Bianca and Sean wishes WP/Whitehall room and Patio/Italy Isola 9/8/19

Barbara Smith

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jun 17, 2018
My daughter and her fiancé got engaged in March 2018. We have been planning her wedding long before she ever even met Sean. She had always said she wanted a Disney wedding and I even joked with her that that would be the only way I would pay for it. Haha. Little did I know she would actually take me up on it. Now I know I’m probably the first mom to be writing a diary about my daughter’s wedding but I just wanted to share our process and my daughter is so busy she would never get it done. We did so much research before and during this process that I feel the more information that’s out there the better. To give you a little bit of background on our family is we are Disney addicts. We usually visit the parks at least once a year. Bianca’s fiancé is not an addict but is a good sport about everything and I actually think we are starting to sway him..( he would never admit it).CA4BFC16-591D-4164-A0EC-E38F990233A4.jpeg

So our process started shortly after she got engaged. We started calling Disney Fairytale weddings in April but we couldn’t do anything until we were 16 months out. So on her birthday, May 4 we were able get the ball rolling. We were initially put in touch with a sales person named Heather. We had a few phone conversations with her just giving us the basics and she sent us several informational brochures. We decided after speaking with her that it would be best to plan a visit in July to do a site visit. Sean had never been to Disney and Bianca wanted him to get an idea of what he was getting into. We tried to find any and all information that we could about Disney weddings. We read different blogs, discussion boards and bought Carrie’s book “Fairytale Weddings Guide.”

Our site visit was scheduled for July 14th at 9 AM. Heather called to confirm our appointment a few days before and told us we would be meeting Joe at Franck’s. We flew in the day before and were beyond excited. We felt we were so prepared, or so we thought. We had made a 2 page list of questions. We had breakfast at Chef Mickey, one of our favorites and took the monorail over to The Grand Floridian. We had never actually been in The Wedding Pavilion. My daughter really wanted to get married in front of the castle but there was absolutely no way we could afford that. She had to settle for the beautiful picture window inside the pavilion. We went and peeked inside while we were waiting for Joe to get there. It’s absolutely beautiful. If you ever get a chance to see it you should. We met Joe and went into Franck’s for our meeting. We had initially wanted September 1, 2019 as the wedding date. It would be Labor Day weekend and we felt like it would be easier for the guests to attend that weekend. We live in the Midwest and everyone would be traveling to attend. We thought our guest could fly in on Saturday, attend the wedding on Sunday, and fly home on Monday if they didn’t want to take extra days off work. She knew there were certain things she wanted. She wanted The Wedding Pavilion, Italy Isola with Illuminations and Mickey and Minnie at the reception. She wanted to do her first dance and father/daughter dance at the reception. We hit a few road blocks. First was the date. In order to have the reception in Epcot we would have to choose a different date. Epcot has the Food and Wine Festival starting in August and every Friday and Saturday are blacked out but since that is Labor Day weekend Sunday was blacked out as well. They had to decide whether they wanted to change dates or change locations. That was tough because she wanted to make it convenient for the guest but she also had a vision of what she wanted. She decided to change dates to the following weekend on Sunday the 8th. Second road block was you can’t have amplified music or Mickey and Minnie in the park while there are any park guest still in the park. Joe explained that it could be as late as 11 PM before the park cleared. He suggested maybe we could do a prereception at the Grand Floridian in one of the ballrooms. We could have a cocktail hour with appetizers and drinks, we could have a DJ (or play our own music on an IPod) so she could have her dances and Mickey and Minnie could make their appearance there. This sounded perfect. He recommended the Whitehall and patio. We didn’t know anything about the Whitehall because it had never been on our radar. We were planning a 5 PM wedding with prereception immediately following and then the reception with dinner in Epcot and Illuminations. A few weeks before our site visit Disney announced that Illuminations would be ended the end of the summer 2019. Joe assured us that even if they weren’t doing Illuminations there would be some sort of fireworks evening show. Joe went over timelines, enhancements, the lottery for dates and venues, and explained minimum expenditures to us. If you can do a site visit meeting I highly recommend it because you do it so early in the process that if you have any hang up you can work through them then. After we finished our meeting we went with Joe to actually see the sites. We got to actually go inside the pavilion and the bride and groom rooms. Then we went over to the Whitehall and patio. We decided it would be perfect for our needs. Next was visiting the Italy Isola. It was really interesting to see the behind the scenes of Epcot and going in the backdoor by the American pavilion. We were super excited after we left Joe and now we just had to wait for the 12 month mark before the wedding to see if we got our dates and locations.

