I Love You...I Know...Wedding Planning and Star Wars Weekends May 2011

diddy_mouse · May 24, 2011

I love the title!

First of all big congrats on your weight loss! You look awesome! And your hat is just the bees knees.

I wish I could wear hats...

Secondly I would LOVE to have gone to the opening of Star Tours 2.0. I was reading all the tweets about it and my little Star Wars heart was all a flutter. And I totally did *not* go check out Ashley Eckstein's website as I was reading through your report. *cough, cough*:lookaroun

Finally I am looking forward to the rest of your report! :sohappy:

cathyy · May 24, 2011

Great report so far!! Congrats on the 65lbs lose!! That is awesome and it is incredibily hard work!!!!!!
Can't wait for the rest of the report and for the wedding report!! :sohappy:

foreverbelle · May 24, 2011

Holy cow would you look at the que! Unbelievable. I know my hubby is looking forward to that this summer, but with that I will be lucky if we get fastpasses for it.

OK Ashley is gorgeous. I just have to say that. And I love love your shirt you wore to meet her.

I would dif say you aren't having very good luck with the food service are you? I am so sorry to hear that.

I didn't know what to expect of MMY but I agree it is so much better live and in person than it was on youtube.

Well thank god we are not the only ones to strike up convos while waiting in line. I always find it interesting who you meet, their stories...etc..

And next time we go to B'more (will actually be up there next weekend.) I will dif be thinking of you. Since we are from the Northern VA area!

Ariel484 · May 24, 2011

Love the report so far!!

Congrats on the weight loss, you look fantastic! An upcoming wedding is for sure a great motivator when it comes to getting one's butt in gear (speaking from experience...). Oh, and love the hat

That is dedication, heading out at 4AM. I had no idea people did that!

Can't wait for more!

PartOfYourWorld · May 24, 2011

Loving the trip report! And congrats on your weight loss!

That's crazy how you guys went to the park at 4am! I guess for a weekend like Star Wars Weekend you definitely have to! But definitely worth it!

Glad you loved Star Tours! I've read so many great reviews about it I can't wait to ride it for the first time in September!

And your bachlorette party I'm sure will be tons of fun, especially since you have some awesome princesses joining you!

Can't wait for you to post the rest!!!!!

skeletor1990 · May 24, 2011

Fashionista007 said:
Then we walked to Japan and saw Miyuki!

I was at Epcot on 5/19, and have a very similar photo to this so we must have been watching her at the same time. How funny!

I'm really enjoying your report and congratulations on your upcoming wedding! It sounds like you have a lot of really wonderful things planned.

My family missed out on all of the excitement of the opening of Star Tours 2.0 while we were there, so it's great to hear about your experiences!

duran385 · May 25, 2011

Nice report and great pics, star wars weekends sounds like a blast although i dont know if i could get up that early lol.

Fashionista007 · May 25, 2011

Rach&Eric said:
Yay, I am loving your TR and your pics are awesome!!!! Can't wait for more

Thanks Rach! I'll have the next installment sometime today

derelicte19 said:
I wasn't too enthused with seeing MMY when we were there 3 weeks ago but I'm soooo glad I did. It was so cool. And I teared up as well (as I do during Wishes, Fantasmic and Spectro lol)
I'm excited to ride 2.0 when we go again in November!
Congrats on joining the Annual Pass Club I will be joining soon as well, though you got a better deal on yours than I will on mine:lol:

MMY is totally overwhelming when Walt says "To all who come to this happy place, welcome". I LOVE it! Here's a trivia tidbit about the partners statue - Walt is pointing to all the happy guests welcoming them into the park with Mickey. I just love that he created something so that people could share happy memories with their families.

I'm pretty sure my Annual Passes weren't "free", they probably build them into the cost for a Disney Fairytale Wedding. For my 18 guests, it's getting to be upwards of $250/head. But it's worth every penny IMO! :sohappy:

HollyBelle said:
OMG! Did they actually fill this queue? That is INSANE! Talk about hardcore.

Yes they did fill the queue. I should have taken a picture as we walked by later but we were excited to go meet Ashley Eckstein so I forgot

Thank god for fast passes! We didn't even wait 5 minutes.

diddy_mouse said:
I love the title!

First of all big congrats on your weight loss! You look awesome! And your hat is just the bees knees. I wish I could wear hats...

