Third Time Wife

Disney Honeymoon Dreaming : Planning for the Parks

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning
digital collage by Miss Road Trip

digital collage by Miss Road Trip

While I firmly believe you can have plenty of Disney fun without setting foot inside the actual parks, the 4 parks of Walt Disney World are the big draw. There’s a lot to see, do, and experience out there and it helps to have a plan.

Tickets, please!

I don’t know about you, but I still get a slight case of sticker shock when I look at park admission prices to anything Disney. A single park, single day pass will set you back $95 for the Magic Kingdom or $90 for one of the other parks. Ouch. Thankfully, Disney really wants you to spend more than just one day with them, so they give discounts for tickets that span multiple days. Instead of costing $475 for a 5 day pass (1 park per day, $95 x 5), it’s only $289.00 (or $57.80 /day); for 10 days it’s only $339 (or $33.90/day). Now, if you want the flexibility to Park Hop (go to multiple parks in a single day, a very useful feature in my mind), it’s a flat $59 (plus tax) no matter how many days your ticket is good for.

My 2006 Key to the World Card | personal photo

My 2006 Key to the World Card | personal photo

As Florida residents, we generally get a break on ticket prices–I think the theory is that if they charge us less, we’ll be likely to visit more often–and they also give up a lot more options. Whereas anyone can purchase an Annual Pass (a definite savings if you plan to be in the parks for 10+ days or are planning 2 trips within a calendar year), Florida residents actually get some seasonal options that might black-out certain high-traffic periods, but otherwise are good deals. I kept digging and found out that the Weekday Select Annual Passes for Florida residents have the usual high-traffic black-out dates (which we’d never want to visit during anyway) but are good any other Monday-Friday. Since we’ll be driving down there on a Sunday and heading home the following Saturday, this was pretty much perfect. Best part, these passes cost $212–so for what one regular Annual Pass (FL Resident discount applied) would have costs, we got 2 Weekday Select passes. (For reference sake, a 5-day Park Hopper–annual passes are automatically hoppers–would have been $346, so even if we don’t make it back before our anniversary, we still did pretty good.)

And if I hadn’t stepped in to “help” plan, Mr. Road Trip would have spent way more than he needed to, but he’s learning.

Right This Way

Tickets done, now comes the fun part: deciding which parks to visit on which days. Now, I know not everyone wants to be that structured, but forewarned is forearmed and all that, and I like to be prepared.

Disney will almost always be busy, and often packed. Sites like www.easywdw.com and others, though, make a habit of predicting the crowd levels to help people like me plan the least stressful way to tour the World during our trip. They also include which parks might be opening early or staying open later (for resort guests only, a definite perk) called Extra Magic Hours or EMH.

image via Passporterstore.com

image via Passporterstore.com

For more in-depth planning I think PassPorter’s Walt Disney World guidebook is tops! I first found this guide back in 2004 when I was planning two long weekend trips and it was awesome to have all that information at your fingertips. Every attraction is rated and described and the maps are incredibly detailed. They also offer digital versions if you prefer to carry your tablet or smartphone instead of a guidebook (though I prefer the print version–it has planning pockets in the back).

By planning ahead I know that Animal Kingdom (the only park Mr. Road Trip has yet to visit–it wasn’t open last time he was there) closes earlier than the rest of the parks, and that Monday (the day we plan to visit AK) is evening EMH hours at Hollywood Studios, so we can plan to hop over there and get some extra rides in after supper. And while we plan on spending all day Tuesday at EPCOT enjoying the regular sights as well as the Food & Wine Festival, I found out that the former lead singer of STYX, Dennis DeYoung, is performing Thursday night as part of the Eat to the Beat concert series (part of the Food & Wine Festival) so we’ll leave DHS (our least favorite park, though the PIXAR updates might change our mind) early enough to catch his 6:45 show before our 8pm dinner reservations in Japan. And then for Friday we’ve secured our tickets for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, the first of the season, as soon as the ticket sales opened, so whatever we don’t get to on Wednesday (our planned MK day), we can catch up on that night when the crowds will be even lower.

And, of course, having a park plan makes the final prep step that much easier…

Do you like to have an itinerary on your vacations or just go with the flow?

Disney Honeymoon Dreaming: Deciding Where to Stay

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning
digital collage by Miss Road Trip

digital collage by Miss Road Trip

I’d managed not to pester Mr Road Trip for a honeymoon decision for a whole 8 months before reminding him that, if Disney was to be it, some decisions would need to be made soonish (this being back in March). While I know that plenty of people go to Disney World for short and long vacations both and only make minimal preparations, there’re so many things that you can miss if you just go with the flow.

I’m not really much of a go with the flow kinda girl (in case you hand’t noticed).

