Ahh!! Just need to vent!

[amyy]

Everyone has a lot of good comments. We had extra guests at our Escape wedding but I guess Disney doesn't allow that anymore (I posted as a response to another thread you have but didn't know that).

Seeing that your wedding is several months away you still have time to work things out. Our guests had to take vacation time, book their rooms etc so we knew several months ahead of time who was coming. The only glitch is that I knew my friends were coming but it was up in the air regarding their spouses and children. Knowing them I knew they would all come in the end so I did count them in our number.

When you add the prices for each extra guests in terms of lunch, DP etc it adds up. Invite the group you want to spend that amount of money on.

I struggled with the Escape/Wishes debate right up until the last month. I had everything we wanted, spent well into the Wishes amount but was technically an Escape wedding.

I have also heard they will work with you on the room block. 13 of our guests stayed off site. It was cheaper so I can't blame them.

Do you have a planning journal? Do you have some of the costs broken down as to what you want?

 

[geek+nerd]

Earlier in the summer, I made and sent out a newsletter to the people that we wanted to invite, knowing that we had to keep it under a certain number for our Escape wedding. Our newsletter contained our engagement story, information about the day (with the stipulation that everything is tentative until October), our contact info, information about accommodations and tickets, and a pre-RSVP questionnaire. The questionnaire just asked if people knew that they were definitely coming, still thinking about it, definitely not coming.

As we got those back and saw who wasn't coming, we sent out some more newsletters to people we wanted to invite, but didn't make our initital list (that might sound rude, but oh well).

It put my mind at ease to get a response/commitment from people early so that we could begin planning (I really want a DP, and if everyone on our list came, we wouldn't be able to do that). We started out with 25, and are now down to 17, which is saving us the $500 (I know that's not allowed now, but it was while we were sending out our info) plus costs on our celebration lunch.

You might want to consider sending out something like that, or even just an email to people, explaining the challenges of planning a destination wedding, we'd just like to get an idea of how many people are considering coming, blah, blah, blah.

Something else that you might want to consider doing is having the smaller wedding at Disney and then doing an at home reception, either something casual like a picnic or barbecue or a formal party. You can save $$$ doing the Escape package and use that money to have a celebration at home with people you weren't able to invite to the wedding.

I wrote waaaaay too much

 

[tinkerbellandeyor]

is it acceptable to wait to book an aptment with the DJ and florisent six monthes before the wedding. I am asking becuse my mom and I deceded to wait unitll winter break to do all of this stuff

 

[ckpoodge]

That's a good idea as well..however I'm a lil scared what if they say they will but I still can't get the minimum room requirement bc no offense a certain part of my family is STINGY! I don't want to be stuck with having to pay for rooms they didn't take.

Don't forget, there is only a minimum of 25 room nights (to get the free night at a resort), and your room for the duration of your trip is included. so that means your room for your wedding through your honeymoon. Otherwise, think of it like this: if you have 25 couples, they would each have to guarantee a room for 1 night. If they stay for more than 1 night, you'll be covered.

I had that problem as well-we don't want to pay for any extra nights, either. The rooms can be booked any way - DVC, through Disney Travel, through an outside agent, or through your wedding website. You just need to call Disney Weddings to have them added to your wedding.

I also believe I read somewhere (not sure where on the disboards, though, so do a search), that you should talk to your wedding coordinator to see if they can forgo the wedding room block requirements.

Keep your chin up. Family politics are brutal, but you'll make it through!

 

[PartofDisney'sWorld]

As someone who just signed the contract 2 weeks ago for my Wishes wedding, I can tell you this:

Disney no longer "requires" you to have a minimum room night count just to have a DFTW, for a Wishes wedding. The only requirements for hotel rooms is that if you want the discount on the room rates, you have to guarantee 10 room nights. If you want a free night, you have to guarantee 25 nights. Also, let's say you end up inviting quite a few people and some are up in the air about where they want to stay; if you block however many nights, let's say 30, and only 10 nights end up getting booked, you can release those extra rooms at least 60 days before the wedding and you will not be penalized.

