*I'm Back!* We're getting married..at Disney World!!! Jeff & Kathy's PJ! UPDATE: Let's Party! (9/18)

The Festival of the Lion King!

This is my fave show too! Loved it!

We also knew that Groomsman 2.0 was getting in late and was probably on the same bus. So we were able to see both of them!

Love it - Groomsman 2.0!! I love how relaxed you were (or seemed) about the whole thing. You did a lot before your wedding too...so much fun but wow...I'm sure you needed some downtime after!!
 
Friday October 9th: Part 1 F&W booths!

This morning, I got up and went down to meet one of my bridesmaid’s mom to get her bridesmaid’s dress. Carolyn Allen’s wasn’t available for the wedding day but they were available a couple hours before our wedding rehearsal so I figured that would be the perfect time to get dresses steamed. Only 2 of the bridesmaid’s dresses needed to be steamed, the others made it to Florida without many wrinkles and I believe the wrinkles ended up just falling out of those. I was meeting her around 8:00 in the lobby so I got up and went to wait for her.

Once I got the dress, I went back to the room and woke Jeff up to go get breakfast. We went down to our usual breakfast spot and some family and friends were already down there. So we ordered and joined them for breakfast. Our breakfast was the same we had gotten the other mornings haha...we like what we like!

We sat and talked for a while and decided what we were all doing for the day. We decided we were going to head to Epcot for the morning and have some F&W offerings for lunch. We went back upstairs to finish getting ready, and Jeff was texting with his best man to see if they wanted to join us for the day. They were almost ready so we waited for them, while my dad and sister headed to Epcot.

Once we were all ready we made our way over, and decided to get in line for Test Track. Even though we were with our friends Sam and Brittany we decided to wait in the single rider line. It said the wait was 30 minutes but the line actually moved really quickly! While we were waiting in line I found out that my dad and sister were ahead of us in the single rider line, so they waited for us at the exit. The single rider line worked out perfectly for us! Jeff and I got to ride in the same car, and Sam and Brittany got to ride in the same car (although we didn’t get to sit next to each other).

Sam and Brittany hadn’t gotten any breakfast that morning so after Test Track we made our way to the F&W booths. I only have pictures of some of the booths we ate at but I’m pretty sure we ate at more than the few I have.

As we passed the margarita booth, Jeff asked me if I wanted to share a frozen Margarita. So we shared a strawberry margarita. Sam and Brittany got one too, but I believe there’s was a lime margarita. I don’t think I had ever had one of these before but it was pretty good! I’m usually a on the rocks kind of girl, but this was tasty! I think it was about this point my dad was texting with some of our family friends who had just gotten off test track, so he went back to meet them so they could join us! It was so fun being able to meet up with people!

While he went to meet them, we kept working our way around the World Showcase and decided to stop at the China booth. Sam and Brittany chose the pot stickers while Mary and I shared a Beijing roasted duck in steamed bun with hoisin sauce.


This was really good, I love the steam buns. We usually make a point to stop once at the China booth even though most of the food you can get just as good anywhere. Then we continued around towards the South Korea booth. Mary and I both decided we wanted to try a couple things at this booth, so we got in line while the others waited and looked for a spot to eat. I chose to try the Korean Barbecue Short Rib with Steamed Rice and Cucumber Kimchi.


I thought this was really good! I enjoy short ribs and thought the korean barbecue sauce had a great flavor. Mary decided she wanted to try the Vegan Korean Barbecue with Steamed Rice and Cucumber Kimchi.


We both thought this was pretty good too. It didn’t really taste like tofu and the flavors were good on this one as well. At this point, my dad and our friends met up with us! They decided to try the short rib as well so we waited for them. Then we made our way towards Germany for our next booth of the day. Here we got a couple brats.


Jeff and I, and Sam and Brittany also shared the Schinkennudeln: Pasta gratin with ham and cheese but apparently we didn’t get a picture of it. Both the pasta and the brat were really good! This is always a must stop for us. We enjoy the brat on the pretzel bun and the pasta is right up Jeff’s alley! He loves mac n cheese. We talked for a few minutes then made our way to the next booth of choice, Poland.


