Ben and Libby's Happily Ever After - The Wedding Day (Part 4)

[oh_darling]

Day 4 - Wednesday 19th October 2016

The Wedding Day (Part 4)

So! You left us having just finished our INCREDIBLE wedding breakfast and sat enjoying feeling full, contented, and ready to see what the rest of the afternoon and evening would bring. It was about 6pm and the Dan’s came back in for their 2nd set woooooo! I won’t share too many more photos as you’ve already seen so many haha but suffice to say it was my favourite set! I was excited because the lady had said this is the set in which they’d be singing Grim Grinning Ghosts - the song we’d specially requested and were thrilled to find out they’d sing. Yay! So yeah, they sung it! We were so happy It was the best version I’ve ever heard of it!

In amongst all their other amazing songs, jokes and audience interaction! But then it got even better because they said they had also learnt a song ESPECIALLY FOR OUR WEDDING :o One of the Dan’s said ‘We heard there is a Nightmare before Christmas fan in the house!” and I put my hand up hahaha and they said they didn’t know ‘This is Halloween’ (which I’d requested) but they had put together something even better, they said they’d been practicing it all day and they hoped it was good! And then they launched into the Oogie Boogie song! Which was absolutely incredible and me and Benj were just freaking out, as was my brother who is a massive NBC fan and I think thought we’d basically arranged it all for him haha! I definitely had him in mind when we requested some NBC so I was so happy he was enjoying it

The Dans also chatted for a while about one of them being the ‘Voice of Disney’ - if you look in the photos he’s the (very cool looking!) taller older guy! And they joked about him being the monorail narrator and having been the voice of loads of attractions etc and how he’d come out specially for this performance, and we were just a bit gobsmacked! We felt like we had a real celeb with us! It’s actually really funny because Lottie (Lottie89 on here and fellow Disney history geek) was straight on Google researching him and she told us that he is in fact one of the ‘Voices of Disney! He voiced the WDW monorail from 1988 to 1998, he was in the Voices of Liberty in Epcot and it turns out he has sung with the Dapper Dans for YEARS and retired in January! Arghhh we were freaking out, hes a genuine Disney legend! His name is Kevin Miles if anyone wants to Google him!

*calms down* anyway! Where were we. So! The Dans finished their second set and everyone wooed and cheered as they headed off again, where they’d return in an hour or so for their 3rd and final set *sob*! It was about 6pm by this point and it was time for the speeches! Trinity got everyone miked up which was awesome, and then we all sat back with a lovely glass of fizz to enjoy the toasts

My Dad was up first! His speech was really awesome and very emotional, obviously I cried (actually I cried in every speech...actually I cried non-stop all day…) He’d practiced it loads my Mum said but he did an amazing job as he was mega nervous - I think everyone was though to be honest, no one likes public speaking haha! I think the entire toasts team was looking forward to getting properly on it once their jobs were done!

My lovely Daddy















He had props haha!





Each represented a ‘love’ I’ve had in my life, but he finished by saying I haven’t loved any of them as much as I love Ben Super cute and we were all crying haha.









Next up was Ben! Sorry to sound like a broken record but his speech was absolutely amazing, we were all cracking up!



He did so so so well, thanking everyone, cracking jokes, even ad-libbing after thanking my Dad and saying ‘And only...one vegetarian joke, I’ve written down here!’ which we all cracked up at as my Dad always makes fun of Ben being veggie, so for Ben to be so quick off the mark with that was just perfect!





I love how Ashley caught all my reactions! <3





Look how similar me and my Mum are!







He then led us all in a ‘Happy Birthday’ singalong for Victoria! She was so chuffed haha!







He then went on to thank everyone involved with the wedding individually which was awesome, and he finished by giving me the biggest and best thanks for planning everything and making everything so perfect, and for basically planning 28 people’s holidays haha! He also said how beautiful I looked and it was so lovely and sincere that obviously I started crying again. Perfect groom’s speech













Next up was Jason, our best man! Bless him he’d been so nervous for his speech but he did an absolutely fantastic job - he said some really, really sweet things about us and our relationship which was really unexpected and cute, and then he cracked some hiLAIRious jokes about Ben which everyone cracked up at and I was just so impressed at his wit! Obviously he’d put a lot of time and effort into writing his speech which we really appreciated He smashed it!













