Liz and Scott's May the 4th Be With Us Star Wars Wishes 05.04.16 (NEW: Rings pg.7)

Hydra

Mouseketeer
Joined
Mar 25, 2015
Hello all,

Life long Disney fan, little girl at heart and super geek. I found these boards just a short 6 months ago while scouring the internet for more Disney Wedding resources. You ladies, and gentlemen, have been invaluable in your records, advice and accounts on your lovely journeys. So first of all, thank you all for creating this awesome community.

Second of all...
About us:

*Liz: 25, Space Systems Engineer, hoping to finish my masters in Space Systems Management asap. Space fanatic, gamer, animal lover, Air Force background.

*Scott: 30, Telecom Operations, goofball, musician and combat tested solider, with lots of overseas Army experience under his belt.

*We both love building costumes, props, hiking, playing video games online, and adventuring!

*Our favorite Disney movies: Lilo and Stitch, Lion King and Marry Poppins.

*We live in Denver with our animal children: Cat, Dog, two snakes (Boas) and a tank of fishies.

We met through the online Star Wars costuming community back in 2006. After finally meeting in person year slater in 2011, we fell hard and fast for each other. We endured two cross country moves (one was to Orlando) and a total of 16 months separated by each other's military duties. Tough stuff.

Like I mentioned before, we both participate in and create cosplay/costumes, it's a hobby we pour our hearts into. Interacting with, and thrilling kids, the young and young at heart, is our favorite thing in the world. Since 2014 we struggled to find a wedding idea that made us feel excited. Needless to say when I suggested the Disney route, he whole heartedly agreed.

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We try to do Disney every year, it's a special escape where the stress of our jobs cannot follow. April of this year we attended Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, CA. The convention was across the street from Disneyland, so of course we planned in two days to have some extra fun. The first day was spent exploring the classic park (Scott's first time), and the other to see California Adventure (new to both of us). Here's some photos of the Star Wars Convention and our park shenanigans with friends:

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And here's a couple of cute shots of us together at the convention:

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Next entry: The Engagement!
 
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The Engagement

Scott popped the question March 23rd, 2014. I was out on the Central Californian coast for work for several months that Spring. A long weekend rolled around, he hopped on a plane, and we escaped south to the beautiful city of Santa Barbara for a couple days of relaxation. Whilst walking on the beach I was lost in thought staring out at the ocean (really just contemplating what a pretty day it was). Scott was busy up to something or another behind me, when I turned around to see, I saw our initials written in the sand, only he had written both our names with his last initial in a large heart. Before I had time to comment he dropped to his knee and presented the ring.

The ring is a custom piece, designed and fabricated by a company called Green Lake Jewelry Works out of Oregon. He sent the company images and a description of what he wanted while he was deployed in Afghanistan. They produced for us a very one of a kind product (the molds were destroyed after the one ring was forged). (Some Lord of the Rings humor there...:D)

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The ring is based off another love of ours, the Halo video games! I love the geometric pattern dotted with sapphires. The stones are Black Fire Opals from the Lightning Ridge Quarry, Australia. Scott hand picked each one and had them sent to the Oregon company. The base is solid sterling silver (since that's what I wear). I said no big diamonds, so he did a good job! He chose this kind of opal particularly because he said they looked like images brought to earth from the Hubble Space Telescope. He knows how to tickle of the fancy of his space nerd. <3

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Next entry: First Planning Trip!
 
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Welcome! We are Star Wars fanatics too- I can't wait to follow along with your plans! And your ring is amazing- Eric will be blown away by your Halo design!!!
 
Welcome! We are Star Wars fanatics too- I can't wait to follow along with your plans! And your ring is amazing- Eric will be blown away by your Halo design!!!

Thank you! Good to know that the Disney acquisition was generally well accepted by most, because most are fans of both franchises! Fun apart, fun together!
 


The First Planning Trip!

So we decided only about two weeks out in early May to make the trip to WDW. Initially our plans were for June, but some work related deadlines got in the way. Disney was super accommodating and swapped our reservations with no issues. Another motivating factor was the fact that a group I'm apart of, called the Planetary Society, was launching one of our projects that week. Score!

