Our Wedding on the Wonder 2016

Someonesfaerie

Earning My Ears
Joined
Dec 30, 2015
Disney Weddings are dreams come true. But a lot of work goes into making them that way. This is my journey to my Disney Fairy-tale Wedding on the Disney Wonder. November 2016 my DF and I will celebrate our union with those we hold dear and here are all the things we were able to customize and do for our wedding.

Table of Contents ...because let's face it, they make life easier.

And yes it is the first time I do this so grow with me.

Basic Into and Blah

About Us; Why Disney; Booking

Theme (and Shoes)

Location

The Wedding Party

The Legal Ceremony

Website

Welcome Gifts

Stationary:
Fashion:
Cake Topper
  • Short update on the Cake Topper
Bubbles:
Updates! Mostly containing pictures from the wedding. Now to go change that signature.
  1. Update I
  2. Update II
  3. Update III
  4. Update IV
 
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Basic Intro and Blah

Not really sure if I will keep or how to keep up with a PJ, which I just learned means Planning Journal. What can I say acronyms aren't really my thing. If you want evidence that following through for the wedding hasn't been number one take a look at our wedding page, http://www.samandjazmin.com, which should have been done before we sent out the Save the Dates, Save the Dates are all out and our page has the template info on it. Meaning half blank and half done by other people. Not in a cool way, just in a way you leave the picture that came in the picture frame when you bought it as a space saver until you add your own picture. So our Guys and Girls section has models. Filled with models and half blank. Hopefully by the time someone gets to reading this my page will be all filled out and great. I kept wanting to sit down and get it done with my to be husband but we work different schedules and haven't had the time to sit down and do it. When we do have the time we really just want to hang out together not get things done on the to do list. Now, writing, that I can do. I can sit down and just type without making any sense or having a rhyme or reason. Gifts of on and off keeping a journal my whole life through. Now here is our timeline, kind of:

November 1, 2007 we had a pivotal telephone conversation that jump started our relationship.

I won't get into it because let's face it somethings are better left unexplained.

December 1, 2007 he asked me to be exclusive, true to form I told him to ask me again in a month.

January 2, 2008 I asked him. What!? I gave him the day to ask me and he didn't.

December 14, 2014 we got engaged! After getting a "higher" education, which we both admit took us way too long to get, (hey, we had our reasons), he kept his word and proposed. Before we started on the road to becoming and official "we" he and I both wanted to add some hard work into ourselves. So in front of the winter graduating class of 2014, he kneeled down and didn't say a word. You know he isn't even in the room and I can hear him correcting the story. He would kindly remind me that he only kneeled after I showed him a poster with a to do list including [X] Graduate [ ] Propose. He laughed and I added some smart *** remark like, "No pressure", to which he responded something along the lines of, "Yeah, because I'm about to ask you." He got the ring form his mom and got down on one knee. After shaking my head no I agreed and the rest is . . . well a year ago give or take.

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Then the planning began, we had looked at options before so by the time I got the ring we already knew what would fit us best. So we check the available sail dates with Disney cruise, spoke to Disney and were added to a mailing list.

April/May 2015 got an email from Anna with DCL and she got like five one word none sense emails from me telling her what I wanted to book. When I got off work I called her and we were lucky enough to get exactly what we wanted for cheaper than we thought. Days passed and we also got an email from Val our wedding planner and slowly, very slowly things began to move forward.

After a feasco with the save the dates and you already know about the website. Here we are a freaked out bride because her invite list was large ( I was depending on no one being able to afford the trip) an every time someone books I recheck my booked list although I know exactly how many guest will be joining us.
 
