Choosing the date for your wedding/vow renewal

[disneebride]

Hello guys. I am in the beginning stages of trying to plan a cow renewal for my 15th wedding anniversary and I am trying to figure out what date to choose.

I would like to know what reasons you chose your date.

Here are the options I am kicking around and the pros and cons of these.

Our original anniversary July 6th- pro- of course for obvious reasons, kids would not have to miss any school, and sunshine! con- sweltering heat, and crowds due to close proximity to the 4th of July.


April 7 pro- this is the anniversary of our first date, it is wonderfully blooming springtime! Epcot flower fest!, plus this will be after we get our tax return, lol. con- spring break crowds.

October 29,30, or 31 pro- We love fall and halloween! Cooler sunshine weather, and Epcot F & W fest!! con- take kids out of school, plus this is getting close to the holidays, and guests may have harder time taking time from work.

I am having a hard time deciding!! Anyone else care to weigh in on the reasons you chose your date and help me choose mine?!?

Thanks

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Congratulations and welcome!!
How exciting that you are having a 'cow renewal' - are your original cows out of milk!!! Only joking - I know it is a typo!!!
As for the serious stuff, my husband and I renewed our vows in May and we chose our date for convenience only. We had been married for 11 years and 4 days on the date of our renewal. We had planned it for our 10 year anniversary, but with two children in university, the time was not right financially. We then planned on having it at exactly 11 years (29th April being our anniversary date) but because Easter was so late this year, prices of flights rocketed at the end of April (we are from the UK). As it happened, it was also the date of the Royal wedding, so now I am glad we didn't pick 29th April now as we would have missed all the fun over here!!
We managed to secure reasonable flights for all of us (us and 14 guests) on 1st May and so planned the VR for three days later on the 4th May.
I guess it depends how important it is to you that your VR is actually on a special day. To us, it wasn't important at all - we just wanted to re-affirm our love and it didn't matter when we did it!!
I must say, if it were me, I think I would avoid July like the plague!!!
Good luck and happy planning!!

 

[mb187143]

we chose our date of 11/2/2012 for a couple reasons:

1- 11/2 was my late grandfather's birthday, and it was a nice way to remember him

2- 11/2/2012 fell on a Friday which would be more convenient for our guests than a weekday wedding in WDW, and the minimum is slightly lower on a friday than a saturday

3 - I don't like the extreme heat in the summer in Florida, so we narrowed it down to November through February first. Then we considered the weather leaving Philadelphia, PA in December through February would add extra stress on us because it can be very snowy.

4- Food and Wine will be going on at that time, which is something our guests can enjoy even if they're not big disney fans.


Just our reasoning

Happy planning!

 

[yourgypsy]

We chose May 5th mostly because Doug felt that it would give people more time to save up. I wanted March 5th, since that's our anniversary. I've been teasing him since if we went with March, the dining plan would've been free, etc. But at least the Flower Show is still going on then, and will make for some nice pictures.

 

[One_Song]

Our wedding date was 10/8/11, and it was the earliest date that we both were happy with. My husband didn't want to get married until after he had taken the bar exam (in July) and I didn't want to get married in August or September because of the heat. We wanted a traditional Saturday wedding, and that is the Saturday we got from the lottery.

I think you should rank what factors are most important to you. It seems like you're most considering (1) sentimental value (2) weather (3) crowd levels. For me, I didn't want to be sweating on my wedding day (also remember that the weather affects your whole trip, so if you plan to do the parks and such, it's a big influence). One other suggestion--- I wouldn't rely too much on sentimental value. Your vow renewal is going to feel beautiful and important no matter what day it is

 

[lurkyloo]

You might also want to consider the Disney resort pricing seasons (Value, Regular, Peak, etc.) if your guests will be staying at Disney. Prices can vary widely by time of year. I always tell this story, but when we moved our wedding date by 2 weeks—away from President's Day Weekend (Holiday Season) to early February (Value Season)—it knocked hundreds of dollars off the cost of hotels and flights.

 

[MrsDuck]

I'd do October purely for the following things:
1. the weather
2. the F&W Festival
3. the Halloween park decorations!

Congrats and happy planning!!

ETA: our date was an easy decision. We started dating 12.22.05 and decided to keep our wedding anniversary the same date-- 12.22.12! Pretty close to the holidays for our guests but the date matters to us.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

We already had an anniversary trip planned when DFTW introduced the Memories Collection so we added our VR onto that trip. Our VR was a day off from our actual anniversary - it would've been fun to do it on the actual day but they weren't offering that day of the week. Our VR was in October.

 

[luvs2cruise]

We're doing a DCLVR in June 2012. Our actual anniversary is Oct 8 but we already had a cruise planned for our daughter's graduation. We figured this may be the last time we are all together for a while so why wait!!!

 

[kipperoo]

Mine was based on Day of the week. We're doing December 8, 2011. I wanted a Thursday because:
1. Park crowds will be less so after our lunch reception people can actually have fun at Disneyland without battling weekend crowds.
2. Flight from Seattle to LAX are cheaper on Wednesday, when most of our guests are flying down.
and
3. The Disneyland Escape wedding is only available weekdays and Thursday gives everyone an excuse to take a long weekend and enjoy the parks AFTER all the wedding excitement.

I did some shopping around on the Virgin America website as far as which week to do in December, and the 5-9th was $100 to $150 cheaper than the rest of the month.

 

[BethieTink]

For our wedding date 10/12/02, we picked the Saturday closest to the day we started dating 10/8/2000. We got engaged in June 2001 and knew that 4 months was not enough to plan a wedding. It turned out to be an expensive choice since we didn't realize that Columbus Day Weekend in Boston is the most sought after weekend, due to the fall foliage. It worked out perfectly fine, but it made for some snap vendor decisons.

