Joanne and Paul's VR - 4th May 2011

tinkerbell 766

<font color=purple>If I can't fly, let me sing. Or
Joined
Sep 12, 2007
Okay I have been a lurker/poster on these boards for some time now, but today I finally had my deposit processed, my ceremony confirmed and we are official, so I guess it's time to start a PJ!!!

About us
I am Joanne, aged 47, a paramedic and Disney fanatic
My husband is Paul aged 41, a postman (mailman). He is a golf freak and plays whenever he can!!
Our children are:-
Mark 24 (see below).
Emily 22 just graduated from Surrey university with a Bsc in business management. Emily is a part-time cast member at her local Disney Store and completed the International student programme in WDW two summers ago.
Henry 20 in his final year at Aberystwyth university studying drama (sees himself as the next Johnny Depp!!)
Alfie 10 still in primary school and an absolute gaming fanatic!!

Our History
About 12 years ago, I walked out on an abusive, adulterous husband with three children and the clothes we stood up in. My children (Mark who was 12 and severely disabled, Emily who was 10 and Henry who was 8) and I went to live with my parents for a while, before finding a house to rent near my parents in the beautiful English Lake District.
We settled in to our new life, but after a while Mark's disabilities became too much for me to handle alone. He has Down's Syndrome and severe autism. After much fighting with different authorities, I managed to find him a wonderful house very nearby where he is one of five residents and has one-to-one care 24 hours a day. Mark settled easily and to this day I know I made the right decision for him to move into his new home. However, at the time, the guilt associated with this decision was overwhelming. As a side note, I would like to add that Mark remains in his house today and we see him most days. He is happy and secure. Unfortuately, both health and practicalities will prevent him from joining us in Florida for the VR. He will, of course be with us in our hearts as he always is.
This story is really just to illustrate what a low point I was at when I met my wonderful husband Paul.
One evening, when I was feeling particularly down, my brother persuaded me to go and watch him play cricket (a strange English game). I decided to go, if only to give Emily and Henry the chance to run around in the late summer sunshine.
At the end of the match, I was helping my brother pack up the cricket equipment, when a tall man came across to help. My brother said 'Oh Joanne, this is Paul' and I looked up into the most amazing blue eyes and immediately felt my heart jump!!! We chatted for a while and got on so well!! Needless to say, I was very keen to go and watch my brother's cricket matches from then on!!
To cut a long story short, after a few times socializing at the cricket matches, Paul asked me to the cinema and we have been inseperable ever since!!
Paul helped me to come to terms with all the things in my past and became a father to my three children.
Soon we moved in together and the day I discovered I was pregnant with our son Alfie (now 10), Paul proposed. We married when Alfie was 5 months old and we celebrated our 10th anniversary in April.
Although we had a lovely wedding, it was done quickly and cheaply (church hall reception, hired dress etc) and I always dreamed we would one day have a dream vow renewal.
We have just come through a tough time both emotionally and health wise and since we now feel our marriage is stronger than ever, it seems the perfect time to put our dream VR plans into action!!!
Ideally it would have been wonderful to have done our VR on our 10th anniversary last April, but with two children at university (my daughter just graduated last week :dance3:), the time just wasn't right.
So now it is booked for next May.
When planning our VR, it was always going to be in WDW!! I am a lifelong Disney fanatic and my one luxury in life is my DVC membership (AKV and BLT). The children have been brought up to be Disney fanatics too. Paul (bless him) enjoys the parks, but struggles to understand the passion the children and I share!!
I hope that some of you will follow along with my PJ and not becoome too bored with the whole thing. It will be lovely to chat along with new Disfriends!!
 
welcome and congrats! have fun planning -looking forward to hearing more of your plans. we just did a VR at WDW last wednesday- it was wonderful! enjoy!:goodvibes
 
Well, even though not many people seem to be interested in reading (not that I blame anyone - I guess it is pretty boring to other people), I am going to stubbonly carry on!!!

