Tracey & Neil's UK Bonfire Night/Disney Wedding (Nov 2016) & Disneymoon (May 2017)

[Fleurlur]

I keep having wedding nightmares and it always seems to be around people not turning up! Or forgetting a major thing! You're not alone in this I promise.

[tracey1302]

Oh thank God, I don't feel quite as much of a psycho!

We're picking the dress up on route to Kirkby Lonsdale this weekend. It didn't seem sensible to make a special trip up to Keighley when we're passing through (and therefore will go right past Silsden! ) on Saturday. I'll have to keep the dress in its bag in the hotel room and trust Neil not to peek! Haha!

FYI, any Yorkshire brides, I know there are a few on here, Ava Rose have recommended 'The Clean Inn' in Menston for my wedding dress cleaning. Obviously, as my dress is the sample, there isn't that much cleaning needs to be done (not half as much as my subconscious thinks there is! ) But nonetheless, I wanted to get it done.

I rang the Clean Inn and they said it will likely need a spot clean which will probably cost around £60 but I've budgeted for £150 in case it goes up. (I don't know why it would, clearly for all that red wine they have flying about in wedding dress shops )

I'll let you all know how they do

Oh and... switched to Riverside for the honeymoon. Hurry up free dining!

[tracey1302]

Quite a big update today ladies so bear with me... this is what happens when I'm on Easter break. I start ordering little bits and bobs. I find it nuts that we're at April 2016 already, literally just over seven months to the wedding...

Dress is with the cleaners... and it's been our seven year anniversary this weekend

As you all know, I was having ridiculous nightmares about my dress being dirty for the wedding day. As soon as I made my mind up that I would get my dress cleaned before alterations, the nightmares stopped. Neil and I went up to Kirkby Lonsdale for our anniversary this last weekend (where we got engaged) and we picked the dress up on route. I picked it up from Ava Rose and my first thought was "Wow, this bad boy is heavy! " My arms were about ready to drop off after carrying it for only five minutes to Neil in the car

We love Kirkby Lonsdale even more every time we go. I just instantly relax as soon as we get there. The hotel wasn't ready yet as it had just gone 12.30pm so we went to a place called Plato's for some lunch.

Naturally, we got to the room at the hotel (The Royal Hotel at Kirkby Lonsdale if anyone is interested...

(This was the very grand looking wardrobe where we stored the dress over the weekend! )

I kicked Neil out (he wanted to watch the back end of the football anyway) and I got it out of its dress bag.

I couldn't believe how much I still loved it... there's always the worry that you will feel a bit 'Meh' and underwhelmed. But it just proves that you have to trust *that* feeling when you try it on for the first time.

I also naughtily tried it on... and burst into tears. That's how you know it's the dress! After wrestling with it for a further five minutes to get it back into the dress bag, I was done.

I dropped it off at the dress cleaners on Monday. The Clean Inn in Menston. You would think, that given how much of a bridezilla I am, that I would have been majorly panicked about leaving my dress with them. It is the tinest little place.



But I walked in with my dress and I instantly felt at ease. I can't explain it. The man inside was so lovely, I think he's Italian and he called me 'Madam' which I thought was really cute He took the dress out and gave it a good look over. He kept saying, 'My goodness, what a beautiful dress' which made me all happy And he said, "I have been doing this for a long time, 22 years, and oh my goodness, what a beautiful dress." Though admittedly, he probably says that to every bride. But I bought it, hook, line and sinker

Anyway, they are going to do a spot clean of the dress which is done by hand and will cost between £65 and £75. He did say that they usually do the clean after alterations but I wanted it done now. Mainly to stop my nightmares But also because Ava Rose said that it didn't really matter when I had it cleaned.

[tracey1302]

Mum has got her outfit...

There is a bit of a story behind this dress. Isn't there always? Me and Mum went shopping to White Rose in January of this year. Random trip. No purpose except for a Costa and a catch up. Because of course, we need to catch up when we see each other at least twice a week and text each other every day.

Anyway, we went into Debenhams in White Rose. Mum tried on this random dress which I didn't really like but while she was in the dressing room, I spotted this dress and made her try it on, knowing that she would look stunning in it.

I thought she looked amazing. We texted Katie and she agreed. Mum was hesitant. This was the first Mother of the Bride outfit she had ever tried on, so I suppose she wanted to see what was out there. Plus, she was adamant that she wanted a jacket to go with it and there weren't any matching ones at White Rose. So, we left it. But I knew we would end up getting that dress.

