PTR - Diary of an Aussie Disney Bride (Feb 2025)

[zanzibar138]

Getting prepared for flight bookings

I think I mentioned this before, but we plan to book premium cabins for as many flights as possible, using a combination of Qantas (OneWorld) and Velocity (Star Alliance) points. Flights generally open up about a year in advance, so I can't book yet, but they sell out ridiculously quickly, so I want to be prepared!

The other day I looked up all the airlines we could use our points with and used the Flight Connections website to figure out which options were going to be viable - there are 23 viable options. Our plan is to fly as directly as possible from Perth to Vegas. A lot of the options only get us as far as LA, but that's not too bad as we will even consider driving from there to avoid another flight.

First preference is with an Australian or US-based carrier which will get us to LA in 2 hops, with one relatively short flight (about 4 hours), followed by the long haul across the Pacific (about 14 hours).

Next up, there are a few options with slightly longer hops (5-8 hours) followed by long flights (12-15 hours). These are via Auckland, Singapore, Hong Kong or Tokyo. There are also a couple of options which get us to LAX in 2 flights via the middle east, but they both involve 2 long flights of 11 hours and 16 hours so not ideal!

Then we get to the options that have a minimum of 3 flights. There are a few that will get us directly to Vegas via Canada, Hawaii or South Korea (believe it or not!). The rest will only get us as far as LA. There are some not bad options via the South Pacific (Tahiti anyone???) or Asia.

There are a few flights via Europe that will get us directly to Vegas in 3 hops, and a few more that will only get us as far as LA. These are not ideal as it's a 5 hour flight followed by 2 long haul flights. But good to know we have lots of options!

 

[zanzibar138]

Dress is locked in!

Exciting stuff! Went to the dress maker with Mum yesterday for a second opinion (and to involve Mum in some of the wedding stuff since we didn't get to do much of that for my first wedding when I was living interstate). She didn't seem very enthusiastic about the appointment, but once we got there, and particularly afterwards, she seemed excited too! I tried on the sample dress for her and we discussed colours and styles, and some of the intricacies of how the multiple pieces will all work. She's very impressed with how the dress maker and I have worked together to come up with a plan to maximise wear out of the pieces after the wedding, and thinks the sample dress that we're basing the design on is very pretty and suits me.

• For the base skirt, this will be about ankle length, in a half circle pattern. It'll have blue lining with a couple of layers of ivory or blue organza. We're going to play around the number and colour of the layers to achieve the right level of colour and swishiness. I plan to wear this without the top skirt for the dessert party, our happily ever after party, and for general dancing afterwards.
• For the top skirt, it'll be floor length with a sweep train, in a full circle pattern with multiple layers of ivory organza, finished with a horsehair hem for extra swishiness. This will just be for the ceremony, and possibly the start of the happily ever after party before the dancing begins. I doubt I'll be able to get much use out of this piece after the wedding.
• The base top will be a corset in blue polyester with detachable straps. The plan is for the corset to be suitable for me to wear without a bra of course, but the strapless/spaghetti strap look doesn't suit me, so I prefer slightly wider straps. I'll be wearing this for everything of course but without the straps for all bridal wear. I expect I'll get a fair bit of use out of it after the wedding. It will be slightly longer than waist length to make it more versatile for everyday use (so it'll be a slightly dropped waist for the outfit as a whole), and we'll also do a zip instead of the lacing to make it more wearable.
• The top layer will be in the same ivory lace as the sample dress that I tried on, which is exactly the right mix of swirly embroidery and subtle sparkle through tiny sequins. It'll be kind of a boat neck style with cap sleeves and a button closure at the back. I plan to wear for all the wedding related events. It's possible that I'll be able to get some use out of it afterwards for formal events - I'll be able to switch up the look a bit by wearing different coloured camis underneath and pairing with different skirts.

Since we'll be going with polyester instead of silk (mainly for the practicalities of travelling and also to maximise wear after the wedding), the cost is coming in slightly under budget

Next step is for the dress maker to send me the paperwork, put down the deposit, then she'll order the fabric. Once she's got the fabric I'll go in to check it out and have my measurements taken. The plan is to start work on the dress by about May next year, aiming to be finished before Christmas. The dress maker is actually super excited about doing my dress since it's something a bit different, so I won't be surprised if she can't wait to get started lol!

