How To Ditch The Family...

[jlocmac]

I'm so glad I'm not the only person who feels this way. When we told our families that we weren't going to spend all of our time with them, you would've thought we slapped them in the face. We're getting married on a Thurs. going down that Wed. and staying for 10 nights. My oldest sis decides her and her bf are going to follow us down since they've never been. Yay? Of course the rest of the family will be down later that day. (only 21 ppl including us, but it's enough) Most of them will be leaving Fri. but my sis decides they're going to stay until Sunday. Then her and my lil bro precede to include themselves in our ADR since they added the DP on. When we told them that we didn't want to spend all of that time with them, they said "Girl quit playing, you know you want us to be there!!" WTH?!?! The DF said make sure you book the TL dessert party for after they all leave!!

And this doesn't even include the aggravation of getting everyone to book their rooms!!! I all of you Wishes brides and the enormous guest list some of you have. I would probably snatch the DF up and run away to get hitched while the family was looking in the opposite direction!!

 

[Firefly09]

Luckily we haven't had this problem with our families. His side is excited about the theme parks and have given us their itineraries so that we can join them if we feel like it. They've even made room in their dining reservations just in case.

On my side, my friends are going to want to hang out with us, but they understand that we'll be newly married. My family isn't into Disney so they'll be mostly hanging out around the resort and leaving early after the wedding.

 

[kjg5]

Oh this is definitely going to be a problem for us. My family completely understands, in fact they insisted on a different hotel and have no intentions of tagging along on out honeymoon. I never had to bring up the subject, they respected our honeymoon from the get-go.; DF's family on the other hand, is definitely going to be a problem. His mother wants to spend every waking moment with us. DF has told her many times that the few dinners we have planned and the wedding itself are the only times we all will get together, but she completely ingnores him. She repeatedly says that she plans on going where we go and doing what we do for their entire stay. DF's solution- put them at a different hotel than everybody else and book different ADR's for them. It may sound a little harsh, but she not only wanted us to stay together all the time, but she wanted us to have ADJOINING ROOMS! Seriously? Chick needs to get a life, lol

 

[MonorailPilotMulan]

We are having a Castaway Cay wedding and will be traveling to Aulani and Disneyland for our honeymoon, with my future mother-in-law coming along because she wants to see Aulani. I told her that I didn't care about coming along to Aulani as long as she realizes that we will be spending a lot of time apart as it is our HONEYMOON! I think that she realizes this, along with all our Guests that will be aboard the Dream to our wedding on Castaway Cay. At least I hope they do

 

[*Pixiedust1438*]

I agree with the poster who suggested booking a cruise, or even a few nights in a hotel at a nearby beach in Florida. We are going to Hawaii after Disney, and I am very happy with the decision (even though we will be paying it off for a while). This is allowing us to spend as much time as our guests want with us while in Disney, and then we will have our own time in Hawaii. The only day I told my guests we will be MIA is the day after the wedding, which we are spending alone and relaxing. I am very excited to spend time with my family in Disney, because, like another poster, we haven't had a chance to go there with most of them, and most of them have never been, so we can't wait to show them how great it is. Another tip I have is to send out a newsletter, letter guests know what your doing, and inviting guests to join you at certain times (For example: Today we will be at Magic Kingdom from 9:00-4:00, anyone who want to join us can meet us at the front gate at 9:00), that you want them at. I am doing this as well. I think this will help portray to them; "This is what we are doing, these are the things you are welcome to join us for..." I think this will help prevent guests from including you in their plans, and also, without having to outright say it, make them realize that the days/times you didn't invite them to join you, means you want to be alone!

 

[Figaro8398]

We thought we'd be ok just having our parents come for our wedding. My DH's parents have never been to Disney...mine have. Mine opted to stay at a different resort and said they'd join us for dinner. DH wanted to show his parents everything. That lasted all of three days. Then we found it easier to hand them the park map, circle our recommendations, and told them where our dinner reservations were.

I somehow think we knew this would happen, as we decided months ago that we'd book another trip a few months after the wedding - as our official Disneymoon. We knew we'd be able to enjoy our time alone then after all of the wedding excitement.

It is a tough situation...people are coming in hopes of spending time with you at the most magical place on Earth for your wedding...but it is YOUR wedding and you want time to yourselves. I agree that telling people when they're welcome to spend time with you would be the best option.

 

[DznyGal]

For our wedding we had around 12 guests, some planned the trip as a mini vacation and others came just because of our wedding. My DH and I got there a day before our guests and left two days after. We planned to spend more alone time than family time, so we stayed at a different resort than rest. Looking back, we actually ended up wanting to spend more time with friends and family than we thought.
Since some didn't have park tickets, we visited them at there resort and shopped at Downtown. The guests that made the trip a mini vacation, went off on their own and we met up with them for dinner occationally.
The hardest thing was none of us had a car, and if you haven't tried it resort hopping can be challenging and take a long time.
Honestly DH and I didn't end up having to much time for a "vacation" we didn't do many attractions and shows. Instead we spent time visiting with out guests more of a one on one kind of thing based who who was doing what each day.
We ended up going back in Sept (wedding was in April), we thought heck we had AP's why not. We called this second trip our Disneymoon, and were able to do all the Disney things we wanted without worring about taking care of our friends and family. The Halloween Party was a highlight of this trip for sure! We even got the dining plan so we got to try more restaurants that we have wanted to try but didn't get a chance. For us the dining plan wasn't a good option for our wedding trip, we ate at different times and places it was more spur of the moment and less structured.