Kate and Mark's Escape Canada Terrace Wedding 10/28/2016

kl3w

Earning My Ears
Joined
Mar 30, 2016
Hello everyone! When I started looking into DFTW I felt like there weren't enough Escape brides doing PJs. Plus, I'm planning it all in less than 6 months, so I'm hoping that will help people out too!

Welcome Dessert Party: UK Lochside
Ceremony: Canada Terrace, Epcot, 9am
Lunch "reception": Morimoto Asia, Disney Springs

Our story
We met in grad school at a wine tasting. I was supposed to be meeting a bunch of people there, but none of them showed and I was biding my time until I didn't feel awkward leaving. Mark was a regular, and he struck up a conversation with me when he overheard I was a grad student as well. We talked for the next 2 hours, and the rest is history.

The proposal
We're very pragmatic people, but have our own sense of romanticism. We picked out a ring together back in March, but he wanted to wait and tell people when our families were together for his graduation. I told him to ask when he was ready. The night before his graduation, he made me a sushi dinner and we were splitting a fancy bottle of wine. He said something about being part of the family, and I joked that I wasn't yet because I wasn't wearing the ring. He immediately pulled the ring out of his pocket and said "Well, do you want to?" We told our families the next day at graduation like he had planned. Like I said, pragmatic, but romantic in our way.


Why DFTW?
I have always been a Disney fan. My aunt was a cast member in the early 00s, so we went a lot with her. Since high school, my best friend and our moms have become even bigger fans and I try to go at least once a year, though I make up for the years I miss by going multiple times the next year:). When my brother got married a few years ago, my mom and I joked about a Disney wedding and because I'm a researcher I looked it up. I saw the Escape package and fell in love and I've wanted it ever since.

DF hadn't been to Disney since he was a kid, so when my family went to Food and Wine last fall I made him come. I half-joked that if he didn't like it, I wasn't sure if we could have a future together. Luckily, he loved Food and Wine and agreed that we could get married at Disney!
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There are a lot of reasons we chose the Escape package. For me, I've never really dreamed about my wedding and I know nothing of flowers, so I loved the ease of planning where all I have to do is pick from options. As long as it's pretty, I'm good. For both of us, cost was another big thing. We'd like to have money left over to save for a house. We also really liked the numbers limit. Neither of us want a big wedding, but I have a huge extended family and lots of sorority sisters and my parents have lots of close friends, so being able to tell people we can only have 18 at the ceremony is great for us. That being said, we will have some extended family join us for the DP and lunch after the ceremony.

I also looked at doing a Swan and Dolphin wedding with Just Marry, and the conversations my mom and I had with them were great, so I'd highly recommend them to anyone. I couldn't pass up the chance to get married in Epcot- it's always been my favorite park. We only had 1-2 dates we could go down in October for the wedding, and DF's caveat was that we go during Food and Wine, so had we not been able to get the Canada Terrace, I would've gone for Swan and Dolphin hands down.

I'm going to try to split this up into smaller posts as I go on and link them all at the top of this post, so if you know how to link to specific posts, feel free to PM me with instructions. Thanks!
 
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Hey, so glad your doing a PJ for an escape bride, I'm hoping to be one too.
Loved your photos, can't wait to hear all about your planning
 
Welcome and thanks for sharing your story! Can't wait to follow along with your plans! The Canada pavilion is one of my favorites.
 
Getting Confirmed with DFTW

We got engaged on a Friday, and when I asked DF when he wanted to get married, he said October. I assumed October 2017, but he said no this October, which I actually think is really great. What's the point in waiting? So we looked at our schedules, and our families' schedules, WDW crowd calendars, and my mom checked on DVC availability, and we decided that October 28 was the best day. My work schedule can be pretty flexible, but DF teaches and doesn't like to miss class, so we wanted a Friday. The 14th was his brothers fall break, but it was also during the mid-semester finals where DF teaches, so that was a no go, and the 21st had very little DVC availability, so we settled on the 28th and hoped it would work.

