Michelle & Ryan's Once Upon a Dream Home Wedding and WDW Honeymoon PJ

[mlegerto]

What a sweet proposal story!

I love it too, but I guess I’m a bit biased haha. Thanks for tuning in

I found a few good sites that have secure online ordering.

www.myglassslipper.com and www.bridalshoes.com both let you order swatches first.

www.dyeableshoestore.com and www.dyemyshoes.com both have you send in a swatch. Dye My Shoes doesn't sell shoes, I don't think. They have you send in your dyeable shoes and they dye them to match your swatch. I found them all on theknot.com and a lot of people had good things to say about dyemyshoes.com. David's Bridal has dyeable shoes but they're really not that cute. But a lot of dyeable shoe places use their colors so that might give you an idea of the colors.

Hope that helps a little!

OMG thanks for the information. I am really thinking after yet another round of shopping and browsing the internet that the dyable option is the best way to go. I am going to take a look at those websites and order some sample swatches to see if they have my color. I will keep you updated!


I am meeting with my beloved MOH tomorrow night to work on some samples for our centerpiece vases. I want to do some mason jars with burlap and lap wrapping. I think I want to make like a cluster of three and tie them together with a tiffany blue bow…but that will need to be played with. Here is kinda of what I am looking for – minus the three tied together haha.


Other than working on the sample vases tomorrow, we have an appointment to meet with a harpist on Saturday afternoon. I thought the harpist would be a really nice addition to our garden ceremony. We will see how it goes and I will let you all know. Talk to you all soon!

 

[mlegerto]

Boooo!

I was just looking at www.myglassslipper.com and www.bridalshoes.com because both allow you to order samples of the swatches first. When I went on I noticed that it was $1.50 USD for each sample, fine not a problem. But then I went to continue to the checkout/shipping page and they were both going to charge me just over $30 to ship the samples for international shipping!!!

I wouldn't be against paying $30 in shipping for the shoes, but for 2 or 3 swatches that seems a bit ridiculous!

Guess I will just have to keep looking and find something within Canada.

Any other suggestions?!?

 

[roxysmum123]

My sister did the burlap/lace mason jar centerpieces. How she did them was burlap that was almost the entire length of the jar, inch and a half wide lace, and then half inch (maybe it was a quarter inch) ribbon around the middle of the lace in a bow. Maybe that might give you the punch of blue you're looking for? Incase the tied up idea isn't panning out.

As far as shoes go, what about doing something different and going for something like these http://www.figgieshoes.com/ ? I've seen these in person before and they are stunning. And I'm 99.9% sure they're based in Canada.

 

[mlegerto]

My sister did the burlap/lace mason jar centerpieces. How she did them was burlap that was almost the entire length of the jar, inch and a half wide lace, and then half inch (maybe it was a quarter inch) ribbon around the middle of the lace in a bow. Maybe that might give you the punch of blue you're looking for? Incase the tied up idea isn't panning out.

As far as shoes go, what about doing something different and going for something like these http://www.figgieshoes.com/ ? I've seen these in person before and they are stunning. And I'm 99.9% sure they're based in Canada.

Do you happen to have any photos of your sisters centrepieces that you could share? If not, that's perfectly understandable - really how many guests take photos of the centrepieces unless they are something outta this world haha. I just love looking at these things! I was also thinking that I may not be able to successfully tie them together the way it's showing in my head, so doing a bow around each is defiantly an idea Thanks!

A friend of mine had those custom print shoes made from figgieshoes. They were absolutely stunning and added a lot of her personal character into the shoe. Now I feel like if I do it to she will just say I'm coping here, but obviously this company is in business because A LOT of people order them haha. Backup plan! I would really like to try to have some Tiffany blue/mint colored shoes...just fits the image I had in my head - us crazy brides with our picture perfect images haha! Thanks for the suggestion though! Totally something I will keep in mind if I just cant find THE right color

OMG....I just noticed on your ticker.....4 days!! So crazy jealous of you right now! IF we don't get a chance to connect again before you leave,, have an amazing trip and thanks for the suggestions.

 

[mlegerto]

ugh! I had just done a WHOLE post...then it deleted BOOO. Here we go again haha.

It feels as though I haven't posted a real update in a while.

