~*~ Mindyjoy's May 19 2012 Disneyland Wedding TR ~*~ Trip Report Has Begun!

[belle2211]

Happy Wedding Day! I hope it was magical!

 

[BethieTink]

I know I am a little late, but....

:dance:HAPPY WEDDING DAY!!!

 

[CinderALLIE]

Sorry I'm late. Hope your day was magical.

 

[Bewitch324]

I'm sorry I'm late, but I hope your day was everything you hoped it would be!!!

Pixie dust!!!

Congratulations,

Brooke

 

[Mindyjoy]

Thanks for the well wishes everyone! We had the most magical day! We are enjoying a mini-moon at Disneyland but I will post a couple pictures when I get home!

 

[Mindyjoy]

Hello! I'm back from our wedding week and slowly climbing out of my funk and re-entering the real world. I can't believe today is our one week anniversary already! It has all gone by so fast! Today is also a great day because DH got hired as a staff writer on Community today! It's really tough to explain how huge this is for him. He has been working in TV for 15 years towards this moment. Having a staff writing credit is huge for his career. His contract is only for 20 weeks but his salary will triple meaning he'll make more than he made all last year during this 20 weeks. He is starting to talk about how much money he'll be able to save for our down payment. It's really exciting!

So anyway, I figured I better start my recap before I forget everything!! So I'll start with a couple pictures.

A couple months before the wedding I took bridal portraits with White Rabbit Photo Boutique at the Disneyland Hotel! This one is my favorite I've seen so far.

This great picture was taken by a guest. Our first kiss - we should have practiced - lol. I moved in for a kiss but DH's feet were planted to the ground!! I think he was a bit nervous.

In lieu of a private castle shoot, the morning after our wedding we did a "Just Married" shoot with White Rabbit Photo Boutique. DH was a major grump but we managed to get at least this one good shot, haha. I'm anxious to see the rest.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Congratulations. We left Grand California the day before your wedding and while we were, every time I walked past the courtyard and the ballrooms, I thought of you. I love the dress and the photos.

Corinna

 

[MrsDuck]

I've stalking your FB for pictures pretty much daily-- everything was so fun and beautiful! SO happy for you Mindy!!

 

[elleinad16]

SO beautiful! I can't wait to see more!

 

[yourgypsy]

Beautiful! I can't wait to see more!

 

[Mindyjoy]

Day 1 - Thursday, May 17, 2012
Part 1

Thursday, two days before wedding day, was the day we were leaving for the Disneyland Resort! I slept okay but I was up late packing (I'm a last minute, throw-it-all-in-there-and-sort-it-out-later packer) so I only got a few hours. I set my alarm for 8:00am because I had a 9:00 hair appointment at Dry Bar to give my hair a little style for our engagement pics later. But the day started on a negative note with a text from DH's parents and sister that their flight was cancelled and they were put on a later flight out of a different airport and instead of arriving around 2pm, they would be arriving around 8pm. I felt so bad for them.

My parents arranged to stop by our apartment with their van on their way to DLR at 10:00 so they could help transport our crap. They were right on time and between the four of us we were able to Tetris everything into their van, which was a major help! I had a bit of a bridezilla moment because I was trying to take inventory of what was going with my parents and what was staying with us, but the guys were taking stuff and packing it in faster than I could write! Turns out this would be the first of many bridezilla moments that day. Also, by the time we were done packing up my hair had completely fallen and all the curls were gone, so that was a major waste of time and money. (I was rushing around so much on Thursday that I didn't think to even take any pictures of my hair while it still looked good. In fact, I barely have any pictures from this day.)

My goal was to be on the road by 11am but we were running a bit late. After we packed up my parent's van, we had to pack up my car, say our goodbyes to Walter, stop by the grocery store and fill up the gas tank. We were finally on our way to Disneyland at around 12:15.

We had a quick and uneventful trip to Disney. It took us about an hour. We parked the car in self parking and met up with my parents in the lobby. Everyone was starving so we went to Tangaroa Terrace for a quick lunch. My goal was to get our Welcome Bags delivered by 3pm in time for check-in.

After our quick lunch (DH and I split the chicken sandwich, which is SO GOOD), we all went back to the lobby for last minute Welcome Bag items. I wanted to get park maps and schedules and I thought I may have to go all the way to the park gates, but I thought to ask at Guest Services at the hotel and they gave me what I needed! (YAY Guest Services!) Then we checked out the little gift shop and I decided to get lollipops for each bag, which were a hit with at least one of our guests:

After gathering all the items, I moved my car next to my parents van (they had the boxes with the Welcome Bags) and everyone helped assembly line style to add our new items to the bags (thanks mom and dad!!). Then Tim organized all the bags so one box had all the bags for the Disney hotels, and one box had all the off-property bags. Then we loaded the boxes in my car and DH and I set off to deliver all the bags.

