Jilian & BT's VR 3/24/12 Crescent Terr/Il Mulino - Last of the Randy Chapman pics up!

[mebbradley]

I've heard wonderful things about Narcoosee's.

 

[MrRomance]

What a wonderful story! So similar to ours. Even the flower girl dresses are similar! Good luck on your wonderful journey to your VR and I'm looking forward to hearing more from you !

 

[Jilian]

Meb, thanks! We haven't tried Narcoossees but I've heard great things about it too. One day we were walking around the GF and could smell amazing smells coming from Narcoossees too, I'll add it to our list.

Mr. Romance, thanks for following. Our flower girl dresses are similar, we apparently both have great taste. lol

I'm working on planning out our days so we can make dining reservations. I'm thinking we want to try something at the Animal Kingdom lodge, since we were initially planning on staying there. Has anyone eaten at any of the restaurants there? I hear great things about Ohana too. Ugh, there are too many choices!

 

[belle2211]

Hi! I've eaten at all of the restauarnts at AKL...My fav is Bomas. It's a buffet but sooo good. BUT if I had to choose between Bomas and Ohanas, I would pick Ohanas. Yum!

 

[Jilian]

Hi! I've eaten at all of the restauarnts at AKL...My fav is Bomas. It's a buffet but sooo good. BUT if I had to choose between Bomas and Ohanas, I would pick Ohanas. Yum!

Thanks Andrea I'm really hoping we can get in at Ohana and I think I'll add Boma to my list too. So far this is what I'm thinking:

Night we arrive: TRex @ downtown Disney (we'll pay out of pocket before our free dining kicks in)
Night of welcome gathering: we'll probably just eat @ the Carribean to stay close
Day of VR: we'll have our post-ceremony dinner @ Il Mulino...which makes me think "ACK! Pasta sauce and white dress...Ack!"
Day after VR: going to Magic Kingdom baby! Dinner @ Crystal Palace
2 days after VR: Going to animal kingdom. Dinner @ Yak & Yeti or Rainforest Cafe. I love Yak & Yeti but I'm not sure how the kids will like it. If someone takes them for the evening we'll do Y&Y for sure.
3 days after VR: Boma. Very excited to try this, we've always wanted to stay at the AK, so I guess this is the next best thing
4 days after VR: Ohana...if we're able to get the reservation. Excited about this one too, H loves the poly and it sounds like a fun place for families.
5 days after VR: breakfast somewhere, maybe character breakfast? Then we head home.

Now I just have to stalk the reservation booking system to hopefully get my reservations. But the website isn't working right for me. Boo!

 

[Jilian]

I finally got the Diney site to pick up my reservation and let me book my ADRs! I didn't realize that as you get to make up to 10 days worth of reservations as long as your date of arrival is 6 mos or less. *Happy Dance* I was able to book all of my choices AND a lunch @ Le Cellier Steakhouse.

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Hey sweetie!!
I was going to say that my favourite restaurant at AKL is now Sanaa, over at Kidani, but it doesn't matter now as you are all booked. Yay for that, and Boma is excellent too!!!

 

[virtuous girl]

i just read ur entire PJ... great job with everything ur dress is beautiful u cant go wrong with micheals coupons i am looking 4 weddings trees as my centerpieces but will only buy them at a good price keep the updates coming

 

[Jilian]

My motivation has finally kicked in! I just spent the last hour organizing my wedding binder and updating everything (while my son glued and cut and played with scotch tape). I'm feeling a little more organized now. Here is where I'm at...

I've booked The Swan's crescent terrace for our vow renewal. Our Pastor will be the officiant (yay!) and we've ordered rose petals in deep pink to be scattered down the aisle. We bought urns to put flowers in and this is the look we're going for:

We're also ordering pomander balls to hang them from the chairs and bring in some more color. Like this:

and this...

We initially went with a solo violinist, but I could not seem to find solo violinist music samples online. Then I did find some, and it sounded like nails down a chalkboard! So we cancelled the S/D violinist and booked our own violinist and guitarist. We went with Jennie Rudberg http://www.jenniemusic.com/demo.html Her prices were very reasonable ($350 for the 2 piece for an hour).

Our reception is booked @ Il Mulino in the Swan. They've offered us their courtyard for a cocktail hour and we'll probably stop there for a drink before heading to the private room. We went with the least expensive menu because we liked the selections best. It is $55/per person (plus tax and gratuity). We'll pay for drinks out of pocket instead of doing an open bar because wine is not included in the open bar prices. We did, however, "close" the wine menu to a few choices. They have some bottles that are over $1,000!

