Beautiful Disney inspired wedding | Natalie & Jonathan

From the bride: “The first time I met Jonathan was shortly after I immigrated to Canada in the year 2000 from South Korea when I was in grade 6. We didn’t see each other again until I was finishing high school. We saw each other at a couple of night clubs and briefly re-introduced ourselves. He took me to see Kanye West’s Glow in the Dark Tour in 2008 because we shared an interest in music, but I thought of him as just a friend at this point. We did dinner and movies a couple of times, but really didn’t connect until we met on campus at the University of Alberta. I was now 19 and he was 22, and the age gap didn’t seem like a large factor anymore. We soon began seeing each other and slowly moved into seriously dating. We quickly realized that on top of music, we also shared an interest in all things Disney, food, sense of humour (goofy), streetwear/fashion, travelling and family.”

“The first time I went with Jonathan’s family to Disney World in 2011, I truly realized my love for Disney! From that point on I dreamed of being proposed to in a Disney theme park. In 2014, Jonathan planned a double family trip to Orlando with his family and my parents. Shortly after, he asked my father at a family dinner for my hand in marriage formally. I figured he was planning something at this point, but he would not tell me in detail. He did give me the clue that it will happen in Orlando. I asked him what I should wear and when I should wear my pre-selected wardrobe for proposal, and he simply said, ”I don’t know, you will have to wait and see…” My parents and I thought he might be doing the proposal during the night at dinner so we planned to wear our formal clothes for the first dinner.”

“On November 9th 2014, the first day we went to the theme park, I wore my princess-y clothes because we were heading to the Magic Kingdom. When we arrived at the park, a lady suddenly approached us and gave me a rose, with a scroll. She even knew my name! I quickly opened the scroll and inside was a picture of “Beauty and the Beast”, a picture of Jonathan and I, and instructions signed by “Belle”. The instructions stated that Belle and the Beast were trying to leave us a message but had to hide the clues with roses hidden in the Magic Kingdom because the villains were trying to destroy the message. The villains had enchanted the roses with a spell and if I was unable to find all the roses, the message would be lost forever. I didn’t know what was going on, but I began to start the scavenger hunt”.

“Each rose I found had a picture memory of times I had spent with Jonathan in our 5 years together, and clues leading around the park. The final rose had instructions to go to the front of the Cinderella Castle. As I approached the castle, there was a clue on the ground. The clue had 2 blindfolds and required us to place them over each other’s eyes for the secret message to appear. He had a “helper” come take off his blindfold first (mine was still on), then I felt “pixie dust”, and he told me to take off my blindfold. When I took off my blindfold that’s when all the magic happened. I saw him kneeling on one knee, in front of Cinderella Castle, with a huge crowd around us and he was holding the most beautiful ring I had ever seen in my life. I immediately burst into tears, hugged him and answered “YES!”.”

“This gown is a vintage and glam inspired fit-and-flare wedding dress made with finest tulle and satin and features elegant diamante beading on its illusion shoulder straps, bodice and drop waist. The plunging back zips up under crystal buttons. I customized the gown to have the long train.”

“The overall theme of our wedding was Walt Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’. The theme ran through all elements of our wedding including the proposal, engagement, invitations, venue selection, decorations, menus, first dance song selection and floral design. Our venue was chosen based on its castle-like characteristics, and location in the Rocky Mountains. The colour theme was golden yellow, red and navy blue. The flowers were all chosen as red roses to signify the connection to ‘Beauty and the Beast’. The vision of our wedding day was to gather only close family and friends to experience a magical experience similar to that of Disney but also by showcasing our special love for each other.”

“Our favourite moment of the wedding day was following the ceremony. We were officially husband and wife, and we were able to celebrate that in front of all our family and friends.
The nerves from completing the ceremony were gone, and we were set to enjoy the rest of our wedding day with all the guests, take photos with our bridal party and enjoy the food that was to be served at our reception. It was a rush of emotion, pride and gratitude to officially be married.”

«Our photo booth floral wall that was hand made by us, the bridal party and groom’s mother. We spent many weeks building, designing and framing a red rose floral wall with laser etched wood crafted letters with our names and the date of the wedding. This detail allowed all our guests to take a lasting memory with them, and they really appreciated the hard work and creativity of our design. We used red roses to match our “Beauty and the Beast” theme, and another favorite detail was our enchanted rose, Cogsworth clock and Lumiere candle figures that tied everything together.»

“We would like future brides to consider mixing both DIY items as well as some pricier items (depending on their budget) to bring their memorable wedding to life. Finding the right balance between items you can buy, and items you can make together can be more valuable than anything store bought. For example, our most memorable item was something we built on our own. But the memories of building it, the bond we shared making it, and seeing the final product was priceless.”