Mail from Disney

Thanks to a camping trip that Girl Scout Fiancée arranged for her troop, I had a weekend (or, at least, a Friday and Saturday) of flying solo. It was a weekend filled with gaming, a journey to our local Oktoberfest, and mediocre-to-bad football (my teams are determined to make me feel sad this year), but on Saturday something magical happened: I received not one, but two pieces of mail from Disney.

Disney mail is almost as good as kitty mail.

The first came when, during a game of Legend of the Five Rings, the doorbell rang, hailing the arrival of our local mail delivery person. I had to sign (two signatures! Apparently they really, really needed to make sure that I received it) for a large envelope from Disney's Fairytale Weddings. Inside was a copy of our contract, plus a small envelope addressed to us from our Wedding Consultant, Dianne. This smaller envelope also contained our Annual Pass vouchers, which we will redeem for our actual Annual Passes when we reach Disney World. That's exciting, but, at the same time, now I have these voucher cards that I have to remember to bring with us to Disney World, otherwise our honeymoon is going to be far, far less exciting. Is it too early to start a packing list for the trip to Florida?

Additionally, I fired up My Disney Experience and was prompted as I did so to link my tickets to my account. I suppose that when Diane sent us our vouchers she must have also flagged us in Disney's system as having tickets, otherwise I have no idea how the system would know that we'd received our vouchers. When prompted to enter the "12-digit ticket number" I was a bit confused, as our Annual Pass vouchers didn't have a 12-digit number. On the back, though, was a barcode with a much longer number, so I tried that....and it worked! I successfully linked our AP vouchers to our accounts, assigning one to Girl Scout Fiancée and one to myself. With that done, it looks like we'll eventually be able to get our MagicBands (the still-in-testing wristband technology that should be fully in place come April) and schedule our FastPasses in advance.

The future is now!

The other piece of mail arrived more conventionally in our mailbox, and contained the Disney trip planning DVD I'd requested. This one I requested through the normal vacation planning website, not through Disney's Fairytale Weddings, and it took all of my willpower not to watch the video without Girl Scout Fiancée. I steeled myself against the temptation, each time thinking about poor Girl Scout Fiancée out in the woods enduring Pacific Northwest cold and surprisingly heavy rain, and managed to make it through most of the weekend without watching it. Today, after watching my beloved Falcons lose to the hated Patriots, I needed a pick-me-up badly, so I cajoled and wheedled until Girl Scout Fiancée acquiesced and allowed me to put in the DVD.

Since this is part of Disney's normal promotional materials, and not something from the wedding department, the DVD was definitely geared more toward families with kids. I knew that we wouldn't be getting a lot of important information out of it, but I wanted to watch it for two reasons, both of which ended up being justified. First, I am insane, and need to see Disney stuff in motion to satiate my anticipation for our upcoming trip. Second, I figured the more general overview might reveal some things that Girl Scout Fiancée is interested in that I hadn't taken into consideration yet. As I mentioned, it was a success on both counts, as I now feel better and also figured out at least three important items for our honeymoon.

Girl Scout Fiancée surprised me by showing a lot of excitement about Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom. I've never been a huge fan of the sit-in-a-round-thing-and-get-wet rides (there was one at Six Flags Over Georgia, which left me nonplussed) and I've ridden Kali River Rapids before without it leaving a huge impression on me. Girl Scout Fiancée, on the other hand, was VERY excited about the possibility of doing this ride, so that's one more thing to mark down for our Animal Kingdom itinerary.

Gotta love a ride that feels the need to spray you with water before you hit the rapids.

I wasn't too surprised when Girl Scout Fiancée got excited seeing the very colorful and splashy Value Resorts in the hotels section of the DVD. They're bright, colorful, and, in Girl Scout Fiancée's own words, "Seem like the most fun." It's true, their décor is definitely more in-your-face and vibrant. I think they're a great option for families, since kids will really get a lot more excited about something like the Value Resorts appearance than they would the more elegant and understated environment of the Deluxe Resorts. I'm glad I've set aside time on our honeymoon to wander around and visit other hotels on our relaxation days, as this will be a good chance for Girl Scout Fiancée to see the other resorts and figure out which ones she likes. That way, when we come back the next time, she'll know which one she likes, and we can plan accordingly.

I was a little surprised when we watched the segments on the water parks wasn't immediately dismissed. I may have underestimated Girl Scout Fiancée's interest in Typhoon Lagoon/Blizzard Beach. I'll need to remain flexible on our days off down there, as heading to one of the water parks might be a good way to spend some of our relaxation days, if we're really feeling like going and doing something. Alternately, if it's really hot, we could hit one up the day after the wedding, after we've said goodbye to our families, if we're not feeling too wiped out from the day before.

