Thank you all so much for reading! We talked to everyone we could at the airport in Paris to try to sit together. We asked other passengers and nothing worked. I've written a complaint to NWA, but I know nothing will come of it. The frustrating thing is that I don't know if anyone who actually works for NWA works at Charles de Gaulle Airport in France... we asked and kept getting Air France employees. Argh!
I have an email out to Disney Photographic Services regarding our crooked castle. I'll let you know what they say and/or do.
On to Day 2........
Thursday, December 13 ~Welcome Dinner~
I had warned Becki that we had to get up early Thursday morning because we had a list of errands to run. The first of which was to have my dress steamed. I had called the David’s Bridal in Altamonte Springs Wednesday afternoon to see if they could steam it for me. No problem, but Altamonte is quite a drive when you’ve got limited time. I thought this was the only DB location in Orlando, but thanks to my GPS I found one near the Mall at Millennia. I called and they said they could have it ready by that night. Woohoo! Free steaming! I was so happy to save that money. They weren’t quite open yet when we arrived, but opened soon after. We left my dress with the alterations lady with an attitude (“Why did you wait until today?” Um… because I don’t live here??).
Anyway, with that we were off to find clothes for my cousin. Luckily, she liked a couple of things at Marshalls. She’s tiny and cute so anything looks fabulous on her. We had to run out to grab breakfast/lunch. We stopped at the choice restaurant of broke college students across the U.S.—Taco Bell. We ate quickly and then I told my cousin about the surprise I had planned for us. I called Wednesday and scheduled us for a Peppermint Pedicure at the Saratoga Springs Spa. They didn’t have time at Penney’s to do my pedicure since I missed my appointment, so I had to go somewhere. I thought that’d be a fun girly thing for us to do.
We arrived at SSR and headed for the spa. Neither of us had ever had a pedicure before and we were both impressed! The Peppermint Pedicure was a special thing they were doing for Christmas—basically there was just peppermint oil added to the water. I chose a berry red color for my toes, knowing my mother would question why I had to use red. The lady did a wonderful job on my pedicure! In fact, 3 weeks later it is still going strong. I’ve done quite a bit of walking since then and the polish still looks perfect. When we went to check out, it was $65 instead of the $55 I’d been quoted over the phone. However, the CM applied my AP discount even though DH had my pass in his wallet. Overall the SSR pedicure was an excellent experience!
After our pedicures it was time to find my parents’ rental house. Everyone (my parents and DH) had called to say they were on the road driving down from Jacksonville (about 2.5 hours away). My brother had issues finding the rental house that morning, but I found it quickly because one of the road names was different than it said on Google Maps. Becki and I got to the house and my parents and DH showed up shortly after.
The Rental House
Dan and I had to rush off after we dropped off our enormous “Paris suitcase” because we still had to take all of our floral stuff to Chris’ (the Whimsical Wey owner) house. Thank goodness for our GPS! Even though it took us down toll roads (which I hate) we were zooming around town. We had to drive to Windemere and back to WDW. It was after 3pm by this time and our Welcome Dinner was at 5:00pm. We hit only a little traffic on the way to Windemere and even less on the road to WDW. Yay! We spoke to Reverend Jack Day at this point to confirm he would be officiating our ceremony.
We had yet to check in to BWI. When we got to the guard shack our parking pass was not there so we had to go up to the Valet area. We pull up and tell them we need our parking pass. I was driving and the young valet CM asked if we were going to valet park. I told him that we wanted to but we had no cash on us for a tip. This statement was followed by me telling him we were big losers but were trying to make it to our wedding Welcome Dinner at the Poly. He was laughing at me and told me not to worry about it. He and DH started unloading the car and I went to check in.
The CM at check in was awesome! I can’t recall her name off hand, but she was so excited for us. She asked if I was the bride and disappeared for a bit. She came back with 2 large cellophane bags and an envelope. Someone had left these fantastic gifts for us and I was overwhelmed! We also got our Magical Moments certificate from the Disney Honeymoon folks. The CM asked if I wanted my room key to have my new last name as a souvenir, which I did. I explained how we were trying to get to the Poly by 5:00pm and she finished checking us in quickly.
