Dinner Dilemma

[blondie1184]

I can't decide what to do...

We are having an Escape wedding in March at the Wedding Pavilion. It is going to start at 12 and take 2 hrs with pictures. We also want an extra hour of photography, so 3 hours and we will be done at 3pm.

My FMIL wants to have a dinner for the guests. She says it should be directly after the ceremony because everyone will be there already, but I'm not sure what the guests would do during my extra photo time. She says they can all change clothes during that time and then meet up again (which kind of contradicts being there already), but then I would want to change afterwards also, pushing the dinner back even further.

I suggested having dinner at a restaurant that you can view the fireworks from later in the evening, but my mom says that this will be a vacation for people and they might not leave the parks in time to meet a reservation, or that some guests would just drive back home after the ceremony (we live about 2.5 hours away). She says we should see everyone during the cake and champagne celebration and then enjoy our Disney honeymoon. Plus, FMIL still insists it should be closer to the ceremony time.

Does anyone have any other ideas about how I can have a lunch/dinner, or if I even should? I think my FMIL would be pretty upset if there wasn't a dinner as her family meets up to celebrate every family event, but I don't want to make this a weekend event either.

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Hi sweetie and congratulations on your forthcoming wedding!!!
You have a difficult time scale for dinner at a restaurant, as many of the restaurants don't start serving dinner until 5.30pm. If I were in your situation, I would do a 'first-look ' and then get the majority of extra photos done before the ceremony, that way you can book at lunch at somewhere elegant (eg GF Cafe) or, if you are changing, inside a theme park. You could then suggest that anybody who may still be around at the end of the day, meet up for fireworks either in a park or at a bar at one of the resorts from which you can see some fireworks. Anyway, just an idea for you!!

 

[princessK30]

Hi! we sort of have the same situation, with the FMIL included haha! we are are having an escape wedding at the WP at 12p too (in jan). We are having a magic kingdom photoshoot the morning of the wedding...so we decided to have the wedding at 12p so we could get pictures done together before the wedding and that way after the cake cutting etc, we wouldn't be holding up our family by getting pictures of just us done then and can go straight to lunch/dinner with everyone. We haven't chosen a place yet...but are looking into some of the restaurants for "lunch" instead of dinner, probably like 2:30 or 3p, mostly because its cheaper, and that way afterwards if people want to leave they can, or they can join us to go to the magic kingdom to watch the parade and fireworks that night My FMIL thinks we should have done the 10am spot for the WP, but we explained that either way we would be doing pictures of just the two of us one way or another so it didn't make a difference (and we're not changing times!). I know it depends on whether or not you want to see your groom before the wedding though as well. and if you don't want to see each other before, then your guests will just have to suck it up and wait for you to be done with pictures - they can always go get appetizers wherever you decide to eat!

 

[CositaRicaFabulosa]

I think the suggestions that you do a late lunch are good, and you may want to consider an afternoon tea. I think you can reserve the Gardenview Tea Room at the Grand Floridian for a fairly reasonable price. . . it depends on the number of people you are having. There's also the Mad Hatter Tea Party, too, though that will likely be more expensive. I'm just starting my planning and have been considering these options and have found that it's hard to compare the options for a midday reception event unless you run the numbers for your specific party. Some of them can be a lot more reasonable than you might think. All of the Dessert Party plans seem to be for fireworks shows, but I wonder if you could do one of the Grand Floridian locales during the afternoon, might be worth asking DFTW if you could. Good luck and let us know what you end up doing.

 

[disprincessatheart]

I know it seems like a lot of time for people to sit around, but for us the time flew by. We had a 2pm wedding, and started a little early because everyone was there and ready we did all pics post cermony while our guest were shuttled to the grand Floridian in the limo and then we did our cake cutting. We were done around 5 and we were rushing everyone over to narcoosses for our 5:30 dinner reservation. Dinner took 2 1/2 hours and then we were rushing to the grand 1 for a wishes cruise. About half of our group of 20 changed clothes before dinner, and most of the rest were in more casual outfits anyway.

If you like the idea of dinner, do dinner. If someone doesnt want to stay they don't have to. Maybe do 2separate RSVP sections on the cards, one for the ceremony and one for dinner to make it clear the dinner is optional. If you want to provide entertainment for your guests between cake and dinner, ask your planner if you can keep your space longer and maybe provide drinks and appetizers.

Our family was very happy to explore the gf and I would have liked to have an extra hour. I can say no one mentioned wanting to go to a park that day. I also enjoyed extending the wedding portion of the trip - it goes by so fast!