My dad is full Polish so this is a must stop for us every time. This pierogi is pretty good. Jeff said that my dad and his siblings all had a heated conversation about “when did they start making potato pierogi!? That’s just crazy!” I missed it but it sounds like it was quite comical. We found a nice shady spot of ground to sit and enjoy our pierogi. From the picture, someone obviously got a beer but I have no clue what it was :laughing:



Jeff, Sam, and Brittany decided they wanted to go to the Italy booth to grab one more thing. I told Jeff I would have some ravioli, he took that as he should get himself one and me one. After all the food we had already eaten that was NOT what I meant by “I’ll have some”. I ate a few bites, and he finished off the rest. The Italy booth is alright, they could come up with so many other things that would be delicious! What they have now is just alright.




Sister Selfie while we relaxed!

It was a really hot day, so at this point Sam and Brittany decided to head back to the room, and the rest of us decided to head to get our last stamp and our wine glasses for visiting the festival 3 days. Luckily it didn’t take too long. At this point, we decided we needed to head back to the room to get ready and wait for Carolyn Allen’s to come steam dresses. So we made our way back to the resort. When we got there, we noticed some people sitting outside the bakery.


Jeff cousin and uncle, as well as a close family friend were all sitting at 3 of the tables in front of the bakery. It was pretty funny when we walked up and everyone was saying hi to us! They didn’t realize they all knew us. We chatted for a bit then went upstairs to get ready. Next up, the rehearsal!
 
This is my fave show too! Loved it!

I could watch it over and over again and still be amazed by everything. When I was younger, I always wanted to dance but couldn't convince my parents to put me in dance until I was in middle school. So it's always been kind of a dream to be able to dance up there.

Love it - Groomsman 2.0!! I love how relaxed you were (or seemed) about the whole thing. You did a lot before your wedding too...so much fun but wow...I'm sure you needed some downtime after!!

Haha! We still call him Groomsman 2.0 now. DH Jeff is actually going to be in his wedding this October. Thanks :) I don't usually get too stressed anyway, but I also knew we were doing what could be done. And if worse came to worse we would just have 3 groomsmen and 4 bridesmaids. All that mattered was that we got married.
 
Friday October 9th: Part 2 Rehearsal!

I was going to include the rehearsal in the last update but there are so many pictures I decided to make 3 updates instead of 2. Carolyn Allen came to steam my dress at about 3:00. Bridesmaid Shelby and her family were on their way over with her dress to get it steamed as well. Shelby’s little girl was our flower girl. I told them the best way for all of them to come over was to take a cab. As they were pulling in I went to the lobby to meet them! A really cool thing happened while we were getting ready. This summer, my dad, sister, and I went on an Adventures by Disney trip to Italy and Switzerland. One of our guides is also a tour guide at Disney World. She tagged Mary and I in this picture!


While we got ready and they steamed our dresses, the kids found our bags of candy from the night before. Lydia dug into a pack of smartee’s.


Once we were all ready, we made our way to the lobby where we told everyone to meet. I think we said to meet at 4:30-4:45 for our 5:00 rehearsal. Almost everyone was on time, but 2 of the groomsmen were running a little late. The kids had fun looking at the carousel while we waited!


And of course, we had to snap a picture! Our name’s were on the board!


It was getting very close to 5:00 and the groomsmen weren’t there yet. So we decided to leave someone behind to wait for them. Even though DF Jeff didn’t know his way around the Boardwalk quite like we did, we decided he would stay back. Luckily they were pulling in and parking so they were only a minute or 2 behind us. We just didn’t want Carol waiting much longer for us.

We got there and said hello to Carol and introduced her to everyone she hadn’t met yet. It was so great to see her again. We absolutely LOVED her. She walked us through how the rehearsal would go.




Then it was time to line up! We decided Jeff would walk his mom down the aisle to her seat, then walk back, and walk in with his Uncle (our officiant) and his groomsmen.


They walked down the aisle and it was the ladies turn to line up. We also had the kids line up with us. They were all being a little crazy, there was so much excitement so I tried to find a way to entertain them. When we were here for our PS, I spotted a necklace that I thought was really cool, and fit perfectly with our hashtag (#mickeypantswedding).



So to entertain the kids, I showed them my necklace. They thought it was really cool!


