Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Disney Wedding Wednesday! Justin & Courtney Walker

I am so excited to introduce this new new feature, WEDDING WEDNESDAY!  I have always been in love with weddings and all they include (love!  dreams!   hope!).   When you merge a beautiful wedding and an amazing love for Disney what couldn't be better?  I met my first bride on an amazing group on Facebook for Disney Brides




When I first saw Courtney's wedding pictures, my heart was filled and my eyes were almost tearing up!   She had so many little beautiful details she included!    Every bride cant help but swoon in adoration when they see the pictures!   And what personality and life comes through them!!  She gave me 897 pictures to look for and I honestly wanted to post every single one because they are just so amazing!   I hope you enjoy seeing a glimpse into her life and love as much as I did!



HOW DID YOU AND YOUR JUSTIN MEET?
Justin and I met on a blind date. A girl I was worked with approached me one day and said "I was in the shower last night and I thought of the perfect guy for you!" I knew by our second date I knew I was going to marry him.

TELL ME ABOUT THE PROPOSAL? We had been to Disney a few times before together,but this was our first trip with our annual passes and we were staying at the Contemporary. So we were both really excited. I thought for sure he was going to propose during Wishes because he just seemed so nervous, I just knew something was up. He didn't end up proposing and I was so bummed, so we were heading out of the park to get dinner, I was hangry, and out of nowhere he makes me stop because he wanted to get a picture in front of the castle before we left for the night. He started re-positioning me and I remember asking "what are you doing?" And he goes "I am trying to propose to you!" He got down on one knee and said "There are a lot of princesses here but I want you to be my queen, will you marry me?" It was sappy and romantic and perfect!

WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO GO WITH A DISNEY WEDDING?
I was born and raised in NH, and we managed to come to Disney World almost every year, it was just a huge part of my life. I used to have cheer-leading competitions at the Wide World of Sports, I ran my first half marathon and full marathon at Disney. I have had so many milestones at Disney. It was also someplace that I had amazing memories no matter what part of my family I was with. Even through my parents' divorce and remarriages, step siblings, Disney was just someplace that I have had good memories with everyone at. I moved to Florida six years ago, about two hours south of Disney and when we started thinking about planning our wedding we knew that there would be a lot of people traveling. Disney seemed like the perfect place, we wanted our wedding to have a very family oriented, reunion type feel to it... Besides what little girl rides the monorail by the wedding pavilion and doesn't want to get married there?! Luckily my husband is the most amazing man and pretty much let me do what I wanted.

WHAT WAS YOUR WEDDING DATE?
April 7, 2015 Ceremony was at the Wedding Pavilion, Pre-reception was at the Marina at the Grand Floridian, reception was at Citricos.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE WEDDING? I don't think I could possibly pick one thing! My cake was absolutely, insanely amazing and I loved it... It was perfect. Cinderella's carriage was a dream come true...I was basically like a 5 year old the entire time I was in it. Walking down the aisle to "So this is love"... It still gives me goosebumps! Our reception location was exactly how I wanted it, so much natural light and it just had such a good vibe. The food was all amazing. Our signature drink was Kung Fu Punch from the China pavilion at food and wine festival. That made me happy! We had Major Domo help us play a joke on our best man and that was hilarious. We had the caricature artists and they were such a great way to get our guests mingling and laughing! The thing that surprised me the most that I ended up loving was the Dapper Dan's. I got them as a gift for my dad and they ended up blowing me away, they got my husband singing to me (so not like him!!!) and it was just a blast! I also surprised my mom with her own little birthday cake since it was her birthday that week and her ugly cry face was priceless! Mickey and Minnie came, that was of course amazing!! Oh and I got married to the love of my life... That was pretty darn awesome too

YOUR WEDDING HAD SO MANY WEDDING DETAILS! WHERE DID YOU COME UP WITH THEM ALL? Thank you! The overall theme of my wedding was Cinderella but I had done so much research and spent so much time on the blogs and pinterest that I knew I didn't want a traditional Cinderella wedding. The most important thing for me was my cake. I knew I wanted Cinderella's mice on my cake and that was something that I was not going to budge on. Turns out the bakery didn't think they were going to be able to make my original idea how I wanted and in return they came back with the sketch of what my cake ended up being. I fell in love with it! I am not a good detail person but they knew what direction I wanted to be in and they just made it perfect! The only detail that I wanted to add was that I wanted the base of the cake "the pin cushion" to have the same floral design that my dress had. Once the cake was decided on I ended up changing my centerpieces to the baskets full of sewing stuff because I thought it would tie it all in together! We had little Cinderella carriages on all the boutineers and corsages. I ordered a phone case to match my day, a hanger for my dress, I had rhinestones in my hair to sparkle like the live-action Cinderella's hair; I was a little obsessive. Our pre-reception was outside at the marina at the Grand Floridian and we had an Up! Themed guest table that turned out really cute. We also had little touches of Mickey and Minnie throughout the day. I had stickers of them on the bottom of my ceremony shoes, Mickey cake pops as favors, and Mickey cuff links. My brooch bouquet also had a ton of Disney touches as well!

