Sept/Oct 2016 Wedding

[WantingDisneyWedding]

My fiance proposed last month at Sea Breeze Point. I thought that a Disney wedding would be too cliche for us at first. I started just generally looking at places near me and just a reception alone for 100 people is over $10,000. I decided to look at Disney and was surprised to see that it actually was in the budget my parents originally gave us, which was $10,000.

I did the wedding configuration for the Escape Package and it came out to be $8,600. Photography/Videography is the most important to me, so I chose the most expensive it see what the total would be, but need guidance in selecting what I truly want later on.

My fiance called Disney Wedding and they really could not give him a grand total with including tax and all because it is so far away. And I don't want everything included in their ceremony decorations package, but it sounded like they don't compromise on price. And they said no Saturday weddings, even though I have seen in the past they do offer it, you just need to spend a certain amount.

And the Attic at the Boardwalk looks nice for a reception brunch, since we were thinking about doing a 10am ceremony at Sea Breeze Point. Does anyone have any information on that place and menu options/overall price? Any minimum requirements? Do I still get to have the violinist for the reception there?

I would truly like to see if I can everything I want for under/at $10,000.

Any Escape package recommendations/do-or-don't would be great!

 

[WDWLover75]

Hi,

I think the $10,000 is doable but it is possible to go overboard with extras. We got married in December at 10 am at SeaBreeze point then had a reception at the attic.

The violinist plays at your ceremony and doesn't come with you for the reception. We loaded our reception music on a MP3 player that we could hook up at the Attic. The hookup was $442.75 including tax and service charge. We picked the Tinker Bell Brunch which was $75 per person plus tax and service charge. We selected a $25 per person bar package (plus tax and service charge). We were going to go with a less expensive package at $20 per person until I realized the total would be $400 which means the $100 bartender fee would kick in so, for the same money we added liquor to beer/wine.

We added a tiny bit of floral-corsages for moms, boutonnières for dads, scattering of rose petals and a couple small arrangements hanging off the edge of the chairs at the ceremony. I think that was $300ish. We also did chair sashes which were $5 each. I was pleased with the extra floral we picked and really glad we didn't waste a ton of money on decorations that were only going to be used for 30 minutes.....the setting is already so pretty.

An extra bottle of champagne was $80 inclusive and we used our limo to pick up guests at their resorts. We had to add an extra hour to get everyone back, that was $100.

We also added a few small centerpieces at the reception, I think those were $25 each or so....honestly, if I did it over, I would probably skip those. I don't think people really noticed them- I only had them on the inside tables and most people decided to sit outside.

Does this help?

Are you planning any other events? I did a tea party the day before my wedding, my husband went jet skiing with his friends. We had a welcome dinner at Spirit of Aloha, a dessert party the night of the wedding and a farewell breakfast the morning after the wedding. Would you have to fit those events into your $10k budget?

 

[WantingDisneyWedding]

Since we have not been engaged that long, we have not looked into the specifics of other dining options and such. We are basically just trying to get a concrete estimate to show our families that Disney can be affordable.

The only thing that concerns me the most is how much the service charges could push us over budget.

When it comes to the ceremony space, we are fine with the white folding chairs and small floral arrangements on the side of the chairs. I was able to find a brunch menu, and liked the Briar Rose ($65 per guest). It says it comes with juices, coffee, and ice tea, so we don't need a bartender, and its mainly family so there shouldn't be the need for alcohol except with the two bottles that are included.

That surprises me that it costs that much to hook up your iPod.

We thought originally we have the ceremony and cut the cake then eat somewhere in the Magic Kingdom or one of the resorts, but we thought maybe do something a bit more formal with the Attic, but now it seems like that might be a bit much. $1300 for the buffet then the iPod charge and service fees would probably be over $2000.

I would like a nice dinner before the wedding somewhere, but have not thought of a farewell brunch yet.

I'm waiting til the brochure comes in the mail to see what information that has, but once we figure out everything we truly want, I hope they can give us a better estimate for what the future total might be.

Thank you for all of the advice!

 

[WDWLover75]

Well, I think you should have your wedding at Disney, if that is what you want.

Let's be honest, if you have a wedding at Disney, you are paying Disney prices, it isn't cheap. The current service charge rate is 21% and the tax is 6.5% if memory recalls, who knows if that will be the case in a couple years. The paperwork we were given by Disney now has the Briar Rose at $69 so, I think you should budget that it will probably go even higher by 2016.

