An Online Ordering FOOL!!! (and other updates)

It's hard to believe that in 2 months, 1 week, and 5 days our magickal wedding day will be here! I am SO excited for it. :-)

In the meantime, I'm getting the "smaller" details checked off the list! "Smaller details," but details that have been running through my head since we were engaged. As I sit here and run through that checklist, I realize that I can't go into too much detail about it, or share pictures by chance any of our guests or my MOHs read this blog! I promise I will show-and-tell AFTER the wedding! :-) But I CAN announce that favors, bridal shower hostesses gifts, and centerpiece items were purchased! I've received everything but one part of the shower hostesses gifts and the centerpiece items. AND we officially approved our invitations today!!! So, they'll be going into print and delivered SOON!!!

Several weeks ago, we picked up Andrew's wedding band!!! Here's a pic of our wedding rings set!
Andrew and I finally went through Disney's Banquet Event Order. Did I call it Budget Event Order at some point (or more)? I meant "banquet." We signed off on everything and started to contemplate other possibilities for our wedding. I'm excited to say that we will now be having a Catholic mass incorporated into our wedding! I know the non-Catholics (and maybe a few Catholics) will groan at this, as Catholic weddings are known to be super long (meaning, 1 hour). However! our officiant, Father Brian is able to shorten the mass by 15 minutes, thus making it a 45 minute ceremony. Without the mass, it would've been a 30 minute ceremony. So, 15 minutes extra...who's really counting? So what if I want to relish in the wedding ceremony? ;-) It's important to me, it's meaningful to me, and I know it will also make my parents very happy!

Another option we're looking into (cost dependent) is using a colored dance floor. Not too long ago, our wedding planner, Traci updated one of her statuses (Twitter? Facebook?) raving about a white dance floor one of her couples used. If we do decide on a dance floor, I believe it will be the chocolate dance floor... Look at the deliciousness of it!!! (yes, I know I can't eat it...)Finally, Andrew is trying to find the answer for us of "To use a DJ...or not to use a DJ? That IS the question." We realize the benefits of using a DJ...and our only "con" is that we could save that money by using our iTunes playlist and have a friend man it and MC when need be.

We're checking things off, one by one...I now wonder: is this the quiet before the storm? Or has my diligency of staying on top of things going to make things smooth sailing?

The Steps Between & Getting Closer

I feel that anytime someone asks me how wedding planning is going, I'm always stumped and seeking for an answer. I really don't know if this where I'm supposed to be...there's no progress being made if I'm not doing anything... but what is there TO do? Guess I could check the checklist in Mindy Weiss's book, since there's not much I can do from The Knot checklist. Most things have been done...or we have nothing to do BUT wait. For example...

Andrew and I decided on an invitation design. As soon as we did that, I contacted the designer only to receive an "Out of Office" reply. FANtastic! Okay, so I patiently wait one week (I heard back from her today, and it will be soon be underway!).

Wedding planning started to pick up again this past weekend. For one, I bought Andrew's wedding band!!! It will arrive next week. He picked a tungsten ring, plain, straight-up design. Tungsten is known not to knick, scratch, or dull. Lucky guy!!! This isn't THE ring he got, but it's very similar.

Second, our parents met for the first time! My parents drove to his parents' house in Baltimore for a grand lunch. On the menu was - what I heard - a delicious roasted lamb, and the parents got along very well!

My MOHs have started their dress hunt ~ woohoo!!! On Wednesday, I'll be joining Andrew's sister, Linette to see her in her two final dress choices, and I will make my decision. Sharon, being on the east coast, will hopefully be able to sneak some pics of the dresses she tries on. (saving the pics till decisions are made ;-))

On a beyond-marriage note, Andrew and I went townhouse/condo shopping yesterday! We were originally going to just drive by these places, see what the exterior looks like, and get a feel of the neighborhood. Now, I don't think I mentioned several months ago that we did visit one condo down the street from him ~ of the units available, one was out of our price range, the other was IN our price range, but the condo layout wasn't really for us.

