Walt Disney World is the perfect place to celebrate big life moments, even the one’s that you don’t see coming!
I have countless memories of Disney World but one of my favorites has to be when my husband proposed to me at Cinderella Castle.
It was the summer of 2008 and I had been staying with family in Florida when my husband and his family decided to plan a trip to Disney to coincide with the end of my stay. I called my dad when I found out they were coming down and told him it would be great if he could join us (up to that point I had NEVER been to Disney World without my dad). He agreed to come down right away which wasn’t surprising to me because our Disney side really knows no bounds. My husband and his family picked me up and we headed to Disney World the next day, picking my dad up from the Orlando airport on the way.
On the second day of our stay we headed out to the Magic Kingdom. In the late afternoon my husband said that he had a surprise for me, that he was taking me to dinner at Cinderella Castle because I had never been there before. Our parents said they would let us have our dinner and go grab something back at the hotel.
Thinking nothing of it, we headed to Cinderella Castle. Upon arriving at the restaurant we got our picture taken with Cinderella and were seated at the best table in the house: a table for two at the center window overlooking Fantasyland. The menu looked terrific and there was too much to chose from. We both settled on tortellini and it was delicious!
There was a small grace period between dinner and desert and being the Disney fanatic that I am I kind of just wanted to get back to riding some rides and asked if we were ready to go in which my husband replied “Let’s just wait for desert to come out.” Just after that I noticed our waiter carrying out a covered tray to our table. He proceeded to set it down in front of me and lift the lid. What I saw inside took my breath away. A beautiful white plate filled with bright red and pink rose petals and right in the middle was a delicate glass slipper with a diamond ring nestled inside of it. I’ve never felt so many emotions at one time: love, excitement, perfection. My husband (soon-to-be-fiancé in this story) got up from across the table, knelt down in front of me and popped the question, to which I replied “of course!” I jumped off my feet to give him a kiss and that’s when I noticed the whole restaurant had erupted in applause. Every eye was on us. Including the eye of the Disney photographer that had been capturing shot after shot of the whole thing.
I’ll never forget the timelessness of that moment.
We were given a very special desert, our own champagne flutes (that we got to keep!), and a bottle of sparkling cider (because we were both still under 21) to celebrate.
Afterwards we headed back out into the park and called our parents to come and meet back up with us for the fireworks. We walked around the courtyard right outside of the castle; visiting Cinderella’s fountain and riding the carousel, it was all so surreal. When our parents met back up with us we found a spot for the fireworks. The most amazing thing started to happen, across the lagoon we saw another firework display: they were forming hearts, interlocking rings, and other shapes. Someone was having their wedding at the Grand Floridian and the fireworks were theirs, but they might as well have been for us!
It was an experience I’ll never forget. Disney went above and beyond making it one of the most special moments of my life. From the presentation of the ring to the photographer being ready to go, everything was perfect. They really do make dreams come true!
Kristine Bartolone – (800) 670-4312 x 153 Kristine@travelwiththemagic.com
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