ninafeliz
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2001
We just got back from our intimate wedding, so I wanted to give a brief (I hope) recap. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside for the first 5 nights (we were paying for my husbands family as well, and didn't want to pay for deluxe rooms for everyone), and then at Wilderness Lodge for the second 5 nights. I absolutely love both hotels, but I have to admit that WL is somthing special. We booked a woods view, but I also requested a king bed and a bathtub. When we checked in they upgraded us to a room with a beautiful view of Bay Lake and the resort with the king bed abnd tub. I loved our room, we ate dinner on the balcomy a couple of times. The morning of my wedding (April 28, 2003) Lisa and Irene came to do my hair, makeup, and nails. They were great, and Lisa did a wonderful job on my hair. They did my mom's hair and didn't charge me for it. I had the ceremony on Sunrise Terrace at the WL at 1:00, it was beautiful. The weather was perfect, we had Rev Jack Day who was wonderful. We had never met him before the day of the wedding, and he was great. He stepped us through everything, and I had given him the ceremony we wanted ahead of time and he had it all perfect. I cut and pasted parts of all of his ceremonies to make my own. I didn't think I would cry at my wedding, but i started crying when my dad walked me in and didn't quit until the end!! We had Randy Chapman for the photographer, he was great!! He was amazingly helpful, more so than our coordinator. We took pictures on Sunrise Terrace, in the WL Lobby on the bridge, by the creek at WL, by the waterfall at WL, in the lobby of the Poly, at Sunset Point at the Poly, and in/around the monorail. I got the pictures back before we left, and I had over 120 that were all great! The only negative thing I have to say is that our coordinator, Karen Serrette, didn't do much of anything to help us! I was very dissappointed in that. I couldn't get in touch with her once I got to WDW, so i didn't know for sure what to do until about an hour before the wedding, and then she was late so the photographer and rev Day met us and went over everything. All she did (literally) was answer a few questions I had by email, bring our flowers to WL, and give us our gift after the ceremony. the caterer who was there to help with the reception was more helpful than her!! But between Rev Day, Randy, and the caterer we had a great time, they were all so amazing! The cake was so good, I got white cake with boston crean filling. We danced our first dance to Can you feel the Love Tonight, and had our champagne. After the pics we had a rest, and then went to Narcoossee's for dinner. I thought it was great. We made priority seating for when it opened, so when we got there it was almost empty. It was nearly full when we left, but I didn't notice a prolem with noise. We sat at a long table by the window in the back corner (there were 12 of us). I got Pork tenderloin, and it was delicious! We served the rest of our cake for dessert (there was enough cake to serve about 25 people, not 10!). I did feel that they were a little pushy at Narcoossee's, one of my cousins only wanted an appetizer, not an entre and the waitress gave her a little but of a hard time, and we didn't order drinks (none of us are big drinkers) and they seemed surprised. But we had a good time. Then we went to the Boardwalk for an Illuminations Cruise. I had reserved 2 boats. It was absolutely perfect! The night was beautiful, it wasn't even cold with the breeze, and the show from there was so nice. We were directly downwind, so we got a lot of smoke, but that didn't spoil anything. I had told them it was my wedding day when I booked them, but it must not have gotten written down b/c the drivers said they would have decorated the boats if they had known. But we had a great time. We just sat on the boardwalk and chilled for a while after that, that was relly nice. We did the magic Kingdom Portrait session on April 30, it went very well. Lisa came at 4:30 and did my hair and makeup, and we got the the MK while it was still dark. Jim was the photographer, and he was very good. We took pics in front of the castle from complete darkness until it was light, and then went inside to the throne room. We took them in there, on the throne, and up on a balcony, then went to the carousel. I was disappointed, b/c there were no horses on the outside with pretty roses. They amost all had armour or weapons, the worker told us that randomly those ones must have been in for rehab. But no worries, we picked one! After that we went on the back balcony of the castle, and then Jim said the light was perfect so we took a few beside the castle. We also took the horse drawn carraige ride at Fort Wilderness, which was a lot of fun and very romantic. They even gave us champagne for the ride at no extra cost. Our driver was Kelly and the horse was travis, kelly was so sweet. We tipped him and he didn't even seem to know what we were trying to do! I wore my headband veil a lot of the time, my DH has told me he would wear the hat but actually wouldn't most of the time. Sometimes he carried it, and a few times he just left it in our room. This was actually the cause of our first little tiff as a married couple! I enjoyed the attention we got with them on, and he preferred to be more private. But i loved it, everyone said congratulations and people were always smiling at us. One day was also my birthday, so i got the birthday pin at the MK and got to wear both. Amazingly, people actually noticed that. We ate at the Rose and Crown Pub, and they gave us complimentary champagne after dinner. At the Sci Fi Drive In the made a sign that said just married and hung it on our car, and at Boma we got a card signed by all of the servers and they made a little desert plate that said congratulations written in chocolate, with lots of little chocolate and candy confetti mickey's around the outside. We didn't use our limo ride to get to the ceremony, so we took it a few days later and went to lunch at this cute little cafe in Winter park. This was the only other problem with the whole time. I had requested the limo from noon-4, and somehow our wedding coordinator told the limo driver 10:45! So he sat outside the WL for an hour and 15 mionutes, and we lost out on that time with the limo and had to cut our plans short! We had been planning on walking aroud Winter park for a while and getting dessert at a different cafe, but we only had time to go eat and come back. One of the only things she actually did for us, and she messed it up! But I won't complain anymore, becuase all in all we had a magical time, and I was so sorry when it was time to go. I can't believe it's all over, and I can hardly wait to start planning our next Disney vacation. I hope my DH continues to put up with my love of Disney, he likes it but not to the extent that I do. I hope anyone who made it this far didn't get bored, and I'll be happy to answer any questions!!