So that Monday I called DFTW. They only took my name, contact info, and preferred dates and venues and said someone would call me in the next few days. We were already fewer than 6 months out at this point, so the process might not go as quickly for brides who's date is farther away. I got an email confirming my phone number that day. My mom went ahead and booked 2 DVC villas for family to stay in for our dates because as far as I can tell Canada Terrace doesn't get used much for either Escape or Wishes weddings and I felt pretty good about getting it. At this point we also decided that if we couldn't do it in Epcot, we were going to go with Swan and Dolphin, who are more flexible with times, so we figured no matter what we would have our wedding on Friday, October 28.

Tuesday afternoon I got a call from Pam, a DFTW sales consultant. She checked and Canada Terrace was available on that date! Yay! However, we had originally planned to do a DP the night of the wedding but they don't do any DPs on Fridays and Saturdays during Food and Wine because it gets crazy busy (having been, I totally understand.) So I told her we'd hold off on that and just book the Escape ceremony for now. She said needed to double check everything with booking to totally confirm, so the next day I got another email confirming our date and asking for info for the contract. I had the contract by the end of the week! Everyone was very friendly and it was a pretty pleasant experience aside from my own impatience.

The Dessert Party
I think most brides book their DP through DFTW, which makes sense for most circumstances. Had we done it the night of the wedding, I would have too because I wanted to wear my dress in the park (again). However, since we couldn't do it the night of, we decided to do it the night before as a welcome party. Because I wouldn't be wearing my dress the night before, I decided to try and book through Disney Catered Events instead. The upside to this is the viewing fee. With DFTW, you pay a $10 viewing fee for every guest at the party. With catered events, the viewing fee is $15 but you only pay for guests who don't already have park admission. Almost all of our guests will have park admission, so this could be a huge money saver for us.

I called Catered Events, but they saw me in the system as someone planning a wedding, so they kicked me back over to DFTW (very politely - no one was harmed) and my Sales Consultant called me about it. I explained to her why I had contacted catered events instead of going through her, and she was very understanding. She was able to get it sent back over to Catered Events, and now I'm just waiting for a call from them.

More updates coming - next up, our lunch plans!
 


All the contracts are sent back, we have an official dessert party site (UK Lochside - a top choice and I didn't have to ask!), and now we're just waiting to get our official coordinator! Yay! Everything is moving so quickly since we got engaged a few weeks ago and will be married in less than 6 months, but I really like the speed of things. I'd much rather be busy with planning than feel stagnant, as I know brides sometimes are with Disney weddings.

Lunch "Reception" at Morimoto Plans

I wanted to talk a bit about how we chose where we are going for a lunch "reception" after the Escape ceremony. In my mind I originally envisioned a brunch at The Attic through DFTW. In comparing the Escape with the mini-Wishes this was always in the back of my mind, and I knew even with Escape I wanted a meal somewhere for everyone with us. I loved the pictures I had seen of The Attic and how it looked out over the Boardwalk and I thought that was it and I was set and I just needed to be engaged to plan it.

Then I started listening to the Disney Weddings Podcast religiously and heard from this bride who did Escape and then a dinner at Morimoto: http://disneyweddingpodcast.com/2016/04/27/escape-collection-spotlight-erin-jon/

I hadn't even thought about going to a restaurant before that, but this sparked the idea in my head. I started looking through the Group Reservation pages in the Passporter's book and came up with a lot of options. Most of the Disney Springs restaurants even had their banquet menus online, so I sent them to my DF to look over:

Raglan Road: http://www.raglanroad.com/stuff-yourself/banquet-menus
Portobellos: http://www.portobellorestaurant.com/catering_lunchv
Wolfgang Puck: http://www.wolfgangpuckcafeorlando.com/catering_lunch

I also emailed Morimoto about their group banquet menus and they sent me two options for a lunch: Family Style and Bento Box Lunch

I ate at Morimoto with my aunt and cousin when we were there for WDW Marathon weekend in January, and it's such a cool place! Really cool atmosphere and decor, so it was my top choice because of that. Plus they have this great second floor private room area.
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Not having to worry about decorating a reception? Yes, please!