It got even better though - at the end of his speech he read out a card that Ben’s sister Emily had written for us, and this is when things got mega emotional. Emily wasn’t able to travel for our wedding as she’d had her 2nd little boy a few weeks before the wedding and we were all gutted, but she was there in spirit with her beautiful card and Ben’s StepDad was Facetiming her lots! But she said some really lovely things in the card and poor Benj just lot it, and it was all a bit too much for us!









Totes emosh.

[oh_darling]

Last up was Victoria! Her speech was AMAZING, she also had props hahaha and we played an impromptu game of Mr and Mrs! I think you can tell by the photos that this was just absolutely hilarious! Everyone was falling about - we got all the same answers apart from ‘Who is funnier?’ where we both said ourselves! Even though it’s obviously me



















Vic ended her speech with a really sweet statement along the lines of “I feel like I should be giving you marriage advice but let’s be honest, you two are the ones we should all be getting advice from.” How cute!? Awwwww.





And that was the toasts! All so wonderful and so touching, I felt really emotional that everyone had put so much effort into their speeches

A quick shot of the props from my Dad’s speech…



Once the speeches were finished it was time for the last set from the Dans, but just before that, Rafael our awesome caricaturist arrived! So we nipped over to say hi to him and we chatted for a little bit before the Dans entered the room Their last set was just as amazing as their first two!

Some general photos of everyone enjoying the Dan’s last set!





I literally can't handle how photogenic Grace is.



See!?















I really love these ones that Ashley captured of everyone holding hands How sweet!









They got us up to dance at the end and serenaded us!


















At the end of their set, my Dad led everyone in a standing ovation! This was so unexpected but everyone clearly loved the Dans and it was so so lovely that our guests were so appreciative of them and their performance Yay! I obviously cried again.





Me and Benj were then lucky enough to go outside and meet the Dans properly and have our photo taken with them! This was such a treat, we just popped outside onto the patio and hugged and chatted with them for a bit They congratulated us and said they’d had a great time and we just kept saying thank you haha! Love these





When we headed back in our guests were milling around chatting and some of them were already queuing up for the caricature artist haha because everyone was mega excited!

Joe and Lucy were up first!

[oh_darling]

Next up was the bouquet toss! Now this was an especially hilarious moment of our wedding. All the girls got up and into position, and then despite the attempts of some of the girlies, my brother’s girlfriend Pash caught the bouquet! What followed was a hilarious set of photos from Ashley Jane!























Ahhhh cracks me up. Then it was the cake carving! I honestly feel like I can hardly remember this, but I do remember we definitely didn’t smoosh it on each other as this was something I made Ben promise he wouldn’t do probably once a month for the 2 years leading up to our wedding! I knew he wouldn’t as he would also hate cake on his face ha but it was still a risk!







We both think it's pretty hilarious what a mess we made of the cake.



Finally, it was time for our first dance I had been so looking forward to this day for so long, and in fact whenever I heard the song in the months leading up to the wedding I would get really emotional and it made me SO excited! Our first dance was to Romeo and Juliet by the Dire Straights, it’s ‘our’ song and we just loooooooove it.









The song did seem to go on forever haha so we invited the rest of the gang up to join us for the last half or so This was a truely special moment and I love the photos we got from Ashley



























And from then on it was party time! We spent the next hour or so dancing, chatting, getting caricatures and generally relaxing and having fun! We’d worked really hard on our playlist as we knew we’d only have an hour of dancing so it needed to be hit after hit, and a perfect blend of songs Ben loves, songs I love, and songs we both love! Here’s a sneak previous of our playlist We nailed it - the little dancefloor was full for the whole hour!



My brother and Pash getting their caricatures!





My Dad rockin’ it on the dancefloor!



Our guests went MAD for Rafael and he totally stole the show haha! Crowds gathered to watch fellow guests get their caricatures done and everyone was so proud and showing off their drawings! Me and Benj realised after about half an hour that we needed to get ours, and bride and groom privileges meant we got to skip the queue haha!









We chatted to Rafael as we got our caricature down and he was so funny and nice! Booking him was one of the best decisions we made - he was so professional, arrived early, got to work straightaway and tried so hard to fit everyone in! He was just awesome

At one point I went to the loo! I was SO FULL (see sampling all 3 martini station treats in previous post) and my dress was killing me round my belly haha! I remember feeling sooooooooo full all through the dancing but I just got on with it and enjoyed myself! When I was in the bathroom with Victoria, loads of the other girls and my Mum just happened to come in too and I have this really vivid memory of hugging everyone in the loo and all talking so excitedly about what had happened, how amazing the day had been and what an awesome time everyone was having Such a special moment.

