My fiance is freaking!

[DJ Disney Kid]

Hi, we are getting married in May 2011. We've been hearing that we could sit down with a wedding planner 12 months out, so we booked a week long vacation in WDW for May 2010. After buying the Passporter E Wedding book it looks like Disney won't really do much with us until 6 months out. Well we aren't going to be able to make another trip to Disney after this May 2010 trip, so what are our options? My fiance wants to be able to have her mother with us when doing food tastings and picking out venues and stuff. Will Disney do anything with us in May even though were 12 months out from the wedding? We are willing to put down the $2000 deposit in May if that helps to open up our options. There is no way for us to cancel the trip because we've already booked airfare and to cancel that would be alot of money. Both of our families are going with for this trip. We expected that we'd be able to use one day for my fiance and myself as well as both of our mothers to sit with Disney and get alot of the details worked out. Please tell me we have options!!!

 

[DisneyBride8-4]

Hey, Sorry I can't really be of any help to you, but I'm kinda in the same boat. Ours is planned for August 2011 and although we haven't made plans for our trip down there, I'm starting to wonder all this myself. I want to make sure we get the specific date in Aug we want and all that. Luckily were just doing an Escape wedding so a lot of stuff is decided for us, but its still very stressful trying to plan from so far away (I'm also in Chicago too!) I've heard that at 12 months they will hold your date and then at 8 months you put the deposit down. Haven't confirmed anything with Disney yet because its still so far away, but I too would like straight answers. If I hear anything I will let you know, and hopefully someone can help us both out!

Amanda

 

[kcampbell]

IDK your story and if you have locations picked, but you can "sit down with Disney" and discuss your venues, budget, # of guests, and then view locales you have in mind. That's actually what I did when I had a "girls trip" (my mom, MIL, and MOH's) to Disney 15 mos. before the wedding. I already had a site visit w/ my mom & DH roughly 20 mos out. I actually thought it was good b/c it allowed everyone to feel involved w/o really knowing the "nitty gritty" details.

The food tasting and actual PS is typically 6 mos. before the wedding and not to sound rude, but $$ doesn't change that. Depending on your locations and when you're allowed to go to contract may help you, but I think at this point you should plan on your May trip being a site visit. However, I would let your event coordinator know what your situation is, see, and hope for the best but anticipate the least....who knows....you might be able to get a bit more accomplished in person than you expected and that will mean more to your fiance.

Hope I wasn't too negative b/c that's the last thing in the world I'd want. Hope you get it all settled. Good Luck!!

 

[BecBennett]

I asked my coordinator this too, because there's no way we could afford a trip less then 6 months before the wedding, but you can't do tasting before 6 months out. You also cant really do a planning session either, as they can't provide you with a BEO until prices can be locked in, which is at 6 months. Sucky, but what can you do??

 

[DansBride2009]

Have you called and asked them? Did you talk to them and book the appointment before you made your plane reservations? They are really busy so it might be helpful to go to the Disney weddings website and give them a call. They are really friendly and helpful so I'm sure they could work something out.

Good luck and congrats!

 

[padisneyfour]

our VR is in july 2010, we did a site visit and got our locations at 12 month mark(we are having reception at napa room- could be held at a 12 month mark) paid deposit and then had planning session in dec/cake tasting floral etc but do not not have beo yet (other than floral-which is pretty basic for us) because of price lock in at 6 months....though we have an pretty rough idea. good luck

 

[spacerangerqueen]

IDK your story and if you have locations picked, but you can "sit down with Disney" and discuss your venues, budget, # of guests, and then view locales you have in mind. That's actually what I did when I had a "girls trip" (my mom, MIL, and MOH's) to Disney 15 mos. before the wedding. I already had a site visit w/ my mom & DH roughly 20 mos out. I actually thought it was good b/c it allowed everyone to feel involved w/o really knowing the "nitty gritty" details.

The food tasting and actual PS is typically 6 mos. before the wedding and not to sound rude, but $$ doesn't change that. Depending on your locations and when you're allowed to go to contract may help you, but I think at this point you should plan on your May trip being a site visit. However, I would let your event coordinator know what your situation is, see, and hope for the best but anticipate the least....who knows....you might be able to get a bit more accomplished in person than you expected and that will mean more to your fiance.

Hope I wasn't too negative b/c that's the last thing in the world I'd want. Hope you get it all settled. Good Luck!!

A very good post

Also you may want to check with the airlines, I would think that this far out you could change flights, not necessarily get a refund, but get a credit to use in the future. If you really can only make one trip between now and the wedding then I would wait until 6 months out.
Did you call DFTW and discuss things before you booked this trip that you now don't want to cancel?

 

[pezaddict231]

I would call Disney and talk to them directly, explain your situation and see what you can do. I'm pretty sure you will be able to do a site visit, so you can see the different venue locations, and they can probably discuss some options with you. The tasting I don't think they really do that prior to 6 months and I don't know how flexible they would be on that.

At 12 months, depending on your locations, you may not even be able to confirm your reception space. We're having our reception at the GF and they do not confirm until 8 months because conventions have priority. Offering to pay them would not really make a difference, it's just their policy.

If you are thinking of having your reception at CA Grill, they do not do tastings but you can go to the restaurant, which is something you could do on your May trip if that was a venue you were considering.

Don't worry, I know the process with Disney is very different from other places and that can be really frustrating but their system does work. If you can't change the flights, go meet with them in May and do a site visit. That will let you see the venues in person and I'm sure they would answer some questions for you that would at least let you know what some of your options are.

Good luck and I hope everything works out.

 

[Janell]

If you aren't able to do a testing 12 months out and not able to take another trip 6 months out. Try not to freak out to much. We never did a testing for our wedding in May 08. In fact my husband never saw anything in person before we arrived in May 08. I had seen a few things about 5 years prior, but never thought I would be getting married there. lol

Our food came out great. We did a fruit spread for the pre-reception(which I was told was good, we were to busy taking photos) The reception had a lunch buffet, which was very good. Plus the cake. We choose menu items on what sounded good and from what others on the boards said was good.

A side note, take a cooler with you and some type of tupperware/rubber made container. Left over wedding cake can taste really good cold and the cooler will allow you to take it with you when you go into the parks during your honeymoon. We didn't know this during our honeymoon but on our ann. trip I got the top of our cake made and we did this and boy was it good.

Good luck with things. I hope you are able to do a tasting at 12 months out. If not just take your best guess and know WDW food is really good. I was told that I had the best wedding food a friend has ever tasted and she has been to over 200 weddings. (she use to be a photographers assistant)