Amy & Richard's Wedding

[Guest]

Beautiful.

[Ros & Jim]

All the photos are beautiful but my favourite is the one of them standing by the arched window. It's fantastic.

[Kim]

The Reception Part 1


Up till now the wedding has been just like a regular Disney wedding…… From now on it changes.
Early on when we began researching Disney Weddings it became clear that we didn’t get the timeline aspect of American style Weddings. We just couldn’t get our heads round it …… The last thing we wanted for us and the guests running around like headless chickens …..Wondering what was supposed to be happening now and what was coming next. The timeline was just totally alien to us.
So we needed to see if we could do anything about it. The one thing Amy, Rich & Me wanted more than anything…… Was a ‘Traditional English Wedding’…. I know this may sound strange to go all the way to Disney and keep it as English as possible.
I’ll give you an example

An American/Disney style wedding Reception timeline.
Following the 1 hour pre Reception……the guest are all seated at their tables, the DJ then announces the Bride & Groom and they have their ‘First Dance’ this is followed by Bride/Father Dance and Groom/Mother Dance. Then the food is served …..After the meal it’s the speeches and then dancing.
This all happens over a 4 hour period and the DJ is there throughout the meal.

A Traditional English Wedding Reception normally follows this timeline

Pre Reception……Pimms and Canapés
The wedding reception line-up…where the bride and groom line up with both sets of parents and greet each guest as they come into the reception….Followed by the meal and speeches. …..then a completely separate evening reception with buffet.

When I first made contact with the Disney Wedding planning team. I asked about doing it our way. This was no problem what so ever. In Fact Carol our planner was really excited about doing it different way.

All I can say is Carol was an absolute genius not only did she pull off a typical English Wedding…. She even arranged the typical English weather for us too, because after leaving the Pavilion for the second time ‘IT RAINED’
This meant the pre Reception had to be moved indoors at the last minute. This didn’t bother us too much at the time as it was very hot that day and we would have melted at the GF Summerhouse and beach….. anyway it’s supposed to be lucky to rain on your wedding day…..something to do with a wet knot being harder to undo.

So, on to the Pre Reception.

Arriving at the Grand Floridian Convention Centre.
Guests arrive








Boy….was it hard work for Amy getting in and out of that car



No one's gonna rain on my parade


No that's not a bruise on Amy's arm... Someones trying to... Gatecrash... the wedding



Welcome to our Reception




We enter the room for Pimms Time


Signing the guest book


The picture on the guest book table was of the exact moment Amy & Rich decided to have a Disney Wedding. DH had captured it on video back in 2006. I thought it was a good idea to show it on the actual Wedding Day.



Close up



The Pre Reception offerings





Pimms


The Wedding Gatecrasher


Earlier on in the day Amy had asked the makeup artists to cover up her tattoo. It was the one day in her life that she regretted having the Skeleton playing a guitar as a tribute to Kurt Cobain on her arm.
Kurt getting the cover up



Kurt makes it to the wedding……the make up covering him had begun to melt

[Kim]

The Reception Part 2




The Cake Table…..the “Let Them Eat Cake” was taken with us to Disney



The Tables



The Table Settings



To save money I made all the wedding stationary myself.

Adults Menu



Childs Menu



Sorry no one took any photos of the Cheddar Cheese Soup but it was wonderful…

Salad



Main



Cutting the Cake The cake was Red Velvet with Butter Cream filling and Almond cake with Amaretto (sp) filling





The Speeches

Michael




Rich…….He & Amy gave Angela, Alan and me Tickets for the Keys to the Kingdom Tour.



The Toast




As it was impossible to take wedding presents all the way to Florida. We decided to give them a special surprise on the day. Rich was in on it all along, but Amy hadn’t got a clue about it.
I decide to do a little quiz for Amy to see it she could guess what it was.

Amy’s a right blonde …..lol So this was a lot of fun.

Me as the…….. Game Show Host


Clue Number 1

A Plane


Clue Number 2
A Buffalo …….This has Amy totally confused for a while …..Then she says “Are we going to Cattle Country” We all laughed…If anyone’ s from the Gloucestershire area will know Cattle Country is in Berkeley.


Clue Number 3
A Horseshoe


Anyone got it yet ? Amy, still hasn’t got a clue

And finally Clue Number 4



She jumps up……I know….I know…. It’s “The Grand Canyon”

Well we all fell about laughing.

She finally twigs it Niagara Falls. A place she’s always wanted to go. I then tell her that we have all clubbed together to send her and Rich to Niagara Falls for 2 days that coming Sunday… Staying in a hotel opposite with a falls view.

To say she was trilled was an understatement.

Amy’s thank you speech




Kim

[ambersmom]

Oh the photos get better and better, what a wonderful day with such a lovely ending, it really is a fairytale wedding

[Guest]

Fantastic - what wonderful memories you are all going to have!

[Kim]

Star light, star bright,
first star I see tonight.
I wish I may, I wish I might,
have the wish, I wish tonight.
We'll make a wish, and do as dreamers do,
and all our wishes (all our wishes),
will come true.



All along Amy & Rich wanted to watch Wishes on their Wedding Day. Originally it was planned to have a buffet whilst watching. However because of the inclement weather, this was cancelled (The buffet not Wishes) and we had 2 hours to kill before the Evening Reception.

Amy was gutted. Carol (wedding planner) suggested starting the evening reception a little earlier than planned. So with that in place we decided to go to the bar in the Grand Floridian for a drink while the men got changed into their evening attire and the ladies freshened up.

This was all done in Amy & Rich’s room at the GF. Trouble was it was a total pain to get to because they were staying in the Concierge level of the main building. You had to go up in one lift, then down in another. By the time we had all finished the 2 hours had gone by.

Amy was really upset that she wasn’t going to see Wishes. And to top it all it had now stopped raining.

I was really gutted for her so I ran (with no shoes on) through 6 inches of water ……from the Grand Floridian to the Convention Centre to find Carol. I explained to Carol that Amy was upset and she immediately rounded both the photographers and the guys doing the Video to make their way to the Marina to watch Wished. There was nothing Carol could not organise….even at a moments notice. I then had to run back to tell the others that it a GO for fireworks……….Had to do the lift thing again phew…..Amy Was ecstatic when I told her.

We make our way to the Marina.



Rich had changed into evening dress.













So like the words of the song…….All our ‘Wishes’ did come true.

Next…… The Evening Reception

Kim

[lisas]

What lovely pictures , sat here with tears in my eyes.

[Guest]

I'm totally addicted to this trip report.
I especially love the photos with the fireworks in the background - very romantic!

[moolie19]

the photos are stunning, looking forward to reading about the reception