We Found an Officiant!

Sorry for the lag in updates. With all the key players in place (ooh wait ~ still gotta send out one more check before it's official), wedding planning is slowing down.

This past Tuesday, Andrew and I met with our decided officiant, Father Brian from Good Shepherd Catholic Church. As we thought, we were impressed with him, felt at ease, and we will be using him to officiate our wedding! Now to just fill out that checkbook...

It was only fitting that we end that day by going to Disney's California Adventure! After two rides (Soarin' Over California and Toy Story's Midway Mania), we experienced the BEERS from Around the World of the Food and Wine Festival, then had a nice dinner at Napa Rose. It was our second visit to Napa Rose, and it's inarguably my favorite restaurant at the Disney Resorts. As we waited for a table, I took in the atmosphere of Napa Rose's lounge and sophisticated bar. It would be a nice area to mingle with family and friends on our wedding weekend.

Along with meeting with Father Brian AND going to DCA, we also booked our Planning Session with Traci! We will be planning away and tasting Disney's most delectable food ever on Wednesday, June 17th. We are SO looking forward to it!

What to do till then? Register for wedding gifts...and brainstorm *together* on invitation ideas.

Finally ~ some even better news...I finished reading Mindy Weiss's Wedding Book last week! I stand by my blog that it is the best wedding planning book EVER!!!

Disney WHAT?!?

Are you KIDDING me?!?

I logged into blogger to write a random wedding planning thought of the day, but happened to see on Mindy Weiss's blog - a post that grabbed my attention.

m&ms has a new line of Disney-inspired m&ms!!!! How serendipitous! I've been talking for months of the possibility of ordering customized m&ms to use for our favors. One possibility was to have m&ms in our wedding colors; another was to put our faces on the m&ms (hehe); and NOW, there are Disney m&ms?!? SHUT UP!!!

Our First Florist Meeting

I feel like we're doing things out of order. First on the priority list of booking vendors (according to Mindy Weiss - see previous post ;-)), are an officiant and photographer. I would've started calling priests this past week had I not had plans and meetings every day. As for the photographer...well, I'm waiting to hear back from our "chosen one."

In the meantime, Traci suggested a florist for us to get in touch with. Brian Bosch used to work for Disney Fairytale Weddings and now works for himself. I contacted Brian earlier this week and received an email from him a few days ago. We exchanged emails through the day to talk more about our decor vision and to make an appointment to meet at Disneyland to flesh our ideas out even more.

I knew I liked Brian as soon as he wrote me with an email saying "I don't know how much Traci told you about me, but I'm a designer at heart. In fact, the Disney wedding team called me David Tutera, Jr. (it was a little weird to be introduced to him that way)." LOL!!! HELLO! Didn't I say in a blog-past "if only David Tutera could come design my wedding"? If I can't have David Tutera, his "junior" is good enough for me! AND Traci let us know that Brian worked with David Tutera when David was at Disneyland creating his Couture Collection. After viewing his website, Brian also sent me a few samples of tall centerpieces he's done. LOVE IT!

So, since we have "David Tutera, Jr.," not only is Brian willing to help out with the floral, but he is also available to work with linens and all other decor. We've got an event designer on our hands!

Our meeting day worked out to be on a day where Traci had two weddings going on in the Rose Court Garden. One at 11:30am and another at 7:30pm. So, we headed to Disneyland early and arrived at 11:45am to peek into the wedding. We were pleasantly surprised to find that even with the simplest of decor, the Rose Court Garden was still beautiful! This couple only had an aisle runner and some rose petals scattered along the sides.

After some lunch at ESPN Zone and going over the big wedding planning book :-), we walked back to Disneyland Hotel and saw from the outside that the newlyweds had decorated the Sleeping Beauty Pavilion with the gorogeous ceiling drapes. We rode the elevator up to check it out. Unfortunately, the wedding party was lined up, ready to make their entrance...so, there was no way to peek in! But we DID get to see another reception, down the hall, in the midst of a set-up. Forgive the blurriness...I was trying to be quick and stealthy. ;-) I couldn't believe it! The color scheme was the same as ours (well, with a different shade of blue), and the centerpieces had everything I could ever want in a centerpiece! Tall candelabras, floral, branches, candles, CRYSTALS!!! I was in AWE...

