So, I mentioned that we'd slept pretty well, considering it was the last sleep until our wedding! This, of course, is with the exception that I woke up and saw light rimming our curtains, and I woke up thinking it was roughly 8AM. Nope, it was 3AM and the light outside was artificial! It really bugged me NOT having a clock near the bed! Michael thinks that the alarm clock is too bring, so he'd cover it with a washcloth, so I had to get up and find a wave phone to see what time it was! Anyways, I think this was the day we slept in the latest- and that was probably until 9 AM. Got up, showered (I was instructed to apply mousse to my damp roots by my hairdresser), and headed to Cabanas. I kept trying to leave (You know, got lots to do!) but conversation kinda kept me in place... Until my wave phone rang at 11:00. Laura (wedding coordinator) called to tell me that Lora (photographer) and Alicia (Hairdresser) were at my grandmother's stateroom (Huge corner handicapped room!). Whoops, time to go! We went back down to our room and I didn't realize HOW MUCH STUFF I had to transport from our room to theirs- my shoes, my jewelry, my makeup, my perfume... Luckily the room was only about 5 staterooms away! As I was gathering my things, Laura (coordinator) knocked our stateroom door and MICHAEL answered! Well, she was carrying our steamed attire, and Michael may have gotten an eyeful of white dress! I led Laura to my "bridal suite" and that was the last I saw of Michael! From then on I had to send my mom or MOH to collect miscellaneous items when needed! I wish I'd been a little bit more organized at this point, but once my hair/makeup process started, it's not like I could leave!
Here's where I'm really glad I had my pink kimono robe- I've been snoopy and looking through other "getting ready" pictures, and I think it's so pretty when the bride is in a pretty robe instead of sweats or a button down shirt. I'm also incredibly thrilled that we had access to a large corner room (with a verandah! But I wasn't allowed outside b/c of the heat and humidity!) because at one point we had Me, My mom, My photographer, My hairdresser, My Moh, My aunt, My other aunt, My cousin, and my Grandma in one room! If you've ever been on a cruise before, you KNOW that staterooms are not meant to accommodate so many people! Once there, I had my hair curled and pinned up to set. Then Alicia worked on my mom's hair. Meanwhile my mom's beau had gone to deck 12 and brought down a plate of chicken and tuna salad wraps for us to eat! My MOH and I went through all of the floral separating "Bride Side" and "Groom Side" so that they could be handed off and distributed accordingly. (Only one item got put in the wrong pile. Whoops!) Meanwhile, my aunt started doing my MOH's hair, and once Alicia started on my hair and makeup again, my cousin started my mom's makeup. Somewhere along the line, my grandma and cousin needed to get ready, too! (It was their stateroom, after all!) So it was pretty chaotic in there! Now, every other time I've put on my wedding dress, we'd put on the crinoline skirt first, then pulled the dress over my head... But once the hair and makeup was done, we couldn't risk ruining my hair, so I had to step into the dress, and my MOH had to get up underneath my skirts to get that crinoline secured! Somewhere along the line, Laura showed up with my beautiful red & hot pink bouquet! Once we were putting on the finishing touches (including pinkish pixie dust for my hair and shoulders) somebody had the idea of sprinkling pixie dust on my bouquet, too! I really hope those pictures turn out well! We had a lot of fun sprinkling pixie dust everywhere!
After I was ready, we'd headed down to the Walt Disney Theater "lobby" by the gift shops to take family photos! We'd instructed Michael's family to meet in the Atrium on deck 3 to take photos, so we wouldn't bump into each other! The photographer that was with the guys was keeping in close contact via wave phone so that we wouldn't bump into each other! (A few weeks earlier we had worked on a "shot list" for these family photos, Bride with Bride Side and Groom with Groom Side. I'm really glad it was up to the photographer to arrange everybody!) Once finished with family photos, we had about 20 or 30 minutes to kill, so we went around the atrium area taking some photos. Thank goodness we did, because if I were just standing around waiting to get married, I would have gotten really anxious! As it is, Lora kept telling me to "Relax your shoulders! Relax your arms!" I guess I was still a little tense! Laura eventually found us and whisked us over to D-Lounge. Sent all of the stragglers into the room and into their seats and I was positioned aside my eldest brother, and suddenly we were being prompted to walk down the aisle!
They opened the doors and the first thing I think when I see Michael is... "Is he SERIOUSLY wearing the Mickey Top Hat at our CEREMONY??" Well, that's very Michael of him, so I guess it didn't SURPRISE me once it happened! It was a DISNEY wedding after all, and we are both very DISNEY people! I just wish I'd known he was going to do that, because I would've put A LOT more effort into decorating that hat! It was seriously a 5 minute project with some scissors and hot glue! My second though when entering the room was "Yay, Captain Henry is performing our ceremony!" If you want to know specifics about the ceremony, I couldn't tell you much (You can ask Meredith for a copy of it if you're really curious) but I do remember that Michael took one of Captain Henry's long pauses as his cue to kiss his bride... A bit too early! I think he laughed and said "I haven't gotten to that part yet"! We eventually made it to the point where he WAS supposed to kiss me, and we were pronounced husband and wife! Definitely a happy moment- AND I DIDN'T CRY!