Secondly I would LOVE to have gone to the opening of Star Tours 2.0. I was reading all the tweets about it and my little Star Wars heart was all a flutter. And I totally did *not* go check out Ashley Eckstein's website as I was reading through your report. *cough, cough*

Finally I am looking forward to the rest of your report! :sohappy:

Thank you so much! The opening of Star Tours was definitely an experience. I'm SO glad we were there. I was there for the opening of Mission Space and Philharmagic back in 2003 but it was nothing compared to this. I was in total nerd heaven!

I'm so glad you checked out HerUniverse.com! I think eventually I'll just buy everything. I want to get the imperial symbol necklace and earrings next! Even though we're girl nerds doesn't mean we have to be frumpy!

cathyy said:
Great report so far!! Congrats on the 65lbs lose!! That is awesome and it is incredibily hard work!!!!!!
Can't wait for the rest of the report and for the wedding report!! :sohappy:

Thanks Cathy! I never really said I was on a "diet". Instead I just made a lifestyle choice. I was so unhappy with our pictures from 2009 and embarassed that I had let myself get that big. When I was in high school and college I was in the 120's. I'm on the short side too so I put on weight very easily because there's no where for my calories to go. I just have to be vigilant and exercise. Wii Fit helped me a lot. I highly recommend it!

foreverbelle said:
Holy cow would you look at the que! Unbelievable. I know my hubby is looking forward to that this summer, but with that I will be lucky if we get fastpasses for it.

OK Ashley is gorgeous. I just have to say that. And I love love your shirt you wore to meet her.

I would dif say you aren't having very good luck with the food service are you? I am so sorry to hear that.

I didn't know what to expect of MMY but I agree it is so much better live and in person than it was on youtube.

Well thank god we are not the only ones to strike up convos while waiting in line. I always find it interesting who you meet, their stories...etc..

And next time we go to B'more (will actually be up there next weekend.) I will dif be thinking of you. Since we are from the Northern VA area!

I don't think you'll have an issue riding Star Tours this summer. When we were sitting on DME I checked my Lines app and Star Tours only had a 10 minute wait. I think it was just craziness for that opening weekend.

Ashley was definitely a highlight of our trip. She is just the nicest person! And she was genuinely happy for us and excited to hear about our wedding plans. Plus she's an ex Cast Member so she's totally into Disney just like all of us! One of us...One of us....

Our luck with QS did get better and we also ate @ Coral Reef using our brand new shiny Tables In Wonderland card! That's coming up in Day 3 which I hope to post sometime today.

We love talking to other guests about their experiences and sharing their magical memories! On this trip we mostly talked to adults but on our last trip Jason struck up conversations with some little kids that were hilarious. I think his video game t shirts make kids flock to him!

Hello in Northern VA! My parents live in Culpeper, VA so I go down there a lot!

Fashionista007 · May 25, 2011

Ariel484 said:
Love the report so far!!

Congrats on the weight loss, you look fantastic! An upcoming wedding is for sure a great motivator when it comes to getting one's butt in gear (speaking from experience...). Oh, and love the hat

That is dedication, heading out at 4AM. I had no idea people did that!

Can't wait for more!

Thanks for reading! Yes my wedding is the biggest motivator on the weight loss. I know that my pictures will be posted all over the interwebs and I'm hoping to get on the Disney Blog! I'm thinking another 10 lbs will do it. I just hope I can motivate myself to get her done by the time I go for my first dress fitting which should be in the next month.

PartOfYourWorld said:
Loving the trip report! And congrats on your weight loss!

That's crazy how you guys went to the park at 4am! I guess for a weekend like Star Wars Weekend you definitely have to! But definitely worth it!

Glad you loved Star Tours! I've read so many great reviews about it I can't wait to ride it for the first time in September!

And your bachlorette party I'm sure will be tons of fun, especially since you have some awesome princesses joining you!

Can't wait for you to post the rest!!!!!

Thank you very much! Too bad 4AM wasn't early enough to see Anthony Daniels. We talked about trying again Sat or Sun but we were just too tired. We're planning to go back next year. I'd really like to go one year when Warwick Davis is there.

Enjoy Star Tours! It's definitely something you will want to do over and over since there are so many different scenes and the ride is different every time. I love that I got picked as the rebel spy. The CM made my first ride incredibly magical! I wanted to go back and thank her but she was busy ushering in new tourists.

OMG I cannot wait for my Akershus Princess Bachelorette party!! I'm thinking instead of the bride ears I'm going to wear my actual tiara for that event. Gotta really princess it up!!

skeletor1990 said:
I was at Epcot on 5/19, and have a very similar photo to this so we must have been watching her at the same time. How funny!

