Trip Report Our Fairytale Wedding

MagicalMaci · Aug 4, 2022

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 4 Part 11: The Reception Part 4 - Time to Party!

The dancing started right back up and the cake was cut and served buffet style so everyone could choose their flavor. The dancing really picked up at this point and we had a great time on the dance floor! DJ JW really got the vibes of my eclectic music taste and made magic happen. The only downside on reflection is there weren’t really many slow songs played. Since it was so late at this point the dancing really felt short in the end which was disappointing. (We had about 30ish mins cut off our reception when Harmonius was at 9:45 instead of the typical 9pm Epcot fireworks slot.) But still we had so much fun! I actually missed the last slow song because I knew Jimmy wanted to dance with our girls at the “next one” and I desperately had to pee so I used the break to run to the restroom and then there weren’t any more slow songs!

Okay but does anyone look good doing the Cha Cha Slide?

I went back to our table for water at some point and found a plate with three slices of cake on it so I didn’t have to choose! I only had a few bites of each but honestly couldn’t pick a favorite flavor and was looking forward to leftover cake for breakfast the coming week. (Which ended up being a disaster, Debbie didn’t realize they didn’t cut the top tier and gave it to her at the end of the night. It got crushed and was left out for three days before we found it) Because it took so long to get to cake, so many of our guests had left at this point so there was a LOT of cake leftover. We brought to go boxes that my girls assembled so the DFTW team would box up the sliced cake as parting gifts for our guests (the only prepared food DFTW lets you take from their events.) I really hope it all got eaten!

MagicalMaci · Aug 4, 2022

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 4 Part 12: The Reception Finale

We took a photo of the whole group towards the end of the night, which meant unfortunately there were a lot of people missing. You learn so many lessons having a wedding, but there isn't really a chance to learn from your mistakes here lol. My friend got married in April and did her group photo right after the ceremony, that was much smarter.

I made a game time decision Sunday morning to add something special and I’m so glad they were able to pull it off for me (I was having FOMO for not having the characters, this add on was much cheaper). The DJ had everyone circle around the dance floor with us in the middle. Our last song came on in no time and it was “Remember This” by Jonas Brothers (I love them!) and then my final surprise of the night for my guests (and even Jimmy), confetti rained down on us! It was beautiful and just pure magic.

Guest perspective

Then we realized just how much cake was left over since so many people had left before it was served. My bridesmaids quickly went to work assembling some more cake boxes to take the rest of the leftovers home and everyone was able to leave with some (except us somehow we didn’t get any) and Jimmy's mom and the girls went to work collecting all our stuff from our signs, guestbook and photobook leftover cake and kisses etc. while everyone else made their way back to the busses. But of course the bus couldn’t leave without us so they had to wait.

I also played in the confetti while they were gathering things.

I didn't mention it but I had also brought a backup dress to change into after our first dance because my dress was so tight in my chest I didn’t think I’d make it all night. I was so self conscious all night because I felt like I was busting out of it. It fit perfectly a month earlier and my weight hadn't changed in that timeframe but my seamstress swears she didn’t alter the chest area at all when she added the thicker straps… it was definitely a little more risqué than planned but I ended up never changing. And then I almost left without the dress

thankfully I remembered and ran back and then we walked out into the empty Epcot (surreal!) and to the busses back stage.

We had our two charter busses to go to our 5 resorts plus the Wedding Pavilion for anyone who parked there. Thankfully it seemed like everyone got on the right busses and got home in once piece (you had to leave on the charter busses, no walking through the closed Epcot to normal exits). We got on ours and chatted with those around us. We stopped at the Waldorf first and then onto Contemporary finally around 2:30am where we basically fell asleep into bed. We were exhausted! What a magical and amazing day!

erstwo · Aug 4, 2022

Wow! I agree - an amazing day! You’re so right - there are so many things you can’t realize about a wedding until you live through your own, but if it helps - by the photos- your looks like absolute perfection!

MagicalMaci · Aug 7, 2022

erstwo said:
Wow! I agree - an amazing day! You’re so right - there are so many things you can’t realize about a wedding until you live through your own, but if it helps - by the photos- your looks like absolute perfection!

Thank you so much!

MagicalMaci · Aug 7, 2022

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 5 Part 1: Animal Kingdom!

To say we were exhausted was an understatement. But because I’m cheap we had to switch hotel rooms today so we didn’t get to sleep to our hearts content. Today we were switching over to the Contemporary Main Tower so we had to pack everything up. I think we got up around 10 and we’re definitely not out by 11, but we tried! We had leftovers from the prior day for breakfast and got everything together. Bell Services came and took all our stuff over for transfer and we were on our way.

