So, we finally started our registry. Apparently Kevin is extremely picky about EVERYTHING. I never would have guessed, but after it took us 25 minutes to pick out silverware I knew we were in for a long process. To be fair, we really have only registered for a handful of things so far.... towels, dishes and silverware, but it's a start. Currently our registry is open at Macy's but we will be registering at Target as well.
In the words of Kevin, why could we possibly need more stuff!? Haha it's so true we have an overabundance of everything, but we would like our own stuff... things that we picked out not just that were left for us. With that being said look for our amazing garage sale during the first weekend of August! It's gonna be HUGE!
Along with our huge garage sale is some huge house news: we're moving. It's true, we're finally selling the house! This was a big decision for us, since this house is awesome and in a great neighborhood in a great location with lots of "family" and friends around. But the reality is, it's too big and it's too expensive! My mom never meant for us to keep the house and although it has been really great living here this past year, we don't want all the upkeep. We like to travel, to spend our weekends in Disney and right now this just doesn't allow it. All of our money is going into the house and that's just not what we want. We instead are looking into buying a townhouse/condo where the outside is taken care of for us and we will have the money to travel like we want.
Of course I will miss this house, but times change and people move and I feel it's our time to start "our" life in a place that is... ours.
We're hoping to have the house on the market by August and (hoping it sells FAST) be in our new place by fall. 2010 is officially the year of change! I love it!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Life changes so quickly these days!!
Well hello again to the few people who actually read this blog!! I feel like I often don't have too much to write about and the things that I am working on for the wedding I want to be a surprise, so, no new details on the wedding details probably until after our planning session! Only 3 more weeks until Disney! Woo hoo time is really flying!
Speaking of time flying, can you believe there are only 6 months left until the wedding?! It seems like only yesterday I was saying "how am I going to wait a whole year!" And now we only have to wait half a year... woo hoo!
Of course, this exciting time in our lives is shared by many exciting times in our friends' lives as well. This seems to be the cluster of years where everyone decides to finally settle down with their girlfriend/boyfriends and make the ultimate committment. The last two weeks seem to be full of this for our friends and we are so excited to be sharing in their fun as well. We found out Friday night that two of our good friends, Bryan and Alina got engaged!!! We are so excited for them and wish them well on their engagement journey!
We also had the privledge to attend another good friend's wedding last weekend. Jenny and DJ finally tied the knot up here in Pittsburgh and true to their style had a Disney-themed wedding! LOVE it! It was absolutely awesome with all of the little Disney touches (some of which Jenny is graciously letting me borrow!) One way cool thing they had was a Cinderella Castle ice sculpture where the moat was a self-serve beer bar. Now seriously, what could be cooler than that?! By far the most original idea I have ever heard of! These two are awesome and totally meant for each other -- and we are totally blessed to have them as friends! Congrats guys!!!
After the ceremony
The morning after...
Speaking of time flying, can you believe there are only 6 months left until the wedding?! It seems like only yesterday I was saying "how am I going to wait a whole year!" And now we only have to wait half a year... woo hoo!
Of course, this exciting time in our lives is shared by many exciting times in our friends' lives as well. This seems to be the cluster of years where everyone decides to finally settle down with their girlfriend/boyfriends and make the ultimate committment. The last two weeks seem to be full of this for our friends and we are so excited to be sharing in their fun as well. We found out Friday night that two of our good friends, Bryan and Alina got engaged!!! We are so excited for them and wish them well on their engagement journey!
We also had the privledge to attend another good friend's wedding last weekend. Jenny and DJ finally tied the knot up here in Pittsburgh and true to their style had a Disney-themed wedding! LOVE it! It was absolutely awesome with all of the little Disney touches (some of which Jenny is graciously letting me borrow!) One way cool thing they had was a Cinderella Castle ice sculpture where the moat was a self-serve beer bar. Now seriously, what could be cooler than that?! By far the most original idea I have ever heard of! These two are awesome and totally meant for each other -- and we are totally blessed to have them as friends! Congrats guys!!!