Let's start with shoes...I got a quote from Figgieshoes, but it just isn't going to work for me . There custom painting starts at $598 and thats just for black and white haha and that doesn't include the shoes. They are amazing and beautiful, but just out of my price range. Oh well, on to other options!

I have a couple of updates about things we have done recently.

Let's start with music.

I really wanted to have live music for our ceremony and cocktail hour. I just feel as though it is a bit more romantic, soft and elegant. At the same time, Ryan is a musician so he appreciates the talent, skill and sound of live music. On that note, I had looked up many different duo's and instrument types and I fell in love with the sound of the harp. I knew I wanted a harp - I know to some ppl this seems corny or whatever, but I thought it was the perfect sound for an outdoor garden ceremony. I ended up meeting with a few different harpist and this weekend we found the one! Her name is Kristen Theraiult. Not only was she extremely talented, she really loved that Ryan and his BM are both musicians and explained to them how the harp works, what the notes were, ect. She was even playing songs for us by ear. She was great and I am so happy we found her.


If anyone in the GTA is looking for a harpist, I highly recommend her. She was delightful, talented and affordable!

Next we have some updates on flowers/centrepieces.

We met with a few florists and a couple of weeks ago found the one we will use. We decided to go with Carisma Florists in Mississauga (http://www.carismaflorists.com/). They were great. I came in with my ideas and they got my vision and rolled with it! They were also affordable and are offering free delivery to 3 locations on the wedding day - 1 to my dads where I will be getting ready, 1 to Ryan's parents house where they will be getting ready and 1 to the venue to set up. So great!

I have decided that the main flower for our wedding will be hydrangeas - they are my favourite and I just love the full look they offer.

My bouquet will consist of white hydrangeas, calla lilies and roses.



My bridesmaids will have full bouquets of hydrangeas. These are really simple, but I just love them. I think they are elegant and simple, but because they are so full they are expressive.



Ryan will have a mini calla lily


All of the other people in the wedding party (fathers, mothers, grandparents, best man and groomsmen) will have white roses.

Yeah! I told you I was a simple kinda gal haha.

 

[mlegerto]

Few more updates for you! Aren't you all lucky today hahah

I know I posted a photo of my dress earlier, but I realized that I didn't post a photo of the back of the dress. I love the way the skirt flows and the different layers and I feel like you can see this better from the back photo. Here is my beauty!


On the same note....I fell in LOVE with the veil that was designed to go with my dress. Sadly, it was out of my price range. Since then, I haven't seen a veil that I loved quite as much. I know these things are expensive - everything having to do with a wedding is expensive haha, but I just couldn't justify spending the money. I ended up leaving without ordering the veil, but told myself I would reassess as we got closer to the wedding to see if I could make it work OR if I found something that I thought was more affordable, but just as beautiful.

I got spoiled the other day. My dad's girlfriend emailed me the other day and so amazingly and generously offered to purchase the veil that I was in love with for me, from her! What an amazing wake up call that was. Anyways, here it is.

What do you guys think?

 

[mlegerto]

Wow...it has been a while since I have updated this PJ. A lot has happened since then, but I am not sure that anyone is following anymore.

Let me know if anyone is still following and if you are I will work on getting the next update out and PROMISE to be more attentive to my updates.

 

[mlegerto]

HONEYMOON PLANS

Quick honeymoon update to draw you back!

I have some INCREDIBLY exciting news about our Honeymoon plans!!!!

As my parents are DVC members, we initially booked in at our home resort OKW. Now OKW is home to me - can't tell you how many trips and how much time I have spent there, BUT there are other resorts that appeal to me and I thought staying elsewhere would be very special for a one in a lifetime event like a honeymoon.

At 7 months we were able to move our reservation to the BCV. I was SO excited with this as it is walking distance to EPCOT and HS. I also LOVE the atmosphere and variety of restaurants available just a hop, skip and jump over to the Boardwalk. In addition, who doesn't love Stormalong Bay pool. At the 7 month mark we also tried to get into the Polynesian Village Resort, but we were told that since it is a new resort and they are just opening up the DVC for purchase, we wouldn't be able to try to move our reservation for another month (6 months prior to our dates). In addition, we were told the points needed and since these rooms require many more points, we would have had to have shortened our trip by 2 days, which we didn't want to do. We were also given fair warning that the chances of getting in here on DVC points was slim as soon to be new purchasers would have priority - which I totally understand. I was a bit sad as I have ALWAYS wanted to stay at the Poly , but I was more than content with staying at the BCV as that resort is simply amazing as well.