I would love to post pictures but I haven’t figured out how to do so. I’m still working on that.4B89E954-EF54-4B69-9472-5DAF8ECB76DF.jpeg4FA2956B-499A-4FF2-8A08-7FC8DDFE0344.jpeg9EF45904-9C6E-4FC5-A2D1-12093AB6F437.jpegEDD558CE-B0DD-4A8D-948D-4F92C2C1AC4F.jpeg3AC8E044-6B44-4F3E-9EC7-CA9FB7230159.jpegA25FD1CE-267C-4D47-B5BD-602661AFF806.jpegA150C0A5-500F-4ADF-B283-1246D85B2B23.jpeg
 
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The rest of the summer was pretty uneventful. My daughter and I decided we would go shopping for her wedding dress. We both have a really hard time telling people no. We went shopping at a local bridal shop for her dress. There were 2 of the sweetest older ladies in the shop, like my mother’s age older. We found a dress that she liked, not in love with but we were going to alter it to make it what she wanted. It was doable and we couldn’t bring ourselves to tell these sweet ladies no. So we ordered the dress. We all decided to go on diets in August, another reason why we should have waited on the dress but I’ll get back to that later.
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September 10th finally came. We checked our email relentlessly that day just waiting for an email from Joe. Around 1 o’clock it we got the email. We got everything we wanted. Yahoo!!! Included in the email was the room rates for the available resorts that we could choose from for the room block and the information to fill out the room block. We had a little less than 2 weeks to turn in the information for the room block and letter of agreement and dates we wanted for a planning session. We debated on which resorts to choose. We decided on the All Star Movies, our favorite, Pop Century, and the Grand Floridian. Side note...we always stay at the value resorts because we are park people. We are the ones catching the first bus to the park in the morning and one of the last buses back after the park closes. Since we literally use the resort for only sleeping and showering we don’t see a need to spend a small fortune on a resort. We chose Pop because I know a lot of people really like it and the Grand Floridian because we knew we would need to book a couple of rooms the night before the wedding and night of the wedding for the girls and guys to get ready in. Since the wedding is at 5 we would need into the rooms to early the day of the wedding to have ample time to get ready not to have it the day before. A few days after our due date we got our letter of agreement and sent in our deposit.

We the got an email from Joe saying we were all set and here is our Disney Dream Team. Wait, what you’re leaving us Joe? We thought we would be with Joe and his assistant Michelle through out the process. We didn’t realize they weren’t planners. They are part of the sales department. We were kind of sad because we really liked Joe and Michelle. Joe sent Bianca and Sean a cute wedding gift. I assume they send it out to everyone.
 
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I almost forgot one of the things my daughter wanted more than anything was the Magic Kingdom portrait session. We booked it when we booked the wedding back in September. She said if she couldn’t have her wedding in front of the castle she at least wanted pictures. They confirmed it along with everything else.

The holidays came and went. Bianca’s dress came in October. I can tell she’s not in love with it. We sent out save the dates in January. When we sat down and made the list of people that said they wanted to attend we were at 72 guest. I’m kind of shocked it’s that high. I figured 40-50 people at most. But it seems that when people hear your having a wedding at Disney everyone wants to come. We are planning on having a reception back here in October for any friends or family that can’t make the trip. That list has around 300 people on it. Crazy.
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We decided on February 28th for the planning session. We had received a planning kit with our Dream Team email. We had kind of sat it aside for the holidays. It had sample menus, bars, photo packages, and a planning kit so they can get an idea of what they are wanting for their wedding. They decided on a menu for the food tasting and cake flavors to taste. I don’t know how they decided. There were so many choices and a lot of foods I had never heard of.

