Melanie & Aaron's Tangled Wedding

[Guest]

It all looks great! Loving the planning so far.
It's so nice to have something to look forward to when you get back, although ours is certainly not a second wedding, just a little party the week we get back.

Can't wait to follow your plans x

[Guest]

Omg it all sounds so wonderful! You are so fortunate that you can have so many family and friends that can attend your Disney wedding and your UK do is on my Birthday! That's so cool. I absolutely adore your hair do, it's gorgeous!

Can't wait to read more! Xx

[Princess_Mel]

Originally Posted by princess_chazy

Ooh how exciting! Looking forward to reading more :-)

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Thank you

Originally Posted by plutofan1

Wow
Love all your plans
Your save the date card is gorgeous - just had a browse on their website - love it

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And they are so friendly - can't wait to work with them for the invites - it's nice because you go step by step with them, no ordering it all upfront which is great

Originally Posted by kblackman

Wow how exciting! can't wait for more updates xx

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Trying to sort out asap

Originally Posted by stationeryguru

Congratulations! Give me a shout if you want any Disney theme personalised wedding car ribbon etc

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I would love that but I'd have to ok it with the holder of the budget...let's just say we're almost at max right now till we get a better idea on the BEO from Disney lol!

Originally Posted by beck_loz

Congratulations x

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Thank you

Originally Posted by Steph0188

It all looks great! Loving the planning so far.
It's so nice to have something to look forward to when you get back, although ours is certainly not a second wedding, just a little party the week we get back.

Can't wait to follow your plans x

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Well, it was supposed to just be a little do for us too...but it spiralled We wouldn't change it though - it'll be 2 days to most certainly remember!

Originally Posted by Zaraandchris14

Omg it all sounds so wonderful! You are so fortunate that you can have so many family and friends that can attend your Disney wedding and your UK do is on my Birthday! That's so cool. I absolutely adore your hair do, it's gorgeous!

Can't wait to read more! Xx

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We are indeed very lucky! And as a lot of people coming are big into Disney, it means we can really go for it on the theming


Big update to follow very soon - been a crazy time since we got back from the US - I'm going to have to limit what I post up as we have recommended The Dibb to lots of UK folk coming to the WDW Wedding as some have never been before and I don't want them to see or know about some things. They know I'm on here and they know our names so it wouldn't take long to figure out this is us I have a full PJ over on Disneymooners for anyone who is on there - Disneybrides - it's a really nice and informative place So if you want a full run-down - head on over there while I figure out what is "safe" to post on here

[Princess_Mel]

Right then - time for an update! As mentioned before I have to be careful with some of the details incase any of our UK friends/family see this post but hopefully this will all be ok to share without giving too much away!

We've sorted out A LOT for the wedding already which is great. We have our Planning Session with DFTW on Dec 2nd which we're really looking forward to

Outfits for the bridal party are pretty much sorted

Me
My gown is now in the process of being made - Margaret Annya is an amazing woman - so talented and so friendly - I have my sketches and material samples and my next dress fitting is on December 13th
We're going with the lace up back, and no beading on the lace...she will be putting a hidden mickey on the dress for me



I have my shoes



We have the outfits for the ringbearer and his pageboy brother and the flowergirl



(we won't use the shirt or cravat but they were on sale and £13 for a waistcoat seemed a bargain!)



The top is a little too big for Chloe but she has a little time to grow yet!

The bridesmaids dresses are all on order now - we had to wait for one bridesmaid who was pregnant - she missed the appointment with my MoH and other bridesmaid...



Because she was giving birth to this little Princess!



The guys - we're getting them measured this saturday at Formal Tailor - met them at a wedding show l week ago and they are awesome - will be able to do tailor made suits with shirts, ties and waistcoat well within budget This is one of the pictures they showed us and we both said "Flynn colours! " and the guy looking after us said "oh as in Tangled Flynn?" his parents own DVC too lol!



We're taking Mum and Mom shopping together to co-ordinate their outfits, probably in January.

We picked up or wedding bands and the gifts for MoH, Bridesmaids, Flowergirl and one of our vendors in June - they are SO nice in the Orlando Tiffany store



We also just picked up the gifts for our Planner, her assistant and our Florals person at DFTW - Thomas Sabo bracelets with 3 charms on each - their initial and 2 charms related to Tangled - our planner had a Tangled themed wedding herself so she should like this



We still have to pick up gifts for our videographers, parents and the guys - we're getting some brilliant cufflinks made for all the guys - with maps on them - real pieces of map - one will have Orlando and the other Bury St Edmonds

For the page boy and ringbearer we will book them on the Pirate & Pals firework voyage with their dad (who is our usher) - we figured this was a much better gift than a toy or trinket as they both LOVE pirates. While they're doing this, we'll take Pippa and the baby to the top of the world lounge for a coffee and fireworks

[Princess_Mel]

A few other bits and pieces...