[oh_darling]

For the last 20 minutes or so we all hit the dancefloor HARD. From what I remember it was a quick succession of Sum 41, Queen, Billy Joel, The Jackson 5 and Whitney Houston, and everyone got DOWN.






































Lisa then whispered to us that it was 8.25 and we had time for one more song, so I skipped to Elvis ‘Can’t help falling in love’ on the iPad, announced that it was our last song, and called everyone up to the dancefloor for one last dance <3 This really was so sweet and I LOVE all the photos of everyone all romantic and in love after all the fun and giggles of the day <3







And with that, our reception was over!

But we weren’t too sad because now it was time for one of the most anticipated parts of our day, our Dessert Party We started encouraging everyone to gather up their bits and bobs and start heading down to the Marina. Everyone was super excited and we managed to get everyone moving pretty quickly which was good! Victoria and Ian were our designated ‘picker uppers’ of all our wedding bits i.e. cake topper, cards, gifts, programs etc so bless them they sorted all that out while me and Benj said thank you to our amazing team! We said thank you and bye to Rafael, then we thanked every one of our awesome server and waiter team that had been so incredible all day We then made sure we had all our bits (my wedding shoes that I was supposed to have worn all day haha!) and with that, it was time to turn around and say one last goodbye to our beautiful Whitehall Room and Patio

Me, Benj and Lisa walked together over to the Marina to join the rest of our guests which was really nice as we were able to have a chat about the day so far, and the evening that was to come! I was so hyped and happy and excited and I was SO glad our day wasn’t over yet! As we made our way over to the Marina and the path to Sago Cay came into view, I squealed with excitement. It looked SO BEAUTIFUL! It was all twinkly and sparkly and beautiful, exactly how I’d imagined We had gorgeous pale pink roses suspended in globes on all the tables with simple black tablecloths and chairs and it just looked perfect







Everyone was already there having fun so we jumped right in and got involved! Starting with the bar, obvs! Blue-Eyed Birmans all round - and this batch was even stronger than the Whitehall ones had been, and everyone had said how strong they were haha! WINNING. Me and Benj headed over to the buffet first of all to see what was up and omggggggg it looked incredible. Not that I could have eaten a THING at the point which was disappointing, but again my own fault for stuffing myself at lunch haha! I made it my mission to actively encourage all our guests to EAT haha even though I think everyone was so full! We’d had to meet a minimum on the F&B though to get Sago Cay so we really weren’t worried as we knew people would be mega full, I just didn’t want it to all go to waste!

Our menu:

Mini Chicken and Waffle Sandwiches
Mini Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Tomato Soup Shooters
Mini Beef Sliders and Mini Portobello Mushroom Sliders
Ice Cream sundae bar – Vanilla and Chocolate with various toppings
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites
Mini Lemon Cheesecakes

DREAM! We also had the bar moved down to the marina so the drinks could continue flowing for everyone!





















Benj gettin involved!



And then we mingled! We went round to all the tables and chatted to everyone, and it was so balmy and warm and gorgeous by the water and ahhhh it was just perfect. At one point David and Ashley grabbed us and asked if we’d be happy to go up on the grass past Sago Cay to get better footage and we were like, sure! So that was sorted.
Cute family



I loooove this photo of my brother so much.

[oh_darling]

At just gone 9pm, Ben grabbed Lisa as she was passing and asked about our iPod set up as it was gone 9pm and he’d made a playlist that he wanted to hear before the fireworks! Lisa disappeared them returned and beckened us over. Basically, there was a problem with the technician and Ian was trying to sort it out (bless him <3), and she said she’d be back in a sec. She then came back, took us to one side again and was like, here’s the sitch. Haha! So the technician had been delayed and we had 2 options. 1, he could come now and set up and everything would go as planned for our playlist and the fireworks. 2, she had spoken to the CM running the Mad Hatter party over at the Marina (does anyone remember the drama I went through with this!? It was a free party announced the month before our wedding for every Weds at the GF Marina during Wishes, with party music and cocktails and food. Right next to Sago Cay. Great! ) and the lady said she could turn her speakers towards our party and it would be fine for our guests to hear Wishes, and she’d refund us $500. We had to decide like on the spot which was mega stressful for me but Ben is awesome with stuff like that and he said we hadn’t even really noticed that there wasn’t music playing, our guests certainly hadn’t, and if they could hear Wishes fine then it made sense for us to get our money back! Which totally made sense, so after lots of umming and ahhing from me and making Lisa promise that our guests would hear Wishes, we went for it. Eeek! I panicked a bit but then just drank some more of my strong cocktail and I was fine. I was a bit blindsighted by the fact that I had been so upset about the Mad Hatter party for like a month, and here it was saving the day! That ish cray.

