Kara & Larne's Magical Wedding PJ - August 2013

[Kara]

Originally Posted by tnkrbell

Looking forward to reading more Kara! Looking at some of the DFTW stuff now and the mind boggles!

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Im not really sure when we will have a major to update but I'm constantly googling wedding things and trying to find different takes on normal things like save the dates etc. I know what u mean about the mind boggles, if we hadn't seen that wedding we wouldn't have decided on half of the things that we have and that's only a tiny list

[Kara]

Hi All,

Longgggggg time no update sorry my bad! The only good thing to come from this long delay is that now we actually have stuff to update you on as its been a relatively slow few months wedding planning wise. So here goes:

Finalllllyyyyyy we have a dateeeee!

So as we are planning an escape wedding we followed the advice at the time and called at 12mths out... Nope sorry escape now can't ring until 9mths out. At this point I went into meltdown, was this to be the start of the awful service the escape brides seem to receive? I seriously hoped not.

Anyway fast forward to November and we make first contact, we were passed over to a lady called Michelle Gilhooly who takes our first 4 preferences with times and dates, I feel the need to add here that Michelle is AMAZING! She has been super helpful, incredibly quick at replying and hasn't once been pushy like I expected in terms of upgrading to Wishes, she even advised against it incase our numbers don't go up (which is a possibility atm) and we lose our $2,000 deposit. She checks and so far noone has requested any of our chosen dates or times, she then tells us that 8 months to the day she will book our wedding and get back to us.

This meant that as our date fell on a Sunday we would find out the next day which happened to be christmas eve. We have now had confirmed that our wedding will take place at SeaBreeze Point at 2.30 on Friday 23rd August 2013! WHOOOOOPPPP!

We also have an illuminations dessert party booked at Vikings Landing for that evening too.

This is where minor annoyance comes in, we have found out that now Escape brides are only allowed standing room only Illuminations DP, this seems pretty silly considering we will easily spend as much as a wishes wedding on this and would easily cover the minimums but hey ho, we may try and see if we can get a different location (preferably UK Loch side) via Disney Catered Events separately.

Flights!

Back in October only a few days after flights were released we booked all our flights for our mammoth trip so they are as follows:

Sunday 18th August: Depart LHR at 1.35pm flying into MCO (via Houston)
Thursday 29th August: Depart MCO flying into LAX
Friday 6th September: Depart San Fran flying into Honolulu
Friday 13th September: Depart Honolulu flying into LHR (Landing Sat 14th, via LAX)

For those of you that have amazing memories you will have noticed we are flying out a day earlier than originally planned. This was because the flight times with United were awful for the monday and they had the best offer on the flights we required. We are currently planning to stay with Larne's family for one night before checking into AoA.

Photography

After reading how early people booked photography we took the plunge and booked Randy Chapman for the day, currently we have booked the 3 hour package with DVDs but once we get a better understanding of times I think we might increase this to get the most of the day.

We will use our Disney photography included for the DP.

Guest List

As it has been so long now a number of the guests have booked their holidays. They are as follows:

My Mum, her BF and my little sister fly out 20th August for 2 weeks also staying at AoA.

My Nan and Grandad who were not on the original list have also booked flying out with my Mum and also staying at AoA.

Larne's entire family have booked (except his Bro who lives in Canada) they are all flying out together on 16th August, and are staying in a villa we found privately through Larne's work.



I think thats all the main updates for now, we are thinking of possibly holding our reception at Shula's Steakhouse at Swan and Dolphin as it will mean minimal travel throughout the day and priviate dining is an option.

Has anyone eaten here at all?

I promise not to leave it so long next time and if you are still awake and reading this well done

[Guest]

Brilliant news Kara, great update!

Not eaten at the Swan and Dolphin so can't help there, I'm sure someone on the US version of the facebook group might be able to help? There are quite a few Swalphin brides there!

Surely it has to be dress time!

Which cake are you looking at and what flowes you thinking as part of your package? You going to use the Limo transport included? xxx

[Guest]

Hi kara
Just catching up on your wedding plans! Congratulations-they sound fab! How far in advance did you book randy chapman?we would also love to have him for our wedding but don't want to contact him too early! Also if you don't mind me asking have you got a list of prices for randy or are they personal to what you want?

[lizj1982]

Just caught up on your plans, it all sounds amazing! How exciting is it to say 'I get married this year' I know I'm grtting giddy lol

Originally Posted by tink110391

Hi kara
Just catching up on your wedding plans! Congratulations-they sound fab! How far in advance did you book randy chapman?we would also love to have him for our wedding but don't want to contact him too early! Also if you don't mind me asking have you got a list of prices for randy or are they personal to what you want?

