Journal - August 19, 2001 - (The Wedding

Day 2: August 19, 2001
Tonga Toast, Ice Cream, and DisneyDollarless

Despite my exhaustion and lack of good sleep the nights before, being in a new bed in a new place - and DisneyWorld of all places! - made it so I did not fall asleep easily. It was close to 2am when we finally crawled into bed, and I am probably glad I never looked at the alarm clock to see what time it was before I fell asleep. :)

Dawn came all too soon... though morning grogginess was soon replaced by the excitement of being in Disney, and by the first Disney delight I was going to partake in: Tonga Toast at the Kona Cafe! Still, I confess to a few groans getting out of bed when the alarm went off. ;)

John opened the curtains, and we went out onto the balcony for a few moments to look at "our baby" - the Wedding Pavilion. (We have two "babies" in Disney: The Castle and the Pavilion). It was beautiful sitting there on the lake in the early morning light, softened by dawn into an ivory glow. It almost seemed like a dream... were we really here? Were we really only a few short days from our wedding?

Finally we showered, dressed, and trudged outside. I forgot to mention - how could I forget! - that Fiji is only a quick walk from the main building, but that you pass the marina along the way... and thus have a perfect view of the castle. Last night it was lit in the Goodnight Kiss, fading from purple to blue to pink and back again. One of the reasons I love Disney so is because of the way I feel when I see Cinderella's Castle. It is a feeling of joy and contentment and excitement all rolled up into one... the memories of a child first gazing on it with her family, of times spent in fun and happiness with family and with her fiance, of a young woman being given a ring and a promise of love and a life as one forever... it is the feeling of COMING HOME. That is what Disney is to me, and the Castle is that summation... Home. I am home.

So naturally, we stopped to gaze at the castle for a while, and I was brimming with joy even as my eyes filled with unshed tears. This place was like home to me, and home to so many wonderful memories. And now it would become the place where John and I pledged our love, and years from now when we bring our children and the voice on the monorail mentions the wedding pavilion, we can point at it and say, "That's where your mommy and daddy got married."

There is a special kind of magic to Disney... and it is a place that gives life to the magic within all of us, to the magic and love we create.

So we gazed and hugged and then I practically skipped to the Kona Cafe. John, to say the least, was chuckling over my antics.

I fell in love with Tonga Toast back in 1997, when I had it for the first time. I tried it on a recommendation, and I've been addicted since. And I had been waiting since 1998 to have it again. LOL.

We lounged over breakfast - breakfast food is John's favorite kind of food - and I had several cups of tea. I love tea. Sadly, I have yet to try the High Tea at the Grand Floridian... next time, though! :)

After we had finished eating, we took the walk from the Polynesian to the Wedding Pavilion. We just had to go and look at it. The weather was hot, but not nearly as hot and sticky as it had been in Boston during the recent heat wave, and so we weren't uncomfortable yet. We walked along, holding hands, looking at the castle and talking of the future. As we approached the Pavilion, I couldn't help but sigh at the special Wedding Bricks and wish I could have one... lol!

There were no weddings or rehearsals going on, and so we walked up to the Pavilion and through the gates, walking slowly so as to soak up every moment. How beautiful this place was! We opened the doors to the Pavilion itself, and the music to "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes" came floating out. The pavilion was even more beautiful than I remembered it being, and even John's eyes were teary as we looked all over it, and gazed at the Castle framed perfectly in the glass window over the altar. He made me wait at the door, and went down to the altar, and then had me walk to him. LOL. I took lots of pictures, and one of the housecleaning staff took our picture at the altar. A little while later, a young woman and her mother walked in. She was planning a wedding in November of 2001, and was looking over the pavilion.

John and I walked around the entire area, and I showed him the Bride's Vestibule, since he would not be seeing it at all on the wedding day. It was there that we noticed a curious feature of the Pavilion that we had not noticed before... standing inside the glass doorway of the Bride's Vestibule, you can see straight into the Wedding Pavilion. The inside doors were open (normally these are closed during a ceremony, so the people inside cannot see the bridal party (and above all the bride!) before she enters. So looking straight down the Bride's Vestibule, you could see the Castle, and it looked HUGE. It filled up almost the entire window.

We started walking towards the main pavilion again, and the Castle started to get a little smaller. We realized that from the back of the Pavilion, the Castle looks huge, but as you walk towards the altar, it reduces to "normal size." I assume this is a trick of the glass? Whatever it is, it's pretty neat. :) So for views of the castle, you want to be in the back. ;)

We walked out to picture point while the woman and her mother looked over the pavilion, and stood there under the trellace (sp?) and looking out at the Castle. Then John caught me up into an embrace and said, "Do you, John Mangio, take Michelle to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward? I DO!" He was sweet I couldn't resist kissing him.

