Escape Wedding Questions/Help please!

[Rora]

Hey everyone! I haven't been very active on the Weddings board in a while-- grad school and my job have caught up to me . DF and I have finally decided that an Escape Wedding could be right for us!! We don't want to spend a huge amount of money and we also want a small group of guests. I'd like to hear what all you brides think about our plan and can maybe offer some advice. Thank you so much!
The Plan:
-Escape Wedding
-Wedding Pav.
-Add 1 or 2 photopackages
-Add a videopackage (worth it?)
-Take guests out to some kind of meal/party after the actually ceremony.

Obviously this plan is quite rough but it's just a start. We're looking at 2010.

My Questions:
-How do we cut our guest list to 18??!
-Is it really really awful to tell our family that their significant others can't come to ceremony due to it being a very small, immediate family only ceremony? They are welcome to attend all other events except for the actual wedding itself. How do we handle this?
-Where should we have an after-celebration?

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all so much!

 

[alissa2008]

Hey everyone! I haven't been very active on the Weddings board in a while-- grad school and my job have caught up to me . DF and I have finally decided that an Escape Wedding could be right for us!! We don't want to spend a huge amount of money and we also want a small group of guests. I'd like to hear what all you brides think about our plan and can maybe offer some advice. Thank you so much!
The Plan:
-Escape Wedding
-Wedding Pav. Double check with the girls, but I don't think you can do an escape at WP. I think this is one of the reasons we chose SBP... oh, no, wait, you CAN, it just costs more than the other venues.
-Add 1 or 2 photopackages
-Add a videopackage (worth it?) Totally!
-Take guests out to some kind of meal/party after the actually ceremony.

Obviously this plan is quite rough but it's just a start. We're looking at 2010.

My Questions:
-How do we cut our guest list to 18??! We told people that wanted to come down that seating was first come first serve, and any extra people would have to either do a quick walkby or meet up with us at the reception site.
-Is it really really awful to tell our family that their significant others can't come to ceremony due to it being a very small, immediate family only ceremony? They are welcome to attend all other events except for the actual wedding itself. How do we handle this? Absolutely not. I originally said immediate family (and my grandmothers) only! Then after christmas my WHOLE family was like so we gave them the first come first serve option. We researched the cost difference in a wishes wedding, but it was something like an extra $7K for all the things we wanted plus the extra people.
-Where should we have an after-celebration? Still pondering this myself. We've tossed the idea of an off property restaurant, (because for 12+ people you have to book dinner before 5:30), a picnic at our timeshare, we have no idea...

Any other advice would be greatly appreciate! Thank you all so much!

 

[JaxTeach]

Yes, you can have your ceremony at the WP, but the cost is around $1k more than the other venues.

We were in the same predicament with our wedding in regards to guest count. Most of our guests are locals and had a difficult time asking off close to Christmas. I also knew that no one would stay on property and I thought it was rude to ask since it wasn't exactly a big vacation for them. We invited our immediate family and each of our best friends' only to the ceremony. Best friend's SO's didn't come to the ceremony and they really couldn't have cared less. My BF volunteered for her boyfriend to sit it out so more family could attend. We invited our friends and extended family members to our dinner and DP. DFTW arranged those 2 events for us, but we were on our own coordinating our wedding day. Everything went smoothly and we couldn't have asked for a better wedding. Definitely worth the $$ saved to us.

We had an outside photographer for our wedding. IMO, DPS isn't the best for this job. Just my opinion, but I have photos taken by DPS to support my opinion. Adding an outside photographer does increase the overall cost of your wedding, but sitting here at almost 6 months out-- my photos are what I cherish the most from our wedding day. Well worth the investment.

We also had an outside videographer. I'm lazy and we don't have our wedding video yet, so I can't exactly comment on the final product on this one!

There are plenty of options for an after wedding celebration. We were not overly concerned with budget since we knew we'd come in lower than the $10k cost of a Wishes wedding. We had our wedding dinner at the California Grill and it couldn't have been more wonderful. There are other less expensive options as well.

Good luck planning your wedding! An Escape wedding is a "package" wedding, but it can definitely be tailored a bit to your tastes.

 

[Rora]

Thank you 2 so much.. I have one more question I hope someone can answer:
at an Escape Wedding can you have a first dance and Dad/Daughter dance?
These are 2 things I don't want to pass up. Thanks girls!

 

[lurkyloo]

Yes! The violinist included with the package will play those songs for you before or after you cut the cake.

