Lauren & George's Wishes Wedding- 12.01/16- WP/Attic *Updated 11/06: TR Day 6!

[Lauren1027]

Invitations, Cake Topper, and We're Officially in the Double Digits!!!

Hi everyone! Apologies once again for my absence. The university I work at is beck in session so work has been absolutely INSANELY busy and I haven't had a chance to catch up on any PJs, including my own. The biggest update I have is that as of yesterday, WE ARE OFFICIALLY IN THE DOUBLE-DIGITS until our wedding!!! 99 days to go!

Invitations
The next biggest update is that we have FINALLY finished and ordered our wedding invitations! I know we're pretty late in the game for this, but since we're having such a small wedding that's mostly family, we basically already know that everyone is committed to coming and that the invitations are just a formality. Either way, we took a little longer than we should have designing them and getting them absolutely perfect. We had scoured Pinterest and Etsy to find invitation design inspiration, and while we found ones that we liked, we didn't love any of them and they were EXPENSIVE! So since George already has Photoshop and graphic design experience, we decided to just create our own and then print them through Vista Print. We finished the invitations pretty quick, but then procrastinated on creating the response cards. When we finally had everything finished, we uploaded our designs to Vista Print anddddd they didn't fit. It was super stressful and we must have uploaded and tried to fix the dimensions 50 times and we finally figured it out and ordered them last night. I had to do expedited shipping so that they get here by early next week and I will need to send them out literally the next day so I need to go postage shopping this weekend. Overall, I'm glad we took so long because I LOVE LOVE LOVE how our invites and response cards turned out! I can't wait to get them photographed on our wedding day.

Front of Wedding Invitation:

Back of Invitation (Swoooooon):

Response Cards:


How cute are they?!? And we got all of our cards with envelopes AND upgraded linen paper for less than $50. I can't wait to see them in person!

Cake Topper
We also got our custom cake topper in the mail last weekend and we love it! We ordered it from Etsy from a shop called Pink Owl Gifts. There are tons of shops that do similar cake toppers, but I'm really pleased with ours. The quality seems really great too.



I've been trying to cut down on desserts lately, now that we're in wedding crunch time and I'd love to lose a few pounds before the wedding and I have been dreaming of our wedding cake and how good its going to taste! Haha.

Other than those small updates, we do have our minimum expenditures payment deadline coming up on September 2nd. I've actually already transferred the funds to my account and am ready to pay now, so that payment should be processed any day now.

My bridal shower invites have also officially been mailed out this week, according to my bridesmaids <3 I'm so, so excited for my bachelorette/bridal shower weekend coming up at the beginning of October!

The only other major thing I'm still waiting on are for updates on my bridal bouquet and bridesmaids bouquets. I'm not too anxious because they are paper flowers and I know will take time to make, but the Etsy seller that I purchased them through promised to send me updates along the way and I haven't received any yet and its been a little over a month since they were purchased.

On my list of things to do for September are:
- Order wedding favors (I'm Celebrating buttons)
- Get all my bridal jewelry and potential hair accessories for the wedding day
- Mail invitations
- Create our music playlist
- Decide if we're going to take dance lessons
- Go over ceremony options with our officiant and start writing vows

Blah, I didn't think I had that much more to do and now when I look at my list, its still pretty significant. Oh well, only a few more months of planning and then the big day will finally be here and we can enjoy it! I also need to start planning some stuff for our honeymoon, since I haven't even had time to think about that yet! Hopefully I'll be back on here soon with some more updates. Hope you ladies all have a fantastic week

 

[twinkybel81]

Your invitations came out perfectly!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

I really love your invites, and I think they came out so pretty! I also love your cake topper! Yay for double digits!

 

[Lauren1027]

Miscellaneous Updates 9/27/16

Well, I've been pretty absent once again and I don't really know where to begin. I guess I'll start with the fact that we're 65 days days out. Holy effin sh*t, we're 65 days out...where did the time go?!? In my last update we had just designed and ordered our invitations, which we received and sent out about a week later. We were very pleased with the way our invitations turned out and got lots of compliments on them. Here's what they looked like when we got them (since the last image I posted was a digital image of them).

