How to Pick Out Dresses for Your Bridesmaids

photo by Lilia Photography

I used to think that picking out bridesmaid dresses was going to be really fun. I figured it would be sort of like having a set of real live Barbie dolls that I could design perfect little outfits for. I admit that I played around with the "dress your wedding party" option on the David's Bridal website before Kyle and I even got engaged. I mean, choosing fancy dresses for your closest friends? What could be more fun?!

PassPorter's Disney Weddings & Honeymoons - Review and Giveaway!

When I first got engaged, I went straight to Amazon.com to buy the official guide to planning a Disney wedding. Surprise! It didn't exist! In fact, I couldn't find much on Amazon at all that applied to my wedding planning. I got a book for planning a destination wedding, but since planning a wedding at Disney is pretty different than planning a wedding in Greece, it wasn't that helpful. Luckily, I was able to turn to the bride forums and get the information I needed.

Wedding Spotlight: Cassie + JB

Date: January 31, 2010
Ceremony Location: Conch Key Marina at the Grand Floridian
Reception Location: Disney Cruise (yes, you read that right!)
Photography: Root Photography
Floral: Laura with Disney Floral
Hair/Makeup: Ana with Beaute Speciale
Tux: Carolyn Allen's
Coordinator: Bill Barchik, Shelley LaMarre
Officiant: Rev. Tim Herring
Videography: Simply Cinematic

Well, just when I thought I'd seen all of the cool twists people could put on their Disney weddings, Cassie and JB had to go and get married outside at the Grand Floridian Resort. AND they opted to take their guests on a Disney Cruise instead of doing a reception. AND they took the Roots on the cruise with them.

It's official. It's probably the coolest wedding ever.

Floral Design: Beauty and the Beast

I'm about to wrap up here in California. Beauty and the Beast opens this Thursday and all those costumes I've been working on for the last three weeks get to sing and dance on stage. And I get to go home to my husband. Big Fat Yes!

I thought I'd put in a nod to all the fun I've had on this production with a little Beauty and the Beast wedding decor. These flowers are for a home reception and were done by Flower Design in the U.K. for a couple who love the animated Disney classic. I love that it's a fun and personal detail, but still subtle and classy.

Styleboard: Red and Black

When we were getting married, I was pretty cautious with my colors. Everything I bought ended up being silver or pale blue. So, when I announced that I was going to have my attendants wear all black, people were surprised. A few commented that I was being very brave, since our wedding could turn out to be a bit grim and gothic with all those people in black standing around. Of course, it all turned out to be fine and I think my attendants looked pretty classy on our big day.

Now, having seen so many weddings, I know the difference between being a little brave with your colors and being very brave. I've been pleasantly surprised by so many color combinations that I would have shied away from during my planning, like this one from Laura's wedding:

Table Settings at the Grand Floridian

On the morning of my wedding, I had my mom fold pieces of cardstock and scribble table numbers on them.

These images, from Marissa and Calvin's wedding, show what you can get if you put a little more effort into it:

Our Guests Won’t Travel That Far

The Top Three Myths About Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings: Myth #3 – Our Guests Won’t Travel That Far

by

Carrie Hayward
Author, PassPorter’s Disney Weddings & Honeymoons
www.passporter.com/weddings.asp


We’ve established the fact that Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings can be affordable, and we’ve dispelled the notion that they only offer princess-y weddings. But for many people, the biggest obstacle to a Walt Disney World wedding is the misconception that no one will travel that far to attend it.

The first thing to note is that destination weddings are becoming more and more common—The Knot’s 2009 survey found that one in five couples planned an out-of-town wedding, while one in 10 planned to wed more than 200 miles from where they lived. In the words of another Disney bride, these days nobody lives in the same town as all their friends and family, so every wedding is a destination wedding for someone!

Unlike many destination-wedding locales, Orlando is easily accessible from most cities, offers accommodations at all price points, and is kid-friendly, making it easy for your guests to turn a trip to your wedding into a family vacation. This may be why Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings reports that Walt Disney World weddings draw a greater percentage of the guest list than the 50%–75% typical for a destination wedding.

There are also a number of things you can do to increase the likelihood that those invited will attend and make it easier on the ones who do.

• Hold your event during Disney’s Value Season. Hotel prices (and usually airfare) will be cheaper and crowds will be lighter. If you block a certain number of hotel rooms, Disney offers your guests discounts of up to 30% off rack rates. Alternatively, they may take advantage of any discount they qualify for, including AAA, Annual Passholder, PIN offers, and seasonal discounts like the free Disney Dining Plan frequently available in September.