We booked our flights for us and our parents - we managed to get BA Business class for the same price as Virgin PE! Seriously! Our MoH is on the same flight and so is the other Bridesmaid Pippa, with her hubby (Usher) and the 3 kids - Ringbearer, Page boy and new baby.

We have all the accomodation sorted - DVC before the wedding for us, MoH and our videographers, mum has her own timeshare villa, aaron's parents always stay at the same hotel.

The night before the wedding I'll be at the GF, aaron will be at the contemporary as will my Moh, and all 4 of our parents. Night of the wedding we're at the GF and then we move to AKLodge Club for the rest of the trip

We're going to use MyMiniYou for our cake topper - they will even match our wedding outfits! They'll also send all the emails and the topper to me so that Aaron still doesn't see my dress!

We have put the deposit down to use the Wedding Album Boutique once both weddings are done - looking forward to putting those albums together

The wedding favours are all ready to put together - we have the votives and the ones we need for the US wedding are in our Owners Locker already. We spoke to our Yankee Candle lady this weekend and our Buttercream votives are all ready to collect when we're there in about 7 weeks Gold organza ribbon is also on order - ignore the white in the picture :



We have the sample of the Name card/menu card from Foto Fusion to take with us to the PS in December:



We will be ordering our invitations from Foto Fusion when we are back from WDW. We are having an engagement shoot with Randy Chapman in December and will have a picture taken specifically for the invitations. We didn't celebrate our engagment when we got back to the UK as I was pretty poorly. Turns out I had an inflammation on my spinal cord in the neck area and I'm still seeing a neurologist to find out what caused it But we're making up for it and having a nice shoot with Randy

For our tables we have lots of ideas to discuss with Disney Florals but we have chosen some table name holders from a seller on Etsy - I commissioned her to do a Tangled one and this is what she came up with - just need to order them!



We're almost there with our Welcome bags - will be ordering the bags from the lovely Tabz in January and the contents are pretty much done now This was the fantastic bag Tabz did for my MoH:



That's about it I think... most of the rest will come together once we meet with DFTW in December...time is flying by which is great but really sad too - it'll be here before we know it!

[Lisa29]

Wow, your plans look amazing! I can't believe how much you had done with a year to go and how much you now have done too.

Hope the time flies so your planning session is soon here.x

[Princess_Mel]

Originally Posted by Lisa29

Wow, your plans look amazing! I can't believe how much you had done with a year to go and how much you now have done too.

Hope the time flies so your planning session is soon here.x

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Thank you We're almost at the 7 month mark - I can't believe it!

We wanted to get ahead as possible as once Christmas and New Years are out of the way we'll have fittings galore for me, the bridemaids and the guys, most of the planning for the UK do will be done in Feb/March and we can't take any more days off work with needing time of for FL, the UK do and fingers crossed the honeymoon in December.

We're really lucky - lots of friends have helped out in a big way:

- Friends in the US have been buying things we need and sending them over or have let us send packages to their addresses and sent them onto us when we've been at WDW

- Our videographers are really good friends of ours and run a wedding videography company - we've put them up using some DVC points of ours and paid for their flights and they are covering everything - we trust them and are very comfortable letting them loose on our wedding week in FL!

- A friend I've known since I was 15 has put together our wedding website as a gift to us - he's a fab web designer and has done an absolutely brilliant job!

- My Maid of Honour is AMAZING - she has been there for me from day one, helping, keeping me calm AND organising the hen do AND the bachelorette in the US - she's fab and I love her to bits!

- My mum is making the cake for the UK do - she will replicate our US flavours and makes the most beautiful sugar flowers Another friend in the US has made a topper for us for the UK cakes too

- One of my bridesmaids (the one who just had a baby) is brilliant with florals and will do any flowers we need for the tables for the UK do

- Friends we know (also massive Disney nuts) own a firework company and are doing our fireworks at the UK do - we're putting them up for the night and they're giving us a good rate as a wedding gift - we can't wait!

We are REALLY lucky to have such fabulous friends!

[Princess_Mel]

It's been an AGE since I posted here! I can't quite believe that we're only 7 and a half weeks away from our big day now

DFTW are being awesome with our Tangled theme - like really awesome - I cannot WAIT to see our ballroom for the first time!

Everything is pretty much in place now - just waiting on my final few dress appointments, one bridesmaid dress to be altered and the final BEO to come back from Disney and we're all set!