I really didn't want to cry! We walked back down the aisle to our FANTASMIC recessional (The pianist did really well!) and after we'd left the room, they closed the doors, turned us around, and reintroduced us to the room as Mr. and Mrs. P______. OH. MY. GOSH. I felt so relieved and much more calm as soon as the ceremony was completed!
At that point we just made our rounds greeting everybody and taking lots of pictures with our guests. My family welcoming him to the family, and his family welcoming me to his! After perhaps 10-15 minutes of mingling, Laura suggested we cut the cake- she gave us a quick explanation, cut here, smile for the camera, etc. After we'd fed each other a piece each, she worked to get the cake cut and served very quickly. She even made sure my aunt (who can't each chocolate without getting a debilitating migraine) got a piece with raspberry butter cream before the knife cut into the chocolate caramel filled tier. As (or after?) the cake was being cut for the guests, champagne was being circulated (as well as the sparkling cider and iced tea, for non-drinkers). Laura handed us our champagne in the champagne flutes that we brought along. We hadn't arranged a toast by anybody, we didn't want to impose that on someone who didn't want it! So, Laura had prompted the Best Man and Maid of Honor to say a few words. We toasted, and Laura prompted the pianist to start our first dance song. We danced in front of the cake table for what seemed like an eternity! (Why did I pick such a long song?) I'm no dancer and we didn't get a chance to practice ahead of time like we'd originally planned! We definitely did the "High School" style dance, just holding each other and moving in a circle! The only problem was that my train kept getting caught up when I would spin! I had to kick it back every now and then, and my MOH tried helping when she could! After the dance (He played "At Last I See the Light" from Tangled) there was another 10-15 minutes of mingling before we were escorted out of the ceremony/celebration space (They had 30 minutes to turn the space over for some event for Pirate night) So we gathered everybody in the Atrium. As I'd predicted, Disney's photographers were busy taking their own pictures on the staircase, so my family just gathered together on the 3rd floor and my photographer took the picture of everybody from the 4th floor. Afterwards we took some photos by the Royal Palace entrance with the attendants and the flower girls (by this point the flower girls were being very fussy, especially the 2 year old!!!) and we sent everybody on their way! By this point, it was approximately 5 or 5:30 PM, so my guests could freshen themselves up before the early show around 6 PM. Lora & Danielle (photographers) and Michael & I spent the entire time from 5 PM until 8 PM (just minutes before dinner) taking pictures around the ship! We went everywhere from deck 4 outside, all over the District, we went to the deck off Meridian on deck 12, all around the 11th and 12th decks outside, we took pictures in the atrium and on the grand piano... Honestly, until I get my photos back from the photographer, I won't even remember everywhere we went!
at 8, we'd finished up in the Atrium. We adjourned to our room to freshen up (although most of my things were still locked up in my grandmother's stateroom!) Once I sat down, I didn't want to get up! We made it back downstairs to Royal Palace around 8:20 or 8:30. When we got to the restaurant, they held us at the front. All of the servers had lined up at the entrance and cheered as we entered! (Luckily my photographer had her camera handy, She must've gotten a few photos of that!) Of course, the entire dining room chimed in- it was really quite an uproar! It was definitely a surprise to us, and a very cool entrance! I knew we'd shown up late for a reason! Unfortunately, our servers were waiting to serve food to the rest of our table for when we showed up. I feel like we were starving the other 8 people at our table! Once we ordered, Michael and I started making our rounds. I was ordered to take my shoes off, so I was wandering around RP barefooted! (I was still in full bride attire, so no one could see!) The dinner was great- I had Escargot and French Onion Soup as well as the Steak & Lobster for dinner. Afterwards the head chef brought back the rest of the cake and had it cut and served at Dinner, too. They'd asked if we wanted it sent to our room, but we'd already asked Laura to send a piece of each to the room.
As we left the dining room, we spotted our flower girls taking a picture with Tinkerbell, and we totally photo-bombed them! (Disney LOST these photos! SO frustrating!) After that, we all headed up to the top deck to watch the fireworks! We were at the forward starboard side. Like our last cruise, we didn't get there in time to get a spot to watch the pirate show that accompanied the fireworks, but one of the most precious moments of the wedding was listening to Michael who was holding our niece/flower girl Sophie, and telling her all about Fantasmic and listening to her telling him the story of the last time she saw fireworks! Then she was guessing what color the next firework was going to be... It was adorable! After the fireworks, we headed aft and stopped to dance during "Party Rockers" about midship! It was an awesome impromptu moment between a few friends and us! Once we hit our floor, we'd mentally checked out! I gathered everything from my grandma's stateroom and went to bed! It was an amazing and exhausting day, and we still had a 7AM wakeup call the next morning!
Here's a picture of the bed. Pretty! But we took a couple pictures, then Michael literally scooped the flower petals into the trash!
The lighter petals near the pillows are the faux rose petals that the flower girls scattered. I also adore the Ariel and Eric "Just Married"
DCL buttons they gave us!
Gotta run! Time for work!