Help fast...7:30 pm ceremony and fireworks?

[chryscrazy]

My coordinator, Bill, goes on vacation tomorrow, and I don't want to wait 10 days to try and reserve something. Don't even know if it is available now.

My ceremony is 7:30pm at WP. Due to the late hour will have cocktail hour before ceremony at GF. I REALLY want to have firework pictures, and with an outside photographer so not at Epcot.

If I have whole reception at Sago Cay or Marina I don't think I can have dancing?

If I tell officiant to make ceremony quick, go straight into reception and dinner I think we can finish eating in time for fireworks but I think people will be too full for regular dessert party. I was thinking maybe having "dessert party" at Sago Cay with foods that are shelf stable and having boxes where they can pack up desserts for later. Does that sound stupid?

Can I have outside photography at ADH and can you see fireworks from there...enough for good pics? I thought I read on here you have to have 100 people now, but I didn't see that on my pack from Bill. Is there a 100 person min and if not would it be just too much for 40-50 people?

I'll take any suggestions on how to make fireworks happen with my timeline and outside photography! It doesn't have to be dessert.

 

[chryscrazy]

Oh...Illuminations is at 9 and Wishes at 10 that day.

 

[princesswendy720]

When is your wedding? Is there a chance that the Halloween or Christmas fireworks would be happening? They start later than regular wishes. I was told you can't see the fireworks that well at adh because illuminations is low for the most part and there are obstructions. Could you do your cocktail hour at the marina?

 

[chryscrazy]

The wedding is 5/9/11 and I looked up the fireworks times for that date on the Disney website. I could do the cocktail hour at the Marina but Wishes doesn't start until 10. I don't want to serve dinner after fireworks end. I wouldn't mind having the reception at the Marina or SC but I don't think I'm allowed a DJ and Dancing there?

Thanks for your quick suggestion!

 

[Deb loves Disney]

I think you can do the Whitehall room and if I am not mistaken there is a view of Wishes from the patio.

Can anybody confirm this??

I can almost swear I saw pics from somebody on here that did the same thing.

 

[chryscrazy]

Thank you. Whitehall's patio does have a view of wishes, but it is obstructed by the monorail. I would prefer Sago Cay or the Marina, but will settle for the patio if I need to.

 

[Deb loves Disney]

Thank you. Whitehall's patio does have a view of wishes, but it is obstructed by the monorail. I would prefer Sago Cay or the Marina, but will settle for the patio if I need to.

Oh that's too bad. I just had my dessert party last week at Whitehall/Sago Cay. We had booked Sago Cay but it was really cold that night so they made us do the dessert portion at Whitehall and then we all rushed out to Sago Cay where they had my original decorations set up and we then watched the fireworks. I can tell you that Sago Cay is pretty small.

Good luck and I hope it all works out for you!

 

[chryscrazy]

Thanks. Do you think it would be dumb to have a dessert party when people just finished eating dinner and have take out containers for them to make and take home?

 

[Deb loves Disney]

You also have to take into consideration the wedding cake!

We actually had the Napa Room box up the cake in individual containers for our guests. They really appreciated this.

Our dessert party was about 4 hours later so everybody was hungry again for dessert.

It depends on how much food you are feeding them I guess .

I wish I had brought take home containers for desserts as I felt so rushed and hardly was able to enjoy the desserts. I felt I had to mingle, lol....if I could do it again, I would tell my guests that I would talk to them later and I would have tried to enjoy our desserts a little bit more.

I can tell you that the desserts were amazing!!!!!!

I say bring the containers.

 

[Chilly]

We had a DP pretty much straight after our reception and nobody ate anything so it was a waste of food and money.

Even if you do a quick ceremony you aren't going to be finished with your reception food by 10pm, it would be way too much of a rush.

What about having your reception outside at Epcot? You wouldn't be able to have an outside photographer then though but everyone would see the fireworks and you could take your time over dinner.

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

have you thought about using the napa room??

that way you could have the best view of wishes and it wouldn't interrupt your reception too bad!

 

[chryscrazy]

Epcot is out because I already booked Misty Miotto.

Does Napa Room have a balcony or is the view out the window?

Thanks for the advice. The main reason I wanted a Disney wedding is for the firework pictures with our wedding wear, but maybe I'll just have to suck it up and put that money towards characters instead.

 

[Deb loves Disney]

Epcot is out because I already booked Misty Miotto.

Does Napa Room have a balcony or is the view out the window?