After a while, we finally continued on to our intended destination: the Grand Floridian Resort. We wanted to buy the Disney Fairy Tale Weddings Cake Server & Knife for our reception. Francks no longer sold the Disney wedding stuff, but a store in the GF now carried it. We went in to the store to buy it. I should mention that we were VERY casually dressed, in jean shorts and a tank top (me), t-shirt (John). The store computers were down, and so they had to do everything by hand. Thus, the manager was also walking around. And I felt very much under his scrutiny as we wandered around the store, looking at many things before purchasing the cake knife and server. LOL.

We wander around for a bit before catching the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. We then purchase our Premium Annual Passes, and decide to bop into the Magic Kingdom briefly... to see if Arriba Brothers can engrave our cake knife & server.

We enter the Magic Kingdom, and rush to the middle of Main Street to stare at our baby, the Castle. And stare and stare we do. LOL. We both get all teary and emotional again, and just standing there hugging each other. Finally we notice the Florida humidity bearing down on us. So bop over to Arriba Brothers to see about getting our cake knife and server engraved, only to find out that the machine is broken! Sad. So we decide to head out and go back to our room, before going over to Epcot to make our Ice Cream Social PS reservations at the Garden Grille.

As we are walking by one of the vendors selling the Disney Spray Bottles with Fans, one of them sprays John who stops with an "Ahhhh" expression on his face. The CM holds out the bottle, but John shakes his head and starts walking away. About five steps later, he looks at me and says, "Who am I kidding?" and walks back and buys it. LOL. Disney marketing works so well on him. :) And it became his favorite toy for the rest of the trip! He took glee in spraying everyone. And I think the poor CMs enjoyed it in this heat! LOL.

We bopped into one of the store so John could buy a hat. The sorcerer mickey hats were on clearance for only $9, so John bought one for himself. He then saw the "I Am Never Growing Up" hats, and felt it was perfect for me, and bought it for me. Who was I to disagree? In Disney, we never grow up! Don't you know it's Never Never Land?

As we are leaving the Magic Kingdom, we are asked by a CM if we mind doing an exit survey. We said no, and she started in. After a few questions, we both felt as if we shouldn't be doing it, because we're throwing off the curve... after all, we were only in the MK for about an hour, didn't go on any attractions, etc. etc. Oh, well! She was very nice, and we had a lot of fun talking, and John sprayed her down gleefully with his spray bottle before we left.

We then hopped the monorail back to the Polynesian, where I pulled out my dreaded laptop and hooked it up to the internet. There were some difficulties at first... darn AOL... but finally it worked. I checked my email to see if anyone had emailed me with last minute concerns (we had set up a YahooGroups list with all of our wedding guests, and everyone kept in touch, made plans, etc. over the list, so I was seeing if anyone had sent anything). I sent an email off to all of you Disneymooners to let you know I was off to see a mouse about a husband, and then we were off!

We walked over to the Ticket and Transportation Center - the LONG way, as John took us through the parking lot! - and then hopped the monorail over to Epcot.

It had been a very long time since I had taken a monorail into Epcot, and I had forgotten it takes you through part of the park. We really enjoyed the ride, and the bird's eye view of some of the attractions.

We hustled on over to the Garden Grille at the Land Pavilion in Epcot, and checked in for our PS. I love this restaurant. We had breakfast here back in 1997, and absolutely loved it. We only waited about 5 minutes before they seated us. Our CM took our drink order (just water!) and then went to get our Sundaes. We watched the desert and farm and other scenes slowly drift by.

What can I say about the Sundaes you get at the Ice Cream Social? Decadent. There is no better word to describe it. It starts with chocolate that is drizzled across your plate. Then a very large, very yummy, and very chocolately chocolate cookie is added to the plate. There is a hole in the center of the cookie, and in the hole is placed a very large waffle cone... glued to the cook and the plate with CHOCOLATE. The cone is filled with rich vanilla icecream, topped with tiny chocolate chips, and two slaps of Chocolate with Mickey on it are added to the top. Tiny chocolate chips and fresh fruit are then sprinkled across the plate.

YUM.

It defeated both John and I. Neither of us could eat all of the cookie once we had eaten that far. We wondered if we would have room for dinner... which was only 3 short hours away.

While eating dinner, the characters made an appearance... first Pluto, then Chip, then Dale, and finally Mickey. We got a few pictures with some of the characters, and had fun playing with a few. Dale tried to steal my Mickey Chocolate. Pluto came around a second time, and stole John's spray bottle. He then snuck up behind Mickey and started spraying him. It was funny. Eventually, we got the bottle back, finished eating, and left.

We were rolling ourselves through Epcot at this point, so gorged on Ice Cream Decadence as we were. We did stop at Innoventions so we could send a postcard to everyone back home. The line wasn't long, but the people in front of us must have sent 16 different postcards. We waited about 20 minutes just for them to finish!