Delivering to the off-property hotels was relatively uneventful. Some hotels were confused as to what we were doing (which I thought was weird - surely there are a ton of weddings in that area so this can't be THAT odd???) but some hotels were very helpful. Our only snag was trying to get to the convention center hotels since that area is under some major construction. We delivered our last off-property bag at exactly 3pm - woohoo! We swung by Paradise Pier Hotel and dropped off those two bags, which took a little bit of work but finally Bell Services took them. I dropped DH off at DLH lobby and he took all the DLH Welcome Bags to take to Bell Services while I parked the car.

At some point during our delivery, I got a text from The Roots asking we could move our shoot from 5:00 to 6:00. DH was a little annoyed since he wanted to make sure we were back to watch Community at 8:00 but the delay ended up being a good thing.

After parking, I went back towards the lobby and saw my parents unloading their van with a bellhop. I saw my dress and grabbed it, along with a Rubbermaid bin that I knew contained my shoes, veil, tiara, jewelry, rings, and marriage license, so I decided I would rather keep those things with me. Then I made my way to the lobby and here's where the day started doing downhill. I found DH in the lobby with all the Welcome Bags still, and he said DLH simply wouldn't take them. He checked with Guest Services and Bell Services. We had about 10 bags and they were heavy so I knew we had to get rid of them. So I said I'd get in line for check-in and as we were checking in, I would ask about the bags. There was no wait to check in so I gave the CM our info and we were told to wait off to the side. Then a CM, Tracy, came up to us and said to come with her. I told her okay but we have the issue of the Welcome Bags. After explaining our situation, she had us follow her to Bell Services, where they told us they could take them for $3.50 each. I was getting annoyed but asked DH what he wanted to do since he was the one who was carrying them. He was in no mood to pay and said he'll carry them to the room and we can just deliver them ourselves. Whatever!

So then Tracy said she was taking us to our room. This was really interesting to me because I've never been escorted to our room before and I assumed we were getting some kind of VIP treatment. Our coordinator Traci knew I would have loved a suite upgrade but she warned me that it's really difficult to do for a stay as long as ours (seven nights) so I assumed we wouldn't get it, but when we got this CM escort, I got my hopes up that maybe we were getting upgraded!!! Then she led us to the Adventure Tower (I had requested Frontier Tower since that is my favorite tower) and I got bummed for a second BUT THEN I thought, ohmygosh, we were upgraded to a Signature Suite!!! But that was dashed when Tracy pressed "8" in the elevator and I knew at that point we were going to a regular room.

Here's where I start sounding like a brat. My idea in my head was I was going to ask how much it cost to get a suite if we weren't upgraded. I was also interested in a balcony room in the Frontier Tower if we couldn't get a suite. But mostly I really wanted the Frontier Tower because I like how secluded it feels (and also our parents were all staying in the Fantasy Tower which is the farthest away, heh).

When we got to our room, it was upgraded to a pool view, which was nice. But I told Tracy I didn't realize what was happening and I wanted to talk to someone about paying for a suite upgrade or requesting a balcony room (I made a point to make sure I said "PAYING for a suite" so everyone didn't think I was expecting anything for free). She said she needed to check me in to this room first and then she'd call and talk to our coordinator Traci about the suite and also the Welcome Bags and see if they could take them for free. Tracy said she would call me on the room phone after researching availability for my room requests. I asked how long it would take because we had a photo shoot to get to, and she said it wouldn't be long. So DH and I were stuck in this room without our luggage, we couldn't settle in because we weren't sure if we were moving, and on top of all of that, DH was dealing with one of our videography friendors who said he may have to bail on our wedding because he got hired for a gig that paid $25,000 for one day of work. We obviously couldn't tell him to NOT take that job but DH was upset his friend was putting us in that position. Between quick phone calls and texts we knew that the gig might be Friday or Saturday and our friend was trying to push for Friday, but he also said he would find a replacement for him for our wedding day if he needed to bail. DH was really stressed about it, but I wasn't, I kept thinking about how I'm not going to have time to get ready for our photo shoot and we may have to cancel.

It felt like an eternity but after about 30 minutes Tracy called back. The details are a little fuzzy for this but I believed she said she talked to Traci and they were able to upgrade our free night to a suite but not the other nights. Now I started to feel anxious because I didn’t want Traci thinking I was acting like a brat about the suite upgrade. I told Tracy that was fine and we were interested in paying for an upgrade. She said the upgrade for 7 nights minus the free night would be around $2000 but she had to double check availability and find out an exact total. I also asked her about non-suite balcony rooms and she said she would check and call me back. Ugh.