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From what I have read. I don't think it's ever too early, we booked him approx 18 months before our date but think others have booked him earlier x

[MrsWoody]

Wow your plans sound amazing! Fab news on getting your date

[Kara]

Originally Posted by TabZ

Brilliant news Kara, great update!

Not eaten at the Swan and Dolphin so can't help there, I'm sure someone on the US version of the facebook group might be able to help? There are quite a few Swalphin brides there!

Surely it has to be dress time!

Which cake are you looking at and what flowes you thinking as part of your package? You going to use the Limo transport included? xxx

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Hi Tabz,

It is dress time but I can't have any time off from work until Feb 11th so its all being arranged for then. We are thinking of upgrading our cake so will see what it costs first but we want a madhatter one I think. As for flowers I have no idea as I know nothing about them. Yes we are going to use the limo.

Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by tink110391

Hi kara
Just catching up on your wedding plans! Congratulations-they sound fab! How far in advance did you book randy chapman?we would also love to have him for our wedding but don't want to contact him too early! Also if you don't mind me asking have you got a list of prices for randy or are they personal to what you want?

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Hi, we booked him in May of last year so 15 months out, I do have a list if you PM your email address I'll send it over to you. I can also attach the Escape info I have received from DFTW if you want.

Originally Posted by lizj1982

Just caught up on your plans, it all sounds amazing! How exciting is it to say 'I get married this year' I know I'm grtting giddy lol



From what I have read. I don't think it's ever too early, we booked him approx 18 months before our date but think others have booked him earlier x

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Hi, I know at midnight on NYE I was hyper saying that, and now I still keep saying it. This year will fly super fast and our days will be here before we know it

Originally Posted by MrsWoodytobe

Wow your plans sound amazing! Fab news on getting your date

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Hi, Thanks for reading along

[SnowWhiteGsy]

Loving your plans so far, can't wait to read more

[Guest]

Hi kara just read through your plans they are great I'm sure with your date confirmed and booked now it will fly in look forward to reading more

[Kara]

So I thought it was time I finally put up some details about our actual day.

We have now signed our contract and have been assigned our planner, we have Danny Rogerson, so far he has been excellent at answering any questions and has replied extremely quickly.

Colour Theme

So in honour of Larne's favourite Disney character we chose orange as a colour theme quite early on, we have always planned to use a small amount of black along with this, however the closer we get and the more I look, the more I am leaning towards using grey as the secondary colour.

Flowers

We have now decided on Cala Lilies, in orange. This is one of the standard Escape bouquets, I was torn between those and the roses but went with the Lilys as I think they are less harsh and a less full bouquet which I like as I don't usually like flowers.

Heres a pic of an idea, I'm currently planning on having orange ribbon around it.


Larne with have the Single Cala Lily buttonhole, with orange ribbon and the mickey crystal, I really like this one.


We are currently planning on getting those for all the men attending but I'd like Larne to have a different buttonhole, but can't decide if I prefer others to be in a different flower or colour.

Cake
Neither of us are particularly taken with any of the standard Escape designs and are currently planning on upgrading. We haven't decided definitely but heres a couple we like.


Our current idea is a 2 tier mad hatter cake with one tier orange and the other white with either random mickey heads or the lines like in pic 1 over it. As for flavour we haven't decided at all but we are very tempted to get the smaller tier in peanut butter as he LOVES it.

Dress

I went and got my dress a few weeks ago however I can't post any pics or tell you anything about it as Larne will be reading this.

All I will say is that as a person that doesn't even own 1 dress this was by far one of the most daunting things about planning a wedding, on the day I was absolutely terrified but it turned out a lot better than I expected. If you live in or around London Brides 2 B in Watford were simply brilliant, the lady (I have no idea of her name but she was the owner) helped me so much, I went in there with no idea at all and she made me feel really comfortable and really honed down what I did and didn't like when I really wasn't even sure myself.

I have a dress fitting booked at the end of June.

Teigans Dress

Whilst looking for my dress we stumbled on Teigans dress and I love it as does she. We had to wait a few days as we want this in orange and it isn't officially made in that colour, but the manufacturer have said they can fabric swap it into a different material that comes in orange, so we are going to order it next weekend. Here is is:


Niamhs Dress

Larnes brother and his Niece came over in February and we got her dress so they could take it home and get it altered nearer the time, here it is:


Shoes

Although I haven't actually looked at these yet I'm almost certain that myself, Teigan and Niamh will wear trainers.

Ill leave it here for now but I have Save the Dates, invites, jewellery and suit ideas to come Thanks for reading