Picking a date

[SRUAlmn]

So I've noticed that for some locations you can book 12 months in advance, and for some only 8 months. Which places give you which month amount? Also, we're looking at summer of 2007. We'd like to get an idea of what our date will be as soon as possible since people will be travelling and so we can start making other plans. Is there a calendar somewhere where we could see which dates will already be taken? Or since you can't book until 12 months out, does the calendar not show up until 12 months out? The main reason we're asking is that we'd like to be able to send out save the date cards and get an idea of how many people would be able to attend. That way we'll know if we should choose and intimate or a custom. Without a definite date, though, we aren't able to do that. Make sense?

Thanks

 

[kegafford]

I am in the same boat as you. I would fell better if we could put out name on a list and know with so much % that we can have that date. KWIM

I have family all over coming and I want to invite some people and dont know if I am going to be push to a custom wedding or not.

Let me know if you hear anything

 

[Tinkerbelle14]

I'm pretty sure there isn't a place where you can see the dates reserved. I think you just have to wait until 12 months to the day and then reserve your desired date, time and location. It would make it easier to see what was available well ahead of time though!

 

[JohnsPrincess]

I am not 100% on this...
You can tentatively book your site 12 months in advance. Between 12 and 8 months, if a convention comes in and books your site, you have to pick a different time/date. Once the 8 month mark comes, you are solidly booked and a convention can no longer bump you. With sites like the ballrooms it's a posibility that you may. I chose Sea Breeze Point Gazebo and Ariels and was told that there really isn't much of a chance of me being bumped because Ariels is small. I still won't buy anything with a date on it...just in case. I think there may be a couple places you can solidly book at 12 months...the wedding pavilion may be one since it's not a conference place. The rest you won't get your contract until you hit 8 months. At that time they'll also ask you for your guest list (they give you the format) and they'll send out save the dates. Hope that helped a bit!
As for a calendar...there's one on yourfairytale...but it's just people who have put their date in. You can put it in *whenever* so it's not an official calendar. I don't know of any other.

 

[SRUAlmn]

That kind of stinks that that's how they do it because we need to know how many people can come on the certain date before we decide whether or not we are doing a custom or an intimate. Maybe we can just get an idea of a date and send an informal email out to people and ask them if they would be able to make it. I just feel like for a destination wedding it's much more polite to give people a LOT of notice, and 8 months really isn't that far in advance.

 

[twojo21]

talk with your intended invitees about your planned dw at wdw. we talked about our plans with our parents for their opinions & then branched out & mentioned our dw plans to family, we were able to get a fairly accurate response by just talking to them & creating a wedding website with info. there were those who were like of course we'll come we wouldnt miss your big day for anything vs the family member who says oh its so far away, we dont have the money, not sure if we can go. disney does have a high rsvp of about 80-90% per my em so just plan accordingly. disney does send save the dates at the 8 month mark which is ample time for guests to plan. we also did newsletters with travel info to help assist our guests & posted the same info on our website.

 

[Luvndisney]

We had the same problem with our DFTW and we asked around as well. We started just asking people we were close to..."hey would you be up for a trip to Disney for our wedding over the summer?" and most people said YES! We are actually not inviting a lot of people because everyone wants to come. One thing I can suggest is choosing a location that you can book 12 months out. We decided that the Living Seas was great and we could book it 12 months out. There was no way we could have waited for 8 months to book our wedding. That would not have given people enough time.

Hope this helps.

 

[SRUAlmn]

Thanks! Which locations can be booked 12 months out? And which ones are only 8?

 

[superdiz]

You can book any theme park location 12 months out. So if you were to have your reception in the American Adventure or the Bistro De Paris, you could book that without worry that a convention would come in. 8 months is for ballroom convention space, etc. We are having our reception at the China Pavilion and we are hopefully signing our contract within the month for our September or October 2006 date.

 

[SRUAlmn]

Thanks! What about ceremony locations? How far in advance are those booked?

 

[hmgolden]

You book your ceremony location at the same time as your reception location.