You're allowed to just sleep on the tubes, right?

Even though the DVD wasn't really geared toward us, I'm glad I ordered it, because a lot of times Girl Scout Fiancée doesn't know what she's going to be excited about, or uninterested in, until it's right in front of her. I wonder if I should start hunting down some more in-depth videos about Disney World to see what piques her interest elsewhere. Anyone know of a good place to find some videos I can show to Girl Scout Fiancée to help prep her for the trip?

The Planning Kit

Two weeks have passed since the last major step in the wedding process for us. The last big milestone was signing and returning the contract for our wedding, along with the initial deposit. This morning when I got in my car I saw that I had missed a phone call; as it turns out, this was our assigned Wedding Coordinator, Danny, calling me to inform me that he had just finished e-mailing us our planning kit. It's a shame I didn't get to talk to Danny at that time, as he sounds like a very nice guy. In his message, he suggested that we set up a time in a few weeks to have a phone call between the three of us, not only he could take time to answer our questions, but also to begin building a rapport between us so that, in the coming months, there would be a degree of trust between us. That really impressed me, as so often, when dealing with someone who almost certainly does this kind of thing for dozens of couples at a time, you end up just another customer out of many, and there is never any real relationship built. The fact that he mentioned, right out of the gate, building up a relationship with us said to me that he was interested in doing more than just the bare minimum of what is required. I like that.

I'm sure it will be all trust falls and conga lines from here on out.

The planning kit is actually pretty simple and straightforward. The file is a PDF that includes a listing of all of the floral choices, ceremony decor options, photography options, cake choices and enhancements, beverage choices, transportation options, music selections, entertainment enhancements, and other basic information that we need to decide upon before the wedding. Since we are having an Escape wedding, the options under each category (even the pay-extra upgrades) are pretty light, but we knew that going into it.

This was, however, the first time we've been able to see actual details on the options available to us, as most websites that talk about Disney weddings don't give much more information than what is in the above paragraph. For example, we didn't know that there were seven bouquet accents available as upgrades. We didn't know that the photography options and upgrades came in packages, some of which include crazy high-quality albums with your name and wedding date embossed on them. We didn't know exactly what cake options were available to us, or that neither yellow nor green (our wedding colors) are available on any of the cakes. Seeing it all in one place made me realize that even with a package deal, we have a lot of decisions to make.

Normally, I love making choices.

So, we have our packet, and we're supposed to go over it and start coming up with some questions for when we start working more closely with Danny. Already, though, I can tell we might have some choppy waters ahead. Girl Scout Fiancée is not thrilled with the bouquet options, which again we have only just now seen for the first time, based not only on the colors of flowers available, as well as the styles. Likewise, the limited options on the wedding cakes may prove to be a pain point for us as well, since not only are our wedding colors nowhere to be found in our options, but the decorative styles on the cakes aren't doing anything for Girl Scout Fiancée. I think Girl Scout Fiancée was a little distraught at this, since we have such limited options.

Yet I don't think it's time to panic. On the cake issue, people order custom cakes all the time in Disney World, and not just people getting married; I've seen plenty of photos of elaborate cakes made for Disney resort guests celebrating all kinds of things. I feel fairly certain that we can get a cake that makes us happy, even if we have to work directly with one of the bakeries to make it and pay for it out of pocket. Similarly, if we aren't getting what we want out of the Disney florist, we can seek out an outside vendor for our flowers. Sure, that increases the cost, but I would rather pay a little more out of pocket to get something that will make Girl Scout Fiancée than have us looking back on our wedding with any regrets.

No regrets.

If anyone else out there had an Escape wedding and went above and beyond the basic options listed for things like flowers and wedding cake, please let us know. How did it work out for you? How did you get the process started in getting more than what the basic package offers?

Yet Another Startling Food Discovery

Because I cannot stop myself from reading Disney food blogs and forums, today I came across a post about the best pizza delivery options in Walt Disney World. Usually, when my family ordered pizza, it was from the pizza window at the Boardwalk. There's not really much of a reason to order pizza, though, unless something went wrong; unless one of us was sick or otherwise not feeling well, we always went out for food. So, in thinking of food options at Disney World for our wedding/honeymoon, pizza delivery wasn't even a blip on my radar. That is, until I discovered that there's a Giordano's in Lake Buena Vista.

My initial reaction.

