Trip Report – Day Three, Part Nine – Dessert Party

Welcome to another installment of our Trip Report.  You may have noticed I didn’t do a Trip Report chapter last week.  Or maybe you didn’t notice and I shouldn’t even be pointing it out.  I really needed to take a break last week so I took a night off.  Hopefully no one minds.  I freaked out about it a little bit but I found out the world didn’t end if I skipped a day of blogging.  And I felt refreshed and recharged the next day.  So thank you for bearing with me!

We’re finally wrapping up our wedding day with our amazing dessert party!

When we left off, Mr. BFT and I were back in our hotel room, trying to relax for a bit.  At some point, Laura with Rebel Belle Weddings stopped by along with a bellhop to deliver all of our wedding things (including gifts – woohoo!) so I directed them on where to place everything.  Also at some point, we had a special delivery of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries – a gift from Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings!

I was really hoping to get some rest during those few hours between the reception and the dessert party, but before I knew it, it was 7:30 and time to get ready to go out.  I was really excited for the dessert party in the weeks leading up to the wedding, but at that moment it was the absolute last thing I wanted to do.  I just wanted to stay in bed for, like, a few days.  But I forced myself to get up and put on my dessert party sequin dress I rented from Rent the Runway and did some minor touch ups to my makeup.  I applied more lip gloss and touched up the ever present circles under my eyes.  I was actually super impressed how well my hair and makeup was holding up nearly 12 hours later.  Great job, Fairytale Hair and Makeup!

I can’t exactly remember what why, but Mr. BFT and I went across the street to the dessert party location separately.  I think maybe I was running late (naturally) and told him to go ahead of me to make sure everything was okay.  So I ended up walking over with Mr. BFT’s sister.

I was a total zombie and didn’t think to take any pictures.  In hindsight it would have been well worth it to hire a professional photographer for our dessert party.  But I’m grateful we have some photos from our friends.  All these pictures are from my friend Hope unless otherwise noted.  Thanks, Hope!

Our dessert party took place at the Wedding Garden at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa.

They set up a few cocktail tables and chairs, kind of like our pre-reception. I had requested white linens but we got the standard Grand Californian linens – not a big deal.

The weather was a bit chilly and guests really enjoyed the cozy fireplace!

There was a water station set up ….

… and coffee.

We also had a special treat for our guests – tray passed glasses of Magicale!  Magicale was a special Brachetto sparkling wine that was available only at Disney resorts.  I say WAS because shortly after our wedding, they stopped producing it!  It’s a shame because it was sooooo yummy.

The big event at our dessert party was the ice cream sundae bar.  We had three flavors – vanilla, chocolate, and blood orange.  All the ice cream is made on site by the amazing chef’s at the Grand Californian.

Plates and spoons were set up along with a bunch of toppings, so guests could make their own sundaes!

We also had cotton candy “lollipops” and my favorite – CHURROS.  You can’t go to Disney and not have a churro!

For the dessert party, we invited all my Disneyland Bride friends and their hubbies/fiances.  I love this picture of us (and it’s the only picture I have that shows my entire dress).

My brother took these next two photos of me with my dad, and then with my grandma.  It’s a better picture showing how well my hair and makeup was holding up.

I love this picture, hehe!  Although I was cold, I wish I wasn’t wearing the ugly sweater that hid all those amazing sequins!

At some point, our Disney wedding coordinator Traci showed up, which was great because I had a little gift for her – I decided to give her our “Hidden Mickey” topiary from our centerpieces   She was so excited about it and said she even took a picture of it earlier to show her daughters, because she liked it so much. She also had a little gift for us.  She told us that she understood we cut our trip short one day so we could upgrade to the suite without completely busting our bank accounts, and she realized we had some stressful hiccups along the way (our check-in fiasco, the storage room fiasco), so as a special gift to us they were extending our hotel stay for an extra night.  YAY YAY YAY!  We were so surprised and really appreciated this nice gesture from Disney.  I love getting pixie dust!

The dessert party seemed to be a huge success, although I barely remember it!  I had a little bit of chocolate ice cream and half a glass of Magicale, but I was basically too exhausted to eat and didn’t feel hungry.  I think I only stayed for about an hour before I felt like I was going to pass out. I always say I wish we could have a dessert party do-over because we spent all that money and I didn’t really get to enjoy it, but it was more for our guests than it was for us, and we got tons of compliments on how great it was from our guests, so it was totally worth it.

Shortly after 9pm, I decided I had to just get back to the room and I make the rounds saying goodbye to everyone.  I felt awful and wished I could visit with everyone but the excitement of the day and my lack of sleep the night before had finally caught up with me.  Mr. BFT offered to go back to the hotel with me but he was having a good time so I told him to stay, and I walked back to the hotel alone.  Again – not quite how I pictured the ending of my wedding day but at that point, I just didn’t care.

As I was just getting back to the Disneyland Hotel, the fireworks over Disneyland started.  When I got up to the room I turned on the show music through the TV and sat on our balcony and watched the fireworks.  It actually ended up being a perfect ending to my wedding day (although I wished Mr. BFT had been there with me).  But as I sat and watched the fireworks and listened to the Magical show music, I reflected on the day and realized my day was truly magical and my dreams of finding my prince and getting married at Disneyland had come true.  As exhausted and beat-up as I felt, I also felt like the luckiest person in the world.

It wasn’t too long before Mr. BFT came back to the hotel, and we immediately went to sleep!  We had an early wake up call for our “morning after” pictures at Disneyland with White Rabbit Photo Boutique!

Well, I thought we’d never get here, but that concludes Day Three of our Trip Report.  It’s a little sad to be leaving our wedding day behind, but we have several more days left in our trip to recap!  I hope you’ll stick with me!