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Thank you all so much for your continued support!

xoxo,

Teresa

Be My Guest

The menu!

Ever since I was a little girl I've always wanted to step inside the world of Beauty and the Beast.  It's been a dream of mine since I was six and now, at the ripe age of twenty-seven, I have lived my dream. 

The Be Our Guest restaurant opened at Disney World's Magic Kingdom on November 17th.  Chris and I went within the first week of it opening and I could not have been more excited!  The woman who took us to our seats was laughing at how giddy and in awe of everything I was.  Yep, I am that adult who acts like a five year old child at Disney.  And I am not ashamed.

When you walk up to the restaurant doors you see a beautiful stained glass window that depicts the first part of the Beast's story.  The double doors open as you approach them and you walk into a huge entry way (no pictures, sorry!).  My mouth dropped open at this point, everything was beautiful!  As you step into the dinning room you realize that you've actually stepped inside the Beast's grand ballroom.  There are no words to describe just how gorgeous it is.  It looks exactly like I always dreamed it would.

There was a cute little sign for the restaurant on  an
archway that was connected to the bridge that led
you up to the front doors of the restaurant!

Since we ate when it was dark out I had to go back and get some
of these photos.  This was the front door that led you into the entry way.

The stained glass window!  If you've watched the movie as many
times as I have, you'll know what part these pictures are from!

This was inside the entry way on the left hand side.
It was beautiful!  If you can't tell, I was really really excited!

The West Wing was off to the right side of the ballroom and there was also a room where the Beast waited for you to finish dinner so he could greet and take a picture with you.  On the far side of the ballroom was a wall of windows that framed the mountains in the distance.  On the ceiling were not one, but three chandeliers as well as the painting of angels from the movie.  There was also a second floor to the ballroom that was probably all for show but very visually appealing.

I don't think I paid much attention to Chris at dinner.  I was
too busy taking everything in!

Chris and I swear that we will go back and eat at this restaurant again.  The food was delicious!  We both had strip steak with assorted vegetables and fries.  We also got a bottle of wine (the only restaurant at the Magic Kingdom that serves alcohol) and also decided we had just enough room left in our stomach's to eat a dessert.  Since I have a food allergy, I am never sure if I can have dessert at a restaurant and usually steer clear of it.  But, Chris and I decided to ask about it anyway and we found out that I can have the dessert at this particular restaurant (score!).  We ordered a strawberry cupcake and devoured it in less than two minutes.  I'm pretty sure we were a little drunk off the wine and on a food high when we left.  

Delicious, delicious food and wine!

This is the only picture I took of the castle.  I know, I know.  Shame on me!
But at least it has the fireworks behind it. Do I get bonus points for that?!

D-I-Y Fall Wreath

If you've been following the Pinterest Party posts you'll know that my friends and I got together and made fall and winter wreaths.  I did a fairly long, wordy, loads of pictures post about what we did, but I did not go into how I made my own personal wreath.  And of course, we have to see if it was budget friendly!

My original idea was to do a fall wreath that centered around sunflowers.  I absolutely love sunflowers and I loved all the examples I had found on Pinterest.

I absolutely loved the reds, yellows, and oranges of all the wreaths, but what I really liked was the letter!  I knew I was going to incorporate that into my own wreath somehow...

I decided to go to Michael's and see what I could find that would live up to my expectations.  The first time I went by myself and bought a vase of fake flowers that were on sale and thought that was all I needed.  But when I went back to help another friend find what she wanted for her wreath, I realized that I wasn't completely happy with the supplies I bought.

Originally I had bought a small wreath from Target for $2.50 and thought that would be sufficient.  I soon realized that such a tiny wreath would look ridiculous on my outside door and I needed something a little bit bigger.

As you can see, the wreath I ended up using could be the little one's mother!  I knew I needed to go bigger.  As they say, bigger is always better.  And while I don't always believe that is true, in this case it was!

I also needed a few smaller flowers to balance out the larger ones as well as a letter.  I also decided that I wanted cranberries wrapped around the wreath because that is something I've always loved.

I used wire to hold my flowers, cranberries, and letter in place.  Some people used hot glue for theirs but I felt like the wire held everything better for me.  I'm very happy with how it turned out!
 

Okay...let's see the cost breakdown:
Grapevine Wreath: $3.00 (originally $5 but I used a 40% off coupon)
Cranberries: $3.00 (Originally $5 but it was on sale for 40% off.  I bought two)
Flowers in vase: $2.60 (original price was $12.99 but I got it at 80% off!)
Other flowers: $5.00
Wire: $0.99
Letter: $1.99

TOTAL: $19.58  

I wanted to try to stay under $20 and I definitely accomplished that!  It is so rewarding knowing that I got a great deal on a lot of the items I used and that I am going to be able to use the wreath for (hopefully) years to come!

Next up, a Christmas wreath!  I'm already planning it out in my head and hope that it turns out just as good as my fall wreath.  Maybe even better!