Escape Wedding or Wishes

[Xenabaka777]

I am planning a Disney wedding for Dec 2010 and I am not sure if the escape or wishes is the way to go. We have 13 guests attending. We are planing on having the wedding at the wedding Pavilion and the reception( I was planning) at the California Grill. I do want to have a magic kingdom photo package as well as a photo package at epcots china. I am Irish and would like to have all the Irish traditions included( horseshoe, bell and my sister is going to dance). We are not planning on having music at the reception or dancing(there is only 13 people) but I would like to have mickey and Minnie come. We will also need to have a translator for the wedding since DF family does not speak english and my family and I can not speak chinese. I want to keep the price down as much as I can since I will be flying DF family from Taiwan and paying for the hotel and food costs for the trip. That is we are planning on 5 rooms at the CR with the dining plan. Please post prices or your thoughts. I am so new to all this. Thank you so much again for all your help!

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[girli565]

I would think that with 13 guests and wanting to keep the prices down you would go with an Escape ceremony and then add the Cali Grill dinner.

Do you want dancing at your receptions or just a nice meal and cake cutting?

 

[honey2741]

Congratulations! Based on your preferences I would say for you to go with an Escape. If you add anything else, you may want to consider a Wishes. Look forward to reading more about your plans.

 

[Xenabaka777]

Do you want dancing at your receptions or just a nice meal and cake cutting?

I think we will just have a nice cake cutting. My sister is a champion Irish dancer so she is going to dance at both the wedding and then before the cake. I have 2 left feet, and the last time I tried dancing I broke an ankle. (hahahaha)

Here are some questions about an escape since I think with wishes you can have anything you want.

1.)With the escape wedding, can you have the magic kingdom photo package? and how much would that upgrade cost?

2.) Can I have a translator for the entire event?

3.) Will the WC help with the res at the Cali Grill? and can you have transportation to the cali grill or just use the monorail?

4.) Will the cake be enough for 13?

5.)Do we have to have champagne or can we substitute? (DF is allergic)

Thanks so much for all the help!

 

[Bridie1996]

I think we will just have a nice cake cutting. My sister is a champion Irish dancer so she is going to dance at both the wedding and then before the cake. I have 2 left feet, and the last time I tried dancing I broke an ankle. (hahahaha)

Here are some questions about an escape since I think with wishes you can have anything you want.

1.)With the escape wedding, can you have the magic kingdom photo package? and how much would that upgrade cost?

2.) Can I have a translator for the entire event?

3.) Will the WC help with the res at the Cali Grill? and can you have transportation to the cali grill or just use the monorail?

4.) Will the cake be enough for 13?

5.)Do we have to have champagne or can we substitute? (DF is allergic)

Thanks so much for all the help!

1) Yes, you can. It costs about $1,000 for the magic Kingdom photo package.

2) I don't see why not. I'd ask your wedding coordinator for help with this!

3) This kinda depends on the WC you have and what you're looking for. With such a small group, you'd probably call the Grill on your own. And yes, you can have transportation to the Grill, at an extra charge.

4) Definately. You'll have tons of cake left over.

5) I'm allergic to champagne as well, so we are having sparkling cider instead.

I'd purchase lurkyloo's Passporter book if I were you. It will answer many of your questions, and probably some questions you don't even know you have yet.

 

[twenty3curls]

I think we will just have a nice cake cutting. My sister is a champion Irish dancer so she is going to dance at both the wedding and then before the cake. I have 2 left feet, and the last time I tried dancing I broke an ankle. (hahahaha)

Here are some questions about an escape since I think with wishes you can have anything you want.

1.)With the escape wedding, can you have the magic kingdom photo package? and how much would that upgrade cost?

2.) Can I have a translator for the entire event?

3.) Will the WC help with the res at the Cali Grill? and can you have transportation to the cali grill or just use the monorail?

4.) Will the cake be enough for 13?

5.)Do we have to have champagne or can we substitute? (DF is allergic)

Thanks so much for all the help!

In regards to #3... if you do an Escape package, your WC can and will book the Cali Grill for you, assuming it's available. I'm having an Escape wedding and we're booking the Sonoma Room (the smaller of the two private rooms) at Cali Grill. You have to wait until 6 months out to book the room, but she's been monitoring the availability and providing me with updated menus. As soon as we confirmed after our 6-month mark she was able to go in and book it for us.

