HELP!!- Decision making time!!

[bspears88]

Okay--sighhh- here is my rant!

SO- I need help! Me and my DF were planning on getting married May 2013 at WP- we have been discussing it since our engagement (December). Now of course I am the one who truly wants it and if it wasn't for me pushing having a DWFTW we more than likely just be getting married in our hometown.

Now- don't get me wrong - my Fiance is WONDERFUL and I know in the end he will do what I want to make me happy- but more questions/concerns have been coming from him since deposit day is just around the corner. Also we are planning on doing the wishes collection- hopefully only having around 50-60 people there. And we are planning on haveing a 5 O'clock ceremony as well.

His biggest concern is of course money! Next would just be the concern of it being a very stressful year planning and saving up to pay for it. My parents are hopefully planning on paying $13,000-15,000- than the rest is up to us.
My whole thing is I just want to make sure this is realistic- In the end I am hoping to get out maybe spending around $21,000-22,000 on our wedding for 50-60 people. We also have to take in consideration where we will staying-

If anyone has ANY advice on how they kept their cost down it would be GREATLY appreciated- oh and just FYI I am not very creative so DIY's have to be kept to a minimum

Geez- just so many things!! Also to kind of add on a side note- one thing I am NOT willing to skimp on is photography- does anyone have any recommendations- and if so how much and what exactly did you get for that price! I have been looking online at places and it looks like some places are very expensive charging up to $5,000-$6,000.

 

[Jilian]

I'm not a DFTW bride, I opted to go with the Swan/Dolphin but I wanted to chime in on what I've seen from being a member of the Dis for a while. There are many, many brides who are able to stay just at the minimum and still have beautiful weddings. You could opt for a morning wedding to keep costs down, go with a simpler floral package and choose flowers that are in season, shop sales and stay at a less expensive resort for your trip. For Photography I went with Randy Chapman, I think it was $400 or so for 3 hours. I think he did an amazing job, I just posted the rest of the pictures he took in my planning journal (see link below). He's a great photographer! I'm not entirely sure what the DFTW rules are but if they allow you to book any vendors on your own, do so! It will help cut costs by a lot.

I hope some of this helps. I know Lurkyloo has a great trip report with loads of valuable info and she also wrote the passporter guide to DFTW that has helped many brides save a fortune. If in the end you decide not to go with a DFTW there is always a Disneymoon

 

[sambycat]

It is doable - more so if you consider moving to an earlier time. Lots of tips and hints to be found here! We used David and Vicki Arndt -FABULOUS!! I dônt have a link handy to add but they are very popular here and easily google-able! Ditto for the DFTW guide by passporters! A must have!

 

[nic100308]

I understand how you can become overwhelmed. I'm going to give you a little insight from my experiences.

DF and I plan on getting married 1/25/13. This is my second marriage and the first time around I did have a wedding at home. I originally wanted a destination wedding but was talked out of it by my family. That wedding got so out of control in the end it had the hefty price tag of $50,000, maybe even more. I did have help from family, but the nice little wedding I wanted was quickly shoved aside so that ALL of my family (I have a large extended Italian family) and friends and friends of parents could be invited. Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful and I appreciated the help that I had gotten but it was hard to control size (a huge determining factor when keeping coasts down) when we were having a wedding close to home. Don't forget that extra people does not just mean paying the caterer; you need more tables, more center pieces, more favors, more invitations, ect.

So back to my 1/25 wedding. We actually priced a couple of different options: destinations wedding in Mexico at a resort, a small wedding at home (Seattle), and a DFTW. The DFTW actually ended up being a much better price and we got more bang for our buck.

Let me explain: we're paying for the wedding by ourselves and our limit was $10,000. For that price we can have a ceremony with 18 guests, a cocktail hour, a sit down dinner at the Yachtsman's (the estimated dinner bill is included on the above price) and an Illuminations Dessert Party. My parents have a DVC membership so we'll be using that. I understand not everyone has this option but I have stayed at the All Stars and loved it just as much as the Contemporary. For having a DFTW we get annual passes so all we need to worry about will be our dinning plan and spending money.

The Mexico wedding was winning for a short time until I started to read the fine print: we needed to be there 3 whole business days before the wedding adding to our hotel price, they required us to have a blood test in Mexico for out marriage license which came with a big price tag, and it just went on from there. I quickly started to realize that planning a small wedding here for that amount of money was next to impossible. So I did a lot of research and outlined all the options (being okay with all of them) and DF said that the DFTW made the most sense.

I don't want to push you one way or the other, everyone should have the wedding of their dreams but I wanted to let you know my experiences. Having gone through this and now that I'm repeating it I will tell you that the wedding at home was WAY more difficult to plan. That thing was a beast and it took a lot of planning and coordination.

