Dinner/Reception Ideas

[rspencer38]

Hey!

So we are looking for a bit of advice regarding what to do for our dinner/reception after our wedding.

The plan right now is to have a cermony on the boardwalk area (likely SBP or S/D) at 530. We were planning on simply combining our dinner and illuminations dessert party but the limited options for hot food at epcot is making it a little tough.

Does anyone have any suggestions for dinner before the dessert party? We will have between 20-25 people. We are trying to keep the costs lower (preferably below 1600-1700) as we still need to pay for the dessert party.

We like the idea of exisiting restuarants but some of their private room minimums is way too high. Also, not sure how they seat everyone at existing locations (will they break the group apart?)

Open to suggestions for Boardwalk or Disney springs area.

 

[lurkyloo]

First, tell me a bit about why the hot food options at Epcot are tough. You can do pretty much anything you can dream up—you're not limited to what's on the sample menus they send you. And if you're open to spending $1,700 on just the dinner, then the higher minimums for a sit-down meal at Epcot shouldn't faze you—and they open up even more food possibilities.

 

[rspencer38]

My understanding was that most of the locations in the world showcase were mostly cold buffet options. Is it possible to even have hot buffet items or plated meals at the locations at world showcase? I dont think resturants in Epcot would work because we dont want to spend money on park admission.

 

[lurkyloo]

Yes! You can have any kind of food anywhere in Epcot. The only restrictions would be on things like ice sculptures if your location is too far from a kitchen. Each location has a different food and beverage minimum for receptions (walkaround, not everyone gets a seat) vs. sit-down meals. If you have the PassPorter, these are all listed in Chapter 3. Chapter 5 has all the info for dessert parties. I have a ton of menus on my site, but they're all just suggestions. You work with the chef to customize everything: http://disneytravelbabble.com/disney-weddings/sample-catered-event-menus/

You can totally do your original plan and combine a private catered meal with an IllumiNations viewing.

 

[rspencer38]

So just to clarify, in the pass porter I'm looking at the Italian pavilion and UK. Both of them say that due to location only "buffet" is available and selection is restricted to cold items with a small hot selection. I'm able to have full plated meals or hot buffets at either Italy or UK?

 

[lurkyloo]

You can have a hot food served buffet-style but not a plated meal, unless you want to pay $800+ for a food tent so everything can be made and plated on-site. I included that verbiage because it's in Disney's venue guidelines, but maybe I should take it out if it's scaring people off of doing dinner during IllumiNations....