Hello again! I've been slammed at work the last few weeks with quite a few nighttime obligations that have slowed my ability to get some updates out. BUT, now that those are done, I'm back to continue this dining report. Let's get started, shall we?
We left Magic Kingdom not too long after the park opened, so we were something of a salmon swimming upstream. We took the monorail around the Grand Floridian and then headed toward the convention hall.
As we walked out we ran into Richard and just had to get a picture!
The Disney Fairytale Wedding Expo was a morning of information about having a wedding at Disney. However, here’s the thing, I couldn’t figure out what audience this event was playing to. On the one hand, it was partly for people who might be thinking about a Disney Wedding. Clearly, the problem with this audience is ‘how many people are actually in this group?’. If I were in a relationship, but did not yet have a ring, would not go to an event such as this one. Then, there’s the group of people who are engaged, and are contemplating or planning on having a Disney Wedding. Similar problem with the previous group, how many people would fall into it...enough to host a successful expo? And, finally, you have people who are engaged and set on a Disney wedding, or maybe are already in the throes of planning. This seems like the most obvious group, but once you’ve truly decided and are within the year window the planning begins in earnest and you are given your own specific planner, etc. You begin planning sessions, etc. Does the Disney Wedding Group need to host an event that gives mostly general information to people who have already committed? I don’t know, and after going, I think this was a clear conundrum with the event planners as well.
The event began at 10:00 a.m. in what I can only assume is the largest ballroom available at the Grand Floridian. Sprinkled throughout the room were examples of tables and place settings available for weddings.
The Mad Hatter Tea service is a whimsical arrangement and often used by brides for a rehearsal tea or other bridesmaid event.
An example of a Mad Hatter cake. This is a very popular style of cake where the tiers are askew that is pretty unique to Disney.
The Cinderella Carriage was placed as a centerpiece, enticing brides to add $$ to their day by booking it. There were two food-related stations, located in either corner of the ballroom.
On one side was the hors d'oeuvres station where they had a couple chefs cooking and plating up small portions of entrees and appetizers available for the reception.
The culinary team also had a farm-to-table set-up that has been very popular lately. It had a rustic feel to it and was beautiful. The set-up here had some salads they were making for people as they walked by. We did not partake in any of the food due to our bellies being full from breakfast.
On the other side of the room was cake central.
The tasting portion was 4 different “shooters” of cake and filling for us to sample. Oddly, I don't have a picture of the one I actually tried, which was an apricot mousse. I enjoy apricot flavor and thought this was very good.
This one was dark chocolate with chocolate mousse. Kathy enjoyed this one. I thought it wasn't too rich, which was nice for a non-chocolate lover.
Tequila key lime mousse
White chocolate oreo mousse.
Many of the pastry chefs had also brought full cakes they had decorated to give attendees any number of ideas as to how a cake might be decorated.
There was one pastry chef constantly making sugar flowers. You could take one of these for a souvenir.
This is pastry chef Jade, who specialized here in painting white chocolate characters for use on the cake. She said the white chocolate characters could be preserved for years, so long as you displayed them correctly. I thought these were really fun.
What I can only describe as "your Frozen option"
In the center of cake central was a table with mini cakes outlining the various options couples have for individualized dessert.
Although Disney has about 16 different types of cakes and fillings, the pastry chefs said there was some leeway with flavors dependent on what you wanted. For example, lemon cake is an option, but blueberry filling is not. The pastry chefs said they would be able to do the blueberry filling if a couple requested it.
The thing that got the biggest buzz at the Expo, and has been released since to the general public, was the introduction of the projection wedding cake.
It is 5 tiers and looks incredible. Basically, this is a mini version of the castle projection show...on your wedding cake! I am unsure of how it is done, but the wedding coordinators said they could do any number of projections.
We saw a projection of the Cinderella carriage and horses trotting around the cake, as well as a fireworks projection. It was really cool to see in person. I don’t remember how much that baby costs, but it’s definitely a pretty penny. As I mentioned above, the cake must be 5 tiers, but the coordinators said you could do as few as 2-3 and they would finish the others off as fake tiers.
During the course of the event there were 2 sessions you could sign up for and learn about different aspects in detail. We went to both. One was photography and floral and the other was about food. We thought the food one was much better than the photography, but that could also be because we just like food better. Either way, they did a great job with the food presentation.
Basically, they outlined many of the different options for reception dinners, and went over some of the pros and cons to each. They spent much of the time discussing buffet versus plated. Throughout the event, they also discussed how the culinary team works with the couple to ensure their tastes and ideas are implemented into the day. Anything you want to make happen can happen, they said. The chefs even noted that they could make your grandmothers famous recipe if you desired, so long as you had a recipe to give them. I thought that comment really centered in on what makes a Disney wedding so unique.
Here is a picture of the team giving the presentation.
Once the expo itself ended, we were signed up for An Afternoon of Food & Wine Tasting. That will be my next post. Thanks for reading!
It's all good though because I'm going back in 13 days and I'll be enjoying a SHRIMP taco this time!!!