After the ceremony
The morning after...Tuesday, June 8, 2010
It's a Small World After All
So... today was the day we officially received our wedding planner! For those of you who don't know exactly how Disney weddings work, we have had a coordinator up until now to answer any basic questions we may have. Once we sign our letter of agreement and pay our deposit, we get assigned a personal wedding planner who will help us plan everything and be there up until the lights come on at the reception and we retreat back to our hotel as a married couple.
I have to admit, I was nervous. Growing up around weddings and being naturally obsessed I know how important a wedding planner can be. If you get someone pushy or someone you don't click with, then planning can turn from a dream into a nightmare very quickly.
Nerves = GONE! We got a call today from Diane, who sounds like SUCH a sweetheart! We were chatting about the wedding when she goes "15236 is that Bethel?" Woah, no one from Florida knows where Bethel Park is.... She then proceeds to tell me she grew up in Mt. Lebo and when she finally moved to Florida a few years ago, she was living in Bethel Park. WHAT A SMALL WORLD!! So needless to say, I feel much more comfortable that we already have common ground! Looks like everything is falling into place... now if the next 7 months will just hurry up and fly by!!!
I have to admit, I was nervous. Growing up around weddings and being naturally obsessed I know how important a wedding planner can be. If you get someone pushy or someone you don't click with, then planning can turn from a dream into a nightmare very quickly.
Nerves = GONE! We got a call today from Diane, who sounds like SUCH a sweetheart! We were chatting about the wedding when she goes "15236 is that Bethel?" Woah, no one from Florida knows where Bethel Park is.... She then proceeds to tell me she grew up in Mt. Lebo and when she finally moved to Florida a few years ago, she was living in Bethel Park. WHAT A SMALL WORLD!! So needless to say, I feel much more comfortable that we already have common ground! Looks like everything is falling into place... now if the next 7 months will just hurry up and fly by!!!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
What makes you excited??
Ok so since there's not too much going on in our wedding world at the moment, I haven't had too much to blog about. June is proving to be a VERY busy month! This weekend we were celebrating the bachelor/bachelorette parties of two of our dear friends who are getting married in two weeks! They are having a loosly-based Disney wedding here in Pittsburgh. I will be sure to share pictures! Tomorrow we have the "Jean Sitar Invitational" -- the Westmoreland County Chamber's annual golf outing that is honoring my mom this year. It should be a great time and what a great honor for my mom's memory!
So, many of you have been asking when you should be receiving things from Disney and the answer is ANY DAY NOW! We officially signed the contract last week (Woo Hoo!!!!) so they said they would send them right out!
So back to the theme of today's post. What makes you excited? For Kevin it's golf or any sports really. For me, no surprise here, it's Disney. We have successfully planned a trip every 6 months or so up until August 2011! And the months leading up to the trip are spent planning our time and our dining plans. No, we're not crazy with the planning and like to leave a lot of "open" time for whatever comes up, but our trip in July will be a busy one because of all the wedding stuff going on. So we basically just lay out special things we want to do and what days to do them on so they go well with our dining reservations. Sometimes looking at everything online makes us long to be there, so what a better thing than to be there virtually.
No, I don't mean using one of those google earth programs to look at the places on stills and just miss it more. I also am not talking about the Walt Disney Wolrd Explorer CD-ROM I have where you can virtually ride the rides AND pick out hidden mickeys. Yes, this is how I spent my middle school nights since I've never been a big fan of sleeping at night. I am talking about this wonderful radio station I found! It's called Sorcerer Radio http://srsounds.com/joom_15/ . It gives you all the songs that are played around the WDW Parks and it really makes you feel like you're there.
Although we listen to this as a way to get excited to go back to our favorite place, it may be fun to listen to if you've never been there as well. It gives you a sense of the magic and it is not the usual "cheesy" music. Yes, sometimes there will be a Disney movie song on, but usually it is songs from the parades, attractions and different countries around the world! It's definitely worth checking out! I am newly addicted to it and fear that it will leave me longing for Disney more than I already do. Le sigh. Only 41 more days until we're there and only 214 days until we're all there celebrating together!!!