So I got off the phone and was talking to DH about the extra $2000. We both knew it was a lot but DH was not interested in paying it, at all. So I knew if I really wanted it I would have to pay from whatever might be left over from the wedding budget plus from my savings. We had the ipad with us so I pulled up my bank account and tried to do some quick math and the bottom line was I had to dip into my savings. DH and I went back and forth some more and he said he didn’t care either way. After about another 20 minutes Tracy called back and gave me a final figure for the suite upgrade, and in actuality it would be around $2800 more!!! And she said there were no non-suite balcony rooms available. I asked her if I could discuss with DH and call her back in 5 minutes. She said sure and gave me her extension. I got off the phone and told DH the new price, and then burst into tears. I had just convinced myself the $2000 was justifiable somehow but now it was another $800! And DH didn’t want to make a decision and we had a photo shoot in an hour and a half that I wasn’t prepared for and the videography stuff I had just had enough at that point and broke down. DH came over and got me some tissue and put his arm around me and said he was sorry this was all happening. I told him I wasn’t crying over the suite, I was just exhausted, we had a long day and I was tired of making decisions. I was so annoyed that all of this back-and-forth could have been handled in 15 minutes at the front desk but instead it was taking almost 2 hours due to our “special treatment.” I was ready to pay the $2000 but now it is $2800 and is it worth it? I wanted our wedding trip to be special. I wanted to have a large place where we could have everyone visit and relax, and to store all our stuff and not worry about tripping over it or each other. I told him I felt like bridezilla but I didn’t mean to be. DH said I was allowed at least one breakdown pre-wedding and this was as good a time as any. I composed myself and I asked about cutting our trip short one night to make the suite more affordable. DH was okay with that, so I called Tracy back and asked her what we would save if we cut a night. The amount was $730-something (!!!!) so after a quick conferring with DH we decided to go for the suite and cut our trip to six nights. I assured our suite had a balcony and a park view, since those are the two things I cared about, and Tracy confirmed it did. She also said she would come up and get our Welcome Bags and take them to Bell Services. I said we could drop them off at the lobby but she insisted she would come and get them. Ugh. More delay. So we waited another 10 minutes or so for Tracy and she collected our Welcome Bags and was very apologetic for the hassle. I told Tracy the bags were really heavy and we had to go to the Fantasy Tower anyway and we could help her carry them, but she insisted on doing it herself. I wonder if Traci told her I’m a blogger? ;-) At this point I should really say that Tracy was wonderful and very helpful, but I was immensely frustrated that I could just have handled all of this at the front desk in a much shorter time frame. I actually dropped off a comment card later in the trip for Tracy because I was paranoid she may think I was angry. Anyway, while we were waiting for Tracy, DH and I discussed that we may have time to run down to Bell Services and pull a fresh outfit from our bags, then clean up in my parent’s room, and still make it to our photo shoot at DCA on time. So we explained this to Tracy and she said she would bring our new room keys to my parent’s room, so at this point we parted ways and DH and I said goodbye to our fake hotel room.

Thursday Part 2 coming up since this is getting a little long!

 

[BethieTink]

Oh, Mindy! What a terribly stressful day!

How weird that they would escort you to just a normal room. Glad you got the upgrade that you wanted. Can't wait to see the photos of the suite.

Hope the day got better!

 

[dolphingirl47]

I am sorry that you had such a stressful day, but yay for the suite.

Corinna

 

[Mindyjoy]

Thursday, May 17, 2012
Part 2

When we left off, DH and I were just leaving our “fake” hotel room and heading to my parent’s room in the Fantasy Tower. We had some stuff with us, like DH’s computer bag, my dress and other accessories, and purse. Once we got to my parent’s room and put all the stuff down, we decided we might have time to run down to Bell Services and see if we can’t pull out fresh shirts from our luggage, so at least we will have clean shirts for our photo shoot. Considering our trouble with Bell Services just a couple hours prior, they were especially chill about taking us back to the storage area and letting us rummage through our stuff. I managed to locate a decent top and nicer shoes than the flip flops I was currently wearing, and I also was able to pull out my makeup bag. DH just wanted a fresh shirt so that was pretty easy. We ran back up to my parent’s room to change and I was able to put on a little bit of makeup (thank goodness for photoshop!). At some point while we were freshening up, Tracy called and asked where she should bring our new room keys, so I gave her my parent’s room. Tracy managed to get there really quickly (I suppose because it was the Fantasy Tower) so DH and I were able to thank her for her hard work in person. I stashed the keys in my purse and we were out the door a few minutes before 6pm! I texted The Roots and said we were going to be about 15 minutes late and they replied that was fine. Thank goodness we had arranged to meet them at the Grand Californian Hotel entrance because it would have caused a much longer delay if we were going to meet them at the front gates!