• Send “save the date” cards with the wedding date and location as soon as you have signed your contract. Wedding invitations are usually sent out only a month or two before the big day, so a save-the-date card will give your guests plenty of time to start planning and saving for a trip.

• Point your guests in the direction of helpful Disney vacation-planning websites or enlist the services of a travel agent to answer their questions and book their trips. You can also keep guests in the loop with a wedding website and/or a newsletter that covers everything they need to know about your event.

• Once guests arrive, show them your gratitude with a casual welcome party or thoughtful welcome bags containing essentials like sunscreen, bottled water, and Disney park maps. It is also helpful to provide transportation to and from wedding-day events.

And for those who are unable to attend your wedding, consider holding a reception in your hometown a few months later. Whether you plan a formal event that mimics a wedding reception or throw together a backyard barbecue, a home reception will let you share your photos, video and memories with a wider circle of family and friends and give them a chance to participate in the celebration.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Carrie Hayward is the author of PassPorter’s Disney Weddings & Honeymoons, a guidebook and bridal organizer for weddings, vow renewals, commitment ceremonies and honeymoons at Walt Disney World and on the Disney Cruise Line. She was married in Epcot’s Morocco Pavilion, with a reception at The Attic at Disney’s BoardWalk Resort and an IllumiNations dessert party at Epcot’s United Kingdom Lochside patio.

All Disney Weddings Are Princess-y

The Top Three Myths About Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings: Myth #2 – All Disney Weddings Are Princess-y

by

Carrie Hayward
Author, PassPorter’s Disney Weddings & Honeymoons
www.passporter.com/weddings.asp


Last time we debunked the myth that Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings are only for the fabulously wealthy. Now we’ll look at the second biggest misconception about Disney weddings—that they’re strictly for princesses.

While it is true that Disney does a booming business in fairy tale-style weddings, ultimately the look and feel of your event is entirely up to you.

The best example is the Wishes Collection, which allows you to completely customize your event. Start with ceremony and reception venues that appeal to your sense of style. Among your choices are elegant and traditional venues like Disney’s Wedding Pavilion and the Grand Floridian ballrooms, sleek and modern sites like California Grill at the Contemporary Resort and Living Seas Salon inside Epcot, and eclectic and highly themed locations like Animal Kingdom’s Tamu Tamu Courtyard or Epcot’s Italy Pavilion.

With your locations as a canvas, you can add as many or as few floral and decor elements as you wish. Only certain venues allow you to bring in your own florist, but even if you are required to use the Walt Disney World Florist, the options are limited only by your imagination and budget. And nowhere is it written that you have to have masses of pink roses or carriage-shaped centerpieces just because you’re getting married at Walt Disney World!

Disney also offers the Couture Collection of ceremony and reception looks designed by celebrity wedding planner David Tutera. With one of these high-end decor packages you’ll get a magazine-worthy wedding without having to design every detail yourself. Two of them in particular, Simply Chic and Cocktail Soiree, eschew the frills and gilding for a clean, modern look.

Even the basic Escape Collection package offers a choice of bouquet and cake styles that range from classic to contemporary and from whimsical to, yes, even fairy tale. You may also customize them for an additional fee.

And if you do want to play prince or princess for a day, Walt Disney World is the place to do it! Among your options are Cinderella’s Glass Coach, complete with costumed footmen; a Major Domo in powdered wig and full regalia to carry the rings; Herald Trumpeters to announce your arrival; gilded thrones for the happy couple; and even a giant castle backdrop or oversized storybook entrance for the reception.

Up Next: Myth #3 – Our Guests Won’t Travel That Far
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Carrie Hayward is the author of PassPorter’s Disney Weddings & Honeymoons, a guidebook and bridal organizer for weddings, vow renewals, commitment ceremonies and honeymoons at Walt Disney World and on the Disney Cruise Line. She was married in Epcot’s Morocco Pavilion, with a reception at The Attic at Disney’s BoardWalk Resort and an IllumiNations dessert party at Epcot’s United Kingdom Lochside patio.

The Top Three Myths About Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings

I have got good stuff for you today, people. Welcome to the first post in a three part series by Carrie Hayward, known to many of you as lurkyloo. Carrie is a bonified expert on Disney weddings and is the author of PassPorter’s Disney Weddings & Honeymoons. I'm actually planning to do a full review and giveaway of her fabulous book, but since I'm unexpectedly in California for the next couple of weeks, we're going to do some guest posts instead. Carrie has been a major source of information and inspiration for me and I'm so glad she's my first guest author!


The Top Three Myths About Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings

Disney Valentines For Your Wedding (or Sweetheart!)

I love vintage valentines. They evoke memories of school parties and card boxes and those little chalk hearts that never tasted good but were always so exciting to get. Now that I'm older, I admit that I still browse the valentines aisle just to see which design I would have picked to hand out to my friends.

