LURKYLOO's Wedding Trippie: Morocco/Attic/Lower UK: Wedding Album + Gown Preservation

[jennifaerie]

Phew!

I'm tired. I just spent the last two days living vicariously through you. I have to say, it was the best two days at work I've had in a long time!

I've been avoiding trip reports because I started one on livejournal after we returned from WDW last April, and I got to the third day and stopped. And we've been twice since then. Oops. It reminds me that I'm slacking. I also don't want to regret having our wedding at home, thinking we couldn't afford a Disney wedding.

But I've been having a difficult few weeks, and the kicker came the other night when I invited my matron of honor and her husband on a Disney (paid) cruise with us in January, and the response I got was "We're not Disney people" and "We're not cruise people" ... yeah (wrote about that in the DCL forum).

So I sat down the next day and started to read your trip report. All day yesterday (and today), I kept sending my fiance links so he could see all the pictures you posted and read the stories you told. That's when I realized-- We should have asked you two to go with us on our cruise! (Wanna go?) My bad.

We're getting married in September and will be honeymooning afterwards (our dates are almost identical to yours!). I'd say look for the honeymooners, but judging from last September, we are going to be one of many, many couples. In fact, my travel agent said she booked ADRs for the same night for one of the places we're eating at, and she told them to look for us. I said to Rob, "I wonder how many people will have ears that night!" Maybe I should say look for the freaky honeymooners! That'll tip you off!



Thanks, though. I'm sad it's done. I'll have to read it over again. And salivate over the food goodness.

(Ooh, I needed to add a little squeal... I just watched the wedding video, and the last song was used in Next Stop, Wonderland, which is one of my favorite movies... partially because it's a fantastic movie, and partially because it's set in Boston, just minutes away from me! Great use of music!)

 

[Sarah&Fred]

Oh Carrie, I’m so sorry about your MK photos. I do love their initial response about the uniqueness of your photos! Um . . . yea, your photos were unique, but you two were the ones who made them that way! All you really needed was a picture taker.

I’m admittedly an amateur when it comes to photoshop, but even I can get the castle level. It’s very odd that you still have some photos where the castle appears to lean to one side or another. That being said, you do have some keepers, but I can’t help but wonder what the Roots could do with the digital files. I’ve seen a few horrible photos transformed into some really beautiful shots by someone who is actually skilled in photoshop. (I guess you’ll have to mark your calendar for the three year anniversary purchase.)

Chin up though! In addition to the “experience” you did get some decent shots. Plus, you do have all those phenomenal shots by the Roots!

 

[figmentfan814]

I just got a chance to look through your photos. Although I know you have some disappointments about your castle shots you did end up with some pretty amazing pictures. I love the uniqueness of the Main Street pictures and some of the poses on the balcony had really neat views with Fantasyland, etc. Did they consider offering you another shoot in September or would you be opposed to doing it all over again? Just a thought, so you could try for your money shot again

I'm shocked you still don't have your photos yet. We got our album and proofs over 3 weeks ago and we were married a month after you. I definitely understand your frustration.

 

[lurkyloo]

WTH! I would be furious if I got this answer!

i would be harassing them everyday if i got a response like that... lets go beat them up.. no seriously i am sorry you are having so much trouble it makes me not want to do them

OK, you two can be my Goon Squad. If the final pictures are terrible, I'll sic you on DPS - you can call them up a bazillion times and hang up or ask them if their refrigerator is running or if they have Prince Albert in a can.

Have you tried calling your Planner? Maybe she/he can move things along for you? (Although I can almost hear them saying that photos take awhile to come back) There has to be some way to speed up the process.

It didn't occur to me to talk to my planner - that's a good idea!

I can see what you meant about some of them being far away... and for the money you spent it's okay to be upset, but in the end they are great pictures. it was a memorable experience being there at that time with no other guests, and you have fantabulous pics from your wedding. I mean truly incredible. So put on your and brush your shoulders off. They really are beautiful!

Thanks for the pep talk! And for the votes on specific photos - it really does help me not be overwhelmed...

I'm tired. I just spent the last two days living vicariously through you. I have to say, it was the best two days at work I've had in a long time!

I've been avoiding trip reports because I started one on livejournal after we returned from WDW last April, and I got to the third day and stopped. And we've been twice since then. Oops. It reminds me that I'm slacking. I also don't want to regret having our wedding at home, thinking we couldn't afford a Disney wedding.