Anyway, Katie and I took Mum shopping in Leeds on Mother's Day weekend. In the Coast store in Trinity, we tried on this dress again, only it wasn't this dress. But it was. Even though it was the same price and had the same dress 'title' the cut of fabric and even the colour of the fabric were completely different. The colour was more a light bluey/grey, and there was more navy blue on the dress itself.

And what was more, they had a jacket to match! So, she bought it!

She looks amazing. I got all teary thinking that this is what my Mum would be wearing on my wedding day. We are so close and it's such a big day for her as well. I can't wait! She needs to get an exciting fascinator to go with it and some nice shoes too!

I bought my BMs and my Mum some little bits...

On the morning of the wedding, me and my BMs are going to be getting ready at my Mum's house. When we are all getting ready, we are going to be having breakfast and Bucks Fizz and then a cheeky glass of champagne when my Dad arrives.

So I've ordered what I consider to be the perfect present for like minded Disney BMs...



I have ordered 7 of these but in champagne glasses. The stems will be in light gold, and they will have the girls' names on them and their title in the wedding in navy blue and then a silhouette of their favourite Disney character in gold to match the stem.

Tink for me and Olly
Dory for Katie
Lady and the Tramp for Michelle
Ariel for Kathryn
Minnie for Megan
Belle for Mum

I got them from 'All That Glitters' on Etsy.

I've bought some essential bridal items...

Ever since I got engaged, I have always wanted something Disney Bridal themed to have to wear on the morning of my wedding to Neil. Naturally, I have the Minnie bridal ears! And I loved the dress robes available on Fairy Tale Sparkle! But on thinking about it, I thought I would get more use out of a hoodie.

So I've ordered a white zippy hoodie, with the gold Castle on the front like this:

And I'm having Bride put on the back with our wedding date, with a similar gold glittery transfer in the Minnie bridal ears like this:

I can't wait to see it

I have also bought myself a little furry cape with a brooch. Always a bargain hunter, I went to Ebay.

As much as I would like to imagine that it will be blazing sunshine on our wedding day, I know it will probably be incredibly cold, wet and windy! So this will come in handy!


I've bought my earrings...

I was originally going to go with pearl Mickey earrings like this:



But given that I'm going to be having my hair up, I don't want the Mickey heads to be *that* obvious. Disney, but subtle

So, I bought these off Disney Couture (via Amazon) a couple of days ago and they arrived yesterday. I love them.

I told Neil what I paid for them (£25) and he thought it was cheap for bridal earrings

But I made the point that with bridal jewellery, the way I see it, is that you can either go really expensive, or relatively cheap. I don't see the point in paying an absolute fortune for bridal jewellery. Can people really tell the difference between real diamonds and fake sparkle? That money can and will go towards our amazing 17 night honeymoon

[Fleurlur]

Love your earrings

My mum has her Mother of the Bride dress too! She is ridiculously excited about it haha

[Yorkie Girl]

Ooh I love your Mum's dress! My Mum is still on the hunt for hers (but she has tried on that first dress with the dark bit at the bottom).

And I still love your dress. It's so sparkly and lovely

[tracey1302]

Originally Posted by Yorkie Girl

Ooh I love your Mum's dress! My Mum is still on the hunt for hers (but she has tried on that first dress with the dark bit at the bottom).

And I still love your dress. It's so sparkly and lovely

See more...

Thank you

It sparkles even more in real life. Pictures just don't do it justice. At literally every angle that the light hits it, there is sparkle. I went in the bathroom at the Royal where there were copious amounts of spotlights and it just looked so beautiful.

[EJSakaAnna]

Your Mums outfit is beautiful she looks amazing ! How exciting to have tried your dress on again. It's so sparkly, amazing! Love the glasses for your girls too.

[tracey1302]

So as we all know, free dining is on the approach and this means only one thing, honeymoon booking time!

This has been a major event on my Wedding Organisation Timeline () which has been going since we got engaged. For me, it felt really important to try and space everything out over the two and a half year period so I didn't do everything too quickly.

Yes, I have done and booked a lot, but that gives me time to sort and buy all the fiddly little bits in this final seven month stretch till the wedding. And let's face it, this is the most fun bit.

As many of you know, our best friends are coming with us for a bit of the Disney bit of the honeymoon. They wanted to do Florida 'as we do it' with the Disney hotel and the Dining Plan. Neil's Best Man, Ben, has never been to Disney before so it's a big and important trip for them.

After agonising for months, I have finally selected Port Orleans Riverside as our honeymoon resort.



