The Magic of Disney

Disney has always been magical to me.  I get misty eyes at the beginning of a movie when the Walt Disney Pictures logo dances across the screen.  I get teary eyed when I see Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom.  I usually cry at the end of a trip when we leave Walt Disney World.  And I know I'm not alone.  If you're reading my blog, I'm sure you've experienced some Disney magic of your own.

A week ago, I experienced pure Disney magic at it's finest.

As you know, we’ve been really busy the past few months.  In fact, we've been so busy that I had to buy the 15 day extension on our PhotoPass photos from January.  A few days into the extension, my Papa died.  I ended up calling Disney the last day of the extension and asking for another one because he was in the photos and it was too soon for me to look at them.  I spoke to a very kind cast member who gave me another 15 day extension without even questioning it.

I finally put the borders on our PhotoPass photos a week ago.  It was the last day they were going to be available and I really had no choice.  It was difficult.  I found myself crying a few times as I looked at Papa smiling back at me in the photos.  I caught myself chuckling at the photos from Chef Mickey's where he's got his hand in Mickey's fruit bowl.  They're priceless.

After adding a ton of borders to the photos, I went to checkout and purchase the photos though Memory Maker.  At the time I was on the phone with the PhotoPass cast member, he had asked me if we had pre-purchased Memory Maker.  I said no but that we were planning to.  I added that we definitely were getting them since those were the last memories I have of my grandfather.

At the time, the gentleman had told me to check out the exact way he had it set up.  He explained that since I needed the second extension, I would need to use a different code to check out with Memory Maker so I would get all of my photos.  He was kind enough to add the special code to my cart for me.  I couldn’t understand why he set the cart up if it was simply a different listing, but I figured it out when I checked out.  My confusion only grew when I saw we had a credit in my account for $199.  I went through the check out process while on the phone with my mother who had her credit card in hand, ready to pay.  Even then, I held my breath until I was 100% sure of it.

The kind-hearted PhotoPass cast member gave us Memory Maker for free since I had said those moments at Walt Disney World were the last memories I have of my Papa. I don't even remember his name, but I wish I could thank him.  I don't think he'll ever know how much it meant to me.  When I attempted to tell my mother, I was sobbing like an idiot and she could barely understand me.  Eventually, I got together enough to spit it out and she told Nana.  They both broke into tears as well.

We are all completely touched by his generosity.  Thank you kind PhotoPass cast member, whoever you are.  You brought us pixie dust at a time when we really needed it and for that I will always be incredibly grateful.  I really love the magic of Disney.  °o°

Wedding Trip Recap- September 26, 2012

They say that all good things must come to an end, and sadly, our wedding trip was no exception.  Eliot and I woke up Wednesday morning with heavy hearts that our trip would soon be over.  I wasted no time jumping up to go look out our window hoping that seeing the animals would put a smile on my face.  Alas, the savannah matched my mood and I was greeted with a hazy morning and no animals.

We had decided the night before to end our trip with Epcot and the Magic Kingdom, the two places were we'd made many memories over the past week.  We got ready in our Mr. and Mrs. Cady shirts that we'd saved for our last day and we headed over to Epcot.  We took a bunch of photos with Spaceship Earth before we made our way into the park.

We walked around the park one last time and I took a few photos of the Terrace des Fleurs, where we had our IllumiNations Dessert Party for our wedding.  We went into Mouse Gears one last time to grab a few of the wedding items that we'd waited to buy and we left with a Minnie and Mickey wedding picture frame and a snow globe to remember our wedding when we got home.

After that, we said good bye to Epcot and went back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to do our final luggage packing and to checkout.  We'd asked the front desk if we could have a later checkout since we were leaving Disney so late in the day.  They had agreed to let us checkout at 1:00, so we still had a little bit of time to relax before we had to leave.

After we'd packed and double checked everything, I went outside to sit on the porch for a while.  I was struggling to come to terms with returning to the "real world" after the amazing two weeks that we'd had at Disney with our friends and family.

Eventually, it was nearing the time to checkout, so we took a few last minute photos of us with the savannah in the background and then we said goodbye to the beautiful view and all of the animals.  We checked our luggage into storage, checked out of the hotel, and made our way over to the Magic Kingdom for our last Disney hours.

