Question for anyone who has done the Wedding internship / is familar in this position

[savannahjean85]

I am going to school to get my Hospitality degree. Recently for one of my classes I had to shadow someone in the field I want to work in, which is wedding planning. Well I spoke with two women who both work as event planners for local hotels (marriott and auburn university hotel). I am now question my career choice because they work 7 days a week, all holidays and never see family. Neither were married (mid-20s) so they said they were fine with this now but that when they did want to start a family that they would switch fields. I want to work for Disney when I graduate and my dream would be to work as a dream team wedding planner. I understand in the Hospitality field "we work when everyone is off", but I still would like to have a personal life.
Now my question is does anyone know if Disney's Wedding department do just solely weddings or are they also event planners?
Do they have days off?
Does anyone know what would be the best way going about trying to contact someone to find out more about this job position?

 

[hsteacher]

I am only offer what I know as I actually own an event planning business.

Weddings -- well most do occur on weekends though, at Disney, I've seen them mid-week. My guess is the weekends are the most popular times and as a beginner (least seniority) my guess is that you will work many weekends -- Friday and Sat. nights. When I was getting certified for event planning, I had to shadow a person and I chose to shadow a person at a large banquet facility. I shadowed severed weddings and had the same reservations you are having.

I strictly plan corporate/sporting events. No weddings. This has saved my sanity (bride-zillas) and keeps my weekends somewhat free. It's not quite as crazy as the whole wedding thing.

Good luck!

 

[Mallory Lu]

I did a professional internship with the disney florist last spring, so I got to work alongside of the weddings staff on a regular basis.
The wedding department is completely separate from the other event departments. The wedding planners only plan and work with weddings and vow renewals, not any of the other events or banquets on property.
To go off what the last poster said, yes disney has weddings every day of the week. I didn't realize it until I started working there, but they have at least one (and a lot of times more than one) wedding every single day of the year. So days of the week were usually just as busy as weekends.
As far as how many hours they work, I do not know exactly, but I would assume that at disney it is a normal 40 hour a week job...I don't see disney making them work overtime every single week...but I really am not positive.
Keep in mind that there are a ton of other roles in the wedding department at disney other than just the "planners". The department is huge, and the vast majority concentrate on specific parts within the department instead of being the traditional overall planner. For example, I worked with wedding managers who only planned the entertainment and other managers who only planned the floral and decor.
I'm sure you have already checked it out, but if not, the fairy tale weddings website has a lot of good information on it.
As far as who you could contact, I really do not know...sorry!
Have you thought about doing a college program or professional internship? They not only have internships in the wedding department, but also a lot of other great internships in other aspects of event planning.
Hopefully some of my rambling is useful to you! Let me know if you have more specific questions that I might be able to answer.

 

[savannahjean85]

you both were very helpful thank you.
Mallory Lu,
DF and I will be trying out for the Fall CP for next year. I really hope we make it. We both would like to have careers with Disney so we hope to do both the CP and PI. I feel a ton better knowing that the event planning and the wedding planning are not fused together like at the hotel's I went to.
How did you like your PI?

 

[dakcp2001]

Check out the Disney Weddings board! I think that will be an awesome internship!

 

[Lisa Marcson]

I actually shadowed a Disney Wedding Planner in California while I was in DCP and I asked her this same question. She said that yes there are planners that are married and have families you just need to be sure that they (your spouse) is understanding. Also the planners do have "off seasons" since there are many of them they work everyday for a long time but then get a full month or so off. Also Disney has other event planners besides weddings that aren't quite as 24/7 but since Disney has all sorts of special events they have all sorts of planners as well. I hope this helps you