Our plans

Our vow renewal ceremony is arranged for 4th May 2011 and is taking place in the West Courtyard of the Swan Hotel in front of the beautiful fountain

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There will be us and 13 other guests (eek unlucky 13!!). They will be my daughter and her partner (who is Scottish and will be wearing his kilt!!), my two sons, my Mum, Paul's Mum and her partner, my friend and her daughter and our other friends and their son and grand-daughter.
After the ceremony and cake/champagne reception we are all heading to the GF for a cocktail hour at Mizner's Lounge and dinner at Citricos. I am hoping to add a DP at Sago Cay later too but it depends on how the budget goes!!
We are also planning a 'get together dinner (venue TBD) the day after our arrival in WDW, a ladies teaparty at Garden View TeaRoom and gents Grub'n'Golf on the day before the VR and a brunch the morning after at Cape May Cafe. More details of all these events to come later.
 
welcome and congrats! have fun planning -looking forward to hearing more of your plans. we just did a VR at WDW last wednesday- it was wonderful! enjoy!:goodvibes

Thanks for reading Tammy!!
I have followed your plans with interest and I am eagarly looking forward to seeing Randy's pictures of your big day!!
From what you have posted so far, I can see you looked absolutely beautiful and seem to have had a magical day. Congratulations!!
 


I am glad to see that you started a pj! I think it will be great to have a Swan VR to read about on here!
 


So we fly out to Orlando on Sunday 1st May. Some of us will be going from the north of England from Manchester airport and some from the south from Gatwick airport. My daughter and her partner are flying out on the previous Friday and are having a couple of days on their own before we arrive.
We land at approx 15.10 Orlando time and the Gatwick party land a couple of hours later at about 17.15.
I have banked and borrowed my DVC points and have managed to pay for everybody's first 5 nights accommodation with my accumulated points. Most of us are staying at BLT but the Gatwick party (three friends and their three children) are staying in two studios in Kidani Village as they felt the children would prefer it.
Magical Express is arranged for transfers to WDW and as we land first, we are going to go ahead and get checked in at BLT and the Gatwick party will follow later. Nobody could see the point in our party hanging around the airport for two hours waiting for them.
I intend to get the BLT lot checked in and settled, and then my daughter and I will get the bus over from MK to Kidani to meet the other party when they arrive and help them check in.
I am fortunate that I only have five family groups attending, so I am splashing out a bit on welcome bags. I have had them printed with our logo which will appear on all our stationary, invites etc. I intend to hand the bags out myself, first to the BLT group and then to the Kidani group when I go across to meet them and help them check in.
Here is a picture of our welcome bags (they have the log printed on both sides and the little circle in the middle of Mickey and Minnie is a round sparkly crystal)

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Here is an example of the hanging tags which will be attached to each bag

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I designed the logo to reflect the fact that our VR is at Disney and also at the Swan. Our theme is sort of Mickey meets Swan!!!!

Here is a better picture of our logo

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Next post, I will bore you all with the contents of the welcome bags!!! I can hear you all yawning already!!:rolleyes2
 
Hello.... Hello... is anybody out there?
Oh well I'll plod on undaunted.

Welcome bag contents
Inside the welcome bags will be the following:-
One of these envelopes containing a welcome letter, park maps and an information booklet. I have bought brag-book style photo albums and intend inserting pages of (hopefully) useful information and tips. I stole this idea from another Disbride - acwinsett- thanks Andrea!!
There is one envelope for the guests staying at BLT and one for the guests staying at Kidani. Here they are

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Also inside the welcome bags will be:-
A Bare Necessities kit containing plasters, indigestion relief tablets, paracetamol (I think it is called Tylenol in the USA), Ibuprofen, antiseptic wipes and (for those with children) paediatric pain relief sachets.

A pampering kit containing bubble bath/shower gel, a bath puff, shampoo, conditioner, a fragranced candle and lip balm (all in the same fragrance)

A hand care kit containing lavender soap, a nail brush and hand cream and manicure set

A clothes care kit containing stain removal wipes, a sewing kit and a shoe shine pad

A foot care kit containing blister plasters, a soothing foot cream and foot soak

Tissues

A notebook and pen

Ponchos (adult and child's sizes)

Breath mints

Insect repellant and sting relief

I am undecided whether to add a snack pack or not. I won't have time to shop for snacks in Orlando before handing out the welcome bags and I don't really like the idea of transporting foodstuffs all the way on the plane from England!! What do you guys think?

