My Planning Journal - Mark and Katherine 01/09/11

[TweedleDe&TweedleDum]

you two are soooooooooo cute!
congrats!!
cant wait to hear more!!

[k1r1h1]

Thank you so much guys for reading! I love my engagement ring lots! Cant wait to sort our wedding bands!


Now I’m pretty sure that every little girl that visits Disney world, dreams of having their 'happily ever after' there; but that’s just it, we dream it, you never think it’s possible!

When Mark and I started looking at venues everything stressed us out, nothing felt right. We were being pulled by both sides of our families (our families don’t live locally); 'get married here' 'get married there'. Nobody really wanted to know what we wanted to do!

But I guess you all know that feeling!

I would be speaking to someone about our wedding and they'd go: the most important thing is that Mark and I do what we want! Then two moments later I would say- 'I’m thinking about having brown bridesmaid dresses' but the same person replies ' oooo you can’t have brown bridesmaid dresses'

So the illusion of having our own happily ever after was quickly fading. I was getting upset and emotional all the time because I didn’t think organising our wedding should have been that hard! After all we were meant be together!

...........................
Then one day my mum quietly suggested 'why don’t we get married in WDW' and Mark and I looked at each other and thought 'why dont we', it suited our needs perfectly and meant that we could share the most special day of our life together with our nearest and dearest in the most amazing place in the world!!

We've both got massive families, but we both envisaged our wedding day being a small gathering of our closest friends and family. We wanted to be able to talk to everyone at our wedding, sitting on one table! I didnt want to separate us!

So when we started looking at the escape package it seemed perfect! But not as perfect as a wishes package!!!!!!


Our original plan was to get married on 28th of August 2012 (Our four year anniversary). Getting married in Florida made this perfect as over here in England our wedding would of fell on the august bank holiday which is an excuse for venues and vendors to put their prices up! Obviously Mark and I didn’t want to wait that long but we felt it was essential so that certain family members could afford to save up and come (2 and a half years to save). When we starting telling our families and friends, no one really understood; understood what being in WDW meant let alone getting married there! It really is one of the most special places in the world and the thought of being there with my parents again, Marks family, his neice and nephew and my best friends is incredible!

6 months after we told everyone our wishes, Marks family were still suggesting wedding venues to us(all the time)! Looking back I think they kinda thought Disney was a token gesture and we would come round to their way of thinking (getting married near them)! In the end Mark and I realised that we holding off our wedding for people that were never gonna save/be able to save or even wanted to really be there! So we brought it forward to 2011!

This caused MASSIVE problems. Marks father and stepmother don’t work, therefore wouldn’t be able to afford to come. We knew that when we brought it forward but we were right in thinking if we waited a year, they still wouldn’t of saved anything and would of kicked off all the same. Naturally Mark and I are gutted that his dad won’t be there; we tried to help but it got us nowhere, so eventually we just gave up. Marks family clearly thinks that it is me ‘making’ Mark get married there. However when all these arguments and problems kicked off, it actually made Mark more determined to have the wedding of his dreams (it just upset me).

Now we sent our invitations to allll our family and friends (except Marks father as we would told he would throw it straight on the fire). We have been soo touched by the acceptances that we had! Here’s our really simple invitations I designed and printed.



this is just the front, we designed it like a postcard. The back had a handwritten private message to each guest and their address!! lol

untill next time x x x

[KristiLyn]

Love them!!!

[sw33t_angel]

What a cute invitation!

[Bickimook2]

Those look awesome, great job

[KitKat5]

Aww I love the invite! You did a great job!!

[k1r1h1]

Thank you; when we decided to put the wedding forward a year and booked it we didnt have much time to get the invitations sent out.


The Dress

Now I first went dress shopping with my best friend and maid of honour Hannah, about a year ago! She’s been with me every time and seen me in about 40 very different dresses! I originally definitely wanted straps on my wedding dress; but when i tried on a few i realised I REALLY DID NOT WANT STRAPS!

I wanted a very simple dress that was figure hugging and not too big to take on the plane as hand luggage. Since I was getting the wedding of my dreams in Disney I really didn’t want to fork out a ton of money on it. Now pretty early on I fell in love with Maggie Sottero; I loved all of her dresses but when I tried on Iliana It felt just perfect. I quickly arranged an appointment so my mother in law and mum could come and see it. Now they were both quite shocked, they thought I would have gone for something bigger. But nonetheless they loved it:



i love the back of the dress -





However as the wedding wasn’t booked at this point there was no point in ordering it because Disney wasn’t finalised and we were meant to be getting married in 2012. So I carried on looking which in the end just got me more and more confused with what dress I wanted. Then one day one of the consultants at my local bridal shop said have you tried on a BIG dress and I hadn’t because I didn’t imagine me in one. So she put me in one and WOW it was amazing. I couldn’t believe it. I really did look like a princess. My mum came to see it and even my brother (we are really close these days and he’s going to be Marks best man, which is super special). Luke (brother) even took a cheeky picture of me in it –


Lukes clearly never gonna be a photographer!

I did love it, but in the end I went back to my original dress as i felt it was more me; i loved the big dress, but I don’t think its what Mark would of imagined me wearing it . So on the 30th of December 2010 i ordered my Maggie Sottero dress. I can’t wait for it to arrive!

Did I choose the right dress?
Bridesmaid Dresses
Now I have 3 bridesmaids and a flower girl. I have been so lucky that the majority of my friends are really making the effort and attending our wedding in Florida, I really couldn’t believe it when they all said they would come. Its a lot to ask any one and its touched me so much (my eyes are filling up writing this).

My best friend Hannah is my maid of honour, we met at university and we have been each others rock ever since! Charlie and Frankie are my two girlies from work who I have an absolute blast with are going to be my bridesmaids. And finally Marks 3 year old niece Mia Grace- who means the world to mark and I will be our flower girl and her little brother Flynn-Thomas will be our page boy (2 years old).

Now the bridesmaid dresses were decided I think even before Mark asked me to marry him! I seen an add for them years ago and saved it! They are by a company called TWOBIRDS BRIDESMAIDS and are a dress that you can tie up 15 different ways. This dress enables my three bridesmaids to wear the same dress but wear it the way that they feel comfortable in!
Here it is



And after many hours of playing with our colour scheme I’ve gone for a neutral rose petal colour; its such a delicate and romantic colour. The best thing is my girls LOVE it!





Im ordering this brooch from swavoski for the three girls and myself, we are all gonna wear it somewhere different on our dresses



this all matches with the bouquet that i love -

[sw33t_angel]

Loving everything!

I think you made the right choice for your dress If it makes you feel more like you- then it is definitely the one!!

What a clever idea for the bridesmaid's dresses!! I have heard about convertible dresses but never for a wedding!! What a fantastic idea!!

That brooch is stunning btw!

I love your color scheme of the neutral rose. It instantly reminded me of Jessica Simpson's wedding to Nick Lachey.. (I am such a dork- I bought her wedding book and all the seasons of Newlyweds...)



She used tons of roses. I am sure you can find some more pictures through a google search.

Glad everything is coming together so well for you!