Trip Report Our Fairytale Wedding

Hello! Several months have passed since we said "I do" at the most magical place on earth, but we are just finally wrapping up all of our post-wedding tasks and have gotten all the photos and videos back etc so I think it's finally time I put it to a trip report!

When: December 9-18, 2021
Where: Walt Disney World
Why: Wedding!!
Resorts: Saratoga Springs, Bay Lake Tower, Contemporary Resort and Beach Club Villas
Main Characters: Maci & Jimmy (bride and groom to be!)
Supporting Cast: Our four kids, Jimmy's family, Maci's family, Wedding Party, childhood friends, distant relatives - it's a big wedding y'all!

I'll start with some backstory. We got engaged on my 30th birthday trip to WDW back in 2019. It was a picture perfect moment, just the two of us in a near empty Epcot. My now-hubby always knew how important Disney was to me and that we'd be getting married there, but other than that I was open to most of the other details. After enjoying the rest of our trip for my birthday with our friends (there were 12 of us in total, it was great!), we looked at calendars and planned a date of 2/12/21, giving us over a year to save and plan for our perfect day. As you all well know, 2020 threw the world for a loop and Disney got hit hard, in October of 2020 we had to make the tough call to postpone our wedding due to all the intense restrictions on weddings through Disney Fairytale Weddings and social distancing protocols. Our new date was 12/12/21 - a new month, a new season, but thankfully, not a new year!

Our initial plan was to get married at the Yacht Club Wedding Gazebo since I used to work at Yacht Club it was special to me, and then we'd move to a ballroom there for the reception. But with December weather potentially being cold, we wanted an indoor ceremony location and with more time to save, we upgraded our reception location as well! So our wedding in December 2021 was honestly nothing like we planned and pictured for the first year of our engagement. We changed just about everything

My hubby has four kids and quite a large family, so around our wedding events we also made a little Disney vacation for them and did our best to split time between wedding stuff and family vacation stuff, so there will be a bit of both throughout this TR.

Welcome along, and I look forward to sharing it with you all!

 

[Laura Loves Tigger]

Congratulations! So enjoying your report! Your cookies looked fantastic!!

 

[MickeyCB]

I have absolutely no idea how you did all of this stuff up to this point without losing your mind!! Serious kudos to you for your organizational skills and temperament!

 

[MagicalMaci]

We are big fans of the Splitsville sushi. The welcome event looked like a lot of fun!

Right? So good!

Congratulations! So enjoying your report! Your cookies looked fantastic!!

Thank you!

I have absolutely no idea how you did all of this stuff up to this point without losing your mind!! Serious kudos to you for your organizational skills and temperament!

Honestly, me either LOL Thank you!

 

[MagicalMaci]

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 4 Part 1: It’s my wedding day!

While I had an alarm set for 9am, I missed turning off my other alarm that was set for 7ish so I had an early wake up call. I took some time to sit on the balcony but it was so foggy this morning you couldn’t even see the Magic Kingdom! I went back inside and just tried to relax a bit and enjoy the quiet moment before the crazy day ahead.

My bridesmaids starting showing up just after 9 to decorate the room and I had catering from Cooking with Character (found on Ear for Each Other, she's amazing, highly recommend!) deliver breakfast and sandwiches for later around 9:30am so things started moving very quickly after my quiet moment.

I could not believe how much food Celia (Cooking with Character) brought! We had two trays of fruit, two trays of "sticky Mickeys", and three breakfast casseroles plus two trays of tater tots! It was all so delicious. I’m so happy we went with her instead of doing Publix trays because it was great to have a hearty breakfast for the long day ahead. Publix has great sandwiches but their breakfast options were basically just muffins, I really wanted the proteins of some eggs to get through the day and a hot meal was so nice to have too. The wedding vendors we had were so impressed that I took such good care of my girls

Jimmy stayed long enough to get some breakfast before heading out back to the family room. The boys had plans to rent a pontoon boat this morning so he had something to look forward to as well. The boys had a blast while we got pampered.

For getting ready in our room it was me, my mom, my bridesmaids, my daughters and Jimmy's mom so there were 9 of us total and we had a team of 3 hair and makeup artists arrive at 10am to get to work on their magic!

Once everyone got settled I gave them their kisses project (put stickers on kisses) these were our favors. I wasn't going to do favors at all because they are expensive and no one ever uses those things again, but then I got the kisses idea which was cost effective and edible so we went with it.

The first three people were up for hair and makeup and people started rotating through food options. And of course we popped the bubbly! And then I went and got a bath to detox. I had planned to do this the night prior but I was up too late writing papers

my mom kept my champagne flute full and I did a little face mask and had some bath salts from Basin so it was so nice to just relax and have a few moments of peace now that the day was progressing and moving ahead. You can see the fog cleared up quite a bit too and it turned into quite a beautiful day.

