Photography: Ambitious Misfit Photography
Source: Rock n Roll Bride
My iMac Died and it Probably Affects You
Bad news, bears.
I started having serious problems with my beloved iMac this weekend and yesterday, in a brave attempt to fix everything, I broke my computer. It's not a little broken...it's a lot broken. (Or, as the computer tech person I called said, I gave my computer a lobotomy and it's just not there anymore.)
So, I lost tons and tons of stuff, including many files that I use for the Disney blogs. This is how it might affect you:
Anyway, that's how the death of my iMac is affecting the blog. I do apologize about the spotlights and I feel terrible about it. The whole thing has been pretty devastating...I lost photos and videos of Eva, lots of photos from our honeymoon and wedding, all of my work/tax/account information, and about $700 in iTunes. It's a good life lesson, though! Now I know that I need to back everything up in the future!
I am trying really hard to keep a "Just keep swimming!" attitude about it, though. I have (a) a beautiful kid, (b) a wonderful husband, and (c) a MacBook Pro that really hasn't had enough attention in the last couple of years. What's a little iMac hiccup compared to all of that, right?
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I started having serious problems with my beloved iMac this weekend and yesterday, in a brave attempt to fix everything, I broke my computer. It's not a little broken...it's a lot broken. (Or, as the computer tech person I called said, I gave my computer a lobotomy and it's just not there anymore.)
So, I lost tons and tons of stuff, including many files that I use for the Disney blogs. This is how it might affect you:
- I've lost many of the spotlights you've submitted. At one point, I had over 600 spotlights to go through from that form that used to be on the site. Unfortunately, many were incomplete (people had forgotten albums or submitted before their event took place) and many were duplicates (people thought a problem had occurred because the spotlight didn't go up right away and they submitted their wedding thirty more times). The result was a big fat mess. To make things easier, I started saving the photos to my computer in individual spotlight files, since many of the wedding albums were expiring/password protected when I finally got to them. Unfortunately, that means that I lost around 150 spotlights when my computer died and I have no way to get them back.
- If you submitted for a spotlight and you've never seen it on the site, the chances are high that it was sitting in a folder on my computer, waiting to go up. Unfortunately, that means you need to submit again. The good news is that I'm simplifying the submission process by simply asking you to email me. Since my email is safely stored online, I won't risk losing all of those submissions again, and I'll be able to respond to you and confirm that I've received it. For more info, visit this page. (NOTE: you can also submit spotlights for The Disney Baby Blog and The Disney Party Blog by emailing me.)
- I've also lost a ton of information about vendors, both in FL and CA. I had collected vendor reviews and recommendations from brides who got married over the last few years and I had them in a big spreadsheet so that I could see all of the positive/negative reviews for each vendor and I could make notes about which vendors really seemed to excel at certain things. I used that spreadsheet all the time when determining who to invite to the recommended vendors list and who to recommend when people asked me. It's all gone now, which means I'm sort of back to square one, so I'll be less help for a while when it comes to recommending vendors (especially in the Disneyland area).
- I had a bunch of videos and photos from the trip to WDW I took with Carrie Hayward that might be gone forever. I thought that I had saved them on an outside hard drive at some point, but I can't seem to find them. So, the location spotlights might be on hold for a bit until I can track them down.
Anyway, that's how the death of my iMac is affecting the blog. I do apologize about the spotlights and I feel terrible about it. The whole thing has been pretty devastating...I lost photos and videos of Eva, lots of photos from our honeymoon and wedding, all of my work/tax/account information, and about $700 in iTunes. It's a good life lesson, though! Now I know that I need to back everything up in the future!
I am trying really hard to keep a "Just keep swimming!" attitude about it, though. I have (a) a beautiful kid, (b) a wonderful husband, and (c) a MacBook Pro that really hasn't had enough attention in the last couple of years. What's a little iMac hiccup compared to all of that, right?
It's hard to have a bad day around this kid!
Nerissa: Engagement Shoot with Beverly Hills Photography
We booked a photographer for the wedding- Beverly Hills Photography! They were on Disney's recommended vendor list and because they work so much with Disney, they actually have employee badges/passes for Disneyland! They know the Disney wedding venues so well it made us feel confident they were the right photographers for us!
Lucky for us when we booked them they had a limited time deal where you get a complimentary engagement shoot after booking them for your wedding. We hadn't planned on getting a professional engagement shoot since we were happy with the photos we used for our Save the Dates but we weren't going to turn one down! I'm really happy we were able to do one because it gave us a chance to get to know our photographer and a chance to see how their photos of us look!
I'm happy to report that we loved having them do our shoot and the pictures they took! We picked Disneyland as our location for the shoot and although we had only a little more than an hour with them, we got many great photos!
Here are a few of my many favorites!
Location Spotlight: The Walt Disney Family Museum
The Walt Disney Family Museum, located at The Prisidio in San Francisco, is a lovely, upscale location for your Disney-themed event. It's a relatively new venue and it has a number of different options, depending on whether you're thinking about holding your bridal shower, engagement party, or wedding reception there.