Hopefully no one minds a little trip overview. Disney shenanigans are too fun not to share!...
We arrived Tue night. The launch was scheduled for Wed morning and our wedding venue viewing appointment was for Friday morning. Lots of wiggle room for fun!

Day 01: Arrival

We were arriving about noon into Orlando. We chose to stay at the French Quarter Moderate Resort after many of our friends and acquaintances fawned over their experience there. We also used the Disney Dining plan for the nights we were staying on property.

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On the Magical Express, YAY!

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Our first night there we were able to snag a short term reservation for a Star Wars Character Dinner at the Vine and Dine with tickets to Fantasmic! Yay!

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My only complaint was that the hostess placed us right next to the restroom entry way and there was constant foot traffic and table bumping.

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The best part of the buffet, and the best part of being an adult. As much SW deserts as I wanted!

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After dinner we had to get a picture in front of Cinderella's couch!​


Day 02: Launch Day

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We got some VIP treatment, a great guide and an empty bus to get us to the viewing location on Cape Canaveral (that's the Cape's launch control building in the background).

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A sweet complimentry snack bar provided by NASA! (Good because I forgot to eat!)

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A mini collage of the fun stuff I got from the Planetary Society. LightSail is the satellite.

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My neighbor at the launch had a great camera and emailed me this shot yesterday!

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We finished the night with a hike over to the Polynesian Resort for some Trader Sams Grog Grotto fun! I prefer the Disneyland location, but it was still a hoot.​

Day 03: AK & Epcot

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Today was an all day park day, we started at Animal Kingdom with a mission (I had never rode Expedition Everest before!)...

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Ohana...

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Ran into a couple of my favorite characters! We have some really great video of Dug reacting to SQUIRREL!

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Over to Epcot now, had a couple of liters of beer in Germany.

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Got to ride the new Test Track, pretty cool!

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Finished the night with Illuminations.​

I'll break up this post into three parts since Day 04 is going to be a long one!
 
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Welcome! :) I'm excited to follow along! I may be a little biased ;), but May 4 is a fabulous day to get married. Looking forward to seeing your plans as they unfold.
 
The First Planning Trip: Part Two!

Day 04: Venue Viewing

Okay, so this day didn't quite go as planned. We set off super early to grab a leisurely breakfast at Be Our Guest at the MK before our appointment at 11am. Upon out arrival at 11am, the receptionist at Franck's, the Disney Wedding Studio, informed us we were not on the calendar.

Okay, WHAT?! I remained composed but inside I was pretty distraught. I had just been on the phone with the consultant a few days earlier... So, fast forward to 30 minutes of phone calls and waiting, the Receptionist lets us know that our consultant had a funeral :(, and for what ever reason, the computer did not put us on another consultant's calender. She explained we could come back at 4pm for a reschedule. We had planned to go back to our room to catch a nap after the AM appointment. That evening was the 24hr MK event, and we wanted to be well rested for some over-night fun. Things didn't go to plan, but we were just happy we didn't have to throw out any plans for the rest of the trip.

Fast forward to 2 hours later when the sluggish buses (crazy busy) finally brought us back to the French Quarter and we learned, fortunately, Franck's staff organized a complementary cab ride back to the Grand Floridian for our new 4pm arrival time. Thank goodness.
I have meshed together the images taken before and after the fiasco. Our consultant, when we finally got to the later afternoon appointment, was freaking awesome and thorough.

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Early morning castle.

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AMAZING breakfast, I couldn't believe it was a counter service credit use, good deal!

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Cruising across the lake from MK on a ferry.

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The pavilion! :D

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This was my first visit to this resort. Plain to see why it's so popular!

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The lobby was breath-taking.

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He started looking through wedding dress books, unprompted and letting me know what he liked. Cutie.

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Despite the goof up, their customer service was spot on!

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Interior of Francks.

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Moving out towards the Pavilion.

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Our consultant squeezed us in before an actual ceremony. The organist even sampled some music for us, including a couple of Star Wars songs!

