I took Luna99's idea and decided to start my own thread about the Surprise Wedding my fiance and I are having at WDW in December. I know all you WDW nuts will love to hear about the details that we have planned and later I will let everyone know how it all turned out.
Since none of our friends or family have any idea of this website I feel like I can post whats going on with our Big Surprise. Not to mention its been killing me not to be able to talk to anyone but my finace about the details. (We do have 2 friends that also know that are helping us with some of the on site logistics)
So here goes...........or should I say....Once Upon a Time.........
Technically my fiance and I are NOT engaged yet. Yes we have agreed to get married, yes we have put all the plans and alot of $$ in place to have this wonderful WDW Wedding, but because my fiance didnt want to lie about everything and not be able to wear her ring we are actually officially getting engaged the night before the wedding (in WDW of course).
Since are families are spread out across the east coast we knew that if we were going to get married some of our family would have to travel, so why not have them travel to our favorite place and have our dream wedding.
My fiances mother passed away several years ago so the thought of planning a wedding the "normal" way and having so many other peoples opinions did not appeal to her at all, so after investigating WDW Weddings and seeing how much they take the headaches out of the process we were hooked.
But we also never like to do anything the traditional way....so we thought how can we pull off a surprise wedding but still get everyone to show up, dress correctly, etc.
Well it just so happens that this December is my 40th Birthday, so we devised a plan to invite everyone to a "Black-tie - Surprise 40th Birthday Weekend" in my favorite place..WDW.
I do have to say before I go any further that God has blessed us over the past few years so that we are able financially to be able to pull this off ourselves without the help of parents, etc.
So we contacted WDW Fairytail Weddings and started the process of making this our dream wedding but also pulling off a surprise to 40 people. As you know with Disney..with the $$...anything you can dream up they can usually make happen.
We only started planning our wedding 6 months in advance, its been fast paced and alot of quick decisions, and maybe not ideal for most couples, but for us it probably made us act quicker than we would have had we had alot of time to think everything through.
We began working with Bill Barchick at WDW Weddings who handled alot of the upfront planning prior to signing the offical contract, then we worked with Janice, Emily, Rose and Michelle Wenzler-Dorr (Our coordinator) to plan our event. They have all been great to work with and have really joined into the excitement of helping to plan something unique like a surprise wedding.
The staff at WDW and the amount of material that they give you to plan with makes the process so much easier than going out to try to find all of your own individual vendors, for a cake, music, flowers, photos, etc. And because we have been lifelong Disney fans we know the detail and care they take in everything that we felt we could not have chose a better place or group of people to help plan this special event.
So here are some of the details of our event.....
We have selected the resorts that each guest will stay in based on their personalities, likes, hobbies, etc. For example my sister and her family will be at the CBR because they love to go to the islands and my brother and his family love the outdoors, own a cabin in the mountains, etc, so they are staying at the WL.
We will be mailing them just prior to their departure a large packet of information about the weekend, the "Surprise Birthday" and lanyards with a pin of the resort they are staying in. They are to open these packets on the plane to Orlando to find out where they are staying!!!! SURPRISE #1 for the weekend.
Next, the day of the event a motorcoach will be picking them up at each of their resorts (they will get to see where each other is staying). On the bus will be a videographer and a English Butler to greet them and to ask them to give a birthday wish to me. Once everyone is on board and they are traveling to the Wedding Pavilion the English Butler will begin a poem that my finace wrote that will end while turning the corner to the Wedding Pavilion with the line...."Its not so much a surprise for Phillip, as it is a surprise for you...may I welcome you to the wedding of........."
We have trumpeters to hail their arrival and Cindy's Coach all lit-up parked outside the Pavilion. (P.S. this is a nightime wedding) The English Butler will lead them to the Pavilion where we will have smelling salts to revive anyone who has just fainted..and lots of tissues.
We have lots of white flowers, candles, white twinkle light trees, etc in decorations. Bascially a classy, elegant winter evening wedding.
