Afternoon reception..than what?

[FutureMrs.B]

DF and I were thinking maybe to save money we might move the time of our wedding to take advantage of the $10000 minimum. My question is if our reception was to be over at 5:30 pm and we were to have a DP at Epcot later..what would our guests do in the mean time? My concern is because most of my guests are staying off property they are not going to be staying in the resorts. Any ideas are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Pooh's Corner]

Our off property family will probably stay at the Boardwalk (we are getting married at SPB) and then met again there at the Int'l Gateway to go to the DP. It ends up being like 2.5 hours they will have to kill.

 

[lzimm13]

Our off property family will probably stay at the Boardwalk (we are getting married at SPB) and then met again there at the Int'l Gateway to go to the DP. It ends up being like 2.5 hours they will have to kill.

Thats the same situation I'm in. There's plenty to do on the boardwalk though, explore some hotels, hang out at ESPN Zone, get ice cream at Beaches and Cream. 2 hours won't kill em.

 

[Stephie77]

My wedding ended at 5:30 and most of my guests were staying at the CS. It was a hike for them to get back to their hotel from the GF so by the time they got back and changed they had to be on the bus for the DP. You meet at Epcot usually by 8 anyway although I recommend telling your people 7:30-7:45 because a lot of my people were late and we did not get to AAP until 8:30. So in reality it is really not a long time between the wedding and the DP. I will say that I think a lot of people like to rest between the wedding and DP because it is a long day. And if you plan on going out after the DP, it becomes a long night. Being that they are staying offsite, that is at least a what say 15 minute drive from the BW to an offsite hotel and another 15 back to Epcot (if you can park at epcot not sure if they would have to park at the TTC-ask your planner about that) is 30 minutes. Do you feel like you are obligated to do something in that 2 hour break? Maybe it's just us but we didn't feel that way and think our guests appreciated some downtime. Hope this helps!

 

[FutureMrs.B]

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for responding. I do kinda feel obligated to keep them entertained. I kinda ran it by my mom and sister and both of them had the same reaction. "What is everyone supposed to do?" Idk..I'm going to crunch numbers. It was just something that might have helped us a save a lil bit more. But I don't want to inconvenience my guests or have them wandering around aimlessly. Decisions Decisions.

 

[weedee]

Does your reception have to be over at 5:30 pm? If you moved your wedding up to take advantage of the minimum, then maybe you can have a cocktail hour (or two) after the wedding/before the reception dinner to take up some time and then have the reception go until the DP.

 

[Tiggeriffic79]

Hi

How about you put the break in your programme ( 2hrs of down time/ rest and recooperate before the party starts again/ catch a breath and see the sights etc etc) At least they'll excpect it. And maybe do a little newsletter/ guide with cool stuff they could do/see if they wanted. I know in the newsletter thread there are a lot of ideas of things to do for each resort/area. Or you could ask a wedding party member or your parents to host a mini meet and greet at a public lounge or bar?

 

[FutureMrs.B]

Does your reception have to be over at 5:30 pm? If you moved your wedding up to take advantage of the minimum, then maybe you can have a cocktail hour (or two) after the wedding/before the reception dinner to take up some time and then have the reception go until the DP.

Well I'm not sure, that's a good question. I was under the impression that you couldn't have a cocktail hour or at least one that makes it over 4 hours. When I was reading it said that it must be a 4 hour reception. If we could do that, that might work.

Hi

How about you put the break in your programme ( 2hrs of down time/ rest and recooperate before the party starts again/ catch a breath and see the sights etc etc) At least they'll excpect it. And maybe do a little newsletter/ guide with cool stuff they could do/see if they wanted. I know in the newsletter thread there are a lot of ideas of things to do for each resort/area. Or you could ask a wedding party member or your parents to host a mini meet and greet at a public lounge or bar?

My only concern with the down time is that since most of the people aren't staying in the resorts that they will have to go back to their hotels or end up wandering around. I feel that by the time they get to their hotels or just killing time that this would kinda put a damper on the mood. Almost like ugh now what? Idk if I'm making sense.

 

[erin.w]

When we initially looked into an earlier wedding time Joe suggested a bit of a longer break or no break. That way people had enough time to change/nap/swim/shop/do the parks in between and then go to the DP. I hope to nap personally and I hope the guests kiddies nap or swim for some down time!

 

[jshora]

We're having our wedding Oct. 7th, 2011. We were really excited to be able to do our wedding at 10am, reception at 11:30am, and then a DP at 8:30pm because we could then celebrate our wedding all day long in Disney. However, there is a huge gap between our reception and DP. As part of our welcome bags to our guests, we are providing them with Disney Gift Cards with $15/each. All of our guests are planning on visiting the parks and the Food and Wine Festival will be going on during this time. This way our guests can wander around Epcot, use their gift card to buy two "meals" (they are more the size of appetizers around the showcase) and one drink. We're hoping this helps with the munchies between the reception and the dp, without filling them up before the dp, and it also provides them with something to do. The nice thing about the gift cards is that they can be used anywhere, so if you have guests that aren't going to the park, they could go to Downtown Disney to shop and pass the time between events.

 

[evey82]

Hi im planning on going to downtown disney and doing the character in flight balloon ride for the group.

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/destinations/downtown-disney/attractions/characters-in-flight/

 

[Belle2Be]

530 -8-830 isn't a ton of time, it gives your guests some time to either go back to their hotel and relax a little(or change, if its a hot day), or go to epcot early for a couple hours and check it out, I wouldn't worry too much