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We'll be returning to this spot in about a year in slightly different attire. :D

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Here's a set ball room of the Grand Floridian (I don't remember which). This is probably what we will be going with.

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GF, the chandeliers were being cleaned (hence the lift).

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Whitehall Patio at GF, area was set up for a cocktail hour.

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She let us see several different lighting options, which can really change the space! (GF)

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We also visited the Boardwalk, pretty, just really not our style.

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Then the Contemporary. If we were to go with a Star Wars theme, these rooms could really fit the bill.

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Contemporary attached patio.

After milling around and discussing options at the Contemporary, our consultant dropped us back off at our resort. The appointment ended up taking about 4 hours, so it was well into the evening. Fortunately the 24hr event was going on strong at MK, so after another short rest, we jumped back on Disney Transport to catch the Wishes fireworks.

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We ended up only staying in the park until 2am. MK was PACKED (the photo above WASN'T before fireworks BTW, it was just that packed). After Wishes we didn't manage to ride a single ride as most of the wait times were well over an hour at the least.
Heading back, we made a pact that Saturday was going to be the "do nothing" day. We had a date with poolside cocktails!
Day 05 - 07 in the next post!
 
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Welcome! :) I'm excited to follow along! I may be a little biased ;), but May 4 is a fabulous day to get married. Looking forward to seeing your plans as they unfold.

It's funny, May 4th is also the anniversary for plenty of our friends in the Star Wars community too! I love how mentioning the day elicits giggles for a lot of people. :)
 
Following along! Also, I want to steal your shirt collection, so cute!!! (and reminds me a lot of my husband and I :flower1: )
 
First Planning Trip: Part Three

Day 05: Lazy Day

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We took the water ferry down the river to Downtown Disney from the French Quarter, the ride was relaxing and the captain was a hoot.

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Dinner at the T-Rex Restaurant!

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Finished the day with a night at Jellyrolls at the Boardwalk. If you haven't been, I highly recommend spending an evening with the dueling pianos who play by request (playing everything from classic hits, to Disney sillies), and strong drinks. We figure we will bring the parents here for a fun night before the wedding or during the next planning trip.​

Day 06: Star Wars Weekends!

We try to attend every year for Star Wars Weekends. We are both members of the 501st. A Disney/Lucasfilm approved charity costume club. During Star Wars Weekends 501st members are welcome to submit requests to march in the Star Wars Weekends parade. This year we chose not to march so we could be free to enjoy the entire day and had no idea when our venue viewing appointment would be.

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An intruding finger in my shot points out a friend of ours in the parade.

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Time for a meal at the Rebel Hanger, a special Star Wars dining experience!

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The fiance in his adorable Boba Fett Disney Bounding outfit!

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Our "Sith Dip and Chips." Delightfully disturbing!

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This was the dark/light side BBQ sliders.

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They had special LED ice cubes in the shapes of X-Wings, the Millennium Falcon and the Death Star. All for sale with awesome alcoholic beverages, all aptly named, and non alcoholic options for the little ones.

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We rode Star Tours about a total of 6 times during the trip. We also determined, thanks to being there a few weeks earlier, that the Disneyland Star Tours ride was a little more "simulated." The simulator in CA had more movement and was more enjoyable.

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A local friend of ours from Orlando had a birthday that day so we zipped over to the MK to say hi. Just in time to get some great pictures of the parade!

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Enjoyed a song or two.

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And here's our friends being adorable. They dressed up in frontier inspired outfits and I just had to capture their rocking chair moment on Tom Sawyer's Island.

We finished off the day with the Symphony in the Stars Firework show back at Hollywood Studios with friends. This show was AWESOME. Fireworks set to classic Star Wars music, and they were so close to us, that the finale rumbled in our chests. Easily the closest you can get to Disney fireworks (the launched from behind the theater stage). This marked our last day at Disney for the trip.

Day 07: Harry Potter Fun

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We have a girlfriend who works in Universal's Entertainment Department so we snagged some free tickets.

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If you are at Diagon Alley, please for the love of everything, try the lavender and Earl Grey ice Cream!!! So good.