So, many of you have been asking when you should be receiving things from Disney and the answer is ANY DAY NOW! We officially signed the contract last week (Woo Hoo!!!!) so they said they would send them right out!
So back to the theme of today's post. What makes you excited? For Kevin it's golf or any sports really. For me, no surprise here, it's Disney. We have successfully planned a trip every 6 months or so up until August 2011! And the months leading up to the trip are spent planning our time and our dining plans. No, we're not crazy with the planning and like to leave a lot of "open" time for whatever comes up, but our trip in July will be a busy one because of all the wedding stuff going on. So we basically just lay out special things we want to do and what days to do them on so they go well with our dining reservations. Sometimes looking at everything online makes us long to be there, so what a better thing than to be there virtually.
No, I don't mean using one of those google earth programs to look at the places on stills and just miss it more. I also am not talking about the Walt Disney Wolrd Explorer CD-ROM I have where you can virtually ride the rides AND pick out hidden mickeys. Yes, this is how I spent my middle school nights since I've never been a big fan of sleeping at night. I am talking about this wonderful radio station I found! It's called Sorcerer Radio http://srsounds.com/joom_15/ . It gives you all the songs that are played around the WDW Parks and it really makes you feel like you're there.
Although we listen to this as a way to get excited to go back to our favorite place, it may be fun to listen to if you've never been there as well. It gives you a sense of the magic and it is not the usual "cheesy" music. Yes, sometimes there will be a Disney movie song on, but usually it is songs from the parades, attractions and different countries around the world! It's definitely worth checking out! I am newly addicted to it and fear that it will leave me longing for Disney more than I already do. Le sigh. Only 41 more days until we're there and only 214 days until we're all there celebrating together!!!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
A Magical Place to Stay
Well, since I've had the WORST case of insomnia for the past two weeks, I figure I can put my being awake at all hours to good use. I have been in contact with Disney working on our room block. I seriously think this has been the most stressful part of the wedding. In working through this, however, I was able to get actual prices and block some rooms. All of the information about how to book should be arriving to your mailbox in the next two weeks.
So, I guess you're wondering about the prices now, huh? Well, here ya go!
POP Century (value resort) -- $74/night
Coronado Springs (moderate resort) -- $131/night
Animal Kingdom Lodge (value resort) -- $264/night
Now honestly, I don't think these are necessarily the best prices out there. It may be more beneficial to you to book a Magic Your Way package if you are interested in getting park tickets or the dining plan. However, we are getting married during marathon weekend, so rooms will fill quickly, especially at POP Century. There are no cancellation fees so my best suggestion would be to reserve your room as soon as you get the information and you can always change it. In order to book they require a deposit of one night and the remainder due at check in. If you do decide to book a package or a special Disney promotion outside of the wedding block, please just let me know so I can let Disney know that you are a wedding guest, just staying outside of our block. We are required to have so many nights for the wedding so it is important that we let them know.
If anyone needs any help booking your reservations please let me know. I will also post about good deals on packages, hotels and airfare as they unfold.
So, I guess you're wondering about the prices now, huh? Well, here ya go!
POP Century (value resort) -- $74/night
Coronado Springs (moderate resort) -- $131/night
Animal Kingdom Lodge (value resort) -- $264/night
Now honestly, I don't think these are necessarily the best prices out there. It may be more beneficial to you to book a Magic Your Way package if you are interested in getting park tickets or the dining plan. However, we are getting married during marathon weekend, so rooms will fill quickly, especially at POP Century. There are no cancellation fees so my best suggestion would be to reserve your room as soon as you get the information and you can always change it. In order to book they require a deposit of one night and the remainder due at check in. If you do decide to book a package or a special Disney promotion outside of the wedding block, please just let me know so I can let Disney know that you are a wedding guest, just staying outside of our block. We are required to have so many nights for the wedding so it is important that we let them know.
If anyone needs any help booking your reservations please let me know. I will also post about good deals on packages, hotels and airfare as they unfold.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Kevin is the BEST!
Look... two posts in two days! You should be impressed!