We planned our trip down for the planning session. Bianca invited Sean’s mom to attend with us. She felt it was important to include his mom since we would pretty much be making all the decisions about the wedding. I have so many friends that have sons who feel left out of the whole wedding planning process. Bianca’s brother also went with us. He’s more adventurous on different foods than I am. (I’m a chicken, potatoes person). There were 5 of us for the tastings. They charged an extra $50 to our wedding bill for the extra person. We were excited to get out of Kansas City. It was -20 degrees wind chill the day we flew out. We had been dieting since August and couldn’t wait to eat whatever we wanted while we were there. Bianca had lost 60 lbs, my son had lost 110 lbs, and I had lost 65 lbs.

We had talked about how we wanted the planning session to go. We gave Bianca a budget of what we could afford and since we had done the research ahead of time they had to decide on where they wanted to spend their money. I know they say to go into your planning session with a sky’s the limit attitude but that’s not practical for us. Carrie’s book is very helpful with setting our budget and where to spend the money. There were certain things that we knew were set prices such as The Wedding Pavilion, the cost of Mickey and Minnie, the photo session, transportation and so on. Basically the only variable for us was floral. We gave her a budget of $40k. We subtracted from that the things that were set. What was left was what she could spend on floral. They won’t talk about cost of things during your planning session but we had a pretty good idea. When planning the menu they worked backwards from the $190 pp. until they had spent that amount.

We went to Franck’s to meet with Kirstie, our planner. She was so sweet and practical about things. She made suggestions and helped fill in the holes. I never felt pressured about anything. We spent about 2 hours with her before Laura came in from the floral department. Laura was very knowledgeable about everything we wanted. We had our cake tasting next. I loved all of them. They decided on marble cake with caramel milk chocolate filling for the bottom and top layer and lemon with buttercream filling for the middle layer. When we finished our meeting we had decided on everything down to what outfits we wanted Mickey and Minnie to wear. It is true. Bring a jacket. It’s freezing at Franck’s.

Next we went to Epcot to the Event Operations Building for the menu tasting. They had a table set up for us in the middle of the kitchen. The food tasted amazing and we were in total aww of the kitchen. This kitchen was huge. It’s where they do all the cooking for catering in Epcot. I can’t even tell you how many chefs were in the kitchen. We had a server waiting on us and the chef came over and explained everything to us. They chose 3 appetizers bacon wrapped scallops, cheeseburger spring rolls, and quesadillas with apples, Brie and caramelized onions. For dinner we are having salad, mushroom risotto, white cheddar Mac and cheese, green beans, chicken Marsala, beef short ribs.

It’s funny because before we went to Florida we didn’t have anything planned and when we came home we had a wedding. Now we just have to wait for the BEO to see how we did on our budget.
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Shortly after we got back home Disney announced that Star Wars Galaxy Edge was opening August 29th, the week before the wedding. We had read that the beginning of September was one of the slowest times at Disney since most schools are just starting up which was another reason she picked that time of year. All of it just went flying out the window. We sent messages to everyone that we knew that was planning on coming to the wedding to go ahead and book their rooms if they could because we were concerned about being able to get more rooms added to the room block if needed.

The beginning of April we got our BEO. We came right in on budget. That was such a huge relief.

Now it was time to work on things for the reception here. We were actually kind of behind on things for it. We had gotten kind of spoiled because Disney takes care of everything. Now we had to find a venue, caterer, bar tending service, bakery, and florist. It’s like planning a second wedding.

Bianca had picked out bridesmaid dresses but hadn’t ordered them yet. She has 6 bridesmaids and one of them had a baby in February so she was kind of waiting for the baby to come before getting all the girls together to order dresses. We went to a different bridal shop to order the bridesmaids dresses than the one that we had bought her dress at. Since I knew she wasn’t in love with her wedding dress I surprised her and scheduled her an appointment at the new bridal shop for a dress fitting. She had lost so much weight at this point that the other dress would have to be totally remade in the bodice to make it fit right. She went down 6 sizes. They said the most they usually alter is down three sizes. And it happened, she found the dress. As soon as she put it on she lit up and I knew we had to get it. Yes we now have 2 dresses. The new dress should be here the beginning of August.

Disney makes another announcement. Illuminations isn’t ending until September 30th. She’s so happy. I’m sure the fill in fireworks show would have been fine but we love Illuminations.