It is a beautiful resort and it has just the right amount of theming for us, as well as the proximity to Disney Springs. I told Neil about the boat and he said that he 'just had to do that.' So that sold it for us. Plus they do King beds which was important for me and Neil. We like a big bed



Neil and I decided early on that we wanted a big honeymoon. Neil's parents offered to pay for us to go on a mini-honeymoon when we first got engaged. But we are thinking that we may just ask them to contribute towards our big America honeymoon instead, as this is the one that we're most bothered about.

Currently it is looking like this...

Monday 15th May 2017-Friday 19th May 2017 - New York

We really want to stay at the Holiday Inn 57th Street. I have stayed here before and loved it. While yes, it's only a Holiday Inn, it's very well located AND it has the wow factor with the roof top pool





Friday 19th May 2017-Monday 22nd May 2017 - Universal Orlando

I have always wanted to stay at Loews Royal Pacific. It just seems more luxurious than the other Universal hotels somehow. I think it's because of the 'beach' type theme. Neil and I also want the luxury of the Express passes and Early Entry, which we've never had before.

Olly and Ben will be joining us on the Saturday 20th May (as this is when half term will start in the UK) and will be staying at RPR with us for two out of the three nights.



Again, we will be booking a King Bed.

In terms of restaurants, I think we will be eating at Bahama Breeze on I Drive (must do! ) and at Jimmy Buffetts but we don't know for the other night. We were both disappointed by Bubba Gump and Hard Rock so I don't think we'll bother with either of these. Any recommendations?

I have this vision of me and Neil meeting Ben and Olly at Lone Palms on Citywalk, margaritas in hand!

I think we will book a 3 day park to park and get Olly and Ben to get a 2 day park to park. They will probably only use one day but I wouldn't want them not to be able to go back on their second day (ie. the day we will be checking out of RPR) if they want to do some shopping or do another ride again.

Then Neil and I will begin our 11 night stay at POR. I was contemplating 9 nights, then 10 nights but this has now extended to 11 nights because of all the restaurants I want to visit Plus, for a 9 night or a 10 night, we would be coming back mid week and I know that Neil would book the time off work anyway. He might as well be in Florida. Olly and Ben will be staying for 5 nights so essentially, we have to cram the best of Disney and its restaurants into five nights. Something of a challenge! We are all doing the DxDDP.

I am hoping (and pretty sure) that I will be able to get the time off as teaching is done at universities the first week in May . If not, I will just take some of it as unpaid leave if I need to. (I am pretty certain that I won't need to though! ) That would give me about a week to do all my marking BUT I've done it before, I'm sure I could do it again, especially with our honeymoon as motivation!

Our provisional Disney itinerary is as follows:

Monday 22nd May - Arrive and unpack
- Boat to Disney Springs and dinner at House of Blues

Tuesday 23rd May - Magic Kingdom
- Narcoossee's and the Electrical Parade

Wednesday 24th May - Epcot (including drinks around the world! )
- Le Cellier & Illuminations

Thursday 25th May - Rest day
- Neil and I are having our bridal photoshoot at the Poly and the GF in the morning.
-Disney Springs & the Boathouse

Friday 26th May - Hollywood Studios
- California Grill & Wishes

We thought that these were the best restaurants to tackle for this very short period for Ben and Olly, giving them a taste of the best Disney has to offer. They're not that bothered about Animal Kingdom so we thought we were safe to get rid for their stay.

Saturday 27th May - Winter Summerland Mini Golf for me and Neil
- Sanaa for lunch
- Ohana for dinner

Sunday 28th May - Animal Kingdom
- Hollywood Brown Derby & Fantasmic Dining Package

Monday 29th May - Rest day
- Spice Road Table (always wanted to try this place! )
-Afternoon at Epcot
-Disney Springs & Raglan Road/The Edison

Tuesday 30th May - Breakfast at Boma
- Afternoon at Hollywood Studios
-Yachtsman's Steakhouse & Star Wars fireworks (don't know if this will still be there - I hope so! )

Wednesday 31st May - Typhoon Lagoon
- Disney Springs & STK (hoping this goes to the Dining Plan! )

Thursday 1st June - Magic Kingdom
- Be Our Guest & Wishes

I wasn't even that fussed about going to a water park but Neil said he wanted to go back to Typhoon Lagoon so we popped it in there. We also both wanted to spend loads of time in Disney Springs (hoping for better weather this time as every time we went in 2014, it rained! )

So here we have it. I could not be more excited about booking.

[Fleurlur]

Love your plans!

We are also anxiously awaiting free dining to see what deals there will be!