 

[zanzibar138]

Haven't had a lot to report lately.

We've just come back from a week in Singapore including Universal Studios (my theme park fix until the WDW trip!). I'm doing a quick TR if anyone is interested in more details (link in my signature).



Unfortunately since we got back we both came down with gastro, so things have been pretty quiet this week!

We will be pretty busy for a while finalising the arrangements for our engagement parties (morning celebration with the grandparents at our house next weekend, then the formal engagement party at the dancing studio the following weekend, then another casual celebration with my friends in Melbourne the weekend after that!).

After that's finished with, it will almost be time to start looking at booking flights! B is now talking about skipping Vegas as he is facing the reality of being away from our home and dogs and work for 4-6 weeks, and the associated costs of course. We will have to make a decision on that fairly soon!

 

[zanzibar138]

To brace or not to brace

I've always been kind of self-conscious about my smile (you can probably see I have quite a large overbite), so I have been considering getting some orthodontic work done before the wedding. I've had an initial consult with an orthodontist, who has gone through some options with me. Without having jaw realignment surgery (which is definitely off the table!), he said I could still get a decent improvement with orthodontic work (ie braces).

Unfortunately he also identified some issues with my teeth that will need to be fixed before we can proceed, which specialists aren't available to do until early next year, which is definitely eating into my timeline! The orthodontist also discovered that the roots of my teeth have already experienced some erosion (due to previous orthodontic work when I was a kid), and that there is risk of exacerbating this with more work. I also have one tooth that is in such bad shape I was referred to a specialist for a root canal. The specialist told me that it would actually be quite a difficult root canal, and while the tooth isn't causing me any problems, it's probably best to leave it, but orthodontic work may trigger problems. There is also the very significant cost.

I had been thinking it would probably be best to leave it, but looking at the photos from Singapore as I've been uploading them has made me self-conscious about my smile again, and I'm now starting to question whether it would be worthwhile after all. I'm still leaning towards no at this stage, mainly given the risks to my teeth, but I can't help still thinking the end result would be nice! Having said that, we would have less than a year to work with, so not sure that's even enough time to achieve anything.

 

[zanzibar138]

One down, two to go!

Not sure if I mentioned, but we're actually having 3 engagement parties!

The formal engagement party is this coming Saturday night at the dance studio where we met. We're having family and friends arrive from 6pm for finger food and a bar tab until 8pm. After 8pm we'll revert to a cash bar and move on to the dancing portion of the evening. We're holding a short lesson first to run through some of the very basics for people who have never danced before - we're going to go through slow rhythm, barn dance and waltz. B and I have been working on an opening dance based on an engagement waltz (new vogue dance which is a popular style in Australia). Our dance teacher found a version of Beauty and the Beast in 3/4 timing which is awesome! We'll run through the routine twice, finish off with a fancy lift, and then invite people to join us for the second half of the song. From there it'll be run like a normal social dance with a mix of different styles, throwing in some popular line dances as well. We're expecting to finish by around 11pm. The venue manager (who we know well through our involvement with the dancing) is happy to keep it open as long as people are buying drinks We're expecting around 90 people - a mix of dancers and non-dancers.



Since the dance studio isn't very accessible for people with limited mobility, and my grandparents don't go out at night anyway, we held a little morning tea this weekend just gone, just at our house (first family gathering in the new house as well!). It was also my Nan's 90th birthday, so we did a little birthday cake for her too. I'm very lucky to have 3 grandparents that are still with us (my paternal grandparents and maternal grandmother), and B's grandmother joined us as well (she's a bit more lively than my grandparents and is also going to come to the formal party). My parents provided the transport for everyone lol!