I picked these up at an antique store after we got married, which is too bad because one of our home receptions was on Valentines Day and these would have been perfect!!! I would have either turned them into a garland or put them under a glass tabletop on the cake table. Oooh, or I might have used them for table numbers or turned them into stickers and put them on the goody bags. Le sigh, the possibilities are endless but I missed the boat.

Oh well, instead I pass them on to you and hope you can use them in your celebration. Or at least pass them out to your friends this V-day!

How to Design Your Wedding Cake

When you sign a contract to have a Disney wedding, they send you a ton of stuff so you can start planning. One of the things that you get in your planning package is a cd that has pictures of all the different wedding cakes offered by Disney.


What many brides don't realize, though, is that Disney can create just about any wedding cake you care to dream up. To illustrate, I thought I'd share this cake planning story, from Shannon and Craig, who made their lovely cake as personal as any I've ever seen...

We wanted the Mad Hatter cake but a combination of other cakes for each layer...these were what we used as inspiration...the bottom tier of this cake in greens...

...the circles from this cake with a blue background and other shades of blue circles...

...the middle layer yellow with blue and green mickeys in various shapes and styles like this cake...

We didn't want anything flowerly or weird on the layers, just some icing piping. I wanted to show our Canadian/Scottish backgrounds in the topper so I used the topper in the previous cake for inspiration and sent this awesome "paint" job that Craig made fun of...my own drawing would have been worse but they clearly understood what i wanted.

When you combined all this together the finished product was awesome!! It was one of my favorite parts of the whole wedding and it made me so sad to have to cut it. FYI, I had them leave the fondant on my pieces and it was really yummy too!!

Here it is!!

Thanks, Shannon! It turned out great!

Wedding Spotlight: Erika + Kyle

Ceremony Location: Wedding Pavilion
Reception Location: Grand Floridian
Photographer: Jennifer Brum

Today's wedding spotlight comes to us from photographer Jennifer Brum, who photographed Erika and Kyle's beautiful wedding. Kyle Jackson is a former player for the Florida Gators and the couple had quite a few attendants! Can I even tell you how much I love the floral on the sweetheart table?

Styleboard: Feathered Beauty

Ever since I got my first peek at Sarah and David's beautiful Sea Breeze Point wedding, I've been slightly obsessed with brides using feathers. Feathers are just so soft and romantic, while also being fun and unexpected. If I had seen more feathered wedding pictures, I definitely would have made some changes to our wedding style. But, alas, I missed the boat...so I pulled together some of my favorite feathery accessories just in case any of you planning brides are feeling the need for a little plumage on your big day:

Wedding Journey Spotlight: Andreah + Brian

To wrap up the Wedding Journey Spotlight on Andreah and Brian, I thought I'd share some of their park portraits from Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. Choosing to have a park session after your wedding has become very popular among Disney Brides and I've seen some really amazing images from these sessions. You know, I showcase outside photographers on this blog a lot because I like so many weddings that come out of them, but I do have to tip my hat to Disney Photographic Services. There are some very good photographers working directly for Disney, doing park weddings and park sessions like this one...

Wedding Journey Spotlight: Andreah + Brian

Reception Location: Contemporary Resort
Photographer: Misty Miotto

Wedding Journey Spotlight: Andreah + Brian

Ceremony location: Wedding Pavilion
Photographer: Misty Miotto

Wedding Journey Spotlight: Andreah + Brian

Thought the powerpoint presentation was good? Here are just a few examples of all the amazing things Andreah can do with a good color printer...

Newsletters:

Wedding Journey Spotlight: Andreah + Brian

For today's portion of Andreah and Brian's Wedding Journey spotlight, I thought I'd share some samples of the work of two outside vendors that are longtime Disney Bride favorites: Patricia LeJeune and Misty Miotto.

Hair and Makeup Trial with Patricia LeJeune:

Wedding Journey Spotlight: Andreah + Brian

I've read a ton of planning journals and every now and then I'll come across one where I really feel like I "get" the bride...you know, like we're surfing on the same wavelength. Never has this been more true than when I saw the incredible power point Andreah sent to her wedding coordinator before their planning session.

I love this idea!

Wedding Journey Spotlight: Andreah + Brian

I'm trying out a new type of wedding spotlight this week. I have so many weddings that I want to share with you guys that part of me wants to just post ten different weddings spotlights every day. However, sometimes I also feel like we miss a ton by rushing through ten beautiful wedding pictures and then moving on to the next bride and groom. As you guys know, there's so much story behind every single one of these wedding spotlights and we're usually only touching the tip of the iceberg...