Now, for the Escape weddings, I'm not 100% sure but I know that I've read that people having the Escape have had to guarantee 4 nights. But again I'm not entirely sure. Anyway, HTH.

 

[geek+nerd]

Escape wedding couples need to stay four nights at a Disney resort.

 

[carolina64]

Threads like this make me feel so much better. Just knowing that some of these issues happen to other people too really takes a lot of stress away.

We love our families, really and truly, but they are being very difficult right now! We want to have a small wedding at WDW followed by a larger more casual at-home the weekend after we get back. The flack over who gets invited and who doesn't is so nasty right now.

Some people we want to invite to WDW cannot come because of financial problems. Some will have trouble because of work and/or school issues. Others that we would have invited are very dismissive about the location.

Everybody and their great-aunt fanny will be invited to the at-home. The list for WDW is harder. FMIL insists that everybody be invited to florida. It cannot happen on our bank account! period. And there are no offers to help pay. FMIL wants us to use the money from the at-home to pay for more at WDW. But y'all know that money does not go as far at Disney as it does elsewhere. The at-home will be about $5,000 total. That amount buys a lot of food and flowers in old fort nc!!

Oh my gosh, this does feel good to say in the open. Maybe there would be less stress to just decide one way or the other and let the chips and snide remarks fall where they may!

 

[FutureMrs.B]

Earlier in the summer, I made and sent out a newsletter to the people that we wanted to invite, knowing that we had to keep it under a certain number for our Escape wedding. Our newsletter contained our engagement story, information about the day (with the stipulation that everything is tentative until October), our contact info, information about accommodations and tickets, and a pre-RSVP questionnaire. The questionnaire just asked if people knew that they were definitely coming, still thinking about it, definitely not coming.

As we got those back and saw who wasn't coming, we sent out some more newsletters to people we wanted to invite, but didn't make our initital list (that might sound rude, but oh well).

It put my mind at ease to get a response/commitment from people early so that we could begin planning (I really want a DP, and if everyone on our list came, we wouldn't be able to do that). We started out with 25, and are now down to 17, which is saving us the $500 (I know that's not allowed now, but it was while we were sending out our info) plus costs on our celebration lunch.

You might want to consider sending out something like that, or even just an email to people, explaining the challenges of planning a destination wedding, we'd just like to get an idea of how many people are considering coming, blah, blah, blah.

Something else that you might want to consider doing is having the smaller wedding at Disney and then doing an at home reception, either something casual like a picnic or barbecue or a formal party. You can save $$$ doing the Escape package and use that money to have a celebration at home with people you weren't able to invite to the wedding.

I wrote waaaaay too much

Hmm..That's a really good idea! Maybe kinda just put a feeler but with a hey you guys don't really wanna come right..

 

[FutureMrs.B]

I have a little rant too. DF has not really done much for the wedding, I feel like if I don't do it, it doesn't get done. So the last couple of weeks he has gotten cold feet. So things have been kind of up and down. I really want to enjoy planning the last 3 weeks but I'm so worried about him! Has any else's guy done this???

Don't feel bad. My DF really isn't that involved. Mind you I'm also a control freak and kinda go full speed ahead with things but I tried to involve him. He pretty much just yeses me except when it came to the major domo he was opposed to that. Maybe i should've waited til he was playing xbox

 

[FutureMrs.B]

Threads like this make me feel so much better. Just knowing that some of these issues happen to other people too really takes a lot of stress away.


Oh my gosh, this does feel good to say in the open. Maybe there would be less stress to just decide one way or the other and let the chips and snide remarks fall where they may!

I must thank you all. I feel alot better hearing all your responses and feedback. I'm trying to do what's going to be the best for us. I must admit I can get caught up with the guilt trips. I'd like to share that I spoke with my planner today and he said that I could start out with wishes and switch to escape or vice versa..so with that I was also able to tentatively hold my date. Yey!! i"m still weighing it out. I think I will probably go with escape though. It allows me to do some of the things that maybe with the wishes I wouldn't be able to budget.