Desert Party vs. Rehearsal Dinner

[WittyAmb]

So I'm trying to decide between having a rehearsal dinner or a desert party at Illuminations the night before the wedding. All of our guests are coming from Miami, NYC and Europe.

I love the idea of having a gathering of everyone at Epcot, especially for those who haven't been to Disney before. As you know, their fireworks show is a great introduction to the magic WDW offers. My issue is finding the difference in pricing. I have the passporters book (which is awesome btw and I highly recommend it). She's really clear on pricing for the desert party but not so clear as far as rehearsal dinners are concerned.

Have any of your struggled with this decision and know of where I could get more info? Any advice or suggestions are, of course, welcomed!

 

[TabZ]

It depends what you want out of a rehearsal dinner. Most people hold group reservations in restaurants. I'm planning a dinner/dessert party on one of the patios at Fantasmic, and am budgeting $100 a head, if it was just dessert about $40 a head

 

[mb187143]

We did both. A rehearsal dinner for our immediate families and bridal party at ohana and then an illuminations dessert party for all 59 of our guests a a welcome event, both on the night before our wedding.

The reason the passporter had more info about dessert parties is that there's more consistent info to them. You can do a lot of different restaurants for a rehearsal dinner. You can do a private event that your planner can help you coordinate. Some people have rented a villa at one of the DVC resorts and brought food in. It depends on a lot of different factors.

As far as pricing, the rehearsal dinner was paid for by my mother in law. She paid about $1200 for dinner for 19 people. We paid for the dessert party ourselves and it came out to $2100 for the menu we selected for 59 guests. The menus are customizable but there is a food &beverage minimum to meet at each DP location.

 

[WittyAmb]

I definitely don't want to do both. We're more than likely paying for the wedding ourselves and given people are traveling from just about every where I figured a "welcome" event is probably better than a rehearsal dinner. Regardless of which route we choose (dinner or desert party), everyone would be invited.

Did you think the desert party was worth the price? Food? Ambiance?

Thanks so much for your help ladies! :-D

 

[bradleyjess]

From the numbers I've crunched, the Dessert Party seems to be the better value if your menu and decorations aren't extravagant. If I end up having an extra $1500 I'm definitely doing a DP at UK Upper for my 34 guests the night before the wedding.

I think the experience of a private party in a park is worth it for guests who don't plan on going to the parks while in town. Plus, I loooove dessert

 

[mb187143]

Our DP was more expensive, but we had more than double the guests from the rehearsal dinner. I think because you can customize the DP menus, and accommodate a higher guest count more easily, I'd do a DP over a restaurant-style rehearsal dinner.

Ohana is one of the cheapest options for a group dinner at $35pp. The other restaurants on property have special menus, many over $75pp, if you have more than a certain guest count, and few offer private rooms.

Our guests were blown away by the illuminations dp. It kicked off the weekend and really established that this was going to be a different wedding than they had ever been to. It really was a purely Disney experience. If we had to pay for everything ourselves, we would have axed ohana and just done the DP, without hesitation.

Our menu was fairly light, but our guests loved it. If we'd not had a rehearsal dinner, we would have offered a bit more food. We didn't do a bar, just the coffee/tea/water/juice that came with the food.

 

[aristocatz]

We had an Illuminations DP the night before our wedding. We got alot of positive feedback from our guests who said it was the best event of the wedding (some even said it was the best event they had experienced at ANY wedding!!). My DH & I also thought it was a very relaxing and romantic event to have the night before our wedding. We had dinner & hung out in the WS with our bridal party & then walked over to the DP. Back to our hotel room right after, & got a great night sleep for our wedding the next day

We also had a welcome dinner for immediate family & the bridal party at 1900 Park Fare. It was a nice evening, but definitely not aas cozy and social as the DP.

I have heard of brides doing much more budget friendly options for Welcome events, such as getting some deli platters & snacks from Publix & hanging out on the beach of their resort or in their DVC room. I've also heard of informal BBQ's as welcome gatherings if you are staying in a FW cabin.

ETA: Just wanted to add that we also had a light menu for our DP-cookies, cupcakes, eclairs, rice krispie treats, chocolate trifle. It was one of the cheaper menu's. We did not serve alcohol either-just the coffee, tea, & juice that it came with. No one seemed to care that there was no alcohol & I think most people appreciated that the food offerings were simple because most people went out to dinner on their own before the DP so they weren't looking for anymore than something to nosh on while they watched the fireworks.

 

[lurkyloo]

My issue is finding the difference in pricing. I have the passporters book (which is awesome btw and I highly recommend it). She's really clear on pricing for the desert party but not so clear as far as rehearsal dinners are concerned.

Rehearsal dinner pricing is the same as reception pricing (minus the $100/$125/$150 overall per person food and beverage minimums for weddings—you just have to meet the venue's minimums). All those prices are listed under each venue's entry in Chapter 3: Wishes Collection.