As far as booze goes, I was questioning needing to have alcohol at the reception because I figured 'how much will people really drink at 11 am'? I really don't drink much at all so I didn't care either way. However, my husband likes a drink and several family members and friends also like drinks......and my husband said that if we were going to ask everyone to take vacation days and spend ~$1000 or more to travel (flights, hotel, etc) then the least we could do was have booze for them at the reception. The champagne you get is served at the ceremony and is about half a glass.

Here is how I "sold" Disney to my parents and others who were questioning the decision:
I really wanted a Destination wedding.

• My brother had one and it was so nice to spend significant time with our own family, and have sufficient time to really get to know his friends and his bride's family.
• We really liked the idea of having several events over several days to really make it a celebration vs. just a few hours and then it is over. Yes, you could do this at an at-home wedding too but I doubt everyone would attend all the events and to come up with as many interesting things to do and coordinate all the transportation would have been tough.
• We have no family where we live so they would all have to travel anyhow - either via plane or 6 hour drive so, why not have a Destination wedding
• Neither my husband nor I like being the center of attention so really wanted a small wedding, having an Escape wedding gave us an 'out' for not inviting all my parent's friends, and our friends who we really haven't talked to in forever but we went to their wedding so we would have to invite them to our in town wedding, etc.
• The destination wedding had to be in the US because 1. I didn't want people to have to get passports and 2. I wanted the marriage to be legal, none of this going to the courthouse before hand and having two different wedding dates, the legal one and the ceremony date.

Why Disney?

• Looking around the US to find other spots for a destination wedding, there were really no other choices that offered everything that Disney did - preset package, lots of dining and entertainment options, direct flights for all our guests, no need to rent a car, etc
• Because so much comes with the Escape package, I had a lot less decisions to make = LESS STRESS. You get a choice of 5 or 6 cake designs, great, we picked the one we liked the best of those options, it's a cake. It was pretty and tasted great. The thought of looking through an album of hundreds of options was not my idea of fun. Same thing for my bouquet.
• Having the wedding at Disney meant that I didn't have to spend oodles of time researching locations, looking for caterers, looking for florists, and bakers, and limo drivers, photographers, debating a band vs. a DJ. LESS STRESS
• Having the wedding at Disney meant I knew the food was going to taste great, they do so many of these, there is an entire team of people in the event something happened to my planner, and they have so much experience and produce quality products. LESS WORRYING, LESS STRESS

Other factors/comments:

• The average wedding in the US is ~$28,000, I spent about half that and we got everything we wanted
• Since we only had family and close friends at the wedding, I wasn't nervous to walk down the aisle or say my vows or any of that and didn't care that they saw me crying bc. they know me and that I am a crier.
• Since we weren't trying to "impress" people (which I feel is often the case when you start inviting parent's friends and business colleagues, etc)....I spent a lot less on my dress and lots of other components than I would have otherwise
• We didn't want to be "introduced" to anyone at our wedding and spend the entire reception time going around and saying 'Hi' to everyone instead of spending time eating the food and enjoying ourselves. We were spending several days with them so had plenty of time to talk to everyone.
• I would much rather spend double or triple per guest for a wedding at Disney with only people I really care about than a lower price for a bunch of people I may not even be in communication with in 5 or 10 years (one person I spoke with -in her 50's - said when she looks back at her wedding, 80% of the guests they had aren't in their lives anymore and she really wishes they had just had a small wedding like I did)
• I guess I could continue to go on and on but the bottom line is that I am so very glad I had my wedding at Disney, it was so incredibly special for us and our guests...and I am pretty sure we spent less than we would have for a big wedding here.

Good luck to you!

 

[WantingDisneyWedding]

This has all been very helpful! And I'm all for decreasing my stress level.

We just need to decide the photo/video package we what.

I did find the updated brunch menu and saw the increase in price, but I read that they are willing to customize to help bring down the price. It does say a minimum of 25 guests, so I don't know if they would be good with 20 since for the Escape package I can only have 18.

I looked into Narcoossee's and at looks really nice for maybe dinner after the wedding! And the more we looked at the guest list, the more we realized we would be fine without a lot of those people at the wedding/reception, which came as a shock to my family from wanting 125 to only 18.