Kara & Larne's Magical Wedding PJ - August 2013

[Kara]

So despite it being a while away yet, I have decided to start our PJ as I have no idea what the heck I am doing attempting to plan a wedding!

Introductions

Hi, I'm Kara, aged 24, I work as a Services Manager for a very large supermarket chain (I'll save putting which to prevent the hate mail )


This is me at DLC in 2008 (Sorry I'm VERY photo-shy so there aren't any more up to date but I haven't changed)

My other half is Larne, aged 26, who works for Sky at their Head Office in the transmission department.


This is Larne at WDW in 2010

We met 8 and a half years ago whilst working at McD's and have been together 8 years last month. We got engaged 4 and a half years ago, but with both of us being at Uni and still young decided we would have a long engagement. With Larne landing his ideal job at Sky a couple of years ago, we eventually took the plunge and last summer relocated from Leicestershire to Hemel Hempstead buying our first flat together. As we can't put it off anymore we have started planning our wedding for August 2013

[Kara]

So as you can see from my signature we are planning a Disney wedding. This is how we decided on a disney wedding:

I am a HUGE Disney fan and all around total nerd! So when 8 and a half years ago Larne wanted to borrow Finding Nemo on DVD, he asked around at work and was directed to me and that was our first conversation, this conversation pretty much set the theme of our relationship and since then have kept several silly Disney related rituals.

In 2008 we went on holiday to LA / Vegas (of course I insisted that we visit DLC), it was during this holiday that we both completely fell in love with the States and have tried to return to the States as often as possible since then, which has turned out to not be as often as either of us would like. 2 years later we went to WDW with my family and whilst there saw someone getting married at SBP and I completely fell in love with the venue and idea of getting married at WDW.

With our love for the States, joined with our love for Disney, with how amazing the SBP wedding looked and then the fact that we can't imagine anything worse than being the centre of attention at a big UK family wedding we both agreed that a Florida wedding was the way forward. After a bit of persuasion (but not a lot) Larne agreed that Disney would be the venue (I think the persuading factor was the dessert party, but more on that later).

[Guest]

Yay another pre-trippie! Hello from a past Disney bride Sounds great so far. Looking forward to hearing more about your plans.

[mrsbigbeak]

Looking good cnt wait to read. More x

[Kara]

Once Disney was decided we set about telling our immediate families and friends and are currently looking at 15 guests plus the 2 of us, these are:

Steph (My Mum)
Simon (My Mums bf)
Teigan (My little sister)
Loz (My cousin)
Natalie (My friend)
Jo (Natalie's other half)

Rick (Larne's Dad)
Roz (Larne's Mum)
Coz (Larne's Aunt)
Rob (Larne's Uncle)
Mandy (Larne's Aunty - Married to Rob)
Lauren (Larne's cousin)
Bethan (Larne's cousin)
Kian (Larne's older brother)
Niamh (Larne's neice, she is only 1 so doesn't count in numbers)
Leah (Larne's SIL)

We are expecting a few changes to this list with possible drop outs along the next 15mts but thats where we stand atm.

From this we have decided on an Escape wedding at SBP. As most of Larne's family work in education we knew we had to go within the school holidays so we are currently looking at flying out to Orlando on 19th August 2013, and are hoping to get married within the first week, so that those that wish to fly off else where can have the option before the schools start back. I say fly off else where as shockingly Larne's family are not disney fans in any way

The other things we have pretty much decided on are that we want to have photos with Mickey & Minnie after the ceremony at first we thought this was quite pricey for what you get but when I saw the pics on here I knew it would be well worth the cost.

Bridesmaids
I have decided to have 2, 1 is my little sister Teigan:

This is Teigan in 2010 at WDW, she will be my MoH.

And last year Larne became an Uncle, unfortunately his brother lives in Canada so he doesn't get to see his niece very often other than skype so when they came over last October, we asked Kian if Niamh would be a bridesmaid (she will be 2 and a half at the time)


This is Larne with Niamh in London last October.

Other details
We have decided that we would like an Illuminations Dessert Party, but at which venue is undecided.

I also think we have decided to go with bright orange and black as our colour scheme, which may seem an odd choice but it's in honour of Tigger who is Larne's fave Disney character.