So, as we were driving around, we passed by two buildings on one street that were having open houses. The first building we entered was completely renovated and was beautiful! Wooden floors on the first floor, carpeted on the second. Our two favorite units had a balcony off of the master bedroom ~ one balcony being bigger than the other. Our #1 unit choice had a huge patio outside of the dining room area. Going in and out of units and talking to the realtor, we spent almost an hour there! The price is in our budget, and yes, I could picture us living there. :-) (sorry, couldn't find pics)

Our next stop wasn't quite as long. It was another beautifully renovated building...and the views of the Santa Monica Mountains from the loft-designed condos were BREATHTAKING! Sadly, we couldn't get attached with what they were asking for. Their least expensive unit, which the realtor urged us to look at *just in case* the price went down, was still gorgeous, but for me, not the same after seeing the views from the loft units. Besides that, roaming around their model unit on the bottom floor, we heard the obnoxious foot STOMPS of others viewing the units above us. So, thanks, but no thanks!

The hunt will continue after Andrew talks to a lender!

A Time to Blog

I'm afraid to look at the last time I blogged! These past few weeks have been a complete blur, and in order not to drive myself too crazy, I put all - or MOST - wedding planning, thinking, brainstorming aside.

Andrew was again touring Europe for 2.5 weeks, and of course, I had another NKOTB adventure to consider. :-) Just when Andrew returned to The States, we had about one week together, and he was off again! This time to my homestate of Virginia. How COULD we even get started on any of the details we needed to get through?

So, thus, the neglection of the blog.

Some of what's happened thus far...a few ceremony supplies have been ordered and received. After chatting with a fellow Disneyland Bride, she passed on a fabulous idea that Andrew and I fell in love with...a floating unity candle! The vase is engraved with our names and wedding date ~ a keepsake worth keeping and treasuring.

Another item purchased were bubble tubes!!! Andrew and I had discussed this one in particular, and while I normally would've waited to order them, The Knot had them on sale for 60% off...or was it 40%? In either case, it was a HUGE discount available for a limited time. Who knew when this special would be up again. Those arrived over a week ago ~ they're cute, make tons of bubbles, and from what I hear - are not cheap, sticky bubbles like some bubble bottles out there.

Next up: ordering centerpiece items! We'll also be tackling just *what* we'll be doing for invitations, ordering Andrew's ring, approving our Disney Fairytale Wedding Banquet Event Order (translated: the details of our wedding - names of those involved in our wedding, events happening within the wedding, the food, etc.), and figuring out our ceremony readings.

I can't even think beyond that... but I DO want to get myself over to the bridal shop to try my dress on again with other items.

Let's get back to it!!!

Our Planning Session

It's been a week+ coming, so here it is... my Planning Session with Disney Fairytale Weddings!

I have a feeling that ours wasn't as exciting as other Disney couples because most everything was "planned out" before our planning session. Our meeting with Brian back in April covered all design, which I'm assuming is a topic that can consume half of the meeting. The rest was simply double checking on our wants/needs for the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception.

Here are some notable decisions made or in the works:

My bridal dressing room will be near the reception room (woohoo!) and for an extra $50, we will get to keep the room until 11pm that night. I'm gonna love the ease of just leaving our personal belongings when we're done pretty-ing up, and the easy access that we'll have *during* the reception. I won't have to go far for my bridal emergency kit!

I also have to interject that I am sooo happy we're having an evening wedding. We have the dressing room starting at 10 or 11am...I can't imagine getting up earlier! Eek!!!

Andrew and I will be seeing each other before the ceremony for photographs (called a "First Look"). It was something we had contemplated for a while, as we originally wanted to stay traditional and waiting to see each other AT the ceremony. But seeing that it will be Daylight Savings Time and completely dark by the time we take formal pictures, our photographer, Jill Thomas highly recommended we consider taking advantage of the sunlight with the First Look photos. Oh, twist our arms! It was quite convincing and also made sense. We didn't want all of our photos to be in the dark, and I KNOW it will help shake off any jitters we'll have before the ceremony... and having that private moment with him before we present ourselves in front of all our guests will be SO special.

