December 14, 2007 Con’t: Reception
Our reception was set to begin at 5:00pm. All of our guests (I assume) arrived at that time. I asked by BFF Kristina and her boyfriend to go with the florists to decorate the room for us. We had an Escape wedding so it was all on us. Dan and I were with Randy until right around 5:30pm taking photos. This actually worked out well because we did sort of have an “entrance” since our guests were all there.
One of my favorite photos... too bad the top of my brother's Mickey ears is cut off!
My cousin, Becki
So the limo driver drove Dan and I from the GF to the Contemporary when we finished with our photos. Randy followed. We arrived at the CR and went to the 2nd floor to “check in” at the CG desk. When we got there (in full wedding gear, mind you) the CM’s were like “Oh we need to make sure the room is available.” I kept saying “I think it’s ready, our guests arrived at 5:00pm.” After it was confirmed that we were indeed having our reception there… we were escorted up to the 15th floor. Randy wasn’t with us at this point. DH and I made our way to the Sonoma Room. My brother saw us coming and announced we were coming in, so everyone stood up clapping for us. It was really nice.
Our Entrance
The first thing I notice is how lovely it smelled! Our table set up was this: black linens, floating candle cylinder surrounded by a ivory/lavender rose floral ring, 3 votives surrounding the floral ring, navy/lavender/silver Mickey punches, and lavender rose petals scattered on the table. Ok, I’m a Yankee Candle fiend. It’s a sickness!! So I bought Yankee Candle votives for our guest tables and that room smelled so WONDERFUL! I am so glad I bought the slightly more expensive votives because it really made the atmosphere just that much better.
Some pictures of the room setup
Excuse DH's face here!
Cake Table
So we arrive and I want food! I swore I was going to eat and enjoy my wedding food. Luckily the fantastic server CMs at the CG had saved Dan and I some of the appetizers. We only had 1 since we had SO much food… it was a potato cake. I can’t even describe how delictable these were! We each had 3, but I asked if there were anymore… there wasn’t, our guests were big fans too!
Randy arrived a little after we did and began snapping candid photos of the fam. Soon after Randy’s arrival, it was time to get ready for Wishes! Randy had suggested that Dan and I go to the front catwalk and then down 1 level. So we instructed our guests to go to the back catwalk (which had no one on it) and we headed to the front. Once we got there, we discovered the front was not the place to be as there was an obstructed view. Luckily Dan and I had visited the CG in September and knew the landing below the back catwalk had a great view so we told Randy and headed over there. Let me tell you, going up & down stairs with heals and 2 poofy crinolines is a challenge! I’m surprised I’m not laying in traction with a full body cast right now!
Wishes! Photos
So we did our Wishes! Photos and I was thrilled! I don’t look like it in the photos, but I was. It was my 30th birthday and I was watching my favorite fireworks show with my new husband on our wedding day—it doesn’t get better than that.
We came back inside after Wishes! and Randy took a few more pics. I had him take some fake cake cutting pics. After that Randy left so we could eat. I didn’t have Randy stay for that because that’s all we were doing—eating . No dancing or anything like that.
I have to say that the staff at the CG is wonderful. They were so pleasant to every single person in that room. Every person’s glass remained full. They were timely with getting each course out. They were personable but not overly chatty—I just can’t say enough about them. My father, who is a bit of a… well he served in the Navy for 20+ years… he’s particular about how things get done, he still talks about how wonderful the CG was to us. He paid for the reception, so I’m glad he thinks he got his money’s worth!
For our meal, we had a salad (which I honestly don’t remember), soup (I believe it was a winter squash soup—I can’t remember for sure), sorbet (passion fruit—I wasn’t thrilled with that, but it was ok), grouper, chicken, and beef with a variety of veggies. Our guests had “hand passed” platters, which was fine since it was mostly family. The CG made DH and I individual plates with some of everything. Everything was unbelievably good! Unfortunately at this time I began to have some pains… I hate being trashy, but Iknew I had to take something off or I would be uncomfortable for the rest of the night. I whispered to my cousin to come with me to the bathroom to assist. We took off my 2 crinolines and discovered my hoop skirt was the cause of my pain. Luckily I was able to keep the regular crinoline off. I returned to dinner and was able to finish my meal, yay!
Once we finished the meal, it was time for our specialty dessert. I saw another bride had a Figment dessert made and I HAD to have it. The CMs asked if we were ready and I said bring it on! I was so excited to see our desserts and for our guests to have some fun! DH says that his parents still talk about the dessert—it was one of their favorite things from the wedding.
After our Figment dessert, it was time for cake. I was so sad for my beautiful Mickeys and snowflakes to be thrown out. Our bottom layer was chocolate cake/peanut butter cup and the top was almond cake/ amaretto mousse. I asked the CMs to give DH and I a slice of each to share. I thought the choco/pb cup was to die for!
Our pretty cake
Our poor cake!
Tommy & his Rice Krispy Sushi (sorry we didn't get a good pic of the food!)
After cake time I started to get anxious because our planner said we would have to pack up all of our stuff before heading out for the DP. I started telling my dad we needed to wrap things up and get to packing. The super wonderful CG CMs overheard me talking and said “No, no, we will do it for you. We will leave all of your things on the table and you can get them tomorrow.” Huh??!? How awesome was that? I was all ready to get to cleaning in my wedding gown, but they stepped up and said they would take care of everything for us. They did NOT have to do that, so that made me even happier with the CG staff! We took a few important things and left the rest behind.
A few other things to note from our reception… as I said it was my 30th birthday. Shortly after Randy arrived at the beginning, my mother does God knows what to get everyone’s attention (I can’t remember). She tells everyone that 30 years ago today she gave birth to me and asks everyone to sing “Happy Birthday” to me. I was so embarassed, but in a good way. It was nice of my mom to remember my birthday amidst everything else.
Me, embarassed, while everyone sings "Happy Birthday"
I’ve said my nephew, Tommy, was a hit at the reception. He was the entertainment for our “friends” table. Our 4 friends who flew down from NYC had a blast with him. I made the kids t-shirts to wear during dinner so they woulnd’t get food on their clothes. Tommy’s had Buzz Lightyear (his hero) on it. I guess he was telling our friends all about Buzz and doing “To infinity.. and beyond!” for them and running circles around the table. He also was doing this strange thing he does where he is a “kitty.” He likes to crawl around, meowing, pretending to be a kitty. So he became known as Buzz Kitty to our friends. It was hilarious.
"Buzz Kitty" & Summer Bug in their T-shirts
We really enjoyed our reception because it didn’t feel rushed. We had time to eat and still socialize with each of our 3 tables. Again, I cannot say enough about the CG staff. Just wonderful. I would definitely recommend the CG to anyone wanting a smallish reception (especially Escape brides). Yes, it is sort of pricey, but you definitely get one of the best meals available on Disney property for the price and impeccable service!
After finishing up it was time to head out to our mini-bus and on to our Dessert Party. The strangest thing happened in the Contemporary Lobby. I was almost out the door and this grown woman comes running up to me. She was not American, but I’m not sure where she was from. She had sort of a Scandanavian accent. Anyways, she asks if I was married at WDW and if she could get a photo with me. How odd! I said absolutely and am now part of someone’s vacation memories! LOL!
In the lobby before becoming part of the Scandanavian's vacation memories...
With that, we left for Epcot.
Up next…. DP, Disney photo sessions, family day at Disney, DLP!