On the bus ride over, I made sure to take pictures of the gate entrance to the Magic Kingdom as well as the sign for the Wedding Pavilion.  Once we arrived outside the Magic Kingdom, we looked back across the Seven Seas Lagoon to the Wedding Pavilion where we had so many magical memories this trip.

Inside the Magic Kingdom, we caught part of the castle show "Dream Along With Mickey." It was hard to believe that just two days before we were standing right over there taking our Bridal Portraits.

We made our way over to the Haunted Mansion and then Pirates of the Caribbean.  We always start our trip with these, and I've made it a point to try to always end our trip with these as our last two rides as well.  We went on the Haunted Mansion before heading over to Pirates.  However, when we arrived at Pirates, the Cast Members were sending guests away. The ride was temporarily closed for some reason, so Eliot and I waited outside for 20-30 minutes hoping that they might re-open it.  I took a few photos of the empty entrance while we waited.

Ironically, the same exact thing happened the last time we went to Pirates for our last ride.

Finally, we couldn't justify sitting there anymore so we left Pirates and made our way back over towards the castle.  We took a few photos there with our t-shirts and got one last good look at Cinderella Castle.

Then we made our way down Main Street through the Emporium.  It was getting close to 3:00 so the "Celebrate a Dream Come True" parade would be starting soon.  We decided that we'd stay long enough to watch the parade.

Eliot and I hadn't actually stood to watch the parade at all this trip and we'd only seen parts of it in past trips.  It was fun to actually watch the entire thing.  I always love seeing the designs of the floats.  The music really expressed how I'd been feeling the entire trip.

"Celebrate A Dream Come True, and you might just find a wish for you.
When you close your eyes, then you realize, any dream is possible!"

It was overwhelming and I ended up tearing up at the end.  We'd wanted this trip and our Disney Wedding for so long I felt as if I was in someone else's dream coming true.  But we did wish on a star- on a lot of stars.  And it had come true.  (To this day, I still have moments when I think that I was simply dreaming the whole thing.)

Finally, we said goodbye to the Magic Kingdom, to Cinderella Castle and to the magical place where dreams come true.  I left the land where you enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy in tears, but they were happy ones.  We had to get back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge so we could get our Magical Express to the airport and catch our flight home, but there was time for one more photo.

I pulled it together so we could take a few last photos in front of the Train Station.  It was appropriate that this was the last place we took photos since it was also the first place we took pictures on the most incredible trip to Disney that I've ever had.  So we took it all in: we had come to Disney as a couple planning to make a commitment to each other, and we were leaving as husband and wife.  We'd had the Disney Wedding that we thought we could only dream of.  And we'd made many magical memories with all of our family and friends.

It was time for the memory making of this trip to come to an end.  But with that, came a new adventure as husband and wife, a whole new set of dreams and possibilities for us.  Let the Memories Begin.  °o°

Wedding Trip Recap- September 19, 2012

Wednesday we got up early to start our Wedding Party in the Park Day.  We all got ready and my wonderful maid of honor french braided my hair so it would stay out of my face all day.  The the entire wedding party met up outside of the Everything Pop store and we made our way to the Magic Kingdom via bus.  We must have looked like quite the bunch in our matching t-shirts.  But it was also a lot easier to find each other in large crowds!  

Eliot and I wanted to make sure that we got pictures with our wedding party in front of Cinderella Castle.  We were booked to have a Bridal Portrait session with the two of us, but only the bride and groom are allowed to participate in the sessions.  To make the pictures look a little more cohesive, we decided to get everyone custom designed t-shirts.  The girls had bright pink, the guys had lime green and our parents and my grandparents had teal shirts.  All of them had the same design with Tinkerbell on the front, with each of our roles in the wedding on the back along with a castle.

Once everyone got through the main gates, we gathered outside of the City Hall to make sure we had everyone and to pick a time to meet.  We decided to meet up at noon to take pictures in front of the castle.  Then we made our way down Main Street.  We were stopped about halfway down because the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party was making it's way down the street.  We decided to swing over to the sidewalk outside of the Emporium.  Part of our group ended up on the other side of the street, so we got some fun pictures of a few of us dancing along with the music, and the adults watching the parade.  

After the parade went by, we zipped over to the closest PhotoPass photographer on Main Street to take some photos.  We got some cute pictures of Eliot and me in our Bride and Groom t-shirts.