But I've been having a difficult few weeks, and the kicker came the other night when I invited my matron of honor and her husband on a Disney (paid) cruise with us in January, and the response I got was "We're not Disney people" and "We're not cruise people" ... yeah (wrote about that in the DCL forum).

So I sat down the next day and started to read your trip report. All day yesterday (and today), I kept sending my fiance links so he could see all the pictures you posted and read the stories you told. That's when I realized-- We should have asked you two to go with us on our cruise! (Wanna go?) My bad.

I'm so glad I could provide you with a 2-day distraction from work. I confess the trippie fills the same role for me I can't believe your MOH turned down a paid Disney Cruise. Why don't you dump her for me and then I'll go on the cruise with you I have never been on one, but they sound like so much food, er, I mean fun!

And don't worry - there's still a whole nother day left on the official trippie, plus a report on our at-home reception!

Oh Carrie, I’m so sorry about your MK photos. I do love their initial response about the uniqueness of your photos! Um . . . yea, your photos were unique, but you two were the ones who made them that way! All you really needed was a picture taker.

I’m admittedly an amateur when it comes to photoshop, but even I can get the castle level. It’s very odd that you still have some photos where the castle appears to lean to one side or another. That being said, you do have some keepers, but I can’t help but wonder what the Roots could do with the digital files. I’ve seen a few horrible photos transformed into some really beautiful shots by someone who is actually skilled in photoshop. (I guess you’ll have to mark your calendar for the three year anniversary purchase.)

Chin up though! In addition to the “experience” you did get some decent shots. Plus, you do have all those phenomenal shots by the Roots!

You're right - thanks for the kind words! DH is a whiz with Photoshop - I bet he could salvage them. And I would LOVE to see what Jensey Root could do with them!

 

[lurkyloo]

Did they consider offering you another shoot in September or would you be opposed to doing it all over again? Just a thought, so you could try for your money shot again

I'm shocked you still don't have your photos yet. We got our album and proofs over 3 weeks ago and we were married a month after you. I definitely understand your frustration.

So far they haven't offered us another shoot - prolly because they still don't think there's anything wrong with the pictures - but, frankly, the hassle and expense of renting another tux and having the gown shipped and steamed and everything is overwhelming to me. I just want the ones we got to look good.

Apparently the reason it has taken them so long to work on the photos (besides our status as a not-recent wedding) is that all the photographers were out of town for a convention at one point... learning how to take pictures, I hope!

 

[jennifaerie]

I'm so glad I could provide you with a 2-day distraction from work. I confess the trippie fills the same role for me I can't believe your MOH turned down a paid Disney Cruise. Why don't you dump her for me and then I'll go on the cruise with you I have never been on one, but they sound like so much food, er, I mean fun!

I'm so anal that most of my wedding planning is done (it's a great conversation killer-- "How's the planning going?" "It's done." ... Crickets...).

I told you I should have asked you instead! No dumping required-- they flat out said, No.

We're doing the Land/Sea, and we're staying at the Beach Club (have I tempted you enough yet?!).

 

[Dreamer24]

I followed your trip as a lurker and I had to stop in and tell you how fantastic every thing was! Absolutely everything was fabulous!

 

[pink_tink8i8]

I'm a little late on this subject but I just finished looking at your MK photos and WOW! You and figmentfan have some of the nicest ones that I've seen. The thing I liked the most was that your pictures don't looked staged. I really felt that you and your husband were just really showing your personality.

 

[lurkyloo]

I'm so anal that most of my wedding planning is done (it's a great conversation killer-- "How's the planning going?" "It's done." ... Crickets...).

You know, the same thing happened to us! I guess we were supposed to tell them how busy we were and how complicated everything was, but it was always like, "Um, fine. Disney's doing it all for us!"

Also, I am SO crashing your wedding!

I followed your trip as a lurker and I had to stop in and tell you how fantastic every thing was! Absolutely everything was fabulous!

Hey, thanks! And thanks for stopping by... Y'all come back now, ya hear?

I'm a little late on this subject but I just finished looking at your MK photos and WOW! You and figmentfan have some of the nicest ones that I've seen. The thing I liked the most was that your pictures don't looked staged. I really felt that you and your husband were just really showing your personality.