We sent out wedding invitations at the end of May. When we met with Kirstie she said RSVP’s would be the bane of our existence and she was right. It makes me feel terrible for any RSVP that I neglected to return in my lifetime. I promise from now on to always return them. We requested to have them returned by the 60 day mark so we could adjust the room block if need be. We still have people that are on the fence about whether they are attending. I would have never thought this close to the wedding that there would still be questions.
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We had our review with Laura last week on our floral proposal. She had to give the final approval on the aisle runner and table number designs. Then we had our BEO review with Kirstie on Friday. We’ve been so busy with things that it was the first time we were able to schedule it in. We asked about what we should do about the guest that still hadn’t made up their minds and she said to turn in numbers for guest that had confirmed. We can always add to our numbers later even after the final bill.

I think I have caught you up to where we are in the process. I’m sure I have forgotten something along the way but hopefully you can learn something from our experience.

Next up is the bridal shower next weekend.

I still haven’t figured out how to include pictures ☹ but did figure out emojis.
 
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Thanks for all the details. We're currently planning my daughter's wedding. We have the planning session in September.
Who made the invitations? I love them!
 
Have fun at your planning session. We enjoyed every minute of it. We will be there 9/6-9/14 for the wedding. We ordered them on Etsy from CestLaViePaperie. They send you the file and then you can have it printed anywhere. My husband is a printer so he was able to print them for us. We chose a pearly paper.
 
Today was the shower and bachelorette party. We had her shower at a local restaurant. C4D37396-6D61-40C2-AC79-426E81F79642.jpeg24881094-2662-4190-9E18-1EA4332C3435.jpegC52A5BC8-0A50-4912-982D-1C1F1DB377F2.jpegCAB2CC9C-2EC2-430A-A14F-BF2C8F818F4C.jpeg65B221FF-5984-4EBE-A7E6-469A14C7E739.jpegD93944AE-AFDF-4310-A594-2204F8251F4F.jpegD5CE5B99-E901-45D1-B717-7ED64B71D74A.jpeg2CA42EA5-7116-4047-9334-FB1AE29638EF.jpeg
The girl came up with really cute games to play at the shower. One game they ordered Mickey and Minnie ears and then asked different questions, if you thought it pertained to the bride you put on Minnie ears or the groom you put on Mickey ears. They got a photography backdrop of the castle and then the guest all got their pictures taken with the bride in front. B987569E-8BA7-4B80-9A7D-EB8381620BBB.jpeg
 


Congratulations!!!
Its been almost 12 years since I got to do this with my daughter, it was fun to read all about your details!
Enjoy it all, it happens so quickly.
People still talk about their Disney Wedding and say how great it was.
 
Congratulations!!!
Its been almost 12 years since I got to do this with my daughter, it was fun to read all about your details!
Enjoy it all, it happens so quickly.
People still talk about their Disney Wedding and say how great it was.
Thanks. We are having a great time. I can’t believe how fast it going.
 
As I recap on the weekend I can’t believe how much fun we had. We had her shower at of course a bbq restaurant, we are from Kansas City and that's what we eat here. :) Everything turned out beautifully and everyone had such a great time.362A50A5-44CD-453D-A4EA-952C0644E062.jpeg1F77BC2A-985C-4E28-80AB-3B6F700C7E5D.jpeg72DE8095-5516-4D28-BABD-81043992CAA6.jpeg
These were the favors from the shower. The little castle box had kisses inside.
Bianca has some of the best friends. They planned to have the shower and bachelorette party both in one day because the matron of honor lives in Fort Meyer and was able to fly in for the weekend. After the shower the girls went for spa treatments. Last night we went to Chippendales show and Power and Light District. The girls had T-shirt made for the evening.
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Everyone else wore the turquoise shirts. As much fun as I had last night I did learn, I can’t keep up with these young girls. I’ve spent the day recuperating. :)
 
Congratulations and best wishes to your daughter and her fiance and their engagement! AND *Congratulations* to you all for the amazing weight loss--way to go!!! Bianca is looking sooo good! You all are awesome!

