Have some Disney wedding questions - Please help :)

[LeesyUD]

First, I'd like to start by saying I have followed these boards before but it is only my second time posting. I have always wanted a Disney wedding but never though that would happen. Now that we are starting to plan I could use some help Any to give you a general picture of my plans, I am hoping to have the ceremony at Sea Breeze Point at the Boardwalk and reception at Living Seas Lounge. I am thinking of incorporationg a pre-reception and the most basic Illuminations dessert party with cookie/tea/coffee somehow. I will be having a small custom wedding for about 35-40 people. So I have a few general and some specific question, any advice would be appreciated:


1. Is the dessert party something people usually have after the reception or on a seperate day? Also is it too much too have a pre-reception, reception, and then an Illuminations dessert party? Again the Illuminations Dessert Party would be very basic food-wise as would the pre-reception. Also how much time spacing would you do between each event if any?

2. Has anyone skipped doing a pre-reception, and if so what did your guest do while the wedding party finished up the wedding pictures?

3. Has anyone done a custom menu at their reception? I wanted to get an idea of how much more this might cost over doing a preset plated menu. Also has anyone included any special menu items from a Disney restaurant in their reception menu? e.g. - cheese soup from LeCellier?

 

[dznystar]

I agree, the cheese soup from LeCellier is fantastic. I had to buy the cookbook from the F&W festival so I could get the recipe.

Typically the illuminations dessert party lasts about 1 1/2 hours. It begins about 8:30, Illuminations at 9. You are only allowed to have a DJ after the park empties. You can extend the hours on this, but i'm not sure on the cost. From what I understand you can have any choice of food and any of your events as long as you meet the F & B requirements, ($100 per person I think for EPCOT).

We looked into having our reception as the Illuminations Dinner. We also toyed with the idea of the Dessert Party, but with the times and music limitations and havign the wedding at the WP I think we've decided just to stick with GF.

 

[twojo21]

1. i cant speak for everyone but we had our illuminations dessert party at uk lower after our reception. it was the perfect way to end our evening & our guests were wow-ed by the vip treatment & fireworks. we had the basic menu with milk & strawberries added. surprisingly most of our guests including me & my dh had a snack at the idp even after our reception dinner, cake & prereception goodies.

2. we had our prereception at martha's vineyard for our guests while we took photos.

3. we had some custom items on our menu for our custom reception at ariels, the food was divine. our plate was $80 something per adult. we included le cellier's canadian bacon cheddar soup & white truffle potatoes into our dinner menu. here's a photo of our menu:

 

[JDR2b777]

Here is what I know - Disney is organized You will have your ceremony and then your pre-reception 1 hour from the ceremony time and your reception (dinner) 1 hour after your pre-reception.

For example - 7:30 ceremony 8:30 pre reception 9:30 dinner aka reception.

You can have your dessert party as a pre-reception or your reception. It was unable to work out for me because my ceremony is so late. I will have my Welcome Party - a Welcome Dessert Party

"On the day of the wedding there is much to do
But let's join for dessert before we say, 'I do'
A Welcome Dessert Party honoring the guests of ME & DF"

It seems lovely - can send you the info on the EPCOT and MGM as I just recieved the brochures via email today from my planner.

 

[Luvndisney]

Here are some responses but the ones above are great. First I am not biased but i love the LS Lounge. lol

1.. the Dessert party is a great thing for any [art of your wedding week ro weekend. I think in the past brides and grooms were having them after the wedding night as a final end to teh day. That's what we did. But if you move it to another day you are extending your events which is alwsya fun. Its really up to you and when your guests will be there. A welcoem party, rehearsal or farewell Dessert Party are great ideas. the timing above is correct and you can have the child in you menu which was $18 something per person last year i think??? that is the least expensive menu. that has about 5 different desserts on the menu.
I agree disney is very organized if you want everything to flow nicely with little interruption for your guests they will work with you.

our timing was as follows to give you an idea:
ceremony 2:30 pm
pre-reception: 3:30-4:30
reception = 4:30-8:30
Illuminations DP = 8:30-9:30

2. skipping a pre-reception...i say don't...just have a simple one. offer only 1 or 2 items. we had 4 items and it was 15 dollars per person...or you can do a fruit tray or veggie tray.


3. disney will customize just about anything you want....ask away.

happy planning

 

[JonetteA]

Welcome Lisa!

To address your points:

1) That does seem like alot. I would use Illuminations as a pre-reception. I fear that you are going to pay for alot of food that no one will eat.

2) We skipped the pre-reception. We took pictures before the wedding and then we had an activity for people to do while we finished up our after wedding pictures. We used guestbookstore.com. That was a great keepsake and activity for people to do while they waited.

3) I wanted a custom menu to, but by the time we shook it out, it was going to be cost prohibitive. We just took the standard menu and added a few things to it. This was better cost wise for us.