I wont go into all the details of the ceremony but we have planned out a wonderful ceremony with the help of the wonderful Reverend Jack Day. Of course since this is a surprise we have allowed a little time for everyone to decompress, parents to get their flowers and our brothers and sisters to get adjusted to the fact that they have now just become part of a wedding party!!!
After the ceremony we have a "staged exit" planned where our guest will be standing on the Pavilion bridge facing back towards us and the Pavilion and Bay Lake. The trumpeters will play and then fireworks will shoot off! We have white rose petals for the guest to throw as we enter Cindy's Carriage and ride off to the Grand Floridian.
Our reception is in a small room called the Whitehall Room & Patio. Its a Octagon shaped room with an outside patio for the pre-reception. The patio has the monorail that passes over and a view of the castle in the MK. We have White twinkle light trees set up with cocktail tables, Music, food and an open bar!!!
The ceiling of the room with be draped with a white tulle with white twinkle lights. The tables will be in White linen with chiffon, as well as the chairs. The centerpeices are white flowers with greenery with hurricane glasses and taper white candles. The table will also be loaded with 10-12 small votive candles, silver mickey confetti, beautiful silver charger plates, white menu cards with a glittery silver trim and print (made by Impressions- they do incredible work, they are also doing programs) and name place cards printed the same way and place at each seat held up by a white and silver castle holder). Our cake is called a Mickey Wave. Its basically white with silver Mickey's dotted along a wave pattern topped with a large White Chocolate Castle. Dinner is surf & turf!!! Hopefully I can eat after all the excitement.
We will be able to break when the fireworks begin in the MK and watch them from our reception patio!. Then its food, music and fun.
If anyone has any energy left they can close out the night with the Bride & Groom in our huge suite. But not stay too late!!!!:animwink:
Also the next day we have planned a day at Epcot (Starting late in the morning not opening!!) and early dinner in Japan with a CandleLight Processional show. Sort of a post wedding rehearsal dinner since we cant have one before!
Then 2 additional days planned to park hop and show friends and family why we love WDW so much, especially during Christmas.
Thanks for allowing me to get all this excitement out....I will post a post- wedding report, try to add photos once we have some and if I can figure out how to do it maybe our wedding video!
Wish us luck...and good weather...not only for WDW but the east coast for our travelers.
:xmas:
Since none of our friends or family have any idea of this website I feel like I can post whats going on with our Big Surprise. Not to mention its been killing me not to be able to talk to anyone but my finace about the details. (We do have 2 friends that also know that are helping us with some of the on site logistics)
So here goes...........or should I say....Once Upon a Time.........
Technically my fiance and I are NOT engaged yet. Yes we have agreed to get married, yes we have put all the plans and alot of $$ in place to have this wonderful WDW Wedding, but because my fiance didnt want to lie about everything and not be able to wear her ring we are actually officially getting engaged the night before the wedding (in WDW of course).
Since are families are spread out across the east coast we knew that if we were going to get married some of our family would have to travel, so why not have them travel to our favorite place and have our dream wedding.
My fiances mother passed away several years ago so the thought of planning a wedding the "normal" way and having so many other peoples opinions did not appeal to her at all, so after investigating WDW Weddings and seeing how much they take the headaches out of the process we were hooked.
But we also never like to do anything the traditional way....so we thought how can we pull off a surprise wedding but still get everyone to show up, dress correctly, etc.
Well it just so happens that this December is my 40th Birthday, so we devised a plan to invite everyone to a "Black-tie - Surprise 40th Birthday Weekend" in my favorite place..WDW.
I do have to say before I go any further that God has blessed us over the past few years so that we are able financially to be able to pull this off ourselves without the help of parents, etc.
So we contacted WDW Fairytail Weddings and started the process of making this our dream wedding but also pulling off a surprise to 40 people. As you know with Disney..with the $$...anything you can dream up they can usually make happen.
We only started planning our wedding 6 months in advance, its been fast paced and alot of quick decisions, and maybe not ideal for most couples, but for us it probably made us act quicker than we would have had we had alot of time to think everything through.
We began working with Bill Barchick at WDW Weddings who handled alot of the upfront planning prior to signing the offical contract, then we worked with Janice, Emily, Rose and Michelle Wenzler-Dorr (Our coordinator) to plan our event. They have all been great to work with and have really joined into the excitement of helping to plan something unique like a surprise wedding.
