Planning our Swan Wedding

Sweet Melissa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Hi all! I didn't think I was going to start a thread like this, but now that the wedding date is getting closer, @pugmalion1 and I are becoming increasingly excited about our upcoming nuptials and Walt Disney World honeymoon. I just want to share!

On November 5th, we'll be tying the knot at Crescent Terrace at the Walt Disney World Swan hotel. It's outdoors and right along the canal that runs between the Boardwalk and the Swan and Dolphin, but feels very private for such a well-trod location.

SwanCrescentTerr3.jpg


We'll use this thread to share the details of our wedding events and hopefully give a little insight into working with the Swan and Dolphin, Just Marry!, a division of the Just Events Group and the contracted wedding planning service for S/D, and the other vendors we're hiring for our party. Thanks for listening to me babble!
 

Sweet Melissa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Congratulations! Looks like a beautiful spot.

Thank you! The space looks pretty plain as-is, but we're dressing it up with a fabric-draped chuppah, flower petals on the aisle, and chair covers. We thought about wrapping twinkle lights around the trees but decided to ship it since it will still be daylight during our 4:00 PM ceremony. I'll post pics of our décor inspiration later in the thread.
 

Sweet Melissa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The excitement ebbs and flows. I thought I would avoid the stress and frustration that most brides feel by keeping it small (less than 20 people total) and using a planner, but there are still those little hiccups! At the end of it, though, 8 years after our first date in Disneyland, Pug and I will be married. It's something we've both wanted for a very long time.
 

Sweet Melissa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Rehearsal Plans

Since everybody is from out of town, we're planning on making the rehearsal dinner something that everybody will be able to attend instead of just parents and the wedding party. That said, parents and the wedding party is pretty much our entire guest list. Including us, I think we're looking at a total of 20 people IF everybody brings dates.

Our rehearsal is at our ceremony site exactly 24 hours before the wedding itself. We're planning on exiting the Disney bubble that morning to pick up our marriage license from the Orange County courthouse, then Pug and the guys will go golfing while the ladies and I go for mani/pedis. After the rehearsal, we're having dinner at a place I have in the past called the REAL happiest place on Earth: the Cabana Bar and Beach Club.

cabana_2.jpg


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Pug wants a Cuban theme for the rehearsal, so it's linen suits, guyaberas, cigars and good food. I think Cabana is the perfect casual place for that.

After dinner, we're probably going to head in to Epcot for some nighttime Food & Wine Festival enjoyment and IllumiNations viewing.
 

Sweet Melissa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thank you, @farrellbarrel!

Decor for the ceremony is coming from Lee Forrest Design and Arc de Belle.

Lee is doing bouquets for me and my two maids of honor, plus fresh rose petals strewn along the aisle at Crescent Terrace. Working with Lee and his team has been a dream! I sent them some photos of bouquets I liked and told them about which flowers were my favorites and which were my not-so-favorites. They came up with the following for me:

Hand tied bouquet of mostly ivory flowers—ivory peonies, stock, anemones, white callas, ranunculus, tulips, white dendrobium orchids, etc.-— **attach client’s brooch to stems--wrap stems in blush satin ribbon.

I cannot even tell you how excited I am to be getting these flowers, some of which are VERY out of season in November. Lee's sourcing is amazing and his prices are just unbelievably reasonable.

Arc de Belle is responsible for the chuppah that we'll stand under during the ceremony. Below are some of our ceremony decor inspiration pics. The chuppah pictured is Arc's, and we'll be using the pictured pearl tie backs instead of the floral accents on the posts.