But I wanted DF to have a say, so I let him look over everything. With the cool private room and the family style menu, he was impressed with Morimoto and not much else. We're going with the family style menu. I was able to find their non-WDW website through Patina Group, which is where I got the contact infor for their private dining person: https://www.patinagroup.com/morimoto-asia . It's been pretty easy working with her and I think it will be really great. We're going with the family menu because we like the food options better (my granddad isn't big into Asian food so we're hoping some of the other things will spark his fancy). We're going to bring our cake fully intact from the ceremony and have it as part of the dessert with the gelato. And we're going with a bill-on-consumption bar, but we're hoping that because it's lunch there won't be much imbibing.

As I've said, things are moving ahead quickly, so stay tuned!
 
Following along! Everything you're planning sounds really nice and your wedding is so soon, lucky!

The Morimoto reception sounds awesome! I haven't been there yet, but the pictures of it look beautiful. I'm glad they are proving easy to work with.
 
Hey, so glad your doing a PJ for an escape bride, I'm hoping to be one too.
Loved your photos, can't wait to hear all about your planning

Yay for Escape brides! I feel like because it's not as arduous a process a lot of people don't feel like they should do a PJ or anything, but as an obsessive researcher I always want more info. Hope I can help you out when you start the planning process!
 


Things have been steadily moving forward, and we're about 115 days out now! We got a small gift from DFTW - shoe bag and charm. Not sure what to do with the charm though . . .

I bought my dress from BHLDN, and since the one I liked was technically a bridesmaids dress that came in ivory, it was only $250. I actually bought 2, had them shipped to my parents', then tried them on with my mom while I was home for a cousin's baby shower. I actually did a little fashion show with my SIL and some cousins who stayed a bit after the shower, which was a lot of fun and was enough of the "say yes to the dress" experience for me. While both were beautiful, one was just way more comfortable and felt more me, and everyone else agreed that I just looked more comfortable/myself in it, so that's the dress! It's the fleur dress. We shipped the other back with their included return labels and got a full refund (except shipping). Overall, I'm super pleased with them! My mom bought a crinoline to make it a bit fuller, and a pearled/beaded belt with lavender ribbon, and I'll try all that on together in a few weeks when I'm home. I'm wearing my grandmother's antique pearls and a pair of her pearl earrings as well. Still deciding whether to post pics. I doubt DF will come looking here, but you never know. Oh and I got shoes too! They're the blush Betsy Johnson Lucy flats. The blush probably doesn't match much else, but they're so sparkly and so comfortable and they'll be under a dress all day anyways.
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We also ordered invitations. Our color scheme is shades of blues and purples, and I found these beautiful water color floral invitations on Wedding Paper Divas. I had used their sister site, Tiny Prints, last year when planning someone else's bridal shower and was pleased with them. I was also able to find a similar theme for our wedding website so it all kinda matches. Because we have a lot of people coming to the DP and reception and not the ceremony, we did large reception-only invitations and then included info about all the other events on the back of the main invite. Then I created an insert card that included ceremony information to put in the invitations of the 18 people who are invited to the ceremony. I'm doing all RSVPs online through our wedding website/Google forms to save some money. At this point, we already know who's coming anyways.

So decor - I mentioned that I want to go with blues and purples as our colors. I want to do the Azure bouquet that's a standard Escape bouquet but switch out the white roses for lavender:
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DF will wear his blue suit with a white or lavender shirt and a lavender tie that he already owns. His brothers, the groomsmen, will wear black pants and a white shirt and lavender or blue tie. My bridesmaids I've asked to get light blue dresses. We want this to be as easy on the bridal party as possible, so we'd prefer they not rent and only buy things they will wear again. And I know different shades of blue always look good together because that's why we always wore blue for sorority things - everyone could get a dress they felt comfortable in and that they liked, but all the different blues always looked good together.

