After everyone else left, Jaime showed up a little after 12:30 pm, and off we went to the Outlook for the wedding. Lacey took the bouquet, since I was carrying Duffy instead and Mom took Nip. We got to the room and Lacey undid the bustle on my dress before she went in.
Since I had to wait until Lauren and Morgan read their parts, I sort of hovered in the hallway for an awkwardly long time by myself. I chose not to have anyone walk me down the aisle, since it’s an archaic tradition, and I am not property to be given away, so I only had Duffy to keep me company. I moved closer to the door, so I could at least hear the reactions. Lauren had already finished so I got to listen to Morgan give her safety spiel.
Everyone reach down, that seatbelt goes from left to right, and I need y’all to pull on the yellow safety tab. I’m just kidding, we can’t afford seatbelts. Please remain seated at all times while the wedding is in motion, even when the bride enters, as this wedding has sudden stops, drops, and emotionally charged moments. There will be no standing. Keep your hands and feet inside at all times. Photography? Unless you’re one of the official photographers, I wouldn’t. It alters the homing beacon, and that’s not good.
Boat orientation. This is the top of the boat, -points up-; this is the bottom of the boat, -points down-. Should the top become the bottom, please swim. Raise your hands if you know how to swim. Great, you just volunteered to be our flotation devices. If you can’t swim, don’t worry, I’ll throw you a bar of soap, and you can wash ashore.
You know what you guys got yourselves into right? It’s called a wedding.
As I was standing there, “Friends on the Other Side” started to play from Princess and the Frog, and I thought to myself, “Well, I’m not sure this is the best song to hear right now.” Then it ended and switched to “I Can Go the Distance” from Hercules, which was a much more fitting song, I’ll admit. This song is actually very special to us. The first time we watched Happily Ever After, the “I Can Go the Distance” portion was the part that got us both to start crying.
Now I just had to not start crying, before I even headed down the aisle!
From the point Jaime opened the door, and I heard, “When Can I See You Again”. Then everything was kind of a blur. The good news is there’s video of everything!
I read my vows first. We were both in tears by the end. Once again, when it came time to repeat after the officiant, I changed “Jason” to “Jay”. (Honestly, if I had it my way, he’d legally change his name to Jay.)
My wedding vows:
When we met, the very first thing I ever said to you was, “I like you, you don’t suck.” Well, here we are almost five years later, and I still stand by that assessment. But, we are not the same people we were then, and we are both better for having known each other. I cannot imagine going through life without you by my side. You are my best friend, my hero, and my everything.
The hardest part of planning this wedding was not being able to share these words with you when I wrote them, and having to wait until today, to show you this dress. But the surprise was important to you, so it was important to me. And now I finally get to show you, and I finally get to tell you, in front of our closest friends, family, and stuffed animals.
I can’t promise my anxiety won’t sometimes be louder than you, and I can’t promise that our lives will be perfect, and while I’ll try not to, I can’t promise I won’t ever almost start a fight in a theme park again. There are some things I can promise.
I will keep talking too fast. I will keep interrupting your video games and your modeling to show you cute things. I will keep dragging you out on adventures, when neither of us have had enough sleep to leave the house. I will remember the little things so you don’t have to. I will never cross a finish line without you holding my hand again. I will watch your back, and keep you alive, whenever you’re being a brave idiot. I will always be proud of you, whether you’re Skipper of the Year or you just kept the boats going in circles for one more day. I have told you a hundred times that we will always be okay, and I’ll keep telling you that until the end of time.
And in thirty, forty, fifty years, we’ll still be sitting in the office, working at our desks, surrounded by Duffy Bears and pets, bothering us for attention.
It’s been us against the world so long that it feels like nothing really changes today, because it will always be us against the world. But at the same time, everything changes. It’s a whole new adventure.
I love you, Jay, now and always, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together.
Jay’s wedding vows:
You are so beautiful in this moment. But I need you to know that you have always looked this beautiful to me. You will always be this beautiful to me, when your face is mooshed on the pillow and the cat is sleeping draped over your head. When you’re red faced from too much sun in the parks and you’re dehydrated because we needed to get one last ride in. When you smile, your face lights up like heaven shining through the clouds and it doesn’t matter if you’re wearing makeup or if your hair is done. As gorgeous as you are right here and right now, I didn’t fall in love with you because you look like this. I fell in love with a sweat-soaked skipper on a fourteen hour day whose first words to me were “I like you. You don’t suck.”
I spent years guarding my heart. I walked this Earth from one side to the other. Never truly surrendering. It took gods hand shoving me, breaking my arrogance and making me humble, before I finally found my destiny, until I found happiness. And that happiness was you. It will be always be you.
I thought Life was bruises, and bloody knuckles, black eyes and struggle. I had lost hope in the softer things, like love and hope and days filled with fun. And then I met you. You healed my scars, mended my broken bones, And whether I wanted you to or not you tore down my armor. I can no more resist you that I can will my own heart to stop. And when God And time and age finally slow it, I will still be there. By your side.
You are such an interwoven part of the happiness of my life now. My career, my goals, All of my best memories and all of my dreams of the future – you’re laced into them so tightly. All of my favorite things – I enjoy them so much better with you. And I’ll never let anyone take that from us. I will hold you when are weak, guide you when you are lost. I will be all things that you need and You will never be safer in any moment than when you are with me. I will never let this world hurt you. I will always protect you.
I will always love you.
One thing I liked is that they pronounced us husband and wife, as opposed to “Mr. and Mrs. So and So”, before they sent us back up the aisle. I’m not changing my last name, and I haven’t had any luck convincing Jay to change his.
Yet.
We walked back up the aisle to the “Happily Ever After” soundtrack. We stood out in the hallway for a moment while they cleared the chairs, and Lacey came racing to bustle my dress back.
“Do you like the dress?” I asked Jay.
“I love the dress!”
One of the hardest parts of wedding planning was not being able to get his opinion on the dress. I usually ask his opinion on everything!
As we stood there waiting, I noticed a rotating screen of the ship’s officers, and I recognized the lady who had just performed our ceremony! Ruth Anne, Human Resources Manager.
Well, we had been hoping for the Captain or the Commodore, but she did a wonderful job! There’s also at least one joke made a week by our friend group about needing to call HR so it seemed appropriate.
Jaime came back to touch base with us about the toasts, and we realized we didn’t have the notebook with Jay’s planned toast in it. I’d left it in the bridal suite! So, they pulled Abby from the room and she ran to get it like a champ, while we stalled for time.
They brought us back into the room, and this is where one of my only complaints about the whole thing comes in. We came back in, and the pianist was playing “A Whole New World” from Aladdin. Well, that is not a song I ever would have picked, and choosing a song for this portion was not in my wedding planning packet! I know exactly what song I would have used, and that wasn’t it!
If you’re wondering it would have been the Wonder Woman theme.
Luckily, I was quickly distracted from my disappointment, as one last guest had arrived: Mickey Mouse! No one besides Jay and my Mom knew that we had arranged for Mickey to make an appearance. I asked for Duffy originally, but he wasn’t available. Hmph.
This also passed in a bit of a blur. Later I would kick myself when I realized we forgot to include the Bears in the group pictures with Mickey.
The character attendant tried to tell Mickey it was time to leave, and Mickey absolutely refused, until he got to help us cut the cake. We thought he was saying he wanted cake, and I told him he was welcome to as much as he wanted.
I have to say this is the best cake I’ve ever had at Disney. We went with chocolate mousse filling and peanut butter buttercream icing. I was so sad we couldn’t take it with us. They had also provided two allergy friendly alternative cupcakes for Morgan and Emma. I had told them in advance about Morgan, when we picked a peanut butter cake. I’m not sure how Emma tipped them off, or what her allergy is, but I’m super happy they took care of both of them.
So, we cut the cake, and then it was time for the first dance!
Thanks to Scott, we had some AMAZING choreography planned, but not enough rehearsal time, because life got away from us. I think we did pretty well all things considered, but we lost it at the end, because suddenly we realized we were farther in the song than we thought, and we’d missed some stuff. The good news is except Scott, nobody knew the difference! Mickey even joined in!
After the first dance, sadly it was time to say goodbye to Mickey.
The toast came next, and Jay inducted everyone into the Adventurers’ Club officially, except he was nervous and forgot to say that’s what he was doing. Thankfully, most of the room got it. We’d even gotten them to give us martini glasses, instead of champagne flutes to be on theme!
Last but not least, as a further alternative to tradition, my brother and I pulled out the dance from Lilo and Stitch. Well, tried to at least. We had fun. That’s all that matters.
Somewhere in all this I managed to steal Tess’s glass of champagne, and score a refill from one of the servers. I first had the Iron Horse Fairy Tale Cuvee at the Disney Wedding Showcase in 2018, and it is some of the most delicious alcohol I’ve ever had in my entire life. I’m not saying I had a Disney Fairy Tale Wedding, so it could be served at our wedding, but it was definitely on the “pro list” when making our decisions. We were only supposed to have enough for one glass per person, so I was thrilled to get more!
The last two songs on our playlist played, and Jay noticed Jaime beginning to clean up. We checked in with him, and he told us he’d bring anything we left behind back to our room, so we announced for everyone to make sure they had signed the guest book, and to relocate to the atrium for group pictures.
Trying to get 23 of us across the ship was no easy task, especially since my dress ate up most of an elevator. We did group photos, then family, then Skippers, then the Skipper Squad, and finally it was just down to Lacey and Michael and us taking couple photos. We spent a good hour and forty-five minutes just on photos. While we were in the atrium Jay and I also posed for photos with anyone in the group who wanted one, and it was funny because it was like we were the characters, everyone was waiting to meet.
Good Lord, my friends went above and beyond the call of duty. Gary, Lauren, and Zym busted their butts to get us amazing photos. Zym was even laying on the floor at one point to get the right angle. There was also a really fun moment when we were climbing up by the funnel to take pictures, and Jay was already up there, so I just yelled, “SCOTT!” and he came running and we did a perfect cheerleader lift. I didn’t even have to explain what I needed, he just did it.
Once we had gotten the photos from my list, we dispersed, and I went back to Abby and Michael’s room to change back into my button up and shorts. We left the dress there, since that seemed safer than trying to cram it in our stateroom, and I went to meet Jay at Flo’s Café, since we missed lunch service at Cabana’s.
Big wedding, and then eating counter service wraps and sandwiches is a little anticlimactic, but it also seemed just perfect for us. Theme park life, right?