Because I have a few close friends in Melbourne (after living there for 15 years) who are unable to make it to the formal engagement party in Perth, and we just happen to be going to Melbourne the weekend after the formal engagement party, we thought we'd do a small celebration over there too! It'll just be a very casual small group and we'll just grab some pizzas on the way. Being Melbourne though, you always need to be prepared for any weather at any time of year, so I have booked a small rotunda. Thought I'd also 'Disney-fy' the invitations to that

 

[zanzibar138]

The engagement parties continue

Our formal engagement party in Perth was a hit. We ended up with a total of 80 people (including us), which was a lot! We had lots of people get up for a dance and as an added bonus, we only ended up $500 over budget. We catered just the right amount - didn't have a lot left over (other than cupcakes!). People seemed to enjoy doing something a bit different and we've had lots of great feedback on it. We didn't have many Disney touches except for our engagement waltz and our DJ played a few ballroom versions of Disney songs.

This past Saturday we had our little gathering in Melbourne. As suspected, it was raining (and cold!) on the day, despite being summer... Luckily I had booked the rotunda. A few people bailed due to the weather, and those who did come were mostly late due to bad traffic (I don't know why everyone forgets how to drive when it rains!). It wasn't supposed to be a big thing though, so I was very happy to see the 8 friends, couple of kids and dog who did make it. We actually spent a good couple of hours in the rotunda, ate most of the pizza and garlic bread, and then a few of us decided to finish off with a couple of rounds of drinks at a nearby cafe/bar. No Disney elements to this one either (other than the invitations), but we got a large selection of Disney themed gifts!

Onwards with the planning for the main event now! Even though we're not supposed to contact the Disney weddings team yet, I'm impatient and have sent off an enquiry. Also very impatiently waiting for flight availability to open up, but that will still be a couple of months away yet.

 

[zanzibar138]

Starting the Fairytale Weddings process

Disney responded to my enquiry and I expressed interest in talking to someone about the costs of having a full reception to be able to make an informed decision about whether we want to do that or just stick with the original idea of the dessert party. The DP can only go for a maximum of 2 hours, and we'll have to leave the park at closing. If we add an extra hour to make it a 'reception', we can potentially stay until the day guests have cleared out and then have Mickey attend for 20 minutes. There would be a fair amount of extra cost involved - it's more than double the price per head, and just 1 character appearance costs a stupid amount! We would also need to pay for chartered transport, security check and transport coordinator if we were to have a full reception. However, since our guest list will be very small, we may still be able to get it to close to the minimum spend amount. With the cost of Mickey though, we wouldn't be able to afford any other sort of entertainment, so wondering if it might still be better to keep it shorter. After the fireworks, we'd all just be standing around for an hour or so waiting for the park to clear out before Mickey arrives.

The benefit of considering the full reception is that Disney are willing to talk to us now instead of making us wait until April. Of course, if we decide to go with the DP option, we'll still have to wait until April to book, but at least we're on the books now and have been able to start the process.

 

[zanzibar138]

We have a celebrant!

Or I think in the US you refer to them as officiants... the person who will be performing our wedding. I've been seeing Katherine Imundi's posts on my Disney Brides Facebook group for a while and thinking she seemed pretty great. We had a chat this morning over Facetime (5am for us... time difference!). We won't be able to book our time and date until April, but most Disney brides will be in the same boat, and Katherine has some back-up plans in case someone having a full reception decides to book our pencilled in date and time. So I've gone ahead and put down a deposit to make it an official booking.

Katherine was also willing to help us navigate the complexities of completing the paperwork for an extra cost, but suggested that it might be easier to do the official paperwork in Australia. B agrees, so we might decide to approach it that way instead. Unfortunately it's pretty expensive to do in Australia - just to sign the paperwork at the marriage office costs about $400. But the cost of the officiant is far less in the US (even once converted to AUD), so that will help to offset the extra cost (and in the scheme of what we're paying for the whole shebang, a few hundred $$ is really neither here nor there!).

 

[zanzibar138]

An exciting zoom call!

Because I mentioned that we were considering a reception, we were able to book a call with a Disney consultant since we are within the 16 months. We had a call with Joe on Friday night (9pm for us, 8am for him!). After reading about the experiences some people have had with Disney weddings, I have to admit I was a little nervous and going in with low expectations, but we both found Joe to be absolutely wonderful! He answered all our questions, and he came up with several different ideas for us to consider based on our priorities. He has already sent through the follow-up material he promised!