As far as ceremony decor, it'll be super minimal. I want ivory and lavender rose petals sprinkled on the aisles, and that's about it. I thought about doing toss petals as well, but now I think I'm going to do a dried lavender toss. After some searching, I found that I could probably make my own little lavender sachets for the toss for between $10-20, while toss petals will probably cost around $50 at least.

We're going to do the silver Mickey's Delight cake. I want a tier to be the almond/amaretto crunch cake and filling. DF isn't too thrilled with that but I figure with 2 tiers we can each get what we want, right? I have no interest in trying to save it and bring it home; we'll just buy a new cake for our first anniversary. He's thinking the marble right now, not sure about a filling.

We still need to come up with a menu for the dessert party. Because it's food and wine festival, I think we can get away with fewer options since most of our guests will have been partaking of the festivities most of the afternoon/evening before the party, so if there's anything you had that you loved and recommend, please share!
 
Love all the details! (Especially that dress!) Can't wait to hear more about the DP and timeline for the Canada ceremony!
 
I've been MIA for awhile, but that's because DF and I moved and both started new jobs in the last month! Everyone keeps talking about how hard it must be to move and start new jobs and plan a wedding, but honestly DFTW has made it so easy!

We choose the menu for our dessert party and it's $40 per person- snow dusted chocolate bunts, assorted macarons (for our love of France), doughnuts flambe (just for fun), and a cheese plate as a nod to DF's Wisconsin roots. Plus a bill-on-consumption bar. We emailed our planner 3-4 different custom menu options to get pricing, and then let DF's parents choose from among those options. We also got favors for the wedding, and we're gonna hand them out at the dessert party. We got custom printed corkscrews from http://www.winecountryoccasions.com. They've been great to work with - they sent us a sample of the corkscrew so we could make sure it worked and a proof before printing. Just waiting on the final product.

We got our BEO back! For the rose petals, our planner recommended getting $100 worth for nice coverage. It also cost $50 to mix in the lavender roses with the white ones in the bouquet, and I added some hidden Mickey pearls for fun. I got the OK to do a dried lavender toss for the recessional, so yay! For rain backup, I requested American Adventure Rotunda almost first thing and we got it - it's official in the BEO. So no matter what, come rain or shine, it'll be beautiful. The only other thing I can think of is music:

Wedding party (just my MOH - might make this the same as mine): What a wonderful world
Bride (me!): La Vie en Rose
Recessional: Married Life from Up

We knew we wanted La Vie en Rose in there somewhere, and I knew I wanted Married Life, but had no idea about anything else. In the planning packet, there was a whole sheet of music suggestions based on part in the ceremony, which was really helpful.

My MOH got her dress, also from BHLDN, the Annabelle dress ciel blue. Pro tip- Bhldn will send free swatches of colors for you to look at!

The only other thing happening right now is that I'm second guessing the accessories that go with my dress. I had a try-on with my MOH and some family back in July. My had got a crinoline and lavender belt and I don't quite feel right about it all. I need to just try it all on again. I think I'll pass on the crinoline because I wanted a sleeker look rather than a ball gown/A-line. I might also change the lavender on the beaded belt to an ivory, again for the sleek look. It's so hard because I don't have it here to try it on and gauge for myself, and I don't have any pictures with all of it. I need to plan a trip home to get that sorted.

So next steps - sign the BEO and confirm it's all correct, then we'll have a call with our planner Natalia (who has been awesome, btw) to get all the details and timeline settled. Less than 2 months!
 
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Following along!
Morimoto's looks like a great reception choice! Your plans are coming along so well, makes me jealous I didn't stick with Escape.
I was thinking of using Le Vie en Rose somewhere too... did you also pick it as a HIMYM reference...or is that just me?
 