A couple of weeks ago my mom called me and said "hey, we never called back about trying to switch to the poly". I was a bit surprised by her mentioning this as when we previously discussed it - when we moved to the BCV, she had been so snappy that it wasn't going to happen so lets move on and I had. BUT now you're bringing it up, yah sure lets try! Whats the harm? I get an excited call from my mom the next morning letting me know that SHE GOT US INTO THE POLY!!!!!!! Now, as I mentioned before, in order to move to the Poly IF we had the chance we would have to shorten our trip based on the points needed, which I did not want to do and made this very clear to my mom to leave us at the BCV if that was the only option. In addition, there were NO standard views available, only lake views...we were out of luck as this type of view requires even more points .

OR SO I THOUGHT.
HOW amazing is my mom..she GOT US INTO THE POLY and paid OOP for the 2 nights we were short on points . I couldn't believe what I was hearing. How incredibly nice is that of her to do. She said that she has known that I have always wanted to stay there and with the points we would probably not have a chance without having to pay OOP at some point so she just went for it and said it could be our wedding gift - we actually weren't expecting anything as a gift as she is helping to pay for a portion of the wedding so this was amazing news.

I called Ryan right away and we both did a happy dance . WOO!

So now our plans have changed slightly;

Wedding - August 29 2015 Back Home
Honeymoon - August 31 - September 7, staying in a Lake View Studio at the Polynesian Village Resort

Here is a quick breakdown of what I have roughly planned for our trip thus far.

August 31 2015
Depart Home, Flight departs at 8:00 AM
Arrive in Orlando 10:40 AM
O'hana's for dinner, 5:00 PM
Head over to MK for the evening, catch Wishes

September 1 2015
Kona Cafe for breakfast, 8:15 AM
Typhoon Lagoon
Couples Massage at Senses Spa
Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review, 8:15 PM - I know this isn't really romantic, but Ryan and I love to laugh so I thought this would be perfect

September 2 2015
Hollywood Studios
California Grill for dinner, 7:45 PM - hoping to get a window seat, but if not we will enjoy Wishes at the viewing area, still more romantic than being squished at the park

September 3 2015
Hang out day / Maybe Universal as we wanted to visit HP
Saana for dinner, 8:15 PM

September 4 2015
Magic Kingdom
BOG for lunch, 12:45 PM
Epcot
Via Napoli for dinner, 6:30 PM
Illuminations

September 5 2015
Animal Kingdom
Magic Kingdom (they have evening EMH till midnight and I LOVE being in MK at night)
Wishes

September 6 2015
No plans, hang out day

September 7 2015
Head Home

As you can see...I very clearly LOVE wishes and am going to be sure to see it multiple times during our trip haha.

Let me know what you think of our plans thus far. If you have any suggestions, I would LOVE to hear them.

Looking forward to hearing from you all. Hope to hear from some of you so I can keep this going.

 

[Lynne G]

Your dress is beautiful. Honeymoon schedule looks like a lot of fun. And your wedding date is special to me, as my DD was born on that day. The garden setting for the wedding looks so pretty.

For your shoes, I too think dying would be your best bet. Have you tried coming into the US, like Buffalo, to see if shoe places there have a less costly place?

 

[mlegerto]

Your dress is beautiful. Honeymoon schedule looks like a lot of fun. And your wedding date is special to me, as my DD was born on that day. The garden setting for the wedding looks so pretty.

For your shoes, I too think dying would be your best bet. Have you tried coming into the US, like Buffalo, to see if shoe places there have a less costly place?

Hi Lynne G, thanks for joining in.

I'm in with my dress so thanks for your comment. So sweet.

Aww..I'm glad that we can share a bond with our special date haha. It's actually one week after my birthday - poor Ryan can't win, our previous dating anniversary is December 23rd, just 2 days before Christmas and now our wedding anniversary will be a week after my birthday haha. Oh well.

We went with this date as we were told that the gardens are most beautiful late August early September as everything is in bloom. September didn't work well for us as some of our friends are still in University so they would be out of town so August 29th was our chosen date!