For hair and makeup I've booked Beaute Speciale. I'm going to get the eyelashes too. I'm also doing a trial in November.

For Photography we've booked the awesome Randy Chapman. We booked from 2-5 so we can do pictures ahead of time @ the Grand Floridian.

We booked our hotel and went with the Cribbean beach resort. We're doing 7 nights and we got free dining for 5 of those nights!

We'll be heading up to Orlando on Nov 12 to do a menu tasting @ Il Mulino and I'm doing my hair trial the next morning. Now I just need to come up with some hair ideas.

Next up is invitations. We need to get going on them. We decided to mail them out @ 4 mos prior and ask for an RSVP @ 2 mos prior. That means they go out around Thanksgiving.

Dress is all altered and I have most of my jewelery, I'm having second thoughts on the necklace and will probably go with something more simple. My sash has a lot of bling so I need a simple necklace that doesn't compete with the sash.

I think that is about it. I'm feeling really accomplished now Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[2dogmom]

I finally had time to read your PJ. Your first kiss was on my birthday I'm so happy to hear how healthy your son is. One of my best friends went through the same thing. 3 heart surgeries later and she is doing wonderful. I love your votive holders and may be stealing that idea from my wedding and luau. Keep up the great DIY ideas so I can steal some

 

[Jilian]

I finally had time to read your PJ. Your first kiss was on my birthday I'm so happy to hear how healthy your son is. One of my best friends went through the same thing. 3 heart surgeries later and she is doing wonderful. I love your votive holders and may be stealing that idea from my wedding and luau. Keep up the great DIY ideas so I can steal some

Thanks for reading I'm glad to hear that your friend is doing well too, was it hypoplastic left heart syndrome? We meet a lot of people with that, the 3 heart surgeries is killer. It is nice to hear of other people doing well after CHD heart surgery, it makes me hopeful for my son.

Steal away, I'm happy you liked my candle idea. I've gotten so much of my inspiration from reading PJs here, I'm happy to be able to pay it forward.

 

[2dogmom]

was it hypoplastic left heart syndrome

Here is what my friend's girl has (taken from her website )
Asplenia syndrome with dextrocardia
Common atrium
Common AV valve
Single ventricle
Transposed great vessels with pulmonary atresia
Abdominal situs ambiguous
Gut malrotation.

You would never guess she had heart problem if you didn't see her "zipper".

 

[Jilian]

Here is what my friend's girl has (taken from her website )
Asplenia syndrome with dextrocardia
Common atrium
Common AV valve
Single ventricle
Transposed great vessels with pulmonary atresia
Abdominal situs ambiguous
Gut malrotation.

You would never guess she had heart problem if you didn't see her "zipper".

Wow! She is one lucky girl to have made it through ok. I'm glad she's doing well. My son is the same, people are always shocked to hear that he's had heart surgery because he's always running around and full of energy.

Speaking of hearts, we just did the heart walk to raise money for CHD research. Here is Team Evan:

 

[2dogmom]

Speaking of hearts, we just did the heart walk to raise money for CHD research. Here is Team Evan:

Very cool! Such a good cause!

 

[Jilian]

I think that having a ticker has motivated me to get off my butt and do stuff because every time I look at it inching closer and closer to March I panic a bit and do something wedding related. For some reason 3 mos scares the heck out of me and I feel like everything should be done by then, so seeing my ticker get closer to 4 mos has really set a fire beneath my behind. So YAY for tickers!

I've finally committed to a plan for the welcome party. I've gone around and around with this and just keep changing it. I reallllllly wanted to do a dessert party even though we were hoping to stay at or under $1,000 for 30 or so people. Yesterday I decided that I was just gonna book the dessert party...and then I found out that Wishes is at 10pm the week we'll be there - meaning we wouldn't get home until at least 11:00. BOO! That is just too late with kids, and we have 10 kids total coming to our VR. 3 are mine. I thought for a minute about hiring a sitter and leaving them back at the resort but that didn't feel right either. Epcot is even more with the viewing fees so that was out. Then I got the great idea to just book Hoop de doo revue but you have to pay up front and I have no idea how many people to expect, etc.

