Well, after all my turmoil the last couple of days over the pricing on the MK PS, I got some good news last night.
A couple that I'm good friends with from my church who moved down to Orlando last year are in town this week, and I saw them last night. I had e-mailed the wife of the couple not too long ago and told her about the engagement. Anyway, I kept meaning to e-mail her back to find out if she knew if the minister of their church down there does Disney weddings or not, but hadn't gotten around to it.
We go to the Christian church/Church of Christ. We consider it non-denominational, but we have very specific beliefs that don't fit in with most of the non-denominational churches out there. And I know they say that the officiants Disney lists can do any kind of service, but... I really wouldn't be comfortable unless I get someone familiar with what we believe. Maybe I'm being picky, but to me, this is a VERY important part of the wedding.
Anyway, when I saw her last night, we talked about the wedding. They live very close to Disney, basically minutes from there, and they go to Southside Christian church, which is also minutes from there. She said Eli (Eli Reyes), the minister there, has actually done a Disney wedding before. Only one, but he has done one.
The really cool thing is that I have actually already met him. When I checked out the church's web site, I thought his picture looked familiar. A few years ago, a singing group from the Florida Christian College came to our church. Eli was working tech for the group, and his wife was the director. I play keyboard for the band at our church, and Eli needed to interface their keyboard with ours for the concert, and we met and talked a little. When my friend told me that's who he was, I was really excited. He was really friendly, seemed like a really nice guy, and at least I sort of know him a little.
And I'm going down to Orlando with my family this weekend. I wanted to get together with these friends of mine anyway (they are heading back this weekend). We're going to try to get together for dinner, and she's going to see if she can't have Eli come for dinner too. Cool, huh?
She also said that since we have plenty of time to give him a chance to put it on his schedule, there's a good chance Eli will be able to do it, but if it turns out that he can't, since she works at the Christian College now, she has contact with basically ALL the Christian church/Church of Christ churches in the area, so she should be able to find someone for me without a problem.
I also knew all along that as I got closer, if things came up where I needed some help down in the area, I could count on them. I live about 10 hours away from my family, and this couple sort of became my substitute "parents" at one point... not really, but about 4 years ago, they really came through for me. I ended up living with them for about a week when the main water line into my house broke and my home was flooded. Their two kids were older teenagers, and had other kids in and out of the house and staying over constantly, and all of the kids called them mom and dad. One night, all the kids were saying goodnight mom, goodnight dad, even the kids that didn't belong to them. By then, I'd been living there almost a week already, and I just joined right in.
I was also in the middle of a pretty rough divorce right then, and they'd been helping me out a lot through all that as well. They are really incredible people.
The rough part here is - right now, because of who we HAVE to invite to the intimate wedding, there isn't enough room to invite the two of them. I have a feeling, though, that not everyone we invite to the wedding is going to be able to come. I just don't know how many yet. I hate to have anyone not come, but I really want for them to be able to come. Argh!!! (Hmmm.... could we pull off that they are Eli's "assistants"? Ok, maybe not.) At any rate, what I decided to do is even if I can't have them at the wedding, I'm asking them to come to the lunch reception afterwards
Ah, it's so nice when things go well. Why can't all the planning stuff go this easy?
A couple that I'm good friends with from my church who moved down to Orlando last year are in town this week, and I saw them last night. I had e-mailed the wife of the couple not too long ago and told her about the engagement. Anyway, I kept meaning to e-mail her back to find out if she knew if the minister of their church down there does Disney weddings or not, but hadn't gotten around to it.
We go to the Christian church/Church of Christ. We consider it non-denominational, but we have very specific beliefs that don't fit in with most of the non-denominational churches out there. And I know they say that the officiants Disney lists can do any kind of service, but... I really wouldn't be comfortable unless I get someone familiar with what we believe. Maybe I'm being picky, but to me, this is a VERY important part of the wedding.
Anyway, when I saw her last night, we talked about the wedding. They live very close to Disney, basically minutes from there, and they go to Southside Christian church, which is also minutes from there. She said Eli (Eli Reyes), the minister there, has actually done a Disney wedding before. Only one, but he has done one.
The really cool thing is that I have actually already met him. When I checked out the church's web site, I thought his picture looked familiar. A few years ago, a singing group from the Florida Christian College came to our church. Eli was working tech for the group, and his wife was the director. I play keyboard for the band at our church, and Eli needed to interface their keyboard with ours for the concert, and we met and talked a little. When my friend told me that's who he was, I was really excited. He was really friendly, seemed like a really nice guy, and at least I sort of know him a little.And I'm going down to Orlando with my family this weekend. I wanted to get together with these friends of mine anyway (they are heading back this weekend). We're going to try to get together for dinner, and she's going to see if she can't have Eli come for dinner too. Cool, huh?
She also said that since we have plenty of time to give him a chance to put it on his schedule, there's a good chance Eli will be able to do it, but if it turns out that he can't, since she works at the Christian College now, she has contact with basically ALL the Christian church/Church of Christ churches in the area, so she should be able to find someone for me without a problem.
I also knew all along that as I got closer, if things came up where I needed some help down in the area, I could count on them. I live about 10 hours away from my family, and this couple sort of became my substitute "parents" at one point... not really, but about 4 years ago, they really came through for me. I ended up living with them for about a week when the main water line into my house broke and my home was flooded. Their two kids were older teenagers, and had other kids in and out of the house and staying over constantly, and all of the kids called them mom and dad. One night, all the kids were saying goodnight mom, goodnight dad, even the kids that didn't belong to them. By then, I'd been living there almost a week already, and I just joined right in.
I was also in the middle of a pretty rough divorce right then, and they'd been helping me out a lot through all that as well. They are really incredible people.The rough part here is - right now, because of who we HAVE to invite to the intimate wedding, there isn't enough room to invite the two of them. I have a feeling, though, that not everyone we invite to the wedding is going to be able to come. I just don't know how many yet. I hate to have anyone not come, but I really want for them to be able to come. Argh!!! (Hmmm.... could we pull off that they are Eli's "assistants"? Ok, maybe not.) At any rate, what I decided to do is even if I can't have them at the wedding, I'm asking them to come to the lunch reception afterwards
Ah, it's so nice when things go well. Why can't all the planning stuff go this easy?
I agree that picking the officiant is rough. We actually went with a friend who is a notary public to officiante for us because we didn't feel comfortable having someone we didn't know perform the ceremony.