We took any extra food back over to the “family” villa and found that the kids were also not moving fast this morning even though all they had to do was wake up and get dressed. We encouraged them and eventually we got out the door just after 12 I think.

It was a beautiful day but surprisingly crowded in the parks. We took the opportunity to get some family photos with the AK tree because I love it and headed in. I have DAS for some issues I have and I was so thankful today. I wouldn’t have really been able to do anything without it due to the crowds. We made our way over to Everest, stopping to see the animals along the way. The close call with a yeti was just what we needed to wake up and really get the day going.

Next up was snack time because Jimmy was getting hungry. We stopped at one of the carts for some dumplings to share and they were delicious!

We headed over to the Safari next and as always just loved it. The lions weren’t out which was disappointing but alas. We headed to Gorilla Falls on the way out because the kids really wanted to see the aviary of all things.

We did end up zig zagging a little because next up was Dinosaur. We were going to do Flight of Passage but the wait time was insane so we wanted to see if it would go down a bit first. On our way to Dinosaur we caught some of the new kite show from the bridge. It’s cute but I don’t think I need to go out of my way to see it.

MagicalMaci · Aug 7, 2022

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 5 Part 2: Prehistoric adventures!

One of my favorite Disney treats are the hand dipped ice cream sandwiches so we made a pit stop at Dino Bites and got some more snacks to share. I got the 50th cookie sandwich special and it was fine but the cookies were too hard so the ice cream kept smooshing out. The kids got an ice cream sundae. We were all happy for a nice cold treat and break in the shade because it was seriously hot for December.

Somehow in front of Dinosaur is my “must take every trip” pic (although I didn’t hit AK either of my October trips so I missed a few unfortunately.) so we stopped and snapped a few and onto travel back in time we went! The wait time for Flight of Passage dropped so we were able to get a return time and Pandora would be our next stop.

Oh and yeah, I left my wedding hair in, that was more effort than I needed this morning.

Flight of Passage was incredible as always. It is Jimmy's favorite ride. It was pushing 4:30 at this point and we had a an early dinner ADR at the Contemporary to get back for so we said goodbye to the kids while they went to go on Navi River Journey and meet up with the grandparents who at some point made it over to Animal Kingdom finally.

Jimmy and I headed out of the park and onto a bus!

We love Edna Mode · Aug 7, 2022

Much luck and happiness. I loved reading your trip report, your wedding looked beautiful!

MagicalMaci · Aug 8, 2022

We love Edna Mode said:
Much luck and happiness. I loved reading your trip report, your wedding looked beautiful!

Thank you so much!

MagicalMaci · Aug 8, 2022

I meant to share these before moving onto more normal Disney stuff (there are still a few wedding surprises to come though!)

If anyone is interested…

Trailer video: https://mediazilla.com/Z2w2YQ4u52

Feature film:

Maci and Jimmy

This is "Maci and Jimmy" by Trinity Wedding Cinema on MediaZilla

mediazilla.com

cgersic · Aug 8, 2022

Your photos are sooo good, but this one in particular caught my eye! What a great shot!

MagicalMaci · Aug 8, 2022

cgersic said:
View attachment 658882
Your photos are sooo good, but this one in particular caught my eye! What a great shot!

Aww thank you! I love taking pics, but just use my iPhone (with a Pop Socket so I don't drop it doing things like this LOL!) because I hate lugging around heavy cameras!

MagicalMaci · Aug 8, 2022

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 5 Part 3: An Interesting Start to Dinner

So we made our way back to the Contemporary just in time for our dinner reservation at Steakhouse 71. There was lots of drama around this dinner with my grandpa first inviting himself, but then my cousin fixed that by making sure they all went to dinner together so that Jimmy and I could have a nice meal together as newlyweds. Only they left without my mom! There’s some bad blood between her and her brother so idk if it was intentional or just a true mistake but she was super bummed so we asked if we could add a third to our table and were able no problem at all. She did so much for us this weekend it was nice to be able to treat her to dinner but really we just needed time alone to decompress. Either way, I was excited to try this new restaurant! I love the Contemporary and love the idea behind this 1971 themed joint.

We were sat at a lovely table by the wall and our server came over and he was, interesting. He referred to himself with a nickname which I'm not posting publicly as to not call him out online and was nice enough at first, making recommendations and being personable. But our service quickly deteriorated with us having to ask for things multiple times and just generally feeling forgotten about.

We started with drinks of course and ordered some apps. I don’t love when restaurants make bread service an app you have to pay for, but the table next to us had it and it looked goooood so I ordered it. We also got the vegan onion rings and the classic bacon and eggs.

The bread was dry

definitely looked better than it tasted. Definitely not worth the price. The onion rings (our server's recommendation) were so crispy and delicious! And of course the bacon and eggs was a highlight. I’m so glad they kept this from the Wave's old menu.