We continued mingling for a bit and then Ashley came over and said they were ready Eek! So we said bye to our guests and schooched over onto the grass in front of Sago Cay. Our media team seemed mega excited that they’d managed to get this great set up for the fireworks haha so we were excited too! Ashley helped us get into position and told us to just act natural and watch the fireworks, and they’d do the rest!

And with that, the familiar bars of the start of Wishes started and we readied ourselves to enjoy the experience of watching one of our favourite things in all of WDW, on our wedding day The music was pretty faint but we could hear it, I hoped our guests could hear the piped in music from the other party behind us!

Sorry for the photo spam but I honestly couldn’t narrow it down any more











































And this is the last official photo of our wedding day! What a fitting one, me crying and Ben wiping away my tears I always cry at Wishes and obviously tonight was no different!



As the last bars of Wishes faded away, we walked over to our media team and hugged and kissed and thanked them for the absolutely incredible experience they had given us. They told us they’d get everything packed away and then come and say bye….our wedding day was almost over!

Me and my new husband headed back to our guests, where everyone was reeling from the awesomeness that was Wishes I realised everyone had moved up to the front as they ‘wanted to watch us’ haha so I went into panic mode that they hadn’t been able to hear the music that was being piped in down the other end! I really stressed about this which was so silly - no one knew it was meant to be any different and everyone said they could hear it just fine! A few guests had stayed sat down in the chairs and tables and they could hear it super well so I was really pleased about that! I knew Lisa wouldn’t try and swindle us haha but no one could have predicted that everyone would move up to the top of Sago Cay! It was all absolutely fine in the end though

Our time at Sago Cay was unfortunately coming to an end It was about 10.20 by this point and we had the space til 10.30 ish, so everyone started gathering up all their bits and bobs and saying their goodbyes. We had discussed going for a drink or something afterwards with anyone who fancied but me and Benj both agreed that we were prettyyyyyyyy exhausted, and it was bed time! I think everyone else felt the same! Our group gathered around outside Sago Cay saying goodbye and hugging everyone and it was so lovely to hear everyone chatting about the day and how lovely it had been, in between saying our goodbyes! We were seeing everyone again anyway later on in the week so it was more of a ‘see you soon!’ than goodbye

It was then a little gang of us left - my parents were popping back to the VGF on their way to SSR as my Mum needed to grab her overnight bag, Jason had stuff in our room he needed to grab, and obviously Vic and Ian were staying at the Villas too So we all strolled back all leisurely and it was so lovely and relaxed. Everyone grabbed their stuff, we said bye to my parents and Jason, good night to Vic and Ian, closed the door of our beautiful room and collapsed! Well, not before Benj had helped me remove the millions of pins in my hair and undo the millions of buttons on my dress haha!

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

So that was it! Our wedding day had come to an end. 12 years in the making and 3 years of planning had resulted in the single most perfect and happiest day of our lives. I am honestly still amazed by just how incredible and how ‘us’ our wedding was. It was everything we wanted, nothing we didn’t, and there isn’t a thing we’d change about the whole day (and the events of the wedding week!) Our wonderful guests who flew so far to be with us on our special day still talk regularly about how much they enjoyed themselves and in all honesty, that is the biggest compliment of all

I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading about our wedding day - I’m so sorry it’s taken so long! We’ve had a ridiculous amount of stuff going on since we got back from our honeymoon and I wanted to make sure I did this properly. I want to remember every single little detail of the day, even the tiny things that happened that don’t seem like much now but that I know I’ll love remembering 10, 20, 50 years on. I hope I’ve done it justice and I hope you can see how much love and happiness was there on that day

Normal trippie action will resume in the next instalment - our first day as a married couple!

Til the next time! x

[simbamad]

A magical end to a magical day, thank you for posting such detailed trip reports

[KFJames]

Wow...absolutely amazing!

[scottishvixen]

Absolutely fantastic! Loved reading about it all and sounds amazing. Congratulations again!

[caj]

Wow ... beautiful!

[Teach0778]

Wow! Congratulations to you both on a magical day. Loved reading about it - you included so much detail it was amazing. Look forward to reading about the rest of your time at Disney.