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Sweet Melissa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After the ceremony, we'll be heading over to Todd English's bluezoo for cocktail hour and a reception dinner. The guests will hang out in the lounge while Pug and I take some photos, then we'll head to the private dining room for dinner. Here's a photo of just a portion of their super-cool bar area, which has, in my opinion, the best bartenders and most delicious drinks on Disney property:

bluezoo_2.jpg


We won't have a finalized menu until September, but we've enjoyed everything we've ever had there. The current private dining menus sound so good too! This is a photo of the room where our group will be dining:

bluezoo_4.jpg


We have an option of either using the olive-colored chairs pictured (in person, they're not as beige as they look in the photo), or switching them out for other chairs that are a deep orange leather. We saw them both in person when we toured ceremony and reception sites on our last visit and I think we're going to opt for the orange. We're keeping the decor here simple. The restaurant offers votive candles either in the blue holders you see in this photo or orange. We haven't decided if we're using those or brining our own candles. We'll also add a few vases and use them to hold my bouquet and those of the two maids of honor.

The Zagat guide calls Bluezoo "elegant but not stuffy" and lauds its "top-shelf ambiance." I totally agree with these statements. Everything about the place is so modern and chic, and the food is outstanding. I'm really happy with our choice.

The private dining menus come with their own dessert, but we're also ordering a wedding cake from It's Tasty Too. Pug doesn't really care about cake, but I love it, and I argued that it wouldn't hurt him to have a wedding cake, but I'd be sad if I didn't get to have one. He was finally convinced when I told him the flavor options and that we could keep the top tier in our villa to much on during the honeymoon. The cool thing about It's Tasty Too is that they give all their wedding clients a complimentary anniversary cake, so when we go back to WDW for our first anniversary, we'll get a replica of our top tier. Talk about having your cake and eating it too! Here's the inspiration photo of the cake they'll be making for us:

rock-quarry-shoot-ideas-20.jpg


The top tier was Pug's choice as it's the one that we'll take with us after the reception. It will be banana cake with dulce de leche filling. The bottom tier, which we'll serve with dessert, is amaretto cake with cherry filling.

I'm told that we'll have a view of the aerial fireworks of the IllumiNations show from our dining room, but I don't think we'll stay at the restaurant long enough to see them. Dinner starts at 5:30 PM and they say it usually only takes about 3 hours from soup to nuts. Afterward, we plan to head over to Jellyrolls for our after-party. Anyone who will be there that night is welcome to stop by and celebrate with us! I'll be the one in the blush pink wedding dress. I promise, our group is lots of fun.

jellyrolls-00.jpg
 

Sweet Melissa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Today I called Disney Catered Events to inquire about adding an IllumiNations dessert party after our rehearsal dinner. We'll be assigned a catering sales rep in the next couple days and then I'll get info about which venues in Epcot are open for a group of our size and the menus they offer. I'm not sure yet if that's what we'll do, but I'm excited to hear about our options!
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
LOVE this!! The ceremony location is so pretty!! I've never even notcied it there before!! My good friends got married at a square in Savannah, GA in December and their ceremony was at 4pm, like yours, and it was super pretty as the sun was just beginning to set :)

Love the cake, too! You can't have a wedding without a cake in my opnion!! :)
 

Sweet Melissa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
LOVE this!! The ceremony location is so pretty!! I've never even notcied it there before!! My good friends got married at a square in Savannah, GA in December and their ceremony was at 4pm, like yours, and it was super pretty as the sun was just beginning to set :)

Love the cake, too! You can't have a wedding without a cake in my opnion!! :)

Thank you! We chose that ceremony time specifically so that we would have that good sunset light for photos during and after the ceremony.

I'm with you on the cake! I just realized I never mentioned the cake flavors we chose. The bottom layer (the one that we'll serve at the reception) will be amaretto cake with cherry filling. The top layer was Pug's choice: banana cake with dulce de leche filling.
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Thank you! We chose that ceremony time specifically so that we would have that good sunset light for photos during and after the ceremony.

I'm with you on the cake! I just realized I never mentioned the cake flavors we chose. The bottom layer (the one that we'll serve at the reception) will be amaretto cake with cherry filling. The top layer was Pug's choice: banana cake with dulce de leche filling.

LOVE LOVE LOVE amaretto!!! That might be my favorite flavor in the world!!! YUMM!! :) That and red velvet with cream cheese frosting.... ok, I'm officially hungry for some cake now!! :)
 

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