Afternoon ceremony at WP, evening reception at Epcot

[ChocoKat]

Ladies,
I am in need of advice, suggestions and as many 2 cents as you can throw in

DH and I really would love to treat our guests to a desert party in Epcot, the only snag is that the desert party doesn't count toward minimums if it isn't held the same day of the wedding.

Based on your own experiences or things you have heard from former brides, would it be a logistical nightmare to have an afternoon/evening wedding in the WP, then immediately charter all our guests (65) onto Epcot to have a nice buffet dinner and deserts/cake cutting and watch Illuminations?

We would like to have them taken back to their original resorts afterward of course.

I remember reading that lurkyloo had some trouble due to the cost of the buses and the amount of hours they ran consecutively, so I want to be prepared to figure it all out before I set my mind on a plan.

Do you have a better suggestion that includes fireworks?

Thank you so much in advance for answering or suggesting anything, I am sure this question has been asked before, but the search feature hates me.

 

[CharacterFan]

What about dinner in the Whitehall Room at the GF and then a Wishes Dessert Party. Then you don't have to rent a bus and it's all held together.

Another option would be to do a pre-recepton as the Illuminations party and to hold the reception at AAR (if you have 100+ people) Or do dinner at the Living Seas and then a dessert party. You'll still have to rent a bus for these two options.

You have to rent the bus for I think the min. is 5 hours. It's not cheap. I have to rent a bus for my guests, but most of my guests haven't been to Disney in 5+ years (so I don't trust them getting there on time anyway)

 

[MainStMandy]

What about dinner in the Whitehall Room at the GF and then a Wishes Dessert Party. Then you don't have to rent a bus and it's all held together.

This is what we are doing! We wanted to save money on transportation PLUS we just love Wishes.

On our last trip we saw a reception at EPCOT. What I didn't like is that guests didn't get there till almost 8:30 then the bride and groom. By the time Illuminations started they hadn't even been served yet!!

 

[Lindsay22]

Or... you could have your ceremony at WP and then have your reception at Italy Isola or one of the French Islands. They can do dinners there (as Tiggerific Heidi did) and then you still get fireworks. A timeline would be something like: WP 2:30-3:30. Cocktail hour at French Lower 3:30-4:30. Dinner at French Upper 4:30-8:00. Dessert 7:30 to 9. Fireworks at 9.

Of course, you still have to factor the bus thing in...

To have this scenario and avoid the bus I think you can do your ceremony at SBP and have everyone walk.

 

[ChocoKat]

Hmmm... I have White Hall penciled in right now and I love the location. Where is the Wishes desert party? I have ressies for the new party they are doing for a limited time, is this the same?

 

[CharacterFan]

Hmmm... I have White Hall penciled in right now and I love the location. Where is the Wishes desert party? I have ressies for the new party they are doing for a limited time, is this the same?

It's not. The Wishes Dessert Party at the GF is held in the Marina..or close to it. It's a min of $500 (I think) and {edited to correct pricing $500} for the music to be piped in (again I think) I don't have my passporter wedding book handy (need to put it back on my laptop) but I'm sure someone will come along to correct my pricing.

 

[Chilly]

Yes $500 min on food, $500 for music, for a Wishes DP

 

[Janell]

We had the WP and Living Seas with no desert party. WE had the bus from 9:00 am- 4:30/5:00pm, I forget the cost at the moment.

Anyhow, we had a bus and a year later, our guest are still commenting on how cool the bus was, the driver was wonderful and it was just the neatest thing. I think because not to many weddings do you ride on a bus.

So if you do need a bus, just note, its more then just transpiration, with a good bus driver and a fun group, it can be a lot of fun.

 

[ChocoKat]

Wow ladies, thank you sooo much for the help so far!

I didn't even know that a Wishes desert party at the marina existed as an option. I think it is totally doable!!!

The one misgiving I seem to have about transporting my guests... well my DH's side of the family is very stubborn and like to move around in a herd-like formation, I swear they are ALWAYS together, which makes them a LOT of fun, but also difficult to deal with. They are also not much into following a program or schedules, so I am very sure we would have panic scenes that would go like:

"OMG! We forgot so and so!" etc etc or "HOLD THE BUS! So and so is... well I don't know where she is but she will get here... in the next hour... or so I dunno"

If we have it all centralized that would save us so much stress!

Anybody has photos of the desert party on the marina? I'd love to see it and we would def. splurge to have the music piped in. Wishes is my very favorite night show. I can sing along to the whole thing any day!

 

[CharacterFan]

Tiggerrifficheidi had one, but I'm not sure if her pictures are anywhere. I looked in her PJ and I didn't see them. But I've been missing all sorts of things today: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1929739

 

[CNPHILLY]

I am not a lady, but I do have my two cents.

We had our ceremony at the WP at 5:30. Reception was at American Adventure following ceremony, so buses took everyone. Everyone had dinner, etc. Then, at 9pm, all guests went to Italy to watch illuminations with dessert party. All guests then went back into reception. It worked out fantastically. Reception was over at 11:30pm...buses worked great.

 

[MainStMandy]

Just to add...there is also Sago Pointe for WIshes DP and the f&b min is $1000.

 

[lurkyloo]

The two locations for a Wishes dessert party are the Marina ($1,500 food and beverage minimum; 20-person minimum) and Sago Cay Pointe ($500 f&b minimum; 10 person minimum).

Here's a recent thread with pix of two DPs at Sago Cay. (The trick to searching the DIS is using Google but limiting your search to "site:disboards.com")

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2177083

 

[tiggerrifficheidi]

Yep, we had a Wishes DP at Sago Cay Pointe. My pics are in the link Lurkyloo gave you...I haven't gotten to that part in the TR

 

[MainStMandy]

The two locations for a Wishes dessert party are the Marina ($1,500 food and beverage minimum; 20-person minimum) and Sago Cay Pointe ($500 f&b minimum; 10 person minimum).

Here's a recent thread with pix of two DPs at Sago Cay. (The trick to searching the DIS is using Google but limiting your search to "site:disboards.com")

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2177083

Our contract for Sago Cay says $1000 F&B min for Dessert Party and $500 to have the music.

 

[ChocoKat]

Oooh! Lovely photos!!!
Jess and Heidi's weddings looked sooo romantic and beautiful!
Thanks lurkyloo I knew you'd be right on top of it

Everybody thanks for all your suggestions and information, I showed it to DH and he loved the idea! Ah what would I do with the lovely ladies (and gentlemen ) of the DIS wedding boards.

 

[orangetiggs]

we had 2:30pm wedding at wp then dinner at whitehall room and we had a charter bus but it only picked up at the gf and then dropped everyone back at one palce which was much cheaper than having it go round to all hotels. most of our guests were offsite so we went back to CSR for drinks and then people got taxis who were not staying there.

Everyone loved our dessert party and still talk about it now and we are nearly a year out