WithDisneySpirit
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2004
Since I did not do a planning journal, I am going to cover our introductions and then a bit of pre-VR planning and then just pick right up with our VR trip report! 
Rick and I met September 1997 in church. He was sitting in the row right in front of me. We have a greet/hug each other part of the service and he turned around to hug me and said, You have a beautiful voice! Well, that kind of flattery made him an instant friend =)
I thought he could be that not so common guy friend I sure wasnt thinking romantically to begin with
One thing did lead to another though, and we had our first date on the Saturday night after Thanksgiving. Soon, we were pretty much inseparable. 
He was frightened of being a Dad to my 6 and 9 year old sons though and he tried hard to just have a long term relationship! Na-uh, not me, so I offered to break up with him right away, LOL. I said the goal needed to be eventual marriage or nada lets just say we never broke up =) Along the way, we realized a mutual love of Disney and we started to plan a vacation, just he and I, for when my kids were going with their Dad on vacation for a week.
Five weeks before vacation, we were driving along somewhere in the car and Rick, out of the clear blue, asks me, What do you think about making this Disney trip our honeymoon?
So much for bended knee with ring at the ready
what did I say
YES, lol! We decided we wanted to elope so we went together and told our minister that we wanted him to marry us quietly after church on Sunday and then we would leave for Disney. He, being the Mickey lover that he is, said, Why dont we marry yall in Disney and well go too? I did some minor checking and felt that even the smallest wedding at Disney was more than we needed. We tried our best to decline and our minister said well just pick a quiet spot, marry you and well be off to the parks =)
Well, he won and off we went. We all stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort and very early on July 7, 1998, Rick and I got married on the sandy beach in front of our building. My ministers wife was our photographer; I didnt do flowers or anything. We loved it though. We set up a camcorder on a tripod to record the event and surprise our families with when we got back. We kept it a secret until then Here are a couple of pictures:
We did have matching rings made for our wedding ceremony and they are so special to us! In fact, for our VR, we used our exact same rings during our vows:
We had an idyllic honeymoon at Disney, of course. We settled into a very happy wedded life together. We did take our kids back to Disney at Christmas that same year and then we went through a very long Disney dry spell. We talked about going and could never quite get it together.
In early 2004, we decided we had to go back to Disney!! I started to do internet research and discovered about renting points to stay at DVC. That sounded perfect to us because we knew that a good vacation with two rambunctious boys would have separate bedrooms, LOL. The more I researched, the more I wanted DVC. Instead of renting points, we bought an OKW contract on the resale market, yay!!!!!! We chose OKW because it was the one Rick liked the look of in the pics at Allearsnet.com. I enticed him and I really didnt care where he wanted to buy, lol, as long as we could buy it!!
We made our first DVC trip home in October 2004. Oh, DVC will really hook you did we ever love OKW and that 2 bedroom villa we stayed in =) It just happened that my boys were going off to dads family in NY for fourth of July in 2005. That is our anniversary, July 7, the same week. So, we took a trip to Disney, just us two again, for our seventh anniversary! We had such a romantic and lovely trip!
We were taking pics of Mickey&Minnie so they did the same - I love this pic
We even made an ADR for Shutters so that we could re-visit our wedding spot =)
Here is a couple of pictures from our actual anniversary day!
Our original wedding spot:
A rather unflattering pic of me at our wedding site, lol!
Somewhere, along the way in planning for this trip, I discovered the idea of Disney vow renewals. Boy, did that ever get my attention! I felt that we had made a true success of marriage and I really wanted to celebrate this with our family. What better place than Disney to marry all over again? I broached the subject with Rick on our ten hour drive home from Disney. He must have been basking in the afterglow of a great Disney trip because he said yes to a 10th anniversary vow renewal at Disney!!!!! Let the planning begin =)
Rick and I met September 1997 in church. He was sitting in the row right in front of me. We have a greet/hug each other part of the service and he turned around to hug me and said, You have a beautiful voice! Well, that kind of flattery made him an instant friend =)
I thought he could be that not so common guy friend I sure wasnt thinking romantically to begin with
One thing did lead to another though, and we had our first date on the Saturday night after Thanksgiving. Soon, we were pretty much inseparable. He was frightened of being a Dad to my 6 and 9 year old sons though and he tried hard to just have a long term relationship! Na-uh, not me, so I offered to break up with him right away, LOL. I said the goal needed to be eventual marriage or nada lets just say we never broke up =) Along the way, we realized a mutual love of Disney and we started to plan a vacation, just he and I, for when my kids were going with their Dad on vacation for a week.
