EPCOT Wedding at Italy Pavilion & The Living Seas

The EPCOT wedding of Everlena and Anthony at Italy Pavilion was incredible! There were twists and turns at every moment. Everlena started getting hair and makeup done at 1am! I arrived at 4am while it was still dark outside. The ceremony at Italy Pavilion started at 8am, which was just after the sun had risen. The reception was at The Living Seas, which has a giant tank filled with turtles, sting rays, and other aquatic animals. No EPCOT wedding would be complete without an evening dessert party with fireworks, and this one was no exception!

Everlena + Anthony

BACKSTORY

Everlena and Anthony met at a house party their friends were throwing. They had been missing each other by a matter of minutes in the weeks before and then finally met that night. Anthony and a mutual friend tricked Everlena into believing they were going to a local art gallery to vlog and then have dinner. They did the “tour” and then went into a private room where he surprised her and got down on one knee. Everlena and Anthony wanted the wedding to be an ode to who they are with slight nods to Halloween. While planning they decided it was ok to embrace Halloween in full and upped their decor elements and themes.

THE EPCOT WEDDING

In Everlena’s words, “The wedding was refreshing. We had fun and got to enjoy each other and our friends and family. We worked really hard to get to that day and to be there with the people we hold dear.” Her favorite moment was, “Seeing everyone’s reaction to Minnie and Mickey. Watching guests enjoy our reception venue and each other as many hadn’t seen each other in 4+ years. It was nice to just enjoy our people reconnecting.”

THE STYLE

According to Everlena and Anthony, “We didn’t have a strict color palette, but we did have certain colors for our wedding party. We knew we wanted to go dark and moody for our decor. Heavy florals wasn’t our thing, so we opted to do fake flowers for our center pieces. We also had candles and opted for the glow tables, as they highlighted the ambiance of our reception location. I grabbed inspiration off of Pinterest for my bouquet. I didn’t have an idea of what I wanted, so I asked our floral vendor, Raining Roses, to do as they pleased minus a few tweaks. My gown was a lucky find. I found it before we got engaged and we ordered it right before they discontinued it. For the cake, we decided to go simple so our cake topper would stand out. For wedding favors we decided on luggage tags since it was a destination wedding for most guests. We had villains as our table numbers to go along with our Halloween theme. We had Clark and Dagger, a 3d printing company, make them and our cake topper for us.”

Groom kissing bride's head with eyes closed

CLOSING ADVICE?

Everlena’s advice for brides-to-be is to go with the flow. She stayed focused on the fact that she and Anthony were getting married. While she wanted to make sure they had a wonderful day and guests had fun, it was important to her and Anthony that the day was about them and their journey to that point. The other important thing was that everyone attending was able to eat well.

Everlena continued, “It’s hard to not feel like you have to entertain your guests, but we made sure we did table rounds as soon as we finished eating. We then spent most of the reception dancing and enjoying the party. We still chatted with guests, but it didn’t feel like we had to constantly stop and check on them or that we were split up the entire time.”

Everlena and Anthony’s EPCOT wedding started at Disney’s Riviera Resort, the ceremony was at Italy Pavilion, the reception at The Living Seas, and the dessert party on World Showcase Lagoon ending with the Harmonious fireworks show. What an exciting day!