I was a December Disney bride, and now my engaged daughter is looking at a Disney wedding for December 2020, so we are really excited. I can tell you that everything was truly wonderful and my DH and I loved every minute of our planning and wedding--we have so many happy memories! I hope your family will enjoy every second of the planning and the wedding and be able to cherish those memories forever!

So tell us about her flowers and her new dress! I also had two dresses--I think it's pretty common. You are such a great mom to make THE Dress possible for her.
 
She actually had her first melt down last week and it was over her dress. The bridal shop called and said it was in, she was at work and asked me to go by and pick it up. She came by after work to try it on. They ordered her a 36 D bra and a small under slip. (She hasn’t been a 36D since middle school) I know big share but if you have ever put on a bustier that is too small it feels like you can’t take a deep breath and you are going to pass out. She went to put the slip on and couldn’t get it to go over her hips so we put it over her head. So now we have the bustier on that’s cutting into her and this really tight slip on and we go to put the dream dress on. We get it on her barely get it zipped, but we did get it zipped. She starts to hyperventilate. “I can’t breathe. Get it off of me now!” Crying and melt down to follow. We take it off and I called the bridal shop. They were very nice and said to bring her and everything up and let the alterations department see it. Now this whole time I’m not concerned at all because we got it zipped. We are a little over 50 before the wedding. She has time to still lose a little more before the wedding. Had we not gotten it zipped then I would have been concerned. It’s a brand new dress and all the seams are tight because nobody has actually ever put it on, unlike the dresses that you try on that lots of people have put on and stretched the seams. They give her the correct bra and slip and she’s a lot calmer when we go to put the dress on at the store to begin with. We put it back on, it zipped for the second time. It’s still pretty tight but no tears this time. They tell us they can order the next size up don’t the guy from alterations didn’t really recommend it because then it wouldn’t fit tight like a corset. He said they could let it out up to 2 inches if necessary. We have an appointment next Saturday to decide if we want to let it out. Since then she has been very strict on her diet (except at the shower/bachelorette party;) ) and working out. We have been putting the dress on every couple of days to stretch the seams a bit. Guess what...the dress fits perfectly. I don’t think it needs any alterations at all. 3EE1BAB7-A5E4-4BF5-AAD5-92301DD01F0E.jpeg
This is the dress. It’s very much like a princess.

The first thing she picked out for the wedding is actually the flower and based everything else around it. It’s called a dendrobium blue orchid. 7425F943-9C1A-46ED-941A-2CC7BD605991.jpegE0E40ECA-3E7D-48B4-BCA7-2BD829B9B571.jpegDE7D2963-C9A8-42F3-8CF8-89108AE135A6.jpeg
These are similar to the bouquet and centerpieces she wants.

These are the bridesmaids dresses. They look heavy but they are actually pretty light weight and they have pockets, which the girls are excited about. I guess it’s the small things that matter. 😊
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And last but not least these are the flower girls dresses except we are replacing the purple belt with fabric from the bridesmaids dresses for the ties so they match. A720C962-9EA6-4CFE-ADAC-1EFE21D75A71.jpeg
 
Ooooh, the dress is beautiful! :love: I love the detail at the hem. So one melt down about at the 2 month mark isn't bad... Fatigue/excitement/anticipation will get to the best of us! And! It sounds to me like your daughter is doing so well on her weight loss that I doubt she will need the dress altered, unless it is to take it in! :D Is there is any way to have the corset and bra attached or sewn in? My dress had that all sewn in and it was so comfortable.

Blue dendrobium orchids, lovely and unique! If she has the lilies, as in the photo, they will smell so heavenly. Advice to the bride---try to remember to hold the bouquet just slightly below the waistline so that the dress bodice isn't hidden by the bouquet. Brides get nervous and tense and the bouquet creeps upward and then in all the photos the bodice is hidden. Relax and breathe, relax the arms and shoulders. I even did some yoga type stretches, especially shoulder, back and neck stretches in the morning the day of my wedding before photos and the ceremony to make sure I stayed loose. You mentioned that you booked a few nights at GF--Grand Floridian has an awesome gym. I worked out and stretched the morning of the ceremony. It helped me stay loose and focused. Maybe even splurge on a mom/bride massage the day before the ceremony? Some last minute bonding time away from all the hustle and bustle? But definitely check out the gym. It's a very pamper -y gym!