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About the DF and I

We have been together 8 years tomorrow and engaged a couple of weeks over a year. Even though I've had the time I feel like it has flown by. My DF is a smart, kind, considerate, loving, sweet, perfect, kind of guy. Of course why else would I marry him. He and I both studied at UTEP and he moved to East Texas with me when I was lucky enough to get a job right out of school. I'm an accountant at a butter plant and he is a "night supervisor" at a auto parts store. He's still looking and honestly the fact that he isn't making more than he is and we are planning a wedding increase that stress levels, but we are lucky enough to still get our dream. We have three dogs, not long ago we had four, they are the best puppies ever. We bought our first house December 2014 (around the same time we got engaged) and are living the American Dream. We haven't gotten to that perfect couple in Lady and the Tramp but it shouldn't take long. Only instead of one dog, well we adopt the whole pack.

We met at school when we were both 19 (he is two weeks older than me and for those to weeks he is OLD) and he was the guy you marry, but don't want to met until you ready to get married. He found me before I was ready, and instead of stunting our growth as individuals I think it has brought us closer together. Though I can still act like a brat. We are that couple that hangout together and watch tv together on week days, try and squeeze time together though we have different schedules. Mostly we are laid back.

Why Disney

Well why not? When we sat down to define ourselves and our values as a couple we found that we were describing Disney. Disney on a beach. But planning a wedding for two Hispanic families is expensive and would be quite large. I wanted something small. After talking to friends and co-works about what they would do over if they had the chance, we figured a trip would be best. Put two and two together and you get DCL. Now, I've done the cruise once before and he is a cruise virgin (really hoping he doesn't get sea sick) so we looked into it. We know we wanted a wedding in Autumn, not in August because of his birthday, not in September because of mine, not in October because of our theme ideas (could easily turn Halloweeny) so November it was. Looked at the rooms offered and found the Cadillac Lounge. He is a car nut and we both love the 1950's so we were one step closer. We had a theme a location and a start.

Booking

I've mentioned how we got around to booking, but here it is in more detail. So we knew what we wanted and when we wanted it and it's the only time I can convince my logical Thumper to go all out. So if we could afford it we were going to go all the way and get the largest more luxurious room the Disney Wonder had to offer. Also one of the harder to get rooms. If you haven't guessed it, the Royal Suite. I tried to book after our engagement but we weren't able to. So every month for a few months I kept checking the site around the beginning to see if November 2016 had come up. It hadn't. Finally I just called. The CVP let me know we could not book yet but she could add me to a mailing list which would let me know the moment the itinerary was out there. I thanked her and we got to saving for that down payment.

The day finally came and I got that email. Sooner than expected actually. See we still weren't able to save up for that 5-7 night cruise on Castaway Cay, but as luck would have it the month we wanted and the ship we wanted was on a cheaper shorter cruise. I checked the rates and emailed my CVP. I say that calmly but really she got five or six emails. One saying the room, month and ship. Asking her if it can happen. The destination. Finally my name and number. Lucky for me she didn't read the emails before I had the chance to call her. She booked me for the cruise and wedding package. May 21, 2015 we were booked and the next day my wedding planner emailed me. Now, a new problem arose, large families few spaces.
 
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Theme

Getting ready to break in my theme. I've been nervous about this post because I know how odd it is and I'm not sure how it will all work out but we are committed to it. My DF and I have chosen to go with a 1950's (which I've hinted at) Zombie Apocalypse Theme. You should see people's face when we tell them. Especial when we throw in the location of our wedding. It's like you told them a bad joke. They aren't sure if they should laugh or nod walking slowly backwards and run. They replay it in their mind just to check that they heard the right thing. It slowly comes out of their mouth. Then I explain it's with hints of a zombie apocalypse heavy on the 1950s. The colors are navy, gray, and a light blue gray that kinda matches my shoes, which were the first thing we got for the wedding. Even before the ring. Stashed in my closet I have these babies that a few people are trying to talk me out of:

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My Iron Fist Zombie stoppers. It actually gets better because these shoes, girls and boys glow in the dark.

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I'm not sure how it even started. I think it might have started as a joke and just blossomed from there. I hope we can pull it off with class, dignity, and a tad bit of shock. Most of our parental figures are behind the idea or hope we get kinda of sick of it. The longer we plan the more it seem possible.