While I’ve been visiting  Disney World since I was a toddler, most of the more recent trips have been quickie weekends and nothing since 2006. Our honeymoon will be the first time I’ve spent a full week at the parks in over 20 years! For Mr. Trips it’ll be 20 years exactly, as he was there in 1993 with family, and that’s his last trip to The World period!

We’ve got some time to make up for, wouldn’t you agree?

Of course, the first thing you have to decide when planning a Disney honeymoon is where to stay, and the first decision is whether to stay on- or off-site.

In the interest of full disclosure I need to confess that I sleep on the side of on-site lodging: it puts you totally inside the Disney “bubble” and unless you really want to do otherwise, you can park your car and not even think about it until it’s time to (regrettably) head for home.

Still, there are options outside of staying at one of the numerous Disney-owned resorts, and they can offer some savings on your room as well as additional flexibility if you’re interested in hitting up other Orlando-area attractions. Everything from condos and vacation homes to hotel rooms of all sizes and prices exist out there and all of them will say the same thing: “minutes from Disney.”

And that might not necessarily be untrue, but minutes can be hours when you’re fighting the rest of the Orlando/Kissimmee area trying to drive to the parks, too. Then there’s parking (and the parking fees–$15/day, currently) and (ugh) the drive back. Like I said, I’m biased.

The other perk of truly nearby hotels and communities is that they run shuttles to save you some of the offsite hassle. Keep in mind, though, those shuttles tend to be hourly at best, whereas on-site shuttles are every 15-20 minutes. Just saying.

Not surprisingly, the Road Trips will be staying on-site, and we’ve picked the fun and cozy Port Orleans French Quarter–my absolute, hands-down favorite (and where the Jackrabbits will be honeymooning the month before–suddenly I’ve got “It’s a Small World” stuck in my head). I’ve stayed there once in the past, and just love the attention to detail (though that can be said of any of the resorts). It’s the smallest of the Disney resorts, and tends to be quieter, which makes it perfect for couples, I think!

Scenes from Port Orleans (circa 2004)

Scenes from Port Orleans (circa 2004)

Little details and an amazing river view.

Little details and an amazing river view.

I understand there was a recent renovation to the inside of the rooms and the lobby is being updated currently, so even though I’ve been there before, I’m looking forward to a new experience in the greater scheme of things.

If you’re heading to Disney (for a honeymoon, mini-moon, or just plain vacation). You probably want to avoid paying rack rates, and I can hardly blame you! Check out the resources at Passporter.com and TheMouseForLess.com to find out the best specials going on during your travel dates. If you have a Disney Visa or buy Annual Passes (more on this in the next post) you may qualify for additional discounts, as well as service members, Florida residents, nurses, teachers, and government employees (those last three for the Swan and Dolphin only). And if you book your hotel and a discount or special offer comes out later on, all it takes is a call to 407-WDW-MAGIC to see if those offers can be applied to your existing reservation.

Oh, and be sure to let them know if you’re making a honeymoon reservation or celebrating anything else–there’re no guarantees, of course, but letting them know it’s a special occasion can sometimes result in a little extra pixie dust thrown your way.

 Would you consider staying on-property at Disney for your honeymoon?
Why or why not?

Why Templates Are a Girl’s Best Friend

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning

I’m a scrapbooker from way back, but I haven’t been keeping up like I used to or taking many photos that don’t correspond to a blog post. To commemorate this last year before the wedding (and remind me to take pictures of the fun stuff), I’ve been putting together a layout per week for our Wedding Year scrapbook. Now, working full time, planning a wedding, and blogging about it are enough to keep me plenty busy–adding in scrapbooking might seem like adding more work rather than some much-needed relaxation.

For me, it all comes down to 3 things:

  • Digital scrapbooking
  • Project Life
  • Templates

The Digital Approach

While I do absolutely love paper and creating with it, physical scrapbooking was becoming less and less convenient with all of my photos being digital for the last several years. That love of paper that had me scoffing at digital scrapbooking 1o years ago has since enthusiastically embraced the digital approach for both the ease of integrating my digital images but also the fact that once a digital paper or embellishment is purchased, it doesn’t get “used up.” As someone who has more than once hoarded those last few sheets of a favorite paper, this is quite freeing.

And you can always print your pages out yourself or upload them to a photobook site and end up with very professional looking albums.

Just about any photo software that will handle layers can be used for digital scrapbooking and there are some programs out there specifically for it. I learned on Photoshop Elements (PSE) 3, “back in the day” with tutorials from ScrapGirls. While I’ve upgraded to full-on Photoshop for other projects, I still use PSE (version 9, now) for scrapping for the simpler interface.

