Site Versus Planning Visits

[lirija]

Has anyone done both a site visit and a planning visit before their Wishes wedding? Are both necessary or valuable? I know the site visit includes a food & cake tasting, as well as looking at venues, but what happens at the planning visit, which is closer to the date?

I'm trying to plan out my 2015 mini-trips with my limited calendar openings, so want to make sure they count. The trip I took last week was worth the effort because it level-set me on certain venues that would not work, despite what seemed interesting and possible in my head. Its always good to get a reality check!

 

[mb187143]

Has anyone done both a site visit and a planning visit before their Wishes wedding? Are both necessary or valuable? I know the site visit includes a food & cake tasting, as well as looking at venues, but what happens at the planning visit, which is closer to the date? I'm trying to plan out my 2015 mini-trips with my limited calendar openings, so want to make sure they count. The trip I took last week was worth the effort because it level-set me on certain venues that would not work, despite what seemed interesting and possible in my head. Its always good to get a reality check!

We did both but you have what happens at each backwards. We did a site visit at 14 months out, toured some venues with a consultant, got some very preliminary numbers and some questions answered.

The planning session is where you meet with your planner and go through your events from soup to nuts, either tossing ideas around or really nailing down specifics. They like you to do the planing session within 6 months of your wedding because prices aren't guaranteed any further out than that. You can do it more than 6 months out but you might get told your BEO won't be available until 6 months out when they can confirm pricing. If you can't make it to FL for it, you can have this by phone. The planning session automatically includes a cake tasting, but you have to ask for a food tasting. Some planners may offer it proactively but not all of them do so be sure to ask.

 

[alyaki]

Morning!

You actually have those mixed up. The site visit (I believe) only really includes sitting down and talking with a consultant about general information around Disney weddings, and then visiting a few sites that you may be considering hosting your event at. Though I'm sure someone will come and correct me if I'm wrong on the first part of that.

The planning visit is where you do cake tasting, menu tasting, meeting with your planner and talking through the schedule and what is needed for the full wedding day (starting with the rehearsal, which is prior to that). Your planner also helps you determine what entertainment options you may want to book for your event. You also get to meet your floral planner for the first time and talk with them about what linens you want, centerpieces, general decor in the sites you've chosen (if you want any), and personal floral (bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages).

We actually did our site visit while we were down there for our planning visit - there was one venue in particular of ours we wanted to see in person to make sure we really liked it as much as we had from pictures and stuff (and I wanted to see the linens in there). The two had very different feels - the site visit was a good check on the venues, and we found that one spot we didn't like as much, but we liked some alternate spots in the same ceremony venue. Which reminds me - Raist and I need to talk about that and make a final decision on ceremony site.

 

[alyaki]

We did both but you have what happens at each backwards. We did a site visit at 14 months out, toured some venues with a consultant, got some very preliminary numbers and some questions answered.

The planning session is where you meet with your planner and go through your events from soup to nuts, either tossing ideas around or really nailing down specifics. They like you to do the planing session within 6 months of your wedding because prices aren't guaranteed any further out than that. You can do it more than 6 months out but you might get told your BEO won't be available until 6 months out when they can confirm pricing. If you can't make it to FL for it, you can have this by phone. The planning session automatically includes a cake tasting, bet you have to ask for a food tasting. Some planners may offer it proactively but not all of them do so be sure to ask.

Haha! Seems like we both got on and said the same thing at the same time.

 

[lirija]

Awesome, thanks guys!

 

[gummybear091]

I just did a site visit and found is extremely helpful in deciding where I wanted to get penciled in for. Had I not gone and looked at everything in person, I don't think I would have made the right choices!

 

[hogwartsdropout]

How do you arrange the site visit?

 

[gummybear091]

Just call the normal Disney wedding number and ask to set up a site visit. After I did that, someone called me back and we talked about how big of a wedding I was looking at and my overall vision. Then we set a date and time!

 

[hogwartsdropout]

Great, thanks!