For our vow renewal date 11/10/12, we would have loved to have done it on our 10th anniversay, but....we had gone back and forth so many times on whether or not to do the renewal that we had booked 2 Disney Cruises for the week of our 10th and the following week. Since we didn't want to do it before the actual date, we went with the next time that had a long weekend, Veterans Day weekend. That will hopefully give most folks some extra time to spend with us instead of travelling.

 

[pima416]

Our wedding is on 10/6/12. Some of the main reasons are:

1) Food & Wine Fesitval- we had been previously and had a blast
2) Columbus day weekend- so more people could come and not have to take off from work- mini vacation
3) Saturday-same reason as above

 

[heatherlove]

Well originally we chose July 10th but have since changed our plans. That date was chosen for convenience only because it falls in the week he gets back from his Marines training and we were too worried about when we'd be able to do this.

Since we've changed our plans, we're trying to get 9/26 for our date which is our original anniversary. We will be married in April 2012 but have the wedding on our "real" anniversary in Sept. So it works better for us.

 

[mebbradley]

We chose June 27.2013.

We chose this beacause:

• It's a weekday so lower premiums for the whole wedding
• We started dating on Sept. 27 so the 27th is special
• I kinda wanted to be in the park for July 4th [but most of our guests will not be]
• It's during the summer! [so while it will be hot.....] People might already be off work

Originally we wanted May 27.2013 but then we realized it was Memorial Day. No thanks for the holiday jump in prices.

We also toyed with the idea of a 2012 wedding but deployment and graduation and the sheer cost of things all added up to wait another year!

 

[Designer Rose]

Our date was originally Nov. 4, but we found out that there was a convention scheduled at the GF that day, so we would have had to have our reception somewhere else. Well, we decided we really wanted the GF, so we decided to change our date. The only date close to Nov. 4 that was available that was a Sunday was October 28, sooo that's what we went with.

 

[disneebride]

Congratulations and welcome!!
How exciting that you are having a 'cow renewal' - are your original cows out of milk!!! Only joking - I know it is a typo!!!
As for the serious stuff, my husband and I renewed our vows in May and we chose our date for convenience only. We had been married for 11 years and 4 days on the date of our renewal. We had planned it for our 10 year anniversary, but with two children in university, the time was not right financially. We then planned on having it at exactly 11 years (29th April being our anniversary date) but because Easter was so late this year, prices of flights rocketed at the end of April (we are from the UK). As it happened, it was also the date of the Royal wedding, so now I am glad we didn't pick 29th April now as we would have missed all the fun over here!!
We managed to secure reasonable flights for all of us (us and 14 guests) on 1st May and so planned the VR for three days later on the 4th May.
I guess it depends how important it is to you that your VR is actually on a special day. To us, it wasn't important at all - we just wanted to re-affirm our love and it didn't matter when we did it!!
I must say, if it were me, I think I would avoid July like the plague!!!
Good luck and happy planning!!

Cow renewal, ?!? I guess I should have re-read my post!! Thank you for your insight. I enjoyed reading your pj and trip report. You had a lovely vow renewal. I am considering doing S/D as well, I got some information about ceremony locations from Karen at just marry. The only thing holding me up is having pics done in the parks. I just don't know.

 

[disneebride]

Our wedding date was 10/8/11, and it was the earliest date that we both were happy with. My husband didn't want to get married until after he had taken the bar exam (in July) and I didn't want to get married in August or September because of the heat. We wanted a traditional Saturday wedding, and that is the Saturday we got from the lottery.

I think you should rank what factors are most important to you. It seems like you're most considering (1) sentimental value (2) weather (3) crowd levels. For me, I didn't want to be sweating on my wedding day (also remember that the weather affects your whole trip, so if you plan to do the parks and such, it's a big influence). One other suggestion--- I wouldn't rely too much on sentimental value. Your vow renewal is going to feel beautiful and important no matter what day it is

Thanks and I surely agree, I do not plan on sweating!!

 

[disneebride]

You might also want to consider the Disney resort pricing seasons (Value, Regular, Peak, etc.) if your guests will be staying at Disney. Prices can vary widely by time of year. I always tell this story, but when we moved our wedding date by 2 weeks—away from President's Day Weekend (Holiday Season) to early February (Value Season)—it knocked hundreds of dollars off the cost of hotels and flights.

This is an extremely valuable piece of insight! Thanks so much, I hadn't even thought about this.

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Cow renewal, ?!? I guess I should have re-read my post!! Thank you for your insight. I enjoyed reading your pj and trip report. You had a lovely vow renewal. I am considering doing S/D as well, I got some information about ceremony locations from Karen at just marry. The only thing holding me up is having pics done in the parks. I just don't know.

Hi sweetie - So glad you are considering a S/D event!!! Just a heads up (but you may already know), if you were a S/D bride, the only park in which you would not be permitted to have a photographic session in your bridal attire, is the MK. You can have a session in bridal attire in any other park, provided you use DPS, as outside photographers are never allowed inside the park.
Good luck with your decision!!

 

[TabZ]

We've not yet decided on a day, just the month and year. We want to get married in value season to make it more cost effective for everyone involved, more chance of free dining etc which will make the whole event more affordable, which really means more spending money!

Neither DF or I like hot weather, so we decided on December, within the first two weeks. Neither of us have seen a Disney park decorated for Xmas so we're going to nip over to DLRP in December next year to see if we like the concept before we commit!

As for the actual day, I'm not too fussy, as long as DF and I are together thats all that matters to me. I like the idea of being flexible, means I have a better chance of getting the time and venue I want, and it being on the same day as our planned MK shoot