Disney Wedding

SerenityFire

Hey all,

I grew up in Tampa, but live in Alabama now. My fiancée and I are looking at having our wedding at Walt Disney World. I was wondering if anyone has any tips (ideas, what to avoid, what they loved, etc.). We have lots of time to plan, but I thought it would help to talk to some people who are still somewhat local. Thanks for any help.  

Theresa626

Have you spoken to the people at DIsney yet? Your first step would be to call them but I will tell you some of the rules you might not know about.  First, their minimum expenditure is around 20,000 dollars.  You can spend that on everything DIsney offers and they offer everything except clothing and invitations, etc.  You can look at the Disney weddings site to see what you would get to meet the minimum requirement.  You can only secure a date eight months in advance with deposit.  If you want the same ceremony time as someone else who has also asked for that date then when it is eight months in advance, they draw names and tell you what ceremony time each person gets.  You cannot plan anything with the DIsney planners until six months before your wedding.  At that time, you can meet with them to discuss flowers, food and all else.  You can use outside vendors but if you use an outside DJ, DIsney charges you 1500 dollars because all of their DJs have to be DIsney certified.  There are some great DIsney certified DJs though so you might be able to find someone you like that DIsney uses.  When I asked, they said they would assign you a DJ and that you could talk to him over the phone but not in person.  You can choose from three ballrooms:  The grand floridian, boardwalk and the yacht and beach club or a non traditional location inside the parks.  There's a lot of really cool things you can do like have a fireworks dessert party in any of the parks or after your ballroom reception and have characters visit you at the reception.  Also, the ballrooms are beautiful.  

sprat85

When I looked at having a Disney wedding the people at Disney were very helpful.  The min. expenditure depends on what day of the week, what time, and where you want to have the wedding.  You can get an idea of all of the prices on their website.

When I was talking with them they will tell you what is available and you get to pick any available time slot.  I have heard it is difficult to get any vendor outside of their vendors. 

A friend of mine had her wedding there and she said you can work with the wedding planner to help you stay in your budget.  She was really happy with it.  Good luck!

jazzchic823

I'm actually in the process of planning a Disney Wedding

With Disney it all depends on what you want from the experience.  They actually offer 3 different types of wedding packages now memories (for up to 6 guests you and your fiance included), escape package (which allows up to 18 guests), and a wishes package which is what we're doing (which allows you to have as many guests as you would like).  With each of these there is a minimum expenditure memories I believe is around $3k, escapes are $8k, and wishes depending on the day you want to have your wedding the minimum expenditure is $12k and can go up to $20k (which is the cost for a saturday wedding).  The people at DFTW are very helpful and willing to answer any questions and you can always check out www.disboards.com under the weddings and honeymoon tabs for some answers.  I'm not an expert but I've been researching this since a couple months before we got engaged and Disney does a great job offering different packages to accomodate different levels of spending!  I hope this helps and if you have any more questions feel free to PM me and I will do my best to answer them

SerenityFire

Thanks so much guys! I am really excited to plan it.