Biscuits Locked & Loaded

Today I have just a brief update on the Seattle wedding celebration we're throwing. Over the last few months we've been in contact with the Seattle Biscuit Company food truck regarding having them come to our celebration to provide the bulk of the brunchy goodness we plan to have there. After a few rounds of back and forth, we've settled on a menu, and managed to negotiate a price that, while still higher than we'd budgeted for, is still doable. The big difference came when Girl Scout Fiancée decided she wanted us to supply the silverware and plates for the party ourselves. Girl Scout Fiancée had been doing some research into biodegradable wooden flatware, and managed to find some that we could buy in sufficient quantities to supply our party. In this, I will trust her; after all, she did make her living as a banquet chef for several years, and I trust her judgment when it comes to all things food-and-food-service-related.

So, this week we sent in our initial deposit, and now have the Seattle Biscuit Company locked in for our Seattle party. This is the last big piece of the puzzle for us with regards to our whole wedding/honeymoon/Seattle party trifecta, and now all that remains are little details and actually executing on our plans. Of course, this Tuesday will be the 180 day mark for our trip, which means that in a little over two days I'll be waking up at around 2 AM to start making the first batch of Advanced Dining Reservations for our trip to Disney World. More on that later...

Note Unrelated to the Wedding: This year, I was honored to receive the award for Board Game of the Year from the Game Manufacturer's Association's Origins Awards. This week, I finally received my trophy, and I couldn't be more proud.

Achievement Unlocked: Career Highlight.

Phoning it In

Not long after we were assigned our wedding coordinator, Danny, we scheduled a phone call with him to discuss our thoughts and options. This was at Danny's suggestion, I might add; he said that he was looking forward to building a rapport with us. Unfortunately, due to the realities of wedding scheduling, Danny had to postpone our call to this week, but that turned out to be a good thing for us. You see, despite the fact that we're still over six months from our wedding, we seem to have gone from super-high-energy-ferrets-on-Red Bull wedding planning to...something with less energy than that, which would cover just about everything that has energy.

Before the call, Girl Scout Fiancée and I were supposed to compile a list of questions that we had, so that we could go through them all during the call. At first, we just kept a document on my computer with questions that randomly popped up during our discussions, with no real method to it. As we got closer to the call, though, Girl Scout Fiancée had the great idea to print out the Escape Wedding Planning Kit document (a PDF that Danny e-mailed to us shortly after he was assigned to us as wedding coordinator) and then write our questions directly on that document. This was great, and something I highly recommend to other couples, as it helped us group our questions by topic, and ensured that we walked through every single page of the packet and identified places where we were confused or wanted to make changes.

This is what our questions would look like, transcribed onto a chalkboard.

For some reason, the morning of our call, my alarm didn't go off in time, and I was late going out for my run. By the time I got back inside, hit the shower, and grabbed a cup of coffee (also known as the Official Seattle Resident Morning Routine), Girl Scout Fiancée was already on the phone with Danny. Fortunately, since we had just gone through the packet the night before, Girl Scout Fiancée was already working her way through our questions, so all I really had to do was sit and listen, and interject where I needed clarification. Over the course of a little over an hour, we worked our way through the entire Planning Kit, every single one of our questions was answered, and we marked the answers down on the planning kit. We probably could have gone on longer, but Girl Scout Fiancée has started taking tap dancing lessons (for real; adults do this, apparently) and she had to leave.

Going into the call, I know Girl Scout Fiancée had a lot of concerns and reservations about the wedding plans, particularly about the floral arrangement (Girl Scout Fiancée wanted to make sure that she had some control over the colors, which she will), and the floral add-on for the cake (again, Danny assured us that we can put in requests for colors and see what comes back). I was also pleased to note that my question about the peanut butter cup flavor of cake came back with a "maybe" since our cake is likely to come from the Boardwalk Bakery, and that's one of the flavors they do there.

Now, make it white on the outside...

Here are some of the more important things we learned and clarified:

• We can bring our own cake topper, which we will give to Danny before the ceremony and he will see that it gets on the cake.
• We can bring some of our own decorations for the cake table, but not for the pavilion at Sea Breeze Point itself. Girl Scout Fiancée is going to provide some fabric bunting in our colors for the table.
• We can't bring our cake to the dessert party in Epcot.
• We can have a guestbook set up at the ceremony, on a table our wedding coordinator will arrange.
• We can arrange a towncar to take us to the dessert party, saving our limousine (included in the package) for the night during the honeymoon when we go to Victoria & Albert's.
• We can add an hour to the photography for $200, and we can (probably) have the same photographer for our dessert party. We can make requests for a specific photographer, but there are no guarantees.
• The cost of getting the Archival DVD of photos (the super-hi-res images suitable for very large prints) is $995 (!!!), while the High Resolution DVD (which is for photos up to 9x11) is $795. At that point, one of the Cinderella packages (which include the High Resolution DVD, and also a leather-bound, engraved and personlized wedding album) might be worth considering.
• We can request specific songs for the music during the wedding, and our coordinator will consult a database to see if they already have the sheet music. If not, we can provide sheet music for any songs we want to request.
• The timeline of the wedding starts 30 minutes before the wedding with me, and the guests, meeting in the lobby of the Boardwalk and then walking over to Sea Breeze Point. At about 15 minutes before the wedding, Girl Scout Fiancée will go to the lobby for photos, and then begin the walk to SBP for the ceremony, which lasts as long as it lasts. After the ceremony, we'll do cake cutting and photography.

