Disney Social Media Moms: Day One

I can {and do} talk to anyone. I can spark up a conversation with almost anyone, and give me a drink {or three} and I’m your new best friend, like it or not!

I hadn’t given much thought about how I’d go with being the odd one out at the Social Media Mom’s Conference. I actually only realised that the conference was about to start ten minutes before it kicked off. I was still on Australia time… so I quickly slapped on some make-up and headed to our meeting point, the Wedding Pavilion.

As we arrived we were handed a pair of Minnie Mouse ears with a veil, a glass of champagne and given free reign on a very generous candy buffet {I only noticed the candy when we were being ushered into the pavilion for a presentation, so no photos unfortunately}. The Minnie ears were a great ice breaker, but it only hit me as I was standing amongst all the new faces how much of a misfit I really was. I was ‘gate-crashing’ a tight-knit community of bloggers who had no idea who I was or how I fitted in {I found out later that a handful of the bloggers read my blog}. I really was a fish out of water. Thankfully the American Mommy Bloggers are just as friendly as the Australian bloggers that I’ve met and friended over time, and I was forming new friendships in no time {even with the crazy Minnie ears on!}.

We were lead into the pavilion by a over-the-top actor wedding planner named Fronk. He was hilarious and a great MC for the event. The room was filled with media and 200 bloggers and, as you can probably imagine, loads of cameras, iPhones, iPads and everything else a Social Media Mum should own.

Firstly, we heard from Alfred Angelo who exclusively announced that he’d just designed a range of wedding dresses just for Disney, with a dress for each Disney Princess.

Disney does things differently to anything I’ve ever experienced. Fronk was brilliant, but even the speakers were welcomed with much fanfare. There was music, and then the doors would suddenly open and in each speaker would come, walking down the aisle.

David Tutera arrived next. I had no idea who he was, not being an American, but one blogger cried… so I quickly learned that he was pretty amazing. He is a host of a popular TV show, My Fair Wedding, where he makes people’s dreams come true. For those that are getting married in the next 12 months, David told us that when it comes to weddings “pink & brown are out and purple is in.”

Carly Roney, CEO & founder of The Knot, The Bump & The Nest, was next to burst through the doors. I was so enthralled with her talk that I didn’t even lift my camera. She shared great tid-bits on Social Media and how she grew her site from just 700 hits a month, to the 7 million she now gets.

Carly shared, “Twitter is like a cocktail party. Don’t walk into the room and say, ‘Hey, look at me!’ Instead you need to be witty and charming, and not just talk about yourself. You need to be relevant and compliment others.”

One of the highlights of the evening was witnessing a couple who married at Disney two years earlier renew their vows. It was nice to see them still so in love.

{the couple walking back down the aisle after saying their vows}

We all then ventured outside to see off the couple as they were whisked away in a glass chariot led by 10 white horses, with fireworks in the sky behind them. Absolutely romantic {besides the 200 odd bloggers crashing their party!}.

It was then time for our families to rejoin us with a party on the beach. We had drinks, music, sideshow games, delicious food, toys for the kids, a sand sculpture, Minnie & Mickey and other characters too.

When the party was over we caught a boat to the Magic Kingdom, watched the light street parade and headed back to our room for some much, much needed sleep.