Champagne Toast Dilemma

[Deb loves Disney]

We are having an Escape wedding on December 3rd at the Wedding Pavilion at 12 noon with a lunch at the Napa Room at 2pm. Our wedding planner suggested that we keep the Champagne Toast at the Commander's Terrace at the Grand Floridian because of the difference in time between the wedding and the lunch reception. I'm worried that we won't be able to get in that many pictures with our photographer between the ceremony and the reception.

Has anybody done all three....Wedding Pavilion wedding, Commander's Terrace champagne toast and then a lunch reception following?
I am kind of leaning towards moving the Cake cutting/Champagne Toast to the Napa room just because I think it flows better and it will give us more time for photos.

Any suggestions or actual experiences would be so great to hear about. We have less than 4 weeks to the wedding and it's getting close to the time where I don't think I can change anything and I feel stressed and confused , when I should feel happy and calm, lol (is this even possible when close to the wedding date?).

Thank you for any advice.

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

We are having an Escape wedding on December 3rd at the Wedding Pavilion at 12 noon with a lunch at the Napa Room at 2pm. Our wedding planner suggested that we keep the Champagne Toast at the Commander's Terrace at the Grand Floridian because of the difference in time between the wedding and the lunch reception. I'm worried that we won't be able to get in that many pictures with our photographer between the ceremony and the reception.

Has anybody done all three....Wedding Pavilion wedding, Commander's Terrace champagne toast and then a lunch reception following?
I am kind of leaning towards moving the Cake cutting/Champagne Toast to the Napa room just because I think it flows better and it will give us more time for photos.

Any suggestions or actual experiences would be so great to hear about. We have less than 4 weeks to the wedding and it's getting close to the time where I don't think I can change anything and I feel stressed and confused , when I should feel happy and calm, lol (is this even possible when close to the wedding date?).

Thank you for any advice.

Hi,
I agree with you, I would think it would flow better if you had the ceremony, took the desired amount of pics you want before your lunch reception, and then save the champagne toast and cake cutting for the end of your reception.
The Napa room is private room right?
I say do what you think is best, I know that I want tons of pics and I think that cake cutting and everything at that specific time would cut into my picture taking time. I am planning on having a lunch reception at the attic and then the cake cutting/toast there afterwards.

 

[Deb loves Disney]

I wrote to our planner and am just waiting for a response to see if it's doable.

The Napa Room is a private Room with an amazing view overlooking the Magic Kingdom. I can't wait!

If anybody else has any opinion I would love to hear what you think

Maybe I should have added that cool opinion poll at the top of my post.

 

[gemmybear83]

I'm going to play devils advocate as we are hosting a private recaption at Ariels and we are keeping our cake cutting at the Yacht Club Gazebo . The reason for this I was wanted my guests to have something to do while we are having photos taken, they can also have a rest with a glass of champagne.

I do agree though I ahve seen cake cutting photos at the Napa room and they are beautiful!

 

[Deb loves Disney]

I'm going to play devils advocate as we are hosting a private recaption at Ariels and we are keeping our cake cutting at the Yacht Club Gazebo . The reason for this I was wanted my guests to have something to do while we are having photos taken, they can also have a rest with a glass of champagne.

I do agree though I ahve seen cake cutting photos at the Napa room and they are beautiful!

I was just thinking about this side of it yesterday. I was looking more closely at the time allotments on the BEO and it seems like it will give us more time for photos by breaking it up a little bit.

Our ceremony is at noon and the cake cutting/champagne thing is at 1, then the lunch reception starts at 2, lunch service starting around 2:15.

The more that I think about it, the more I think it might be fun to experience lots of places on the wedding day, plus it gives me more time to walk around property in my dress.

We are planning riding the monorail from the Grand Floridian to the Contemporary which we are really looking forward to. I've seen some great pictures on here of couples doing that.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

For our vow renewal, we had the one hour of photography that is included in the Memories package. I was really worried that we wouldn't have enough time to get many pictures after the ceremony but it turns out we were able to cover a lot of ground in the amount of time we had! Once the ceremony (at Conch Key Marina) was over we had about 40 minutes or so left and we got shots in a number of spots outside (the marina, the fountain, Summerhouse, the breezeways and more) and a few different spots inside the lobby. We didn't have any guests so there were no group pictures to set up and I didn't have a long dress that needed to be fixed for each shot, so that helped us move around quickly, but even still, we got to many more places than I was thinking we would.

I figured I'd throw in my experience in case it helps you as you're thinking about your timing. Good luck!

 

[Chilly]

So this is how i'd see your day going:

12:00 - Ceremony 20 mins

12:20 - Photos @ WP 30 mins

12:50 - Travel to GF 10 mins

13:00 - Cake Cutting/Toast/First Dance 15 mins

13:15 - Slip away for photos with groom at GF 20 mins

13:35 - Meet back up with guests 5 mins

13:40 - Travel to Napa Room 20 mins

14:00 - Reception

 

[girli565]

Is there anyway to move the lunch up an hour? Serve a small appetizer to cover the time you'd be gone.

We had our ceremony at 12 and even with almost an hour of pictures after the 20 min ceremony we made it to our pre-reception by 1:40ish. We had a wishes wedding but the timeline would be the same.

 

[Deb loves Disney]

So this is how i'd see your day going:

12:00 - Ceremony 20 mins

12:20 - Photos @ WP 30 mins

12:50 - Travel to GF 10 mins

13:00 - Cake Cutting/Toast/First Dance 15 mins

13:15 - Slip away for photos with groom at GF 20 mins

13:35 - Meet back up with guests 5 mins

13:40 - Travel to Napa Room 20 mins

14:00 - Reception

Thank you for the timeline Chilly, it really helps put the day into perspective.
I just read your wedding day trip report and it was so nice to see the area where our cake cutting ceremony will be. It looks really pretty and has a nice view.
We are also having Randy for our photography. He seems like a pro and will probably know exactly how to get the most pictures out of the time that we have.

 

[Deb loves Disney]

Is there anyway to move the lunch up an hour? Serve a small appetizer to cover the time you'd be gone.

We had our ceremony at 12 and even with almost an hour of pictures after the 20 min ceremony we made it to our pre-reception by 1:40ish. We had a wishes wedding but the timeline would be the same.

I know that I have asked this of our planner and I don't remember exactly what she said but I don't think we can for some reason.

Now hearing others experiences I think we will be ok. I have also read your trip report and love all your photos.

Should I do a trip report when we get back? I never did do a Planning journal but enjoyed reading everybody else's.

 

[Chilly]

Thank you for the timeline Chilly, it really helps put the day into perspective.
I just read your wedding day trip report and it was so nice to see the area where our cake cutting ceremony will be. It looks really pretty and has a nice view.
We are also having Randy for our photography. He seems like a pro and will probably know exactly how to get the most pictures out of the time that we have.

Let me know if you have any other questions.