Some questions for previous brides!

[laufaeson]

Hello, everyone! My boyfriend and I are starting to seriously talk about getting married (yay!), and I jokingly mentioned we should get married at WDW. He said he'd love that, so being the planner-type I am, I sat down and started looking over the DFTW site and have been taking massive amounts of notes to help me sell it to my parents when we get to that stage. He laughs at how far into detail I already am with this, even though he has yet to actually pop the question. I am hoping I can have a few questions answered as I've read conflicting things here on the boards. To help with costs, I am aiming at a Mon/Tue/Wed morning ceremony with a brunch buffet. We're probably going to have a guest list between 50-75.

1) What does and does not count towards the minimum expenditures, both overall and enhancement minimums?

2) I would love to have the reception at Ariel's because she's my favorite princess and I want to have a beach/Under the Sea wedding and the existent decor works great with that from the pictures I've seen. I've read that you are only allowed to use outside vendors if the reception is in one of the ballrooms, which I don't think Ariel's would qualify as. Does anyone have any experience with using a nontraditional (ie. non-ballroom) venue and vendors? Does Disney give you a timeline that you can then give to outside vendors so that they can get everything set up on time?

3) Are DIY decorations approved or not? I love DIY/craft projects and I feel like it would make everything more "me" if I were able to DIY as much as possible. I've read that Disney won't touch it if it's something DIY or from outside vendors, so I'll have to designate some people to help get everything set up, correct?

4) For those of you who have had brunch receptions: I don't feel like I need to worry about getting a DJ, so I'd rather just hook up an iPod for some ambient music. Is that a safe assumption to make? I've been contemplating other activities like giant Jenga sets, personalized crossword puzzles, caricature artists, etc. for entertainment. Any other suggestions?

Thanks! I'm just trying to figure out what I can and cannot do! I'm sure I sound crazy since we aren't even engaged yet, but my mind works in crazy ways.

 

[lurkyloo]

Welcome! I was just like you when it came to research!

1) What does and does not count towards the minimum expenditures, both overall and enhancement minimums?

There are no overall minimums anymore for Wishes. Instead you have...

Ceremony: A flat fee for your ceremony venue

+

Food & Beverage: Per-person amount you must spend on food and drinks for the reception only. No other catered events on your day count.

+

Enhancement minimum: A minimum you must spend on anything else Disney provides: Floral, decor, entertainment, transportation, photography, videography, etc.

2) I've read that you are only allowed to use outside vendors if the reception is in one of the ballrooms, which I don't think Ariel's would qualify as. Does anyone have any experience with using a nontraditional (ie. non-ballroom) venue and vendors? Does Disney give you a timeline that you can then give to outside vendors so that they can get everything set up on time?

Correct: Ariel's is one of the venues where you cannot use outside floral, decor or entertainment vendors. If your venue does allow it, your planner will talk to you about the timeline. Also, most of the popular outside floral and decor vendors in Orlando have done tons of Disney weddings, so they know the drill already.

3) Are DIY decorations approved or not? I love DIY/craft projects and I feel like it would make everything more "me" if I were able to DIY as much as possible. I've read that Disney won't touch it if it's something DIY or from outside vendors, so I'll have to designate some people to help get everything set up, correct?

Yes, and the same location rules apply for reception floral and decor as with outside vendors. So basically only ballrooms allow it. You can DIY your personal floral at any ceremony venue though.

4) For those of you who have had brunch receptions: I don't feel like I need to worry about getting a DJ, so I'd rather just hook up an iPod for some ambient music. Is that a safe assumption to make? I've been contemplating other activities like giant Jenga sets, personalized crossword puzzles, caricature artists, etc. for entertainment. Any other suggestions?

All those ideas sound great. What we did was shorten the brunch to 3 hours and just let people meet and chat with each other. Guests don't need to be entertained every second of the reception—a lot of them may want to catch up with people they haven't seen in a long time or meet everyone from the other family. Here's how our iPod-only brunch reception turned out: http://disneytravelbabble.com/trip-reports/wedding/day-4b/

 

[laufaeson]

Thank you thank you thank you!! I feel like the more I know now, the better planning will go when I get to that stage. I was just worried that it wouldn't feel like a reception if there wasn't a dance floor and all that jazz. Those mouse ears are a great idea! Were they favors/placecards?

 

[lurkyloo]

Yes, we set them out as favors, but I've seen folks use them as placecards too.

Your reception will feel like a reception no matter what you do, because it directly follows a wedding ceremony.

 

[laufaeson]

One more question! Ack! For outside ceremonies, do they provide contingency plans in case it rains?

 

[bigr3ddog]

One more question! Ack! For outside ceremonies, do they provide contingency plans in case it rains?

Yes. We had an Italy wedding and our rain backup was the American adventure rotunda. Our rehearsal was at the yacht club gazebo but it was rained out so we went to a yacht club ballroom.

 

[tric8783]

We have a fairly large group of past present and future brides on our FB group Disbrides (https://www.facebook.com/groups/disbrides/), you might be able to get more feedback there. Once the group was formed we all kind of dropped off here

We were married on Shipwreck Beach at the Beach Club and then had our cocktail hour at SBP and reception at the BW! Ariel's is very pretty!