Swan & Dolphin Weddings FAQ

I am so appreciative of your quick answers to my posts. You are all Angels and I thank you for letting this Mother of the Bride into your very special circle. I have e-mailed my daughter the information and when I hear back from her I will know if she wants me to go this route. Unfortunately she has to go to an internet cafe right now to e-mail me so I can only communicate with her once a week. I am going to e-mail Just Marry directly tonight with the hopes they get right back to me. I am very excited that this may be the way to go. We are thinking we will have at the most 20-25 people at Disney with us for the wedding. We are planning to have a reception dinner after the ceremony somewhere maybe in Disney. Are any of you doing this kind of thing? What Restaurant are you using?
I know she wouldn't be able to wear her gown in the parks....Could she wear it at a resort restaurant? Thanks again for your help. When are your weddings??
 
Kasper said:
I am so appreciative of your quick answers to my posts. You are all Angels and I thank you for letting this Mother of the Bride into your very special circle. I have e-mailed my daughter the information and when I hear back from her I will know if she wants me to go this route. Unfortunately she has to go to an internet cafe right now to e-mail me so I can only communicate with her once a week. I am going to e-mail Just Marry directly tonight with the hopes they get right back to me. I am very excited that this may be the way to go. We are thinking we will have at the most 20-25 people at Disney with us for the wedding. We are planning to have a reception dinner after the ceremony somewhere maybe in Disney. Are any of you doing this kind of thing? What Restaurant are you using?
I know she wouldn't be able to wear her gown in the parks....Could she wear it at a resort restaurant? Thanks again for your help. When are your weddings??
Click to expand...

Hello and congratulations on your daughter's upcoming marriage! :goodvibes

We started out planning our vow renewal through Disney but quickly became frustrated with their rules and regulations (not to mention the cost!) and the lovely Joanne (who answered you previously) got us interested in using the Swan instead. We are also working with Karen at Just Marry and she has been wonderful!

We will have 22 people total at our vow renewal this October. We are using Crescent Terrace and will have cake cutting and the toast right there afterwards, as well as a visit with Mickey and Minnie. Then we are hosting a lunch for our guests in the private dining room at the Wave at the Contemporary Resort. It's $37/person for lunch and there are several choices on the group menu (for groups over 20). Your daughter can absolutely wear her gown into the restaurant and the Wave even allows some decorating in the room. :thumbsup2 I know the other ladies are doing different things ... I believe Joanne is having her dinner at Citrico's at the Grand Floridian if I remember correctly. :)

HTH a little -- we're so pleased with our decision to change to the Swan; we're getting everything we could've wanted (and more!) for a lot less money (and hassle) than we had with Disney Fairy Tale Weddings.
 
Kasper
Thank you for your lovely comments!!!
My sweet Amy is right - I am having my reception dinner at Citricos at The GF. They have been really lovely to work with. The manager Vivianna, has been an absolute angel, and has bent over backwards to help. I can't wait to meet her!! She ended her latest e-mail to me a couple of days ago with the words 'we will do everything we can to make it perfect'. They are having personalized menus printed up for us, allowing my daughter to go up to the restaurant and arrange our favours on the table (they would have done it themselves, but our favours are personalized, and so I figured it would be better if my daughter did it) and are happy to receive the floral arrangements from our florist to put on the tables. They have been brilliant!!! I highly recommend the service I have received, and since I have eaten in the restaurant before, I am confident that the food will be fabulous!!
Oh and I will be wearing my gown all day, including at the restaurant. I will not be taking that baby off until I absolutely have to!!!:goodvibes
 
A huge Thank you to everyone! I have started e-mailing with Karen at Just Marry (who so far has been great!) and she has already put me in contact with the manager at The Blue Zoo. Let's see if she gets back to me with my 8 million questions lol!

I'm starting to feel like I'm cheating on my coordinator at Disney ;) He e-mailed me over info to start my contract so I'm trying to get everything squared away with S/D before I write him my Dear John letter.

Are any of you still doing a dessert party? I really loved the idea of having one even if I can't wear my dress. I was considering doing it as a welcome party the night before. Wondering how I would coordinate without having my wedding with Disney.
 


Hi again Sizzle!!
I am not having a DP but it was something I did consider earlier in my planning!! In the end we decided after our dinner at Citrico's, we would just wander down to Narcossee's Landing and watch 'Wishes' from there. They pipe in the music and it is free!!!
You can certainly do a dessert party. Both Wishes and Illuminations DPs are not just for weddings, and can certainly be booked as a rehersal reception. As a S/D bride, you would not be entitled to wear your gown inside Epcot, (if you decided on your DP on your wedding day), but could wear it at the GF if you went with a Wishes DP there.
As a non-DFTW bride, you would have to book it through events (I am sorry, I don't have the number, but I am sure someone will chime in with it!!). The opinion here is that when booking a DP through events, it is better not to say the word 'wedding'. Call the event a 'celebration' or 'family get-together'. If you mention weddings, they refer you on to DFTW and then minimums have to be met.
 
