Been gone for awhile, but wedding's back ON

[WDWlover]

Ok, so we wanted to do a disney wedding in November, but due to finances, we had to call it off

WELL.....we really want to take the plunge IN wdw. We don't have the money to spend on a fairytale wedding (wish we did), but my parents are staying at the GF or Contemporary, and they will definately have a room with a balcony. So, he said we could just have the ceremony in their room on their balcony if we want

So I called CRO and they said there's nothing in the rules that say you can't. She told me that since the room is paid for, we can pretty much do what we want in there because it's not in public. Well, I called back to get some more info and now they're telling me that we have to have approval from the FTW people So now I have to wait until Monday to call them to find out for sure.

Well in the mean time, I called Ron Rosenzweig (not sure who's heard of him, but he's the notary officiant for WDW weddings). I asked him how much he charges and told him that we want to get married in the room. He told me that he can't do that because he works for Disney So, I don't know what I'm going to do. We don't want a religious ceremony - it will just be a quick thing.

Has anyone been through any of this? We just want to get married on Disney property so bad and if we're in our rooms, I don't see how it's hurting anyone since no one will see us. We aren't even dressing up - LOL...we're wearing matching Disney t-shirts and we're buying the bride and groom mouse ears to wear during the ceremony so that I can wear a veil and he can wear his top hat

 

[Kismetdreams]

I'm not quite sure why you are calling around Disney asking for permission to get married in your room. Technically, it's against Disney policy to do it, so you will prolly get lots of no's and we don't think so's. While I personally don't agree with having the "in-suite" wedding and skirting the rules, I'm just gonna give you some info...

Any officiant that Disney FTW recommends will never do an in-suite, because if they do, Disney will stop recommending them to FTW couples. You will most likely find it difficult to get someone local to perform the ceremony and your best bet may be to get one of your friends either made a minister via the internet (there are lots of sites) or a notary, there is info on becoming a Florida notary somewhere on this site Orange County Clerk of Courts.

Keep in mind that this is all very frowned upon by Disney, so you will run into lots of road blocks. And if you get caught, they have the right to ban you from the property.

Another (and legal) option is to go with an intimate add-on, since your family will already have rooms reserved. It is $2300 for an outdoor location and $3100 for an indoor location. This includes all the items in the intimate package without the rooms/tickets. Unofficial Disney Wedding Guide - Intimates

The other option is to plan via the Swan and Dolphin. Swan and Dolphin Weddings. I'm not sure of the costs, but generally, they are less expensive then FTW.

Hope these links help.

 

[WDWlover]

I'm not quite sure why you are calling around Disney asking for permission to get married in your room. Technically, it's against Disney policy to do it, so you will prolly get lots of no's and we don't think so's. While I personally don't agree with having the "in-suite" wedding and skirting the rules, I'm just gonna give you some info....

I'm not trying to bend any rules by any means - we were originally looking at a FTW, but we could not afford it, so we scratched that idea. When I talked to WDW a couple times, they said they really don't care about us saying "I Do" in our room - since it would be a casual ceremony (if that's what you want to call it, but I just call it exchanging vows and that's it). I'm sorry we do not have thousands of dollars to put into a wedding, but we don't and I could have done it without Disney even knowing, but ya know what? I don't think that's right. Give me some credit here. It's cool hearing about the big weddings at WDW, but don't make someone else feel as though you're better than them because you can spend 20-50 thousand dollars on your wedding. We're just trying to do this the cheapest way we can and STILL be good with WDW. I would NEVER risk being kicked out for anything.

I was not expecting this kind of thing by posting this info here - I was just looking for help, and by far I did NOT mean to upset anyone by asking a question.

To put a stop to starting any contraversy, this will be my last post. This board has helped me so much, and it's not worth upsetting anyone.

Thanks

 

[Kismetdreams]

Sorry if you felt like I was being controversial. My suggestions were just that, what you asked for. I told you how you could go about your in-suite wedding, as well as provide you with information about several less expensive options.

I personally did not pay ANYWHERE close to $20-50K for my Disney wedding, and being in the military, I can appreciate the value of a hard earned dollar. That said, I disagree that $2K is an exorbidant amount of money to pay for a wedding if that is the location you want to have it at.