(Photos just came in from Traci...)

We then hurried off, back to the Rose Court Garden to meet with Brian. In first seeing him, he was friendly, approachable, and younger than I expected. No problems there ~ I just - for some reason - had pictured him to be older. I don't know why!

We moved our meeting to the lobby of the Wonder Tower. For the next hour or so, we discussed every detail of decor and flowers. As a designer, he totally came through for us (at least here for these beginning stages ;-)), bringing all of our ideas and pulling everything *together* into a coherent wedding design plan. Areas where we did not have a clear vision, he placed the missing puzzle piece(s) and has us completely excited with this new picture!

And yes, we did talk about flowers...in general. Since I don't know exactly what I want yet, we simply came up with a general idea based on our colors.

At the end of our meeting, the three of us strolled to the wedding offices to say a quick "hello" to Traci. She met us with a dolly of boxes. Poor girl wasn't even done with half her day yet! One greet led to another, and the four of us were suddenly talking about Toy Story's Midway Mania game! Then Brian tells us that they're coming out with a Wii game of the ride! WHAT?!? As we all got excited about this, I realized we were four Disney dorks standing around gushing over all things Disney! LOL ~ love it...Owning it!

Heading back to the car, Andrew sighed and said "Well, it was just what I was afraid of..." Confused as to which way he was gonna go with this, I asked "What?" He said "IIII like him!" YAY!!! Andrew really liked everything Brian suggested and loves that he would take care of all the decor, making our lives that much easier. If Brian's estimate is within our budget, we have no need to look any further. :-)

Keeping the fingers crossed!

A Disney Surprise

Wow...where to start?

This past Saturday, Andrew and I had an appointment at the butt crack of dawn (8:30am :-)) with our coordinator, Traci, at Disneyland. We were going through a final walk-through and planned on signing the contract and handing over the deposit. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary (as we had visited our potential wedding site twice already), and the highlight of our day was going to be making everything official! However, Traci and Disneyland had other plans...

Traci informed us that there was a surprise in store! As we walked around the resort, Traci told us that if we signed our contract in a given time, we would get a room upgrade for our wedding night, AND she would also see if she could get the honeymoon suite for us! SWEET!!! We continued to walk and ask Traci our lingering questions.

As we entered one of the Disneyland Hotel towers, Traci again said they have a surprise for us. "What?! You mean the room upgrade wasn't the surprise?" She brought us into the Grand Ballroom, which was absolutely beautiful with its huge chandelier and oversized Sleeping Beauty Castle print on the carpet. A round table was set up in the center of the room, and my mind was racing as to what the surprise could be. Will we have the option to upgrade to the Grand Ballroom? Are we doing a food tasting now?

She brought us to the lone table and pointed out the upgraded china with the Mickey patterns, saying "See, it has your blues..." Do we get to upgrade our china?!?

Just as we're looking down at the plates, the lights dimmed... what the...what??? A voice over the P.A. system boomed (in a good way) "Disneyland Fairytale Weddings would like to welcome Charlene and Andrew..." I don't even remember what was said following that ~ I was too giddy in shock (if that makes sense). The drapey, red curtain rose to reveal Cinderella's Crystal Coach!!! OH MY GOSH!!! *squeal* The footman stood, carrying Cinderella's glass slipper, too! It was quite a sight!!!

Traci invited us up to take pictures with the coach. And we gladly went up there! Although, I was still feeling the effects of waking up at 6:30am, my hair was a mess and in need of a haircut, and the makeup was quite minimal. Yep, I was feeling quite self-conscious for these pictures! Not to mention, feeling VERY under-dressed for Cinderella's Crystal Coach!

I must insert that while we were strolling around the Disneyland Hotel grounds, Traci was quite busy typing away on her Blackberry. We found it a little odd, but I figured that she had other clients coming in that day, and she must be answering any questions they have before coming in. She had always been so attentive with us, so I excused it. Obviously, after the ACTUAL surprise, we realized that she had been letting the Disney team know where we were at and such.

