Just engaged, met with Disney Planner, but have questions!

[disneyjenny]

Hey everyone! I just got engaged in Disney World a week ago on vacation and had a Disney consulation meeting with Pam. She was awesome. We are trying to pick a date, and since I am a teacher I would like to have it in the summer since I am off. We are debating between having it a year from now in 2007, or wait until June 2008. My big question is, did a lot of you send out "feelers" to your hopeful wedding guests? Not so much a save the date, but something to get an idea of how many people were interested before you decided where to have your reception and so on? I am from PA, so I know certain people will come but the others are a toss up. I feel that my location may change if I have 30 people opposed to 80.
Also, those of you who have gotten married at the WP, did you have trouble getting your desired date? Pam told me to narrow down my top 3 choices or dates, b/c I am set on a 7:30 ceremony. Thanks!!

 

[dee slack]

Hello and to the boards. Sorry, can't help wth your questions - just wanted to say Congratulations on your engagement!

 

[SRUAlmn]

Wow, we could be twins I am in the same boat. We live in SC, but most of both of our families are in PA. We did send out a feeler email just to see if we should do an intimate or if we should do a custom. We were right around 30-40 people, so I think we're going with the custom. I'm a teacher too, so we are doing next summer (although it will have been almost 2 years since we got engaged by then.) In the email I told people that it wasn't a commitment, but that if they knew that, for sure, no matter what the circumstances, or what the date was, that they couldn't come, that's what we needed to know. We were really torn because I thought I'd be disappointed with a very small wedding, but we figured that we would only have 'maybe' 30 more people there if we had it in PA, so I'd rather have it where we really really want to have it. If it was a difference of 100 or something, that would make a difference, but 30 people wasn't a biggie to us, or to those that wouldn't be able to make it. Keep in touch with me, I think we can help each other

 

[mhcueball2]

Welcome. I'm from PA also. We are inviting our close family (mostly local) of about 50. We just asked most of them what they thought. Most of them are making a vacation out of it, since they knew we were looking at a Disney wedding 3 years ago

I guess it depends if you feel comfortable asking them. But do realize that some of them won't like Disney and maybe won't want to make the trip (or even worse...try to change your mind). Do what feels right for you. Having it one week or the other won't matter to your guests with this much advance notice.

Our Save the Dates were just sent out, so we will be sending out a 'feeler' with our newsletter with alot of information on it. Then we can start budgeting from that.

 

[disneyjenny]

Thanks for the replies! So, you sent out the save the dates with out knowing how many were actually going to come? After you sign the contract, are you able to play with locations for the reception, or do they hold you to that?
I feel the same way about having it in Disney, we won't change it for anyone, even if we only get 30 people. I would just like to know for planning purposes how many will come, if not many, we will have a reception at home.

 

[JonetteA]

I wouldn't really recommend playing with it that much. You could lose out on what you want. Say they take you off of the YCG, and you decide you want to go back, someone else could have filled the spot. Disney has great locations to work with, something for everyone that is for sure. If you are worried about an outdoor location, there is always a backup that is indoors. The backup has to be scheduled as well. Some of the backups/ rehearsal spots can't be formalized until 30 days before I think. Check with your WP on the exact details. I know that sometimes it all varies.

 

[mhcueball2]

We just changed our wedding time and reception location. They just send you an addendum to the contract to sign. But as said above, venues could be taken quickly...but the option is there to change it (as long as its available).

Our Save the Dates went to everyone on our guest list. Some of them already contacted us with questions (and some said that they can't make it). So we kinda know what to expect before sending out the invites.

 

[pixie08]

Hi and welome!

With the wedding pavillion I wouldn't be too worried as long as you are a little flexible. Saturday evening is most popular followed by Sun and fri. So it depends on what date you choose. Our first choice was a sat @ 5pm but we were not so flexible because we wanted our wedding that weekend and we wanted an evening wedding. We wound up with our 2nd choice which was a Friday @ 5 pm. We submitted 5 different dates and times (3 of the time could be all the same day if hour is not a factor ie: Sta @ 2:30, 5pm, 7:30 pm) So it shouldn't be too much of a problem...during the week is even easier.


As soon as we gote our date I sent out little packets that had info on Disney and the reosrts we were picking for the room block. I had a little response card and asked people if they thought they would be able to join us in Disney. I wrote in the newsletter that these were not official responses just a way for us to judge how many were coming so that we may negotiate with disney the best discount possible for their tickets and hotel (ok so that was a little exaggeration but the only way people would understand that we needed to know if they were coming) We invited around 85-90 people. We set the rsvp date as this week. We have received almost all the responses back except for maybe 5-6 so we have a good idea that over 60 but under 70 will come

 

[dannirose]

Hi & congrats! We will be a big group (bet. 70 - 130) so DF & I made up Save the Date booklets announcing the wedding date and location. We put in lots of pictures of various Disney couples and photos of us along with the information about the wedding & the fact that as guests of the wedding they will be eligible for hotel/park discounts. We also hinted that attendees would be invited to other special events & explained the reason for the book was to give people as much time as possible to plan.

We included a postcard for people to return to us (already stamped and addressed - they have NO excuse not to return it) which asks them to indicate how likely they are to attend - Yes, Perhaps & No. It also asks how long they think they might stay. Last, it asks them if they want to be put on the official list so Disney can contact them about the discounted rooms & tickets for the wedding. My hope is that I have enough responses by mid-October to sit down with DF and finalize our location choices.

 

[disneyjenny]

Wow, that sounds like a lot of work!! We are thinking about August of '07, so I feel I really need to get to work! If it's not too much to ask, does anyone have a letter they sent out to family before the STD that I could look at? I am an English teacher, so I shouldn't have trouble writing it, but you all seem to have great ways to get people to write back!! If you do let me know and I will send you my email address!

 

[dsnyfan6/18]

Wow, that sounds like a lot of work!! We are thinking about August of '07, so I feel I really need to get to work! If it's not too much to ask, does anyone have a letter they sent out to family before the STD that I could look at? I am an English teacher, so I shouldn't have trouble writing it, but you all seem to have great ways to get people to write back!! If you do let me know and I will send you my email address!

We're from NY so I knew alot of people wouldn't/couldn't come...I sent a quick but short email (if they didn't have email i sent a postcard type) if you PM me your email address, I'll send you what I came up with. We first guaranteed 40 and based on our list, we ended up with 35, which was great! Regarding the WP, we were set on having it on a Sunday at 12noon (in the summer) SO our sales manager sent us all the dates that we could do and we took it all from there.

 

[SRUAlmn]

It seems like a lot of you have chosen a Saturday. So do you think Saturdays are more in demand? I thought for sure since it costs $10,000 more just for the date that people would be flocking more for the Mon-Thurs options. Guess that's good for me since I can't seem to justify spending $10,000 just for the day of the week

 

[disneyjenny]

At first, I wanted the middle of the week for $10,000, but I realized that regradless I was easily going to exceed that price after thinking about how much everyting actually costs. So, minus well pick the day you really want!

 

[hmgolden]

We picked a Friday to try to to limit the impact on our guests who wanted to just come to Florida for the wedding. A lot of our guests flew down on Thursday after work. We would have picked a Saturday, but the WP was booked solid when we picked our date and in 2004 the WP was under renovation for the entire month of July. So, Friday it was

 

[SRUAlmn]

Oh my, I think I've been thinking about this the wrong way. I thought the $5000 more for Friday and Sunday and $10000 more for Saturday was an extra cost to have it on that day. Now I see it looks like that is actually the minimum expenditure you need to have to have it on those days. Well that makes a HUGE difference!! I wondered why anyone would just flat out pay $10,000 to have their wedding on a Saturday as apposed to any other day Please excuse my ignorance!

 

[pixie08]

At first, I wanted the middle of the week for $10,000, but I realized that regradless I was easily going to exceed that price after thinking about how much everyting actually costs. So, minus well pick the day you really want!

That was us too...we realized we were going to go over the Fri or Sat min so we just picked the day we wanted!

This is what the packet looked like that I sent out:

and the save the date magnets I had made:

If you want to see the cover and letter or whatever pm me.

 

[ItGirl753]

This is what the packet looked like that I sent out

OOOOOOH! Did you make them or have them all made?

 

[SRUAlmn]

Question along the lines of minimums. If you are staying in WDW after your DFTW can that count toward your minimum? I figure not, but I thought I should ask, just in case!

 

[pixie08]

Itgirl- I made the packets myself! I bought the pocket holder thingies at AC moore they came with invite cards but I didn't use them. They we 40% off with the discount coupon so not too bad. The magnets I hade made by www.magnetstreetweddings.com they were like $2 a magnet but you have order a min of 50.

Srulamman- Are you talking about a custom or an intimate? I am not sure how intimates work but I know for custom the amount spent on hotels does not count toward you minimum it only counts toward your room block requirements...I hope that helped!

 

[SRUAlmn]

Srulamman- Are you talking about a custom or an intimate? I am not sure how intimates work but I know for custom the amount spent on hotels does not count toward you minimum it only counts toward your room block requirements...I hope that helped!

We are doing a custom, and thank you! That's what I suspected, but it never hurts to double check