Five weeks before vacation, we were driving along somewhere in the car and Rick, out of the clear blue, asks me, What do you think about making this Disney trip our honeymoon?
So much for bended knee with ring at the ready
what did I say
YES, lol! We decided we wanted to elope so we went together and told our minister that we wanted him to marry us quietly after church on Sunday and then we would leave for Disney. He, being the Mickey lover that he is, said, Why dont we marry yall in Disney and well go too? I did some minor checking and felt that even the smallest wedding at Disney was more than we needed. We tried our best to decline and our minister said well just pick a quiet spot, marry you and well be off to the parks =) Well, he won and off we went. We all stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort and very early on July 7, 1998, Rick and I got married on the sandy beach in front of our building. My ministers wife was our photographer; I didnt do flowers or anything. We loved it though. We set up a camcorder on a tripod to record the event and surprise our families with when we got back. We kept it a secret until then Here are a couple of pictures:
We did have matching rings made for our wedding ceremony and they are so special to us! In fact, for our VR, we used our exact same rings during our vows:
In early 2004, we decided we had to go back to Disney!! I started to do internet research and discovered about renting points to stay at DVC. That sounded perfect to us because we knew that a good vacation with two rambunctious boys would have separate bedrooms, LOL. The more I researched, the more I wanted DVC. Instead of renting points, we bought an OKW contract on the resale market, yay!!!!!! We chose OKW because it was the one Rick liked the look of in the pics at Allearsnet.com. I enticed him and I really didnt care where he wanted to buy, lol, as long as we could buy it!!
We made our first DVC trip home in October 2004. Oh, DVC will really hook you did we ever love OKW and that 2 bedroom villa we stayed in =) It just happened that my boys were going off to dads family in NY for fourth of July in 2005. That is our anniversary, July 7, the same week. So, we took a trip to Disney, just us two again, for our seventh anniversary! We had such a romantic and lovely trip!
We were taking pics of Mickey&Minnie so they did the same - I love this pic
We even made an ADR for Shutters so that we could re-visit our wedding spot =)
Here is a couple of pictures from our actual anniversary day!
Our original wedding spot:
A rather unflattering pic of me at our wedding site, lol!
Somewhere, along the way in planning for this trip, I discovered the idea of Disney vow renewals. Boy, did that ever get my attention! I felt that we had made a true success of marriage and I really wanted to celebrate this with our family. What better place than Disney to marry all over again? I broached the subject with Rick on our ten hour drive home from Disney. He must have been basking in the afterglow of a great Disney trip because he said yes to a 10th anniversary vow renewal at Disney!!!!! Let the planning begin =)
That settled; I felt free to discuss an outdoor venue. Rick really knew that I wanted Italy because it holds special meaning for me…I grew up in a military family and four years of my childhood were spent in Naples, Italy! It was a truly wonderful time for my family. I was 10 to almost 14 while we were there. The memories were so special that I asked Rick if we could marry there. He, like a true knight, said of course! 
After I slowed to a walk to take this picture, 
We were also unaware that BW is the last stop of all five resorts. Needless to say, I was in shock and trying to call Bill Barchik to warn him of our lateness. I got his office and they had him call me on my cell and he actually told me not to worry and that he would wait for me!!!! That man is gold, pure gold =) 
I could not honestly believe it?! It is a beautiful color of peach and gold. It has a sleeveless gown with a matching jacket that was so lightweight and breathable. It was so very perfect for me! 
Well, here are a couple of pics of the dress:
He was our sales manager too and he was easy to work with for everything. 
(hopefully my picture will right itself...)