This post is going to be about how wonderful Kevin is! It's no secret that I have all these crazy ideas and Kevin brings me back to reality or picks up the pieces when I start something and am too ADD to finish right away. It's also no secret that Kevin is the level-headed, smart with money and never wants to go over the top kind of person. He is extremely predictible and reliable and always does things by the book. I love him for it but there are a lot of times where his sheltered upbringing comes through and my outside of the box upbringing bash heads. It's not very often he gets excited about something without me prompting it!
Which brings me to how amazing Kevin was today. First he completed the kitchen today by re-painting everything. It looks wonderful and the best part is I never had to even ask him to do any of it! He had it started before I even woke up and we worked on it all night! I'm so excited... our first home project completed!
THEN, we started talking about our planning session trip for July. We needed to make some decisions on our menu tasting and we wanted to go over a few cake options. Well, we were also going over our schedule and I happened to mention that we are going to be spending so much time in the Magic Kingdom area that I wish we could afford to stay there but I know how expensive those places could be. Well, Kevin started to bring up that although we are booked to stay at POP Century, one of our wedding resorts, we really wanted this to be a low-key trip where we spend a lot of time at the resort, swimming and enjoying Florida. We know that July is an ultra-crowded month so we aren't going to kill ourselves to wait in line for rides we've been on a million times. That being said, we also know that the value resorts are most crowded in the summer and neither Kevin nor I are big on sharing our relaxing wedding planning trip with a million kids at the pool. Although we really wanted to try out POP Century so we could tell our guests about it, we started tossing around upgrading to a moderate resort, possibly the one we stayed in at Christmas. Well, with the promotions going on, we could get a really good deal at either a moderate or Old Key West which is a deluxe villa resort and since we have annual passes, we only need to worry about booking the hotel. I was semi-excited about possibly staying at OKW and figured I'd call Disney tomorrow and switch our reservation.
Imagine my surprise when, as we're going over wedding details, Kevin wants to know the prices of every resort on Disney property in July. So we went through them and I thought he was going to talk about what a great deal we got when he suddonly goes "let's do it, let's stay at the POLYNESIAN!!!" OMG. My whole life I have wanted to stay there and never in a million years thought we could afford it, let alone while we are planning our wedding!! But Kevin said it's affordable and he wants this trip to be very special. And since Monday we have our engagement photos at the Poly then Ohanas for dinner and then Tuesday we have our planning session and menu tasting, it makes sense to be in the area. If we were staying at POP Century, after our planning session we wouldn't have enough time to get back to the hotel before our menu tasting, but there is too much downtime to do anything else, so we would have to just walk around and waste time. Now we can at least go back to the room and drop off all of our stuff before heading back over to the Grand Floridian!
I just can't believe Kevin thinks this is a good idea -- this is so out of character for him! Maybe living with me for 3 years is finally rubbing off on him! I LOVE IT!
Only two months until we're back in Disney!! Now if only our contract would get here....
This post is going to be about how wonderful Kevin is! It's no secret that I have all these crazy ideas and Kevin brings me back to reality or picks up the pieces when I start something and am too ADD to finish right away. It's also no secret that Kevin is the level-headed, smart with money and never wants to go over the top kind of person. He is extremely predictible and reliable and always does things by the book. I love him for it but there are a lot of times where his sheltered upbringing comes through and my outside of the box upbringing bash heads. It's not very often he gets excited about something without me prompting it!
Which brings me to how amazing Kevin was today. First he completed the kitchen today by re-painting everything. It looks wonderful and the best part is I never had to even ask him to do any of it! He had it started before I even woke up and we worked on it all night! I'm so excited... our first home project completed!
