sticker shock!!!

[fugayzee]

So did anyone else get sticker shock when the initial proposal came for their custom wedding? We knew it would be expensive but some of the fees they charge are a bit crazy (like $1.90 p/p "wedding cake fee"!!). the budget was set for 70 people (but we are inviting 90)

dose anyone have any ideas on how to cut down the bill a little?
any tips would be helpful!!

 

[ahutton]

I'd be glad to help, I am pretty good at finding less expensive ways to do things. Is the cake fee maybe because you are looking at having an outside baker do it? I know there was a charge of $3-4 per person for our cake, but we ordered a pretty fancied up cake, and extra tiers to take aside from the anniversary cake. What are the details of your plan and maybe we can help brainstorm what else you could do for the same effect with less money.

 

[Kismetdreams]

There are no cakes available for less then $7.50 pp with a serving fee if $1.70 pp and all of this is plus tax.

I wasn't surprised, but, I knew what pretty much everything cost before hand and created a budget and came to within $50 of my BEO.

Where is your ceremony/reception taking place and when? That combined with the number of guests will make the largest impacts on your pricing. Also, if you have any characters, alot of floral, photo. video, and if you use musicians as well as DJ.

If you lay out what you want to plan, I can pretty much give you a close guess on the pricing...

 

[fugayzee]

well some of our plans include:

cerimony at the wedding pavillion, 1 limo 2 moter coaches (bus) for guest transportation (they seat something like 50 people). that is all basic stuff.

The reception is at the living seas, we are having 5 different horsdavors (sorry about the spelling) during the cocktail hour $24p/p (i didnt think that was alot). open bar for the whole reception($36p/p), the meal is plated with a pasta apitizer, salad, and the entre is chiken & filet minion on 1 plate w/ mashed potatos & string beans. then there is the cinderella slipper desert.($70 p/p for everything)
The wedding cake we picked out is $9 p/p + $1.90 p/p (that was our cheeper choice). thats about it for food.
we were planning on having the character artist (but we were informed that we need 1 for 5 hours & 1 for 3 hours because they can only do about 8 p/hour) we were going to use that as everyones favor also. So that is a bit more than we planed on.(but i really want that i think it would be fun. )
We also had in the budget Mickey & Minnie for a 1/2 hour but I think that is going to have to go.
that is about it for the reception
We are having a dj for 5 hours
and then there is the Desert Party!!!
we picked the child in you menu & I thought it was $17.50 a person but turns out it is about $23 and there is a $75 set up fee for that

Not to mention all the fees for all the CM's that have to escort you through the park & stay wiht your party for the whole day & with the photographer & vidio men too. & all those CM's are per 50 people so since we are having about 70 people we need 2 of everything.

so that all dosn't include the flowers or candle centerpieces because Rosie hasen't sent out her proposal yet.

this all takes place on Aug 25 2004 (wednesday)
So any suggestions would be great!!!

 

[ellieb]

The thing that I would cut down is the food DEFINATELY!!! You totally have WAY more than needed. I would cut the appitizers to 2-3 and then since you are having cake and a Dessert party Dessert is totally not nessesary.
Dessert alone I believe is 14.00 pp and that times that by 70 and that is 980.00. I will tell you that your guest will not even miss it. Plus you would have the cake to give out which I might add is soooooo good, all your guest will be raving over it.

Also is the bus going to stay and wait for all the guest after the Illumintations? If so maybe you can cut this out and only have the motor coach bring your guest to the ceremony and then to the reception. Since you are already at Epcot you could walk over to the Illuminations and just have the guest take the monorail or ferry back to thier resorts. Where are most of your guest staying?

What time is your wedding being held. If it is a afternoon wedding I must add that the open bar bill will not be as large as you think or they estimate. Especially if you dont have big drinkers in the first place. Disney actually had to return money to me because the open bar price was WAY over estimated.

I will add that I too had the Characture artist and IT TOTALLY is a MUST. Every single one of my guest had this done and we never laughed sooooo much. It was totally a blast.
We also had Mickey and Minnie and this was the totally highlight as well especially for the children. They really make you feel soooo special.
Who is your videographer?

As for the flowers and centerpieces once this bill comes in Im sure you will be able to cut there as well.

Good luck with everything and let us know what you decided.

ONLY 2 DAYS LEFT AND I'LL BE HOME (YACHT CLUB)

 

[kennancat]

I would agree with ellieb to cut some of the food, and I would suggest cutting back in the dessert area. Right now you have three desserts: the Cinderella slipper, wedding cake, and the dessert party. Now, I love dessert, but that's too much for even me.

By my total, you're spending about $125 pper on food. It's been almost two years since my wedding, so I don't know if the minimums have been raised, but it looks like you could cut about $25 pper in food. Once you've multiplied that by your 70 guests and the tax and tip, you're saving almost $2200. I don't remember how bar gets totaled into the minimums, so I've left that out. Definitely sit down and do an estimate of how much you think your guests will really drink to be sure that the open bar package is the right choice for you. We knew our guests wouldn't drink a lot, so we went with paying by drink and knocked down their estimates of what the bar would cost. We ended up getting a $700 refund from the bar because our guests drank so little.