We ended up taking them with us to the Magic Kingdom one evening and got them stamped and mailed out from there. Our guests who did notice got a total kick out of that. At this time (its been about 3 weeks since we mailed them out) I think we've received almost all of our RSVPs, but I've honestly been too lazy to create a spreadsheet for our 25 guests. 90% of them are family so we have no issues hunting down those who have not RSVP'd by our deadline, which is next week.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it on here, but we are also having I guess what you can call an "at-home reception" that George's family is hosting for us 2 days after the wedding, so we ordered the same invitations as the wedding for that. Its basically going to be a post-wedding celebration with all of George's huge family that could not make it to the wedding (since we only invited immediate family). His aunt and uncle own a large property out in Leesburg, which is about 30 minutes outside of Disney and they are going to do a pig/chicken roast for us, as well as lots of other goodies. His cousin's band is going to play for us, and one of his other cousins is going to take pictures (he took photography classes in college and he's really good), so this should turn out to be a really nice and casual get-together to celebrate our wedding. I really wish I could do something like this with my family also, but seeing as they are all in Montreal and it would be difficult to plan something like that up there from down here, I doubt it will happen.

Another non-wedding related event that's kept me super stressed out and busy is that I was in a pretty bad car accident at the beginning of September and my car was totaled. I'm fine...I did have some pretty knarly bruises and my neck was hurting really bad for about a week following the accident, but no serious injuries and I'm all better now. Unfortunately, my poor car wasn't. I was hit head-on by someone who ran a red light and all of my airbags went off. It was the scariest thing that's ever happened to me and I'm so lucky that I wasn't seriously hurt. A few days later, my car was deemed totaled and I was written a check to get a new car. Sadly, my old car was over 6 years old and I had already paid it off, so while I was able to put down a nice down payment on a new car, I am back to car payments As exciting as it is to have a new car, I'm super bummed out about having car payments again because that's been my saving grace for saving so much money for the wedding. I was hoping to get by another couple of years with no car payments so I could save to buy a house after the wedding, but now that's going to take a little (or much) longer than anticipated.

New car! The one exciting thing about it is its the first one I've bought all on my own!

Between the accident, getting a new car, and the wedding costs creeping up (along with other issues I've been dealing with this year), I started having some pretty serious anxiety attacks, which I have never had before. It has not been fun, and while things have been better, the stress of having too much to do right now is not helping at all. The one thing that I could finally stop stressing about is that last weekend I took my dress in for alterations and all that needs to be done is to have it severely hemmed (I'm only 5-foot tall). When I had randomly tried my dress on at my mom's house about a month ago, we could barely get it zipped up because I think I've been working out my shoulders too much and they got a little broader. Well when I tried on my dress last weekend at the fitting, it fit perfectly (with the exception of it being a mile long) and was not too tight at all. I must have just been bloated or something that night that I tried it on.

Other than mailing out invitation, car accidents, and dress fittings, I have:
- Purchased all of my bridal accessories for the wedding day (earrings, hair accessories, bridal belt)
- Ordered our celebrating button guest favors
- Started writing out our ceremony script
- Started putting our playlist for the wedding together
- ADDED AN EPCOT PORTRAIT SESSION (to our already-booked Magic Kingdom portrait session)

Coming up in the next week or so, I've got my hair and makeup trial on October 7th, as well as my bachelorette party and bridal shower that same weekend. I'm so excited! How cute are the invitations that my bridesmaids picked out? I love them!

That's all for now!

 

[Seia]

Your invitations came out perfectly! And they're even sent from Main Street! Such a cool added touch. I love that you added an Epcot session! Have you narrowed down countries yet? Two months from today!

 

[amalone1013]

Your wedding and shower invitations are adorable. I love that you mailed them form Main street! I wish we could do that but I don't think it will work out time wise lol.

Cat payments stink. I embed up with one last January... Fingers crossed you'll have your pretty new car a looking time!

I can't believe it's getting so close!

 

[Lauren1027]

Your invitations came out perfectly! And they're even sent from Main Street! Such a cool added touch. I love that you added an Epcot session! Have you narrowed down countries yet? Two months from today!