We had an engagement shoot in December with Randy which was awesome and we've used the pictures for our wedding guestbook. These are some of the pictures we shared on Facebook - hope the link works!

Our Engagement Shoot with Randy Chapman

Some of the pictures from the last few months (I know pictures are more fun than me just saying what's been done lol! )

The guys in their suits (and an Addition to Aaron's suit)

Best Man couldn't make the fitting with everyone else

Aaron's added extra...


Bridesmaids all together but before alterations


Etsy is a DANGEROUS place! These are all the fab things I found on Etsy and really love how it's all here now and pulling together!

Door hangers made by a good friend of mine - she's very talented

To go in the Welcome Bags


Cufflinks for all the guys in the wedding party


Flowergirl basket (Chloe LOVES it and played with it the whole time she was here last weekend! )


Labels for favours - this is pretty much how they will look on the tables (shorter ribbon length though...and the purple didn't come out too well on the picture)


Hangers for me and the girls - they don't know about these!



Celebrating Park Buttons - one style for our guests (in the welcome bags) and one for us to wear!


Thank you bags for the gifts for Malory who is playing the flute for the bridesmaids entrance and Heather who made our cake topper


A small bag I had made for Aaron's wedding morning gift


Not from Esty but this is our cake topper made by our friend in the US, Heather. We did have something planned from Myminiyou but they were going back on the quote we got at the wedding show and wanted to charge us an extra £50! So we got our deposit back and Heather offered to make us this one...it's even better in person!


My wedding dress travel box arrived - really sturdy and will take it to my fitting tomorrow to show Margaret


The vinyl design for the welcome bags as designed and made by the lovely Tabz - she's also doing some tumblers that Aaron doesn't know about tee hee!


Some shots of our guest book - we used Photobox and went for the thicker pages and the lay flat style as it'll be easier for people to write in - for the few extra £ it cost us it was definitely worth it






Next post I'll post up some of the pictures from our Planning session with Vita at DFTW and the menu tasting...

[Princess_Mel]

And continuing with the DFTW planning session we had with Vita in December This post is a little more wordy but still plenty of pictures...

While we were waiting for Vita




Before the real planning - Vita let us see the WP again...I love this place!


The whole day went really well to be honest - we chatted through everything, our must haves, the it-would-be-nice items, and the we-can-dream-right? stuff! So far we have cut some stuff out of the BEO and Floral BEO that were just crazy in price ($4000 for 6 comfy seats? CUT! ). We've not cut the menu at all and are having a package bar so there is no worry about drink costs. The cake we reduced a tier when we got our final number count in. And lots of other bits we amended or changed but still managing to have an amazing plan!

Ceremony at 12
Pre-Reception 1-3
Reception 3-8
Dessert Party 9-10.30

We have the landau booked for me and dad and then me and Aaron. A mix of the limo for 4 hours, luxury vans and town cars for our guests and wedding party. Aaron and I are travelling from the GF after the ceremony to the Contemporary via the monorail - YES!

Florals:
We are going with silk flowers so we can re-use them at the UK do and I want to be able to have something to bring home, which we couldn't do with real flowers. I've dropped my boquet size down a bit and stuck with roses in pink, lilac and ivory, pale pink ribbon wrap and the girls will have all pale pink roses with lilac ribbon wrap.

Pink rose for the guys and Aaron will have a pink and purple rose. Pink and lilac rose corsages for our Mums.

Pink and purple petals for our flowergirl to toss and for the stages exit and for the alter - scattered.

Memorial candle and unity candles

We're renting a card box - $25 and saves us finding one!

The centre pieces for the tables in reception will be these with battery operated votives which will flicker and look like lanterns rising - ivy trailed up the stems like Rapunzels tower:



We won't have one on our sweetheart table - we'll have some floating candles and there will be pink and purple petals in the base of each of those instead.

We are doing a "reveal" for the main ballroom - For the Pre-Reception the guests will be in Nutcracker 3 where we also have use of the attached courtyard. There will be a royal blue velour drape between nutcracker 3 and nutcracker 2 where the main reception will be. At 3 o'clock, they will dim the lights in nutcracker 3 and gather the guests and then reveal the ballroom by parting the drapes We'll be on the dancefloor in the middle of the room to see our guests reaction and ready for our 1st dance.

The main décor in the ballroom is simple - our inspiration is the boat scene from Tangled so it will be dimmed, there will be the lights from the centrepieces, purple up-lighting... and lanterns hung from ceiling - lots of lanterns! They say they can't light them up but they will still look amazing. Both Vita and Elizabeth are excited to see it too lol! we also have the mickey and Minnie kissing gobo and star gobos on the wall behind our table.

