December Brides

[Ashley Marie]

First off, hi! I've been lurking on this board for a long time, but this is my first time posting in here.

My fiance and I got engaged in the Magic Kingdom right after Wishes (HalloWishes, actually) on Nov. 2. We immediately talked about having a Disney wedding, but then, for many reasons (mostly me being really indecisive, ha), started going in another direction with our potential plans. Now I'm 100% back on the Disney kick and ready to call them and start planning our wedding!

Our ideal wedding would be in early December 2013. I've got a couple questions for all the other past/present December brides out there...

1) Christmas decorations: I love Christmas. I really, really do. And I love seeing WDW all decorated for Christmas. But I'm a little reluctant about having those decorations in my wedding photos. Did anyone think about this or have a December wedding and regret having to have Christmas decorations in some of the photos? Or am I just really overthinking this?

2) Pop Warner, Christmas parade, etc: While I've heard early December is not super crowded, I've also heard that Pop Warner week is in early December, which means lots of groups of kids in the resorts and parks. And then there's also the Christmas parade taping, which I assume will bring crowds, too. Is this so bad that it should be avoided? Should I worry about any of the resorts I pick for guests filling up?

Thanks for any insight.

 

[sambycat]

Welcome and congrats!

We got married in January but I can speak to some of these things. As far as crowds go, it's hit it miss and is going to depend on what day you get as well and I would think where the days fall as to weekends/ thanksgiving/parade taping. Beginning of December isn't the empty time it was 5 years ago.

As far as Xmas decor being a part of photos, that's going to depend on where and when you get pics. If you are able to do a MK bridal session the Xmas-y part is Main Street which may or may not be a photo option for you depending on when you can be in the park and the castle has the lights but they are pretty and wintery not exactly Christmasy as you know! if you seek out Xmas decor its there, but it's avoidable if you want that "timeless" look! Also consider there can be limited dates available for bridal pics.

 

[Ashley Marie]

Thanks!

I haven't visited during early December in years, and yeah, I've heard it's not as slow as it used to be.

I think I read somewhere that December is a black out month for bridal portraits at MK? So I assumed that wouldn't be an option anyway. I was thinking more about the resorts - I'd like photos at the Grand Floridian since I want our ceremony to be at the Wedding Pavilion.

We may move it to 2014 to give us more time to save anyway. Are you glad you had your wedding in January?

 

[FairytaleBelle]

Hey!

I was in Florida from the 9th-19th Dec this year, not sure if you were interested in the Universal side of things but we were there 9th-11th and it was so empty, we did IOA in a couple of hours!!

We got to MK at 12 noon on the 12th, 15 minute queue for space mountain but most other rides in the park, (apart from the new fantasyland which admittedly did hold some heavy queues; 90 minutes for enchanted tales with belle!) were 5-10 minute queues.
There were enough people for an atmosphere, but few enough people to be able to get a good parade spot without waiting around for ages beforehand!
Epcot and HS were similar, soarin' FP ran out towards the end of the day as did Test track but other rides and general park business was low.
AK felt busier but I dont recall queuing for more than 20 minutes.
the 18th and 19th were far more busy than the week before..But in all honesty even those busier two days were fine.

Help that helps a little

 

[sambycat]

I think I read somewhere that December is a black out month for bridal portraits at MK? So I assumed that wouldn't be an option anyway. I was thinking more about the resorts - I'd like photos at the Grand Floridian since I want our ceremony to be at the Wedding Pavilion.

We may move it to 2014 to give us more time to save anyway. Are you glad you had your wedding in January?

january was great for us for a variety of reasons, so i liked it! the weather was normal january/winter/florida stuff - the day of it was beautiful, warm enough we had our pre-brunch danish/coffee outside on whitehall patio and the buffet was set up out there. DH and i had dinner at victoria and alberts - it stormed like summer time during dinner! about 7pm. our MK shoot was next morning, there were a few moments we weren’t sure if they might cancel - our shoot was later in the morning (which ended up meaning we didn’t have to cancel) but it did start of drizzly and was chilly, but i was in a strapless dress and i don’t remember being cold.....

yeah, there are those black outs - not sure how that all works, but there were still a lot of xmas decorations up end of january (we got married on the 25th, pics on the 26th). i think whomever does your photography will be able to get non-xmasy shots for you. i can’t think of a single picture that looks like xmas in any of ours! of course it would be a bit more challenging for certain things - like i have a great fish eye lens shot of the whole GF lobby and i’m not personally a fan of that crazy gingerbread house in the first place anyway. i cannot remember if the stairway at the GF has garland on it? i think not, so there are plenty of places that can be non-christmasy!