I'm really enjoying your report and congratulations on your upcoming wedding! It sounds like you have a lot of really wonderful things planned.

My family missed out on all of the excitement of the opening of Star Tours 2.0 while we were there, so it's great to hear about your experiences!

That's too funny you saw Miyuki on 5/19 too! She's fantastic and we always enjoy her show.

If you have little ones, then the opening of Star Tours was not for them. It was SO hot and crowded that I don't really think I would have taken a child there. But it was something to experience and I'll never forget it. Poor Jason is going through WDW withdrawl

I guess writing TRs helps me but he isn't allowed on this site right now because there are pictures of me in my wedding dress in my wedding planning report!

duran385 said:
Nice report and great pics, star wars weekends sounds like a blast although i dont know if i could get up that early lol.

Thanks for reading! We ended up using the same camera for this trip as our last one but I did some research before we left so I knew which settings to use for everything. Our pics came out MUCH better than last time. I still want to upgrade to a DSLR for our wedding though.

We did have a blast at SWW but you'll notice by the end of the trip we failed to ride RnRc, ToT, and all the mountains at MK

The crowds were too much to pack everything in so that was a bummer. We're used to value season where you don't even need fast passes half the time! Can't wait to go back in September!

MEyeSeeKayEY · May 25, 2011

Great report so far! Can't wait for more...

MillerPoppins · May 25, 2011

Love your trip so far! And how much of a Star Wars fan you are! It's so fun finding other girls that are Star Wars fans, there isn't a whole lot of us out there! Love the hat by the way!

Master Yoda · May 25, 2011

Fashionista007 said:
Day 2 – Friday, May 20, 2011

I got up at the crack of 3AM and we were out the door a few minutes before 4AM. Our cab was right there and ready for us which we really appreciated. We appreciated it so much that we gave the driver a 100% tip which I’m sure he appreciated

Unfortunately our efforts were not enough to grab fast passes for Anthony Daniels because his line was already cut off We were both incredibly disappointed. We got in line for Ashley Eckstein instead. We struck up some conversations with the surrounding nerds so the time passed pretty quickly.

Been there, done that got a Billie Dee Williams and Ray Park autograph.

plaz10 · May 25, 2011

skeletor1990 said:
I was at Epcot on 5/19, and have a very similar photo to this so we must have been watching her at the same time. How funny!

I'm really enjoying your report and congratulations on your upcoming wedding! It sounds like you have a lot of really wonderful things planned.

My family missed out on all of the excitement of the opening of Star Tours 2.0 while we were there, so it's great to hear about your experiences!

I was also there and my pics look similar as well. Did your flamingo have "expensive black boots?" followed by a penguin? If so - we were there too! Crazy small world

Fashionista007 · May 25, 2011

MEyeSeeKayEY said:
Great report so far! Can't wait for more...

Thanks for reading! I'm gearing up for the next installment now

MillerPoppins said:
Love your trip so far! And how much of a Star Wars fan you are! It's so fun finding other girls that are Star Wars fans, there isn't a whole lot of us out there! Love the hat by the way!

I don't know why more girls aren't Star Wars fans! There are 2 love stories to swoon over ladies! I'm actually more into The Clone Wars cartoon than the movies. You can't beat Ahsoka Tano - the most awesome female Jedi! I'm all about powerful women

Master Yoda said:
Been there, done that got a Billie Dee Williams and Ray Park autograph.

How early did you have to get there for those autographs? We're definitely planning to go back next year but we would rent a car so we can take cots and do it up right. Now we know to get there before 4AM! People were lining up at 2PM on Thursday. We should've known better but now at least we've experienced it once so we know what to do for next time.

The next installment is coming up soon! I have to take care of the laundry first though hehe :hammer:

Fashionista007 · May 25, 2011

plaz10 said:
I was also there and my pics look similar as well. Did your flamingo have "expensive black boots?" followed by a penguin? If so - we were there too! Crazy small world

That is so funny! I don't remember seeing a penguin, she did a Dragon after the Flamingo which was SO cool!

Master Yoda · May 25, 2011

Fashionista007 said:
How early did you have to get there for those autographs? We're definitely planning to go back next year but we would rent a car so we can take cots and do it up right. Now we know to get there before 4AM! People were lining up at 2PM on Thursday. We should've known better but now at least we've experienced it once so we know what to do for next time.