Next, we took a few family photos.  We wanted to get pictures of each family and of the back of our shirts.  We figured this was the best time to do it.  (And the PhotoPass photographers loved our shirts, congratulated us and were all super nice about us taking a million pictures.)

After we were satisfied with our photo shoot, we made our way over to Fantasyland to go on some of the rides.  We got some funny pictures of the girls trying to pull out the sword from the stone.  (Katie was really getting into it!)  We also went as a large group on It's a Small World and had our own boat.  (My family was on another one that was wheelchair accessible for Nana and Papa's chairs.)  Eliot and BJ sat in the back because they were singing and dancing the entire ride.  (The. Entire. Ride.)

A few minutes before noon, we made our way back over towards the castle to take our wedding party photos.  Eliot and I changed into our other outfits: a green polo shirt for him and a white cotton dress with a hot pink ribbon belt for me.  We also had a really cute felt boutonniere for him to wear and I had a felt bouquet with our wedding colors to hold for the photos.  I'd found the bouquet on Etsy from Miss Jennifer Rae and I knew that it would be perfect for our rehearsal and the photos in the park!  They definitely added the perfect touch!  

The PhotoPass photographer was great and allowed us to take multiple shots.  She became our own personal photographer for a few minutes while we took photos with our entire group and then some with just our wedding party.  I'm so glad that we got the custom t-shirts!  The photos came out great!  (Minus the stupid crane in the background working on the New Fantasyland attractions!)

After we were done with the group photos, my family headed back to the hotel to get some rest before our rehearsal in the afternoon.  Mom also had to be in the room when Carolyn Allen's Bridals came to steam my wedding dress.  We decided to take photos of smaller groups of us.

Katie, BJ, Katie, Eliot and I made sure to take a few photos as the self proclaimed Fab Five. (We were the Fab 4 and then BJ met Katie and four officially became five!)  We had been talking about going to Disney together for years so this really was the place "where dreams come true."  We also got some great photos with our other best friends Nico and Anthony. We had also all dreamed of going to Disney together.  It was a great photo op!

Somewhere in the middle of our mini photo sessions, the fire truck came along and the driver asked Eliot and I to come sit on it to take some photos.  So the next thing I know, we had our own private photo session with the fire truck!  I was pretty much in shock.  Then he asked our wedding party and our friends to join us.  It was definitely something special that I've never experienced before!  Disney always adds that extra touch of magic!  

My Dad is a volunteer fire fighter and I was sad that he didn't get to be in the pictures, but the experience was still really special.  (The funny part was that all of the other park guests wanted to get on the fire truck after we got off and the driver wouldn't let them.  He said it was only for the bride and groom.  I guess it really was pretty special!  Thank you nice fire truck driver!)

After we were done with our mini photo sessions, I changed back into my t-shirt and shorts, and we had one more photo shoot with my bridesmaids.  We also got the backs of our shirts.  I love my girls!

The sky had been getting darker and darker the entire time we were taking photos.  We decided to go over to Casey's after the photos and we barely made it before it started to pour.  Sara decided to go dancing in the rain and got completely soaked.  (Although, it had been pretty hot out so I'm sure it was a great way to cool off!)  We all went into Casey's and got something to eat while we waited out the storm.

Rain in Florida usually doesn't last too long and by the time we were finished with our food it had stopped.  After the rain, we hung out around the park for a bit longer and went on the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean a few times.  

Then we made our way back to the front of the park and over towards the monorail to get over to the Grand Floridian and the Wedding Pavilion for our rehearsal.  We lucked out and had a monorail section all to ourselves.  Of course it was another great photo op!  When we got to the Grand Floridian, we were still pretty early so we decided to take some pictures there.

We met up with my family and the rest of our group outside of Franck's Bridal Studio for our Wedding Rehearsal.  We also got to meet Ron, our notary wedding specialist, who was officiating our ceremony.   Christy our Disney Wedding Planner helped us all line up on the stairs of the Wedding Pavilion.  She also showed everyone where they would be standing in line and where the podium was for Katie and Ryan to read their portions of the ceremony.

After a half and hour or so of rehearsing and running through the program, we said goodbye to Christy and Ron and we stayed to take a few more photos with our families.