Thank you! Everyone has loved that we sent them from Main Street I'm SUPER excited that DF agreed to adding Epcot! I'm so torn on which countries to pick from though! I know we're definitely doing Canada as one, and then we're trying to decide between France or Italy for our second country, and then probably China for our third. I really would rather to Morocco than China, but DF doesn't like that pavilion as much. I also kinda like the idea of Japan too.

Your wedding and shower invitations are adorable. I love that you mailed them form Main street! I wish we could do that but I don't think it will work out time wise lol.

Cat payments stink. I embed up with one last January... Fingers crossed you'll have your pretty new car a looking time!

I can't believe it's getting so close!

Its soooo close! Exciting and terrifying all at the same time! I'm still so pissed about having car payments but I am loving my new car!

 

[Lauren1027]

Bachelorette Party (10/8) and Bridal Shower (10/9)

Well, Hurricane Matthew came and went and it only slightly derailed my Bachelorette Party/Bridal Shower weekend, but the stress that came along with it was HORRIBLE. For those who have been following along, you will know that my Bachelorette Monorail Pub Crawl was supposed to happen on Friday, October 7th. My bridal party and I had a room booked at Coronado Springs so we could have Disney transportation take us all around property (mainly to the TTC and then back to our hotel at the end of the night) so our drunk butts wouldn't have to drive at all. We would then have all day Saturday to sleep in and recover and then Sunday, October 9th would be the bridal shower at my mom's house. Then Hurricane Matthew decided it wanted to pass through Orlando and mess everything up (spoiler alert, it ended up being ok)!

At the beginning of the week, word that Hurricane Matthew would be coming to the east coast of Florida and possibly being a direct hit on Orlando came and everyone started to panic. Everyone except me. I've been living in Orlando for 20 years and while I shouldn't take hurricanes lightly, I kind of do because 90% of the time, they end up going in a totally different direction. However, my BFF/bridesmaid who is coming from Alabama started getting very nervous at all the news and considered postponing her drive to Florida (she was supposed to get here Thursday evening, when the storm would hit) until Friday or possibly even Saturday. I was beginning to panic because I didn't want her to miss my bachelorette party...it seriously would not have been the same without her. I went back and forth with her all week trying to convince her to come early, but she was scared. I tried to understand but I have to admit that I was being a total bridezilla.

By Wednesday morning, the news was talking about mandatory evacuations for the coast and curfews for Central Florida. The university I work at cancelled classes for all day Thursday and Friday, and that's when I knew I would probably have to either cancel or reschedule the bachelorette party to another night. I was worried that I would still have to stay in the hotel Friday night because I didn't think Disney would give us a refund. I tried to re-book it for Saturday night but literally EVERY room at Disney was booked and I couldn't get in anywhere. I could of course still do the monorail pub crawl without a hotel room, but that took away much of the fun and I was super bummed out. After being on the phone with Disney for what seemed like ages and refreshing the Disney Reservations page a thousand times, I finally gave up, but my sister reminded me what about the Disney Springs resorts? DUH, LAUREN! So I looked at all the resort hotels around there and found a room at the Hilton right across from Disney Springs. It was the exact same price as the hotel room at Coronado, so we canceled that (and it was refunded since there was a hurricane) and booked the Hilton. Crisis (kind of) averted. We rescheduled my bachelorette party until Saturday so that we weren't trying to bar crawl in a hurricane and my BFF decided she would either drive to Orlando on Friday or Saturday.

Thursday came and basically everyone in Orlando was home from work since the storm was supposed to hit that evening. So what did DF and I decide to do? Drive over to the Polynesian and wait in line all afternoon for one of the coveted Trader Sam's Haunted Mansion tiki mugs, of course! When we got to the Poly around 1PM, we were about the 25th person in line and would have a 2 hour wait. The weather was gloomy but sooo calm. It was nice and breezy and I actually really enjoyed the nice, breezy weather sitting outside of the Poly.

At 3PM, the Trader Sam's crew started handing out wristbands and by 4PM, we were one of the first in Trader Sam's to get our drink and these beauties. It was totally worth the wait and nearly breaking the 6PM curfew

After a very long night in our 90-year shack of a house, we woke up Friday morning to very high winds and rain, but no noticeable damage to our house or street. By noon on Friday, things were starting to calm down and according to the news, Orlando fared very well in the storm and it didn't end up being as bad as it should have been. Phew.