Your WC won't be at the dinner, but assuming your booking somewhere on WDW property, they can definitely do the booking for you regardless of party size. (We are only have 18 guests, plus us.)


As for #5... You can substitute the champagne for sparkling cider, if that helps. Your package comes with one bottle of champagne or two bottles of sparkling cider. You can, of course, always add additional bottles of each for a fee.

 

[girli565]

I think we will just have a nice cake cutting. My sister is a champion Irish dancer so she is going to dance at both the wedding and then before the cake. I have 2 left feet, and the last time I tried dancing I broke an ankle. (hahahaha)

Here are some questions about an escape since I think with wishes you can have anything you want.

1.)With the escape wedding, can you have the magic kingdom photo package? and how much would that upgrade cost?

2.) Can I have a translator for the entire event?

3.) Will the WC help with the res at the Cali Grill? and can you have transportation to the cali grill or just use the monorail?

4.) Will the cake be enough for 13?

5.)Do we have to have champagne or can we substitute? (DF is allergic)

Thanks so much for all the help!

Others already answered your questions so I won't repeat. But I just want to say that I think an Escape would be a perfect fit for you!

And order Carrie's book, it's an amazing help! It's on the passporters site.

 

[disprincessatheart]

As for transportation, the Escape package comes with use of a limo for 4 hours. If you stay at the CR, it can take everyone over to the WP in 2 groups (it only seats 8 at a time, plus you and your family can go separate from DF and his family for the whole not seeing the bride before the wedding thing). You'll be at the WP for about an hour with pictures and then it will take everyone, again in 2 groups, over to the GF for cake cutting on the Commander's Terrace. The cake cutting and beverages will be done about 90 minutes from the start time of the wedding. After that there would still be a good hour left in your 4 hours of limo time to take everyone back to the CR in 2 groups. Hope that helps!!

 

[Xenabaka777]

Thank you so much for all the help!!! I think I will go with the escape wedding package. I am going to start the PJ Thanks again!

 

[Chilly]

In regards to #3... if you do an Escape package, your WC can and will book the Cali Grill for you, assuming it's available. I'm having an Escape wedding and we're booking the Sonoma Room (the smaller of the two private rooms) at Cali Grill. You have to wait until 6 months out to book the room, but she's been monitoring the availability and providing me with updated menus. As soon as we confirmed after our 6-month mark she was able to go in and book it for us.

If you are just doing a normal meal rather than a private meal you can book it yourself by doing a normal ADR.

 

[pghloveswdw512]

I think we will just have a nice cake cutting. My sister is a champion Irish dancer so she is going to dance at both the wedding and then before the cake. I have 2 left feet, and the last time I tried dancing I broke an ankle. (hahahaha)

Here are some questions about an escape since I think with wishes you can have anything you want.

1.)With the escape wedding, can you have the magic kingdom photo package? and how much would that upgrade cost?

2.) Can I have a translator for the entire event?

3.) Will the WC help with the res at the Cali Grill? and can you have transportation to the cali grill or just use the monorail?

4.) Will the cake be enough for 13?

5.)Do we have to have champagne or can we substitute? (DF is allergic)

Thanks so much for all the help!

I know everyone answered these and you've made your decision, but I'm doing a lot of these myself for my Escape wedding, so I wanted to chime in!

1. We are doing the MK photo shoot, and we've added a DHS shoot too. It was $1300, and you get two separate albums and an hour in each park. If you wanted to do Epcot China, it would be the same price ($1300).

2. I'm not sure about this, but I don't see why not?

3. We are doing lunch at the Big River Grille, and my planner offered to make the call for us. I ended up doing it, and it was fine. If you wanted to book a private room at CG, your planner can help with that too. We looked into doing that as well.

4. We are having 19 guests, and my planner said we would have leftovers with them too! I think we're going to save our top layer and eat it throughout our honeymoon.

5. We have 4 kids and a breastfeeding mom in our guest count, so we decided to switch over completely to the sparkling cider. You need to buy an extra bottle for every 6 guests, but the included bottle of champagne = 2 bottles of the cider. I only had to buy one extra bottle!

We also did a room block, which is something that isn't required for Escape weddings but it has helped our families stay organized and together during the planning. They got 10% off the rooms and was able to book really easily through group reservations. This might be easier for you as well since you have people from Taiwan coming.

Good luck, and I'm off to read your PJ now!