I would also like to add a lanyard for everyone to store their passes, fastpasses etc and also a water misting fan, but since I would need 13 of each of these, I need to find some inexpensive ones!!! I'm a cheapskate I know!!!

If anybody can think of anything I could add to the bags that I haven't thought of, I would be grateful to hear ideas!!

I have decided to make more work for myself by making labels for all the stuff to go in the welcome bags so that it all co-ordinates. Some of the labels will go on original packaging and some items, I will repackage in plastic bottles etc.
Here are some of the labels I have designed already. I have tried to incorporate as many of my beloved Disney films into this project as I can, but some films have had to appear twice. Again, if anybody has any ideas for appropriate pictures from films for any items, I would be grateful!!! I still have some to do and still have some stuff to buy!!

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For the children, I have bought small backpacks (princesses and Toy Story 3) and will put in them an autograph book (which if I have time I will make myself), a fat pen for autograph signing, a pencil case containing the usual pens, pencils, erasers etc., a Disney activity and colouring book, hand-held fans (again either princesses or TS3), stickers, a Disney beenie and anything else I can find between now and the VR (which is cheap :goodvibes). Again any ideas gratefully received!!
 
I absolutely love your logo! It is so beautiful and I love how you have incorporated the Mice and the Swan! Your welcome bags are going to be fantastic! The labels are a really cute idea, I love them!
 
WOW!! I love everything so far! The logo is perfect!! and all the tags for different things are great!!

How did you do the bag tag? I have a logo already but I would like to have a template for the bag tag and a hole punch like yours. I would like to print out more than one per page, please let me know how this was done!!! Can't wait to read more plans!! :banana:
 
I absolutely love your logo! It is so beautiful and I love how you have incorporated the Mice and the Swan! Your welcome bags are going to be fantastic! The labels are a really cute idea, I love them!

I love everything! How wonderful for your guests!:goodvibes

WOW!! I love everything so far! The logo is perfect!! and all the tags for different things are great!!

How did you do the bag tag? I have a logo already but I would like to have a template for the bag tag and a hole punch like yours. I would like to print out more than one per page, please let me know how this was done!!! Can't wait to read more plans!! :banana:

Thanks girls!!!
I am so relieved that some people are following along!!
Amanda, I just used powerpoint to create the tags. I will print them out (two for each bag), cut them out, stick the two back to back (so that they are the same both sides) and laminate them. When I print them, I will probably print them without the holes and just make the holes with a hole punch. Otherwise, it is difficult to punch the hole exactly where you have created the lines.
I can easily create a template for you if you wish if you are able to add the names, or if you want, I can create all your tags for you so all you need do is print them out and stick them together. For this I would obviously need you to post your logo and if you want me to totally do all your tags for you, you would need to PM me a list of names for the tags.
I would be honoured to help. Just let me know
 
Just catching up on your latest update....

I love the design for your welcome bags!! :goodvibes and all of those little logos for the welcome bag contents are adorable!!
 
WOW!! I love your welcome bags with all of the labels!! Did you just use powerpoint to make them? I need to make tags for my bags as well. I also love your logo it is absolutely adorable!!! I can't wait to read more!!!
 
I love your welcome bags, the logo is so cute! Can I ask where you're getting the bags themselves printed?
 
Hi Joan!

I just saw your post in the other thread and I thought it might be easier (& more organized for you!!) to post the info here :)

For non-DFTW Dessert Parties, call this number:
321-939-7278

It's the phone number for Disney Catered Events and they handle the DP's for brides like us!!

Hope this helps!!! :goodvibes
 
Hi Joan!

I just saw your post in the other thread and I thought it might be easier (& more organized for you!!) to post the info here :)

For non-DFTW Dessert Parties, call this number:
321-939-7278

It's the phone number for Disney Catered Events and they handle the DP's for brides like us!!

Hope this helps!!! :goodvibes

I came to get this information too :goodvibes I could have sworn I read a couple of months back that they no longer arrange private dessert parties unless it's for weddings. So this is great!


Joanne, I love your bag! It's so cute!
 

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