Small Wishes Wedding

[calismic]

Hi guys and gals! It's that time of the day again, Calismic has come up with another question. This time I'm reaching out to anyone who may have had a Wishes Wedding with a small number of guests. We were persuaded to switch to Wishes because we already had 25 room nights and were booking the Napa Room at the California Grill. My primary concern now though is reaching the other minimums such as food, beverage, etc...as we may only have 14-20 people at the wedding.

So has anyone had a Wishes Wedding with a small number of guests and found ways to reach the minimums or did you just end up paying it out anyway? Any advise would be greatly appreciated. We just signed our contracts and now we're getting the nervous jitters. Thanks! =)

 

[Swmhc]

Who are you using for photography ?
Are you doing the MK shoot ? $1000-$1250.
Video ?
Honeymoon shoot ?
Dessert Party ?
Cindy's carriage $2700
Characters $800 and up
Lot's of beautiful floral
All those can add up quickly to help meet the minimum if you need to.

We didn't do a Wishes, but if I had the funds, I could have easily met the minimums even with only having 11 guests....I would have LOVED to have had Cindy's carriage ! Gee I think I just put you over the minimum !!! Don't give me your credit card !!

 

[calismic]

Haha! Ok here's what we have so far,

Disney's Wedding Pavilion - $2,500
Napa Room California Grill - $3,000
Magic Kingdom Photo Shoot - $1,000
Limo - $400
Photography by Randy Chapman so he doesn't count towards the total

Now that leaves us $3,100 for cake + floral which I do think I'll be able to do easily. I'm worried that we won't be able to meet the minimum $3,000 for the Napa Room. Say we have 14 guests, that means I've got to spend $214 per guest. I suppose I could do that with alcohol but most of my guests do not drink. I mean if worse case scenario we pay the $3,000 despite not really 'spending' $3,000. I'd just like to be able to use it all!

 

[Swmhc]

Well, hopefully someone with experience with this will chime in, but I think it is a total for food. I think I remember someone mentioning the DP counted as did the cake...but don't quote me on that. That would certainly help meeting the $3000 for that room.

BTW, we had Randy and LOVED him !!!

 

[orangetiggs]

we are having a wishes wedding, wp, whitehall room and uk lower dessert party for 18 people and we have easily meet the mins! our first BEO was $25000!!! we now have it down to 12997

 

[buzzbuzz]

Hello,

I only have 15 guests and have found it too easy to meet the minimums. We have a minimum for food and beverage of $3000 and the cake doesn't go towards it. We've ended up with a package bar even though some of our guests don't drink they may decide to on the day it also meant I could cut out the champagne toast and put in a signature drink. We are having a plated dinner with additional courses and also tuxedo strawberries for the cake. It sounds like a lot but the way we saw it the people that are going to be with us are close family and friends and it's going to be an amazing experience so we pushed the boat out on the venue & reception. I've tried to make sure I've covered the minimum because I didn't want to pay out for nothing.
If your worried about meeting the minimum spend in total there are a few items that you can use to bump up your price, like it's been suggested you can add photography packages, transportation, dessert party, entertainment, floral (that can be a killer. ) There's so many options to. I've changed my beo loads trying to get it down rather than struggling to meet the minimum. lol
HTH I would say go with the room you prefer. If it's for the view the Sonoma room was impressive but the Napa room was more of a wow factor. (We originally had the sonoma room booked but changed location)