Carol talked to us about how we would be walked to us about how we would be walking down the aisle, and then it was the ladies turn.





Laughing at something my silly ring bearers were doing. Their so cute!

And of course, last but not least, it was time for my dad and me to walk.




Carol explained to us that when we got down the aisle, my dad would give me a kiss and shake Jeff’s hand then Jeff and I would hold hands.


Then it was time for Uncle Skip’s part of the rehearsal. I can’t remember what all he talked about but it didn’t take too long.


Not long after this, we were finished! They had a table with water for us which was great! We definitely needed it that day! It was pretty warm! Not much later, Carol said her goodbyes and told us she would see us tomorrow! We stayed a bit longer trying to figure out how we would get to our next location. We had a couple hours to kill before our Dessert Party. We had originally planned to go over to Epcot and get a couple foods from F&W booths. After thinking about it for a little while, we realized people might not want to use their park tickets. So we talked and decided to go over to the Polynesian to Trader Sam’s for some drinks and maybe some appetizers.

The next task was figuring out how to get from the Boardwalk to the Polynesian. We decided to take the boat over to Hollywood Studios, and then take a bus from there. That way no one was having to pay for cabs, or using park tickets to walk through Epcot to take the monorail. We easily walked over to the boat, and didn’t have to wait too long for a boat. We all easily fit on the boat.

Once we got to HS, we walked over to wait for the bus. I think we had just missed a bus which kinda stunk, but we weren’t in a hurry. Plus that meant we were the first ones in line for the bus so we would all easily get on the bus!




We had finally made it to the Polynesian! I love this resort, it is one of my favorites so I was really happy to be here :) We walked out the back and sat on the patio. We knew there were too many of us to sit inside at Trader Sam’s. I think a couple of us went inside to look though.


The only downside to sitting in this area is we couldn’t move the tables together. We were able to move chairs obviously, but you can only fit so many chairs around tables. So we took a couple tables and just mingled with everyone.


We of course had to get a couple drinks! I don’t remember what all everyone had, but we had all kinds of different drinks on our table!




We literally had a little bit of everything! I think there was a pina colada, a mai tai, a krakatoa punch, a beer flight, and even a non-alcoholic polynesian punch. I had a drink I REALLY wanted to try but Jeff didn’t want to share it with me :( LUCKILY I had the best maid of honor and she was willing to change what she wanted and share with me! I really wanted to try the Uh-Oha!








I had been wanting to try this drink but it’s one of those drinks for 2 or more people. I’m sure I could have drank it by myself because I know people do, but I didn’t want to drink that much before our DP. We really enjoyed it though! It was so good!






We also ordered a few appetizers to tide us over until we got more food. First we shared a couple of Pan-fried dumplings with soy sesame dipping sauce.


We also shared an order of Corn-Battered Portuguese Sausages with curry ketchup.


Both of these appetizers were very good. We still had a little bit of time before we should start to head over to the Grand Floridian, so we all just hung out and talked. Jeff and I tried to talk to everyone a little bit. In fact, I don’t think the two of us spent much time together after we ate food. At some point there was a musician who came out to play.


Soon it was time to head over to our DP! I was so excited! We settled the check, gathered everyone together and decided to take the monorail over to the Grand Floridian!

Next up, our Dessert Welcome Party
 


Mary and I shared a Beijing roasted duck in steamed bun with hoisin sauce.

That was one of my fave F&W items.

Love all your pics!! That drink at Trader Sam's looked awesome...were those sugar cubes that were on fire in the picture? So cool. I love the atmosphere at that place.
 
A quick update on some exciting news! I'm not sure if I've shared here before about our honeymoon. We weren't able to take one right after the wedding because I needed to get back to work since I'm a teacher. We knew we would take on probably in the summer though. We talked about going to England. So last weekend we started thinking about it and trying to plan. While we were just hanging out I turned on a show called Beyond The Parks that had aired on TLC. It was about the Disney Alaskan cruise, and some of the ABD's Disney offers.

While we were watching, Jeff mentioned the Alaskan cruise looked really cool! So we started looking into it. We found a date that worked PERFECT for both of our schedules! We talked to a few people who had done the cruise and did a bit of research. We finally decided to book it! We are going on the Disney Alaskan cruise! I am so excited! It's not your typical honeymoon, but Jeff is not a huge beach fan anyway (he burns easily) and the destinations for this cruise sound amazing!