As for shoes...I haven't yet made any updates on my wedding plans since joining back in, but I did find my shoes! Here they are



I actually got them at a VERY reasonable price (under $40) which was great and the color is SPOT on! They fit like a glove even though they were an online purchase which I was afraid to do again after my last shoe experience. They are a bit taller than I would have wanted them - I am not really a heels kinda girl, but that's okay. Don't worry, I have been wearing them around the house to break them in and get comfortable with the height...wouldn't want to face plant walking down the aisle hahaha.

I really just wanted a cute pair of heels for some really cute photos and such and I know I will be changing into flats/sandals/flip flops very shortly into the day. Since I will wanted 2 pairs of shoes (1 pair of heels, 1 pair of flats/sandals) I was very happy to have gotten these for under $40 including taxes and shipping. WOO!

Again, thanks for joining in. I will be back shortly with an update on our wedding plans and what we have done thus far.


TUNE IT NEXT FOR....
- invitations
- decor ideas
- hair & make up ideas

 

[Lynne G]

HaHa. We do have a bond besides my DD, I was married a week after my DH's birthday. Oh, and DD was born little over a week after my birthday. So, also glad to see another August birthday gal. Wahoo that you found reasonably prices shoes. They are high heels - I wouldn't like wearing them all day either.

 

[CaliMermaid]

Just checked in to your PJ. Lots of great ideas here. On the 1st page you had asked about photography suggestions...I would suggest doing a few fun shots with your man. I just finished sifting through 100+ proofs of us cheek-to-cheek smiling and kissing in a variety of locations. Ugh. My favorite picture is one where he picks up a discarded plastic glove and looks at it in disgust as I burst out laughing.

Love the shoes!
Ashley

 

[roxysmum123]

I'm still here!! Loving reading about some local vendors! Might be doing our engagement photos at RBG, love that space.

Looks like your honeymoon will be great! I love the poly, you absolutely can not beat that location. Enjoy it!!!

 

[mlegerto]

HaHa. We do have a bond besides my DD, I was married a week after my DH's birthday. Oh, and DD was born little over a week after my birthday. So, also glad to see another August birthday gal. Wahoo that you found reasonably prices shoes. They are high heels - I wouldn't like wearing them all day either.

Yes, I am SO excited that I found exactly what I was looking for!!! AUGUST BIRTHDAYS ARE THE BEST haha.

Just checked in to your PJ. Lots of great ideas here. On the 1st page you had asked about photography suggestions...I would suggest doing a few fun shots with your man. I just finished sifting through 100+ proofs of us cheek-to-cheek smiling and kissing in a variety of locations. Ugh. My favorite picture is one where he picks up a discarded plastic glove and looks at it in disgust as I burst out laughing.

Love the shoes!
Ashley

Hey Ashley, thanks for joining in! Yes, I want to get a list of some fun shots together because I know on the day of I am going to be so easily distracted and forget everything hahaha. I love the idea of candid photos capturing special moments so I hope to get a lot of those - haha thats hilarious about the glove photo, I probably would have reacted in disgust as well.

I'm still here!! Loving reading about some local vendors! Might be doing our engagement photos at RBG, love that space.

Looks like your honeymoon will be great! I love the poly, you absolutely can not beat that location. Enjoy it!!!

WOOOOO, so glad you're still here Roxysmum123! Amazing. I will get some new updated to you shortly, hopefully this afternoon if work is a bit slow- shhhh . Oh it is SUCH a beautiful place, but word of warning, if you want to do your engagement photos there contact them ASAP as there is a waiting list for the permits. I know that for our August 2015 wedding and photos, I had to submit my permit request in September 2014 - I'm sure I could have submitted it a bit later but was warned by the coordinator at RBG to submit it in September so I did JUST in case. She was telling me horror stories about people who had booked both their ceremony and reception at RBG and forgot to submit their permit request on time and ended up not having any availability and having to leave to take their photos elsewhere. What a shame when you are already booked in at such a lovely location.

When is your wedding? Have you made any plans as to where you are having it? So happy for you, Congratulations my dear!

