Wedding in Paradise Fall 2017 - complete 5/30 - Wedding TR linked!

Just caught up on your PJ! I LOVE it I'm so happy you decided to get married around Disney World! We also kind of went through the same thing and our now getting married at house of blues!

I know you're pretty set on paper flowers, they look awesome! I am actually planning on doing sola flowers. They're wood based flowers you dip in acrylic paint/water.

Hello! I'm so glad we've decided to do this. I'd love to see your House of Blues wedding. I think the courtyard area looked neat from the photos I'd seen online.

The sola flowers are so pretty, I may have to look into them... :rolleyes:
 
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience at David's Bridal :( Mine wasn't too bad, but I did have appointments both times and I didn't go on a Saturday either, so maybe that helps. I think taking a day off work and going then would be a really good idea and you'd probably get a lot of individual attention. I know you don't feel comfortable in them, but I actually really loved the lace dress from the first place on you!
 
Save the Dates
Short and sweet, but we ended up doing completely different Save the Dates than originally planned. Since we only have about 15-20, we made them fancier. And I can even say we, because Zack helped :rotfl: He actually stayed up later than me last night to finish cutting them out. We made them with my Cricut. There were some tears and frustrations on my part... I made a couple and they came out fine, they just helped me see the little tweaks I needed to make. There was zero problem cutting out the swirls and mickey heads. Then the design is finalized, and I try to start up the real ones... and it starts ripping mickey heads off :mad: I swear we ended up using 30ish sheets of cardstock to make 15 Save the Dates. Oh well. Now they just need assembled, which is actually easier than cutting them out and peeling them off the Cricut mat. It's a little time consuming, because I had to get glue dots for a few areas (like the middle of the O's/0's, and I ended up tacking the 4 main mickey heads down for safety), but not terrible. I definitely would not have gone this route with a big wedding though unless I was getting paid for it :laughing:

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I'm sorry you had such a bad experience at David's Bridal :( Mine wasn't too bad, but I did have appointments both times and I didn't go on a Saturday either, so maybe that helps. I think taking a day off work and going then would be a really good idea and you'd probably get a lot of individual attention. I know you don't feel comfortable in them, but I actually really loved the lace dress from the first place on you!

Awww, thanks! I love your dress from David's! :lovestruc I guess I liked the girl at the first shop picking different styles, because I don't know what I want. I might try David's again, but I think I'll have to cruise the website a bit more to see if anything jumps out at me, because only one did in person that day, and I couldn't find it! I saw it on a mannequin, and I didn't end up asking about it since I felt abandoned lol. I think I'll definitely take a day off work, because they've got us working most of this month and next, including the weekends :sad2:
 


I totally just read your whole PJ, and I love it!!! Your save the dates are awesome - and I am SO excited to see an event at Paradise Cove! I am obsessed with how it looks in photos and we've been tossing around using it for a VR. Can't wait to follow along.
 
I totally just read your whole PJ, and I love it!!! Your save the dates are awesome - and I am SO excited to see an event at Paradise Cove! I am obsessed with how it looks in photos and we've been tossing around using it for a VR. Can't wait to follow along.

Thanks! I'm going to try and get a few things update here. I had a long time were I worked a lot around the holidays and not much got done on the wedding front, but now we've got some things to do again! I'm really happy with Paradise Cove so far. Sea Breeze Point would have been our choice on an Escape package, but we went down to visit in person in January and loved it. And we'll be staying at the Dolphin hotel so we can still take pictures around the boardwalk if we want, so it's like the best of both worlds. I've got some pictures from January I'm going to put up here.
 
General Update

Hello everyone! Long time, no... PJ updates. That's going to be changing. The other night we sat down to make a list of things we needed to do, and it felt really long.

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Since my last posts, we've:
  • Booked Photo
  • Booked Video
  • Booked Lunch and picked a menu
  • Booked a Dessert Party
  • Had our DIY Planning Session
  • I bought a dress! And a headband!
  • Finally got an answer out of Zack about what he was thinking for his attire
  • Worked almost three months straight, and every other weekend since then
  • Snuck away to Vegas for a weekend
  • And did a lot of honeymoon planning

So we did get some things accomplished, then we hit a bit of a wall where we didn't need to get anything done/decided for awhile, and now that time has come.

We're looking at:
  • Invitations
  • Decorations
  • Dessert Party menu
  • Timeline for the day
  • Ceremony script
  • Shopping for attire/accessories
  • Cake
  • Hair/Makeup
  • And a million other things!

We did get Zack's ring purchased last night. It's similar to this:

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I still need to decide if I'm going to have a band made to go with my ring. I might go talk to someone next week, just to see.

I'll try to be back later today or tomorrow to share a little of our DIY Planning Session.
 


Since I have to spend the day at work (and for 12 hours :() I’m attempting to update all of my TRs/PTRs/PJs, and get caught up/comment on all of my watched threads!

Also, I see I have also been hit by the Photobucket issues! Now, I know I am not that popular. I’m working on it! It might take a bit, because life is crazy right now.