This is where things really started to go south. Our server said if we were ready to order he’d take our orders now, we said yes and then he walked away. Our drinks were empty and it had been a while before he finally returned. When he finally came back we put in our steak orders and confirmed how we wanted them cooked according to their descriptions of medium etc.

Well around this time our server comes back and says someone else will be taking care of us from now on and walks away. Weird but okay. Turns out we’ve been handed over to a manager and he is great at trying to get us caught up and feeling taken care of. He was so great about letting us try a few wines to decide which bottle we wanted to order and brought that over relatively quickly.

MagicalMaci · Aug 8, 2022

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 5 Part 3: A Disappointing Dinner

Our steaks finally come and two out of the three of them are cooked wrong. Jimmy's is basically well-done and he ordered medium rare. Mine is super rare and I ordered medium. Moms prime rib is cooked perfectly though (I mean, you can see how it is cooked when it is plated, so I'm sure that helps!). I had the mac and cheese as my side and kept that while they took my steak away to re-fire it. The mac and cheese was tasty. We also did the sauce flight and did have fun trying all the sauces. The béarnaise and the red wine reduction were my favorite. We also liked the pepper sauce but it didn’t go as well with filet as the other two.

New York Strip & Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Filet Mignon & Macaroni and Cheese (sorry this pic isn't great, I'll try to find a better one)

Prime Rib and Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Sauce Flight

They bring back a new steak and this one is medium well

Jimmy's comes back cooked correctly but all the good char and flavor on the outside is missing. He leaves my steak but says he’s going to bring a new one that is cooked correctly. It also wasn’t and I basically begged him to stop bringing me steak at this point

The sides were good though, that Yorkshire pudding with the prime rib was on point! The mac and cheese and mashed potatoes made everyone happy. But for a restaurant to have "steakhouse" in the title, I mean come on, you really need to cook steak correctly.

They were going to give us a comp dessert for our wedding celebration but he insisted he bring us three for all the mistakes that were made!! Aside from the "comp dessert for the newlyweds" comment, we didn't really feel like they even cared that it was our FIRST DAY as newlyweds, no congrats, no anything really. We felt so much more love from Kona Café a few days earlier. We were too full so we asked for the dessert to go so we could enjoy them at a later time and made our way out of the restaurant. We wanted a nice relaxing meal, but this took so long and we were so tired at this point. We really just wanted to get out of there and be done with it all. We had a very early morning the next day and wanted to settle in for the night. I might try the lounge here in the future but otherwise I’m not rushing back anytime soon. I do appreciate how the manager tried to pick up the pieces and that's why I won't write it off completely, I know so many people love this new addition to the dining options, but for how tired we were, it just wasn't a great fit for us.

joshsprincess921 · Aug 8, 2022

Wow, sorry to hear about the negative experience at Steakhouse 71. The disappearing act by the server sounds so weird!
I've only had lunch there, which was very good, but I was never intrigued by the dinner menu.

MagicalMaci · Aug 8, 2022

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 5 Part 4: I just want sleep!

I headed to the front desk after dinner to get keys for the room. Since Jimmy and I were on multiple reservations with all the moving rooms and family rooms etc, our app and Magic Bands weren’t working to unlock doors. I made this known when I asked for the keys to the new room. We would be on the 10th floor with a MK view (a little pixie dust from our room block coordinator with that view!). Our wedding guests were also on the 10th floor on the other side facing the lake, so this was perfect for us at least.

We head on up and… our keys don’t work. I go back down to the desk and explain again and she recodes the keys. I go back up and… our keys don’t work. I’m honestly so exhausted at this point and SO over this. I go back down again and there’s a line at the front desk now. So I wait. I go to the same person again and explain again. She goes in back and it feels like forever before she comes back out. She said she coded the keys to the room instead of to our accounts and it should definitely work this time. I’m skeptical and ask her to come with me. We are finally in the room!! I had wanted to see the fireworks from our balcony but it was too late by the time we finally made it in, so that was a major bummer with the room view, but still gorgeous to take it all in.

While all this is going on my family wants to meet for drinks again as they are leaving late tonight (driving) and tomorrow morning. Since only my mom lives in Texas with me, we agree to a quick drink to say farewell since it will be quite some time before we get to see them all again. Mom graciously agrees to stay and wait for Bell Services for us so we can go say bye to the family over a nightcap.

