Sharing My Ideas & Planning Aug 2015 :)

[Leyfy]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd officially say that myself and my OH have decided to get married in Florida next year! We went out engagement ring shopping today but haven't bought anything sparkly JUST yet... Although I have my eye on one or two!

So, why Florida? We went at Christmas last year and absolutely loved it! We'd been back in the UK 6 weeks before we'd bought a Flydrive with Virgin to go back in August next year. We're on the Virgin flight on the 17th that half the Dibb seem to be booked on!

Just a bit of background - Phil and I have been together over seven years and own our own home (Plus joint custody of an ancient ball of purr!). We'd discussed marriage/engagement before but it'd never really been a priority. I've never been one of those 'I must have a big white wedding' type people and tbh, every wedding I've been to I've thought this is just 'not me'. I lost my dad a few years ago in difficult circumstances and as a result my family have been quite fractured - a big family wedding just wasn't going to happen regardless. Unfortunately to add to this Phil's mum passed away very recently (He lost his dad a few years ago) too.

Back in late March this year and I was idly browsing Facebook and a second cousin of mine posted this message: "Sorry ladies, I'm officially off the market" with a picture of him and his (Absolutely lovely!) girlfriend tying the knot in a convertible in Last Vegas!

This was totally out of the blue, and no one is sure to this day if they'd planned it or it just was a spur of the moment decision! Anyway, that got me thinking...

My thoughts turned to our already-planned return to Orlando and I wondered if we'd be able to add a wedding into our plans! I bought it up with Phil and we discussed it several times. I roughly costed it up, and it seemed like quite a good idea but unfortunately Phil's mum was seriously ill at the time so I didn't bring up the idea again as I didn't want to push him into anything. Unfortunately we lost his mum in May. A few heartfelt conversations later and Phil bought up the idea of getting married in Florida himself ... I guess it was a proposal of sorts!

So, I got on with planning!

So here are our plans/details so far:

- Flydrive with Virgin departing on the 17th of August and returning on the 30th August - Booked
- 5 Nights at Yacht Club - Booked with Free DDP and gift card.
- 4 nights on iDrive - Not yet booked
- 2 nights at Universal resort - Not yet booked
- THE BIG DAY - Planned for the 26th of August (Day after we check into the Yacht Club)

Non-Wedding Must Do's

- Discovery Cove (Again)
- Universal Resort and new HP area
- Would like to do maybe Key's to the Kingdom tour, or another tour like it. The new 'Thrill Seekers' one seems quite good too?

The Wedding

- Ideally would be at Sea Breeze Point but it depends on numbers
- 26th of August 2015 is the date I have in mind
- Morning wedding hopefully
- Wedding breakfast will hopefully be at The Yachtsman. We ate there at Christmas and both loved the meal.
- Evening might be Epcot - have a few drinks around the world and then possibly head onto Jellyrolls?
- Guests - Phil's brother and his wife (Plus their two girls) will be in Orlando and will be coming along. They are Dibbers and Florida experts too! (Don't worry - they've been asked already! Hello if you've found this! ) I've asked two of my very best friends, who are 'maybes' at the moment.

I have to do the BIG REVEAL to my family tomorrow (At a family birthday) and ask my three sisters if they would like to come along! My mum is in poor physical health and wont be able to travel. I'm not sure how she's going to take the news of our wedding - hopefully for the best. We are going to have a big party and a blessing when we return so she can still come along to this. Things are a little 'complicated' with my mum ... I'll leave it at that

I've started a Wedding Pinterest board if anyone would like to follow me. I've had to make it secret board as it's not 'officially' announced on Facebook, but I'll happily share it with Dibbers

Today I designed wedding invites with 'save the dates' using official photos of the resorts. Obviously I'll explain that the information is just what we'd like and are planning at the moment - from what I've read on the disneyweddings.com, I can't actually book anything or set anything in stone until September of this year. However, I am sharing our plans now with them as I wanted to give my sisters and friends enough time to save up if they do decide they want to come. Two of my sisters have been to Florida before but one hasn't. I know it'll be a huge undertaking for them though as they all have families of their own.

Here are my invites:



They are printed on champagne coloured paper and I have included 'save the date' and 'RSVP' cards from Paperchase:





So... That's about it so far! I'll let you know how I get on tomorrow when we reveal our plans to my sisters... ! Eek!

kim x

[Sioux]

Congratulations!

Enjoy the planning; a year seems ages away but it will soon whizz round

Love the cards too!

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by Sioux

Congratulations!

Enjoy the planning; a year seems ages away but it will soon whizz round

Love the cards too!

See more...

Thank you

We had to wait 980-odd days for the last trip, so 400-odd seems very little time now!

[Pumba75]

Originally Posted by Leyfy

Phil's brother and his wife (Plus their two girls) will be in Orlando and will be coming along. They are Dibbers and Florida experts too! (Don't worry - they've been asked already! Hello if you've found this! x

See more...

Hello! Yes we found it!
After all the recent heart ache, we are very excited for you both xxxx

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by Pumba75

Hello! Yes we found it!
After all the recent heart ache, we are very excited for you both xxxx

See more...

We are very happy to have you all there xx

[WileyCoyote]

Congratulations , it sounds lovely . How exciting xxx

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by WileyCoyote

Congratulations , it sounds lovely . How exciting xxx

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Thank you, and the same to you! I've been following your thread on here with interest x

[Col&Ali]

Kim, this is lovely news ... Congratulations to you and Phil

P.s. we are over there at the same time if you need a couple of bridesmaids

[juliab]

What lovely plans you've got, I hope you get the date you are wanting. Hope the reveal goes well, congratulations to you both

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by Col&Ali

Kim, this is lovely news ... Congratulations to you and Phil

P.s. we are over there at the same time if you need a couple of bridesmaids

See more...

Thank you so much! If you are in the area on the 26th then give me a wave!

Originally Posted by juliab

What lovely plans you've got, I hope you get the date you are wanting. Hope the reveal goes well, congratulations to you both

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Thank you

I commented on your thread a few days ago, but I think it crossed over with a reply to someone else. Your plans look fantastic

Well today I decided that as I wasn't going to have an engagement ring JUST yet I was going to treat myself to a Pandora charm to remember the weekend! So here it is:



The charm I bought is the top one (interlocking hearts). The airplane charm next to it is the one I picked up at Heathrow when we were on our way to Orlando at Christmas last year

So, today was REVEAL DAY to my sisters! It was my nephews birthday and we had a small family gathering at his paternal grandmothers house. I waited until we'd been there a couple of hours and gave out the envelopes to my three sisters. After a lot of 'Oh my god you're getting married/Congratulations!' etc etc, I told them that they needed to read what the invite said as they hadn't quite twigged it was in Orlando!

Two of my sisters instantly agreed to come along! Turns out one of them was planning to go back to Florida next year anyway, and the other has been saying 'We'll go next year' for about the past four years so this gives them an excuse to finally go! lol

Not sure about my middle elder sister yet. Will see what happens... I have asked them to RSVP by August so that I can make firm plans before I book in September.

So there we go ... Phew! It all went down okay!

The guest list is a confirmed 14, with three 'maybes' at the moment. Just enough for an 'Escape' collection at Disneyweddings.com then!