I got this advice from my cousin, and I pass it on to all brides: Relax, breathe, lower the bouquet, shoulders back, breathe, tummy in, chin up, arms relaxed, smile, smile, smile. And eat something light and hydrate the day of/day before. I was so relaxed and calm the day of the wedding that when the wedding coordinator told me they had sent my bouquet to the wrong resort ( which resort? I asked. I don't know, she replied, "but we are trying to find out." :eek:) But, I just laughed and said , "well, they'll turn up before the ceremony, I'm sure-- Don't worry about it!" my poor coordinator almost wept, she was so relieved. I'm sure she was anticipating some kinda scene. ;) My MOH said "What if they don't make it in time for the ceremony?!!" to which I replied that then I guess I will be getting married without a bouquet because come 4:30 I'm walking down the aisle and marrying the love of my life, flowers or no flowers! HA! Hey, at that point I would have been a lot more upset if she told me the CAKE was missing because, like you all, I had been dieting for about a year and I was REALLY looking forward to eating some of that dang cake! :rotfl2: Which was incredible, BTW, and I still measure all wedding cakes by that one!

Disney does weddings SO well, one little hiccup was just one little glitch in an otherwise perfect wedding. I'm so happy for you all!

How many maids and flower girls? Love their dresses, very vibrant colors--be lovely for late summer. What ceremony decor, if any, are you having? The WP is so lovely! I don't know Whitehall, but I'm sure its beautiful. My daughter loves The Attic at the Boardwalk and wants that but she can only do that if the guest list stays small so we will see. She wants a smaller, more intimate wedding and we just want her to be happy so it's whatever!

Are you having a Disney photographer or an outside one? I am so grateful for our photos because even though I tried to focus and be in the moment, it still flies by and there is so much I want to remember forever and the photos help with that. :)
 
That’s awesome that you were that relaxed the day of your wedding. I really think Bianca will be too. It’s just kind of her personality, goes with the flow. Thanks for the advice about the wedding day. I will definitely pass it along to her.
She has 6 bridesmaids. ( a matron of honor, a maid of honor and 4 bridesmaids). She has 2 jr bridesmaids and 1 flower girl. The junior bridesmaids are wearing the same dresses as the flower girl.

She is using On-Site Beauty for everyone’s hair and makeup and for her portrait session. The little girls have appointments at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at the Grand Floridian the day of the wedding for there princess makeover and it keeps them entertained while the rest of the girls are getting ready.

For the WP she isn’t doing a ton of decor, just enough to add her flowers and colors. The aisle will have an aisle runner that has a carriage, their names and date, and it will say Happily Ever After. At the end of the pews there will be vases with floating candles and flowers in them. There is an arrangement on the table that holds the unity candle. There are doing a bubble staged exit. We ordered the kids that are attending Mickey bubble wands, everyone else just gets bubble tubes. I wanted to give everyone a bubble wand but our wedding coordinator said we would lose the bride and groom in that many bubbles. 😝 I just like bubbles.

In the Whitehall and on the patio tables they are just doing the small bowls with flowers in them. She chose to do ivory linens that were provided along with the standard chairs and tables. She didn’t want to spend her budget here. Our wedding coordinator was awesome when we were meeting with her. We were discussing different options and she said “think about the last wedding you went to. Do you even remember the chairs?” We couldn’t, she was right. So why spend the money on it if nobody ever remembers them.

At the reception at the Italy Isola they are doing white linens with colored napkins. We are just using the table and chairs they provide. On the table will be the cylinder vases with gel lights and flowers. They are moving the floral arrangement from the unity candle table to the sweetheart table. The table numbers are actually characters and there will be cookies when the guest walk in with there name on the corresponding character. We just did the standard characters Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Pluto, Goofy, and Chip and Dale.

We are just using Disney Fine Arts Photography for the wedding. Their photographer is Pedro. They are doing a Magic Kingdom portrait session the morning after the wedding. Our videographer is Perfect Sky’s.

The reception ends at 11 PM. The hair and makeup stylist will be at their room at 330 AM to get her ready for the portrait session. Short night for them and then the leave for their honeymoon on a Disney Cruise for a week.
 
