Big Weddings: Any Wishes or Couture BEOs?

[MissManners]

New to the boards here!

We just recently got engaged and were lucky enough to snag a Saturday in December 2011 for our Disney dream wedding. We are getting married at the Wedding Pavilion, and cocktails and reception will be at the Grand Floridian. We are expecting about 150 guests, and are trying to keep the budget around $50,000 including tax and service charges, but we can be flexible with that if we must. We have an outside photographer, but that's it!

I am more concerned about food rather than floral (we must have a plated dinner with open bar!), but I know all of the little fees can add up! Does anyone have any wishes or even couture BEOs that they wouldn't mind sharing with me, with a guest count around 150??? Is it possible to even do a wedding of this size for under 50 grand?

 

[Chilly]

Congratulations.

 

[belle2211]

New to the boards here!

We just recently got engaged and were lucky enough to snag a Saturday in December 2011 for our Disney dream wedding. We are getting married at the Wedding Pavilion, and cocktails and reception will be at the Grand Floridian. We are expecting about 150 guests, and are trying to keep the budget around $50,000 including tax and service charges, but we can be flexible with that if we must. We have an outside photographer, but that's it!

I am more concerned about food rather than floral (we must have a plated dinner with open bar!), but I know all of the little fees can add up! Does anyone have any wishes or even couture BEOs that they wouldn't mind sharing with me, with a guest count around 150??? Is it possible to even do a wedding of this size for under 50 grand?

Hi! Welcome to the boards! I just had my planning session a week ago, so it will probably be a couple of more weeks before I get my BEO, but when I do, I will post it. My guest estimate is 166 and we are having the ceremony at the Wedding Pavillion and the reception at the Grand Floridian. We are doing almost everything through Disney.

 

[MissManners]

Hi! Welcome to the boards! I just had my planning session a week ago, so it will probably be a couple of more weeks before I get my BEO, but when I do, I will post it. My guest estimate is 166 and we are having the ceremony at the Wedding Pavillion and the reception at the Grand Floridian. We are doing almost everything through Disney.

Awesome thank you so much!

 

[Mindyjoy]

If you are having a plated dinner it might be tricky to stay within your budget. The dinner minimum at Disneyland is $125/per person and I don't know if it's the same for WDW but I'm guessing it's similar. We are having lunch and using the cheapest option, and right now we are at around 80 people for around $40k, and I feel like we are doing everything pretty bare-bones. We don't have any extras like Cinderellas Coach or M&M.

 

[MissManners]

If you are having a plated dinner it might be tricky to stay within your budget. The dinner minimum at Disneyland is $125/per person and I don't know if it's the same for WDW but I'm guessing it's similar. We are having lunch and using the cheapest option, and right now we are at around 80 people for around $40k, and I feel like we are doing everything pretty bare-bones. We don't have any extras like Cinderellas Coach or M&M.

I assumed it would be around $30,000 for food and alcohol ($200pp), and we aren't planning on doing the glass coach or anything like that, so I'm wondering if it's able to do the rest (floral, music, WP rental etc) for around $20,000. Also we can go up in our budget if we need to, but I'm wondering at that point what the difference is between a Wishes and a Couture wedding. If we are already spending $60,000, would it be worth it to spend another $5,000 to make it a Couture wedding? I'm a little confused because I know nothing about the Couture weddings and what goes along with those. Any input would be much appreciated!

 

[Mindyjoy]

I assumed it would be around $30,000 for food and alcohol ($200pp), and we aren't planning on doing the glass coach or anything like that, so I'm wondering if it's able to do the rest (floral, music, WP rental etc) for around $20,000. Also we can go up in our budget if we need to, but I'm wondering at that point what the difference is between a Wishes and a Couture wedding. If we are already spending $60,000, would it be worth it to spend another $5,000 to make it a Couture wedding? I'm a little confused because I know nothing about the Couture weddings and what goes along with those. Any input would be much appreciated!

I'm not sure if you are including tax and tip in your total, which can really add up.

Sorry I can't help you with the Couture wedding, as it is waaaaay out of my budget (40k is way over our budget, too )

And remember if you want fancy chairs, linens, or centerpieces, those expenses are higher depending on your guest count, too. I hate normal ballroom plain chairs, so this was a "must" for me.

I know there is a long thread about BEOs with some fee information that may help you. If you search for "BEO" you should be able to find it.

 

[lurkyloo]

The difference between a Wishes wedding and a Couture wedding is that the latter requires you to spend $55,000 of that $65,000 on decor alone.

Then there's the $175/person food and beverage minimum to pay for, plus, you know, every single other element of the wedding that's not decor.

A good way to get an idea of your costs is to plug ballpark estimates of each expense into your own spreadsheet or the self-calculating budget worksheet in the PassPorter. You can get these numbers from anybody's posted BEO, and then the spreadsheet will multiply them by 150, total them, and show how much tax and service charge there is.

 

[MissManners]

I'm not sure if you are including tax and tip in your total, which can really add up.

