Just decided on Disney wedding, please help me!

[JJClemson]

Hey everyone! I am so glad I found this site! It's great to see so many people are getting married at Disney! We decided a couple weeks ago we wanted a Disney wedding, and we have many questions. It would be wonderful if you all could help us out.

1. We need to get married last week of June/ 1st week of July in 2007. It has to be this time b/c I'm a teacher & HTB is in med school and has limited time off. Is this a busy time for Disney weddings? We do not want the Wedding Pavillion, so do you think we will have difficulty securing a date in this time frame?

2. We want to have the ceremony and reception both outside. We like Sea Breeze Point for the ceremony, but have not seen any outside reception locations. We do not want anything fancy, we're really outdoorsy people and want the whole reception to be informal. Does anyone have any ideas?

3. I am running the Disney Marathon on January 7, 2007 (so excited!). Is this too close to our late June/ early July wedding date to go there for our first planning visit?

Thank you so much for all your help! We definitely need it. I wish everyone the best of luck in planning their weddings!

 

[sajetto]

1. Because you do not want the wedding pavillion I don't think you'll have any trouble at all securing your date.

2. If you have an intimate wedding your cake cutting reception will be outside at Seabreeze point if you marry there. Same for Sunset pointe and the yacht club gazebo.

3. I think January would be an ideal time to do a planning session if you want a custom ceremony. The planning sessions are only for customs.


Note (Sunset point and the Yacht club gazebo do not really have enough room for a large custom)

So what are you planning on...intimate or custom?

 

[JJClemson]

We're having a custom wedding b/c we're planning on having 60-80 guests. Does the Sea Breeze not accomodate this size? Do you know of any other outdoor venues that can hold this many people? Thanks for all of your help!

 

[Fantasia Sam]

Well I would think that YCG would accommodate that many easier but you would deffo have to have the PA system so that all your guests can listen. We had 45 guests and really were pleased we had the PA system - I'm not sure on how many SBP can accommodate though - but I've seen some big numbers attend weddings there at the most prolly 40.

You could then have a beach reception. Otherwise I'm struggling to think of other locations to have have an outside reception. Oooo unless you had a late wedding at say YCG and then an inpark reception at Epcot's Italy Isola, I know that has been done for a sit down reception, but to get married there you have to have it first thing in the morning before Epcot Worldshowcase opens.

You'll be fine to have your PS in January for your wedding date. Paul and I got married in the May and had our PS in the December before that and it all worked out perfectly.

Ummm what else?

 

[JJClemson]

Beach reception? That's possible? You have no idea how happy that makes me! I grew up on the beach in NJ, and have since moved to SC. We would both love a beach reception, but did not know WDW allowed that. Do you know if they do beach receptions at the Boardwalk area? Or are you restricted to the Polynesian?

All this advice is great, thank you so much!

 

[Luvndisney]

i hope i can help answer some of your questions. I am also a teacher and getting married this July

1. It is not impossible to get a date in July...you just might not get your first pick. We were in a lottery for 3 Saturdays in July and ended up getting our first choice. But there is always the possiblity you will get your second or third date.

2. Just remember in terms of an outdoor ceremony Its July. Remember the heat. We also wanted SeaBreeze point but when we thought about it- it was too much a risk it being 100 degrees that day. Also we had 100 guests and I do not think SP holds that many...not sure though

Italy Isola in EPCOT is a nice place to have an outdoor reception.

3. that time should be good for a planning session.

HTH

 

[JJClemson]

We did think about the heat issue for an outdoor reception. We assumed (foolishly) that Disney had portable a/c units. Does anyone know if this is the case?

We were considering a Monday for our wedding date (June 25 or July 2, 07). Our families and friends want to spend a few days in WDW, so they were planning on arriving Friday. We are staying in WDW for our honeymoon as well, and though we love our families and friends, we would like to be alone during this time! I was nervous more people would like Mon-Thurs weddings b/c the minimums are less money. How does the lottery system work?

 

[Luvndisney]

I do not think Disney has Ac unit for outside. I think they can do heaters but even ac units might nto cool it off enough. Just consider it. A morning weddig would solve that problem or an evening wedding at sunset

a monday is a good day for a wedding and your right people can stay before or after the wedding. Our wedding is on Sat. and our families are arriving on wed. or thursday and staying to the next thursday.

actaully I think sat weddings are harder to get because theya re saturdays I might be wrong. I wouldn't worry or be concerned unless there is a specific date in mind that you woudl be devastated if you didn't get. LIke an anniversary. Even then there are options. IN terms of the lottery we were asked waht was msot important to use the date of the wedding, timing or location. For us it was timing and location. We wanted a 2:30 ceremony so we could have time for a dessert party at EPCOT. So when we put in or requests for dates we put three dates down but all of them were the exact same times and locations - we were not willing to budge on that. For other people its teh date that counts and they are willign to change locations and times to get that date. LIke if you want an July 2nd and the 2:30 time is full for SBP then you can go for a moring or evening wedding time.
Basically the lottery is a pool - no guarantees. It is a calendar that has possible weddings on it. When you start to talk to an em they can put in a request and call you at 12 months or 8 months out to let you know if you got it.

