I'm very new to this and have lots of questions for Custom Weddings

[mickey06]

Help!! I've been reading all of the posts on this message board and you all seem to be full of information and a really good resource!! I'm new to this, so please bear with me! I apologize in advance for the length of this post!!

My FI and I have decided that Disney is the place! And the Wedding Pavillion has to be the location (and hopefully the ballroom in the Floridian for the reception). That's the extent of our knowledge. We've seen the video but we really haven't been able to do anything else since we're planning on a March 2006 wedding. Since we really haven't been able to talk to a human yet, and I feel like I've read every word on the Disney Wedding website, can you tell me.....

1. Can we take a planning trip down there in Feb. to meet with a planner or is that too soon?
2. Do they include Shades of Green as one of the places that guests stay for the room block count?
3. How many planning trips should I plan on making to Orlando (from Boston).
4. Finally, a really tacky question and feel free to not answer, but ballpark (and I know that no two weddings are the same but...) can you tell me how much I should expect to be spending on a wedding on a Saturday night for 120 people?

Thank you so much for your help! I'm sure I'll be posting here quite a bit in the next year.

 

[hmgolden]

1. You should be able to to do your site visit trip in February. You should call FTW and try to get in touch with a sales manager. Some brides have had success in getting an SM up to 15 months before their wedding.

2. You will not be able to use Shades of Green in your room block. If any of your guests stay there, their room nights will not count towards your room block.

3. We made 2 trips total. We did a site visit (which was part of a vacation we had planned before we got engaged) and a planning session trip about 5 months before the wedding. Many brides do all their planning over the phone and email.

4. What you spend is very variable depending on all the extra's you want. with 120 people, you'll end up spending a minimum of $15,000 on food & Beverage (120 x $125 pp minimum, which doesnt include tax (6% and 20% gratuity).


Have fun planning!

 

[ahutton]

We did a Custom Wedding almost 8 years ago. We did our planning trip 13 months before our desired date, it was with our Sales Manager. DH was not positive until that tour he wanted to get married there, he was quickly sold on it. All other planning was done by telephone and fax, it was really quite easy.

Regarding Shades of Green - talk to them about your desire to have those nights included in your room block. Our DVC nights were going to be "not included" in our room block, but they allowed it. Eventually it didn't matter though, we had enough nights without those to meet our minimum.

As for price - I would guess for the transportation, location, reception (assuming you are close to the minimum), flowers, officiant, etc you are probably looking around $30,000-40,000. I may be off, but that would be my ballpark if I were planning. We did a lot of corner cutting, had no alcoholic beverages, etc. Some of those costs are rolled into your contract, others are not but that would be my "out the door" target if I were doing it again.

 

[Kismetdreams]

Shades of Green cannot be included in your room night count, nor in your room block, because it is not a Disney owned resort. It is own and operated by the Department or Defense and like the Swan and the Dolphin, mearly "leases" the property on Disney land.

HTH

 

[Merandab4]

You should try the virtual planning tool on the Disney Fairytale Weddings Web site. That will give you an idea of how much you are going to spend. Keep in mind that there are many more options as far as reception and ceremony locations than what is offered on the site.

Congrats on your engagement and Happy Planning!