Former Dis Brides- What you would and wouldn't do again

[Skylarr29]

Hi yes Ana told me about you when she found out I used the same florist I was very surprised too. The owner delivered ours to make sure. I'm soo sorry this happened to you thats horrible I have to say we didnt go over any details intill a few days before the wedding and I was soo mad about that! I couldnt believe it so I reqested a sample when we got there and we went and everything looked good there. It's like after they got there money they really cared less. It makes me mad that we spent so much money and got soo less. Ya I hope not I know another disbride used them thats how I found out about them but hers looked amazing thats why we used them Oh well I guess right? We can't do anything about it now

Ahhh, you two used who I used?! Wow, I can't believe that happened! I feel bad for recommending them, I didn't have any problems when I used them, eek!

 

[Janell]

I do almost everything the same.

Wedding planner Carol, was wonderful.
Randy was wonderful.
Food was amazing, TJ at Epcot was such a sweet guy. He made the day even better for my mother and I will always be grateful.
No bridal party, it was great, no fighting over a dress, no drama.
If doing gifts for the guest give them out before you get there. We did lanyards with Vera Bradley zip id case in a cute little box for our guest. Which we gave out as we saw the guest the year before we got married. Some of our guest were from Canada, so they got theres in Dec while we were there, with the wedding in May. Worked out fine.

Things I would have done differently:

Let your or ask a guest to take video. Our guest got confused with when they could take photos and video and when not too. We didn't want nosie during the cerimony so we said no photos. So a few guest snuck videos and showed us later. It was so cute and so nice. I do the video though guest again.

Had a to go box of our lunch at the reception. We did have time to eat and our guest let us eat. But we both say that we had wished we had gone back for seconds because the food was that good. We just didn't feel we had time. So I would have loved to have had a to go box for when we got back to the room.

Been more careful with making sure the florist and I were on the same page on the flower colors. For future brides, ask for samples of the flowers or photos. If the color means more to you then which flower is used, then make sure you say so.

Take tupperware for left over cake. We did an Anniversary trip and our top layer re-made and it was so much fun, to pack up some cake for the day and take in to the parks with us. We used a cooler, so it tasted better cold. It was just fun to eat our cake in different parts of the park. I wish we had done that on our honeymoon. But frankly I hadn't though of it.

Advice:
Try and take in each moment, it will fly by so fast. But there isn't much I don't remember. I was told to take in before the wedding and I listen. Having someone else, in my case, my mom take care of any details not done or done wrong, was key. Heck there was a few things I had missed that my mom took care of.

DH and I enjoyed a photo shoot at the Boardwalk Inn for about an hour and half after the wedding. It was so nice. It was relaxing,because the day was over. (our wedding went from 10:00am-4:00pm) It was now just us, we had mickey hats, sunglasses. Those are some of my fav photos of just us two. Posed but yet not. Randy told us to just walk or where to stop and look at him, did some silly photos. He walked us to our sweet, at the boardwalk in the garden, got some last wedding photos and then we were done. It was great.

Really think and make a list of every shot you like to have and give to your photographer. We did and I even missed a few, Randy got most of the ones I had forgotten about. Theres one or two I wish I had, but thats okay.

Splurge on an MK or other park shoot. It was so much fun. We got along great with our photographer and my husband was like I have to get up at 4:00 am. When we got back to the hotel, we said it was a tone of fun he was glad we did it.

Splurge on a suite for a few nights. We did the Boardwalk Garden Suite and it was the greatest, love having the two stories. Pleanty of room for the big dress and all the wedding day morning goings ons.

Order room service the morning of your wedding. Mickey Waffles with bacon and fruit are more speacil to me now. I know such a girl thing.

We had about 15 days in Orlando for pre-wedding, wedding, and honeymoon. It was amazing. The longest trip I have taken and it was relaxing.

Stay close to your fav park. We love Epcot, for the food! lol It was nice to come back to the room, relax, swim what ever and call up and see where we could get a reservation for and know we could make it there in 20 min because they have a seating. Stay away from busses and driving on your honeymoon, really do the resort thing. When you can.

Plan an Ann. trip back. With your AP, you can do it cheap. Get your top layer re made. Re live the memories.

Then when you get home from your ann trip, start planning another one.

 

[purple250]

Ahhh, you two used who I used?! Wow, I can't believe that happened! I feel bad for recommending them, I didn't have any problems when I used them, eek!