I was thinking of using Le Vie en Rose somewhere too... did you also pick it as a HIMYM reference...or is that just me?
@Laurmc8 While I watched HIMYM, DF hasn't. It has more to do with our love of French language and culture. We both studied abroad in France in college and it was one of the first we boned over.

As far as sticking with an Escape, there a few things I'm jealous that Wishes brides get (more venue choices for one, food tasting for another) but Escape has really worked out well for us and the ease of planning can't be beat in my opinion!
 
Alright we are one month out! It's crunch time people! Here's some stuff that has or will happen in the next month that I didn't know existed with an Escape wedding:

- We got a form to fill out from DFAP about our preferred photography style, what family was going to be there, and things we wanted to make sure the photographer captured.
- We created a private Facebook group to keep everyone in the know. I created a timeline for the day that we pinned to the top of the page so that it will always be the first thing people see. I also plan on putting a "Have questions - ask this person" post as well closer to the trip.
- We changed our DP menu to just the cheese plate and donuts flambé, so that's around $32 pp instead of $40.
- We got shirts and ties for the groomsmen at Men's Warehouse on sale and with a coupon! Yay!
- Met with my aunt, our officiant, and planned out readings and the ceremony.

Here's what our budget basically looks like for the ceremony part:
  • $6200 - Canada Terrace Escape package (includes venue, limo & mini-bus transportation, mic set/sound system for ceremony, violinist, bride and groom floral, cake, 2 bottles champagne, 2 hours photography)
  • $50 - lavender rose upgrade for my bouquet
  • $135 - Bridesmaid bouquet that matches mine
  • $7.50 - a hidden Mickey pearl for each bouquet
  • $42 - 3 extra boutonnieres that match the bouquets (14 each)
  • $100 - rose petals scattered in the aisle. This is the amount our planner recommended.
Our floral additions cost $356 once sales tax was included, so the whole ceremony (minus dress and things) cost $6556.

Still waiting to set up a call with our planner to iron out details.

I'm starting to stress a bit because I'm honestly not sure what I might be forgetting. Anything you all following along can think of?
 
Hi! I love your report, and your choices! I was married at SBP, and I can tell you that Disney did an amazing job. Everything was really top drawer--absolutely zero complaints and best of all it was pretty much stress free. The flowers were swoon worthy, and the cake was the best cake we have ever had. Loved everything about that day--truly. You will be so happy. :love:

Your dress and your MOH's dresses are beautiful and perfect for a Disney wedding. Lovely, simple but elegant, and they look comfortable. I agree with the no crinoline thing--its just we moms want to see our daughters in a GOWN! LOL.

The only other thing I can think of is hair and makeup people, if you are having that done.
 
Ok we're back! The wedding was now a month ago, and I'm just now getting the time to do all this so hang tight - it's gonna be a long post!

Overall, everything was absolutely wonderful! The weather stayed gorgeous and everyone had a blast. Can't recommend DFTW enough! Here's a quick rundown of the wedding trip:

Monday/Tuesday: My mom drove down with the wedding dress, DH's suit, favors, and all sorts of other things that would've been hard to fly down. I flew in Tuesday night after work and basically went straight to bed. I'm exciting, I know :)

Wednesday: Mom and I went to Epcot in the morning, then I had my hair and makeup trial that afternoon with Laura from Fairytale Hair and Makeup. The trial went great, and Laura was really good about making sure I liked everything and was giving input. Some other family and friends came in that afternoon/evening, and that night we attempted a Monorail Bar Crawl with everyone who had arrived by then. Pro tip: start early! We didn't and we really only made it to Outer Rim at the Contemporary and Trader Sam's Terrace at Polynesian. We also tried to end at the Top of the World Lounge at Bay Lake Towers for Wishes, but didn't make it in time for the fireworks. We did get a drink there though!