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Hello All! Long time no see! Life has been pretty darn crazy. I'm hoping to get a few updates in this week.

Accessories:

My big accessories so far are my headband, and my shoes.

The headband was my free accessory I got when I bought my dress. It was that, or a small discount on the dress. The headband matched so well somehow, and I knew with the price of bridal accessories through the bridal shops (and even online sometimes) if I took the dress discount, I would be looking for the cheapest hair accessory possible. And I never would have picked the headband up myself either (sort of like my dress!) so I went for it.

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I almost bought these earrings on a whim, and now I'm almost kicking myself for not. They were $9 on
clearance, and what are the odds they match the pattern so well? But I'm not sure what I'm doing with my hair. I might check for them again.

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I'm super excited about my shoes. I got them custom made. The girl who did them sent me a questionnaire, and I just had a general idea of what I might want on there, but not where or anything specific. She sent back some ideas that sounded great, and I let her at it. And about two months later, these showed up in the mail:

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If you know what everything is from, you get a gold star :wizard:

I told her, I grew up in the 90s and always loved Belle, Ariel, etc, but those dang dogs have always had my heart. And every dog I've ever met, real or animated, has moved into my heart and never left. I thought a lot about the shoes, and I looked through her gallery and saw lots of amazing Princess shoes for weddings and such, but I'm so glad I went with my gut on these.


Rings:
Zack's ring came in, and ended up going back... It was super dark. It looked black in almost all lighting. Only in very bright sunlight could you see a big of the wood grain. It's supposed to be back in the next few weeks. When we took it in, the sales guy was showing all his coworkers - look at this, and this is how it's supposed to be (with the ring from the case)! :rotfl:

We also went on an adventure for my band. I took my ring in to get one of the small diamonds replaced, because it fell out :eek: It was Memorial Day, and the store seemed understaffed, but I asked about getting an estimate for band. My ring doesn't have a matching band, so it has to be custom made. So I sit down with this guy, and he asks a few questions about what I'm thinking. Here is the ring for reference:

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I told him something that follows the ring along one side, matching where there are diamonds and where it's plain. I thought about one of those things that is on both sides (super technical terms here :thumbsup2) but it felt like too much for me. Granted I was imagining this all in my head... I also wanted to match the pattern engraved on the sides, because I felt that a plain band would defeat the purpose of the patterned ring, which is one thing I love about it.

So I explain all of this, with very little help from him...

...and he quotes me $2500 before taxes.

Well, that's not in the budget. He also told me I had to order it THIS WEEK, as in today or when I came to get my ring when the diamond was replaced, because it was going to be a time crunch to get it done in time. I told him we'd have to think about it, because it was more than expected. The more I thought about, the more I thought what the heck... the band was about half that amount, and came with the diamonds... I'm looking for something with half the diamonds, half the engraving, 2/3 of the metal... I expect a custom charge but twice as much?

So I ended up going to another store, where a very nice lady sat down with me. She brought up lots of ideas, and found some bands in the display case that matched the curve of my band a bit, so I could envision it better, and also determine for sure that a second row of diamonds on both sides was definitely not for me. :laughing: She made multiple estimates for with the different ideas. And they told me that it would be done in about half the time that the other guy had said :thumbsup2

Last week I got to go in and see the wax (no pictures - argh!) and also a computer image they had made of what it should look like. They told me 3 weeks or so.

So eventually, we will have all of our rings back, and I will add a picture!
 
Paperman & Feast :love:

I love your shoes - were they done by that Laura girl from the Disbride Facebook group?
I love those shorts! They are by Laura - she's so talented! I just rattled off some characters/ideas, and she came up with the rest.
 

My big accessories so far are my headband, and my shoes.

The headband was my free accessory I got when I bought my dress. It was that, or a small discount on the dress. The headband matched so well somehow, and I knew with the price of bridal accessories through the bridal shops (and even online sometimes) if I took the dress discount, I would be looking for the cheapest hair accessory possible. And I never would have picked the headband up myself either (sort of like my dress!) so I went for it.

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It's so pretty!


I love these too!


So I explain all of this, with very little help from him...

...and he quotes me $2500 before taxes.


:eek::faint: That sounds like a rip off to me.

So I ended up going to another store, where a very nice lady sat down with me. She brought up lots of ideas, and found some bands in the display case that matched the curve of my band a bit, so I could envision it better, and also determine for sure that a second row of diamonds on both sides was definitely not for me. :laughing: She made multiple estimates for with the different ideas. And they told me that it would be done in about half the time that the other guy had said :thumbsup2
:thumbsup2 Can't wait to see them!
 
Menus

Lunch

As I've mentioned before, we're having lunch after the ceremony at House of Blues in Disney Springs. We've got a private room, the Lightning Room.

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We're having a plated lunch with three choices. Everything is available on the regular menu, so when we went on our DIY planning trip in January, we had lunch here and tried a few options. We also got to peak into the room (after a wedding lunch ended :)) and also listen to the house music ourselves, which we enjoyed. It might sound silly, but I wanted to make sure we liked it. Making our own lunch playlist and trying to get a speaker down there sounds like a bit of a pain right now, and I think I read there might be a fee? Or maybe I'm making that up from when I was pricing out the Attic (we've gone quite a different direction from there! :rotfl:).