Yes, we used Flourish. It's not your fault! I LOVED your floral. They did such an amazing job with all of the decor at your wedding. I wanted a really big bouquet and I saw how big, and full they made yours. It was absolutely beautiful so I figured I couldn't go wrong with using them. Sadly, I was mistaken and it was a total nightmare...The good news is that I was supposed to get married outside at the BoardWalk (it was actually inside due to rain) and my reception was at ADH so I wasn't allowed to use outside vendors for the ceremony or reception site. I would have been so upset if I had them do all of my floral. Most likely, it would have been all wilted just like the bouquets. They told me they made my personal floral 3 days before the wedding...I'm sure that is why it ended up looking the way it did...

 

[PrincessShea]

Ooh that's interesting, how many does it seat?
Is it booked as a normal ADR through Disney?

Apologies for all the questions, I just need to find a backup for our first choice over the next week or so, just in case, and this looks really smart!

You can have up to 50 people. They have dividing walls depending on how many you have (so if you have 50 people, none of the dividers are up). If you want a $1200 minimum though the maximum number of people you can have is 15. Any more than that and the minimum goes up.

You book through bluezoo. Liz Torres is the event coordinator for Swan/Dolphin. Her number is 407-934-4556.

 

[Luvndisney]

Glad I:

Had a disney wedding - enough said

Did our wedding OUR way...we didn't bend or give into anyone and had the food and decor we wanted and not someone else.

Enjoyed it 100% - i lived it up at my wedding..enjoyed every detail and took moments to just take in the emotion of the day.

Stayed in disney for 1 week before teh wedding to hang out adn visit with everyone.

Wish i would have:
Not too many really

been able to stay longer after wedding but we left for cruise
been able to plan more group events - like welcome parties and such

 

[figmentfan814]

Glad I did -

1. Have the bridal tea at the Gardenview Tea Room, it was so much fun and all the ladies enjoyed wearing hats!
2. Welcome bags, our wedding was 15 months ago and I still see people using items from them in their homes (playing cards, sewing kit, etc.)
3. Had my wedding inside Epcot, you can't beat having bridal party photos in the World Showcase
4. Take a honeymoon separate from Disney. We spent the wedding week with family at Disney and then a few weeks later took a honeymoon to Hawaii with just the two of us. This was the best decision ever! The time spent with so many family and friends in Disney was priceless and a once in a lifetime experience that I would never give up.
5. Had a video - I love watching the film and we recently got the raw footage converted to DVD. There were lots of little things that I didn't notice in the edited one that I might have forgotten about with time.
6. Took extra bridal party shots after our reception. Since we had a brunch this was possible and I'm glad we took the time to do this since Disney rushes you between the ceremony and reception.
7. Hired outside photographer and videographer - Randy and Stan were amazing!
8. Had an at-home reception. It was nice to relive the memories with family members who couldn't make it to our wedding.
9. Had a DFTW - I had a lot of family members that complained about it, but in the end I'm glad I didn't give into peer pressure. The people that cared the most about us made the trip and others chose to not make it a priority.
10. The combination MK and MGM shoot. Having pictures in two parks plus our ceremony ones from Epcot meant that we have bridal portraits in 3 Disney parks!
11. Took individual shots with all the families that came down for our wedding. We did this at the reception and I included the pictures in the thank you cards.

Wish I would have -

1. Paid for an upgrade in transportation; I really wanted the landau coach in the World Showcase
2. Extended our reception; we had a brunch and they cut it to 3 hours and it was way too short.
3. Looked at the setup prior to the ceremony. We were married in the AAR and I glanced inside, but I didn't walk up to look at the sand ceremony, etc. Disney Floral accidentally left the memorial flower for my father-in-law sitting on the edge of the table set up for our sand ceremony instead of placing it in the seat in the front row and it drove me crazy during the entire ceremony.
4. Mentioned some problems with the bridesmaids bouquets. I liked the look of their bouquets, but during the day flowers started falling out. I never mentioned it to anyone because the flowers in my bouquet still looked great, but in the end I paid for their bouquets too so I should have insisted that they were fixed.
5. Had the photographer come a little earlier in the morning. We had a 9 a.m. ceremony and had to leave for pre-ceremony shots by 7 a.m. I only had Randy come for a few minutes before we left, so I don't have a lot of getting ready pictures.
6. Had the money to pay for characters; it just wasn't in our budget.
7. Insisted the piano player at the reception play music that was on the list I submitted instead of just all Disney songs.