Need help from people who do not know us! slight vent!!!!!!!

[orangetiggs]

We are planning a disney wedding for sep 2008 be it a custom one or an intimate one.

I sent out newsletters and rsvps to people who I thought would be interested in coming with us. I know that coming from the uk its quite expensive so I gave people plenty of time to save up for it etc.

Well so far we have 16 people who have said they will def come to our wedding, mostly very close family like mums, dads and sistersetc and the two best men and my BM. Well we have another 10 that are a maybe! Now do I continue to plan our custom wedding and go to contract this sept and hope that they all book and come with us or just go ahead and plan an intimate wedding and dinner and dessert reception for 20 guests if four more say yes?

We are planning a blessing and home reception when we get back anyway and we are hoping to show our wedding video and photos on a very large tv screen so everyone will see everything from Disney.

We are just stuck with what to do, we are trying to save up for it all but its hard to save when you dont really know what to save for! If we did the intmate and dinner and illuminations reception I think it would come to around $7000 for all of us but with a custom one as you know its a $10k min spend.

The other problem we have like others is that with an intimate we cant contract till 8 months out but our custom one we can contract at 12 months out so I'm worried that if we book all our holiday up now and then wont be able to get our date we want.

Sorry this is long and I'm venting a little but I need opinions of people who dont know us!

 

[princessdisneybelle]

I think I would suggest that you start as a custom. They can always change it later. And you will have the money already paid. If you really want alot of people there you will be covered. Or just decide you want something small and let people know you can only have 18. Just invite very close friends and family. That might be difficult though because you sent out the newsletter already. Counts will change alot in the next year. Try not to stress about it too much.

Also remember if you want to add alot of the extras. You will come close to the Custom Minimum already so might be a good idea. HTH

 

[sarahknowles]

Here is what I would do - in fact it is what I'm doing. Tell the "maybe's" that you are very sorry but you need a definite commitment from them or else you will have to assume they are not coming. Explain that you are in a tight spot and you are not trying to be rude. Most people should understand that a destination wedding requires advance planning on the part of the guests as well.

 

[Lynn5700]

I thought that for a custom you can't book until you are 8 months before the wedding

 

[princessdisneybelle]

From my own experience people's plans change. It's pretty hard to figure out 16 months in advance. Sarah you really just need to figure out the type of wedding you would like and how many people.

 

[orangetiggs]

Lynn- I called dftw and they said we can contract at 12 months as long as its not a convention centre place.

Princessdisneybelle- I know what you mean that 16 months out peoples plans do change but with our firneds its even harder to get a yes for a quiz which is THIS wednesday! It does not seem to matter if we give them months or days! they are very unorganised! With the flights to orlando they get booked really quickley and we only want to fly with the one airline so thats why we book so far in advance and sometimes its cheaper as we get early booking bonus and things like that.

Thanks for everyones help though

 

[AbbyPan]

Hey there! Just wanted to give some input since I was in the same boat at one point and then just opted to switch to a custom.

Once you send out a newsletter, you can never really be sure how many guests will decide to go until a certain point. It's really annoying for a bride who wants to be able to have a final headcount and just plan, but that's not likely since guests are so indecisive! ugh! (ok, I think I'm venting now )

Anyway, my suggestion is to set early deadlines. My wedding is in September and I've made it very clear to my guests that June 1st 2006 is our deadline. They have all known since September 2006, which is enough time to decide whether or not this is a trip they can make.
You have given your guests plenty of time! So don't be afraid to set early deadlines and stick to them.

 

[AbbyPan]

just need to clarify in case I confused anyone, I meant, June 1st 2007 is our deadline...

 

[orangetiggs]

my deadline was 1st march 2007 and I'm still chasing!! We are talking with Heidi about a custom wedding but for 4 extra guests we have to spend all that money extra to make up to the 10k min!! so I'm trying to definate answers from everyone so we can see if those 4 people actually want to go or not! Its a nightmare

 

[AbbyPan]

Oh Sarah, so sorry to hear that! However, I do understand that we have to give our guests time to figure out if this is an expense they can make. You still have time though so don't fret!


Whatever your contract date turns out to be, you can make the week before the deadline??? If you tell possible guests that your deposit is due on a specific date then your guests will be forced to make the decison within that time frame - and if they don't, guess what? they just won't be included. This isn't backyard wedding so you wouldn't be rude doing this.

I wrote on our response cards:
We hope you understand: Due to the circumstances of our event, if you cannot respond before May 31st, 2007 we will assume that your family will not attend.
...and that's the beauty of setting early deadlines, because now we can afford to give them an extra week or two to make a decison once it's crunch time.
Hope all this makes sense!

 

[orangetiggs]

thats a good thing to put I wish I had thought about that!

I guess if we just start saving and if we have to do a custom I'm sure we can spend the 10k min that is required. its not that bad at the moment as the $ is really strong to our £ nearly $2 to every £1 so $10k would only be around£6500 for us which compared to a wedding over here would be about $40000!
I'm just drawn to the $3950 intimate wedding! means I have more to spend at disney!

 

[AbbyPan]

YES! sooo true, I forgot about that. If I came from overthere I would be planning a custom wedding on Saturday evening @ the Castle!

 

[orangetiggs]

I would love to but our money does not strecth that far!! The nearest we are going to get is the MK photo shoot!!!

 

[AbbyPan]

That is definitely second best to having the wedding @ MK!

The closest we will be to MK is the WP for the ceremony ...and even then I doubt I'll notice the castle in the distance from being a nervous wreck

 

[Lynn5700]

Lynn- I called dftw and they said we can contract at 12 months as long as its not a convention centre place.

Oh I see. I forgot about that duh,we are having our reception at the boardwalk. I only have a couple more months soI hope there won't be any big convention going on next March.