Leave it to Disney to plan a surprise like that!

After peeking into the Sleeping Beauty Pavilion, we headed back to the wedding offices. Traci reiterated that we had a few more days than originally planned to turn in the contract, but we told her that we were ready to sign. If memory serves me right, Traci joked and asked if it was the surprise coach visit that did it. No, we were already ready! :-)

With the contract signed and the deposit in, a huge weight has been lifted off of our shoulders! Let the fun BEGIN!!!

The Big Reveal!!!

So, as some of you know, Andrew and I selected a wedding venue (ceremony and reception in one location) a few nights ago. We had struggled among three locations and had a really hard time letting go of the idea of having our wedding at these other locations. Because of that, we ended up "sitting" with the idea for a few days. Andrew worked at some gigs in San Diego and Huntington Beach, and while he was there, he bounced our idea off of a few people. Meanwhile, I kept the location secret among my friends. I didn't need to bounce it off anyone because I knew everyone would think it's great! Because of that, I didn't need to tell them, only to find out that Andrew was uncomfortable with our decision, and we would have to change it...making me go back to my friends and family and say "Oh ACTUALLY, we're doing it here."

Well, it turned out that Andrew got some great feedback and is excited about our decision! He sees how it fits us.

So, without any further ado...as our contract is being drawn up as we speak...Andrew and I are looking to get married on Saturday Evening, November 7th, 2009 in the Rose Court Garden at Disneyland!!! Followed by a a reception at Sleeping Beauty Pavillion.

We're SO excited to being one step closer in making it "official"!

Let the Planning Begin!

Well, the day after our engagement, Andrew and I agreed that we would be taking it easy for the next week or two, settle into "engagement" mode, and retrain our mouths to say "my fiance," instead of "my boyfriend/girlfriend." Three weeks later, my mouth is STILL getting used to it!

Four days after the engagement, my mom sent me an article titled "Top 10 Mistakes Wedding Guests Make, and How to Avoid It." Hmm, interesting tid bits, I thought. And ooh! Another article that looks intriguing. One thing led to another, and I ended up clicking on The Knot badge that was in one of the articles. Something I swore not to do till another week or so! Thus began the planning.

The next day (5 days after the engagement), Andrew and I went to Barnes and Noble. I felt the need to buy my 3-ring Wedding Planning Binder with everything I should need and know in wedding planning. Along with that came books on wedding ideas, on bending the rules on traditional weddings, and 1,001 budeting ideas. There goes waiting a week or two!

Since then, I have read every one of those books, three magazines, and have torn The Knot and Brides websites apart, and not trying to overwhelm myself with *too much* information. ;-) I can only focus on what I need to be doing in the first month/month and a half, since we are looking at a November wedding and don't have the "suggested" one year of planning.

Three weeks of being engaged, and I have my wedding shoes (reminiscent of Cinderella's glass slipper, but an open toe stiletto!), and my wedding dress!!! Yes, I work FAST! It only took one week and four bridal salons. And I honestly found my dress at the second store, but I had to check out the last two stores for peace of mind.

We're now visiting ceremony/reception sites ~ appropriately starting at Disneyland this past Thursday morning! Oh, it's my number one choice! :-) Picturing the wedding there, we will have the ceremony in the Rose Court Garden, followed by cocktail hour in Neverland, and the reception in the Sleeping Beauty Pavillion, which - funny enough - looks more like the Beauty & The Beast ballroom. Our wedding consultant, Traci said it probably wasn't named Beauty & The Beast Pavillion because the grooms would be offended. ;-)

Sunday morning, we have an appointment with Malibou Lake Mountain Club (and yes, "Malibou" is spelled correctly). Also on our list of sites to see is the original Queen Mary docked in Long Beach. It's so classic, and with the cruises that my family and I have taken on the Cunard ships (Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Mary II...and my parents just took a cruise on the newest ship, Queen Victoria), it would be such an experience to be married on this legendary ship.

More to come...

Our Engagement

Charlene & Andrew are engaged!!!