 
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Save the Dates

We had a few issues with the save the dates. So here goes. My DF is tech savoy so we figured we get could get the save the dates done ourselves. That is after we searched and searched and could not find anything that appealed to both of us. We wanted to take the opportunity to introduce our theme to our guest, so we figured we would start with the safer side, the 1950's side. Like most DCL brides I have little control of details, so the details I have control of should be right. So after looking at save the dates that looked like cruise tickets:

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Or the original idea of telegrams:

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Which would contain the cruise info with travel info. Vetoed for two reasons Disney doesn't have quick cute marketing pamphlets we could just order and stick in there. I mean they have this one we could get online which is like 80 pages, thank my wedding planner for finding that. Yeah picture the shipping cost, and the cost of getting the telegram was too high. Which was the ultimate reason the idea was crossed off.

So we went the other way. I wanted to play up the appeal of the cruise and the fact that I still use snail mail. So we picked out some envelopes we liked and moved from there. They are the classic air mail envelopes.

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After picking out and buying the envelope and finding no one had invites that would fit.We opted to design our own. So DF and I sat down, looked at the above ticket and used it for inspiration. Designed three different ones: English, Spanish, and German to represent all the sides of our cultures. (My mom was born and raised in Mexico, my dad in Germany, and his parents although Hispanic are 3rd generation American.) Ideally we wanted to send invites out to everyone in their native language. Having my mom grow up in Mexico added the advantage of walking over the border and getting the invites done cheap. BIG MISTAKE. We sent what we wanted to a highly recommended guy in Mexico, talented too. He put us off for like three months. We wanted to send out all the save the dates a year before our cruise, word was out and family wanted to start booking. So two weeks before the send out date we were running around seeing if any one could print our idea and cut it to size. You know an invite that would fit Envelope #7.

Every where we went we were told no. See DF and I added the ship logo to play up the cruise, however making money off of it would be copy right infringement. So I asked my wedding planner and she gave me a name, Shelly with "Themes come True." I believe she is the only one Disney allows to print Disney logos.

Shelly was great. With in two weeks were getting things printed. A little past our send out date but still not too bad. Due to cost DF and ended up with one language invites and here was the final product:


Save the date.jpg

The envelope was going to Germany, but I just loved the stamps we picked and and the left hand corner has a unique number to each invite so we could keep track more easily. I have a workbook going for the wedding from everything to reservation numbers to budget to invite number. Plus I thought it added a little something.

So so most of the save the dates went out, Facebook event was set up and website was a mess. The idea was we would work on the website. Well fiasco 2 of save the dates happened which meant I had to defuse and inflate situations.

Fiasco Two of Save the Dates

First thing our guest were doing were letting use know on Facebook that they love the invites and were checking prices. At this point Disney was changing their website, which was cool since the DCL site is now more user friendly, but it cause a whole new set of issues and that time that every sane bride dreads was lurking closely. The monster with in the blushing bride was rearing its head, and might even explode once I got a Facebook post from a guest on THE EVENT WALL that ALL THE ROOMS WERE BOOKED!! I mean the cruise is like 11 months away and it was FULLY BOOKED!

So DCL got a call from a panicked bride. Of course my first thought was, silly middle aged wedding guest doesn't know how to use the internet. So I checked. Yep, the cruise did not EXIST. Bridezilla woken. I nicely not very calmly but as politely as I could manage asked if the cruse was canceled or perhaps all the rooms were booked. CVP let me know that it was 50% AVAILABLE. Okay, I let her know that according to their website it was NONEXISTENT. Poor thing check for herself. Slight panic in her voice, "I see what you mean, I can't find it either. I'll send an email to the tech team and they will work on correcting it. Once the problem has been resolved I will personally send you an email."

Okay, no problem, call middle aged guest and let her know to call DCL and book that way. Technical issues. Issues correct, true to Disney form and things continue well for all of like a day.