Looking through all of your photos we have decided we would also like to have Randy Chapman as our photographer.

So in our head the day would be something like this:

Ceremony at SBP (@ maybe 2.30pm)
Photos with Mickey & Minnie
Larne and I have photos at a few locations around WDW whilst guests go for drinks maybe?
Then go for a meal - no idea where as yet, any suggestions would be great
Dessert Party @ Epcot
Then maybe the adults go for drinks somewhere after if we aren't too tired - again any suggestions on places?

As for flowers, dresses etc I haven't even thought about these things yet.

Honeymoon

As soon as we decided on getting married in Florida, we started thinking of ways to make our trip truly memorable and decided that we would take a month off work. So last month I had my month off work authorised, and next year I am off work from August 16th to September 16th Larne has requested his but it won't get authorised for a while although with the shifts he works, he will only need 10-15 days holiday for a month off, so it shouldn't be a problem.

So our current plan for our USA honeymoon is this:

19th August 2013 fly out to Orlando, spend 10 nights in a Disney hotel. Our ideal wedding date is either Thursday 22nd or Friday 23rd.

29th August 2013 fly from Orlando to LAX - as we loved LA last time we went, we have always wanted to go back so we knew straight away we had to go back on our honeymoon.

We then aim to spend a few nights in LA, then drive up the coast to San Francisco - this we had planned to do in one day but looking at it, it seems that we may need to do this over 2 days.



We then are hoping to spend a few nights in San Francisco - this is the one place in the States I'm desperate to visit but haven't managed to as yet.



6th September 2013 fly from San Fran to Hawaii for a week. Which island we are not sure on yet, but we decided on Hawaii as the relaxing part of the holiday plus Larne is Golf crazy and he would love to play a couple of courses out there.



13th September 2013 fly from Hawaii to London



Questions

- with DDP and discounts being announced tomorrow, my mum is looking to book her holiday (or accommodation at least) if the price is right quite soon, do you think this is risky with us not being able to even contact Disney until August? I just don't want them to miss out on offers and pay extra because of us.
- Is it likely that we won't get a wedding within our week, we don't mind not getting the Thur/Fri but if we open it up to wed - Sun are we likely to get a wedding?

[Kara]

Originally Posted by Hayley&Gareth

Yay another pre-trippie! Hello from a past Disney bride Sounds great so far. Looking forward to hearing more about your plans.

See more...

Thanks for reading, your wedding looked amazing, I can only hope ours turns out half as good

Originally Posted by mrsbigbeak

Looking good cnt wait to read. More x

See more...

Thanks for reading also, sorry it's quite boring at the moment, hopefully it will get more interesting over the next year

[Guest]

Awesome start Kara, can't wait to read more of your plans

As long as you are flexible with your date and time you should be able to get the venue you want. I will be booking our flights and accommodation as soon as they are released at Virgin Holidays this time next year - we are hoping for 11/11/14 - will be able to book our planning trip for 2013 on the 25th April So no, I don't think it's risky, I think booking ASAP is the way forward. If she books directly with disney and wants to shift the reservation a day or two either side they are usually pretty good with stuff like that.

When it comes to your meal, there are heaps of places you could go. There is a semi-private room at the Yachtsman Steakhouse at Yacht Club, if you like steak, then of course you have California Grill, the resturants at GF, but if you are going from dinner to a dessert party at EPCOT maybe it's worth staying in the Boardwalk area?

Happy planning! xx

[NatsyNoo]

What a lovely story and your wedding plans sound fab. What an amazing honeymoon! Can't wait to hear more!

[Pinkgirl]

Hi Kara welcome. Brill start to your PJ.

We are getting married 22 August this year at the Yacht Club Gazebo at 12 noon. We had no problems with our date and time as Yacht Club isnt that popular and there dont seem to be that many weddings in August - must be something to do with the heat and the rain

Check out this map for a brill ariel view of our wedding venues

bing/maps/?v=2&cp=nqv... 1&form=LMLTCC

[smythy21]

Enjoy planning. we are planning our wedding for august 2013 too but in Ireland. we do plan to go to WDW for our Honeymoon and a few days in Vegas.

Time will fly by and it'll b next year before ya know it