Lobby/Cafe:
Spotlight on a Disneyland Wedding
Location: Rose Court Garden, Disneyland Hotel
Photography: Jaimee Hubert
Hair/Makeup: Tara Fontana, Fairytale Hair and Makeup
Photography: Jaimee Hubert
Hair/Makeup: Tara Fontana, Fairytale Hair and Makeup
Nerissa: DIY Engagement Pics and Save the Dates!
Originally Jared and I were not planning to get engagement pictures because we didn't want to do anything unnecessary that would be an extra expense. After the 7 years we've known each other we have plenty of pictures that we love and are special to us. We did want some new pictures for our Save the Dates though so we decided that we would try to do them ourselves. We don't know anyone with photography as a hobby so we made plans to have Jared's brother go with us to the Disneyland Resort to take pictures. The day before we went I emptied my little pink digital camera of photos to create as much space for pictures as possible.
The Camera:
We ended up doing one session of pictures in formal dress so the photos wouldn't look too much like our usual vacation pictures and then another session of pictures where we are in casual dress. We took a lot of pictures because we figured if we took several photos there was bound to be some we liked and sure enough there were!
Here are some of our favorites of the pictures:
Wedding Spotlight: Tosha + Keith
Location: Rose Court Garden, Disneyland Hotel
Photography: Zenia Photography
Hair/Makeup: Fairytale Hair and Makeup
Coordinator: Cynthia Autry
Photography: Zenia Photography
Hair/Makeup: Fairytale Hair and Makeup
Coordinator: Cynthia Autry
Introducing The Disney Party Blog!
Yaaaaay!
That's how I feel about this launch. The Disney Party Blog is my newest site and it's going to include everything from birthdays to movie nights to Disney-themed care packages. I love the new site because it features events that everyone can enjoy and participate in, whether or not you're a Disney bride or a new mom or a Florida resident, etc. Love it!
There's posts and giveaways waiting for you over at the new site, so go! Go play!
Photo by Pink Sky Photography
My Dad is Not a Disney Person
(This is a re-post of something I wrote last year...)
In honor of Father's Day and Father's Week, I thought I'd share this small, personal tale:
Before we became engaged, Kyle called my dad and asked him for my hand in marriage. Since my father lives in Utah and we lived in Ohio, the traditional face-to-face meeting was reduced to a 30 second phone call. Even so, my father appreciated the gesture and when I called him to tell him that I was engaged, he had already gone out for a celebratory dinner on my behalf.
Four days after I got engaged, I told my father that we were thinking about having a small wedding in Walt Disney World, since we met there and it was only fair to make both sides of the family travel (rather than just one). My father's response? "Well, that's sounds like a pretty dumb idea. Why would you do that? Why don't you just have a normal wedding like everyone else?" I explained our reasons, but his response to those was, "Well, I don't know if we'll come to that. Maybe we'll just skip it."
For the record, my dad is not a bad person. He simply isn't very keen on things like theme parks and Disney and doing things in an unusual fashion. So, I tried not to take it personally that he'd said he might skip my wedding. Still, I admit that it was a bit of a thorn in my side and every change to the wedding plan was followed by a phone call to my father so that he'd be up to date, since my dad is also the type of person to just blow an event off if it sounds too complicated or seems like too much work.
By the time we were midway into our wedding planning, lots of things had happened in our little world. For one, my father got a sudden and unexpected divorce six months into our engagement, which made constantly bringing up the wedding a little awkward. For another thing, our casual little Disney wedding turned into a great big Disney wedding complete with ball gown and 16 attendants. Suddenly, family from all over was planning on joining us, including two of dad's siblings and his favorite niece. What had started out as some silly thing my dad might skip was starting to turn into the big romantic family reunion of the decade and it was all happening on top of the end of my father's marriage.
Let's just say it wasn't the greatest timing.
I finally convinced myself that I'd be fine if my dad didn't end up coming to the wedding. I knew that he wasn't into crowds or being in the spotlight or big events or things like Walt Disney World. Plus, I was always kind of an independent kid, so I hadn't really set him up for a "daddy's princess" type of wedding. As it was, he barely knew Kyle and all and only saw me a few times each year. So, it seemed petty and self-involved to feel sorry for myself because he wasn't leaping at the chance to fly to Florida and I decided to stop updating him on all the wedding planning.
I went home for Christmas just two weeks before we got married. My father introduced me to the wonderful woman that he had started seeing and I met her two sweet children, who are now my youngest step-siblings. They were all joining us in Florida for the wedding and although I didn't expect any of the traditional gushy daddy-daughter stuff to happen on our big day, I was really happy they were coming.
During my trip home, I tentatively broached the subject of who would walk me down the aisle. As I've said before, my dad hates crowds, spotlights, and silliness, so I didn't think he'd be interested, but I didn't want to give my stepfather the job without clearing it with my father. To my surprise, he told me that he was gearing up to walk me down the aisle, despite having quite a bit of anxiety about it. Then, to double my shock, he said that he had secretly gotten some dance lessons on video to practice for the daddy-daughter dance I didn't think we were having and asked me what we were dancing to. I gave him a list of choices and he ended up picking one of the sappiest, loveliest songs.