 

[PhilHarMaestro]

I was also told if you get married at the WP you will have more time for a father/daughter dance because you go to a seperate location for your cake cutting. I was told if you do not have it at the WP there may not be enough time for both.
And you don't have to have the violinist play it you may use a recording.
And also FYI the price for the WP for 2009 is now $5500.
Hope this helps

 

[Rora]

Thanks Lurky and Philhar! Oh no, a price increase. I'm starting to wonder if it's actually better for us to just have a Wishes wedding. We have about 25 people we'd ideally like to invite and I would love to have everything really tailored to our taste, but there is of course the money issue. DF and I will be paying for the wedding ourselves, we are young, freshly out of school- it's an issue. haha. I will obviously have to do some research before I contact a planner but I am going to compare prices on Wishes and Escape. Any opinions on this issue?

 

[lurkyloo]

Well, I'm a huge proponent of doing a Wishes wedding for the bare minimum - several of us have done it.

For me, the level of service, number of options, and flexibility provided with a Wishes wedding made things SO much easier.

 

[PhilHarMaestro]

I would love to switch to Wishes wedding too, but just can't afford it. But, just to let you know the Wishes wedding is going up $500 for 2009 as well.
It's all sort of a bummer, because I was originally planning a Dec. 2008 wedding, but a first year band director can't leave the week before the band concert, so I'm forking over the extra $500

 

[PhilHarMaestro]

By the way LurkyLoo how on earth do you know so much about DFTW. You've always got great advise on almost every thread?

 

[figmentcookie]

Thanks Lurky and Philhar! Oh no, a price increase. I'm starting to wonder if it's actually better for us to just have a Wishes wedding. We have about 25 people we'd ideally like to invite and I would love to have everything really tailored to our taste, but there is of course the money issue. DF and I will be paying for the wedding ourselves, we are young, freshly out of school- it's an issue. haha. I will obviously have to do some research before I contact a planner but I am going to compare prices on Wishes and Escape. Any opinions on this issue?

I think go with wishes. My intimate wedding is creeping up wayyyy too close for comfort to the wishes minimum! It goes up so easily once/if you start adding in flowers and portrait sessions.

 

[Rora]

Thanks girls.. I'm definitley going to have to compare Wishes vs. Escape. Anything else you all can tell me?

Thank you again!!

 

[alissa2008]

Thanks Lurky and Philhar! Oh no, a price increase. I'm starting to wonder if it's actually better for us to just have a Wishes wedding. We have about 25 people we'd ideally like to invite and I would love to have everything really tailored to our taste, but there is of course the money issue. DF and I will be paying for the wedding ourselves, we are young, freshly out of school- it's an issue. haha. I will obviously have to do some research before I contact a planner but I am going to compare prices on Wishes and Escape. Any opinions on this issue?

Be careful when switching to Wishes, there were room requirements we couldn't meet. Most our guests are staying off property and already have their plans...once our BEO started to creep up (and we were having trouble locking a reception site), we realized a minimum wishes might have been the way to go -- unfortunately, we can't afford not to, but we REALLY can't afford TO.

By the way LurkyLoo how on earth do you know so much about DFTW. You've always got great advise on almost every thread?

a mystery that will continue to grace the disboards.

I think go with wishes. My intimate wedding is creeping up wayyyy too close for comfort to the wishes minimum! It goes up so easily once/if you start adding in flowers and portrait sessions.

This is true. Like I said, you could very easily get an escape wedding up past the cost of a wishes minimum! ESPECIALLY if you continue to look on disboards!!

 

[disprincessatheart]

We did the escape wedding at the WP, extra flowers for dads, mom, flower girl, ring bearer, MOH and BM. We bought the DFTW unity candle set and added rose petals to the altar, upgraded our cake, took 19 people to narcoosse's with no limits on the bar, and did a Wishes cruise on the Grand 1. Everyone was blown away by how nice everything was, and we did it all for $7600, so we weren't even close to the 10k min (before tax and gratuity). Also, the dinner we had at narcoosse's for $65ppn was so much nicer than the $125ppn dinner we had originally planned in EPCOT for a wishes wedding. And being able to do the Grand 1 was so much fun and really blew everyone away!

It really comes down to how many extras you can do without or can't. You can have an amazing weddign either way. And, I did use DPS and I really love my pictures. I wasn't particular about the style of pics, just that I got nice shots of our day, and we really did.

 

[Rora]

Thank you everyone for the advice!!! It's getting hard to pick between the 2 now. I'm going to call DFTW sometime this week and get some more details. DF and I do have a while but I'm a biggg planner and I want to get started on this now!! Plus- I'm really excited!

