Swan/Dolphin wedding questions

[minniebride]

Hi girls!!

We are not planning to tie the knot until December 2010, but I can't help get my planning going ASAP!

I'm hoping for some help. We are looking into a Swan/Dolphin wedding. We cannot afford a WDW wedding, so this is the closest compromise I would give! We love the Boardwalk area & Epcot, so I think this will be just perfect.

Anyways, I can't seem to find much info on the Swan/Dolphin ceremonies. Can anyone help me with these questions?

1) We are not interested in a big elaborate event-we want to keep it simple & originally just wanted close friends and immediate family (which would bring us to about 25 including me & DF). Now, that said, my mom is planning to invite like 30 people!! Can we still do an intimate outdoor ceremony at the S/D with 55 people?

2) What is the starting cost of a ceremony of that size? & what does that price include?

3) When we were originally only having a little over 20 people, we were not planning on a reception (I kind of don't want one). Would it be cheaper to rent out a room in a restaurant or would it be cheaper to do a reception at the S/D? I really wanted it low key, but my mom is offering to pay for a chunk of it so I feel I need to compromise.

4) For a 12/2010 wedding, how early in advance do we need to call to reserve our date?

Thanks girls (& guys if there are any on here!)!!

 

[minniebride]

Just a shameless bump!

 

[disbridemimi]

If its not what you want, why are you letting it happen? Cant you tell your mom you just want a small ceremony? or is she paying or something? Moms can be difficult, but ya gotta love em anyway.

My mom is trying to do the same,but we sort of put the smack down on that. We are looking into small ceremony locations & luncheons, but I think 50 is going to exceed the limit everywhere. With 50 guests, it really isnt a small little ceremony anymore, its a more traditional style wedding. I am certain they can accomodate that as well! And i imagine not everyone will be able to come anyway.

Check out the Swan & DOlphin faq thread, and give them a call. They normally refer you to Just Marry, I had a hard time with getting them to answer my questions.

Is anyone in your family in the Military? Shades of Green is a nice option if your trying to keep if affordable and still pretty.

 

[CinderelliT]

If you check out the first few pages of my PJ, there is some information about the S&D, since I was orginally planning to do my VR there. I didn't have the best experience, so I changed venues to a DCL. But there are some prices and such.

Also, there are two other brides that used the S&D. One is Xmaspixie. If I can find her PJ, I will post you a link. She had a great wedding there. The other bride did not have a pleasant experience.

I need Carrie! She know how to find these threads better than I do.
I'm looking now...

 

[CinderelliT]

Here's the link to XmasPixie's pj and trhttp://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1874326

 

[CinderelliT]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=26025435#post26025435

Here's another good pj

 

[CinderelliT]

Ok - here's the PJ for the bride who had a terrible experience -

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=26025435#post26025435

 

[disbridemimi]

I found it to be almost impossible to communicate with them. I would send an email with a specific question, then get form letters back without the asnwer from several different people.

I really felt like they just took my email, fowarded it to a million people, and none of them bothered to ever read or answer my questions. And I never kknew which person i was to respond to. It was quite a mess.

I think Xmaspixie is def the best person to ttalk to she had a positive experience and her wedding looked beautiful, she can prob tell you who tot al to and who not to talk to. I just gave up.

 

[lurkyloo]

I need Carrie! She know how to find these threads better than I do.

Looks like you did a great job! Do you use Google? That's my secret. I put in the search term plus the phrase site:disboards.com and almost always find what I need....

 

[CinderelliT]

Looks like you did a great job! Do you use Google? That's my secret. I put in the search term plus the phrase site:disboards.com and almost always find what I need....

Thanks! And no, I didn't use google - just some old fashioned digging through threads! I'll remember to use google for sure next time though.

 

[minniebride]

If you check out the first few pages of my PJ, there is some information about the S&D, since I was orginally planning to do my VR there. I didn't have the best experience, so I changed venues to a DCL. But there are some prices and such.

Also, there are two other brides that used the S&D. One is Xmaspixie. If I can find her PJ, I will post you a link. She had a great wedding there. The other bride did not have a pleasant experience.

I need Carrie! She know how to find these threads better than I do.
I'm looking now...

Thank you so much!! I will check those out!

If its not what you want, why are you letting it happen? Cant you tell your mom you just want a small ceremony? or is she paying or something? Moms can be difficult, but ya gotta love em anyway.

My mom is trying to do the same,but we sort of put the smack down on that. We are looking into small ceremony locations & luncheons, but I think 50 is going to exceed the limit everywhere. With 50 guests, it really isnt a small little ceremony anymore, its a more traditional style wedding. I am certain they can accomodate that as well! And i imagine not everyone will be able to come anyway.

Check out the Swan & DOlphin faq thread, and give them a call. They normally refer you to Just Marry, I had a hard time with getting them to answer my questions.

Is anyone in your family in the Military? Shades of Green is a nice option if your trying to keep if affordable and still pretty.