Bachelorette Party Monorail Pub Crawl

By Saturday, things seemed fairly back to normal and I was ready to get out of my damn house! My BFF was on her way to Orlando and was scheduled to arrive by mid-afternoon and she would come pick me up to take us to the hotel and get ready for the bachelorette party. We got to the hotel around 4:45 or 5 and hauled *** to get ready. My sister and BFF forced me to go get ready in the bathroom and when I came out, they had quickly decorated the room for me. So sweet <3

By 5:30, we were rushed, but ready. We called an Uber and had him take us to the Poly, where we would be starting the night out at my favorite, Trader Sam's!

We were the last ones to arrive (oops) and while it looked like their was a long wait to get it, I think my Minnie bride ears granted me some pixie dust and we only ended up waiting about 15 minutes. We all had a drink or two and then took then headed to the monorail for our next destination.

Stop #2 was Mizner's Lounge at the Grand Floridian! This was my first time going there and we had a blast! The place was tiny and it took FOREVER to get our drinks, but by the time we did, I think our first drinks were finally starting to kick in and everyone was having a good time. Unfortunately, I did end up attracting the attention of some middle-aged men, which NEVER happens to me, but they saw it was my bachelorette party and bought me a shot so yay! Someone also told one of the men that the Haunted Mansion was my favorite ride, so he went and asked the Grand Floridian Society Orchestra if they could play "Grim Grinning Ghosts" and they did! I was so excited. I also discovered my love for Moscow Mules here.

After drinks at Mizner's it was time to get back on the monorail and back to the Poly because we had a dinner reservation at Kona Café. I took a break from drinking here and got some yummy sushi and a big glass of water. I couldn't afford a hangover since I no longer had a day off to recover. Everyone really seemed to enjoy their meals and we had lots of great conversations. This is the first time that all of my different friend groups were together in one place and everyone seemed to get along really well. I was so, so happy and really enjoying life

When we were done with food a couple of my ladies had to leave, but for those that stayed, we headed to our final stop, which was the Contemporary. It was pretty late at this time (after 11) and almost everything was closed, but the lounge at The Wave was open, so we headed there for drinks. I was over liquor at this point, but they did have a great craft beer menu so I got DFs favorite beer and enjoyed that while thinking of him. The Wave was really awesome. They had tons of comfy seating and I really liked the atmosphere there. I'll have to come back and try their food sometime. After our final drinks, it was time to call the Uber and head back to the hotel since we had an EARLY morning the next day since my bridal shower was a brunch. We got back to our hotel room a little after 1 AM, which is super late for this old lady, and my sister and BFF gave me some sweet gifts (cute pjs and undies for the honeymoon) and we were passed out by 1:30. I had such a fun and memorable night with all my ladies and HIGHLY recommend doing the monorail bar crawl if you're heading to WDW for your bachelorette party (plus its WAY less crowded than Food and Wine Festival and air conditioned)!

Bridal Shower

We woke up bright and early the next morning so that my sister and BFF could head to my mom's house to help set everything up for the bridal shower later that morning (while I went home and slept for another hour or two). When I pulled up to my mom's house, I was greeted with this ADORABLE chalkboard sign! I wish I could have kept it!

Once I got in the house, the first thing I saw was the HUGE spread of AMAZING looking food and I wanted to eat it all but couldn't because I was actually pretty nervous and anxious to be the center of attention all day...especially with all of George's family because I've never been around them on my own and my mom had never met anyone. Also, HUGE thanks to our family friend who took all the amazingly detailed pictures at the shower.

I then walked into the kitchen and saw the mimosa bar set up. I was ready for one of these!

And then the gift table. Holy shi*, the gift table. This is seriously the most gifts I've gotten in probably 10 Christmases combined. Lol. Seriously, my guests were SO generous.

My sister also made this adorable Mickey photo prop and borrowed a bunch of my Minnie ear hats so people could take pictures with them. Such a fun little addition to the shower, since we didn't do any games.

As people started arriving, everyone was mingling, eating, and enjoying that mimosa bar! There were also Mickey waffles!