Thanks for the advice. The main reason I wanted a Disney wedding is for the firework pictures with our wedding wear, but maybe I'll just have to suck it up and put that money towards characters instead.

Yes Napa Room does have a balcony, catwalk. We just had our reception there on the 3rd and got some really great castle view shots. Ours was during the day so not during fireworks time but I have been out there for the fireworks and the view is amazing. Another plus is they pipe in the music. If you look at my PJ, link in my signature, there are a few shots in there from Randy.

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

what she said

bill took us there on our site visit and the view just blew us away!

i guess the only catch is that it only holds 50 people.... dunno how many you have. plus, you have to use the cali grill menus but they are awesome!!

there's great places in the contemporary to take pix, including the catwalk, by the elevator there's really cool lights, and by the wave.

 

[belle2211]

I am doing the same thing as you. I am having a 7:30 ceremony. Bill told me that my guests might still be eating dinner, but that my photographer can take me out to get great photo shots (which honestly is what I want...sound careless but I don't really care if my guests see the fireworks. But if they want to stop eating that's fine with me too!) So if you don't mind leaving your guests, it should work.

 

[*Pixiedust1438*]

My coordinator, Bill, goes on vacation tomorrow, and I don't want to wait 10 days to try and reserve something. Don't even know if it is available now.

My ceremony is 7:30pm at WP. Due to the late hour will have cocktail hour before ceremony at GF. I REALLY want to have firework pictures, and with an outside photographer so not at Epcot.

If I have whole reception at Sago Cay or Marina I don't think I can have dancing?

If I tell officiant to make ceremony quick, go straight into reception and dinner I think we can finish eating in time for fireworks but I think people will be too full for regular dessert party. I was thinking maybe having "dessert party" at Sago Cay with foods that are shelf stable and having boxes where they can pack up desserts for later. Does that sound stupid?

Can I have outside photography at ADH and can you see fireworks from there...enough for good pics? I thought I read on here you have to have 100 people now, but I didn't see that on my pack from Bill. Is there a 100 person min and if not would it be just too much for 40-50 people?

I'll take any suggestions on how to make fireworks happen with my timeline and outside photography! It doesn't have to be dessert.

I can answer your ADH questions since that is where our reception will be. You can deff. see the fireworks from the balcony. I have seen past brides pictures of this, and also asked my wedding planner at out PS and she said yes. I also asked if we could have the DJ invite everyone out onto the balcony to watch the fireworks, and she said yes. We plan on having our photographer take pictures of us with the fireworks in the background during this. And yes, you can use outside photography at ADH, there only real restrictions are you have to use Disney for centerpieces and items such as chair covers, oh and you have to use a Disney DJ which is pricey. We are only going to have around 50 people there, and I am actually worried about not having enough room on the dance floor, so I don't think it's too big for that many people. (Considering you do put everyone on the dance floor, I would deff. not use existing seating if you go with ADH, then people are too spaced out.)

Is there a reason you need to/want to have the ceremony at 7:30? In any scenario I think a 5pm ceremony would work better for what you are trying to do. That way you really have all the options open. Also, I would not suggest doing a DP right after dinner, however, you could inquire with DFTW about moving to the marina or Sago Key to cut the cake and have some cocktails after dinner? Then the cake could be served while everyone watched the fireworks. We also considered doing a cocktail hour at GF marina and love the idea, but since our wedding is in June and our reception is at ADH, we decided against it due to heat/rain and having to move guests too many times. If it would work out somehow, I think it's a great idea!

 

[chryscrazy]

Thanks for all the ADH info!

I originally wanted a 5pm ceremony, and I do think that would have been much better, but by the time I talked with my family and got back to Bill it was taken. I really wanted the wedding to be on this particular weekend(ish- the wedding is Monday) because our best friend is an accountant so he couldn't come before April 15, then there are the Easter crowds, and I didn't want to wait till later in May in hopes that it won't be too hot yet. I really wanted Misty Miotto so I found out her availability for the weekend and ended up with a choice of a 10am ceremony, noon, or 7:30.

I was originally very concerned about such a late ceremony, but now I'm starting to like the idea. I think it will be fun to have the cocktail hour before the ceremony, and the reception will go later into the night which will be better for us party animals! As of now the cocktail hour is in Whitehall and reception is in St Augustine. I just sent in LOA today so hopefully I'll get a planner soon and we can figure out fireworks. If nothing else I might just ask the to put the reception in Whitehall too and guests can go out there for fireworks and we can go somewhere with a better view for pics. I'm thinking the guest count will be more like 30-40 than 40-50.