Thank you for your input Yes, my mom is offering to pay for a chunk of the wedding which is super-helpful. My mom is also not well (health-wise) so I want her to experience her own pixie dust in helping me plan. That sucks about my options for 50 guests The positive thing is, we are from New England. My DF & I's friends & immediate family are from the New England area, Arizona, Alabama, & California. Most of my parents' friends are from Cape Cod, MA & Naples, FL. So I'm banking on a few guests not being able to make it

No, no military in our families. I am a teacher though & I'm wondering if the S/D offers a teacher discount with wedding planning, like they do with their resort rates....

I found it to be almost impossible to communicate with them. I would send an email with a specific question, then get form letters back without the asnwer from several different people.

I really felt like they just took my email, fowarded it to a million people, and none of them bothered to ever read or answer my questions. And I never kknew which person i was to respond to. It was quite a mess.

I think Xmaspixie is def the best person to ttalk to she had a positive experience and her wedding looked beautiful, she can prob tell you who tot al to and who not to talk to. I just gave up.

Thank you-I will try to contact Xmaspixie! I actually heard from a friend at work that I might not have to go through JustMarry (haven't heard great things about them either)-that there are other planners in Orlando that will do S/D weddings.

Looks like you did a great job! Do you use Google? That's my secret. I put in the search term plus the phrase site:disboards.com and almost always find what I need....

Hi Lurkyloo-I can't resist telling you that your wedding is my dream wedding that I can't afford!! I also saw your magazine spread-very cool!

 

[CinderelliT]

Swan & Dolphin will let the minimums slide when it comes to an intimate gathering - or whatever they call it. They aren't as strict as Disney. Your 50 guest count will be ok. Since it is already on Disney property, you can pay to have characters such as Minnie and Mickey come to your reception there.

And yes, you can have other planners besides JustMarry. I don't know who though. You'll have to ask around and check on the web. JustMarry did respond to me fairly quickly, but I seriously had to pester the heck out of them with multiple phone calls. I also felt their prices were too high for what I wanted. For the $$ they quoted me, I could have a DFTW Escape wedding. I would much rather do Disney than the Swan.

I also believe that SOG will let anyone marry at their facilities. You don't have to be in the military to marry there, only to stay there.

 

[PrincessShea]

Ok - here's the PJ for the bride who had a terrible experience -

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=26025435#post26025435

This seemed really nice and she never said anything even remotely indicating that it was "terrible"...just that if she had the money she would've gone with Disney but she got so much for her money out of the Dolphin.

 

[lurkyloo]

Hi Lurkyloo-I can't resist telling you that your wedding is my dream wedding that I can't afford!! I also saw your magazine spread-very cool!

You are so sweet! Now I don't know what your budget is, but our wedding cost Disney's bare minimum, so it can be done.

 

[Disneychix]

I was a Swan bride in 2005. I had a very good experience with them. I too used JustMarry as the planners/coordinators. That was the only option at the time (that I was made aware of).
I had about 25 people at my ceremony/cake reception. My wedding was rained out so we had to have it in one of the conference rooms and the cake reception was in a different small ballroom. I also had some fruit and cheese plates at the cake reception because we did this before dinner. We chose to just do dinner ourselves and not go through the Swan. We ate at O'hana and it was the perfect choice!

I do have to say my flowers and the wedding cake was the highlight of my wedding! The cake we ate all week and my flowers smelled so great for the whole week in our room as well.

Having my wedding at the Swan allowed me to save money and have a big 'at-home' reception as well. I was the perfect choice for us!

Feel free to PM me if you want any more details or pics.

 

[jennjones1]

Hello,

I am getting married at the swan and dolphin in October, i haven't gone through Just marry i went direct to the hotel regarding the food and the hire of the venue and then i am using an outside wedding planner.

I thought this was a better idea because the wedding planner is more likely to help you and get the answers for you.

When you are trying to get information out of the swan and dolphin they can be a bit awkward at first but once they know you they are more helpful.

I always email Tom who is the catering manager and he normally responds within a day or so, he also organised our room for the night too so he has been really helpful.

I am only having 20 people including me and the groom, we are getting married at the crescent terraced and then the reception meal at the west courtyard around the fountain.

If you would like any mroe info let me know.

 

[dakcp2001]

This seemed really nice and she never said anything even remotely indicating that it was "terrible"...just that if she had the money she would've gone with Disney but she got so much for her money out of the Dolphin.

I dont think thats the right PJ? There was one bride who had a less than perfect experience. It rained on her wedding day and they wanted her to "walk down the aisle" out of a bathroom, thats the one I was thinking of when someone said there was a bad experience......am I right? That would have made me cry! They didnt have a backup location for her so they put her in a closet type room, and wanted her and her dad to stay in with the toilet until it was time to do the walk down the aisle... Luckily the pastor saved the day and found a new spot but she had gotten zero help from the S&D and she wasnte getting any response from Just Marry either.

You can have a good or bad experience anywhere. Thats the risk of planning a destination wedding I guess. Disney makes mistakes too, but you have to just roll with the punches.

It would be incredibely sad to spend all the time and money planning and then not get what you want anywhere.