Barbara, I thoroughly read and truly enjoyed your planning details! Thank you very much for sharing! You're such a great mom for planning all this! To top it all, they are going on a Disney Cruise honeymoon!!! I can't wait to see pictures from the wedding and honeymoon!
 
Thank you. I will definitely post pictures soon. I can’t believe we are 30 days out tomorrow. We turned in final numbers this week and paid the last minute additions. We filled our room block and actually had to add more rooms to it along the way. Our final number of guest count is 56 and we actually still have one family that is still deciding on whether or not they are coming. 🤦‍♀️
 
I haven’t updated anything lately. We have been going through so much. It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions. My mother in law, my daughter’s grandmother was hospitalized last week with pneumonia. She went into septic shock on last Wednesday and was put on life support. We were informed yesterday that there really isn’t any hope. My father in law wants to wait until next week to remove her. He said she gave him 41 years, he can give her another week. My daughter and her fiancé fly out Friday and are spending the week before their wedding at Universal and Disney. My daughter is having to say goodbye to her grandma before she leaves. She wanted to cancel that part of her trip but her dad and grandpa told her absolutely not. It’s just heartbreaking. She is so torn because she wants to be so excited about her wedding but she is devastated about her grandma. My son and I are flying to Orlando Friday with them to be with her then flying home on Monday to take care of things here and to be at the hospital for when they remove the life support and then flying back on Friday for the wedding.
And then there is this little thing called HURRICANE DORIAN that is supposed to hit Florida this weekend. The latest I saw on that is it’s supposed to be a Cat 2. I am a little concerned about being able to get back on Monday but I feel like I need to be with my kiddo since she’s a mess right now.
And then there is our puppy. We got my husband a husky puppy this spring. He’s always wanted a husky. Well the is puppy is eating my house. Sunday the puppy got really sick and I had to take him to the emergency vet. I thought I can’t let anything happen to this puppy, my husband is struggling with his mom much less if something happened to his puppy that I sometimes thinks he loves more than me. Just kidding but really he loves this dog. Well it turns out the dog ate an entire intact tube sock and 12” of a dish towel that was stuck in his small intestine. So the puppy had surgery Sunday night and now has a twelve inch incision on his tummy. The staple are supposed to be removed on the 8th, just the day of the wedding. $3000 later puppy is on the road to recovery. 🤦‍♀️By the way his name is Stitch and he is as awry as the character Stitch.
So wish me luck in surviving the next 11 days. I’m ready to get off this rollercoaster ride. We really need Disney magic in our life’s right now. Maybe some pixie dust.
 

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I'm so sorry for your family, to lose a loved one anytime, but especially right before a wedding, so so sorry.
But being a Grandmother, I know she would want her granddaughter to have a wonderful wedding day and honeymoon.
She will be there watching over her...........
God Bless your family at this difficult time.
 
Oh, my goodness, I am so very sorry to hear about your MIL; you are all in my prayers. I don't know if you will see this, or if it will mean anything to your daughter, but I second lorimay--I am a grandmother and I wouldn't want anything--not ANYTHING--not even my illness or death--to impact my granddaughter's wedding. She has worked so hard, and I truly hope she is able to set aside her understandable pain and experience the joy of her wedding. My own mother always said that life was for the living, and grief is normal but to never allow it to steal the joy of our moments. She would say, during the illness that took her from us, to always remember that when she is "dead" she will be more alive than she ever was, and not to grieve like those without hope, but with our eyes on the horizon of new beginnings.

Losing my mom was still terribly difficult, but I mostly managed to remember to keep my eyes on the horizon. My heart goes out to all of you in this time. Stay strong!

And the puppy--I had a border collie that ate an entire loves seat while I was at the grocery store. Okay, maybe not the wood part, or ALL of the stuffing, or ALL the fabric, but she put a good dent in it. She was fine, eventually, but gee WHIZ, really, dog? I love my dogs so I understand. All will be well, though. This too shall pass. Not to say "pass", considering, haha.

And the storm, yes, that's the fun of Florida in hurricane season, but I really feel like you will be okay. Disney is amazing in how smoothly they handle situations like hurricanes. They really are.

Breathe! You got this!
 

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