Soooo, we've decided to just stick with the welcome drink at the CBR and hand out the welcome bags then. I wanted to do more than just a drink so we're going to order some platters from Publix. They have a really nice fruit & cheese platter, and some beautiful dessert platters. The best part is that 3 of their large platters will only cost $125! I've ordered the dessert platters before and they are really delicious. So we'll have everyone meet us after dinner for dessert and a drink. That way people can drop in and either stay for a while or just stop by to say hello. I think it will be fun and I'm happy to have one more thing crossed off my list.

Now I need to motivate my husband to cut the mats for the invitations so we can get those done. Any suggestions?!

 

[kharmagirl]

Your plans sound great. I just wanted to comment on HDDR though. Yes you have to pay ahead of time, but you can cancel and get your money back 48 hours in advance. I had no idea how many people would be coming either, so I made two reservations for a total of 33 people. We ended up having 22 come so I called and canceled 11 spots without a problem. It was so much fun and everyone had a great time.

 

[Jilian]

Your plans sound great. I just wanted to comment on HDDR though. Yes you have to pay ahead of time, but you can cancel and get your money back 48 hours in advance. I had no idea how many people would be coming either, so I made two reservations for a total of 33 people. We ended up having 22 come so I called and canceled 11 spots without a problem. It was so much fun and everyone had a great time.

Well that is good to know. Hmmm, now I wonder if I should do HDDR?
maybe I'll just do HDDR later in the trip.

 

[Jilian]

Can I just say again how much I love Michaels? I went this weekend armed with my coupons and bought some more flowers for our urns that we'll use at the ceremony. I was able to get some nice pink flowers on clearance and use a 20% off coupon. They had the pink breast cancer cricut on sale for 1/2 off - $199. It was sooo tempting but I had to resist because I have no use for a cricut beyond the Mickey head fans. I also bought a paper cutter and used my 40% coupon and got it for $12. Then my awesome H cut the mats for the invitations and I started printing them out.

I was going to make my own pomander balls to hang on chairs for the ceremony but all Michael's had was fall and Christmas flowers. Then I found some nice ones on clearance at AlFloral.com http://www.afloral.com/Silk-Flowers...ls/6-Mini-Carnation-Pomander-Ball-in-Hot-Pink I don't think I can make them for less than $2.99 so I went ahead and ordered them.

Our tasting session is in a little less than a month and I'm really excited to get to try the food we'll be having! This will be our last time up to WDW before the VR...I think. I keep saying that and we keep ending up back there.

I need some dress advice. Here is my dress altered:

Excuse my grubbiness, I wasn't feeling so hot that day. OK, first up I think the sash is a bit too low. They pinned it on and warned me that it might need to be re-done because it was a tad lower than I may have wanted. I think it cuts me at my widest part, making me look wider than I am. Should it go up an inch?

Second, my shoes are blue. My mom says they need to go and I need to go with pink. Thoughts? Our colors are pink and blue. Here are the shoes I have:

The guys will be wearing blue ties and vests (if we go with vests). DD will be wearing a blue sash with her dress. Keep the blue? Or switch to pink?

Then there is the back. The sash tie is a million miles long. Too long. It hangs over my pretty french bustle. Can I cut it? Will it fray like crazy? It almost looks cauterized right now. How do I cut it without screwing it up? How short should I cut it?

Any other advice? I'm having second thoughts on my dress. It doesn't help that I've been eyeing the new Disney dresses.

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Jilian sweetie - I am not usually a fan of fake flowers or of carnations but those little balls are really lovely!!
I love how you look in your dress, but I agree that having the sash a little higher up might flatter you even more!!
I love the blue shoes and if they are the same shade of blue as the boys ties etc. I would stick with them. If DD's sash was pink, I would say go for pink as it would then be pink for the girls and blue for the boys!!
Can't advise on shortening the hanging part of the sash as I don't know anything about these things!!

 

[Jilian]

Joanne, I think I agree with you on the shoes. I just don't think my dress is the type of dress that hot pink shoes would go with. It is more of a simple dress and I think hot pink shoes might look funny. They guys will have blue ties, I'll have blue shoes and DD will have a blue sash. The only pink will be in the flowers. As long as I can match the guys ties to the shoes I think I'll stick with them.

I think the downside to planning so far in advance is that I've changed my mind so many times. Last night I went and redid my bouquet. The white was too white so I switched it out for ivory roses. I also wanted a little more hot pink in there so I added 3 hot pink flowers. I like it is a lot better now.

Here they are:

I still need to finish them up and wrap the handle. I'm thinking the bouquet may be too small so I may add some more to it.