We sent our postcard, explored a little more of Innoventions, and then dashed back to the monorail. We switched monorails at the TTC back to the MK, and then took a ferry to the Wilderness Lodge, where we were meeting some of the DisneyDollarless folks for a mini-meet. I love the Wilderness Lodge. It, like the Castle, is another place the evokes that sense of "Home" to me, but in a different way... I love the woods and the wild places, love to camp and hike, and the WL embodies all of that natural beauty in a home (okay, a hotel), if you know what I mean. I just love it. It's the only resort (so far) that we've stayed at more than once.

We head over to Artist Point, and check in for our reservations. I don't even get to finish my sentence before one of the CMs says, "You're with the internet group, right?"

John and I both smile and say yes, and catch the CMs passing a glance that says "Wow! *I* would never do that." LOL. As we walk towards the table, the CM guiding us says, "You guys must be very brave, to meet for dinner with people you've only ever met over the internet. I don't think I could do that."

I smile again. I have to wonder what he is thinking... what does he expect to happen, especially in a public setting? And do not people meet new people at Disney - people they've never even talked to - and make new friends? At least with meeting people from DD, I've at least TALKED to them before, and feel as I know them a little. And we all share the love of Disney.

We get to the table to find that Ilene and her husband Murt, daughter Michelle, and daughter's friend Michelle, as well as Pam and her husband Steve are there. Denise and Steve, friends of Ilene's, arrive shortly after us. Lorna & her son Blaine were also suppose to meet with us, but they never arrived.

We were seated in one long table, and John and I were kinda in the middle. We shared a plate of Buffalo, Ostrich, and Lamb, and had Venison as an appetizer. Mmmm mmm mmmm! I then had the berry dessert. It was delicious!!

There were at least two conversations going on at all times, and I have no idea how I kept up with both of them, since I kept jumping back and forth between them. Pam is just one of those people who exudes happiness and friendliness, and Ilene was so friendly and open. It felt like I had known them forever! The guys were engaged in heavy opinionated conversation, usually about movies, through most of the evening. Finally, I looked at my watch and realized that it was 9pm. Wow! How time flew!

We decided we wanted to go out to the dock and watch the Electrical Water Pagaent. Pam's little daughter was in the Den and they brought her out to join us. She was the cutest little girl, so full of energy and smiles. She's the kind of little girl I want when I have a daughter! LOL!

We all went outside and watched as the Electrical Water Pagaent came into view. We got a double show, for there were thunderclouds off in the distance, and lightning played on the horizon all throughout the show. It was a lot of fun. After the Pagaent left, John and I realized we should go back to our room... we had a lot of stuff we still needed to finish, and had gotten none of it done this day. But at least we had had fun!

We told everyone we had to leave, and before we left, Pam gave us a bag with a gift in it. "We were at Downtown Disney today," she told us, "and we saw this and knew it was perfect for you. It's the kind of gift I would want if I were getting married at Disney." I was all choked up and didn't know what to say at first. Pam and Steve were so sweet!!! We opened the box, and it was a silver frame with little mickey heads in the corner. It was perfect!! And so wonderful!! We thanked them wholeheartedly, over and over. I wanted to give her a big hug, but didn't know if she would think that too forward, and so just said thank you again!

We then caught the ferry and headed over to the Magic Kingdom. I was sad to leave... we had just made some great friends, and I wish we could have spent more time with them! But we knew we would see Pam & Steve again at the meet at Boma's the following Sunday.

We got back to the Magic Kingdom, and saw that the ferry to the Polynesian Resort had just pulled in. So rather than take the monorail, we decided for a nice evening ride on the small boat.

And I'm glad we did! About half-way across the Seven Seas Lagoon, we heard the music from the Magic Kingdom and watched as the first fireworks from Fantasy In The Sky went off. What a wonderful treat!! The CM driving the ferry slowed down a turned so that we got a beautiful view of the fireworks over the lake. It was wonderful, and truly magical!

We got back to our room, to find several messages blinking an urgent orange at us from the answering machine. We also saw that the Rose on the table that the Polynesian had given to us, all pretty in its vase, and the congratulations card from them. Our housekeeper had created a towel flower with the word "Love" in towels beneath it, and sprinkled flowers all over the floor and in the bud of the flower. It was so pretty!!

We listened to all our messages, made some phone calls, and then got to work. We had a message from Rev. Jack Day, saying he hadn't gotten our ceremony. We had written an initial ceremony, and sent it to him, asking for his advice. I guess he never got it, and like so many other things, it got lost in the shuffle of things to do in the final weeks. Yikes!! So I pulled out the ceremony I had written and showed it to John, and then pulled out all the pieces of stuff that we might want included, and we got to work. John fell asleep sometime around 1:00am. I kept on going, determined to finish all revisions. I lost track somewhere around 2:30am, and was awoken an hour later by John. He both then crawled into bed, and the blessed oblivion of sleep overtook us both.

NEXT: Marriage License, Randy Chapman, and Running Around

Email | Links | Photos