First, we had a choice of offering gumbo, the regular salad, or a caesar salad to start. We went with the gumbo.

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Chicken Gumbo - dark and savory with chicken, andouille sausage, bell pepper, okra, onion and gumbo file
Stolen from the internet; we didn't try this that day but it looks good!


Next, we decided we didn't want to do any of the offered dessert options because we weren't sure if we'd do cake or something. Plus none of the desserts are really my thing, for one reason or another - they offered Bourbon Bread pudding, Key Lime Pie, Triple chocolate cheesecake, or Coconut Cream pie. So instead, we swapped dessert for a Family Style appetizer.

As a side note, I will apologize for the partially eaten food, because we were starving by this point.

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Steamin' Tot Mess - tater tots topped with tender carnitas, cheddar cheese sauce and pickled jalapeno


We have three entree options. We tried two of the three:

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Philly Cheesesteak - shaved prime beef sauteed with onions, peppers and mushrooms, served on a hoagie bun with House of Blues cheese wiz

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Pulled Pork Sandwich - slow smoked pulled pork, topped with Kansas City BBQ sauce, served on a brioche bun with housemade coleslaw

Our third option:

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Steak Salad - Marinated steak served over romaine lettuce and field greens, roasted pearl onions, blistered tomato, marinated Yukon Gold potatoes, grilled asparagus, cornbread croutons and horseradish vinaigrette
Hmm, I'm quite impressed with this picture off the internet :scratchin


We thought everything we tried was delicious, and are very happy with our choice. Neither of us had even been to a House of Blues before, so it was really nice to go down and eat there after picking the menu blindly.

But the most important thing is: How will I eat my Philly in a wedding dress? :rotfl2:




Dessert Party

We had a little trouble with the dessert party. Lots of back and forth, and they changed our venue :earseek: but we got it all straightened out. It turns out they need our original venue for Food and Wine, and moved us but neglected to tell us. Then when I questioned the new location (and price) on our BEO, they told me why and offered to see if we could share the original space. Thankfully, before I had to push back and tell them that I did not want to share the venue with a queue, and I did not want to pay the higher fee (as it was not our fault or decision to be moved), they came back and gave us the original venue price. There was a bit more back and forth (where I wanted to ask, are you reading my emails? :confused3) and it was finally all figured out.

First, instead of being here:

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Italy Isola West


We are now here:

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Italy Isola

The big area, over the bridges.
With our tiny group.
It's cool.



Anyways, on to the food!

We're having:


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Rice Crispy Bon Bons
I've seen these with different colors, I wonder if I can request a certain color...

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Churros

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Mickey Pretzels

And also Cocoa Dusted Red Velvet Cupcakes, Fruit Salad, and drinks.

Then we're having Mickey Ice Cream Bars, on consumption.

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And also...
Nitrogen Spheres!
This is what was offered to us, which was different than what I had seen offered to DFTW groups:
Nitro Fried Nutella Mousse Truffle topped with Chocolate Sauce and Mickey Confetti


And here is a Nitro Truffle that was at Food and Wine last year, for reference if you haven't heard of them:

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Liquid Nitro Chocolate Almond Truffle with Warm Whiskey Caramel

They make these made to order at your event:
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All I can do, is keep saying that I'm really excited about our food choices :goodvibes
 
Do you mind me asking what the charger per person is for food for your dessert party? We haven't started planning our menu for that yet...

Great options at House of Blues! I've never ate there either, but maybe I should now try to squeeze it in somewhere....
 
Do you mind me asking what the charger per person is for food for your dessert party? We haven't started planning our menu for that yet...

Great options at House of Blues! I've never ate there either, but maybe I should now try to squeeze it in somewhere....
Isn't that terrible? Everytime I read a good food review, I'm like, where can I fit that...

Our dessert menu works out like this:
  • Cupcakes, Pretzels, Churros, Bonbons, Fruit Salad, and tea/coffee/punch: $34pp
  • Nitro Truffles: $12pp
  • Mickey Bars on consumption: $5.75 each (they did our estimate at one per guest, which I think was a mistake, because originally they had it at 2/3 of our guest count until I asked to change the guest count... but I figure, we'll get it back if people don't eat many anyways)
  • And then the lovely taxes and service fees on top of everything
We looked through the menus they sent, and then asked about other things (pretzels, churros, nitrogen truffles). Don't be afraid to ask! On the Facebook page, people have had all sorts of stuff, like things from around WDW. It just depends on what you want to spend. We went over what we were thinking originally, but we're having a ride mix in and not getting charged for it so I stole that money. I'm not sure why we aren't getting charged, but I have it in writing! :) Maybe because Epcot has EMH that night? And we couldn't skip the nitrogen truffles; they're so unique! I would have been happy with just those, but they said we had to add them to a menu.
 

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