delightfully married: The Happiest Place on Earth

In August, Chris took Sam and I to Disney World in Florida. I was so excited because I had always loved the look of The Grand Floridian Resort and Spa and we were actually going to stay there! For those of you that have never been, this resort is a beautiful Victorian style resort that sits right on the water and is across from the Magic Kingdom park. The monorail comes right to the resort (which makes it easy to get to both Epcot and the Magic Kingdom), as well as a boat!

We had originally planned to stay at the Polynesian Resort (which is located right behind The Grand Floridian), but Chris said there was a computer glitch and they overbooked so they had to move us to a different resort. For Sam and I, it was worth being overbooked as soon as we arrived because we had our own personal guide (Denny) who was so friendly and extremely informative and helpful! He took us to our room which was in a completely different building and because we were club level we received free drinks (wine, beer, soda, water, etc) and food (breakfast, snacks, and desserts) on a daily basis. Sam and I were literally in heaven.

Don't you agree that it is beautiful?

The first day we took the time to walk around the resort to see what they had to offer. They had two different pools, a ton of shops inside the resort, a few restaurants, and a nice beach that looked out on the wedding pavilion and the Polynesian and Contemporary Resorts. That night, we braved the thunderstorm and ran to make our reservation at an Italian restaurant at Downtown Disney. We were soaked and got a lot of weird looks as we were led to our table, but dinner was delicious and we were all pleasantly buzzed from the great wine as we made our way back out into the rain.

The second day the three of us knew we'd be out really late (extra magic hours for The Magic Kingdom park!) so we tried sleeping in. I was so excited to get going that I woke up early (9:30) and got everyone else to get up and start their day as well! I love The Magic Kingdom, maybe its because it reminds me of all the times I went there as a kid and how excited I became whenever I saw one of the many beloved characters. But I was so excited to go and ride all of my favorite rides.

Two of the rides I always have to go on are Peter Pan's Flight and Pirates of the Caribbean. Chris convinced us that we should wait to do both until later that night, because the lines are so minimal during extra magic hours. I kept noticing that Sam and Chris would fall behind and talk amongst themselves, but I just figured they were getting along really well and didn't want to interrupt them.

We arrived!

On the People Mover....I was more excited than Sam!

In line for It's A Small World. I HATE this ride!

Chris was trying his best to annoy Sam while waiting to get on Splash Mountain.

Second day of rain....this time we were smart and brought ponchos!

We waited until midnight and walked over to Pirates, but found out they were closed due to technical difficulties. Sam and I took off and went shopping while Chris waited for us outside on one of the benches. We had decided to go back over to the ride around 1:00 a.m. and luckily it was up and running again! I made a beeline for the line, but Chris took my arm and pulled me aside. I could not understand what was going on but figured maybe he was letting a big group go by us. Instead, he put his arms around my neck and began talking about our three year anniversary coming up (in April!). He said that when Belle met her prince, she didn't realize it until chapter three and he wanted to write many more chapters together. Then, he pulled out my gorgeous ring and asked me to marry him! I, of course, said yes!

Chris chose the Pirates ride because it was the first one we had ever gone on as a couple and also our favorite ride at the Disney park. Once on the ride, we got stuck for forty-five minutes and only got around the corner from the loading dock. We had to come back a few nights later to actually ride it, but on our engagement night we were able to snap a few pictures!


We are so happy and so excited for the next adventure in our lives!

My beautiful ring! There will be better pictures once I get it back from being sized!

The rest of the trip was a blast! Of course, nothing could top getting engaged, but we still had a great time! We spent the rest of the time at Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and even Universal! Here are a few more picture highlights from our trip!