FOUR WEEKS FROM TODAY!
And I have an update: We've been assigned a DJ! Apparently Disney subcontracts DJs. Or at least that's what they appear to have done in our case. He has his own DJ business, but does a lot of Disney weddings as well.
Here's an exerpt from his initial email:
Our Motto: "Forced Fun is No Fun at All"
***No forced Chicken Dances or Hokey Pokey - lol I promise, unless you ask for it
In addition to being one of Walt Disney's premier entertainers, some of the weddings and events I have done include New York Yankee Johnny Damon's wedding and most recently Howie D. from the Backstreet Boys.
My first thought was "Well, ALL RIGHT!", I'm liking this guy already!
He sent along a form for us to fill out and return to him. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed when I opened the attachment and looked at the form. There are several mentions of "Bride & Groom" and "Mr. & Mrs. . . . " Now, I fully recognize that this is generic form that he sends out to all bookings; however, I'd expect that someone in the position of a businessman hired to DJ for a gay wedding, would take a look at what they're sending out and make adjustments.
Scott and I made the conscious decision to not work with any vendors that didn't have some sort of inclusive description of the happy couple. We flat refuse to work with anyone where one of us has to be listed as the "bride" and one of us has to be listed as the "groom". We ended up registering only on websites that allowed a commitment ceremony or ring ceremony option for exactly this reason. And on the whole Disney has been EXCEPTIONAL in this regard. It was just slightly off putting.
Continuing on, the form is basically a "Fill in the blanks" itinerary for the reception and has events happening in this order:
Cocktails
"Bridal party is announced"
"Bride and Groom are announced as Mr. & Mrs. ____"
"Bride and Groom first dance"
Toasts
Dinner
Parent Dances
Bridal Party Dance
Cake Cutting
Bouquet and Garter Toss (this does have a yes/no option next to it)
Dancing
Last Dance
Is this the set in stone way that straight weddings MUST go? The weddings in my family have always run differently and we're going with this order of events:
Cocktails
"Rob & Scott" are announced but NOT "For the
first time as partners . . . "
Dinner
First Dance
Parent Dance
Dancing
Toasts
Cake Cutting
Cake Service/more dancing
Last Dance
The evening just seems to flow better to us this way.
So needless to say, the DJ is going to get a VERY re-worked document back.
Happily, after reading his testimonials and checking some
youtube videos he's linked, we're sure he'll do a great job, and be just what we want. It's just tough to get past that initial first issue of the whole "bride/groom" thing.