Project Life

Project Life is a system devised by Becky Higgins that is meant to make saving photos and memories easy, streamlined, and low-pressure (though it’s but one of many pocket-style scrapbooking systems out there). By using divided pocket pages–like baseball card pages but more varied–and 2 sizes of inserts (4×6 and 3×4) all you have to do is slip in your photos and write on the journaling cards and you’ve got a scrapbook in no time flat.

I’d heard about it a couple years ago (and mentally kicked myself for not trying out a similar idea many years prior) but didn’t want to go back to paper scrapping. Behold, the official Project Life digital kits are available at ACDigitals.com (though I bought my kit and template when they were still partnered with Jessica Sprague). What’s even better is that with the popularity of Project Life on the rise, several sites have similar products available. ScrapGirls has their Pocket Life line, and several designers over on The DigiChick (my 2 favorite shops) have Project 52 offerings that are compatible.

Of course, with digital scrapbooking, anything can be used with the Project Life base system, especially if you use the templates.

Templates

Just like writers who stare at a blank page/screen, feel anxious and can’t start writing, scrappers sometimes have a similar block. Recently I’ve become a total template convert as all I have to do is pick my photos, papers, and maybe a few embellishments and start clipping them to the template layers and, boom, there’s my page! Of course, when you scrap digitally you can turn and flip the templates to get a bit more variety (there are only 7 basic page layouts with Project Life, but you can certainly branch out to other templates, too).

But the Project Life-style templates, based on 4×6 and 3×4 spaces, are perfectly suited to both digital camera images as well as those cell phone shots we’ve all been taking. And if you take a lot of photos, then the simple grids are going to be your best friends.

To show you just how easy it is, I took screenshots while I put together this layout, week 9 of our wedding year album:

Week 9, Dec 29, 2012 to Jan 4, 2013

Week 9, Dec 29, 2012 to Jan 4, 2013 (all photos personal)

Step 1: choose your photos

First I pick out my photos to see what I’m working with. Lots of photos mean a template with more spots, fewer photos mean bigger spots to take up more space.

Step 2: Pick your templates

Then I look through my templates to see which ones I want to use. In the back in a Project Life template and in front is a template from eNKay Design’s Project 365 line. Then I decided which would be the left side of the layout and which one the right.

Step 3: Start placing your photos

I rotated the 365 layout to get the photo spots in the orientation I wanted them, then added my first photo to fill the large, vertical block on the page, sizing it up to fill the space or maybe a little bigger. Make sure the photo is above the layer you want the photo to fill and clip it (Ctrl+G on a PC, Mac is Cmd+G, I believe) to that layer. This makes the photo (or whatever) show only where the template shape is “active” so it trims it to shape without actually cutting the image, and you can nudge it around to get the best view.

Step 4: Finish putting your photos in place

Place your photos wherever they best fit so you can see how much space you still have to work with.
You can combine different layer elements by merging them, like I did with the 4 3×4 slots in the upper right, then clipping the image to the merged set. It’s a nice little trick when you want to use larger pictures in smaller slots for effect. And it’s so much easier than cutting and corner-rounding 1 picture into 4, right?

Step 5: Save your work!

Right about now is a good time to do a “Save As” and name your file something other than the template name (you don’t want to overwrite your original template files with the changes you make, since you might want to use them in their original form sometime later).

Step 6: Pick out some papers and embellishments

Then I pick out some papers and embellishments to clip to the background and blank template spots

Step 7: Add your papers and embellishments to the pages

Now the fun part! Clip the papers to the template areas and start to place your embellishments on top of them. For efficiency’s sake I like to merge layers and them clip the paper file once, unless I need some of the elements overlapping others. The more layers, the bigger the file size, you know? But embellishments just need to be positioned above the layer you want them to rest on, they usually don’t get clipped (again, this is a bonus of digital–not everything had to fit exactly in the “pockets”).

Step 8: Add journaling spaces

I like using a mix of patterns, but patterns aren’t always great for journaling on, so I use the shape tool to make “clear” areas filled with a lighter version of one of the colors already in the layout (and then added a texture fill to it because I have issues with flat colors). Remove any layers you don’t want in your final layout (like journaling place-holders and title bits).

Step 9: Add the wordy bits and additional embellishments

Use your words! Add journaling to the open areas, titles, and then any additional embellishments to finish out the layout. That’s it!

And that’s just how simple it is.

Whether you’re saving the wedding planning memories, putting together a photo-book of your engagement photos, or even scrapbooking your honeymoon pictures, templates can make the process much smoother. Templates (Project Life or otherwise) are also great for learning composition skills and branching out of your usual style.

So, have I swayed you over to the digital template side of scrapbooks?

The 7-Month To-Do List

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning

To-Do List graphic

With just over 200 days to go I admit the wedding is looming larger in my thoughts. Seems like just last week I was writing up the 8-month list, and now, well, 7 months is awfully close to 6 months and 6 months is practically nothing in wedding time!