Thursday: DH arrived Thursday morning, so I slept in and hung around the resort waiting for him. Then we went to Epcot to Food and Wine and do some fastpasses. The two of us came back early afternoon and I took a nap and got ready for the dessert party that night. At 7:00, everyone who was in the ceremony met in Epcot at Canada. My aunt was our officiant, so though no rehearsal was included through Disney, we hoped to try and get everyone in the space and do a walkthrough. I figured I had seen enough pictures to know where to stand. However, there was a private event up on the Canada Terrace, so we just gathered around in a quiet spot and talked through everything. Then it was party time!

Dessert party: Because it was the night before the wedding, we treated this as a rehearsal dinner and I just wore a nice dress. We had 2 people without park tickets, so they met a guide at the giant flag pole at the Epcot front entrance. The guide brought them back to UK Lochside around 7:30, but it turned out we couldn't enter UK Lochside until 8:00, so they got to walk around the park some with us. The rest of us all just met outside the fish and chips cart at 8:00 and went in. It was amazing! We had the donuts flambe and a cheese plate and a BOC bar (which I'll talk about more later). The food was awesome, our bartender was fun, and the view could not be beat. And our DCE coordinator was really good about making sure everything was how we wanted it. Everyone ate and drank to their heart's content and then we all watched the fireworks, with a photographer on DH and me (the pictures are AMAZING! pixiedust:). DH hasn't seen IllumiNations all the way through though, so we'll just have to go back. When the festivities ended, Mom and I booked it out so I could get some sleep before the early morning makeup call, but everyone else leisurely walked through the park and got a great group photo at Spaceship Earth.

Friday (early) morning: Laura came to start hair and makeup at 3:45 am, so it was an early morning. We had a crockpot breakfast casserole that we made for breakfast, and plenty of coffee, and it was a pretty chill morning other than the early hours. We all just sat around and talked while getting ourselves prettied, and there was no rushing, which was nice. Again, Laura did an awesome job - highly recommended! I got a text from our planner to get our room numbers for the limo, and another when it arrived for the guys around 7:45. I assume everything was good on their side because I heard no complaints :). The limo came back for us around 8:15. We had a snafu with my mom forgetting something in the room, and the key not working to get back in, but we still made it to Epcot with plenty of time. The bus picked up the rest of the guests at 8:00 am. The planner talked with our officiant and my dad and DH and explained everything, and my dad was very complimentary about how nice and welcoming she was.

Ceremony: We were dropped off backstage between the bathrooms and phone booth in the UK, and luckily they let us run into the restrooms really quickly (so much coffee!). Then we walked from there over to Canada. MOH and I got our bouquets and then the moms and my MOH went on up toward the terrace while I did a first look with DH(totally recommended!). After our first look, DH went up to the Terrace and my dad came down to meet me. As I was waiting, a little girl walking by said "Is that a real bride?" Cutest thing ever. They told Dad and me when to start walking, and we probably walked a little fast but we're tall and just walk fast naturally. The music was beautiful! We had the ceremony. DH and the officiant had mics on, and we had a mic with stand for our readings. There were no issues with anyone hearing over the waterfall. We did our real exit, then a staged exit with our lavender toss, then a staged toast, and staged cake cutting (DH and I did take bites though - so good!). My dad and I did a first dance, and then it was pictures. Group pictures with family, then they went back to the resort to pick up more people for lunch. DH and I did photos around Canada with our photographer. DH got a little frustrated with our photographer, but he also hates being in front of the camera. I did just get our photos back though, and I'm very pleased.