One of the things that Danny suggested that we have to put some serious consideration into is the possibility of doing a "cocktail hour" following the wedding, where we would provide hors d'oeuvrs for our guests through Disney's catering. This would not only reduce the need for our guests to try and find a fast dinner (since they will need to meet at the International Gateway entrance to Epcot at 7:40 for entrance to the dessert party), but it would also give people something to do after the ceremony, and keep them from wandering off while photographs are taken. Between these small bites and the cake, that should tide people over before the dessert party. Of course, as with anything that sounds like a pretty good idea, there are always drawbacks; in this case, picking a menu that will work (between picky eaters, vegetarians, and gluten allergies, these days that is no mean feat) and the ever-present specter of yet another increased cost. If that latter hurdle can be overcome by reducing costs elsewhere, though, it seems like it could be a pretty good idea, especially if we plan to add on an hour of photography to get some photos of our families at the wedding site.

Apparently, food bribes are the only way to make sure this happens.

Thankfully, Danny seemed to understand my reservations about ballooning costs, and reassured me that many of these decisions won't need to be finalized until well into next year. That will give me the opportunity to evaluate our budget as things get paid for (for example, right now I'm probably way over-budgeting for our airfare, which I likely won't finalize until January or even February. Additionally, Danny said that as the process moves along, he can continually provide itemized estimates that take into account all taxes, fees, and costs, helping me budget more accurately. That should help me out a lot in the coming months, keeping me sane while still making sure the wedding, honeymoon, and Seattle party are as memorable as we want them to be.

Overall, both Girl Scout Fiancée and I feel a great deal more comfortable now that we've had our initial call. Danny was very nice, accommodating, and seemed genuinely interested in helping us make our day magical, and the information he gave us went a very long way toward assuaging some of the concerns that Girl Scout Fiancée had expressed after receiving the initial Planning Kit. For my part, Danny really seemed to be aware of my concerns about the budget, and though he did suggest some additions he seemed to focus only on those that would really improve the overall experience, and I never felt like he was trying to up-sell us on things that we really didn't need. My comfort and confidence is definitely at a much higher point than it has been in the last few weeks.

What day is it? Who are you people?

The last few weeks have been extremely busy for me; thus begins my apology to you for the long gap between blog posts. Though it is no excuse, I have to say that there really hasn't been much movement in the realm of the wedding and honeymoon planning. We had a phone call scheduled with our Wedding Planner for last week, but at the last moment Danny was forced to reschedule, owing to some other wedding commitment he had that week. This has given us an extra week to compile our questions for him, most of which revolve around the planning kit we received a few weeks back. Tomorrow morning, I'll be getting up at the crack of dawn to make sure I'm out for my run by 7 AM, giving me enough time to run, come back in, and shower before the call begins. I must make this brief, then, to ensure my good sleep tonight.

A few minor things of note: we sent out our save-the-dates for our wedding (only to the limited number of wedding guests outside of Washington), as well as the first wave of electronic save-the-dates for our Seattle wedding celebration. The wedding save-the-dates were physical and went out via snail mail; Girl Scout Fiancée made some excellent faux-luggage tags that went out in sturdy, but small enveloped. These save-the dates are a thematic preview of the actual wedding invites, which Girl Scout Fiancée and I designed together (again, making great use of my Photoshop wizardry). Alas, these I cannot reveal until they have gone out to the relevant parties, as I don't want to spoil the surprise. The save-the-dates for our Washington celebration went out through Paperless Post, and are of a simple design that I think looks classy. Unfortunately, despite sending out over 80 e-mail save-the-dates, less than five people have been kind enough to send back a response with their snail mail addresses thus far; soon, I will have to crack the whip.

These were designed by Girl Scout Fiancée.

To be perfectly honest, the largest thing occupying my attention regarding the wedding has been the budget. I know it's gauche to talk about money, but this is something I have to keep track of, since Girl Scout Fiancée and I are paying for the wedding, honeymoon, and Seattle party ourselves. Though I'd done some preliminary budget sketches back last year after we made the decision to get married at Disney World, I had gotten the creeping suspicion over the course of the year that there were a lot of hidden costs I wasn't taking into account, so I used Excel to create a massive interactive budget, not only for the wedding but for all of our finances through the end of 2014. I'm a pretty fair hand with Excel, and even set it up to automatically adjust our budget as I input more precise numbers on costs. The initial results were a little grimmer than I'd hoped.