I'm sorry you feel offended that I pointed out Disney's policy to you, but it's thier policy, not mine...As for the my original statement, I have always found that if you know you are bending the rules, it is certainly easier to ask for forgiveness than pemission. JMHO...

 

[twojo21]

kismetdreams is right about disney's stance on "in room" weddings to a q. its againest disney policy, all weddings at wdw must be through disney fairytale weddings & you can be asked to leave/banned off property and the officiants who work with disney wont cross them so to speak. i have heard of people doing this but it is risky/hard to get things done.

its unfortunate you cant have your dream wedding, my advise to you would be a) to go off wdw property to cypress grove, leu gardens or another orlando location to get married as this will be much cheaper & then have a disney dinner or disney honeymoon b) save your money & do a wdw later on when you have the funds or ask your parents to pay c) get married at one of the orlando courthouses & do a disney dinner to celebrate or a disney honeymoon.

best of luck.

 

[WonderWomanDC]

I would say if you want to do it, go ahead but don't ask for permission, and use an officiant who is not affiliated with Disney. I had Rev. Michael Flanary perform my ceremony - he's not on the Disney list so maybe he would perform the ceremony.

However I think the intimate wedding is really a good value!!
http://disneyweddings.go.com/site/wed/int/cer/pack_elements.jsp

You can do it for around $3000 I believe. I am not an intimate wedding expert though. I suggest you talk to FTW about it if you think the price is within your reach. Because then you can parade around in a gown, get the beautiful ceremony locations, the limo, the flowers, the cake, the photos, etc.

 

[WDWlover]

Ok....I was NOT going to post again, but I need to give all the information surrounding our decision.

We have 3 kids (7, 4, infant). We have been saving up money, but we had the whole "when it rains it pours thing" happen to us lately We already decided that we were going to WDW anyway - we have our reservations made for November.

We don't want a fancy wedding at all - there are too many family issues surrounding a big wedding and we don't want to deal with that. My parents hate each other and so I don't want to deal with that. We have always wanted to get married at WDW anyway. It would just be my father and that's it. I was not asking for permission to do this in our room - I AM talking to disney about that - and the point I was making is that 3 people at WDW told me there's NO rules against doing this. We will NOT be dressing up at all. We're wearing matching t-shirts and our bride/groom mouse ears. To anyone else, it's going to look like we're on our honeymoon.

 

[grover]

I have read elsewhere about people renting rooms/suites and holding their ceremony there. If they said you can do it-then go for it!!! It sounds like you have a image in your mind as to what you want your wedding be-it will be perfect!! I know what you mean when you say even a few thousand dollars is out of reach-sometimes life is like that and it can't be managed(speaking from experience here!).
Let us know how it turns out!!
Grover in Winnipeg

 

[weissjaz]

I tried to do a same-sex commitment ceremony through Disney, and they said they don't do them. So I found a minister and had a small ceremony on Disney property, behind thier back. We held the actual ceremony along the Wilderness Trail at the WL. It was very casual (everyone in shorts just standing around) and we were definately "out of sight" of the rest of the visitors. Then we all had dinner at Chef Mickey, followed by Champagne and Cake on one of the public balconies. We figured what Disney didn't know, would hurt. Of course we didn't have to deal with any of the legal issues.

So it probably can be done, just don't expect Disney to go along with it.

 

[scarlett873]

My DH and I couldn't afford even the small amount of $2500 for a Disney Intimate wedding when we got married, but we still wanted to be married in the area and honeymoon at WDW. We chose to be married off-site at a small chapel in the Kissimmee area. www.whitechapelweddings.com is the chapel we were married at. We spent a whopping $500 on a package that had all the frills that we needed. Our package included pictures, the ceremony on DVD, cake, champagne, ceremony, flowers, unity candle...we dressed up, but it's not necessary. The chapel has all sorts of packages from the basic no-frills ceremony to the full blown-out ceremony with all the pomp and circumstance that you could possibly stand.

I know you said that you really wanted to be married on-site...but I just wanted to share another option with you, in case the ceremony you are working on, doesn't work out!

Best wishes with whatever you decide to do!!

 

[Codie]

You could just contact a local justice of the peace and they can marry you. Contact the courts...