The last couple of weeks have been crazy-busy and there are lots of updates to post!
Big Big News!!!!
I just have to take a moment to share how proud I am of my darling Brian! After six months of treatments, we're so excited to announce that he has FINISHED chemotherapy! He'll have some check-ups and that sort of thing, but chances are very very good that this will be the end of it
Brian is absolutely amazing! He handled his treatments with as much strength as possible, and somehow managed to keep things "business as usual" at his production studio. Most of his clients never realized that he was away for several days every two weeks. We owe a lot of credit to his Disney-fanatic of an Office Manager / Production Manager. She went "above and beyond" to make sure things ran as smoothly as possible. I'm calling Amber my "Honorary Bridesmaid"! But I think the most amazing thing throughout this entire experience has been Brian's positive attitude. Even when he was in the middle of his treatments and just totally zapped of energy, he'd wake up with a smile on his face. His birthday is next week and we have so much to celebrate!!!
The DFTW Booking Process
Getting back to wedding stuff . . . we're working on the booking process as we speak! We called DFTW a few weeks ago to let them know that we were interesting in switching from Escape to Wishes due to the fact that we have more people planning to attend than we originally thought, and we were going to meet the Wishes minimum anyway. As an added bonus, they are offering special discounts on Photgraphy, Food & Beverage and Floral during our timeframe. Woo hoo!
So, they switched us from Bree, the Escape sales coordinator to Bill Barchick, a Wishes wedding coordinator. They left a meesage for him on a Friday afternoon, and he called me back on Monday morning. Bill immediately confirmed that our first choice ceremony and reception locations were available for our first choice dates and times, and put a hold on those spaces pending the Letter of Agreement. He also sent over the Wishes planning packet and menus for the California Grill. Soooooo . . . It's official!!!
Andreah and Brian
Disney's Wedding Pavilion
December 8th, 2009
5:00 PM
Reception to follow at California Grill
We've been emailing Bill back and forth all day today sending him the information that he needs to draft the Letter of Agreement, and we should be receiving that in a couple of weeks.
Today we got to experience the joys of attempting to set up a room block having no idea which resorts our guests will choose! We had already let everyone know that our favorite resorts are Pop Century, Port Orleans French Quarter and Contemporary. Brian and I will be staying at the Contemporary, so that will take care of 7 of our 25 room nights right off the bat. So we just split out the other rooms equally among Pop Century and Port Orleans French Quarter. I'm sure we'll need to make adjustments down the road.
Save the Dates
So, now that we know our date is available, we have been able to put together Save the Date packets to send to our friends and family. That's kept us pretty busy for the last couple of weeks, but the legwork is just about done. We wanted to make sure that OUR Save the Date information arrives BEFORE the guests receive the Disney Save the Dates. I just want to make sure that they know that they have many other options than booking through our room block.
Our Save the Date packages consist of the following items:
- A Save the Date card
- A small envelope for the Save the Date card
- A Printed Newsletter
- A "Pre-RSVP" Questionnaire
- A Stamped Return Envelope for the "Pre-RSVP" Questionnaire
- A few pieces of homemade confetti (Snowflakes, Castles, and a "Hidden" Mickey)
- An Outside Envelope to hold everything
- And finally . . . Custom Postage with our cartoon artwork!
As soon as our custom postage stamps arrive, we'll drop these babies in the mail and be well on our way! We've also updated our
website with the latest information because we're sure it'll be getting a lot of traffic when the Save the Dates arrive at their destinations.
Magic Kingdom / EPCOT Portrait Session
We've made an appointment for our Magic Kingdom / EPCOT portrait session for the day-after-the-day-after our wedding. That would be Thursday, December 10th at 5:30 AM . . . yikes!!!
Hair and Makeup
We've confirmed availability with Patricia Le Jeune for our Wedding date and our early-morning portrait session. We should be getting her contract this week.
So, I think that just about covers it. That's all the stuff we've been doing since our last update. Our next steps are:
- Select and book an officiant
- Wait for the Letter of Agreement from DFTW to arrive and send them a deposit
- Wait for the Patricia Le Jeune contract to arrive
- Keep checking on airfares for our travel dates, and
- Drop the Save the Dates in the mail as soon as our custom postage arrives
DF is a IT Technician, so I've just asked him if we can get hold of the program! 
...LOVE LOVE LOVE your STD!!!! They're so cute and very creative! Good job girl!
