Cynthia and Israel

Cynthia's and Israel's wedding was beautiful, with so many fun details to share. It was one of those weddings where every single person was dancing at the end of the night, including Mickey and Minnie Mouse. I hope you enjoy their photos, and here's their story in Cynthia's words:

Israel and I went to high school together. We hung out with the same group of friends-our Maid of Honor and Best Men among others. 

After graduation Israel joined the Army. I worked and went to school. I stayed in touch with a couple of our friends from HS and we would exchange stories about friends that we had seen around. Our friend (and Best Man) Jorge would keep me updated on him and vice versa. This became especially important because of the events that followed 9-11. He was in basic training, i was in school. After that he began to train for the war we would soon enter.

On one of my "updates" i finally asked for Israels address or email. And i began to write to him. He was the only person that I really knew who was in the thick of it all and i felt I needed him to know that friends cared.

On one of his visits home, we decided to have dinner with friends to celebrate his 21 birthday. The night before, he had to leave to the airport to return to Iraq. Fate would have that no one showed up. I almost didn't because I was taking family portraits for a gift to my grandmother. But I told my aunt that I had to go and fortunately for me, I was in the same shopping center as the restaurant. I hurried in, late and apologetic, and arrived to what now looked like a date.

We joked and talked. And afterward decided to go to our friend's house that didn't show. We just hung out and our friends little sister came out and asked if we were together as a couple. We looked at each other trying not to laugh said yes and pretended the rest of the night that we were. Why I we thought that was a joke, I don't know, maybe it was a premonition. We talked till about two in the morning and it was almost time for him to get ready to head to the airport. We said our goodbyes, gave him a mixed cd that was in my car so he had decent updated music out there.. And he kissed me, or I kissed him I guess it depends on who you ask.

We continued to email but never really addressing the kiss. When we finally came home for good a few months later he introduced me to his family as his girlfriend. Caught me by surprise, but i didnt say anything. So we began dating...

Then, on a trip to Las Vegas we again "joked" that we had gotten married. The news spread like wildfire and in a matter of minutes, before we even had a chance to say, "gotcha"! People were congratulating us and we had to explain we weren't married.

We began to talk about it. We were about to move in with eachother in a few months anyways and thought hey lets do this. So in march of 06 we told our parents and closest friends that we were getting married. That it wasnt a big deal but wanted to give them a heads up. And when we arrived to the chapel it was overflowing with parents, aunts cousins grandmothers and friends.

Shortly after, I became pregnant and we had our beautiful baby girl. We kept saying we needed to have a church wedding, but we had a certain vision for it. After years of talking about it we finally put it in motion. We started talking about venues. There were a couple of places I thought were unique, but being huge Disney fans we discovered we could have a magical wedding with pixie dust and all.

At first I tried to be modest and thought about having a Disney themed wedding at any venue. It was Israel who said if he was having a Disney Wedding he was having it on Disney property. Who was I to argue? And the rest, is history.

• Wedding Ceremony: Saint Joseph Catholic Church
• Reception Venue: Disney Fairytale Weddings
• Day of Coordinator : Jennifer Amagrande
• Reception Coordinator: Traci Banister with Disney Fairytale Weddings
• Photography: Me!! The  White Rabbit Photo Boutique :)
• Ceremony Musicians: Matthew Matsumoto & Candice Brown
• DJ & Lighting- Tony Zambrana with Celebrate with music
• paper product design: J Grande Designs 
• Cake topper:Michelle Perry
• Dress & long veil: Alfred Angelo
• Short Mickey veil: DIY