Hello everyone and thank you for all the helpful information. You are all so sweet and I wish I could meet all of you and have an afternoon of "wedding" at the Swan talk. I have been in contact with Karen and my daughter and it looks like this will be a go for this wedding at the Swan. I just can't see any reason why we would go with an Escape wedding when we can have more bang for the buck and flexibility with the Swan ceremony. My daughter, bless her heart, is so agreeable and just keeps saying, "Mom, I know it will be beautiful wherever it is." Right now I am just waiting to hear back about the date and time availability. I hate this..."can only check on one date and time at a time" deal. It is especially hard when communication with my daughter is so difficult. She has told me that she pictures it in the late afternoon. Out of the three ceremony sites at the Swan which do you ladies think is the best one for a late afternoon wedding with about 20 guests? What did you pick? Also, who is doing the cake there and where are you setting that up?
Tinkerbell....I am counting down with you...so excited.
 
For ceremony locations we were told that the beach location isn't very private at all, it is next to a park and there can be a lot of traffic so we ruled that out right away. The courtyard is absolutely beautiful! The only reason we didn't choose it is that we're having about 50 people and it fits 30 max. I think 20 would fit ok. We chose crescent terrace. We love the simplicity and the fact that it is so wooded and right by the water. I was just at Disney in March and took some pictures that might help you. There are pictures of Il Mulino (the restaurant in the Swan just steps away from crescent terrace where we will have our dinner after the ceremony), crescent terrace, the courtyard, and a few of the grounds and the lobby. You can see them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jillmariest/

We aren't doing a cake at all, Il Mulino offers desserts with their package so we're just sticking with those. They did offer to do a cake but it would have been quite a bit more. If you do a cake there they will set it up for you on a table and they will even cut it and serve it to your guests on plates. That is included in the cake price. On the Swan/dolphin website under weddings they show a picture of it set up on the table.

I'm happy to hear that you are going ahead with the planning. Your daughter sounds so sweet, how is she doing over in Japan?
 


Jillian,
Thanks so much for the photos. That really helps a lot. I am torn between the Terrace and Fountain. You said the Terrace was by the water? Are you going to have photos done there? I'm really afraid my daughter will say she wants the beach but I've heard the same as you told me about traffic and kids playing on the nearby playground. Having seen both the fountain and Terrace are you saying you would have picked the fountain if you had less people? What did you like better about it? So you are having your reception at the Swan? We are going to do a dinner somewhere but since I have just started this planning I don't have any idea where we will do it. Do you mind telling me what it is costing you per person and what your menu is? Why did you chose there and not a Disney restaurant? Thanks for your help. I don't know what I would do without all the help of brides on this forum. When is you VR?
 
I adore the grand floridian so we will be having pictures done there. I wasn't crazy about any of the locations @ the swan for formal pictures so that is why we're travelling to the grand floridian. We will obviously have the pictures taken during the ceremony though. I think if we had less people we'd have went with the courtyard. It is really pretty because there are lots of plants there. It doesn't need much decoration between the plants and the fountains. The terrace is boring and needs more dressing up. Your daughter could always have her ceremony @ the courtyard and walk to the beach for pictures after.

Our reception is at a restaurant in the Swan called the Il Mulino. They have private rooms that can be rented out. You have to guarantee a minimum of $1,500 in food/drinks (before tax and gratuty) for every 24 people. They have 3 rooms; room 1 will hold 24 people, room 1 & 2 together will hold 48 people and rooms 1-3 will hold 70 people. They have pre-set menus that you can use that start at $55 per person (including salad, an entree, and dessert) and the menus go up to over $100 per person. I cannot remember exactly what is on the menu but here is the private dining page for all of the swan/dolphin restaurants: http://www.swandolphin.com/privatedining/ We vistited all of them in March so let me know if you have any questions about the others! Here is the link to the menu! http://www.swandolphinmeetings.com/menus/privatedining/ilmulino.pdf
 
Jillian,
So you can have your photos taken anywhere? That's interesting. Did you book the photographer yourself or did you do it through the Swan wedding planner?
When are you doing your photos?
Thanks for the input....you're right the Terrace would need some decorations so the Fountain would certainly save some bucks. We would rather spend money on the dinner and Disney events rather than decorations. I just went to a high end wedding that must have cost 30 or 40 thousand and I went around going.."not necessary, not necessary" all night. So many things are a waste of money and not even noticed by the guests.
 