Just to make sure everything was work as it should I checked again the next day. FULL ON BRIDEZILLA. Again the site wasn't showing my cruise. At this point the save the dates were begin received by potential guest. They were going to check the site, and they were going to assume that they missed their window 11 months in advance. I mean come on it isn't the busiest season and although it is a short cruise there was still 50% availability. They had just "fixed" the issue. This is Disney, issues should notarise after being fixed. I called CVP and may have not been polite. Asked them to check. They did, again rooms were available. Some millionaire hadn't booked the remainder of the cruise for a weekend get away or is daughters birthday. I asked them to check the site, they did. Nope it wasn't just me. It was the site, again. Again true to form, they fixed it but now I know a Bridezilla does live under my bridal exterior.
 
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Website

I know I have been typing in this thing like crazy, but it has gotten my creative juices flowing. I've gotten back to working on my website, it no longer has models as our wedding party. It doesn't have a wedding party because we aren't sure how to handle those we chose but haven't booked or might not be able to afford it. I've gotten calls and messages all around from family and friends saying they would love to go but aren't sure they could swing it. I completely understand and admit I was depending on many not making it since we order 150 save the dates. See my extended family kinda broke apart after I was old enough to notice that sibling rivalry was getting in the way of being a family. So my mom and her brother had a falling out. Somehow a fight between two turned into a fight between many. My mom has eight siblings. When things started to get bad (as in the cousin I grow up with's father called and suggested we didn't go over for Thanksgiving) I was totally backing my mom. Lets face it, family you are born into, but you have the to choose to improve yourself and stop eating that poisoned apple. So she did. And I was hurt by the charades and lack of effort and understanding put out. So a few years back my cousin got engaged, and her father is the one who was acting like he was the injured party in this whole thing, well she didn't invite us. This was unheard of in our family. So I put on my adult face and water under the bridge, but I promised myself and asked my DF to keep me to it, when my turn came around I wouldn't be so petty. Let's face it Disney princess taught us to be better than that. So I took my Cinderella attitude and send that Princess (her birth given name) a save the date, and you bet your bottom dollar I will send her an invite. She can take it as though I am rubbing and amazing wedding in her face, which she will because that is her mentality (and lets face it, Disney weddings are the best weddings,) but I'm doing it because I don't have to start off my marriage worried about the poisoned apple I took a bit of ages ago. My DF kissed me and I am out of that nightmare.

So large guest list, wedding website has made progress, and everyone feels included.

Now, how did others deal without know if their chosen wedding party would in fact be able to make the trip?

Here is where we stand on the website but we are ten months, one week, and one day away from our wedding so I expect the site will change and blossom with time: http://www.samandjazmin.com/
 
Cake Topper

When we first started looking a few years ago we saw these cake toppers which had us believing that our crazy theme could actually take form. They looked something like the this:

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Something like us verses the world. As much we would like to personalize little fighting men we decided against it. Instead we figured fighting the world wouldn't be a good way to start off our marriage, that and no blood became a rule. So we figured we'd give it a little time as the zombie theme grew. We were right. So last weekend we started to look at other options, and there are many more to choose from.

Once we pick out a dress and a suit we'll get them ordered. Maybe even see if they can try to match the color of my shoes for the little bodies.

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Only thing is that they are a max of 2.75 inches and I think it will look so small on the cake, but on the flip side the cake will look huge.

In other news, I wish the DCL website made it easier for me to paste a link to the cruise. Oh well.
 


Another DCL bride!!!! I can so relate to the booking a DCL cruise drama we had to change dagtes and deal with booking people as well it can be such a nightmare but glad to know things finally worked out. Also love your cake topper its really cool! Can't wait to follow along!
Happy Planning
Melissa :goodvibes
 
Another DCL bride!!!! I can so relate to the booking a DCL cruise drama we had to change dagtes and deal with booking people as well it can be such a nightmare but glad to know things finally worked out. Also love your cake topper its really cool! Can't wait to follow along!
Happy Planning
Melissa :goodvibes
Hi Melissa thanks for joining.
 