For the uninitiated, Giordano's is a chain of pizza places found in Chicago that serves a delicious variety of Chicago-style pizzas. I first had Giordano's when I visited Chicago in college for a fraternity formal; I wanted to see the city, and my date (who had been to Chicago many times before) recommended Giordano's. From that moment, I was hooked. Every time I've been back to Chicago since then (which, admittedly, is only four times), I've made sure to eat there (as well as Cafe Ba Ba Reeba, in case anyone is looking for a good tapas place in Chicago). A lot of Chicago locals will probably tell you that the chain isn't as good as [insert independently owned and operated Chicago-style pizza place here], but I don't care. It's exactly the kind of thing I like.

Several years ago, Girl Scout Fiancée and I went back to my Ancestral Homeland (Tennessee) for my brother's wedding around Christmas time. A few days before Christmas, we drove from Tennessee all the way to her family's home in Pennsylvania, spent a few days through Christmas there, and then, in an attempt to let us unwind after a couple of weeks of travel and family visits, took the train all the way from Harrisburg, PA to Seattle, WA, with stops in Pittsburgh and Chicago along the way. Chicago is the eastern endpoint for the Empire Builder, a train route I've taken half-a-dozen times with coworkers headed to our big annual convention, so we had a few hours to kill in Chicago. I took Girl Scout Fiancée to the Willis Tower, we walked around the snowy streets of Chicago, and, of course, I coerced her into going to Giordano's.

Girl Scout Fiancée and I at Giordano's in Chicago. I'm the one with the goatee.

We both really enjoyed the meal, and our few brief hours in Chicago is one of those memories I'm going to carry around for a long time. Bringing it back to wedding and honeymoon planning, we've been talking about just getting room service on the night of our wedding, since we'll be super busy taking photos and won't have time for a real, sit-down meal. Now I'm thinking I need to find a way to get Giordano's delivered to our hotel room so it's hot and fresh, allowing us a few bites of a delicious pizza before we head off to our Epcot dessert party. Room service is all fine, well, and good, but this is Giordano's, which already has some personal significance to the two of us.

It was a valiant effort, but the pizza defeated us.

There is, perhaps, one great pitfall in this plan. Giordano's pizza has the sauce on top, and can get a little messy. Do I really want us to risk a red-sauce pizza while we're in our wedding costumes?

Flower & Garden & Food Kiosks

The 2014 Epcot Flower & Garden festival will just be drawing to a close during out honeymoon in Disney World, and it appears as though we'll be able to catch the tail end of something I've only seen once during all of my trips to Disney World. While I'm sure that Girl Scout Fiancée will enjoy strolling through all of the beautiful flowers and checking out Epcot at what some would call its loveliest, I've recently learned of another reason to look forward to this special event: food.

Get these flowers out of the way, I have food to find.

Food is a big deal in Seattle, Portland, and the rest of the Pacific Northwest. One of our favorite things about living in Seattle is the variety of food we get to sample, and the quantity of high-caliber restaurants to choose from on any given night. Of course, the trendy thing to do for food is to find a food truck (restaurants that are so hip that a single location cannot even pin them down!) and chow down on food that is invariably bad for you and occasionally better quality that anything we would eat at a traditional sit-down restaurant. Food trucks are so hip that Girl Scout Fiancée and I, being not-hipsters-but-still-not-hip, are even having one cater our Seattle reception.

It just so happens that Disney, for this year's Flower & Garden Festival, decided to add some special food options in a similar vein to those that appear during the fall's Food & Wine Festival. It seems as though someone at Disney World realized that special, limited-time food is a big deal to the travel-savvy, and decided to bring it back in a different season. This year's kiosks were apparently a big hit, because they have already been confirmed for next year's Flower & Garden Festival. I, for one, am completely fine with that. Of course, it's only a matter of time before there are special kiosks out for some summer and winter festivals, and then you'll only have a few, sad weeks where there is no special food each year.

Bauernmarkt: for all of your Jack Bauer needs.

This new information, while filling me with excitement at the prospects of something really fun and different for our Disney honeymoon, is also wreaking havoc with my well-laid plans. Now our Epcot days are going to be filled with strife, as delicious food kiosks struggle against the amazing restaurants in the World Showcase. I've already been struggling to try and figure out how to eat at all of the restaurants that made my short list, and now I'm tempted to simply cut out an entire sit-down dinner in favor of just snacking our way across Epcot at the various pavilions. Looks like Biergarten or Coral Reef might be on the chopping block.

A Few More Groom's Clothing Options

Tonight Girl Scout Fiancée and I spent some time looking at suits, and wedding photos of people in the lighter gray suits, to try and come up with some ideas for what I should be looking for. We have both agreed that a lighter suit will be better, and in looking at Jos. A Bank's website there are a number of 100% cotton or cotton-wool blends that will probably breathe nicely, keeping me from overheating in the Florida late spring/early summer weather. One look that I'm starting to grow rather fond of is the gray suit pants-vest combo with no jacket and the sleeves rolled up. It's a little more casual looking, but without the jacket it's definitely going to be a lot cooler.