So after our call with Joe, we are actually considering adding a formal 'reception' to our event. Having a reception would allow us to have a character and also do our first dances. And then move on to a fireworks dessert party at Epcot. Only the first food and beverage event following a wedding can count towards the minimum spend for the wedding, but for any other events on the same day, you don't need to reach the normal $5k minimum spend through Disney events. Without having the $5k minimum spend, adding a dessert party actually doesn't have to be that expensive. Anyway, I'm going to do the figures for all the options and we'll make a decision about whether it's going to be worth it.

If we're not doing the formal reception, we were going to cover post-ceremony drinks and dinner for the group at the Grand Floridian anyway, which probably wouldn't cost as much as a dessert party, but would still be extra over our minimum spend for the wedding.

The other interesting thing that we discovered on our call was about the hotel room blocks. We had really thought it wouldn't be worth our while with such a small group, that we'd probably struggle to fill a room block anyway. However, Joe explained that if we hit a minimum of 10 room nights, we'll get 1 night free at any Disney resort of our choice! We are planning to stay for 2 weeks, so even if no one else stays onsite, we'd still hit the 10 room night minimum. And even if we hit that minimum by staying at a value resort, we could spend our free night at the Grand Floridian if we wanted to! If we reach 25 room nights, we would get a second night free. This is actually a possibility for us too! My parents will stay onsite, for at least a week, probably 10 nights. B's mate will stay onsite for 5-10 nights as well. Even if no one else goes, or everyone else stays offsite, we'd already be at 25 room nights and get 2 nights free!

There is some debate around whether the group discount is significant enough to be worth it, but I think for us, it's probably going to be the way to go.

So we now have some work ahead of us to make some decisions before we reach the 12 month mark!

 

[zanzibar138]

Spreading the word!

All my updates these days seem to be pretty exciting! We've decided that it's just about time to start spreading the word about the date so that people can start to seriously plan and save. I definitely wanted to do up a wedding website, and have used a zola template since they offer Cinderella designs. I've included information about the proposed wedding events, resorts for our room block, tickets and other attractions in the area. I've also included a fairly comprehensive FAQs section which covers wedding related questions, general travel related questions, general Disney related questions and some questions related specifically to park strategies etc. It's probably way too much for most of our guests, but I'd rather they have more information than they need rather than not enough! The template has some limitations, but I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out. I decided to use it as a base for some save the dates, which I have been playing around with today.

Pretty happy with this design (redacted for privacy).



We're planning to send these by email for savings in both cost and environment. The only exception is B's grandma, who, at the age of 88 still insists that she wants to make the trip and will receive a printed copy. Others can print their own if they want to.

 

[zanzibar138]

Narrowing down our resort choices

We have been thinking more seriously about where we will want to stay, and which resorts we will want to include in our room block.

Initially I was really leaning towards POR or potentially SSR if we could stretch the budget, as I've always loved the look of both resorts and loved the idea of the boat ride to Disney Springs. However, we're now leaning towards CBR, even though I'm not really a fan of tropical theming. I'm telling myself it can be a substitute for the Caribbean honeymoon we decided not to bother with The convenience of CBR is very appealing, particularly since we will be holding some of the wedding events in the Boardwalk/EPCOT area. Also love the idea of the Skyliner, and particularly that there are direct lines to 2 parks from CBR meaning less buses! Plus the appeal of the newly refurbished rooms. It's also closer to the value resorts, where many of our guests are likely to stay.

Which brings me to my next point... the room block. We think we'll go with CBR (obviously, if we're staying there). Second choice was obviously Pop, since it's only a short gondola ride away. I suspect my parents will choose to stay there. Having said that, they may find it hard to go past ASM, which is next on the room block list, since they are both heavily into music. We included this as THE cheapest option on property and potentially a nicer option than the other All Stars if it's true that they get less sporting groups etc stay there. I can see a couple of our friends and family choosing to stay there. I've read that you can have up to 4 options. If that's the case, we'll make the 4th option CSR. Seems like it could be a good fit for some of the group who are not hugely into Disney and may prefer to have the facilities of Gran Destino tower available to them. Wouldn't be surprised if B's mate is keen on a Gran Destino tower room.