The Rings

My DF surprised me with the exact engagement ring I wanted, which has the matching wedding bands and everything!

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It is a sapphire on white gold engagement ring with a design on three of the four sides. The picture really doesn't do it justice. I LOVE the ring! But with life and budget we don't think we can get the matching bands in time.

:offtopic:A little bit of an update. Sam had a job interview last week back home, El Paso, and he might be moving back there to work. I don't want to live apart, period, but if we must I want to do it married. So now I am planning a small celebration in East Texas for Feb 25!:sail: We plan to get legally married and let the cards fall where they may.

So for our legal ceremony I wanted to surprise him. We've been going back and forth on rings. We both want them, but realistically it is another $2k we don't have. (When we created our budget we expected Sam to be earning about the same I am, unfortunately that didn't happen.) So I call my mom and we got to talking. She offered her ring, but my dad lost his. His dad still uses his ring. Then I remembered I have my Oma's (paternal grandmother's) ring and my dad recently acquired my Opa's. Score!:yay: Here they are together. Yellow gold with a garnet in hers.

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Sam was scheduled to fly home for a day for the interview, so my mom and I tricked him into bring it to me. He has no idea that he brought the solution to our current problem, and I keep playing it up. :rolleyes1Looking at other possibilities and so on.

Anyway, once they were both in my hand I read the inscriptions. Each ring had the name of the owner and 25.2.41. Which reads Feb 25, 1941! In all this rush Sam and were planning to get married in Feb 2016 but we hadn't picked a date. :cloud9: How perfect!! We are now getting married 75 years to the day after my grandparents with their rings!

They both need to get re sized since the rings are 11 and 11 1/2 and they need go down to 9 and 8, so right now they are at the jewelers. I can't wait to get them back and to surprise him!

We still might get the other rings, but I think I will use them daily and have the other ones for when ever I feel like it. :love: Who doesn't want two sets of wedding bands?princess:
 
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The Legal Ceremony:

Here is the tentative plan:
  • Feb 9 - Go to the court house and pick up the license. (In the state of Texas you get the license between 72 hours and like 3 months around your wedding date)
  • Feb 25 - Bake wedding cupcakes/pick up a small wedding cake. Go to the court house and get married! My MOH, mom and Abue (maternal grandfather) are planning to drive up, and his BM and maybe mom plan on being here. Have dinner in Pitsburg, Texas, they have winery that also has a restaurant and it's about an hour away. Schedule a wine tasting and stay for dinner, maybe even have some cake. Move over to a B&B that brags they have a wonderful view of the stars and are five minutes form the vineyard.
  • Feb 26 - Have breakfast at the B&B and maybe to some bridesmaid dress shopping or groomsman looking. Or just hang out and show everyone East Texas.
Chill, low key, and sweet.
 
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269 more days until we embark!:cool1: Yay!

38 rooms available on the wedding cruise.:scared1:

25 Guest booked, in 8 different reservations.

If I wasn't freaking out before, I am now. :jumping2:
 
After hearing how few rooms their were and knowing some of my family still wanted to book I had them hold a few rooms. Or at least I thought I did. Some how there was a miss communication that they are still trying to figure out and the room I thought I booked is now sold out. I almost cried. Tomorrow they will speak with Kim and see what the issue was. Maybe there is something they can do. Also they assigned me a CVP. I don't think it will make a difference since I just keep calling and I don't like to wait to speak to the same person. I mean I have general questions that I don't need one particular person for.

UPDATE They were able to find me a room that would fit five! Yay!

