Advice

[disneygirl_wdw]

I am having a major dilemma here. We are starting to plan our Disney Intimate ceremony and we are having major conflicts. We were shooting for sometime after Dec. 15th, but before the 24th to do our wedding and honeymoon cruise. It's my favorite time However my sister who is my maid of honor is still in high school and has midterms until Dec. 20th. This puts a big dent in our plans. The other option was to wait until Jan. and do it in the begining however if we want to do our cruise honeymoon my DF has to be back by the 7th and most cruises leave the 5th or 6th. I have heard horror stories of vactions from Christmas to New Years and I will be comming with a lot of first timers, which I don't think is a good idea. I was wondering how popular of a time is it for weddings during the last week of Dec and first 2weeks of Jan?

 

[Cinderella Fan]

Our wedding was the 21st of December and we had a great time. The parks were a little crowded for us - we left on the 23rd. However, we had some friends that stayed until the 2nd of January and mentioned that the parks were HORRIBLE. In fact, my friend Daphne (an avid WDWer) sais she would NEVER go back to the parks between Christmas and New Year's.

I can say that the Christmas decorations were beautiful - they really helped add something special to our wedding week. We had a great time....

 

[dmslush]

My understanding is that the crowds really start clearing out on new years day. That is when value season started this year also. So, we have booked our intimate for January 3rd, 2008.

 

[friendofgusgus]

Hi disneygrl-

I would stay far away from Christmas if you can. The holidays are more crowded than you can possibly imagine - and for first-timers especially, there's no way I'd recommend it. The other thing to consider is that going over the holidays is going to be very expensive - not just for you, but for all your guests. Airfares can get crazy, room rates are at their highest and discounts are almost impossible to get.

I would suggest that you back up your date if you can - that way your sister will miss school before her classes start reviewing for finals and you can still have all of the holiday decor.

We had an Intimate wedding on December 11th of this year and we really lucked out - the weather was great, the decorations were lovely (although not as numerous as other years, so don't base your expectations on what you see on the Food Network...) and the crowds were manageable, although they got more crowded each day the closer we got to Christmas.

The other thing I would suggest that worked well for us is a Monday wedding. That way she can come down and spend the whole weekend with you but only have to miss a couple of days of school to do it since you include the weekend right in the middle. We are a family with 5 kids so this really worked for us!


Good luck with your planning - that is a busy time for Disney weddings!

Jennifer

 

[crzyred]

we were there last year until Jan. 7 and it was horrible. we went because it was value time, but it wasn't worth it. the crowds didn't die down, and usually don't until after the race down there. (don't remember what it is) we stood in line for rides all day. i agree with "friendofgusgus"....i wouldn't recomend that time. avoid it, at all cost, if you can.

 

[DisneyDeeFL]

My advice would be to shoot for sometime in the first week or two of December. You still get the Christmas atmosphere, but schools aren't out yet so the crowds are minimal. I've found that the time between Thanksgiving and mid-December is the best time to go (and growing up in FL I've had lots of opportunities to test this theory!). Your sister might have to miss some school, but maybe she can get back early enough to study?

Just my two cents!

 

[JJClemson]

Can your sister take her exams early? I would think in highschool the teachers would understand... I have missed college exams for weddings before. I was at WDW from Dec 17-21 and the crowds were not that bad then. They were much much much worse this past Aug during free dining.

 

[little tinkerbell]

Hi, as I just did an intimate vow renewal on the 27 th of december I must tell you yes it is crowded, but still I absolutely loved it, it may just be me though as I read the other replies. But the whole experience was so amazing and magical the crowd didn't bother me a bit. Everybody congratulated us even the characters in the parades ( of cours we had the pins and the wedding ears, so that helps) We spend christmas day in the magic kingdom and new years eve in epcot and everything was amazing and I had my own 3 small kids in tow ( 9 years old, 7 years old and 3 years old) we still went in all the rides ( fast pass of course) the only thing that i remember is that i was really cold some of the days but since I live in the tropics that is a normal side effect But I must say me and my party had the most magical time ever, we were walking on cloud 9, So good luck in planning talk to your party to see what they think, so you can come to some decision

 

[disneygirl_wdw]

As far as my sister missing school that is out of the question. Her Dean of Students considers this a vacation and will not excuse her we already tried that route . The reason why we can't do it the first couple of weeks is that is the time of mine and my fiance's finals and final prep. I think we might go with right around the 20th when we usually go down and just be on our cruise over Christmas. or even get there right after New Year's.