After everyone had sufficient food and drinks, everyone took turns taking pictures with me in the make-shift photobooth (I don't have those pictures now, as my friend took them with her camera and I haven't got them back yet). That took a good chunk of time up. Then my mom had everyone fill out an advice card for George and I. Some were really sweet and of course my girlfriends left me some really silly (and some raunchy) ones.



Then it was time to open gifts! That took a REALLY long time because everyone was so generous. While of course I enjoyed this part, it felt like it took an eternity because everyone was just staring at me the whole time! It made me very anxious and I was actually glad when I opened my last gift and ready for it to be over. I don't have the pictures of me opening presents yet, but some of the highlights were definitely the mint Kitchenaid mixer that I've wanted for AGES, matching Keurig coffee maker, dishes, microwave oven, and some Mickey and Minnie Mr. & Mrs. pillows. Everything was amazing <3



More details:


The back of our wedding invitations <3

My sister, mom, and I (and the adorable Minnie veil bow my mom made)

Disney Bride To Be sash

Adorable shower invite

My sister, BFF, and me at the end of a successful bridal shower! I love these ladies sooo much!

And then just like that, the party was over and people started heading out. I stuck around for a little while after and helped my mom clean up. Then we packed up my car, which was completely stuffed to the gills and drove home to see George. I'd be lying if I told you that all of our gifts were neatly put away...a good majority of them are still in a big stack in our living room because our kitchen is too small to fit everything.

Almost two weeks later, I'm still in awe at how much work my mom and bridesmaids put in to making my weekend SO special, especially after it was threatened to be cancelled. I had such a nice time and now I'm ready to really focus on the final details for the wedding because we are in CRUNCH TIME. Only 42 days to go. OMG. I'm so nervous and excited at the same time!

I have a few other small updates, but this post is definitely gigantic enough so I'll update again soon (and if you made it this far, you deserve a medal). Bye ya'll!

 

[Lauren1027]

30 Days to Go: Hair & Makeup Trial, Final Dress Fitting, & Accessories

As of today, we are officially 30 days away from the wedding! Is this real life?!? I seriously can't believe that a month from today, I will be a married lady. Its so exciting and scary at the same time! I'm definitely ready to be married already and more than ready for the honeymoon...still kind of nervous about the wedding itself but I know it will be amazing. Yesterday, we went to the court house and got our marriage license. We're huge Halloween people so we thought it would be fun to get our license on Halloween

Last week, I also had my hair and makeup trial, which completely and utterly blew me away. My good friend Anna is doing my hair and makeup for the wedding and I was a bit nervous because while she is a professional and has done hair and makeup for weddings before, she is primarily a salon hair stylist. As most of you know by now, I have very short, thin hair that does not grow at all, so I decided early on that I wanted to have extensions on my wedding day to add both length and body to my hair. When Anna first pulled the extensions out of the packet and toned them to match my hair color, I was NERVOUS. It literally looked like Barbie hair and I thought I was going to end up looking ridiculous. She could tell I was nervous and promised me it would look great when she was done so I nodded my head and kind of stopped looking until she was done. When I saw the finished product of both my hair and makeup, I was absolutely floored. I seriously felt like a million bucks and its taken EVERYTHING in me not to show DF how I'm going to look on our wedding day. I'll start by showing my hair, but first, here's a picture of my natural hair without any extensions, so you can see the difference:

And with extensions:

Here's what the back will look like. I absolutely love the braid and the comb I got to add a little sparkle.

Then Anna took me over to the fancy ring like to take close-up pictures of my makeup, which I absolutely loved too! I seriously don't think I'm going to change a single thing for my wedding day.

Ahhh I seriously love it all so much and wish I could look like this every day! I know that wouldn't make the wedding day special, but I just felt so glamorous. I can't wait to see this look with my dress on the wedding day.

And speaking of the dress, I also had my final fitting a few weeks ago. I guess I could pretty much call this my first and final fitting because the only alterations I needed on the dress was to have it hemmed (A LOT). Every other aspect of the dress fit me like I glove so I really lucked out there. Now I just need to not gain any weight between now and the wedding, which the only thing that could possibly derail me is Thanksgiving the week before the wedding. I will have to let my mom know to control my intake of green bean casserole. Lol.