Katie made sure that we got a few pictures with me and my outfit.  I worked really hard to make my rehearsal outfit unique.  I had hand embroidered beads onto the hot pink ribbon belt so they looked like pearl Mickey heads.  I designed the custom Minnie Mouse shoes that I wore.  Our wedding planner Christy absolutely loved my shoes.  I also had Disney Bride earrings that I custom ordered from Hokey Donut on Etsy.  I was flattered by all of the compliments I got on the details of my outfit.

Then we all went back to Pop Century to get ready for our rehearsal dinner.  We had decided to do the dinner off property.  Eliot's a pretty picky eater and when we had gone down for our Wedding Planning Session in April we had gone to a Golden Corral.  They have a huge buffet with tons of options and Eliot loved it.  So if he liked it, I figured that everyone would find something that they would like.  The only problem was trying to figure out how to get everyone there.  It was a few miles off Disney property and we were very limited with cars.  We had our wedding party, family, and a few friends.  After a few discussions, my mother and I came to the conclusion that we could rent a charter bus.

So, we all met up outside of Pop Century and there it was, a chartered Disney Cruise Line bus with our names on it!  Wow!  When we booked the bus with Mears, I just expected some sort of random bus.  I was pretty excited that it was an actual Disney Cruise bus.  (At the time, Eliot and I had planned on going on a Disney Cruise for our honeymoon so it seemed like fate.)

We enjoyed dinner and afterwards Eliot and I gave out our wedding party and family gifts. Eliot gave all of his groomsmen engraved Swiss Army knives.  I had gotten the girls Mickey Mouse paint splatter handbags.  They loved them.  I thought that they were perfect; they had our wedding colors in them and they were fun and bright.  Perfect for using at Walt Disney World.  Eliot and I had decided to get our parents and my grandparents custom embroidered handkerchiefs from Everything Bling on Etsy.  They were really cute and had our wedding date and Mickey Mouse heads on them in our wedding colors.  (I really wish now that I'd taken a picture of all of them before handing them out.)

After dinner, we all hopped back on the bus to go to Pop.  Eliot and I took a few minutes to gather ourselves in our hotel room before he was leaving to spend the night with BJ and Katie in their hotel room.  (That's another whole story… those boys.  What are we going to do with them?)  Eliot and I had an emotional goodbye and goodnight outside of our room. And then he was off to hang out with the guys for his last evening as a bachelor.

The guys had decided that they were going to take Eliot out after they had a special activity planned.  Apparently, the guys had gone to the Everything Pop store to see if they had a few boxes they could use to "ship some stuff home."  In reality, they cut out eye holes so they could do an old pastime that they called "Box Wars."  I missed out on this, but I guess the idea is that two people wear the boxes and they run at each other and knock each other over.  I don't know.  But Eliot had fun so I guess that's all that matters?

After the Box Wars were over, the guys headed over to the Boardwalk to hang out and have a few drinks.  BJ had gotten Eliot a groom t-shirt and had painted the boutonniere on it into Mickey ears.  They also had him wear a Mickey Groom Ear Hat that they bought him.

Meanwhile, the girls and I were finishing up the rest of our last minute projects.  I had sworn that I was going to make the girls jewelry, but of course I ran out of time with everything else I was putting together.  Lucky for me, I had rockstars for bridesmaids and they dove right in designing and making jewelry.  I ran in between Katie's room (jewelry central station) and my parents room (source of a color printer).  I still had to print out a few things like the tags for the bubbles and the soap favors.  In between, I'd occasionally check in on my Nana.  She was working on doing some last minute alterations on Sara's dress while guarding my freshly steamed wedding dress with her life.  (Fairy Godmother to the rescue!)

I ran back and forth and somewhere in the middle of it, I had a breakdown when my laptop started to act funny.  (In my defense, it was an older model MacBook Pro from college and all of my classmates' computers had slowly been biting the dust.  I thought mine's time had come at the absolute worst time  possible...)  After a few minutes of tears and a few hugs from my Mom, I took a few deep breaths and went back to my laptop.  After re-starting it, I was back in business.  The tags were printed and I said goodnight to my parents.

Then the girls helped me tie the tags on the bubbles and soaps while I cut the ribbons.  We all somehow managed to get our nails done.  (Thank you Katie and Katie, master nail painters!)  The evening went by in a complete blur, but with the help of my friends, we did it.  Everything was done and good to go!