Well to happier topics:

Cupcakes

I don't like cake, but I can make a mean cupcake. It all started when I had too much butter from work and I had to use it or lose it. So I used it to make buttercream. After that it became a thing, every Monday for a few months I was taking cupcakes to work. I think it started with a lemon cupcake filled with a white chocolate moose topped with a white chocolate butter cream frosting, white chocolate leaves and home made lemon candy peel. Or maybe it wasn't, point is there have been many and all kinds. For the Legal wedding I wanted to make something I really liked and a contrasting flavor. So I'm making a grooms cupcake, my Reese's cup cupcake, and an Italian cream cake as the bride cake. I'll have to add pictures of the ones I've made. My Reese's cup cupcakes are a fudge brownie as the cake (I don't like chocolate cake) with a peanut butter cup and extra peanut butter in the center, it is topped with a peanut butter frosting and a cute little Reese's cup. The Italian cream cake will be an Italian cream cake with an Italian custard center, topped with Italian buttercream, toasted coconut and pecans, with a cherry on top. I might can make the Italian cream look like a wedding dress with the cherry as a bouquet, and put a bow tie on the Reese's cup. Most likely I will go with the usual decor and add a cute liner to up it.

UPDATE 10.03.2016: Here is the finished product:

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I've got less than 9 months until we embark and less than a week since we get legally married.

I just wanted to stop in and say I picked up the wedding bands. They look amazing!The DF is going to be shocked. Here is what they ended up looking like. I know no one is in East Texas, but if you are, I recommend Mineola Jewelers!

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I've also order a puzzle box to put them in and a key rings distraction. I'll post pictures once I get them all together.
 
Welcome Gifts

Here is the tentative plan:
  • Stockings
  • Bottles or cups
  • a pallet frame made by the DH Crossed out
  • a pallet chalkboard made by the DH with magnets on the back I would like to still do this but we are running short on time and money so we might do something a little different
  • magnetic do not disturb sign
  • Disney book
  • Key shaped bottle opener Crossed out
  • Thank you note
  • Reception card Crossed out
  • Something to hold their room key Crossed out
  • A directory Library Card
  • and a Postcard to put into our signature book
Now this might change and I know I am a ton of DIYs behind, but as they get done I will link them and add pictures.

Updates 10.03.2016
Updated 10.26.2016 Somethings are getting crossed out due to time and budget.
 
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Just catching up on your PJ, I hope your legal ceremony went well! I love the idea of cupcakes too I was not a fan of cake and had creme brulee also I can't wait to see what you do inside your welcome bags the possibilities are endless I ended up with so much inside but I think the best item is the cup and the key lanyard!

Happy Planning
Melissa :goodvibes
 
Just catching up on your PJ, I hope your legal ceremony went well! I love the idea of cupcakes too I was not a fan of cake and had creme brulee also I can't wait to see what you do inside your welcome bags the possibilities are endless I ended up with so much inside but I think the best item is the cup and the key lanyard!

Happy Planning
Melissa :goodvibes


We still have a few more days until our legal ceremony, but I hope it all works out. Lucky for us, almost everyone is coming up from our party so far, aside from my Daddy and my Abue. It's sad that this is happening with out the men in my life that help define what I should look for in a husband, but both of them gave Sam their blessing. Besides my Daddy and Abue are super excited about the DCL wedding. Like really, my dad kinda listens to what I have to say about the wedding, that's more than I usually get when I talk about girly stuff. I mean goals, aspirations, plans, he is all ears, girly stuff, he passes the phone to my mom.

After reading your thread I realized how far behind I am. With the DF moving this weekend and me looking for another job I guess we will be behind for a while. Once he gets settled we should be able to move quickly since he should have time on his hands.
 
sorry to hear such important people couldn't make it but Im sure it will be great and everyone will be their for the cruise which will be the best part :) and my dads the same way!

and don't worry about being behind I always felt behind the eight ball but it will all come together before you know it! :goodvibes
 
Hi Jazmin! Just caught up on your PJ. Congrats on the wedding(s)!! Hope everything went well in February. The story of your rings and the date....so cool! Just really neat.
I love your topper! I love zombies too, but got a firm "no" on having a zombie topper so oh well :jester:

Excited to hear more!
 

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