Disney Wedding
 

Getting married in November and looking for something original and different. Have looked into the Disney Weddings a little. I received a video and info pack in the mail, it looks great. Obviously andything Disney will be expensive but if we had the wedding at home we sould probably spend around 16k-18k having about 200 guests. I guess we would have about 25 or so guests at Disney wedding (family and close friends) and proabably spend the same! Has anyone been to a wedding there or even better planned and had one there. I want to know all about it.

Hi Kelly, <BR> <BR>My fiance and I looked into the Disney as well for our August wedding. Everything is beautiful and we loved the idea, but decided to go with a larger wedding in our hometown instead. If you are getting married in November, I'm not sure it'll be doable. The wedding consultant at Disney reserves the date for you a year ahead of time and will begin working with you eight months prior to your wedding. You might want to call them to see if you can still schedule for November. Congratulations and best wishes! <BR>

I've stayed at several Disney hotels for work, and one thing you need to remember is that there are a gazillion weddings going on at the same time. You're not exactly going to have the staff at your beck and call.

Jenny you were right about booking ahead normally but since November isn't prime wedding season we are okay. Leigh however is scaring me. How can many weddings be going on at once? If you have the ceremony in the wedding pavillion, they only have two slots day and evening. Anyone with more info is welcome!!

You might want to check the Travel Channel's website. (Don't know the exact url, but do a search on "Travel Channel," and you should find it.) I saw a show on there about a wedding at Disney and it looked very nice.

Hasn't anyone done this before?

Didn't mean to scare you, but one day when I ventured down into the lobby (can't remember which hotel--one of those on a small lake, a short walk from the boardwalk thingy), I saw 4 different wedding parties wandering around.

At the Disney chapel I saw 2 weddings going on at the same time. One was every elabrate. The other was very small. And in another part of the chapel was a rehersal for another wedding. Sure it looks romantic, but it looked liked all these couples were being rushed, just to get the next couple in the chapel.

Just wondering. How is a Disney wedding different? Is there a person in a large mouse suit in your wedding portraits or something? Do they play It's A Small World as you walk down the aisle? Someone, please explain.

I will really have to pin the coordinator down on the number of weddings as I may have been misinformed. I was told ther were 2 popular spots for the wedding. 1) the wedding pavillion on its own complete island with a large chapel and 2) Island in front of the boardwalk. both of these places "supposedly' have only a day and an evening slot with a maximum of 2 weddings a day at each. Of course you can plan your wedding anywhere. For example you can have it in one of the "cities" in the World showcase at Epcot (in front of Eiffel Tower, in a beautiful Englsh garden etc), you can have it at Cinderella's castle, at one of the theme resorts (mansion at DX Landings, beach at Caribbean Village) To Curious, I just think it would be wonderful and ye I suppose you could have Mickey in your pictures but I personally wouldn't. However, I am looking at renting the huge "Cinderella's Carriage" to pull up to the chapel and drop me off and take us away after the wedding with a fully dresses footman and driver. I think it is very trendy today to have destination weddings with meorable experiences and this is not so unusual. Even if we don't have wedding at Disney, we will not have a traditional church wedding, it will mst likely be in a large hotel or outdoors or at a museum or something truly unique yet beautiful!

When we met with the wedding consultant, I recall them saying that there are a maximum of 5 weddings a day at the Wedding Pavilion. I'm not sure about the number of weddings that take place outside of the Pavilion.

I've known at least 5 couples that just had to have a "unique" wedding. They seemed to worry much more about the wedding itself than the reasons behind it. All 5 got divorced within 3 years of their "unique" weddings.

Lynn- you are such a cheery person! Kelly ignore that post and have whatever kind of wedding you want, I'm sure it will be beautiful. I had a "destination wedding" at a unique spot myself and loved it, yes we are still married it has been about a year and a half! See my post under "Opryland Hotel Wedding" Ours was indoor gardens and beautiful. I think the disney idea is great. Actually I briefly looked into it, we together with families were going to spend 5 days at disney getting married the last day after some fun and relaxation and then we were going to take off for a cruise after that. Be sure to talk about budgets though. I spent between 25k-30k on my wedding for 150 people. For the type of wedding I wanted and that amount of money I could have had about 25 at disney! If you are looking for unique I'll give you another idea I looked into (may not work depending on where you are located) We thought about renting a yacht for the day and having a wedding and reception on the boat witha Captain officiating. You are right I think the trend is toward the original wedding!