In other words: I’ve got to get on the ball!

The experts seem to suggest that 7 months is one of those limbo months, no hard and fast to-do’s other than what’s left from the 8-months and on, but I beg to differ. Seven months out seems the perfect time to knock out some serious DIY!

To that end, allow me to suggest some projects that would benefit from some attention if you, as well, are rapidly approaching 200 days out!

  • Research any vows, readings, or rituals you want included in your ceremony and begin to draft your wedding program in preparation of meeting with your officiant.
  • Purchase the necessary liability insurance if you venue requires it and you have no homeowners policy to attach a rider to. Some policies can’t be purchased more than a year in advance, and now’s a good time to take care of the necessary paperwork before logistical meetings with your venue really heat up.
  • Start shopping for non-perishable supplies for your OOT (out-of-town) bags, favors, bathroom baskets, survival kits, etc. While this depends on how much storage space you have to devote to wedding stuff, stock-piling now means less rushing around later. At the same time, beware buying larger-ticket items until your guest list is more firm.
  • Planning on paper or other non-fresh flowers? Get started on them if you haven’t already. If for no other reason than to figure out just how many you’ll need. Don’t forget about altar decorations or arrangements  for any buffet or cafe tables during cocktail hour, in addition to the usual centerpieces.
  • Start planning out your invitations if you’re designing them yourself. This would also be a good time to brush up on your calligraphy if you planned to hand-address your envelopes.

Essentially, ladies, it’s time to seize the moment and get what we can done now before time slips away from us. Before we know it, we’ll be in a double-digit countdown to the big day and we want to get there with as little stress as possible, yes?

Pretty Book and Flower Icon

 

What’s on your to-do list this month?
Do you feel like you’re ahead of the game or falling behind?

5 Tips to Perfect Thank You Cards

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning

Most of our mail is a casual affair these days with email and text messaging taking over the day-to-day communications. While I see the practical side of things like email invitations and online RSVP cards, I just can’t help but think how cool it is to get something other than bills and junk mail in the mailbox on any given day. Thank you cards might just be the last vestige of hope when it comes to retaining the beauty that is the hand-written card, so let’s go over some best practices.

1. Thank yous are easier to write the closer to the event.

This goes along with the idea that almost anything is easier to do if we just get started–putting it off never made it any easier. While I won’t go so far as to suggest you take your thank you cards on your honeymoon (though some industrious brides have done just that), setting time aside just after your bridal shower is certainly not a bad idea. If you’ve got a few waiting-room sessions in your future (the DMV, Social Security, and other name-change offices) bring the cards along and be productive when and where you can. This might be one of the reasons etiquette dictates 2-3 months as an acceptable timeline for getting those cards out.

2. A thank you is more personal if it’s handwritten.

Which usually means that the partner with the best handwriting gets the task. While it’s fine to have a sweet sentiment printed inside the card you choose or design, make sure there’s still room for a nice note somewhere on the card.

3. To make it easier to get the cards written, keep all the supplies in one (portable) place.

Cards, envelopes, a couple of pens (in case one runs out), stamps, and any envelope seals or stickers that you’re using can easily fit into a cigar box or other small enclosure. Decorate it if it makes you feel better, but keeping your act together will make the whole process much more enjoyable.

And a happy writer is a productive writer!

4. Be formal where necessary, be familiar when possible.

When you start your card with Dear So-and-so, the way you address the giver depends on your relationship. Your husband’s boss’s wife whom you’ve only just met at the engagement part? Mrs. Bossman is probably the way to go. But that family friend that you’ve always referred to as Uncle Bob (even if there’s no blood or marriage relation in place), go ahead and start with Dear Uncle Bob, since that’s the way you’d address them in person.

5. Keep things simple, but make it personal.

A thank you note can easily be just three lines

  • The initial thank-you stating the event you saw them at and/or the gift they gave you.
  • A short sentence about how you think you’ll use the gift.
  • The repeat of thanks to close the note with sincerity.

So, really, a thank you card could read

Dear Aunt Jo,

It was wonderful of you to make the trip out to the coast for our wedding. The place setting and glassware will look lovely on our holiday table. Thank you for always being there for us kids,

With Love,

Pete and Josie

Of course, you can always include something sweet that happened at the event and anything else you want, but that depends mostly on how many cards you have to write and how much time you’re willing to spend on them.

Cash gifts require a bit more creativity, but a message like “thank you for your generous gift, it will certainly come in handy while we get settled into our new home” will certainly get the point across. If you’ve gone the honeymoon registry path, telling them about the trip is another way to word a thank-you.

Alright, now, no excuses!