Hey Everyone,
Anyone have a ceremony at the MK castle?
I'm trying to get more details but the disney wedding site isn't that helpful in answering questions about a castle ceremony. lol ANY informations would be awesome
hi Baby_Becky716!
I initially looked into having a Magic Kingdom ceremony for my wedding, but ran into a few obsticles that changed my mind, so I thought I'd share my experience and what I learned.
The first time I called was like 2 and 1/2 years before our wedding in August and I talked to Kristi Davis. We talked to her about the potential for having a wedding in the MK park. She told me that they weren't doing ANY ceremonies in the park, but said that perhaps they would re-open it in a few months, so we continued to talk about it. I originally wanted to have it closer to Christmas (12-28-2008), but she told me that there was no way I could have anything in the MK park because it's Disney's busiest time of the year. So we looked further out to January, realized that the first weekend in January could have the same vacation potential, would be cheaper (the hotel prices go from peak to low season rates come Jan. 1st), and then maybe we could do something in the park. She reminded me that they were not allowed to book ANY Magic Kingdom weddings at the time, but that they were in negotiations with MK events to start doing them again and at a normal price, and told me to check back in 6 months or so. 6 Months came and when I logged onto DFTW's website I was sooo excited to see the option for the MK wedding in the park and it was $25K!!!
In the beginning of March I called Kristi so I could ask her a bunch of questions about the MK Ceremony option (and the Couture option.) I was sooo excited about the MK Ceremony, especially because on the website it described the Wishes Collection as the way you can customize your wedding day so if you want you can get married in front of Cinderellas castle by candlelight. Well that sounded perfect to me... nighttime was exactly what we wanted, but the description of the MK ceremony only said the morning. So I asked if we could do a nighttime wedding. I was definitely bummed to find out that the MK wedding starts before/at 8am! This was the only option.
Now Im not a morning person, and as much as I LOVE Disney, I dont know if I could get up at 3am to start getting ready
even on my wedding day! (When I look at pictures of myself at character breakfasts I always chuckle because my eyes are so puffy with the first few characters and start to look normal by the end of the meal. Nonetheless, I did not want that problem on my wedding day!!) Then I started thinking about my wedding party getting up that early too and I was afraid that everyone would be cranky by the end of the day after being up for so long!
Plus, Kristi told me that regular park guests are not actually in the park at the start of your ceremony, but they will come in by the end (on the mornings that MK opens at 9am, but they always start letting people in at like 8:30ish, but barrier off the different lands until 9am). To me that was like having way too many uninvited wedding guests because you know that they will ALL come running towards your wedding to check it out (because, honestly, I know I would if I was there and saw a wedding going on!)
Then I asked her about Cinderellas Coach (which has been my dream since I was little), but they only let you use the horse drawn carriage. That wouldnt work either.
The kicker was the maximum number of people allowed. Kristi said only 52 tops, including the bride and the groom. I realize that both DFs family and my family will be traveling for our wedding so we would not have as many as we would have back home, but we expect to have a decent size crowd (especially since DFs mom is #13 of 13 brothers and sisters!!). Our wedding party alone is approx. 30 people when you count their significant others as well. That only left DF and I to invite 10 more people each! It just wasnt going to work at all. So we had to think about sacrificing friends and family for Cinderellas castle or picking a different location/type. We chose the different location/type instead, and I justified my decision because the main reason I wanted that ceremony was for the pictures with the castle in the background and the magic and glamour of having it by the castle, but I can also have that with the MK Photo Package and all will be well.
I just wanted to share the info that I received when I seriously looked into it! I think it would be a GORGEOUS ceremony at Swan Boat Landing nonetheless if you decided to go ahead and do it! There are still times that I dream of having it there and think that maybe I should've just cut the # of people to have that once in a lifetime ceremony, but then I snap back into reality and realize we couldn't have the wedding we are having (which is still once in a lifetime) and I've fallen too much in love with that now!
Good luck and I can't wait to hear what you decide to do!
Oh well, we're still in the deciding stages. We have begun to talk about marriage and we are just beginning to look into locations. The one thing we know for sure is DISNEY WORLD WEDDING. lol
but when we know anything else I'll be right back here keeping everyone posted.