I am SO beyond excited that we got into the Poly. We called yesterday to put in some room requests and the only DVC building the offers lake views is the Moorea building (previously named Tahiti). I used the Touringplans.com room view tool to take a look and put in a request for a room on the third floor. ALL of the rooms in the Moorea building on the third floor have a castle view so I am even MORE excited now. Eeek



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Updated to come this afternoon, I PROMISE!

 

[Seia]

Hi! I just got caught up on your PJ. All the ideas you have so far are so lovely. I LOVE the idea of a garden wedding -- it will be beautiful! I can't wait to read more as your plans continue to unfold.

 

[mlegerto]

Hi! I just got caught up on your PJ. All the ideas you have so far are so lovely. I LOVE the idea of a garden wedding -- it will be beautiful! I can't wait to read more as your plans continue to unfold.

Seia, thanks for joining in !
I will get more updates out VERY shortly! I see you are only ONE WEEK AWAY FROM YOUR WEDDING...ahhh! So exciting. Congratulations. I am going to go peek through your PJ now

 

[mlegerto]

Bare with me...I am trying to figure out what kind of format I want to continue using going forward so I apologize if you see many changes in the way I post over the next few updates - this is my first PJ/TP so I am still figuring it all out. If you have any feedback on what come across nicer or easier to read on your end, please feel free to let me know

INVITATIONS

So as you have seen above, I am a pretty simple girl, of of course our invitations would follow suit. Reminder: the colors that I have selected for our wedding are; tiffany blue, grey and Ivory.

We had some things to consider when working on our invites.
Firstly, I wanted to work our colors in, but didn't want it to be a POW of color everywhere - sometimes that can look tacky IMHO. For some that is their style so no hate!
Secondly, just a few years ago my mom and dad were divorced and they really DO NOT get along. My dad (me being a daddy's girl) is very generously paying for a large sum of our money and my mom is helping out. Ryan's parents are still together and are also providing some financial support. I had to figure out a way to thank all of them for their help, but how would I word it so my parents were put "together", but Ryan's were. How would this all line up and look appropriate on the invites?
Thirdly and lastly, I think that there are some formalities that need to be adhered to - for example I couldn't be one of the brides who sends out email invites, again this works for some but not for us, but at the same time I am not a very formal/traditional person. I wanted our invites to be a mix of formal and modern.

I am EXTREMELY lucky that my best friend and MOH is a graphic designed and has so generously offered to work on all of my invites, stationary, cards, signage ect. After countless hours of collaboration, I would like to present you with what we can up with....OUR INVITES




We then put them together in pocket folds, so when complete they look like this




I cannot tell you how incredibly happy I am with they way they turned out. I thought the wording "together with their families" rather than the traditional wording listing parents names was a great way to appriciate everyones efforts without leading anyone out or dealing with odd spacing on the invites - otherwise it would have been my dad and his girlfriend, my mom, and then Ryan's parents to be listed and it just didn't sit right on the page at all. I also loved the way that they come across formal in the sense that they are a traditional style invite, but by using a mixture of sizes and fonts it has that modern feel to it. I really couldn't have been happier with the results!

We sent our 1st round of invites our on Thursday April 16th and have already started getting RSVP's back.

One of the things that I added onto my RSVP cards that I thought was a great idea - I saw them on some examples when I was searching through Pintrest, was a song request line. At the bottom of our RSVP, you can see that we are asking for each invite to come back with a song request. We figured this way we can have music that appeals to everyone attending! It will also help us to shape our "play and do not play" list that we will provide for our DJ.



SO.....what does everyone think?​

 

[twinkybel81]

Your invites are stunning! I love the color combination, the mix of fonts, and I'm a sucker for a pocketfold invite. Nicely done!

 

[Lynne G]

Very nice. I like simplicity too. Glad to hear you already are receiving responses. Did any say a song they wanted to hear? What a nice idea.

 

[roxysmum123]

Love love love your invites! So modern yet timeless, I think they're great for your event!

These photography permits are killing me!! I can't find anywhere for engagement pics where we can just show up and take some darn pictures! Ugh. I have a month to come up with something.

We set our date for April 9, 2016 at the Pillar and Post hotel in Niagara on the Lake. I'm super excited, but this planning nonsense is stressful stuff!! So happy for you that it's almost your big day and you're able to enjoy the fruits of your labour!