Front of dress:

Back of dress:

And for some reason, my mom wanted to take a picture of me showing my shoes. You can also see the new belt that I decided I needed (though its pretty dainty so its hard to see in this picture) after I already bought a different one several months ago. This one is absolutely perfect though and EXACTLY what I was looking for--pearls and bling.

The only other minor updates I have are that all my odds and ends for the wedding are now starting to come in little-by-little. I got my wedding earrings, which are actually plugs since my ears are gauged. They are super sparkly and I love them.

We also got our wedding favors...custom "I'm Celebrating" buttons! The people don't really look like us at all, but I know they are kind of hard to customize. I still really like them and were a must for me! I'm thinking we will attach the buttons to a small organza bag filled with Hershey Kisses or some other type of chocolate.

And last but not least, I got my BEAUTIFUL wedding hanger to hang my dress on.

I have a few more things that I'm still waiting on, such as my bridal and bridesmaids bouquets, as well as the other half of my bridemaids and MOB gifts. My bouquets will supposedly be shipping out on Friday and I'm getting really anxious to see them. The only other things left to do is finalize our playlist (which is 95% done), write our vows, and go get my engagement ring re-dipped (so it doesn't look so dull next to my wedding band). I'm sure there are a ton more things that I'm missing but those are the major ones sticking out in my mind right now.

That's all for now I think I'll do another quick roundup update about a week or two before the wedding to finalize any plans and give you a play-by-play on the wedding day schedule and honeymoon schedule. I can't believe I only have 3 more weeks of work left and 4 weeks until the wedding!!!

 

[apainterxx44]

Just caught up on your PJ! I love everything and am so excited for your wedding. I am a huge fan of punk and Ska which I saw you noted in the beginning and I peeped your gaslight anthem shirt! So happy to find fellow punk girls love disney as well. I can't wait for more updates and wish you the best weather ever on your big day!

 

[Lauren1027]

Just caught up on your PJ! I love everything and am so excited for your wedding. I am a huge fan of punk and Ska which I saw you noted in the beginning and I peeped your gaslight anthem shirt! So happy to find fellow punk girls love disney as well. I can't wait for more updates and wish you the best weather ever on your big day!

Thank you so much! I'm so excited that there's a fellow Disney-lovin punk gal on here! I know we're probably few and far between

 

[Seia]

Your bachelorette party looks like it was a blast. You all looked so cute. I LOVE that the orchestra played "Grim Grinning Ghosts" for you! Your bridal shower was beautiful, too. Looks like you guys hit the jackpot with the gifts!

Your hair and makeup trial was GORGEOUS!!! You look stunning. I can't believe we're less than a month away now.

 

[Lauren1027]

Your bachelorette party looks like it was a blast. You all looked so cute. I LOVE that the orchestra played "Grim Grinning Ghosts" for you! Your bridal shower was beautiful, too. Looks like you guys hit the jackpot with the gifts!

Your hair and makeup trial was GORGEOUS!!! You look stunning. I can't believe we're less than a month away now.

Thank you so much, Amanda! I totally hit the jackpot on gifts! Its been a month and I still can't find space for anything! As sad as it makes me, I might have to put some of it in storage until we get a bigger place hopefully after the wedding. I almost screamed when the orchestra played "Grim Grinning Ghosts"!

Awww thank you I love my hair and makeup SO much. I can't wait to get it done again on the wedding day. I hope George loves it as much as I do! Like most guys, he prefers natural so this is totally not that! Haha. Ahhh I can't believe we're less than a month away either! Time is FLYING.

 

[Laurmc8]

Ah. you're getting so close now!
I realize I've been reading along but haven't had a chance to comment in awhile. I was looking at pink owl on etsy for cake topper too; so I'm glad you're happy with the quality. Mailing your invites from magic kingdom was such a clever idea!
That food porn from your shower is killing me! want to eat it all.

I'll be down in the world for our planning session same time as your wedding. And other reason I finally got around to commenting is here's a funny story.
I was telling my mom about the Disboard and facebook page and what not and how some disbrides stalk each other's wedding. Well I also told her I know of at least 1 wedding the week we'll be there and how much I liked your choice of picture point . So now she planning on stalking your wedding. So I apologize now if there's a kooky curly hair lady lurking and crying near your wedding.