The staff at WDW and the amount of material that they give you to plan with makes the process so much easier than going out to try to find all of your own individual vendors, for a cake, music, flowers, photos, etc. And because we have been lifelong Disney fans we know the detail and care they take in everything that we felt we could not have chose a better place or group of people to help plan this special event.
So here are some of the details of our event.....
We have selected the resorts that each guest will stay in based on their personalities, likes, hobbies, etc. For example my sister and her family will be at the CBR because they love to go to the islands and my brother and his family love the outdoors, own a cabin in the mountains, etc, so they are staying at the WL.
We will be mailing them just prior to their departure a large packet of information about the weekend, the "Surprise Birthday" and lanyards with a pin of the resort they are staying in. They are to open these packets on the plane to Orlando to find out where they are staying!!!! SURPRISE #1 for the weekend.
Next, the day of the event a motorcoach will be picking them up at each of their resorts (they will get to see where each other is staying). On the bus will be a videographer and a English Butler to greet them and to ask them to give a birthday wish to me. Once everyone is on board and they are traveling to the Wedding Pavilion the English Butler will begin a poem that my finace wrote that will end while turning the corner to the Wedding Pavilion with the line...."Its not so much a surprise for Phillip, as it is a surprise for you...may I welcome you to the wedding of........."
We have trumpeters to hail their arrival and Cindy's Coach all lit-up parked outside the Pavilion. (P.S. this is a nightime wedding) The English Butler will lead them to the Pavilion where we will have smelling salts to revive anyone who has just fainted..and lots of tissues.
We have lots of white flowers, candles, white twinkle light trees, etc in decorations. Bascially a classy, elegant winter evening wedding.
I wont go into all the details of the ceremony but we have planned out a wonderful ceremony with the help of the wonderful Reverend Jack Day. Of course since this is a surprise we have allowed a little time for everyone to decompress, parents to get their flowers and our brothers and sisters to get adjusted to the fact that they have now just become part of a wedding party!!!
After the ceremony we have a "staged exit" planned where our guest will be standing on the Pavilion bridge facing back towards us and the Pavilion and Bay Lake. The trumpeters will play and then fireworks will shoot off! We have white rose petals for the guest to throw as we enter Cindy's Carriage and ride off to the Grand Floridian.
Our reception is in a small room called the Whitehall Room & Patio. Its a Octagon shaped room with an outside patio for the pre-reception. The patio has the monorail that passes over and a view of the castle in the MK. We have White twinkle light trees set up with cocktail tables, Music, food and an open bar!!!
The ceiling of the room with be draped with a white tulle with white twinkle lights. The tables will be in White linen with chiffon, as well as the chairs. The centerpeices are white flowers with greenery with hurricane glasses and taper white candles. The table will also be loaded with 10-12 small votive candles, silver mickey confetti, beautiful silver charger plates, white menu cards with a glittery silver trim and print (made by Impressions- they do incredible work, they are also doing programs) and name place cards printed the same way and place at each seat held up by a white and silver castle holder). Our cake is called a Mickey Wave. Its basically white with silver Mickey's dotted along a wave pattern topped with a large White Chocolate Castle. Dinner is surf & turf!!! Hopefully I can eat after all the excitement.
We will be able to break when the fireworks begin in the MK and watch them from our reception patio!. Then its food, music and fun.
If anyone has any energy left they can close out the night with the Bride & Groom in our huge suite. But not stay too late!!!!:animwink:
Also the next day we have planned a day at Epcot (Starting late in the morning not opening!!) and early dinner in Japan with a CandleLight Processional show. Sort of a post wedding rehearsal dinner since we cant have one before!
Then 2 additional days planned to park hop and show friends and family why we love WDW so much, especially during Christmas.
Thanks for allowing me to get all this excitement out....I will post a post- wedding report, try to add photos once we have some and if I can figure out how to do it maybe our wedding video!
Wish us luck...and good weather...not only for WDW but the east coast for our travelers.
:xmas:
