Just Engaged! Disney Wedding w/o Having a Disney Wedding?

[Rora]

I just got engaged today!!! I'm so so so excited. The first thing FH and I thought of was: Disney. Then we looked at the prices and we're not sure if we're going to be able to afford an actual "Disney Wedding". I've just graduated from college (that makes me 22) and FH is in Law School so we're rather tight on money and don't want to ask our parents to pay for the entire event. While we try to figure out finances in hopes of having an onsite Disney Wedding, is there any way to have a Disney Wedding without actually being at Disney? However, we don't want a cheesy themed wedding. Elegant wedding with hints of Elegant Disney (oh but when is it not? ). Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!! BTW- our favorite Disney Couple is Sleeping Beauty and Prince Philip.

 

[miranda1979]

Congratulations!!! We wanted a Disney wedding..but we decided to have a less expensive wedding at home and have a big disneymoon. Have fun planning.

 

[lurkyloo]

Apparently weddings at the Swan & Dolphin are much cheaper and can have some of the same things, like characters. I believe there's a sticky about Swan & Dolphin weddings at the top of the forum page, and there are a couple brides on here who got married there.

Congratulations!

 

[meelee514]

I just got engaged today!!! I'm so so so excited. The first thing FH and I thought of was: Disney. Then we looked at the prices and we're not sure if we're going to be able to afford an actual "Disney Wedding". I've just graduated from college (that makes me 22) and FH is in Law School so we're rather tight on money and don't want to ask our parents to pay for the entire event. While we try to figure out finances in hopes of having an onsite Disney Wedding, is there any way to have a Disney Wedding without actually being at Disney? However, we don't want a cheesy themed wedding. Elegant wedding with hints of Elegant Disney (oh but when is it not? ). Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!! BTW- our favorite Disney Couple is Sleeping Beauty and Prince Philip.

I'm in the same situation you're in.. and any advice or suggestions are much appreciated!!!

we're not planning our wedding til I finish school, I'll be 22 then.. October 2009. So I'm sure the prices will go up by then :\

 

[Rora]

Meelee, if you get any advice let me know and I will do the same for you! Congrats!!

 

[hmgolden]

Apparently weddings at the Swan & Dolphin are much cheaper and can have some of the same things, like characters. I believe there's a sticky about Swan & Dolphin weddings at the top of the forum page, and there are a couple brides on here who got married there.

Congratulations!

I second what lurkyloo said - a Swan and Dolphin may give you what you are looking for. Otherwise, I would suggest having an at home wedding, and going all out on your Disneymoon. There are several brides on the board with planning journals for their at home weddings. You might be able to get ideas from them.

Good luck planning whatever wedding you decide on. And many congratulations on your engagement!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

We're getting married summer '09. We really wanted to do a WDW wedding but it's just not gonna happen. So....we will have as much disney in our wedding as Dfi will allow! Haven't done A LOT of research but I've done some simple internet searches and there are some really nice invitations that's I've come across as well as favors. I'm sure we'll think of some other nice things to have in the wedding as well. Like you said, nothing cheesey!! We were thinking maybe snowglobes as centerpieces. I keep checking the disney outlet site in case anything comes up that we may be able to use. I'd love to hear any one else's ideas as well!

 

[Lisella]

Hi Girls!

I am new here and also newly engaged. I also dreamed of having a magical wedding at Disney. I was hoping to do something small and intimate with the family (most of which now reside in FL) and then have a casual reception back home...thinking I would actually be saving some money and living out a dream while at it. However I, too became quite discouraged when reading about the prices - even for an intimate package.

So I would also love to read suggestions and ideas that some of you have for a non-cheesy Disney wedding - probably 100's of miles away from the World

 

[rigsby25]

My daughter just signed a contract for Swan and Dolpin for 1100.00 For that money they are only giving her the site for as many guests as she'd like. (40). They will set up the chairs for her. They are very accomodating with having family members/friends doing things like playing the instruments, taking the pictures. Then we are having a small mini reception in an Old Key West 2 br villa decorated for a wedding and we are going to Costco and buying sandwiches and cheese platters, etc. Then in the evening we are planning to go to the Spirirt of Aloha. The "reception" will most likely be a backyard kind of barbecue/pool party kind of thing at home.

 

[JonetteA]

Have you thought about an Escape wedding. Less amount of guests and not all of the custom features, but more affordable. We went the custom route due to the amount of people, but quite honestly, we would have had more people in Dallas coming to our wedding but spent the same amount or more for the custom.

 

[lumpyscall]

My fiance and I had a similar situation. We're getting married in February '08. I have always dreamed of having a Disney wedding, but because we're footing the bill, it just wasn't going to be possible right now.

We've decided to have a Mickey-themed wedding at a boutique hotel near our home. We have rented out the rooftop lounge for about 36 people. We designed our cake with a baker in town who was very accomodating to put little hidden Mickeys on our cake. Instead of traditional wedding music, we found a Disney wedding CD of instrumental music from Disney movies.
Then, we are going on our Disneymoon in April. We've decided to stay at the AKL.

Finally, since we couldn't have all of our friends and family at our ceremony in February, we have already talked with the event coordinator at the Swan and Dolphin about doing a vow renewal -- either in August 2010 or, right now, we're leaning on 2013 for our 5th year anniversary. By that time, we'll have saved enough to pay for our "dream Disney wedding".

While our wedding in February wasn't what I originally envisioned, it's turned into something I'm very proud of from our hidden Mickeys on our invitations to the Disney pin lanyards and tradeable pins we'll be handing out as favors. Feel free to check out my PJ, too.

Good luck planning!

 

[rigsby25]

where did you find the wedding cd?

 

[DisneySweetie]

where did you find the wedding cd?

You can get the CD that lumpyscall is talking about at several places online, including:
http://www.amazon.com/Disneys-Fairy-Tale-Weddings-Disney/dp/B0007TKH0W
http://disneyshopping.go.com/webapp...d=-1&categoryId=11886&catalogFromSearch=10002

Just type "Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings CD" into Google.

 

[lumpyscall]

I bought ours at B&N but I've also seen it at Borders. You can sometimes find links to it on some wedding websites.

 

[OKW Mom]

The B&G had married in WDW and returned to Baltimore a week later for a reception.
The entry table had picture frames with a wallet of the B&G and a card with the guest's name and table #. The Table "numbers" were named after different resorts at WDW. They had the Tables decorated with the theme of the resort and the centerpiece had the resort name in it.
(Not being a guest at the wedding reception) I did not see everything done, but the cake looked like alot of hidden mickeys in white/ivory frosting.