It's a 7 day cruise up the inside passage, leaving out of Vancouver, Canada. This will be our first time to Canada as well. We plan to arrive a day early, and the cruise leaves on Memorial Day. We decided to forego a verandah to use the difference towards excursions we may want to go on. We did get a room with a large porthole so we can look out. It'll probably be a bit chilly to be sitting on the verandah anyway. I can't wait will May!!
 
A quick update on some exciting news! I'm not sure if I've shared here before about our honeymoon. We weren't able to take one right after the wedding because I needed to get back to work since I'm a teacher. We knew we would take on probably in the summer though. We talked about going to England. So last weekend we started thinking about it and trying to plan. While we were just hanging out I turned on a show called Beyond The Parks that had aired on TLC. It was about the Disney Alaskan cruise, and some of the ABD's Disney offers.

While we were watching, Jeff mentioned the Alaskan cruise looked really cool! So we started looking into it. We found a date that worked PERFECT for both of our schedules! We talked to a few people who had done the cruise and did a bit of research. We finally decided to book it! We are going on the Disney Alaskan cruise! I am so excited! It's not your typical honeymoon, but Jeff is not a huge beach fan anyway (he burns easily) and the destinations for this cruise sound amazing!

It's a 7 day cruise up the inside passage, leaving out of Vancouver, Canada. This will be our first time to Canada as well. We plan to arrive a day early, and the cruise leaves on Memorial Day. We decided to forego a verandah to use the difference towards excursions we may want to go on. We did get a room with a large porthole so we can look out. It'll probably be a bit chilly to be sitting on the verandah anyway. I can't wait will May!!


Soooo exciting!!! I can't wait for your trip too so we can hear all about it! I was watching that special that you are talking about. It does look beautiful
 


You'll have to recap it for us!! We're hoping to do Alaska summer 2017 and we'll probably do a porthole room too instead of a verandah - they're SO expensive for Alaska!
 
Soooo exciting!!! I can't wait for your trip too so we can hear all about it! I was watching that special that you are talking about. It does look beautiful

We are very excited! We get to pick our excursions soon! I will definitely update about our cruise!

You'll have to recap it for us!! We're hoping to do Alaska summer 2017 and we'll probably do a porthole room too instead of a verandah - they're SO expensive for Alaska!

I will for sure! I'll let you know how the porthole is! We are forward which I really wanted midship but at the point we booked we just had to take what we could get. Verandah's are expensive for Alaska! We decided we would rather use that money towards excursions (which are also expensive for Alaska!)

We did this cruise in August a few years ago!! It was amazing!!! You will love it!!

Oh! Do you have any advice for us? We will be booking our excursions next week!

How exciting!

Thanks! We are very excited!

joining in....another central illinoisan!

Welcome! I hope to post some more updates soon! I just haven't been feeling like typing out the updates yet but I will soon!
 
Oh! Do you have any advice for us? We will be booking our excursions next week!

To be honest...I would not book excursions through the ship at all. I understand wanting to do it, and we did when we went because it was our first time cruising and felt safer about doing it through the ship...but..it was a real pain in the butt. You can get all the same excursions for less money by booking them yourself outside of the ship, and you don't have to deal with going to the theatre to wait for everyone who signed up for the same excursion to get there before you can get off the ship. We found that really annoying because people were always late. We did a really cool whale watch trip with a small boat..Harv n Marv in Juneau...loved that.
 
I am so sorry! I promise I haven't forgotten about you all! There has been a lot going on lately. I have also been waiting on our video so I can post everything quicker, but we haven't gotten it back yet. I have gotten the email about choosing the soundtrack, but then we had a tragedy happen in my family and haven't been able to get back to it quite yet. I am going to try real hard to get back to updating this more often!

Friday October 9th: Part 3 Dessert Party!

When I left off, we were finishing up our dinner and were making our way to the dessert party! We decided to take the monorial because it was the easiest way to move our large group at one time. My flower girl and her brother stuck close to me because as her brother Logan said "I know where I'm going because I sort of live there" :rotfl2:Logan, you are very right! We got off at the Grand Floridian and everyone followed me to our destination.




