ICYMI I am heading to Walt Disney World tomorrow to kick off the fall season + experience all of the fun Halloween decor + treats at the parks! Naturally that means I have been prepping for my trip by stocking up on some of my Halloween favorites with a twist of Disney Style. I am loving all of the great picks from ShopDisney + the Disney parks whether it’s ears, apparel, games, decor + more…I love Disney and I love Disney during Halloween so I figured I’d round up some of my favorite picks with you all to embrace the spooky season.
♥ Everything You Need To Know For Disney Planning During COVID ♥
We’ve been in a pandemic for over 6 months now. Lots of unanswered questions, future unknown + moods haven’t been the best. We’ve been quarantined at home, beginning the steps of wedding planning, avoiding going out but next week that changes for me. I’ll be heading to Orlando for a press trip with Disney along with meeting with vendors for the wedding + overall planning for what’s ahead.
I’m excited to head to Orlando but also nervous. I am taking every safety precaution seriously and anxious to see the extra steps put in place at Disney to keep everyone safe, healthy + happy so I wanted to share some things to keep in mid if you are planning a Disney World trip during this uncertain time.
1. REFERENCE THE DISNEY WORLD WEBSITE FOR RESORT CLOSURES + PARK HOUR CHANGES
Currently the Walt Disney World Resort is opening limited resorts, restaurants etc so it’s important when planning your trip to see what is open, what is not + what are the new park hours given the updated park status. For example, the Polynesian Resort is closed until 2021 as it is being re-designed to be made Moana theme while other resorts are closed due to refurbishments + overall not having every resort open at once to limit overall capacity for safety pre-cautions.
2. NO PARK HOPPING
A new regulation in place at Walt Disney Resort due to COVID is that you can no longer park hop. You can only go to one park per day to prevent spreading any possible germs from location to location. No word on when park hopping will resume but for now this is the policy in place.
3. MAKE PARK RESERVATIONS AHEAD OF TIME
New Walt Disney World Resort policy is that in order to visit one of the 4 theme parks, you must purchase tickets (or have your annual pass) ahead of time and book the day and park you want to attend in advance. This policy is in place to limit park getting filled above limited capacity currently in place to keep everyone safe. If you are planning a trip it’s key to book the days at the parks in advance to assure you get to go to the park on the days you want.
4. MASKS REQUIRED AT ALL TIMES IN THE PARK
I’m packing over 50 masks with me to match the looks I’m bringing to Disney given I will try to shoot some content while I am there, but overall the mask policy is while visiting any of the 4 parks you must wear a mask and you can’t take it off for pictures or any other reason other than to eat which you can’t do while walking to avoid people walking around maskless.
5. PACK YOUR SANITIZER, WIPES + ALL OTHER CLEAN ESSENTIALS TO USE THROUGHOUT THE DAY
I am going to the parks fully prepared with Clorox wipes, extra masks, plenty of sanitizer + more to make sure I have everything I need on me to keep clean. It’s important to sanitize after touching every surface and the wipes are handy for any transportation or rides you may be going on (including the airplane – I wipe down every inch of my seat, tray table, window etc to avoid any remaining bacteria. I also wipe down every piece of luggage often whether carry on or checked to make sure I am not touching what could have been touched by others.
6. PLAN YOUR MEALS AHEAD OF TIME
At the parks not every restaurant or fast service location is open so be sure to scope out the situation on the My Disney Experience app ahead of time to avoid getting hangry without knowing where to go to grab lunch or dinner.
7. ENJOY YOURSELF + BE SAFE
While we are living in a time with a lot of uncertainty, if you are planning a Disney trip make sure to be safe. Keep your distance, wear your mask, sanitize and wash your hands often, don’t touch your face, eyes or mouth until you have fully cleansed your hands etc, and most importantly think before acting – so often I will touch a surface + then out of habit go about my day…nope you must wipe down or sanitize everything to assure you avoid the spread of germs!
Slowly but surely the Disney Wedding planning is underway! While there is a lot of uncertainty of what is ahead due to COVID we are moving forward with planning for May 2021 + hoping for the best (we are open to the possibility of postponing depending on the stipulations in place etc for overall safety + the health of our guests). So that means step one after securing our date was designing our Save The Dates which of course had to be Disney themed!
We worked with Themes Come True, the only paper goods company that has the official Disney license to create whatever you dream of! They are so fun to work with and have so many Disney Weddings under their belt to showcase examples from and everything you create is truly your own. That is one of the things I love the most. Our Save The Dates are unique to us and each detail was curating by us and not something easily copy and pasted from someone else’s design making it that much more special.
The first step of the process was reviewing examples of ones they have created in the past to gather inspo from. Right away I knew I HAD to have the Save The Dates be Mickey Mouse shaped. After knowing I definitely wanted a Mickey shaped Save The Date we then had to decide on color schemes. So I knew I wanted to have a glitter border and then a shimmer paper to better see the text and artwork for the actual Save The Date.
We looked at a few variations of colors and then eded up with a white ivory paper and gold glitter border! We also decided to to add a magnet to the back to make it convenient and easy to keep on hand leading up to the wedding.
Here’s some examples of if we just did on straight glitter which I found a little hard to read. That’s how we decided on glitter border and shimmer paper. After deciding on colors we then worked on the copy for the Save The Dates and I also knew I wanted to have a pretty Disney illustration as well.
Since Themes Come True is able to use Disney artwork etc I was able to look at some of their most popular illustrations for us to add to our Save The Dates.
We chose the Mickey and Minnie illustration with Mickey and Minnie holding each other on the bottom row and I wanted it to look like they were viewing a fireworks show so we added accents of fireworks on the shimmer paper as well.
