We walked back out to the water side of the Beach Club and meandered back through the Yacht Club and down to the Yacht Club Convention Center
I had to take pictures to memorialize the moment:
Im pretty sure Frank thought I was being ridiculous. But thats ok, hes used to me by now! It was only 2:10 so we had some time to kill. There was some kind of sports thing going on that had tables set up in the lobby area, so we just sort of wandered around
And then I got ridiculously overexcited because I saw this:
Poor Frank! I made him stand there while the sign cycled through a few times so I could take pictures. I swear I was 15 years old for a few minutes there
Oh well. A really nice cast member came up to see if we needed help, and we ended up talking with her for a little while. Shed been married for 35 years, and had done a Disney Alaskan cruise for her 35th anniversary, and she told us about it
We've been kicking around maybe doing a cruise a few months after the wedding for a honeymoon if we can scrape up the money
and take more time off work
highly unlikely, but its nice to dream
Frank definitely got excited about the Alaskan cruise idea. I want to do one of those someday, but Im WAY more interested in a WARM SUNNY cruise itinerary, hopefully that includes Castaway Cay
After our chat, we still had a few minutes to wait, so she escorted us to a comfy couch that was roped off and encouraged us to sit and relax. She also offered to take our picture, which was really sweet of her. I have my eyes closed in the picture but otherwise, I like the pic.
Finally it was time, and Vita arrived. We were both really hungry by this time, and very excited to get to our food tasting FINALLY. We walked the 3 miles to our room
Cape Cod D
Im exaggerating of course, but only slightly. That convention center is much bigger than it looks, and our room was nearly all the way to the end. There are a ton of rooms in that place
I think they could house multiple small events or one VERY large convention pretty easily.
The room itself was not too exciting, gave me sort of a patriotic impression. Large round table in the center for us, a couple of windows, some big paintings. This is the centerpiece that was on the table.
I was kind of underwhelmed to be honest. It was cute, but I guess I expect something to inspire us for our event, or nothing. It felt kind of thrown together as an afterthought and looked like something from a kids birthday party. But I guess it was good they did something.
This is our Chef, Chef Oscar, sitting with Vita. I liked him a lot. He had a very friendly but professional persona, and he asked a ton of questions and took lots of notes.
The first thing was to select our napkin fold. Fortunately, during our planning session earlier in the day, wed elected to stay with the standard white linens
were adding a pop of color with table runners, but we kept the napkins simple
both Vita and Elizabeth had pointed out that the napkins end up in laps pretty quickly, and they knew we were budget conscious
I mention this, because the Chef asked us about the napkins before we could select our napkin fold
I guess a lot of the fancier napkins cant make the various shapes that they have as options. At any rate, we were fine with any of them since we were using the plain white napkins. This is the one we chose:
Our reception is a brunch, and we had decided to go with a modified Tinkerbells Brunch Buffet. Heres the standard description for that buffet ($75/person):
Cocktail Hour:
Fresh fruit display with honey yogurt dip
Smoked salmon served with red onion, eggs, capers, cream cheese, caviar, dill, and bagel crisps
Macerated berry shot
Brunch Buffet:
Oven roasted Yukon gold potatoes with braised fennel and parmesan cheese
Maple glazed pork sausage links
Grilled chicken with wild mushroom ragout and pinot reduction
Penne pasta with cognac cream sauce, artichoke and green peas
Mickey waffle bar with seasonal berries, warm fruit compote, warm maple syrup and whipped cream
Egg Cookery station, Made to order omelettes
Wild berry and grand marnier cream cheese crepes served with vanilla bean sauce and mandarin oranges
Cinnamon rolls, Danish, croissants and hard rolls with whipped butter, jams and preserves
Assorted juices, coffee, decaffeinated coffee, iced tea, and a selection of hot teas
Right off the bat, Id decided to eliminate the smoked salmon and the macerated berry shot from the pre reception. I knew we were good on the mickey waffle bar and the egg cookery station and the rolls etc. It was more on the lunch type items we weren't sure what we wanted. Here were the items wed decided we wanted to taste:
Parmesan crusted chicken marsala (Id heard good things about this, and Frank loves chicken marsala)
Grilled chicken with citrus glaze
Penne pasta with cognac cream sauce, artichoke and green peas
Le Cellier Cheddar Cheese soup with pretzel bread
Maple ginger lacquered roasted and pressed pork loin with fig compote
Yukon gold potatoes topped with aged cheddar, chive sour cream (side) and crisp prosciutto
Wild berry and grand marnier cream cheese crepes served with vanilla bean sauce and mandarin oranges
Chicken empanadas (note: I was actually wanting to try these as an option for our welcome party)
Raoul was our server, he was very sweet. First up, we discussed the pre-reception. I explained that I wanted to eliminate the macerated berry shot and the smoked salmon, and that I was thinking maybe a cheese tray. Chef Oscar asked a lot of questions about what kind of cheeses I liked and then gave Vita some direction as to what cheeses we should do. She took copious notes. It actually was kind of a lengthy conversation and I could tell Frank was chomping at the bit to EAT already, haha.