*I can't bring myself to talk in detail about the ceremony and reception, as I do want my guests to have something to look forward to.*

The one thing I will say, since I have mentioned it already, we WILL be doing Cinderella blue uplights on the columns between the windows. :-)

And on to the FOOD TASTING!!! By far, the most fun part of the day...besides designing our cake, which I'll get to after talking about the FOOD!!! Again, I think I'll be keeping just a smidge to myself. ;-)

When we arrived to the Sleeping Beauty Pavilion, we were greeted by the Disney wait staff. The head waiter described how the staff would run, and also pointed out our table setting. I had read about this before, so, was not surprised by the request to pick one of their napkin folds. I was torn between two looks (a flat and a poofed/rolled), so what should Andrew do, but combine the best of both worlds and ask if we could roll up the flat fold. And that will be accented with layered blue and silver ribbons.

The meal will start off with a variety of bread ~ apparently, all "new" breads they'll be bringing in come fall. That will be followed by a some of the yummiest butternut squash soup I have ever tasted! :-P Our entreé is a Pan Roasted Chicken Breast with Cilantro Pesto Cream Sauce, with Cippolini Onions, Cremini Mushrooms, and Swiss Chard. The ONIONS were THE BEST!!! We have some options for our starch. What came with it was Red Bliss Potatoes. Two other options we're considering are Yukon Gold Garlic Mashed Potatoes (which are FABULOUS ~ the chef trekked to their Disney restaurant that serves it, just so we can taste it!) and a cheese-stuffed ravioli. The garlic mashed potatoes were fantastic, but I'm also thinking that having the ravioli on the plate could be a nice treat for those who may not want chicken. Not to mention, I love pasta ~ especially stuffed pasta! ...then with the pesto sauce...yum yum!

Then it was dessert! We're going with their Tahitian Vanilla Bean Créme Brûlée with Seasonal Berries...which, of course, did not disappoint!And finally...THE CAKE!!! Our planning worksheets had space for 3 cake combinations (for the 3 tiers), but we had the pleasure of tasting four. And what do you know, the cake we like the best is the one we did not ask for!

The first cake we tried was the Red Velvet...which I had heard GREAT reviews on... we actually weren't impressed at all. The next one was a Kahlua soaked Marble cake with Tiramisu filling ~ it was...all right (seeing a pattern?). I tried to save the best (of our choices) for last ~ the Grand Marnier soaked Chocolate cake with Cappuccino filling. Again, I thought it was all right. It didn't blow me away like I thought it would. Anytime I've had chocolate cake soaked in Grand Mariner, it's always been amazing. So, I was surprised. Andrew and his siblings (his best man and my maid of honor) thought it was the best of our three "chosen" cakes, though. Our fourth cake (the surprise cake) was "The Traci" ~ LOL, that's right! Our wedding planner created this combination: Chambord soaked Lemon cake with a Cream Cheese filling and Fresh Red Rasberries. THAT was delectable!!!

As of now, we've chosen The Traci and the Grand Mariner soaked Chocolate Cake with Cappuccino filling. A third is in the works, as Traci has given us other suggestions. I definitely want to work in chocolate chips somewhere (perhaps with the cappuccino filling) and their Praline Buttercream, which tastes like Nutella! mmmm :-P

The Disney team surprised us with boxes of all four cakes to take home! But with Andrew and I both on an exercise regimen, we passed the cakes on to my maid of honor and Andrew's best man. :-)

Photos provided by Disney Fairytale Weddings

Once Disney had properly stuffed us, we went back to the wedding office to pick out our cake design! While we liked elements of different cakes, no one cake popped out at us. So, Andrew started sketching up an idea. We will have a Cinderella blue cake with 3-D dark brown branches and leaves crawling up the first two tiers. The leaves will be outlined and veins accented in silver. The top tier will have the "Mickey Wave" (as pictured in the middle picture above) overlaying wispy clouds like the Castle in the Clouds cake, and those clouds will get thicker as it gets closer to the top of the cake. The very top of the cake (as if you were looking down on it) will be all clouds ~ all white, but textured to look like clouds. A silver ribbon will also line the base of the bottom tier.