Since we will definitely get at least 1 night free, most likely 2, we'll need to think hard about where we want to stay for those nights. Part of me feels like we need to stay at GF since that's the most expensive and therefore best bang for buck. But there are other parts of me wondering if there's somewhere we would actually prefer. If we could choose a room type, I'd go for a savannah view at AKL, but I feel it's not as worthwhile for a standard room. I'm also considering WL, which has been another one on my list for many many years, and I love that there's boat transportation to MK. Or our original pick of SSR for the boat ride to Disney Springs. Then there's the Poly, which I'd love for the location, but again it's the tropical theming which isn't my favourite. But... Trader Sam's...

It's all too difficult to choose... I might just leave it to B

 

[alohamom]

Oh my goodness, I have just finished reading your PTR and I just love all your plans, how exciting!
My cousin was married at WDW about 10 years ago and it was a phenomenal wedding to attend.
I am going to follow along for updates.

 

[zanzibar138]

Oh my goodness, I have just finished reading your PTR and I just love all your plans, how exciting!
My cousin was married at WDW about 10 years ago and it was a phenomenal wedding to attend.
I am going to follow along for updates.

Thanks for following along

OMG I wish this was 10 years ago! The minimum price of a Disney is 5x what it was back then, and the bridal couple also used to receive complimentary annual passes and a couple of nights accommodation! No such perks for us lol! Although we will likely end up with a couple of nights complimentary accommodation through our room block so I guess I can't complain.

 

[zanzibar138]

The updated plans so far...

Just re-read through the beginning of this PTR and realised I should do an update as plans have changed a bit. Sorry, this will be a lengthy text post!

First of all, we decided on a specific date. When we started narrowing it down to early February, I realised we could choose quite a meaningful date for my family. My grandparents got married on 6 February, and my parents on 7 February. Naturally, we thought 8 February would be the one! And under normal circumstances it would have been perfect as it falls on a Saturday in 2025. However, a Saturday wedding at Disney means a higher minimum spend and less chance of getting our preferred venues and timing, so we decided to go with 5 February instead, which is a Wednesday. Someone on the Disney Brides Facebook group has since pointed out that it is quite a fun date anyway, being 2/5/25 (or 5/2/25 for us in Australia - fun either way!).

After speaking with our Disney wedding consultant, we are now planning the following timeline of events for the wedding day:

• 2:30pm Ceremony at Disney's Wedding Pavilion
• 4:00pm-7:00pm 'Reception' (read 'dinner') in one of the small rooms at the Boardwalk Convention Center
• 7:30pm Dessert party at EPCOT (we like the Germany Promenade)
• Possible informal after party somewhere in the Boardwalk area depending on how everyone feels by the end of the day!
• Magic Kingdom park shoot on the Friday morning (2 days after the wedding).

Unfortunately, only the first food and beverage event after the ceremony can count towards our minimum spend, so the dessert party will have to be at extra cost. However, they do waive the usual $5k minimum spend for events held on the wedding day, so we just have to cover the relatively small minimum spend for the venue. I compared the cost for this against the cost of our original plans to take everyone for post-ceremony drinks at Enchanted Rose and then dinner at the Grand Floridian Cafe, with the dessert party included in the minimum spend, and it actually came out just about even. Having a formal 'reception' event will mean that we can lock in our date 12 months out instead of 10, and holding it in an event room means that we will be able to have a character appearance if we can make the budget work. The room we've got pencilled in at least has windows, so we can probably still get away with very minimal decor.

We had been planning to book the Landau Coach (the slightly cheaper version of the Cinderella Coach that I liked better anyway). However, we have realised that if we ditch the coach we can probably afford a character appearance, which will be more in line with our original priorities, which were 'uniquely Disney experiences'.