That being said there are ways for you to keep the costs down for both. I agree that photography should not be the thing you skimp on and I think what you have allotted will afford you an amazing photographer and a nice package. For either wedding you can consider having it on an "off day" which means a Friday or Sunday, in some cases Saturday mornings are cheaper, and in the case of Disney you can also consider having it during the week. I think by Disney standards the weekday is the same price as a Friday. Think about having a buffet style instead of a sit down. At the cocktail hour maybe just have wine, beer, and a signature cocktail (you can also use this option for the entire wedding.) As far as flowers go consider roses or other cheaper flowers or using more greenery, not all of it just looks like leaves. You also don't necessarily need centerpieces, maybe just some votive candles and rose peddles. Invitations as easy to keep the costs down. Find a local place and firmly stick with your price, they will have books full of tons of options. There are different types of paper used that are less than others (metallic paper costs more than a flat color.) Also, you don't need lined envelopes, they look pretty but I always thought they were a waste. There are also some invitation websites that have some good deals, Invitations by Dawn is one that I know of. Consider doing your makeup yourself, I did this last time and I plan on doing it again. I picked up this book, Makeup Makeovers: Weddings: Stunning Looks for the Entire Bridal Party. It gives you helpful hints on how to do wedding makeup so you photograph well and you don't look scarey in person. It's only about $15 and very helpful. It even tells you how to apply fake eyelashes.

Weddings are beautiful and a blast, so don't forget the reason behind the wedding: you and your fiance! While planning can be a little stressful, it should also be fun. Try to do some research and outline your costs, there might be an answer right there. Also, think about what is really important to you and what is important enough for you to spend your money on: for us it is actually a dessert party. We are very excited about that! Oh, and my dress!

Good luck and if I happen to think of any other tips I will post them.

 

[DFTWbride2013]

I have to agree with everyone else, Passporter's guide to DFTW is a huge help! The biggest help to me was that it shows a lot of basic pricing, which Disney doesn't give you up front. I bought it to add things up to see if it was realistical/practical for us to even consider having a DFTW to begin with. I was actually very relieved at a lot of the prices! Still more expensive than other places, but not as bad as I was expecting for Disney. You can look at the prices in the book and get at least a basic idea of how much you'll be spending for what you want. And if you decide to have your Disney wedding, it's an amazing planning tool and reference guide.

Either way, good luck! I hope you'll be able to have the wedding you want.

 

[jillianjigs7]

I was married in Disney on 12/1/2007 and it was the most magical wedding i could have ever imagined. My husbands family was a little skeptical of it from the beginning - they were worried no one would be able to attend, etc. However, they were completely blown away. About 80 people were able to come and share our special day.

We were married in the WP and had our reception at the grand floridian's Narcoosee's right on the water. It was spectacular. We had a 10am wedding and a brunch reception. To keep our costs down, since it was a morning wedding - there was no alcohol, so that worked out as far as saving us money.

I made the menu of all of the foods I wanted and they did everything to perfection. Our guests dined on Salmon, Filet, etc. Mickey even showed up.

All in all, we had our dream wedding in Disney for only about $25,000. Where as if we had it at home, it would cost my parents well over $50-60,000.

Happy Planning!!!

 

[tric8783]

Hi there!!
We are just about 22K through Disney with a 5 o'clock Saturday night wedding and 75 people (65 adults). We originally wanted and planned a DP and took it out. We wanted to do a farewell breakfast and aren't. We are having more informal meet-ups so that we still spend time with our guests but aren't paying for all of them the whole weekend. We are bringing our photographer with us and they were over $6500, so I can't help on that, but they were my dream and I made them work. There are some great photographers that are local that these girls here use and are much less, so I would definitely recommend you use one of them! I also added a lot more things on my own that I am bringing, but I'm not sure if you're talking around the minimum total for everything, or through Disney. I have posted all of my BEO's in my PJ if you want to peek. Unfortunately I havent figured out how to make a directory so you'll have to search through for them. We also are having a plated sit down meal with 3 food choices (filet, chicken and salmon), not a buffet. I think with 50-60 people, you can definitely stick close to the min. Word to the wise- you will pay a 2k deposit when you book, then when it comes time, you have to pay the 20k 90 days out- this is really 19k, they allow 1k from your deposit to be used and then keep the 1k for reserves. We thought this would be applied to our final payment due 30 days before and we were wrong- they keep it in a bank for things we spend after the final payment or things that come up during the wedding. If you don't use it you get it back, but at the final payment 30 days out, you pay technically $1000 more than you owe. I guess I get the logic, just $1k more that you didnt expect stinks a month before the wedding. Or maybe it was just me that was slow on that boat... hahaha (very possible ) Good luck!!

 

[mb187143]

OP, i feel like I could have written your post myself! We're having 50-60 people, and my parents are paying the first 15K and the rest is on us. We got the passporter pretty early on (before we were engaged actually), and we've been working with our planner to price things out as we go. When we went for our site visit, we told our consultant what our budget was and he suggested some good ways to keep costs down for us and still keep our overall plan in-tact. We're being married at 5:00 on 11/2 at the WP, but so far we're doing well on keeping things in check. We're not going nuts with extras, our big splurge is going to be having mickey and minnie at the reception. We're doing a plated meal, and an open bar, which is mostly what my parents will be paying for. I'm not huge on flowers, and i hate big centerpieces since i'm short, and i feel like it cuts off the table (i went to a wedding here in NJ this year where the centerpieces were literally taller than i am).

The WP has the highest ceremony fee, so using a different location will save you $$. The ballrooms don't come with a venue rental fee, but you may end up having a higher floral budget if you want to really jazz them up. I would definitely get the passporter though, and read through some of the planning journals and budget threads to see what people are paying. Good luck!

 

[DFTWbride2013]

The WP has the highest ceremony fee, so using a different location will save you $$.

The other ceremony venues are $2000 and we were told by our consultant that renting a sound system is $800 (which for that many people you would probably want one) so it almost evens out, since the WP already has one built in.