On my wedding day, my painfully shy and fairly awkward father arrived at the Grand Floridian in the Mickey Mouse tie that he had bought just for my wedding. He walked me down the aisle, gave me away, and waltzed me around on the dance floor (even though I found out later that the whole ordeal gave him stomach pains that lasted for weeks). Did he want to do it? Probably not, but at the end of it all I realized that my months of worrying and stressing had been for nothing. I had forgotten the most important thing: my dad isn't a huge fan of weddings or dances or Disney, but he seems to be a huge fan of me.
In honor of Father's Day and Father's Week, I thought I'd share this small, personal tale:
Before we became engaged, Kyle called my dad and asked him for my hand in marriage. Since my father lives in Utah and we lived in Ohio, the traditional face-to-face meeting was reduced to a 30 second phone call. Even so, my father appreciated the gesture and when I called him to tell him that I was engaged, he had already gone out for a celebratory dinner on my behalf.
Four days after I got engaged, I told my father that we were thinking about having a small wedding in Walt Disney World, since we met there and it was only fair to make both sides of the family travel (rather than just one). My father's response? "Well, that's sounds like a pretty dumb idea. Why would you do that? Why don't you just have a normal wedding like everyone else?" I explained our reasons, but his response to those was, "Well, I don't know if we'll come to that. Maybe we'll just skip it."
For the record, my dad is not a bad person. He simply isn't very keen on things like theme parks and Disney and doing things in an unusual fashion. So, I tried not to take it personally that he'd said he might skip my wedding. Still, I admit that it was a bit of a thorn in my side and every change to the wedding plan was followed by a phone call to my father so that he'd be up to date, since my dad is also the type of person to just blow an event off if it sounds too complicated or seems like too much work.
By the time we were midway into our wedding planning, lots of things had happened in our little world. For one, my father got a sudden and unexpected divorce six months into our engagement, which made constantly bringing up the wedding a little awkward. For another thing, our casual little Disney wedding turned into a great big Disney wedding complete with ball gown and 16 attendants. Suddenly, family from all over was planning on joining us, including two of dad's siblings and his favorite niece. What had started out as some silly thing my dad might skip was starting to turn into the big romantic family reunion of the decade and it was all happening on top of the end of my father's marriage.
Let's just say it wasn't the greatest timing.
I finally convinced myself that I'd be fine if my dad didn't end up coming to the wedding. I knew that he wasn't into crowds or being in the spotlight or big events or things like Walt Disney World. Plus, I was always kind of an independent kid, so I hadn't really set him up for a "daddy's princess" type of wedding. As it was, he barely knew Kyle and all and only saw me a few times each year. So, it seemed petty and self-involved to feel sorry for myself because he wasn't leaping at the chance to fly to Florida and I decided to stop updating him on all the wedding planning.
I went home for Christmas just two weeks before we got married. My father introduced me to the wonderful woman that he had started seeing and I met her two sweet children, who are now my youngest step-siblings. They were all joining us in Florida for the wedding and although I didn't expect any of the traditional gushy daddy-daughter stuff to happen on our big day, I was really happy they were coming.
During my trip home, I tentatively broached the subject of who would walk me down the aisle. As I've said before, my dad hates crowds, spotlights, and silliness, so I didn't think he'd be interested, but I didn't want to give my stepfather the job without clearing it with my father. To my surprise, he told me that he was gearing up to walk me down the aisle, despite having quite a bit of anxiety about it. Then, to double my shock, he said that he had secretly gotten some dance lessons on video to practice for the daddy-daughter dance I didn't think we were having and asked me what we were dancing to. I gave him a list of choices and he ended up picking one of the sappiest, loveliest songs.
On my wedding day, my painfully shy and fairly awkward father arrived at the Grand Floridian in the Mickey Mouse tie that he had bought just for my wedding. He walked me down the aisle, gave me away, and waltzed me around on the dance floor (even though I found out later that the whole ordeal gave him stomach pains that lasted for weeks). Did he want to do it? Probably not, but at the end of it all I realized that my months of worrying and stressing had been for nothing. I had forgotten the most important thing: my dad isn't a huge fan of weddings or dances or Disney, but he seems to be a huge fan of me.
.
.
Wedding Spotlight: Kate + Jay
Locations: Bay Lake Tower - Contemporary Resort, Wedding Pavilion, Grand Floridian, St. Augustine Ballroom
Photography: David and Vicki Arndt Photography
Photography: David and Vicki Arndt Photography
Escape Weddings at Disneyland
Escape weddings are now available at Disneyland! Yay!!
(Actually, I've heard that they've been doing them for a while...or they were doing them and they stopped and now they are again...it's all a little cloudy, but the real point is they're available right now!)
Here's the scoop:
(Actually, I've heard that they've been doing them for a while...or they were doing them and they stopped and now they are again...it's all a little cloudy, but the real point is they're available right now!)
Here's the scoop:
- Cost: $5,000 (plus whatever enhancements you add)
- Timeline: Escape weddings are booked and planned in a six-month timeline.
- Ceremony locations available: the Wedding Garden, Brisa Courtyard, and the Adventure Lawn Gazebo.
The Wedding Garden
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