BTW, we only had 3 appetizers, entree, cake, and dessert party, and it was still way too much food. We provided "to go" bags at the dessert party, and the guests definitely took advantage of them because they were stuffed.

 

[fugayzee]

thanks for all the help, I guess you are both right, there is really alot of desert & it is a great way to cut down on cost. I guess I just didnt look at it that way but great ideas!

Was there anything else that you think I should definately keep & not cut down?

 

[kennancat]

I assume you're doing your dessert party at Illuminations - definitely keep that. It was the highlight of our wedding, and our guests still talk about that two years later.

You mentioned that you didn't have the floral budget back yet. We did the rings that were used as decoration at the ceremony and for the centerpieces. They looked great, and that was a good way to get extra use out of the flowers.

It still seems like the best place to cut back is on food. ellieb suggested cutting back the number of appetizers; I would agree. You mentioned that you had a pasta appetizer with the meal, that could probably go too. For the entree, aren't the combo meals more expensive than just one type of meat? We had three different options, and had the guests choose which they wanted on their RSVP card, and that worked just fine. For dessert, I wouldn't cut the wedding cake, so I'd have to look at cutting the Cinderella slipper dessert. Then again, that's just so neat and "Disney", so you have to decide how important it is to you. If you decide to keep it, then I would ask if you can order a smaller cake then needed and cut the slices small since the guests will have already had the slipper dessert.

Good luck with costs - if it's of any comfort, DH and I still think our wedding was worth every penny, even if the money would have been nice to help with a down payment on a house Our memory of that day is fantastic, and it's something you only get to do once!

 

[Firefly Girl]

It's funny cause I sound like a broken record here, but investigate outside vendors! For photography, videography, floral, and maybe even transportation. You have no idea how much you can save.

 

[Eeyore1928]

We used Sunshine Photographics and saved a huge amount of money....plus he mailed us our negatives! Great work. We were very happy.

 

[CA disney lover]

FWIW, if you get down to deciding "this over that" you may want to drop the caricature artists. Glad to hear that ellieb had a great experience with that at her wedding, but I've read many recaps where the guests didn't "get" what the caricature artist thing was all about, the DJ had to make an announcement, and by the time everyone figured out what was going on, not everyone was able to get drawn because time was running out.

I would consider it a safe bet that you'll get more bang for your buck keeping the character appearances and dropping the artists. Everyone understands Mickey & Minnie all dressed up, plus you get great photo opps for both your photographer & videographer to capture.

Good luck choosing!

 

[Fantasia Sam]

Just wanted to add that I too decided to cut out dessert. We are serving the wedding cake as dessert. We are only having 3 types of hors d'ouvres. We decided to serve a fruit punch and soft drinks for the pre-reception cocktail hour. Then only wine and soft drinks for the actual meal and so we are having the hosted bar for the last 2 and a half hours of the reception and are going with per drink billing.

I too thought that the Child In You desserts were $17.50 hmmmm

Oh and I am using outside vendors for: photography which is definitely cheaper; videography which is only a little cheaper but I thought the quality was far superior IMO; and floral, again only a little cheaper but still a saving.

 

[hmgolden]

The Child in You Desserts for Illuminations are 17.50 pp plus tax and 20% gratuity. Coffee, tea and lemonade are included in that cost.

 

[marn913]

I agree that your best bet is to cut out dessert. You may also consider cutting out most of your food during the cocktail hour - especially since you and your groom will miss the entire hour while you take your pictures! We arrived, said hi and were immediately seated at our sweetheart table for toasts and the meal. We were originally going to have 3 appetizers served during cocktail hour -- but cut it down to just fresh fruit platters after we considered the amount of food that was in our plated meal, and the fact that it was the middle of the afternoon - not everyone's regular dinner time. Also, I'm not sure if you are doing a bar package - but I'd definitely look into having your bar billed on consumption rather than a package. We calculated that for open bar during our cocktail hour and reception for the $40/person it would cost with the package, each guest would have to have about 5-6 drinks. Instead we prepaid for 4 drinks a person at $5 each and ended up getting a refund from FTW about 2 weeks after the wedding for overpayment. You will probably want to cut out dessert. The plated meal at our wedding filled everyone up, it was massive! - also we had a lot of extra cake too! You will probably end up paying for food that is thrown away if you have dessert prepared since they don't allow you to take out anything other than the top tier of the cake. You'll have to also consider the timing throughout your event and will want enough time for dancing - so extra courses may not be necessary and may make you feel rushed. We didn't have a DJ (just the caricture artist), and we felt a bit rushed when it came time to cut the cake. You can also cut back by having flower petals rather than arrangements around the candles for your centerpieces (if you were using flowers at all). We also had our alter arrangement moved and it doubled as the centerpiece for the sweetheart table. In addition, they placed all of the bridesmaid's bouquets around the bottom of the cake. We also had fresh floral on the cake that matched, it looked beautiful. Realistically, I'd also cut out the Mickey and Minnie unless you really have your heart set on them -- the price is through the roof and you really don't get them for very long when you factor in that they require extensive break times, and you will be pressed for time with the meal and the dancing etc. Good luck

Marne
06-16-03
WP/LS