After designing the actual Save The Date it was time to design the envelopes! There was inspo we pulled from and one of the things I totally fell in love with instantly was the Mickey glitter seals. I knew our guests would love getting a little Disney magic in the mail and that the glitter Mickey on the back would let you right away know who the Save The Date was from and what was inside!
I loved the design of these envelopes which are both ivory shimmer envelopes with Mickey Seals. We went with a white envelope just to lower some costs but we did a custom Disney stamp with the Mickey and Minnie looking at the fireworks artwork! How cool is that, you can get custom postage that is Disney themed?!
Let us know what you think of our Save The Dates!
Continue to follow along with our Disney Wedding journey ♥
I never thought this moment would come but guys I am planning my very own Disney Fairytale Wedding! Pinch me because I truly feel like I’m dreaming, I always tear up when watching Disney Fairytale Weddings on Disney+ and to think I will be just like one of those brides in a little under a year is beyond exciting!
ICYMI – we got engaged in February at Disney Aulani (proposal story HERE) + from the moment we got engaged we knew we wanted to get married at Disney World since it’s a close location for both of our families on the East Coast, PLUS it only makes sense given my LOVE of Disney (as if that weren’t yet obvious hehe :p). I want to share the entire Wedding Planning journey with ya’ll so here is blog post 1 (of many to come sharing initial steps in planning our Disney Wedding!)
So I was lucky in terms of knowing right away we wanted to have a Disney Wedding + it just so happened a few weeks after getting engaged Disney World was holding it’s Disney Fairytale Weddings Showcase where they share information with brides to be about planning a Disney Wedding, samples of cakes, tablescapes, food, floral + so much more so my future mother-in-law & I attended the showcase at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa!
We got to meet vendors, check out tons of Disney Wedding merchandise, see various wedding ceremony locations throughout the resort and meet one on one with Disney Wedding Planners to help make your vision come to life!
After attending the showcase we got a clear idea of the locations you can have your Disney Wedding, minimum requirements, budget, add ons + more so here’s some exciting things I learned at the Disney Wedding Showcase that are also helping me step by step when planning my wedding ♥
Before getting to the steps of planning I highly suggest your initial step if you want to have a Disney Wedding is reach out to the Disney Weddings team on their website. From there you can choose where you are interested in having your Disney Wedding whether it be Disneyland in California, Disney World in Orlando, Disney Aulani in Hawaii etc. https://www.disneyweddings.com/
The Disney Weddings team will then connect you with the right location and designate consultants to assist you in the beginning stages of inquiring about planning your Disney Wedding. Luckily I got to meet my consultant while I was at the Disney Wedding Showcase and that consultant brought us for some site visits at Disney World etc which helped a lot in the planning process. Once you brainstorm ideas and concepts with your Disney Wedding Consultant, the real planning begins…
Step One – Plan Your Budget + Your Guest Count
Mike + I decided on a budget for the wedding early on along with estimated guest count, that comes in handy when beginning to brainstorm locations for your ceremony + your reception. The Disney Weddings team is awesome with working within your budget and you can have a Disney Wedding at various price points mainly dependent on guest count, time of year, day of the week, type of entertainment you want etc.
We plan on having around 85-100 people total and based on that and certain venues I wanted we were able to lock in our date and location options!
Step Two – Pick Your Venues
After coming up with your budget and guest count you can then decide your venues for your Ceremony, your pre-cocktail reception + your dinner + dancing reception. Different Disney Wedding locations have different requirements whether it be minimum guest count or type of dinner service available (plated vs buffet) etc.
We decided on our venues based on a few factors: Guest Count, Wanting our guests to be able to see fireworks and wanting a light and airy aesthetic for our dinner and dancing, so here’s our venues we decided on:
Ceremony – Disney’s Wedding Pavilion at the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Pre-Cocktail Reception – Italy Isola Terrace at Epcot
Dinner Reception – American Adventure Rotunda at Epcot
Step Three – Lock In Your Date
Once you know your budget, your guest count + the venues you are most interested in you are then ready to work with your Disney Wedding Consultant to lock in the date for your wedding. We based it off venue availability, time of year we wanted and day of the week we thought would work best for our guests so we are all ready for May 2021! YAY!
So this is what we have accomplished so far! Now that the date is set and contracted we get connected to our designated Wedding Planners who work with us every step of the way to plan the entire wedding from food to cake to entertainment to hotel blocks, transportation and more!
We are now beginning to plan all of the wedding details and also working on our wedding website and our Save The Dates, we are close to finalizing those so I’ll be sure to share deets soon so stay tuned ♥
4th of July is just around the corner and what I love about the 4th of July is what I also love about going to Disney…the FIREWORKS! I’m not sure if many fireworks shows will be happening this year with the COVID pandemic and unfortunately we can’t see them at the Disney Parks but I’ll still be adding some magic to America’s Birthday with a little dash of Disney!
Let’s breakdown what I’m wearing since a lot of these Disney finds were ones I had to go on the hunt for. This red mini sequin Loungefly backpack I scored on clearance from ShopDisney (it’s not sold out there but the full size one is still available), you can find the mini one on eBay.
My Disney sneakers are actually from Primark in the UK so typically if I am looking for out of the country Disney finds I score them on eBay since you can find sellers all over the world and some unique finds.
My Disney USA Tee is a Target find (still available online + in stores) and my skirt is from Amazon where I buy all my skater skirts! They are so easy to style for various occasions and I always love wearing them to the parks with fun tees.
I also got these Mickey + Minnie Americana plushes from ShopDisney a few months ago that just added to the 4th of July festivities!