Hello Kasper. It is lovely to hear that your plans are coming along nicely!!
We are using the beautiful West Courtyard for our VR ceremony. It has the lovely swan fountain (although these are turned off during the ceremony as they are noisy).
Our photographer is Randy Chapman, who is happy to shoot wherever you want him to. We are having photos at Bay Lake Tower, Swan, Boardwalk and Grand Floridian. Randy says that if we are shooting at the Boardwalk, and a bride who is getting married at SBP comes along, we will have to move as she would (rightly) have priority there, as this is her ceremony site. He also says that the Boardwalk is a big place and he would easily find somewhere to shoot there without interfering with the other bride!! :thumbsup2
Our cake is being made by an outside vendor - Heather at 'It's Tasty Too'. Here is her link
http://www.tastytoo.com/raine32817/Welcome.html
I have not yet seen my cake, obviously, but she has been so sweet and helpful. I have had to do everything by e-mail and I sent her several pictures of cakes I liked and together we hit on a design. She is even doing me a lovely Swan topper. Her prices are, I think, very reasonable.
Keep us posted of all your plans sweetie, as I am excited to see how it will all turn out!! Your daughter certainly deserves a beautiful wedding and with her obviously caring mother in charge, I think that is exactly what she will get!!!
 
Kasper, I've booked Randy too. You can book him through Just Marry but there is a markup so I booked him myself and saved quite a bit. Everyone here raves about him and his work is just beautiful. His prices are very reasonable too. He'll do pictures wherever you want, the only catch is that if a Disney fairytale bride is at the same location he gives them the right of way. He told me he can find out ahead of time where the Disney brides will be that day so we can plan accordingly. He also says that the Polynesian and the Boardwalk are beautiful places to do photo shoots (and the boardwalk is steps away from the Swan hotel), so those are our backup locations.

We're doing most of our own decorations. Just marry charges quite a bit to rent an arch and have flower arrangements made, I think it would cost close to $500 to have anything halfway decent so we bought potting urns @ Michael's (and used their 40% coupon) and got some pretty artificial branchy-looking flowers to fill it with. We've paid less than $100 for the urns, ribbon, flowers, and the foam to put them into. I love that Just Marry is more than happy to let you bring your own things in :) So far the only thing that I've heard that they do not allow is outside food and drinks.
 
Jilian said:
Kasper, I've booked Randy too. You can book him through Just Marry but there is a markup so I booked him myself and saved quite a bit. Everyone here raves about him and his work is just beautiful. His prices are very reasonable too. He'll do pictures wherever you want, the only catch is that if a Disney fairytale bride is at the same location he gives them the right of way. He told me he can find out ahead of time where the Disney brides will be that day so we can plan accordingly. He also says that the Polynesian and the Boardwalk are beautiful places to do photo shoots (and the boardwalk is steps away from the Swan hotel), so those are our backup locations.

We're doing most of our own decorations. Just marry charges quite a bit to rent an arch and have flower arrangements made, I think it would cost close to $500 to have anything halfway decent so we bought potting urns @ Michael's (and used their 40% coupon) and got some pretty artificial branchy-looking flowers to fill it with. We've paid less than $100 for the urns, ribbon, flowers, and the foam to put them into. I love that Just Marry is more than happy to let you bring your own things in :) So far the only thing that I've heard that they do not allow is outside food and drinks.
Click to expand...

Jillian,
Thanks for the advice on Randy! Our photographer (a family friend) may fall through, so this is good to know!!
 
This is such a helpful thread! I was wondering if you could have a cake at the Swan inside or does it have to be outside at your ceremony? Thanks!
 
RealLittleMermaid said:
This is such a helpful thread! I was wondering if you could have a cake at the Swan inside or does it have to be outside at your ceremony? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Where inside were you wanting to have it? If you are wanting a restaurant, you can have a cake delivered there :)
 
What a nice thread about S/D weddings! We love staying @ the Swan & have seen quite a few weddings/receptions taking place there. Because of this we decided WDW was where we wanted 2 marry. We have booked the DFTW Memories wedding because there will be just the 2 of us (no guests). Otherwise we would have chosen the S/D as our location. The courtyard is a beautiful location for a wedding. As far as the beach, I've not seen a wedding there but last year when we were there they had a private party (I think for a small convention) that was fabulous - they had a banquet & dining area set up & a few firepits set up for people to gather around. They closed a section of the pool area to accommodate the party (though no one was swimming). The rooms are some of the most comfy I have found in WDW. We find the location romantic & relaxing. We love it there so much we will be honeymooning there after our wedding & minimum 2 nite stay @ a Disney hotel (GF). We like the courtyard/pool view the best. Also - we definitely recommend the breakfast at Fresh @ the Dolphin! Go before 9 am when it starts getting crowded. :woohoo:
 
Also, does anyone know if you can add food to your package? I don't want a full reception since I plan on doing a DP, but I was thinking like a fruit and cheese display to go with the cake. Thanks!
 
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