Part of the problem is that I've just been estimating a lot of our honeymoon costs, especially food. However, since I'd spent so much time in the lead-up planning out our honeymoon (in preparation for the all-important Advanced Dining Reservation booking, which is less than two weeks away), I knew, more or less, every restaurant we would be eating at during the entirety of our stay. Armed with this plan, I then went through the menu for every single restaurant and built out a total meal cost for every meal, assuming that Girl Scout Fiancée and I have an appetizer, entree, dessert, and drink at every opportunity. I then budgeted in things like breakfast, coffee, and snacks, filling out our schedule with our costs for each meal, and built a much better view of how much we'd need to set aside for food. Let's just say my initial estimate had been about $500 too low.

I need all this for breakfast at Chef Mickey's!

That's the story of this budgeting process. Even though I thought I was estimating high on things, I've been consistently off of my initial predictions. For example, my original estimate for the food truck for the Seattle party was about $400 lower than it actually will turn out to be. I forgot to include the PhotoPass+ cost in my initial estimate of photography, which is currently $149 if you buy it more than two weeks beforehand. I forgot to include the hair & makeup cost for Tammie, and had under-budgeted for our minister's hotel room.

It's my hope that there are an equal number of areas where I've over-budgeted; I know for a fact that Girl Scout Fiancée and I will not have an appetizer, entree, dessert, and drink each at every meal, but that's how I budgeted. I've got a $500 entry in the budget line for Miscellaneous, which is for any costs that crop up at the last minute. Throughout this, the real X-factor for the budget is the Honeymoon Registry. I have absolutely no idea what to guess for that; do I not budget for it at all, and am pleasantly surprised? Do I plan for a conservative amount? What is that amount?

I much prefer this X-Factor. Way easier to understand.

If anyone out there has any experience with Disney wedding and honeymoon budgeting, I'd love to hear how far off your estimates were, and where the surprise costs came from.

Three-Quarters the Man I Used to Be

With apologies to Nirvana for the title, it's time for another of my (very rare) health and weight loss updates. Back in January, Girl Scout Fiancée decided that we wanted to look good in our wedding photos, which was the perfect excuse for us to undertake some changes to the way we eat and live that we should have done for our health a long time ago, but always seemed to put off. Back in May, I posted an update that I was one-third of the way to my 120 lb weight loss goal, having lost 40 lbs. I can now happily say that I've reached the next milestone, which is 80 lbs lost. That puts me two-thirds of the way to my goal, and only a couple of weeks behind schedule (though, admittedly, I had an ambitious schedule to begin with).

It's a bit weird to look at a photo of myself and actually like how it looks.

I'm also happy to report that Girl Scout Fiancée has been doing a great job as well; though I'm not foolish enough to ask my dear fiancée about her weight, I know that she's been doing a great job of sticking to her plan, going to the gym, and, together, we've been eating healthier. I'm really proud of her, and I know she is happy about her progress as well. Proportionally, she has lost about the same percentage of her body weight as I have, so we're both looking a lot better. Girl Scout Fiancée has also been having a lot of luck with a program called DietBet, which she has done repeatedly over the course of the last few months, hitting her goals and getting her share of the pot each time. She's tried to get me to join in, but there's something superstitious in me that believes that the moment I sign up for something like that is the moment I stop losing weight.

It can be tough to feel like I'm progressing at times, especially on those weeks where the scale just doesn't seem to move. I still see only my physical flaws when I look in the mirror, and since I still have another 40 lbs to go before I hit my target weight, I still only see a chubby guy staring back at me. Yet, when I look at photos of myself from the last few years, even I can see a difference. Plus, there's nothing like putting on a T-shirt you got your freshman year of college, only to discover that it is starting to get a little baggy on you. I'm starting to harbor a little hope that I might actually look pretty good in my wedding photos!

This Post is a Reminder to Myself

When I booked our hotel rooms for our visit to Disney World, I booked with a standard AAA member discount of 20%. However, traditionally, for the time of year when we are going, Disney has offered some even greater discounts for Annual Passholders. For some reason, I had though (perhaps foolishly) that having a Disney's Fairytale Wedding might grant us a discount on our hotel room, but it appears that this is not the case, as nothing we've received from DFTW so far has included anything about a bride-and-groom hotel room discount. There was some information about booking blocks of rooms for our hotel guests (and I suppose we would count for that, too), but it's looking more and more like everyone that is coming will be staying in a rental house in Orlando, as opposed to on the Disney property.

Fortunately, we'll be Annual Passholders by the time we arrive (and maybe we technically already are, since we have the green voucher cards mentioned in my last post). I'll need to keep an eye out for when the Annual Passholders' discounts go live for our visit dates, and fortunately, there's a great Mousesavers page that details the historical posting dates of discounts based on the timeframe of your visit. It looks like, for the last three years, the Annual Pass discounts for our stay window range from 20-40%, and are usually posted between January and early March. So, basically, this entire blog post is just a reminder to myself to check back starting in January for Annual Passholder discounts for the time of our wedding and honeymoon.