On our walk over we had a good talk, I apologized for my meltdown and DH again said it was fine – I was allowed one meltdown, haha. He said it all worked out and he was looking forward to our suite. And at some point I realized DH and I had both pulled out blue shirts! Not planned at all but it ended up looking nice in the pictures.

We got to the gate about 10 minutes late and once inside the park, we spotted The Roots immediately! After introductions and hugs, we told them we had until 7pm, 7:15 at the latest so let’s get started! I also apologized because I had my little purse (Dooney crossbody) with my hotel key, sunglasses, phone and wallet, even though their instructions said not to bring purses. But before I could say “I’ll put it in a locker” – Jensey grabbed it and said “I’ll wear it!” haha – I think she liked it. It was funny because once in a while they would switch bags and Nate wore it sometimes, too, even though it was pink. He said he didn’t mind but I did feel bad, hehe!

They asked if we had any spots in mind and I had just a couple, and they said they had been scouting some spots so I told them to lead and we will follow. They were so great to work with and our shoot was so easy! I kept telling them it was the most fun I’d had the entire day and even though I was super stressed about squeezing this shoot in, I was so happy we did.

This CM ran over and asked if he could photo bomb us! hehe It was polite of him to ask.


The Roots were very polite and respectful about our deadline and the hour flew by. That first image up there was actually our final shot. We said our goodbyes and confirmed they would be at our Welcome Dinner at 5:45pm the next day, which confused me at first because I couldn't believe the wedding was possibly here already.

DH and I walked back across the street and I think a wedding had happened earlier so we took the opportunity to grab a quick picture with a sign.

Then we made our way to our suite on the 8th floor, and, WOW, it was really nice!

(These pics are from our last day so pardon the mess – I didn’t think about taking detailed pictures of the room until the last day!)

View from right inside the front door

To the right, bathroom and kitchen and small closet

Bathroom

Kitchen

Living area w/ pullout sofa

Other side of the living area (with DH working, poor guy)

Bedroom

View of the Sleeping Beauty Pavilion from the bedroom

View of the pools

Second bathroom off the bedroom

toilet/shower was separated

Hidden Mickey in the shower tiles!

View of Disneyland from our balcony

View of our wedding venue - the Rose Court Garden (I believe they were starting to tear down from the wedding that was there earlier in the day)

View of California Advenure - You can see Grizzly Peak, Tower of Terror, and the hills of Cars Land.


So as soon as we got in the room, we called Bell Services to bring up our stuff. We had two racks of stuff and didn’t have our tickets (I had left them in my bigger purse with my mom) but after a little pleading they agreed to bring them up just based on last name.

Our stuff!

We also called our parents to ask if they wanted to come over and watch Community with us, which they did, and they brought as much of our stuff as they could carry. Bell Services arrived and helped us get everything inside the room. At this point it was right about 8pm so we turned on Community and I did some light unpacking while DH and my parents watched. After the show I went back to my parent’s room with my mom and got the rest of our stuff, because DH had to answer some work-related emails. We got back to the room in time for the second Community of the evening, so I whipped up some margaritas and from 9pm-10pm we all sat and watched Community. Also during that time DH was getting updates from his parents and sister – they landed safely at John Wayne airport and were taking the shuttle to the hotel. By 10pm everyone was checked in and settled. DH’s sister and family were going straight to bed, but DH’s mom sent a text that she was hungry, so I called guest services and found Trader Sam’s served food until 11pm so we all agreed to meet there.

It was great to finally see my in-laws and catch up on their mess of a day. They were so relieved to finally be there and so excited for all the wedding events! We had horrible service at Trader Sam’s and it took forever to get MIL her flatbread, but at that point, with my horrible day, I wasn’t surprised. MIL said it was better to get all the negative stuff out of the way and the rest of the week will be perfect.

At around 12:30 FIL was starting to fall asleep so we all parted ways. DH and I went back to our room and unpacked everything and finally went to bed an hour or so later. It was a whirlwind day and tomorrow would be just as busy!

Oh! And I'm not sure exactly when, but at some point during the afternoon/evening, DH found out that our videographer would be working on FRIDAY which meant he had to miss our rehearsal but would be there for the wedding. So that was great news.

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

Just got caught up!!! Love the photos from the Roots so far!!! They look great considering you had a rough few hours before!! Don't worry--every bride is allowed a hotel check in meltdown Mine was not my finest moment--but for once, DH said it was okay and just petted my hair

 

[dolphingirl47]

I am glad that everything worked out in the end. I love the photos. By the way, I think I saw you that day. I can't remember where it was, but somebody caught my eye and I thought "She looks exactly like Mindy." Then I told myself not to be so silly and that you would not be there yet. I now wish I had said "hi".

We spend part of that afternoon and evening looking around the resorts and actually saw the men in that wedding party play football on the grass across from the Rose Court Pavillion.

Corinna