So... we'll do our 1st dance (currently having dance lessons! ) and then we'll all eat, speeches, and then cake cutting with Mickey and Minnie

Time to dance and have fun till surprise appearance by Rapunzel and Flynn, which our guests know nothing about - we've requested to walk in with them via the "reveal" again and we've been given the go ahead! Very excited!

Dessert party is at the California Grill in the Napa Room. We arranged with Florals to have a pair of the mickey holo specs for the guests.

FOOD!

So - we're totally set on the following and after the menu tasting are really really happy with the menu!

Cake tasting:


Cake: Yellow, Chocolate, Orange, Lemon and Almond
Frosting: Vanilla, raspberry mousse, blackberry mousse, amaretto crunch, tropical mousse, chocolate hazelnut buttercream.

We were also given peanut butter cup but we couldn't try it because I can't eat cheese.

We found the Orange cake bland, as was the blackberry mousse and the tropical mousse. Aaron liked the almond cake with amaretto crunch but I wasn't keen.

In the end we decided on:
Lemon cake with raspberry mousse and fresh raspberries
Chocolate cake with hazelnut buttercream and fresh raspberries

3 tiers - we will box the top tier and take it with us after the reception.

The Menu tasting!



We had a break after planning and met with Vita at the comtemporary convention centre for the menu tasting with Chef Tony. We were in the private dining room - wow - it was amazing!

Our setting for the afternoon and Menu


Pre-Reception
The duck with mandarin orange and chili oil was Amazing - so we're going with that as a cold item, we also chatted with Chef Tony about adding teriyaki beef skewers as the hot option and a fruit display with sauces.



We didn't get a picture of the salad - we were hungry lol! But it was yummy and we tried 2 dressings - we went with the sundried tomato one - the raspberry and champagne one was not as nice, too sweet...

Sorbet course - we didn't know if we would be able to have this until our menu costs came in and I am REALLY pleased to say we are keeping it in! We are going for the rose sculpture with a yellow light and they are going to bring it out to "Flower Gleam and Glow..." I get chills just thinking about how amazing that will be!

I also thought we'd just try the sorbet but we got the whole ice sculpture! Just no yellow light but there will be on the day!



Mains - we tried both a chicken and a pork and also tried two sauces, the zinfandel and the dark rum glaze



The chicken was nice but a little sweet - we kind of knew we'd probably prefer the pork... and sauce - it had to be the rum one! AND the BEO specifically states "Extra serving of sauce for the Bride" YAY!

Onto Desserts...
We knew the kitchen were preparing a Tangled Themed dessert but we also chose the Mickey Mousse just incase - it was yummy and really cute!


Then they brought out the Tangled themed one - an apple cake with an apple and cinnamon compote and caramel sauce, and a white chocolate decoration...


WOW! We loved it! And it tasted yummy The chocolate decoration was not small either! AND we're keeping this dessert now we have a price for dinner

A quick photo with Vita in the dining room as we were done... sad but happy!

And then it was onto the California Grill. Vita had arranged for us to talk to them about our dessert party and what they could do for us etc. I was really excited!

We were there before the restaurant opened - they were getting ready for a private event in the WHOLE restaurant! The servers were in bow ties and not usual CG attire. I got even more excited when Chef Brian was who came over to talk to us!

AND then just as we got going our dear CM friend who works at the CG saw us and came over and said hi and gave us hugs - he's coming to the wedding with his wife and eldest daughter

Brian showed us some desserts they were getting ready for that evening and how they tend to set displays up. Very happy

This is what we have chosen currently:
An espresso bar (teas, coffee and hot chocolates - a variety!)
Flat breads to be passed
Mini Desserts:
Chocolate Hazelnut Crunch
Butterscotch Croissant Bread Puddings
Mini Crème Brulee
No sugar added seasonal desserts
Signature childrens puffed rice sushi (cant wait to see these! )
Seasonal fruit kabobs
Assorted cookies
Banana fritters

And as we still have money to use up here (minimum spend and we have tons of desserts already) we are going to add a BOC bar (so I can have mai tais )

We know we went a little over budget in total but not by much and all in all we have a LOT of what we wanted and we have around 50 guest so it's not too bad.

If anyone wants to know what we have been costed for any of the above please PM me and I can let you know - didn't want to just go and put up on here!

That's it for a while I think... any questions please let me know!

[MissB87]

Wow just wow! Only just seen this and had a read through... All looks amazing and will be waiting to see the final result which I'm sure won't disappoint

I'm just outside Bury St Edmunds and Hengrave Hall is gorgeous and always pondered that one if I had a UK wedding but unlikely hehe