We intend to arrive in Orlando the first weekend in February, and expect that most of our guests will as well. We're planning to stay for a full 2 weeks, but we expect most of our guests will likely only stay for 1 week or maybe 10 days. As well as Disney, we intend to visit both parks at Universal, do a day tour to Kennedy Space Center and go to a basketball game. Most of the group would have preferred baseball, but it looks like we'll be slightly out of season for that.

We're planning a welcome party on the Monday night. Assuming we end up with 10 or less guests, we'll look at chartering a pontoon for a fireworks cruise - which is likely to be cheaper than taking everyone out to dinner! If we're slightly over 10 though, it won't be worth chartering 2 so we'll think of a Plan B. We'll also still plan to do a character breakfast on the Friday morning after our park shoot, which will double as a farewell brunch.

We decided a while ago that we would keep the trip simple, with the focus on Disney and the wedding. We do still intend to spend a few days in Vegas on the way through (B's mate would be devastated if we didn't!), but we won't bother trying to do a road trip or a 'honeymoon'. Due to this, and the realisation that crowds will be building towards the end of our stay ahead of Presidents Day, we're leaning towards spending our last couple of nights at AKL and just spend time at the resort and maybe book one of the tours at AK. It'll be like a mini honeymoon in Africa lol!

Since we've decided to do the formalities at home before we go, we thought we might make it a very simple and casual little ceremony and celebration for the grandparents who will be unable to travel and other immediate family who want to come. We're having it at a nearby park where we can also have our doggies join us! We get a small picnic shelter as part of the wedding package with the park, so we'll just do a simple DIY morning tea after the ceremony. We've booked a celebrant/photography package which comes with just 1 hour of photography - all we really want is some nice photos with the grandparents and dogs.

Still considering options for our at home reception too as all these formal events are starting to add up (cost + effort!). I'd prefer to just have a simple BBQ at home, but B wants to invite basically everyone we know which is going to make it way too big to have at home. Still working through that one lol!

 

[zanzibar138]

The dreaded price hike

So we were pretty much decided on what we were going to do, and then Disney threw us a curve ball in the shape of a price increase. As they do. They have done an entire restructure of their photography packages as well as the significant price increase. We were initially planning to book a 3 hour photography package, to be split across the ceremony and dessert party, with a Magic Kingdom portrait session added. Based on last year's pricing, this was going to cost us a grand total of $3,700.

The most significant price rise was for the Magic Kingdom shoot, which has leapt from $2,500 to $3,500... yes, nearly the same amount we were expecting for our TOTAL photography cost! It also seemed like they had removed the option to split photography, which was going to mean we'd have to book a separate package for both our ceremony and dessert party. All of this was going to come in at a combined $5,098, a 37% increase with 1 hour *less* photography!

I have since had confirmation from our consultant that we will still be able to split a 3 hour package as we originally intended, which has softened the blow slightly. We're now looking at a total of $4,799 for photography, which is still a VERY significant 30% increase.

 

[zanzibar138]

And therefore... another change of plans

So we had finally decided on a plan for the wedding day that we were happy with and was going to give us everything that we had prioritised. However, with the photography price hike AND an associated food and beverage price hike too, we've had to reconsider. Again.

Minimum food and beverage spend for the dinner was going to be $210 pp, but has now jumped up to $240 pp, another quite significant jump (especially considering the exponential impact of that through tax, service charge and then conversion to AUD). Even with only 10 people, it was really starting to add up for us. The other options are brunch (unchanged at $140 pp), lunch (originally $175, now $180 pp), or a 2 hour celebration (originally $100, now $125 pp).

We're still keen to book a 'reception' over a 'celebration' so that we can book our date 12 months out, so now we're looking at pivoting to a 9:30am ceremony followed by a brunch reception, still with the DP later that night. I don't love the idea of waking at sparrow's fart for hair and makeup, but it would actually save us a couple of thousand $$ over a dinner. It can be like our own private character breakfast but with mimosas lol!

We have decided to change our reception venue to the Napa Room at Cali Grill. It's a little more expensive than one of the ballrooms, but so much more in line with our vision for the day that it's worth the extra cost. Plus we can take the monorail from the ceremony.

