Sophie & Scott's Home Wedding (09/20/08) & Disneymoon: 3 Days to Go!

[Queenie]

Thank you! Personally I think I have a really chubby face and broad shoulders but no one else seems to think so.

I've sorted out my flower girl's headdress thing today, or at least I think I have! I've been pretty set on what I wanted from the beginning. I wanted a flowery circlet like one the one I wore to my aunt and uncle's wedding in 1995 when I as bridesmaid. Here's a pic of me in all my "just-recovered-from-chicken-pox" glory that day:

Here is the one I've chosen from ebay:

The seller can make them in various colour options so I've chosen burgundy roses, ivory starflowers and an ivory bow at the back. I hope it turns out nicely, I've been told about 2 weeks for it to be made and delivered.

 

[Queenie]

*NOTE: This post contains links to a lot of our wedding music. It does not contain links to any music that can be downloaded, only streamed over the internet. I believe this means the links can be posted here without breaking any rules but please let me know if this is not the case.*

I think it's time we discussed music. It's an important part of our day and we've had lots of choices to make. We need:

-> Pre-Ceremony Music
-> Bridesmaids Entrance
-> Brides Entrance
-> Signing of the Register
-> Recessional
-> First Dance

The pre-ceremony music was reasonably simple. It's a collection of songs, mostly Disney classics, played on the piano. Think the music on the "Disney's Fairytale Weddings" CD but more piano based than strings.

The bridesmaids were a bit trickier. I originally thought of using "Procession" by Queen but it was too slow and funeral/dirgy. We needed a piece of instrumental music about 1 minute long and were really struggling until I figured, why does it have to be like that in it's original form, why don't I use my software to edit a piece of music so it fits? As such, my bridesmaids are walking in to the intro and outro of REM's "At My Most Beautiful" spliced together by me. It sounds beautiful.

My entrance was never in question, I've wanted the same piece for a few years now. I am walking in to The Wedding March BUT, the version played by Queen on the soundtrack to Flash Gordon! It's a loud, rock version of it and I love it.

Signing of the Register. This has also gone through a few incarnations. We initially thought of using a piano version of a song we like, as played by a friend. However an old family friend of Scott's is the lead singer/producer of a touring theatre group who perform songs from classic musicals. We found out he and his wife would only be aboe to make it for the ceremony so we have chosen one of the tracks off his CD for this. It's from Jekyll & Hyde oddly, and called "This is the Moment".

The recessional is the only thing we're not totally sure on still. Right now we are going for a section cut out of Fantasmic!

Our first dance is "Promise" by Kellie Coffey, aka the original song that the Illuminations end sequence is based on.

For a final touch to the wedding we are having the exit music that is played in the Magic Kingdom after Wishes has finished, to end our evening reception. I think it should end the day perfectly.

Everything except the pre-ceremony music is available on this link for you to listen to but NOT download - I'd love to hear your opinions!!! Click on "Titles" on the left of the screen to get a list of songs.
http://www.audiobiblio.com/music/library/2172/listen.php

 

[lpizzuro123]

Great choices.

I love Fantasmic for the recessional. After listening to this we might go with this also and Promise is our first dance music.

When are you planning on using Wishes - I love this music but not sure when we would use it.

Linda

 

[Queenie]

It's literally gonna be the last thing played in the evening, after the disco. Kind of a "thanks for coming, now it't time to go home/to bed". It's not the Wishes music itself, it's the exit music played while they clear out the park.

 

[lpizzuro123]

I listened to all the music and it sounds great. I like the idea of Wishes end of park day music. I was either thinking of "now it's time to say goodby" or the old standby "New York New York" as we are from NY - almost every major occassion ends with this.

Linda

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Hey girl!!!! The dress is fab, you young lady are gorgeous!!! It's going to be a beautiful day!!! Just so ya know I'm going to be a blubbering idiot the whole day. You have grown and changed so much in the years I have had the pleasure to know you. I am honored to call you my friend and your DH is the luckiest man in the world!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Ok I just listened to the music, I was fine until I got to Wishes, now I'm in tears.

 

[MomOf2DisneyKids]

your dress looks great! Love your planning journal!!

 

[Queenie]

I'm glad everyone is liking everything so far, Lately we've added a few other bits to the "Done" list:

- We have pre-ordered a Photopass CD for our honeymoon, taking advantage of the discount. This way we can get lots of shot of us together without having to constantly ask people to take our photo.

- We have booked our return transport from Paris CDG airport to Disneyland Paris for the hen/stag do's.

- We have ordered our Euros for food and souvenirs at Disneyland Paris.

- We have added some people to the guest list, they are getting invitations at the weekend.

- We have designed a table plan, obviously this is subject to change as the final RSVP's roll in.

- We have bought the gifts for Scott's dad (a DVD of his favourite TV show from childhood, "Torchy the Battery Boy") and my brother in law Gary who is standing in for my dad (a Gorillapod camera tripod for his new SLR camera.)