This suit actually comes with a 5 o'clock shadow.

I'm still thinking a light green shirt would look nice under a gray suit, something sort of muted and not a blazing bright color. I like the look of the light gray suit, a light colored shirt, and a slightly darker tie. Of course, if I buy a three-piece suit, I can always leave the decision of whether to wear the jacket or the vest until the day of the wedding, depending on what the weather is like. Girl Scout Fiancée has also declared that whatever suit I choose, I need to go with the modern fit/trim fit cut, instead of classic fit. I think I've found just the tie to go with it, too.

Hidden Mickeys. Booyah.

At this point, the toughest part is going to be finding shoes that have some color to them (like the saddle shoes I've posted about before) that looks good with the green shirt and tie. Any opinions on the vest-only look for a modern groom in a late spring Disney World/Florida wedding?

The Point of No Return

Late last week, we finally received a very important e-mail from Diane, our Wedding Consultant at Disney's Fairytale Weddings: the contracts. Though nothing takes the magic and charm out of a wedding like page upon page of legalese, signing the contracts is an important step for a number of reasons. Of course, it locks in your date, venue, and wedding package, and in turn you agree to abide by the rules they have for the wedding packages. There are twelve pages to the contract, but it's not too impenetrable (though I may be biased, having read many a contract of my own during my days as a freelance game designer), and they all more or less boil down to this: Here's your package, this is what you're signing up for, this is what you get, and you can't try and get it for less. There's not much more to say on the topic, but I figured anyone going through the process might like to know that it was at this point where we received, reviewed, and put ink to paper on the contract.

So, Girl Scout Fiancée and I signed the letter of agreement, and I sent it back to Diane via FedEx. It seems that, once she receives it, it will then be another two weeks before we are handed off to a wedding coordinator. At this point, there's kind of a lot of hurry up and wait going on, but this far out that's to be expected. Included with the letter of agreement was the authorization to charge the deposit, so we are now committed financially to the wedding!

Wedding and Honeymoon Inspiration Boards

Today Girl Scout Fiancée introduced me to something called an Inspiration Board or Mood Board. Apparently, this is a collage of images that brides use to summarize, in a single picture, the colors and thematic elements of the wedding. Girl Scout Fiancée wanted to put one together, but all she had to work with was Microsoft Word, so tonight she enlisted my assistance to create a higher-resolution one using Photoshop, with which I am marginally proficient.

You would think this would be a rather simple thing, but then you would be wrong in thinking that, and we don't want you, dear reader, to be thinking wrong thoughts. You see, the first barrier we had to the creation of her Inspiration Board was communicating to me the board's purpose. I'll admit, I'm still a little hazy on the details, and it kind of sounds like something brides did before the advent of Pinterest, or Facebook photo albums, and yet it has stuck around despite these wonderful modern technologies. Still, once she had adequately communicated her needs to me (a process that required her to show me examples, a fair amount of yelling, and no less than three separate shadow puppet shows), we set to patching together the various images she had collected. I will confide in you that I did get to feel like a real MANLY MAN when I impressed her with some Google Image Search tricks; let that be a condemnation of the state of modern manhood, if nothing else.

Pinterest, beware, your true competition is here.

When we were done, Girl Scout Fiancée was pleased, but asked me why I didn't put any images of groom's things on the Inspiration Board. Three answers came to mind immediately: first, she was supposed to tell me what to put on this board; second, that's what this blog is for; third, I should just make my own groom's Inspiration Board. However, since my main responsibility is the honeymoon, I should put together a honeymoon inspiration board. So, after an hour or so of image gathering and Photoshop sorcery, here's what I came up with.

Lifestyle change, prepare to meet your doom.

Then, I went and got a snack, and decided to take a second crack at it. Of course, the tough part about creating a honeymoon Inspiration Board is that most of what's exciting to me about the honeymoon is me introducing Girl Scout Fiancée to Disney World, so I really need a bunch of photos of her looking excited. So, instead, I tried to pick some of the rides, activities, and (I hope you're sitting down for this) meals that I'm jazzed about. Here's the final result.

I couldn't avoid putting at least one beer on here.

In the end, I'm pretty sure the whole Inspiration Board thing is something that falls firmly into the domain of the primary wedding planner, in this case the bride, who wants to envision how a whole event is going to tie together. Since the honeymoon is going to be a non-stop celebration, who cares what it looks like, as long as we're enjoying our first weeks of marriage together?

So, what do you think, dear reader: are Inspiration Boards a bride-only thing, or is there any good that can come out of a groom making one?