Lunch at Morimoto: DH and I took the limo back to the resort to pick up our parents. There was some confusion about who needed to be on the bus and who in the limo, but everyone got to Disney Springs. However, with all the changes, they couldn't actually drop us off where they Morimoto person said, so we had quite a walk from the limo/bus to the restaurant. When we got there, they took us right up to the private room, but there were not enough seats, so they had to add a few more. I think they were going off my original estimate rather than the updated numbers I had sent the week before - it seemed like handling of our lunch changed hands at some point, and I think there was some lost communication. The food was really great, especially the orange chicken. They cut and served our cake for us with the green tea gelato. There was also some confusion about gelato flavors. When we got there they asked me what flavor options to give, and I said let people choose between these 2. Then later, when they were actually getting ready to serve, they said it was with all going to be with the green tea gelato. It wasn't a problem but still a bit weird. The lunch also took much longer than we had anticipated. There were pretty long breaks between courses, and while I thought they had said we needed to be out of there by 1:30, we didn't leave until about 2:30. That meant that the bus service and limo were done (and we had paid for an extra limo hour because of this). Luckily, we were staying at Saratoga Springs, so it was a quicker walk to the boat and then back to the resort than it would've been to get to the limo and bus. The boat had been my original plan, but when I asked Morimoto what would be best, they said the bus/limo. Should've stuck with my original plan. Regardless- it was really fun to have everyone on the boat together back to the resort!

The rest of the weekend, we just did the parks, and then flew home on Sunday, and back to work on Monday! Next post, Glad I did/Wish I didn't
 
Glad I did
  • Added the lavender roses to the bouquet. It made such huge difference and they were gorgeous!!!! I hadn't thought I'd be a person who loved my flowers that much, because they're only flowers, but now I totally get it.
  • Did the Canada Terrace. It was really private and away from onlookers, which SBP wouldn't have been. As we were taking photos, DH got really tired of people walking by and saying things because he doesn't like being the center of attention, so I'm really glad that wasn't an issue during the ceremony.
  • First look. I thought it would be good for DH to have that chill moment before everything, but I think I needed it more in the end. I got really antsy that I didn't look like myself and just worried so I liked having just that minute to refocus with only him before everything started.
  • Photography at the dessert party. Fireworks photos are epic and we got lots of photos of family and friends too. It's a must.
  • Stuck with the included photography for the ceremony. I kept thinking about adding more because what if we didn't have enough? We have plenty of photos that we like, everything we wanted captured got captured. I realize its all personal, but going with the included photography was plenty for us. It also helped that my MOHs mom is a fiend with her camera, so I still have plenty of photos outside the ceremony stuff.
  • Had everyone (pretty much) at the same DVC resort. It was really nice to all be a few rooms away from each other so it was easy to meet up, borrow things, etc. We were all in the same building, same floor, but spread out across the floor so we still had some privacy too.
  • Got my mani/pedi before leaving home. Wouldn't have had time to do it otherwise
  • Hair/makeup trial. Even just 2 days before, there were a few small things I decided to change, and I appreciated having the time to think about those.
  • Cut down our DP menu to just the donuts and cheese plate. That was plenty and was plenty delicious for everyone to be satisfied.
  • I'm glad I did my research. With the DisBrides group and the Disney Wedding podcast and the Passporter's book. All wonderful and helpful.

Wish I had done/Could do without
  • I could've done without the aisle petals. Thought I really wanted them, but could've done without them in the end. Don't get me wrong - it was very pretty! Just not all that necessary looking back.
  • I should've trusted my gut with the transportation and had us all take the boat to/from Disney Springs.
  • I also should've given the favors/guest book/other things for ceremony/lunch to someone other than my mom. It would've taken a lot off both our plates the morning of.
  • I should've really thought about our bar options for the dessert party. Apparently our friends and family drink a lot. It might have been cheaper to go with the package bar because they really did have a lot to drink. We have friends who take serious advantage of free food and drink, and I hadn't even thought about it.
  • Planned things so they weren't as staged. Having everything from the exit to the cake cutting staged got a bit weird in the end. I wish I had thought of ways to make it more organic, especially the toss. The pictures are great, but it felt weird in the moment.
  • A call with Morimoto beforehand to make sure everything was set for the lunch. We didn't have huge issues, but some things felt unprepared and that was frustrating.

If I had wanted to spend unlimited money, I'm there are other things I would do, but budgeting was really important to us and I'm really happy with how everything turned out and the choices we made. I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, but obviously if I've forgotten them already, they weren't that important. So thanks for following along. I might try to post some pictures later, but for now that's it! Thanks!
 

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