Around 12:45, Elissa and I made our way back to Eliot's and my room to get ready for bed. (She had asked if she could stay over with me instead of sharing a bed with Sara and I thought it would be nice to have a little company.)  I took a shower since I couldn't wash my hair in the morning and headed to bed.  At this point, I was going to get about 5-6 hours of sleep and then we'd be up early for wedding day!  It was time for this Disney Bride to get her Sleeping Beauty on!  °o°

Wedding Trip Recap- September 17, 2012

Monday, I had the trial run for my wedding hair and make up from 10 am to 12 pm.  Elissa decided to stay with me to watch while Eliot went to the Magic Kingdom with BJ, Katie and her parents for a few hours.  I absolutely loved my stylist Jessica.  She was funny and put me at ease right away.  I loved what she did with my hair and my make up was flawless.  I felt like a real Disney princess!  She even used the same make up spray that the Disney princesses use to keep their make up perfect all day long.

Once I was done, Eliot came back to Pop Century and the three of us took off to the courthouse to get our marriage license.  Mom and Dad let me take their car for the 30-40 minute drive off property.  When we got to the Osceola County Courthouse, we were pretty surprised to find out that it was closed for Rosh Hashanah!  We had a few laughs about how bad it was that 2/3 of the car load was Jewish and the thought that it might be closed didn't even cross our minds.  However, we quickly got over it and decided to get some lunch since we were all starving.  We found a Wendy's and ordered our food.

Somewhere during the meal, a creepy guy came in and kept looking at me.  Eventually, he came over to me while Eliot and Elissa were getting Frosties for dessert and started talking to me.  I still had my fancy wedding trial hair do and my make up on and apparently he thought that I looked like Adele.  (I don't see it… but anyways.)  So the next thing I know, he's telling the entire restaurant that I was Adele and asked me to sing for them.  I must have been bright red at that point.  Then, he started singing to me!!!  Fortunately, Elissa came to my rescue a minute later.  We packed up our trash and headed out the door, but not before he started asking me for money and telling me how beautiful I was.  (None of us even had cash on us to begin with.)  Needless to say, it ended up being an interesting experience!

After Wendy's we headed back to Disney property and Pop Century so I could work on a few more projects.  We got a laugh when we entered our hotel room and Mousekeeping had put Duffy and our kangaroo on our beds.

I settled in and got to work on a few projects.  I wanted to decorate our windows so I had made Cast Member name badges for all of our wedding party, our parents and my Nana and Papa.  I got to work cutting those out.  I also had signs that said "We're here for Melissa and Eliot's Fairy Tale Wedding."  Once I got those all cut out, I started decorating my parents windows and ours.  Eliot and I also put our personalized Ear Hats and our Tigger and Eeyore in the window.

I also wanted to have a Memory Charm on my bouquet.  I found a picture of my grandfather, one of our first family dog Tobie with Lucky when he was a puppy, and the picture of Lucky and me (with the hidden Mickey) from my college graduation.  I cut them all down to size and glued them to the Mickey rhinestone charm I'd bought.  I was really happy with how it turned out and glad that I could have a part of them all with me even though they weren't here with us anymore.  (And I was also glad that the hidden Mickey in the graduation picture would fit in the frame.)

After dinner, we decided to join up with Eliot's family for a few hours at Hollywood Studios. (Eliot's Mom and Sara had spent the day there with Eliot's aunt and uncle.)  We met them at the entrance and took a few photos in front of the Sorcerer's Hat.  We decided that if we hurried, we still might make it to see Fantasmic.  

We arrived at the Hollywood Hills Theater 10 minutes before the show started and the cast members there ended up letting us all sit in the reserved seating area that hadn't been claimed.  We had a perfect center view of the show… talk about good timing!

I love Fantasmic and it's Eliot and Elissa's favorite Disney show.  (Eliot and his groomsmen actually walked into the Wedding Pavilion with part of the Fantasmic music playing.)  Elissa was very excited to see the Disney World version and how it compared to the Disneyland one.  Of course, we throughly enjoyed it.

After the show, we took a few PhotoPass photos in front of the Tower of Terror.  While we were slowly making our way back to the exit, we watched a cast member draw the Fab Five on the pavement with a broom handle and water.

Finally, we went back to Pop Century knowing that we were going to have a very busy Tuesday ahead of us.  °o°