The annoying things with a Disney wedding are: <BR> <BR>1) Seeing Mickey in that priest's collar. <BR> <BR>2) Tinkerbell as flower girl. <BR> <BR>3) Catering by Goofy. <BR> <BR>4) Lots of befuddled father figures to walk bride down aisle, but there is never any mother figures alive in the cartoons. Except Bambi's mother, but... <BR> <BR>5) Those pesky dwarves as the groomsmen. They sponsor a heck'of a bachelor party the night before, and it's just SAD to see Doc doing the dry heaves.

It is really obscene that people are spending 25k and up on a wedding, especially since 1 out of every 2 marriages end up in divorce. I really think this wedding thing has gotten totally out of hand. Just think how many poor starving kids or people that money could help....

Dear xxx, <BR> <BR>Using that logic, what are you doing on a travel site? Are you looking at spending anything more than $1,000 on a vacation? How selfish of you! That can keep a homeless shelter open for a month. Or feed a family of 4 for 3 months! <BR> <BR>I'm not being rude... just comparing apples to apples. (25 cents a pound).

Here's something to think about. Who is paying for the wedding? If you spend a lot less money would you get to use the money for something else? <BR> <BR>The reason I mention this is because I choose to get married on a cruise ship. The whole thing, including lunch for all guests on board the ship before the wedding, decorated chapel with minister, catering, DJ and open bar for 40 people cost less than $2000. It was beautiful. We loved it and the guests loved it. Best of all we didn't have to go to the airport afterwards to take a plane someplace. <BR> <BR>We used the money that we saved to go on the cruise, 2 months later take a 16 day trip throughout Europe, 3 months later spent 10 days in Hawaii and 2 months after that we went to France for a week and a half. <BR> <BR>We still haven't spent $25,000. So I guess we'll keep on traveling till we spend the rest of the money. <BR> <BR>The point is to choose your priorities. Do you really want to spend that much money on the wedding or do you and your future spouse need the money for a down payment on a house, car, boat, etc? Do you need furniture or do you need to pay for college? Do you need to pay off your credit cards? You decide, its your money. <BR> <BR>

Well unwanted, the 25k wedding was paid for by my parents if you must know and that amount of money ws not really an issue for them. They told me a budget in the beginning for the wedding and I was well within it. We do not have any real debt to pay off (other than I have a few law school loans but nothing crazy) and purchased a home 3 months prior to marriage. For the dowmpayment we combined money we received from a gift with the $10k my husband got for selling his car which was paid for. My family is not rich but maybe upper middle class, they had been saving sometime for this day! A cruise with wedding aboard would not have worked for us as everyone we wanted to attend couldn't necessarily afford to take off and go on the cruise. I certainly hope no one on this board would take the suggestion of going into a marriage saying "do I realy want to spend this much on the wedding when it could end in divorce as 1 in 2 do?" That would be a realllllllly good attitude wouldn't it!?!!

Hi Kelly, <BR> <BR>I think the idea of a Disney wedding sounds fun! <BR> <BR>If you haven't already discovered it, check out www.theknot.com (I was addicted to that wedding website while I was planning my wedding...now I'm just addicted to fodors.com!) I'm sure there would have been postings about Disney weddings, because the message boards are frequented by tons of brides-to-be and newlyweds, or you could post your question about their experiences. (The "Bitching Post" is the most active message board--for all sorts of questions) <BR> <BR>Whatever you end up doing, have fun planning! I'm sure the day will bring one of the most special moments of your life, regardless of where--since you're marrying the prince of your dreams. :)

Angie-I hope you plan on taking care of your parents in their golden years. With the cost of nursing homes at $100 or more a day, and the exhorbitant cost of medications they sure would be able to use that 25k that they spent on your extravagant wedding....If you think it won't happen, think again.

Don't worry about our dear sweet little Angie and her parents. After all she did go to law school and we should all be impressed with that and I am sure we know she has a fine decent job that pays her well. Certainly, dear little Angie isn't one of those ambulance chasing lawyers who is willing to settle with the insurance companies; you know the kind who promise to get your check in less than three weeks. <BR> <BR>I am sure Angie is just the perfect, selfless little angel we as parents wish we had for a child.

Talk about abusive! Now I know why no one posts their name and email address on this board. I feel sorry for Kelly who it sounds like was trying to get some real advice and got nothing. I also feel sorry for Angie because people are making fun of her for her wedding and her profession. It sounds like she was really trying to help though I admit she didn't have to pop back in a second time and tell all the details just because someone asked. The same thing happened to me here, I tried to ask a legitimate question and got such combative respones that no one answered my question and everyone was off on a tangent trying to get everyone else! Can't we just be nice without being judgmental and not say anything rather than be mean?