Are you a custom? I hope this all makes sense. pm me if not

 

[JJClemson]

Let me get this straight... can you book your date more than 1 yr in advance? I called the Disney wedding planners last week and they told me to call back in June. Does anyone know?


Thanks again! You're all so helpful!

 

[Luvndisney]

you can get on the "lottery calendar" over a month out. We got on that around 17 months out. But that is nothing solid. So in June you can call them and maybe get assigned an sm who will help you get on the lottery and ge the ball rolling. We got lucky and got an asnwer for the wedding early than 1 year. Some people have not had such good luck.

Depending on where your ceremony and reception are you can sign between 1 yr and 8 months. Most ballrooms and hotel locations are 8 months when you sing your contract and are official. Until you are official Disney can bump you due to conferences or other events.

For us being at the Living Seas is considered an "in-park" wedding/ so were ablet os ign at 1 yr and have that peace of mind. That was one of the selling points for us. We couldn't wait for 8 months to know for sure. There are other locations like that but you would need to ask others on here.

 

[hiwaygal]

Well... this is how I understand it (and someone correct me if I'm wrong) you can tell Disney that you want a specific date, time, and location as far as 18 months out for a custom (I think)...and they will pencil you in. But things change there pretty frequently and they may have stopped this practice. If so...be ready to call as soon as they open EXACTLY one year out!

At the one year mark, they will know how many brides want the same date, time, and location. If more than one of you have the exact same requirements, they will put names in a hat (so to speak) and figure out who gets what. If you are flexible with the time, you can usually get the date and location.

For Sea Breeze Point, I know the intimate weddings take place there at 9am, 11am, 1pm, and 3pm. I think customs have more time options. It's a LOVELY location (okay I'm a bit biased ). I would guess Sea Breeze Point could easily accommodate at least 50 guests (but ask Disney to be sure) all of them actually under the gazebo roof (I think at YCG your guests would be outside the gazebo in the weather).

Good Luck!

 

[JJClemson]

Fantastic, I'm calling Disney tomorrow to see if they can "pencil me in". Thank you all so much for all your help!

 

[Cinderella Fan]

Congratulations!! It is always nice to hear other teachers making arrangements for a Disney wedding!! DF and I are both teachers, and we had to book ours around our Christmas break, as he always coaches in the spring and summer, so this was really our only time.

Good luck on your planning, and congratulations on your wedding!!

 

[kennancat]

Hi - we got married at Sea Breeze Point (4 years ago this Wednesday - can't believe how time flies!) and I looked at my pictures to count the chairs. There look to be about 80 - 90 chairs for the seated guests, so not including the wedding party. We oriented the aisle to be parallel to the water and had five chairs on each side of the aisle. There are either 8 or 9 rows, but I can't tell clearly in the photo.

 

[starflower]

We're also planning a wedding in June of 2007, but are trying to get June 11th instead of later in the month. We're doing this because I have only part of May and early June available due to being in school myself (I'm also in a teacher education program). We're also hoping for Seabreeze Point for the ceremony and the Disney rep we spoke to said it averaged about 60 people, if that helps any. Also, from what I've been told, getting married on Monday is a good idea since Friday - Sunday tends to be the most competitive days of the week for weddings. We wanted to pencil in our date as well, but we couldn't seem to get that done until we were exactly a year from our date, despite the fact that we want the Living Seas for our reception site. I think, early in the game, it really depends on who you talk to. Also, part of the problem might have been that only my fiance talked to Disney and didn't know what to ask, since it's really hard to get our schedules to coincide where we can both make the call during Franck's operating hours. We're going to call back tomorrow with a list of questions and hopefully they'll be more helpful since we've scheduled a site visit this May (the *only* time we could do it) and want to cover more than just seeing what the sites look like.

 

[JJClemson]

I spoke to Disney today and found out you can be "penciled-in" 15-18 months in advance, depending on circumstances. Not sure what those circumstances are, but they said they would be able to do it for me. The wedding coordinator is calling me back within 3 days, and then I can be "penciled-in", but nothing official until one year out.

Also, Sea Breeze Point holds 80 people not including bridal party.

Thanks for all of your help!!

 

[janine]

Beach reception? That's possible? You have no idea how happy that makes me! I grew up on the beach in NJ, and have since moved to SC. We would both love a beach reception, but did not know WDW allowed that. Do you know if they do beach receptions at the Boardwalk area? Or are you restricted to the Polynesian?

All this advice is great, thank you so much!

You can also do beach receptions at the Yacht & Beach resorts & Grand Floridian.
I actually booked a beach reception at the Yacht Club resort, though one thing and another I changed back to an intimate wedding and they would then not let me do it.
They gave me lots of ideas whilst planning this and it sounded lovely.
Janet2k had a private event (outdoor reception) which is where I got my idea from. If you read her report and look at her pictures, you will definately be having a beach bbq reception!
I will see if I can find it for you, or you could try looking up her threads.

 

[janine]

here is Janet's event;

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=938090

 

[JJClemson]

Thank you so much for the info Janine! You're absolutely right, Janet's event was beautiful! I'm definitely looking in to having a beach reception now!