Sorry I can't help you with the Couture wedding, as it is waaaaay out of my budget (40k is way over our budget, too )

And remember if you want fancy chairs, linens, or centerpieces, those expenses are higher depending on your guest count, too. I hate normal ballroom plain chairs, so this was a "must" for me.

I know there is a long thread about BEOs with some fee information that may help you. If you search for "BEO" you should be able to find it.

Yes thank you, I did check that out! The problem I was having was that a lot of people were listing smaller Wishes and Escape weddings, so it's still hard for me to get an overall snapshot of what a large wedding would be like there. It has however been very helpful in seeing in the overall cost of things like linens, bouquets, etc.

I have seen that several people have used outside companies like a Chair Affair, so we aren't set on doing everything through Disney (although they definitely have encouraged us to do so!)

I know that we are definitely doing the ivory linens that they provide for free, mainly because they go with our color scheme. Also the men will not be wearing boutonnieres, as we are doing a vintage hollywood style wedding (at least in this point in time!). We don't need transportation, because our reception is at GF. Also no character appearances or anything like that. So these are just a few of the areas that I'm hoping will help us cut some costs!

 

[MissManners]

The difference between a Wishes wedding and a Couture wedding is that the latter requires you to spend $55,000 of that $65,000 on decor alone.

Then there's the $175/person food and beverage minimum to pay for, plus, you know, every single other element of the wedding that's not decor.

A good way to get an idea of your costs is to plug ballpark estimates of each expense into your own spreadsheet or the self-calculating budget worksheet in the PassPorter. You can get these numbers from anybody's posted BEO, and then the spreadsheet will multiply them by 150, total them, and show how much tax and service charge there is.

$55 grand on decor, no wonder those weddings look amazing! Guess that option is out the window! Thanks!

 

[SaidYes]

Here is ours if this helps... We are expecting 130 out of 185 invites. This is budgeted for 130 people for the reception so it may give you an idea as to what it would be for 150 people.

Bridal Party Floral
Round, French bouquet of white peonies, white tulips,
white freesia with buds and white ranunculus. $350

Round, French bouquet of white tulips, white freesia,
purple freesia, purple hydrangea. Wrap faux stems 75%
with #690 Old Gold satin ribbon. (6 @ $125ea) $750

Flower ball designed as French with dark purple hydrangea.
Add shoelace bow and loop at top with white satin ribbon. $100

White rose with ruscus. (11 @ $10.50ea) $115.50

White spray roses with filler, greenery and a white sheer
ribbon bow-wrist (5@$26) $130

Cocktail Hour Floral
4" square cube. (rental) Place (1) on every other table
(20 @ $5ea) $100
Arrangement of white hydrangea placed in each cube.
(20 @ $15ea) $300

Reception
132" Caramel bengaline linen for head table and guest tables $760
(20 @ $38ea)

Chiavari chairs (now with a Chair affair)

Place shot glass votives down head table. (16 @ $2.50ea) $40

Panache vase. (rental) Place (1) on every other guest table.
(10@$15ea) $150

Free form arrangement of white tulips and lily grass made in a dish and
placed on top of Panache vase. See picture for inspiration.
(10 @ $300ea) $3,000

Vases down head table for bridesmaid floral (6 @ $5) $30

Place(4) shot glass votives around each vase(48 @ $2.50ea)$120

votives on glass table (4 @ $2.50ea) $10

Custom 4 tier- Accent each layer with lavender hydrangea,
purple hydrangea purple freesia and lavender roses.
See picture for placement. $200

30" round mirror for cake table. (rental) $35

Scatter lavender rose and purple hydrangea petals
on place card table. $25

Place shot glass votives on place card table. $20

Delivery Fee $200

Dessert Party Floral
Round bud vase. (rental) Fill each with colored gel and
(1) led floral light. (1)color per vase. (2) hot pink,
(2) bright orange, (1) bright yellow. Place 1 on each highboy $37.50

Place (1) gerbera daisy in each bud vase. Place (1) on
each cocktail table. $50
(5) hot pink, (5) bright orange, (5) bright yellow.

Scatter rose petals on each highboy. (2) hot pink,
(2) orange, (1) yellow. $25

TOTAL $6,870

Dessert party

French upper rental $266.25
80 illuminations viewing fee $1103
80 desserts @ $24ea $2,474

Reception
Violinist $575
limousine charter (4 hrs) $376

Call brand bar for 110 $5,103
Kids soda package for 20 $618
Int’l Cheese display for 130 $1675

10 pin spotting illumination $1,331
Waiting to hear on uplighting ???????
1 technician (waiting to hear back) ???????
3 vendor meals $95
115 Cinderella’s glass slipper meals
@ $109ea $16,153

15 kids meals at $24.50ea $483
DJ $1,500
Cake for 150 at $8.50per slice $1,643

Brunch at Citricos
1 florist move fee $200
70 Florida Coast brunch buffet $36ea $3,247


TOTAL BOE (with tax/service chg) $40,753

We are doing our chiavari chairs, photography, and videography with outside companies

I am still waiting to hear back from my planner on the groomscake, uplighting, adjustments to buffet, and the costs for the caricaturist.