 

[MagicalMaci]

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 4 Part 2: Getting Ready

The vibes in the getting ready room were great and everyone was having a great time. I brought a portable steamer for the girls bridesmaids dresses so some people got to work on that. They also had to steam my veil because unfortunately the person I paid to steam my dresses forgot it

At some point the girls brought leftover breakfast down to the other room for their dad and the boys. There was so much leftover and everyone was happy to be fed!!

We switched gears to our sammiches and once again I was so impressed with the quality and volume of food provided! She even provided a variety of full size condiments for us! The vegetarian sammies were a huge hit (pimento cheese and cucumber) and then we had Italian on Hawaiian rolls and ham and chicken deli sandwiches. Everything was delightful!

In no time I was up for hair and makeup and my stylist is so amazing. I just adore her. She made me beautiful

My photographers and videographers also started arriving around this time. I think they were scheduled around 2:30/3pmish. I took a minute to write a note to Jimmy, we were going to exchange them at first look but never did, and we still haven't opened them!

We took some adorable getting ready pics and an awesome tiktok which I'll have to find a way to link here. We were doing great on time until we realized my mom didn’t bring her dress with her to get changed and then we fell 20 minutes behind waiting for her to get back and finish up the “getting dressed” shots.

Oh and while we were waiting we packed up the charcuterie board into to go baggies for a pre-ceremony snack

 

[MagicalMaci]

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 4 Part 2: Getting Ready (Professional Photos)

Here are some more professional photos of the details and getting ready!

 

[cgersic]

Loving the photos!!! What a special time for you and I agree, your planning is top notch!

 

[erstwo]

Oh my gosh! Your DRESS! And those cute Mr and Mrs masks. And your invitations....and just everything.

 

[MagicalMaci]

Loving the photos!!! What a special time for you and I agree, your planning is top notch!

Loved my photographer <3 And thank you!

Oh my gosh! Your DRESS! And those cute Mr and Mrs masks. And your invitations....and just everything.

THANK YOU!! I really loved how just about everything turned out

 

[MagicalMaci]

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 4 Part 3: First Look

So we hopped in the luxury van we had arranged and were 20-25 minutes behind schedule at this point. Not a huge deal except the sun was going to set at 5:30pm and we wanted to get photos done in the daylight. So every minute we were late was a minute of daylight lost

We decided to do a first look to take advantage of light but also so that we could actually go and enjoy some of our cocktail hour with our guests. Our photographers found the perfect little secluded spot at the grand Floridian and unfortunately Jimmy was on time so he was waiting out there for quite a while, but his brother walked out there with him so they got a cute pic together at least

It was absolutely one of my favorite parts of the day, just a few quiet moments together in a beautiful location on a perfect Florida day.

People were already arriving for family and wedding party photos as we arrived at the Grand Floridian (another downside to being late) but also they were super early. I think we told them 5:30 and it was just before 5. So I ran away because they weren’t supposed to see me yet! I handed some things off to my planner and off I went. It was actually pretty far from the front of the GF to this little spot behind some of the buildings lol.

My mom and the girls headed into the Grand Floridian when I went to do the first look as we were doing wedding party and family photos right after first look so they rode over with me and just hung out while we had our moment. I loved seeing this in my Memory Maker photos the next day

I’m so glad we did the first look. It was so nice to have a few minutes just the two of us and Jimmy looked so handsome in his tux

we didn’t do anything special, although we had our little notes to each other written, we totally forgot them. Just said hi and chatted for a few mins and got some photos.

 

[MagicalMaci]

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 4 Part 4a: Photo Stroll & Wedding Party Photos

After the first look, we headed back towards the main building and did a few more photos along the way with the fountain before meeting up with the family and wedding party.

We had a long list of groups to get through but two of the groomsmen coming from the Waldorf had FOUR rides cancel on them so they were unfortunately late so we had to switch around the order a bit. Honestly I feel like I probably missed some combination and definitely didn't get a lot of individual photos that I would have loved to have it was a bit of a whirlwind trying to get people focused on the task at hand. You'll see we very quickly lost the sun.

​

 

[MagicalMaci]

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 4 Part 4b: Family Photos

Just a quick bridal portrait!

Jimmy's whole (adult) family side

My cousin and his wife (I don't have siblings, so they are the closest I've got and get to step in for family things!)

Jimmy and our kids - I just love this photo

bridal party

us and the kids

Jimmy & his siblings

My grandpa

My dad

My mom and grandma

 

[MagicalMaci]

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 4 Part 4c: A Few More Photos

Sorry, told you there were a lot of combinations of family members! Jimmy's family is big, and mine is complicated lol! I really just loved so many photos that we got so sorry you need to scroll through all of my random family members

My mom's side of the family

The whole wedding party plus our kids

Jimmy's parents

Love this photo of Jimmy and his parents

Flower girl hugs!