That is so nice to hear - and so nice of you to say!

 

[lurkyloo]

Well we finally got our printed 4x6 proofs from the MK Shoot (you're not going to believe this, but they were even addressed wrong, and they ended up halfway across town first ).

I've re-edited my mini-review of the MK Shoot from a couple pages back with some of them and am going to re-post Honeymoon Day 2 here to give it a chance to shine on its own....

 

[lurkyloo]

Well before we get to the very last day of our honeymoon, let’s step back a week and a half to..... Honeymoon Day 2! Originally I skipped writing about this day—partly because the photos from our Magic Kingdom photo shoot that day were not ready for public consumption yet, and partly because I was so queasy about how the photos turned out that I didn’t think I would write a very good report of the day.

I put up the review of that photoshoot a few posts back, so here’s the rest of the day…

When we were done with the Magic Kingdom photo shoot, our photographer drove us back to our resort, regaling us with tales of doing photography for multiple weddings of this one guy who keeps getting remarried at Walt Disney World. He dropped us at the Beach Club, where we quickly changed and then ran back out to the Magic Kingdom in time for rope drop!

The only problem was.... I sleepwalked through the rest of the day. I’d thought that giving us a day off between the wedding and our MK shoot would be enough time to recuperate for the 6am shoot. Plus, I usually have no trouble getting up early. But I guess the whirlwind of the previous few days finally caught up with me, because I could barely keep my eyes open on my first real trip to MK in 15 years. I can’t even imagine taking our MK pix the day of our wedding like some couples do!

Even though I picked the absolute SLOWEST way to get to the MK (rental car to TTC, boat from TTC to MK), we still got there well before the little pre-show celebration at the train station, which we couldn’t see because we were lined up in front of one of the tunnels. As soon as the rope dropped, we did the Disney Speed Walk all the way to Space Mountain, eager to try the “classic” version. We ran through the queue (I wish I could remember which side, because apparently they are different experiences...?) and got to be some of the first people on it.

It was lame! No music? Rattly, jerky cars? Instead of screaming, we could be heard saying things like, “Oh.” and “Huh?” as our car bumped along. When we got off the ride, DH and I looked at each other and said, “Disneyland 1, Magic Kingdom ZERO!” Completely flouting any logical touring plans, we next rode Buzz Lightyear (much better theming than our DL version) and the Astro Orbiter. We’re used to the DL one, which is on the ground instead of on top of the Peoplemover track, and it made us kinda queasy. On the elevator ride up we got in line with a couple also wearing bride and groom ears and asked when they’d been married. They said they’d just become engaged at MK a few nights before. Awwww.....!

“Hi, Mom!”

“She’s nuzzling my flesh with her nose!”

Off to Fantasyland! What a trip – it looks so much different than DL’s Fantasyland, and I couldn’t find ANYTHING! I’ve never had to use a park map so much... We’d heard rave reviews of Mickey’s PhilharMagic, but I could barely keep my eyes open. (Also, I’m not terribly interested in films and shows even on a perky day.) DH said he thought we may have been sitting too close, so we’ll have to try it again in September. We also rode Small World and Winnie the Pooh, which is WAY better than ours.

Off to Frontierland! We were bowled over by its lush scenery and loved the river-front path. Score another one for Magic Kingdom! (We weren’t actually keeping score by this point – trying to account for all the variables made my brain hurt.) Also, tourists that we were, we couldn’t get over all the exotic-to-us birds just hanging out all over the parks, like this guy.

The pigeon of the East

We were really impressed by the queue at Big Thunder Mountain, and after we got off the ride, we went back into the queue to make a wish at the fountain. My new DH brought a tear to my eye when he said, “Gee, I don’t know what to wish for anymore...!”

At lunch time we headed for Columbia Harbor House. I am a big food snob and never eat much counter service (all of which will change when we go for the free Disney Dining Plan in a few months!), but I had heard good things about CHH. For one thing, I loved the atmosphere! We sat upstairs in the room that bridges the walking path and watched people. I’m sorry, I forgot to take a picture of our meal – you’ll have to use your.... Imag-i-na-TIONNNNNN! It was fish strips, clam chowder, BLT salad, and one piece of paid chocolate cake and one piece of FREE chocolate cake fer gettin’ married. Burp!

After lunch we rolled around Adventureland....

