View of Wishes!
If you have an Escape wedding, like we did, and use one of the private rooms (Napa or Sonoma) you will get a great view of the fireworks. It would be best to go outside to the "catwalk" to watch the show. From the Napa room you would be able to see the fireworks, but if you want pictures, I would say to go outside. The CG does not block off any area of the catwalk for wedding parties, however the rear catwalk is not generally used by the regular restaurant guests. We went to the rear and there was 1 couple out there, who promptly moved to the front catwalk. We had Randy Chapman attend our reception for about 1 hour to take some pics of the room, cake, and then Wishes!.
We (DH, Randy and I) did go down one level to take our pictures for an unobstructed shot of the MK. Our guests stayed on the rear catwalk.
Minimums
For Escape brides, there is no per person minimum. There is a room minimum. For parties after 5pm, the Sonoma room has a $2000 minimum and the Napa room has a $3000. There are lunch minimums as well, but I don't know what they are. There is technically a $2.50 cutting fee per person for the wedding cake, however, we did not pay that. It was never listed on our BEO.
Number of Guests
The Sonoma room (which is where we had our reception) will hold an Escape wedding party nicely. We had a sweetheart table and then 3 rounds of 8. I personally think anything more than that in the Sonoma room would be cramped. We also had a cake table, guest book table, and a table for out laptop to play our Sneak Peek from STVS.
Decoration
We selected black linens at no cost from the CG. I purchased the table runners myself. Our floral was provided by Whimsical Wey. Most of it was recycled from our ceremony. Whimsical Wey stayed through the ceremony and moved it to the CG at no charge. DH and I provided the vases, candles, Mickey confetti, table runners, and all other decoration. My good friend and her boyfriend set up the room alongside Whimsical Wey. They were given access to the room at 4pm (our reception began @ 5pm). For Escape couples, you have to do the footwork yourself but your friends and family will honestly jump at the chance to help you out! I paid the cab fare for my friend to the Contemporary since they had to take 2 large storage containers. I have to add that I used some deliciously scented Yankee Candle for my votives and the room smelled wonderful all night!
Wedding Cake
Regarding the cake, you can have your cake delivered to the CG. We did not even have our cake at SBP (our ceremony site). I had it delivered straight to the CG from the Grand Floridian Bakery. Normally the Boardwalk Bakery prepares SBP cakes, but our planner at the GF prepare our cake and move it. There is a $75 move fee, but we did not pay this either.
Pics
I have no pics of the Napa Room, but I have seen it and it is nice. The main difference is that you have the view of the MK and the room is a bit larger. From the Sonoma you have a view of Downtown Orlando, which we liked. I think the Sonoma Room is a better buy for Escape brides.
View of undecorate Sonoma Room (from front entrance)
View of room from the rear entrance
View from the windows
View from the Catwalk
Menu and Meeting the Minimum
We had no problem meeting the $2000 minimum for the Sonoma Room. You can not add things to the menu you select, but you can remove things. We chose 2nd least expensive meal (soup, salad, sorbet, grouper, beef tenderloin, chicken-- it was $90 when we had our wedding in December 07). That menu originally included flatbreads and a dessert, but we had those removed and the price decreased to $70 per guest. I don't know about the private rooms for Wishes weddings. I think you have a per person minimum to meet for your reception. At $100 per person for 30 people you're looking at a $3000 minimum which is more than the room minimum for Escape couples.
There is also a children's menu-- it is $22 per child. You can select chicken strips, pizza, mac n cheese. I had to request milk because my niece & nephew prefer that over soda.
We also had an appetizer because our guests were arriving 30 minutes before us. We chose the Crispy Potato Cakes (DELICIOUS!) which were $6.25 pp at the time.
We also had a special dessert (Figment mousse thing) that we paid $15 pp.
Our bar package was the 3 hour soda, juice, water package at $15.50 pp. We added 4 bottles of wine (which ranged from $29 to $58 per bottle). That is an option for you if you want to serve wine for some guests. I don't drink wine, but I knew some of our adult guests would enjoy having wine with their meal.
We also upgraded our wedding cake which was $150.
In all, we paid a little over $3000 for 21 people at our reception. Yes, you can have more than 20 people at your "reception". Of course, you may hear something different depending upon which planner you have.
I
highly recommend the CG private rooms to Escape couples. It is a chunk of money, but the experience is unbelievable. The staff was spectacular. My father (who paid the tab for our reception) was extremely pleased with the quality of service and food at our reception. We have alot of "foodies" in our family and everyone was quite happy. DH and I are seriously trying to scheme up a way to have another event there (we're FL residents so we can book the room any time).
If anyone has any other more specific questions, I'm more than happy to share! I certainly wouldn't rely on the pricing I have as I'm sure that has changed slightly. If you're considering having your "reception" here and have the budget to do so, GO FOR IT!!
If you use the California Grill, I believe they also block off one side of the platform outside for you and your guests to go out onto during the reception. They pipe in Wishes to both the interior and exterior so you can watch from either place. You can definitely see it.
. I also tried to switch to the 5 pm ceremony once I found that out only it was too late that slot was no longer available. So now depending on what the firework schedule is when the post it in June I may either need to pay money to extend my reception (which is so not in the budget and I'm not even sure what people would do during the extra hour since we won't have a dance floor there) or create a break of about an hour and a half between the ceremony and reception just to get the fireworks display included. My WP and her assistant have been so helpful in working on this but it's been a very annoying week where this is concerned because this is the one thing that could really disappoint me in regards to the whole plan. I think though with a 6-11 reception you will probably be fine.
as a nice romantic start to our honeymoon 
!
