.
Oh so cute!
 
Just getting started reading through everything. I enjoyed reading your engagement story too. My husband and I are trying to go to all 50 states by the age of 40 and Nebraska is one of four I haven't visited yet. We are going to do a long weekend road trip there this summer (he's been there before; jointly we have Alaska, Oregon and Washington left). I've enjoyed reading your report so far. The Harry Potter pictures are awesome. The last time we went to Universal was when it was all being built. I am just getting to your Christmas section of the report. I got the Pluto bucket when we were down for our vow renewal planning session in November pluto: Looking forward to getting caught up soon.
 
I love this as one of your wedding party photos!
I loved getting the pictures from Frozen and Pirates with our big party :)

No.... this one is even better!
This poor photo got overlooked too, because I was so excited about Mickey and Minnie, I just skimmed Goofy when I downloaded them on my computer. I love this one!

Ok, I apparently like ALL of your photos since I quoted so many of them! What are you doing with all of these photos! You have so many great photos!
Aw thanks! I got a whole bunch of them printed out to scrapbook, now I just need to sit down and do it. I want to do one book for the wedding and one for the rest of the trip. I love scrapbooking. I also made a couple photo books through Walgreens for family, like my grandpa, Zack's parents/grandparents, etc. And someday soon I hope to do a gallery wall (or maybe a couple :)) with wedding photos, family photos, our random snapshots, and some other stuff mixed in. I've been collecting some of the Disney art post cards from Wonderground Gallery since September, plus I've kept the sketches they send you after your vacation at WDW plus the two Joe Rhode prints we've gotten from Tiffins. I can't wait!

That makes it even more perfect!
I feel like we had really amazing luck on our engagement day plus wedding day for this!

You dress is perfect! It def still looks like a wedding dress. You were probably more comfortable that way anyway!
It's a super comfortable dress too! I like that I can wear it for other things - it's a great fancy dress for travel because it doesn't wrinkle :thumbsup2

Excellent choice for your dress! It's perfect!

Oh my gosh, what an awesome photo!! Favourite!

This is soo sweet! Absolutely magical :lovestruc
Thank you! It worked out perfectly. We had wonderful pixie dust with the character photos. And I didn't even realize how much I love that Mickey and Goofy one until I put it in this report!

I love all the pictures! The 20 dollar dress is awesome! It looks way more expensive than that and I think it's the perfect 2nd dress.
Love the pictures at the Disney Visa meet n greet, they are perfect! That is awesome the CM told you to come back when Mickey and Minnie were meeting...I've actually never seen them together at the Visa Meet n Greet so that is so extra special!!!
I don't think I've ever seen Mickey and Minnie in anyone's TRs when they've gone. I was blown away by our pixie dust!

Y'all looked so happy the entire day-- and how sweet that they let you come back and get Mickey and Minnie together! That is an awesome bit of pixie dust!
Aw thank you! That was a wonderful cast member we met that evening, she was so sweet!

What a great evening! I can only fathom what it costs to have Mickey and Minnie at a Disney wedding so your idea was truly amazing. Love all your pictures and your dress!!!! As someone who got married in Vegas for $99 in a dress that cost about $30 I totally get our vibe!
I did some research pricing out Disney weddings, so I know :scared1: Our day turned out perfectly for us! Don't get me wrong, we still spent a chunk of money overall, but I didn't want to go completely crazy and Disney was headed into that realm for our budget. We actually came in under budget :thumbsup2

That dress is super cute and looks so comfy!

I love the photos with Mickey and Minnie!

Oh so cute!
I mean, I don't really know if we were lucky to find Mickey and Minnie together leaving Disneyland that night... I've just never seen them doing that on any other trips (and that was the only night I saw that for that trip too). I've seen them out separately, and the other characters, but not together.

What a wonderful cast member we had the luck of meeting for our wedding day :)

Oh my goodness those mickey and Minnie pictures. That was so sweet of the cast members. Pixie dust is the best
It was so sweet of them! It was like the cherry on top of the day for me :)

Just getting started reading through everything. I enjoyed reading your engagement story too. My husband and I are trying to go to all 50 states by the age of 40 and Nebraska is one of four I haven't visited yet. We are going to do a long weekend road trip there this summer (he's been there before; jointly we have Alaska, Oregon and Washington left). I've enjoyed reading your report so far. The Harry Potter pictures are awesome. The last time we went to Universal was when it was all being built. I am just getting to your Christmas section of the report. I got the Pluto bucket when we were down for our vow renewal planning session in November pluto: Looking forward to getting caught up soon.
:welcome:
I hope you enjoy!