We did the escape wedding at the WP, extra flowers for dads, mom, flower girl, ring bearer, MOH and BM. We bought the DFTW unity candle set and added rose petals to the altar, upgraded our cake, took 19 people to narcoosse's with no limits on the bar, and did a Wishes cruise on the Grand 1. Everyone was blown away by how nice everything was, and we did it all for $7600, so we weren't even close to the 10k min (before tax and gratuity). Also, the dinner we had at narcoosse's for $65ppn was so much nicer than the $125ppn dinner we had originally planned in EPCOT for a wishes wedding. And being able to do the Grand 1 was so much fun and really blew everyone away!

It really comes down to how many extras you can do without or can't. You can have an amazing weddign either way. And, I did use DPS and I really love my pictures. I wasn't particular about the style of pics, just that I got nice shots of our day, and we really did.

Wow!! You sound like us.. Expect a PM from me soon about your wedding!
Thanks again to everyone.. I don't know what I'd do without my DISers!

 

[PRPrincess1081]

We did the escape wedding at the WP, extra flowers for dads, mom, flower girl, ring bearer, MOH and BM. We bought the DFTW unity candle set and added rose petals to the altar, upgraded our cake, took 19 people to narcoosse's with no limits on the bar, and did a Wishes cruise on the Grand 1. Everyone was blown away by how nice everything was, and we did it all for $7600, so we weren't even close to the 10k min (before tax and gratuity). Also, the dinner we had at narcoosse's for $65ppn was so much nicer than the $125ppn dinner we had originally planned in EPCOT for a wishes wedding. And being able to do the Grand 1 was so much fun and really blew everyone away!

It really comes down to how many extras you can do without or can't. You can have an amazing weddign either way. And, I did use DPS and I really love my pictures. I wasn't particular about the style of pics, just that I got nice shots of our day, and we really did.

If you don't mind sharing did the $7600 include your hotel stay.
Because I have an Escaped booked for April 2009 and with no upgrades plus hotel its already over 10K

 

[Eyesparkle]

 

[disprincessatheart]

If you don't mind sharing did the $7600 include your hotel stay.
Because I have an Escaped booked for April 2009 and with no upgrades plus hotel its already over 10K

No, the hotel was not in the $7600. I didn't include that since it wouldn't count towards the Wishes $10k either. We stayed at the Grand Floridian, so for some that would really skew the numbers! Here's the breakdown

$5000 WP Escape Package - we used everything that came with it
$225 - upgraded cake
$50 - $75 - extra bottle of champagne
$200 - extra flowers (corsage, 4 boutineers, rose wand, unity candle and petals)
$1600 Dinner for 19 at Narcoosee's including tax and tip with DDE discount
$450 WIshes cruise on Grand 1
$80 waters on Grand 1 - wasted money!

THings I didn't include in that total- hair and makeup, dress, tux, rings, officiant, week at Disney - to me those costs are a given no matter where you get married, and the week at Disney was no more expensive than any other honeymoon!

 

[JaxTeach]

I'm trying to find our budget to help some folks out. We had our Escape wedding including everything (wedding, 4 nights @ BWI, 1 week in Paris, invites, favors, my dress, DH's suit, wedding rings... everything you would need no matter where you were married) for $16K total. We paid Disney around $7k.

I think that was another hard part for me to swallow-- if we went the Wishes route, we'd pay $10k to Disney for just the wedding day. We would then have to pay at least $5k for our attire, wedding favors, honeymoon, stationary, etc. Considering we knew we wanted an outside photographer, Escape was the only way to go.

 

[PRPrincess1081]

No, the hotel was not in the $7600. I didn't include that since it wouldn't count towards the Wishes $10k either. We stayed at the Grand Floridian, so for some that would really skew the numbers! Here's the breakdown

$5000 WP Escape Package - we used everything that came with it
$225 - upgraded cake
$50 - $75 - extra bottle of champagne
$200 - extra flowers (corsage, 4 boutineers, rose wand, unity candle and petals)
$1600 Dinner for 19 at Narcoosee's including tax and tip with DDE discount
$450 WIshes cruise on Grand 1
$80 waters on Grand 1 - wasted money!

THings I didn't include in that total- hair and makeup, dress, tux, rings, officiant, week at Disney - to me those costs are a given no matter where you get married, and the week at Disney was no more expensive than any other honeymoon!

Ok now I feel better because we are trying to do a break down of all cost even the stuff you didn't include just so we know what we are planning to spend. We are staying at the disney contemporary and it $500+ a night.

Can you tell me what a DDE discount is and what does a wishes cruise entail is it similiar to the dessert party