Hi Ladies
So I thought I'd give you girls my wedding day recaps. It's long, so sorry for that.
I was 'kidnapped' by SIL and niece the night before, so we got up around 7:30AM and showered and went to breakfast. Hair and makeup arrived around 10:30AM. They did a great job and I wanted to take the girl who did my hair and makeup home with me so I could look that fantastic every day (I'm actually itching to go to sephora/ulta to see if they can teach me to do my eyes like she did). The rest of H's family arrived around 11:00 which created a little chaos - we had adjoining rooms, which helped us out but there was a lot of going back and forth. At 1:15pm the limo picked up H and the majority of our guests and whisked them away. At 1:20pm I got 'The Rain Call'... My wedding planner called to say: The weather looks iffy at best, what do you want to do - your options are:
1) Try to keep everything outside; if it rains, Mickey and Minnie will not come, no refund.
2) Move everything inside (into the ugly ballroom that I hated)
3) Try to keep the ceremony outside, but move the cake/champagne reception inside - Mickey and Minnie will not be permitted outside.
I went with option 3; it had the promise of an outdoor ceremony and a nice break with bathrooms nearby and A/C.
The limo came by and picked up us girls - we headed to the boardwalk. I met my photographer, got a few pictures, met the violinist and my officiant. They sent 'the groom' and my guests out to the ceremony site. They all got caught in the rain (thankfully they were just about in the building when the sky opened up) - the Reverend was behind them, so he got a bit more rained on, but at least he had an umbrella. I was stuck outside with MOH and my wedding planner... and also this cute little Italian family where the 'father' figure did not speak English very well at all so he told us how in Italy rain was great luck (as most cultures) and his family translated for him. After about 15 minutes, the rain stopped and we were on our way!! H was supposed to meet me down the aisle, but the Reverend forgot to give him the nod to get me, so I counted to 10 (using the 'mississippi method' of course), he didn't come so I just walked myself up the aisle (all of like 5 steps).
We had our ceremony, said our 'I Do's' and got more pictures taken with our family. Our guests were whisked away to the cake/champagne reception as we got some more pictures done and was told what was to happen next. We were introduced for our cake reception, now BIL had to give a toast which H had told him he didn't have to do and SIL called him up around 9:30AM that morning and said 'It's expected!!' so he had to come up with something in just a few hours - out of everybody he was the most nervous LOL. For the cake cutting, Mickey and Minnie were introduced, they helped us with the cake cutting, our first dance and then we had more pictures. Our guests got to mingle a bit before being taken away to dinner. We went for more pictures until 5:00.
After pictures were completed, we met our guests for dinner. They weren't allowed to be seated without us (grr - I had cleared it with the manager but she doesn't work on Tuesday) to have them seated without us. They weren't mad, but I was, because I was told they could be seated and order appetizers/cocktails. We got seated, ordered our food - everybody seemed to enjoy their meals. They gave us printed menus with my maiden name spelled incorrect, so MIL complained <insert eye roll> so they printed us new ones with H's last name on them. I asked them to cut everybody a small sliver of both the top tier and bottom tier of our cake, they gave us these GIGANTIC pieces - the top tier was Almond w/Amaretto Crunch filling (the clear winner in favorites) and the bottom was Chocolate w/Peanut Butter Cup filling (still amazing, the Almond was just lighter after a heavy dinner).
While at dinner, my planner texting me to let me know they were going to do the 'rain out plan' for our Dessert Party. The rain plan was: Dessert Party indoors and we would still go out for fireworks - if the rain was too heavy, we would not be able to do photographs. This meant that our fireworks viewing location was moved from Disney's Viking Landing in Norway to Disney's Terrace des Fleurs - France Upper location. We had our desserts, which we were all too stuffed to enjoy
- I had a bite of each and they were wonderful. The chocolate peanut butter marshmallow squares were the big hit of the night there. Our photographer felt bad that we might not be able to get pictures, so he printed out a few pictures for us (5x7) untouched, they turned out amazing - I can't wait to get the digital ones!! Amazingly - the rain cleared up where we were able to have pictures at the dessert party - they gave everybody a poncho just in case. Towards the end it started drizzling again, but not that bad. The whole Illuminations display the photographer was dancing around and all giddy because he was in love with out the photos were turning out. He showed us on his display before we left - I can't wait to get them (and share with you)!!!
When we got back to the room, H had ordered an 'In Room Celebration' so there was a HUGE vase of roses waiting for me - the next night was non-alcoholic champagne (which was super yummy) a bracelet and a wand thing.
Everybody was too tired to go out again, so we all just chatted a bit and said our 'good nights' instead of going to Splitsville.
I don't have professional pictures yet - so that being said, do you guys want me to share some that my guests took and show you my favorite professional pictures later or do you want me to flood you with pictures now and later?