We are back at the Outer Rim for the pure ease of it and while it’s less crowded than Saturday, it’s the same server and she is still slow as ever. The fam had a great dinner at Yachtsman while we had our Steakhouse 71 disaster and honestly I was jealous

We reminisced about the weekend and enjoyed about an hour together. Eventually my cousin went upstairs to say bye to my mom so they could get on the road. I was so tired at this point but soldiered on because I only get to see my family once a year and this was it!
Finally the night died down and we were able to retire to our room. Did I mention I had a 3am wake up call Tuesday morning? Yeah we needed to be in bed hours ago but I think it was about 11:30pm when we finally made it. We returned to the room to find my mom had decorated it with our wedding floral that she ended up with the previous night. It was so pretty! I also ordered a "12 days of macarons" from an awesome Ear for Each Other vendor - Sweet Creations by Melissa and dig into my first cookie, delicious! I've ordered from her a few times now and am always impressed. Unfortunately I didn't get to eat them all, just ended up too full to enjoy some nights. But the ones I tried were all so good and they were adorable. I spent some time pulling all the bobby pins out of my hair from the wedding and took a quick shower because it was pretty gross at this point. Then finally we were able to go to bed!

I like the new Contemporary design except for the curtains and maybe the closet. I just don’t feel like they need to put IP into every single thing, and I really don't know how the Incredibles fits in here, even though it's Jimmy's favorite Pixar movie and we love it!

MagicalMaci · Aug 8, 2022

joshsprincess921 said:
Wow, sorry to hear about the negative experience at Steakhouse 71. The disappearing act by the server sounds so weird!
I've only had lunch there, which was very good, but I was never intrigued by the dinner menu.

Maybe I will have to try breakfast or lunch, the two apps were good and the wine was great. It was just a bad combo of exhaustion and slowness. It was bad either way, but probably wouldn't have been so bad if I just didn't want to call it a night and check in etc.

BwlrBry212 · Aug 9, 2022

MagicalMaci said:
Maybe I will have to try breakfast or lunch, the two apps were good and the wine was great. It was just a bad combo of exhaustion and slowness. It was bad either way, but probably wouldn't have been so bad if I just didn't want to call it a night and check in etc.

The burger there is hands down the best burger on property, in my opinion.

joshsprincess921 · Aug 9, 2022

BwlrBry212 said:
The burger there is hands down the best burger on property, in my opinion.

That's what I had and I have to agree. So good!

MagicalMaci · Aug 10, 2022

BwlrBry212 said:
The burger there is hands down the best burger on property, in my opinion.

joshsprincess921 said:
That's what I had and I have to agree. So good!

Burgers are easily one of Jimmy's most favorite foods - so we will definitely have to circle back and give that a try!

MagicalMaci · Aug 10, 2022

Our Fairytale Wedding Day 6 Part 1: A 3am Wake Up Call

So one of the benefits to being an official "Disney Bride" is you have the option to add a Premier Portrait Session. These happen before the parks open and the goal is that it will provide some magical photos (this was very inconsistent for brides around my time, some people got some unfortunately terrible pics, and they were super super delayed in sending them out, so I was SUPER nervous for months waiting for these).

I wanted hair and makeup professionally done for the cost of these photos, and since we were getting picked up at 5:30, that had to start at 3:30am. BRUTAL. But so worth it.

My main girl Stacie was busy today so she sent someone else who was equally as nice and fun! We set up in the bathroom to try to let Jimmy sleep a little longer and we did a different hair and makeup look today to mix it up. I absolutely loved how it turned out but the lipstick started smudging everywhere like 30 mins in

Definitely freaked me out for the final photos.

In no time we were dressed and ready and getting picked up for our photos, despite Jimmy being very very sleepy still. (So glad both of my dresses just zipped on!) we had Dawn as our photographer and I really liked her style from what I learned before the shoot. The perk to being at Contemporary for this is MK is so close we ended up getting an extra few minutes of photos I think

We had “Route 1” which is the Castle, the Carousel, the Wishing Well and the Tea Cups. I really wanted to pop over to the Tangled bathrooms but we weren’t allowed to deviate from route at all (and I didn't want the route that included it because I didn't like the other stops as much)

If you’re following the timeline, it’s 6am in December so it is very dark out. We started with the castle and then went back to the carousel for some more playful pics. We decided to skip the tea cups to get more with the castle and some with Main Street and the tree in the background as well. We couldn’t go as far down Main Street as I wanted because another couple got there first, but I'm still glad I pushed for this. We were told we were not allowed to take any cell phone pics, but other brides had their photographers taking pics for them on their phones, so that sucked a bit. But we snuck a few anyway

Once we wrapped up in MK we got back in the van to head over to Epcot. The sun was up at this point so the whole vibe of the Epcot photos was different. We did France, Morocco and Italy with a quick stop in front of AAR as well since that's where our wedding was

.

You can see the smudged lipstick here at the end quite a bit

It’s only an hour of photos in each park but with the early wake up and all the walking and posing, it’s exhausting! However, our morning wasn’t over yet!

Trip Report Our Fairytale Wedding

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