We made out way around to the marina and saw the dessert party location! It looked fantastic! We weren't sure if we could go in at the moment because it was still a little before 8:30 but they were ready for us and said we could come on in.


I don't really remember picking out linens for the dessert party, even at the time, so it was nice to see the simple black table cloths with the votives in the middle. I also really liked that there were some high tops and some low tops. It was a good mix of tables. And of course we had to take a picture with our sign :)


We went to check out the food options before anyone could dig in, and of course had to take some pictures!












We had a sundae bar which you can just see the toppings, mini almond crusted cheesecakes from Narcoosees, mini Banoffee Tarts that were for the Scotland booth a few years ago, and sliders. Everything was really good, but I think the cheesecakes were the hit. They were so good. I actually didn't eat very much. I think I filled up to much at Trader Sam's or something because I only ate a little bit. Plus, we were busy walking around greeting everyone. It was so great to have everyone there!

After a little while, The Roots showed up! I had almost forgotten they were coming to take pictures! We were very excited to finally meet them face-to-face.





We had pins made for our guests to wear in the parks, and set them out at the dessert party. They had a table for us and they started arranging them for us. It was so nice! I also made some cards with the bus pick-up times for each resort.



Our ring bearers entertaining themselves until the fireworks!



My dad's brother and sisters :) We hadn't seen my Aunt Cindy (in the middle) in years so it was great to see her!



Our ring bearers again, with their parents. Silly boys!



Jeff socializing with some of our friends



One of my amazing friends, Charley. She is our at home photographer. She took our engagement pictures.




This is my sister Mary (right) with one of her really good friends.







My dad (second from the left) and his close friends.



After a little while, Jensey came over to get us for our fireworks pictures. I was really looking forward to getting some fireworks pictures. I was a little sad it wouldn't be in my wedding dress, but that's alright. While we were taking pictures, apparently my dad forgot that I told him we would be taking these pictures and was looking for us. He called my phone a few times but we were a little occupied at the time ;) Now, here are some of our fireworks photos!









While there was a small break in the fireworks, this woman came up to us and was telling us to just get into it and get close. We had no idea who she was, but The Roots thought she was with our group! It was a little awkward but funny.















After the fireworks ended, we said our goodbyes to the Roots and made our way back to the dessert party. People were starting to leave so we said goodbye to them. I believe we also gave our parents their gifts as well as our officiant. We got Jeff's mom a pandora bracelet with a few charms on it. We got my dad a new golf bag, but we just included a picture of Jeff with some bags so he could pick out the one he wanted. And for our officiant, we picked out a Mickey watch.

People were starting to leave so we said our goodbyes and told people how they could get back to their resorts. Once everyone had cleared out, we made our way back to the resort ourselves.





I think we took the monorail over to MK and then waited for the bus to the Boardwalk. Once we got back, Jeff grabbed some things from our room and we said our goodbye's for the night :( We decided he would stay in his mom's room so our first time seeing each other would be at our First Look. Then it was time to get ready for bed. Mary stayed in the room with me that night, which was nice to spend some time just the two of us :)


Next up: getting ready for the big day!


 
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OOOhhh....goodie! I'm here in time for The Big Day! I am loving your report, The Dress is gorgeous and looks amazing and so lovely on you!

I am a wedding junkie. (Hi, I am CaliTex and I am addicted to Disney weddings!) I am hoping to persuade my youngest daughter to get married at Disney.

The weddings seminar thing was so cool, thanks for all the photos. Loved to see the flowers, cake and food...wow. Can't wait to see photos of what you all had.

My DH and I are considering a dessert party for our anniversary, so I loved seeing your rehearsal party.

Staying tuned--no pressure (but hurry up with the updates!) :cheer2:
 
Saturday October 10th Part 1: Getting Ready

I had a little trouble sleeping, but I did get plenty of sleep. I woke up to a text from one of my bridesmaids letting me know she was on her way. She was giving me a play by play of where she was at :rotfl: I was going to meet her in the lobby when she arrived but she told me she ran into another bridesmaid so they were walking to the room together. I had totally forgotten I asked them to get to the room about 15 minutes before the hair and make-up team was coming, so they arrived and I had not even jumped in the shower yet! I wasn’t going to wash my hair but I definitely needed to clean off and shave a bit :rolleyes1




I hoped in the shower real quick. I didn't notice before but when I was posting this I saw Katie peeking around the corner :rotfl2: I can’t remember if the Beaute showed up before I showered or right after I showered. I think it was right after.