One thing we were really excited about was seeing Swiss Family Tree House. Tarzan’s Tree House just isn’t as cool. DH would live in the Swiss Family Tree House if he could.

Zzzz....whoa! Where am I? Who’s this guy?! Sure... “cheese”... whatever...

We loved the what they’d done with the exterior of the Tiki Room. What they’d done on the interior, not so much...

I’d done my homework, so I was prepared for the mess that is “The Tiki Room... Under New Management.” DH was appalled. When they got to the part where Iago quips, “Who turned out the lights?” I thought DH was going to get up and walk out (that phrase has always been our secret shorthand for any stale, tired joke).

Next we rode Pirates, which had another wonderfully themed queue for us to blaze through – no crowds! We thought they did a way better job of incorporating the new Jack Sparrow treasure room scene than at DL, where they basically stuck a box at the end of the last room by the waterfall – lame! Other than that, the ride was kinda disappointing. When we came out, we snapped a few pictures, including this accidentally great one of Captain Hook under the Pirates sign.

Back to Liberty Square! I got a little unscheduled nap in during the Hall o’ Presidents, and then we hit Haunted Mansion. It really knocked our socks off! The new show scenes that we don’t have at DL were great, and I loved how the whole thing felt more immersive – the high ceilings, large rooms, super-dark sets... (mind you, Haunted Mansion @ DL is my all-time favorite ride, so this is a big stretch to admit!)

DH was very excited to see Country Bears, HIS all-time fave ride, since Disneyland has replaced it with that cheap-o version of the Winnie the Pooh ride. I was very excited to get in another nap.

Among my other “naportunities” were Carousel of Progress and the Peoplemover (I have a feeling it is called something different these days... Tomorrowland Transit Authority? Boooooring!!).

I was sad about this because they were also rides we no longer have at Disneyland that I remember fondly. And several years ago they were only operating CoP seasonally at WDW, scaring us into thinking it would be closed for good!

So here was my chance to finally see them again and....

Oh boy, was that an unflattering shot. Let’s all clear our minds of that image by looking at this for a moment instead:

So I was very sorry to be too tired to appreciate Carousel of Progress and the Peoplemo- er, uh, the TTA. DH tried to get a pic for me of Progress City, a.k.a. the Epcot That Could Have Been. We like to spend hours talking about what it would have been like to live in the city Walt wanted...

...it would have been really blurry!

I managed to keep my eyes open for the Jungle Cruise, and then we checked out the rather underwhelming ToonTown. Finally I couldn’t take it any longer and fell asleep on a bench in an alley off Main Street like a Magical Disney Homeless Person (tm). Eventually a member of the Dream Squad who was off-duty (dang!) came by to make sure I wasn’t dead and ended up talking to DH for half an hour. It turned out he knew our MK Shoot photographer, and he even started telling us the same story about the guy who keeps having Disney weddings with new brides.

Eventually DH asked if I thought we could walk around a bit before dinner, and we took some pictures around the castle.

Looks like this guy studied under our MK Shoot photographer!

 

[lurkyloo]

Finally it was time for our dinner reservation at Cinderella’s Royal Table, which I was really looking forward to. We checked in outside, said hi to our knight buddy in the lobby, and waited a few minutes to be called upstairs. Oh, and we got a deer-in-the-headlights-style photo taken with Cinderella, plus a plastic wand and sword. I wish I coulda had a sword too....

Be sure to mention your honeymoon on your reservation – we got the best table in the house, right under the window over Fantasyland.

The view

The prime rib wasn’t as bad as I’d heard, and we got the free toasting flutes for our honeymoon.

We also got a shoutout from the Fairy Godmother for being the only newlyweds in the place that night, and a large rodent (Suzy? Perla?) insisted on having her picture taken with us.

Ow! I’m sorry, Suzy/Perla, I’ll learn your name - just stop squeezing me!

OK, so nobody on the dining message boards could understand why I was trying so hard to get a reservation at CRT during the fireworks, instead of working the reservation around a castle-front viewing of Wishes. Well when the music started and we were sitting in the window looking right out at the fireworks, DH went nuts! (But not so nuts that he couldn’t take these pictures...) He kept saying, “Wow! What a great idea! Thank you so much for arranging this. I can’t believe how close the fireworks are!”

It really was amazing and even, dare I say it, magical!