My wife and I got there right at 3 AM and I was the second to last person to get a Billie Dee fastpass that was not stand by. My wife had maybe 20 people behind her for Ray Park. It seems like the time you need to get there gets earlier and earlier each year.

Fashionista007 · May 25, 2011

Master Yoda said:
My wife and I got there right at 3 AM and I was the second to last person to get a Billie Dee fastpass that was not stand by. My wife had maybe 20 people behind her for Ray Park. It seems like the time you need to get there gets earlier and earlier each year.

I'm really surprised that 3AM was early enough for Billy Dee. I'll bet we just missed the cut off for Anthony Daniels. Oh well, we sat in the second row for his show Inside The Saga. That's coming up on Day 4!

Fashionista007 · May 25, 2011

Day 3 – Saturday, May 21, 2011

Wedding Goodies!

Today was our meeting with Rev Kev Knox so we took a bus to MK and then the monorail to Grand Floridian.

Practicing for post wedding pictures!

We walked to the Wedding Pavilion and took some pictures.

Fashionista007 · May 25, 2011

We’ll be back @ Franck’s on Monday to meet with our wedding planner!

I cried when I envisioned our names on the marquee…

We couldn’t go in though because they were getting ready for a wedding. A wedding planner, Jessica took a picture of us on the bridge which was very nice of her.

After that we had some time to eat breakfast so we went to Gasparilla grill. This was such a huge disappointment. The food was the same as every other resort and it was cold. Pretty unacceptable for a hotel that costs over $400/night. Luckily we came back here on Monday and the food was great. I hope our timing was bad because it was the tail end of breakfast but still. That place *should* be flawless.

Fashionista007 · May 25, 2011

The King’s Speech

We made our way to the lobby a few minutes early and RevKev was already there waiting by the door. He was fantastic. I don’t think I have mentioned it on this site before but I have a stutter. The King’s Speech is one of my favorite movies and I thought it was a very accurate portrayal of what I go through on a daily basis and what I am capable of when I put my mind to it. I went to speech therapy for about 20 years and now I wear a SpeechEasy device so it’s barely noticeable and I’m pretty fluent. I’m writing about it here because it directly impacts my feelings about the wedding. I am petrified to have a problem during the ceremony. It’s a big reason we’re having an Escape wedding because I could never stand up there in front of hundreds of people and say vows. I knew I wanted it to be an intimate ceremony.

We talked about my issues with stuttering and RevKev suggested he pose the vows as a question so all I have to say is I do. He said the last thing I need is to be worried about it as I walk down the aisle and I should enjoy my special day. My Mom cried when I told her this story and I’m getting misty over it now myself. I feel completely at ease now and I can’t wait! He’s totally right, if I’m stressing over it enough to meet with him in person then we just customize it to fit our needs. We reviewed all of our options and he walked us through the day. Then he took a picture of us for his records and he suggested we go outside and take a picture next to the town car. He hugged me goodbye and shook Jason’s hand. I love him already!

We hopped a bus to Hollywood Studios and went straight to the backlot express for the WDW Radio meet of the month (WDWRadio.com). We talked to Beci Mehnken of MEI MouseFan Travel first and I told her how wonderful Kathy (our travel agent) has been and how happy we are with MouseFan travel. She was really nice and thanked us and asked if we would send her an email with our testimony so she could use it in promotional materials. We chatted about our upcoming wedding and she was really excited for us. Then we met Lou Mongello, host of the WDW Radio Podcast, Newscast, and various books and audio guides! When I introduced myself he said he remembered my name. I told him it was probably from Twitter or his live chats during newscasts every Wed @7:30PM EST WDWRadioLive.com. We told him about our upcoming wedding and he gave us a copy of Celebrations Magazine and an Audio Guide as an engagement present! I’ve been a fan of his for years so I was just tickled pink to get to finally meet him. We took a nice photo of the 4 of us.

I spotted Matt Hochberg (StudiosCentral.com) and we talked about our ride on Star Tours. He was happy to hear I got picked as the rebel spy! Then I started to talk to him about web dev stuff and he said they were always looking for help and to talk to Henry Work (TouringPlans.com) who was also there. We went to talk to him too and found out he’s from Columbia, MD! We were practically neighbors! He told me to email him any ideas I have. I sure will!! Those guys are awesome! I would love to combine my love for Technology and Disney and I’m really looking forward to the possibility of working with them.

After that we rode the backlot tour.

I Love You...I Know...Wedding Planning and Star Wars Weekends May 2011

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