I hope you enjoy seeing NE. Of course I'm biased, but I could definitely move back to Lincoln which is my hometown. It may not be super fancy, but it's got that lovely midwestern feel of nice people and small-town-ness. But that's not for everyone :) I want to do a roadtrip some day to introduce my husband to all of the museums and things I went to growing up - so far all we've done is drive through to get back for family things. I also want to get him back to the Omaha Zoo - if you enjoy zoos, it is an amazing one! They've added so much in the last few years, I'm not sure it can be seen in a day anymore!

I hope to hit all 50 states someday too! Zack and I do not have very many overlapping states - my family took a trip each summer, almost always driving (except three times - to Phoenix, San Diego, and Anchorage) but we drove as far as Corpus Christi and Niagara Falls. Zack's family mostly traveled for sports, so they went to the same few places mostly, but they were different from where my family went. We need to make a list!

I love that you got the Pluto bucket, it was so cute! We saw a few people carrying it in January.
 
Dessert Party
Part One
After getting our Mickey and Minnie photos, we met everyone else back over by Spaceship Earth. We probably had about 30-45 minutes to kill before our Dessert Party officially started at 8pm, so we decided to head over to Italy. For reference, I have a picture:
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The red star is where we originally were supposed to have our event, known as Italy Isola West. It's for small groups. But then they told us they needed that area for a Food Booth and line... now, if you attended the festival, you may be thinking, I don't recall a booth being there... and this is a map from that festival, so even if you can't remember, you will notice there is no number in that area. They really just needed it for the concert line. So they moved us to Italy Isola, the large area over the bridges where the blue star is. Yes, we had that giant area for our 20 person group. People probably hated us...

As I think back, I actually think Al and Aly were already over here, hanging out on the steps of the tower in Italy. We made our way around at a leisurely pace with the rest of the group, and hung around while people used the restroom, etc. We also watched them set up our party :thumbsup2

Our photographers, videographer, and guests without park tickets were met out in front of Epcot by an event guide and escorted through the park. One of the photographers snapped this photo:

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My grandpa was pretty funny when they got there. He kept going on about how big the park was, and "it took us 25 minutes to walk here!" :rotfl: My grandpa isn't the fastest walker anymore, and they also had a scooter in the group. I would have loved to take him into Magic Kingdom the day before, because he grew up in CA going to Disneyland a few times as a kid, but I think it would have been too much - he gets around really well, but after too much walking his back begins to hurt.

After everyone else arrived, we just wandered over to one of the bridges to go in... they had given us wristbands for everyone, but we didn't really have anyone say anything to us to start, or introduce themselves or anything. Even the guide that brought everyone else in, I'm not sure where they went but they didn't take charge either. It just seemed a little weird to wander up and not have anyone at all come up to greet us, the couple hosting the event, or mention that they were in charge for the evening :confused3

Anyways, our desserts!

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Cocoa Dusted Red Velvet Cupcakes

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Churros with chocolate sauce for dipping

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Rice Crispy Bon Bons

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Fresh Fruit

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Coffee and Tea station with assorted syrups
We also had Mickey pretzels and Assorted Ice Cream Bars, which I believe included the Mickey shaped ice cream bars, Mickey shaped ice cream sandwiches, and some fruit bars. The Coffee/Tea station and fruit were included on all dessert menus, and we just picked and chose for everything else to build our own menu. Ice cream bars and pretzels were not on any sample menus they sent, we just asked about those. And we also had a hosted bar.

As an add on item, we had:

Nitro Fried Nutella Mousse Truffle topped with Chocolate Sauce and Mickey Confetti

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They were a hit, since they're so different. These were not listed on any sample menus either, but between the boards and the FB group I knew about them so I could ask. I hadn't seen our particular option of nitrogen sphere offered to anyone else.

We had some time to enjoy desserts and chat with guests before Illuminations.

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Don't be fooled by that plate, I had probably 4 rice crispys, a cupcake, a churro, a pretzel, and a nitrogen sphere.

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This might be my very favorite dessert party photo :laughing:

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Seriously, this is every one except Zack and I. In the whole big space :)

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It seemed like pretty quickly overall we joined our photographers and videographer up on the bridge, to do a few test photos.

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And for the sake of cutting this up into nice pieces I'll end here for now!
 
So they moved us to Italy Isola, the large area over the bridges where the blue star is. Yes, we had that giant area for our 20 person group. People probably hated us...
That is pretty amazing! Just because of a line...

Nitro Fried Nutella Mousse Truffle topped with Chocolate Sauce and Mickey Confetti

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Just for you! Also amazing! I need to have someone get married at Disney so I can experience this!

Don't be fooled by that plate, I had probably 4 rice crispys, a cupcake, a churro, a pretzel, and a nitrogen sphere.
As you should have!


Morgan would have been in Mickey Pretzel Heaven! But my girls are addicted to the cheese sauce that comes with it in Disney.

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Seriously, this is every one except Zack and I. In the whole big space :)
Seriously AMAZING! To have all that space to yourselves. Just perfect.
 

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