 

[Queenie]

Our door magnets for the Wonder:

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Queenie have you looked into booking the private photo shoot for the one of the resorts?

Grand Floridian Photo Shoot - You can arrange for a private photo session with a Disney PhotoPass photographer at the Grand Floridian Resort. The session includes around 40 photos taken around the picturesque resort and its beach. Pricing is as follows: $49.95 for a Disney's PhotoPass card containing your photos which can then be added to your disneyphotopass.com account; $124.95 (or save 20% by pre-ordering - see details below) which will get you a PhotoCD with your images. If you choose to get the PhotoCD, you can save your receipt and CD and exchange it later on during your vacation for a new PhotoCD containing all of your Disney's PhotoPass images. The only catch is you won't be able to make enhancements to any of the photos; or bring the required proof that you pre-ordered the PhotoCD and the cost is only $25. Reports from guests who have participated in the photo sessions are overwhelmingly positive. Call 407-824-1700 to make reservations up to 30 days in advance or for additional information. These sessions may be extended to other deluxe level resorts in the future.

So basically, if you pre-order a photopass the sitting fee is $25. If you don't preorder, it's $49.95

As for location, from what I read, you can direct your photographer as to where you want your pictures taken. You can take them on the beach or anywhere on the GF lawns..even inside if you choose. As is mentioned above, there is a good chance the sessions will be extended to other deluxe resorts soon. The rumor is that the next one will be the Poly.

Hope this helps..good luck and enjoy!

 

[Queenie]

We're actually booked with a local professional called Randy Chapman (the wedding boards here are full of praise for him) to do a shoot with us. We've talked with him and will be shooting in and out of the Grand Floridean, so we should get some castle shots, and then moving to the Boardwalk area. Hopefully we'll get some really special photos, his work is sublime.

 

[Queenie]

The invitations were a real pain in the neck. There were plenty of gorgeous Cinderella themed one out there but only available in the USA so no good to us. We hunted around for months, well over a year in fact, ordering samples, thinking we'd made a decision then rejecting it. Eventually, when searching during the summer I came across Kelly Geeson designs:

http://www.kellygeesondesigns.co.uk/

I really liked some of her swirly designs (such as the example on the bespoke page) and I noticed she offered a custom design service. I dug up a picture of Cinderella's coach and emailed it to her asking if it would be possible to create a bespoke design of the coach in the swirly style.

I cannot begin to reccomend Kelly highly enough. She was so accomodating to everything we wanted to do and always replied punctually, a huge plus for us. She told us the coach design should work great in the swirly style as it's quite swirly anyway. The price was incredible, just £10/abt $18 for the custom artwork on top of regular prices for the invitations. We picked a pack style which consisted of 3 double sided cards, an invitation, information card with hotel addresses/tel numbers/taxi info, and an RSVP. The price also included the envelopes - something many of the other suppliers would charge us extra for. For 50 invitation packs we paid just £130/abt $280 including p&p. When we'd worked out the cost to print our own, it didn't come out much better!

Here are our designs:

I did however decide to design our own evening invitations as we only needed about 10. We used stills from Cinderella and printed them at home:

 

[Queenie]

We had originally thought about using red and white as our flower colours, but as the Cinderella coach/pumpkin theme grew, fire colours seemed more like the way to go. I spent ages trying to find a photo to show my florists until I spotted this advert on the back of a wedding magazine - which I promptly bought just for the photo:

Our florists are based in Lincoln city centre and are called Chambers. They have been wonderful, especially considering some of the daft things we've asked for like using fresh pumpkins instead of vases:

http://www.chambersflorists.co.uk/index.html

The order was huge and consisted of:

My bouquet - a wired cascade style of roses, calla lillies, hypericum berries, freesia and greenery

4 adult bridesmaids bouquets - each a dozen hand tied roses (I think!)

7 buttonholes for the groom & guys - a red rose with some greenery

8 table centerpieces - each a similar mix of flowers to my bouquet but placed inside fresh, hollowed out pumpkins grown specially for our wedding

2 corsages for the mothers

A display to go inside the wedding car at the back near the rear windscreen - this will be moved inside the venue and used somewhere - maybe near the cake

2 bouquets for the mothers - on a different order so they didn't find out as Scott's parents are paying for the flowers.


I can't wait to see it all on Saturday!

 

[Queenie]

It took Scott a very long time to pick his suit, I think I actually had a dress before he finalised his decision. He has gone with a very unusual, modern look:

Black trousers and jacket
Black shirt
Red waistcoat
Ivory cravat
Black patent leather brogues

It looks stunning and really unique (although not in this pic as it's all the wrong size and washed out):

There are 7 guys wearing this. Scott, the best man, 3 ushers, Scott's dad and my BIL who is giving me away.

We also found a bargain on ebay and got our cufflinks personalised with each guy's name! These are the cufflinks but showing the job titles rather than the personalised named ones we ordered: