So, the end of our magical day is close, we’d boarded the charter to head to the backstage of Epcot. Driving under Test Track got me super excited, but I was exhausted.. I imagine Sandra was too, but we were definitely geared up to go.
When we parked, just behind UK, we were met by 3 or 4 cast members with glowing blue wands, and they promptly directed us through the gates, and past the phone booths. Now, many of our guests had never been to Epcot, or hadnt been in many years, so I was hoping to catch a look at their faces to see how they were reacting, but we were ushered so quickly, it was difficult. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Lauren and Dave, who were meeting us there, standing with Casie and #TheDude (heheh) I only had a brief moment to run up and say hey, before we were moved along to UK Lochside. Happily, our friends Katie and Matt joined us there shortly after (yay!)
This is where I’m going to take a minute to say how lucky we are with the friends we’ve met in Florida over the last couple of years of visiting. They truly have become a HUGE part of our lives
Back to desserts… UK Lochside is a beautiful and rather large area to have a dessert party. There was HEAPS of space for all of our guests to spread out, even with the catering and tables that were set. AND it’s a front row view of Illuminations. The desserts were layed out beautifully with a huge selection of pastries. We had thought about having a bar, but decided that instead of serving alcohol, we would just serve juices and coffee so that everybody could unwind and enjoy the show. That worked out great for our guests, but not so much for us, as we had booked Disney Photography to shoot the event and pretty much spent the evening doing just that… I know, the Roots were shooting the wedding, but Disney doesnt allow non Disney photographers to shoot in the parks.
We met our photographer, and were moved out to the surrounding UK pavilion where we did some more photo ops. It was definitely nerve racking, everybody and their mother was watching us. Of course Sandra got a lot of people yelling out “You look BEAUTIFUL!”, and hey, who am I to argue, she did.
Back to the terrace again, just in time to talk to our guests for a minute before the lights dimmed and we heard the familiar drum start. You know the one.. the one that starts off the show, that knocking that gets louder and faster and sends chills down your spine, because you know any second now…. BOOM! the sky lights up and the show has started. Oh, I should probably add here that we got 3D glasses for everyone… 3D glasses? yes.. well sort of.. if you wear them while watching fireworks, every light has a glow of mickey heads around it. Which makes for a pretty trippy experience during the Christmas Illuminations show…
Our photographer grabbed us and put us off to the side of the terrace, where her camera equipment was set up, and we spent the rest of the night holding poses for 3 seconds at a time so she could catch the long exposure shots. Ya, that was our dessert party for us. Whilst I’m glad everybody got to enjoy the fireworks, if we had known we’d spend the majority of the night with our backs to the lagoon, we probably wouldn’t have bothered booking a photographer. Some of the pictures came out pretty good, but it was definitely a missed opportunity to relax with our friends and family at one of our favorite shows. Anyone who’s seen it knows how great it is, and it always makes us tear up a bit. Especially on this night. After a long and phenomenal day, knowing we were now married, and knowing that we were sharing something so close to us with our friends and family, was heart warming. Finally, everybody was together, and now everybody was experiencing what we’re always showing them in photos, photos that NEVER do it justice.
Sadly, my father wasnt able to attend the wedding for health reasons, and my younger sister and her husband had just had a baby, so were unable to attend too. I thought about how much they would’ve enjoyed being there.
What can I say, it was an emotional day all around, but definitely the happiest day of my life. As the finale lit the park up, and echoed all around us, I looked at my new wife and looked at all our guests amazed by what is arguably the best display of fireworks you will ever see, I thought to myself “Today honestly couldn’t have been better”.