Site visit necessary?

[bspears88]

My DF and I are planning on having out DFTW in May of 2013. We have been speaking with a wedding consultant for the past month or so.

I am 100% sure that we will have our ceremony at the Wedding Pavilion, but a little unsure about reception- we talked about one of the rooms at the GF but really are unsure of everything.
Our wedding consultant mentioned that we should book a site visit, so we did for April 6th.
Have any of you previously been on a site visit? Is it very helpful or should we just hold off and pick a reception venue based on pictures online? We really want to go, but I would hate to go all that way, take time off work and come back with knowing what we knew before. Just curious- open to all opinions!!

 

[Warren W]

Congratulations on your marriage.

 

[peachydreamyxx]

My DF and I are planning on having out DFTW in May of 2013. We have been speaking with a wedding consultant for the past month or so.

I am 100% sure that we will have our ceremony at the Wedding Pavilion, but a little unsure about reception- we talked about one of the rooms at the GF but really are unsure of everything.
Our wedding consultant mentioned that we should book a site visit, so we did for April 6th.
Have any of you previously been on a site visit? Is it very helpful or should we just hold off and pick a reception venue based on pictures online? We really want to go, but I would hate to go all that way, take time off work and come back with knowing what we knew before. Just curious- open to all opinions!!

We're booking without visiting. I was certain I wanted the wedding pavilion, and after going through pictures online, as well as each venues guidelines I was pretty certain I knew what I wanted. I had a vacation booked for next month and will be visiting Disney anyway so Im going to check out the sites.. but if I didnt have the trip booked I probably wouldnt have wasted money for a site visit unless I was really unsure.

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

I wouldn't think a site visit is necessary. I see it as one of those splurges like getting cindy's coach or having M&M show up at your reception. If you have the money, and can swing it, sure. It's good. Especially for looking at places you can't access normally like LSS and AAR, but if it's going to break the bank or cause undue stress, there are sufficent pictures/reviews online to make an informed decision.

ETA: If you have to choose between the site visit or the planning session, DEFINITELY go for the planning session!!!

 

[dreamcometruemom]

I totally agree that a site inspection beforehand is not necessary with all the wedding pictures out there. even when i did look at a venue, I couldn't quite picture how it would look decorated.

 

[diannebryant319]

I HIGHLY suggest a site visit! I had my wedding 2/3/12. When we started we were SURE we wanted SBP & Living sea's for reception. We saw tons of pictures and were very excited....until we saw the wedding pavilion and the napa room in the california grill.
A site visit will let you get a better idea of the size of the room, the seating arrangements, etc.
I'm so glad we did it!

 

[disneylizzylou]

We did a site visit and I am so glad we did! We originally were looking to get married at the croquet lawn and after seeing it in person and finding out it's right next to the boat canal and they cant stop the ferries from going through (they honk everytime they go by) and they couldn't stop any sort of lawn maintenance going on in the surrounding area (ie lawn mowing, which was going on during our visit) we decided it wasn't for us. So a site visit might be nice to just reassure yourself of your locations and at the very least help you get acquainted with the people at DFTW

 

[YouLoveJulianne]

I agree that a site visit is helpful.. I just arrived home from my trip to Florida for our site visit a few hours ago. Our site visit was this past Tuesday and it was EXTREMELY helpful to visualize the wedding and the space in consideration with the amount of guests that we plan on having. Also we got A TON of great tips, suggestions, & information from the coordinator that I didn't already know which is surprising considering how many hours I've spent on different Disney wedding related blogs and this forum. I'd say do it because you're bound to learn something new and/or get some insight/tips/inspiration from the coordinator and/or the venues themselves!