I'm actually excited about doing the DP as a completely separate event. It will mean that our guests can take a break and get changed into something warmer/more comfortable, and taking the Skyliner from CBR in our wedding attire would be a lot of fun! Too bad we can't afford a photographer to cover that bit lol! We would plan to include a couple of savoury items at the DP so our guests won't need a separate dinner if they don't want to.

So the overall plan now:

• 9:30am Ceremony at Disney's Wedding Pavilion
• 11:00am-2:00pm Brunch
  • Napa Room at Cali Grill
  • Transport via Monorail for the group
  • Focus on breakfast foods including Mickey waffles
  • Mickey and Minnie appearance
• Long break for people to relax at their resort, nap, hit the parks or whatever else they want to do
• 7:30pm Dessert party at EPCOT
  • Venue to be confirmed but hopefully Germany Promenade
  • Our guests can just meet us there (may already be in the park), we can take the Skyliner from CBR
  • Serving a couple of savoury as well as sweet, hoping to be able to serve boozy hot chocolate/coffee
• Possible informal after party somewhere in the Boardwalk area depending on how everyone feels by the end of the day!
• Magic Kingdom park shoot on the Friday morning (2 days after the wedding)

 

[zanzibar138]

Ballrooms aren't for us

When we were looking at doing a brunch instead of a dinner reception, we were presented with several lower budget ballroom options in both the MK area and Epcot area. I wasn't feeling very inspired by any of them, particularly the ones without any windows. We're not planning to decorate at all and won't have any dancing, so I really did want people to be able to see *something* going on.

I put the word out on the facebook group I'm part of and got a few helpful suggestions, including the private rooms at Cali Grill. The minimum F&B spend is a little higher than we'd reach with the minimum per person for brunch, but not completely out of reach. Still in the range of or slightly lower than if we'd stuck with the dinner in a ballroom. However, the venue is absolutely perfect for us. More of a restaurant feel rather than stuffy wedding reception (no offence to anyone having their wedding in a ballroom - I've seen them set up beautifully and people having a wonderful time, just wasn't going to work for our circumstances). Plus the views of MK with the castle I was going to just be content with castle views from the ceremony but now we get them from the reception as well!

So I think we've now got our venues and timing locked in for when our booking window opens in a couple of weeks!

 

[zanzibar138]

Poised and ready

As we are planning to fly business class on FF points, I have been keeping an eye on the flight options over the last week or so, and honed our plan of attack. Long haul business class flights are notoriously difficult to come by from Australian airports for those without some sort of airline status or special privileges, so we've been looking at all sorts of options to get us across the Pacific in comfort. I have both Qantas (OneWorld) and Velocity (Star Alliance) points to work with, which opens up a few more options for us. Because we will be booking all of these flights separately, we will be staying overnight between them all to allow extra time for delays.

The journey to Orlando:

• Perth - Kuala Lumpur: We'll aim to get a business class flight with Qantas points, but if we can't, it's only about a 5 hour flight, and there are some very reasonably priced budget airlines.
• Overnight in KL, in the Putrajaya area which is closer to the airport but still looks like a nice place to stay with some worthwhile things to do and see if we feel like it that evening.
• Kuala Lumpur - LA via Taipei with China Airlines: (Availability for this flight *should* open tomorrow!) This was an off the radar flight for me, but the Taiwanese owned China Airlines gets amazing reviews, and it is my preferred flight configuration of a relatively short hop of 4 or so hours followed by a longer one of about 11.5 hours. It has also had great rewards availability for the past week, at a slightly lower cost than the other option of going via Tokyo with Malaysia Airlines (which doesn't have a great business class offering) and Japan Airlines. Plus we get to avoid the chaos of LAX, as China Airlines flies into Ontario Airport.
• Overnight in LA, at a hotel close to Ontario airport. Obviously this one isn't required from a flight delay perspective, but more to give us some time to have a proper sleep and adjust to our new environment and time zone before getting behind the wheel!
• LA - Vegas: We will be well and truly sick of airports and planes by this point, so we plan to hire a car and drive out to Vegas. We will spend about 5 nights in Vegas.
• Vegas - Orlando: Still tossing up the options for this one since it doesn't need to be booked in straight away. The logical choice is to just fly between on the best option we can find (looks like direct flights can be hard to find, but going via Atlanta could be a reasonable option. Otherwise grab a direct flight to Miami, stay overnight there and hire a car to drive up the coast to Orlando.

