Son & Daughter In-law to be want a Disney Wedding...HELP Please!

[sweetinmaine]

Our son and future daughter in-law would love a Disney wedding. They are planning for March 2007. Because we live in VT, the guest list would be under 100, more likely 50-75. From all of you experienced "friends" what would be the least expensive way for this to happen? We would be staying on Disney property very likely at Port Orleans Riverside although several of the invitees would want to stay at an All-Star resort. We'd love to see this happen but need to be realistic too! What does an average wedding cost at Disney?

Thanks for all of your help!

 

[Mommy Poppins]

For that many people, you are looking at a custom wedding. Go to disneyweddings.com and start putting together your wishbook. That will give you an idea of the cost. I know that for custom weddings there are different minimums for weekday vs. weekend. I'm sure someone else will chime in with those prices.

Good luck & happy planning!

 

[Luvndisney]

I would say first off go to the Disney Fairytale wedding website and look around at the costs. With that many guests you would ahve to have a custom wedding which has higher minimums. That beign said the minimums are what kills people when having a DFTW. You can probably have a small wedding with no frills or anything for a little under 20k??? I may be not guessing correctly, but that would haev to be during the week and perhpas a brunch reception or lunch reception which are cheapr.

I can tell you that they are pricey weddings but you cutomize it to what you want. I do not want to sound harsh and set them against a wedding there but you need to know exactly what you can and are willing to spend and then ask if it is possble. We thought we could have a nice wedding for 95 people on 25k.....boy were we wrong. our actual cost is much higher...but we are having a lot of extras.

Look around on this board to see the options.

Again I might be wrong on these prices.....but a DFTW wedding is special and amazing so if they want it and have dreamed of it I say go for it, because they won't regret it.

 

[hiwaygal]

The absolute minimum cost for a custom wedding is $10k, and I think that's for a Monday -Thursday wedding...it's higher for the weekend days. And those prices are likely to go up by 2007.

But, here's the thing, while everyone thinks this is so high, I found it to be average at best (inexpensive for a wedding at DISNEY!!! IMO). If you look around, the average cost for a wedding is about $25k (and that could vary depending on where you live).

Definitely check out www.disneyweddings.com to get more info!

And congratulations to your DS and future DIL!!!

 

[FutureAshleyDukes]

I agree with Hiwaygal .... the average wedding in Oklahoma is $18,000 which made the cost of a Disney wedding much easier to swallow.

 

[Luvndisney]

and I can chime to say that the cost of a Disney wedding from someone who lives in the Northeast is very reasonable. I see you are from VT. I am not sure how it is there but in NY the average cost for a nice sat. wedding for 100 people can put you back about 40k easily.
that was all part fo our decision for a destination wedding in WDW

 

[Cass]

Realistically, you would be looking at a minimum of 30,000.00. for the basics.

 

[pixie08]

Realistically, you would be looking at a minimum of 30,000.00. for the basics.

I think that is a little on the high side for 50-75 people if you are looking for a nice event (don't get me wrong you could EASILY hit that figure). We are looking at around 65 people for a saturday evening in June. we are doing everything from the WP to full photo,video, nice floral (not extravagent this can get pricey) open bar, cake, cocktail hour and a full 4-5 course meal,limo dj etc and we are budgeting around 23-25k (including taxes)give or take a thousand. Hope this helps.

 

[Cass]

and we are budgeting around 23-25k (including taxes)give or take a thousand. Hope this helps.

Let us know what the final figure turns out to be!

You are right on the flowers... they can really put you over if you go crazy with them.

 

[Luvndisney]

I also can't stress enough the tax!! That added about 5k onto our event that we never really considered.

 

[twojo21]

were getting married this march 21st 2006 at disney & we cant wait. they'll have to be a custom dftw if theyre over 20 guests but once nice thing is you can have an affordable disney wedding ceremony, reception, etc. in comparison to northeast costs. the minimums range from $10,000 midweek mon.-thurs. to $20,000 minimum during the weekend for 2006, the costs can change for 2007. ours will be about $25k.

sign up for the wishbook at disneys site to get an idea on figures, request a brochure or contact dftw for additional details. if they decide on a disney wedding send save the dates so your guests can plan ahead & save. custom wedding guests do receive a discount on disney resort rooms, all our guests with the exception of us & my parents are staying at the allstar movies. we did our own save the dates at 12 months out & then 2 newsletters to update & inform our guests on our planned events & wedding, travel & general ?s. one thing about march though is its spring break. costs are more for travel then say winter & there can be crowds so the more you plan now & advise guests the better off you will all be.

and of course pass on the dis wedding & honeymoon forum to your future daughter in law.

 

[hmgolden]

Realistically, you would be looking at a minimum of 30,000.00. for the basics.

I think for the number of guests you are having, $30,000 could be a bit high. We had a custom wedding with 76 guests (including us) and spent $25,000. This included 'non-basicis' such as a dessert party in EPCOT, a pretty high end buffet menu, a custom designed cake (never thought I would pay 12.00 a SLICE for a cake, but I did), package bar for the reception and the MK photo shoot a couple mornings after the wedding complete with a floral refresh, and hair and make up for me. We also had a large bridal party which didn't help the floral costs. If we had needed to, we could have done the wedding cheaper and cut a bunch of things. We were lucky we didn't have to. Had we gotten married at home in NY, we would have ended up with a wedding with 250 guests, and would have paid a lot more for a lot less, IMO.

I think its possible to do a Disney wedding on a realistic budget. You just need to figure out what your budget is, and how many extras you want vs. the number of people attending. We found that our EM was very helpful in telling us what things to cut and what things we would find worth the extra money.