OK, maybe this part won't be too interesting to most of you because, hey, who wouldn't choose a Disney wedding? But we really agonized over it, so it might be helpful for anyone on the fence...
We knew we wanted to be married sooner rather than later, and we thought February would be great for getting off-season prices no matter where we were married. Of course, I had been thinking about a Disney wedding since I discovered this board last year, but I didn't want to force it if there were a more suitable option.
So we investigated possibilities in Los Angeles and in my tiny hometown in Northern California. At first we were really leaning toward using the Jim Henson Studios in Hollywood, where DF teaches puppetering classes. They are located in Charlie Chaplin's old studios, a neat Tudor-style collection of buildings.
But I started to become overwhelmed by all the stuff we'd need to bring in: tables, chairs, dishes, heat lamps, waitstaff, catering - everything! Plus, for even a modest gathering of 50 people with paper plates and box lunches plus cupcakes, we were looking at more than $15,000. The site fee alone would have paid for an entire Escape wedding!
I started stressing out. DF asked me what I really wanted. I said I wanted to get married in the Court d' Anges at Disneyland, but when I'd called a year ago to ask, I was told Disneyland weddings cost $60,000. He told me to call again. This time when the snarky receptionist at Disneyland's weddings department said, "You do know that a Disneyland wedding costs $60,000, right?" I said, "Yes - please connect me with a wedding planner."
I explained to the planner that I didn't want a 150-person spectacle in the shadow of Sleeping Beauty Castle, I just wanted a simple ceremony in the Court D' Anges before the park opened and a reception at the Blue Bayou. She said, "Well, they won't let us use the Blue Bayou, but we are developing a range of lower-priced in-park weddings and you could have your reception on a balcony at the Grand Californian."
I was ecstatic. She said I had to wait a few weeks because they were only starting to figure this all out. Well, when I finally heard back from her, it turned out these "lower-priced" weddings are going to have a $25,000 minimum for just the ceremony portion, and they top out at 25 guests! At least in Florida you can have 50 guests at a Magic Kingdom wedding for that price! I was devastated - it was so far out of our price range. I called DF from work sobbing about how now some other bride was going to get to be married in Court d' Anges when I was the one who'd thought it up, etc., etc.
So we went back to the drawing board, and I tentatively began pitching the idea of a WDW wedding. He liked the idea that we could get so much service and so many cool options for a third of the price of a Los Angeles wedding. He didn't like the fact that it was so far away - many of my relatives live in the Midwest and Back East, but almost all of his are in Northern California.
But the more we looked at the alternatives - and their attendant hassles - the more we both began to think that a WDW wedding might actually work. We knew we didn't want the usual cookie-cutter hotel wedding, but we didn't want to elope. (Well, *he* didn't want to elope
).
We started looking at an Escape wedding. I wanted to be married at Sunrise Terrace at Wilderness Lodge, but there's a 10-person limit (including bride and groom), and DF's immediate family is seven people, so that was out. Then we ran into all the hassles of fitting a meal into the rigid and inconvenient Escape Wedding timeslots. 5:30 and 9pm are the only times you can make large-group reservations at nearly all Disney restaurants, and neither works great with the ceremony times. Plus, we wanted to have a dessert party. On top of all that, DF really felt strongly that if we were going all the way out to Florida to be married, we should at least be getting married in one of the parks.
We really liked the idea of Epcot - reasonable minimums (on weekdays...in winter...) and a wide variety of ceremony locations. Our favorites were Japan and Morocco, but neither of us had been to WDW in 14 years, so we needed to go back out there to decide.
Next step...Planning Session!
)
). The first couple people who saw my ring thought it was just a setting for a stone 
but lately more people get what I was going for - hee hee!
Buckle yer seatbelts - I just looooove to write about this stuff! 
Later I heard about a girl who was doing a reception in the bird area at Animal Kingdom, but it was like pulling teeth to get any info on those options, and they flat-out refused to show us any AK sites at our Planning Session when I asked three weeks before.
The proposal part is sooooooo cute. He was trying to be all smooth. How sweet. You're a lucky couple. It seems as though you are meant for each other. I wish you a lifetime of happiness!