The story is this. We spent New Year's at Disney. Yes, I had a suspicion that Andrew MIGHT propose that night since he had already talked to my dad, but I didn't know when or how.

We arrived at Disney only to find out that Disneyland was sold out. Andrew was quite determined to find a way to get us in there if it was at all possible! Even to the point of spending $500 to upgrade our annual pass to premium membership, granting access 365 days a year. Unfortunately, they weren't doing ANY of that! But they were granting access to Disney's California Adventure with a discounted annual passholder ticket. It is what it is, and we took it. We hadn't visited California Adventure in a while, and it was still Disney, so, why not?

Andrew had the idea to get professional pics taken for a photo montage to send to our families. "It would be a nice holiday momento," he said. Okay. Yes, it would be great to have shots of us once I have the ring on, I thought. We talked to the photographer at the entrance to inquire about nighttime shots, and she assured us that nighttime photographers would be out all night.

We strolled around the park, enjoyed some Robert Mondavi Chardonnay, and checked out an exhibit of renovations to come at California Adventure, and I must say, the renovations are going to be AWESOME! I cannot wait to see the new, old-time Hollywood entrance with trolley cars and a replica of the Carthay Circle Theatre, where "Snow White" premiered. The renovation plan is one that good ol' Walt will be proud of!

Continuing our stroll, we stopped by another photographer who stood by the California Zephyr Diner Train to ask of all the photographer locations. He and his photographer partner gave us the rundown and explained how the photo cards worked; that we could use the one photo card and get as many photos as we wanted put onto the one card. We thanked them and moseyed on our way.

Andrew seemed very smiley.

After watching the Bug's Life "It's Hard to Be a Bug" show, we took another lap around the park, and we kept visiting the New Year's area in the Hollywood section. Andrew really seemed to wish there was a professional photographer there. In fact, he talked to one of the Disney cast members just to double check. However, cast members were only working the area and taking pics with the guests' cameras.

We meandered our way towards the front of the park, and as we seemed to be heading OUT of the park, I asked him what we were doing. He asked me where I thought we should have our pictures taken. I was confused because the last photographer had explained to us that we can get our pictures taken anywhere. Why did I need to decide on "the best place"? We ran through the list of locations despite my confusion, and decided that the park entrance with the Golden Gate Bridge background would be the best spot.

Andrew talked to the photographer there and told her what we were looking for ~ multiple shots for a montage, and he wanted a vertical, full length shot, to our shoes. She said she could take the shot waist up, but Andrew said "No, I want it to our shoes." She said "no problem," and just as Andrew started to head in front of the camera, I said "WAIT!!! I need lip gloss!" He seemed thrown back, almost as if he was - in response - thinking 'we could do it later,' and I said "No, we can do it now; I just didn't know we were gonna do the pictures now. I just need a little lip gloss. :-)" We waited for another family to take a picture. Just as they were done, another photographer came in to relieve the photographer we spoke to. Andrew had to explain to him what we were looking for. The guy said "No problem!" We situated ourselves in front of the camera, and the guy asked us to move a little to the right or left, and as the guy instructed us, Andrew started to step towards him, as he asked "Do you have our feet? Do you have our feet?" The guy assured him he did. Smile and click. Okay, what are we doing for our next pose? I wondered. I turned to Andrew, and he was down on one knee, pulling out the box. He asked if I would marry him, I said "yes" (and was a bit teary eyed), he put the ring on, we kissed and hugged, and the photographer captured it all! We also went back to the photographer by the train, who gave us all the info on locations, and said "Guess what! We're ENGAGED!!!" We had a couple of shots there, as well, which turned out GREAT!!!

Yes, I really had no idea that this was his plan. A plan he came up with an hour before we arrived at the park. Like I said, I really thought we would be going to the photographer post-proposal. Silly me! It's better that way, anyway. ;-)

Ring Specs for those interested:
White gold band with a knife cut, 3 stone setting designed by Scott Kay, Echo diamond, round 0.71 carat, E/VS1.

*And to read about how Andrew's "talk" with my dad went, you can read all about it here!