My dad and stepmom

My mama!

4 generations of ladies Would have been nice to get Jimmy's mom in here too

 

[MagicalMaci]

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 4 Part 5: A Small Detour

The limo had arrived early which was great so it was able to start shuttling guests over from the front of GF to the Wedding Pavilion to get settled in for the ceremony. We took that moment to run inside for some photos with the tree and gingerbread house since we’d ride over last. I really wanted these photos inside, there are a lot of Disney bridal portraits on the GF stairs and with the chandelier, but I wanted the holiday goodness over those pics for sure. It was still "masks inside resorts" time at Disney which is why they were all outdoors up until now, but thankfully no one gave us a hard time taking our masks off for a few quick pics here. Guests were actually super respectful and gave us space to get a few even though it was super busy in the lobby this evening. We ran into more of our wedding guests inside as well but now that our first look was done I cared much less about people seeing me. I actually jumped into my friends photos with the tree

​

We took the opportunity to just rest for a few minutes as well as the limo was still going back and forth with family members, and I sat over by the piano off to the side of the lobby where it was less crowded while Jimmy took a bio break and my photographer found me and decided it was the perfect opportunity for a bridal portrait and I just love what she came up with!

My mom also went off and found us some cocktails and water while we waited which was awesome. Seeing the selfie I took here (it was the first time I had my phone in a while) I realize now we didn't really get a lot of professional close up shots of us which is kind of a bummer.

Finally it was our turn to hop in the limo. Unfortunately our photographers had already headed over to get the set up and detail shots of the ceremony space, so we don't really have any photos of us with the limo but it was a lovely little ride over. My mom rode over with us and took care of all my stuff etc.

 

[Ellen Ripley]

Loving your pics and report and congratulations on marrying Captain James Kirk!

 

[cgersic]

I think it's really fun to look at wedding photos of people I don't know! Jimmy sure looks like his siblings!

 

[Katiekitten]

I'm loving the pictures!

 

[joshsprincess921]

Gorgeous wedding photos! I love everything!

 

[MagicalMaci]

Loving your pics and report and congratulations on marrying Captain James Kirk!

I wonder how long before that is going to get old for me, I still think it's cute but he's clearly heard it his whole life and is not nearly as entertained as I am when he says his name and they are like "James 'T' Kirk?!?!?"

I think it's really fun to look at wedding photos of people I don't know! Jimmy sure looks like his siblings!

Thank you for validating me

I'm loving the pictures!

Thank you!

Gorgeous wedding photos! I love everything!

Thank you!! I loved our photographer, hair and makeup and florist - I really lucked out

 

[MagicalMaci]

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 4 Part 6: The Ceremony

After the photos we made our way over to the wedding pavilion and I went into the bridal suite and Jimmy went to get a mic set up. My bridesmaids fed me cheese and water while we waited for everything to start. The bridal suite has a great little setup. Big mirrors, a water machine, and a private bathroom. The bridal suite is honestly a big perk to the Wedding Pavilion because the other locations don't have things like that.

In no time the announcements started for the unplugged ceremony and I heard the music start for everyone to start walking in. My dad came into the bridal suite when everyone left and I gave him his gifts and we both got a little emotional. Then we got recomposed and headed to the doors to get ready to walk down the aisle. While my girls and flower girls walked in to Disney music (Lavender Blue and At Last I See the Light) I did a song more personal to me and Jimmy from Dashboard Confessional. It was "Stolen" and slowed and instrumental, I don't think anyone else really knew what the song was but that really made me happy. (here's what it somewhat sounded like, we had an organ in the WP )

I heard the flower girls were a huge hit but of course I didn’t get to see them. But the ceremony space at the Wedding Pavilion was beautiful and I'm so so happy we changed our location to this iconic spot. We did very minimal floral and everything was able to be moved to our reception location as table decor which was a huge money saver!

These are out of order sorry, I now realize this is the girls leaving after the ceremony

We had a short and sweet ceremony with a unity candle as well. I loved our reverend who did exactly what we wanted. I didn’t think I’d get emotional since we were already married (whoops, secret is out, we eloped in 2020 cause covid) but I got choked up saying the vows of intention which apparently made all my guests also cry

In no time we were doing our recessional out and it was over in the blink of an eye! Thank goodness for photo and video honestly
Also, they had removed the requirement for guests to wear masks inside private event spaces (bride and groom requirement had been lifted a while ago) just a few weeks before the wedding. Many of our guests were super happy with this choice, but quite a few decided to still wear the masks as well, which I didn't like was in our photos at first, but I kind of like now that it's a sign of all we went through for this wedding!