The park was closed when we got out, so we took the monorail to the tram to the rental car to the Beach Club to the shower to the bed. Good night!

Next up: Our Best Last Day Ever!

 

[lawyergirl]

De-lurkifying to say that I've loved every pixel/character of your TR!! I've already starting thinking about how to steal... uh, "be inspired by" some of your ideas!! And YAY that you finally got your MK pics!

Edited to add: OMG! You stayed at the MK from rope drop until Wishes without a break?? On the day of your MK photo shoot?? Holy Mother of HECK am I ever impressed!!! I can't stay at the MK for a whole day, even when I'm fully rested... I needs me a nappy break back at the hotel for at least an hour or two before dindin!!

 

[Wazzo]

I loved looking at your MK pics, thanks for sharing!

My favourites were the Frontierland bridge pics, the "Main Street Collection", and of course, the Star Wars one!

I'm sorry the Castle seemed to be crooked for you that morning... but here's a classic Wazzo pic for you two to cheer you up!

(Yes, I'm aware this has nothing to do with anything, but maybe that's the point! )

 

[lurkyloo]

De-lurkifying to say that I've loved every pixel/character of your TR!! I've already starting thinking about how to steal... uh, "be inspired by" some of your ideas!! And YAY that you finally got your MK pics!

Edited to add: OMG! You stayed at the MK from rope drop until Wishes without a break?? On the day of your MK photo shoot?? Holy Mother of HECK am I ever impressed!!! I can't stay at the MK for a whole day, even when I'm fully rested... I needs me a nappy break back at the hotel for at least an hour or two before dindin!!

Whohoo! Welcome, fellow ex-lurker! (I prolly shoulda changed my screen name somewhere before my 2,000th post....). I have to admit, though, that we were at MK on a pretty short day - I think it was 9am-8pm. But, yeah, I coulda done with a nappy break back at the hotel!

I loved looking at your MK pics, thanks for sharing!

My favourites were the Frontierland bridge pics, the "Main Street Collection", and of course, the Star Wars one! I'm sorry the Castle seemed to be crooked for you that morning... but here's a classic Wazzo pic for you two to cheer you up!
(Yes, I'm aware this has nothing to do with anything, but maybe that's the point! )

ADORABLE! Yes, that really did cheer me up - thanks! I loves me some Wazzo...

 

[Wazzo]

Oh, Carrie, I keep meaning to ask you... what was your rain location backup for Morocco?

 

[lurkyloo]

Our rain backup was supposed to be American Adventure Parlor, but when I heard this and made this face my planner promised to check on switching to American Adventure Rotunda when it became available at the 30-day mark. And we got it! But thank goodness we didn't have to use it!

 

[Wazzo]

But thank goodness we didn't have to use it!

Whew! (I'm also happy that I got to ask this question after the fact, so that I didn't curse your day!)

Ooh, ooh! Another question!! I remember reading in your PJ that you had a tasting session with "dinner food". When did you decide to switch to brunch? Are you allowed to have a tasting session with brunchie food?

 

[jennifaerie]

You know, the same thing happened to us! I guess we were supposed to tell them how busy we were and how complicated everything was, but it was always like, "Um, fine. Disney's doing it all for us!"

Also, I am SO crashing your wedding!

You would SO be the guest of honor. You can show everyone the joys of fashion tape (Every time Rob sees me on the board, he always says to me, That's held up with tape! ... He's enthralled with your necklace) and the art of samba.

New Hampshire isn't very exciting, but I'm sure you'd light up the place. And for a bonus, we'll sneak you in our luggage for the honeymoon... oh wait, you're already going to be at Disney... Hmm... webcam?

 

[lurkyloo]

Ooh, ooh! Another question!! I remember reading in your PJ that you had a tasting session with "dinner food". When did you decide to switch to brunch? Are you allowed to have a tasting session with brunchie food?

Erm, officially, we decided to go with brunch after tasting the mediocre dinner food. But just between you, me, the fence post, and the 1,407,724,920 users of the Internet, we wanted brunch all along but figured we'd try the most expensive stuff on the menu while we had the chance. I'm sure you could taste brunchy food if you wanted, but I figured we pretty well knew what waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, etc. tasted like.

(Every time Rob sees me on the board, he always says to me, That's held up with tape! ...

I think the entire DIS is held up with Hollywood Fashion Tape!