Intimate Wedding worth it?

[janine]

Janine,

I have been thinking about your problem. Is it really important for you to say in your wedding gown? If not, you might think of having an Illuminations party with some appetizers and desserts. Did you try telling them it was just a family party without mentioning the wedding part? There's not much they can do if it is a formal party where you happen to wear a nice fluffy white evening gown. I am really heart-broken...I hope it all works out for you. Sending a truck load of pixie dust your way....

Hi
Because I had discussed with them a dinner on the beach following the ceremony, they now know, and refuse to let me have it, although I did re-try with 'it's now a birthday party' as it is also my birthday the same day, but to say she was off with me was an under statement. She did say she would get me a price still, as she can't really say no if it is a birthday party, but she has insisted on no wedding attire whatsoever. I dont mind taking my dress off, but I will probably substitute it with a cream tea length style dress.
I really have a feeling though that they will make it difficult for me to have it, ie by raising the prices and insisting on a 'minimum'.
We shall see.....
Janine

 

[Janet2k]

I was just doing some research and I read that the ceremony for an intimate wedding is only 15 minutes long...

I just thought I'd note that for my custom vow renewal last year (mine was held inside the Wedding Pavilion), my ceremony lasted somewhere between 15 - 20 minutes. Some ceremonies go longer, that is true, but the rule-of-thumb that I was told by both the FTW folks and my officiant was that 15 - 20 minutes was the average length of time for a wedding or vow renewal ceremony. The rest of the time is usually filled with the photographer taking photographs of the wedding party and guests.

I hope that helped.

 

[Chrissie-riel]

I just called FTW today about an Intimate Vow Renewal and was quoted $2450 for one of the outdoor locations. You now need to add hotel, park entrance and officiant to the package price. But if you go the customs wishbook and type in all the standard intimate inclusions, the price goes way over the $2450 base. If you are only having 18ppl, the Intimate package is really a great deal! Heck - a 2 hour photography session alone runs nearly $900!!

 

[JessHooper]

I have to add that I LOVE The Swan, I grew up going there every time I went to Disney. It's owned by Sheraton, so they have the Heavenly Beds and it's by Epcot which is another nice bonus. That might not be a bad alternative if you are wanting a more custom wedding at an intimate price.

Thanks for your advice everyone. What is the biggest difference between the Swan and the Dolphin?

 

[groomtb]

Thanks for your advice everyone. What is the biggest difference between the Swan and the Dolphin?

Dolphin has more rooms than Swan, but they're pratically identical and facing each other. priced the same, looks the same. wedding wise, no difference. Check the resort forum for more detailed informations. read some reference about dolphin's better if you have kids, swan if not.

and is it just me or does the dolphin status on top of the building looks like a giant fish(koi fish...) instead of a dolphin... that's my impress from photos and personally drove by it sometimes.

--just like to add that it's hard for me to say if Disney wedding's worth it or not because I'm not exactly the big disney fan *hears gasp accross the board*
but my fiancee loves disney far more than I am so I'm planning all this out for her cus if she's happy, i'm happy and the more I look at it..it IS quite special and magical for us to do it at disney (FTWD or Justmarry) I think good part of the decision making is really about how you feel about disney. Swan to me is a good alternative to have a semi-Disney wedding with all the magical moments, yet not going all out with the disney related everything if you know what I mean.

 

[lil.disney.princess]

aww underthemisletoe you get married on our little boys 3rd birthday!have a lovely day!!

 

[MApigletfan]

I will say the Intimate weddings are worth every penny. We started our at 8:30 when the limo picked up my husband and boys, the at 9am it picked up our guests then it came for me at 9:30, I went to the GF to get my cinderella coach ride and the ceremony started at 10am, it was about a 20 minute ceremony it was so beautiful and the reverand let us create our own ceremony so it was special and we even had the family ceremony where my husband accepted my boys and the boys accepted my husband, it was so nice. Then we had the rose petal toss and a bunch of posed pictures inside the WP and then the limo took all the guests to the GF and we went in the coach. Then we got introduced and had our toast, Mickey and Minnie showed up and we cut our cake and had our first dance. More posed pictures then Mickey and Minnie left and we had some special dances. Then the limo took two trips to take us all to DTD and the Portabello Yacht Club for lunch. We had a great lunch and and then we ordered town cars to return everyone to their resort. I got back to the resort around 3pm and had my gown on this whole time. We had to change for our Illuminations dessert party but that was good because it rained the whole night. So you can make it as long and special as you want or as short and quick as you want but I felt it was worth every penny!