DID YOU HAND MAKE ANYTHING?
I am not very crafty at all, but I did manage to make my brooch bouquet. I asked my family and friends for brooches that they would want to contribute, or reminded them of me, I went to antique stores (that got expensive fast), and I finally ended up going on ebay and searching for brooches with free shipping and made a rule with myself to not bid over a certain dollar amount for each brooch. A lot of them come from China so it took a while but it gave me time to slowly work on the bouquet. My mom's friend helped sew the leftover fabric from my sash on the base of my bouquet and she arranged my Maid Of Honor bouquet that was made from silk flowers and rhinestones. We made an Up! Themed mailbox for our card box, we had that theme for our pre-reception, with the adventure book, and a "guestbook" that people signed their names in the balloons. The only other thing that was hand made were my sneakers that I wore during the reception. A good friend of mine hand painted them for me. They are so beautiful and detailed! It is awesome to have a friend with that kind of talent, it made having those shoes so much more special knowing that it wasn't just "another job" and she painted them with love




ANY SIGNIFICANCE TO THE UMBRELLA?
My first trip to Disney World when I was 3 my parents got me a "brellen" as I called it from Magic Kingdom. I had a big one and a small one and to this day I still have the small one, there is a picture of me in a stroller trying to fit under the little "brellen" that is has always been a bit of a family favorite so I had another small one made with our wedding date to have around that day.








I LOVE YOUR PAINTED SHOES! WHEN DID YOU WEAR THEM? I wore them for the reception, I just knew I wasn't going to be comfortable in heels for that long. I honestly would have worn them for the ceremony too but my husband is 6'8" and I am 5'4" so I needed to be a little closer to his height! They were hand painted by a good friend of mine so they are very special to me. They have so many details that I love and I just am so glad that they are mine!



TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE DAPPER DANS! My dad and step-mom both sang barbershop so the Dapper Dans were a thank you surprise to them for their help and support. I only had them there for about a half an hour (you can do longer) because I didn't think very many people would be into it. It turns out they are awesome! They tell incredibly corny jokes (which I love), they are amazingly talented, and they got Justin to sing with them (all he had to say was "you" but he ended up getting really into it!) They pulled Justin aside and asked him if my mom had a good sense of humor. When Justin said yes, they told my mom that Justin dedicated a song to her... And they started singing Cruella De Vil. It was priceless!! Everyone was dying laughing, especially since Justin is a huge suck up to my mom and everyone knows it. It was so much fun.

DOES JUSTIN LOVE DISNEY AS MUCH AS YOU DO? He does now! He had never really had the "Disney experience" before he met me and he loves it now. We love to have drinks and eat at the Sci-fi diner, he always says that Le Celier is the best steak he has ever had. His magic band is more decked out than mine is. He LOVES Star Wars weekend. He now has Disney withdrawals too.


WHAT ARE WAYS YOU INCORPORATE DISNEY INTO YOUR EVERY DAY LIFE AS A COUPLE? We try to go to Disney at least once a month, we are so lucky to live close enough to be able to make it a day trip! We also have Disney touches around the house, we have some art, kitchen stuff, after getting the Lenox Gus, Jaq, and Suzy for my cake, I bought a curio cabinet to display them and all of my favorite wedding details. Our newest project is putting a cut out of Gus and Jaq dancing right above the floor board in our hallway. I love the mice from Cinderella so I really wanted them to be a part of the family! I am even making a "mouse" sizes front door for them!


ANY FUTURE DISNEY PLANS IN THE WORKS? We are always doing day trips to Disney but I think the big goal is to get to Disney Aulani in Hawaii for our 5 year anniversary, and also try and go on a Disney Cruise (I have been, Justin hasn't) and I would really like to check out Disneyland.


ANY WORDS OR ADVICE FOR FUTURE DISNEY BRIDES? Go with the flow and trust Disney. They are amazing at what they do, I left a lot of our wedding day up to them and what they thought would be best and they really delivered! Also, don't be stressed! Even if something did go wrong on my wedding day, there are so many people taking care of you that you would never know!








Save The Dates

The Invitation 


The Dress.   Check out the hanger!



Love the Hidden Mickey Detail


Rings had "SO THIS IS LOVE" engraved inside



Putting on the Veil, love her expression!

HOW AMAZING ARE THESE SHOES?!?







I am ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE with this bouquet!











Every girl's dream, she got to ride around in Cinderella's Carriage all day!






Right after he saw her for the first time.   This picture stirs up such emotion!










I love that you can see how much fun they have!!!!


STUNNING!





"You may kiss the Bride!"



This is one of my favorites!













I LOVE THIS IDEA!!!!




A royal announcer


How creative!  Cinderella themed centerpieces!

This is my favorite wedding cake I have ever seen!!!


They served Mickey Waffles at the reception!



Dapper Dans for Entertainment.   You could see so much laughter and enjoyment from the guests with this special touch!




They had Caricature artists come and do drawings for their guests!



Even Mickey and Minnie Mouse attended this wedding!

How adorable they covered their eyes for the kiss!  Haha











All photo credit goes to Nathan and Jensey Root - Root Photography.  

Make sure you check them out! They do amazing work and are based in Orlando, FL!

Visit their blog by clicking HERE.
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3 comments:

  1. I am in love with this wedding!!! So many amazing ideas!!!

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  2. Thank you for featuring one of our favorite Disney weddings!! :)

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