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[DisneyBride8-4]

Hello! I'm very new to this site, I've been looking around it for a while, but now that its official that I will be a Disney Bride, I've decided to post! I'm Amanda, 24 and from Chicago. I got engaged on November 24th and my fiance and I are very into the whole Disney thing! We are planning an Escape Wedding. We know we would like to have it at the Wedding Pavillion. August 4th will defintely be the date, I'm thinking it may have to be 2011 since we need to get a deposit in asap and the date may already be booked. It would be nice to have it 2010, but in order to have my fairytale wedding we need to save.

I will be needing a TON of help, and since everyone here is so helpful, I'm looking to you all for advice. If anyone could give me tips, or things I should know I would appreciate it soo much! I've actually been looking around for pictures of the standard flowers and cakes included in the Escape package, and just other things to keep the cost down. As far as the reception, still very up in the air. We would like to have a small reception for our 20 guests including ourselves, no alcohol, the majority of them include kids, but we would like to be able to at least have our first dance and father/daughter mother/son dances. Family is not very big into partying so not sure if a DJ is worth the money. Any ideas would be grealy appreciated!!

Amanda

 

[Chilly]

Welcome and congratulations.

I might be wrong but I'm not sure you can have dancing at an Escape reception. You can have your first dance at the cake & champagne reception but I'm not sure you can do anything else.

 

[DisneyBride8-4]

hmm well i thought I could do a room at the convention center or something like that? Im not sure what kind of place we will go with, I'll need to see pictures and look at prices. We're better off with a per person menu rather than a minimum. We'll stick with regular soda, possibly a buffet or lunch, and no dessert. I didn't want a big banquet-like room since there will only be 20 of us (maybe a few more since there will be kids not able to attend the ceremony)

 

[Chilly]

With an Escape reception you are only allowed 2 hours so there is probably not time for dancing, if you want the full wedding experience Disney want you to go with a Wishes wedding.

 

[DisneyBride8-4]

I've decided that I'm going to try and do a 10am ceremony at the WP, then *hopefully* during the cake cutting I can at least squeeze in the first dance and hopefully a father/daughter. Those are all I really care about. Like I said, most of my family isn't big into dancing so it really doesnt make sense to pay for a DJ and a larger room. Then the plan is to head over to one of the places that has the character breakfast buffet, that way all the kids will get their time with the characters if some families decide to skip the park, and then we will go back to our rooms, change, and meet in the park for a fun filled day! It all sounds so exciting, just hope it all can happen!

 

[*Pixiedust1438*]

I am new to the boards also. Congratulations! Your plans sound great so far!

 

[weedee]

congrats and welcome! Good thing you want to use the Wedding Pavilion...August will be HOT in Florida! Stay indoors!!

 

[Pirate's Princess]

Congrats on the engagement and on the Disney wedding! I hope you get your date, either year! Have you called DFTW?

 

[DisneyBride8-4]

Thank you!! No, I haven't called DFTW yet. We're pretty sure we're going to just stick to Aug 4, 2011 since we need time to save and our guests will all need time to plan a vacation around it or at least make arrangements to be there for a few days. The good news is waiting till 2011 we will defintely have all the money to be able to afford my fairytale wedding and everything I want to do, and since these boar ds are around and everyone is so helpful, I pretty much have all of the planning done myself already. The only disadvantage is its soo far away and I'm getting soo excited already!
I read somewhere that I could th temporarily hold the date 12 months in advance and then actually book it 8 months in advance. Is this correct?

 

[pghloveswdw512]

The only problem with the character breakfasts is that they end at 11:30, so you may not be able to go even with the 10am ceremony. We wanted to do a brunch for our 10am Yacht Club Gazebo wedding, but we couldn't figure out how to ensure we all got somewhere in enough time after the pictures and everything were done. We opted for a lunch at Big River Grille, and we are doing a per person lunch.

We were offered a private room at the Yacht Club with a brunch menu that looked really nice, but we decided we didn't want to spend that much. If you want to see those options just to get an idea of what it would cost and look like, let me know!

 

[DisneyBride8-4]

Hmm.. Well its still a while away, but I'm hoping I can call and ask if its a possibility. I would hope that as long as we were seated by 11:15/11:30 and they knew they would be making a good amount of money and knew way in advance that they could work something out for us. I just really wanted to have a breakfast buffet (mickey waffles sound amazing!) and I most defintely wanted the characters to be there for the kids since the majority of our guests happen to be children anyway. If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it, this is stressing me out already and seems to be the only big concern right now of things not going the way I want them to.

 

[weedee]

hmmm...for an Escape wedding I'm pretty sure you have to wait the full 8 months to reserve the date because at the 12 month mark is when the Wishes weddings have their choices of dates. We originally planned our wedding for Oct 2010, then found out we'd have to wait until February at the 8 month mark to reserve the date...so we moved it up to June. I could be wrong though...

 

[DisneyBride8-4]

I knew that I had to wait till 8 months. My concern wasn't really with the ceremony part of it, my concern was with the character breakfast buffet and being able to make it on time if we have a 10am ceremony. I was told somewhere they could temporarily hold the date at 12 months, but I'm not sure that is correct. Either way I still have a while to go.

 

[pezaddict231]

I'm pretty sure we had an ADR to a character breakfast at 1900 Park Fare that was around 11:20 or so. That would be the closest one to the WP and they don't serve lunch there so they may be a little more flexible. The only thing is the characters seemed to leave a little earlier, so I'm not sure if they would have to go somewhere else after the breakfast is over.

If you do a 10 am ceremony, maybe do pics beforehand, then the ceremony would be roughly 1/2 an hour, have some time for pics / cake afterwards, then you'd probably be able to get to 1900 Park Fare by a little after 11 which should be fine.

If you wanted, you might even be able to have the cake served at breakfast, that would definitely save you some time so you can get to the breakfast on time. Have plenty of time with the characters, then when the restaurant is quiet you can have your cake cutting.

 

[DisneyBride8-4]

That sounds like an excellent idea if its possible! I didn't know we could do pictures beforehand! I would much rather do that anyway! I wasn't sure how that worked.. We haven't decided if we are going to just stick with the 2 hr Disney photographer that came with our package or also have an outside photographer. Either way we mainly just want the rights to our pictures and them on a cd so we can make our own prints, so whichever way is cheapest we'll probably do that. Can anyone tell me about how long the photo session lasts? If its only 30 minutes I would much rather do that before the ceremony. I'm not very traditional so I don't care about my fiance seeing me before the wedding or any of that. Also how was everyone managing their 2 hours? Did the photographers take pics of you getting ready, then at the ceremony? Would they follow me to the breakfast if we were within that time limit?

Also wanted to add that I defintely wanted my first dance and father/daughter dance to be done during the cake cutting, either before or after. I had planned on doing that after the ceremony before leaving for the breakfast, but not sure if thats possible if were running low on time before the character breakfast would be over. I'm assuming since theres going to be a lot of people there (were looking at about 40 of us) they would let us eat and everything as long as we were in there a little before 11:30. There will be enough advanced notice for the restaurant so they'll know how many to expect and when, I just wanted to make sure the kids had enough time with the characters.