 

[Lauren1027]

Ah. you're getting so close now!
I realize I've been reading along but haven't had a chance to comment in awhile. I was looking at pink owl on etsy for cake topper too; so I'm glad you're happy with the quality. Mailing your invites from magic kingdom was such a clever idea!
That food porn from your shower is killing me! want to eat it all.

I'll be down in the world for our planning session same time as your wedding. And other reason I finally got around to commenting is here's a funny story.
I was telling my mom about the Disboard and facebook page and what not and how some disbrides stalk each other's wedding. Well I also told her I know of at least 1 wedding the week we'll be there and how much I liked your choice of picture point . So now she planning on stalking your wedding. So I apologize now if there's a kooky curly hair lady lurking and crying near your wedding.

I know!!! 2 weeks! Yes, I highly recommend Pink Owl for cake toppers. Ours is awesome and I can't wait to see it on our cake (and to eat said cake)! The food porn in killing me too...I've been trying to diet these last few weeks and its SO HARD. Gotta fit in the dress though (which I tried on last night and thankfully do).

Yay for your Planning Session! You're going to have such a good time! The PS is when everything FINALLY started feeling real to me and everything really started moving fast after that...though now it kind of does feel like its been AGES since our planning session. That is too funny that your mom is planning to wedding stalk! Haha I never thought I would actually have a wedding stalker since I'm not super active in the FB groups. lol.

 

[fallonkendra]

What a fun bachelorette party! I loved your polka dot dresses you wore to your bachelorette and bridal shower! So cute!

Those gifts! Wow! Your family and friends clearly really love you The Mickey photo prop is super cute too!

Your hair and make-up! You look gorgeous! I can't wait to see the pictures of the whole thing together!

You're so close now!

 

[Lauren1027]

What a fun bachelorette party! I loved your polka dot dresses you wore to your bachelorette and bridal shower! So cute!

Thank you!!! Its my favorite dress ever so of course I bought it in 2 colors. lol.

Those gifts! Wow! Your family and friends clearly really love you The Mickey photo prop is super cute too!

I'm still in shock of everything we received! And only a fraction of it has been put away. Yikes.

Your hair and make-up! You look gorgeous! I can't wait to see the pictures of the whole thing together!

Thank you! I'm sooo excited to see how it looks with the dress and all! I can't even picture it in my head.

You're so close now!

Ahhh I know! TWO WEEKS!

 

[Lauren1027]

5 Days to Go!!! Last-Minute Updates & Wedding Trip Timeline

I'm in complete and utter shock right now that we are officially less than a week away from our wedding. **** is getting real, friends! Last Wednesday was my last week of work and I am officially off for the next 3 weeks. Putting that away message up was such an amazing feeling! My grandma also arrived on Wednesday evening and I got to enjoy her company for Thanksgiving. Having this holiday weekend, as well as the week of my wedding off from work has been super helpful in prepping all of the last-minute things that need to be done before we head to Disney on Wednesday morning.

At the beginning of the month, we turned in our annual pass vouchers for our free APs for the next year! We actually get 13 months, since that is part of Disney's promotion for the 45th anniversary.



A few weeks ago, I finally got my table numbers finished. I got the frames from Ikea for $1 each and my dad printed the pictures of our favorite attraction posters on nice photo paper. I assembled them. Super cheap, easy, and cute. I love how they turned out





My park map bridal and bridesmaids bouquets also came in and I absolutely love them! I'm so happy that I went with something that I'll get to keep forever. Had a gotten a real floral bouquet, I'd be so sad when the flowers finally died.


My bouquet


Bridesmaid bouquets

I also got the last of my bridal accessories, which is a really pretty Swarovski crystal necklace. I wasn't going to originally wear a necklace because I love the scalloped neckline of my dress and didn't want to take away from that, but my cousin owns her own jewelry company and offered to make me something to wear on my wedding day and I couldn't resist. I showed her a picture of my dress and told me that I'd love something small and dainty and she made me this gorgeous necklace. Its perfect...the iridescent crystal matches perfectly with the beading/sequins on my dress and the little pearl is perfect for my vintage vibe and peal bridal sash.