Our Gifts
DH and I rushed upstairs to our room to begin changing. I had grabbed by dress and shoes out of our suitcase before the bellman took it away, just in case they were slow in getting our bags upstairs. I took the quickest shower ever and changed. While I was showering, I had DH call Randy, Stan, Anna, and Karen (our WP). He left messages for everyone, which made me nervous. As I was finishing up the bellman brought our things. In the rush of everything I couldn’t find my deodorant so had to use DH’s and smelled like Old Spice all night!
We rushed out and on to the Poly where we met everyone in our party except DH’s parents. I felt so bad that we were almost the last people to show, but everyone was really kind. I went to check in and stressed to the older CM that we did not want ANY attention from the singing lady. He laughed and I told him I was 100% serious – that we just wanted to have a relaxing evening with our family. He said he would tell our server. We had no issues with the lady all night so I was very pleased.
Entire Table @ 'Ohana
Summer & Becki @ 'Ohana
We had a fantastic meal at ‘Ohana. Most of our family had never eaten there and they really enjoyed their food. My niece and nephew did some of the kid games. They ended up with a butt load of leis and were giving them out to everyone. My nephew became a ladies’ man (he’s 3) as he did not want to stay seated. Every time I looked up he was talking to one of our female friends. He’s quite a ham.
My Mom, Niece (Summer) and Nephew (Tommy) in the Coconut Race
Towards the end of our meal (and I believe after Wishes) the chef came out to ask if I wanted the cake. I got so excited as I’d not seen the cake yet. So they wheel out our cake and I am blown away! It was so wonderful! It had the various Disney logos along with a white chocolate Mickey and milk chocolate Eiffel Tower. Perfection! I knew the cake would taste just as perfect—it was marble cake with strawberry mousse with fresh strawberries. Even though we didn’t want attention, we got a bunch of it with our cake! People were coming over and congratulating us and ogling at our cake. As the cake was being served, we started hearing our guests wonder if they would get the bananas foster bread pudding as well. I wasn’t sure so I asked one of our servers to please bring some out since most of our guests had not tried it and it is delicious.
Groom's Cake
Dad & I with Groom's Cake
Dan & I with Groom's Cake
After we attempted to put our nearest and dearest into sugar comas, it was time to go. We passed out our Welcome Folders (yeah, I never made it to the hotels to do that) and briefly discussed with everyone the plan for Friday.
DH got mad at me at this point. I told him that he would not be staying with me that night because our parents didn’t want us to. I already asked my cousin to spend the night with me since she’d have to get ready with me in the morning. DH very unhappy, but I stood my ground because I didn’t want to hear about it from the mothers.
My cousin and I left the Poly and headed to David’s Bridal to pick up my dress. I was so happy that it was done on time. We then went shoe shopping for her. While at Off 5th Avenue, Randy Chapman called to check in. He told me that Dan was absolutely clueless and I agreed. I had emailed Randy earlier and he knew exactly what I was planning so it worked out great. I also spoke with Anna from Makeover Magic in there somewhere. Dan spoke with Stan from STVS and Karen (our WP). I felt relieved and ready to get married having confirmed everything with our vendors.
I took my cousin by our rental house to pick up her things and we returned to BWI. Becki, DH and I all watched Illuminations from our balcony at BWI. We had a cool view because the Eiffel Tower was near us, which I loved. DH and I played around with our bride & groom ears while watching the fireworks. Afterwords, we opened up our 2 cellophaned gifts. They were both from my friend Kristina. We got some awesome stuff, including a $150 Disney gift certificate. We also got a plush bride/groom M&M, a beautiful Mickey throw, wedding ornament, personalized DVD case, bride & groom ears, and some other things.
DH and I watching Illuminations (Sorry for my Beyonce-esque pose... Perez Hilton readers understand!)
DH and I with our gift
After Illuminations and our gifts it was time for DH to go. He was still not happy, but he went to stay with his parents at BWV. Then I sort of set up everything for the following morning and decided I was exhausted. I had planned on washing my hair that night, but the bed was calling my name. We had sort of planned on going to Jellyrolls (DH, me, and 4 friends from NY) but it was closed… and I would have felt bad since my cousin isn’t 21. My last night as a single gal was quite uneventful.
Up next... When it's your wedding day, all the problems melt away.....
We had a great time though. I didn't even notice that I was matched up with a lavender horse-- but it looks nice!
We're off to purchase a few more items and hopefully I will work on Day 2 this evening. 