The basic plan for Orlando:

• I don't want to have to bother with organising offsite activities, particularly not the week of the wedding. I want to be able to relax for the few days surrounding the wedding. So I made an executive decision to do all our offsite stuff first. Whether we fly into Miami or Orlando, we'll probably hire a car and drive out to Kennedy Space Center, and then return to Universal for a couple of nights (still deciding whether we can get away with 1 day there or if we really need 2), and THEN enter the magical Disney bubble for a solid 2 weeks.

The journey home (which will be slightly more straightforward with more direct flights and less stopovers):

• Orlando - LA: Plenty of options for direct flights on this route so we'll just keep this one simple and fly into LAX.
• Overnight in LA, at a LAX airport hotel.
• LA - Singapore: Direct flight with Singapore Airlines. Their rewards program, KrisFlyer, has a LOT better availability than Virgin's Velocity program, and you can convert points at a 1.55 conversion rate. I have already converted basically all of my Velocity points, which will be what is required to secure this flight. Won't be quite as easy to get, but we can be slightly flexible so hopefully that will help!
• Singapore - Perth: Again, we'll aim to get a business class flight with Qantas points, but if we can't, it's only about a 5 hour flight, and there are some very reasonably priced budget airlines.

 

[zanzibar138]

1 down... 6 to go!

Confirming that I did manage to get our first flight locked in over the weekend. May seem a strange one to start with, but I want to get the long-haul flights over the Pacific locked in first since they're the tricky ones to get with points.

So without further ado... we have our flight locked in from Kuala Lumpur, via Taipei to Ontario airport (LA). This is causing much confusion with our guests, who initially think that we've booked flights to Canada lol! I'm pretty excited though, their business class product looks pretty swish and gets great reviews! (Picture borrowed from Executive Traveller). I also haven't flown through Ontario airport before so looking forward to that. Hopefully it will be less chaotic than LAX and should be easier to drive to Vegas from that side of town.



So what did this set us back? 278,400 Qantas points + 1,632 Malaysian Ringgit (about $350 USD).

 

[zanzibar138]

Park schedule V1

In order to book our flights, we had to work out a rough schedule to make sure that we were allowing enough time before and after the wedding to cover everything we wanted to do. So here's what I was able to quickly put together. We will be driving up from Miami via Kennedy Space Center, planning to hit the Universal area on a Wednesday evening.

• Thursday: Full day at Universal on a park hopper, also considering express passes for both parks. The priority for this trip is Disney, but we do want to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and I'd love to hit up some of the more intense coasters.
• Friday: Transfer to Disney, check in to CBR. Maybe visit some wedding venues or meet up with vendors.
• Saturday: Magic Kingdom day 1.
• Sunday: Hollywood Studios day 1.
• Monday: Animal Kingdom day 1. Welcome party in the evening, most likely a fireworks cruise from one of the monorail resorts.
• Tuesday: Quiet day prior to the wedding. Considering trying to book a Keys to the Kingdom tour at MK followed by a CRT reservation if we can get it.
• Wednesday: Wedding day.
• Thursday: Animal Kingdom day 2.
• Friday: Magic Kingdom bridal portraits pre-park opening. Farewell brunch at one of the monorail resorts.
• Saturday: Magic Kingdom day 2.
• Sunday: Hollywood Studios day 2.
• Monday: EPCOT day 1.
• Tuesday: EPCOT day 2.
• Wednesday: Magic Kingdom day 3. Plan to transfer to AKL so that we can do EEH.
• Thursday: Mostly plan to enjoy AKL, take a few hours to visit AK for an afternoon tour.
• Friday: Departure day, likely to be a late afternoon flight so we can have a leisurely morning enjoying the resort.

I have looked up which days are best for each park and taken that into consideration as well as working around our resort location and preferred vibe for certain days. However, WDW park days are definitely NOT my area of expertise, so happy to take on board any feedback!