Necklace by Trink Jewelry. Check her out on Etsy <3

Finally, i assembled my wedding favors last night while binge-watching Gilmore Girls. I think they turned out so cute! You can't really tell, but they are grey organza bags filled with sea salted caramel Dove chocolates and our celebrating buttons attached. I'm so happy that I found this adorable "Best Day Ever!" tags to add to them. Goes along perfect with our Disney-theme.



I forgot to get pictures before wrapping them up, but we also got our bridesmaids and groomsmen gifts wrapped tonight. For my bridesmaids, I got them each an Alex & Ani bracelet of their favorite Disney princess (huge thanks for Dana for hooking me up!) and a rose gold compact mirror that I engraved "Thank You" on for them from the Knot Shop. DF got his groomsmen some pretty awesome Star Wars beer steins. I also got my mom a small gift...one of the compact mirrors that I got for my bridesmaids, as well as an embroidered handkerchief for the day of the wedding. I will also be making her a wedding album once we get our photos back.

Now that most of our wedding-specific tasks are done, we pretty much plan to take the next 3 days to get the house in order for our house/dog-sitters and then pack all of our bags and bins for the wedding ceremony, as well as for our honeymoon too. On Tuesday, I've got an appointment to get my nails and eyebrows done, and we head to Disney on Wednesday! Here's what the rest of our week will look like:

Wednesday, November 30th: Drive to Disney and check-in to the Boardwalk! We will meet with Kristie at 1:30 to go over the setup in the Attic for our reception, then we'll head over to the Wedding Pavilion for our rehearsal at 2:30. Not sure what we'll do in the meantime, but our rehearsal dinner will be at 5:30 at a restaurant off property called Buca di Beppo. I did make a FastPass for the VIP area of Illuminations that evening. I'm not sure if we'll up for it, but since we are staying within walking distance form Epcot, it might be a nice way to end out evening before heading to bed.

Thursday, December 1st: WEDDING DAY!
7:30AM- Anna arrives to do my hair and makeup. Since we are staying in a 1-bedrom villa, DF will probably sleep in a little longer while Anna starts on my hair in the main room. We didn't get separate rooms, so he will be getting ready in the bedroom while I will be in the main area...I will just have to hide somewhere when he needs to come out to leave. My mom, grandma, and bridesmaids will also arrive at some point that morning to get ready with me.
10:00AM- Cricket's Photography arrives to my room for getting-ready photos. Then from 10:30-11AM, we'll head down to the Boardwalk lobby for bridal portraits, bridesmaids pictures, and immediate family photos. After we're finished, we'll take the limo over to the Wedding Pavilion for my first-look with George.
11:15-11:45AM- First Look with DF and a few minutes alone before the ceremony starts.
12:00-1:00PM- Get married!!!
1:30-4:15PM- Reception at the Attic!
4:15-5:00PM- Portraits on the Boardwalk with my HUSBAND!
7PM-Midnight- Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party...yeah, we're crazy, but we couldn't swing a Dessert Party and wanted to do something fun that evening!

Friday, December 2nd: Check out of hotel room, go home to hang out with the dogs, clean the house, and run any last-minute errands before leaving for the honeymoon.

Saturday, December 3rd: Wedding celebration party with DF's huge family.

Sunday, December 4th-Monday, December 5th: Disneyland!!! And we're staying at the Grand Californian <3

Tuesday, December 6th-Sunday, December 11th: Off to Hawaii for the rest of our honeymoon and staying at Aulani I will of course do a TR on here when I get back, but if you're curious about specific plans in the meantime, I've created a PTR on the Aulani boards (link is in my signature).

Alright ladies, that's all I've got for now! I doubt I will have time to update again before the wedding, so wish me luck and I'll see you all on the other side!

 

[apainterxx44]

OMG! I was just going to get on here to tell you, on thanksgiving I creepily was like omg it's only a week till Lauren's wedding. Everything looks great and will be great! When you get back you'll have to tell me who made your bouquets!

I can't wait for the pictures, Congratulations! Happy wedding week

 

[Seia]

3 days to go!!! Oh my gosh! Unfortunately, we are just going to miss you by a few days before you leave for your honeymoon. Everything looks great and has come together so nicely. I can't wait to hear all about it and see pictures!