We had planned on spending our second day in Orlando visiting Magic Kingdom and exploring the new Fantasyland, which neither of us had seen. A couple of weeks before our trip, we learned that Disney was hosting the Monstrous Summer All Nighter, which meant Magic Kingdom would be open for 24 hours the day we had planned on visiting. Talk about great news!
We arrived at the park a little after 7:30am to begin our fun filled day at the Happiest Place on Earth!
We headed straight to the enchanted forest part of the new Fantasyland. We had breakfast at Gaston’s Tavern, where we had a chance to taste the scrumptious Le Fou Brew and a special edition Sully cupcake before checking out the new attractions in the area.
Remember how we scored our sparkly for cheap? Well, the internet came to the rescue again.
I follow a UK group on Facebook called 10 ways to have more money as a student, without working. It’s brilliant—every day pictures are posted with deals, codes, and other awesome finds. I’ve got a few things because of that site. Free food with vouchers, 1p chocolates, and even a one terabyte external hard drive!
A couple of months ago they made me aware of an offer that was on at a supermarket. Twenty-five percent off when you buy two cases of French wine. And one (gorgeous) wine I had my eye on was already over 50% off. Add to that a voucher for £12 off a £60 spend, and my brother’s 10% discount and well…£12 bottle of wine for just under £4.
Our venue was going to charge us £10 a bottle of wine, or £6 corkage—so at £4 a bottle it’s pretty much the same price to bring in our own. But I’d much rather have a bottle of Chablis than a bog-standard Chardonnay, so we’ve done good.
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Maison Fort du Roi Chablis by Tesco Wines
And if we were buying white, we may as well buy some red, too. Amazingly, this offer extended to all cases of wine the week after, so we had our pick of the reds! I hit up the Tesco Wines website and the first thing I did was look for discounts. What was the point in buying a £5 bottle of wine if I could get a £5 bottle of wine that used to be £10 or more?
I wasn’t to be caught by the cheeky discounts, though. You know the ones—where they stick up a £5 bottle of wine for £10 for like, a week, just so they can say it’s half price when it goes back down? You’re not fooling me this time! Only the good stuff for this party!
Hive! We did it! The Pandas are now married and it was a beautiful, beautiful day. It was a gorgeous June afternoon and it went by with a blink of an eye.
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Guest picture
Was it perfect? Well, no…but it was pretty darn close. I am still glowing from all of the love and excitement. It was an amazing experience and I just love seeing all of the guest pictures rolling in.
I know I’ve been evading discussion about my dress, so I feel like I should make a note of it here. I guess from the very beginning, I had a gut feeling that I would end up wearing this—it’s Wtoo Olivia! After looking at these pictures, I can’t believe I ever doubted my choice! It was absolutely perfect!
…that is the question…which Mr. Waterfall and I have debated way too much over the course of our engagement. Guys, this is much worse than the Great Chiavari Battle!
Remember my wedding vision that I’ve had since I was a little girl? Yeah, that one. It didn’t include satin or taffeta; it included tulle, layers upon layers of tulle. And while most of my wedding vision has evolved beyond my five-year-old self, that particular element has remained constant. Sure, I can appreciate the beauty of lace, chiffon, and organza, but I dream of tulle!
One small problem: Mr. W’s vision did NOT include tulle, at all. As in, he hates tulle as much as he hates Chiavaris! Maybe more!
I realize that I’m the bride and the dress should really be about me and what I want and what makes me feel beautiful…at least that’s what every bridal consultant would have me believe…but Mr. Waterfall’s opinion matters to me! I’ve dreamed of his reaction when he first sees me coming down the aisle, and ideally it would look like this:
Image via Michelle Newell Photography
I interrupt the scheduled honeymoon recaps to bring you news of a long-awaited chop.
That’s right, folks, my locks were hacked off the Tuesday after we returned because I just could NOT take it any longer. (Haha, no pun intended and when I caught it, I laughed.)
As a reminder (you know, in case you weren’t tracking my hair length on your own…), here’s how freaking long and annoying my hair was before the scissors got involved:
Slight spoiler! 
Hair on the wedding day
The vocabulary lesson is over—now it’s time to figure out how to get the best possible results from whichever printer you choose for your wedding stationery. Maybe you’re going with a local commercial shop, the nearest FedEx/Kinko’s, or maybe you’re getting ready to upload your files to one of the many online print-on-demand services out there. Regardless of who you choose to print your stuff, there’s one rule that is universal:
Garbage In = Garbage Out
If you give your printer 72 dpi clip art you yanked off the web (or paid the minimum on a stock image site for the smallest file size), it’s going to look like pixelated crap when it comes off that press, and there’s nothing anyone can do to fix it. If you don’t allow for a bleed in your design, you’re going to either end up with a white border around your image or some of the printed area cut off—and that might include the words if you’re not careful! And if you give them files of the wrong color mode, the colors you so carefully picked on your computer monitor are very likely to look very, very different.
To avoid those unfortunate situations (and a whole host of others like them), here’s some tips on setting up your files correctly for commercial printing.
Just to give you an idea of how close you can cut it—any more than one insert, though, and you’d need to make your invitation smaller.
Jennifer is selling a Haute Bride pearl hair comb. She is asking $25.
Have a wedding item for sale? Post it with pictures in the Weddingbee Classifieds, and you might see it featured on the blog!
Other great items for sale:
Sorry for the lag in posting, but I’m having some family health issues. Anyway, back on track—our wedding is turning into the most expensive backyard cookout of all time. It’s under a tent, next to a river…but there will be no vans in site, sorry Matt Foley…
Image via GifSoup.com
Early on we decided we did not want the hotel ballroom wedding with crystal chandeliers and uplighting in our designated wedding colors. We knew we wanted it to be more about having a good time and a fun experience, which in our circle of friends means two things: drinking and cornhole.
Growing up and going to college in Pennsylvania, we didn’t play much of this wonderful game. When I moved to North Carolina, it was everywhere I turned:
Like many brides, I want to be somewhat “traditional” on my wedding day, but at the same time I want our day to reflect us. I think we are planning a good mix of what traditions to use and to what lose.
Traditions to Use
First Dance: I will go into more detail later, but we are already so excited for our first dance as husband and wife. No, we won’t be one of those cool couples who surprises everyone with an awesome dance, although I love how that is becoming popular. We are just very excited about the song we selected and we can’t wait to share it with our friends and family.
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Love this! Photo by Kimberley Bednarski Anderson / Image via KB Image Photo
Somethings: We all know the expression: “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” And sometimes “a sixpence in her shoe” is included, although I don’t think I will go that far. I like this one a lot—it is a neat way to tie us brides together. You can easily incorporate these details into your ensemble, and it is sweet to remember the special meaning of each piece. I already know my earrings (and possibly shoes) will be my something blue. I think I am borrowing Bridesmaid Runner’s veil, so that will be my something borrowed. My dress will be new. Until a few nights ago, the only missing piece was something old—but then Mr. B gave me this:
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