Getting Guests to Travel...

[balatonbabe]

This also sounds familiar to me. We have been talking about a Disney wedding for about 3 years, but I think most of our friends and family thought it would be financially out of our reach. So, everyone was really suprised when we announced our engagement and plans to move forward with a DFTW. My folks are really excited because they love Disney and our last trip was 20 years ago! However, they are only able to contribute very little, and feel badly. I explained that it was our decision to have a destination wedding, and we could care less if they didn't contribute anything except to come and enjoy with us.

Although DF's parents are excited about our plans, they are struggling with the idea of coming as they have had to cough up money for 2 other destination weddings in the last 4 years. We basically told them that it would be their decision as to whether or not they could afford to come, and that we wouldn't be insulted either way. We were also clear with them that we would not be paying their way.

We decided on another casual reception back home for the guests who couldn't make it to WDW because of illness/expense. DF's parents will definately be coming to that!

As to the question about food & bevy minimums for guests, here's what we're planning: We are sending out our invitations soon to all 170 guests for both events (giving them the option to opt out of WDW if they choose). We have a firm 40 that are definately coming to Disney. Because we are from Canada, we figured we might get another 20 coming to Disney. By the time we sign our contract in May, we should have pretty firm numbers. Even if 100 say they are coming, DF & I have planned for the additional expense (just in case )

I would recommend that you focus on enjoying your planning, and ignore the negativity surrounding your decision to have YOUR dream wedding.

 

[DisBride2007]

I must admit that I was selfish in picking the date, and didn't really consider other people. (We picked our anniversary.) When thinking about it, it is a good time for our guests. Disney at Christmas, but still when the parks are really slow and cheaper. We are having the problem of having people commit to going. They haven't made up there mind because of school, work, money, etc.
I know that you all have been here before, and I am wondering how you planned for the food & beverage minimum. Did you give them the number of how many guests you invited, how many had definitly confirmed, or those you think and know were attending? Has anyone ran into the problem of paying for lets say 30 guests when actually 38 guests show up, or vice versa? I know they are rather strict on intimate wedding guests, but how are they with custom weddings?

You give them a confirmed guest count 3 business days prior to the wedding.

Make sure you have enough to pay for more guests than you think will come, and also that you won't go below your minimum. We originally put down a deposit for 40 guests but only had 33 in the end and we had issues with the food & beverage minimum. Oh... and don't make the mistake we did... count you and DF as guests or you won't get any food!!

 

[disprincessatheart]

I must admit that I was selfish in picking the date, and didn't really consider other people. (We picked our anniversary.) When thinking about it, it is a good time for our guests. Disney at Christmas, but still when the parks are really slow and cheaper. We are having the problem of having people commit to going. They haven't made up there mind because of school, work, money, etc.
I know that you all have been here before, and I am wondering how you planned for the food & beverage minimum. Did you give them the number of how many guests you invited, how many had definitly confirmed, or those you think and know were attending? Has anyone ran into the problem of paying for lets say 30 guests when actually 38 guests show up, or vice versa? I know they are rather strict on intimate wedding guests, but how are they with custom weddings?

If you overpay - you get your money back after the wedding. If you underpay, they take it out of your deposit and bill you if it's by more than the deposit. You do give the final count 3 days out, but yes, you pay a month in advance. I'll be paying for only the number confirmed when payment is due and then if any extra show up pay it after the fact. Even that though isn't due until 1 month prior. HTH

 

[myprincessgirlisa]

this is gonna sound wierd, but we did a WDW destination wedding to avoid all the chaos with a home wedding.

DH's family is hispanic & mostly speaks spanish & my family couldnt get any whiter , anyway, reality hit & i realized there was NO way to make either side & me & DH happy with a wedding for ALL cause of all the different traditions & how things are done...that me & DH realized a DFTW(intimate) just made sense.

We offered to both sides that if they wanted to attend they would have to pay for the rooms, airlines, passes. We didnt offer to pay cause EVERYONE would have wanted to come....heck almost ALL of DHs family have never been to WDW & you know they would've gone if it was paid for & there was no way we could afford all those family members...DH is the youngest of 8 so immediate family is like 40 or more

Anyway...everything was fine ...my mom came & it was perfect. I did end up giving her passes for the park

Depending on your budget & DFTW, Id make sure EVERYONE is clear about how things are being done & handled....you can never over communicate

Just go with the flow & dont worry about other people....this is about you & your DH....everyone else can come along for the ride or watch you drive off in the distance

 

[PrincessBride07]

Thanks Disbride2007 and disprincessatheart. Your info takes a lot of stress away. I guess I must have missed that info in the contract.

 

[JonetteA]

This is a GREAT question. You know we invited 78 people and we ended up having about 50. Disney weddings typically have a much higher response rate. Some people were hesitant to travel at first to our wedding, but we really didn't have to try that hard to get people to come. The ones that wanted to see us get married were glad to be there. (We had our wedding on a Thursday and we did get some grief for that.) As for the date, we tried to make sure that everyone was cool with pulling their children out of school in May. Most of the kids were young so it was not critical that they be in school at that time. At first I tried to pick a date that works for everyone. You will drive yourself INSANE doing this!!!! Pick a date that you are happy with and give people plenty of notice. Remember this is your day and if they want to be a part of it they will put in the effort to do so!

 

[DisneyFairy19]

I have a while to my wedding in November.. I know that family and friends that are coming wont miss the wedding for the world.. I am not sure about the weekend for kids... I think some of my cousins will have to miss a day or two of school... Hopefully my aunts and uncles wont mind that for them.. But I am not going to change my date.. I love November and the weather is beautiful at that time...

 

[Gina Loves Disney]

For me I wanted the wedding in January 2009 on a Wed.... because the Tues before is my sister's 21st bday so I wanted to do something big for here there.... now I am getting all this crap about it being a wed...... ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[JJClemson]

This is a great question. DF is in med school and only has 1 week off in Dec, 1 week off in March, 3 weeks off in June/ July, and 1 week off in Sept, so that really limited our dates. We wanted to get married in Dec originally, but felt that would have been too rushed, and people wouldn't come b/c of the holidays. Then we wanted Sept, but it was very important to me that my guests could come (we're only having family and close friends). My mom is a teacher, our friends, brothers, and cousins are still in grad school/ college, so we decided on a June/ July wedding so more people could come. We didn't want to get married too close to July 4 b/c I heard crowds were awful at WDW. We wanted a weekday for minimums (didn't know how many people would come and didn't want to pay more than we had to). We decided on a Monday b/c we thought people could come down for the weekend and would only need to take 1 day off from work. Monday, June 25, 2007 it was