The first thing Raoul brought out was our Chicken empanadas. Vita, Frank and I each got a little plate with 2 chicken empanadas and a little bowl of chimichurri sauce. These were very good. We dived right in and forgot that we wanted to take pictures until AFTER wed scarfed them down, though. Chef explained that the empanadas are made by some company outside Disney and brought in, then each restaurant/resort does their own sauces. So even though well have these at the Contemporary for our welcome party, and theyll be made by a different team, they should probably taste the same
but the sauce might be a little different.
Next up, they brought out these little plates with small portions of each of three potential entrees:
The grilled chicken with citrus glaze, the penne pasta and the parmesan crusted chicken marsala. The grilled chicken with citrus glaze was very good, nice and moist, but it didn't wow either of us. We both agreed the penne pasta was kind of blah. Not very flavorful, and felt kind of heavy. We ruled it out pretty quickly. Chef Oscar was quick to offer several options as alternatives, but nothing that really sounded tempting. (Well, the lobster mac and cheese DID sound tempting to me, but Frank HATES mac and cheese and I suspected it would be pricey with the lobster
). The Parmesan crusted chicken Marsala was a show stopper. It was really good. I was actually disappointed the portion was so small, I would have liked a lot more of it. The chicken was moist and tender and the outside was super crunchy
the sauce was flavorful and we both really liked it. They will have the sauce on the side so the chicken will stay crunchy.
NOTE: For years, I've been reading to go hungry to the food tasting because they will give you lots of food and you will come out stuffed
that was NOT our experience. Perhaps things have changed, or perhaps they do it differently at the Yacht/Beach Club than at the Grand Floridian, but we truly got small tastes of each thing and we were both hungry about an hour later
You can see Raoul, our server in the background. Chef Oscar said that they try to have the same people work the tasting that will work the event, so Raoul will be our head server for the reception.
Next up was a small plate with the Yukon gold mashed potatoes with the cheddar cheese and crisp prosciutto and the maple ginger roasted pork with fruit compote. I apologizewe forgot to take a picture until wed both eaten some of this selection.
The potatoes were a big success. The pork was good, but a little bland. Very tender though. We both liked it, and might order it for a meal at a restaurant, but both agreed that it didn't seem special enough for our big day.
We still wanted one more protein item, so we discussed the turkey carving station. We probably wont need it, I think well have enough food without it, but I asked them to price our menu with the carving station in.
Next up was the Le Cellier cheddar cheese soup with pretzel bread. This was a tiny portion, but VERY good. Frank didn't remember that hed requested thisin fact, he doesn't remember ever even eating it before. Sheesh. BUT he loved it at the tasting so we plan to include it.
Id put the crepes on the tasting menu so we could try them, but I was pretty confident going into the tasting that we would cut them. Were having wedding cake, I thought the crepes would be overkill. Look how pretty, though:
Frank didn't like the crepes at all. I thought they were good, but very sweet, and the tasting confirmed my feeling that we didn't need them.
That was the end of the food, so we reviewed our planned menu:
Pre Reception
Fruit with honey yogurt dip
Cheese displaya mixture of domestic and international cheeses; we specifically discussed Brie, gouda, cheddar
Reception
Egg Cookery Station
Sausage
Mickey Waffles
Le Cellier cheddar cheese soup with pretzel bread
Parmesan crusted chicken marsala
Turkey carving station
Yukon gold mashed potatoes with aged cheddar and crisp prosciutto
Cinnamon rolls, rolls, croissants and quesitos (Chef Oscars suggestion
some kind of cheesy pastry thing that sounded very good)
Chef Oscar brought out another chef, I think the person that actually had prepared all our food for that day
I feel bad but I didn't write down his name or remember it. Sorry Chef whomever. Also, he pointed out Raouls white jacket and asked us if we wanted the white jacket, the more formal black tux jacket or the black and gold vest. I didn't want the vest and was getting ready to say yes to the white jackets when GROOMBOY piped up with BLACK
very firmly. He thinks the black will be more elegant and formal and thats what he wants. Who knew?
And then it was over. Chef said goodbye and shook our hands, Raoul brought us the sign with our names on it that had hung outside the door and Vita walked us out (the long trek). One final note
and this is silly. But I've read so many planning session/food tasting reports and it seems that usually the Chef gives the couple a small gift at the end of the session. And honestly I didn't think about it or expect it or anything. But afterwards when I started writing up my notes, I wondered about it. Did they stop doing that? Do they only do it for larger weddings? Did the Chef not like us? I dont know. Like I said, its a silly little thing and had absolutely no bearing on our absolutely wonderful day---I didn't even think about it until long after wed gotten home
but in retrospect, I do wonder why.
Overall, we really enjoyed our day, and we were done by about 3:30pm. We felt like wed accomplished so much
they aren't kidding when they say that you basically plan your entire wedding in one day. Of course it helped that Id been doing research and reading Carries Passporter book and reading planning journals for years
But really, boom boom boom
the whole event, from soup to nuts
planned in one day. Now its just the waiting game to see how the budget comes in and how much we have to cut
I plan to document the rest of the trip in this recap so I have the record
but thats then end of the wedding planning related part.
Thanks for reading along!
Don't forget to bring a copy so your photographer can take lots of pictures of them! 
. Once wed eaten and were ready to go, we headed out to the car to head off to Francks to meet Vita (our planner).
UK Lochside, Epcot. We’re doing black linens and I asked about the cylinders with the colored gel and the lighted cubes in them. No flowers. 
.
