Frustrated (Escape or Wishes)

[jenna77]

We were all set on doing an Escape wedding to save money, but after DF and I really sat down and discussed who we want to invite, it looks like we will be over the maximum number of allowed guests by just a few. Why do they have to count toddlers! So I am not sure what to do now. Either cut people out or change to a Wishes wedding. But I don't know anything about Wishes other than that it is more expensive and there is a 25 night room minimum (we think we could only come up with about 15 room nights total, including our honeymoon). Can anyone please advise? Is there any way to decrease the room night requirement? What happens if you just can't meet it?

What goes toward your $10k minimum? Will our honeymoon stay at the resort count? I was planning on hiring an outside photographer and videographer. I was all excited about my Escape wedding and now I feel frustrated and like I just don't know what to do. Thank you.

 

[Lynn5700]

No the honeymoon does not go towards the 10000 minimum.

I think if it is important to you to have all those guests then you will have to switch to the Wishes... You have a tough situation.

Are the extra people you see all the time or people you see once a year?

 

[Tink_Kel]

If you're only over by a few, I think you can still have an escape wedding, only they charge an extra fee per person. I'm sure someone here can fill you in on that!

 

[Lynn5700]

Oh I never knew they did that!!!!! I thought it would go to a Wishes!!!!!

 

[BlovesC]

x

 

[Keira1387]

Yes, if it has a heartbeat then they count as a guest. I believe they are very strict on the number of guest for an intimate.

 

[lurkyloo]

Unfortunately, they won't let you just pay for more people - the 18 guests is set in stone. However, there are several of us on here who switched from Escape to Wishes and didn't go careening off the financial deep end.

The cool thing is, you have so many more options when you do a Wishes wedding. The scary part is that there's a $10,000 minimum spend, but, again, several of us have been able to stick to it or only go a little over.

Also, if you're having more than 20 people and they're staying more than just a couple of nights, you shouldn't have any trouble filling 25 room nights. Worst-case scenario, they lower your minimum required number of nights and you don't get the free night they give couples.

Here's a recent thread about Escape vs. Wishes:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1930921

And here's a great thread where people listed how much they spent on their Wishes weddings and what they spent it on. It's a good way to see how to keep costs low:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1957778

 

[jenna77]

Thanks everyone!

Carrie,

There is no way we'll make the 25 room night minimum because we live about 2 hours south of Disney and most guests will be local and stay only one night. I am glad to hear that Disney is flexible about this. I wonder if they would let us guarantee only 10-15 rooms? And if we didn't meet the minimum guaranteed number, we'd still have to pay for the rooms, right? Am I correct that the discount at BWI would probably be 30%? Thank you so much! You are a great inspiration and huge help on these boards.

Oh, and I noticed that you went only $70 over budget. What about taxes and service charges? I thought they were on top of the $10k min.

 

[lurkyloo]

Hi Jenna! Yes, if you are a local, Disney can definitely adjust your room-night minimum (sometimes to as low as 10!) and you'd just forego the free night. If you still don't make the minimum, then they would charge you for the un-booked rooms at the rate of the cheapest hotel in your block. But I have never ever heard of this actually happening.

The discount at convention center hotels like BWI is usually around 30%. And yes, taxes and service charges are on top of the $10K minimum. Figure on $1,000-$2,000 more, depending on which elements you pick. It's just a point of pride for those of us who stick to the minimums that we didn't spend more on stuff for the wedding than the $10,000 mandated by Disney - nothing we can do about the %&#! service fees!

 

[dmslush]

If it is small children that are putting you over your max guest count, why not hire disney baby sitting to care for them during the wedding and reception?

 

[Angela0917]

Thanks everyone!



There is no way we'll make the 25 room night minimum because we live about 2 hours south of Disney and most guests will be local and stay only one night. I am glad to hear that Disney is flexible about this. I wonder if they would let us guarantee only 10-15 rooms?

They will let you guarentee only 10-15 rooms, but you just won't get your free night... and if you end up needing more than 10-15 rooms, they will not get the discount. I'm not having a DFTW, but I talked to a consultant about it when I was considering it.

When are you planning your wedding? You may be able to find people on here who will give you their reservation number to fill up the rooms?

 

[Angela0917]

If it is small children that are putting you over your max guest count, why not hire disney baby sitting to care for them during the wedding and reception?

That is a good idea! You can still pick them up after the ceremony and take them to dinner or whatever else you plan on doing!

 

[jenna77]

Thanks, but the small children are my son and my nephew and it's very important that they're part of the ceremony. I was even thinking of making them both ringbearers.

 

[disprincessatheart]

For our escape we did rounds of invites. We invited the first set of 18, figured out who was and wasn't able to come, and then added 2 more couples when we found out we had the room. They were just excited to come and didn't care that they were on the "second round". With the basic wedding, a few small extras totalling to $400 and dinner at Narcoossee's and a wishes cruise, we spent $7500 on our escape wedding, so it's not that big of a leap to a wishes if you go with the Carrie method and make it a major goal to stick to the $10k!

 

[disprincessatheart]

For our escape we did rounds of invites. We invited the first set of 18, figured out who was and wasn't able to come, and then added 2 more couples when we found out we had the room. They were just excited to come and didn't care that they were on the "second round".

OR

With the basic wedding, a few small extras totalling to $400 and dinner at Narcoossee's and a wishes cruise, we spent $7500 on our escape wedding, so it's not that big of a leap to a wishes if you go with the Carrie method and make it a major goal to stick to the $10k! That way you get what you want and don't have to stress about invites. If I had it to do again, I might have upgraded, but we still loved the wedding we had!

 

[osxgirl]

Actually, something I've seen a number of times on the boards here are people who were very close to the cutoff for Escape weddings that ended up deciding they had to do a Wishes instead to make sure they could invite everyone, only to get VERY frustrated when people started dropping off at the last minute, and it turned out they could have done an Escape after all. Especially when they found out too late to switch.

There are a couple of things to think about.

1. Since you're dealing with a relatively small group of people, could you do a check with everyone before you really commit? Just explain that you really want them to come, but Disney has the hard limit on people that determines which type of wedding you choose, so you need to know FOR SURE whether or not they will be attending. Just put all the blame for being so strict about it on the Disney policies.

2. Since you are local, I would guess chances are better that once someone tells you they are coming, they won't drop out at last minute. So I think getting an idea up front like this will make it a lot easier for you.

3. Unless Disney has changed their policy in the last year, they did used to allow you to change between the two types of weddings. I don't know what the cutoff date for upgrading or downgrading is. But you could probably start out with the most likely scenario (the Wishes if you think everyone you ask will come, or the Escape if you think a few people might not make it), put an early date on your RSVP, and then upgrade or downgrade if you have to. You'd want to double-check to make sure this is still and option, and if so, what the cutoff date is for it, but at least that way, you know you can try and minimize your costs as much as possible. After all, I know you don't want to cut people out just because of cost, but it would also really stink to pay a lot more for the Wishes wedding if you would be just as happy with an Escape and you had few enough people to do it.

 

[jenna77]

Thanks! That's some really great advice and I am going to talk it over with DF. Unfortunately, a Wishes wedding will cost us quite a bit more than we were planning to spend on the Escape, so that's a big consideration. However, I am now getting excited about the idea of customizing things more and having a real reception. However, with the money we'd save on an Escape, if everyone would be happy, I would probably just do that.