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11/16/2020 Part 2: The Wedding - October 9, 2020 After having a day filled with preparing for the wedding festivities, the day of the ceremony had come. Originally, Andrew and Brittany's ceremony was going to be held at the Boardwalk Resort and it was going to be limited to their family and a few select friends as they were keeping it smaller, for that particular venue, but a few things changed in those plans in the weeks leading up to the big day. Unfortunately, some of the original invited guests were not able to make it to the ceremony, leaving a few spots open. Originally I was going to be among the many friends who came for the post wedding celebration at the parks, but as I had booked a flight to arrive before the actual wedding, I was invited to the ceremony since they had the space for it. One of the other changes that came about had been on Disney's end. As other couples have made changes to their plans related to the pandemic, there was an opening in locations for wedding ceremonies on Disney Property, so Andrew and Britany had theirs upgraded to the Wedding Pavilion next to the Grand Floridian! For those who have not been before, this is a small wedding chapel building that sits on a little island in the Seven Seas Lagoon. When looking at the building, there are a number of neat little touches, such as the inclusion of Cinderella's pumpkin coach in the windows, and in the background behind the spot where the wedding party and the minister, you can see Cinderella's Castle in the background! When guests were arriving, Disney was spreading out groups for the sake of distancing and having parties arrive at different times to try and maintain it. It seemed a bit overstructured considering the smaller size of the party, but I can at least appreciate that Disney was trying to take precautions to keep guests safe.   
 Of course, this was the reason why we were in the building. Meet the new Mr. and Mrs. Singleton!   After the ceremony, we went to one of the conference of the Grand Floridian where they had a small reception for the ceremony. Like at the ceremony, Disney was having people come in a staggered intervals for the sake of distancing, and table groups were comprised of the same groups that attendees were with. One of the highlights of awaiting the arrival of the new husband and wife was the violinist who provided some music during this reception. He had a large repertoire of Disney Songs that he knew, and was even willing to listen to short clips of songs he didn't know through his phone and give it a shot to play a small portion of it. I threw him a bit of a curveball requesting "Compass of Your Heart" from the Sinbad attraction at Tokyo's DisneySea, and while wasn't exact, I appreciated his rendition of it after listening to the song once.  
With the arrival of the couple, they had their first dance together, cut their cake, and had the tradition of giving each other their first bite of it.    As they prepared to serve guests their slices of cake, Andrew's sister Alison gave a touching speech about her brother and their new family member and followed it with the toast.   In the end, it was a nice ceremony, and great to see these two begin the next step of their lives together! But with the wedding now complete, it was time for the party to begin...six days, two resorts, six theme parks! The first of which would take us into the realm of wildlife! |