I'm SO excited about the design!!!

That about wraps up our planning session!

Planning Ahead: Invitations

Tomorrow is our Planning Session at Disney, and I'm so excited!!! :-) What IS a "Planning Session"? Pretty much just as it sounds ~ hehe... We'll be meeting with our wedding planner (yes, this is what I'm calling her now), Traci and (if I'm not mistaken) the Disney event team. We'll be going through the finer details of our wedding ~ the flow, the design, décor, what Disney will be providing, what we'll be providing, etc. Following that will be the FOOD TASTING!!! Yessss ~ one of the most fun parts of the wedding planning!

On to what I've been up to...

The past few days, I've been drowning myself in the Sea of Invitation Brainstorming. With the possibility that Andrew may be heading out for another European tour earlier than expected, more decisions and action need to be taken before he leaves.

I decided to check out Impressions, located in Celebration, FL (one of my most favorite towns in the world), and the only company licensed to use official Disney images. Now, Andrew and I had said that we would create our own invitations, but I couldn't help but be drawn to Impressions's invitation designs! Totally blew the previous websites I mentioned out of the water!!!

In comparing prices between getting DIY material from Impressions vs. "the previous websites mentioned," vs. pre-designed Impressions invitations, it equalled out to about the same ~ at worst, maybe a $100 difference...so, why not get the pre-designed? The only reason I can see is if we don't find a design we fall in love with. We're also both talented, creative people and could probably design an invitation completely unique to us.

Besides the fantastic customer service (i.e. email convo) I've had with Impressions, they also can customize their clients' invitations from the ground up! Would we have had more money in our account, it would've been great to utilize this service. All the pictures I've posted in this blog are customized invitations they have done for previous couples.

Now it's just about deciding what *we* want for our invitations. I've already said that I want a tri-fold with pockets! but I'm amenable to a sleeve insert if we had to... ;-/)

Wedding Workout

After months of promises to myself, I have FINALLY gotten "back" into my workout routine. It's actually been a while since I have had an actual "regular" workout ~ it was always an off and on deal through my 20s. So, really, we can trace it back to my high school days of cheerleading ~ and for those who are unfamiliar, yes, cheerleaders DO get a workout during their practices! Our coaches had us running laps around the hockey field during the summers, sit-ups, push-ups, weight training, ALL of that! That muscle tone - fortunately - stuck with me through my college years and up until I was about 24. While getting tone back in my arms won't be that hard...uhhh...(see pic to right) ... yeah. :-) The little tummy will be my biggest challenge. And trust me, I know there are those out there ROLLING their eyes at me RIGHT NOW, but can't you see? It obviously wasn't that big of a deal to me since the small little pouch has been there since I was 24. I'm only working on it now because who doesn't want to look their best on their wedding day? Plus, I would LOVE to carry this healthy lifestyle on for the rest of my life...or okay ~ for MOST of my life.

Months ago, I purchased a workout DVD from Amazon that has quickly become one of my favorites! It is the Women's Health Wedding Workout. And don't be fooled by the title; this workout is absolutely usable even for those not getting married!

What I love most is that the workouts are completely customizable. Go through the menu and choose what you want work out for the day ~ lower abs and cardio? GO! Just abs and core? GO! Of course, you'll always want to incorporate the warm-up and cool-down before and after your main workout.

There are also pre-built workouts depending on the dress you're wearing! Strapless dress workout or short dress/hip-hugging dress. Each day has a different workout...and quite honestly, for right now, I'm skipping over the cardio. I get enough cardio from the warm-up and main workout! ;-) LOL But that's just "for now," while I get myself back into the groove. I feel the time IS coming closer to when I'll want to kick it up a notch!

Also, there's a "bonus"...which I won't mention here, just in case Andrew hops over and reads my blog! I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard it's good!

So, if you're looking for that workout DVD that has the bride-to-be in mind, you definitely have to check Women's Health Wedding Workout! It's a steal at $10.99 (or $6.64 + shipping used).

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!!!