I find something else a little off about this post. If Kelly has 200 people she would invite to a hometown wedding, then that must mean there are 200 really meaningful relationships in her life. (After all, why invite people to a wedding if they aren't special enough to invite?) <BR> <BR>Under those circumstances, I think it is self-centered to have the wedding in some distant place like a cruise or Disney where only a small fraction of the guests can attend. Why are you forcing other people to use their precious vacation time and money to go and watch you get married? <BR> <BR>A wedding is supposed to be a time to celebrate this special event with the most important people in our lives. More people should remember that, plan weddings with that thought in mind, and skip the "unusual" weddings. As for me, I had my wedding on the opposite coast so that my husband's huge family could attend. I have never regretted it, and I have very good relationships with his family.

Since when is the wedding for everyone else including the guests? Is that why they call it the "Bride's Day"? If you decide to elope to save money as some here opine you should do, is that wrong and self-centered too? Let people have their wedding the way they want I say, it is their wedding, not yours.

I really didn't want to get involved in the debate, but I'm going to, and I expect I'm going to get slammed by someone. <BR> <BR>The reason we "had a destination wedding" (back then it was called eloping) was because I didn't want 200 of my parents and in-laws "closest friends" at the ceremony. <BR> <BR>The wedding was to be a social event and my parents and in-laws wanted to invite the whole town. I didn't and my husband didn't know most of these people. It's some social obligation I didn't want to take part in. So we didn't. Ended up telling my parents and in-laws we were going to the courthouse for the "ceremony" and they could come if they wanted to. <BR> <BR>A wedding should be what the happy couple wants it to be. If you want to go to Disney, go; if you want to get married at sea, wonderful. If you want to get married in your parent's hometown church, congratulations. Do what you want and not what others (espically some of us here at fodors.com) say you should do. <BR> <BR>By the way, all those involved in weddings should read the comic "For Better or For Worse." Deanna's mother has taken over her wedding.

Boy, I wish my parents would have had an extra $25K sitting around to pay for my wedding, and then another $10k to give me as a "gift". No WONDER Angie doesn't have any debt. I've actually had to work for everything I have.

Ann you must not have read Angie's post well. She said she received a "gift". She did not say who from or how much. She said the 10k came from the sale of her husband's car! I got a gift too - my grandparents gave me an acre of land when I got married to build my dream house on. I am VERY thankful to them.

Don't take it out on these women just because money was saved for a nice wedding. I think Angie is very fortunate to have parents who wanted to help her celebrate her big day and were able to offer the financial backing for the big event. It was their choice to spend their money in this fashion. It's a shame that more parents don't take an interest in their children's happiness. It also sounds like they raised a well put together woman. She finished law school, invested wisely in a home and found a nice young man to marry. I'm sure her parents are very proud of her and were more than happy to pay for her wedding. Now if everyone could stop slamming these women, maybe Kelly could get the advice that she asked for in the beginning.

I think there is a distinction between a "destination wedding" and eloping. Eloping happens for many reasons, including the one Jean described. If Jean's parents wanted to have a wedding and invite a bunch of people who have nothing to do with the bridal couple, then Jean's decision is perfectly reasonable. <BR> <BR>My gripe was with people who just decide THEY want what THEY want, and to heck with other people. So my comments are limited to bridal couples who choose a destination wedding despite the fact that it may be a hardship for their closest friends and family. Of course, everyone can do what they want, but I think marriages get off to a healthier start when the wedding couple tries to be a little more thoughtful toward their future in-laws and their own families. <BR>

I give up! I need information about doing this as I hve tentaively reserved the Wedding Pavillion for November 17, 2001. I do not need judgments on having an expensive or destination wedding.

Kelly - <BR>My advise would be to start a whole new post with a new header about the Pavillion. Maybe someone can give you some meaningful advice the next time around. I'm so sorry that you had to read everyone's soapbox opinions as opposed to helpful info. My daughter used theknot.com and seemed to have better advise from other brides. Good luck and congratulations on the upcoming marriage!

I agree, Kelly. Just having a little fun on my part, but don't like the chastising you are receiving. <BR> <BR>Good luck and I'll play nice. <BR> <BR>Just one question... will you have to bite into a poison apple before the groom can kiss the bride?

Grow up Kelly! If you can't take the heat now, wait until you are married for awhile. Sounds to me like you are a SPOILED BRAT who has no business marrying anyone!

By the way Kelly, this isn't a wedding planning or coordinator site....

Try going to disneyinfo.com. They have a great active message board which I used with at least 30 questions when planning my family vacation. Lots of people on there that have visited WDW many times. I recall seeing several posts on there about both weddings and honeymoons.

Topping for "stunned"

One more time!

So, Kelly, did you ever get married? Did you do it Disney. And what happened to my invitation?