We showed them the room and told them we actually had both rooms, so we could spread out nicely. It worked out pretty well. They set up in my dad and sister’s room and asked for the first people. 2 girls started doing hair, while 1 did make up first.


Once the girls were starting to get ready, I was getting hungry! So one of my bridesmaids, Katie, and I went down to the Boardwalk Bakery to get breakfast for everyone who wanted it. I took down everyone’s order and grabbed a magic band. When we got downstairs, my dad was sitting with some of his family on the Boardwalk, so we stopped to say hi for a few minutes. Then we got our food and headed back upstairs.




We hung out just talking while everyone was getting ready. Katie brought over orange juice and prosecco for us to have some mimosas. So I poured some for anyone who wanted one.






I was also texted Jeff and this point just to see what he was up to and see if he was awake. I believe he was just hanging out in his room by himself. So I texted his best man Sam to see if he was up, and to tell him to go entertain Jeff. Then I got yelled at to stop texting Jeff lol. After a little while, it was my turn to hop in the chair!







I don't remember if it was at this time, but at some point Mary had gone to the lobby. She noticed the sign said our ceremony was at Sea Breeze Point. As soon as she told me, I grabbed my phone to text Carol about it. She texted me right back that she was on it. Then my dad texted to let me know too lol! He said he talked to someone about it too.




At some point while I was getting my hair done, the flower girl arrived. Her dad brought her over and then went to hang out with the guys in their room. We had her come in case she wanted to get her hair done. Her mom Shelby wasn’t sure she would sit still to get it done. She did a great job though!









I LOVE this one! I'm not sure what she is telling us, but she is making sure to let us know! We were asking her about meeting people, and who was on her dress.



Checking out her hair! She loved it! I did too! She is so adorable!



She also got a little make-up put on. She asked her mom if she could paint her toes and luckily, I had brought my nail polish pens with me for Magic Bands. So Shelby picked a color and painted them real quick. Lydi was loving all of it!

Shelby and I sat on the floor talking to her and asking her questions the whole time. She had so much fun getting dolled up! Then it was my turn to get my make up done. At some point while I was getting my make up done, Trinity and The Roots showed up. I believe Trinity arrived first, to get things set up, and then the Roots arrived about 15 minutes later. They started in the other room, taking some detail shots.
























These were the gifts for my bridesmaids. They got bags with their names on them, a pair of sandals to change into, and a pack of "sole savers". These are plastic things you can put on your heels to keep them from sinking into the grass. I got a 3 pack because A. I wasn't sure which size would fit best and B. I figured they could use the other sizes at other times.
 
OOOhhh....goodie! I'm here in time for The Big Day! I am loving your report, The Dress is gorgeous and looks amazing and so lovely on you!

I am a wedding junkie. (Hi, I am CaliTex and I am addicted to Disney weddings!) I am hoping to persuade my youngest daughter to get married at Disney.

The weddings seminar thing was so cool, thanks for all the photos. Loved to see the flowers, cake and food...wow. Can't wait to see photos of what you all had.

My DH and I are considering a dessert party for our anniversary, so I loved seeing your rehearsal party.

Staying tuned--no pressure (but hurry up with the updates!) :cheer2:

:welcome: I'm glad you found my report! It's been a while since I updated but I promise I didn't forget about it! I am determined to finish it! I loved our dessert party! It was so much fun to see everyone. I'm especially glad we did it as our rehearsal. It made the reception much more relaxed!

Your wish is my command with updates! :genie:
 
Awww yay wedding time. Seeing your pictures makes me so sad it is over. Best day of my life, as I am sure you agree. I just can't believe it is over.

P.S. Your flower girl is freaking adorable.
 
I love the "getting ready" pics...so much fun! It must be fun for you re-living it all while documenting for all of us!!
 
Yay you've started the wedding!! Though not to totally skip over the dessert party, which looked wonderful. Your photos came out amazing (even with that one random woman!!) Hope all is well at home!
 

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