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It was cool to check out the new Harry Potter addition, they have done an amazing job. Although since it surprised us, this new addition is in the Universal Studios portion of the parks, which means to see both Harry Potter areas, be prepared to shell out for Universal's version of a park hopper.

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The Fiance and his proud raptor hat prize from the Jurassic Park area. He won it via a balloon popping carnival game. NOTE THE BUTTON. Universal has buttons! Their cast members were so excited to see buttons we got a least double the attention we received at Disney. Apparently they are less well known at their parks, but got us some great perks: free butter beer, lots of congrats and a couple opportunities to get expedited to the front of ride lines.

Overall the objective of the trip was to absolutely decide that a WDW wedding is what we wanted to do. Most of our friends travel often for work or fun and are spread across the US. So most would already be traveling to our home state of CO. So I suppose it wasn't surprising when we felt out numbers, that we had already gotten 50 people who were interested (about 90% of who we've pinged so far). Seeing the venues and getting to meet a few of the Franck's staff really sealed the deal... How could you not? Both sets of parents are on board, so now comes the fun of, well, all the planning!
 
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I'm loving your posts so far, everything is so exciting! When we popped over to Universal a couple years ago, Diagon Alley wasn't open yet, though we did get to visit the other HP area. Definitely want to go back sometime to see it DA. That ice cream sounds to die for!!!
 
I love it!!! Star Wars was a part of bringing me and my DF together. He's going to go down the aisle to the Imperial March as a homage to that. Look forward to hearing more about your wedding. :)
 
You two are so adorable! You remind me of me & my dbf! We love disbounding and all things Star Wars! I even have two good friends in the 501st. :) I'll be squeeing along with you as your plans develop. I'm so happy for you!
 
Great engagement story. We are big Star Wars fans in my family too. I love everything so far. Following along.
 
You girls are really too nice. Omg. I have had wavering support/excitement, and not sure if I want to even have a bridal party because I fear the drama. So the kind words mean so much!
 
Sorry all, tried to put a warning in the title, there's a lot of photos, haha.

Venues!

So while I was writing the first entry of this log our consultant began the drafting progress for our contract. While this is being developed, we are still debating on two venues. The Nutcracker Ballroom at the Contemporary and St. Augustine at the Grand Floridian...

Nutcracker
Pros: Would fit our Star Wars Theme with some up-lighting. Contemporary has awesome WDW history and attached patio that would be all ours.
Cons: Not down the street from Wedding Pavilion, if SW theme doesn't work out, venue is very (albeit uniquely) dated.

St. Augustine
Pros: Proximity to Wedding Pavilion, use of the Whitehall Room and Patio for cocktail hour and wow factor of Grand Floridian.
Cons: Do not have access to Whitehall Patio for entire reception, very Victorian, wanted a venue for the reception with outdoor access.

Here are the inspiration boards the Disney Wedding folks sent me to review :)

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Following along.

I'm glad I'm not you, I couldn't decide on which location. To me everything is beautiful. Too bad you can't do it at Star Tours!
 
I think all of those locations are lovely and can be customized pretty easily to reflect what you want. For what it's worth, having our reception in close proximity to our ceremony was incredibly convenient, and I was happy we did that. Of course, the Contemporary isn't very far from the WP/GF so I don't think transportation would be too difficult, either. :thumbsup2
 
Following along!! I love a good photo-intense journal (I also have a problem limiting myself on photos!) You definitely have a conundrum on your hands - one the one hand not paying for transportation is huge, especially since that has the potential to suck up a huge part of your budget and for such an infuriatingly boring thing as a bus or a van, instead of something like decor or something your guests will actually appreciate. On the other hand.....I personally love the Contemporary ballrooms and I do think you could do a fantastic classy SW theme there.

Good luck figuring it out!
 
I would pick St Augustine Hall for the proximity of the Wedding Pavilion. I think it will just be easier on you and your guests and the whitehall patio is so nice! I think no matter what hall you choose you will have an amazing wedding. Even though it is has a victorian look I think with the right lighting and decorations it can suit your theme.
 

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