THEN, we started talking about our planning session trip for July. We needed to make some decisions on our menu tasting and we wanted to go over a few cake options. Well, we were also going over our schedule and I happened to mention that we are going to be spending so much time in the Magic Kingdom area that I wish we could afford to stay there but I know how expensive those places could be. Well, Kevin started to bring up that although we are booked to stay at POP Century, one of our wedding resorts, we really wanted this to be a low-key trip where we spend a lot of time at the resort, swimming and enjoying Florida. We know that July is an ultra-crowded month so we aren't going to kill ourselves to wait in line for rides we've been on a million times. That being said, we also know that the value resorts are most crowded in the summer and neither Kevin nor I are big on sharing our relaxing wedding planning trip with a million kids at the pool. Although we really wanted to try out POP Century so we could tell our guests about it, we started tossing around upgrading to a moderate resort, possibly the one we stayed in at Christmas. Well, with the promotions going on, we could get a really good deal at either a moderate or Old Key West which is a deluxe villa resort and since we have annual passes, we only need to worry about booking the hotel. I was semi-excited about possibly staying at OKW and figured I'd call Disney tomorrow and switch our reservation.
Imagine my surprise when, as we're going over wedding details, Kevin wants to know the prices of every resort on Disney property in July. So we went through them and I thought he was going to talk about what a great deal we got when he suddonly goes "let's do it, let's stay at the POLYNESIAN!!!" OMG. My whole life I have wanted to stay there and never in a million years thought we could afford it, let alone while we are planning our wedding!! But Kevin said it's affordable and he wants this trip to be very special. And since Monday we have our engagement photos at the Poly then Ohanas for dinner and then Tuesday we have our planning session and menu tasting, it makes sense to be in the area. If we were staying at POP Century, after our planning session we wouldn't have enough time to get back to the hotel before our menu tasting, but there is too much downtime to do anything else, so we would have to just walk around and waste time. Now we can at least go back to the room and drop off all of our stuff before heading back over to the Grand Floridian!
I just can't believe Kevin thinks this is a good idea -- this is so out of character for him! Maybe living with me for 3 years is finally rubbing off on him! I LOVE IT!
Only two months until we're back in Disney!! Now if only our contract would get here....
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Quiet Time
Well for the few followers I have, since I have been terrible about posting, HELLO!
I believe my "quiet time" in the wedding planning process is quickly drawing to an end. Sure I have been doing small wedding details like tying bows on the bubble wands and other mundane tasks that closer to the wedding I will be way too stressed out to enjoy or want to do! I figured I am trying to get as much of that little stuff done so I can worry about all the other litte stuff I decide to add last minute! :) Poor Kevin's been a pretty good sport about it all, looking at the bows and program mock-ups I have created. He is going to really miss Michelle when she leaves since I turn to her with all wedding craft questions since Kevin has stated he wants to be involved in the music, the food and what gifts the groomsmen get and doesn't really care about the other decisions.
This week we officially started blocking rooms at our Disney resorts and are working through our contract to lock it all in. After it's 100% finalized I can kick into high gear, really starting to design the wedding, the programs, invitations and all the other fun I have planned! We are also getting very excited for our planning session in July. I'll keep you updated as things unfold with the weddings and the lives of the soon-to-be Taylors.
In the meantime, before things start to get wedding crazy, we are working to finish our kitchen renovation, the first full project we have taken on in the house. Ugh, what a lot of work, but it looks sooo nice!!!
I believe my "quiet time" in the wedding planning process is quickly drawing to an end. Sure I have been doing small wedding details like tying bows on the bubble wands and other mundane tasks that closer to the wedding I will be way too stressed out to enjoy or want to do! I figured I am trying to get as much of that little stuff done so I can worry about all the other litte stuff I decide to add last minute! :) Poor Kevin's been a pretty good sport about it all, looking at the bows and program mock-ups I have created. He is going to really miss Michelle when she leaves since I turn to her with all wedding craft questions since Kevin has stated he wants to be involved in the music, the food and what gifts the groomsmen get and doesn't really care about the other decisions.
This week we officially started blocking rooms at our Disney resorts and are working through our contract to lock it all in. After it's 100% finalized I can kick into high gear, really starting to design the wedding, the programs, invitations and all the other fun I have planned! We are also getting very excited for our planning session in July. I'll keep you updated as things unfold with the weddings and the lives of the soon-to-be Taylors.
In the meantime, before things start to get wedding crazy, we are working to finish our kitchen renovation, the first full project we have taken on in the house. Ugh, what a lot of work, but it looks sooo nice!!!
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