 

[WDWbride2007]

is it just me or does the dolphin status on top of the building looks like a giant fish(koi fish...) instead of a dolphin... that's my impress from photos and personally drove by it sometimes.

lol I think the hotel refers to dolphin the fish...not the mammal.

 

[groomtb]

hm...what about Swan wedding...is that equally worth it compared to Disney's intimate wedding

 

[WDWbride2007]

groomtb,

In some ways, I think the Swan wedding is better. I would love the idea of having a dinner with dancing after the ceremony. I might still do this at the private room in Fulton's, but it would be nice to have a coordinator to take care of all the details. In the end, we are going with Disney because we like the Wedding Pavillion so much. DF doesn't like the outdoor space at the Swan. It just seems to me that the Swan caters to intimate couples more than Disney. Some of their prices are much lower, such as the horse-drawn carriage. As for musicians, tell JustTheMarry how much you want to pay and let them do the legwork. I am sure you will have a wonderul wedding. What aspects do you fear will not work so well?

 

[groomtb]

we're actually going forward with the Swan wedding. It just that we just came from having 'pre-set' choices from DFTW to "omg what do we want and what are the options?" with justmarry .

And I think you get just as much attentions from the intimate wedding coordinators as you would from custom weddings or elsewhere.

The only issue I see and personally going through with intimate wedding is how we deal with the expense to value ratio comparision. It is quite a chunk of change for a very nice intimate wedding event that does not last extremely long. However, the memories will last forever. Kind of like those diamond commercials lol

This is Disney afterall, you can't get the same experience anywhere else. If you have your heart set on it, just do it and don't look back!

 

[JessHooper]

we're actually going forward with the Swan wedding. It just that we just came from having 'pre-set' choices from DFTW to "omg what do we want and what are the options?" with justmarry .

And I think you get just as much attentions from the intimate wedding coordinators as you would from custom weddings or elsewhere.

The only issue I see and personally going through with intimate wedding is how we deal with the expense to value ratio comparision. It is quite a chunk of change for a very nice intimate wedding event that does not last extremely long. However, the memories will last forever. Kind of like those diamond commercials lol

This is Disney afterall, you can't get the same experience anywhere else. If you have your heart set on it, just do it and don't look back!

Groomtb,
We have also decided to go ahead with the Swan Wedding. Its more of what we're looking for and for the right price. Who are you working with for your wedding coordinator? We're working with Michele. She is amazing. We're still waiting for our rate on our rooms. Have you received yours yet? How many guests are you having? Where have you decided to do your ceremony? We had our wedding planner send us some more pics of the Crescent Terrace so once we have those pictures I can send them to you if you need them to make your decision. Let me know how your planning goes and if you can make any suggestions to us. Again, congrats to you and your soon to be wife.

 

[groomtb]

Groomtb,
We have also decided to go ahead with the Swan Wedding. Its more of what we're looking for and for the right price. Who are you working with for your wedding coordinator? We're working with Michele. She is amazing. We're still waiting for our rate on our rooms. Have you received yours yet? How many guests are you having? Where have you decided to do your ceremony? We had our wedding planner send us some more pics of the Crescent Terrace so once we have those pictures I can send them to you if you need them to make your decision. Let me know how your planning goes and if you can make any suggestions to us. Again, congrats to you and your soon to be wife.

lol seems like we're bumping to each other in many many different threads sharing informations.

we have Michele too!! yup she's awesome i'd have to say, read her profile on justmarry.com and found out she's the Director of Planning, along with many other neat titles, wow. and I requested pix from her too lol...she's probably wondering if we're related. I believe we're in the same situation as you, small guest list, location and on budget but with big heart to make it magical.

as for rooms, I checked the rates here http://www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com/dreamsres/sd.cfm#dsc-hotels-sd-book

I think unless Michele can give us a killer deal on hotel rates, we might book it through orlando travel agents or our own.

You planned the wedding to be around Nov right? that's quite a way to go. I think best suggestions is to just decide on what decos you would like, cake decorations. since they can work with you very closly to what you want, giving them picture examples can help.

Also since you have so much time before the wedding, is it possible to plan out a vacation/site visit and meet with Michele? She'll be glad to meet on a weekday.

Thank you and congradulations to you too!