Off site ceremony/ on site dinner/ dessert party???

[dakcp2001]

In an effort to accomodate our guest list which is a tad over teh Escape limit, we may be forced to do a ceremony off site. We just cant swing the Wishes (as much as Id love to!!) I am not totally impressed with the S&D ceremony locations, so we are currently looking into the intimate packages at Paradise Cove, Hyatt Grand Cypress, Celebration hotel etc, and a few others. Has anyone been to one of these? Id love to hear about it!!

Heres my question, if we have our ceremony OFF SITE can we still do an after luncheon at Narcoosees? Would I be able to have a wedding cake? I know I can wear my dress in the resorts and stuff, but wasnt sure if they would let me order a wedding cake (or wedding-ish, lol)

Could I book Cali grill rooms for a mini reception? Or would they put a stop to it cuz Im not having the ceremony on site?

I know I can do a dessert party as long as I dont wear my wedding attire, has anyone done this that can offer any suggestions?

ANy other nice resteraunt suggestions for about 25-30 people for a luncheon after the ceremony?

 

[beach bride 2010]

I was going to do exactly that to save money when I first started planning my wedding...have everything off site and then just do a dessert party. I was going to use Paradise Cove as my location since I loved the beach setting and of all the options it is probably the closest to Disney. I am planning on having about 60-65 Guests so my guest count might make a bit of difference in the pricing but what I found is that once you added everything up in the end Disney's price for their cheapest Wishes wedding was very comparable as long as I stick to that minimum and don't add in a lot of extras.
A lot of places require you to have 20 guests or less for an intimate wedding, Paradise Cove included. Their intimate wedding packages started at about$1800.00. You could still probably do a lunch at Narcoossees but that probably has a food minimum of about $1000. If you do the wedding offsite you will probably have to pay for the cost of transportation for your guests and a decent place for them to stay (you would lose the discounted rooms at Disney). Plus, I haven't looked into this since it's not something I need, but doesn't Disney offer a decent discount on park admission to your guests too if you get married there? You are leaving a lot of details of a very important day up to somebody you barely know and trusting that their products and services will be good quality. With Disney there is no question that it will be good quality. Plus, Disney was special to me since I met my DF there whereas Paradise Cove holds no special memories for us. In the end a $10,000-$15,000 Wishes wedding won out.
If you want a cheap option where they are not as picky with a minimum guest count look at some of the hotels off property. A lot of the hotels along 535 and I-Drive have rooms they could do a reception at and some even have a place for the wedding. Friends of ours are gettingmarried at the Holiday Inn on I-Drive and I know it was very reasonable. Good luck!

 

[Bride-to-be]

The only one on the list that I know well is the Celebration Hotel. We just got pictures from a friends wedding there that my parents went to last weekend. It looked really really nice. A bonus is that originally the town was a disney town before they sold it. So even though it wouldn't be disney per say the town has some theming that looks a little disney.

My only concern is this - I feel like all of the places you mentioned also host receptions and thats where they make all of their $$$$. I assume you have to have receptions there and can't just do a ceremony... Not sure though.

Anyhoo I figure by the time you pay for that and stuff at disney and all of the transport then by that time you are well into a wishes wedding.

I don't know how you feel about a real church - but celebration has quite a few. If you talk to parks and rec they might let you set up a ceremony outside somewhere in the town, like around the big lake or in one of the fields and not charge and arm and a leg. I have never heard of it being done before but its def worth asking about.

Also you could advise all of your guests that they need to have rental cars and that would solve your transport costs if you are on a really tight budget.

 

[Bride-to-be]

Oh to answer your other questions. You can rent out restaurants going through catering and not DFTW and the wedding cake is probably a no. Disney goes crazy trying to prevent non-disney done weddings from happening on property and so they would probably think you were trying to do a secret weddings somewhere and just throw a party after.

Maybe you could get a cake from an off site bakery and just have someone like a parent bring it? I don't think disney would be happy about it - but I don't think they would throw you out.

We are booked for the Napa room at the Cali Grill for the first night everyone arrives - I am super excited.

The tea room at the GF could be fun - I forget what its called but there is a small orchestra that plays just above you in the lobby so it would def feel kind of receptionish.

Lots of peole like Ohana. I am trying to think whats open for lunch... Citricos is nice too but might feel way to big for a smaller crowd. The tea room thing would be my first choice and the napa room would be my first choice if you were doing it in the evening -fireworks =o).

 

[dakcp2001]

Its actually a guest list issue for us. Our list of immediate family (df is one of 8 children) and this means we will prob be JUST over the Escape limit, and DF family takes up all ofthe spots, leaving none for my best friend. I need her there! DF whole family cant even attend, or we will be over, but we dont expect them alll to come. I would REALLY prefer an Escape w/ Disney, but I dont want to spend the months up to my wedding stressed about going over, because we cant quite afford the Wishes. For an Escape to work out for us, without upsetting his family, and in order to have my best friend we would need to have 9 of his family members decline, and we just cant rely on them to RSVP or give us an answer.

The other locs, Paradise Cove, Celebration Hotel and Hyatt Grand Cypress all allow a few guests over the 20 limit on their "INTIMATE" weddings, you just pay for the extra guests. Some sights allow 25, some max at 30 so we should be fine. We really dont like S&D so they are out.

I did just find out that most of the Intimates WILL do a cake for us there, so if we end up choosing one of these locs for the ceremony, we will do the ceremony, cake champagne and then head over to narcoosees for a lunch. I do also still plan to do a dessert party.


I have been planning this for way too long now, its starting to make me a little crazy. I am SO CLOSE to just throwing my hands up and telling people we are "eloping" and just brining a couple of our nearest & dearest for an Escape wedding of our dreams. We know there would be some serious family fallout, but I just want the day to be FUN and not ahve to deal with the family drama that is sure to ensue either way. ANd the people who would get mad are the ones we dont EVER see or talk to anyway! This wedding is going to make me the family bridezilla anyway Some people think the Disney idea is ridiculous. Me & DF disagree, its where we fell in love

 

[Bride-to-be]

Is there anyway that you could do a wishes wedding in the off season during the week and then ask for some family to pitch in?

It sounds to me like you really really want a disney wedding and the only thing that is holding you back in the size of the family.

One idea is that you could do an escape wedding with just nearest and dearest friends (you and almost no one) and then do lunch at narcossees and a dessert party with everyone included and somewhere in there run a video and slideshow of the ceremony. Some photographers are really good about putting slide shows together and editing stuff quickly. If you talked to disney they might be able to do something like that...

In all honesty if you can't afford a wishes wedding and want an escape I would make that known to your family and tell them that you really want them all to be there but that you can't afford it and you are working on what you can afford to do and that you really need RSVPs now because every single person is going to count towards your decision.