 

[MissManners]

Thank you so much SaidYes! That is exactly what I was looking for. We also are inviting 185, and most likely only 130-140 will show up, but we are trying to budget for higher just in case! I am so jealous that you are doing a dessert party at Illuminations! I wanted to do that in lieu of a Rehearsal dinner, but DF is Italian and apparently they need "real" food.

 

[Safflower]

We just had our wedding for 170 at the Disneyland Hotel- not exactly the same, but this might give you an idea to go off of. In order to meet the Food and Beverage minimum for the room, we added some goodies to the menu- we added in the salad, and then chose to do the mini cakes instead of having a regular cake.

Cocktail Hour:
Displayed Artisan Cheese Selection @ $5.00 ++ Per Guest
Butler Passed Shrimp Martini, Jalapeno Olive @ $6.00 ++ Each
Butler Passed Won Tons Filled with Roasted Pepper and California Goat Cheese @ $5.25 ++ Per Guest
Butler Passed Forrest Mushrooms & Leeks in Savory Crust
@ $5.50 ++ Per Guest
Butler Passed Shrimp Lumpia with Sweet & Sour Sauce @ $5.25 ++ Per Guest
= $7,105.73 (we got extra snacks since we knew DH and I would be eating a lot of them!)

Beverage:
(163) Six Hour Hosted Bar Package @ $46.00 ++ (premium and call brands)
(6) Six Hour Soft Drink Package @ $30.00 ++
= $10,103.29

Reception:
Stardust Serenade @ $82.00 ++ Per Guest (Modified)
~Freshly Baked Breads and Butter
~Petite Mache, Young Frisee, Sun-Dried Cherries, Toasted Pecans, with Port Wine Glaze & Shallot-Lime Vinaigrette
~Creamy Tomato Basil Soup with Balsamic Essence
~Grilled Filet Mignon & Herb Roasted Salmon with Cabernet Shallot Reduction & Sauvignon Blanc Butter Sauce
~Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes Haricot Verts & Pear Tomato Piccalilli

~Individual Chocolate Fondue with Lemon Madeline, Purple Cassis French Macaroon, Heart Rice Krispy, Pound Cake, Raspberry, Chocolate Financier Cake & Fruit Empanada
~Freshly Brewed Coffee, Decaffeinated Coffee, and Specialty Teas
~Miniature Wedding Cake @ $22.00 ++ Per Guest
Golden Vanilla Cake with Passionfruit Mousse Filling

(6) Remy Plated Children's Meal @ $19.95 ++ Per Guest ages 3 - 9
(5) Vendor Meal @ $19.95 ++ Per Guest

Custom Wedding Cake @ $400.00 ++ (this is the one that we used to cut into)
=$23,382.38

Decor / Floral:
We were pretty limited on what we did through Disney as far as floral and decor- mostly because the girl from floral who was supposed to work with us was a nightmare. In the end, all we basically got from them were the black chivari chairs, the floor length linens for the reception, and black napkins. Our flowers were done by a family friend, and we supplied everything else ourselves.
=$3,381.04

Lighting:
We had some elaborate lighting and sound setup- in the room where we held our reception, there is a fiber optic star curtain behind the stage. It can also do fireworks among the stars, so we had a technician there to make the "fireworks" go off when we made our grand entrance.

Head Table Lighting Wash
(16) Guest Table Pin Lights
Fiber Optic Curtain Intelligent Lighting
(2) Wireless Hand Held Microphones
QSC WideLine 8 Sound System
Lighting Console
Lighting Wall Wash
= $7245.00

Entertainment:
We extended the DJ for an hour, since we extended our reception to 5 hours instead of 4.

Ceremony & Reception DJ (to provide 2 wireless mics for Bride/Groom Performance Entrance)
Mickey & Minnie Mouse
Cinderella Coach with Royal Footman at Ceremony
= $6945.00

=$58,162.44 for mostly everything that we did through Disney. At DLR, the rules are quite different, as you can use outside vendors for just about everything besides the food and beverage. We had an outside florist, photographer, videographer, and day of coordinator.

HTH!

 

[MissManners]

Safflower~ thanks so much! Very helpful! At WDW you are also able to do outside vendors, so that's something we are looking into.

PS I loved your wedding video! Looks like you all had a blast!

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

DF is Italian and apparently they need "real" food.

This is true. My father's side is 100% (which makes me 50%) and they weren't grasping the idea of the dessert party. They kept asking where we were going to eat first I'm taking my mom next month to try a few restaurants so she can decide for the rehearsal. If she's paying--she can pretty much choose

 

[MissManners]

This is true. My father's side is 100% (which makes me 50%) and they weren't grasping the idea of the dessert party. They kept asking where we were going to eat first I'm taking my mom next month to try a few restaurants so she can decide for the rehearsal. If she's paying--she can pretty much choose

Haha, yes well in our case DF's parents are paying for the rehearsal dinner, so in the end it's their decision. And looking at those Dessert Party menus, I highly doubt anyone would starve! We have opted to do our rehearsal dinner at 'Ohana which I am thrilled about.... it's all you can eat, so nobody can complain about going hungry!

 

[KMS'sGlassSlipper]

I sent you a PM!!!